"What the hell was that?!" Yuuki asked, rushing over to Will and looking up at the smashed window.
"Ugh... broke my damn... arm." Will was sitting against a wall of concrete, cratered by his exo-suit which was sparking from the damaged pieces.
"Assault team?! Respond!" Okami yelled into his comm set from atop the roof with Rhea. Shockwaves rippled from the second floor, sending the two stumbling around. "Authority!"
All the other glass panes in the building simultaneously shattered as several figures leapt or were flung from the dust filled building, collapsing under the weight of such a battle.
"It's a Nomu," Kazumi answered, safe on her roof, far from the battle. "The same thing that attacked the USJ, but it looks different."
"Li, Daidoji, and Kaito are still fighting it!" Kalen shouted, using his eyepiece to stare through the dust cloud.
Okami was too off-put to even scold him for forgetting to use codenames. Instead he busied himself by grabbing Rhea and flinging them both off the unstable building's roof. Caught unaware, Rhea was unable to suppress the shout of terror as they fell to the watery streets below.
Rising up to meet them was a torrent of liquid, but not water. Rather, this was Arakawa Eimi's Quirk, Palletakinesis, the ability to control paint.
The rainbow spiral caught the two, helping lower them to the ground. Eimi, or Artisan tried to make it smooth, but she lost concentration at the last moment, dropping Okami and Rhea to lightly belly flop before picking themselves up.
Kaito was the next to leave the building. He landed on both feet, his sword clutched in one hand and the other balancing himself. He put the panicked exit of the others to shame.
"What's going on?!" Okami barked at him, his wolf features soaked like a wet dog.
"Building's coming down. Those two are even crazier than I am."
"What's this Nomu thing?" Yuuki asked, freeing Will from the exo-suit and splinting his arm.
"It's a genetically modified human, disfigured because it was forcibly granted multiple Quirks," Kazumi answered, drawing several different materials from her suit and molding them into bullets. "They're moving too fast. I can't get a surefire shot at this distance."
"Kishin," Okami said to Adrian, "Go get Authority and Lugh, we might need them for this."
The boy nodded, the golden symbols along his hoodie lighting up as air pressure condensed below him. Compressing it down as small as he could, he discharged it beneath him, flying up high before letting loose another blast behind him, flying similar to how Bakugo could travel with his explosions.
The top floors of the building fell away, collapsing in on themselves.
"Surge, Sparkrachne, get out of there!"
There was no response as the rubble built up further and further, a cloud of dust billowing as it completely fell away. The pile of debris was moments from crushing the second floor when two figures shot out, both landing in clumsy heaps.
"Phew!" Dai cheered, her eyes crazed and sparkling. "That was fun!"
"Fun?!" Okami was clutching at his head, looking at the ruined building. "What about the tech?! What about the mission?! There were people inside!"
"Don't worry. Our very own mini-Hawks took care of that." Li said, hitching his thumb at Angel, or rather, Waka.
Their single wing was empty of feathers. It seemed that when they realized the building was coming down, they went to work. Their feathers, encased in Sen's fairy dust, were each carrying a piece of the stolen tech, or one of the unconscious Yakuza. Waka's feathers couldn't be controlled like Hawks could control his, which was why Sen had to use her own Quirk to supplement the rescue mission.
Sen was crouched down next to Waka, rubbing circles on their back as the young hero coughed up blood and struggled to breathe.
"Faery, get them out of here!"
Sen nodded, grabbing Waka and sprouting her own glittering fairy wings to fly away with Waka in her arms.
"Well at least that Nomu thing is dead," Hirose said, having run from the bottom floor of the building Kazumi and Kalen were stationed on. Since her Quirk allowed her to build up kinetic energy, she was, like most of the class, a discount version of a superhero. In this case, the Flash.
"I wouldn't be so sure." Danji said, a good distance away from the fight with the Saturn Six system at his fingertips. "The one at the USJ had a regenerative Quirk."
As if the Nomu was listening, the pile of debris began to tremble and shake before the center of it all exploded, revealing a snarling and incensed black creature.
"Oh..."
"Shit..."
Hirose grinned, her hazel eyes beginning to glow behind her goggles. "I call dibs!"
Like a missile, or more accurately, a teleporter, she vanished from where she was standing. She zig-zagged around the Nomu, building up even more speed and power until her body couldn't take it anymore. Arcing towards the Nomu, it all happened in a split second.
Her right-hand's index finger grazed the monster's back, forcing all that kinetic energy through him.
The Nomu's right arm disappeared in a shockwave blast, but his torso wasn't affected at all.
"What?!" Hirose cried, having expected his entire torso to be blown away.
As it was, her Quirk, Speedstrike, forced her to discharge all her energy in one blow, so now, she was as slow as a normal human. It was like she was moving in molasses compared to the Nomu now. The Nomu that was rearing back its remaining fist.
Within the same moment Hirose vanished from her spot, every last member of Enigma rushed forwards, intending to overwhelm the beast, but their priorities shifted the second they saw Hirose at its mercy.
Kaito slid underneath the Nomu's legs, slashing at them both with his sword.
Darksteel, the name of both Kaito's Quirk, allowed him to summon an unbreakable, impossibly sharp sword to his hands at any time. He'd tested it relentlessly. Steel, titanium, other Quirks, it could cut through virtually anything.
But when it hit the Nomu's flesh, it left no marks. Kaito was certain he had sliced clean through at least a few tendons. He knew what it felt like to cut through something with Darksteel, but it didn't work for some reason this time. Meaning the Nomu's fist was still coming down on Hirose. So, Kaito did the only thing he could, he kicked out one of Hirose's legs.
Hirose fell backwards, narrowly avoiding the punch and a sharp piece of rebar in the rubble. Now the two were on the ground, both just a few inches away from the Nomu's muscled feet.
Thankfully, the rest of Enigma was on the case. Okami, still in his Warwolf form, tackled the Nomu, putting some good distance between himself and the others as he threw clawed swipe after clawed swipe. He was tearing out chunks of flesh as the Nomu defended itself on its back, but not from the places he was intending. As he slashed away the darkened skin on the Nomu's remaining arm, the injuries began appearing on its legs instead.
Not only that, but his other arm, the one completely blown away by Hirose, was back in place and it slammed into Okami's snout, sending him flying back.
"Okay..." Kaito said, pulling himself to his feet. "Maybe time to regroup?"
As he said that, a massive surge of hot green energy flowed past him, completely engulfing the monster. And just as quickly as it came, it went.
Behind Kaito, Will, freed from the exo-suit, collapsed to his knees, his energy entirely spent.
"Fuck that!" Daidoji yelled out in response to Kaito's call to retreat.
Everyone who could still fight pulled themselves back to their feet, rushing the Nomu with abandon.
Its body was burnt all over, regeneration slowly replacing the part of its body that were missing. And during that brief moment where its muscles and tendons were exposed, Kaito spotted the slashes he had made on its legs. They were on its torso.
"It's relocating our damage!"
Daidoji, Li, Kaito, Echo, Okami, and Hirose, when she saw openings to use her speed, threw all they had at the beast. Meanwhile, Kenichi made sure to cover the retreat of Will and the others who weren't suited to fighting a battle like this.
Kaito would chop off a limb, Daidoji would cover his retreat with her strength. Hirose would deliver a massive strike of kinetic energy, mangling the Nomu's body, and Echo would take a hit for her, returning the Nomu's punch as a kick with twice the power.
It was a definitive one-sided beatdown. Whether it be their upbringing or their inherent strength, they flowed like a single current, revolving around the Nomu in perfect form. They may have failed the entrance exam one way or another, but their talent was far greater than fighting mere robots, they just needed the chance.
"Back!" Okami yelled, causing all six of the attackers to simultaneously gain distance between them and the beast.
It was just in time for Adrian, or Kishin to slam a ceiling of air pressure into the Nomu, compressing him into the rubble floor. He had communicated his return as the group kept their adversary at bay, and with him was a girl who held in her hand a bullet of ridiculous power.
"Time to put this dog down," Kazumi muttered under her breath as she racked the bullet made of steel and a milligram of thorium. It was a radioactive bullet and it was ready to tear through the Nomu's regenerative powers by disturbing his cells in a way that Will couldn't accomplish.
But just as Kazumi pulled the trigger, a silver liquid began to erupt from the Nomu's mouth, spewing out of its body and swallowing it whole. Nothing remained, causing Kazumi's bullet to pass through empty air and burrow itself a couple dozen feet underground with an explosive impact.
"What..."
"Is it another Quirk? Did it run?"
Everyone looked around cautiously, scanning for any sign of the Nomu, but Danji interrupted.
"Guys, we've got pros and cops headed our way, it's time to bail. We got the tech and the Yakuza out in the open for them to collect. I'd rather not have to sit here and explain all the destruction to the police."
Kaito smiled. "Same, I hate cops."
Okami paused for a moment, then nodded with a sigh. "All points, make for the rendezvous, head for UA campus, we've got some wounded to attend to."
"Hey, on the bright side," Danji chimed in, "I just got word that our HQ at UA is complete! We've got some new digs to check out! On top of a... mostly successful mission, it's been a pretty good night."
"Oh! I can't wait to see those!" Li cried, already in a rush to make it back home.
Meanwhile Hirose let out a heavy breath, her shoulders shaking, her legs trembling.
"You good?" Kaito asked as the others went on ahead.
She shook her head. "I almost got killed..."
"Yeah... that was close. Hope I didn't kick you too hard," He chuckled.
"It's fine, it saved my life, after all."
Kaito offered her a hand to lean on and she took it happily. "Don't worry. Things like this get easier the longer you do 'em," He assured her.
"The others seem fine," She countered.
He shrugged. "Everyone's different... and this class is a special kind of different."
That earned Kaito a small laugh from Hirose, who allowed herself to be led home, unaware of what they'd just uncovered.
*******
"I didn't expect that particular shipment to be attacked." A large faceless man said into a monitor, a smile on his face despite the development.
"I can't believe they managed to push the Nomu to the brink of death so easily... Not even All Might was capable of putting down the Nomu he fought for good. Had you not retrieved this one, it would've been killed for sure." An elderly figure behind the man complained in disbelief. "Who even were they?"
"I'm not quite sure... But there is one woman who may know their identity."
On the other side of the monitor, an inky black cloud of smoke bowed low. "Then it is time to contact Supremacy?"
"Yes. Their particular brand of tactics will be of much help against this new threat."
"Some powerful Quirks," The elderly man said. "Yet I can't find them in the Quirk roster."
"Indeed. They are quite the enigma."