Chapter 17 - Battle of New York I

Rays of blue energy came shooting out of the portal above, bombarding the streets of New York below…

Each blue energy exploded on contact, collapsing key structures that would prevent humans from leaving the immediate area of battle…

The humans who were unlucky enough to be caught in the path of the blue energy were instantly reduced to ash…

This was, of course, a command from Loki…

He knew that killing all the humans would take time since they were numerous like ants, so he opted to focus his attention on Iron Man, and the other primary hindrances that would soon rare their heads – The Avengers.

As an Asgardian, Loki possessed every superior physiological aspect in comparison to a human, so even as he stood on Stark's Tower, he could see, in great detail, the humans screaming in terror below.

It filled him with euphoria at seeing such pitiful Beings cower beneath his feet…

The Chitauri flew out of the portal by the dozens, and Loki was aware that there were hundreds of thousands waiting just beyond the portal…

Even Loki shuddered at the thought of Thanos' might, so the humans would most definitely fall into line after the initial massacre…

And that was his job – to beat the humans down so thoroughly that they have no other thoughts of resistance…

Some may call it ruthlessness, but Loki called it mercy…

Compared to what Thanos had in store for the insects, Loki thought of himself as kind and benevolent in comparison…

Genocide was not a new sight to Loki… he had witnessed the genocide humans committed against their own less than a century ago…

At that time, Loki pleaded with his father, Odin, to help the humans…

He argued that should the genocide happen in any other realm, Asgard would be the first to quell the killing…

But for some unknown reason, as long as Loki has lived, Odin always preferred to turn a blind eye to the injustices that always occurred on Midgard…

Odin's neglect of Midgard was the main reason Loki decided to bring order to such a chaotic Realm…

With the loud boom of thunder, the ground of Stark Tower shook and Loki knew that Thor had arrived, so he prepared for the battle to come with confidence…

After all, The God of Mischief could always deceive a silly thunder…

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MIRIO

ON THE STREETS OF NEW YORK

Mirio dashed forward with all his strength, determined to reach Jessica before she was crushed by the massive slab on concrete falling from above…

But… something strange started to happen…

It started as a small vibration that tingled along his spine…

The vibration was so slight that it was almost undetectable to even Mirio with his enhanced senses…

It felt like a period of adjustment… as if the vibration was a radio switching dial, trying to tune into the correct frequency to play a certain channel…

With another step closer to Jessica, Mirio had become aware of the fact that he would never make it on time.

Each step closer to Jessica would be much slower than the concrete falling in her direction due to gravity…

Mirio was forever hopeful, especially now that he had broken through the shackles of his mind, but even he was aware that he could not move faster than terminal velocity…

The vibration along his spine spread to the rest of his body, and Mirio briefly thought that he was about to flicker out of existence…

This was definitely not his quirk because his quirk never vibrated…

Actually, his quirk never gave a sensation to begin with…

If anything, Mirio always knew when his quirk was activated because it would cause a loss of all sensations…

It was not being able to see, feel, taste, hear, or think… everything after the activation of his quirk depended on years and years of training.

Not minding the vibration, Mirio willed his body forward with all his might, causing faint cracks in the ground due to his absurdly bulging muscles…

He arrived in front of Jessica without a nanosecond to spare…

Mirio wrapped his arms around the disoriented Jessica and leaped into the air, and that's finally when the vibration stopped and what overtook him was the sensation of nothingness….

It was a sensation that he was all too familiar with, but it also terrified him to no end…

However, for some reason, the feeling of nothingness as his quirk activated felt fundamentally different this time…

It felt stronger and more refined… this instinctually made Mirio aware that he could now permeate more than just himself…

Mirio could still feel Jessica in his arms… they were both moving through a void of nothingness…

This had never happened before…

Permeation was a one-person trip, but apparently, now it was a two-person trip…

Thankfully, Jessica was currently unconscious or the void would saturate her with the feeling of becoming unmade…

Permeation was an excellent quirk, but it came with a lot of disadvantages…

Before he even began to use his quirk anywhere in Japan, Sir Nighteye would travel with Mirio all over Japan, learning the geography of everywhere…

After all, it only took one sinkhole below the ground, and a bit of miscalculation from Mirio, and everything would come to an abrupt end…

---BANG---

The massive slab of concrete collided with the Bridge Street, crumbling the foundations, sending the entire thing collapsing…

Mirio and Jessica disappeared into the huge slab of concrete and emerged out of the other side unharmed; though, Mirio's clothing had been left behind…

The earlier leap took Mirio a couple of meters in the air, and as his sensations returned, he instantly evaluated their situation….

The Bridge Street was collapsing…

Heads were being crushed by the debris…

Families were embracing, clinging to the edges for dear life…

Fathers were using their bodies to protect their children…

There were loud thuds whenever a new body impacted the ground…

Mirio could differentiate the sounds because a human body hitting the ground was somewhat hollow in comparison to debris, as ironic as that may sound…

Thankfully, as Lemillion, Mirio knew he would never be able to save them all, and as much as that sickened him, it also made him grateful for saving the miracle in his arms – Jessica…

After all, the road to saving a million people starts with one, and he had just saved one...

Within a split second, Mirio had finished analyzing it all, and then gravity took hold, plunging him and Jessica into the ground below…

Mirio sensed the tingle along his spine travel to the rest of his body, and determined that his decision to begin phasing immediately was a good call…

Probably due to the damage of whatever brought him to a new Universe's Mew York, his quirk had been damaged and now had a certain delay period before activating…

It took Mirio a split second to realize this and adjust his mind for the delay period…

Just as he and Jessica were about to collide with the ground, Mirio's body vibrated and his quirk activated…

Mirio permeated through the ground and a couple of seconds passed before both he and Jessica were pushed out of the ground…

They were shot a couple of feet into the air, and Mirio made a decisive flip that ensured his body would touch the ground first…

---BANG---

Mirio's back impacted the rubble, and he made sure to cradle Jessica, mitigating all damage she would have received from their unstable landing…

"Uggghhh!" Mirio groaned, barely managing to stand on his feet after the hard impact…

Still, what hurt him the most was not the impact, but the fresh scar across his chest…

Earlier when Permeating below the streets of New York, he mistimed the instant of solidification due to the complex sewer system below the streets…

This caused an unfortunate graze with a sharp, rustled pipe below, but thankfully, he could adjust on the fly and managed to permeate again before any fatal wounds were received…

The dangers of his quirk were once again highlighted in a new environment, but taking one glance around and noting all the dead bodies, Mirio knew that hesitation was not an option….

Explosions, collapsed buildings, people crying out for help… everything screamed of the end of the world…

"Ughhh… please…"

Amidst all the rubble and death, Mirio managed to discern a single voice, which could be nothing short of a miracle given all the destruction and death rays falling from above…

Holding Jessica in one arm, Mirio ripped away some debris from a pile until he was greeted by the body of a small boy…

The boy seemed to be in relatively good shape aside from a couple of bruises and some scratches…

Mirio grabbed the boy into his other arm and began to run towards the nearest shelter he could find….

Midway, he changed his direction, opting to head towards the loud sirens nearby…

A minute later, he was greeted by the sight of Police Officers and Ambulances rushing people away from the streets and into nearby buildings…

Mirio could still hear the explosions of battle from above – no doubt the Iron Man battling the unknown foe, diverting their attention away from the nearby people…

"Take them…" Mirio shouted, jumping over a section of the crowd even with Jessica and the child in his arms…

A couple of people gasped at his absurd show of physical capability, but most people took note of Mirio's nakedness…

Everything was dangling out for the world to see, but Mirio was already used to moving without clothing so he was not ashamed…

However, amidst this level of chaos and destruction, even the Officers didn't question why Mirio was naked...

"Kid… we need to take care of everyone…" The Officer, Ray Nadeem, tried to explain, but Mirio grabbed him by the collar and stared in his eyes with a beyond-serious glare…

"You protect this girl and this kid for me…" Mirio pleaded, the seriousness on his face directly contrasting the tears leaking from his eyes "You protect this girl and all the people here, and I promise you that Lemillion will save a million people here today!"

It broke Mirio's heart to leave Jessica with a stranger, but she was safe, while others were still struggling at this very moment to survive…

A hero could not turn a blind eye to those in need…

Officer Ray was speechless and took the stirring Jessica and the child into his arms in a daze… something about the way Mirio talked to him ignited hope deep in his heart…

"I'll keep them safe…" Officer Ray responded, feeling the urge to salute like Mirio had given him a sacred task…

Mirio nodded, kissed the barely awake Jessica on the forehead, and darted back the way he came…

There was something near the bridge that he needed to get…