Chapter 257 - 256: Found It

SCREECH.

The transport jet tires burned rubber against the concrete runway.

Sitting inside the cabin, Ethan Drive unbuckled his flight harness.

"Welcome to Los Angeles, Mr. Yagi," Ethan greeted casually.

Toshinori Yagi grabbed his yellow suit jacket and stood up from the passenger seat.

HSSSSS.

The rear hydraulic ramp lowered directly onto the illuminated tarmac.

Cathleen Bate stood at perfect military attention right at the bottom of the incline.

Commander Agpar stood next to her, keeping his posture entirely rigid.

A dozen fighter pilots lined up behind them in total silence.

Toshinori slowly walked down the metal ramp.

Cathleen instantly dropped her strict military persona the second his boots hit the ground.

"Master!" Cathleen cheered, a wide grin breaking across her face.

She rushed forward and grabbed his skeletal hand, shaking it vigorously.

"It's an absolute honor to have you back on American soil," she added brightly.

Toshinori smiled, gently patting her armored shoulder.

"It's very good to see you again, Cathleen," Toshinori replied warmly.

The pilots immediately broke their disciplined formation.

They crowded around the retired hero, pulling out their smartphones.

"Can I get a picture for my flight helmet, Mr. Yagi?" one of the Bros asked eagerly.

"I watched your Kamino fight a hundred times!" another pilot added.

They completely ignored his frail physical state, viewing him only as the eternal Symbol of Peace.

Ethan walked down the ramp and pushed his fellow pilots back playfully.

"Give the man some breathing room," Ethan scolded with a laugh.

Commander Agpar stepped forward, offering a sharp, respectful nod.

"Toshinori," Agpar greeted evenly. "A secure WHA convoy is waiting to take you to the Global Command Center."

Toshinori looked back at Cathleen.

"We'll catch up properly after this crisis is handled," Toshinori promised.

He climbed into the back of the armored transport vehicle, letting the heavy doors slide shut.

--<>--

Location: Manhattan, New York City, USA

Hawks crouched perfectly still on the edge of a stone gargoyle.

Thick morning fog rolled slowly through the concrete jungle below him.

He casually spun a long red feather between his gloved fingers.

"Freezing my wings off up here," Hawks complained through his secure earpiece. "I came an hour early just to scout the perimeter."

Standing in the alleyway below, Shishido let out a low, gruff laugh.

The Lion Hero watched dozens of American pros stack up outside a fortified office building.

"Stay sharp, Hawks," Shishido advised over the comms.

He crossed his muscular arms, exhaling a puff of cold air.

"I'm honestly glad that rookie benched my U.A. trainees," Shishido admitted truthfully.

He kept his eyes locked on the target building.

"These doomsday cultists are way too unpredictable for kids to handle," the Lion Hero finished.

--<>--

Location: Paris, France

Ryukyu crouched outside a sleek corporate building in her fully transformed dragon state.

Hundreds of French police officers maintained a tight perimeter around the empty street.

She lowered her scaly head to speak with her adult sidekicks.

"Keep your guard up," Ryukyu warned them softly.

She bared her sharp teeth at the reinforced glass doors of the European Humarise branch.

"I'm incredibly relieved Uraraka and the other girls are sitting this one out," Ryukyu confessed.

Her sidekicks nodded in total agreement.

"The adults need to carry this burden alone," one of the older heroes replied.

--<>--

Location: Cairo, Egypt

The scorching desert sun beat down aggressively on the Egyptian capital.

Salaam flattened his two-dimensional body completely against a sandstone alleyway.

Dozens of local Egyptian pros crouched on the surrounding rooftops.

"That Japanese rookie made the right call," an Egyptian veteran whispered over the radio.

Salaam nodded, his flat head scraping against the stone.

"Drafting provisional students for a global terrorist raid makes the entire association look incompetent," Salaam agreed firmly.

They kept their eyes locked on the heavily guarded warehouse facility across the street.

--<>--

Location: Singapore

Big Red Dot hovered in the humid air directly above a bustling shipping port.

He aimed his heavy water cannons toward the Asian Humarise branch.

"Are your teams in position, Majestic?" Big Red Dot asked through his comm-link.

Floating on a nearby rooftop, the magic-user adjusted his top hat.

"We're ready," Majestic confirmed evenly.

He looked around at the sheer volume of pro heroes gathering in the streets.

"The scale of this global mobilization is completely unprecedented," Majestic noted quietly.

--<>--

Location: Otheon, Capital City

Endeavor stood aggressively in front of a heavily fortified steel gate.

His fiery beard flared wildly, casting an intense orange glow across the dark alleyway.

Dozens of elite WHA veteran heroes stood firmly behind him with their weapons drawn.

Endeavor turned his head slightly, looking at his sidekick.

"Clair," Endeavor growled, keeping his voice low.

Clair Voyance snapped to attention.

"Keep your search Quirk completely primed," Endeavor ordered. "Scan for explosives the second we breach those doors."

"Understood, sir," Clair replied nervously.

--<>--

Location: WHA Global Command Center, Classified Location

Toshinori walked through the heavy blast doors into the primary operations room.

Dozens of intelligence officers scrambled frantically around computer terminals.

The official WHA Director stood perfectly still over the main tactical table.

"Toshinori," the Director greeted, shaking the retired hero's hand.

"Director," Toshinori replied, looking up at the digital world map.

Twenty-five red targets flashed aggressively across the continents.

The Director stared at the digital clock counting down on the main screen.

The entire operations room went completely dead silent.

Toshinori watched the live bodycam feeds, feeling a familiar spike of adrenaline hit his chest.

"All global units are holding their positions," an intelligence officer reported.

The digital clock hit zero.

The Director leaned forward over the primary broadcast microphone.

"Execute," the Director ordered clearly.

--<>--

Location: Otheon, Capital City

Endeavor didn't hesitate for a single microsecond.

BOOM.

Unleashing a massive, concentrated blast of pure fire, the Number One Hero struck the center of the reinforced steel gate.

The thick metal instantly melted, completely blowing inward from the sheer thermal pressure.

"Move!" Endeavor roared, charging directly into the smoking hallway.

Dozens of veteran heroes flooded into the primary Humarise headquarters right behind him.

They screamed fierce battle cries, raising their weapons as they breached the dark corridors.

Waiting for them inside the expansive lobby were hundreds of low-level cultists and heavily armed sleeper agents.

Wearing identical dark robes, the brainwashed, quirkless humans immediately raised military-grade assault rifles.

"For the salvation of humanity!" a cultist screamed at the top of his lungs over the security feed. "Eradicate the diseased ones!"

RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT.

A hail of bullets rained down on the vanguard heroes, sparking violently against concrete pillars and deployed energy shields.

--<>--

Location: The X Agency, Tokyo, Back Office

Kaito sat comfortably in his luxurious leather chair, entirely removed from the global chaos.

His fingers blurred across the keyboard of his high-end laptop at a completely terrifying speed.

TAP. TAP. TAP.

Leaning casually over his shoulder, Makoto held a fresh cup of iced coffee.

"Are we actually inside the WHA network?" Makoto asked, taking a slow sip from her plastic straw.

Kaito simply hit the enter key.

CLACK.

The massive digital tracking table in the center of the room instantly lit up with a brilliant blue hue.

Eve 0.2's synthesized voice echoed smoothly from the ceiling speakers.

[WHA bodycam encryption successfully bypassed, Sir.]

Twenty-five live video feeds popped up simultaneously across the glass table.

They displayed exactly what Commander Agpar and the WHA Director were currently watching in California.

Standing near the edge of the table, Mirai Sasaki completely froze.

The man currently operating under the alias Shin Kudo stared at the highly classified, top-secret military footage rolling across the glass.

Tsunagu Hakamada slowly turned his head, looking directly at the white-suited rookie.

"...X," Tsunagu started, keeping his voice incredibly flat. "Did you just illegally hack into the World Heroes Association global command feed?"

Kaito didn't even bother looking up from his laptop screen.

"Yes," Kaito answered casually, typing another rapid line of code to stabilize the bandwidth.

Mirai pushed his glasses up his nose, his analytical mind racing.

He watched the live feeds perfectly decrypting Pentagon-level military software in real-time.

Instead of panic, a profound sense of mystery washed over the former sidekick.

'Not only does he possess a physical body capable of defying physics and an ability that can literally rewrite reality...' Mirai thought, carefully studying Kaito's relaxed posture. 'He is also a world-class cyber-infiltrator.'

Mirai narrowed his eyes slightly.

'Just who exactly is Hero X? Why did someone with this terrifying level of skill and power wait until right now to debut?'

Tsunagu rubbed his temples, letting out a long, heavy sigh.

As a former Number Three Pro Hero, Tsunagu knew hacking a global military operation was a blatant violation of international law.

But seeing the live footage of the raids, the denim-wearing hero firmly decided to keep his mouth shut.

A little international cyber-crime barely even registered on the scale of absurdity anymore.

Makoto pointed a perfectly manicured finger at the upper left corner of the digital table.

"Wow, they are really going all out in New York," Makoto noted, squinting at the glowing screen.

On the feed, Hawks darted wildly across a massive Manhattan corporate lobby.

[Clear the second floor!] Hawks commanded over his comms, sending a flurry of sharp red feathers forward.

The feathers pinned several gun-wielding sleeper agents directly to the drywall.

[Don't let them reach the servers!] an American cultist yelled back, firing a heavy shotgun blindly into the air.

Shishido vaulted over a reception desk on the same video feed, letting out a deafening roar as he tackled three cultists simultaneously.

Mirai stepped closer to the table, analyzing the feed from Egypt.

Salaam twisted his two-dimensional body, effortlessly dodging a barrage of capture nets fired by brainwashed guards in a dusty Cairo warehouse.

"The Humarise soldiers are highly coordinated," Mirai observed professionally. "They are utilizing military-grade suppression tactics."

Kaito finally stopped typing.

He grabbed his coffee mug, taking a slow, relaxed sip as he looked at the twenty-five chaotic screens.

"They are too coordinated," Kaito countered smoothly, sounding incredibly bored by the global spectacle.

Tsunagu frowned, looking across the table at him.

"What do you mean?" Tsunagu asked.

"Watch their defensive lines," Kaito instructed, gesturing lazily toward the Paris feed with his coffee mug.

On the screen, Ryukyu smashed her massive draconic tail through a barricaded hallway.

The French sleeper agents didn't retreat deeper into the facility.

Instead, they threw flashbangs and continuously circled the entryways, taking heavy losses just to hold the front doors.

"They aren't protecting anything in the back rooms," Kaito deduced instantly. "They are acting purely as a meat-shield to stall the WHA vanguard."

Makoto rested her chin on her hand, watching the Otheon feed.

"So, it's a giant trap?" Makoto guessed.

"It's a decoy," Kaito corrected smoothly.

Just as he spoke, the video feeds began to synchronize in their respective climaxes.

On the main Otheon screen, Endeavor melted a massive, reinforced vault door right off its heavy steel hinges.

CLANG.

The veteran heroes rushed into the subterranean command center, weapons drawn and ready to secure the Trigger bombs.

Endeavor's bodycam panned across the massive room.

It was entirely empty.

There were no server racks. There was no chemical weaponry. There was absolutely no sign of Flect Turn or his inner circle.

[Search the perimeter!] Endeavor roared furiously on the video feed. [Where are the bombs?!]

Clair Voyance stepped into the frame, sweeping the room with her specialized search Quirk.

[There is nothing here, sir!] Clair reported, her voice laced with sheer panic. [The entire structure is completely clean!]

Mirai quickly looked at the other twenty-four screens.

Hawks kicked open a heavily armored server room in New York, only to find empty metal racks and stripped hard drives.

Ryukyu's sidekicks breached the Paris basement, finding nothing but bare concrete walls.

"They are all completely empty," Mirai realized aloud, his eyes widening slightly.

The thousands of deployed WHA heroes had just wasted their absolute best element of surprise kicking down the doors of empty ghost towns.

Kaito set his coffee mug down on his desk.

"Of course they are empty," Kaito criticized bluntly, shaking his head at the glowing table.

He spun his chair around to fully face the two veteran heroes.

"A fanatical doomsday cult isn't going to leave their ultimate chemical weapon sitting inside a registered corporate building with a public tax record," Kaito stated logically.

He leaned back, intertwining his fingers.

"Flect Turn deliberately left those branches intact just to bait the WHA into wasting their synchronized global strike on empty buildings," Kaito explained, highly disappointed in the global intelligence network.

Tsunagu crossed his arms, his denim collar tightening around his neck as he processed the disastrous tactical failure.

"If all twenty-five branches are just dummy fronts," Tsunagu started, looking urgently at the white-suited rookie. "Then where is the primary doomsday trigger?"

--<>--

Location: Otheon, Empty Humarise Headquarters

Endeavor roared in pure, unadulterated fury.

FWOOSH.

Unleashing a massive blast of fire from his palm, the Number One Hero completely incinerated a wooden desk in the center of the dark room.

The entire subterranean facility was stripped completely bare.

There were no server racks, no cult leaders, and absolutely no chemical weapons.

Stepping cautiously into the smoldering room, Clair Voyance held up a specialized tracking device.

"There is nothing here, sir," Clair reported nervously, keeping a safe distance from Endeavor's roaring flames.

She lowered her tracking pad, her hands shaking slightly.

"My Quirk confirms there are zero explosives hidden anywhere in this structure," she finalized.

Endeavor gritted his teeth, his massive frame shaking with intense frustration.

They had just wasted their entire tactical momentum kicking down the doors of a dummy building.

BEEP.

His secure earpiece chimed loudly.

[Otheon Strike Team, report!] the WHA Director demanded urgently over the secure line.

Pressing two thick fingers against his ear, Endeavor scowled fiercely.

"The building is completely clean, Director," Endeavor growled. "We fell for a decoy."

--<>--

Location: WHA Global Command Center

The WHA Director slammed his fist onto the tactical table.

THUD.

"Damn it!" the Director yelled, his face turning entirely red.

He looked frantically at the twenty-five live bodycam feeds glowing on the main screen.

Every single global strike team was currently reporting the exact same failure.

Standing near the edge of the tactical table, Toshinori Yagi felt a deep, sickening dread settling heavily in his stomach.

If the Trigger bombs weren't hidden inside the regional branches, they were likely already deployed inside the populated target cities.

Sitting at a nearby intelligence console, a WHA personnel rapidly typed on his keyboard.

He desperately to pull up the city blueprints for a secondary search.

Suddenly, a loud, unnatural screeching noise echoed violently through the operations room speakers.

SKREEEEE.

The man grabbed his headset, wincing sharply from the harsh audio feedback.

"Sir, someone is forcefully bypassing our external firewalls!" He yelled, his fingers flying across the console to stop the intrusion.

The Director spun around, staring at the main communication hub.

"Shut it down!" the Director ordered loudly. "Block the IP trace!"

"I can't!" the WHA personnel panicked, staring at the rapidly scrolling code. "The encryption is eating right through our cyber-defenses!"

BZZZT.

The main audio speakers crackled violently.

The secure WHA global channel completely locked open.

[I apologize for the sudden intrusion, Director,] a smooth, polite voice echoed over the speakers.

Every single intelligence officer inside the command center completely froze.

The Director immediately recognized the casual, informal tone from the global broadcast just a few hours ago.

"Hero X?" the Director asked, staring at the ceiling speakers in pure bewilderment. "Why are you illegally bypassing a classified military channel?"

[Routing this intelligence through standard bureaucratic channels would take minutes,] Kaito explained calmly, maintaining a highly respectful tone. [Your vanguard units are currently standing completely exposed inside those empty buildings.]

Toshinori gasped softly, instantly recognizing the voice of the young rookie.

[Flect Turn is currently hiding inside a cloaked mobile fortress,] Kaito continued over the audio feed, getting straight to the point.

BZZT. BZZT.

A digital file packet suddenly forced its way onto the main tactical table.

"He just uploaded a topographical map of Otheon directly to our servers," the WHA personnel reported, quickly clicking the file open.

A massive red anomaly pulsed brightly on the main screen, pinpointing a barren, rocky mountain range near the Otheon national border.

[A cloaking field and a global server network require a massive amount of electricity to function,] Kaito explained logically.

The red dot flashed aggressively on the digital map.

[That specific grid is currently drawing enough raw wattage to power a small city,] Kaito finished smoothly. [There are absolutely zero registered buildings in that mountainous sector.]

Toshinori stared at the glowing red dot, feeling a massive wave of pure relief wash over him.

He couldn't help but smile proudly.

The WHA Director stared at the map, quickly confirming the geographic data with the surrounding intelligence officers.

"The logic is perfectly sound," the Director admitted quietly.

He looked directly at Toshinori for confirmation.

The retired Symbol of Peace nodded firmly.

"Trust him, Director," Toshinori urged softly. "He found the real target."

Understanding the severity of the ticking clock, the Director leaned back over the primary microphone.

"Attention all Otheon Vanguard units," the Director announced rapidly, pressing the global transmission button.

--<>--

Location: Otheon, Empty Humarise Headquarters

Endeavor stood aggressively in the smoldering ruins of the empty office lobby.

His secure earpiece suddenly chimed again.

[We have acquired the true GPS coordinates for the primary Humarise stronghold,] the Director reported over the line.

Endeavor's eyes widened slightly in surprise.

[I am transmitting the location to your tactical displays now,] the Director continued rapidly. [Pivot your strike force and engage immediately.]

BEEP.

A digital map flashed onto the screen strapped to Endeavor's thick forearm.

A bright red waypoint appeared deep within the rocky mountains near the national border.

Endeavor's intense frustration instantly morphed into fierce, burning determination.

His fiery beard flared up violently, completely illuminating the dark, melted room.

"Strike team, form up!" Endeavor roared, turning his massive back on the empty building.

The veteran heroes instantly snapped to attention, raising their weapons in unison.

Endeavor marched aggressively back toward the melted steel doors.

"We are heading for the mountains,"