Sorry for not posting this and also if it kind crap im in a bit of a wierd head space atm so my bad hopefully yall enjoy
Chapter 33: Hell Let Lose
The past few days had been a blur of patrols and training. Cid and Mirio had gone out together twice more since that first patrol, and while nothing as chaotic as the jewelry store incident had happened again, Small-time villains had been showing up in odd places causing a disturbance. Nighteye had been running Cid through increasingly more and more difficult exercises, Cid had been improving steadily due to the constant pressure.
He had also overheard, in passing, that a large number of heroes had been deployed to Hosu, to deal with the Hero Killer Stain. It wasn't his concern right now his focus was here, in Osaka, with Nighteye and Mirio.
Tonight, he was in his room on a video call with Yui.
She had just gotten back from her own patrol and was still in her hero outfit when the call connected. She stood in front of the camera and started peeling off the red-and-white suit piece by piece. She knew he was watching.
Cid didn't look away.
Yui talked as she undressed, down to a simple black bra and matching panties. She folded the pieces of her costume and set them aside.
"How was today?" she asked, glancing at the screen as she reached behind her back to unclasp the bra and let it fall to the ground while she leaned over to grab a towel.
"Long," Cid answered. His voice was calm, but his eyes didn't leave her. "Mirio's… a lot to deal with, but in a good way."
Yui laughed softly. "He seems like the type. I'm glad you're getting along with him." She reached over behind the camera and grabs shirt, but didn't put it on right away. She stood there for a moment, stretching her arms over her head.
Cid's gaze tracked the movement without shame.
Yui caught his look through the camera and smiled teasingly at him. She finally slipped the shirt on, then leaned in closer to the lens, her face filling most of the frame.
"I can't wait to see you tomorrow," she said softly. "It feels like it's been forever since we've actually been in the same place even though it's only been a week I miss you."
Cid opened his mouth to respond.
Then all of a sudden the sound of a explosion rocked the building. Cid's head snapped toward the window just as a second, then a third detonation rocked the city. From his floor, he could see it clearly, multiple skyscrapers in the distance erupting in fire and smoke, their structures groaning and beginning to collapse inward.
His face went slack with shock.
Then horror.
His hand, still holding the phone, started to shake slightly, for a second he wasn't in the agency, he was on a street that was burning staring at blood soaked rubble. Then Yui's voice came through the speaker, panicked and muffled, like she was calling his name from underwater.
"—Cid?! Cid, what's happening?! Cid—!"
He snapped out of it.
His expression hardened into something cold and focused. The tremor in his hand stopped. His eyes sharpened, and his posture he usually carried was gone. In its place was something colder, more precise, the version of himself that had been trained to survive, to act, to save whoever could still be saved.
"I love you," he said, voice low and steady. "I'll call you back."
He ended the call before she could answer.
Cid moved towards the door.
He didn't run, He walked out of his room with purpose, then used his Quirk to appear at the end of the hallway in a single step, Another and he was at the stairwell, then he was already on the ground floor, moving toward the locker rooms.
Other heroes were already there, suiting up in a rush and the air was thick with urgency. Cid found his locker and started pulling on his gear with quick, efficient movements. No motion was wasted, every strap, every piece of armor secured with the kind of precision that came from the years of HSPC conditioning and the last week of Nighteye's training combined.
He was in full hero mode now, Stone-cold, Determined.
Mirio appeared beside him a moment later, already half-suited, his usual grin nowhere to be seen.
"Ratio," he said, voice tight but steady. "You good?"
Cid gave a single nod as he fastened the last piece of his chest plate. "Let's move."
They didn't wait for anyone else. Cid used his Quirk to shorten the distance between them and Nighteye's office, Mirio keeping pace beside him. They found the man already on his feet, eyes locked on the multiple screens displaying live feeds of the city falling apart.
Nighteye didn't waste time.
"Search and rescue," he said immediately, tossing Cid a small earpiece. "Both of you. If you encounter villains, you are authorized to engage but you stay together. No exceptions. I don't know the full scope of what's happening yet, but I will update you when I can. Go."
Cid slipped the earpiece in without a word.
Mirio gave a sharp nod. "Understood."
They turned and moved out.
They moved fast down the city streets
Cid appeared on the roof of a tall building overlooking the worst of the destruction, his hands shoved into his pockets as the lower half of his cloak snapped behind him in the wind. From a distance, his eyes looked like they were glowing a bright, burning red as he took in the chaos below with perfect clarity.
Mirio's voice came through the earpiece, steady despite the noise.
"Ratio, what donyou have eyes on up there?"
Cid's scanned the rubble with cold precision. He could see the weak points in the collapsed structures, the shifting weight of debris, the faint movements of people trapped beneath.
"Two buildings down on your left," he said calmly. "Three civilians under the main support beam. One's bleeding badly from the leg. Clear the smaller debris first, then I'll move them."
"On it."
Cid focused on a section of rubble pinning a woman and two children. With rapid, precise applications of his Quirk, he began shrinking away the debris piece by piece, clearing it off their bodies without disturbing the larger, unstable sections above them. Once the path was clear, he made the three of them appear on the street below, laying them down gently in a cleared section of road.
Mirio was already moving to the next spot before Cid even spoke again.
"Next one's two blocks east. Fourth floor, it's partially collapsed. I see at least four people."
"Got it."
They fell into a rhythm quickly. Mirio would free the trapped civilians by phasing through the worst of the rubble, then he would leave them in Cid's direct line of sight. Cid would pull them out in rapid succession, depositing them on the street below where they could be reached more easily. Within minutes, they had already pulled over a dozen people to safety.
It wasn't enough.
More and more cries for help echoed through the collapsing streets. The scale of the destruction while contained was devastating in the areas they occurred.
Cid's eyes never stopped moving. His voice stayed calm and precise through the earpiece as he directed Mirio to the next location, then the next.
After they had cleared another group, Cid spoke.
"Lemillion. I'm calling it in. We're amassing too many injured in one spot. I need medical support down here now. You keep locating them, I'll handle the extraction and the call."
"Understood," Mirio replied without hesitation. "Go."
Cid tapped the earpiece, switching channels to the emergency response frequency. His voice was steady, professional, and completely focused.
"This is Ratio, Nighteye agency. I have a large number of civilians needing immediate medical attention in the central district, near the intersection of 7th and Kane. Multiple injuries, several are critical. I'm looking at dozens, potentially scaling to hundreds as we clear more rubble. Requesting immediate medical teams and transport. Set up a emergency treatment area in the cleared lot two blocks south of my position. Lemillion and I will be pulling them in rapid succession."
He paused for only a second, eyes still scanning the destruction.
He switched back to Mirio's channel.
"Medical is on the way. Keep pulling them out. I'll handle moving them to the CCP as soon as it's set up."
"Got it," Mirio answered. "Next group is two streets over. I can see at least five."
Cid's eyes locked onto the new location. His hands stayed in his pockets, but his focus was absolute.
What felt like hours had only been about one.
Cid and Mirio had been moving non-stop, pulling people out of collapsed buildings and rubble-strewn streets. The number was climbing fast close to 200 civilians rescued between the two of them. Medical teams had arrived and set up an aid station, and the two of them had been feeding a steady stream of injured people their way.
Cid could feel the strain now.
The constant, rapid use of his Quirk, combined with keeping both eyes fully active for so long, was starting to wear on him. A dull headache pulsed behind his eyes, and his focus was beginning to fray at the edges. But he pushed through it. He had to. There were still too many people trapped, too many lives to save.
He stood on the rooftop, hands in his pockets, eyes scanning the destruction below as he fed Mirio directions through the earpiece.
Cid was already lining up the next group when something in his peripheral vision moved.
A massive black blur came out of nowhere, slamming into the side of his head with terrifying force.
The impact was brutal.
Cid was launched off the rooftop like a ragdoll, sent flying across the street and crashing through the side of an already half-destroyed building. The world spun violently. He felt the sharp crack of ribs breaking, the wet heat of blood pouring down the side of his head and into his ear where the crushed earpiece had been driven into his skin. Cuts opened across his arms and back from the debris as he tumbled through the wreckage.
He hit the ground hard and stayed down for several long seconds, dazed, ears ringing, vision swimming.
'Fuck…'
Slowly, painfully, he pushed himself up onto his hands and knees, coughing up blood. His head throbbed with every heartbeat. His side screamed where his ribs had broken. But he forced himself to his feet, stumbling toward the hole he'd been blasted through.
When he reached the opening and looked out, he saw it.
Hovering in the air just outside the building was a massive, hulking figure. Dark, almost black skin stretched over thick muscle, said skin looked like it had torn open around the bottom of its neck. It had a black hood over its head. Jets of some kind hissed and flared from its back, keeping it aloft..
Cid stared at it, blood dripping down the side of his head.
The things head tilted slightly as if studying him.
Then it lunged.
Cid reacted on instinct. He tried to use his Quirk on it to shrink it.
Nothing happened.
His eyes widened.
The figures fist came at him again, and Cid appeared on the rooftop of the building across the street in the blink of an eye, barely avoiding the strike. The air where he'd just been standing exploded from the force of the missed blow.
He landed clutching his side as his breathing came out strained. His eyes locked onto the thing that attacked him as it turned to face him.
The things hood had fallen down.
There, sitting exposed on top of its head, was a brain aling with eyes that were glowing faintly with yellow energy, tubes and wires connected to it.
Cid's mind went blank for a single, stunned second.
*…Fuuuuuuuuck.*