Gilded Green

“The Bobal’s!? Those filthy animals? Are you nuts?”

“You have a problem with them?”

“A problem? Ha! You could say that. Their creepy eyes, their horns, their wings, their weird looking skin- The term ‘mutie’ is too good for ‘em! I say we cut it short and call ‘em Muts! Like the dogs they are!”

“Why, Josephene, I didn’t know you had such a strong opinion on metas. I wish you would have told me sooner, because I completely agree with you. The newspaper says they’re dangerous, you know?”

“Metas!? No, I have nothing against metas! I’m insulted you would even insinuate such a horrible thing! No. I hate ‘em cuz they’re Chinese!”

*audience laughter*

-An expert from a Friday night improv comedy show aired in the late 2060s, which is widely believed to be the origin of the term “Mut” that slowly replaced the previous slang of “Mutie” which was short for “Mutant”.

Most meta rights activists fight against the use of the word, claiming it to be hate speech, but the sheer ubiquity that the term has grown to has made it almost impossible to get rid of, even among pure quirked communities. From use in government legislation, segregation signs, and even just common conversation, the term Mut is just as frequently used as a bland noun to refer to metas, as it is used hatefully as a slur.

-Gilded Green-

-Arc Start: Escalation Risks-

-Escalation Risks: Ch 1-

Shuichi Iguchi was a meta with a lizard-like mutation that gave him increased regeneration and thick scales that acted like a set of natural armor. Because of this he was an underpaid construction worker, who was used for manual labor in dangerous areas that other workers were at risk of being permanently wounded from.

He came home everyday after hours of backbreaking work with nothing to show for his efforts but bruises and burns, and after paying for the necessities to live he was left with pennies to his name.

But when he was off the company clock, Shuichi Iguchi went by a different name, a better name. To his friends he was known as Spinner, a relentless fighter, a protective battle brother, and a proud son of the New Dawn.

Spinner pressed his back against the cold, crumbling wall of the besieged building, his breath staggering out in ragged gasps. He tried to steady himself, but his hands were trembling so terribly, as he clutched his gun, that it caused the sword on his back to rattle in its sheath. The air was thick with the acrid smell of smoke and the distant crackles of fire, but inside the building, an eerie silence had settled. It was as if the world held its breath, waiting for who would make the next move.

“I’m sorry Eizo.” He muttered under his breath. “I will remember your name, I will remember your sacrifice, and I will avenge you.”

Spinner dragged the body of his brother in arms away from the spot he had died in, not caring about the blood that stained his hands as he did so. He closed the man’s eyes, whispered a prayer, took his pistol, and moved on.

There was no time to mourn.

The metal frame of the building groaned, and his footsteps echoed in the hallways as he darted between windows, his eyes scanning the streets outside, which were now eerily quiet. The droids had ceased their relentless barrage, and the silence was more unnerving than the gunfire it replaced.

Spinner carefully avoided the holes that had been blown in the walls, not wanting to give them an easy shot at him. Each peek outside revealed the same unsettling stillness, broken only by the occasional flicker of movement by guards far behind the droid line. His mind raced with questions: were they regrouping, planning their next assault, was it a distraction. or was this some new tactic? The silence pressed in on him, filling him with a growing sense of dread.

“They’ve stopped. But why?”

“Spinner?”

He glanced behind him, towards the voice, but found only an empty hallway.

“Toru, what are you- no, nevermind. Go. Go!”

Spinner rushed past his invisible friend, trusting her to follow him further into the building.

“Spinner, why did they stop shooting?”

“I don’t know.”

“That white thing out there, is it a new droid!?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is it a person!?”

“I. Don’t. Know!”

Toru seemed to get the hint at that, and stopped her questions.

Soon they emerged into the heart of the building, a large room that had once been the main factory line. The whole facility had been reinforced by the insurgents, but this was the only area that could survive any direct missile strikes. It was where they had been stockpiling weapons for months, and it was now where all the rebels who had been defending the building were gathered… Well, the surviving ones at least.

Spinner did a brief headcount, excluding Toru, and of the 45 proud soldiers who had been charged with guarding the building, only 23 remained.

“How did they find us?”

“Someone must have cracked under pressure. I know a lot of people in the Dawn didn’t think the stunt last week was a good idea.”

“Oh really? They don’t think setting fire to half the fucking district was a good idea!? I don’t know what cell came up with that, but we’re all going to die because of them!”

“We need to warn the others.”

“How?! We’re surrounded and completely cut off! And even if we run, they’ll just chase us! They’re relentless.”

“They may be relentless, but so are we!”

The chattering died down as Spinner entered the room, everyone knew he was easily the most experienced fighter among them.

“We are relentless. We are unyielding. We are the wind of destiny. We are the New Dawn! History is on our side, we only need to stay the course. Stand tall and proud. You are all true sons of the New Dawn, and I am honored to fight by your side.”

Spinner nodded at the men and women around him, before turning to Toru and speaking under his breath so the others wouldn’t hear.

“I thought I told you to slip away and warn the others! You’re not a fighter Toru, you’re a messenger and a spy, you’re good at that. Serving a support role is nothing to be ashamed about. Why did you come back!?”

“They have the whole area quarantined, I couldn’t escape! And I can’t just leave you to die! Let me help, please!”

“Toru, listen to me.” Spinner grabbed her by the shoulder, something he was only comfortable with doing after knowing her for years. “I’m telling you this, not as the most experienced fighter here, but as your friend. Hide. Find somewhere to hide away so that when they do come they cannot find you, then leave and tell the others what happened here. They need to be warned at all costs.”

Toru didn’t agree, he couldn’t read her face, but he didn’t even need to with how obvious she was.

But she also wasn’t stupid.

“…fine. But you better survive this, and come find me after. Promise?”

“I will. I promise.” He lied. “Now go!”

“Traitors.”

Immediately every person in the room was on their feet, weapons and quirks at the ready.

The voice seemed to come from everywhere all at once, echoing through the corridors and around the metal walls of the room. It was feminine but not, as if something was fundamentally wrong with it.

“You are surrounded. Your forces decimated. You have thrown away the generosity given to you, and have chosen to revel in violence, the language of beasts. Accept your fate now, for these are your final moments. But know that I am not cruel, and will give you the mercy of a quick death.”

Not even a second later the generator, built under the building, went out and plunged the entire factory into darkness.

Sections of the area lit back up as quirks activated and flashlights flicked on, but the gaps between the light were wide, and the darkness hung heavily overhead.

“What’s happening!?”

“Where is she?”

“I can’t see anything!”

Thunk. Whirr. Thunk. Whirr.

The group could do nothing but listen to the ominous sounds approaching from the darkness. The whirring of servos, precise and mechanical, alternated with the heavy, rhythmic thunk of metallic footsteps, growing louder with each passing second.

Thunk. Whirr. Thunk. Whirr.

“That noise… It’s a droid?”

“What kind of droid do they think can take us all at once?”

Thunk. Whirr. Thunk. Whirr.

Spinner's eyes narrowed as he stared into the darkness, and slowly drew his sword from its sheath. “She is coming, alone.”

Thunk. Whirr.

“Steady men, hold your fire. They want us to waste bullets on nothing.”

Thunk. Whirr.

“It’s close, but where?”

Thunk. Whirr.

“It’s all around us!”

Thunk. Whirr.

“Calm!” Spinner urged. “She’s trying to break our morale.”

Thunk. Whirr.

Spinner scanned the darkness, trying to see anything in the all consuming darkness. In his right hand he clenched his sword, and in his left he held his pistol so tightly he worried it might shatter.

Thunk.

…

“It stopped? But where… Above! SCATTER!” Spinner screamed as he shoved Toru away and dove to the ground.

Most of the fighters had been in the New Dawn long enough to trust Spinner, and immediately follow his order, but several hesitated, and one of those unfortunate idiots got turned into a red paste as a white blur slammed down on top of him like a falling star.

Eri grinned as she stood up from the small crater she made, and rose to her full height. Her servos whirred as parts audibly clicked into place, and her artificial eye glinted in the dark.

Her forearms split open, and two blades shot out into her waiting hands. They were two swords made of a carbon based alloy, without handguards, that had been sharpened down to a molecular edge. Much different than the cheap training blades she used in her spar with the Commander.

Every light was suddenly trained on her, causing her bone white appearance to almost glow in contrast to the pitch black background. She would have looked angelic, if she weren’t splattered red with fresh blood. The only angel she could be was an Angel of death.

The thick metal headband she wore to hide her horn shifted, similar to the way the Mscrolls did, and three thin sheets extended down to cover her face. As far as masks went, it was almost pitifully minimalist. The barren bleached white metal was completely without decoration, with only two triangular holes for red eyes to glare through. The only real defining feature was how the two edge sheets dropped down further than the middle, and their pointed ends resembled fangs, or gave it a vague skull shape.

Its practical ability for protection, and even just hiding her identity, was pretty limited, but that didn’t matter. Its purpose was purely psychological, and made to better inflict fear in those she was sent to hunt down.

“KILL HER!”

A majority of the bullets went wide in panic, most missed, some she dodged, a few she even deflected with her blades, and a small handful even got lucky enough to actually impact her body, but none did any meaningful damage.

Eri was a whirlwind of death and she cut down the terrorists as easily as if she was cutting the grass.

Two, three, four heads of the people near her were toppeling to the floor before anyone could even react.

She blitzed into a woman, spearing her through the gut with her sword, and then used her as a meat shield as she kept charging as butchered the man behind her.

A towering meta with a strength quirk roared as he rushed over with his massive hammer

Without even turning around, Eri swung her second sword up in a lazy arc that cleanly cut through the industrial hammer’s steel shaft, and caused the top half to fall to the ground. Then she swept her first sword up overhead and then back down behind her, bisecting the two people impaled on it, as well as the massive meta, clean in two.

A machine gun opened fire, and she slid left, weaving in and out of the rebels, causing them to hit their own.

Four more died to friendly fire, and six to decapitation.

Then she leapt and was sailing through the air. Her feet, metal blocks resembling combat boots, folded open into a nightmarish mixture of a machine’s claw and an eagle's talon.

With one she grabbed and crushed the head of the machine gunner, as she came down, and with the other she grabbed his weapon for herself.

Her sword pierced through the chest of another rebel and embedded into the ground. Rather than pull it back out, she braced the bottom of the blade on her palm and balanced herself atop it. With her legs as high up as they could go, the heavy gun she held in her talons fired a fully automatic barrage that turned the few remaining Muts into ribbons of shredded meat.

Then. A surprise.

Something slammed into the gun, and cleaved it in two.

Eri swung her second sword to get rid of the annoyance, but instead of gutting the pest, it was blocked by another blade.

Spinner grunted at the force behind her swing, and the two locked eyes. Angry gold stared into cold Red. But before he could follow up, Eri kicked him away to give herself time to get back right side up.

He stabbed his sword into the concrete floor, slowing himself down with a shower of sparks, before yanking his blade up and facing his opponent.

The human disguise that had been specially tailored to Eri, had finally shown its true colors. Now it had changed into what it had always been intended to be: a weapon.

The length from her shoulder to her elbow had extended, giving her further reach. Her forearms were split open, revealing the empty cavity where the blades had come from, and giving her hands full 360 degree rotation. Her legs were bent backwards like a horse’s, and had extended to make her much taller. Her feet were now blood stained claws. And her eyes were wide and unblinking, with her eyelids fully retracted and restrained to prevent even a moment of lost sight.

She stood up straight and was completely still as she stared at him, unmoving in a way that only a machine could be.

Covered from head to toe in the blood of his friends, the thing before him was a monster.

“RRAAAH!” Spinner roared as he charged, he fired with his pistol, but Eri was already moving, rushing in an arc around him, trying to get a good angle on the side he wasn’t holding his sword, so she could skewer him.

Thankfully he was saved from that gruesome fate.

“Death to Midoriya! Death to the factories! Long live Destro!”

One of the last remaining rebels had climbed on top of the largest of the crates that contained all the weaponry they had been hoarding, and had managed to pry it open.

He lifted two grenade launchers out of the crate, and opened fire.

Eri jumped to the side, easily avoiding death as an explosion shook where she had just been standing.

The rebel continued to fire wildly at her as she ran, missing every shot. She would kick one of the grenades back at the idiot, but they were made of clay-like contact explosives, so all that would do is lose her a leg.

She let her left blade retract into her arm as she slid along the ground and scooped up a rifle from a dead terrorist. It was poorly maintained, and the sight wasn’t set properly, which would make this annoying.

She shot thrice at the idiot flinging around explosives, and they all missed by a mile.

“Ha! The bitch can’t shoot!”

With a basic sample size, she mentally adjusted for the gun's variation from its sights, and sent her fourth shot right down the barrel of the Destrovite’s grenade launcher.

The grenade launcher exploded, and the ammo and explosives in the crate lit up like dry tinder, taking all the stockpiles nearby as well. Causing the entire factory to shake from the giant explosion that followed.

Parts of the ceiling caved in, and the ceiling from the floor above that too, crashing to the ground in big chunks and letting sunlight stream inside for the first time in years.

Much more concerningly, however, the floor under them began to cave in.

Atlas island was massive and artificial, getting caught in a sinkhole was a nightmare scenario. There was no telling what would happen to you.

Best case scenario, you fall into an abandoned maintenance tunnel where somebody might find you before you starve to death. Alternatively, you fall into the electrical systems, and suffer a few short moments of agony as your entire body is fried to death. Worst case scenario, you're dropped into the complex, heavy machinery that keeps the island running. Machinery that would easily turn you into meat slop, without being slowed down even slightly by the obstruction.

Thankfully (or unfortunately, depending on how bad your immune system was) the ground collapsed to reveal they were over a very unique part of the island’s inner workings.

A massive artificial ravine opened up below them like a metal maw. The bottom and lower sides were made of thick reinforced concrete, with grated metal catwalks running along the walls for maintenance personnel.

A huge river rushed through the ravine, strong enough to carry away the strongest swimmers and even boats. But you couldn’t call it liquid, no that would give the picture. Percentage wise it was a slight majority water, true, but it was so full of garbage and filth that the consistency varies from slush to thick mud depending on which spot you checked.

It was one of the three massive channels that collected rain off flow, sewage, trash, and industrial waste from all over the island, and pumped it to a massive underground refinery to be taken care of.

Massive slabs of solid metal several feet thick, and numerous supports designed to stop collapses like this from happening, all fell into the rushing tide below and were swept away without a struggle.

Eri leapt off a piece of floor as it fell, and dug her claws into the stable section that she landed on. With a detached expression she watched the rubble, and the bloody remnants of the rebel, get washed away with the trash.

He got what he deserved.

While Eri was distracted, Spinner took his chance.

He was silent and startlingly fast, closing the distance between them in mere seconds, and swinging his sword directly for her neck. But it was for not.

Without even looking, Eri knocked his sword out of his hands with a precise, but lazy, swing that took off a few fingers with it.

She turned and gave him an unimpressed look, which Spinner countered with a vicious grin.

Something fell from his baggy jacket sleeve and was jabbed into her stomach.

A sawed off shotgun, with the barrel cut so unbelievably short that it could just barely fit into the pocket of his jacket. With such a short barrel the accuracy was doomed to be abysmal, but this close it didn’t matter.

The two point blank buckshots punched through Eri’s gut, ripping through her insides, end exploded out her back in a shower of wires and electrical sparks.

Spinner grinned like a madman. He’d done it! If she didn’t die from this, she was bound to be crippled! All he had to do was draw the fight out and-

But then, with a flash of blue lighting, the wound disappeared like it never existed.

“A-A meta?!”

Spinner never got the answer to the question he shouted in surprise, instead he got a sword cut from his abdomen to his shoulder, fileting him like a fish.

He gasped in pain as he fell to the ground and before he could even try to muster the straight to struggle back to his feet, Eri’s metal foot came down and slammed his head down into the floor hard enough to fracture his skull. From there, she simply ground his face harder and harder into the metal floor until he stopped struggling.

With a shrug she lifted his body with her clawed feet, and tossed him down into the rushing sludge far below.

Toru watched it all in absolute terror. Tears rolled down her face, and she had to keep her hand clamped over her mouth so her sobbing wouldn’t be heard.

But when she saw Spinner, brave and heroic Spinner, get thrown away like he was trash, she couldn’t take it anymore.

She ran.

She didn’t know where she was going, and she didn’t care.

She ran down the pitch black hallways at full sprint, slamming into walls and turns without care.

She ran until her lungs burned. She ran until her naked feet were cut and bruised. And only then, when she physically could run no longer, did she finally collapse against a wall.

Everyone was dead. She was alone.

Completely and utterly alone.

…

“I see you~”

Toru’s eyes went wide, and it was all she could do to stop herself from hyperventilating as she frantically looked around.

The hallway was empty, the ceiling was clear, where had that come from? Was her mind playing tricks on-

A metallic hand erupted from the wall beside her, wrapped around her throat, and pulled her back through the thin metal.

“There you are. If I were anyone else, I would have missed you.”

Toru coughed and wheezed, fighting for air as Eri lifted her up by the throat.

Eri had dropped out of combat mode and reverted back to her humanoid form, but that only seemed to make her more terrifying somehow. She wasn’t even slightly injured at all, the only evidence that she had just been in a fight with over twenty people was the face she was covered in blood, and a few rips in her cloak from shrapnel and bullets that had been too slow.

“You’re going to be a good mut for me, right?” Eri’s mask slid up to reveal a cruel smile as she squeezed Toru’s neck even tighter. “You’re going to tell me where I can find the rest of your friends.”

-Chapter End-