BOOM!!
The shockwave tore across the container yard, throwing up a wall of dust and shattered concrete in every direction. Wolfram's body cartwheeled through the air like a ragdoll, slamming over against a rusted shipping container, bouncing off it at an unnatural angle, then skipping twice more across the pavement before finally crashing to a stop against the base of a collapsed crane, motionless.
Behind him, his three remaining mercenaries fared no better. The dust cloud swallowed all of them whole, a churning grey wall lit faintly from within by the last traces of Geten's retreating frost.
"Ugh ...BLERGH!" The man coughed up a mouthful of blood.
"Dammit.' Raising his hand to clean the corner of his lips, his eyes blazed with nothing but venomous hatred as he stared into the distance.
The sound of footsteps fell into his ears from afar. Followed by a familiar figure emerging from the dust cloud of his own making.
Rikiya Yotsubashi's tailored jacket hung in tatters from one shoulder, the expensive fabric split clean through where his own forearm had swollen well past the sleeve's limits. Dark, branching veins crawled visibly beneath his skin, spreading from his knuckles up past his elbow and extending all the way to the side of his face. The price, however small, of the power he'd just spent.
"Geten." He uttered without looking back as "Make certain the doctor and his companion remain unharmed through what comes next."
"Understood." Geten's replied flatly from somewhere behind the settling dust, already moving toward the two men still seated at the folding chairs.
Rikiya continued forward alone, stopping a distance from where the three remaining mercenaries had begun pulling themselves upright. As for the rest?
They were already dead in the initial attack.
"I'll handle this myself," Rikiya said, to no one in particular.
"You'll pay for crossing us you bastard." The nearest of them, a broad-shouldered man with a cut near his eyebrows didn't wait for an invitation. The skin on his hands split apart, quickly reforming to form webbed, oversized claws before dashing forward.
"Cut him apart, Renji!" one of the others shouted.
Renji crossed the distance in three long strides and swung, both enlarged claws aimed to converge on Rikiya's chest from opposite angles. — Following which, he swung both arms, firing huge blasts of air.
Redestro raised one swollen forearm and swung.
BOOM!
The air displaced by the motion alone struck Renji like a physical wall, a violent gust tearing through the dust and hurling him backward a full fifteen feet before either claw ever made contact. He crashed through a stack of empty shipping pallets, wood splintering in every direction.
In the same moment, a second figure charged in from Rikiya's blind side. A hulking, gorilla-like shape, easily nine feet at the shoulder, purple skin thickened outrageous degrees as he swung one massive fist in a downward arc toward Rikiya's skull.
BANG!
The earth cracked beneath their feet.
"Daigo, was it." Redestro uttered with a plain expression. "Renner was sure to give me a clear understanding of your capabilities. I do find it somewhat impressive coming face to face. But if this is the best your meta ability has to offer ..."
"Shut up!" Daigo roared and swung with more speed. Both massive fists hammering down in rapid succession. Two fists slammed into two palms, sending a shockwave in all directions.
'Huh?'
The gorilla man was stunned at the sight before him.
By this point, Redestro's body was utterly swollen, dark brown patches stretching all over before completely engulfing his face. The business suit he wore was stretched to its utmost limits. However, his hands firmly clamped onto the giant gorilla, growing constantly until he surpassed him in size. With a simple push, the opponent was forced on one knee.
"... Then I am afraid your fate is sealed."
With that, he drove his open palm into the beast's exposed ribs. The strike connected with a sound of bones cracking. Following which, Daigo's enormous body folded sideways, skidding across the broken pavement until it slammed, unmoving, against the rusted hull of a shipping container.
Shadows stretched along the ruined yard as Re-Destro raised his head. His eyes, now set within a face completely engulfed in swollen patches of raw Stress, locked onto the remaining man.
However ... Before he could take a single step forward, the sky above him darkened.
BOOM!
Three massive steel shipping containers plummeted from above. Re-Destro barely had time to brace before the sheer volume of iron slammed directly into his towering figure. The final container—a rusted, heavy-duty chemical tanker—crashed on top of the pile, completely burying him under thousands of pounds of steel.
"Now!"
The third mercenary threw his head back as his jaw split unnaturally wide. The next moment, a roaring stream of flame erupted from his mouth and streaked toward the pile of containers.
KABOOOOOM!
A blinding column of fire erupted into the sky. The shockwave rolled across the yard, scattering dust and debris in every direction.
Panting heavily, the fire-breather turned toward the crane. "Boss! What do we do now?! Is he dead?!"
Wolfram pushed himself up from the rubble, eyes blazing with pure fury. His coat was gone, and his arms were bleeding from dozens of fine lacerations where his iron armor had shattered, but while his rage said one thing, his mind said another.
"We leave," Wolfram snarled, turning his back on the flames and running toward the perimeter of the dockyard. "Move!"
The henchman froze, staring in disbelief. "What?! Boss, what about Renji?! What about Daigo?! We can't just. .."
"I said retreat, you idiot!" Wolfram roared over his shoulder, not slowing his pace for a single second. Whatever anger he felt, whatever hatred burned inside him, he wasn't stupid enough to throw his life away over it. This deal was finished.
His leverage had been neutralized, and his people had been infiltrated from within. There was nothing left here for him except death. And Wolfram had no intention of giving Re-Destro that satisfaction. Even if it meant abandoning his crew, he would do it without hesitation when his life was on the line. After all, pride was a luxury for dead men, and he had abandoned the romantic illusion of honor in the gutter decades ago.
That however didn't mean he was giving up. David Shield was a renowned scientist.
Even in Japan's current state, they would definitely free up manpower to find him. Thankfully, he had set up another insurance plan.
Even if there was no proof, just a tip from an anonymous source would be enough to give Rikiya a headache from the scrutiny.
For now, he would take this humiliation, and return it a hundred fold.
'You won't get away with this, corporate—' CRACK-BOOM!
A projectile flew from behind, crashing into the earth Forty meters ahead of him. The paved concrete road caved in was destroyed in one hit, completely severing their escape route.
"Huh?!" Wolfram skidded to a halt, shield-ing his face from the spray of pulverized asphalt.
He whipped his head upward. High above the dust cloud, Re-Destro descended like a falling mountain. His suit was ripped to shreds, revealing his bare upper torso.
"Escaping now is a bit too late, wouldn't you agree?" Re-Destro's voice vibrated through the air, heavy enough to rattle the fillings in Wolfram's teeth.
"Damn you..."
BOOOOOOM!
Re-Destro drove his enlarged fist right through Wolfram and straight into the center of the roadway. The shockwave that follows destroyed the entire section of the dockyard, lifting the remaining henchman off his feet and snapping his spine before he even hit the ground.
A hundred meters away, sitting inside the ice dome Geten had erected around the folding chairs, David Shield stared at the destruction before him through clenched fists.
"...Why," he asked, his voice barely carrying reaching Geten's ear. "Why are you doing any of this?"
Geten didn't say a word. The lack of reply only seemed to deepen his frustration. He had expected Japan to be disorderly, but never to such an extent. Nor did he expect to get kidnapped minutes after touching down. Worse still, he had gotten Sam involved.
'How...? How did everything go so horribly wrong?' David's mind raced, drowning in terror and guilt. Silence engulfed the dockyard as the battle had come to an end.
The sound of footsteps echoed from the distance yet again as Re-Destro returned, already restored to his ordinary proportions, the dark, branching veins beneath his skin fading back toward nothing with every step. By the time he came to a stop just outside the ice dome, he looked the way he always did.
His shirt hung in ruins from one shoulder, exposing a stretch of skin that showed no injury at all, as though the violence of the last several minutes belonged to someone else entirely.
"An understandable question, Dr. Shield," Re-Destro uttered with a gentle smile.
The thick dome of glacial ice dissolved instantly as Geten raised his palm. David flinched, instinctively pulling back, but the ropes bound him in place.
"To answer your question," Re-Destro continued, folding his hands behind his back, "we are not common criminals, nor are we simple black-market arms dealers. You may refer to us as the Meta Liberation Army. A group dedicated to the liberation of special abilities and the people who use them."
David's brow furrowed amidst the panic. The title sounding entirely alien to his ears. "A liberation army? I've never heard of you. What does any of that have to do with me?"
"I believe Wolfram has already informed you of what we require. The device only you are capable of making," Re-Destro replied, his tone smooth and entirely devoid of grandstanding. "We require your expertise to build a functional Quirk Amplifier."
David's face turned dark. "You're asking me to build a weapon for terrorists. I built that prototype to support heroes, not to empower criminals. I refuse."
"A noble stance," Re-Destro murmured. He didn't raise his voice or display the slightest flicker of annoyance. Instead, his smile remained perfectly pleasant as his gaze turned to rest on Samuel Scudder.
Sam flinched, shrinking back into his folding chair as far as the ropes would allow, his broken fingers trembling violently.
"However, I believe you will find the motivation to reconsider." He let his eyes return to David. "You will comply for the life of your colleague here, won't you? Or perhaps for your daughter, Melissa, back on I-Island. Detnerat is a support company that maintains several international connections, Dr. Shield. It would be a terrible shame if her safety were compromised over a minor disagreement."
This was of course a lie to an extent. Detnerat did have connections, however infiltrating I Island was impossible for their current capabilities. The reach of the liberation army hadn't stretched that far yet. Of course, David who had just witnessed the betrayal of one of Wolfram's men didn't know that.
David's blood went cold. "You... leave her out of this!"
He clenched his jaw so tightly his teeth groaning under the pressure, eyes seething with rage.
"Rest assured, neither you, your partner or your daughter will come to harm as long as you aid our cause." Re-Destro said, his smile widening slightly. He turned away, gesturing toward the two bound men. "Geten, secure Dr. Shield and his assistant in the transport. We have a long drive ahead of us."
"Understood," Geten replied flatly, taking a step forward toward the folding chairs. He had barely taken two steps when he froze mid-stride, his head snapping upward as the fur trim of his oversized hood whipped wildly to the side.
"Geten?"
Redestro frowned. "What's wrong ..." Rikiya had barely finished when Geten hurriedly shoved his leader aside.
The moment he did, a large projectile shot through air..
BANG!
Embedding itself in the area they previously stood.
'We're under attack.' Geten slid to the side and immediately retaliated. With an upward thrust of both palms, Geten drew upon the harbor water trailing along the edge of the shattered concrete. A towering, razor-sharp spire of glacial ice erupted from the earth at a forty-five-degree angle, tearing through the cloud of dust and shooting fifty feet into the night sky straight toward the top of a half-crushed shipping container.
At the same moment, a figure shot down from the sky at rapid speeds and.
BANG!
The ice glacial was torn apart.