"I'm sorry. My what?"

Rave, because Izuku had to assume that this was the partner the man who abducted them had mentioned, rolled his eyes. "Don't try that with me. I had Asahi followed Aizawa as best he could, that hero is good at keeping to himself I'll give him that, but he messed up. Made a mistake when he went to visit you. I did my research. Midoriya Izuku. Second year middle schooler. Quirkless. Father mysteriously out of the picture."

"You couldn't have done a lot of it. My father is Midoriya Hisashi." Izuku couldn't believe he was having to argue this. "He works overseas."

"I'm sure that story works nicely with everyone else, but I'm afraid I'm not buying it. Eraserhead's ability is nullifying quirks. It isn't really that hard to believe that he might have a quirkless child as a result. The genetics of quirk heritability are still being studied, after all."

"What the fuck are you on?" Bakugou snapped.

"Aizawa-sensei isn't even old enough to be my dad! He's what? Twenty-eight?" Izuku said, exasperated. And this was the person who had kidnapped them. He couldn't even do something as simple as basic research, and yet he had been able to knock out both Izuku and Kacchan because of a well used quirk. Had that just been luck or was Rave smarter than he appeared? Izuku had to wonder how well thought out the villains plan was if he had messed up a detail so important.

Rave hummed but didn't look convinced.

"You still haven't told us why you abducted us yet, asshole." Kacchan fumed, tired of being ignored.

Rave turned to him with an air of indifference. Kacchan's expression twisted further. "Like I said before, he was never supposed to take you. I only needed to one hostage after all, so don't worry. You'll be free to go after Eraserhead is dead." He looked back at Izuku. "As for why to all of this in general," he said, gesturing to the warehouse around them. "Eraserhead killed someone important to me. I'm here to make amends."

"Eraserhead is a hero."

"He was supposed to be, yes." Rave turned away from both of them now, walking back down the path he had come from. "And he should here soon. I was kind enough to leave him an address, so if you'll excuse me I need to make sure everything's in order. Just sit tight, and it'll be over with before you know it."

It was after the echo of Rave's footsteps had faded that Izuku finally turned to Kacchan. "Did he seriously just tell us to sit tight?"

"What. The. Fuck. Deku." For a moment Izuku was glad their hands were bound because the explosions Kacchan set off weren't able to hit him directly. The heat still burned, and Izuku moved carefully away from him as Kacchan tried to once again to get free. "Why does the dumbass who kidnapped us think that some pro hero is you dad? I've met your dad, and he's about as far away from a pro as you can be."

Izuku sighed. There was no way he would be getting out of this explanation, but on the bright side at least it meant Kacchan wouldn't be stalking him after school anymore. He would deal with whatever other consequences came from his revelation later.

"Aizawa Shouta, Eraserhead, has been training me."

Silence. And then-

"Training you. Training you for fucking what?" Izuku could barely understand the words through the grinding of Kacchan's teeth.

"He teaches at Yuuei." Izuku said, bracing himself for the inevitable reaction. "He's teaching me to fight without a quirk so I can pass the entrance exam."

Izuku refused to let Kacchan make him feel bad about his decision. Yuuei had been his dream long before he knew he would never have a quirk, and nothing Kacchan said would change the fact that Aizawa believe that he could do it enough that he had taken him on as his student.

That didn't stop him from flinching when Bakugou made to lunge in his direction only to be stopped by the fact that his hands were still bound awkwardly behind his back.

"How long?"

"Almost a month."

Bakugou huffed. "I knew something was going on. What did you do to get him to agree to that? Doesn't he know you're quirkless, Deku?"

"He knows. And why he decided to train me isn't any of your business. I'm only telling you about it at all, because it's my training that got us wrapped into this." Izuku stopped. "Why were you on that street, Kacchan? You know why I was late, but you should have been long gone by then. Were you trying to follow me again?"

"What? No. Don't be a dumbass, Deku. What do you mean it isn't any of my business?"

"We don't have time for this. We need to figure out how to get untied before Aizawa-sensei gets here. That quirk that knocked us out is dangerous enough, and we still don't know what exactly Rave has planned or what his quirk is."

Izuku was prepared for Kacchan to argue but instead his expression shifted, focusing on the way Rave had disappeared. "Let me out of here! I don't need some dumb pro hero to save me. I'll kick his ass myself! Any hero who would agree to train a quirkless idiot like you can't be that great!" Kacchan continued to rant, pulling at the binds but having no success.

Bakugou Katsuki would be a great hero one day. Izuku didn't doubt that. But even after his short time with Aizawa, watching the hero, learning more about how pro heroes actually operated, Izuku knew that there was so much more to being a pro than people thought. Kacchan was used to being the best, to being the only one in his group of followers with the ability to lead. He didn't know how to work with others. He didn't know what it was like to have to rely on someone else, and as a result he tended to run into situations guns blazing.

Not to say he wasn't smart or didn't strategize-he wasn't top of their class for nothing- but when Kacchan believed something he committed fully and right that moment Kacchan seemed to believe their captors were incompetent. The second he heard Rave claim Izuku's father was Eraserhead he had dismissed them. His face had made that obvious.

No, as much as he would need Kacchan's help to get out of the warehouse it would be up to Izuku to get them free from their binds. Kacchan's explosions had no effect, and he wasn't calm enough to think of another way. His eyes landed on his bookbag.

Maybe these villains were a little bit incompetent after all. Izuku wouldn't underestimate them, but that didn't mean he wouldn't take advantage of their screw ups. The bag sat not too far away, and while their hands were bound they were actually tied to any grounded fixture. If Izuku moved carefully enough…

His shoulders ached as he pushed against the ties flattening his palms against the ground. Levering his weight, Izuku inched forward. He knew it had to look ridiculous, dragging himself across the short distance with his feet, but in seconds the bag was within reach. The only problem was how to get what he needed.

Finding the zipper when he couldn't see what he was doing was harder than he had expected, but he managed, pressing the bag against the wall as he pulled. Easy part over with. Because Izuku. Izuku kept a lot of stuff in his bag. There were the books and notes he needed for school, the current notebook he had been filling with quirk notes (vol. 12), his eskrima rods, snacks, his phone, loose pens and pencils Headphones. Izuku cursed, promising himself he would clean everything out when they got out of this mess.

Finally, after several minutes of digging and ignoring Kacchan's complaints and the distant smell of smoke, Izuku found what he had been looking for. The small collapsible pocket knife-well under the six centimeter limit- had been added to his bag as a precaution. A much needed one it seemed. It was possible it wouldn't work. Whatever their hands were bound in had withstood the force of Kacchan's explosions, but it was the only option they had, short of trying to find their way out with their hands behind their backs.

Izuku positioned the knife carefully, rolling it over with the tips of his fingers. Simply unzipping his bag had been difficult with his hands as they were, but this? Position the knife wrong, and Izuku could end up cutting himself and making the situation a whole lot worse than it already was.

"Shitty Deku, what the fuck are you doing now?"

"Not now, Kacchan, I'm trying to-" There was a thunk as the blade extended.

Rubbing at his wrists to get the circulation back, Izuku turned back to his bag, hesitating for a moment before zipping it shut. As much as he would have loved to put his new skill into practice it wasn't the time. He hadn't been training with the rods long enough to know what to really do with them, and their two lessons had only used the wooden replicas. Better to stick with what he was best at.

"Let me cut you free, Kacchan."

" Fuck you. I can get out on my own. I don't need help your help." He grumbled.

"You kind of look like you do," Izuku answered, reaching down carefully in case there was another explosion- accidental or on purpose.

"Shut up. You had a knife in your bag this whole time?"

"Lucky for us, I did. And lucky it worked."

Kacchan didn't thank him, and Izuku didn't expect him to.

When he started off in the direction Rave had gone Izuku grabbed his arm, pulling him to a stop. Kacchan turned, glaring at him as he jerked away from Izuku's grasp. "What the hell, Deku?"

"We can't just go running off! We don't know what they have planned or where they are. We need to be careful and think this through."

Grudgingly accepting that Izuku was right, Kacchan asked. "He said that Aizawa guy was on his way. Do you have any ideas of how he would handle something like this?"

Izuku grinned. "I have a few."

Even with Hizashi's car, the drive to the address Aizawa had been left was half an hour. Half an hour of sitting and trying not to think about what these villains, whoever they were, had been doing to Midoriya in all the time they had him.

Part of being a pro hero is the ability to separate yourself from the tragedies that occur in the line of work. To look at the events unfolding around you, think critically about the solutions, and enact a plan with almost clinical efficiency when needed. Major villains didn't surface every day, but they happened enough, and the better you were at what you did the more often you were called in for those kinds of situations. Aizawa had been called in on many hostage situations before, times when his quirk nullifying abilities quickly ended a standoff that could have easily turned deadly.

In each and every one of those calls he had appreciated his ability to emotionally compartmentalize. His quirk- and the fighting that he sometimes had to do when it didn't work- required concentration and focus. He wasn't good to anyone if he couldn't maintain the calm needed for his ability to be the most effective. Get too nervous or distracted, lose sight of the villain, and it was all over.

Aizawa had never had difficulty maintaining that distance from a mission before, but for the first time his patience began to fray as the drive continued on. Midoriya had been taken, and Aizawa didn't know what he would do if the boy got hurt because of him. Yes, he was training him to be accepted into Yuuei, training him to be a hero, but Midoriya hadn't been accepted yet. He was just a thirteen year old kid who wanted to learn, to help people, and while Aizawa knew that one day Midoriya would have to learn about the true danger that came along with being a hero, Aizawa thought that he would have had time to prepare him.

He had told Inko that he didn't make a habit of sending kids into situations they weren't capable of handling and some villain with a vendetta had turned him into a liar. Aizawa would never forgive himself if Midoriya wasn't okay.

"We'll get him back, Shouta." Hizashi said, not looking away from the road.

There was a reason Aizawa had decided to call his friend. Aside from not knowing exactly what these villains had in store for him, Aizawa couldn't trust himself to make the most rational decisions at the moment. If he did lose focus he needed someone there he could count on, and there was no one else Aizawa would trust Midoriya's safety to besides Hizashi.

"Drive faster please."

"Of course, of course."

Hizashi, for his part, had never seen his friend this out of sorts. Aizawa had gained a reputation for being a tough teacher for a reason. He expected a lot of of his students, and as a result there were very few he connected with on a personal level. He didn't hold the record for most expulsions for no reason, after all. But something about this kid, this Midoriya Izuku, had resonated with him. The more he watched Aizawa the more he wanted to meet this kid.

When they finally reached the address that had been left at the Midoriya's they found a large warehouse, not unlike the one that Aizawa and Midoriya trained in. It had clearly not been taken care of though. The paneling, bleached and peeling, looked ready to cave in. Hizashi parked a short distance down the road.

"This is where they've taken him?" Hizashi asked, adjusting his collar.

"Plenty of space for them to set up a trap," Aizawa said.

"It's your call, Shouta. What do you want to do?"

"They know we're coming. There's no point in trying to sneak in." These warehouses all had the same basic layout, but there was no way of telling what had been done to the inside from where they stood. The only way to know was to go in.

"Lead the way, Shouta." Hizashi placed a hand on his shoulder. Aizawa would have to remember that he owed his friend as many marathons of that stupid series as he wanted after this.

The room they entered was dark, the dust covered windows blocking out what little light was left from the setting sun. Boxes lined the walls, but the majority of the expansive room sat empty. Aizawa could see a door at the other end of the room, but he and Hizashi made no move towards it.

Around the ceiling of the room, mostly hidden by shadows, ran a metal walkway. The thud of footsteps echoed, and Hizashi and Aizawa turned back to back as they tried to find where the sound came from.

"Ouch!"

Aizawa felt Hizashi flinch behind him and looked without turning around completely in time to see him pull a small dart from his neck.

"What the hell?"

"Present Mic!"

A voice crackled through an intercom system, reverberating through the room. "Welcome, Eraserhead!" Aizawa had hoped that he would recognize the voice, that it would give them a clue as to who and what they were dealing with, but not such luck. "I hadn't expected you to bring Present Mic along, but this might work out for the better. A little demonstration of my quirk before things really get started."

"What have you done to me?" Hizashi asked. "And what have you done with Midoriya Izuku?"

"Eraserhead's little protègé is fine, although unavailable at the moment. I needed him ready for the main event. As for you? That was just a little bit of my blood. Necessary for activating my quirk, I'm afraid. A downside I've learned to deal with."

Aizawa scanned the railings, trying to find where their attacker stood, but it was too dark to see more than a little of the metal. He and Hizashi exchanged a look as Hizashi dropped the dart to the floor.

"I had planned on using young Midoriya as my example, but this works out just as nicely. Gives you an understanding of what's to come." The voice laughed. "You see all it takes is a drop of my blood and." he stopped.

"Present Mic, are you-?"

Hizashi turned, and Aizawa, stunned, could do nothing as he yelled, knocking Aizawa off his feet. He skidded across the floor, the rough concrete tearing at his skin.

"It's unfortunate that my quirk can only be activated if someone's been infected with by blood, but the benefits more than make up for it."

Aizawa pushed himself up, wiping the back of his hand across his mouth. He didn't need to look to know that he was bleeding. Hizashi stood rigid across from him, the dead look in his eyes so unlike his friends usual exuberance.

"Hizashi!" Aizawa said, even though he knew it wouldn't work. Whatever had happened, Hizashi wasn't in control now. Aizawa felt his hair rise as he activated his quirk. Hizashi would forgive him for restraining him. He wouldn't want to be used as a weapon for some villain.

But once again he felt stunned, unable to do anything as another yell ripped through the air. Aizawa barely had time to react before he slammed into the wall, boxes crashing around him. His quirk hadn't worked? He struggled to think through the pounding in his head. He and Hizashi didn't train together often, but his quirk had always affected the hero before, simply enhancement quirk that it was.

"Giving someone my blood gives me full control of their body, including their quirk." Hizashi's mouth twisted at the words as the words come through the muffled static of the loudspeaker. "I'm afraid that also means that you're quirk will have no effect on poor Present Mic while I am in control of him. You want Midoriya Izuku back? Fight Present Mic. Because the only way to me is through him."

AN:Things are really picking up now! I tried to keep everyone as in character as possible, but we're in AU territory so I'll definitely be taking Izuku and Bakugou's relationship in a slightly different direction than in canon.

Thanks to everyone who commented on last chapter!