While the Fire Duo was doing this, the group outside had made their way to the shore line again.
Momo spotted the Metas guarding the little land bridge.
"This is like Serpent's pass from Avatar," Wally said.
"If a serpent pops out of that water, I'm blaming you for activating a trope." Shine said.
[Meta jokes, lol.]
"I can't really tell what their quirks are," Momo said, "but there's four or five of them, and they're... I think one just saw us." She backed up.
"Well, they'd be expecting us, wouldn't they?" Shine said, "But that's fine. This is where subtlety is out. Everyone, my plan is from this point onward, forget sneaking around. We're attacking, full force."
"How?" Shoto said.
"Like this!" Bakugo yelled, launching himself forward at the bridge.
"Pretty much..." Shine said, "Gosh, I love him."
"He's growing on me," Wally said weakly.
* * *
Silk and Compress were getting tired dodging the Metas inside the fortress. How many could there be?
"You know, I didn't really thank you for the save earlier," Silk said.
"Oh, that's okay," Compress said, "You can thank me later."
Silk smiled slyly. "Yeah."
[😏👀👄💘💋😘.]
"But on a different note," Compress said, "we're so fricked..."
"Don't start talking like a normal person now. It makes me nervous," Silk said, "I begin to feel like we really are doomed."
"Sorry, but it's hard to make light of this particular situation. I mean, how do I work with underground death fortress?" Compress said.
"We literally storm castle. You can't work with that?" Silk said.
"Well, if you put it that way..." Compress began.
Silk suddenly covered his mouth. "Shh, I hear something..."
They put out the light (Compress carried a flashlight, naturally).
Some people were coming. They were close now, so the two stealthy villains thought it might be best to just sneak around behind them and seal off the tunnel.
The Metas were talking.
"I don't hear anyone..." said one.
"Well, I'm tired of looking for them anyway. What are four people going to do anyway? They have nowhere to go but the island, and there's more of us there. I don't see why we're panicking," grumbled the other. It was two men.
"Didn't you hear? There've been four attacks today already," the first said, conspiratorially.
"What? Really?"
"They don't tell you anything, Triclops? Yeah, four. And there were heroes there...but I heard there's villains too, at least on the island. We're looking for one, but I hear there was more. All from the LOV."
"The LOV? Aren't they down to the single digits, number-wise now? Those d----d ninja were after them, weren't they?
They knew about that? Compress thought.
"Yeah, well, I hear that they were getting help from some weird, new people, different powers," said the first, "I can't tell you exactly who. No one seems to know, but it's pretty creepy. I hear they can just disappear without a trace when cops show up."
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah, in a flash of light," the first went on, "I hear that's how some people vanished from one of the attacks. They were just gone, no warp gate or nothing, just a bright light. Creepy, right?"
"Yeah..." Triclops said idly, "but...that kind of reminds me of this dream I had last night."
"What?"
"It was weird... I dreamed that we were all here, and this really bright light just burst out of nowhere, and there was this explosion or something, and the forest just crumpled down on us," Triclops said.
"Wow...that's weird," the first voice said, sounding scared.
"I mean, I thought, you know, there's a bunch of pros that would fit, though," Triclops said, "but it sounds like what happened today too, so that's just a weird coincidence... You believe dreams ever mean anything, Mac?"
"I've never been superstitious," Mac answered, "so no... Though it's still weird..."
"Kind of creeps me out," Triclops said, "I mean, I'm fine with fighting the LOV but, I don't know. If there's new people with them who have power I don't really know about, I'd rather just run. Collect intel."
"Same, but I don't think the High Father would like it if we did that," Mac said, "Between you and me, I think he's taking this personally. I mean, no one's ever raided us this many times in one day. I'd say the only way it could happen is if someone hacked us."
"Hacked us? But...but you're the internet guy."
"Yeah, I am," Mac said, "but there's other internet guys... Still you'd think I'd detect it... Maybe I should be checking the control room instead of doing this."
"So no sign of them carrying phones, huh?"
"Nah... Too bad I can only sense Wi-Fi, huh?" Mac said, "If I could sense any electronic pulse, I'm sure we'd have found them by now. Life isn't fair."
"Hey, don't say that about your meta ability. You're really OP," Triclops said, "Mine is less cool."
"You know you're not supposed to say that. Meta and Proud, dude."
"I know, I know."
[Gag at that shameless X-MEN rip off.]
Silk moved even in the dark, and suddenly both of them were caught in her cords and yanked together before they even knew what happened.
Compress compressed them.
"Well...that was weird," he said.
"I have never been superstitious either," Silk said, "but I think we may want to tip Likstar off about this little dialogue we hear...and then release these morons back to their owners."
"I like how you think, Kira," Compress said.
* * *
Taking down the guards on the bridge was easier than they thought it would be.
Maybe the team had finally synced up their fighting styles, maybe the guards were just scared of them now that they'd gotten this far, or maybe there was some other factor, but they just seemed to go down easy.
"Why don't we team fight more?" Camie said, "I mean, we'd win so much faster if we all attacked at once."
"It's kind of like ganging up on someone, though. It feels a little unfair," Shoto said.
"If that bothers you, don't fight people who want us dead," Spinner sniffed, "Was it fair for them to attack us the way they did?"
"Lizard Man is right for once." Mirko brushed her hands off. "But they were still pansies. Where's the tough opponents?"
"Why do you want more trouble?" Shigaraki said irritably, "It would be better to do this as easily as possible."
"Oh, really?" Mirko cocked one ear. "I thought we were inflicting as much damage as possible, genius. If we don't meet tougher opponents, how do we do that?"
Shigaraki had to think for a second before he realized she was kind of right... He smirked kind of scarily. "That is true..."
Hawks watched this weirdly.
"So...again...why are you guys so familiar?" he asked Dabi.
"I don't know. This happened after I left," Dabi said, "Guess I took all sense of boundaries with me."
"Yeah..." Hawks said.
"What is your deal with Fuyumi?" Dabi asked suspiciously, "Why did she even ask you for a favor?"
"We just happened to get on the subject," Hawks said, "She's been very nice about the whole situation. Hard to believe she's a Todoroki actually...well, other than she blurts out whatever she thinks like the rest of you. It's kind of funny."
Dabi glared at him.
"Oh, not in a bad way," Hawks said, "I mean, I kind of prefer it. That's what I liked about Endeavor. He just can't fake it. I'm surrounded by fakes, you know. I never know who to trust. Your family would just roast me alive if they wanted me dead, you know, no games."
"Yeah, sure," Dabi said darkly, "Well, it better just be the family you're talking about, Hawks."
"Excuse me?" Hawks said.
"Don't get even an inkling of a thought about Fuyumi," Dabi warned.
Hawks blinked at him. "About her? Dabi, really, you think that I would? I mean, come on. Sure she's attractive, but I'm literally a fugitive from pretty much every side of the law there is now. You think I'm thinking about that?"
"I dunno, you're kind of a moron," Dabi said.
"Really, that's stupid." Hawks' feathers were ruffled. "Though I don't know why you care. Didn't you disown your whole family?"
"Well, I recently re-owned Fuyumi," Dabi said, "I mean...yesterday... Anyway, most of the hate wasn't directed at her to begin with, and she's been pretty cool about the whole thing, so if I had to pick someone I don't want to punish right now, it'd be her. So don't even think about it."
"Again, last thing I'd be thinking about, Dabi, and you pretending to be a protective brother is almost too much." Hawks frowned at him. "You'd have killed your own dad and left your siblings without a father."
"Two out of three of them wouldn't have complained about that," Dabi shot back, "and it's none of your d--- business, is it, Bird Brain?"
"It is when you almost made me an accomplice to patricide!" Hawks shot back, "I mean, how petty can you be?"
"At least I did it for my own reasons and not 'cause someone else told me to!" Dabi shot back.
"Is that better?" Hawks said.
"And I didn't have to get disowned by my League to stop," Dabi added.
That did hit home a little more.
"Look, Dabi, you have no idea what kind of pressure it is to be like me," Hawks said, "I didn't ask for all this."
"You didn't say no, either, Hawks. Who's the real villain here?" Dabi said.
"Touya!" Shine suddenly interjected. She'd heard all of this.
She grabbed his arm and yanked him towards her. "Did I just hear you say such a thing? You of all people are in no position to judge him."
Dabi scowled at her. "Likstar, you can't just tell me not to have an opinion."
"You can have your opinion," Shine said, "but you don't get to lord it over him. You're just as much trash as he is, as am I and everyone else here. We're all trash, but one man's trash is another man's treasure, as they say. God has said that about all of us, and He can say it about Hawks just as much as you. And so do we. Like I told Shoto once, the 99 are left to go after the 1. The whole operation might be set aside for one individual, and for one person God will sometimes call off the destruction of a whole city or at least delay it. If 10 people out of thousands are righteous, God has been known to spare the rest for longer. I don't know what to tell you about this, other than if I hear you talking down to Hawks again, you can forget about us overlooking your own transgressions."
Dabi stared at her.
"Forgiving what someone has done is a choice we make," Shine went on, more calm, "all of us. And if we who have been forgiven a lot won't let go even of mundane wrongs done to ourselves, we never really understood the meaning of mercy. We all have a long way to go there. I still get angry, and you will too...but what you say in that anger matters a lot. Learn to control it."
She glanced at Hawks. "And you, for that matter, shut up. Dabi is trying to change, here, and he's not very graceful about it, but no one is at the beginning. He'll surpass you in no time if he keeps up at this rate. It takes a big man to admit he's been wrong about everything, and you, Hawks, are in no position to complain. We all came here for you, more or less, even if some of us have other reasons. Don't bring disunity into this team now. We're at the final clutch. We must stand together... Apologize, both of you."
"What?" Dabi was horrified.
Hawks frowned, like he didn't care for being lectured. It didn't help that he caught Mirko grinning 😄 at him in the background.
The kids all stared at him and Dabi, like they were two powder kegs about to go off.
Dabi sullenly looked at the ground. "Can it just be an understood thing that I was an ass and leave it there?"
"If that's enough for Hawks, I'm not one to be picky," Shine agreed.
"Uh...yeah, whatever," Hawks said. "Ditto, I guess..."
"Then let's march," Shine said.
They continued on their way up the hill.
"Well, that was embarrassing," Spinner muttered.
"She's a total queen." Camie was loving it. "And I wish I had her swag. I'd never have the guts to tell off a Top Pro like that."
"I think you'd do it," Bakugo remarked.
"For real?"
"You don't think enough about stuff like that to stop," Bakugo said.
"I don't know if you meant that to be a good thing, but it totally sounded awesome," Camie said.
"Ugh, why am I always around people like this?" Spinner grumbled.
* * *
They reached the base of the fort just a few minutes later.
Wally was still moving slow, so about a normal human's pace.
The others were mostly recovered.
"Where are they?" Momo wondered.
"They'll stay inside," Shine said, "a more defensible position. But I have an idea for that. We have the advantage if they come out of there, wouldn't you say, Tomura?"
Shigaraki was surprised she was asking him.
"Uh...I mean, quirk wise, probably we'd be better outside."
"Yes, you, Mirko, Hawks, and Dabi really can't attack inside, so it's better if we're outside, or we're down 4 people," Shine said, just confirming her own idea, "So we need them to come out, and this is the idea I had hours ago. Momo, it's your time... Did you eat?"
"While we were resting I did," Momo nodded, "I'm ready to make anything."
"Right." Shine whispered to her.
"But...why?" Momo said.
"Why did you whisper it?" Spinner said.
"I didn't want to listen to you argue with me that it was stupid," Shine answered.
"Then shouldn't I argue anyway?" Spinner cried.
"Shut up," Dabi said.
"Momo, you have to trust me," Shine said.
Momo bit her lip. "All right, I will... How big?"
"If you could make two about yay high." Shine held her hand about 4 feet off the ground. "Eat more right away, too. Don't bother waiting. They'll be on us soon. They want us to come in there. They'll trap us like rats if we do."
"I'll...just go behind that rock," Momo said, moving.
"Why is she doing that?" Spinner asked.
"She had to move her clothes," Dabi said before Shoto could stop him, "She's kind of shy about it."
"Oh..." Spinner reddened.
"Dabi!" Shoto was mad.
"What? It's a fact." Dabi said.
"How unfortunate," Mirko said, "I think I'd rather die than be one of those heroes... The paparazzi love it though. Sick perverts."
"She's really cool," Camie defended her, "Don't be judging, Hero Lady. Momo's a queen. Who cares about clothes anyway?"
"See? Didn't think about it," Bakugo said.
Camie giggled.
Ren came onto the line just then.
"Tell him to come around this way," Shine suggested.
Mirko sighed and did so.
"Oh, I'm actually pretty close," Ren said, "I thought we might have to exit off the back of the island...and Kayla has been quite useful. She told me where I could find more fuel tanks on the ship."
"Did you torture her first?"
"She's a smart girl. She knows she's outmatched," Ren said, "I also suspect she set off some kind of red alert when we let her go before, but it would have been stupid not to, so let's not hold that against her. She only tried to dive over the edge once."
"Ren, you're weird," Mirko said, "Just bring the boat here and don't get killed."
"You got it, Sis." Ren sounded a bit flat.
Momo returned lugging...a huge speaker?
"I have the other one too," she said.
"What the...?" Hawks said, "Are we putting on a concert?"
"I call drums," Bakugo said.
"Mirko, you might want to back up a lot," Shine said.
Mirko's eyes got huge. "What are you doing?"
"You'll see--" Shine broke off and cupped her hand over her comlink. "Yes? Silk, talk
more slow. I can't make it out with your accent... Oh...ohhh...that's so funny-- we're just about to do something just like that, but I'll add to it. Thanks."
She looked up and grinned. "We're really pulling a Gideon."
"I wish I knew what that meant," Shigaraki muttered, "because I have no idea what this plan is..."
"You all just back up," Shine said, "Momo, you made it with the right plug?"
Momo nodded.
Shine took the speaker and plugged it into her own phone, and then she clicked on her music app.
"Oh no..." Mirko realized what she was going to do. "She's truly lost her mind...but I love this plan at the same time."
"What? What is she gonna do?" Hawks was on the edge of freaking out. "That's gonna alert everyone we're right here. It's like a big, neon sign saying come and kill us!"
"Exactly." Mirko made a fist. "She's really crazy."
"Why do you look so happy about that?" Hawks was nervous. "Rumi, I think you may be liking this for the wrong reasons..."
"Oh, shut up, pansy," Mirko said.
Shine and Momo both put ear plugs in their ears before Shine hit the play button.
Ear-shatteringly loud music blared out of the speakers.
Momo covered her ears even so as the ground pulsed under her with the sound.
Sound waves went out and shook the fortress.
Not nearly enough to damage it, but the music could be heard from anywhere in the fortress, probably, at least in the front of it.
Shine and Momo raced toward the others.
"What the heck is with that song choice?" Dabi yelled at Shine.
"The point is to make it something they wouldn't expect," Shine yelled back, "The more unusual the better. Trust me on this one."
"Well, this would freak me out," Hawks said, "maybe not for the reasons you're hoping."
"Whether it's because you're weirded out or terrified, Hawks, it doesn't matter," Shine said, "Frankly, we can use either one against you."
Hawks did a double take.
"You know...Cece would be proud," Wally said, "And Batman would never forgive me for this, but...can you picture the looks on their faces?"
* * *
Compress and Silk didn't have to picture it.
They had released their two prisoners back into the main section of the fortress, once they'd found it, and taken cover behind a screen to see what happened.
When the unusual music suddenly blared into the fortress' chambers, the Metas who'd been in the main meeting hall lost it.
Triclops...who did have three eyes--- started yelling something about explosions, and his friend, Mac, began yelling something about hardware.
The Elders, High Father, and underlings who were discussing the attack all broke off as the music just got louder.
Louder than it should have been through stone. It was making it echo through the chambers.
"What in the h--- is that?" the Elders yelled.
"Music," said one meta.
He was shot.
"I mean who is that?" The Elder didn't even bat an eyelash.
"Don't just stand there gawking! Get out there and find out!" the High Father yelled over the sound.
They began scuttling out to the front of the fortress.
From all corners of it, more Metas began doing the same thing.
Compress and Silk were never noticed. Everyone was too busy running and grabbing their weapons to go out in front.
As soon as the first song ended, another one like it began.
"What even is this?" Silk hissed at Compress.
"Who cares? It's working," Compress said, "Must be Likstar's playlist... She has weird taste, but to be fair, if I didn't know who it was, this would scare me too. I mean, it's a rather unusual tactic..."
"Well, yeah, like getting serenaded at house at ungodly hours of night," Silk said, "but Metas probably not flattered."
Compress laughed nervously.
* * *
"One last touch," Shine said, as they could spot the first Metas coming out the doors. She held up her sword.
Everyone knew by now to cover their eyes.
Brilliant, blinding light flashed.
* * *
The Metas went mad.
Several ran into each other because they couldn't see-- and now really couldn't hear either.
Others began to panic because they thought it was a bomb dropping on them from above.
Triclops curled into a fetal position because he thought he was doomed.
Mac didn't, but he whipped out his phone to call for help...and found he couldn't get on the Meta's line at all...then he found he couldn't get on their secret website...nothing...
"What the---??" He swore. "We're down."
"What?" the High Father Father yelled at him over the din.
"We're down!" Mac cupped his hands over his mouth. "Completely! Our whole system is down!"
* * *
Medea pulled back from the computer. All the monitors in the room were now flashing a blue screen of death.
"What did you do?" Monama was astounded.
"Oh..." Intelli said, "I maybe have installed a virus that will wipe out all their data. I mean, their whole network. Each time you took data, I left a little calling card in the system after I hacked it, but this was the final stretch. I could make their walls, I could hack through them-- that's what I thought. Then Likstar asked me if I ever saw a movie called The Net, and we both knew the way to really defeat the Metas."
"You...you fried their whole system," Monama said.
"Oh, heck yes." Intelli was sipping coffee. "Not just here. I'd say this will be all over Japan at the very least. Possibly farther if I did it right. They might have other systems in other countries I can't get into, but if they can't contact Japan, their main place of operation is going to be cut off. Could take weeks to fix the damage from this alone. And that was before I sent the Police this location."
Medea and Monama gasped.
"I'll be sending the heroes files of all the stuff we stole too," Intelli said, smugly, "once I've verified if they are Metas or not. I'll have to be careful. I'm gonna send it to different ones, force them to collaborate...but I'm not sending it to the police-- too many moles in the police force... It'll be months of work, but I suspect a lot of Meta chapters are going to be found after this...and the best part? You just destroyed any shred of evidence that will point it back to me or us...if you can just get the frick out of there now without being caught."
"Oh my gosh..." Medea sank back in the chair she was on.
"Can I become a hacker?" Monama said.
"Relax, kid." Intelli sipped more coffee. "This was easy because I already worked for them. I won't be able to pull this off twice, I don't think... Well, maybe I could, but I don't want too many people looking for me... This is for Saiko too. But hey, I'd be happy to teach you some stuff sometime. How are you at copying high IQ quirks?
"Let's go. You can swap numbers later," Medea said.
They got up.
"Why hasn't anyone come in here yet?" Monama asked.
"Oh...that Likstar enacted her plan," Intelli said smugly, "I imagine by now they're probably crapping their pants and running out to the front of this fortress. Gives you kids a chance to get out."
"Oh...wow..." Medea said.
"No just us." Monama suddenly remembered something. "That priest guy said something about a prison... I bet it's lower down in here or maybe in another building. They could have hostages."
Medea nodded. "Okay..."
They linked hands and started running.
* * *
Shine signaled Momo to turn off the speaker.
Momo did.
Everyone's ears were a little numb.
But nothing compared to the Metas, who were still deaf or disoriented, rubbing their eyes.
"Go ahead and take them," Shine called to the rest of the team.
She picked up her phone and checked her messages. "As I thought, they won't be calling in any back up."
"What? Why not?" Hawks asked.
"Intelli just bugged their entire system," Shine said, "Basically, they've been deleted. Also, the heroes will be here within the hour, I'd say."
The all gaped at her.
"That was your idea?" Dabi said.
"Yeah," Shine smiled slyly, "We played Gideon."
"Seriously, who the frick is Gideon!??" Shigaraki said.
"I'll tell you the whole story later," Shine said, "Go on now, Tomura, this is your game. Once we get Compress and Silk out, that is. Hawks, why don't you do that for us?"
Hawks blinked at her, but then flew up and sent his feathers into the forest.
A few seconds later, he got those two villains out. They were unharmed.
"No killing though," Shine was warning Shigaraki, "That's the one rule."
"Maiming?" Shigaraki said.
"I will pretend you didn't just ask me that," Shine said.
"Where's Monama?" Shinso asked.
"Don't worry about him, darling," Silk panted, "He won't get crushed. He has Medea's quirk with him."
"That...would have made no sense if I didn't know his power..." Shinso said weirdly.
Shigaraki hit the ground, and it split all the way up the fortress, causing most of the remaining doorways to crumble in on themselves again.
Sealing half of the Metas, who were still trying to get out, inside.
They might be able to break out, but it would take a while.
A handful of the ones outside did manage to get to the group while still kind of dazed.
The hero kids lost no time laying into them.
Camie and Bakugo tag teamed a few.
Shoto froze a few more.
Shinso snared some with his scarf and brainwashed others.
Soon there were none left.
"No one touch the ones in hoods," Shine warned. She was just watching. "Wally and I will handle them."
"But we want to kill them," Spinner said.
"Spinner, you haven't killed anyone thus far," Shine said, "Just stick to not killing, okay? Watch everyone's back."
Spinner pouted.
"Don't worry, man, they'll be more of them to fight soon," Wally said.
[If you're familiar at all with the story of Gideon, you probably recognized where I took inspiration from it, though I did not make this a straight up parody.
I thought it would be fun to include it though, I just got the idea while working on this arc, and it was a good plan.
You can find the actual story in the Bible, Judges 6-8. Though some of Shine's actions might also be considered a reference to the prior story of Deborah, as well as one other story where people worshiped instead of going to war. That's in a different book though.
The Bible is just fun, if you ask me, especially to retell in fiction form. I'd argue, if people can use myths and legends to frame their stories, I can use bible stories. Best part is, so few people know them anymore, it's all fresh.
Anyway, hope you liked it, this arc will be ending in the next two parts I'd say.
If you read this far at all, I salute you. I'm amazed at how this is still going.]