7,255BOOM! NEW CHAPTER!
Hey everybody, how are all of ya doing?
So, might be a big surprise for you readers, to see an update so quickly but there's an interesting reason for it. As we entered April, I noticed that I was coming up on the 10th, which was the day when this fic was created. And it never occurred to me that I had not done some anniversary thing in the past four years.
Sooooooooooooooooo, HAPPY 4th ANNIVERSARY OF UNCHAINED PREDATOR!
Since its creation on April 10th, 2020, Unchained Predator has become the most-reviewed DOOM crossover, received a custom level on Steam workshop for the game Paint the Town Red, got an audiobook series on YouTube courtesy of The Great Khan, has a TV Tropes page that continues to be updated, and is already well on its way to becoming the most-reviewed MHA crossover! Hope this gets a fan comic soon!
This could not be done without all of your love and support over the years and you all have my deepest thanks. Let's keep the good times rolling and I'll try to remember to make chapters on the anniversary of this fic. Enjoy!
DOOM, My Hero Academia and Darksiders belong to their respective owners. I do not own either of them.
Beta read by Zeroth17.
Chapter 33
Emotional Developments
MUSUTAFU GENERAL HOSPITAL
4TH FLOOR
9:55 PM
Ragdoll shifted uncomfortably in her bed as she stared down at her lap. Her food tray sat by her bed on a small handcart but she hadn't touched it for some time. About two days ago, she woke up tied to a hospital bed which was a pretty scary experience for her. There was a brief period of panic from her until the orderlies calmed her down and undid her bindings. Since then, she had been subjected to psychology tests and questions but her answers to them were all the same, she had no recollection of what happened to her when she used her Quirk on the Vigilante.
Why couldn't she remember anything? The last thing she could recall was being on one of her team's rescue boats while using her Quirk to find Miruko and the Vigilante...and that was it. Nothing. Anything after that was completely blank. It greatly concerned Tomoko; her time in the hospital only made her feel more anxious. The staff regarded her with caution or outright fear, something that confused her to no end.
But that was nothing compared to what she heard about what happened on I-Island: the Steel Sabers had been wiped out, the facility was in shambles, dozens of Pro Heroes had been hospitalized and the Vigilante was still at large. She feared for the lives of her team and the other Heroes, something on this scale had never happened before in Japan. But it still did not explain why there were gaps in her memory. Did her Quirk malfunction by some freak accident? Did the Vigilante have something to do with it? This whole situation drove her nuts and if she was being honest, it scared her. She glanced over to her food try and after feeling her stomach grumble, Tomoko decided to eat something to keep her spirits up at the very least. She just hoped that it hadn't gone cold.
Just outside her hospital room, Recovery Girl informed the other three Pussycats of Ragdoll's surprise recovery. Tiger, Mandalay, and Pixie-Bob were the first few Heroes to regain consciousness from their disastrously one-sided fight against the Vigilante. The first thing they demanded to know was the welfare of their friend but most of the hospital staff were tightlipped about the subject. It wasn't until after they could walk on their two feet a day later that they learned from Recovery Girl that their longtime teammate and a surrogate family member had suffered a complete mental breakdown and attempted to gouge out Rumi's eye with a scalpel. But now she had seemingly recovered from her brief fit of insanity.
"Chiyo, I-I just don't understand." Mandalay professed. She and her teammates were dressed in their patient gowns; Pixie-Bob and Tiger stood behind her appearing just as conflicted as she was. "How did she recover so quickly?
"To be honest, I don't know. I've never seen anyone regain mental clarity this fast." Recovery Girl "But her tests all come out positive. She's made a full recovery."
"You're sure she's okay upstairs, right?" Tiger asked, pointing to his head.
Recovery Girl looked down at her clipboard before answering. "There's no visible brain damage that we've detected. No trauma, no infection, her scans are all normal."
"But how? How did she just forget everything that happened?" Pixie-Bob pressed, remembering Tomoko's screams during their travel to I-Island.
"It's possible that Tomoko has Dissociative Amnesia: a type of memory loss stemming from extreme shock or trauma. She wouldn't be the first patient here who's experienced something similar." Recovery Girl figured.
"Could she...relapse? Remember everything that happened?" Mandalay fearfully worried.
"She's already been made aware of what happened on I-Island but she's shown no recollection of anything that happened to her so it's doubtful that she'll remember that specific event." Chiyo informed. "But I will say this: she must NOT use her Quirk on the Vigilante again. Only then will she relapse."
"So does that mean she can't return to being a Hero?" Tiger fearfully assumed.
"On the contrary, she can. I want to run two more tests on her before I have her released but if she doesn't show any irregular behavior by then, she can resume her Hero duties." Chiyo clarified. The Pussycats released the breaths they were holding in, glad their friend wouldn't have to retire. "With that being said, I also speak for all of us when I say that Tomoko does not need to know about what happened with Miruko." This earned a nod from the others.
"Can we see her?" Pixie-Bob asked, twiddling her fingers together.
"Absolutely." Recovery Girl smiled as she opened the door. The Pussycats rushed in to embrace their teammate; Ragdoll uttering a surprised gasp of joy as she hugged her team back. Chiyo smiled at the heartwarming sight of an unconventional family reuniting together after spending so long apart. Still, the question of Tomoko's surprise recovery lingered in her head. But Recovery Girl merely sighed as she turned away and walked down the hall.
"I suppose miracles do happen..." She mused to herself as she turned the corner. But as soon as she did Jeremiel emerged from behind the open door. He peered into the room to take in the confronting sight of an elated Tomoko while being invisible to them. He was proud to help this young woman on behalf of the Creator.
"They do, Ms. Shuzenji." Jeremiel said, knowingly. "They do."
MUSUTAFU GENERAL HOSPITAL
3RD FLOOR
It was early in the evening when Shoto Todoroki received a visit from his siblings, Fuyumi and Natsuo. They hugged Shoto as tight as they could, expressing how worried they were for him when news of the I-Island Siege reached every corner of Japan and the world. They later released their bearhug on him before he could pass out.
"So both of your friends got released today? That's good to hear." Fuyumi said as she placed the flowers she bought for her younger brother into a vase.
"Well, one of them didn't go home quietly." Shoto recounted the heated argument Bakugou had with his equally hotheaded mother. Now he knew where Katsuki's temper came from.
"I can't imagine why." Natsuo scratched his head. "Aren't hospitals supposed to prioritize comfort and safety?"
"Not for Bakugou, believe me." Shoto sighed as he settled into his bed.
"I'm just spitballing here but your friend wouldn't happen to be that chained-up psycho from the Sports Festival-URK!" Natsuo began to guess before Fuyumi pinched his cheek.
"Ruining the mood as always..." Fuyumi tugged on her brother's cheek.
"I'm not!" Natsuo uttered as he held up his hands. Thankfully, his sister released her hold on him.
"Mom hasn't stopped worrying about you ever since she heard the news about I-Island. I told her that you're recovering and going to be okay but she's still a little jittery about what happened." Fuyumi informed.
"The hospital she's staying at wouldn't let her visit me?" Shoto asked, dismayed.
"You know how that place is; the doctors there take their job pretty seriously." Natsuo shook his head. "It isn't fair if you ask me."
"Maybe so but they're trying to help her." Fuyumi reminded him. "But I'll tell Mom you're doing all right. She'll be happy to hear from you and I think visiting her after you leave the hospital will make her day."
"I'll be sure to remind myself to do that." Shoto replied. His mother's mental health had been improving with subsequent visits, much to his delight. The possibility of Rei being released was something he and his siblings were looking forward to. It was the matter of their father that worried them...
"I should go see Dad and see if he's woken up yet." Fuyumi said as she went over to the door. "I'll be back soon!" She waved to them.
The two brothers waved back as she left the room, leaving them alone. "It'll probably be a while if he ever does wake up. I've never seen him so banged up before; not since Esuha." Natsuo scratched the back of his head.
"This was worse, trust me." Shoto lowered his head.
Natsuo sat himself down on a seat next to Shoto's bed, appearing conflicted. "Do you know what happened to him?"
Shoto swallowed. "It was the Vigilante responsible for destroying I-Island and the Steel Sabers."
"Wait, you mean that Vigilante? The one the news won't stop talking about?" Natsuo questioned. Shoto nodded, closing his eyes. The brothers stayed silent; Natsuo uncomfortably staring down at the floor. "Is it...strange of me to say that I actually feel bad about Enji?"
Shoto looked at his brother in surprise.
"I mean, I'll never forgive him for what he did to us but...back when he was hospitalized after he fought Volcano, I thought that he was going to die. And I felt...can you believe it? Me being worried about the man who destroyed our family? I hate him so much but..." Natsuo anxiously tapped his foot as he clenched his hands, struggling to find the right words. "At the same time, I don't want him to die. Because if he did, I...I..."
Natsuo trailed off before hanging his head, unable to finish out of conflicting emotions.
"Because you're scared of how it would affect Fuyumi and Mom." Shoto deduced. Natuso froze, slowly lifting his head. "And you're worried that you might feel happy if he did die. To be honest, I hate him too but I would never wish for his death. Because if I did, if we did, it would be disrespecting Toya's memory. But I don't think the both of us would be happy if Enji died and because of that, it means we're not heartless."
Natsuo had never considered that notion. Had he been so wrapped up in his anger towards his father it had blinded him to how he and the rest of his family would have felt. Feeling tears welling up in his eyes, Natsuo fought them back and nodded in agreement with his younger brother's words. A small smile formed on Shoto Todoorki's lips.
Maybe there was some hope for this broken family after all.
MUSUTAFU-MIDORIYA RESIDENCE
10:04 PM
"Well, we're home." Inko Midoriya announced as she pulled her minivan into the parking garage next to their apartment complex. Izuku was brought out of his thoughts as the vehicle came to a stop in its parking spot. Climbing out of the minivan, the mother and son walked out of the garage and up to the steps of their apartment. Izuku was dressed in his regular around-the-house clothes his mother brought for him when he was getting ready to leave the hospital.
Inko remained silent out of concern for her son. He was withdrawn during the whole drive; she attributed that to the trauma he suffered on I-Island. Izuku had previously told her that U.A. was going to be closed for a while so he would thankfully have some time to recover from this ordeal. As they went up the steps that led into the building, Izuku glanced to his right at the spot where the Vigilante landed not just a few days ago. The groundskeepers had since then filled in the hole with dirt and planted grass within it.
Izuku gripped the handrail, his knuckles turning white. He had no idea what the Vigilante was capable of back when he and his mother first met him. It may have well been an encounter with death itself after everything that had happened. He followed his mother back up the stairs where they took the elevator up to their apartment. Entering the living room, Izuku quietly went to his bedroom without a word. Inko felt the sting of tears in her eyes from witnessing her once-lively son be reduced to a husk of his former self.
As she went over to the refrigerator to get out dinner for Izuku, she couldn't help but think about the Vigilante that her son described. She felt herself shudder when she thought back to when they met him a while ago. To think, they were standing near a man who was capable of so much bloody destruction. How were either of them supposed to know that he would go on to decimate I-Island and kill all those Villains? It filled her with dread to know that man was still out there planning God knows what.
In his room, Izuku lay on his bed while vacantly staring up at his ceiling. He tried to think about something else other than I-Island but all he kept seeing were intermittent flashes of the Vigilante surrounded by dead bodies and fire. Frowning, he sat himself up and opened his bedroom window; sticking his head outside. His hopes for a quiet night were a forgone wish as the sounds of emergency vehicle sirens blared in the background. He sighed, knowing that his city was still in disarray from the explosion and there wouldn't be any respite anytime soon. He glanced up at the cloudy night sky and felt himself grow uncomfortable.
The memory of the Vigilante landing outside his apartment was still fresh in his mind. But why was he suddenly falling from the sky? Did he jump out of a plane or something? But then there was that thunderclap he heard right before the man freefalled into the ground. Was the Vigilante somehow tied to that sudden thunderstorm? Did he come out of that storm?
Izuku groaned out of lethargic exhaustion and leaned back into his room, closing the window. Uriel stood near the ledge on the roof of an apartment building adjacent to Izuku's apartment. She felt nothing but sympathy for the poor boy; she wished that he never had to witness the bloodshed on I-Island. But her concern at the moment was his place in the Ascendant Realm's current predicament with the Doomslayer. Now that All for One had his eye on the Bane of Hell, it would only be a matter of time before Izuku Midoirya would be dragged into the conflict as well. The Ascendant Realm had been keeping a close eye on the OFA and AFO Blessings for a century, as they were both very powerful, yet unwieldy powers.
The two Gods that had created those Blessings were firm; they believed the conflict would be resolved soon and wouldn't disrupt the Eternal Balance. But after a full century of the past users failing to defeat AFO, their souls seemingly disappearing instead of ascending to Heaven, and the Villain steadily gaining more power, the other Gods were beginning to have their doubts. Perhaps the Slayer could be the one to put an end to the vicious cycle due to his ability to alter fate. The wisdom Gods had drawn up several theories about this astonishing feat but it was nothing concrete yet.
There was also the other matter of the mortal who saw the Slayer arrive: Ibara Shiozaki, a student at U.A. who received her Blessing from Cernunnos, the Celtic God of Nature. She alone was the only being on Earth who witnessed the Doomslayer come out of that rift in the sky. So far she showed no intention of sharing the footage she recorded with anyone or posting it on social media. She was convinced that it was some kind of sign but what it meant was unknown to any of the Gods. None of them, not even the Creator himself, knew why he came here or what sent him here.
Uriel turned her head over to the left at the cityscape in the distance, tensing up. She could sense the Slayer hastening the damned to their eternal punishment; specifically those associated with AFO...
MUSUTAFU-UPPER NORTH SIDE
10:08 PM
Boiling Point was one of the most prolific and clever assassins in Japan. Her Quirk allowed her to control the temperature of whatever liquid she touched, including human blood. It was her favorite form of assassination; disabling her target and then placing her hand on them, literally boiling them from the inside out by raising the temperature of their blood. This cemented her Villain name and garnered her a devious reputation for law enforcement all across the country. Boiling Point started up her own Villain group as time went on but mostly consisted of female assassins like her. When she was approached by another Villain by the name of Kurogiri with an offer to join the League of Villains, she accepted since it would rake in funding for her operations. Also, the alliance made any other Villains wary of attempting to overtake her group because it would mean incurring AFO's wrath.
Shame it wasn't helping her now.
The Villainess now found herself slumped against a wall, a massive gash in her midsection that almost made her intestines spill out of her body. Her underground hideout was ablaze and the bodies of her henchwomen were splayed out in states of mutilation all over the floor. And approaching her, with his fist rammed straight through a dead assassin's midsection and clutching a chainsaw sword in the other, was the Vigilante responsible for the destruction of I-Island and decimating the entire Steel Sabers mercenary organization.
The Doomslayer threw the corpse off his hand and drew his Super Shotgun, approaching the red-haired, spandex dress-wearing Villain who was trying to keep her guts from spilling out of her abdomen.
"Y-Y-Y-You stupid piece of shit...do you have a-a-any idea what you've...done...?!" Boiling Point gurgled out, blood dribbling down her chin. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO I WORK FOR?! ALL FOR ONE IS GONNA FUCK UP YOUR LIFE-"
Her rant was cut short when the Doomslayer splattered the upper half of her body with a single trigger pull. With this gang taken care of, the Slayer holstered his weapon and walked towards the stairs. The flames consumed the bodies of the dead and their hideout which contained weapons, amassed cash, and documents containing assassination targets. He went up the stairs to a hatch that led him into the storeroom of a perfume shop, used as a disguise to conceal their operations. He exited the store as smoke billowed from the underground hideout and went over to the Rampart that was parked nearby.
"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" Came a loud voice to his right. He turned to see a Hero dressed in a blocky red, black, and silver costume with a large drill on his right hand standing on the adjacent sidewalk. Master Driller had seen a blood-covered man exit a store that had smoke coming from it and was about to question him until he suddenly reeled back in horror when he recognized who it was. Taggart stared at the Hero for a few more seconds before resuming his walk back to the Rampart.
"Stop! Get down on the ground, NOW!" Master Driller yelled as he pointed his drill at the Vigilante. The Slayer ignored him, prompting Master Driller to charge forward and thrust his spinning drill at him. His opponent spun around and clamped his hand around the edge of the drill, grinding it to a halt. Before the Hero could register what the hell just happened, the Vigilante flung him into a traffic light. His helmet bashed against it and shattered the bulbs as he fell to the ground unconscious. The Doomslayer went back to his chopper, got on it, and drove away into the night to continue his purge of AFO's accomplices unabated.
Woe be to those who got in his way.
To be continued...
Man, I don't know who to feel sorry for, the Villains or the Heroes. Probably neither.
Another short chapter but there's an interesting story behind it: these were background events that would occur during the Slayer's Villain hunt in the next chapter but as I felt that they would disrupt the pacing, I compiled them into a chapter.
Not much to say about Ragdoll, other than I wanted to show her reuniting with her team and Recovery Girl trying to rationalize her recovery though we all know what truly happened. The Todoroki family was difficult to approach but I pushed on regardless. I believe that as much as Shoto and Natsuo hate Endeavor I don't think they want him dead.
Izuku's continuing PTSD was pretty self-explanatory but I did add in some interesting reveals and clues about the Ascendant Realms ties to Quirks including the two Gods who created AFO and OFA. I do plan on having an in-depth explanation of their involvement in Quirks but that will be much, much, MUCH later in the story. On an interesting note, how do you guys think Ibara will react when she discovers that her Quirk came from a God that shares no connection to her religion?
The next chapter will have way more Doomslayer action that I know you'll all enjoy! Again, I thank you all for the support you have given me for four years, I never thought this story would gain as much traction as it did, let alone get off the ground. God bless you all, you are loved.
Don't forget to review but please don't flame.
P.S. To those who liberated Malevalon Creek from the Automaton menace, we salute you!