"I HATE THESE DAMN DOORS!" Bakugo yelled as he fruitlessly sent another blast at the giant doors.
They'd been stuck outside the giant doors that lead into Zeus's stronghold for the past hour. So far none of them had managed to breach it. Not even Mina's acids had been able to do more than strip a small layer off. Whatever he had made the doors out of, they were almost indestructible.
"What's the word on reinforcements?" Kirishima asked from where he was sitting on a piece of rubble looking bored.
"They'll be here any minute, and they should have extra gear and munitions," Momo said.
They started to hear choppers in the distance and everyone looked up.
"Well speak of the devil." Said Kirishima, grinning.
A few moments later, the dozen or so choppers appeared, touching down and unloading about 200 infantrymen. As everyone was disembarking and supplies were being unloaded, a thirteenth helicopter appeared, carrying a massive crate on its undersize. It slowly lowered the crate down about 23 meters away from the large doors, where a clear path had been made between the two.
When the crate had been released, people removed the pins keeping the walls together, and let them slam down onto the ground revealing Momo's railgun. Momo immediately started inspecting the gun for any damage during travel. Satisfied that it was in working order she climbed into the gunner's seat and keyed for power. The massive power bank whirred to life and it glowed. Everyone immediately started clearing out of the way, and after the five-minute start-up sequence was completed, Momo powered on the firing and targeting system.
She didn't bother with automatic targeting, the door wasn't going anywhere. There was an audible thunk as a round was loaded into the chamber and then the hum started up as the rail system started charging.
Momo materialized a pair of soundproof headphones and put them on, but the hum from the rail was so loud she felt herself vibrate. The rail started glowing, brighter and brighter, Momo lowered the light blocking visor and flipped the final switch. There was a crackling noise and a massive explosion from the end as it fired.
Momo felt the entire thing slide backward from the force of the explosion and she thought she might have gotten a bruise across her chest from the straps. Momo raised the visor and looked toward the door, which now had a large hole punched through it. She saw a red light coming from inside the door and then it flashed. A laser shot out from the hole and punched clean through the power bank. Momo hit the strap's release and vaulted over the railgun's barrel, Todoroki encasing the entire thing in ice a moment later. When the bank exploded, the huge slab of ice it was encased in cracked but didn't shatter completely.
Momo saw Bakugo launch himself toward the hole, landing next to it, and started throwing explosions blindly inside. Todoroki ran up next to him, gestured for him to stop, and then sent a massive wave of ice into the room. Once that was done, Kirishima charged in like a madman, covered in the sticky acid armor Mina had made. One by one, heroes followed up behind Kirishima. The entire room was covered in ice, and Momo could see numerous barricades frozen over with several defenders frozen solid. There were a few defenders along the edges that didn't get frozen but they were easily picked off.
They pushed as fast as they could into the room, securing the hallways leading into the entrance, and held them from enemy attack as several people worked to open the large doors. When manual overrides were finally located, the massive doors started to move apart, thus allowing for their full forces to pour into the room.
It also forced them to push down the hallways, Momo and the rest of 1A moved down the central hallways with Ahmya's team taking point. Between the two groups, it was simple enough to push into the end of the hallway and into an antechamber of sorts that had doors labeled to where they lead to respective parts of the facility. As reinforcements came up behind them, a contingent was sent to secure the lower levels where most of the barracks, mess halls, and logistical offices would be located. The second half was to ascend higher in the mountain, where research facilities, training rooms, and officer quarters were located.
Kirishima took point, absorbing most of the enemy attacks and letting people move up behind him. They hadn't yet run into extremely heavy resistance, but it was only a matter of time. More than likely, the labs would be full of hounds and whatever else Zeus was experimenting on.
As they started to move through a set of hallways, they noticed that resistance slowly shrank until it was practically barren. They moved slowly through the hallways, checking rooms as they went but they were all empty. It wasn't long before they entered a large chamber with empty cages lining the walls. At the back of the room, a massive cargo lift sat with depressions in the floor for cages and housings for chains.
While the hallways they had been navigating were big enough for the cages, two cages were truly massive. Whatever hound they had been built to contain, would never have fit through the hallways.
Momo inspected one of the large cages and could see claw marks and scorching all over the interior.
"Zeus must use his teleporter to get the larger cages out of the mountain," muttered Momo, putting a hand into one of the claw marks. The furrow of the claw mark went up to her wrist, she shivered at the thought of how big the hound's claws must be.
"All those animals and people... taken and molded by Zeus into monsters..." Said Shinso quietly, crouched down next to a cage that was caked in old blood.
"If anyone is still left, we'll save them. Whatever form that might take..." Said Bakugo.
No one said anything but they moved away from the cages and headed toward the lift. One soldier who was dressed lighter than the others sprouted skeletal appendages from his back and like a spider traversed a wall of the lift. There was a small wait, but eventually, the scout scuttled back down.
"The room the lift leads to is a room as large as this one, multiple doors lead out and it looks to be clear," he said, retracting the bones back into himself.
"I don't like it, but we don't have a choice. Grab some of those cages, the tops and bottoms are solid, flip them onto their sides and make makeshift barriers along the edges." Ahmya said.
The soldiers quickly did as instructed, and before long, the assault force was on the lift and behind cover.
"Take us up," Ahmya said.
The nearest soldier hit the switch to raise the lift and it moved smoothly upward. After a brief ride, it slowed and came to a smooth halt at the top. The room was as described, a large room with cages, multiple doors leading out, and not a living soul in sight. Positioned in the center of the far wall were two massive doors like the ones at the entrance. Not as big, but big enough to fit the largest of the cages they saw down below.
All was still and silent, and slowly the force moved out from behind their barriers and moved into the room. There were no lights, and only the flashlights and a few quirks illuminated the room. When they moved into the center of the room an odd noise came from above them. Several flashlights snapped upward and a series of thin glowing lines appeared above them. The lines traced the outlines of the room, stopping just before the lift behind them with a vertical line going through the center of the box. Then the same lines appeared underneath them, mirroring the ceiling. A humming noise came from the lines, and then the lines above them shot downward while the lines beneath them shot upward. The lines met in the middle and an energy barrier of some kind had been formed around them. 1A was on the left side of the barrier, while Ahmya's squad was on the right, with both sides having an even split of infantrymen.
Bakugo sent an explosion at the barrier, but it held. This prompted everyone to start beating on the barriers with anything they could, but after a minute of fruitless pounding and no sign that the barrier was waning they stopped.
"So now what?" asked one of the infantrymen who was looking around.
As if in response, the doors on the left and right walls slid open to reveal dark passages.
"Creati, what do you think?" Ahmya asked into her radio.
"I do not think we have much choice in the matter. The barrier is too strong, and we walked straight into their trap. Whatever they have planned, I think the best we can do is to see what it is and beat them at their own game." came the slightly garbled voice of Momo.
"I was thinking the same, and I'd wager our radios will be blocked once we get far enough away. The barrier seems to interfere quite a bit." Ahmya said.
"Then we are on our own from here on out. Good luck." Momo said.
"Good luck," Ahmya said back.
Then she turned toward the open door and motioned for everyone to move forward. The groups moved down the passageways, and once everyone was clear of the doors they slammed shut behind them, plunging them into darkness save for the flashlights. The groups moved deeper down the passageway until they came to a set of double doors. Izuku cracked open the door and took a look, but couldn't see anything so he pushed inside.
The group had entered a training hall, there were spaces cleared for sparring, and various exercise equipment lining the walls. There were also three more doors leading out of the room.
At the same time, the right-hand group's hallway had expanded into one large wide hallway that stretched forward, the walls lined with multiple doors with windows in between the doors for people to look through. Except that the windows had metal shutters inside the room, which made seeing anything impossible. As the groups walked deeper into the area their doors took them, and speakers crackled to life around them.
"Greetings test subjects, I am the Lord of Hounds and am delighted to have you with us here tonight." came a pleasant voice.
"While your intrusion is unwelcome it was not unexpected. We have prepared for you tonight, a special series of experiments. You see, while producing hounds is not hard, not anymore at least, training them is. Since you're here we have had to put that on hold, but you can at least provide us with excellent combat data. Especially with the latest batch of hounds. You likely encountered them earlier, they were minimally trained, but enough to be able to fight you. So if you would do the great service of dying for our research, we will ensure your bodies and quirks are put to good use. Enjoy." said the pleasant voice.
At Momo's group, the various doors lining the walls all opened at once. There was silence for a moment as everyone stood on edge, then they saw at the end of the corridor a long tendril of some kind come from one of the open doorways. It attached itself to the wall with a squelch and then a bulbous body slid from the room and into the corridor. With a squelching noise, the tendril detached itself from the wall and went to the floor, dragging it further into the hallway.
It was then that it seemed to notice the group further down the hallway, it shrieked like a bird of prey and multiple tendrils shot out, latching onto the walls and floor and started dragging itself toward them at a freighting pace. Then all around them, other sounds rang out. Roars, shrieks, and other monstrous noises came from all around them and hordes of hounds poured from the doorways. Some seemed to be fully formed, others only partially. Something that was once a human, had an overly large mouth without lips, with long needle-like teeth, white eyes, clammy scaly skin, and two antennae attached to its forehead that had two glowing orbs attached to the end that lighting arced between.
In moments the hallways had been turned into a hellscape of monsters. Todoroki sent a wave of ice down the corridor, but one hound that seemed to be a cross between Komodo dragon and small rhino opened its mouth and unleashed a torrent of green fire that evaporated the ice in mere moments. The group moved sideways into an open door and then slammed it shut, Todoroki froze the door shut, and then Kirishima planted himself behind the door and braced it with his body. The door shook and the howls and cries of hounds could be heard on the other side as they tried to get at them.
Now that they had a second, Momo quickly got to organizing a plan of attack.
"Everyone with a defensive quirk gets to the front with Red Riot, people with good offensive quirks behind them, everyone else with me in the far back." Momo barked out.
When everyone was organized the door had several cracks in it and the noises had grown a fever pitch.
"When that door breaks, throw everything you have into the gap while the frontline keeps from advancing beyond the entryway." She said, crouched with her gauss rifle raised.
As the door got closer to breaking, Kirishima backed up and got in a wrestling stance. Alongside him, several others stood in their stances in a ring around the entryway. Momo felt a bead of sweat roll down her face. Then the door burst apart and the hounds were immediately met with a tidal wave of fire, explosions, various other quirk attacks, and a storm of bullets. Multiple of the hounds went down in a matter of seconds, but there was still plenty in the hallway. As hounds tried to force themselves into the room, they enlarged the broken doorway allowing more to pour in. The first real challenge came when a giant armored ball tried to roll into the room.
Kirishima caught it with his hands and sparks flew as it spun against Kirishima's hardened body and the floor. Kirishima squeezed and the armored ball slowed until it stopped, at which point it unrolled itself and it tried to slash him with short stubby claws. They slid easily over his armor and it was promptly riddled with bullets and a few gauss rounds. Kirishima picked up its corpse and threw it at more of the hounds as they continued to pour in.
A porcupine hound ran in and fired spikes at them, while the front line was unhurt, the spines hit several of the people behind them. One was killed instantly as it went into their eye, but several others screamed and started writhing on the ground as they foamed at the mouth. Bakugo blew it to pieces but it caused enough chaos to allow a few hounds to slip past the front line. Everything started to rapidly deteriorate as a pair of flying hounds with razor-sharp talons tore into one of the front liners from behind.
The horde seemed to be never-ending and Bakugo knew that at this rate they would be overrun. He roared, firing a massive series of blasts into the doorway, causing the hounds in the hallway to pause. As they hesitated, Todoroki sent a wall of ice into the doorway blocking it off, but it quickly started to melt as the green fire appeared on the other side.
They quickly finished off the remaining hounds in the room and Momo took stock of their situation. They'd lost roughly half of their people, and they had no idea how many hounds might remain.
"Get behind me, I'm going to wipe them all out at once." Said Todoroki, stepping forward.
"You sure?" Asked Kirishima.
He just nodded, as he just lit himself on fire. As they pulled back to the end of the room, the fire slowly spread over Todoroki's icy half. As he converted more of his icy half to fire, the temperature in the room slowly rose. Todoroki shot both his hands forward and flames emerged in the center of his palms. The small finger-sized flames shook as if trying to free themselves as if confined to the small flames against their will. Then the wall melted and the rhino could be seen for a moment.
Then Todoroki released the pent-up flames and the world went orange as the fire obscured everything. It tore through the rhino in seconds and went into the corridor hitting the wall and like water, flowed through the hallway. The fire went into every open door, incinerating everything in its path. Then it slowly faded, until all that remained was Todoroki, front lit by a raging fire inside the doorway and hallway.
Then he fell to his knees as intense pain coursed through his body. Ice started to spread from him as his ice side ran rampant, a field of frozen spikes spread from him and he screamed in pain. He curled into a ball, desperate to retain any body heat he could, but the ice continued to grow in strength, sapping him of energy and heat.
He heard explosions all around him and the cold started to lessen. He felt himself being dragged and he felt heat all around him as he was dragged into the hallway where a bonfire of hound corpses raged. The stench was unbearable but the cold diminished noticeably. When he had recovered enough he slowly un-curled himself from a ball and looked around. The bonfire was gone and instead, the blackened corpses were wet. He slowly got up, he was still cold and so he carefully stoked the fire within him. He had to be careful not to overuse his fire or he could throw his entire quirk haywire which would put him out of commission for several hours. The fire built ever so slightly and he felt warmth slowly spread throughout his body.
"Are you okay now?" came Momo's voice behind him.
He turned and saw her worried face from the wall she had probably been standing by the entire time.
"Ye- Yeah... Just gonna need a bit to recover fully but I'm fine," he said shakily, his teeth wanting to chatter but he suppressed the urge.
"What's happened?" he asked, looking around and seeing no one else.
"They're in the rooms, combing through them looking for anything important," Momo said, coming forward and wrapping him a hug.
He returned the hug, savoring her warmth before slowly detaching himself from her.
"I found something over here!" came Mina's far-off voice from the end of the corridor.
People started to converge on her location. The room was relatively undamaged by the flames, not enough had reached the door to scorch the entire interior. The room was large, it had monitors all along the walls, various strange implements they'd never seen were on a table and next to the table was a large pile of body bags. The most disturbing thing however was in the center of the room.
A giant vat of blood stood, and within it was a bloody skeleton with bits of flesh attached randomly. There was an eye and other organs visible, and a heart that would occasionally beat. There was no skin anywhere on the thing or other identifying marks.
"what the fuck is this..." whispered one of the surviving infantrymen.
Momo went to the monitors and scanned them rapidly, moving from monitor to monitor trying to glean what she could. She stopped at one near the back of the room, which seemed to be different from the others. It had multiple file icons on the screen that seemed to be log entries for the experiment happening in the room. When she tried to access them, however, they required a means of decrypting the files. It didn't ask for a password so it likely required a different form of authentication. She shrugged and left the monitor to head back to the small group that had remained in the room.
"I think I found the logs for the researcher in charge of... this..." she said, gesturing to the skeleton.
"They are all encrypted however so I couldn't look at them," she said.
"We... we should get moving..." said Mina taking a step back, but it was as if the vat had her mesmerized.
Kirishima grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her out of the room, everyone else following after him.
As Bakugo got to the doorway he paused and looked back and froze. The single eye was looking at him, but otherwise, the thing hadn't moved. He stood there, unable to break his gaze with the thing until Kirishima called his name. He started and left the room, hitting the outside button for the door controls. The door slid shut silently, and as it slid shut he watched the eye slide back to its original position.
A shiver ran down his body, and a horrifying sense of deja-vu came over him.