Minutes earlier.
The muffled sound of communication echoed through the earpiece, breaking the tense silence in the security towers.
"Hey, Cole." Nolan's voice came through the line, casual with a hint of forced relief, trying to find a shred of humanity in the chaos they were drowning in.
"Hey, Nolan." Cole's response was short and cold, devoid of any human warmth. His deep, monotone voice clearly reflected the weight of endless hours spent in that military prison, watching over those horrific beings.
"Security duo, two hours, huh? Best time of the day." Nolan continued with a slightly optimistic tone, almost as if trying to break the unpleasant, monotonous routine they were both enduring. He gave a weak laugh, like it was some kind of inside joke.
"Yeah..." Cole replied, his tone so empty it felt like an echo. His exhaustion, dissatisfaction, and hopelessness came through in the words he didn't say.
Nolan tried to keep the conversation going, looking for some kind of distraction. "So... uh, which block are you in again? I... don't even remember how the divisions work here anymore."
"North." Cole answered laconically, but this time his voice faltered—there was a slight change in tone, a restlessness that only he noticed. A kind of discomfort that Nolan, for some reason, didn't fully understand.
"Oh, the North..." Nolan murmured, trying to keep the topic alive. "I'll admit I don't know much about it. Or rather, I never wanted to know much. Heard a few rumors about what it's like over there… can't be a pleasant place."
"It shouldn't be." Cole scoffed at the attempt at conversation, his voice a bit sharper now, but still soaked in that same constant coldness. He seemed determined to shut down any attempt at understanding. After all, they were on different sides of the prison's reality.
"High Security?" Nolan asked, trying once more to find something to connect with.
"EXTREME security." Cole emphasized, the word extreme making it painfully clear that things over there were far worse than anyone could imagine. The silence that followed only made the weight of it heavier.
Nolan let out a frustrated sigh before continuing. "You know what we've got in the East? Mutants banging on the walls, screaming for their parents, for anyone... for the X-Men. It's like that, ALL the time. Day and night. And man, it... it gets to you. It breaks your mind, you know? I know they're monsters, but deep down, they're still just kids—or at least, they look like kids. I'd KILL for a quiet corner. A quiet corner to myself."
Cole took a deep breath. The sound of air entering and leaving his lungs seemed to be holding something back. He was gathering courage — or maybe just the strength to keep speaking, despite the pain his words might cause."I get it... I get it... You know what we have in the North? And whatever they are, they're not... people anymore. Their cells... they're more like cages. They're animals. Sick. Broken. Leftovers. Just... instincts and rage. That's all that's left of them."
Nolan was about to say something when, in the background of the line, the ambient noise seemed to shift, gaining a more chaotic tone. The voices in the distance, a mixture of murmurs and incomprehensible words, became louder and more distinct. Then, suddenly, the sound intensified.
"Sure, but at least you probably don't have to yell like you're telling your own kids to shut up, right?" Nolan said, trying to ease the weight of the conversation."I know things are grim up North, but... here... it's worse. That sound. It's always pounding in my head. Like, if you heard what I hear, man..."
Nolan stopped talking. The line, which had briefly held a lighter tone, now fell silent, as the background noise became impossible to ignore. The screams began to stand out more, growing louder until they became clear — now, the despair was unmistakable.
They were screams. Children's screams. But they weren't normal.
It was the sound of inhuman suffering. The sound of creatures who had once been human, now lost in immense and unending pain. They slammed against the walls, scraping violently, in a desperate attempt to escape their own prisons, crying and screaming in despair.
Silence stretched over the communication, the tension palpable.
"And there go the two hours," Cole remarked dryly, as if the observation were the only possible comfort. Time, in that prison, meant nothing more than a heavy burden.
"Yeah..." Nolan murmured, his voice now darker, weighed down with bitter understanding."It's not easy for anyone, is it?"
The sound of screams continued to echo, but this time, there were no more words left to be said between them.
Just as Nolan was about to try something, the ground beneath him trembled with a force that couldn't be ignored.
Boom!
The impact was so intense that the vibrations coursed through the entire structure of the base, causing a dull sound that seemed to come from deep within the earth. Communication was instantly cut off, the familiar hum of the communication network replaced by a metallic hiss. Nolan felt the adrenaline surge as he clung to the table, trying to stay in control.
"What the hell! What's going on?!" Nolan shouted, his voice full of desperation as he tried to contact anyone through the communicator, but as expected, there was no response. The tension in the room increased with each failed attempt, and despair began to take hold of him. But he didn't give up — his persistence was stronger, and he kept trying, pressing the buttons repeatedly, more and more frantically.
However, the ground trembled again, and Nolan froze, his body tense, his senses now fully alert. He felt the entire complex shake as if being jolted by some invisible force, something beyond his understanding. The base seemed to be tearing itself apart from within, the booming impacts reverberating through the concrete walls.
'What the hell is doing this?!'
Nolan's mind quickly turned to the mutants. Each of them possessed extraordinary and often unpredictable abilities. What was happening at that moment was something he couldn't comprehend — perhaps one of the mutants had revolted in the arena and somehow managed to escape, throwing the base into chaos.
Boom!
Another quake, stronger than the last, struck the base, making the monitors flicker and the communication cables spark. This time, the power went out completely, plunging everything into total darkness. A feeling of helplessness overtook Nolan. He looked toward the generators, but deep down, he knew there was no more time to fix them — the impact had been devastating.
"Ah no..." Nolan whispered to himself, knowing that without power, without communication, and with the security system compromised, they were all at the mercy of whatever that force was. He looked around, trying to discern something he could do, but the situation was beyond his control.
For a moment, the screams of the mutants — which had filled the air with their constant agony — ceased. The silence that followed was deafening. Nolan tried to process the change, but then he heard the sound of a door creaking behind him. Slowly, he turned toward the source of the sound, his body instinctively going into high alert.
What he saw paralyzed him. A small figure — a child — stood there, her eyes red and swollen from crying. Her expression was completely blank, as if she'd already lost any trace of hope. And as he watched, tentacles began to stretch from the child's body, moving with terrifying speed, shooting toward Nolan, who tried to step back — but the sheer terror locked his body in place.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
Nolan's scream echoed through the base's corridors, but it was too late. There was no way to avoid the oncoming attack.
Underground.
In a completely different environment, the energy room was lit only by dim emergency lights. Derek walked among the broken machines and the debris scattered across the floor. He looked around, an arrogant smile playing on his lips as he observed the machines that had once operated at full capacity, now useless and destroyed.
"Backup and main generators, destroyed," Derek said calmly, almost as if commenting on something trivial, snapping his fingers with disdain. He left behind the destruction he had caused, satisfied with having cut the power to the entire base so efficiently.
The entire complex was now in a state of chaos, and Derek knew that with the power out, the control of the base was in his hands. He stared at the control panel in front of him, watching the red failure light blinking. There was nothing left to keep the prisoners under control.
With a smile, he turned to the door and left the energy room.
Derek moved with firm and silent steps through the lower corridors of the base. After interrogating a few guards — who now lined the tunnel corners with broken bones or lay unconscious — he had discovered that the Arena, the dark heart of that military complex, was located at the very center of the base: two kilometers underground, buried like a dirty, indestructible secret.
Derek didn't hesitate. He descended.
As he emerged at the center of the Arena—a vast circular field surrounded by reinforced walls and dry marks from previous battles—he took a deep breath. The air was thick, saturated with ancient blood and defeat. He looked up at the absurdly high ceiling—several tons of concrete and steel above his head—and smiled, his eyes gleaming with defiance.
"Let's see my limit..." he murmured.
The atmosphere around him seemed to be pushed away, as if the air itself feared his presence. A gust of wind erupted from Derek's feet. His body began to radiate energy as the One For All within him exploded into raw power, a pulsing glow of red, gold, and blue energy tearing through the space around him.
"100%... My body can handle it, but it moves like it has tons tied to it... Doesn't matter. I just need one hit."
With his eyes locked on the ceiling above, he bent his knees. He drew his arm downward, gathering every drop of energy he could, then twisted his shoulder with force. The movement was clean, direct—like a catapult ready to fire.
Boom!
The punch shot upward—and the Arena trembled. A sharp, thunderous sound echoed like the wrath of a furious god. A column of concrete and steel shattered into fragments, and a crater was pierced straight from the base to the surface. An absurd hole, a vertical tear of total destruction.
Derek let out a low whistle, impressed with his own feat. He looked at his arm, which trembled slightly. The skin was reddened, pulsing with heat, but uninjured.
"No damage. Just numbness..." he muttered, massaging his forearm. "Damn... What kind of body do I have?"
Then, he felt something.
Turning calmly toward the Arena's entrance, he saw the metallic gleam of dozens of weapons and military vehicles—heavily armed soldiers organizing into formations, pointing toward the interior of the newly opened hole. The dust was still settling, but their voices and commands were already echoing.
They still hadn't seen him.
"Forcing One For All right now isn't the best idea…" he muttered aloud. "But I don't need to use 100% again."
The aura around him shifted — black and red lightning danced across his skin, rippling like a living storm before slowly fading away.
Derek stepped forward.
As soon as he emerged from the dust, every soldier spotted him at once — a lone silhouette calmly walking toward death. Weapons aligned. Safeties clicked off.
"What a brilliant idea you all had, huh? Pointing guns…" Derek smirked with sarcasm. "…At the one who can kill every single person here."
Without further warning, he swung his arm with force and speed.
Boom!
The motion unleashed an explosion of wind and shock, kicking up dust, dirt, and concrete. The soldiers at the front were thrown like rag dolls, flying through the air, crashing into each other, the vehicles, or the very walls of the structure.
"FIRE!"
Screams filled the field.
Those still standing or shielded by vehicles opened fire in a panic. The sound of bullets slicing through the air echoed like a symphony of chaos.
But Derek was gone.
Amid the dust and confusion, his figure appeared in the air, kicking the very space with power, unleashing another shockwave.
"I'm right here." His voice rang out between the gunfire, and before they could react…
SMASH!
The ground beneath them shattered into fragments. The shockwave flung everyone around like leaves in the wind. Those still airborne tried to keep shooting, their eyes wide with fear.
Derek then gave a simple flick of his fingers, and compressed blasts of air burst forth — like invisible bullets tearing through the soldiers' bodies, ripping off limbs, piercing torsos, and sending blood flying like rain.
"Seriously? You had nothing better to use against prisoners than regular guns?"
Bang!
A single shot.
Derek raised his arm and caught the bullet in midair with two fingers, still steaming from the heat of the gunpowder. He looked at the round with an almost comical expression before turning to the soldier who had fired it, one eyebrow raised as if to say, "Seriously?"
"Ugh…" The soldier barely managed to respond, mumbling something between fear and pain.
Derek sighed, then flicked the bullet like skipping a stone across water.
Crack!
The bullet pierced through the soldier's skull like an arrow fired from a cannon.
"What an idiot."
Derek turned, a spark of excitement in his eyes — the kind of thrill only a true warrior feels when facing a new challenge. Tanks advanced with their treads crushing the earth, and between them, soldiers clad in full combat armor, equipped with war tech built for total destruction.
"Now we're talking…" he muttered. "This is getting better."
The air around him trembled, rippling as if reality itself was responding to the call. Dark reddish lightning exploded around him as One For All unleashed its energy.
25% released.
It wasn't just strength. It was density — compressed power, the muscle of divinity incarnated in flesh and bone.
Derek charged forward.
Each step left a trail of wind, bullets ricocheting or veering just millimeters from his body. It was as if gravity itself was being controlled around him — a zone of death and ballistic denial. Cannon shots roared, explosions erupted, but he just laughed, moving with an animalistic precision — wild and graceful.
Then he leapt.
His arm pulled back and...
Boom!
Crack!
Derek's fist crushed the tank like a soda can. The vehicle spun violently into the air, crashing into another tank and exploding in an apocalyptic fireball. Shards rained down, flames surged.
"This… is power."
He then lifted his leg, eyes blazing with intensity, and stomped the ground with violent force.
BOOM!
The impact made the ground groan and implode, cracks spreading like living webs for dozens of meters. A brutal quake shook everything around, throwing soldiers and tanks off balance, weapons falling into open fissures, the structure trembling as if on the verge of collapse.
Derek didn't stop.
Spinning his arms with superhuman strength and speed, he unleashed devastating wind waves, propelled by shockwaves that visibly distorted the air — as if he were twisting the very atmospheric pressure. Chunks of concrete, steel, weapons, and bodies were flung in all directions.
A true storm of destruction.
While dodging desperate gunfire and more cannons being aimed at him, Derek thought — and laughed inwardly.
"Izuku Midoriya... All Might... They always limited the use of this power. They treated One For All as just a tool for punches and kicks. Sure, they created impact... but they never understood what it truly means to have a superhuman body. Physics, air, the ground — everything can be manipulated."
"That was always Izuku Midoriya's mistake... and All Might's too. They never grasped the real potential of this power. For them, it was always... punches. Shockwaves. All Might's style: hit. Midoriya's style before the inherited Quirks: hit even harder."
A bullet grazed past. Derek spun, dodging like he was dancing.
"But me? I'm not them. What they showed in the anime and manga was useful... but this? This is the MOST I will inherit from you."
Derek then crouched slowly, hands touching the ground.
His movements resembled breakdancing, but with surgical precision and lethal intent. He began to spin on one shoulder, legs cutting through the air, body rotating — and something else happened:
The air began to be sucked into the center of the spin.
Dust, gravel, shards of steel, even weapons started to rise in a spiral. A gale began to form. The sound was like the choked scream of the planet itself.
The spinning intensified.
And then...
WHOOSH!
A typhoon erupted. Not just swirling air — but a tornado of pure violence, fueled by his centrifugal force and his insane control over the power.
Soldiers began to be sucked in.
Screams. Alarms. Desperation.
The tornado grew. It rose to the sky like a black column, with red and black flashes. The vortex tore tanks from the ground, bending steel like cardboard, sucking vehicles and human beings into its core and spitting them out in pieces.
Derek, at the center of it all, was the eye of the storm — unmoving, relentless, a god surrounded by ruin.
"This... is how this power should be used."
Tap! Tap! Tap!
The sound of dozens — maybe hundreds — of footsteps echoed through the devastated area. Derek didn't even need to look to know: the mutants had finally emerged. After being trapped for so long in the depths of the base, they were free. Their eyes — each pair unique, filled with scars, lights, and trauma — turned to the scene before them.
The battlefield was silent.
Fallen soldiers, others groaning on the ground. Some alive, most in pieces. The smell of gunpowder, blood, and broken concrete still lingered in the air. The sky, even artificial under the dome of the base, seemed more open now.
At the center of it all, Derek.
He held a soldier by the neck, the man completely motionless, eyes wide with pure terror.
"Oh, you came out. Late, but you came." A faint smile formed on his face. "You're free to do whatever you want... just don't get caught again."
The soldier in his hand trembled, and Derek glanced at him briefly, bored.
"By the way…"
With a leap that thundered like a storm, Derek hurled himself forward, using the soldier's body as a weapon. The man was launched with overwhelming force, crashing into the base's reinforced wall — a wall built to withstand tanks and bombs.
BOOOOOOM!!!
The wall exploded into shards of steel and concrete, opening a definitive exit to the outside world.
"Goodbye."
Without waiting for a response, Derek leapt again — and this time, flew toward the horizon. His body cut through the sky like a human missile, propelled by the power of One For All, leaving a trail of wind and dust behind him.
The mutants stood in silence for a moment.
And then, one by one, they began to laugh.
To cry.
To scream.
To run.
They were free.