Stars and Stripes pressed on, muscles screaming as she forced her will outward.
The air avatar mirrored her strain perfectly.
Its colossal hands were locked around the White Whale's bulk, fingers sunk into compressed atmosphere so dense it behaved like solid stone. The creature thrashed, its immense body rippling as it fought against restraints it could not comprehend.
"Keep firing," Stars barked.
The sky answered her.
Explosions blossomed across the Whale's surface as fighter jets and bombers unleashed everything they had. Missiles detonated. Armor-piercing rounds screamed through the mist. Shockwaves rippled outward, tearing temporary holes in the fog before it rushed back in again.
The White Whale roared.
The sound slammed into the battlefield like a psychic tidal wave.
But Stars and Stripes only smiled.
"Heh," she said aloud, teeth bared. "You think we came unprepared?"
Her comm crackled as pilots laughed breathlessly.
"Special issue earpieaces," one shouted. "Sound dampening. We're still sane up here."
Below them, the city shook as the roar rolled outward, but it found no purchase in their minds.
Stars tightened her grip.
The Whale's body bucked violently, trying to twist free. Its eye widened, fixing on her with something like recognition.
Then something changed.
"Star!" a pilot said, voice suddenly tight. "We've got a problem."
Stars glanced sideways without loosening her hold. "What's wrong?."
"Our rounds aren't penetrating," another voice cut in. "Not even the bunker busters. Explosives are detonating on contact but there's no significant damage."
Stars' smile faded.
She focused, eyes narrowing as she watched the impacts herself. The explosions looked impressive. Fire. Smoke. Shockwaves.
But when they cleared, the Whale's body remained smooth and unmarred.
"...Damn," she muttered.
"And there's more," the first pilot continued. "We're burning through payload fast. Now that you stopped clearing the mist, we are running out of time."
"The mist will close in soon."
Stars and Stripes knew it too..
If she didn't constantly blow the mist away, the battlefield will be engulfed in it soon.
She inhaled sharply.
"Hold formation," she ordered. "Cover me."
"Copy that"
She brought a hand to her earpiece.
"Mr. President," she said, tone serious. "We're out of conventional options."
The line connected instantly.
"What's your assessment," the President asked, voice strained.
"The target is resisting all standard munitions," Stars replied. "Its body ignores penetration entirely. My quirk can restrain it, but not kill it. And I can't keep this up forever."
A pause.
"There's one option left," she continued. "Tiamat missiles."
Silence.
Those missiles were not theoretical. They were forbidden for a reason.
"Stars," the President said slowly, "those are last resort weapons."
"I know," she replied. "And this is the last resort."
The president paused, "Have you tried stopping its heart"
"I can't since we don't know its name."
Another pause, heavier this time.
"If we deploy them," he said, "there will be nothing left in the blast radius."
"There's already nothing left," Stars answered quietly. "And if we don't do this, there won't be anything left anywhere else either."
The line crackled.
"...You have authorization," the President said at last. "God help us."
Stars exhaled.
"Copy that."
She switched channels instantly.
"All units," she shouted, voice cutting through the chaos. "Prepare Tiamat launch. Now."
A pilot's voice came through, shaken but resolute. "B2 is in position."
Stars braced herself.
She released one order and replaced it with another.
The blazing blade vanished from her avatar's grip, dissipating into raw energy as she raised both arms.
"Launch!"
Far above, unseen through the mist, the B2 stealth bomber opened its bay.
A cluster of Tiamat missiles fell.
Stars and Stripes reached out.
"New Order," she commanded, voice roaring with authority. "Tiamat will be redirected!"
The air avatar caught them.
Dozens of warheads slammed into its massive palms, their momentum arrested instantly. The sheer force would have pulverized a mountain.
Stars twisted.
"State-of-the-Art Hypersonic Intercontinental Cruise Punch"
The avatar punched forward.
The missiles struck the White Whale all at once.
Light consumed the world.
The explosion was not loud. It was absolute.
A sphere of blinding white expanded outward, erasing buildings, streets, and mist alike. Shockwaves flattened everything that remained, the city's ruins reduced to glowing debris as the sky itself seemed to burn.
Stars felt herself thrown backward, air ripped from her lungs.
For a moment, there was nothing but light.
Then it faded.
Smoke rolled across a crater that had once been New York City.
The whale was gone.
Stars coughed, stabilizing herself midair, eyes snapping toward where the Whale had been.
There was nothing there.
No body. No movement. No presence.
Her heart leapt.
"We did it," she breathed. "We—"
"STARS!"
The scream tore through the comms, raw with terror.
Stars' blood ran cold.
"What is it," she demanded.
"There's another one!"
Her head snapped up.
The sky above twisted.
A massive shadow descended from the thinning clouds.
Another White Whale.
It swooped down with terrifying speed.
Stars felt gravity reclaim her as her focus faltered. Her air avatar lunged upward, hands slamming into the creature's side, trying to shove it away.
It barely slowed.
Stars was falling.
Wind tore at her uniform as the ground rushed up to meet her. For the first time since the battle began, panic broke through her iron focus.
"I... can't..." she whispered.
Her quirk was stretched thin. The missiles were gone. The jets were scattered. The mist was already beginning to creep back at the edges of the battlefield.
Tears burned her eyes.
"I'm sorry," she murmured. "I couldn't—"
"DONT QUIT ON ME NOW, LOOK OUT!"
She barely had time to turn her head.
A jet screamed past her.
One of her pilots.
He did not pull up.
The pilot's voice crackled once, calm and resolute.
"...I'm sorry."
The jet slammed directly into the White Whale's side, engines screaming until the very last second.
Stars' eyes widened.
"No—!"
The impact was catastrophic.
The jet exploded in a burst of fire and twisted metal, slamming the Whale off its trajectory and knocking it away from Stars mid-fall.
Then the channel went dead.
Stars screamed.
She twisted in midair, another teammate swooped in catching her as she landed onto of the jet, tears streaming freely now as burning wreckage fell past her.
"Star..." her teammate called out.
The White Whale reeled, wounded but alive.
Another swooped in. A third one.
"Shit we have to get out of here!"
A/N: For anyone confused about why she didn't try to stop the White Whale's heart with an order, it's because she doesn't know the creature's name. The people of this world believe it's a person, not a monster, and they have no reason to think otherwise since they don't know about Reinhard's world. To them, this is just a villain with a very strong Quirk.
Bad news, updates may slow down for a bit while I replan and finalize the upcoming arcs. I hope you enjoyed the White Whale mini-arc!