The Shutdown

"*If there were no god, it would be necessary to create one.*"

**The Shutdown** (妨 (ぼう) 業 (ごう) ミッション編 (へん)  *Bōgō Misshon Hen)* is the third story event in Our Villain Organisation, the third story event in the Organisation Beginnings Arc, and the second canon event in the series.

The Organisation receives troubling information that a national surveillance agency, the Horizon Group, may have become privy to sensitive information relating to the Organisation. Slime-chan sends the members of the Organisation to infiltrate and sabotage the Horizon base of operations hidden underneath the Vista Technologies building, which they have been using as a front.

## Summary

Nocturne gathers the members of the Organisation in his office upstairs, informing them that Slime-chan has discovered the existence of a surveillance group called the Horizon Group. Nocturne reasons that if a group like it is not explicitly allied with them, keeping them active is a liability - Slime-chan has indeed realised that the Horizon Group likely has sensitive information on the Organisation that could be leaked to anyone with the money to buy it from them. As a result, the destruction of this group is a high priority.

Nocturne presents the group with floorplans, as well as discrete personal radio headsets. Nocturne also asks the group *not to kill civilians*, annoyed at the group's civilian bodycount outside on missions. Shino Kitamura takes this seriously, but Keiko Ketsueki shrugs the instruction off.

The group part the Eternal Summer with Keisuke Darashima in his van towards the Vista Technologies building, which Slime-chan has found out is actually a hideout for the Horizon Group. Contacting the group on radio, Slime-chan instructs them to find a server room, at which point they should plug in an ICE Breaker in order to both steal back their own information, as well as any other information that the Horizon Group might have on others. Shino goes to investigate a strange van parked outside the front of the building, while the rest of the group access the roof of the building through a mixture of Aoki Gahara and Michiko Yuzuki's quirks.

Shino detects a large amount of electromagnetic activity emanating from the van, making him suspicious. He opens the doors of the van, but is immediately assaulted by a technician residing inside, almost being overpowered before he is forced to use his quirk to pacify him, which unfortunately also scrambles the electronics inside the van. He finds a crate of pepper spray in an adjacent cargo container, and then makes his way towards the security station on the ground floor, neutralising the two guards within and obtaining a security code for the ground-floor doors using the ICE breaker.

On the roof, they are spotted by two guards, but Michiko knocks out one while Keiko instantly kills the other by throwing a knife into his throat. Michiko chastises Keiko for immediately breaking the no-kill instruction, but she shrugs it off again, claiming that she's allowed at least one kill per mission to keep her quirk powered. Shojirou Atsuki and Michiko work together to hide the two bodies on the roof behind a bench. Shino meets up with the group, then they proceed downwards through a staircase.

On the third floor, Shino, Michiko, and Keiko organise a surprise attack, neutralising three guards. They obtain the passcode for a "secured door" from a managerial computer, as well as a temporary security pass. The group then proceed downwards to the second floor through an elevator.

On the second floor, Aoki neutralises the entire floor by phasing into the carpet and turning the entire floor into rope, allowing the rest of the Organisation members to easily defeat them with close combat attacks. Aoki also discovers a communique revealing that several people dressed "strangely" had been entering and exiting a large reinforced metal door on the ground floor. They enter the elevator to advance to the first floor, but Keiko realises that her being covered in blood would likely alarm everyone on the floor; Aoki responds by phasing into her clothing and ejecting the blood absorbed onto her clothing out, which Keiko collects in a mix of gratitude and embarrassment.

Aoki uses the passcode obtained earlier to open a reinforced door on the first floor, and the group proceed down a long staircase until they emerge in a room guarded by a gun turret and security guards. They at first attempt to sneak around, but Aoki remembers the communique that had mentioned strangely dressed people, and reasons that they could likely just pretend to be villains hired by the Horizon Group. Deferring to this decision, they abandon stealth and simply walk straight through the reception, into another elevator.

The basement elevator opens up to a spacious room lined by buttresses, also patrolled by guards. They ask for a security pass, which Aoki presents. Shino, still shaken up by his close call with the technician inside the van from earlier, enters a bathroom and promptly falls asleep. The rest of the ground enter a staffroom and wait around after asking when "The Boss" would arrive, after being told that he would probably be here in half an hour or so.

Half an hour later, the group wake Shino up, and they enter a security station. Keiko immediately murders the two guards inside, violently eviscerating one of them so badly he resembles nothing but "a puddle of gore". Another communique is found, stating that before the server room can be accessed, a halon gas pump has to be closed in the adjacent security station, otherwise the group risks suffocation upon entering the room. They decide that before they access the server room, they should go and deal with "The Boss" first, who has apparently gone straight down the the bottom floor.

Upon heading down the corridor to another elevator, the doors open to reveal Souda Samedama. Before he can get a single word out, Keiko and Shino simultaneously pounce him, beating him up and leaving him in a heap outside of the doors.

Arriving at the bottom floor of the complex, the group fan out and discover that the entirety of the spacious bottom floor is taken up by a huge, box-like structure, with wires snaking into and out of it. They proceed to a terminal and engage in dialogue with "THEIA IV", who is able to offer detailed information about each of their personal lives (save for Nocturne and Slime-chan, which it states that they require "additional security clearance") and also states that it is a *"prototype for a much larger system."* Before they can get it to clarify what this means, A man dressed in black announces his presence from behind the group, flanked by two people carrying assault rifles. He introduces himself as Sariel, before bemusingly asking if Nocturne had only decided to send children along on this mission. Sariel demonstrates skill in combat and uses his quirk Darkness to disorientate the group, but is immediately defeated after he is shot by Shino, and Kumokyo Ichishi sends both him and the THEIA IV supercomputer structure through the adjacent wall.

Slime-chan radios in, asking how and why a huge file has suddenly downloaded itself to her computer network; the group realises that the THEIA IV AI jumped before it could be destroyed. Slime-chan quarantines the program, and instructs them to proceed back upstairs to the server room to grab and destroy the information housed within it. Shino tells the group not to completely kill Sariel, as he might be useful for information or simply for ransom. They instead pepper-spray Sariel for good measure and Aoki hog-ties him before they proceed back up on the elevator.

Keiko simply dumps the unconscious body of Sariel down onto the floor of the second security station, intimidating the guards, who simply elect to leave the room before any further violence is solicited. With the server room vented, they proceed upwards and download the entire Horizon Group's servers onto Slime-chan's computer network, before Shino magnetically trashes the room. With both objectives complete, they advance back upstairs and home to the Eternal Summer.

## Story Impact

* The Horizon Group is introduced, and them summarily retired by the Organisation.
* Sariel, a minor antagonist, is introduced.
* Aoki realises he can mass pacify targets that are standing in carpeted rooms.
* The THEIA IV supercomputer project defects to The Organisation's side.