Tamaki Amajiki didn't want to be here.

It took all his mental strength to not fidget. He was standing behind the officers in full raid gear aiming their guns at the warehouse in front of them. Several cops were behind him using their squad cars as cover. Everything was far too quiet for his liking.

"I wanna go home..."

Tamaki had tried desperately to imagine the officers as something else to calm his nerves. Mirio had taught him the trick years ago and it sometimes worked. It helped him to deal with large crowds and students at U.A, though he knew that when he did it his eyes squinted and he looked scary.

"But I can't look scarier than the guys around me..." All of them were serious, which was good for a cop, but he was used to being with Fat Gum who knew how to start a friendly conversation. While Tamaki wasn't much of a talker, he hated awkward silences more. What if he was the one supposed to say something? The pressure was just too great to handle. "No, come on. Think of them in their underwear! No, already tried that. Wait, I've got it!"

He blinked and imagined the officers around him having cat or dog ears and tails. Some of them were even licking their noses or hands.

Tamaki snickered but tried desperately to keep a straight face.

"Any word from Sir Nighteye, Suneater?" Tamaki almost choked on his own saliva as he looked at the lieutenant to his left. He was glancing at Tamaki but didn't take his eyes off of the warehouse. "It's been a couple of minutes since those explosions and we haven't received any status reports."

Tamaki was scared. He didn't want to answer in a way that would give the lieutenant the idea that he had no clue what his superior was up to. But if he didn't answer, then that would be worse than saying something stupid. "...Nothing yet."

"Damn, this is stupid." An officer behind him muttered. "We should've just busted in the moment the building shook. What the hell are we doing out here?"

"Can it, Tsunemori." Came the lieutenant's stern voice. "We're following the orders the chief gave us. If you want to complain about them, I welcome you to bring it to him."

"Why couldn't you be here, Mirio?"

This would be easier if his friend were with him. Fat Gum was a great mentor and Tamaki could appreciate the man's attempts to boost his confidence, but Mirio Togata was the one who always knew what to say. He seemed to know how to get Tamaki to see the wider world as something other than a scary place he was forced to live in.

"Sorry, Tamaki. I'm stuck on this special training regimen that Sir put me on." Mirio said over the phone last night. "I'd come to help you guys out if I could, but you know him."

It still amazed Tamaki that someone as bright and friendly as Mirio would end up with a scary guy like Sir Nighteye.

"What the hell is that?"

He blinked and looked around. Green smoke was seeping out from a manhole in front of them and wrapped around their feet.

"Stay alert, everyone." The lieutenant ordered, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. "We might be dealing with a late arrival. Be ready to fire on my co-!"

The manhole was sent up into the sky like the cap from a shaken up soda bottle with a mint thrown in it. It just kept flying up into the air with no sign of stopping...

And that's when the first Villains came out.

Some were in street clothes with scary-looking physical Quirks while others were dressed in traditional spandex. All of them had murder in their eyes, sadistic grins spread across their faces as they sauntered forward.

"This is the police!" The lieutenant shouted from a loudspeaker. "All of you, stay where you are and put your hands behind your head! Do it now or we'll be forced to take you down!"

"NOW!" One of them shouted and Tamaki heard explosions.

He turned to see that the buildings to their sides were now coming apart. Villains were swarming out of their holes, leaping at him and the cops like a pack of ravenous hyenas.

"Crap..."

"You're mine!" Tamaki didn't hesitate and used Manifest on his right arm. The takoyaki he ate this morning came in handy as his arms transformed into the slimy tentacles of an octopus. They wrapped themselves around the female Villain with an axe for a hand before he twisted himself on his heel. He slammed her head-first into a police cruiser's window, smashing the glass and making the Villain slump down to the ground with her eyes rolled to the back of her head.

But he could still hear the chaos.

"Crap! Get them! Can't any of you guys aim!?"

"You're outnumbered, pigs! There's no hope for you!"

"Bastards! Where the hell is the south team!? We need backup!"

"You're screwed now! Can't believe that Mysterio's plan actually worked!"

"Fat Gum!" Tamaki shouted to his comms device. "Fat Gum, come in! We're under attack and need...!"

But it was no use. All he got was static.

He was hyperventilating. One Villain, he could handle no problem even if it was a bit scary. But there had to be close to fifty swarming them. "What do I do!? What the hell do I do!? Oh man, this is bad! I don't have Fat Gum with me! I-I don't have anybody! I'm the only Hero here, and if I leave these guys to go and get backup I will... I will...!"

No, he couldn't let that happen. He was a Hero, and he was the one these officers had to rely on to save the day.

It was all on him.

Tamaki took in a deep breath. He pictured Mirio and Nejire's smiling faces, his two precious friends' encouragements ringing in his ears.

Manifest transformed his left hand into a clam's hardened shell while his feet grew into chicken talons.

"Time to be a Hero."

And with that final thought he leapt into battle.

"This isn't good!" Taishiro Toyomitsu, known to his fans and fellow Heroes as Fat Gum, glared at the Villains in front of him.

Many people talked smack about Mysterio for being a weird copycat of an old comic character, but Taishiro never bought into that line of thinking. The guy was a Villain who was able to escape All Might and go toe-to-toe with the Spider-Man guy who had some strength-enhancing Quirk. That, alongside working with the Prowler, made him bad news.

But the past few months had shown Taishiro that Mysterio's crimes were darker than anything he could've imagined.

He had been working with Sir Nighteye on this case through sheer coincidence. New drugs had been dripping into the underworld like the inhaler known as "Kick" that gave Quirk-users a power boost but drove them insane after repeated usage. They would scream that something was talking to them in their head and would mutter crazy stuff about something "sublime". The other one was MGH, or Mutant Growth Hormone; It gave users an extra Quirk but would damage their Quirk Factor after a while.

Both of them were linked to Mysterio; and when Taishiro found that out, Sir Nighteye called asking if he wanted to be part of the raid.

He glanced at the mastermind behind the operation. He had learned a lot of things during the time leading to the raid. How Mysterio was kidnapping people and making them disappear off the map, how he was distributing experimental weapons to wannabe Villains, and murdering anyone who didn't pay him on time.

"Or using these guys to kill them." He couldn't underestimate any of Mysterio's lackies. It took two to subdue just one of these "Enforcers" and one had killed Rock Lock.

This wasn't a game. This was a fight for survival.

"But how could they have known about Sir Nighteye's Quirk?" Only Heroes he teamed up with and the police knew the specifics about the power including its limits. It wasn't public knowledge save for the name in the Quirk database. "There has to be a leak in the police. Sir doesn't work with anyone with loose lips or levers Villains could pull."

"I will only warn you once." Nighteye said calmly, pushing up his glasses and glaring at their opponents. "Turn yourselves in peacefully. We will not hold back, not after what you have done."

"Big words coming from a dead man!" Vulture screamed as he gripped something in each hand before he leapt off the railing, his turbines spinning as his body shot forward. "I'm going to enjoy rippin' that smug-ass look off your face!"

"Not as much as I'm going to relish beating a murdering thug like you into the ground!" Snatch transformed into a pillar of sand that went above Nighteye's head to intercept the flying Villain. "Don't be surprised when you wake up in a prison hospital!"

Clash flew after him. Raising her right palm ahead, she shot a blast of pure sound that sounded vaguely like the strumming of a bass guitar. It dispersed the sand pillar before it could get near Vulture, who flapped his giant metal wings to raise himself a few feet.

"What the heck were you thinking, you idiot!?" Clash shouted as she cut off the sounds making her fly and skid on the floor in a crouch before Snatch's sand pile. "Follow the plan! I'll handle Snatch!"

"But that bastard…!"

"You shall follow your role, Vulture. It is I, Mysterio, who shall do battle against Sir Nighteye!" Mysterio began to stroll towards Sir Nighteye, who held his ground and was remarkably calm for someone with the odds against him.

"Fuck! Fine, have it your way!" Vulture then glided to Centipeder and Bubble Girl, raising his arms and revealing the guns in his hands.

"NO!" Taishiro dove into the line of fire, mentally preparing himself for the sting of gunfire. While his Quirk prevented the bullets from hurting him, they still pricked him like little needles pressing down on a finger but not quite piercing the skin.

"But I'm not going to let these guys get killed like Rock Lock!"

Something else hit him instead.

On windy days, Taishiro felt as if he had to battle against the wind to keep walking straight as the air tried to lead him right or left. It was like that, but packed into a small area like he was being punched over and over. The force came in waves, reverberating through his jiggling stomach and rattling his bones.

What made it more surprising was that he was moving.

It was only a few feet to the left, but it was enough to give Vulture enough room to twist his body to the right. The tip of his wing nearly scraped the ground before he righted himself and fired his pistols.

Two nets wrapped themselves around the sidekicks, entangling in a web of knots. "Sir!" Bubble Girl shouted before screaming. Taishiro could only watch from the floor as Vulture attached the guns to his waist and pulled the two with him. They were lifted off the ground as he shot out the hole that he entered from, disappearing from sight in a matter of seconds.

"Damn!" Taishiro never felt so angry in his life. "I couldn't help Rock Lock, I couldn't stop those two from being taken, and god knows what's happening to Tamaki out there!"

He needed to help put a stop to this before anyone else got hurt!

He got on his feet and eyed the Villain who shot him. Shocker was keeping his distance, but positioned himself in front of the hole to stand clear of the others fighting. He was cracking his knuckles, his gaze never breaking from Taishiro's.

"Taishiro Toyomitsu, known as the Hero Fat Gum." Shocker's deep voice rumbled, somehow managing to be audible in all the chaos. "Twenty-nine years old, type O blood. Your Quirk, Fat Absorption, absorbs kinetic energy with your body fat while also having objects adhere to or sink into it."

He raised his gauntlets that seemed to be humming in anticipation.

"I have been looking forward to killing you."

"I suppose we should get started!" Mysterio raised his arms and crushed something in his hands. As he opened them, pieces of glass fell before dissolving into green smoke that floated to the ceiling. "It is only appropriate that I, the master of this lair, should sta-!"

Mirai rushed forward. "You shouldn't monologue." he said flatly as he brought his arm back. "It gives your enemies time to strike."

He couldn't afford to waste time against Mysterio. Rock Lock, Ken Takagi, was dead and it was all his fault.

He had blundered into this trap and endangered everyone with his complacency in Foresight. Takagi's wife was now a widow because of him. "If I had only spent more time tailing Narukami to find who he associated with, we would've been better prepared!"

But berating himself wouldn't bring Takagi back to life. He could only atone by making his death mean something.

And there were the others to think about. His sidekicks were taken by Vulture, Fat Gum was battling against Shocker, and Snatch was dealing with Clash. All three Villains had managed to keep their capabilities secret. Their chosen identities hinted at the uses of their gear but left their Quirks a mystery.

"And the officers outside will need backup. Everyone needs backup and we cannot contact anyone!"

He needed to hit Mysterio hard and fast. End this fight in a matter of minutes.

Mysterio sneered at the interruption, stepping back in preparation for the blow. Mirai heard the sound of thunder rumbling from overhead and leapt to the left as a green tentacle smashed the ground where he once stood.

"I shall keep that under advisement, Hero!" Mysterio dramatically pointed to him. "But what is a Master of Illusion if he is not a master of… presentation!"

Mirai only briefly glanced up. Green clouds were covering the ceiling once more, but now four massive tentacles were peeking out from the depths. As thunder rumbled, flashes of light revealed what appeared to be the head of an octopus with blood red eyes that cut through the emerald plumes.

"It's not real." That much he could be sure of. From his research into Mysterio, the man's specialty lies in robotics, hallucinogens, and realistic hologram technology. "But some sort of device is slamming those limbs onto the ground. I felt the rush of wind and pieces of debris hit my suit. All four of those tentacles are likely real."

But he still needed to be sure. If he made a single mistake it would give Mysterio the upper hand.

The four tentacles shot at him as he decided on this course of action. Mirai pushed up his glasses as he began dodging the blows. The tentacles made no complicated movements, slamming on the ground when he kept his distance or attempting to run him through when he approached. Jumping up and allowing a tentacle to graze the back of his suit, he confirmed the existence of the second one.

Reaching down, he grabbed it with his right hand and kicked at the main part of the limb with both his legs. He felt the crumpling metal and the familiar sound of a robot breaking into pieces. The illusion faded, revealing a silver tube with wires that sparked as if to protest the break.

He landed on his feet while letting go of the robotic limb. Reaching into his pockets, he threw two high-density seals towards the two other tentacles that he hadn't touched. As the five-kilogram seals went through both without any sound of contact, Mirai focused all his attention on the remaining tentacle that he knew was real.

But he wouldn't give it the opportunity to try and hit him.

He reached into his pockets and took out six more seals that he held in between his fingers. He threw them towards the silhouette of the octopus-creature.

While his physical capabilities weren't exactly up to par with most Heroes, it didn't mean he was a weakling. He constantly carried several five-kilogram seals on his person and exercised regularly. When combined with his speed and strength, the seals became projectiles more deadly than bullets.

He heard the sound of his seals puncturing through metal and the squawk of broken machinery. The clouds parted as if some god had decided to reveal itself to the masses, revealing some sort of silver block on tracks with two protruding tube-limbs that now hung limply.

"I congratulate your quick thinking, Sir Nighteye!"

Mirai watched as thick green smoke circled around him, blocking his vision of anything further than five meters.

"But your luck has come to an end! It is time you experience…"

Four identical Mysterios came from the smoke and came at him from all sides, the delight beaming from their false faces with arms reaching out at him.

"...the true might of Mysterio!"

"And I think that it's time that you learn not to underestimate a Pro." Mirai leapt into the air and watched as the four Mysterios met. "I have studied you, Mysterio. And I learned all of your habits… and your flaws."

The Mysterios coming from his sides and back distorted like bad static. Only the one coming from his front remained solid.

"You take too much pleasure in getting your hands dirty." In a flash of motion, Mirai fished out another seal from his pocket and threw it at the true Mysterio's chest. It threw him back and onto the ground, the concrete cracking from the force of the blow. The Villain grimaced from the pain as Mirai dug his heels into his abdomen. "Your sadism makes you predictable."

He expected Mysterio to do many things. Grab at him, curse, shout more ridiculous assertions of his mastery over illusion.

Instead, the Villain simply laughed.

"Sir Nighteye, you of all people should know that not everything is what they seem when you're dealing with an illusionist!"

Mirai only heard the sound of a fist the millisecond before it crashed against his left cheek. His teeth rattled but he didn't let that distract him. He registered the second fist racing towards his stomach and reached down to catch it.

The hand wore Mysterio's glove but it wasn't connected to a body.

He jumped back and saw two gloved hands clenched into fists suspended in midair. Mysterio got back onto his feet, dusted his pants, and raised an eyebrow with an amused grin on his face while motioning to the two hands.

"This is merely one of my simplest tricks, Hero. Though it was enough to catch you off guard. So tell me… how long do you think you'll last when I actually try?"

Mirai merely threw two more seals, hitting the hands directly and making them explode in a burst of metal, sparks, and smoke.

"I suggest you try harder."

Sajin Higawara was well aware he wasn't a popular Hero. He was often overlooked by the general public and was mentioned mostly as assisting in team-ups or rescue operations. Just a name on a sheet of paper, maybe a photo of him in the background.

That didn't mean he wasn't proud of his work or the ideals of heroism.

"You caught me off guard with that sonic blast earlier." His arm became a fountain of sand that flooded toward Clash. "It won't happen again!"

The girl was surprisingly nimble. She performed a back extension roll so that his attack would pass over her before she brought her legs up.

"Again with the cliche lines!" Clash got back onto her feet and fired back, this time sounding like a guitar riff that brought up dust from the floor. Sajin reverted his upper body into sand so he could slide away from the path only to find her raising both hands up. "Heroes always spout the same stuff over and over again as if people wouldn't notice!"

"And what about you!?" Sajin knew he had to be smart. This blast would be more powerful than the last one. "Do you enjoy picking apart people's speeches as if you're some kind of master scriptwriter?"

"No, but I know that if I had been a Hero I would have better dialogue!" The sound that came from the speakers were now a high-pitched and unintelligible wail. The ground cracked and buckled as it raced towards Sajin. He shot his sand form up into the air as the blast scattered a majority of the sand that took the place of lower body.

He had complete control over his sand and could use it to get his lower body out of the way, but it took time for him to reform. Expanding the amount of sand to compensate would take seconds, but a lot could happen in a second.

"But I'm not here to banter, Hero." Clash ran to the side, avoiding his crashing form and sliding on the ground. Sajin could swear he saw her place something black on it during her trip. "I'm here to take you down, you and the society you represent!"

Oh that's just perfect. Clash was one of those Villains.

If there was a Villain that Sajin detested the most, it's those who blamed society for all their problems. The ones whose lives didn't go the way they planned or learned that it was a lot tougher than they thought.

The bank didn't approve their loan? It's society's fault! They couldn't find a job that didn't meet their actual skillset and had to settle for something down the ladder? Society's fault, of course! Things didn't work out with your love life or working with the system was harder without mommy and daddy? "We live in a society" and all that bullshit.

Sure, sometimes people got a shitty hand and that sucked. But none of it justified going out to make other people suffer. It was an immature, stupid, and criminal temper-tantrum that roped in people uninvolved with their problems.

"I guess that settles it." Sajin had his sand body begin spreading around them. He focused on creating several sand golems in his image that reached out for Clash. "You really are a child!"

He couldn't sympathize with Villains and he didn't want to. Mulling over their backstories was irrelevant to the job of a Hero. Rock Lock had done it with the Boomerang kid and it nearly screwed up the mission. He even set himself up for his own death, something that infuriated Sajin with each passing second.

"I couldn't give a damn about your backstory, girl. I'm going to take you down and by the time I'm done you'll be eating through a straw! You're going to pay for Rock Lock and all the other people you've killed!"

The Villain turned to the right, thrusting her palm at the golem closest to her and placing her hand on its midsection. Letting off a blast of sound and dispersing it, she didn't waste any time and turned to the left to do the same. She cartwheeled to the left to avoid one that tried to catch her head and smash it to the ground. She leapt to her feet and waved her hand in front of her, dispersing the other golems with the sound of a dubstep rhythm that Sajin couldn't recognize.

"I haven't been a kid for a while, Snatch!" She dashed towards him while following the edge of the circle he had formed. Grimacing, Sajin shaped his sand into small pillars that closed in on Clash from the sides. Instead, she leapt over them with the sound of drums blaring through the speakers on her feet, stabilizing herself with her left hand.

For some reason, her right hand remained limp and clenched into a fist.

"Right, because you've killed a bunch of thugs you're suddenly a grownup." Sajin glared at the girl even as she landed on his face. He began to turn his head into sand as the blast of sound came from her shoes. It disappeared into a shower that spread along the ground behind him. Sajin could hear his ears ringing in protest, but he grabbed her left leg while his mouth began to reform. "Villains like you make me sick!"

He slammed her on the ground in front of him. The Villain screamed as she bounced from the force of the blow while her electronic eyes scrunched from the pain.

"You all decide that life is unfair and then use your power to steal from those weaker than you! Spouting that it's your right as if you're the most important person in a world that slights you at every turn!"

The girl kicked at his arm with her free leg, the shin hitting his forearm with surprising force. What he didn't expect was for a sonic blast to come out and pulverize his arm. It dissolved into sand before it could do serious damage, but then she thrust out her feet and sent two bursts of concentrated sound towards his legs. Thinking fast, Sajin formed a sand barrier in front of his lower body before they could hit.

The force of the blow was dulled, but the sand wall still cracked open and he flew back several feet. Thankfully, he skidded to a stop and was propped on one knee. "I guess her foot speakers have less offensive capability than the ones on her hands or shins. Lucky me."

But he couldn't afford to take a break and plan things. He wasn't Sir Nighteye. He just needed to keep up the pressure and the Villain will crack in time.

Clash was getting onto her feet as Sajin raced towards her as a sand tsunami. His head was visible but would merge with the wave the second she sent another blast. Her sonic attacks hurt, but he could move his body out of the way within the mass of sand before he took a direct hit.

"Rock Lock had a wife and they were expecting a son! You and your murderous friends killed him just because he wanted to help the people you kidnap and enslave!" He was drawing in closer, making the wave taller and denser. "How many families have you ruined, girl!? Do you know!? Or do you just not care because you enjoy lording your power over those who…!?"

"SHUT UP!" Clash stood her ground and spread her legs. Her hands clenched into fists as a low humming filled the air. "Power this and power that! That's all you and this stupid society care about! That's all you use to judge a person's worth and where they belong! Well, guess what!?"

The humming quickly crescendoed into the screeching whine of a jet turbine. "She's going to do something big!" Damn it, and there was no time to dodge!

"I'M QUIRKLESS!"

Sajin could see ripples of sound blaring out of her open palms and the speakers holding her cape to her costume. Sajin and his wave exploded over as he struck an invisible sandbank. He bit back a scream as Clash's attack ripped through his eardrums and lower body. His bladder leaked as it crumpled under the force of having a car rammed into him, forcing him to reform his human body before falling into the cracked concrete floor.

His lungs burned. The ringing in his ears was getting worse by the second. He turned his attention back to Clash, who threw something onto the ground. "What!? What is she doing!?"

No time. He had to protect his lower body before she found it. So long as he kept it safe, that there was still a chance to win this.

Expanding his upper body, Sajin encircled Clash with a wall of sand. Five feet thick, he could move his lower body around it carefully and attack her from all angles.

He felt a grim satisfaction as Clash looked around wildly in confusion.

"So… you're Quirkless? Doesn't matter to me. Soon, you'll be treated like any other punk who thought they could take their problems out on the world."

It amazed him though.

It took a special kind of stupid to take on a powerful and experienced Quirk user.

Juzo Moashi cried out as his body smashed against Bubble Girl's. The nets that restrained them were close together, making collisions inevitable.

It also didn't help that the wind made hearing almost impossible.

"Damn it, this is bad!" The Villain was going to bring them as high as he could before plunging them to their deaths, a possibility made far more likely with Fat Gum being preoccupied with the other Villains. "I can try to use one of my centipede arms to grab onto a ledge while catching Bubble Girl but inertia will rip it off! There won't even be enough time to swing!"

The bag suddenly felt as if it weren't being dragged by Vulture's body and it was followed by the distinct feeling of falling.

It only lasted a second as Juzo rolled onto the ground, his body entangled in the net. He tried hard not to make his pain apparent to the Villain but was thankful when he heard Bubble Girl's cry of pain. "Thank god, she's still alive."

And if they were alive, there was still a chance.

"Damn!" Juzo began to flail around, trying to reach for an opening in the net. When he felt one, he pulled it apart and crawled out. He looked up to see Bubble Girl doing the same with her net, coughing and grimacing from her scraped left elbow and scratched up arm. "You okay, Bubble Girl?"

"I'm fine, Centipeder!" Bubble Girl's body stiffened and she glared at the sky above him. Slowly, Juzo turned around to see Vulture hovering above them with his arms crossed across his chest.

"Well, glad to see you two bastards are alright!" He pointed at them, his goggles not showing any emotion from the man behind the mask. "This wouldn't be a fair fight if one of you were injured on the trip down."

"A fair…?" Juzo bit back his incredulous remark. "Why would you want a fair fight?"

"Come on, fool! It wouldn't be right if I just dropped you outta the sky without the both of you trying to kick my ass!" Vulture made a sound like he was clicking his tongue. He raised his thumb and index finger as he jabbed at their direction. "This isn't some bullshit where you're just a weak-ass punk that needs to be taken out. You're a goddamn Hero! You've got the skills and moves that I've gotta overcome to make a real name for myself!"

"This guy's dialect…" He had heard the man utter some Korean phrases back at the warehouse, but Vulture didn't seem to have an accent. His Japanese was fluent, but it was overly aggressive and masculine while making liberal use of slang. "Is this guy a former gangbanger?"

While Heroes and the police would charitably call a group of Villains a gang, there were still traditional street gangs that hung around inner cities. Making their territory in lower-income neighborhoods that didn't see much Hero action, the thugs would run the area while committing criminal acts like drug production and shakedowns of both residents and outsiders.

Their numbers usually comprised of local teenagers who were desperate for cash, which included both traditional Japanese citizens and children of illegal immigrants.

"Some honorable fighter you are!" Bubble Girl shouted at Vulture, distracting Juzo from his ruminations. "You murdered Rock Lock! You just killed him without a second thought, not giving him a chance to defend himself!"

Vulture seemed to bristle at that if the stiff shoulders meant anything. "Tough shit! This is the real world, and it isn't all fuckin' gumdrops and rainbows! You walked into our trap and the boss told me to pull the trigger!" His hands clenched into fists and Juzo could feel the joy radiating from the man's body. "But now I've got the chance to handle shit the way I want to! You can bet your ass that I'm taking it! And besides…"

Juzo felt the danger before he saw it. "Bubble Girl! Duck!"

Shooting towards his colleague like a bullet, Vulture curled his hands into fists while drawing back the right. "...I saw you messing up my boy, so it's payback time, bitch!"

Juzo extended his right arm and caught Bubble Girl's leg. He pulled it out from under her to avoid Vulture's fist. The Villain reached down to grab her with his talons, but he was going too fast and missed his chance. While the metal claws snapped at empty air, Centipeder snatched his leg with his left centipede arm.

The front claws sank into the Villain's right lower leg. Puncturing the cloth and skin, blood began to soak the pants while Juzo began to be dragged off his feet.

Vulture twisted his right leg so his talons could shred the centipede limb to pieces. He then shot up into the air while Juzo skid to the ground, eyeing Vulture as he flipped around to fly back towards them.

"What is he planning?"

Vulture wings retracted slightly and he began to fall rapidly. Leaping back, Juzo was able to avoid the Villain landing on top of him. The talons digging into the concrete roof gave him a good idea what Vulture had been planning.

He looked back up to find Vulture's left wing swinging towards him.

Juzo's eyes widened. "Damn!"

A giant hundred-or-so pound steel wing hit him at full force. Bringing his arm up protected his head, but he could already feel that his leg and arm bruising. The second he lowered his guard, Vulture was already rushing towards him with a hand outstretched.

Vulture snatched him by the collar and dug his knee into Juzo's stomach, causing Juzo to let out a cough of pain.

"Don't give out on me yet, ssi-bal!" Vulture threw him to the ground and raised his right leg, the metal talons gleaming dangerously in the sunlight. "We ain't even started ye-!"

A shadow passed over Juzo and it took him only a second to register it as Bubble Girl jumping over him. She raised her arms and bubbles flew out from her skin. They popped all over Vulture and made him gasp in both surprise and disgust.

"Shit, what the fu-!?"

His fellow sidekick didn't give the Villain time to recover. Instead, she threw a haymaker directly into the left side of Vulture's head and made it snap to the right. She followed this with a savage roundhouse kick into Vulture's right side. Juzo wouldn't be surprised if the bastard didn't start pissing blood later.

But before she could push on, Vulture seemed to recover. Grabbing both of her shoulders, he drew his head back and delivered a hard headbutt to make her stumble back. Blood dribbled from the small cut left in its wake, but Vulture didn't seem to care and he simply followed his blow with wild, savage punches.

"You bitch!" One to the left cheek. "Time you learned what happens…" One underneath the ribs. "...when you fuck…" An uppercut to the chin snapped Bubble Girl's head up. "...with the Enforcers!"

"Mysterio had to hold me back from fucking you up back in the warehouse! What you did with Rei…" His wings drew back, the tips turning to face the front. "You fucked with one of us, and when you fuck with one you fuck with us all!"

Juzo made his move. Grabbing Bubble Girl by the waist and running back, he saved them both from being impaled.

They couldn't keep fighting on the roof. Sooner or later, Vulture would get bored and return to his high-speed aerial fighting style. Out here, they were sitting ducks. "We need to get off this thing and fast!"

"Hey, you cowards!" Juzo turned his head to see the Villain actually running after them. "Get back here!"

"Is this guy an idiot or something?"

When he reached the edge of the building his heart soared with hope. "A fire escape!"

Jumping onto the top, he set Bubble Girl down and saw that her eyes were clear. "Follow me!"

"Right!" They both descended the stairs and headed deeper into the metal jungle-gym. The structure would make it difficult for Vulture to follow on foot and the metal would ward the Villain's blows long enough for them to onto the street and formulate a plan.

"Shit!" Juzo glanced up and saw Vulture jumping off the building and flying at the alleyway's entranceway. "You think that's going to stop me!? Well, guess what!?"

Vulture lifted his right arm and unzipped the sleeve to reveal flesh marked with tattoos. Tribal marks in prison black and highlighted with red, the tattoos around his wrist forming the pictures of smoke and bullet shells.

But they all lead to a black hole in his arm just below the shoulder.

Juzo was able to witness the Villain's Quirk as he took off his glove. His thumb, index, and middle finger stood straight while the ring and pinky curled. The flesh began to merge, the skin gaining a metallic sheen as the hand turned into a flesh-colored facsimile of a gun with a barrel being formed by the index and middle finger.

Vulture took out a marble from his belt with his left hand and put it into the hole. Juzo heard a hiss come from the man and the wings slightly rose up.

"It won't!"

He had an idea what was happening.

Vulture!

His Quirk!? Bushwacker!

This nasty trick gives the punk the ability to transform his arms into firearms with ammunition fed into two holes beneath his shoulders! The power of each shot depends on the amount of air he takes in, kinda like an air gun! He can launch them at a minimum of 300 feet per second, but the bigger the gun, the longer he needs to take in air!

"Gun! Gun!" Instinct took over as he and Bubble Girl hit the deck in preparation for what came next.

A bang not unlike a firecracker going off rang out and Juzo felt something bite into his right shoulder. The dull ache was soon replaced with a burning throb. The same two phrases echoed in his head. "Shot! I got shot!"

Despite the pain, he could see that Vulture was putting another marble in the hole. "That means he can't put in more than one. At least we won't have to deal with a machine gun."

"Centipeder!" Bubble Girl crossed her arms as a storm of bubbles erupted from her skin. Juzo knew they wouldn't completely obscure them, but it will at least distort the Villain's vision a little. "Can you still move?"

"It hurts, but I don't think it's fatal." Despite his assurances, he needed to stem the bleeding soon and get immediate medical attention. "We need to get out of here and fast."

A bullet bounced off the floor just in front of them, bursting Bubble Girl's makeshift smokescreen. "There you are!" Vulture shouted as he loaded another marble into the chamber. Juzo looked to the left and saw a cracked window that showed an empty living room. "Next one's going through your damn…!"

"Close your eyes and brace for impact!" Juzo grabbed Bubble Girl and smashed their bodies through the window. Wood and glass shattered around them as they landed on the floor. He hissed as the glass shards cut through his suit and cut his skin, but he got on his feet and pulled Bubble Girl up. "Come on, we've got to take cover in the hallway!"

"Damn it! You fuckers!" A bullet shot through the wall and hit the edge of the door as they ran out of the room. "You're not getting away! I'm gonna shoot up this whole building until I punch bullets into every damn part of your body!"

They got on their knees as they kept close to the hallway walls. From what Juzo could tell, the lack of screams meant the apartment was unoccupied. "That means we aren't that far from the warehouse. The cops made everyone nearby evacuate their buildings on the downlow to minimize civilian casualties if the fight got out of hand."

"Centipeder, what do we do now?" Bubble Girl whispered as a bullet ripped through the wall overhead. "We can't just hide here!"

He hummed while putting pressure on his wound. "Yeah, if we do, Vulture will just go back to assist his allies." Juzo shifted his body and peeked out the corner. Just out the window facing outside was Vulture. His hand and forearm had shifted again and now resembled a rifle. The wings were rising more than before as he aimed the barrel at them. Leaning himself back, he avoided the blast that disintegrated part of the doorframe. "But for now, we need to stay behind cover. Vulture isn't willing to get in, but he's not giving up yet. We need to use this time to formulate a plan."

She nodded. "Just like Sir, right?"

"You bet."

He only hoped that he can come up with something soon.

"If I don't… we're both dead."

Taishiro grimaced as another blast hit his midsection. "Man, these things hurt! I can feel them through my fat! Just how powerful are these blasts!?"

When Shocker was finished with his assault, Taishiro grinned. "That all you've got, man?"

Shocker didn't answer. Instead he shifted a bit in order to unleash another barrage of compressed air.

However, Taishiro didn't allow this blast to hit him. Quickly sidestepping the shot, he rushed towards Shocker who leapt back to keep his distance. As he began his descent, the Villain released another attack that nailed Taishiro directly in his chest.

"Can't believe I've gotta pretend that this is actually moving me." He thought while skidding to a stop only a few feet back. "But it's better to be safe than sorry."

Knowing that the Villains had information about their Quirks was bad, but it also gave Taishiro some wriggle room. Shocker had no idea how effective his attacks were on his body. Sure, the first blast had knocked him back a bit, but he was already airborne. So now Shocker had the mistaken belief that he could knock Taishiro around silly.

This also helped to size up the full extent of Shocker's knowledge. "If he knew about my Quirk's secondary ability, he wouldn't be trying to hit me at all."

Fat Absorption did, in fact, stop objects that landed in his fat and absorb them. Most Villains weren't smart enough to wonder where all the kinetic energy went. By releasing all the kinetic energy stored up in his fat, he could turn his defensive Quirk into an offensive one.

Unfortunately, that also meant he would lose his fat's protection. Any decent fighter could put him down in his weakened state if he missed his shot.

"I can't risk it." Taishiro grimaced while taking another blast to the side of his face. His skin rippled and he could tell it would swell up in the morning. "I can tell this guy means business. Probably former yakuza with how he carries himself. Not to mention that I still have no idea what his Quirk is. If he can split apart his body or whip up a force field, it's just as likely that I'll blow it and then I'll really be in trouble."

And he couldn't afford to be taken out of the game when his allies were in trouble.

He glanced towards Nighteye who was now leaping over a volley of darts spat out by giant angry tiki heads. The guy was doing pretty decently against Mysterio, although the Villain did get a few hits in. "He won't be in trouble… but for how long? And if Shocker manages to finish me off and goes to assist his boss then it's going to end badly."

And then there was Snatch, who had formed a barrier around Clash and was holding the Villain at bay.

Despite their battle, Taishiro had been able to catch bits and pieces of the conversation between the two. It was hard not to when Clash was slinging ear-splitting blasts left and right while the two opponents screamed at each other. But one piece of information rang in his mind.

Clash was, in fact, Quirkless.

"I know it doesn't matter much, especially with the gear she's packing. But how the hell did a Quirkless girl become a Villain?" Taishiro had only heard about Quirkless people from scant news reports about their dwindling numbers. He never gave it much thought besides feeling kind of bad for them. It was probably rough living in a world of superpowers yet having none. It didn't help that there were likely a few jerks who looked down and picked on the Quirkless just to rub in their powerlessness. "Mysterio probably took advantage of that. Offered the girl the chance to get real power in exchange for working with him. As if I couldn't hate the guy more."

Still, that didn't excuse her actions. She was taking her anger out on innocent people and that needed to be stopped.

What was worrying was that Snatch was being defensive and cautious. The Hero was never the aggressive type, but neither was he one to sit back and wait for the Villain to do something. "Which means he's probably in a lot of trouble. Alright, so I'll deal with this guy and then help Snatch."

Right now, Shocker was lulled into a comfortable routine. He would blast at Taishiro, either hitting or missing him, and jump back if he got too close. The guy knew he was fast, but he had no idea just how fast.

Time to let loose a bit. Taishiro skid to a stop and took the next blast that hit his chest. This time he kept his feet on the ground, refusing to budge an inch while the attack faded and Shocker was processing the change. "My turn!"

Going as fast as he could, Taishiro dashed forward and leapt into the air. The distance was so close that Shocker wouldn't have time to run or steer clear of his girth. Shocker craned his head up and his eyes widened at his rapidly growing form. "You're pretty good, but this fight's mine!"

With that said, Taishiro fell on top of Shocker. He could feel his fat coiling around the Villain and making him sink into his body. Soon only his lower body would be sticking out and the guy would probably try to blast his way out but his fat would hold. The guy would tucker himself out and fall unconscious from a lack of oxygen, after which he would strip him of his gauntlets and cuff him.

But something was wrong.

Taishiro could feel his fat being repelled by something. A barrier of some kind that felt warm through his sweatshirt. "What's going on!?"

He was being lifted up and he looked down to see Shocker but with some sort of force field that glittered an inch away from his body. He was holding up Taishiro by his fists as if he were lifting a barbell at the gym. Faintly, he could see something glowing through the left breast portion of the suit.

"I-Is this his Quirk!?"

Shocker!

His Quirk? Miracleshield!

This ability allows the guy to create a semi-transparent shield tough enough to take a point-blank tank shell for five seconds! But if he wants to get that stupidly broken power-up, he's gonna have to take a lot of damage and he can only use it every thirty minutes!

"You really should be careful." Shocker said and Taishiro could almost swear he heard amusement in the guy's voice. "Your weight can lead to serious injury if you just land on top of Villains like that."

Not waiting for a reply, the Villain activated his gauntlets and Taishiro flew up several feet from the blast. Shocker leapt back and socked Taishiro in the face while he was still reeling from the last blow.

It was like getting hit with a sledgehammer.

He landed on the ground and Taishiro could swear it cracked underneath him. While he tried to get his bearings, Shocker tore off the suit by the left breast to show an empty heart made of glass-like material that had the number zero emblazoned inside.

"I wanted to face you because we have similar Quirks," he said as the glittering force field faded. "Your Fat Absorption can turn a shield into a sword…"

Shocker stomped on top of Taishiro's right hand. He could hear something like pretzels snapping as the Villain ground his heel into it. Pain seeped into every fiber of his being and he held back a scream.

"While my Miracleshield transforms a sword into a shield."

Taishiro got onto his feet and reached for Shocker, only for the Villain to duck and deliver a savage kick to his left knee. It didn't break, but Taishiro felt the bones groan and creak.

"And, unfortunately, you lack fat around the joints of your limbs."

Taishiro saw something upturn underneath Shocker's mask.

"Is the bastard enjoying this?"

"Now then…" Shocker said as he leapt back, bringing his gauntlets up. "...Let's continue this in earnest. I must wring every last bit of resistance out of you. Show me… Show me the fire that burns within Heroes."

"Ow! Why did ya hit me!?"

"Because you're being a jerk, that's why! You shouldn't pick on people!"

It shocked Clash how much her mind wandered to her childhood. She had been the dependable kid in her old neighborhood, always standing up to bullies and making friends easily. She was the smartest in her class, the first to learn how to write and speak big words.

"Hey, did you get your Quirk yet?"

"Not yet, but it's gonna come out soon! I can't wait!"

When everyone got their Quirks, she hadn't been worried. After all, she was just lagging a bit behind everyone else. Mama and Papa always said good things come to those who wait, so it meant that whatever Quirk she got would be an amazing one.

She wanted to be able to fly. To soar and fight bad guys alongside her favorite Hero, Endeavor. He always looked so cool when he took down Villains. His righteous flames scorching through their villainy and making the world just a tiny bit safer for them all.

"Fujimoto-chan… I'm sorry to tell you this but I'm afraid you will not get a Quirk."

That day at the doctor's office had been the worst day of her life. She had spent the entire night crying while watching videos of Endeavor while Mama and Papa argued about her. Papa had tried to cheer her up by telling her about old superheroes from the United States who made it without powers like Batman, Hawkeye, Green Arrow, and Black Widow. That with enough training she could still be fighting alongside Endeavor.

"Why!? Why would you tell her that!? You know she can't!"

"Please, I was just trying to…"

"It's an impossible dream for her! Don't you get that!?"

Mama left a couple of months after that. Papa said that she was just confused, that she felt as if her Quirklessness was her fault and wanted to get away.

Clash had been devastated, but she threw herself into her studies. She read big kid and adult books about science, physics, and Hero codes.

"Hey, why is she reading all those big books?"

"Didn't you hear? She wants to be a Hero."

"But isn't she Quirkless?"

"Yeah, who is she trying to fool?"

The bullies in her school picked on her. They threw stuff, called her names, and even wrote stuff on her school shoes. But she didn't let that bother her and didn't let it stand. She had to be strong and defend herself. To show them that a Hero didn't sit back and take it.

Endeavor wouldn't and neither would she.

"Fujimoto-chan… why did you hit Sendo-chan over the head with your textbook?"

"Sir, she put tacks in my shoe!"

"Have you ever thought that your reactions may be, in fact, encouraging her behavior? I believe that if you stopped making your wish to enroll at U.A public then this will…"

"But I am going to be a Hero, sir! My grades are excellent and I'm top of the class in P.E!"

"All I'm saying is that perhaps you should see reality, and it's only because of your grades that we're going to let this outburst slide."

Nobody at school believed she would make it in the Hero course. Not even the teachers who she always impressed.

"Fujimoto, I think going to U.A is a great idea! With your grades and the projects you do in science class you're sure to make waves in the Support Department over there!"

"But, Sensei… I'm going to the Hero course."

"Come on, Fujimoto. Let's be real here. You'll do more than enough good in the Support Department. I mean, if you don't want to go to the general education which I'm sure you…"

"But I've been training really hard! I've studied and practiced… Sensei, I can become a Quirkless Hero! I even made a grappling gun and…!"

"Fujimoto, do you know why there's never been a Quirkless Hero? It's because nobody wants one. The physical exams at U.A are geared toward keeping those unexceptional out and you'll find similar ones in other Hero schools. If those with Quirks can only hope and pray to pass them you aren't going to get far."

"Sensei…"

"I'm sorry that I'm being harsh, but it's time that you faced reality."

She had thought she hit her lowest point then, but it only got worse from there. After Papa's murder, she had felt so empty. She needed someone, anyone, to tell her the right words. To let her know that her hopes and dreams weren't worthless.

She had seen Endeavor leaving a Villain battle, looking annoyed and angry as he walked away from the officers who were cuffing the burnt criminal.

She ran up to him, ignoring the shouts of the police officers. She asked him if someone like her, someone who was Quirkless, could be a Hero. That thanks to studying and working hard, she could fight alongside him.

The Hero that she had admired, the man whose image helped her power through all the bad times and believe in herself when no one else would, simply scowled.

"What!? Of course not! The last thing we need is for someone like you to get in our way! Now get out of here before you get yourself hurt, brat."

That had been the final straw.

She sat in her empty home, looking at her hands as a single thought festered in her mind and anger coursed through her veins.

"The universe doesn't give a damn about me."

Mama didn't leave her because she blamed herself for the Quirklessness. She left because she couldn't stand the sight of her.

The teachers only valued her for her grades but wanted to keep her out of the spotlight. They laughed at her dream, her stupid wish, behind her back and tried to box her into a little hole away from everyone.

Society wanted her to be out of sight and out of mind. It would only be happy if she died because there would be one less Quirkless person, one less freak, in the world.

The Heroes she had admired for years didn't care about her. They only noticed people like her when they got in their way.

She hated everyone then, cursing them and the world that didn't give a damn about her.

She wanted to make them pay.

"Your skills are amazing… has anyone told you that? But nobody here cares about it. They only care whether or not you were born with power. If you weren't, you are no better than garbage. Am I right?"

"W-Who are you?"

"My name is Mysterio… and I can take you to a world that you were meant to be born in."

Mysterio had brought her out of that dark hole. He showed her a path to a world where she belonged. One where she wasn't just an embarrassing minority in a new age, but one of many. One where her intelligence and skills would be appreciated and not sneered at.

But she didn't want to leave just yet. Not before she showed the world just how much damage someone they deemed worthless could do to their oh-so perfect society.

And she would be damned before she let Snatch stop her.

"This isn't going to work!" Clash shouted as she messed with her suit's sound capabilities. Her fingers danced by her sides as she navigated through the settings. First she cut off all sound from her helmet and had it block all outside sonics. Once she was left in peaceful silence, she had her suit focus its microphone solely on the sand made by Snatch.

It came to her in an instant. The scraping of grains of sand made an almost soothing scratch sound multiplied by thousands. It was like a piece of sandpaper polishing a rock but in stereo.

She turned her head and focused on the sound, trying to find some area where it was different.

Snatch's Quirk left his lower body vulnerable to attack. It was the reason why he wasn't one of the top Heroes. He needed to rely on others to transport his lower body to chase criminals or defend it during a fight.

Some part of the sand barrier contained the Hero's legs.

Clash paused when she heard a sound not unlike a rock being dragged against something. A soft tick as the thing being dragged on righted itself as a new noise replaced it.

"Found you."

Activating her sonic boots, she leapt up and spun over the wall of sand. Once she was over the portion of Snatch's barrier that contained his legs, she raised her arms and fired blasts from both her hands.

That would shock Snatch. He would spend a second dealing with the pain and trying to figure out how she knew where his legs were. But she wasn't going to let up. Completing her rotating vault, she landed on her feet and turned around before firing again.

This time, Snatch's lower body smashed through and skid to the center of the circle of speakers. The Hero reformed his body and tried to get up, staring at her in disbelief while scrambling to shield it from another attack.

"Time you saw what a Quirkless Villain can do!" Clash raised her arms and shouted, "Eat this! MK ULTRA!"

With that key phrase, the miniature speakers she had thrown earlier all sprung to life. Snatch opened his mouth while covering his ears and turned into sand. The particles rippled as they covered his lower body, obviously his attempt at minimizing the damage to his eardrums.

But she couldn't hear it. She had designed the attack to be completely contained in a dome barrier seven feet high, trapping the sounds within and affecting only the one unlucky enough to have fallen for her trap.

However, ear-splitting sounds were only the first verse.

Slowly, large dents formed in the sand. More began to punch into it, growing in size and frequency until it looked like the sand pile was being pounded by a massive hammer from every direction.

Separate high-pressure sound blasts would accompany the noise, making the attack twofold. MK Ultra would utterly wreck the mind and body of anyone inside.

She had speculated that the attack had an eighty-five percent success rate.

But only theoretically. This was the first time she had brought it to the field.

Clash watched as blood began to seep through the sand. "His legs. They are being crushed underneath." Portions of the sand began to resemble body parts. An arm that tried to reach for one of the speakers snapped and twisted before it returned to a sand pillar. An eye peeked out before being popped like a grape, the sand hungrily devouring the liquid.

"Oh god…"

She knew that the process would be painful. She designed it to be such. But this… seeing this firsthand…

"I-I think I'm going to be sick…"

The sand turned into dark sludge as the blood soaked into every grain.

"He's dead! He has to be!"

Her sonic attacks that scrambled the brain were so clean. They barely felt a thing after a second of pain, and aside from the blood it almost looked like they were sleeping.

"B-But I had to! I had to make this to make sure he's dead! His Quirk wouldn't allow me to kill him with conventional methods!"

Her muted helmet microphone made her wonder if Snatch had screamed.

She shut off the speakers and returned her receivers to normal, watching as the pile seemed to spread and sag.

Whatever this pile of bloodied sand was… it was no longer the Hero known as Snatch.

She wanted to throw up. She looked away and staggered as she turned. She couldn't look anymore.

"But he was a Hero! Just a guy who gets paid to look good and beat up Villains! He wouldn't care if that had been me. Probably would say I got what I deserved."

But that thought didn't make her feel better.

She needed to distract herself. She needed to fight someone, anyone, and speed up the mission.

"Yeah, make this go faster. We'll have made our point and the world will see how Heroes aren't the invincible symbols they think them as!"

Nodding to herself, she looked to see that Shocker was knocking Fat Gum back with a blast directly to the face. The BMI Hero look like crap. His fingers were broken and pieces of his sweater torn to reveal bruised flesh. He was taking it all while trying desperately to get at Shocker who looked none the worse for wear.

"That'll do." Her sonic-blast boots hummed out their beat and launched her between Shocker and Fat Gum. She skidded to a stop with her back to her fellow Enforcer. "Go and help the idiot, Shocker! I'll handle things from here!"

Shocker paused for a moment before casually asking, "Am I to assume you're worried about Vulture?"

"He's taking too long. Knowing him, he's probably about to get his butt kicked thanks to that stupid gangbanger pride of his."

"As you wish."

"Hey, you can't…!" Fat Gum was silenced by two sonic blasts hitting him, making the Hero instantly cover his ears as his skin rippled. While he was distracted, Shocker ran through the hole Vulture had made.

He was free and she had Fat Gum all to herself.

The Hero released his ears and glanced at what was formerly Snatch. His eyes widened before he turned his fiery glare at her. "You're going down for that."

"I won't because you're going to die here, Hero."

She would follow through with that promise. For her and Rei's sake, for them to escape this uncaring universe and go to one where they could be happy.

Clash was the Mistress of Sound, and she would prove it here and now.

"Higawara…"

Taishiro hadn't known Sajin Higawara well. They had partnered up a few times, but their conversations were short. He didn't really like how serious the guy was. In his eyes, Higawara needed to chill and loosen up a little.

But that didn't mean he felt nothing seeing his body.

"If we're making proclamations, then I've got one to get off my chest." He placed a hand over his chest and shouted, "It was my fault that Sajin Higawara died! I wanted to play it safe and bide my time while he was fighting for his life! It's because of me that he fell when I should've gotten my stupid fight over with to help him against you!"

Clash seemed to sneer. "Yeah, I bet you're really broken up! But it's not because he's dead, but because he was too weak and it's going to look bad on your record!"

"That's not it!" Steam came out of his pores, the process of transforming the energy absorbed by his fat into a single punch beginning. "I'm a Hero, someone who's devoted their life to helping others! It doesn't matter if they're weak or strong, a government official or a civilian, Hero or Villain!" The steam began to obscure his form but he kept his voice loud and clear. "We give it our all to help others, even if it means we've gotta put our lives on the line!"

Sweat continued to pour out and evaporate evaporate on his white-hot skin, which contracted and smoothed out. The transformation was always weird, painful on some level but it also felt wrong. It was like he was inhabiting another body that was like his yet not. For years he had been secure with his regular fat self and then he discovered the second power of his Quirk.

He wasn't ashamed of it, in fact he thought it was kinda kickass, but it still felt as if he was some kind of alien mind inhabiting another person.

The steam began to clear in front of him and Clash's electronic eyes seemed to widen as she observed him. She was probably thinking something along the lines of, "How!? This wasn't in the reports! What the heck is he doing!?"

All the Villains he used this on thought that and some unconscious level they knew this was his ace in the hole.

"I don't know your full story. Maybe you're right to be angry. I bet it was tough growing up Quirkless." Taishiro clenched his fist and let the power burn within him. "I'm going to give you one chance to surrender. It's more than you gave my comrade."

"Even after I killed him?"

He noticed the tremble of confusion in her voice. He wasn't acting the way she expected and it was throwing off her self-righteous rage.

"I'm a Hero. Not some kind of rage-filled thug. But it's just one chance." He waited for a second, watched Clash as her body trembled with indecision. He let the power focus in his fist in preparation for the answer.

Slowly, Clash shook her head and raised her hands. "There's no turning back. This… This is my decision!"

"Fine!" Taishiro shot forward, knowing that Clash was probably just comprehending that he'd closed the distance between them in a split-second. He swung with everything he had.

The blow will probably really mess her up, but he couldn't stop now. Shocker's attacks had really done a number on him, and with Snatch dead and the others' fate up in the air he couldn't afford to play nice anymore.

If she died, he would have to live with that. But he would take responsibility for it no matter the reasons.

"F-Full power!" Clash raised her left hand to the path of his fist while her right went for his midsection. "Sonic hand cannons!"

Their attacks met.

A shockwave of sound hit his punch and dug into his body. He could feel his skin tearing as a thunderclap punched through him. Muscles were ripped apart, bones were crushed , and organs were being smashed into a pulp. He could see his fist being turned to paste as the unstoppable force met an immovable object, neither backing down from mutual destruction.

Clash's arm wasn't doing any better. He saw it being thrown back and the forearm break halfway up. She screamed, but it was drowned by the sound of her speakers.

It lasted for a second.

They were thrown to opposite sides of the warehouse and smashed into the walls. They buckled and cracked, both of them groaning in pain as they landed onto the floor.

"D-Damn it…!" Taishiro tried to get up but his legs and arms felt like jelly. He let out a cough full of blood stain the ground. "B-Breathing's hard… damn. I think she punctured a lung…!"

This was so unbelievable he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. His worst fear about his ultimate attack had come true.

By some fluke, Clash had managed to take advantage of his weakness.

Now here he was, dying on the floor while Sir Nighteye, Bubble Girl, and Centipeder were fighting for their lives. Tamaki was outside and god knew what the kid was doing.

He remembered Tamaki on his first day. So nervous and prone to just putting himself down. But Taishiro saw his potential and watched him grow. He was still a downer, but he took hold of that powerful fire in his heart.

He heard something stumble forward. Bringing up his head, Taishiro watched as Clash walked towards him, her right arm clutching her left shoulder.

"Y-You're one tough kid." Taishiro wheezed out a laugh before coughing some more.

"Had to." Clash said while putting her right hand on the utility bubble on her hip. What came out looked like a speaker. "When I was younger, I promised myself that I would be like Endeavor. Tough and ready to take on anything." She pointed it at him. "N-Now I know that's the only good thing he taught me."

"So she wanted to be a Hero, huh? Well isn't that ironic."

Taking in one last painful breath, Taishiro gave his final bit of advice as a Hero.

"It's never too late to do the right thing."

He closed his eyes and waited.

It didn't hurt as much as he thought it would.

"Six… seven… eight… nine…"

Juzo sucked in a sharp breath as a marble bullet made a small portion of the wall explode just an inch in front of his face.

"Stop hiding you fucking cowards! I know you're still there!" Vulture's angry shouts echoed from outside. "You're just lucky Bubble Bitch screwed up my mask, otherwise you would've been corpses by now!"

Looking to his right, he saw Bubble Girl hiding behind the door frame of another apartment. He held up both of his hands and raised all ten of his fingers.

"Ten seconds for rifle shots. That gives us enough time to do something."

They had been keeping low and behind cover, only moving in between shots while counting down the seconds for him to fire another one. It was a dangerous game of cat and mouse, one they survived through sheer luck and the knowledge that staying still was equally suicidal.

Vulture's bullets came too close for comfort most of the time to be purely coincidence. "Those goggles of his probably provided him with thermal vision. Thank god for Bubble Girl's hook."

Still, sooner or later the Villain would get lucky and hit them again. Once one of them made a sound, it would be all over.

Juzo lowered himself and crawled to the edge of the doorway of an apartment that Vulture was floating outside of. It had a long hallway that led to the kitchen and living area. But down past both rooms was a window. It was shattered by the marbles Vulture fired through it. The Villain was busy placing another into his shoulder just outside.

Juzo had put together that it took longer for Vulture to take in air if he wanted something with more firepower. A 'gun' with the stopping power of a Glock took half the time that his new rifle-arm did, a trade-off that fit such a deadly Quirk.

But from the various peeks he made at the Vllain, it was obvious his body had taken some of his muscle to compensate for the more complex firearm form. Everything besides the right arm looked more frail. They would break with a sufficiently hard punch was made to the ribs.

"Which means that I'll only have one chance to end this."

Bubble Girl couldn't cover the distance without getting shot, nor did she have the Quick that would allow her to keep a tether to the building itself. Should Vulture try to turn tail once he got a hold of him, he could keep one of his centipede arms attached to the wall while he beat the living crap out of the Villain.

It was all on him to get them out of here.

He motioned to Bubble Girl, who nodded and slid over a can of hairspray. Taking it and opening the cap, Juzo fished out a lighter from his jacket pocket. He liked lighting scented candles in the office so he made a habit of having one on him.

"Don't try this at home kids." He thought to himself as he lit the lighter and sprayed the bottle. Once a flame came out, he threw both down the hall and turned his head away as Vulture's bullet hit the can, causing the entire thing to explode in a burst of flame and metal. "Now!"

Getting onto his feet, he ran faster than he ever had in his life. His eyes watered as he dashed through the smoke and foul-smelling odor. Crossing through the hallway and entering the kitchen and living area took five seconds. He raised his left arm, his centipede limb already coming out and gripping at the ruined window frame.

Juzo clenched his right hand into a fist. From how stiff Vulture's body was, the man had been caught completely by surprise. He wondered if Vulture was already envisioning the beating he was about to receive made all the worse to his weakened body.

"I've got you now you son of a bi-!"

The wall to his left exploded and two huge hands gripped his face.

Juzo screamed, allowing debris and plaster enter his lungs as he was dragged to the marble island in the kitchen. "What!? What!?" He looked up with his left eye that was able to see through the gap of two meaty fingers the visage of Shocker. "How did he!?"

"That's not right." Shocker turned his head and placed his hands on both sides, Shocker was now leaning forward, his face over Juzo's as he whispered, "Look into my eyes."

Then the pressure began to build.

It was like someone had plugged an air compressor into his head. The pressure was pushing everything in his skull to the sides, top, and back..

"I want to see it."

Juzo felt his carapace began to crack. "He's going to crush my head!" The pain was unbearable. He screamed and flailed, had his centipede limbs try to tear at his back.

"You came so close, only to have victory ripped from you in your final moments."

"He's breathing hard. It's like he's… he's…"

"Show me that flame, Hero. Show it to me…"

Juzo was scared. He wanted to live, to beat the Villains and become a Hero. To finally start his own agency and maybe get enough time to find someone he could spend the rest of his life with.

"I don't want to die!"

Then wish a savage squeeze, Shocker crushed Juzo Moashi's head in a shower of carapace, blood, and brain matter.

"...as I snuff that flame out."

"No…" Mirai tried to keep himself calm. He couldn't allow his emotions to overtake him. Throughout his career, he made it a point that letting personal feelings get in the way of his duties would lead to disaster.

And yet here he was. His teeth were grinding against one-another, bare for all to see while he stared at Fat Gum's corpse. His murderer sank to her knees, clutching her broken arm.

"This… all this…" He turned his attention back to Mysterio who now had an insufferably amused smirk on his face. "This is all on me. I did this! This was my plan! They trusted me and I lead them to their deaths!"

For years he had done everything he could to prevent death and destruction. Using the power of Foresight and the lessons he learned under All Might, he had saved countless lives. All his plans were meticulous and left no room for error. They had to be to minimize casualties and put the Villains in prison.

Every step he took was to make the world one where everyone could smile.

It was the reason why he had badgered his mentor to take Mirio as his successor. His future led to nothing but the oblivion of death, so by taking on someone worthy, All Might could avoid it.

And yet here he was. His plan ruined and manipulated by the Villain he knew little to nothing about. Three Heroes were now dead, his and Fat Gum's sidekicks were in danger, and they have achieved nothing from it.

Mysterio burst out laughing, his hands clapping together in mocking gratitude. "Bravo, Sir Nighteye! Bravo! You managed to survive this long! Truly, you deserved to be the former sidekick of the Symbol of Peace! But alas, it is time for us to finish this."

"I agree." Mirai hissed as he closed the distance between them, three stamps between his right hand's fingers. He reached out to grab the Villain only for him to disappear in a puff of smoke. He focused on the air for signs of movement. When he saw the smoke in the corner of his left eye shift, he twirled his stamps in his hand while turned around and backhanded the Villain in the shoulder.

Using his stamps as if they were brass knuckles, the area of impact crumpled like paper and sparks flew, revealing it was just another robot. Scowling, he continued his turn and kicked the robot at the waist. The top and lower half separated in a shower of sparks and metal. "I see you're still relying on your robots."

That worried him. Everything that he and several criminal psychologists could gather about Mysterio was that he was a textbook narcissist. A man utterly obsessed with own vanity and void of empathy. That, combined with the sadism as displayed with the man dressed as Spider-Man, made Mirai sure that the man was nearby.

Yet all he faced were robot doubles. Not a single one of them were real, yet they moved with the grace and efficiency of a real human. "If I could just use Foresight on him, I could put an end to this."

But he could also see something he didn't want. He could see his death and any positive outcome could be just another pre-planned illusion.

"Ah, so simple minded. Truly, I pity this age of rationality."

The smoke to his right cleared to reveal Mysterio. On instinct, Mirai punched at the man's chest only to wince as his fist went through drywall. Bringing it back and ignoring the cuts of pink fiberglass, he looked around to see he was now in some kind of hallway. It resembled a western hotel with a gaudy red, black, and orange honeycomb design on the carpet.

"Mysterio is no charlatan playing parlor tricks."

Mirai looked up to see Mysterio standing in front of twin red relevator doors. The doors opened and eight Mysterios poured out of the open elevators and lunged at him.

Throwing his high-density seals destroyed three of them, exiting their torsos like bullets. When two got close, he ducked its punch before grabbing the arm and forcing the robot to punch through another copy. Catching another's kick, he used the force of the blow to throw the robot into the two unwilling 'boxers' and destroyed all of them. He winced as the fourth one kicked him in the back but he recovered and swept it off his feet.

Destroying its chest with an axe-kick, Mirai turned to the final robot only to see it grow. It got bigger as its body crashed through the ceiling, towering in an inexplicably snowing sky while he instinctively covered his face from debris that didn't exist.

"Mysterio is a force unlike anything you or your Heroes have seen on this Earth! A true master over the mind and senses, a being that holds reality in the palm of his hand!"

On cue, the giant leaned down while bringing its massive hand up. It descended rapidly, not slowing despite its size. It might as well have been him swinging his arm to swat a fly.

"This isn't real. That's what my mind is telling me, but my body is demanding I move!"

"Mysterio is reality!" The giant Mysterio bellowed as Mirai listened to his body's instincts for the first time in and jumped back. He could feel the rush of air and the sound of the cracking floor. "Mysterio is truth!"

The giant grinned savagely at Mirai. "And you, Hero, have no place in…!"

"HAHAHAHA!"

A hearty laugh rang out, stopping Mysterio's ranting and causing Mirai's heart to soar.

He knew that voice well.

"Fear not, Sir Nighteye!"

"No, not now!" Mirai heard a crash and the illusion began to dissipate. First distorting like video on a bad signal and then dispersing in smoke.

Kneeling before him with Mysterio underneath was his former mentor, his Hero, and the Symbol of Peace.

All Might was here, dressed in his old Silver Age costume and a wide grin on his face. "FOR I AM HERE!"

"Toshi… All Might!" Mirai gasped, rushing towards the man he admired yet barely spoke to. "You… you came! But, aren't you supposed to be in…?"

"Ah, I was on my coffee break when I received the news from the police band! I'm only sorry I came so late."

Mirai felt the guilt and sadness again. The three men he had led to a death trap were still dead. All Might's presence wouldn't bring them back. "Yes, but… I…" He drew closer to the Symbol of Peace, now standing five feet away.

There was so much he wanted to say. He wanted to apologize for failing so spectacularly, to take full responsibility for the casualties, and to ask if they could just talk for a bit after the debriefing. They rescue Bubble Girl and Centipeder, talking all the while about how Foresight had failed him.

How fate seemed to be getting muddier with each passing day.

Instead, he noticed something about All Might's face.

"That grin…" It was two centimeters off from the smiles All Might gave while coming in to save the day. One might consider this a minor detail, but Mirai had studied everything about All Might and knew such a smile wasn't proper for the situation. "But what is it from?"

All Might put his right hand on Mirai's shoulder. "No need to say anything, my friend. In fact, it's I who should be doing the talking! Starting with thanking you!"

It hit him.

"That smile's from All Might accepting the key to Musutafu after rescuing…!"

His abdomen was on fire.

Mirai looked down and saw All Might's left hand holding a dagger and stabbing through it. His white suit jacket was stained red with blood as the knife dug in deeper.

"Thanking you…" All Might's chipper tone shifted and morphed, turning into something terrible and recognizable. "...for making this so easy!"

Mirai refused to show any weakness on his face, instead glaring daggers at the mockery in front of him. "Take off his face. You don't deserve to wear it!"

The illusion of All Might shrugged and dispersed in a haze of green smoke. Mysterio was in his place, still kneeling but pushing the knife further until Mirai was on his knees too.

"Now do you see, Sir Nighteye? You are nothing compared to me. The Master of Illusion controls all and takes what he is owed, be it riches or lives," Mysterio gloated, savage glee dripping from every syllable. "You have lost, Hero. But do not fret. Your death will be memorable, for it shall be Mysterio's declaration of war against all his enemies!"

The pain was unbearable. Whatever the knife was made of, it had stuck through him like a pig. The growing burning sensation from within probably meant the Villain had just cut through his intestines. He could get medical treatment if he escaped and kept the knife in, but that possibility was looking increasingly unlikely. "But if I'm going to die..."

Mirai grasped Mysterio's arm, knowing that this was in fact the real one, and pulled him closer. At the same time, Mirai shot out his left hand and thrust it through the Villain's projected head. He felt something cool and gas-like within the collar.

"What!? This is a robot too!?"

His and Mysterio's eyes met.

Then… the impossible happened.

It felt as if his spirit had been flung out of his body.

Normally, Foresight gave Mirai a view of a person's future from a third-person point of view. It was like watching a movie reel frame by frame, without context, sound or motion.

But this time was different.

He first saw a bird's eye view of the city before the mental camera of Foresight panned out to show the Earth and then the universe.

"W-What…!?"

The universe then turned into a pinprick, and he saw something both wonderful and terrifying.

It was like a snowflake, glittering into the abyss with colors both natural and unlike anything seen on Earth. It had fifty-two points that shone brightly in nonexistent light, beams of crystal seemed to pulse with what Mirai could only comprehend as blood.

"Blood. There's blood in the… in the…"

Mirai could understand it but it was still hard to accept.

It was a multiverse. His world amongst fifty-two others, pulsing into one another while rotating around the center world. On the limits of his vision he could see the edges of this wonderful, terrible snowflake.

The realms of mythology and places that he could barely comprehend. Heaven, Hell, a land of dreams, a realm of gods that seemed new, a ring of lightning that red figures raced through, and a wall of bound giants screaming in silent rage.

But there was a hole in that wall with a tendril of purple light extending towards the point of the snowflake that was Mirai's world.

Mirai screamed as he was hurled through it, but Foresight would not allow him to be heard. He was now racing into another snowflake of worlds linked to countless others like them by moonbeam roads patterned into an intricate web. In the distance of existence was a glittering city where eternal champions laid down to rest and afterlives that included a green door pulsing in anger. Slowly, as he drew closer to the point the purple tendril was connected to, he saw Earth again; but now the camera was falling on New York City.

"But the buildings, the buildings are wrong. The tower with an 'A' on it… it can't possibly be…!"

The camera went into a warehouse and now it was focusing on a thin, bald, and gaunt figure standing in front of a plume of purple energy dressed in the comic Mysterio's costume.

"No… no it's his! It's his!"

Images came in flashes, almost too fast to comprehend. Mysterio, Quentin Beck, staring at a monitor that showed Mirai's broken and smoking body atop a car.

"Stop it…"

A hulking purple-black humanoid beating down All Might…

"Stop it…!"

All Might holding Quentin Beck's avatar as All For One crept up behind him. The archnemesis of One For All's torch bearers transforming his arm into an ivory spike…

"STOP IT!"

Then he saw one final picture.

A young boy dressed in a costume similar to Spider-Man, standing above a cowering Quentin Beck in this universe. The boy's face was bloodied and bruised. His costume was in tatters, his body riddled with wounds. The shattered lenses of his mask revealed green eyes filled with righteous fury. He snatched Beck's real body by the collar and held him aloft, the Villain's eyes full of fear.

This was the great Mysterio's future, and it was at this moment that Foresight decided he had seen enough.

Mirai gasped as he fell back to the ground. The knife was still in him and didn't budge as he made impact. His eyes felt like they were on fire with his vision fading in and out. "Did that really happen?"

It had to. Foresight was never wrong and he was a logical man. So no matter how insane and ludicrous some of the things he saw were, they were real and could not be denied.

Mysterio also seemed to be shaken from the experience. Confusion marred the projection of his face with a hand going into his collar. "What… just what did you do!? What the hell was that!?" He got up and placed a foot on Mirai's chest.

He tried not to wince as he felt his ribs groan in protest.

"Answer me!"

"D-D…"

Mirai didn't intend to cave in. He had seen everything for a brief moment and knew what was to come.

There was no questioning it. He was going to die here.

"Strange. I feel oddly calm about it."

One of his greatest fears about Foresight was seeing not just the death of his comrades, but his own. It was terrifying on an existential level. Could he cope with knowing his own fate? Seeing All Might's lack of a future had shaken him to his core, and that was merely from seeing the fate of a man he had admired.

In a strange way, seeing his own body had been therapeutic. He felt no fear in the face of his impending doom.

Not when he knew that victory was certain.

"Don't you want to know…" Mirai hissed out in pain. "...what I saw in your future, Quentin Beck?"

Mysterio stopped his pressing, his eyes widening in shock. "What? But he… he said that you couldn't use your Quirk on me!" The confusion transformed into hunger. Mirai was almost sickened by the greed he witnessed from this man. Only now it was mixed with the slightest bit of apprehension. "What? What is it? Spit it out!"

This sad, cruel old man had murdered so many people… sent them off to be butchered and inflicted unspeakable pain on his fellow man for nothing more than attention. So many Heroes were dead because of his machinations.

So it was with great satisfaction that Mirai told him.

"You will fail," he spat, his lips curling into a contemptuous grin. "A boy… a Spider-Man, will beat you in your very home. I saw him standing over your defeated body, the feeble cancer-ridden one you've tried so hard to hide from us." He let out a hollow chuckle. "You won't even be beaten by the Symbol of Peace, Beck. You'll just be defeated by your hated enemy once again, and it won't even be Peter Parker this time."

For a moment, the self-proclaimed Master of Illusion was a living statue. His jaw fell, his lips quivered, trying in vain to articulate a retort or denial.

It was as if the words spoken had struck Quentin Beck from across dimensions.

Mysterio's body trembled and his hands clenched into fists.

"...No."

It was almost spoken in a whisper, but it contained so many emotions. Disbelief, shock, anger, and fear.

"NO!"

Mysterio screamed as he grabbed Mirai by the collar and began punching him.

"HE WON'T! LIAR! YOU'RE A LIAR!"

Mirai felt his jaw splinter and teeth rattle after two punches.

"HE'LL NEVER BEAT ME AGAIN! DO YOU HEAR ME!? NEVER! MYSTERIO WILL BE VICTORIOUS! I AM NOT. GOING. TO BE BEATEN. AGAIN!"

Mirai felt something break and his vision in his right eye turned red.

"YOU GODDAMN LIAR! I'LL KILL THAT KID! I'LL KILL HIM, PARKER, AND THAT PRECIOUS ALL MIGHT OF YOURS! I'LL KILL THEM ALL!"

"Toshinori… I'm sorry. I don't think we'll get the chance to make up."

He could barely hear Mysterio's rantings anymore. His vision was turning black as his face caved in.

"I guess I won't get to see the world full of smiles you talked about. The one you and Mirio would build together."

The girl, Clash, would stop Mysterio from ramming his fist through his head. The Villain wanted to make things more theatrical and torture Mirai one final time.

"And Mirio… I'm sorry I won't be able to teach you anymore. I only hope that you won't blame yourself for this. I hope you keep smiling, because the Symbol of Peace must always smile no matter what hardship he faces."

He saw Mysterio rear back his fist as Clash staggered to him from behind, her hand raised to shake the Villain out of his madness. The face seemed more beast than man.

"All I know is that you will become a great Hero… and bring smiles to all in spite of the darkness to come."

The fist raced towards him.

"As for the Spider-Man I saw… I can only wish you luck. You will honor that costume and become an amazing Hero. That is a future that should never be changed."

Mirai closed his eyes and calmly accepted his fate.

"Both of you… Go beyond."

Kaoruko Awata had never kept so still in her life.

As soon as she saw the giant hands of that Villain burst through the drywall and grab Centipeder's, Juzo's, head, she dove into the open room ahead of her and scooted to the left corner. She had forced herself to breathe only through her nose, using her hands to cover her mouth and prevent any potential sobs that could come.

She didn't even let out a moan as she heard Juzo's head being crushed in a sickening sound that was like a hammer smashing a watermelon on the beach.

"I-I have to keep quiet. I can't let them know I'm here!" Tears rolled down her cheeks. "Coward, I'm a coward. I should be out there to avenge Juzo but I'm here hiding like a coward. But if I go out I'm dead and I don't want to die."

"Hey! What the hell was that!?" She heard the sound of Vulture's wings grow louder. He was now by a window and talking to the Villain that had killed Juzo. "This was my fight, damn it! Why the hell are you here!?"

"Clash told me to assist you." Shocker spoke calmly as he dropped something onto the floor with the care one would give to a sack of potatoes. "She stated that you might have trouble due to your overconfidence."

"Tch! She doesn't know what the hell she's talking about. I'm trying to put my life on the line for our gang! Doing this shit is like spitting in my face!"

"If I had not assisted you the Heroes would have taken advantage of your vulnerability."

"Then let 'em! A real man doesn't run away just because he might get a black eye, and when he gets it for his gang…"

"The matter of your pride is irrelevant. Your main focus should be the mission."

"They're arguing. They're arguing about Juzo like he's a point in a video game!" No, no she couldn't shake. She couldn't make any noise or else they'll find her. "Let them. Let them find me. I'll make them pay. I'll knock their goddamn teeth in!"

"Shocker and Vulture, come in."

Kaoruko felt her body go numb at the sound of Mysterio's voice.

"No… Oh no, Sir…!"

"I am here with Vulture. We have neutralized one of Sir Nighteye's sidekicks but the other one is…" Shocker's report was interrupted by Mysterio's angry scoff.

"Forget about the small fry. The big fish have been dealt with and that's all that matters. Come back to the warehouse so we can begin preparations for the show."

Kaoruko didn't know what to think. Her mind was a hazy blur swimming with thoughts.

Sir Nighteye hadn't been the kindest of bosses. He was serious all the time, never stopped for small talk, and had a bizarre contradictory standard for his sidekicks to be both professional and funny at all times.

There were times when Kaoruko hated him, like when he strapped her down to be tickled whenever she wasn't funny enough.

But Sir Nighteye was a Hero all the same, one that corrected her when needed and praised her when it was earned. He had taught her a lot in the years she worked under him. He and Juzo never gave her a reason to leave the office and together they had helped to save so many lives.

And now they were gone. They, along with Fat Gum, Rock Lock, and Snatch were all dead while she was alive.

"Man, is he serious?" She heard Vulture ask while more tears streamed down her cheeks.

"It is his order, so go back to the warehouse. I will meet you there." Kaoruko held her breath as Vulture's turbines faded into the distance. She felt the ground shake as Shocker took lumbering steps down the hallway as he headed to the stairs.

But when he was close to where she was, he stopped.

"Please, please just go…!"

A droplets of sweat formed on her skin as the seconds passed.

"He knows. He knows I'm here!"

Was he standing there just to torture her? To make her squirm before he closed in for the kill?

The wall to her right exploded as a massive fist crashed through it. She didn't scream, as dust and plaster exploded in the air as Shocker's fist drew back.

"If I had been there, I would've died."

Kaoruko briefly wondered whether she would've felt it or not.

She heard Shocker hum to himself before continuing with his walk and descending down the stairs.

She waited a full ten minutes before she could begin to cry, and that was how the police reinforcements would find her half an hour later.

A broken, shivering, and weeping wreck that could hardly be called a sidekick, let alone a Hero.

Tamaki took in greedy gulps of air as he tossed aside the last Villain with his crab claw of a left hand.

"I-I did it. I can't believe I'm still alive…" He had been fighting for what felt like hours, using every facet of his Quirk and skills to keep alive during the brawl. The police were taken down by the Villains and Tamaki had found himself alone against a small army of enemies. Far more than what he had ever been comfortable in dealing with.

"I should have died. I was so scared and I should've frozen up in fear, but… but Mirio and Nejire wouldn't have given up. I had to keep fighting like they would've."

Tamaki hissed and transformed his hands back to human ones. His right hand went to his left shoulder, putting pressure on the gunshot wound he received. But even he knew it was like pissing in the wind. His body had several deep grazes and his thigh had a similar gunshot wound.

"Guess I should've expected the Villains to pick up the guns that the officers dropped."

He needed to call Fat Gum and report all this. Then he would be able to get proper medical care before he passed out. Right now he was only running on adrenaline and who knew how long that would last.

"S-S…" Tamaki looked at one of the Villains, a nasty-looking guy dressed in a ratty t-shirt and jeans with a large scar running from his right temple to the corner of his lips. "Suneater…"

"How…" He licked his lips, tasting the copper of his own blood from the cut he had received sometime during the fight. "How do you know my name?"

He was just a sidekick. He wasn't important enough to remember, at least not yet.

"Why… why did you attack us…?"

Tamaki blinked. "Why did I…?" Why the hell was this Villain asking that? They were the ones that attacked him!

He heard the sound of clapping and turned to his right to see the Villain known as Mysterio.

He was sitting cross-legged on green smoke in the middle of what was one the police barricade, an amused smirk on his lips as he applauded the scene in front of him. "Well done, Suneater! Like a true Hero, you managed to stand your ground until the bitter end! And for a noble cause, I might add!" The Villain chuckled. "That being our uninterrupted performance."

"What…?" Then, as if he had said the magic word, green smoke rose from the bodies of the Villains accompanied by green beams of light tracing their forms.

And as the green smoke swirled and disappears into the air, Tamaki saw that the bodies laying beaten and bloodied on the ground were the police officers he was assisting.

"How… did he… how could he have disguised them!?" His mind was racing and he could barely breathe. He had been fighting the cops this whole time!? "No… no that can't be right! I was trying to protect the police! I had been fighting Villains and keeping them away from the injured officers!"

He looked at the unconscious officers besides these broken bodies only to find them gone.

"They were part of the illusion too?" Tamaki whispered and he looked to Mysterio. In the air behind the Villain were three drones with cameras and blinking red lights next to the lenses. He could see the green lasers coming from the small box on top of them and knew they were the source of the illusion. As they switched off, he could see that the damaged buildings were still intact and the manhole cover was still where it should've been.

Holograms and projections in drug-laced smoke.

He had been tricked.

Mysterio was now on his feet and he bowed mockingly. "My thanks on behalf of the League of Villains."

Then, his form flickered and disappeared. The drones flew into the air and out of Tamaki's range.

He was too stunned, his mind trying to process everything. "I… I hurt the police. Mysterio tricked me into fighting against my own allies! And… he was thanking me? But that means…!"

Despite the pain and the confusion swimming in his head, Tamaki ran to the warehouse. Panic had his heart in a vice-like grip as he drew closer to the door. "No, no it can't be! This has to be a mistake! Fat Gum and Sir Nighteye are fine! I know they are!"

He tried to think of Mirio. His friend always knew what to say when they were in trouble, only to come up with nothing.

He was truly alone.

Tamaki flung open the door…

...And when he saw the pile of sand and guts, Rock Lock lying in a pool of his own blood, and Fat Gum motionless with splintered bones protruding from his arm…

Tamaki Amajiki began to scream.

Izuku groaned as he trudged out of U.A's front gate with Yaoyorozu next to him. "What a day…"

Having to deal with the panic earlier was not how he envisioned his first day as deputy class rep. Though he had to admit, being praised by his friends and the rest of the class was great.

Well, everyone save for Kacchan.

"Though he did grunt when everyone was cheering, so I guess that means he thought I did a good job."

"At least our duties aren't that big at the moment." Yaoyorozu mentioned with a small smile. "So far there are no scheduled trips and everyone is neat."

"Yeah, I guess." Cleaning homeroom after school didn't take long with Yaoyorozu there. "It was nice, but I could do without having to calm everyone down in a situation like that."

"We won't have to do it in the school, at least." Yaoyorozu held a finger up. "A Hero's duty is to help keep the peace in times of crisis. People will panic when there's a Villain attack or a natural disaster, so we should see this as practice for crowd control."

Izuku chuckled. "Well, you definitely have the Quirk to get everyone's attention, Yaoyorozu-san."

She had been so cool during the crisis by managing to quickly come up with a plan in a high-stress situation that used both their powers. Izuku couldn't help but be a bit jealous of her quick thinking. While he had screwed things up with Kacchan and had been practically useless in the panic, Yaoyorozu managed to keep her calm and use her wits to devise a plan and knew exactly what to say.

"We made the right choice in picking her as class rep."

"Yo, Midoriya!"

Izuku turned to see Jirou, Sero, and Uraraka waving at them by the demolished gate. There were a few robots and officers hanging around studying the damage behind a fence of police tape. The reporters were gone, possibly due to their bosses screaming at them from the stern warning the police gave regarding trespassing private government property. Passerby occasionally gave the ruined gates a glance, but otherwise treated it as if it were part of the scenery.

Helps that all the excitement passed by hours ago.

"H-Hey guys…" Izuku laughed as the three drew closer. "You didn't have to wait for me."

"Come on, it's no big deal. Not like we had anything else to do!" Sero patted him on the back. "Dude, the way you and Yaoyorozu handled things really made you popular! I had like ten different guys walk up to me and ask if you two were really my class reps!"

"We had to remind them you're the deputy." Jirou supplied while glancing at Yaoyorozu. "Not that it was difficult to convince them. Out of the two, Yaoyorozu looks more like someone who could take charge."

"It was so cool though!" Uraraka seemed to be hopping from foot to foot, utterly giddy with excitement. "Yaoyorozu-chan's speech was so confident and it looked like you were ready to command everyone to march downstairs like some military commander! Honestly, you would make a pretty good politician."

"God, I hope not," Jirou scoffed. "As a Hero, she actually has a chance to get things done."

Yaoyorozu's cheeks turned red. "I-It was no trouble. It was thanks to Midoriya-san for helping me get up."

"Yeah, Mineta wouldn't stop talking about that. Kept crying about how he missed the chance of a lifetime." Sero seemed to be holding back his laughter as Yaoyorozu turned as red as her costume. "Tsuyu really gave him a good whack for that!"

"Say, do you guys have the night free?" Uraraka took out her phone and Izuku could see her finger hovering over a theatre app. "We were thinking about going to the movies to watch either Doctor Aphra or A Wizard of Earthsea. What do you…" She paused, her face filled with confusion. "What the heck is this?"

Curiosity filling him, Izuku went to Uraraka's side and looked at her phone's screen. "A Death of a Hero?"

It seemed to be a link that was texted to her, and from Uraraka's reaction it wasn't a number she recognized. "Who would want to send something like that to her?"

Izuku heard the faint ringing of his cell phone and when he glanced at the screen he saw the same link but from a different number. "Hey, guys…?"

"Yeah, I got it too." Jirou was staring at her phone in wonder. "Eerie."

"It's probably some sort of phishing scam. Don't click on the thing or else your phone's will be riddled with viruses." Sero put his cellphone back into his pocket. "Happened to my cousin once. Had to get a new one and that took a huge chunk out of his savings since it wasn't time for a trade-in."

"It's odd that I got one." Yaoyorozu pursed her lips. "My parents mentioned once that they paid to not get robocalls."

All of a sudden, Izuku saw his screen turn black with the white loading circle at the center. "What the… I didn't press it!"

"It's happening to me too!" Uraraka looked at him desperately. "Is my phone infected already?"

"I don't…"

But all five of them went quiet as the videos began to play.

"Are we live?"

"Yes." Shocker held the smartphone between his index and thumb. "You may begin."

"Greetings, followers of the Symbol of Peace!" Quentin outstretched his arms while shining his showman smile. "It is I, the Master of Illusion, Mysterio!"

He calmly walked towards the phone while Shocker kept a steady hand. He made sure not to glance at the bastard Sir Nighteye, whose bloody and scorched body was being held by the arms. It was obvious Vulture was taking most of the weight on the right side while Clash was holding the left.

He couldn't help but notice that she was shaking. "Seems like someone wasn't as ready to kill Heroes as they claimed."

Well, so long as she was still doing as she was told, it wasn't his problem.

Let Clash rationalize things however she wanted. She was young, driven, and desperate for her ticket out.

"It has been ten months since my last display of power, and for that I apologize." He bowed to emphasize this, doubling as the signal for the two Enforcers to bring the body to the roof's railing. "Many wheels have begun to turn, and steps had to be made against interlopers such as the one seen behind me."

His two henchmen held the Hero on his feet with Vulture yanking the man's head back by his hair. Nighteye said nothing, but somehow had the strength to glare at him in spite of his swollen black eyes.

"I bring you Sir Nighteye. This wretch who was once your Symbol of Peace's sidekick. His Quirk, Foresight, had provided him a window into the fate of man. So confident in his fate, he had come bumbling into my lair with his allies only to fall to my Enforcers." Quentin couldn't help it. He began laughing in delight. "And now, only Sir Nighteye is left to become a symbol like his mentor!"

Oh sure, that Bubble Girl had escaped but she was a nobody. Just a stupid sidekick who would not amount to anything in the future. Suneater's career was ruined before it could ever really begin.

Quentin had won. For the first time in his long career, he had achieved a complete victory against his foes.

"If only this were Parker…"

Well, he would correct that error in good time.

"The symbol to the dawn of a new age, one crafted by Mysterio and the League of Villains! The symbol of a world free from the grasp of your so-called Heroes!" He raised his right hand, electricity crackling across his fingers. "Now, some of you have doubted the power of Mysterio. Said that I was a no-name Villain with nothing to back my title. So tell me…"

He increased his output by over a hundred percent.

"Will this look good on my resume?"

Quentin beamed as he fired the energy at Sir Nighteye.

Clash and Vulture had let go in the nick of time. The electricity nailed the bastard squarely in the chest, taking him off his feet and launching him back. His body hit the metal railing and it buckled before tearing off as if the bars were made of twigs. The man's spine had more than likely broken in half on impact. The man's mouth opened in a silent scream. His saliva and blood disintegrated while his hair began to burn.

He had vanished over the edge before Quentin could see if his eyeballs had burst.

Quentin calmly walked forward with Shocker following behind him. Both Vulture and Clash stepped to the side but only Clash turned her head away.

Before he reached the edge of the roof, he heard the familiar sound of a body crashing into the top of a car and the screams of cityfolk who were expecting another uneventful day in superhero central.

He brought his left foot up on the small concrete incline and stared down. He had chosen this spot carefully. A twenty-story apartment complex in one of the busiest parts of Musutafu in the quiet moments between Hero patrols.

Everyone would see the bastard's corpse. It was now a twisted, broken wreck on the crumpled roof of a Mitsubishi. Blood was dripping off the hood and onto the street as civilians gathered and took pictures. Only a few pointed up to the point of origin.

The Hero closest to the Symbol of Peace was now a nearly unrecognizable corpse. Meanwhile, Mysterio would soon become the talk of the town.

"And who cares what a dead man says?"

This exercise had been therapeutic. The bastard was trying to psych him out. There was no way the man was able to use his Quirk on him when he was an entire universe away.

"Hell, none of these idiots even think that Parker's the real deal! To them I'm just another Villain in the world, and one in the big leagues at that. It was just the words of soon-to-be dead man. A final spit in my eye before I killed him."

It had to be just that.

"Time to go." He said before snapping his fingers. Green smoke enveloped him and by the time a Hero came, they would only see an empty rooftop while Mysterio and his men casually strolled away.

"I did not come here just to be beaten by Parker again." Quentin's nails dug into his palms. "Mysterio will never be beaten by those who are his lessers."

And this exercise was only the beginning to prove that.

Mysterio's horrible video was uploaded on multiple sites, broadcasting his execution of Sir Nighteye, Fatgum, Rock Lock, Snatch, and Centipeder to anyone with a phone or internet connection. Whenever the police tried to take one down, two more took their place. They would remotely fry the server in an hour, but by then, copies were put up on underground websites.

Every civilian and Hero saw Mysterio and the League of Villain's declaration of war against the world of Heroes.

Tamaki Amajiki was cleared of willful assault of the police officers, but his future as a Hero was thrown into doubt.

Bubble Girl would be put on medical leave so that she could attend therapy sessions.

An off-duty police chief had been found in on the hood of his car with holes in his chest and back. An autopsy would find that the guy had been dropped from over a hundred feet in the air. An investigation into his finances had found that he had been receiving large deposits from a bank account that didn't exist.

During the search for Rei Narukami, his father's body was discovered on his living room sofa, his head caved in by a hammer. Fingerprints would confirm that Rei had been the one to pick up the murder weapon, and security footage would show that he was accompanied by a red-haired girl.

I wouldn't find this out until later, but it didn't matter at the time I watched that video.

At that moment… we were reminded of a terrible truth.

Villains were more than just people Heroes defeated.

And sometimes the good guys don't win.

To Be Continued...

Notes: Phew... that was one long and dark chapter betaed by the always incredible reppuzan!

I really wanted to make sure each fight got equal screen time while giving character both to the Enforcers and Heroes who never got any focus in the main story. While I am as sad as you are to see Sir Nighteye and Fat Gum go I wanted to make sure they all got a moment to shine and stayed true to who they were.

Plus, Sir Nighteye managed to REALLY fuck with Mysterio and even saw the multiverse!

Speaking of which, I wanted to give a shout-out to FoxOnPie's Neither A Bird Nor A Plane, It's Deku! who had been gracious enough to include Amazing Fantasy into one of his 52 worlds! The description of it was a treat to write since I got to include bits of the DC Multiverse cosmology, how the multiverse was described in Planetary by Warren Ellis, a shout-out to the ever incredible Michael Moorcock's multiverse, and even a bit from Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing which I hope you all have read. If not, GO READ IT!

Also hope that you all enjoyed the Enforcers, since I tried hard to give each a distinctive voice and show that they aren't invincible.

Anyways, be sure to check out this fic's TV Tropes page and add what you see as appropriate!

Be sure to leave a review and let me know how I'm doing!