The two sides stared at each other, neither backing down. But before either make any move, something strange began to happen among the heroes.
One of them standing beside Star and Stripe suddenly dropped to his knees as he clutched his stomach.
"I… feel sick," he muttered weakly. "What… is this?"
Several others staggered as well. A few heroes lost their footing entirely, their balance failing them as if the ground had suddenly tilted beneath their feet.
Star and Stripe turned sharply, alarm flashing across her face.
"What's wrong with you all?"
Then her own vision blurred.
She blinked hard, trying to clear the haze from her eyes. Her breathing slowed slightly as she tried to understand what was happening.
Then she noticed a strange odor lingering in the air.
"What is this smell?" she muttered.
Another hero nearby looked around and spoke grimly "His blood."
The heroes followed his gaze.
Scattered across the ground were tiny droplets left behind from Junsei's earlier wounds. The spots of blood bubbled as if heated from within.
The blood-controlling hero reacted instantly.
He gathered the boiling droplets into the air with his power and fling them far away from himself and the rest of the heroes.
Star and Stripe moved at the same time.
"New Order. The air within fifty meters of me will be replaced with new air."
A rush of wind swept through the area as the atmosphere shifted. The strange smell vanished almost immediately.
Several heroes exhaled in relief.
One of them steadied himself, still visibly dizzy.
"That freak's blood releases some kind of toxin," he said. "It is affecting us already."
Star and Stripe didn't answer.
Because she felt it too.
A faint dizziness lingered in her head despite the fresh air.
Her eyes shifted toward Junsei. He stood silently watching them.
Waiting.
Her expression hardened.
"That bastard isn't attacking," she said quietly. "He's waiting for the toxin to weaken us further."
At that moment a voice spoke through their earpieces.
"Can you determine the toxin's effect?"
Star and Stripe replied quickly.
"It's difficult to determine this too quickly. But I suspect it will only get worse from here."
The voice responded "Change of plans."
A brief pause followed.
"We're initiating the Last Protocol."
Star and Stripe stiffened.
"But sir, that was supposed to be used as a last resort"
The voice cut her off.
"The infected army is still approaching from behind you. A large portion of your team is dead, injured or poisoned, and the animals have not appeared yet. We cannot continue like this while hoping the monster eventually reaches his limit. And if he manages to escape, I doubt he would allow himself to be in such a position again, he could even go into hiding."
The speaker's tone grew colder.
"Cassie, there is a forest east of your position beyond the mountain. You know what you need to do."
Star and Stripe closed her eyes briefly.
Then she answered.
"Yes, sir."
She turned toward the heroes beside her.
"Amp."
A tall hero wearing a red costume with a golden plus symbol on both his forehead and chest nodded.
Star and Stripe raised her voice "You heard the order."
Her gaze moved toward Junsei. "Attack him with everything you have."
The surrounding heroes who still could fight nodded and rushed forward together.
Across the battlefield, Junsei saw the movement.
He immediately dropped onto all fours, preparing to launch himself forward with maximum speed.
But before he could move, pink light wrapped around his limbs. Junsei paused for half a second, his six eyes scanning the charging heroes rapidly until he found the source.
A muscular hero wearing a blue costume stood among them. Tiny white wing-like ornaments decorated his outfit, and his eyes glowed with the same pink light surrounding Junsei's body.
Junsei narrowed his eyes.
This time he did not allow his movement to fail.
Instead of relying on muscle strength to propel himself forward, Junsei detonated a controlled explosion beneath his body. The blast launched him forward despite the suppression affecting his limbs.
His target switched to the pink-light hero.
Junsei rushed toward him at terrifying speed and opened his mouth.
A massive sonic attack erupted from his throat, the destructive sound wave tearing through the ground toward the advancing heroes.
But one of them reacted instantly.
A defensive barrier formed in front of the group, absorbing the sonic blast as the others launched their own attacks.
Energy waves, lightning bolts, and explosive strikes flew toward Junsei.
Junsei dodged them as he continued his advance using explosions burst from his hands, his feet as he redirected his momentum and his muscles flexed just like All Might. Junsei almost seemed unaffected by the pink energy interfering anymore.
Still, it was not enough to deal with the heroes. They were surrounding him slowly without allowing him to approach any of them. There were still too many of them and they were well coordinated.
Gradually the circle around him tightened.
Finally Junsei leapt upward to avoid a barrage of attacks coming from three different directions.
The moment he entered the air, someone was already waiting for him. The giant Star and Stripe. The enormous dust construct swung its arm and struck him midair.
Junsei's body was sent flying eastward like a cannonball. At that exact moment the fighter jets above fired again. A blazing beam of laser energy descended from the sky.
The giant Star and Stripe caught the beam in its massive hands, shaping the laser into a colossal spear of burning light.
She pulled back her arm.
Below her, Amp raised his hand.
A gigantic golden sphere formed directly in front of the laser spear.
Star and Stripe hurled the spear of energy forward and passed through the golden sphere.
The moment it did, its speed multiplied dozens of times. It struck Junsei in midair and carried him like a projectile across the sky, launching him beyond the mountain range and deep into the forest beyond.
Star and Stripe spoke urgently "All jet fighters are to evacuate now!! The rest rally to me now!!"
The laser spear carried Junsei across the sky like a comet.
His body travelled through the air for several kilometers before the force finally released him. He crashed deep within the forest with a thunderous impact, tearing through trees and earth before the momentum finally died out.
For a moment, the forest fell silent again.
Junsei slowly rose from the crater he had carved into the ground. Blood covered parts of his body, but the wounds were already closing.
He looked around. Recognition came quickly. This was his forest, where he had lived years ago.
Why would they push him all the way here?
Junsei frowned as he climbed out of the crater. At first, he wondered if the heroes had simply lost control of the attack and sent him too far by accident, or were they trying to buy time?
But he dismissed both ideas immediately.
Those heroes had shown discipline and coordination throughout the battle. They believed they would eventually exhaust his regeneration and defeat him. They would not willingly allow him distance after all the effort they had spent trapping him.
Especially when his escape remained a possibility.
Junsei considered another explanation.
Perhaps they knew about his past here and intended to fight him in the forest, hoping he would hesitate to use his full power in fear of destroying the environment and the wildlife.
That idea seemed more plausible.
But even that had a flaw.
It would only work if they reached the forest first.
Junsei had no intention of letting them fight here. He would return to the city first and keep the battlefield away from this place. The forest would not become a casualty of this war.
Junsei closed his eyes briefly and reached outward through the connection he shared with his infected puppets. Through their senses he could observe the battlefield the heroes had left behind.
What he saw surprised him. The heroes had not followed him.
Instead they had gathered together in the city, constructing massive defensive walls facing his direction. Layers of rock and energy barriers were being raised rapidly.
The fighter jets were gone.
Junsei opened his eyes slowly.
He did not understand.
Were they afraid he would rush back toward them? That seemed unlikely. The heroes had shown no fear during the battle.
But then another thought surfaced.
They were planning something. Something they feared would harm them as well.
Junsei felt an unfamiliar sense of unease settle in his chest.
What were the humans preparing?
He moved quickly, leaping onto the top of a nearby tree to gain a better view. His six glowing eyes scanned the horizon in every direction.
There was nothing anywhere.
For several seconds, the forest remained completely still.
Then Junsei noticed something above him, the clouds were parting.
Junsei lifted his gaze upward and saw it.
A massive missile descending from the sky at terrifying speed.
Junsei barely had time to react before the weapon reached him.
Then light consumed everything, the explosion swallowed the forest, the mountain, and the sky itself.
For a moment the world became nothing but blinding light.
——————
Far away, the heroes protected themselves well.
They stood behind walls of rock and massive energy shields as the horizon erupted into a pillar of light. The ground trembled beneath their feet as if the earth itself was screaming.
The shockwave arrived seconds later.
An earthquake rippled across the region. Buildings in the distant city began to crumble under the violent tremors while the approaching infected army was thrown backward by the blast of wind.
The sky itself seemed to roar.
One hero stared at the distant mushroom cloud forming over the distance.
"I never thought I'd see the day we'd do something like this… for a single person."
Star and Stripe watched the rising column of smoke with a grim expression.
"When I heard years ago about the plan to nuke a person if their quirk proved to be too dangerous to the world, I thought it was just an extreme measure that would never be needed, most believed the same. But that monster proved us all wrong…" she said quietly.
Her voice carried a note of exhaustion.
"That entire area will be contaminated by radiation now."
Another hero glanced behind them toward the battlefield.
"The freakish army… it stopped."
He pointed toward the distant figures of the infected.
"They're not moving anymore."
A different hero exhaled slowly.
"I guess that confirms it."
Silence settled among them as they watched the cloud continue rising into the sky.
"Good riddance."