The teams are set and the battles are underway!! And boy, what a way to kick off this war arc! From Cry killing the principal to him killing/severely injuring every other pro in the whole city, it's not looking good for the hero side. And on top of it all, the Squad used Cry to make a freakin' nuke. Talk about the biggest pressure. It's going to take everything for the heroes to take the win on every side of the arc, and who knows, some of them might not make it out in one piece. But only time will tell. Now, let's get right back in from where we left off! Enjoy!

-POV: Kira-

"Spread out and take her down!!" Twilight ordered as the three of us faced off against Poppy. She dove for us all as me and Pein ran in opposite directions to gt away. But Twilight stayed in the centre and seemed to be the main target for Poppy's attack.

"I'll rip your head off for what you did to me before!!" Poppy shouted as she approached Twilight, readying her talons to strike. 

"I beat you before alone, but this time, there's three of us! Don't think you have a chance to win now!" Twilight replied as she removed some sort of round device from her utility belt. She threw it at Poppy and the device burst into a large net.

"You and your stupid toys are so annoying!" Poppy shouted as she swung her talons, ripping right through the net. But doing so made her fly past Twilight, making it so she had to come around for another pass.

"Now let's knock you out of the sky." Twilight said as I watched her aim one of her pulse guns, firing one of her explosive shots. Poppy took evasive actions and rolled to her left as the bullet exploded. But the shockwave was strong enough to force Poppy back down to the ground, making her crash land. 

"Ow..... Dumb bitch.... that fucking hurt!!" Poppy said as she rose up to her feet. 

"That was nothing. What all three of us are gonna do, now that's gonna hurt." Twilight said as Pein went in to face her next. 

"Time for some payback for putting holes in my back!!" Pein said as he went for a sweeping kick against the owl girl. But Poppy jumped up and avoided it. 

"Too slow, bastard!" Poppy shouted as she came back down, looking to thrust her talons into Pein like before. 

"No, just making you lower your guard!" Pein shouted as his sweeping kick turned into a jumping roundhouse kick. He smashed the side of his right foot into Poppy's face and sent her flying back, smashing her into the side of a car. 

"Stay down, little birdy. Then maybe we'll play nice." Pein said to her but Poppy got back up again. 

"No way.... We've come to far to give up.... I'll die before I concede to scum like you. I'll just have to even the odds!" Poppy shouted as she turned and stuck one of her talons into the side of the car. With her one leg, she pulled the car along, turning it so it would face Pein. 

"Now die!!" Poppy roared as she thrusted her leg forward, sending the car flying at him. 

"Pein, run!!" Twilight shouted to him but he had no room to escape. 

"Don't worry, I've got him!!" I shouted as I ran forward and knocked Pein out of the way, taking his place. I then activated my intangibility and the car went right through me. 

"Aaaaahhhhhhh!!! Why is it that you of all people are here again!? It was you at the steel plant, and now you're here too!! You're an omen of bad luck, that's what you are!! So maybe if I kill you, it'll all go away!!" Poppy shouted to me as she lunged forward. She tackled herself into me and knocked me over. Then, she walked right up to me and raised up her right talon. 

"Just die already, bitch!!" Poppy shouted as she tried to ram the talons into me. But I rolled to my left and just avoided her stomp. She tried again and again but I would just roll away until she gave up, reached down with her hands and grabbed my neck. She pinned me down and pushed hard, cutting off my way of breathing as I tried to shove her off me. But her owl features gave her way more physical strength than me, so I had no chance to escape. 

"That's it! Can't escape me when i'm touching you!! Now i'll just watch that pretty little light in your eyes die out!!!" Poppy shouted in my face as I desperately tried to breath in. But she was pushing so hard that it was literally impossible for me to do so. 

"Hey, birdy!!" We heard Twilight shout as Poppy turned her head all the way around, 180, to face her. 

"Consider yourself caged!!" Twilight shouted as she fired a large net from one of her pulse guns. It engulfed Poppy and made her let go of me as the weighted net dragged her off of me. I gasped for as much breath as my lungs could hold before I started coughing. 

"Too.... freakin'.... close...." I said as I sat up and coughed some more before turning to see Poppy struggling inside the net.

"Let me out of this, now!!!" Poppy demanded but she couldn't angle her talons properly to rip the net up. She was only tangling herself in it. 

"Not gonna happen. It's time for you to go nighty night." Pein said as Twilight raised her right arm up near her face and then tapped some buttons on the device strapped to her wrist. The net began to shock Poppy and she let out some ear deafening screeches.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!" Poppy screamed as she kept flailing around inside the net, twisting herself in it even more. All we did now was wait for her to finally pass out. 

"Let this be a lesson about what happens when you mess with our city." Twilight said to the owl girl as we then saw Poppy pull out a needle from one of her pockets and then stick it in her neck. Her screeching increased even more but after a few seconds, she just stopped. She stopped doing anything, no screeching, no flailing, nothing. She just laid there in the net as it shocked her. 

"What the hell just happened? She just took some of that Trigger stuff, right? Did it backfire?" Pein questioned as Twilight deactivated the shock system in the net. 

"Don't know. Be on guard, this may be a trick." Twilight said as we all slowly began to approach Poppy. We could see she was still breathing, but just barely. Her feathers had darkened a bit, most likely from bring singed by all the electricity. 

"I think..... I think you got her." I said with relief as Twilight put away her guns into their holsters. But the moment she took her hands away, Poppy raised her arms up and effortlessly tore apart the net and freed herself. She used her wings to prop herself up until she was standing and she let out a much deeper, but still ear deafening screech, more loud than any she'd done before. 

"Definitely a trick!" I shouted with worry as Twilight went to pull out her guns again. But before she could aim them, Poppy suddenly shot some of her feathers right out of her wings. She struck the guns and made them fly out of Twilight's hands. 

"Not so tough without those, are you?" Poppy said, now sounding menacing as she extended out her wings and flapped them a few times. The wind she made was so much stronger than before, almost like 70mph.

"Oh we are so screwed...." I said afraid as Pein put his right hand on my left shoulder. 

"Don't count us out yet. We've still got a trick up our sleeve." He said as he then pointed at Twilight. The faint red aura appeared around Pein's head as he then moved his arm, now pointing at Poppy. 

"Feel her pain, birdy. All the torture.... all the torment.... all her suffering.... and now it's all on you!" Pein said as Poppy raised her arms up to the sides of her owl head, almost like she was covering her ears. 

"It.... it feels..... feels so..... it hurts....." Poppy said as Pein chuckled a bit. 

"Good. Now we just wait until you pass out." He replied as Poppy extended out her wings again. 

"Psyche!! Now die!!" She shouted as she flicked her wings forward, flicking more feathers, all aimed at Pein. 

"MOVE!!" I shouted as I shoved him out of the way again. I bumped him down and then activated my quirk, making it so all the feathers went right through me. 

"Why didn't it work on her? Don't tell me.... has she had more painful memories than either of us?" Twilight questioned as Poppy cracked her knuckles. 

"My life's been utter shit since the day I was born. If anything went wrong, it all did. Pain, suffering, torture, back stab, despair, lies, it's all happened. And judging by your last question, i'd say your little boyfriends quirk doesn't work if someone's had worse experiences than the ones he's trying to inflict. Am I right?" Poppy asked. 

"Yeah.... yeah, that's right. Doesn't change anything though. We're still gonna take you down." Pein said as he pulled out some brass knuckles from his jacket pockets and put them on. 

"Not while i'm all boosted from the Trigger, you're not. Sure it made me more resilient and I can shoot my feathers now, but it's done so much more for me. Like...." Poppy said as she walked over to a car, grabbed onto it with her right hand, digging her fingers into the hard steel and then lifting it all above her head. 

"Enhanced physical strength as well. Now catch!" Poppy roared as she threw the car at us. 

"Everybody, run!!" Twilight shouted as we all dove out of the way of the car before it crashed into the ground.

"You, come here!" Poppy shouted as she leaped right over to me and picked me up by my neck. 

"Let.... go..... please...." I said as she started choking me again with one hand. 

"Is that a bit of begging I hear? Alright, i'll oblige. And throw you into your friends!" Poppy explained as she threw me overhead right at Pein and Twilight. Pein ducked out of the way but I slammed right into Twilight. The two of us crashed into the side of a light pole and fell to our sides, both of us letting out grunts of agonizing pain. 

"Now it's your turn!" Poppy said as she rushed for Pein next. 

"Oh yeah? Come get some then!" Pein replied as he ran for her as well. Poppy raised up her left leg talons and thrusted them straight at him but Pein sidestepped to his right and she missed, stumbling forward a bit. 

"I'm gonna knock that dumb beak right off your stupid face!" Pein shouted as he delivered a strong uppercut with his brass knuckles to Poppy's lower jaw. But she barely flinched at all from it. 

"Was that supposed to hurt me? Next time, try a little harder!" Poppy said as she grabbed Pein's arm that hit her. She pulled on it, bring him closer to her and then Poppy delivered a massive head butt right to Pein's face and sent him flying. He crashed right through the window of a nearby building. 

"Pein, no!!" Twilight screamed as she got up to her feet and grabbed one of her guns which was near her feet. 

"Oh? Are you next? I do hope so. I need some major payback for hurting me in our previous encounter. And i'll finish my execution by sticking my beak right through the back of that head of yours." Poppy said very intimidatingly as she began to approach us. 

"Kira, can you stand?" Twilight asked me as she swapped the net ammunition out of her gun in replace for something else. 

"Yeah.... I think I can..." I said as I pushed myself up to one knee. 

"I'm not sure how long this drug of hers is supposed to last. We can't bet on it running out, so it's clear we can't overpower her. So, we'll just have to find a way to outsmart her." Twilight said as I got up to my feet again. 

"What do you propose we do then?" I asked her as she shot a few bullets at Poppy. She struck her right in the chest with three taser shots. We could hear the electricity coursing through her but Poppy was barely slowed down. 

"You see that bank over there?" She said as I looked to my right and saw the bank she was referring to. It was rather large with large concrete columns in the front of it, sort of like the Lincoln monument at the Smithsonian. 

"Yeah, why?" I asked her.

"We need to get over there, right now. I have a plan." Twilight said as we both started running for the bank. But as we just started to move, the taser bullets ran out of power and Poppy started coming after us, flying up into the sky and picking up a car with her talons. 

"No, no, no, I didn't say you could run from me!" Poppy shouted as we picked up the pace. But she was still catching up, despite, you know, carrying a 2 ton car!

"I was hoping you'd do that! Try getting up after this!!" Twilight said as she aimed her pulse gun back and fired another explosive shot which stuck to the side of the car. She tapped a button on the device on her wrist and the shot exploded, igniting the car into a big explosion which engulfed Poppy. She let out some more shrieks as we stopped just feet from the stairs to the bank.

"Better do this just in case." Twilight said as she then turned and aimed her gun at the top of one of the concrete pillars. She unloaded the rest of her clip into it as Poppy came flying out of the could of smoke, her feathers partially on fire.

"Forget stabbing you with my beak!! I'll rip your head off with my talons!!" Poppy screamed in rage as she came swooping down for Twilight. 

"Damn, I was hoping that blast would've stopped her! Run!!" Twilight shouted as we went to run up the stairs of the bank. But Poppy was still so fast and she caught up to us in literally no time at all. She smashed down onto Twilight, flattening her along the stairs as she dug some of her talons into the right side of her back and right arm. 

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!" Twilight screamed as I went in to help her. But Poppy swung one of her wings at me and knocked me back. Poppy then grabbed Twilight's head with her talons, holding it in between them. 

"I wanna hear you break before I kill you, bitch!" Poppy shouted as she swung Twilight and threw her into the side of one of the concrete pillars. A very loud *SNAP* sound could be heard when she hit the pillar, and I could only assume it was Twilight's back breaking since that's what hit first.

"And don't think I forgot about you, Kira." Poppy said as she turned and faced me now. I took a few steps back in fear as she spread her wings out, flapping them a few times. 

"I'm..... I'm not afraid..... We'll beat you.... all of you.... Heroes will be the ones standing at the end of the day..." I told her as she just laughed at me. 

"Not afraid, eh? Then why are you shaking so much?" Poppy asked as her feathers suddenly turned back to normal colour. 

"Oh, damn it, the Trigger's worn off. Oh well, I probably won't need it to kill someone like you! Now come here!" Poppy shouted as she leaped for me again. Her speed was still so incredible that I had literally zero time to avoid her. She knocked me down onto my back and she pinned me along the stairs, using her wings to keep my arms down and using her legs to keep my legs in place. 

"No more running for you. Now, you die!" Poppy said as she wrapped both of her hands around my neck once more and began to choke me. I was able to slip one of my arms away from Poppy's right wing and I pushed back against her head to try and knock her off me, but she was just so strong for someone who was so tiny.

"Just a little more.... let me see that light fade away from those pretty little eyes of yours...." Poppy said as we heard some rubble move. We both looked over and saw Twilight was on her knees now, her head bleeding but still, she was breathing. 

"I'm surprised you can even move after I slammed you into that pillar! But lucky me, you're still moving! Looks like I can have a little more fun with you after I kill little Kira here!" Poppy said as she went back to pushing down on my throat. In the time she looked over to Twilight, I managed to slip out my other arm and I used both to push against her head. 

"You won't be killing her, me, Pein or anyone! Because this is where you lose!!" Twilight said as she raised up her wrist device and pressed a button. The bullets that she'd shot into the one pillar then exploded and it caused the whole thing to come lose. It began to fall over right where me and Poppy were laying. 

"Kira!!! Keep her there!!" Twilight shouted to me as I stopped pushing and now grabbed Poppy's head and pulled it down. 

"No, you planned that!? No, let me go!!" Poppy said with fear in her voice as the massive concrete pillar was coming down on us. 

"Bye bye, birdy...." I said to Poppy as I activated my intangibility. The concrete pillar came crashing down on us and a loud thunderous rumble shook the entire street. I then rolled out of the pillar and laid on my back, gasping for air as Twilight limped her way over. She sat down next to me as Pein came walking down the street, holding his left arm. 

"Well.... that's one way to ground a bird...." Pein jokingly said as we all looked at Poppy. She's been completely crushed by the pillar, with only her two wings sticking out from underneath them. 

"Looks like we clipped everything but her wings...." I said as I sat up and sighed in relief. One villain was down. But there's still ten more to go.

"Pein, any chance you can fix my back? Poppy really did a number on it. I think something might be broken." Twilight said as Pein walked behind her and unzipped a part of her costume. Twilight's back was all bruised and it looked like a bone in the lower right part of her back was now in the wrong place. It looked like it would burst out of her skin. 

"This is really gonna hurt. Get ready." Pein said as he gently placed his hand on the bone. 

"1..... 2....." Pein said as he then pushed the bone back into place. 

"OW!!!" Twilight screamed but she quickly stopped. She rubbed her back a bit and then took some deep breaths. 

"Oh, thanks. Wow, that's so much better." Twilight said as we all stood up. The sky had turned dark once more, with thunder rumbling above and rain beginning to fall. 

"We can't stay here. We have to get moving and stop this Injustice Squad. Their broadcast said they were in the tallest building in the city, so that's where we'll head." Twilight said as I agreed with her. 

"But that's all the way over by the Delaware river. We're a few miles away from there. How are we gonna get there in time?" I asked as Pein held up some keys. 

"We've got a ride. Come with us." Pein said as I followed them to find one awesome looking future style motorcycle, complete with glowing lights and everything. It suited them very well. 

"Ever rode on one of these before?" Twilight asked me. 

"No, I haven't." I replied. 

"Alright then, you sit in between us. I'll make sure you don't fall off. It'll be a bit of a tight squeeze though. It's normally only meant for two." She told me as the three of us huddled onto their motorcycle. Pein then started it up and revved the engine a bit. 

"Hold on! We're low on time so i'm kicking her into high gear!" Pein said as we took off like a rocket. I screamed a bit as Twilight held on tight to me so I wouldn't fly off. At this rate, we'd make it to the villains building in no time at all. 

After what felt like only 5 minutes, we were approaching the building. The rain had gotten even worse now and it was making it difficult for civilians to evacuate. All the highways were backed up so we had to take a few detours to arrive at our destination. And once we finally had a clear shot for the building, we came to a stop real quick when a relieving roadblock appeared in the way. 

"It's Wrath Queen!" I said as we came up to her, the students of my class and class 1, as well as Sergei and Trini. 

"Oh thank heavens you're okay, Kira!" Amelia said as the three of us got off our motorcycle.

"If you're here, then does that mean you defeated that owl villain?" Wrath Queen asked me as I gave her a nod. 

"Yes. But it was only because I had help from my two friends here." I said, gesturing to Twilight and Pein. 

"And who might you two be? I don't know any records of heroes like you two in this city or any of the surrounding areas." Wrath Queen asked them. 

"That's because we're not heroes. We're.... we're just vigilantes. But we're still gonna fight to defend our city from these villains. So don't get in our way, got that?" Twilight said to her. 

"Vigilantes, eh? So you two must be the ones Kira here reported on after the internships. You two have caused a lot of trouble, and are most likely the reason a lot of this has happened." Wrath Queen said as the two vigilantes lowered their heads. 

"Yeah.... you're not wrong. If we hadn't taken Kira that day, then none of this would've happened. Your son would've been taken by the villains either. All.... All we can say is we're sorry." Pein said as Wrath Queen clenched her fists tightly. 

"I should arrest the both of you right now..... but the fact of the matter is, we don't have the time for that. And we need as much help as we can get right now...." Wrath Queen said as she held her left hand out to Twilight. 

"Will you help us defeat these villains?" Wrath Queen asked them as the two vigilantes thought about it for a few seconds. 

"I guess we owe you big time after everything we've done.... Alright. We'll help." Twilight said as the two women shook hands. 

"I've sent 8 of my students off to the football stadium to try and disarm that nuclear device, and a few minutes ago, I sent another 10 off to the hospital to try and help the people who're having more difficulties evacuating. With you two here, that makes 18 of us. That should be more than enough firepower to beat the rest of these villains, whether they're powered up or not." Wrath Queen said as we all turned and faced the building. 

"We've only got 42 minutes left before the bomb goes off. We need to hurry. Everyone, let's go!!" Wrath Queen said as we all took off heading towards the building, Pein riding down on the motorcycle next to us. Our final destination was in sight, but even if we could take down all the villains inside, we'd all still lose if the bomb group doesn't disarm that nuke in time. 

-POV: Ryan-

We weren't getting anywhere closer to the football stadium on foot, so I found an abandoned empty dump truck in an alleyway and hotwired it. Everyone loaded into the back of it and we began to make real progress. And our destination was finally in our sights. 

"Where'd you learn to hot wire a vehicle?" Holly from class 2 asked me. 

"My dad used to be a real bad boy and he showed me once. Never thought it'd come in handy though." I said as we came onto the straightaway for the stadium. No villains were stationed outside but all the doors were sealed off with metal shutters, so I figured we should just barge in. 

"Everyone, keep your heads down and brace yourselves!!! We're gonna break right through!!" I shouted as I heard everyone give me a loud "OK!!" 

"I hope you know what you're doing!!" Holly shouted as she crouched down next to me and held her head down. I put my foot to the floor, increasing our speed to the max as we crashed into the doors of the stadium, easily breaking through. But we hit a massive and thick brick wall just a few seconds later and completely totaled the vehicle. And, it really hurt going through and crashing. 

"Ow...." I said in pain as my face was currently buried in the airbag. 

"Please don't do that again...." Holly said as she raised herself up and rubbed the top of her head a bit. 

"Sorry, but it was our only option. Everyone alright back there!?" I asked as Stella poked her head over the side of the truck and gave me a shaky thumbs up. 

"We're all good..... just a little dizzy...." She said with a bit of pain in her voice as we all hopped out. All the entrances into the actual arena were sealed off as well with the metal shutters and none of us had any quirks that would let us break through. 

"We're gonna have to hope that one of these is open. Split into two teams! Stella, you take Phil, Colson, and Jackson. Take the East wing. Bruce, Holly, Midareka, you're all coming with me. We'll go down the West wing. If you find an entrance, don't wait for us. Just get in there and disarm that bomb!" I ordered everyone as we all nodded in agreement. We then split into our two teams and started heading down our hallways. 

"Think there's any villains here defending the nuke?" Bruce asked. 

"Most likely. It wouldn't make sense for them to leave such a valuable part of their big plan unguarded. So it's likely we'll have to fight." Midareka said as I could see light up ahead. 

"Hey, it looks like there's an entrance open over there! Come on!" I said as we rounded the corner. The entrance was indeed open and we came out into the stands. Right in the centre of the field was the nuclear device, all on its own with no one around. 

"Let's go before someone shows up!" Holly said as we all took off down the stairs, hopping over the barriers and onto the field. 

"I can see the countdown on it! We've got 37 minutes left to stop it!" Midareka said as we all of a sudden heard someone start to clap from somewhere. We all stopped for a moment and looked around to see who was there. 

"I must say I am mighty impressed. A handful of you were able to break free of Jade's paralyzing gas and make it all the way out here. But it's all for not because this is where you all die." A fancy dressed man said as he came walking out of one of the gates. 

"That guy.... his name is Gregory! He's the one who beat Stacy when we encountered the squad before. He's incredibly dangerous. His quirk lets him control his or others blood. It's super strong and Stacy had no chance to win." Holly explained to us. 

"I remember you, spider girly. And you've brought some more friends this time, how nice. Myself and another comrade were tasked at defending this device until it detonates. Then, moments before it goes off, my masterpiece will arrive and get us out of here before we get blown up." Gregory explained to us. 

"Your masterpiece?" I questioned as he chuckled a bit. 

"Oh, where are my manners. My masterpiece is my latest and greatest creation. You've seen him already, haven't you? His name is Cry. I'm the one who turned him into who he is now. One of us. Our true ace in the hole. The wielder of the strongest quirk to ever exist." Gregory told us all as we now had an even greater reason to take this guy down. 

"So.... he's the one who turned our friend into a monster. This guy.... he's a true psychopath. We have to stop him... so that he can't do that to anyone else ever again. And maybe... just maybe.... we can reverse what he's done to Cry." I said as everyone agreed with me. 

"I'd hate to say it but that's impossible, boy. What's done is done. Those good old memories he once had are gone and I've put brand new ones in thanks to our boss. And they're permanent. He's staying this way for the rest of his life." Gregory explained to us as the four of us began to spread out around him. 

"We'll see about that after we kick your ass, little man. Hope your ready for me to bite your stupid head off." Bruce said as Gregory only laughed. 

"Many have tried to defeat me, and they were all beaten. Hell, if it wasn't for the boss and Cry, I would even say I am the strongest that the Injustice Squad has to offer. Try your hardest children, but you cannot defeat me." Gregory said as he rolled up his sleeves and prepared to fight. 

"So, you say you're unbeatable? Well we were taught that no one in this world is unbeatable. And that was certainly shown to us when one of our classmates, Phobos defeated Cry in the Sports Festival. If we have a way to beat him, then we can certainly beat you. We don't know how, but we will do it. It's time we serve you your first loss." I said as I cracked my knuckles and readied my fists for battle. 

"We shall see..... We shall see...."