Chapter 14: Armageddon Part I [Deployment]
Same afternoon
The air rushed through the cadets' faces as they fell towards the ground, screaming in a panic. Amaku himself was barely managing not to panic over his current predicament. He felt the wind shoot through every fiber of his clothes, making his skin run cold. Around him, many of the cadets were clamoring and screaming.
“ AHHHHHHH! ”
“ HOLY SHIT!”
“ I WANNA GO HOME! ”
“ I SHOULD’VE JUST GONE TO ART SCHOOL! ”
As the cadets looked around at each other in a wild panic, one lone cadet started to chuckle. His laughter was both absurd and contagious, and soon a few others couldn't help but join in. Another cadet looked at him in confusion.
"Hey…uh…you okay there, bud?" he yelled in a shaky voice.
The chuckling cadet smirked and nodded, his eyes glinting with a mix of fear and hysteria.
"Oh, you know, I’m fine,” He answered, his eyes glinting with a mix of fear and humor. “It’s a beautiful day outside, the sun is shining, and uh, oh yeah- WE’RE FALLING FROM TEN-THOUSAND FEET IN THE FUCKING AIR! But how are you doing, bro?"
Many of the cadets were in an uproar, all trying to find a solution for their harrowing descent, Amaku amongst them. He frantically looked through the air, desperately looking for a sign or such of what he could use. However, the next thing he knew, he felt something wrap around his seat and pull him through the air. Before he knew it, he was huddled up in a group with Aizo, Kira, and the masked figure. From the masked figure's back emerged some sort of green, ethereal tendrils that were holding the four of them together in a huddled up group.
“Hey, man,” Aizo screamed over the wind. “Having fun yet?”
“If this is your definition of fun, then quite frankly, you’ve most definitely got some screws loose!” Amaku replied.
“<Pretty sure we’re all missing a few of those, Amaku,>” Kira chimed in. “<I mean, would we be here if we weren’t?>”
“Fair enough, but my point still stands,” Amaku reluctantly agreed.
“<Oh, by the way, this is Trinity,>” said Kira, gesturing to the masked figure. “<Trinity, Amaku.>”
“Pleasure to meet you,” said Amaku, trying to speak over the wind and nodding to her. “Wish it were under better circumstances, but…” he shrugged. Trinity silently replied with a quick and almost non existent wave. Amaku’s gaze shifted to Kira, expressing his confusion towards this gesture.
“<She's not much of a talker,>” replied Kira. Amaku nodded in acknowledgement. “<So what’s the plan?>” she continued.
“Well, the temple’s at the center of the island,” said Aizo, pointing down towards the temple’s general location. “Chances are that we’ll end up parachuting some distance away from it.”
“<We have parachutes?>” said Kira in confusion.
“Well…yeah?” Aizo shrugged, confused by the question. “They’re built into the seats. Why else would they tell us to strap in tight before they dropped us? These flashing lights are probably proximity alarms which’ll deploy them once we reach a certain altitude,” said Aizo, gesturing to the flashing red lights on the sides of the seats. “You really think they’d drop a few of us to our deaths?”
Kira was silent, looking off to the side out of embarrassment for not taking this into consideration. Amaku could practically see her blushing through her fur.
“The plan is simple,” Aizo continued. “We land, we move through the forest, we take out any robots we encounter, and we make it to the temple. As long as we stick together, we should be-”
Before Aizo could finish, something came flying into them, ramming straight into Amaku with enough force to rip him out of the grasp of Trinity's tendril and separate him from the rest of the group.
“AMAKU!!!” yelled Kira, her voice fading into the distance.
Amaku was held by his face, being pushed through the air by an unknown assailant. He struggled against the person who was holding them, forcing their hand out of his face so he could see. Upon regaining his vision, he was met with a dreadfully familiar face.
“Miss me, crew cut?!” said a cocky Astrid, staring at Amaku with her blue eyes ignited with determination. “I warned you this wasn’t over!”
“Are you serious right now?!?” Amaku said in a mix of surprise and frustration towards her timing. “We’re falling from tens of thousands of feet in the air and you pick NOW to do this?!? Are you honestly so petty that you’d throw your life away over some grudge match?!?”
“Who said I’m throwing my life away?” said Astrid. Upon hearing this, Amaku further observed her and found that she was no longer in her seat and that the yellow and blue aura he’d seen from her before was now enveloping her whole body, much like his quirk did for him. Not only this, but her aura appeared to be propelling her forward as well as the yellow and blue energy trailed behind her.
“…Of course you can fly,” Amaku groaned sarcastically.
“Oh, you've got no idea what I can do, big boy,” said Astrid in an excited, sinister tone.
She then immediately went to strike Amaku with a powered up punch. Amaku blocked this attack by crossing his arms and activating his barrier in time to absorb the attack. The attack resulted in a powerful impact which created considerable distance between the two of them, and the point of contact was still steaming on Amaku’s arm. He could even feel a slight tingling in his forearms, meaning that the strike carried enough force to significantly strain the barrier.
Amaku was so distracted by this that he hadn’t noticed that she’d completely disappeared from sight. He frantically looked all around him, and barely managed to catch a glimpse of her before she came up from below and knocked him further in the air, all of which Amaku blocked with his barrier, but just barely. She unleashed a rapid barrage of punches that continued to push Amaku skyward. With each strike, he was starting to feel the impact of the attacks, a stinging sensation emanating in his forearms. His barrier was starting to fail him, and he knew this.
“Very well then, ” Amaku thought. “You want to play? Let's play!”
Eventually, he caught hold of one of her punches, drew her in close, and delivered a powerful counter punch to the face, sending her towards the ground. After being sent some distance away by this counter attack, Astrid quickly recovered and flew right back at Amaku. He once again prepared to counter attack as she approached, activating his aura to enhance his strength. However, to his surprise, instead of meeting him head on, Astrid shifted ever so slightly to the left, avoiding Amaku’s attack and flying right past him. Along the way, she grabbed hold of his seat and carried him back up into the air. After gaining more altitude, Astrid took Amaku, threw him even higher and then flew right in after him. Right as Amaku reached the height of his momentum, he was met with a powerful slam from the side as Astrid flew right up to him and struck him from the right. Once again, Amaku was barely able to absorb the attack with his barrier as he was sent flying from the impact. Not a moment later, Amaku was hit from the other side by Astrid. She continuously hit Amaku from multiple angles at a rapid speed as he was falling through the air. And once Amaku had reached a certain altitude, Astrid once again grabbed hold of his seat and carried him further into the sky.
Astrid repeated this process once more before Amaku realized what she was doing. After recalling what Aizo said about the proximity alarms on the parachutes, Amaku put together that she was doing what she could to prevent him from reaching the ground safely, keeping him here in the air where she could dominate the fight. Astrid continued hammering away at him as he thought about what to do.
“ Even if my barrier wasn’t struggling to hold up here, if she keeps going like this, I’ll never even reach the ground, let alone the temple, ” Amaku thought to himself. “ But that said, I’ve got no other way of reaching the ground safely and I can’t fend her off long enough for my parachute to deploy!...Unless… ”
It was at this moment that Amaku recalled his Initiation fight against Hawks. He remembered the move that allowed him to get in the solid hit against him.
“ That could work…or it could end with me as a bloody stain on the ground…”
As he thought this, Astrid had grabbed hold of his seat again and was dragging him higher into the sky.
“ ...I suppose there’s only one thing to do…‘take initiative’... ”
As they continued to gain altitude, Amaku concentrated his energy into his arms, their muscle mass expanding as he put more and more energy into them. Right when they reached their maximum capacity, Amaku put his plan into action.
“Here goes nothing! ”
Amaku then immediately ripped off the straps of his seat, freeing himself from it. As soon as he leapt from it, he turned around to face towards the sky, falling with his back towards the ground. Astrid barely turned her head to see him for a moment before he unleashed the massive energy stored up in his arms in the form of a powerful clap. The move resulted in a massive force of wind and energy that sent Amaku towards the ground and Astrid further into the sky. As he fell, he straightened himself out and made sure he was facing towards the ground. He brought his arms out, focussing his power into them once again.
“... Hold…” he thought as he rapidly approached the ground, which grew closer and closer with each passing second
“ ...HOLD…” he thought as the strength of his arms reached maximum power. He held in the energy as long as he could, and right as he was as close to the ground as he could be…
BOOM
A thunderous, earth shattering explosion of force was released as Amaku violently clapped his hands together once again, the shockwave catering the ground while also propelling him back into the air towards Astrid. Meanwhile, Astrid herself had recovered from the blowback of his initial clap, his seat still in her hand. After frustratingly throwing the seat out of her sight, she looked back down to the ground to see Amaku rapidly approaching her, encompassed in his red an black aura which left a streak of energy trailing behind him. A devilish smile appeared on her face as she saw this, her blue glowing eyes ignited with envy.
“Ohohoho, bring…it…OOOOOOONNNNN!!!!!” she yelled, enveloping herself in her yellow and blue aura and charging downwards to meet Amaku head on.
Both fighters charged at each other at full force with the intent of meeting each other in a full power clash. Amaku wound back his right arm, focusing his power into it as he prepared a powerful strike. Astrid followed in his thinking, winding back her right arm and focussing her energy into it for her own full power strike. Both fighters let out fierce battle cries as they rapidly approached one another and not moments later…
Amaku and Astrid’s collision resulted in a massive explosion of various-colored energies and a shockwave that shook the trees below them. The sound that was born from the collision was one that could only be described as an ear piercingly loud sonic boom. Both fighters were sent flying in opposite directions due to the resulting shockwave. Astrid was sent out towards the beach while Amaku was launched into the forest. As he was sent hurtling towards the trees, he quickly activated his barrier to absorb the impact. He tore through multiple trees, which slowed down his momentum a little bit, until he made contact with the ground, tearing it up. He was halted suddenly when his back hit the trunk of a large tree.
Moments after the impact, Amaku’s barrier flickered until it finally dissipated and he was left with his back against an oak tree, sitting in the dirt battered and bruised.
“ …Ooow…pain ,” Amaku thought as he strained from the impact. “ …Everything’s in pain…well…at least I'm alive. ”
He sat there in the dirt, taking a short moment to recover from the landing. Even if his barrier managed to absorb a good chunk of the damage, he still felt a considerable portion of the impact. As he laid there, he took a moment to look at himself and saw that his sweatshirt was in tatters, hanging on to his body by a few torn threads. He then observed his surroundings. The area he landed in was a relatively open clearing of the forest, a wide open circular area of dirt about 10 meters in diameter surrounded by trees and bushes. A brief sense of tranquility and peace came over him as he took in his surroundings, but he soon forewent this feeling as time was of the essence.
“ Right then…need to get moving, ” Amaku thought after taking a solid thirty second rest, the maximum recovery time his aunt had trained him not to over extend. He slowly brought himself up to his feet, still reeling from the pain. He supported himself off the tree he’d crashed into upon landing and finally brought himself up. After tearing off the remaining shreds of his sweatshirt, exposing his top half, he stretched his arms and legs to get the blood flowing through his body once again. He observed his own body once more in search of any major injuries, cracking his back, knuckles, and neck in preparation for his long trek to the temple.
However, as he was getting his bearings, he heard a snapping twig-like noise coming from the tree line. He quickly turned his head to the left towards the direction of the noise, but found nothing immediately. He slowly walked away from the tree he crashed into and vigilantly made his way over to the left side of the clearing. Once he was about half way across, he heard another snap coming from his right. He quickly turned to observe and once again found nothing. As each moment passed, he heard more and more of these snapping sounds from at least four different directions. Amaku halted his movements in the center of the clearing, believing that whatever was in the tree line had him surrounded with no chance of escaping.
Suddenly, he heard the rustling sound from behind him and he quickly turned around to face it. He saw a bush that was rustling ever so slightly for a brief moment. He approached it slowly, taking one cautious step at a time. Upon reaching it, he slowly reached his hand out to move the bush to the side with his left hand while his right hand was wound back in preparation for an attack of some sort. And right as his hand was within distance of one of its leaves, out from the bush emerged…
A squirrel. Amaku jumped slightly and quietly gasped, caught off guard by the animal’s sudden appearance. However, when it was clearly presented to him, he simply stood there staring at the small creature, his arm still wounded back. His expression shifted from one of caution to one of relaxed confusion. He stared at the animal and it back at him, its head turning and fidgeting as it squeaked and chittered. The two stared at one another for a good thirty ten seconds before the squirrel scurried off across the clearing and headed to the tree line at the other end. As it disappeared into the bushes, Amaku was left bemused at the creature’s lack of fear and his own over reaction. This bemusement soon turned into embarrassment.
“ Brokuma Amaku, hero in training…felled by a squirrel, ” Amaku thought, shaking his head at the ground and scoffing. “ Well, at least it wasn’t a-”
Before he finished his thought, he turned his head back towards the bush just in time to defend himself from an attack from some sort of metal object, catching it with his bare hands. As he strained to hold it back, he inspected it further and realized that he was holding back one of the gatling gun arms of a victory- class robot. Its singular, red glowing eye stared at Amaku with cold hostility. Amaku stared back at it with glowing red eyes of his own as activated his quirk, his muscle mass suddenly increasing. He then took hold of the arm, dragged the robot out of the bushes and threw it into the other side of the clearing. The robot wobbled monetarily before regaining balance on its single wheel. Amaku immediately went to continue his assault, but before he could engage, four more victory robots emerged, cutting Amaku off from the first one. They zoomed all over the clearing at high speed until eventually grouping up across from Amaku, who was about at the other side of the clearing across from them.
“ Initiate acquired! Weapons: armed! Surrender now, initiate! ” one of the robots said in a high pitched mechanical voice as they all aimed their weapons at Amaku. In response, Amaku got into his fighting stance, his red and black aura radiating like a flame as he prepared for combat.
“Five on one…I’ll take those odds,” said Amaku, cautiously eyeing his ambushers. Then, as if on queue, another robot jumped out from the foliage and joined its comrades. This one was one of the Imperial units which resembled large scorpions.
“ Initiate acquired! Combat mode: engaged! ” the Imperial unit said in a deep mechanical voice. The sheer amount of happenstance left Amaku motionless out of disbelief and frustration.
“Well…shit…”
