CHAPTER 226(Almost Nuclear Aftermath)

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CHAPTER START---

"Thirteen won't be able to use her Quirk for months after that," Horizon says as he stands up.

Looking down at his body glove he sees bits and pieces melted, burnt, and warped. Parts of the internal gel armor were completely destroyed due to his inability to regulate his external energy.

Not that he cared that much, it's a move he just came up with after all.

"Ok, time to get to work," he looks around, taking stock above and around him.

He was standing in what was the massive pool below the reactor core, and all around him were sealed cylindrical ports in the wall. Each containing a dozen ultra dense carbon rods.

"So the failsafe was that the core would be lowered into this pool, but that didn't happen, until it melted its restraints," he looks up at the melted metal that once held the core in place.

He looks down at the metal floor that was still somewhat molten.

"And this place ran out of water, because that gate didn't open for the ocean to pour in," he looks at a large gate on the ceiling, that was still closed.

"And the radiation got out of this room, because these things didn't eject the Carbon Dampener Rods to absorb it," he looks around at all the ports containing the rods.

"Three layers of fail safes that stopped working, but the engineers said that all the stuff on the digital side of it kept working...someone was messing around in here."

He takes a deep breath and creates a new Room, only as large as the facility itself.

"Takt!"

All the ports with the rods are torn open, and he noticed something strange about the lock.

"First things first, contain the radiation before it reaches the city," with a wave of his hand he stacks all the rods at his feet in a neat pile, then raises his right hand and holds the wrist with his left.

Taking a deep breath he closes his eyes, and focuses on the most minute thing in his Room.

On the energy and radiation in the air.

He senses that the radiation is even at the limits of his Room, and expands it for another kilometer until he was sure he'd gotten it all.

Ever since Overhaul, he'd been practicing more and more with this move.

Since that fight his mind has been able to snap to focus on the energy in the air much easier.

He rarely get headaches anymore while training.

He can feel his power growing, and he's getting better and better at drawing out more of it.

He's nowhere near able to tap into all of his new power, nowhere near aligning his mind and heart.

Nowhere near that breakthrough that would propel him to the absolute and undisputed top of this world.

Nowhere near being the ascended being that would only know absolute and crushing victory from that moment onward.

But luckily, that was only four months away for Horizon.

And right now, he was still enough.

GAMMA: STRIKE!

All the radiation glows green and red this time since its not only gamma radiation from the air.

The engineers at the edge of the perimeter watch in amazement as the air itself glows and is pulled toward the reactor core room.

Pulled through the building itself and into the earth below.

Then it gathers in the palm of Horizon's hand before he reaches out and touches the pile of carbon rods.

The metal greedily absorbs the energy and heats up, softening slightly as the environment is once again safe.

Horizon slouches slightly and takes some tired breaths, "ok, time to figure out, what the fuck happened here."

He looks around at the seals for the port containing the rods, and with a though brings one to float in front of him.

Reaching out he inspects the seal, and everything appears normal.

The motor that should have opened it was perfectly fine, at least before Horizon tore it out of the wall.

SCAN!

Then he finds it, within the locking mechanism the metal was fused together.

SHAMBLES!

Scalpel appears in his hand.

AMPUTATE!

He cuts the lock in two, now able to see a cross section.

And sees the entire thing was perfectly fused together.

Looking up he sees the mechanism that was supposed to lower the core into the water melted into liquid, beyond inspection.

"The water gate," Horizon warps his hoverboard to him and stands on it, lifting himself up to the gate on the ceiling, meant to keep the ocean at bay until it was time to flood the core.

Placing his hand on it he focuses and Scans it, sensing the metal also fused together, making it impossible to open.

Without alerting the engineers that anything changed, since the motors and electricals were unaffected.

"Nezu!" Horizon reaches up and touches the side of his visor, only to feel the shape of his ear with the material melted onto it.

"Fuck!" he looks at his left forearm and sees the hologram interface Mei made for his was also melted.

SMAHBLES!

Horizon warps outside to where the engineers were anxiously waiting in a small tent.

They're all startled as he appears, surprising them men who were all wearing their hazmat suits and ready to evacuate.

"I need a phone, now!"

"Uh, wh---"

"Thirteen and I stopped the reactor, I need a phone, now!"

"Here," one of the men hastily hands him his phone and Horizon begins dialing, completely oblivious to how he looks.

He walks away from the men so that he can't be overheard.

Like a man who was bathed in molten plastic then rapidly cooled.

Even when one of cameras got a full view of him, he didn't notice, too busy calling Nezu.

"Who is---"

"I dealt with it," Horizon cuts Nezu off. "It was Wolfram, secure the Shields, I'm coming back to UA now, I can't talk on this phone."

"Got it," Nezu hangs up.

Looking at the time Horizon sees its already 4 PM, the UA Culture Festival was already over.

"Shit," he snaps the phone in half and tosses it into the ocean nearby.

"Awe, that was my phone," one of them men mutter, they were peeking out of the tent.

Horizon sighs and walks back over the the tent, and all the men can sense how uneasy he was.

And if Horizon is uneasy, they're were downright terrified of what could cause that.

"You men did nothing wrong," Horizon says to the engineers, the men who would have been held accountable for this disaster, for the death of millions.

"What?"

"This was the work of a villain," Horizon says. "Principal Nezu will inform President Pantu, you need to stay here with me until she gets more forces her to protect you and debrief you."

"A villain did this?" the lead engineer asks. "What kind of monster would do that?"

"You don't have to worry about that, I'll deal with it," Horizon reassures them.

"But what about you, are you alright?" the man gestures to Horizon's melted costume. "And where's Thirteen?"

"She had another emergency to deal with so I warped her there."

"Ahh," the engineers breath a sigh of relief.

Within 20 minutes Horizon was relieved by a Hero Public Safety Commission agent carrying a secure phone.

He was quickly informed that both David and Melissa Shield were completely fine and at UA.

The UA Culture Festival went exactly as planned, no villain sightings and only one fight almost happened, but luckily Shinso was able to put a stop to it.

Which leads Horizon to where he was now, in President Pantu's office giving a full debrief.

"Look, you made the news, again," Pantu says as she brings up a hologram of a social media post. Showing Horizon speaking to some engineers on the Kelto Reactor facility compound.

This is after the incident was concluded, and in the picture he appeared somewhat disheveled and unkempt.

"News drone?"

"Yes, and the posted it before I could shut them down," Pantu says. "It turns out your friend saw through the gas leak story."

"Well Chitose is a pro at manipulating the media, so it makes sense that she'd see when someone else tries to do it."

"Has she asked you for an official statement?"

"My new phone is at UA, so I haven't checked yet," Horizon says. "What should I say."

"Hmm," Pantu considers the options. "The picture and the location make it quite obvious, if we lie the people won't respect us and they'll think we failed to protect them and are hiding it."

"And the truth?"

"Is the best option," Pantu says. "Being a villain is despised by the public, but being willing to cause a nuclear meltdown, kill a city and contaminate the water supply for millions of people and that much farm land."

"There won't be a civilian in Japan willing to be swayed by the league, since that's who everyone will assume was behind it, only the real psycho's will join them. Their recruitment numbers will drop and they'll take another hit in credibility because we stopped them."

"That's the best I can think of to spin this in our favor," Pantu says. "But I still don't understand the purpose of killing so many people, the motive of just death, destruction, and chaos...that fits Shigaraki's profile."

"But this was likely Wolfram," Horizon says. "He's supposed to be an accomplished and smart mercenary, mass murder is just a tool for him. It should have been a distraction but Melissa and David are still at UA, I don't get it."

"You think there's another attack imminent?" Pantu asks.

"Most likely, this had to have been a distraction for something."

"Will you be in Tokyo tonight? If he wants mass murder and calamity as a distraction, Tokyo would be the place to do it."

"I need to go check on UA, incase this was a distraction to plant a bomb or something."

"I see," Pantu shuts off the hologram. "And, did you perhaps let them take that picture so I'd have to release the truth to make you look good?"

"No," Horizon says, and she senses no lie. "I have enough good credit as is, I'd never want the public to see me like that, as if I'm melted and falling apart. Not to mention I was more of a sidekick to Thirteen during that."

Pantu doesn't detect any lies, and only nods.

"Thirteen will be fine by the way, she won't be able to use her Quirk for a few weeks, or months."

"That's certainly a relief, now I have to figure out the details of our story, I'm sure you'll appreciate the credit you'll get from this."

"Well it won't hurt, now I need to go, see ya..."

With that Horizon warps away.

And beneath her icy façade Pantu was even more annoyed, by how much more Japan would adore him for this.

How much more desirable he was to other countries.

And how much they needed him...

END CHAPTER---