Chapter Text
“Starboard sid-” The side of one of Japan’s destroyers exploded in flames, engulfed by the shell launched from the opposing fleet.
Russia was using a new type of vessel, a destroyer-class that could submerge and hide from radar. It made it next to impossible for Japan’s standard fleet to actually hit them. And even a direct hit was likely to bounce off the Magical hull.
“Nagant!” Momo shouted, leaping from her Shadow destroyer to the destroyer that just got hit, using her Quirk to start repairing the vessel.
Kaina jumped straight up in the air using Omni-Movement, funneling Mana into her eyes to see right through the water and spot the submerged destroyer. Pulling a bullet from her hair, the energy in her barrel built to the necessary power level.
That single shot bisected the sea like some sort of deity, cavitating all the way to the Russia sub, boring a hole straight through it, damning the crew.
“Behemoth!”
The titan rose from the depths, standing at his full height, clutching the submarine in his hands. It didn’t save everyone, but it mitigated casualties. They were doing what they could, within reason, to save lives. Of course, there was the chance that the crew would just take a suicide pill, but Momo knew that Izuku would settle for nothing less than saving as many lives as he could, even if it was in vain.
The journey they planned on taking should have only lasted 2 days at the fleet’s top speed. However, Russia’s persistent attacks and new vessels meant they had already been sailing for 5 days. Trying to mitigate losses, and deal with the subs was tricky. They didn’t even realize what was attacking them at first, causing a great deal of damage that cost a day of repairs.
Kaina was doing her best to spot everything, but she was just one person, and the only one who could reliably target them when they were submerged. If Behemoth managed to spot them, he could crush them like ants, but his vision, especially underwater, wasn’t great.
Momo scowled once she was done fixing the destroyer, she was growing tired of this cat and mouse game.
“Admiral Mori, fleet halt and have all submersibles surface. Tell your crews to hold on to whatever they can.”
“Copy, what do you plan?”
“The rabbit that jumps from the moon,” Momo responded, looking up into the sky, where a small dot was visible, falling fast.
Having predicted that they’d need new measures to deal with the subs, Momo had sent Kaisel as high up into the atmosphere as possible, carrying the one and only Rabbit Hero. Tearing through the skies, Miruko was little more than a streak of light.
Traveling at reentry speeds, she split the open oceans in an almost anti-climatic fashion. There was no massive wave, no explosive sound. Miruko just traveled… until she hit the ocean floor.
“BRACE!”
The pressure wave slammed into the bottom of the destroyers and carriers, turning the calm ocean into a hurricane-force chop. For miles around, the deep blue became a foamy white, as Miruko’s shockwave forced everything up.
Metal creaking, and stabilizers failing, a total of seven Russian destroyer-subs jumped out of the water, like flying fish.
They desperately tried to re-calibrate and dive, but not only were their instruments completely destroyed by the shockwave, the sea was so rough that it threw them around. They weren’t as well equipped to balance in such stormy waters. It gave Behemoth plenty of time to scoop them up in his massive hands, making them look more like toothpicks than modern engineering marvels.
“Surrender! And you will be treated in accordance with international law!” Behemoth's voice vibrated across the ocean. He sounded no different than a giant robot, a sort of techno-organic tone booming from his body. It wasn’t all that deep, nor was it high-pitched, but it was loud enough to get your attention. And during his time speaking to Momo, she heard his normal voice. He truly was a gentle giant… when he wanted to be one.
“There’s… people coming out of the subs!” Kaina realized, her eyes zooming in on Behemoth’s hands. “They’re holding their hands up!”
“Behemoth bring them down here!”
The Demolith moved slowly so as to not disturb the fleet or the subs in his hands, lowering all eight subs down to sea level, creating a temporary land mass with his hands.
Admiral Mori, a few translators, as well as medics, jumped down onto the shadowy surface without hesitation. Momo, Kaina, Igris, and Beru joined them.
One of the Russian sub commanders put himself in front of the eight other subs, raising his hands in surrender. He was shouting in Russian.
Thankfully, the translators were in everyone’s ears. “We, the Russian Zorya submarine group, surrender! We will comply with all demands! I simply ask that my men be treated fairly! Many are injured or malnourished!”
Hearing that, the medics and other soldiers wasted no time in rushing to the subs to deliver aid. And seeing their genuine intention to help, the Russian sub commander fell to his knees in relief. He was breathing heavily.
“Sumlato…” He collapsed, his speech slurring so much that not even the translators could understand him.
Igris blurred, catching the man, one hand over his chest. His eyes widened in realization, setting the man on his back and tearing open his uniform to expose his chest. Placing one hand over the other, Igris began performing CPR. His entire body was emaciated. It had been hard to tell through his baggy clothing.
“We need an IV here!” Mori shouted.
Igris had to be careful. Even a normal human would be at risk of putting their hands through the commander’s skeletal form. He was essentially limiting his own power to 0.000001% of what it truly was just to perform CPR without killing the man.
After a couple of tense minutes, Igris gently placed his fingers against the commander’s neck, feeling for a pulse. “He lives.” Taking a step back, he let the medics handle the rest.
“Second-in-command. Yulia Vasilyeva,” Two soldiers carried over a frail woman on a stretcher. She was just as frail as the commander. She attempted to raise her hand in salute, but Mori quickly laid his hand atop hers. It was enough to tell her that the person she was dealing with was the real deal. “I didn’t… know… if there was anyone left…”
“What happened to you all?”
“Russia… all of them… brainwashed…”
“We’re aware. Our surgeons in Japan have managed to free a few of our captives from it.”
She smiled in relief. “Ah… We knew… if we surfaced… we’d get those things… implanted in us…”
“Then why did you not defect?”
“Threatened… families if we… didn’t fight… we didn’t know what to do…” Her eyes were cloudy, filled with tears. “We’re… so… sorry…” She went limp, but unlike the commander, she didn’t need any CPR.
“I thought they were tougher… kiek kiek…” Beru clicked in amusement watching the woman pass out.
Momo glared at the bug. “Don’t mistake common human decency for weakness.”
“Agreed,” Mori commented. “I knew this one, Yulia. She’s a brutal tactician. I have no doubt that, should a free willed Russia order her to, she would ruthlessly wipe us out. It was her pride as a Russian that made her resist such orders.” He looked to Momo. “I believe your assumption is correct. This is no Russian conspiracy, no tactic of theirs. All they needed to do was order their soldiers to invade us and watch the fireworks. They recognize that the orders do not come from their true superiors, but an usurper. Someone is behind this.” In other words, had Russian troops not been brainwashed, many of them, such as Yulia, would have fought freely and proudly for her country. In an ironic twist, the brainwashing of their country made them less complicit.
“Pah! What did I miss?!” Miruko’s head popped out of the water. Her armor apparently gave her the benefit of not needing to breathe, which was why she could even perform the maneuver in the first place. After all, she jumped to the Earth from the Moon, so she could survive a fall from orbit to the bottom of the ocean.
As Rumi pulled herself onto Behemoth’s hands, Momo had to admit she looked pretty cute. With her ears flopping down, her wet silvery hair plastered along her back, and her boundless energy, she gave off a sorta cute pet look, like a golden retriever. Which was more of an insult than a compliment, but Momo wasn’t gonna voice it regardless. She had a soft spot for animals, and really, all she wanted to do was pet Miruko’s ears.
Over the next few hours, they pulled everyone from the subs. Because they couldn’t surface, they hadn’t been supplied with any more food. The commanders, like Yulia, had refused to eat any of the rations, in order to provide more to their crew, which was why all the superiors were in such bad shape, they had taken the worst of the punishment. Many of them were loaded into SU-57s or the F-54s and flown back to Japan for more intensive care.
“There’s too many to hold on-board, and we don’t have the provisions. If we take them with us, they’ll just be in more danger,” Mori informed Empress. “We have two options, we risk their lives, or we sail back to Japan to give them refuge.” His eyes hardened. “I believe we have to bring them into battle with us…”
“No, I’ll handle it,” Momo answered simply, walking over to the subs. She didn’t know exactly what was happening on Catalina Island, but whatever was going on, Izuku was leveling up ever so slowly. Which meant she had more slots in her Synthetic Army.
[Synthetic Shadows: 36/52]
“Synthesize!”
The subs, bent and broken, began pulling themselves back together, forming shadow-y duplicates.
[8 Zorya-Class Submarine Ravagers]
“After we get the soldiers in a stable condition, I can have their subs take them back to Japan. Deep Blue will receive them there and ensure they aren’t harmed. At the Shadows' top speed, they’ll reach Japan within a few hours. And then they can rejoin us, or defend the coast.”
Mori sighed in relief. “What a mess this is… What about their families?”
“The subs are sending a black box signal to the mainland. They’ll think the subs were all destroyed, and thus, there’s no reason to threaten them anymore.” Momo had to admit it was a little weak, but they weren’t Gods, they couldn’t save everyone. They just had to hope.
A few of the youngest soldiers were in relatively good shape, their superiors, in both age and command structure, did their best to make sure they made it through the day.
“Do you know who’s behind this, son?” Mori was sitting seiza style, coming eye-to-eye with the shivering young man. “Who did this to Russia?” Under normal circumstances, Mori behaving like this to an enemy would be looked upon as weak, or unprofessional, but no one really cared about that today.
“I only ever heard their voices… When President Katya gave us our orders…”
“Someone other than the president?”
The man nodded blankly. “Sir… I could feel them… through the screen. Like their power transcended space itself… A man and a woman… They weren’t Russian… I can’t even be sure they were human.”
“Thank you. I promise we’ll take care of you all.”
“No… you need to run. To America… hide… hide at the ends of the world…”
Mori pursed his lips. “I see…” He stood, glancing at Momo.
This was bad. One special National-Rank was already enough to deal with, but if there were two of them…
“We can manage,” Momo assured him. “We just need to finish up here.”
******
It was night by the time the fleet had squared away all the issues with the Russian subs. They had already made it back to land and were off-loading. Thanks to her shared sense with the Shadows, Momo could confirm that no one else on the submarines succumbed to malnourishment. They’d all live, unlike their counterparts.
What Mori said to the young man was true, a few surgeries had successfully removed the spikes and given the soldiers back control of their bodies. What he didn’t tell them was the success rate. Many Russians had already perished during the surgery alone. They would have stopped there, but the soldiers still under the control of the spike refused to eat or drink. They were wasting away in their cells. Eventually, they’d have to be put in medically-induced comas and be fitted with IVs just to survive. It wasn’t a good prospect.
Momo sighed. She was sitting in the captain quarters of one of the Lider-Class destroyers. Despite being made of shadows, the interior of the destroyer was well-lit and relatively comfortable. Her eyes were drooping. She only got a few hours of sleep here and there. And ever since the first Russian attack, well over a week ago, she hadn’t gotten a full night’s rest.
“My Lady,” Igris’s deep voice shook her from her drowsiness. “Admiral Mori is here to see you. But I will send him away… I can see you need your rest.”
Momo shook her head. “Send him in.”
Igris wanted to protest, but he served the Monarchs, so he bowed his head and opened the door, letting the Admiral inside. Mori didn’t bother saluting as he walked in. He would have, but the Empress already made it clear that she didn’t like such gestures.
“I’m almost relieved,” He said with a grin. “You are human after all.”
Momo scoffed. “Is it that obvious?”
“I’ve been in the navy for quite some time, Miss. I’ve seen men pass out from exhaustion plenty of times.”
Momo chuckled, reaching up to her face and releasing the mask with a hiss and a click.
Mori turned pale, as he realized he’d just seen something he should have. “Is this a… ‘you’ve seen my face, now I have to kill you’ thing?” He glanced back at Igris, the ever present guard.
“No…” Momo took a deep breath, leaning back in her chair as she stared at the ceiling. “Our identities will come out eventually. At this point it's more of a comfort than a necessity. And,” She grinned at him, “I feel like I can trust a military man with a secret.”
“I see,” Mori relaxed, slumping in his chair as he took off his admiral’s hat and unbuttoned his uniform, letting out his own deep breath. “It can be quite stuffy, huh?”
Momo nodded.
“This plan relies entirely on your squad. So I need to know. Can you do this?”
“I…” Momo wanted to say yes. She had Kaina, she had Miruko, and she had the Shadows, not to mention the Tenebris. But she didn’t know them. If Izuku was with her, she would’ve answered without hesitation. It was like they could read each other’s minds. They knew their limits and what they could accomplish. Miruko, Kaina, and a few of the Shadows, were more than strong enough to take on National-Ranks, but there was something ominous hovering over her head. Something that told her these were not normal humans, not even by National-Rank standards.
“I see,” Mori responded. “It was unfair of me to even ask considering the lack of information. How seriously should we take that soldier’s warning, do you think?”
“He truly felt like the only hope was abandoning everything and hiding away,” Momo said. “It was genuine fear. And feeling someone’s Mana presence through a screen is… well, it sounds insane. Not even myself or Monarch could do that… as far as we know.”
The sound of rain and thunder penetrated the cabin. “Huh… I don’t remember any storm warnings…” Mori shrugged. It wasn’t like their boats couldn’t take a little water. “This is a delicate question but… well, I’m not asking if you can beat them…”
“You’re asking if I have the resolve to kill them?” She guessed.
“Yeah.”
“Monarch is… he’s a better person than I am, I think. If it comes down to it, I can kill.”
Mori nodded. “Then that’s all I needed to know. I’m sorry this burden falls to someone so young,” He grimaced. “Us old folks are supposed to leave things better for you guys, not drag you into new problems.”
“Every generation has their problems,” Momo reassured the man. “Even if not for this,” She gestured around herself, “We’d have something. I’d rather be able to help than sit at home and watch the news.”
“That’s… admirable?” Mori trailed off as the thunder and rain picked up, becoming loud enough to penetrate through the vessel’s shadow walls. “It’s too soon…”
“What?”
“I’ve seen every manner of weather pattern… this seems… wrong…”
Momo grabbed her mask and leapt out of her chair, securing it to her face. “You’re right,” She responded, sensing an outpouring of Mana, a measure that only one person she knew could match, and Izuku was still on Catalina Island.
Rushing out of the destroyer’s interior, Admiral Mori was nearly flung away by the intense winds.
In the distance, a dark storm covered the night sky. Lightning danced, striking the ocean, the boats, and arcing off the clouds. But it wasn’t normal lightning. It was a dark ominous purple.
“There’s someone in the center of it!” Kaina stood by the bridge, her eyes glowing orange. Momo created two sets of binoculars for her and Mori, but before she could hand them over, she had to tackle the man to the side, her instincts warning her just before a lightning bolt hit them.
“Wound them!” Momo shouted. She couldn’t be sure who the person was or what their motives were, but they were clearly dangerous.
Kaina wasted no time firing her rifle. She too sensed what Momo did, this person was strong. So she didn’t even lower the power on her rifle, she gave it everything she had.
The bullet was like a single lightbulb traveling through the storm, burning with so much energy that anyone close enough would think it was daytime. Looking through her binoculars, however, Momo saw what should have been impossible.
In the center of the storm was a man with white hair, and purple energy running along his body, as if it was filling his veins.
He raised his arm, and a dozen circular barriers popped into existence, each a different color than the last. Layered on top of each other, like lenses, they were a brief glimpse of joy in the catastrophic storm.
The bullet slammed into the first layer, compressing it into the others… but not destroying them.
“He… blocked it?” Kaina was in as much disbelief as Momo was.
“He’s alive?” Mori muttered, just barely audible to Momo.
“What?!”
“I thought All Might killed him!” He shouted over the wind. “21 years ago! He almost started a war!” Mori was shivering, and it wasn’t because he was cold. “I never learned his real name. We only knew him as…
NINE