38 Burning Blood: Ch 4

Oh HPSC, doing stupid and highly immoral stuff.

Well, stupid unless they have some sort of plan, and hope to get something out of this. But c'mon, when has  the CIA any secretive government agency ever staged or taken advantage of a disaster to further their own goals?

Haha! Yeah, that would never happen.

(JFK was assassinated 7 weeks after Vetoing operation Northwoods (look it up), by a combination of his parade route being changed last second, and a specific miscommunication between three security organizations that let a known Soviet sympathizer slip though unnoticed and take the shot. Who was then himself assassinated before he could be questioned. Am I acusing anyone? No. Am I saying this whole situation a black hole of weird details that's fascinating to look into? YES.)

-Rain of Sins-

-Burning Blood: Ch 4-

The room was quiet, save for the soft beeping and whirring of machines that overlapped into a mindless background noise.

A gray sludge interrupted this silence, bubbling into existence with a sound that could best be described as "boiling metal". It twisted, foamed, and grew until it was the size of a human, until it suddenly froze in place, and shattered into hundreds of small pieces, as light as foam, that rapidly began to dissolve into nothing.

Izuku stormed out of the cloud, a furious look on his face, not a speck of the gray stuff on him.

Endeavor was alive!

Those two clowns had robbed him of his chance to avenge his Mother!

He scowled and made his way through his lab quickly, passing tube after tube of half grown experiments, before coming to a stop at the end of the hallway.

Suspended in a larger version of the standard growth vat he had designed, were five huge nomu. Granted, they weren't the size of Jeremy or All Might, but they would stand several heads over the average person, and they were rather wide as well, bio-engineered to have their muscle mass grow to absurd proportions. Again, they wouldn't stand up next to Jeremy or All Might, as they weren't in possession of strength quirks, but they could definitely pack a punch.

Unlike the nomu grown at Ujiko's labs, however, these were of a different design. They had long claws on their hands, black leathery scales instead of skin, and their brains were shielded beneath a large metallic skull.

Well, metallic-ish. The process of programming DNA to grow metal instead of bone was still a work in progress, but that along with limiting the amount of quirks he gave the nomu had kept their brains from breaking out of the head, and had resolved a critical weakness.

Izuku stared at the creatures in front of him and frowned beneath his mask.

These were his backup plan for Endeavor. A specially designed nomu loaded up with various fire and heat resistance quirks, and gene edited to be biological weapons.

…

But there was a reason they were his backup plan. The design was still in its prototype phase, and he had only created five of them.

Dropping these things as they were against Endeavor would be a fool's errand, not only where't they ready, but with how much entropy he had released into the coliseum, their fire resistance abilities would be severely compromised.

He would need an army of these things to take down the second strongest Hero in Japan.

Izuku sighed, frustration leaking out in his tone.

It would take him a month, minimum, to grow that many of these things! And he had, at best, a few more hours before the festival was secured by the Heroes!

Where was he going to find an army in that time!?

A dull thud from his right snapped him from his thoughts, and he glanced over to see a rather… unsettling sight.

The… thing growing in the vat to his right, a horrid abomination that looked to be the cross between a vampire bat and a hyena, had pressed its muzzle flat against the tube. Its jaw slowly opened and closed, its teeth scraping against the glass, and its deformed tongue lapping against it, as if desperate for a taste. Its sole functioning eye staring directly at Izuku, burning with hunger.

HuN G E R.

Izuku stared back at the thing with a blank expression, completely unfazed, but it quickly morphed into one of thought, as his gaze drifted down the hallway, and the countless tubes that lined it.

An army, hmm?

…

Well, it might not exactly be what you would call "conventional", but he had a few cards of his own to play.

-Rain of Sins-

A pillar of flame bloomed like a hellish flower on the impromptu battlefield, wiping out three villains, and forcing more to scramble back in fear. But despite the awesome power displayed, Endeavor seethed in anger.

This blasted mist! It was making him sluggish, and even worse it was dampening his quirk! (Well, it was also dampening everyone else's quirks too, but his was the most important!)

There were hundreds of petty Villains swarming into the coliseum, trashing everything in sight and turning the entire main floor of the building into a warzone as they clashed with security, students, and Heroes alike.

Normally the top Heroes (especially himself!) should have been able to sweep these gnats away regardless of the numbers, but with this stupid gas keeping them from fighting at full capacity it was turning the fight from a decisive victory into a slow meat grinder.

Of course it wasn't helping that a good chunk of their best, All Might included, were emergency evacuating the far too many civilians still in the building upwards towards safe floors, away from the fighting. And something was happening outside that was making the civilians they had gotten outside, start to run back in!

"Enough!" Endeavor shouted, grabbing the flame inside of him and forcing it to flare to its brightest, no matter how much it didn't want to. "I am the next number one Hero! Surrender or D-"

But that was all he managed to say, before the metal floor underneath him gave away, and "the next number one hero", fell into darkness.

He yelled in fury as the light above him quickly became a pinprick, air whistling by him, and pipes occasionally scraping into his sides that he couldn't see.

Down.

Down.

D

o

w

n

.

.

.

He crashed into a concrete floor with enough force to crack it, his natural size working against him.

Slowly he pushed himself to his feet, the light from above now long gone. The floor around him, dirty, old, and falling apart, illuminated only by his weakened flames. But even then, he could barely make it out, the gas that had been terrorizing them up top was everywhere down here, blanketing the floor in a thick fog, drifting upwards in thin whisps that broke from the main body. Beneath the fog was a small bit of standing water, about an inch deep that, since it wasn't flowing, seemed to extend the entire room.

Even the "clean" air was heavy in his lungs. It felt as if it were stale, expired almost, if air could even be that.

And it was cold, not a normal cold, but a chill that gripped you with rotted hands, and sunk down to your bones. He, Endeavor, the hero of flame who could rival the sun, was cold.

And his eyes… They played tricks with the darkness and swirling fog. Shapes seemed to move in the corners of his vision, but everywhere he looked, there was nothing

This entire place felt unnatural.

He extended his hand, and conjured a ball of fire, this one far weaker than even the ones he's used up top.

The warm glow bathed the center of the large hallway he was in, dancing in tune with the flowing mist. It revealed broken bits of ceiling that had fallen, streams of sand slowly dropping from above, and several broken pipes, one of which was leaking water.

"The bottom of the maintenance tunnels." He said aloud as it dawned on him where he was. The things must have been damaged pretty badly after that Momo girl's match, and the building lost one of its walls, causing it to tilt. But still…

"Where is everyone?" He craned his head, squinted into the distance, and listened for anything, but it was deathly quiet. "Did they evacuate?"

"HELLO?" He shouted.

But no one responded.

Not even an echo.

Endeavor scowled, crushing down the overwhelming feeling of wrongness in his gut, and glared harder out into the darkness.

There was something wrong about the darkness in front of him, almost as if… it were solid.

Wait.

He held his hand out farther, and his eyes widened as the light outlined a form barely ten feet away, revealing just how compromised his vision really was down here.

The figure chuckled softly and stepped closer, enough for the flare to illuminate the barest ghost of their features.

They had a thick black coat that hung down to the floor, into the fog, dark unkempt hair, a black mask over the bottom of his face, and sharp green eyes that almost seemed to glow in the low light.

"Eveavor." The figure said, his eyes gleaming with cruel mirth. "I… have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Even if it is not how I originally intended."

"Villain." Endeavor sneered. "You're the one behind all this!"

"I'm afraid it's not so clear cut, few things truly are." The man hummed. "I have no authority or true control over Stain, nor of the criminals, or the Villains." He pulled one of his hands out of his pocket and held it up as if weighing something. "But I am the one who wants you dead, and luring Stain here to kill you isn't exactly above my morals… no, not when it's you."

"So you admit it!" Endeavor's sneer morphed into a cruel smirk, and his fire flared, illuminating more of the hallway. "Congratulations then, you're going to boost me past All Might. I'll drag your corpse to the commision and they'll make me the new national figurehead!"

The man in the coat simply stared at him, unperturbed, and tilted his head slightly. "I don't think you understand the position you're in."

The fire hero just scoffed at that and began to walk towards the Villain, but then that's when he saw it. The walls were moving!

Immediately he forced his fire to flare as bright as it could, and it was only by his countless battle hardened years of active duty that he managed not to scream.

The walls, the ceiling, every inch was covered in things!

Some were vaguely humanoid, with exposed brains and dead eyes. Others were writhing masses of flesh that stared at him in hunger. Some had no limbs, others had far far too many.

They were stacked on top of one another, layers of meat and things that should never exist, all looking at him. Surrounding him. Angry. Aggressive. Hungry.

"Beautiful, aren't they?" The man chuckled as yet even more began to rise out of the smoke that covered the floor up to his knees. "It took me a while to get them all here, and a fair number probably won't survive the week after this stint outside of a sterilized environment, but for this… it's worth it."

"I believe a short introduction is in order." The scientist gave a short but sarcastic bow.

"My name is unimportant, I am not but a simple scientist. A geneticist with no quirk, or power beyond my means. But you… you killed my mother."

Izuku locked eyes with Endeavor, the windows to his soul burning with cold hatred.

"And for that, you will pay."

And the darkness rushed in.

-Rain of Sins-

The first ten seconds were the most important part of a fight.

That was what Endevor had always believed, it's what he taught his sidekicks, it's what he taught his offspring, and it's the idea that he always operated on.

Is it a sneak attack? Who gets the first blow? Which side is put on the backfoot? Can you incapacitate your enemy in a way that prohibits them from fighting to their fullest extent for the rest of the fight? Do YOU get incapacitated by your enemy in a way that prohibits you from fighting to your fullest extent for the rest of the fight?

This thought process was a direct result from his quirk, the faster he could take down an opponent, the less energy he had to spend on them, which meant the less heat he generated, which meant he could stay in a fight for longer.

Blitz assaults of overwhelming firepower, they were flashy but they were also effective because they knocked the enemy out fast, which simultaneously kept him from overheating and gave him more time to cool down between fights.

And it was the combination of these very niche and situational strategies that saved his life.

As the walls of flesh and ear splitting screams rushed at him from every direction, Endeavor reacted on pure instinct and adrenaline. He reached deep into his chest and gripped the smoldering heat with both hands and forced it to bloom as hot as it could.

A pillar of flame erupted from his form, and crashed into the tide of bodies. The ones at the front practically disintegrated as they turned to ash, while many more let out howls of pain as they reeled back, burns covering their forms.

But almost as fast as it came, the fire dimmed, threatening to recede into embers under the weight of the Entropy pumping through his system. Knowing it was a futile fight to keep his fire burning at 100%, Endeavor gritted his teeth and pulled it forward, condensing it into one point between his hands and sending a roaring torrent of flames forward.

The fire cut through the monsters like a knife through hot butter, and Izuku's eyes widened as he dove to the side, the tail end of his coat singing slightly as it got caught on the edge of the jet.

After barely a few seconds, the fire faded, leaving Endeavor panting from exertion, but it had been enough to leave a path of burnt destruction in its wake.

Not wasting a breath, Enji dashed forward.

A horrid shrill cry came from behind, and the bravest of the creatures once again began to rush forward- uncaring for the destruction that had been wrought upon their brethren.

Endeavor scowled as the path began to shrink, the walls of malformed bodies closing in, he grunted and forced his legs to push harder, as he picked up more and more speed, fueled by adrenaline.

Something lunged at him from his right, missing him by an inch.

A five legged frog thing with dark gray shin and sharp fangs dropped from the ceiling, hissing at him.

He slammed into the fragile creature with enough force to turn it into a bloody smear.

Something grabbed his leg, but was incinerated in a burst of fire.

A vaguely humanoid form lumbered in front of him, and had its head obliterated by a flaming fist.

Then a black syringe sunk into his chest, causing him to almost double over in surprise as the condensed Entropy was deposited straight into his bloodstream, the sedative making him sluggish, light headed, and dimming his fire.

Endeavor's head shot up, and he locked eyes with the scientist, who had taken point down at the end of the straight clearing he had made. He was holding up his arm, and with a twitch of his finger, another syringe shot out of the device in his sleeve and stuck into Endeavor, amping up the previous effects.

Some kind of fungus riddled ape took advantage of the momentary weakness, grabbing hold of his arm and biting into it, ripping out a chunk of flesh in a shower of blood.

Endeavor screamed in fury as yet another syringe stabbed into him. Without breaking stride, he hauled his arm forward, dragging the screeching ape through the air and slammed it into a second approaching creature.

He ripped his arm free of the broken animal and swatted a dog sized spider out of the air mid jump, sending it's charred corpse flying off to undoubtedly hit some other abomination.

The path shrunk further, more and more creatures crowding in front of him and to his sides.

Endeavor snarled and shot forward, expelling fire from the soles of his feet to boost his speed.

Izuku stepped backwards, eyes widening in fear as he brought his other arm up, and began frantically firing entropy syringes from both his launchers.

A syringe sunk into Endeavor's chest, then another, then another.

He pushed forward.

Fangs pierced into his arm.

Claws gripped into his side.

He pushed forward.

A tentacle wrapped around his neck and began tugging backwards, cutting off his airflow.

Teeth ripped into his thigh.

A syringe to the gut.

Something landed on his shoulder and began burrowing inside.

Spikes dug into his back.

More syringes to his front.

A second tentacle wrapped around his arm, pulling him back.

He pushed forward. Stomping his feet into the floor and dragging himself.

More teeth.

More claws.

Another tentacle.

More syringes.

More blood.

More syringes.

More pain.

More syringes.

So much PAIN.

It HuRTs!

Then… two metallic clacks, as Izuku's guns clicked empty

Endeavor roared rage and blood pouring out of his mouth as fierce as any inferno, as fire erupted from his body, like a torch standing defiantly against the night! It was a far cry from the blast that had Incinerated half the tunnel, but t sent the creatures clinging to him screaming as they recoiled in pain.

His fist shot forward, punching the air with enough force to make a shockwave, and from it leapt a ball of golden fury that screamed through the air as it flew forward- a beacon of light! Of righteous judgment!

Izuku screamed in terror, barely managing to bring his arms up to shield himself before the flames crashed into him and exploded, sending his burnt form careening down the tunnel and into the dark.

Endeavor snarled, sounding more akin to the beasts he fought than the human he was, and rushed after his prey, not caring how his life blood fell to the floor in rivers and stained the concrete crimson. Only to shout in pain as a malformed jaw snapped shut on his left leg, crooked teeth ripping into flesh like fishhooks, and yanked him backwards.

He howled in rage as he was dragged away, through grizzly piles of blood, organs, and sinew, writhing piles of half dead things that were only ever half alive to begin with.

Using his own skewered leg as leverage Endeavor pulled his upper body up into a sitting position, to get an angle on the beast that had the audacity to think itself his equal in strength.

A large eyeless lizard with hints of alligator in it, almost the size of a small car, growled at him. Its scales were a sickly shade of moldy greenish brown that was occasionally interrupted by sharp bony plates that painfully jutted out of muscles and skin to form rudimentary armor.

Endeavor growled back, and brought a fierce overhead blow down upon the things skull. Again and again, crushing blows more akin to sledgehammer strikes than punches rained down, shattering scales and cracking bone.

Letting out a gargling yelp of pain, it bit down harder, threatening to snap leg bone like a stick, but this only seemed to further infuriate Endeavor.

The Hero bellowed out a war cry and struck with a blow that caused an audible crunch to echo from the lizard's skull.

It let out a blood chilling screech, as it reared back and hurled the number two Hero into the wall.

Endeavor let out an involuntary gasp as he crashed into the concrete with enough force to drive the air from his lungs, crack his skull, shatter multiple ribs, break his sternum in two, and pulverize the wall of the maintenance tunnels.

He coughed and sputtered up blood, as he rolled himself over to face his foe.

The giant Lizard was dashing its head wildly in pain, but now that it was missing the scales from its head, he could see it seemed to be regenerating at an alarming rate.

Much more concerningly was the wave of unGodly forms that was slowly approaching from behind the reptile, countless red eyes glaring out at him through the darkness.

Endeavor, the second strongest Hero in all of Japan, scowled and rose to meet his opponents. His body screamed, pain lancing up and down his entire being, blood wept from his wounds like rain in a storm, and his vision grew ever darker as his fire dimmed and the Entropy worked its way through his system.

…

But despite it all he stood.

He stood with his head held high, and his fists raised.

He was Endeavor! Second to none but the Heavens themselves!

…But as he stared out into the hoard, he knew it wouldn't be enough.

…He would die… Cold… Alone… In the dark…

No family…

No friends…

No legacy…

Almost as if to taunt him, the Scientist stumbled into view, his coat arms burnt away to reveal molten slag of what used to be machinery melted into charred flesh. He stood at the very edge of the light, behind the monsters, he was limping, and held his left arm in a pained embrace, but he was alive.

And as he stared directly into Endeavor's eyes with hateful mirth, the Hero understood.

He wanted him to know.

He wanted him to know he had lost.

That not only was he about to be overrun by these creatures, he had also failed to take him out.

The Bastard wanted Endeavor to know that he was still alive… and that it was him that was going to die.

The scientist reached up and took off his charred mask to reveal a Cheshire grin.

"Goodbye Endeavor." Izuku said, his voice completely clear without the rebreather. "I hope that wherever you go, that you suffer everything you've ever inflicted on others."

The monsters charged forward, but Endeavor couldn't hear them.

Hate

He couldn't hear them over the blood rushing through his ears.

HATE

He couldn't THINK over the blood whistling as it rushed through his ears!

Wait… blood pumps, it doesn't whistle…

He spared a glance behind him to see that a large metal pipe running along the corner of the ceiling had been bent out of shape from his impact, and was whistling loudly as some kind of invisible gas poured out of it.

HATE

Endeavor turned his head back towards the Scientist, the beasts would be upon him in mere seconds, to rend the flesh from his bones.

HATE

Izuku smirked.

Endeavor GRINNED.

HATE

Reaching up he grabbed ahold of the broken pipe, large even in his mammoth hands, with his palm over the opening.

He reached inside of him, but instead of the raging bonfire he was accustomed to, all he found was the last fading sparks of his Quirk.

But that was fine.

One spark was all he needed.

H A T E!

The highly flammable gas line that ran underneath the Coliseum through the main ends tunnels, covered in increadibly resilient metal that was even able to withstand the explosion from Shoto and Momo's match, caught fire.

…

And the entire building shook as the world went white.

-Chapter End-