Path to Becoming a Hero
Chapter 9
Shadow Force
Once Zen-Aku disappeared into the magic circle, Ecliptor turned to Tenaya 7 and nodded, she brought down her vizor and began to scan the area for what she wanted using the satellites she has in orbit, she searched throughout the area with different frequencies to find what she wanted. "Alright, I have two villains going against three of the Pussycats, one villain is protruding poisonous gas in a surrounding area, not reaching everywhere yet, three villains are approaching the students at a rapid pace, two others are hanging back from the fighting though," she reported.
"Then we only have three separate targets, Villamax and Deker, you go after the two villains hanging back, Koragg has the helmet with the best chance to get by the gas so he'll go after that one, me along with Tenaya 7 and Diabolico will go after the three attacking the students now." Ecliptor gave his directions to the group, they all saw that it was a good plan and so they nodded, though since Ecliptor was technically the leader of the group right now, none of them were actually able to follow directions correctly, but these were to save kids, so they'll follow along.
"Wait," they heard a shout as a woman with brown hair and in a pink cat costume came running over with a boy on her back, they all internally cursed at her appearance, "damn, it's you people," Mandalay cursed when she noticed who it was that was here to save them, she didn't like them.
"Hello to you as well Mandalay," Ecliptor said back to her sarcastically, the two groups weren't a fan of each other's, they all had some issues in the past and that caused a lot of problems, mainly differences in philosophy and how villains should be treated after capture, if they were captured.
Villamax stepped up and put his hand on Ecliptor's shoulder, "now is not the time for that old rivalry, there are children to save, talk about it afterwards," he told the old parental alien who grunted before turning to leave, "sorry to leave you madam," as the rest began to leave as well.
Kota looked at them as they left, they were all both cool and scary at the same time, "who were those people, were they heroes," he asked his caretaker, who looked down at him with conflict in her eyes, she didn't want to lie to him, but knew he was too young to understand everything.
"Legally they are heroes, underground heroes like Eraser, except they belong to an underground group of heroes by the name of Shadow Force, they specialize in certain missions that are a bit too dark to be considered hero work, acting more like soldiers while on the field than heroes. Each person in that group is different, their morals and philosophies different from what heroes have come to be expected to have in today's society, they are brutal in how they take down villains and rarely do public appearances, but they are legally heroes," Mandalay told her young charge.
"Did something happen between you and them, it sounded like there was history there," he asked innocently, not really knowing much about the intricacies of hero teams and how they function since he never really bothered with learning about them, and never paid attention to stories.
The hero looked downcast at the question though, how do you tell your young charge that you almost lost your own life because you mistook a group of heroes as villains and they beat you badly, then lost out to someone else for the love of one of those that nearly killed you. "Just an old rivalry between hero teams," she answered and began to run back to camp, she still had to contact everyone and tell them to keep an eye on Bakugo, and let them know that help, no matter how unwanted, is on its way, she only wished they didn't have to rely on them.
Koragg
He was running to the scene of one of the villains, the gas quirk based villain, it seems that they had planned to separate the kids and spread out people to take the kids out, pity for them because it means that since the kids are all in one place, this was just a useless deployment. Whoever this was would have been better served going against the kids rather than being on the perimeter like this, but these villains are all relatively new so their lack of experience is forgiven, yet that still would not save them from his wrath once he gets a hold of these vermin.
As he was running into the gas, it soon got denser as he continued to run, so it was clear that the villain he's searching for would be closer to the center of the gas, which means he should be hearing it anytime now, "someone is headed straight for me," the beginning of a monologue. "I guess someone did avoid my gas and realized I'm here, I should have expected that from a prestigious school, but then…" it sounded like he was pulling something out, "no matter how wonderful their quirks may be…" that was when Koragg appeared, "they're still only human." It was a six shot revolver he instantly fired it, but it wasn't a student that came for him, it was someone that all criminals hated to fight, the man in dark wolf armor with a sword and shield, the shield able to block even fifty caliber bullets, "it was supposed to be a student who came."
"Too bad for you," he stated as he swiped up with his sword intent on knocking the pistol out of the boy's hand, but the boy was lucky enough to stumble back to avoid that, and disappeared into the gas, "you are much to young to be a villain boy, this is not the life you should desire, ever."
"Ha, like you know anything about the life of a villain, hero," the boy said, his voice echoing around the area before the clicking of a gun about to be fired could be heard, thankfully the bullet was blocked in time by his shield, "I'm producing and controlling this gas but that's not all." The boy seemed to be moving, so Koragg stepped to the side a bit to see if he could throw the boy off, that didn't work as another shot was fired and blocked, "the gas is showing me your movements with its fluctuations, so you can't hide from me or throw me off at all."
Koragg didn't give the kid the pleasure of wording his response, so when the next bullet came, he swiped while adding dark magic to the swing, the kid dodged again and the slash did what was intended, it tore through the gas and created an opening in the dense gas, a plan was forming. As the next shot was about to fire, he leapt high into the air with his power, the kid could tell and tried to aim but then the shield opened up and a red eye appeared, "wolf attack," was called out, a specter of a wolf shot from the shield, and another and another, it kept coming as he spun. The wolves dissipated the gas like the dark magic slash and made it to where there was a lot less than before, meaning that the gas mask the boy had on was more of a hinderance than an aid, so as he came down the boy barely saw the downward strike coming, but he sure felt it.
As the boy fell to the ground and started to bleed from the attack, Koragg made the call, "the gas villain is down, he was just a boy, I expect the others to be of varying ages, do not underestimate them," he informed the others as he roughly picked up the villain and began dragging him away.
Ecliptor, Tenaya 7, and Diabolico
They ran through the woods until they came upon the scene they did, a Nomu, a girl in a school uniform, and a man wrapped up in black bindings where only his mouth was visible, all standing before the combined might of classes A and B, and all looked ready to fight the villains. The one known as Shoto was up front crouched in a low position ready to send ice out to slow them down while Bakugo and Tokoyami were right behind him, along with Shoji and Momo with a freshly made staff at the ready, on class B's side was Kendo, Tetsutetsu, and Ibara up front. Everyone else was behind them and ready to lend their support when needed, but the villains had the advantage, the Nomu was able to bring forth chainsaws and drills on five extra arms, the villain in black seemed to be extending his teeth into steel, and then the girl wielded knives.
The kids all saw them as they entered, some recognized them, others didn't, those in the front lines were one of those that did, "you kids stay back, we'll deal with this," Ecliptor ordered before charging for the villain in black with his sword, it was like a claymore and he held it with one hand.
"Guess I'll be going after the Nomu than," Diabolico commented while bringing out his own two pronged axe-like staff and charging the Nomu, jumping up to slam the staff on it, yet it was blocked by a bulky arm, so he used the other end of the staff in an upward swipe at its jaw.
"Guess that leaves me with the little girl then, you kids get back to the camp," Tenaya 7 ordered the kids as she charged at the girl in the school uniform, she jumped slightly using her powers and done a small flip in the air as she began her assault with a flying kick before sweeping the leg.
The enemy in black shot forward his steel teeth while also using them like stands to raise him up into the air, Ecliptor quickly started hacking away at the teeth with ease thanks to his great strength and incredibly sharp blade, with a few incoming teeth he had to dodge by rolling away. As he righted himself he shot his eyebeams for the villain who used his teeth again to bend backwards and avoid them, so a different strategy was to be used, the former villain blocked more teeth before letting some get past him and impact the dirt to create a dust cloud. Ecliptor used that moment to detach his head from his body and sent it into the woods for a moment and let his body deflect more of the bladed teeth while the head moved around the villain and shot at him in the back with his eye beams, the villain screamed in pain as the body acted. The body of Ecliptor charged and as the villain tried to shoot at it with some teeth, it was blocked by the claymore sword that he wielded with ease, and then in an instant the body was behind the villain, his sword out as if he made a cut as the villain slumped to the ground.
As his head reattached itself to his body, Ecliptor looked around and saw that Tenaya 7 and Diabolico were still fighting their villains, "I guess I'll lead the kids back to camp, they don't seem to be in a hurry," he stated as he ran over to the kids to get them moving, they're in the way here.
Tenaya 7 threw a right jab for the girl but it was blocked as she tried to get under her guard and stab the hero in the gut, she grabbed the knife hand in time and sent a high kick to the little girl's head, that knocked her off balance and let Tenaya grab her wrist as she was about to trip and fall. She used that grab to pull and deliver a high knee to the girl's nose, then came the swinging kick to her gut before throwing a few crosses in the mix and finishing off the combo with a roundhouse kick to her torso to knock her back, the girl wasn't down for the count though as she slowly rose.
"You're good," she said as she took out a pump of some kind that was attached to a tank on her back, "but I really need your blood, so I'll have to cut you now," the girl charged with the intent to stab or puncture the hero with the pump, Tenaya brought out her finger laser to slow her momentum. As she fired her lasers, the plan to slow the little girl's momentum worked and by the time they reached each other, the laser was used as nothing more than a tool to block knife strike after knife strike to make sure it didn't reach her, there were still some parts of her that were human.
Diabolico used his staff to block a drill and chainsaw before kicking the Nomu in the gut, it did virtually nothing, another drill and chainsaw was coming and successfully blocked as well, the mindless beast tried to throw a direct punch, but he used that against the thing by stabbing its wrist. Using that he was able to spin around the arm and get in close to successfully deliver some quick strikes to the Nomu, first a right elbow, then a left fist, then a right elbow for the beast's jaw, after that he grabbed his staff again and yanked it from the wrist and fired his own beams at the beast. It did little more than make it madder as the chainsaws were sent out alone this time to be blocked, but while they were being blocked, then came the drills and a newly made hammer arm as well, quickly knocking the chainsaws away he jumped out just in time for the weapons to hit.
The dust that was kicked up gave Diabolico enough time to jump into the air and try and wear the Nomu down from the air with lasers that way, it was slowly working, "you're a tough beast, you know that," that earned him a drill sent his way, he dodged it by going back to the ground.
"Is this beast giving you trouble," the voice of Koragg asked as he was dragging the boy he had defeated into the clearing, he was dropped and the sword was pulled from the shield, "it looks like you could use some assistance," he commented as he charged in with his shield up and sword ready.
Villamax and Deker
Just as Koragg was arriving to help Diabolico, Villamax and Deker was reaching where the two villains were standing back, it was relatively easy to tell who they were, one had a patchwork face with clear burn marks on himself, the other had on a black and white jumpsuit on, clearly villains. They were just standing there as if waiting for their compatriots when they heard rustling before the two heroes charged them, Villamax and Deker both with their swords drawn, Villamax going after the one in the black and white jumpsuit and Deker going after the patchwork faced one.
Villamax swung his sword in a figure eight position as the villain backflipped repeatedly to dodge before the villain was hit with a spinning kick to the head that left him spinning before dropping to the ground, it was there that he pulled out his weapon, a measuring tape that doubled as a blade. Using it like a whip he swung it at Villamax who blocked it with his own blade repeatedly as the whip continued to try and get past his skills and defenses, soon he had enough and let the bladed whip wrap around his sword so that he could pull the villain in, it worked and so it was hand to hand. A left jab was quickly thrown for the villain, who seemed to panic a little and duck under it before a right knee was greeted to his face, using the same leg still off the ground, Villamax kicked the villain in the gut while turning his sword to a reverse grip and striking at the head with the hilt.
Deker swung Uramasa in an upward diagonal to incapacitate the villain, but he quickly ducked under the blow and shot blue fire at him, but the white hero quickly jumped out of the way to avoid the fire that would have burned, he could feel the extreme heat being feet away from it. With another quick leap, he moved to get closer to the villain, if he got close enough to get in range of Uramasa but far enough to where he could dodge a fire blast quickly enough then he could win easily, thing was that the villain knew this as well and quickly began back-stepping. The villain quickly shot blue fireballs for the hero, he quickly had to leap away to avoid them, keeping a firm hold on Uramasa has he did so, after a while, it was getting to pointless to do that, he had to find a way to fight him effectively, unlike the others, he had no extra long range attack. More Blue fire shot forward and forced Deker to act, knowing he had to end this soon, he blocked the fireball shot at him with Uramasa, he brought it up to hold parallel with his eyes in a two handed grip, for now he had to think up an actual strategy, one that at least wore the villain down.
Ecliptor
Ecliptor was leading the children through the forest, having the highest ranking of the bunch run just behind Bakugo, just to make sure he stays there and nobody sneaks in to grab him, as they ran, he could hear a few of the kids talking about how they were rescued, "who are these guys?"
"They're Shadow Force, Ibara," the one named Itsuka Kendo answered her friend, "they're known for being a secretive underground hero group, how you become a member and why only select heroes are chosen is never known, but to receive in invitation is like signing your social suicide."
"Mainly because of their dumb tactics," Bakugo didn't even look at them when they turned to his beginning rant, "it's dumb, they choose what villains can be redeemed at random and which are too far gone, they do it randomly when they can just beat all villains down, it's fuckin' weird."
"Not weird, Bakugo, suspicious," Iida spoke in as they ran and could see the lights of the camp, "I heard a rumor that they look into the eyes of a villain and then give them a chance at redemption, and when they do, the villain completely reforms and changes their ways."
"That could mean anything, Iida," Ochaco offered her opinion as well, though she still eyed the one leading them suspiciously, "my problem lies with how badly they beat the ones they judge as to lost, the news reports say that even hardcore villain hater groups find it too much."
"Not to say they aren't cool though," Toru spoke up from behind the leads, "they are all even in top rankings in every poll, some even number one, the one leading us is actually the number one paternal hero, his real name nobody knows but his hero name is Eclipse Breaker."
"That chick earlier was ranked sixth in the sexiest female hero polls, her name is Android 7," Mineta voiced dreamily as they ran, you can guess what he's imagining, "that purple skin-tight bodysuit, those curves, that flawless skin, she's amazingly sexy, and powerful as hell to boot."
"The scary looking one was ranked as the number one 'hero who looks like a villain', hero name is Demon King," Shoji stated from just beside of Toru, "he's an inspiration to those of us that have mutation quirks and might be mocked for our appearances," Tsu nodded from beside of them.
They finally reached camp and saw Aizawa standing over a puddle of mud, he turned to see the kids all coming back, only the Pussycats were absent, though he saw one thing wrong, "what are you doing here Eclipse Breaker," he asked the other underground hero with narrowed eyes.
"You're welcome for rescuing your students," Ecliptor stated as he stopped at the entrance and watched as the students all filed inside the building, "I brought a group because we got word from an informant that the League of Villains were going to attack this place, so we acted."
Just as the last student made it inside, Mandalay came out of the woods with Koda on her back, "good, I see the students all made it in safely," she stated as she put her young charge down and ushered him inside, "where did you send Midoriya, with those injuries he needs medical attention."
"So he'll receive medical attention, one of those I brought was Wolf Knight, he teleported the boy to our headquarters where our own doctor with the most advanced medical practices available will treat him," Ecliptor replied as he brought out his sword and stood to the right of the door.
Aizawa was about to stand on the left to guard when Mandalay stood there instead, "you go check inside and guard it with Vlad, he brought Black Swordsman, Demon King, Android 7, and Red Skull with him as well, so we at least have the advantage if we stay here," she told him.
Aizawa nodded before heading inside, having Ecliptor there was overkill anyways, having both him and Mandalay was just a recipe for disaster for the villains, as he left he heard Ecliptor say, "this is going to be a fun night," this was fun for him, Shadow Force really needs a new hobby.
Diabolico, Koragg, and Tenaya 7
Diabolico was fending off the Nomu with ease now that Koragg was also there to help, the both of them combined was more than enough to take on the mindless beast, so as it screamed and charged for them, Koragg blocked some arms with his shield and sword while Diabolico stabbed at it. His staff was easily able to pierce the skin at the throat to deal a heavy amount of damage to the monster, the blind weapon arms that followed were blocked by the demon while the knight used the chance to slice at its arms before stabbing into the throat with his blade set ablaze. Koragg pulled the weapon free from the monster's neck as it began to blindly lash out with its weapon arms again, the multitude of strikes made him focus on them fully, leaving Diabolico to come around the back and jump slightly to stab into the brain of the Nomu, it worked.
As the Nomu fell to its knees, the arms stopped and the knight saw the chance to take the head from the beast, he did with a turning mighty backswing, the head cleanly slid off its shoulders before landing on the ground, "about time that monster was defeated," Diabolico stated.
Koragg put his sword into his shield and gave a, "hm," in response before walking over to the boy that was unconscious and picked him up again, "do you wish to aid her or let her fight on her own," he asked the demon king who just started walking away, he got the message and followed.
Tenaya 7 shot forward sent a round of flying butterfly kicks for the girl in a school uniform, she blocked them with her wrists while backing up, so Tenaya jumped and delivered a down jab, it impacted the girl's shoulder and made her stop backing up, leaving her have to block. A round of crosses and such followed that had the girl blocking her head with her arms, her knives not in a good position to use right now since Tenaya has faster reflexes than the little girl, after the round of punches to ware her down, Tenaya kicked her side and sent her to the ground. She got up quick though and charged forward with knife drawn to cut into Tenaya, but the hero turned on her foot and high kicked the knife out of the girl's hand, with her right leg still in the air she turned and roundhouse kicked the girl away and into the dirt again.
"Give up girl, you are not able to win and I'd rather not have to damage you any more than needed," Tenaya suggested to the girl, but as she got up, it was already clear that she wouldn't be yielding anytime soon, "so be it," she got ready to fight when a black mist appeared.
"Time to go Himiko Toga, we have reached our mission's objective," the mist informed, Tenaya knew that couldn't be, not many could get past Ecliptor, so she rushed forward, but knew she wouldn't make it, so did the only sensible thing and tossed a tracker bug as Himiko left.
Tenaya 7 didn't reach in time like she suspected, and the portal closed just as she predicted it would, but the tracker attached to Himiko as she entered the portal, it closed and she was left alone in the small clearing, "I'll go back to camp and see what's going on," she said to herself.
Villamax and Deker
Villamax swiped up with his sword just as the man in black and white jumped over the blade with amazing dexterity, he brought up his measuring tape blade in a ready stance and charged in, but the bro hero turned on a dime and went in as well, swiping to the right to block the tape. It was a clash of blades as the tape came back in for another strike, it was again deflected by swiping to the left, which is also the way the villain turned, but Villamax turned to the right while swinging his sword to block another one of the measuring tape's strikes again. The villain tried for another approach by wrapping the measuring tape around the hero's sword, that just made it easier for Villamax to get in close and deliver a fist to the man's stomach and forced him back before delivering a jumping roundhouse kick to his head, knocking him down.
The villain tried to stand, but Villamax put his own sword to the man's throat and said, "I wouldn't do that if I were you," it was a clear order to stay down, the villain had no other choice for the moment but to stay there, everything hurt anyways and this guy would hurt him more.
Deker was doing much better than earlier, figuring he could at least use the trees to halt the sight of his patchwork covered foe, cutting them easily like a knife through butter before tossing them at his foe, they were easily reduced to mere senders thanks to his blue fire, but it was working. The smoke rising from the piles of ash and the flames all around them were getting thicker, and in the darkness of the night, Deker's form was hidden quite well, so with a quick burst of speed, Deker launched himself, blade in hand and was upon the villain intent to deliver a powerful strike. The patchwork villain didn't even see him as he approached from the front, then Uramasa was turned and with precision Deker aimed for the torso, and in a streak of white, he was behind the man, sheathing his sword into the Saya that held Uramasa, though something wasn't right.
The villain wasn't falling, he stood upright, if anything he was also confused as well, "time for us to go, the mission is done," there was a voice in the air, and looking over Deker could see that Villamax had to dive to avoid something dark, "you have fought well heroes, but this fight is done."
The man in black and white was already gone, dropped into a portal on the ground, another one appeared behind the patchwork faced villain, he scoffed but began to step through, "fine," he looked to Deker though, "but I'll meet you again soon, we'll finish this up later," and disappeared.
"You will have that match, and you're defeat," Deker stated as he turned and left with that message in the air, he went over to Villamax who was putting his own sword away now, "we should head back to camp, I'm sure then we'll learn of what's going on," he nodded and they left.
Ecliptor (minutes earlier)
Ecliptor was still guarding the entrance with Mandalay as the students remained inside, neither of them really said anything as they watched the woods for anything wrong, so far the only thing they saw was darkness, "you sure your group can take on those villains," Mandalay asked.
"I know that they can," Ecliptor told her as he watched the path and saw shadows starting to come there when he heard shouting from inside before a figure in white dashed outside and dodged an incoming claymore sized sword aimed for its face before jumping away.
Aizawa came running outside as the shadows revealed themselves to be Koragg and Diabolico, "which way did he go," Ecliptor pointed and the pro hero ran, along with Mandalay and himself as the pro explained, "his quirk turns him or others and objects into marbles, he hid and got Bakugo."
"Now he's going to meet with whoever else is left, just great," Mandalay guessed as they ran to catch up with the figure, until Ecliptor disappeared in a flash of green and appeared in front of the man and while in mid-air kicked him down to the ground, kicking up plenty of dust and debris.
The man rolled out of the way as the hero dropped down and slammed his knee into where he was, he touched his mask and said, "Kurogiri, I need an exit, Shadow Force is here, hurry," and ran for his life as Ecliptor gave chase, following the villain until they reached a random point.
That random point was the meetup point for the group the guy was a part of, though nobody was there, since they were all busy, the man at least knew not to gloat at a time like this though, dodging to avoid capture by the heroes, "you won't get away from me," Ecliptor stated. On a few occasions the hero almost caught the villain, but he was quick and able to move with very good reaction speed, too soon a black mist appeared before them and the hero had to halt on his attack to not get sucked in by it, "I'd give the child back, you know what'll happen otherwise."
"Yes, society will lose faith in you heroes and U.A. will become a symbol to that failure," the mist answered before turning to his comrade, "I assume that you have Bakugo," the man nodded and stepped through the mist body that acted as a portal, the mist turned to them, "goodbye heroes."
As he was about to, a voice called out, "Oderfni Ihcilisab," as the mist man was about to dissolve into nothingness, he couldn't, he couldn't teleport anywhere, "be still mist creature, that just took away your power over teleportation," Koragg finally came into view, hand outstretched and glowing. "Demon King is staying with the children, Eraserhead and Mandalay should be returning to camp, since we have things covered here," he stated accurately as an intricate purple magic circle appeared right under the mist man and bound him there, "you won't be going anywhere."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that, this wasn't my first stop," Kurogiri stated as a metal slab was thrown their way and slammed into the ready shield of Koragg, a multitude of swords that were all bound together came in and tried to strike at them, but was stopped by Ecliptor's own sword. Koragg was forced to halt the spell to block the repeated strikes from the large rectangular piece of metal, and when he brought out his sword and tried to strike against it, the thing deflected his strike, though Ecliptor's blade had no trouble tearing through the multi-sword sword that attacked. The two opposing weapons were each attached to two people, the rectangular metal piece had a big lipped person wielding it while the, now fragmented, multi-sword sword was wielded by a lizard man who wore Hero Killer inspired equipment, but they did their jobs well enough.
Now that the two pros were distracted enough to focus on them, Kurogiri was able to make holes for the two to escape while escaping himself as well, leaving only two people there and no Bakugo, "damn, and now we have to find a way to get him back," Ecliptor pointed out angrily.
"Calm yourself Ecliptor," Koragg pointed out before putting his sword into his shield, "we have a general idea of where they are and you know that Tenaya 7 planted a tracer bug on anyone that might have escaped," he turned back to where the training camp would be, "come, let us head back."
Ecliptor nodded and they ran back, their enhanced stamina meaning they didn't need to slow down at all and reached the camp just as Tenaya 7 and the pussycats walked through the woods, on the opposite end of the camp, just emerging from the woods, was Deker and Villamax. "It would seem that the mission was a failure," Villamax guessed and got nods in return, Mandalay and Eraserhead were still guarding the door while Diabolico was in the center of the clearing, "we do apologize for not protecting your students better Eraserhead, our mistake."
The man sighed, "it wasn't your fault, you got word and acted on a time restraint, though had you not been here the casualties would have been more severe so I do thank you for coming to our aid," he moved forward and shook Ecliptor's hand, "next time try and call first though."
"Like we had a choice now," Deker grumbled as he stepped closer to Diabolico, Villamax and Tenaya 7 doing the same while Koragg looked to Ecliptor, a silent conversation before the green and black warrior nodded and only Koragg went to stand with the others, leaving Ecliptor.
"We will heal your student and return him to you when he is healed," Koragg told Eraserhead as the students all came out of the building to see who was all about to leave, there they saw the other three that was brought, and they gaped in awe, "Uthe Zazare," he called out. A large intricate purple magic circle appeared below Shadow Force and they sank down into it and as they sank down they heard the buzzing at how the power was so cool, but they soon disappeared and left the others to call for emergency services and Ecliptor to give the account.
"That was awesome, I never thought that Wolf Knight, Black Swordsmen, and Red Skull would come too," a kid by the name of Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu roared his approval, along with Kirishima, "they are so cool and manly as hell," you could just hear everyone else roll their eyes at the two.
"Ranked number one on the 'honorable heroes' rankings, Wolf Knight is by far the one in Shadow Force with the best personality, doesn't fight any fight unfairly and puts down the enemy quickly and with minimal harm to the surrounding area, so cool," Mina gushed over the pro hero.
"Black Swordsmen is great, his dojo is ranked very high and he himself is ranked number one in the best 'pro hero teacher' rankings, to be his student is something else," Ojiro pointed out as he looked at the spot the group had left, of course the martial artist was impressed by that one.
"Then you have Red Skull, his skills with a sword is reminiscent to the old samurai of Feudal Japan, earning him renown as a great hero and competent warrior throughout Japan, he's also the newest pro that Shadow Force has," Momo provided for any that didn't know this information.
"You know, come to think of it," Kaminari thought out loud for a moment, "wasn't there a rumor going around a few years ago about a member of an underground hero organization having a secret relationship with a teacher at UA," the statement had those present freeze.
"That's right, though it was never officially denied or anything so we don't officially know if it was false or not, but I did hear that the UA teacher was Midnight, makes you think which one of the crazy Shadow Force guys is the one that she was with," Jiro wondered out loud herself.
Vlad King stepped out of the building with a phone in hand, "emergency services is on its way, should help with the fires and anyone who might be injured," he stopped when he noticed Ecliptor, "aw, Eclipse Breaker, Midnight isn't here with the training, so your wife is safe at school."
One blink passed, then two blinks, after the third blink was the loud and deafening sound of both classes going, "WHAT," in a long and drawn out one word question, Eraserhead felt the need to facepalm, as did the pussycats, Mandalay looked down, and Vlad realized his mistake too late.
Shadow Force HQ
It had been a day and a half since the training camp ended, ended in a complete disaster with every citizen now condemning UA and the rest of hero society, though the one person unaware was probably Zen-Aku, who was just now waking form a stent in Shadow Force's medical room. He woke up to a slightly lit room, strapped to a table, that just so happen to also be in a pod-like chamber, when he fully opened his eyes and everything came into focus, he saw the strangest sight yet, a bronze metal robot, with a long, hunched over neck, and other oddities was there. Just standing over him while waving the only thing that looked like a hand he had, a green light coming from the palm of it, when it stopped, the robot then spoke, "I'm glad that you're awake," the robot now rose, only now revealing that it was sitting down, "your injuries are fully healed."
A light swooshing sound was heard and a man wearing black pants, cape, straps wrapped around his torso for a makeshift belt, black leather top over a silver plated armor with his left shoulder having a spiked armor on it, the same side face had a silver mask over it as well. "Good to see that you're awake Zen-Aku, wolf duke org," the man nodded to him in a way that let him know that he truly knew who the duke org was, "my name is Ransik, former villain to the Time Force Rangers," that got wide eyes of recognition for the man, "this is your doctor, Frax."
"I've told you before Ransik, you can call me Dr Fericks, I'm no longer Frax, he was filled with hate and I'm not," the robot said as he turned around and went to a monitor that seemed to have the duke org's vitals on it, "I forgave you a long time ago my old friend," he soon left the room.
It was silent for a few moments before Ransik began to speak, "he may have forgiven me but I have not forgiven myself," the man pulled up a chair and set beside of the duke org, "I'm sure you've heard stories and the like from Merrick about me and others from your travels."
"Some, I recognized two of those sent to help me after my fight, Koragg and Deker if I'm not mistaken," Zen-Aku surmised and got a nod in confirmation in return, "and the others are reformed villains throughout ranger history, or ranger future in your case, right?"
"Correct, but not entirely, some were literally made or remade evil, such as Ecliptor, Diabolico, Koragg, Tenaya 7, and Deker," Ransik informed the duke org, "they were given chances to do the right thing and did so without a chance to truly live life after their choice was made. Some like myself, Villamax and others were evil by choice but soon saw the error of our ways, we were given the choice to change and so we did, afterwards a few of us died, some lived to make up for what we've done, but at the end of our lives we were given a choice."
"A choice to protect the timeline," a woman's voice came in as she walked from out of the shadows, she was a fair skinned woman in all black, "a chance to go back or forward in time and do more good from the start of our lives then when we had been evil," the woman finished.
Ransik greeted her with a nod before turning to Zen-Aku, "this woman is named Nikki Pimvare, pro hero name is the same name as her villain name when she's from: Necrolai, a sorceress that practiced dark magic, she still practices it but this time knows how to channel the magic to good."
"It's quite tricky you know," Necrolai stated while moving to sit on the other side of Zen-Aku, "dark magic isn't something that likes to be used for good, it becomes tricky and unpredictable to cast spells, but that dark magic can be offset and tamed by that old and ancient power, love."
The duke org snorted at that, Ransik and Necrolai laughed a bit as well, "I know, not what many people expect," the man looked to the woman in amusement, "how long have you two been married, a few years now," he guessed and she had the decency to blush at the comment.
"Few years after we arrived in the world together, so almost three decades," Necrolai bent forward to get a good look at Zen-Aku, "that's nothing compared to two others though, real named Jared and Camille, but the world would know them better as Lion Heart and Cunning Chameleon."
"Did I hear my name," a male's voice came in as the door opened again, another person in all black came in and he had a restrained smug smile that you could tell had been cut back thanks to hardships and experience, "name's Jared, though from what I hear you might know me as Dai Shi."
"From what I remember of the Jungle Fury rangers, you were only possessed by his spirit and not truly that thing," from their faces, they were grateful to the duke org for his statement, "my memory is better than most," there was a beeping sound before the pod was automatically opened.
"Seems you're fully healed," Ransik observed as Zen-Aku set up and stretched his sore muscles, "and with our future technology your body is stronger than before, so you should be able to handle more of that new power of yours," a curious side eye was given, "we remember you as well."
"Well, since it is now my secret, I have all the right to tell you," Zen-Aku went into full detail about One For All and the other half, All For One, and by the time he was done, two more people came in Marah and Kapri, twin ninjas that apparently acted as the secretaries of the group.
"Okay, so we've received a message from that one detective, Tsukauchi I think," Marah stated first in a faster than normal succession, she was dressed like a queen bee, with large blue jewels to act as the eyes, though the color scheme of the rest of her outfit was red and black centered.
"Yeah, said he wanted to talk with all the fighters in the group, mainly The Mutant," the other one, Kapri, told them just as fast, she was dressed closer to a snake with a pink, purple, and black color scheme, along with pink hair to add to her strange look, but still heroish of sorts.
"Jared, gather everyone else up," Ransik ordered the man who nodded and ran off to gather everyone else, "I have a plan in mind that I wish to discuss with you Zen-Aku, I have a feeling our full force will be needed, do you wish to join," the question didn't even need to be asked.
"Obviously," the duke org stated as a swooshing sound was heard again, this time it was a wall that had opened up and revealed his fully repaired armor, neatly displayed, with but a flex of will it was on him again, he looked back to Ransik who smirked when asked, "what's the plan?"
Later
Shadow force was out in full, standing with other heroes such as All Might, Endeavor, Best Jeanist, Edgeshot, Tiger, Gang Orca, Kamui Woods, and Mount Lady, they all glared at the underground hero group, all of whom looked on passively at those who glared at them. Leading Shadow Force was the number seven ranked pro hero, The Mutant to everyone else, even other pro heroes, but to the group, he was known as Ransik, followed by his second in command, The Principal, formerly known as Elsa, follower to Mesogog, known for her savage swordplay. After that was a row of former villains, starting with Ecliptor, followed by Villamax, then Diabolico, Koragg, Necrolai appeared as her vampire queen form, Jared and Camille were morphed into their armors, Tenaya 7, and then finally Deker.
"Hello, we've gathered some of our finest heroes here today, so lets talk strategy," Tsukauchi stated before grabbing a remote from the counter, "there will be two teams, we can't tell you what you'll be doing until you get there to ensure security, there has obviously been leeks."
"So at this point we must decide who is on what team," All Might stated and stood to the front of the pro heroes, "should we do team captains to pick," his joke was at least humored with nervous chuckles, but it wasn't too far off since that was essentially what might just be happening.
"More than likely what we'll do is let Shadow Force head to the second location, their mostly combat team will be better handled at that location than the other," Tsukauchi stated as he picked up a chart, "I assume the rest of you have no problem with that given all of your history."
"I do have a problem with it," Endeavor spoke up harshly, "letting the most violent group go without a chaperone, all together as they are is a terrible plan, I don't wish to work with them on anything, but the public wouldn't last long during a large scale fight should it break out."
"Easy solution to that would be to trade teams," Ransik commented, going off of what All Might said earlier, "since I have a theory of what this is about, we'll trade you Mount Lady and Best Jeanist for Black Swordsmen, The Principal, Eclipse Breaker, and Necrolai, sound better?"
All Might thought on this for a bit before turning to Mount Lady and Best Jeanist who nodded in confirmation, Ransik obviously discussed this previously with his own team beforehand since they didn't seem surprised, "very well, our teams have been set," the people traded places.
"Alright," Tsukauchi handed Ransik a piece of paper with a location on it, "head there and we'll contact you afterwards," it was of Camino Ward, Yokohama City in Kanagawa Prefecture, "there should be a mobile headquarter nearby to act as a base," the leader handed it to Koragg.
Koragg looked at the location for but a moment before bringing up his shield, it glowed before he said loudly like a command, "Uthe Zazare," where a large glowing magic circle appeared below the group heading away and they began to sink into it before they disappeared into nothing.
"I assume we're heading to the proper location where we'll locate them, where is it," Necrolai asked before she too was given a piece of paper with the location on it, "alright, hold onto your lunch," everyone got together before she also said the same spell, "Uthe Zazare," teleporting them.
When they all opened their eyes, they were rising from the magic circle to be greeted with a spacious van that would act as their mobile command center, Tsukauchi steadily heading to turn on a screen, "this is a short clip that was why we needed to keep everything secret," and it did.
On screen was Nezu, Aizawa, and Vlad King, it was Aizawa who spoke, "we are here to apologize, a recent incident allowed harm to come to a potential hero, and we staff were ill prepared, we take responsibility for any trauma caused by our negligence," you could tell he didn't like this at all. "It's our duty to train heroes, but also to protect heroes in training," he and the other two bowed before the members of the press there and showed their sincere remorse at what happened, and when it was time for open questions from them, it was of course a heckler.
"I'll take the first question, since the beginning of the year, UA students have had four encounters with villains, this time there were students who were gravely injured, how did you explain this to their families, and what are some of the specific steps you're taking to ensure their future safety?"
"We will increase patrols around the school grounds, and review security measures within the school, the safety of UA's student's is our main priority, make no mistake about it," it was an obvious answer, but it was clearly all they could do at this time as well, a true trap to be honest.
"You speak about keeping the students safe Eraserhead, but according to our information, you let the underground hero group Shadow Force come in and fight the villains in your stead, and given their history of brutality and other barbaric acts, what was your reasoning for allowing this?"
"Shadow Force had acted upon intel they gathered and due to time constraints, were forced to act, though I am grateful they showed up as we did not know the full situation, they did save many lives at the camp as students were cornered when they arrived and I was attacked."
"So you were all divided and drawn away from the situation, but do you think that possible traumatized students and one severely injured child and another kidnapped is a good scenario in this instance," the reporter asking their question clearly had a single goal in mind for this.
"I assure you that things could have gone much more poorly, I feared every student would be tortured and killed in the end, and had Shadow Force not shown up, I was fully prepared to give the students permission to protect themselves using their quirks," was Aizawa's response.
"The villains captured were all violent and would have killed without the slightest hint of mercy had Shadow Force not come, though one villain had a poisonous gas quirk for if students escaped, he was taken down by Wolf Knight, the damage would have been even worse," Nezu commented. "Additionally, we're providing mental health counseling to every student, though at the moment, we do not see any signs of serious psychological trauma, we're relieved that an entire class of burgeoning heroes still has a future," this was a good statement, but it didn't help with the reporter.
"Can you say the same thing for the abducted, Katsuki Bakugo, he enrolled at your school with excellent marks, and went on to be runner up in the sports festival, before that he survived the attack of a powerful sludge villain who eventually had to be taken down by All Might. The boy is obviously strong and heroic, but on the other hand, the violence he displayed in the finals and his attitude at the awards ceremony both showed that he cannot control his temper, if this is the real reason the villains kidnapped him, to brainwash Bakugo and pull him towards their path."
The reporter was good, but as Aizawa stood, he then bowed before them and began to speak, "as Katsuki Bakugo's teacher, I take full responsibility for not taming his violent behavior, however his actions at the sports festival were born of his deep-seated convictions," he looked up now. "He's trying harder than anyone in his pursuit to become the top hero, and if the villains think they have a chance with him, then they are grossly mistaken, I can guarantee you that much" that fact was true, to those watching from both places at least, they knew that he'd be fine.
"That doesn't amount to real evidence, though, I didn't ask you how you feel, I asked you if you had concrete information," the reporter seemed miffed about his plan to get Aizawa riled up didn't work, but he did pose a good argument back, they needed real and tangible proof.
"We're doing our best with the intel we currently have available, I have no doubt the police will break this case very soon, we won't rest until our missing student is returned to UA," Tsukauchi turned the screen off now and turned to the heroes after Nezu was done talking to the reporters.
"You should each be handed packets now that detail who we're dealing with, memorize the names," Tsukauchi stated to them all, "while this team attacks the bar and rescues Bakugo, the other will be taking on the Nomu and capturing them," he stated as they all read the packets.
"Why should I clean up UA's mess," Endeavor asked, clearly he didn't want to be here, "I'm a very busy man, as you know," it wasn't time for them to be arguing amongst themselves, but there was always one that thought he was above it all, it was incredibly selfish of them to think this.
"Get off your high horse," a monitor that shown the other heroes that included Best Jeanist, who spoke was active, "you are a UA alum," that should be a proud fact that any hero would advertise, but Endeavor had only one thing on his mind at any given moment, how to be the best.
"We can't call any heroes away from the school, there is a bigger picture Endeavor," Tsukauchi turned to the rest of the heroes assembled, "it's possible this incident is the beginning of the end for hero society, we'll stop at nothing to resolve this successfully," he confidently stated.
"During the internships, I invited Bakugo to my agency to try and reform him, I've met very few as stubborn as he is, I imagine he's fighting back, we need to hurry," Best Jeanest told them, him and All Might have the best sense on how long they have, which wasn't very by their luck.
"Thanks to the tracking device set by Android 7, we now believe there are two separate hideout locations, we know from our investigations where the kidnapped victim is located, we'll send the bulk of our forces there, retrieving Bakugo is our priority," Tsukauchi explained to everyone. "At the same time, we'll gain control of the other hideout, this will cut off their paths of retreat, we'll arrest them all at once, we have the element of surprise, these villains will not succeed," he turned back from the monitor to the rest of the heroes gathered together. "At the press conference earlier, we had principal Nezu act clueless to deceive the villains, he feigned ignorance on camera as if we didn't have leads, after hearing his words, the villains won't expect us to rush in on the very same day, remind the world what you can do, Heroes!"
With that said everyone burst through their respective doors and set out into the streets, ready to take on these villains that kidnapped a student and put another in serious condition, it was finally time to get them back and attack the League of Villains, and this time they will succeed.