Chapter 26
Shadow and Light

It was late at night when Fumikage and Thanagarian hero Hawkman was flying through the air among the buildings of Midway City. Fumikage had allowed Dark Shadow to wrap himself around his body so that he could fly through the air.

"Search carefully. He has to be here somewhere!" Hawkman told Fumikage.

"Worry not, for I have trained myself to be wary of the shadows, so if there is anything suspicious, I will know!" Fumikage told him.

"Don't underestimate the Shadow Thief. He is an expert in taking advantage of the shadows," Hawkman warned him. "Finding him in dark places is not easy."

As they continued to fly around, Hawkman thought he noticed a movement down below, so he suggested that they go down there to check things out. Landing on the streets, the two began looking around to see if they could find their target.

Fumikage and Dark Shadow entered an alleyway and looked around. Dark Shadow then shifted his eyes to the wall at his side as if he noticed something suspicious. He suddenly slammed his fist against the wall, hitting so hard that he actually broke through it. Fumikage looked into the building and saw the silhouette of a person on the floor, and the silhouette turned into an actual person-a man wearing a black and shadow bodysuit that leaves only his face exposed.

"How did you know I was there?!" asked the man-Shadow Thief-in confusion and shock.

"Dark Shadow is a being that thrives in darkness, so detecting presence hiding within it is no problem for him, more so after we've practiced," Fumikage told him, and Dark Shadow nodded in agreement.

"You think you're an expert when in the dark? I'll show you that I am the real expert when in the dark!" said Shadow Thief angrily.

"There will be much darkness for you when you go to prison!" said Fumikage as Dark Shadow lunged forward to attack him. Rather than run, Shadow Thief remained standing in place and became pitch black all over. Dark Shadow rammed into him, knocking him back.

The villain turned back to normal and said in surprise, "How did you hit me?! I'm supposed to be intangible when I enter my shadow state!"

"Dark Shadow is made from what I call dark energy. I do admit that there are some things about it I do not fully understand, but it would appear that his special body allows him to clash with your shadow powers," explained Fumikage.

"Argh! What a convenient power you have! Don't think you're better than me just because of this!" said Shadow Thief angrily. He entered his shadow state again and escaped outside by phasing through the wall.

He changed back to normal once outside, and then Hawkman dropped down in front of him. "Found you!" the hero said to him. "You're not getting away this time, Shadow Thief!"

"As if you can capture me!" said Shadow Thief. Black tendrils grew out of his shadow and became a pair of swords in his hands, and then he used them against Hawkman.

As both sides swung their weapons against each other, it was clear that Hawkman was the more skilled fighter. Shadow Thief desperately swung his shadow swords around to block Hawkman's mace swings while moving back. Eventually, Hawkman struck hard enough to make his shadow swords disappear. Before Hawkman could hit him with his face, Shadow Thief entered his shadow state to avoid the attack and then backed away from him.

Fumikage and Dark Shadow emerged into the streets, and the latter lunged at Shadow Thief, ramming into him and knocking him onto the sideway.

"Surrender! You are outnumbered!" Fumikage told the villain.

"Never! I'll show you the true extent of my powers!" said Shadow Thief. His used his shadow to create multiple pitch black clones of himself and sent them after the heroes.

Hawkman tried to take on several of them at once, and though he was able to destroy some of them with his mace, he was ultimately overwhelmed by them and received beatings from all sides.

Dark Shadow was also busy trying to get rid of the shadow clones as they closed in on him and Fumikage from various directions. The clones eventually huddled around Fumikage to beat him nonstop. In an attempting to get away, Dark Shadow lengthened himself into the air and grabbed onto a balcony of a building, and then Fumikage used him as a grappling hook to pull himself out of the clones ganging up on him.

"Enough! You may have numbers on your side, but you are nothing in the face of the terror of my shadow!" said Fumikage. He jumped off the balcony as Dark Shadow increased the size of his hands while holding them over his air to swing them down like a hammer. "Hammer of Darkness!"

Dark Shadow slammed down his hands onto the shadow clones below, all of whom stood in one place and didn't run at all. The powerful impact caused them to disintegrate when hit, and the pavement even cracked. Fumikage landed from his jump safely, and when he saw Hawkman still being ganged on by the other clones, he had Dark Shadow go over to help him by pulling and knocking away them. Hawkman was able to fight back afterwards until all the clones were gone.

"Thanks," Hawkman told him. "Got a little careless back there..."

The two then turned to Shadow Thief to see that he was no longer there. As they looked around for him, a large black humanoid stepped out of the alleyway, standing about four stories tall.

"What the...?!" said Hawkman in shock.

Shadow Thief's voice came from the giant shadow humanoid. "Behold the result of my mastery over shadows! By hiding in dark places with lots of shadows, I have learned to give myself a body like this! Fear the terror of darkness and die!"

In his new giant form, Shadow Thief stretched his arm as if it is rubber to punch the heroes, but they got out of the way. Hawkman flew at the villain's head and struck it hard with his mace, but the villain merely flinched a bit and then tried to swat him out of the air.

"Looks like we'll have to fight more seriously," Fumikage said to Dark Shadow, who nodded in agreement. "It's time to use that!" Dark Shadow then coated himself around Fumikage's body almost entirely, giving him the appearance of wearing a suit made of dark energy. "Dark Abyss!"

In his new form, Fumikage sprouted of a pair of wings and took flight. He pulled back his shadowy hand and increased the size of the fist before throwing a powerful punch at Shadow Thief that almost made the giant villain fall back.

"Why you?!" said Shadow Thief angrily as he tried to knock the student out of the air, but the latter dodged it with swift flying.

Fumikage formed his hands into large claws and swiped away at Shadow Thief, knocking him back with each strike. At the same time, Hawkman struck Shadow Thief in the face over and over with his mace.

"Argh! Don't get so full of yourself!" shouted Shadow Thief in anger as he backed away, and then he formed one hand into a shield and the other into a sword. "I won't lose to the likes of you!"

He ran at Fumikage, and when the latter attacked with a claw thrust, the villain held up his shadow shield to block it. Hawkman flew around to the side to hit Shadow Thief, but the latter swung his sword at him. Hawkman held up his mace for defense and was pushed away by the sword as a result, crashing into a building.

Fumikage flew above Shadow Thief and dived at him with his hands formed into shadow drills. Shadow Thief held up his shield and blocked the drilling attack, but while he was doing so, Hawkman recovered from the previous attack and flew at the arm holding the shield, hitting it hard with his mace to make him flinch. This allowed Fumikage's drilling attack to come down onto Shadow Thief's face.

Shadow Thief fell on his back with a crash, but even then, he was not down for the count. "IT'S NOT OVER YET!" he shouted in anger. The shadow giant then reshaped itself into a quadrupedal winged dragon.

"A shadow dragon...!" commented Fumikage in awe.

The shadow dragon leaped into the air and tried to swat the heroes out of the air, but they got of the way. After landing from his jump, Shadow Thief ran towards the heroes, who flew away from him as fast as they could and let him chase them down the street.

"With a size like that, he'll cause too damage to the city, so let's lure him to the the river up ahead!" suggested Hawkman.

"Good idea! We shouldn't burden the civilians too much with property damage!" agreed Fumikage.

It didn't take long for them to come to a river up ahead. As the two heroes floated above the water, Shadow Thief spread out his wings as he jumped at them. Hawkman flew at him fast and struck him hard in the head, and then he proceeded to fly around him and striking him over and over several times.

Fumikage formed his hands into shadow blades and lengthened them in order to attack Shadow Thief from a safe distance. However, he did not expect Shadow Thief to lengthen his tail all the way to where he is and knock him away.

When Hawkman charged at Shadow Thief again, the latter was able to time his counterattack correctly and catch him in his mouth. Hawkman struggled to hold up the jaws that were trying to close down on him, and he also dropped his mace onto the tongue. As he was doing so, Shadow Thief's face appeared from the darkness at the back of the shadow dragon's mouth. "Surprised that I managed to master my power to this extent?" the villain asked him. "I will only continue to grow stronger! It is only a matter of time before I finally defeat you for good!"

"Have fun dreaming about that once you're back in prison!" Hawkman said to him. He then kicked the mace into Shadow Thief's face, making the dragon mouth open wider in pain so that he could escape.

Fumikage was then seen charging at the shadow dragon, which still has its mouth wide open. "Abyssal Ragnarok!" he shouted. He charged into the dragon's mouth and hit the Shadow Thief's face. The impact was so powerful that the shadow dragon exploded into black particles, and Shadow Thief flew back into the air, having been rammed into hard by Fumikage.

"Arrrrgh! This can't be happening!" cried Shadow Thief as he began falling down. "I won't go down so easily!"

"Enough! Into the abyss with thee! Piercing Abyssal Claw!" Fumikage extended his shadow claw towards Shadow Thief, pushing him onto the river bank hard.

CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!

Hitting the ground hard and getting pressed against it by the shadowy hand, Shadow Thief finally passed out. Fumikage landed next to him, and Dark Shadow removed himself from around his body, returning to his normal form and no longer being his "armor."

"And thus it is proven... we have better mastery over shadows than you!" said Dark Shadow, to which Fumikage nodded in agreement.

Hawkman landed as well and approached them. "That was impressive! You totally exceeded my expectations! You came to me seeking lessons because I remind you of a hero who mentored you back in your world, but it looks like you didn't really need any mentoring in the first place. You're already a pro at this!"

"I do admit that I surprised myself with such capabilities," said Fumikage. "Regardless, this was a worthy and interesting experience! I would never thought to be fighting someone with powers that can be compared to mines!"

"And it's ironic that Shadow Thief was defeated by a shadow-like being! Heheh!" said Hawkman, chuckling slightly. "Anyway, let's get him behind bars first."

Light-themed villain Dr. Light was making a getaway in a truck after having robbed from a science lab.

As he was driving down the street, he noticed someone standing up ahead. Said person suddenly released bright light from her hands, blinding him and causing him to veer off course, crashing into a street light.

"What the hell...?!" he asked in frustration as he recovered from the crash. He got out of the truck and saw a Japanese woman in a black and white costume standing there. "You!"

"You're not getting away with whatever you stole, Light!" said the woman, Kimiyo Hoshi, AKA the good Doctor Light.

"As if you can stop me!" said Dr. Light as he fired a bright laser beam out of his hand at her, and she countered with the same move. Both projectiles created an explosion of light upon colliding with each other, blinding them both temporarily.

When the light died down, Dr. Light was going to fire at Kimiyo again, but someone wrapped his or her arm around his neck from behind. "What the?!" He struggled to get his attacker off, and said attacker finally fell off when he released burning light around himself. "Where are you?!" He looked around but saw nobody, and then he was struck by something invisbile.

The invisible attacker kept on punching and kicking him. Realizing that his opponent was invisible, he generated a faint light from his hand and shined around until he saw a person wearing a white and light purple bodysuit. "There you are!" he said. Before he could get a good look at that person's face, he was blasted from behind by a beam fired by Kimiyo. "Ow!"

Toru, the person in the jumpsuit, remained visible after Dr. Light stopped shining the faint light on her, but her actual body went back to being invisible, making it loo like a bodysuit floating in air.

"No villains are allowed to look at me!" said Toru angrily as she kicked Dr. Light, who was trying to stand back up, multiple times. Dr. Light pointed his hand at her and fired a blast of light, but acting quick, Toru held up her hand and used her Quirk to deflect the projectile into the air, though she underwent recoil and took steps back as a result.

Dr. Light backed away from the two heroes and said to Kimiyo, "Looks like you got yourself a sidekick, and with a handy power at that! Too bad with my power of light, invisibility will not remain long!"

"If you think being invisible is the only thing I can do, then you have another thing coming towards you!" Toru told him.

"What did you steal? Tell me!" Kimiyo asked him.

"Just some equipment that I plan to build laser-based weapons out of so that I can distribute them to anyone who wants them!" replied Dr. Light. "With those weapons, no bank vault is going to stop them from breaking into! They can even play a deadly game of laser tag if they want to!"

"Don't you go around ruining laser tags reputation! I had a blast playing that game and winning because nobody can see me!" Toru angrily said to him. "I'm making you pay if you get that game banned!"

"I'll happily play with that game with you now if you insist!" said Dr. Light as he fired a beam of white light at Toru, who jumped out of the way.

Kimiyo fired a beam of light at Dr. Light, who held up his hand and absorbed the beam into his palm. Grinning evilly, he fired a larger blast of light than before at Kimiyo, who also absorbed the attack into her hands. After that, she formed a sword made of solid light in her hand and charged at Dr. Light.

The villain dodged the sword swings of a few times, and then he also created a beam sword to fight against her. Toru amazed at what they pulled off. "Whoa! Beam sabers! They can do something like that as well?!"

The two of them continued to trade blows with each other until Kimiyo was able to hit Dr. Light in the hand, causing his beam sword to disappear. When Kimiyo tried to swing down her weapon onto his head, Dr. Light caught the beam sword with his bare hands. The beam sword was then absorbed into his hands, and he fired a blast of light afterwards at Kimiyo, sending her flying.

Becoming completely invisible, Toru ran and jumped at Dr. Light, tackling him hard and grabbing onto him. Dr. Light wrestled against her until he was able to throw her away, and her bodysuit became visible again when she hit the pavement. Dr. Light fired a ball of light at her. In desperation, Toru held up her hands and, amazingly enough, caught the projectile. "What?!" said the villain in shock.

Toru smirked, though nobody can see it, as she held up the ball of light in her hands as if it is solid matter. "I told you I can do more than becoming invisible!" she said. "I can even do something like this!" She made the ball of light explode into smaller projectiles that flew at Dr. Light.

The villain absorbed the shots heading for him into his light. However, he failed to notice Kimiyo launching an attack at him from behind and knocking him onto the pavement.

Dr. Light got back up and moved away fast. "Fools! Nobody can be the master of using light but me!" He released a shockwave of light from around himself. Acting fast, Kimiyo created a force around herself that protected her from the attack.

As for Toru, she used her quirk to bend the incoming shockwave as much as she could so that she didn't take the full blow of it, but she was still blown back.

Dr. Light fired a laser beam at Kimiyo afterwards, and the latter held up her force field the best she could to hold against it. Dr. Light increased the power of his laser, and the hero's force field was starting to weaken, but Kimiyo couldn't find the opportunity to counter or escape.

Toru got back up and, seeing that Kimiyo was in danger, charged at Dr. Light. The villain saw her coming and thus shifted the beam to her. She held up her hands to hold back the beam, and thought successful, the force of the attack pushed her back, her feet skidding against the pavement and she tried to stand still.

Toru was getting overwhelmed by the laser, but she mustered all her strength to push it back while trying to come up with a method of counterattack. Kimiyo was going to rush forward to help her, but then the latter pulled off something.

Spinning in circles, Toru was able to coat the laser beam around herself until she became a "cocoon" of light. Dr. Light stopped his attack in surprise, but the light continued to remain around the invisible student.

Toru could be seen within the light, her face and short hair being fully visible. "You call yourself a master of using light? THEN CAN YOU DO THIS?!" she shouted loudly.

She propelled herself forward fast using the light around her, ramming into Dr. Light before he could react. The villain crashed into a building, and Toru pressed her hands against his chest and shouted, "Big Bang Flash!"

And an explosion of light ensued.

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!

The light around Toru's body was fired at Dr. Light, hitting him at point blank. He was blasted through the wall and went quite a distance before finally come to a stop among the dumpster, passed out.

Toru was panting heavily while bent over slightly, and she went back to being invisible, leaving only her bodysuit visible. Kimiyo ran up to her and asked, "Are you all right?"

"I'm all worn out..." she said as she sat down on the pavement.

"That was amazing! I didn't know you were capable of that!" Kimiyo said to her in awe.

"I was even surprised myself... I didn't know I could manipulate light to that extent!" said Toru.

"Then you've learned the full extent of your powers today!" Kimiyo said to her.

"It's also thanks to the training you gave me earlier today that made me realize I can do a lot more with my Quirk!" said Toru. "I believe I may have found my own suitable fighting style! I hope the tech department can make me what I want!"

TO BE CONTINUED

We've focused on Fumikage and Toru today, and I had fun making them shine, especially the latter! I had to get creative with Toru, considering her lack of screentime and showcasing of her Quirk in official materials. Because of her power to manipulate light, I think the things I made her do shouldn't be too farfetched. Let's hope she'll get to do something amazing before the series ends (the official series, not this story)!

I'm going to focus on only one student left after this, and it's going to be Izuku hanging out with Superman. In order to not drag out this story for too long, the other students will not be getting their own chapters, but the chapter after Izuku's will still bring up their times with the heroes they chose to be with and which villains they fought.