Star Skyline pushed the debris off of her and her eyes watered. She wasn't sure if it was from the drywall and smoke in the air, or from the sight of the dead man next to her.

Pulling the debris off of the man, she dragged him a few feet over where the wall had fallen to reveal the street outside.

It was chaos.

She could feel the heat of the fire, everyone's panicked thoughts pounding at her head as the screams pounded against her ears. Smoke filled her lungs as she crossed the man's arms over his chest, closing his eyes gently. There was nothing she could do though, and a tear leaked over as she clenched her teeth, leaving a streak in the grime on her face. She didn't bother wiping it off, looking around desperately for anyone she knew.

Todoroki and his father crossed her mind, and she quickly pulled out her phone, only to see that the screen had been shattered by the fall and debris. With a start, she also realized her hero costume headphones had cracked from the impact as well. Melissa wasn't going to be thrilled...

She was really starting to regret that Todoroki took her sake, too. She didn't even have her costume hydration pack, because they knew she'd just drink from it when they weren't looking before her quirk appointment.

As she looked into the streets, she slipped her phone back into her pocket. She may not be able to locate anyone in the group, but she remembered the location Native had sent her since it was her favorite smoothie shop when she lived here. It was a long shot that he was still there, but she needed to find a Pro Hero and stay near them for protection. This didn't look like the work of the Hero Killer, but she wasn't taking any chances.

Stepping into the street, the crowd's thoughts and yells became unbearable. As the volume grew, she-

Even if she could think, she wouldn't be able to hear it over the thousands of voices in her head. The sound was debilitating, and it felt like she wasn't there anymore. Like she was buried underground and breathing in dirt except instead of dirt it was sound and she felt claustrophobic as the voices closed in and

Someone knocked into her, breaking her out of her mind as she hit the ground, hard. She narrowly moved her hand before it was stepped on as more people started running. She couldn't do this, she needed to drink, she couldn't be here without drinking. Was there a different way to get to Native?

Looking behind her, past the rubble, she saw a path between the buildings. She had taken the back ways a lot when she lived here, avoiding the press or any negative attention she might earn. After the incident, it became the easiest way to avoid the most voices.

Frowning into the chaotic street one last time, she ran the opposite way, and into the darkness of the alley.

Shoto Todoroki couldn't believe his eyes as he stared at the demolished building in front of him.

He could hear Momo's voice on the other end of the line, but her words weren't registering with him. He ignored the stab of guilt that went through him when he hung up the call in the middle of her sentence. It was an emergency and she would understand, but that didn't mean he liked it.

He had left the building to find his father when it had happened. By the time they had turned around, the entire thing was rubble. This didn't surprise Shoto, though. Not when the thing in front of him was what caused it.

Emerging from the ruins of the building was something Shoto had only seen in the projections a day prior. It stood tall and lanky, white skin a sickening leather texture, and four eyes sitting unblinking on the exposed brain that made up half its head. The pants and belt it wore implied that it might be human, but Shoto knew better. It might've been a human once, but not anymore.

"Numo…" He breathed. What was a Nomu doing here?

He recalled Olivia's memory, the villain's thoughts about the warehouse, the amount of times her quirk was used…

How many did they have? Would killing this thing even put a dent in their numbers? How many were here? What quirks did this one have? Would Olivia know? Had she even survived? He just had to hold it off until his father made it. Was he allowed to use his quirk for this?

He found his answer rather quickly when the Nomu lunged for a couple who had crawled out of the front of the building. Letting his ice travel from his foot to the couple as he put up a wall in front of them, he decided. If following the rules meant letting people die, then he didn't mind becoming a rule breaker for the night.

The Numo turned to him, and Shoto prepared himself.

Before anything happened though, a small older man came flying out of nowhere, landing foot first into the Nomu's face.

"I picked a fine time to patrol, I haven't fought this earnestly in years!" The old man said excitedly.

The Numo went to punch where the man had landed, and Shoto's hand started to ice over in response, but the man easily jumped away, yelling, "That's right ugly! Bring it on!"

Shoto was distracted though as the couple tried to get away. The old man noticed at the same time, and the Nomu lunged for the couple. Shoto shot his ice, the old man blasted forward-

Suddenly, fire engulfed the creature. The screech it let out as it burned alive was terrible. It was like the USJ but worse. The couple scrambled away, eager to get to safety.

"I was looking for the elusive Hero Killer, but this thing will have to do. I know from the mind woman that it has more than one quirk... Let's find out what they are."

Shoto could recognize his old man's voice anywhere, for better or for worse. The words cut through him as he recalled what he had been distracted from. "Olivia!"

Pulling out his phone, Shoto called her number. It rang and rang, barely audible over the noise and screaming around him. Finally, his hopes were dashed as the cheery voice that answered wasn't her, but her voicemail. Was her phone on silent? Or was she unable to answer because…

Shoto didn't want to think about the possibility that his fiancee's childhood friend could be dead. That the woman he had begun to consider a friend could be lying mangled in the rubble. That it could've happened on his watch. If only his father hadn't been restless. If only they had just waited outside the door when her quirk was being read.

"Thanks old timer. I'm afraid I don't know you, but I can handle this from here on out."

Shoto didn't even look to his father as he furiously typed a message on his phone. Pressing send, he saw what he had been hoping for.

Her dot on the map was moving.

Star Skyline was almost near the smoothie shop's back entrance when she heard it. The most terrible screech she has heard yet, even during the incident.

She tripped over her own feet as she jerkily covered her ears, landing on her shoulder and skidding a few inches on the pavement. It sounded like pure agony,

Hitoshi's scream of horror mixed with Nomu's terrible screech as the people fell one by one, dead.

A scream ripped through Star's throat as the screeching continued,

Her own scream rang in her ears.

She curled into herself, shaking.

It was so cold. Her breathing quickened as-

"Well well well... If this isn't a sight to behold."

The metal against her throat snapped her out of her panic, just to send her into a new, even colder one. The mind wrenching screech of the creature had stopped, but a new danger had replaced it.

"S-stain." She breathed.

Standing over her was an intimidating, muscular man wearing a dark combat suit, plated with metal armor across his body as weapon holsters. Yellow bandages wrapped from his shoulders to his wrists, and a tattered blood-red cloth was flowing around his neck. She recognized him from the only surveillance photo Endeavor had printed out the day before.

"Looks like I won't be finishing this after all. Something much more important…" His long tongue, tainted with small bumps, escaped his lips as he brought her chin up with his blade. "Just came up."

As her electric blue eyes widened, his small blood red eyes narrowed. "And to think I would've had to go after Master Protector Ojiro next… You saved me quite some time, Native." Native?

"Leave her alone!"

Star's eyes left Stain's when she heard the voice she had grown up with. The voice that had brought her beautiful stones from around the world to add to her childish collection. The one that taught her about tracking and footprints and so many other things. The man stood against the wall, blood soaking through his traditional costume from the right shoulder. No...

"NATIVE!"

She rose to her feet and ran to the man without thinking, reaching her arm and mind out to him. His eyes widened at something behind her, and her own eyes widened as she felt a searing pain in her back. The voice spoke from directly behind her, but it wasn't addressed to her.

"Tsk tsk..."

Native froze, "M-my body… I can't move! You bastard! I'll kill you!"

"If you call yourself a hero, you should choose your last words with care."

She sucked in a breath as the blade left her back, and felt the warm liquid pooling under her tank top as she sank to her knees.

As Stain moved and swung the katana to execute the man in front of her, she pulled a dagger from its strap on her thigh and stabbed the villain's calf as she let out a scream.

The leg she stabbed managed to kick out, despite the dagger embedded in it. As the foot connected with her chest, she was knocked back onto her back, eyes tearing up at the pain of landing on her wound. To her relief and horror, instead of the katana coming down onto Native, it came up to the Hero Killer's lips.

She read it seconds before it happened, and pushed herself up unsteadily in a vain attempt to stop it, but it wasn't enough. Stain used his other hand to push Native down by the head as the Pro Hero twitched, sneering at her victoriously, as his tongue came to the blade.

Katsuki Bakugo let off an explosion and shot into the air just before the semi-truck collided with the car he had been near, creating an explosion of fire that forced his airborne body into the wall of a building across the street.

He let off another blast just before hitting it, slowing him enough that he was able to hit the wall with minimal damage. As the oil fire quickly spread, it illuminated the scene in front of him against the dark night sky.

The biggest Nomu swiped at two of the Pro Heroes, who barely jumped out of the way in time. The long limbed Nomu he had been fighting was also blasted back, landing on the street in front of him. The winged Nomu was carrying a buff looking Pro in its claws, its wings moving like a pterodactyl, its eyes unblinking. The heat of the fire rolled towards him in waves as he stood up.

Suddenly, faster than his eye could trace, Hawks blurred towards the winged Nomu. Before he could blink, the buff hero was next to Katsuki, groaning. Hawks stood in front of him, goggles and yellow headphones on as his wings spread out incredibly before him. With the fire against his back, Katsuki realized he had never seen the man have such an intimidating presence until this moment.

"What did Red- what did Star say?!" He shouted over the screeches. Katsuki watched feathers shoot off in all different directions while Hawks checked his phone, as casual as if he was checking the time.

"She said she was with the Todoroki's at the appointment." Hawks replied, shrugging as he slipped the phone back into his jacket. "So sit tight right here, Pilot. Your girl will be just fine."

Katsuki opened his mouth to yell at the annoying bastard, but the man shot off, colliding with the Nomu that had hit the street in the explosion. The man Hawks had saved nodded to Katsuki, before also joining in the fight, letting out a battle cry.

Scoffing, Katsuki let the sweat flow into his hands, spurred by the waves of stifling heat around him. Like hell he was going to sit back, he was a damn hero, not a coward. He was about to shoot forward when his phone went off. Turning his head and looking down at his pocket, he pulled it out.

At first he growled when he saw it was from 'Todoroki', but then he froze when he realized it had been sent to a group chat called 'Bait Protection Squad'. The flames got hotter as he opened the chat, and he raised his arm to shield his face as he read.

Icyhot had sent the message, 'Olivia, did you make it out? Reply.'

The noise around him dulled to a distant roar when he realized what that meant. Red wasn't with Icyhot and Endeavor. She was alone.

His blood suddenly felt cold, even as the fire raged in front of him. Clicking on her name, the location ping on the map popped up. He was relieved to see that her dot was nearby, moving through the back alleys where there was less danger than out in the streets and towards him.

He moved to put his phone away before something caught his eye. Her dot had stopped. Did she find the ice bastard? He opened Icyhot's location, a bad feeling in his gut. She hadn't.

Katsuki started running.

Keigo Takami swooped down and grabbed the long blond haired Pro Hero at the same second someone yelled, "Look out, Fly!"

As he heard metal bend, he shot upwards, bringing his wings close to his body to increase his speed. The pressure tried to seep into his ears, but the headphones kept it out, and an even larger explosion than before sounded behind them.

Ducking behind a car, Keigo gently put the injured greek styled hero down. Shooting him a smile and a thumbs up, he shot into the air again, surveying his surroundings.

He saw his intern bump into another Pro Hero and yell at him. He then saw his intern run off. He wasn't surprised, but… When he saw that his intern was looking at his phone as he ran…

Keigo shot down to the Pro Hero his intern had bumped into, shielding him from the car parts flying his way. Using his feathers to cut through the pieces, only a few small bits hit his wings, barely making an impact.

"T-thanks! You're The Winged Hero, Hawks! The number three Pro Hero!" The green hero gushed, stuttering in his awe.

"Guilty as charged." Keigo grinned, helping the hero up. As he looked closer though, he realized this was no Pro at all.

"Ey... Aren't you the one that got first place in the preliminary round of the Sports Festival, without even using his quirk?"

The guy went pink, eyes wide at being recognized by the number three hero. "Y-yeah! That's me!"

"Do you happen to know my angry intern? Loud, short-tempered, a little rough around the edges?"

The guy stammered nervously, "K-kachhan?"

"You're friends with the guy? Huh, color me surprised. Well, he just ran off, and-" Keigo put his wings up again to block them from a blast. "And as you can see, you're really not supposed to be here. Why don't you follow after him, meet up with Endeavor and the other two students with him, ya?"

He straightened as the heat from the blast subsided. As he saw a Pro get knocked back by another Nomu, he shot off, yelling a cheery, "Thanks, man!" as he dashed towards the thing.

The green hero looked startled, but veins of light lit up his legs, and he was gone. Keigo sighed in relief. As long as the UA students met up and evacuated, everything would be fine.

Star Skyline watched as Stain's tongue darted out and licked Native's blood off the katana, the hero's body going rigid again, and decided things were very, very much not fine.

She heard the Hero Killer's intention before he started to raise the blade he had cut her with in his other hand, reinforcing her assessment of the situation.

In fact, she would gamble that she was safer chained up at the warehouse, than at the mercy of the man looking at her like she was the reason for the evil in the world. She was pretty sure she'd even shiver under his murderous intent if she had more than a second to make her move. But, she didn't. No movement would be fast enough to stop this.

Luckily for her though, her quirk didn't need movement.

She had started building the bridge the second she locked eyes with him across the length of his blade, and she hoped to every power in the universe that it was enough as she projected across the connection.

As the Hero Killer's eyes went wide, she grasped at her last chance to make it out alive with Native.

An eight year old Star Skyline ran down the large victorian spiral stairs as she heard her father and his friend's deep laughter echoed against the marble ceilings.

Star lunged desperately towards Native, pulling the bleeding and still man towards her.

As she threw herself into Native's arms, he chuckled. The child missed how he glanced up at her father hesitantly as he hugged her back.

Putting his arm over her shoulder, she struggled to keep the memory going while focusing on the present, she sagged beneath his weight and her injury. She had to keep going. She had to keep moving.

"Did you bring one, did you bring one?!" She chanted, turning around in his hug to look in his hands. "Ah-ha! You did bring one! It's in your pocket! It's so pretty! Can I hold it?!"

They were two yards away now, and Star wasn't sure if the warmth on her was from the blood seeping out of his shoulder onto her, or from the blood seeping out of her back. She had to save him. She couldn't let him die.

"Star Olivia Skyline, what have I told you about using your quirk?"

The eight year old looked down at the ground at her father's stern voice, tugging at her long blonde hair anxiously. "I'm sorry…"

Stain let out an enraged growl at the sight of her father, and she winced. She hadn't had time to accommodate for her audience. She just projected the first memory, and Native had come to mind. She felt every stab of pain as they moved, Native's pain seeping through to her mind as he leaned on her.

"She's just a kid, Christopher, she didn't mean to." Native defended, pulling out a rock split open with purple crystals inside. He handed it to her and Star's eyes went wide in joy at the shiny thing.

They were almost away when they heard Stain kick the garbage bag next to him in rage. Oh god, if he realizes he can still interact with the world around him… has he realized? She couldn't focus on his mind while maintaining contact with Native, especially not while projecting.

She was distracted as she took the rock, her father's words starting to fade in the child's mind as he spoke.

"I can't risk it, Native…-"

The memory was violently interrupted as she gasped, her free hand flying to her chest in shock. Sticking through her shoulder was the end of a dagger, having gone clear through her body despite being thrown in the villain's blindness.

Before she could react, he was on her, his vision returned to him. Using his dagger as a handle, he yanked it backwards, pulling her with it and causing Native to drop to the ground, still paralyzed. She could hear him counting the minutes down in his head. Native still had 7 minutes left to go.

As she was pulled back the dagger was yanked out, and Stain's other hand covered her face as he slammed her into the ground. She hit the pavement hard, unable to brace herself as her body went completely rigid mid-air as he licked the blade.

This was it. He would easily kill her in the six minutes the quirk would affect her for. She didn't even need to hear his mind to know that, but she heard it anyway, the reality of the situation sinking in.

If no one else came, no one else would die. He had no intention of killing Native now that he had her, same as Ingenium. Killing her would be a message enough to her father. She just had to stay quiet. She was suddenly thankful her phone was cracked, its black screen reflecting the scene above it as it laid on the ground next to her. No one else would die tonight.

"Star Skyline, youngest child of the ultimate false idol… The fake Pro... The biggest stain on heroes… and the man at the heart of this cancerous society…" Her eyes furrowed at his poisonous words, finding that even though she knew they were untrue, he was not lying.

"You aren't heroes, you have no right to be called that. Both of you are nothing but fakes."

Suddenly, he dropped down, bringing his blade next to her face as he fell on top of her. Pulling it out of the ground, he straddled her as he held it to her throat, his bumpy tongue flicking out to wet his lips in anticipation.

"Hero is a title for those who've accomplished great deeds! This city is full of false champions. All they care about is money and fame. The false hero you tried to save? He's just like all the rest... a hero only when the cameras are watching. He gave you pretty rocks, accepting how your father altered the minds around him like they were playthings in order to maintain his false image… Not that anyone is allowed to remember this."

Star's eyes narrowed. She wasn't sure how he had found out about her dad's real quirk, but he was obviously bluffing since she had no siblings. "I'm an only child, you fanatic! You know nothing about my father, or my family-" She gasped as a blade implanted itself in her leg, but bit her lip to keep noise from escaping. Her eyes watered instinctively as streaks of pain shot out around the wound as she panted.

The laugh he let out was chilling, and she was sure her body would've trembled if it was able to.

"You think you were immune to your father's quirk just because he was immune to yours? You think he wouldn't sink so low as to alter a few brains when his sparkling reputation is at stake? I don't believe that at all… Why else would you be in Japan, out of his reach? Why else... would you have answered the letter?"

He smirked victoriously at the emotion that flashed through her face, knowing he was right. Star couldn't speak, shock ripping through her. It was Stain that had tipped her off? He was the reason she had come to Japan? Had it been a trap then? Or was what he was saying and what had been written about her dad true? She was quickly losing control over her focus. The pain was consuming her mind, leaving room for nothing else. Why was she so weak?

"There was only one person immune to your father's quirk. Only one person who knew the truth as well as I do. You may not be able to remember them, but do you want to hear a secret, Star Skyline?"

He twisted the blade in her leg, grinning maniacally as a tear escaped the corner of her eye.

"They remember you."

She sucked in a gasp at the pain, holding on desperately to the walls in her mind and the scream behind her lips.

"Well? You're awfully quiet for a Skyline…"

Her eyes instinctively glanced at the broken phone on the ground next to her, and she looked back at him, biting her lip in determination as he tapped at the blade's handle impatiently. A smirk crawled across his thin lips as he realized, and her eyes widened.

"You're trying not to draw attention, aren't you? How unusual for a child born under the ultimate false idol. Are these your true colors, I wonder? Or is another act, like your hypocrite of a father…" He spun his other dagger in his hand, never breaking eye contact.

"People always show their true selves when on the verge of death… did you know? So let's find out your true colors, shall we?"

She felt a searing pain across her arm as the Hero Killer brought his blade down in a slash, and her lip started bleeding with the effort it took to remain silent.

He grinned at her silence, savoring the tears running down the sides of her face as he hovered an inch away from her. His voice crawled into her ear as he spoke three last words.

"Where. is. Skyline."

Then, as he drove his blade into her already bleeding shoulder... she broke.