OMG, I totally forgot to post the chapter two days ago. Sheet. You'll get chapter 18 today, chapter 19 tomorrow and probably chapter 20 in two days to compensate. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

(***)

Metahuman Network File [Excerpt]

Hero Name: Defiant

Hero Class: Superhero

Meta-Ability: Force [Emitter]

It allows him to exert telekinetic 'pull' on solid objects in the vicinity. While relatively weak on its own, it's an extremely versatile power. He can manipulate objects in the vicinity, immobilize or disarm enemies, make himself and others levitate (by pulling targets upward with an equivalent of 1g or more) or fly around.

Using his quirk requires an obstructed eye contact. He also can't pull anything that's further than twenty meters away from him. Maximum weight of an object that he can pull is approximately two hundred kilograms. He can pull multiple objects at once. He cannot pull gases or liquids.

The two crucial elements of his power to be mentioned are Barriers and Ignition. Barriers can be described as areas (free-floating or anchored to solid surfaces) areas of automatic telekinetic pull in a desired direction. They can be used as traps, or to shield him from gunfire (stacking multiple barriers is a necessity). Those barriers last for about one minute after deployment. Using them is recommended for long-term flight in a single direction, as automating the process lowers the risk of losing concentration and falling.

Ignition is a state recognizable by green electric discharges coming from his body. While ignited, the strength of his telekinesis is amplified at least tenfold. He is also rendered immediately aware of the position and weight of all objects within the effective range of Force, making him no longer require eye contact to use his quirk.

The biggest weakness of Force is its high power/low stamina nature. Defiant is capable of engaging multiple enemies at once, but continuous usage of his power at its high capacity will quickly tire him out.

Recommendations: Versatile. Useful in combat and rescue (Ignition sense can be used to locate people trapped underground, for as long as they are less than 20 meters deep +he can use Force to levitate people to safety or unearth collapsed buildings). Not deploying close to bodies of water is recommended, nor against villains using gasses or liquids.

(***)

Izuku stepped through the Eclipse's warp gate, with Glassmaker's body floating in the air behind him.

He found himself in a rather… austere hall. It looked like a reception area of something, except said something was long-abandoned. And then refurbished for other goals. By someone who meant business.

Windows were boarded. The reception counter was reinforced with sandbags and manned by two unfriendly looking policemen in riot gear and with shotguns. Most objects that could be possibly manipulated by someone (say, Defiant, or someone with similar quirks to his) were cleaned up.

Naked walls felt rather intimidatingly cold.

Superintendent Aizawa was waiting for him with two police officers standing next to a stretcher, and an unfamiliar elder police officer.

He should probably be retired already. Isn't he like sixty years old? Probably closer to seventy.

Aizawa gestures towards the stretcher. Izuku promptly levitates Glassmaker onto it. The two police officers scurry off, with her in tow. Probably to search her properly, have someone check on her injuries, and then move her to her new (temporary) home.

The older officer is eyeing him the whole time. It's rather intimidating. Then again, not even nearly as much as one of Mirai Sasaki's signature glares. He can live through that.

"Welcome to Tartarus." Aizawa then announces. "Known also as Esuha Ward police precinct."

Oh. OH. That's a smart move.

Esuha Ward is now mostly abandoned. One of the areas that fared really bad after the war. There was still some life here and there, but pretty much only patches of it around less destroyed neighbourhoods.

Fighting here was rather intense during the war.

The old police precinct in that ward was actually quite infamous back in the day. And it somehow survived mostly intact. It was widely considered to be the least useful miracle in the history of miracles.

It was large. It was rather… brutalist, in architectural terms. Lots of concrete. Rather intimidating, altogether. The local police wanted to move out from it for many years before the war. Then the idea died. Building survived. And technically still belonged to the local police.

Small windows. Highly-resistant walls and ceilings. Bomb shelter under the building. The latter could probably be refurbished into improvised holding cells for some meaner villains..

Smart Aizawa. Very smart. This was a very well-thought plan.

"And this is its unofficial head warden." Aizawa ads, while gesturing towards the old police officer. "Chief Inspector Sorahiko Torino."

Izuku wonders why the police picked someone so old for the job. Was there no one younger for the job? Or is Torino just this good?

"It's because I'm back from my retirement." The old officer announces, startling Izuku. At least the uniform hid it from them. "And I'm so old that I no longer care if someone will try to imprison me afterwards for unlawful incarceration and shit like that."

There is silence in the room. Then the old man chuckles suddenly.

"No, I don't have a mind-reading superpower. It's just rather goddamn obvious what you were thinking about." He says, once again surprising Izuku by answering his thoughts. How?! He can't even see his face to read anything from him! "Also, I expected someone taller."

Oh no. Defiant will not let THAT pass.

"Likewise." Izuku replies. Torino gives him a shit-eating grin. "Well, if the head warden can read minds without a superpower, then it looks like he's the right man at the right place."

"You bet I am." Chief Inspector Torino replies. "So, any suggestions about our first inmate?"

"Just make sure that there is no glass in or near her cell." Izuku replies. "She can manipulate and reinforce it. You put a mirror or a glass bottle too close, and suddenly she can swing around a shield that can resist gunfire, and retaliate with glass spikes capable of piercing through a car."

"Duly noted." Torino nods scarcely. "I must say that I had my doubts when Aizawa came to me to talk about superpowers and shit like that. But it looks like he was telling the truth, color me surprised."

Wait a second.

"You agreed to being a head warden for an unconstitutional detention facility for supervillains despite not believing in them?" Izuku asks, clearly dumbfounded. Aizawa rolls his eyes in the background.

"What can I say, retirement is fucking boring." Torino replies with another shit-eating grin. "Besides, if he was wrong, I'd get to laugh at him, and that would be almost as good as finally having something to do."

There is a personal history in play, and Izuku can guess it. Torino was probably either a mentor or a boss to Aizawa, before retiring. And then Aizawa outgrew his rank. Huh. Sounds fun.

(***)

There are only ten police officers present on-site. This is mostly a skeleton crew, at least for now. They didn't have anyone to guard, so they were mostly busy preparing the premises for their eventual guests.

All police officers volunteered for it. They understood what the Reveal Day might bring. In all honesty, at least according to Aizawa and Torino, the worst case scenario were those two going to jail and the rest living through the unexpected end of their careers.

That, however, depended on the existence of a government and courts that could send them to jail. And that's still on the fence.

Torino gives them a brief tour, mentions what is where, and so on. They are (it's Aizawa's first visit here as well, he seems to have trusted Torino with preparations) then ushered into Torino's office.

As one can expect, it's very bare. Empty walls, desk with a handful of papers, gun cabinet and a rack with bulletproof vest. Plus a computer that seems to be displaying camera feed from the facility.

Torino sits behind his desk. Aizawa and Defiant sit on some chairs in front of it.

"So, how do you like my little kingdom?" Torino asks. The shit-eating grin is curiously absent.

"Barebones." Defiant comments. Torino groans in an answer.

"Hey, pipsqueak, I did all I could with the money I got." Sorahiko Torino replies and Izuku is slightly hurt. He isn't that short! Okay, maybe he is short for a man (163 cm the last time he checked), but Torino looks barely taller than he is. "Which wasn't much, for the record."

Aizawa sighs.

"It's good enough for now." Superintendent says dryly. Torino looks sad but not exactly surprised by it. "Just so we're clear: the Takoba police have neither the money nor facilities nor people to establish another prison like this one. To say we're running dry with funds would be understatement. As of now, Tartarus is the only alternative we have to executing any captives we get. And that's something that I'd prefer to avoid. Got it?"

Torino is giving him a wry smile, but one that's entirely devoid of actual happiness. It takes the whole self-control that Defiant has for him not to fidget uncomfortably in his seat.

"It's all about secrecy and internal security, really." Torino points out in the answer. "I believe that we can keep… what did she call herself? Glassmaker?" Aizawa nods. "Well, we can keep her imprisoned. Perhaps some more villains, depending on their meta-abilities. But if they escape their cell and manage to get their powers running…" He shrugs.

"Tell her that it's a one-time policy." Aizawa replies. "That we've imprisoned her, and she'll receive a fair trial once the meta-abilities are revealed. But if she tries to escape, you'll use lethal means."

Makes sense. What if they have several inmates… and more than one escapes? The police officers on-site will have serious problems re-capturing them before they will fight their way out of the complex. Or slaughter everyone present in the prison.

Gran Torino snarls. He doesn't like the superintendent's words.

"Shouta, I don't have lethal means." He replies. "I have guns, yes, but we both know that many of the meta-humans that we know of are completely or nearly impervious to them. We have a shitload of luck that our first villain is an emitter manipulating only a single type of material that we can keep away from them. We both know that if they had Defiant's quirk, we would be powerless. Not to mention Overhaul."

Already using the 'scientific' nomenclature that Mei prepared? Sorahiko Torino might not have believed in the supervillains, but he at least read the brief introduction to the subject that Mei wrote and shared with Aizawa.

"I know." Aizawa looks really, really tired right now. "I'm looking into alternatives. We'll scale that wall when we get to it."

"I'd like to have something more than platitudes." Torino shoots back. "Especially as me and the people in this prison will be the most endangered if a villain gets out of their cell. That calls for…"

"I might be a bit out of the loop here…" Izuku decides to speak, despite feeling badly out of place. He is almost a kid when compared to those two, after all. And he can see the angry stare that Torino gives him once he blatantly interrupts him."... but are you trying to have a secret 'am I supposed to kill them if I can't contain them' talk in front of me?"

They don't look particularly happy about him calling them out on it. But it did sound like they were considering a summary execution on arrival of whoever he couldn't hold. At least once Defiant wasn't there to witness that. And that, well, it didn't sit very well with the superhero.

"And please, don't pull the 'let the grown-ups talk' card on me." Defiant ads when he sees Torino open his mouth. Torino promptly closes his mouth, proving to Izuku that he isn't the only person with the ability to read minds in this room. "I know that I'm small, but I'm a legal adult. And just so we're on the same page, I'm a part of this. Whether we like it, or not."

Aizawa gives Torino an odd look. Izuku might be wrong, but it feels like it roughly translates to 'see? I told you so'.

"Kid, this is a complicated situation…" Torino tries again, and the biggest problem is that Izuku mostly agrees with him. Or, to be exact, he understands their reasoning. At least in current circumstances.

So he'll have to speak words that neither Batman nor Superman would have ever condoned. Well… neither of them ever existed in the real world, now didn't they? That changes a lot in Izuku's eyes.

"Make it the second choice of action." Izuku says. Aizawa looks at him weirdly. Torino looks outraged at someone interrupting him twice, but he is also listening. "Look, I get it. The situation is bad. We might end up having to do bad things to keep good people alive. But I fail to see a difference between us superheroes killing villains indiscriminately and us arresting them when we know that they'll be executed on arrival to Tartarus."

"So what's your idea, then?" Aizawa asks. Somehow he feels like he is genuinely interested in hearing the answer. Torino looks much less interested in that, but at least he stays quiet.

He actually has an idea. Aizawa wasn't the only person who spent a lot of time thinking of a way to deal with people like Overhaul. People otherwise uncontainable. It's an improvisation, but his idea might just work. At least temporarily.

"Pick one of the Izu islands." Izuku says. They are pretty close and were mostly abandoned after the war. "We'll have Eclipse warp all the villains that we cannot contain there. We'll even drop some food, water and medicaments there from time to time. If they end up killing each other there or while trying to swim back to the mainland, that'll be on them. We'll pick them up once we figure out how to contain them normally."

Three of those islands were actually used to house prisoners during the Edo period. Oh, the irony.

The two police officers in front spend a few seconds digesting the idea. Eventually Aizawa is the first one to speak.

"This… isn't a bad proposal." He admits. He isn't particularly happy about it, though. Then again, Izuku is yet to see him particularly happy about anything.

"So what's the point of us creating this prison if we are going to be dumping villains elsewhere?" Torino decides to get assy about it.

"We'll be sending the uncontainable villains there." Aizawa replies. "Those that we can contain will be kept here. With decent treatment. The rest will be dropped there. And, as stated earlier, if you escape either and we'll see you committing crimes in Takoba, it's open hunting season."

Torino is weighing the options in his mind for a short while. Finally he speaks.

"Very well." He says. "It makes sense. But just so we're clear, if any of the inmates rebels, and I'll have no other option left, I'll have the guards shoot to kill. The Glassmaker can easily wipe us all out if she gets enough glass to work with. And even if she simply escapes… we can't protect this prison from an outside attack, especially not from Overhaul. The secrecy of its location is the only protection from an external attack that we have. And even a single successful escape means that this protection will be compromised."

Sensible. Not as in 'Izuku thinks that it's a great idea' but more like 'that's all that they can reasonably hope for'.

"What about supply?" Izuku decides to ask. "How do you get supplied with things like food? And how are you going to and back from work?"

"As for the latter, we don't." Torino replies. "We're living here, at least until the Reveal Day." Oof. It had to suck, especially if you had a family. Then again, this could as well be tomorrow. "As for the former, well, we're trying to be as sneaky as possible, but…"

Okay, time for some changes to this.

"The Network can help with that." Izuku interjects. "We'll have Eclipse open warpgate between the prison and… well, some normally unused rooms in any other precinct in the city."

"That will be helpful, kid." Torino admits. He looks reassured. Aizawa nods from his seat.

"Also, about keeping the villains imprisoned…" Izuku says. He really hopes to avoid unnecessary deaths. Especially ones that would be hinging on his conscience. He is vaguely aware that his optimism and idealism are rare nowadays. He doesn't want to lose them. "... the Network might spare a member or two to spend his time here. Hijack, for example, would make restraining potential escapees rather easy."

"I sense a 'but'." Aizawa replies. Torino looks interested.

"There is a difference between going out to fight someone or help the police once every few days AND spending hours on guard duty while having to keep your identity concealed." Izuku replies. "If you want a single Metahuman Network member here at all times, I'd want you to at least pay us a minimal wage for this. I'm tired of having to ration toilet paper."

Besides, what if they get more members? They have to have at least some income. Izuku is deeply uncomfortable with having to rely on his girlfriend's allowance. Even if it's a sizable allowance.

"I think that this can be arranged." Aizawa says after a few seconds of silence. He glances at Torino who nods in an answer.

(***)

"You were surprisingly restrained." Aizawa says to Torino once Defiant leaves. They had one of the police officers lead him back to Eclipse's warp gate. "Especially after he interrupted you. More than once."

Torino snarls. Yeah, that was rather irritating. He isn't used to people interrupting him. It was generally known to be a bad idea back then, when he was still in the force.

"Look, I don't hate wide-eyed kids." Torino replies. "I hate what they often grow up into when they realize the world is more complicated than they thought. Besides, he had some good ideas there. I'm not one to discount good ideas, regardless of their source."

True. Aizawa has known him long enough to know that. He doesn't know Defiant even nearly as long, but he is reasonably optimistic about the superhero. Aizawa is almost certain that the kid will be fine. He met Overhaul. He was smart enough to realize that the world is bad and about to get worse. And he was still trying to do his best to help. With enough zeal to inspire others like him.

All of that while being lucid enough to not try to go the 'we can't kill anyone' route, knowing it to be impossible. Instead he was alright with that, if there was no other option left.

Of course, the true test was going to happen when he would be forced to do it.

Aizawa was of similar mind. His definition of the best case scenario was someone finding a way to deactivate a meta-ability before he was forced to have a captured villain murdered. Going on a murder-spree and having to bury corpses in some forest next to Takoba would be akin to an announcement that Japan they remembered from before the war was dead and buried.

"We should figure out some sort of villain classification system." Torino adds. "Something about the danger level, the severity of crimes we associated them with and how hard they are to be contained."

"Really?" Aizawa is surprised. "Why?"

Torino scratches his chin.

"The way I see it?" He sighs. "The supervillain slash villain classification the kids came up with makes sense in the barest of ways. But having Mustard as a simple villain alongside Glassmaker is bullshit. She can destroy a police cruiser and wipe out a police patrol. He could gas an entire precinct with a single usage of his meta-ability. And we don't even if what he showed us thus far is his upper limit. This isn't even nearly the same thing."

This makes sense, now that Aizawa thinks about it. There was a reason why Shouta had police officers in the city carry gas masks if possible. At least on patrols. Not wear at all times, but have them on the ready if they run into him.

Mustard is, speaking about it honestly, a nightmare incarnate. Probably worse than Overhaul, at least in tactical terms. They can shoot Chisaki and if they score a headshot, he'll drop dead. Mustard, in the meantime, can gas a building without exposing himself to danger.

"And then there is another comparison." Torino continues. "Hijack and Glassmaker. He stole food bloodlessly. She assaulted a police patrol, and would have killed two police officers if her thugs didn't order a general retreat because of police reinforcements rolling in. This calls for completely different treatment. Because honestly, if Hijack was an inmate here, I wouldn't have him shot even if he was about to escape." He chuckles bitterly. "Contrary to popular opinions, I'm not a monster."

Yes. They need to establish some general protocol for the situation at hand. That would be guidelines more than rules, but… the police officers in the field need that at least.

"I'll point it out to Defiant the next time I have a talk with him." Aizawa decides. When Torino gives him an odd stare. "I don't like it either, but we live in the times when being an obsessive fan of hero comics makes you the closest thing the police have to an expert. I should at least consult that idea with him before we make anything official."

Torino groans. He made it rather clear to Aizawa a while ago that his opinion about metahumans as a whole is rather negative (something about a completely unnecessary thing that is going to ruin the society as a whole), but at least he was willing to make an exception to superheroes.

Trying to genuinely help the police without trying to go vigilante and actually following police orders was enough to earn Defiant some good graces in Torino's book. Even if he still didn't like the deal. Torino was that type of a person.

(***)

"You wanted updates, so you'll get them." Aizawa says through a phone. He is back in the relative safety of his office. "One of your soon-to-be students apprehended a metahuman criminal."

Sasaki hums into the phone. Aizawa has no idea how to interpret that so he decides to wait for the words to come. He doesn't have to wait for long.

"Looks like the system that you're designing is working." Sasaki finally says.

"For a given degree of working, yes." Aizawa replies. "I'll say yes unconditionally once we manage to apprehend Overhaul and keep him imprisoned for more than twenty minutes. It's all improvisation."

"A well-thought out and logical improvisation." Sasaki replies. "The real problem is the lack of funds and personnel plus the lack of crucial research data concerning the meta-abilities inner workings, not the system itself." Aizawa is willing to agree. Then again, with enough money and people, you can make any system work. "Looks like I didn't make a mistake when I decided to get you promoted."

What? Promoted? What?

"You'll receive a letter about your promotion to the rank of Assistant Commissioner within a few days." Sasaki continues his unexpected announcement. "Together with an official appointment as the head of Takoba police. You already are one de facto, time to also be one de iure."

There are many, many words that Aizawa could say right now. He decides to settle on the tamest of them all.

"I came to believe…" He says slowly. "... that becoming part of the National Police Agency isn't a matter of simply receiving a letter."

"It isn't." Sasaki replies after a few seconds. "But this is most likely the last appointment in the history of the NPA. The rules are rather lax."

"What?" NPA is going to get dismantled? Reformed? What the hell? Why didn't Aizawa know about it?

"The Commissioner General died two weeks ago." Sasaki says, and Aizawa finds himself staring at the wall in shock. "The investigators ruled out foul play, but certain gossip I overheard might indicate that he was assassinated by a metahuman. I intend to learn more, although it might take me a while. Unfortunately, no one has been promoted to fill the void, and the government is hiding his death. Another blow to its image, and all that."

"Well, that's just…" fucking "... great." Aizawa says, self-censoring himself in the process. He isn't a UA student (and never was), but something in Mirai Sasaki makes him do just that. Odd. "Why can't they simply choose someone?"

"Political disagreements." Sasaki replies scarcely.

"This really isn't a political issue, though." Aizawa shots back.

"Everything is a political issue when your country is this deep in crisis." Sasaki says, and Aizawa finds himself having to agree with the principal. People are so illogical sometimes. "NPA is breaking apart as we speak, with the remaining personnel either leaving the force or simply not coming to workl. The current government will collapse within two to three months, and that's the most optimistic assessment. What's next… Well, time will tell."

(***)

No one expected Sorahiko Torino to be the head warden of first Tartarus, huh? :P I simply couldn't have even a single chapter more without his grumpiness.

Also I believe that the Aizawa's ang... I mean, the Metahuman Network and the police came to a logical compromise about the whole moral high ground bit. How far it'll last is anyone's guess.