It was a cool night in the middle of October, people were heading home after a long day's work to get ready for the next. A popular bar on a busy street was seeing an influx of customers looking to unwind, and things were getting pretty noisy. The place had an older, cozy, low-tech feel to it, unlike most other places these days. It was a local favorite for a reason. In one particular booth in a corner by a window, seated across from each other...

"Who the fuck tries to rob a bank anymore!?"

Civilians weren't the only ones who were in need of a break, a pair of off-duty pro-heroes was enjoying a couple drinks after upholding the peace. Or, one of them was, the other was shouting and causing tiny explosions while recounting the events of the day.

"Kacchan, could we keep the volume down a bit?"

"It takes a special kind of moron to try an' pull that shit!"

Izuku Midoriya sighed and rolled his eyes at his companion's relentlessly loud demeanor. Katsuki Bakugo never had been one for subtlety.

Katsuki had invited Izuku for a drink after coincidentally being called to the same job. They hadn't had a chance to catch up in a long time, since Izuku rarely took a day for himself, even on his birthday. Maybe for others, but not specifically himself. He did at least try to keep in contact with his former classmates, heroing just didn't leave him much personal time.

"From what you told me" the green one started, a finger moving to his chin, and Katsuki suddenly knew a mumble storm was coming. "it sounded like he had some combat prowess, to be able to take down multiple police officers on his own. I would have liked to see his fighting style for myself, maybe I can get some security camera footage to study? No, that won't work, his quirk probably made sure of that. To be fair he might have been able to pull off the robbery if the police hadn't shown up so fast."

Katsuki raised and eyebrow, and put his drink on the table. "So, mister 'Greatest Hero Who Ever Lived' is even fair to the villains trying to disturb the peace, eh?" His words snapping his friend out of his thinking out loud.

A drawn out groan escaped Izuku's mouth. It had been a little over six years since he and his friends had graduated from U.A. and become professional heroes, but even before that, his unofficial debut against the yakuza boss Overhaul had led to the media keeping a constant eye on him. When he exploded onto the scene with not only the powerful quirk, but the heroic attitude to boot, some early fans were predicting he'd take the number one hero spot.

His early official hero career had been a very busy one, between defeating the league of villains' leader, and successor of All For One, Tomura Shigaraki, learning to master 100% of One For All, (with the way the ancient quirk worked, his 100% had been far higher then All Might's had ever been, even in his prime.) and the countless day-to-day situations that called out for his attention, it wasn't long until his fans were proven right, and Izuku had taken the number one spot for himself.

It was a particularly busy day of heroing, one that involved apprehending more then 80 villains, holding up a collapsing building, and punching a tsunami, caused by a trigger-enhanced water manipulator's quirk, into submission. This led to eye-witnesses, and even some other heroes to drop the title of "Greatest Hero Who Ever Lived" on Izuku's shoulders.

"Can you not? I get enough of that from Ochako teasing me with it, I don't need you jumping on that bandwagon."

Katsuki let out a hearty laugh to this, and Izuku couldn't help but laugh a little at himself as well.

At some point in their second year of high school, The explosive boy had undergone his own "redemption arc" as some of their classmates called it. He was forced to accept the quirkless kid he had previously bullied, after he learned he had once inspired All Might himself, and earned a quirk through his own spirit and hard work.

"Yeah, yeah." He waved his hand back and forth, as if to brush away his friend's comment. "Anyway, he was strong, but aside from that, he had support gear." Surprise flashed on Izuku's face.

'Villains weren't supposed to have support gear, that's illegal!' He thought to himself, before mentally face-palming. 'Of course it's illegal, everything villains do is illegal.'

"So what're you thinking, black market?"

"Probably, which means more work for us or the cops later down the line, would be good to get a lead off this guy."

"Did you...happen to catch his name?"

"No." Katsuki picked up his glass and took a drink. "I wasn't paying attention, bastard was edgier then Tokoyami, and twice as hard to listen to. Not that his name matters anymore, I kicked his ass and the cops took him to prison."

"Of course." Izuku laughed again, looking out the window to reminisce on the events from just a few hours ago.

It was mid-day, and Izuku was on patrol as the pro hero 'Deku' when he received a message through his hero agency from the police chief, asking for his assistance in an ongoing situation. A bank robbery? Had be heard that right? Seemed almost...too outdated of a crime.

He arrived on the scene not two minutes later (perks of public quirk usage) and asked for any updates the overseeing officer had to give him.

"We don't know the guy's name, but we've seen plenty of his quirk to give you that. He can emit pitch black rays from his hands, like a high-intensity flashlight. If you get caught in the rays it's seemingly impossible to see outside of them. He also seems to be able to make the beams persist without having to make an active effort to keep them around. And finally, he has some sort of paralytic effect that we haven't figured out yet. None of the officers we sent in, nor the civilians we saw were able to move before all the windows and entrances were covered by the dark rays."

It was a lot of information to take in, but Izuku had practically made a career in note-taking, and he made a mental note (ha) to make a new entry for this quirk when he had more time.

"All right, I think I got all that, I'll head in to see if I can-" before he could finish, a loud voice behind him caught his attention.

"Fuck that! I'll go in alone and take this asshole down myself!"

Izuku sighed and turned around to face the source of the obscenities stomping towards him, who had evidently also been called in to help out. Katsuki Bakugo may have been more of a friend to Izuku now then he ever had been, but he was still arrogant, proud, and always trying to prove he was number one.

"Kacchan that's stupid, there's no point risking a one-on-one fight against an enemy you don't know." He knew there was no arguing with him when Katsuki had been promised a fight and frankly, he had already given up.

"Whatever Deku, it won't mean a damn thing if we beat him without a fair fight."

The officer who had briefed Izuku stepped forward to interject. "Baron Bakugo, it's a VILLAIN, who has taken HOSTAGES, and also incapacitated several police officers, I would suggest-" A glare full of rebellious intent interrupted the officer, who sighed and relented.

Katsuki had chosen his hero name by shortening an initial version of a hero name that Midnight shot down, and adding his surname to it, claiming it was important that people knew HIS name. This didn't stop his classmates, from their old nicknames, though.

"You get ten minutes," Izuku finally let out, "after that I'm going in whether you like it or not."

A smile crept onto Katsuki's face, and he turned to walk toward the darkness-covered entrance to the bank.

"Oh, don't you worry Deku, you aren't even gonna get a turn."

And with that, he confidently strode past the dark barrier preventing anyone from seeing inside. Izuku stood there, arms crossed, as he watched his friend disappear.

Katsuki took several steps though the darkness and into what he assumed was the lobby of the bank. When his vision finally returned, he was greeted with quite a sight. A handful of police officers and bank-goers were laid out on the floor, with their arms and legs in positions as if they were trying to run, or attack in a few cases. Brave, those ones, but it didn't help too much.

'Right, paralysis, I caught the end of that cop explaining to Deku.'

He looked around the room again, taking note of all the dark areas in the lobby. The entrance, windows, and hallways, mostly, but a few spots high up on the walls. Blocking security cameras, he guessed.

It was then that one dark spot in the middle of the room disappeared, and a man was revealed, standing with his arms folded behind his back. He was wearing a long black trench coat, the bottom of which almost touching the floor, with what looked like a tactical harness over that, plus black cargo pants, combat boots, and a thick elbow high glove, with what looked like looked like...a gun? Not quite. Whatever it was, it was worth keeping an eye on. He also hard a long, shredded, dark purple scarf that seemed to defy gravity and hang in the air on it's own. 'Sensei would be a fan of this guy's fashion' Katsuki noted. The most striking thing about this man's appearance, however, under his black, shaggy head of hair, was the blindfold, covering his eyes.

"Oho, what's this? The number one hero couldn't be bothered to deal with me, so they sent a nobody?" The man let out a deep, slow laugh before continuing. "I suppose I will have to settle for robbing the light from you, perhaps that will draw out that man. For now, let me introduce myself." he took an arm from behind his back and placed it across his chest, bowing slightly. "I am the encroaching darkness that will snuff out your beacon of hope! I am 'The Dark Source', and it will be my pleasure to destroy your future, nobody."

Katsuki had already stopped listening by the time he had been insulted once, so when the man bowed, he took that as his opportunity to attack. He put his arms back and used his explosions to boost forward and deliver his signature big right hook, which the man put an arm up to block. His attack had been a trick, however, as he fired off an explosion again in the air to change his position, and delivered an axe kick directly to the man's head. At the very last second, the man put up a hand to intercept the kick, catching Katsuki by surprise. "Too slow, fool."

'So he can see me even with that damn blindfold on? Okay fine, let's see him...' "Catch this, bitch!"He threw his arms down and opened his hands, firing off two more explosions. At point blank range, it was all the man could do to bring an arm up to block, and was blown into the ground. Katsuki himself had been thrown back a few feet from the force of the explosion. He flipped in the air and landed on his feet, the man on the ground wasn't so lucky.

Katsuki had learned a lot in his high school days, like, for example, not to set off a full-force explosion indoors, unless he wanted to risk having a building collapse on top of him. There were also hostages to think about, and he didn't want to scare them with too many big booms, so it was no surprise when the man who had been laid out by a relatively weak explosion recovered with an irritatingly low amount of effort.

The man stood, taking note of the now broken needle shooter attached to his gloved hand. He sighed, muttering something about a waste of money, and shoddy craftsmanship, before ripping the glove off his arm and throwing it aside, revealing a black lense in the center of his palm.

"HA! Broke a toy of yours did I?" Katsuki taunted his opponent, for no other reason then 'he could'. The man cracked his neck in response, and outstretched an open hand. The man breathed in deep, and then out, firing off a dark ray towards the hero, who dodged on instinct even knowing they couldn't do any physical damage. Who knew if prolonged exposure could have some effects? Well, this villain did, but he wasn't about to strike up a conversation with some asshole about his quirk, instead, he broke out into a run and tried to close the distance between himself and the man.

He ran low and fast, avoiding another ray shooting towards him, until he was close enough to the man to throw an uppercut towards his chin, but the man moved his head back just in time to feel the wind flying off the hero's fist. He smirked and fell into a close range fighting stance. Katsuki threw a left hook which the man ducked under while throwing his own left hook, which was met with the solid guard of Katsuki's big gauntlets. He pushed the blocked punch aside in hopes he would throw the man off balance and be able to fire off another shot, but he had already recovered and was throwing light, rhythmic punches into Katsuki's guard again. The two continued exchanging attacks, Katsuki blocking most, while taking a few glancing blows here and there, while the man had stuck to dodging. Just when Katsuki thought a hit would land, his opponent would skillfully weave out of the way of the oncoming attack, before retorting with one of his own.

Katsuki was getting frustrated, he couldn't seem to land any of his hits despite being so close. He took an aggressive step forward and threw a big right punch, but the man used this as an opportunity, taking his own step forward, letting the hero's fist just barely graze his cheek as he brought his own fist forward and delivered a counter-punch to the face, forcing the blonde to take a dazed step backward before receiving another hook to the ribs and doubling over in pain, only for the man to finish his combination by grabbing his face, and pushing back so Katsuki's head slammed into the ground hard. The man smirked, and activated his quirk directly in Katsuki's face, causing his vision to slowly fade, until he could see nothing but black.

"I told you right at the start I would take your light from you, and that's exactly what I've done. My quirk allows me to add a source of dark to the world, but at point blank range like that, I can just put it right in your eyes, meaning you will be consumed by my darkness." The man let out a slow, mocking laugh. "You can't beat me now." Anger flashed on Katuski's face as he lashed out with a wild punch, the man dodging by jumping back a good distance.

He felt a damp spot on the back of his head, indicating blood, his rib was probably broken, and he couldn't see a damn thing, but Katsuki Bakugo stood. He wasn't the kind of hero to let a little setback like this stop him, he'd be damned if he'd ever let himself lose a fight. "Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit!" He put both of his arms out in front of him, his palms glowing, and sparks already flying off his hand. He braced himself.

"You sure talk a big game, but let's see if you're brave enough to take this one! DIE!"

The blast fired off in full force, ripping the tile from the bank's floor as it flew towards it's intended target. A split second's judgement made the man dive off to one side, pulling himself into a roll, and then breaking out into a full sprint towards the source of the explosion, slipping around to his back when he was close enough to Katsuki to deliver a killing blow.

...Which was a mistake on his part. When you have a battle quirk that obscures your vision with smoke after a big attack, you quickly learn how enemies want to exploit that weakness by closing in while you're blind and recovering. You also learn how to use that as bait, and plan a trap for those brave enough to run straight in, so when Katsuki felt the wind rush past him, he spun around to catch the man's expected punch. What he hadn't expected, however was the knife that impaled itself though his palm, pain surging through it, he clenched his teeth and let out an angry growl.

Surprise flashed across the man's face, he similarly hadn't expected his foe to catch his sneak attack. The explosion maker's fingers came down like a vice on the man's hand, pulling him in closer to deliver a headbutt, stunning his enemy.

"DEKU!" Katsuki screamed as he let off another explosion that sent the man flying into the air. A green streak flew through the dark barrier by the entrance, and slammed into the villain mid air, bringing him back to the ground, and slapping a pair of handcuffs around his wrists.

"Kacchan! Are you alright?" Izuku turned around and ran to the explosive hero, who had pulled the knife out of his hand and threw it on the ground next to him.

"I'm fine, you got him?"

Confused, Izuku responded "W-what? Yeah, of course I did, cuffs and everything, didn't you see?"

Katsuki stood back up. and faced towards the general direction he assumed the man was, and spoke.

"Someone weak enough to get their ass kicked by a blind opponent doesn't deserve to even stand in the number one hero's shadow." He put his unstabbed hand on Izuku's shoulder and continued. "This beacon of light will never be extinguished by such a weak darkness, especially while I'm around to put you in your damn place." he turned around to walk out, but immediately felt lost.

"Deku, where's the damn door!?"

Izuku snapped out of his reminiscing and the various conversations of the busy bar returned to his ears. He took a glance towards his companion's hand.

"I guess it's a good thing Eri was around to fix you up huh?"

It had taken a few years, but Eri finally got enough of a handle on her quirk to be able to use it to help people. Izuku had taken Katsuki to visit her to have her rewind the explosion hero to a point where he was unwounded, and had no dark in his eyes.

"Yeah yeah, give her my thanks next time you see her, she's a good kid."

Izuku smirked "I will tell her. Next week, at Kirishima's party, she'll be there too."

Katsuki's eyes widened in exaggerated horror. Kirishima was holding a birthday party-slash-class 1-A reunion, since they hadn't been able to spend much time together after graduation, and everyone had agreed to go seeing it as a good chance to catch up. Even a few honorary 1-A members would be there. (Whatever that meant, it was Mina that had dubbed Eri and a few other friends that.) He figured Izuku would probably take the opportunity to say it to her in front of everyone to spite him.

"Alright fine! I'll tell her myself!" he yelled, as he took another pass at his drink, finishing it.

"Are you sure? I can-"

"I SAID I'LL TELL HER, DEKU, GOD DAMMIT!"

Conversations around the bar were replaced with excited murmurs as the patrons looked over to the source of the outburst, noticing it came from a booth containing a pair of famous pro heroes.

"Ah, damn it."

"That's what you get, Kacchan."

"Shut up..."

A group of people made their way over to the heroes' booth, to tell them how they were huge fans, ask for autographs, and a few pictures. One guy even showing off his tattoo of the phrase "SMASH!" on his arm, which embarrassed Izuku and got a laugh out of Katsuki.

The excited patrons went back to their own tables after meeting and greeting their favorite heroes, and the pair fell back into casual conversation for a while, before the discussion was eventually steered back to the day's job.

"...We should probably start a joint operation with our agencies and the police, crack down on this damn black market ring. Can't have villains running around with support items."

"Mm, yeah, good idea." Izuku agreed, it wouldn't be good for public morale to learn villains were receiving any extra help in causing trouble. Plus... "Wouldn't want any more would-be villains getting the upper hand on you."

A vein made it's way onto Katsuki's forehead. "He didn't actually get a chance to use...shut up!" he took his money out of his pocket and slammed it on the table, and then proceeded to storm out of the bar.

"H-hey wait! It was a joke! C'mon!" Izuku took out his own money and payed for his drinks as well, before trying to catch up to his friend, who was no doubt determined to explodo-fly his way home.

Hey! Thanks for reading this far! A few things I wanna say: I'm sure it was obvious, but this was my first fic, so forgive me if everything kinda seemed...all over the place, unplanned, nonsensical, etc. (It was) I'd had an idea for a quirk for a while, and also hadn't read a ton of fight scene fics, so I wanted to try my hand at that.

Also it might just be my headcanon but, like, an aged up Deku, who had mastered One For All seems like he'd be pretty hard to write good action scenes for, having the Superman problem of just being too strong, so I just...didn't try!

Anywho, any criticism or comments would be appreciated! I have an idea for another thing I wanna write, but this took me a while. I'm a slow writer, easily distracted.