Hero of the Dark Skies

by MosesArk Reborn2000

When Young Midoriya is left with the heart breaking news that he will never develop his own quirk, does he give into despair and chase after heroes? No, he strives to become a hero just like All Might and he knows just what to do to even the odds against those with quirks-he builds it, that's how. Quirkless Izuku, More confident Izuku, DC & Marvel influence

50. Mad Brawn vs Courageous Steel

Damn, it's been over 2 months since I last posted…Moving on, we're finally getting some more action as the villains make their move on the camp. As many of you guessed, unlike cannon when the villains had only at most, 2 days to watch the heroes and students before adjusting their plans, here they had almost a full week, though in the fact that I hinted at something…new in play, and I can tell you that the students and pros will have a major task in just surviving. Also, I have planned to include more stuff in the last chapter but found that I had to cut it for time, not to worry as most of that just carried over into this chapter as while some of it wasn't necessary, what is shown is.

Also, I went back and reviewed every chapter for this from the first one up till I-island's arc for the simple reason that there were a SHIT TON of mistakes! Like, I can't thank all of you who have stuck through till now enough as many of those mistakes in spelling and grammar were a downright amateur hour. That is part of the reason this chapter came out so late as I not only rewrote them to get rid of as many mistakes as I could but I also got a friend to read over them to help spot even more(It took some convincing, she prefers playing games over fanfiction). Still, I'm not going to claim they're perfect, if you spot any errors, don't be afraid to point them out.

Also, quick sidenote but while I haven't watched past season 5, episode 21(Mainly because the anime doesn't do the villains justice for censorship reasons) I have seen clips of episodes past that point. And can we all agree that Re-destro is just villain Doofenshmirtz?(Yes, I know Doofenshmirtz is a villain, but come on, he's too nice to be more than a cartoon antagonist. Not villain, antagonist) I mean, they not only share a resemblance, but the idea behind his quick is similar to the November 2012 episode of Phineas and Ferb when Doofenshmirtz built an 'Inator' (Which he called the 'Backstory-inator') which took all the emotional pain he felt due to his many…many sad backstories, concentrated it into a single dose, before injecting back into his body turning him into what is essentially purple hulk.

Now, let's get on with it, enjoy.

---

Chapter 49: Mad Brawn vs Courageous Steel

(Previously)

"There's a foul scent in the air." Back with the main group, they also started to realize that something was wrong as Pixie-bob could smell something strange in the air.

"I think I know where it's coming from." Ojiro pointed out as they all turned to see smoke and the signs of a large fire raging in the distance.

"Black smoke, is there a fire on the mountain or something?" Iida asked, finding this all suspect as he looked around for any other signs of trouble.

"Not likely, it hasn't been that dry and it's the middle of the night." Pixie-Bon told as she sparred her two teammates a look before she started to rush on over to the area, no students were in that area so she could use her best to its fullest to bury the fire, shame, things were really fun. "Hang on, I'll go check it ouuuut!" Pixie-bob cried out in shock as she was lifted off her feet by some unknown force and pulled away.

"Pixie-bob!" Mandalay cried out to her as she jumped to grab her, missing her as her friend and teammate was taken. Pixie-bob didn't even have a chance as she felt something striking her in the head hard enough to render her unconscious. And this wasn't the only thing happening, as at the force of the blaze, stood Dabi whose flaming hand was on a tree, all around him, flames so hot, they burned blue grew and spread, all caused by him.

"Now," He started as he opened his eyes to the destruction he was creating, to the chaos that would soon engulf the heroes and those would-be heroes. "It begins." He continued as around the camping area, other villains came to act as the source of the sleeping agent in the air kept on releasing more, the thick purple creating a kind of tornado around him. The restrained one walked by himself, with no one around as he got to work. Another large and fast figure, moved in the shadows as it searched for its prey.

"Take them, those who believe they are worthy of the title of hero." With Uraraka and Asui, they hadn't realized just how bad things were, only picking up the scent of fire, unknown to them, they were being followed by a blonde killer who seemed interested in them.

"We, the vanguard action squad of the League of Villains," Kota could do nothing as he watched the forest burn or be covered in a thick cloud of whatever the heck it was. But just like with everyone else, he wasn't alone on that cliff as the beast of a man from before watched him. "Will tear them off their pedestals." Dabi finished as he turned to another part of the fire with fewer flames and let loose a wave of scorching fire, setting it alight as well.

---

(And now)

"Alright, one feral cat down, two more to go." The villain holding an unknown weapon to Pixie-bob's unconscious head said, the sight of this scaring some of the students present while the pros grit their teeth and prepared to move.

"N-no way," Mineta said as he backed up, nearly falling on his ass when the lizard-looking one gave him a passing glance. "I thought they made sure that no one could find us."

"What in the hell are villains doing here?!" Sero asked as he backed up, but instinctively rose his arms so that his elbows were in a good position. The others were in a similar position as though scared and still tired from their training, they got ready to fight.

"Stay back." However, this was stopped when both Tiger and Mandalay took charge and blocked them off. They had no intention of allowing the students to fight and potentially get hurt, not on their watch.

"This is bad." Mandalay said to herself as she observed the situation and could see that things were not in their favor, and from the smirk on the taller villain, it was clear that was by their design. Midoriya wished he could help but knew that there was more to this, that they still had classmates and friends trapped in the forest while it burned.

'Of all the times for shit like this to happen,' He thought to himself as he ground his teeth together before a thought popped into his head. "Hold on, if villains are here, then…" He looked around, hoping that he was wrong, even if he knew it wasn't.

"Where's Kota?" He asked as he hadn't seen him since morning. Was he at the camp, or at the secret spot that Tetsutetsu told him about? One was a good place, he wouldn't be alone and Aizawa would be present along with Vlad King, but if he was in the other…then he was all alone while villains were attacking.

---

(5 minutes earlier)

"I can't believe we're gonna miss out on the best part of the camp." Kirishima nearly cried as Aizawa led them back towards the main building, the fact that all four of them were still wrapped up in his capture cloth only made them feel worse.

"This is fair! Pixie-bob said that if you worked hard, we'll get a reward!" Sato told their teacher who didn't even bother to face them as he replied.

"If you don't stop complaining, I'll tighten those bindings." Aizawa warned them as he was getting tired of their whining. After that, they kept their piece as none of them wanted to test him on that. It didn't take all that long to reach the main building, at which point, Aizawa had left them out of his bindings as they entered the building and all walked towards the classroom, at this point, they knew where it was by muscle memory.

"In tonight's lesson, we'll discuss how to prepare in an emergency. If you refuse to recognize that there is a gap between you and your classmates, that gap will only keep on growing into an unpassable chasm." Aizawa informed them of their lesson's goal for the evening as they went.

"In a sense, all of you failed your finals because you lacked this knowledge, so in a way, this class is your reward." He added in as both to throw salt on the wounds of their defeats, and also at the fact that he took what was supposed to be sweet and made it so very bitter.

"Only you would think of work as a reward." Aoyama muttered to himself, though he didn't look all that phased, they could tell he was just as depressed as they were at the fact that while the others got to mess around, they got to study. Things didn't get any worse when Aizawa opened the classroom door and they found something alongside Vlad-king waiting for them.

"Well, look who we have here! Four members of 1-A failed the exams? And to think, only one guy from 1-B failed!" Vlad King could only sigh as Monoma opened his mouth. "That really shows the difference in quality between our two classes."

"Dude, you failed to, why are you so happy?" Kaminari asked him as they entered, they didn't even have the energy to really engage with the asshole who seemingly made it his mission to screw with them. It was why it was so funny when Midoriya had pranked him by putting hair dye in his shampoo the other day, which meant that he had spent an entire day with bright green hair, not that it seemed to bother him…as much as it used to.

"Does he have an off switch?" Kirishima asked as he took his seat next to Sato, who shook his head.

"Kendo always hitting the back of his neck, so maybe." Sato replied, though he didn't think they were allowed to do that, Kendo probably got away with it seeing how she was 1-B's class rep.

"Vlad, why don't we start out with some practice maneuvers." Aizawa said as he walked up to his fellow teacher, who crossed his arms and nodded.

"My thoughts exactly. Monoma's here since he's too reliant on the quirks of others, they need to be able to think and react based on their own merit." Vlad replied as all of them had failed their finals for the common reason, they couldn't observe and adapt fast enough as when Monoma was separated from his classmate, all Snipe had to do was keep them separated, which lead to the blonde(but currently green-haired) boy panicking.

"Alright, students. Since today was supposed to be a break for you, we'll end this session an hour early." Vlad told them as they decided to cut them...some slack and allow them to head to bed at around 1 am.

"Greeatt." The students tried to cheer, but they knew it was nothing compared to what they were missing out on.

'Everyone!' Out of nowhere, they all heard Mandalay's voice in their heads.

"Isn't that Mandalay's Telepath?" Kaminari asked as this was only the third time she had used it on him.

"Sort of annoying that it only works one way though?" Kirishima pointed out as this would have been much more powerful if she could talk with people, but her quirk only let her send her own thoughts to others, not the other way around so it was the same as a loudspeaker announcement in a sense.

"Hold on, why did she contact us? Why not the teachers only?" Monoma, falling out of his condescending attitude, asked as he looked around, his eyes narrowing as he noticed how both teachers stiffened up at the unexpected voice in their heads.

"Quiet." Aizawa told them as he waited for her to continue with whatever she wished for them to hear. She wouldn't be doing this unless it was an emergency, but he couldn't imagine that one of the students had been hurt, which only left one thing.

"Two villains attacked us, and a forest fire is raging, possibly caused by other villains. Everyone is to return to camp immediately. Do not engage the villains, students are to get back to camp as fast as they can." Mandalay announced to them, catching the students off guard while the teachers only looked angered by this.

"Was she serious?" Sato asked as he looked out the window, but from where they were, they couldn't spot anything out of the ordinary.

"All the way out here? How'd they find us?" Kirishima asked as he got up from his seat, ready to ignore that last order and head out to help the others, but Aizawa beat him to it.

"Vlad, protect the students." Aizawa told him as the larger man nodded his head as Eraser rushed out of the room, heading towards the exit as he gripped at his capture tool.

'A forest fire, and so far two villains sighted. No doubt about it,' He thought to himself as he was painfully reminded of another attack against UA of similar magnitude. He was proven right as he got out and witnessed a large part of the forest ablaze, he couldn't see the flames but he could see both the smoke and the blue tint above the trees, which meant that these flames must have been extremely hot. "This is a full-scale attack." He muttered to himself as he was prepared to rush on out and look for as many of his students as he could find and bring back with him.

"Right on the money, Eraser." An unfamiliar voice spoke out of the blue, at the same time, Aizawa felt an air of ill-intent coming from whoever just said that. He turned his eyes to the side and saw a tall, scarred man starring down with his hand right up to his head, blue flames flowing out from his hand which told Aizawa all he needed to know on who was the cause behind the flames.

"Vla-!" Aizawa didn't even have the time to finish the word before the unknown villain let loose a wave of blue flames, engulfing where he stood in an instant.

FOOOSH!

"We ain't here for you pros, at least this time, so why don't you stay out of our way." The villain said as his dark blue, near apathetic eyes turned towards the buildings, azure embers from his attack still in the eye.

---

(With the main group)

"Apologies for interrupting your summer camp, but we as the Vanguard Action Squad of the League of Villains have some business to attend to here." The smaller of the two villains introduced themselves to them as he stepped forward. His outfit seemed to bear a resemblance to what Stain wore, at least in the eyes of Iida and Midoriya who had seen the man up close and personal. However, while Stain carried a chipped katana and an assortment of smaller blades and knives, this guy seemed to carry just the one extremely large-looking blade along with only two knives.

"The league? How many times are they going to come after us?" Ojiro asked as this was starting to become a pattern, and he didn't like it one bit. Tiger seemed to want to make a move on them but the taller villain stopped him by pressing their weapon a little harder into Pixie-Bob's head, not enough to harm her, but enough to let them know that could change very quickly.

"Ah-aha-ah, I wouldn't be so hasty if I were you. After all, I can crush her head like a grape if I wanted to." The villain told them, their smirk still firmly on their face as the two pussy-cats felt their rage boil at the sight.

"Get away from her!" Tiger yelled at them but the smaller one stepped forward, seemingly to try and prevent the two sides from coming to blows.

"Hold it, Big sis Magne, so as well, Tiger. When deciding on matters pertaining to life and death, we must be careful to ensure we abide by Stain's principles." The villain told them as he glances towards the defeated pro with neither empathy nor disregard. To him, he didn't have an opinion of the Pixie-bob, at least not a negative one.

"Stain." Midoriya repeated as he figured that others would pick up where the mad-man left off but to do so this fast wasn't something he saw coming, nor did he think such people would join the league when he was pretty sure that Stain had no affiliation to them. What could Shigaraki have done to get such people to join him, but then he recalled their conversation at the mall and wanted to punch himself.

"So you're the ones he ended up inspiring?" Iida asked him, keeping himself in check as he hated being reminded of that villain, the villain in front of them turned his eyes towards Iida and while they had been strictly professional up till this point when he saw Iida, his eyes gained a hint of malice in them.

"Yes, I believe I recognize you. The youngest son of the Iida family. If my memory serves me right, you are one of those judged to be unfit of the title of 'hero' and attacked Stain, only to be soundly defeated." He spoke, his dismissive words towards him eerily similar to how was right about him at the moment, which only made Iida angrier as once again, his mistakes were being thrown in his face. While Iida stewed in his anger and shame, the villain observed them, keeping tabs on all of them lest they try something.

'Looks like one of your targets is present, but Ragdoll is not. Is she in the woods with the rest of the students?' He thought to himself as they had been given relative freedom with most of the students and heroes, something he was sure some in their group were happy about, but they had been given explicit no-kill orders on two targets. He wasn't sure why but Shigaraki ordered that they rather be captured. 'No matter, if we can't get to her, the others will.' He finished that thought as he already had one of their targets in their grasp. He could leave it to the others to get the other one.

"You were lucky to have survived Stain's judgment, but that is an error I'm more than happy to correct." He started as he reached for the sword covered in bandages on his back, he grabbed onto it and pulled it out, revealing the blade to be a mismatched creation of dozens of smaller blades all coming together to create a monstrous amalgamation of the Buster sword and Soul Edge. "Call me Spinner." He finished with a hint of a small smile as he was real proud of his weapon, seeing how he had forged it himself after numerous trials and errors.

"I don't care who you are, or why you're here. You're nothing but a bunch of criminals!" Tiger yelled back, barely holding himself back at he wanted nothing more than to save his teammate and take down these villains.

"That woman you're threatening is a pro hero who saved countless lives, she's giving her all for these young heroes to ensure that they reach their full potential." Tiger informed them as from his cat-themed gloves, sharpened claws popped out. "She's may overact to not having a mate, but she's content with her life. What gives you the right to cut such a happy life short?!" He demanded of them as he felt nothing but anger at the moment, but neither 'Big sis Magne' or Spinner seem to react all that much as Spinner only steadied himself, his large sword firmly held in his two hands.

"Tiger, I've spread the word around. Trust the safety of the other students to Ragdoll, we'll stay here and hold these two off. Class rep, you're in charge on the way there Do not engage." Mandalay told him before she turned to Midoriya and co, giving them their marching orders. Midoriya at first agree with this and started to run off with the others, but then looked towards the sky and seeing the smoke, he made another choice and rushed away from them as quickly as he could.

"I'm sorry, Mandalay but I can't do that!" Midoriya yelled over his shoulder, the rest being shocked at his blatant refusal to listen to instructions. "Iida! Make sure the others get back to camp!" He directed his gaze towards Iida who was taking this harder than the others.

"Where are you going, Class rep? Get back to camp!" Mandalay yelled at him as he approached the tree line.

"I'll go find the others, as class rep, I can't sit back and do nothing! Don't worry, I'll avoid fights as best I can!" Midoriya yelled back, before she could respond, he was gone, having disappeared into the brush, leaving her to tick the others at least followed her orders and rushed off…all but one that is.

"Will the league ever give is a break?" With Midoriya, he rushed off towards where the halfway point should be, but he knew that he was quite the ways in, and seeing how he was off the beaten path, he had to be careful to not trip. "Neko." He asked as he pulled out his phone and unlocked the screen.

"Sir?" Neko chibi cat face popped into view.

"Do you have my location?" He asked her as he looked toward his armbands, thankful that he hadn't removed them before coming out tonight.

"Searching…Searching…" Neko told him as her cat face spun round and round as she attempted to get his location before she pinged with a smiley face. "Location identified. Is there an issue, sir?" Neko asked him, her face changing into that of a chibi curious cat.

"We're under attack, send me my gear, I might need the firepower." Midoriya ordered her as he picked up the pace now that he didn't see as many roots in his way.

"Sir, I should remind you that only your wings are capable of the move." Neko informed him as he hadn't had the time to make his quick deployment package include all that much seeing how he was still trying to work out all the bugs in the delivery system itself.

"Send them, I'll have to make due." Midoriya replied as he figured he'll have to get creative with this.

"You'll have some help!" Someone very familiar spoke up coming up from behind him.

"Yao-momo?!" Midoriya yelled out in shock as Yaoyorozu had apparently joined him on his little side quest.

"Who else?" Yaoyorozu asked back with a faint smile on her face, even if the situation wasn't the most comedic.

"Get back to the others, this is dangerous!" Midoriya told her, their classmates needed someone to lead them back and he was hoping that would be here.

"If your duty as class rep says you stay, then so does mine as the vice-class rep! Besides, you're gonna need all the help you can get." Yaoyorozu replied to him, the look in her eyes telling him that she wasn't going to go back anytime soon. At this point, they had reached deep enough into the forest that they had found the source of the weird scent in the air. It wasn't the fires as they originally believed, but rather this strange pink gas in the other, forcing them to stop and cover their noses and mouths.

"Dammit, I hate it when my words are thrown in my face, think you can make some-" Midoriya went to ask but when he turned to face her, she had already equipped a gas mask and was handing him another one.

"Like you needed to ask. I'm not sure what sort of gas is in the air, but these should buy us some time." Yaoyorozu told him, her voice sounding a bit odd through the mask but he wasn't complaining as he quickly put his own on and took a deep breath, thankful that whatever they were standing it couldn't get to him at the moment.

"Come on, we need to get these to as many of our classmates as we can." Yaoyorozu said as she ran ahead of him as they searched for others that they could help.

---

(With Kendo)

'I need to find the others and quick!' Kendo thought to herself as she did her best to not breathe in too much of this pink gas while at the same time holding Honenuki and Yui in her enlarged hands. At least this way, she could limit their exposure to the stuff as Honenuki was still out cold. She had been moving around for some time now and hadn't run into anyone from either class A or B, which was really starting to concern her as she had been sure to run past where she knew some of her classmates had been hiding for their time to scare class A but found no-one there.

"Kendo!" Thankfully, it seemed she had run into some good fortune as she heard Tetsutetsu calling out to her.

"Testetsutetsu?" Kendo replied as she looked around but she didn't see him.

"Up here!" She heard Shiozaki call out to her, getting her to look up and to her surprise, she saw the two of them on top of a particularly tall tree along with Awase, the boy using his headband as a kind of mask to breathe through. Not really questioning them, she managed to first get Honenuki and Yui to them thanks to Shiozaki's vines before climbing the tree herself. Once she got up there, she noticed that it was much easier to breathe.

"Thanks." She told them as Shiozaki checked on Honenuki but he wasn't responding to anything, even when she lightly slapped him a few times. The only good news was that he was still breathing but that was around about it.

"Thank the lord we managed to find you." Shiozaki told them as Kendo looked around and saw that the gas hadn't reached the clearing yet.

"He breathed in some of the gas, and hasn't woke up since." Yui told them as Shiozaki passed the unconscious boy to her where she laid his head on her lap.

"Yeah, we noticed that." Tetsutetsu replied as that was the main reason that they had all decided that tree hopping was a thing.

"We sought higher ground as it looks like the gas is heavier than normal air, as long as we stay up here, we should be safe." Shiozaki informed them as both Yui and Kendo looked down and realized she was right, the gas was mainly sticking to the ground, which explained why Honenuki got knocked out as he was much closer to the ground than they were the gas hit their area.

"I'm assuming that you heard Mandalay's message?" Kendo asked them, to which they both nodded their heads.

"Yeah, we need to get back to camp and fast. There's no telling how many villains are there, for all we know it could be another assault like the USJ." Awase told them as he looked around, worried about the classmates they had found on the way here that had fallen victim to the gas. The best they could do was move them somewhere as high above the ground as they could and have Shiozaki use her vines to cover them up.

"You guys head on ahead without me." Tetsutetsu told them as he looked away, towards the mountains.

"What? Why?" Kendo asked him, wondering what the hell he was thinking of doing.

"Kota." Tetsutetsu told them, getting them all to recall that they hadn't seen the kid since the mornings, he had been avoiding them ever since they got there which meant none of them knew where he was in this mess.

"Oh no, is he at camp?" Yui asked him, to which he shook his head, he seriously doubted that he was there right now.

"Odds are, he' at his secret spot. Mandalay might know where it is, but I doubt she'll be able to get to him." Tetsutetsu told them as from her announcement, Mandalay didn't seem like she was in a position to rush on ahead and look for him, but he was.

"You can't be serious about going alone!" Kendo told him as he grabbed his shoulder, to which he pulled himself free and turned to her.

"I'm the only other person here who knows where he is, if I sit back and did nothing while he could be in danger, I wouldn't be worth the damn tree we're standing on!" Tetsutetsu told her as he refused to just do nothing.

"Tetsutetsu." Kendo started but paused as it wasn't like she disagreed with him. Even though she was always reprimanding Monoma for picking pointless fights with class-A, it wasn't like she didn't see where he was coming from. Sure she got some time in the sun because of the whole Hosu thing, but even then, people never talked about her class. Class-A got the lion's share of the limelight, and they had made the most of it. Proving that they were worthy of being heroes. Kendo knew that had a duty as the class rep of class-B to make sure that as many of her fellow classmates were safe but...she couldn't live with herself if she left an innocent to fend for themselves when they had the power to help.

"I know that she told us to avoid fighting, to put out lives first because they'll do everything they can to protect them but-" Tetsutetsu went on back she grabbed his hand, getting him to stop as it looked towards her, seeing that her gaze was filled with the same resolve as his own.

"Say no more. Where do you need to go?" Kendo asked him, she had her job, but that didn't mean she couldn't help him out in doing his.

"You're coming with me?" Tetsutetsu asked, thanking the fact that he will have back-up but Kendo shook her head no.

"Afraid not, I have to make sure everyone makes it back to camp. Otherwise, I wouldn't be worth much as a hero myself." Kendo told him, feeling saddened by the fact she couldn't rush on-off like she wanted to.

"But-!" Awase tried to speak up to ask why she wanted to know where he was going but she beat him to it as she rose one hand and let it grow large enough to grab onto Tetsutetsu.

"Just point to where you need to go, I can cut your travel time with a little trick." Kendo told him as Shiozaki realized what she was doing and used her vines to help keep Kendo steady as she took a pitcher's like stance with Tetsutetsu directing her to where she should throw him. He only hoped that he didn't have a hard landing.

---

(With Kota)

'Kota! Kota! I hope you can hear my voice but you need to hurry up and come back to camp!' With the young boy, he found himself cornered in his hiding spot by a large, and scary masked figure as his aunt's voice rung around in his head. 'I'm sorry that I can't get to you, I don't know where you're always running up. Forgive me but please, get back home!' For once, he wished that he could do that but the only way off the mountain was blocked by the villain and he was too terrified to try and make a break for it.

"I came up here scouting for a good vantage point, but instead I find some kid." The villain spoke up for the first time since Kota noticed his presence, he didn't know why but the feeling of dread in his gut only got worse from his words. The villain paused for a second, seemingly observing him before chuckling, his joy only making Kota shake even more.

"Nice hat, kid. Sure as hell better than what I have. They made me wear since I'm new, said they couldn't get a shipment of the good ones before we left. Wanna trade?" The villain said as he rose one of his very large hands to his face where he tapped the white mask he was wearing. As he was talking, the villain started to remove the mask, seeing this as a chance, Kota took it.

"Get away from me!" Kota yelled out as he turned tail and ran off as quick as he could. Though he was pretty fast for a kid, the villain didn't seem all that phased by it as he just tossed the mask to the side.

"Oh well," He said to himself as his legs seemingly bulked up, breaking the rock beneath him as he quickly cut off the boy's escape. "But while we're up here, why don't the two of us have some fun, kid? Ready?" He asked him, though while Kota was scared for his life before, that fear grew ten-fold along with feelings of anger as with the mask, he saw the face of the man before him and while he had never seen him in person, he remembered. He remembered watching the news report about his parent's death, on how everyone was praising them for their deaths, but most importantly, he remembered the picture of the man the news released of their killer. He could never forget that face or that name.

Muscular. And he was standing right in front of him. As Muscular geared up to kill him, as muscle fibers sprung from his arms, his cloak fell off his body, showing off his entire body to the terrified, rage-filled boy who could do nothing as his parent's killer barred down on him.

"Papa…Mama…" He whimpered out as he started to cry, or maybe he had already been crying, he didn't know and he didn't think it mattered as Muscular pulled back one first, ready to strike him down with that sick smile on his stupid face.

"Kota!" Someone yelled out as a silver body, flew right between them, grabbing into Kota in its arms as it used itself as a shield to protect him.

BOOM!

At the last second, Tetsutetsu had managed to make it and had taken the blow which, despite his body being coated in steel and OFA charged to 3%, he still felt that one as he rolled with the force, caging Kota in his arms the best he could. "Hmm?" Muscular sounded as he noticed that he hadn't smashed the child with that attack, seeing how it didn't feel like muscle and bone which meant he also noticed that Tetsutetsu was present.

"It…It's you." Kota managed to say as he caught his own breath after seeing his life flash before his eyes. Tetsutetsu, for his part, could still feel the pain in his back which told him that whoever this guy was, he hit him hard enough that his steel skin bent a little. However, he ignored that in favor of the anger he felt at the fact this muscle-bound villain was willing to use such force on a child.

"Sorry for the late arrival. But it looks like I just made it." Tetsutetsu told him as he got back to his feet, facing the threat head-on, though he did look familiar for some reason. 'Thank you, Kendo.' He thought to himself as while he hadn't been able to clear the entire distance, he saved almost three-quarters the time he would have taken to run on with her help, not a moment too soon.

"What are you doing?" Kota asked him once he realized that Tetsutetsu had no intention of running as the villain started to walk towards them.

"It would be a pretty scummy move to leave you to fend for yourself, Kota." Tetsutetsu told him as he allowed his quirk to coat his whole body, throwing in OFA at his current maximum of 6%. "Kota, I promise you that I will protect you." He told him as he got ready to fight.

"I don't recognize you, which means you weren't on the list." Muscular spoke up, revealing that for some reason the villains were working with a list of some kind, as to what that list contained was anybody guest as it could be based on anything.

'Dammit, I didn't think a villain would be all the way out here.' Tetsutetsu had originally planned on just getting here, looking for Kota and if he was present, grabbing him, and booking back to camp as quick as he could. But the presence of this villain complicated things. Made all the more difficult as his phone had been busted up in his rescue of Kota, leaving him no way of calling for help even if he had the chance. 'And that entrance wrecked my phone, only Kendo, Awase and Shiozaki knew where I went, but how long will it take for them to make it back to camp and get help?'

"What did you mean by list?" Still, he didn't have the time to worry about that right now. All he could do was buy time and think of a way that gets the both of them out of here. Also, he couldn't shake it, but he felt like he knew who this guy was, it felt like he was missing only a piece of the puzzle but at present, all he knew was this he was dangerous, and that trying to book it wouldn't work, nor would turning his back on his guy be a wise idea.

Hearing his question, Muscular paused as he thought about it for a moment before he seemingly recalled something. "Oh, that's right. I can just ask you. You wouldn't happen to know where some kid named Midoriya is at, would you?" At the reveal of who could be on the list, Tetsutetsu felt himself stiffen up in surprise and concern.

'What? He wants to find Midoriya? Why?' He asked himself as while Midoriya had helped to fight off the league twice in the past, it wasn't like he was the only one. He found it hard to think of reasons as to why Shiragaki would want him in particular, but then he recalled what he and Shiozaki had told them about the mall incident, and why that bastard had sought him out. His silence though didn't help him.

"I'm going to assume that you know him. So, are you gonna tell me where I can find him?" Muscular said as he asked them, though they both knew that giving an answer he didn't like wasn't an option.

---

(With Bakugo and Todoroki)

"Dammit, this stuff sinks." Bakugo muttered to himself as the stench of this damn gas got old real fast, it didn't help his mood that he had been scared(not that he'll ever admit it) but those class-B extras but that he had been paired up with Half-and-half of all people. Now, some assholes were attacking the camp, they had been separated from the others, and the only other person with them was some passed-out class-B extra, the one who blew things.

"There must be some sort of gas villain involved in the attack as well." Todoroki observed as the two of them had decided to try and exit the path out where they were supposed to seeing how it should prove faster in getting back to camp over trying to head back the other way.

"No shit, Sherlock. What the hell are we gonna do about it?" Bakugo responded as he looked around for anything out of the ordinary, the last thing they needed was to be caught off guard at the moment.

"Not sure, I'm worried about the others but right now, we have our own problems to deal with." Todoroki said as he gestured towards the unconscious boy he had been carrying, Tsuburaba was his name if he wasn't mistaken.

"Hopefully, Ragdoll can take care of everyone else?" He added in as at this point, they hadn't been given permission to fight and with the nature of Bakugo's quirk and half his own, they couldn't afford to fight in the forest right now, which really cut down their options.

"By the way, how the fuck did these villains sneak in with that damn cat lady keeping watch? Didn't she say she could track 100 people?" Bakugo asked him as he would have assumed that cat-lady on super Red-bull would have seen these fuckers coming long before they made their move.

"She did, but she also said she needed to actually see them. Meaning that whoever these guys are, they made sure that no-one saw them this entire time." Todoroki reminded him as it wasn't like Ragdoll was a human radar.

"Meaning that they're probably better than the fodder hand freak brought with him the first time around." Bakugo assumed as no way these villains did that out of luck, they knew she would be here and planned around it.

"Let's just get back before we decide on anything." Todoroki told him as it wouldn't help them to talk about it now when they had so little to go on, however, he came to a halt when he notices something, or someone in their way.

"Don't tell me what to do, icy-what?" Bakugo started but also stopped once he saw what Todoroki did. Little ways ahead of them, some guy who was really into BDSM was standing in the middle of the path.

"Who the fuck is that?" Bakugo asked, though if he was speaking to himself or Todoroki was unclear as he felt a nervous sweat roll down his face. "Hey, which group was in front of us?" He asked as this didn't look good, not good at all.

"Tokoyami and Shoji." Todoroki responded, but now that he thought about it, they hadn't seen a single sign of…any of the groups behind them. Weren't Hagakure and Jiro supposed to be right behind them? With the unknown villain, he didn't seem to have realized that they were present, rather he was solely focused on the bloody severed hand that lay at his feet.

"So pretty, no! Have to work, work for my pay. But it's so delicious…so beautiful. Beautiful flesh, don't tempt me, I have a job to do." The villain seemed to mumble to himself as he didn't appear to be sane(Shocker, the guy in the restraint jacket wasn't okay in the membrane) but then as if he had known they had been there the entire time, he turned to face them, showing that even his face was covered up, leaving only his mouth open.

"Is that…what I think it is…?" Todoroki asked as they both spotted the severed hand that lay at his feet.

"No fighting, that was the rule, right?" Bakugo asked as he smiled at the threat, even if he didn't feel all that happy that they would seemingly have to deal with this bastard while handicapped.

---

(With Mandalay and Tiger)

"You false heroes only care for fame and glory!" Spinner yelled as he fought against Mandalay, despite the fact, his sword was stupidly big and made by an amateur weaponsmith, not only did it hold up to just about everything Mandalay could throw at it, but he was wielding it with unexpected skill, swinging, thrusting with power and speed you wouldn't expect from him. "We'll be sure you purge you from this world!" And blocking her attacks with its flat sides, this time around when she went for an attack, he managed to knock her back, forcing her to roll with the blow and land on all fours.

'Spinner, even though you're a villain, you're still pretty cool. Totally my type.' Mandalay used her quirk to send him a quick, distracting thought, catching off guard as she went in for a surprise attack, but Spinner recovered faster than she anticipated. As she dashed towards him, claws ready, Spinner removed one hand from his blade's handle as he reached for one of his knives which he kept strapped to his side. Lucky for Mandalay, she was able to avoid the worse of it but he did manage to draw blood as she rushed past him.

"Keep your filthy thoughts you yourself." Spinner told her with an angered expression as he flicked his blade about for a second before he placed it back in its sheath, he would prefer to kill with his main weapon tonight.

'Really hoping that would have given me an opening.' Mandalay thought to herself as she ignored the sting of the cut across her abdomen, it wasn't very deep so she could focus on the here and now. Suddenly, she found herself in the same pink pull that had grabbed Pixie Bob earlier. "Wha-!" She yelped out as she found herself being pulled towards Magne, who had her large block-like weapon ready to smash her head in just as she did to Pixie-Bob.

"Over here, little kitty." Magne taunted her but found her focus interrupted when Tiger came in and landed a blow to her arm, allowing Mandalay to be freed, even if she had a rough landing. Still, she had other things to deal with as she didn't have time to think as she rolled out of the way of Spinner's blade, which dug deep into the dirt of where she just was and surely would have killed her, if not taken her out of things.

Back with Tiger and Magne, the pro did his best to ensure that the fight stayed close quarters and that Magne didn't have room to breathe, much less try that same trick for the third time. Despite this, Magne proved to know her way around a fight as despite not being able to land any blows herself thanks to how flexible Tiger was, he wasn't able to land any blows either thanks to her own impressive speed and reflexes. "Villain name: Magne. Real name: Kenji Hikiishi." Tiger started, revealing that he knew of her as she hadn't even said what her villain name was.

"Wanted for nine counts of aggravated robbery, three murders, and twenty-nine attempted murders!" Tiger yelled at her, disgusted that such a vile villain had dared to assault camp, but this time around, Magne caught his first which would have surely rattled her jaw.

"Ooooh, I didn't know I was that famous, I'm flattered." Magne asked him as she tried to kick his leg out, but he avoided the attack by bending his knee at an unnatural angle, this gave him the chance to break the hold and get a little distance between them, his fists still raised.

"Just what the hell do you think you can accomplish here?" Tiger growled at her as he sparred a glance to where the students had rushed off, despite the fact Midoriya and Yaoyorozu had disobeyed orders, the others seemingly managed to escape as they hadn't heard anything that would indicate they run into trouble. Good, it meant that if they could keep these two busy, it will give the others breathing room to handle whatever help they may have.

"Tiger, something wrong. I haven't heard back from Ragdoll, it isn't like her to stay silent like this!" Mandalay told him as she found herself worried sick for her teammate and friend, she had been trying to connect to her mind for some time now and hadn't been able to. The only way that could happen would be if she wasn't conscious or was outside her range. She switched her full focus back to Spinner and managed to kick him in the chest, but managed to blow her follow-up attack before she could capitalize on that.

"Uh-oh, wonder if she ran into some trouble." Magne teased them, already figuring out that if she wasn't responded, then it meant that she had already been captured. Shame, she hoped she would have had the chance to do that, she did love her idol-based pros after all. Still, it could be worse.

'She' could have been the one to take her out, and if that were the case…well, it wouldn't have been pretty.

---

(With the students)

"Isn't that?" Meanwhile, deep in the woods, Midoriya managed to spot some movement up ahead through the gas.

"What?" Yaoyorozu asked, wondering who it could be this time around as they had managed to only find Shinso, Ashido, Rin, Kuroiro, and Bondo. Seeing as they were pressed for time, they had been forced to just give them all gasmasks and move them away from where they could be easily seen. Yaoayorou also had the foresight to create quick notes which she attached to each of their masks so that if they woke up, they'll be caught up to speed of what is going on.

"Up ahead." Midoriya said as the two hid behind a bush and waited for the figures moving through the trees to become recognizable. It didn't long for them to come into focus, one of them having very distinguishable vine line hair.

"You're right. Shiozaki, Kendo, Yui, Awase!" Yaoyorozu called out to them, grabbing their attention as they turned towards the two.

"Yaoyorozu, Midoriya!" Awase called out to them as they quickly moved towards them, surprising the group seeing how both of them were wearing gas masks, along with the fact Midoriya had his wings with him. He was sure he didn't have them when they started.

"What are you guys doing up there?" Midoriya asked them.

"The gas, we're trying to avoid it." Kendo pointed towards the gas the two were standing in the middle of.

"I can make some gas masks, catch." Yaoyorozu told them as she went to work creating four masks before tossing them one by one towards them. Once they all had one, they quickly put them on before they finally climbed back down.

"Thanks, to be honest, tree hopping isn't as fun as it sounds." Kendo said to try and lighten the mood, to which the others lightly chuckle.

"Hmm." Yui sounded, though if you knew her enough as Kendo and Midoriya did, you could tell that she was amused.

"Do you girls spot anything new?" Yaoyorozu asked them, to which Shiozaki nodded her head before she pointed deeper into the wood, away from the flames.

"Yeah, we noticed that the gas seems to be more concentrated in that direction. We're betting that it's because whoever is creating it is in that direction." She told the two as the group had been explicitly avoiding that area but now that they had some masks of their own… "What about you?"

"We were looking for people, though in the opposite direction is where the fires seem to be strongest, most likely since the flames and whatever gas is in the air wouldn't react well with one another." Midoriya told them as they had been lucky that as far as they could tell, no one should have been anywhere close to where the flames were, meaning that those who were taken down by the gas didn't need to fear being burned or suffocated as much.

"So we got three objections, which means we need to split up if we plan to get all of them done." Kendo thought aloud.

"Did you four find anyone else?" Yaoyorozu asked them, her main concern is helping those she could at the moment.

"Yeah, we moved them out of the gas but that's all we could do." Awase said as he pointed towards where they came, they had tied them to trees out of the gas to keep their exposure down but had also been careful to ensure they would be well hidden by the branches and leaves.

"If you can lead me to them, I can give them masks. That should buy us some time while we take them back to camp." Yaoyorozu told them as she created another mask to keep on hand.

"Sure. I made sure to memorize where each of them is." Awase replied.

"I can handle the flames." Midoriya pointed towards where the flames were strongest.

"How?" Kendo asked him, to which he pointed towards his wings and his head. He might need to be creative, but seeing how it wasn't the dry season, he had a fair chance of at least slowing down the flames' progress towards the main camp and the trail where the students were.

"When did you have the time to even go back and get your stuff?" Shiozaki asked as she figured that it would have taken him quite some time to get it, maybe if he had Iida fetch them, maybe. To give a quick demonstration, he pointed towards the armbands around his wrists and then towards the wings themselves.

"Been working on it since we got here, but I couldn't include a lot of stuff so I'll have to improvised with those damn flames, and whoever is creating them." Midoriya told them as his wings had managed to find him after they had finished up with Rin. He would have picked up Yao-momo and flown them around but with the gas, smoke, and heavy tree cover, they wouldn't have been able to spot people nearly as well.

"Yui and I can keep going after the source of this gas, but somebody going to need to get Honenuki back to game." Kendo said as Yui nodded her head. If they could take out this gas, it would go a long way in helping the others. At that, Shiozaki rose her hand.

"I can do that, as things stand, it might be the best use of my skills, but please take these," Shiozaki said as she used her quirk to create some rope from her hair, being careful to ensure that there weren't any thorns in it, before giving some to each of them. "If the Lord wills it, they might prove useful." She told them as they all quickly grouped up.

"We can only pray. Let's get to it." Kendo replied before they all started to split but right before Midoriya could take to the skies, she recalled something important.

"Hold on!" Kendo told him, stopping him get as he got a couple of feet off the ground.

"Hmm?" He asked her, they didn't have much time so she needed to be quick about this.

"Tetsutetsu, he might need some help. He went looking for Kota, he had me throw him towards the mountains." Kendo told him as she pointed towards where Tetsutetsu asked to be thrown.

"Got it, I'll head right on over." Midoriya nodded his head before he flew off, the rest of them splitting off to get to their own tasks. The entire time, not one of them had picked up that someone had been watching, or more accurately, watching Midoriya, observing him. Its dark, slit eyes studying him with the same level of attraction to detail as an apex predator. As he watched him fly off, it rushed after him, quick to keep pace with him as it moved on clawed hands and feet, while not making much noise to alert him, or anyone else nearby, to her presence.

She had found her target.

---

(With Tetsutetsu)

"Well, aren't you going to say anything?" Muscular asked, not all that upset that Tetsutetsu was giving him the silent treatment, in fact, he welcomed it. "Alright then, keep your piece, if nothing else it gives me a reason to pummel you into the ground, now-!" Muscular started as he let his muscle fibers burst all over his arms and legs, cracking the ground beneath him as he rushed Tetsutetsu faster than he could react.

"Cra-!" Tetsutetsu tried to avoid the hit but all he could do was raise an arm to block the blow.

"Show me your blood!" Muscular cried out as he slammed his fist into his arm, the blow being so powerful that the metal along said limb actually cracked as Tetsutetsu felt his arm nearly get broken by the blow, the force of which slamming him into the mountainside hard enough to create a small crater.

'Dammit, even with both my quirks, my defenses barely held up!' Tetsutetsu thought to himself as he had never been struck with so much force, if he hadn't activated his steel, he wasn't sure his arm would still be in (relative) one piece. Still, he could feel the pain from that hit regardless of his defenses.

"Hey, you're not dead. That doesn't happen often. But seriously, I do have a job to do, so just spit out and tell me where I can find Midoriya, at least then I can make your death quick!" Muscular told him, a little impressed that he was still in one piece after that, but that only meant that this would be more fun. With that, he rushed him again, this time Tetsutetsu was ready for it as he jumped out of the way of the attack, sliding away from him.

'Why in the hell would the villains want Midoriya? Is this about the mall thing? Is Shigaraki that petty?' He wondered to himself as Muscular charged them but this time he decided to meet the attack with one of his own. As Muscular got close, he jumped over his attack, avoiding the strike the pulverized the rock as he brought both his hands together into a double axe handle. "You must be as dumb as you look if you think I'll just tell you that!" Tetsutetsu yelled back as he brought down his fists into Muscular's head with as much as he could. he didn't have time t screw around, so his best bet was taking out this Son of a Bitch quickly, getting Kota back to camp, and helping the others clean up whatever other villains were present.

"A hero with a mouth, but how long will you keep it!" But his plan immediately run into a problem when his attack didn't so much as phase the villain, how had rose his other hand to defend against Tetsutetsu's attack and to his shock, said arm had completely tanked his blow with no visible damage. He didn't have time to think of a counter as Muscular grabbed onto him and started to slam him into the ground, shattering rock and throwing up dust cloud after dust cloud with each smash as Tetsutetsu found himself too dazed to really fight to get out of this.

'Dammit, he's moving too quickly, and he hits like a truck, not even Kendo hits this hard in training!' He thought to himself as he could only grit his teeth and took it the best he could, it lasted only a couple of seconds before Muscular threw him into the air and pulled back his fist. On instinct, Tetsutetsu crossed his arms over his chest just before the villain could slam that jackhammer of a punch into him, sending him back into the mountain, creating an even deeper crater.

When the dust settled, both Muscular and Kota were expecting to see a limp body but to both their surprise(More relief for Kota and crazed excitement for Muscular), Tetsutetsu was still awake, and his quick was still active, even if he was sporting more cracks and dents in his skin from that relentless assault, once the dust cleared, Tetsutetsu took a harsh, pained breath as he arms fell away from his chest, the damage being the worst for them as some sports were even missing skin as if his steel had been chipped off.

"Hahaha! Man, you're something else. Anybody else and they would be a bloody mess by now, still, I'm betting that your quirk is like an eggshell, it might look tough but that only makes me want to see your blood more!" Muscular yelled out, filled with the sheer excitement of having such a tough opponent after so long, it will make his victory all the sweeter as Tetsutetsu tried to dodge, but the villain predicted this. Grabbing into his leg, he brought him down for a devastating knew strike to the face, which not only broke through his defenses but drew blood as some of that steel which was once part of him, now cut into his forehead as he was sent crashing away from him.

"Yes, finally I'm getting somewhere! What was it that you promised the kid? That 'that I will protect you'? How's that going for you? Come on, don't just lay there, get back!" Muscular taunted him, to the horror of Kota who could nothing but watch as the guy that had been nice to him ever since they got her was beaten down. Tetsutetsu didn't seem to let his words get to him as he struggled to get himself back to his feet, but found he could barely raise his head off the ground without seeing doubles.

'Even with the power of One for All, he's smashing through anything I can put up, dammit. I can't fight him like I normally would, I need a new plan!' He thought to himself as he ground his teeth together, the cut to his forehead along with all the other painful attacks doing well to ground him and keep him awake.

"You can dish it out," He started as he powered up, rushing towards the villain with his own right hook. "But can you take it?!" He yelled as he punched muscular, who once more blocked the attack with one of his much larger arms, the blow was powerful, Muscular actually felt himself be pushed back a little, but other than that, he was fine.

"If that's all you got, then I can take your best in my sleep." Muscular taunted him as he smacked him aside, as he walked towards his fallen form, he used his quirk to generate even more muscle fibers, increasing his size even more along with his power. "You might have a tough shell but that's all you got working for you!" He laughed as he saw how the boy who came in like some silver energy ball with those lighting streaks coming off him, be reduced to such a pitiful state. His quick having lost its shrine, cracks all over his torso, even some bits missing here and there. Muscular saw the kid the same way someone sees damaged porcelain. Imperfect, and so very fragile.

"My quirk increases my speed and strength so much, that my muscles fibers can't even be contained by my skin." Muscular explained why his quirk acted the way it did, though Tetsutetsu had already figured that out when he realized just who this was. "I admit that I'm bragging here, but come on, you're just an inferior version of me!" He laughed as he approached the down hero student, watching as he tried to get back up even after all the punishment he had endured.

"I can't help but laugh, you honestly think you're a hero? How are you going to save him when you can't even save yourself?" Muscular asked him as he lifted his foot and

SMASH!

Slammed it onto his break, getting the boy to cry out in pain as he felt his quirk give way as the steel across his back cracked even further. "Don't make promises you can't keep. Live up to your words, else they don't mean anything." He lectured him as he kicked him onto his aching back, allowing him vaguely focus on the fact he had been beaten, as Muscular geared up to finish him off. Tetsutetsu tried to bring up the power of One for All, but as he was now, he wasn't sure he would be able to tank the blow and keep fighting, not if he went too far and broke his arms or legs.

"You're not even gonna die a hero, you'll go out like a nameless fraud!" As he rose both arms, planning to deliver an axe handle of his own, one he knew would ensure that Tetsutetsu didn't get back up, period, something happened.

Smack

It was faint, in fact, he barely felt it but the fact that something had hit him caught his attention. The villain turned towards where the hit came from, letting Tetsutetsu, along with him see that it had been Kota who had done. The boy holding another rock just like the one he had thrown towards the villain. Tetsutetsu picked on quickly on the fact the boy was scared, his little body shaking as his watery eyes starred down the villain with as much bravery as he could manage, though he still looked terrified and close to just collapsing. "Did you torment them too, my mom, and my dad?" He asked softly, though both of them had heard it as Muscular left him alone and walked a little closer to the boy.

"Kid, what are you talking about. I've killed a bunch of people so you're going to have to be a little specific." Muscular told him as he had a rap sheet a mile wide for aggravated assaults and murders.

"Remember the Water Hose, did you beat them around like this too? Did you!?" Kota yelled at him, crying even harder as Muscular looked at him for a moment, seemingly trying to recall those two.

"Give me a minute, hold on, now I remember." He said as he snapped his fingers before he pointed towards the small boy, the smile growing even more on his face. "Wait, you're telling me that those two losers were your parents. Man, it must be fate," He laughed it off, not even caring that a family member of one of his many victims stared him down. "How else would you explain the kid of those two crossing my path? Though I suppose they weren't that bad, they're the reason I have this. Lost the real one in that fight." He told the two of them as he pointed towards the artificial eye he currently had in his left eye socket.

But Kota didn't seem to care about it as he started to shake even more from all the confusing emotions swirling through him. "Why are you like this? Why is the world like this? Because of crazy people like you, nothing in the world is right anymore!" He yelled at him as he openly cried, Tetsutetsu's heart going out to him as he tried to get back up, forced himself to keep going. Though, what Muscular said next caught the two boys off guard.

"Kids, always quick to pass the buck. Don't get it wrong, I didn't kill them for the eye, I'm not even all that mad about it. I wanted to kill people, they wanted to stop me, it was as simple as that." He told them, Kota looking at him and seeing that strangely, he was being honest. He had no ill will towards them which somehow made things worse as he just admitted that he killed them because they got in the way. Noting more than that. "They died because all of us were doing our best, my best just proved to be better." He finished with a smirk as he approached Kota, who now realized that he was about to get killed by a mad-man who didn't even care if he was a child or in the way.

"The real travesty is promising you can't deliver. What, did they promise to tuck you into bed? Take you to the park? To always be there? Only weaklings and fakes make promises they can't keep, that's why you dear old mommy and daddy died!" Muscular finished as he flexed his fist before gearing up to kill him, giving him the 'mercy' of being with mommy and daddy again. Though just like the first time around, Tetsutetsu intervened as he rushed in, injuries and all.

"Coming back for round 2?" Muscular, who had predicted that the wannabe-hero would act to save the kid, turned around to face the boy who was currently in the air and closing on him.

"Bastard, you ruined his life and you're not even man enough to own up to it!?" Tetsutetsu yelled at him as he cocked back his fist, aiming for this monster's dumb face for one clean knock-out blow.

Though, this time around he had a plan as he used his iron grip to latch into Muscular's arms, keeping him from moving. "Got you, it doesn't matter how fast you are now!"

"But what's your next move? Are you gonna fight me with those tin fists of yours?! We both know you can't beat me!" Muscular taunted him as he didn't seem to care for that as his own first was being pulled back to take this kid out. But as he did so, he noticed that there was…something off about him.

"That's the difference between heroes and villains, I'm not fighting you because I think I can win," Tetsutetsu started as he funneled as much of One for All into his body as he could, causing his damaged metal skin to shift, with new lines forming across it.

'Wait.' Muscular thought as he could tell that these weren't the same as the cracks he had put into him, they didn't cut so much as they flowed, creating patterns over and through his skin as more white lighting started to arch off him at increasing rates.

"I'm fighting you because I have to win!" Tetsutetsu yelled back as the power of the One for All caused his veins to light up with power, his steel getting supercharges by this influx of power as his body regained the shine it had when he first showed up, shining even brighter.

'There's something different about him!' Muscular realized too late that this kid had something up his sleeve, and that he would be too slow to counter.

'One for all, 100%!' Tetsutetsu chanted in his mind as his fist came into contact with Muscular's left cheek, digging into it as he pushed it all the way. "Iron Strike!" He cried out as his attack sent the villains slamming into the mountain with much greater force than he had been put through it.

BOOOM!

The force of the attack was so great, that it loosened some more of the rock and sent Kota off the edge. "Aaaaahhhh-" Kota screamed out in terror as he realized the drop he was in for, but he found himself caught by something.

"Don't worry, little man. I got you." He looked up and saw that was Tetsutetsu who had caught him, looking worse for wear than he did a second. The teen quickly pulled him back onto solid ground and got to his feet, allowing Kota to see that his left arm was trashed, the steel having shattered, leaving only bits and pieces here and there, while his arm was red from the broken bones and torn muscles.

"Your arm!" Kota screamed in shock at just how much damage at been done to him, but Tetsutetsu waved him off with his one good arm.

"It's fine, not the first time this has happened." He told him, which didn't really calm him down as much as he thought it would.

'Why…why did he do that?' Kota asked himself as he looked towards where Muscular slammed into the mountain and saw the area had been covered up by some rocks that had fallen into it. At the same time, he found himself wondering just why Tetsutetsu had put himself through hell like this for his sake. They weren't friends, he barely talked to him, they definitely weren't family so why do so much for a complete stranger you barely knew? He couldn't understand it.

"I don't know long we have till, but we should book it back to camp as fast as we can." Tetsutetsu told him as he knelt down, giving the boy a smile as he gestured towards his back. Kota nodded his head and climbed on, letting the warmth generating from the older boy's calm him down somewhat.

CRASH!

But their exit was interrupted when the rocks that had buried the villain didn't just move, they were blown away. Seeing this, both their hearts froze as ice flowed through their veins. "No way, he can't still be…" Kota asked, wishing he was wrong but that wasn't meant to be as Muscular, still up, walked out of the pile of rubble he had just been in, the only thing amiss was the fact he spat out a bloody tooth.

'I hit him with everything I had. How is he still standing?!' Tetsutetsu yelled in his own head as he had put the full weight of One for All behind that, he broke his arm delivering that punch and even that wasn't enough?!

"Man, I didn't think you had it in your, points for unexpectedness but you were as obvious as a whale on a beach with that attack." Muscular told him as he moved his head side to side, getting rid of the cramp that punch gave him. "Still, you managed to actually get me to bleed, congrats." He finished as he flashed a smile to them, showing that he was missing two teeth, he must have lost the other one when they weren't looking.

"You stay the hell away from us!" Tetsutetsu told him, trying to buy them time as he tried to think of another approach, but Muscular didn't seem to care.

"Nay, I really want to keep fighting after that one, I'm having so much fun!" Muscular told him as he kept up his approach, backing them up against the edge and while he was pretty sure he could make a jump, he was sure that Muscular would catch them in a heartbeat, and in the air, they would be defenseless.

"I can't tell what you want to know if I'm dead." Tetsutetsu pulled out his last card, but once more Muscular didn't slow his advance as his heavy footfalls drew closer.

"Like you're gonna tell me anything in the first place, besides, I can always ask one of your classmates after I'm finished here." He laughed that off, calling his bluff right off the bat as he pointed towards the still-burning forest, where Tetsutetsu was sure a great many of his classmates were and while some of them would be a real help right now, names like Honenuki and Tokoyami ringing in his head, he had no way of contacting them and even if he could, they surely had their own problems to deal with right now.

"Why are you so damn set on finding Midoriya? What does Shigaraki want with him?" Tetsutetsu tried to question him as he eyed the large fall that awaited them if he slipped. Kota meanwhile keeping a tight hold on him. Muscular just shrugged at that one, but he did stop.

"Hell if I know, never bothered to ask, they didn't bother to tell me. All I care about is that I'm finally allowed to have some fun with my quick." He told him as he had been recruited for his quirk and his lack of a moral compass in terms of taking out people. He would have bailed by when he tried, he found himself soundly beaten by that mist bastard warping his limbs all over the place, with Shigaraki holding out his hand towards his face.

Still, it wasn't all bad, he figured the league would make a hell of a lot of enemies, both out pros and other villain groups, which meant a lot of fighting and killing for him! "Remember what I told you earlier, everything before now was just round 1, now that I'm warmed up, we can take things up a notch." He told him as his muscle fibers, already many, only increased in number as his size bulked up to the point where he was more muscle than man.

"Now," He started as he reached into his pocket and pulled out some kind of eye cover and placed it over his artificial one. "I'm coming at you for real, think of it as my way of acknowledging your strength." He said as he gave them the biggest smile of the night. Grateful that he had at least been entertaining.

"Tetsutetsu, you can't seriously think you can take him? You broke your arm and he's still up." Kota whispered into his ear, he didn't have time to respond before Muscular charged them, much faster than he was before but Tetsutetsu had learned by now to react without thought. Letting his body carry them as he moved the two of them out of the way of the attack, which demolished the edge of the cliff.

He landed on the opposite side of the villain, meaning that the path away from here was now to their backs as he put Kota down. "Don't worry about me, Kota. That before wasn't my best, I still got a hell of a lot left in me." He boasted, channeling his inner All Might to force his fear and doubt down and rally himself. He even went as far as flashing the boy and smile and a thumb's up.

"Let's see if you can back that up!" Muscular challenged him as he charged him again, this time both first front and center as if he intended the strike right on through him like a blade through flesh.

"My steel is a lot stronger than you think!" Tetsutetsu wasn't about to let them happened as he once more called upon the power of One for All, pushing it to 10% and focusing mainly on his legs as he started to dodge and jump around the villain, mostly avoiding him while landing some attacks here and there. Mainly kicks. Despite the fact his legs felt like they were burning from the stress he was putting them through, he didn't dare lower the power as his speed was the only thing keeping him in the fight right now.

'It looks like he was serious about holding back, that last attack looked a lot stronger than the other ones.' He thought to himself as he saw that just one of those punches shattered the ground and cliff around it, obliterating the rock and stone like it was nothing, leaving large depressions all over the place that made traversing the environment a challenge, especially since he was never much of a speed guy, to begin with.

"I won't let him hurt you, Kota. Not as long as I breathe." He stated as he found himself, once more standing against the monster of a villain as the two sides had come to a kind of null. While he was breathless, high on adrenaline from his injuries, Muscular was only slightly out of breath, something he wasn't sure was from exhaustion or if he wasn't just that worked up.

"Is that a fact?" Muscular asked him as he pulled back his fist, but didn't attack as he gathered more power behind it. If this kid wouldn't go down like normal, he'll shatter his spirit along with his body. "Well then, I'll just have to break and bend you into a nice table!"

'Dammit, if Eraser-sensei were here, this would be a cakewalk,' Never before had he wished for the grumpy homeroom teacher of his sister's class as he did now. As it stood, his left arm was gone, his vision was getting blurry from all the earlier punishment and his legs felt like hot lead. 'But he's not, they're all down there, fighting to protect themselves and each other. I can't rely on them getting here in time to save us.' He thought about his classmates, his friends, teachers. All of them were giving their all, protecting each other. Where he did get off not doing the same? He couldn't-no, he wouldn't hide behind the excuse that he couldn't control his power, what good would it do him dead?

Starring down the villain in front of him, he made his choice, he was going to go full out, he'll push him past his limits and even further past that. "I refuse to back down, All Might choose me to be his successor." He muttered to himself as he pushed the power of One for All to its limits, his broken and cracked body coming back to life for one last attack. Even though he could feel his muscles strain and his bones creak under the strain of the awesome power, he didn't relent. "Midoriya, Mellissa, Jiro, all of them are doing their best to help me. I refuse to let them all down!" He yelled out as white lighting started to fly off him at an ever-rising rate. Discharging into the broken pieces of his steel skin laying all over, but it started to do more than that.

The pieces closest to him started to move as if pulled by an unseen force as they started to gather, pulling themselves back towards him and once they got there, they were reabsorbed into the remainders still left on him. To the amazement of Kota, he was literally building himself back up from his defeats, the patterns across his skin growing in size and intricacy as his eyes begun to glow white, this light flowing out from him could even be seen coming from the back of his throat.

"Kota, as soon as he's distracted fighting me, run back to camp as fast as you can" He uttered towards the boy, catching his attention as he turned to give him a smile, even in his battered state, he still managed that to which Kota simply couldn't understand it.

"You seriously want to keep fighting? You saw what his punch just did, if he hit you, you're dead!" Kota yelled at him. He didn't want him to die, he didn't want anyone else to die! Why can't people just see that?! "Your last hit didn't even hurt him, and one of your arms is busted up. Come on, we both need to run!" Why? Why was he still in this fight?!

"Everything will be okay, Kota." Tetsutetsu's quiet, yet powerful response grabbed his attention and somehow eased his heart as he looked and saw a shining guardian, his figure casting a light that if it got any brighter, would be visible to the rest of the camp.

"Why?" He asked as calm settled over him as if his spirit was the surface of a quiet meadow's lake. Everything fell away as he felt the power shooting through him cluster, and bolster him. Past Muscular, he could see…something, he could make out 8 shadowy figures, whose glowing eyes match his own in all but color. One of them he could recognize, his golden gaze penetrating him from his hollowed-out body.

"Hahaha, I had fun but this is where it ends!" Muscular yelled as he charged him, moving faster than he had this entire time as he slammed both his fists together, turning himself into a muscle-bound drill. At that same time, the figures as one gave him a firm nob and at that moment, he heard the unspoken words.

'You are worthy.'

---

"Because I am here! Iron Strike!" He finished as he roared with as much power as he could muster in his voice as he slammed his left fist into the incoming wall of malice and muscle.

Bo-O-oM!

"Come on, this is even weaker than the last one!" Muscular laughed. The force of their impact blasting everything small enough away, with Kota hanging into the ground for dear life as the power contest between the two continued. The two of them continued to stand, neither backing down as their fists continued to clash, even the ground beneath wasn't safe as the rock once more started to crack, bend and break into the force of their feet as neither refused to give an inch.

In response to this, Tetsutetsu only growled as he put even more power into it. "You want more? Then I'll bury you! You're not getting past me, you're done! I'll make sure of it!" He yelled as he pushed himself past whatever limits he had. However, unlike before when his arm broke and his steel was shattered, this time while cracks formed, they fixed themselves almost as fast as those same patterns from before continued to grow.

'What is with him? He's quirk…it…' Muscular asked himself as for the first time since they started fighting, he felt himself being…pushed back. 'Changing.' He grit his teeth as he tried to add more power behind him, more muscle but it was slowly starting to lose its punch as Tetsutetsu seemed to only grow stronger as he found his steel skin, which had been broken, putting itself back together.

'What are these feelings? My steel, I can feel it, putting itself back together, I feel…stronger, is this One for All? But why?' He asked himself in wonder. What were those shadows? Why did one of them look like All Might? Why did they seem him 'worthy'? Never mind all that, he didn't have time to think, he could only act, and right now, he had all the power. "I don't have time to look a gift horse in the mouth. I'll take whatever I can get." He yelled as he started to push back against the muscle-bound villain, gaining a greater advantage as the second went back as the steel that had reformed around him started to rumble as if something underneath wished to get out.

That came from Muscular's foot tripped into one of the many holes his earlier attacks at left behind, throwing him off balance and allowing Tetsutetsu to win their power struggle with a fierce yell, the end result being one of two things. The first of which that muscular's right arm's muscle fibers was blown to shreds, which hurt the mad man like hell but left him defenseless. The second thing was that the steel skin that he had regained burst off of Tetsutetsu, revealing a new, better layer underneath. This new skin was different from his old one, being its shimmering surface making it look like someone had mixed gold into him. Those patterns that had been developing before had now finished forming, giving him strangely but oddly beautiful tattoos across his exposed skin. Lastly, through the channels those tattoos forge through his skin, the white lighting that has been arching off him flowed like a white river.

"What the hell is happening with you?" Muscular yelled at him, finding himself feeling fear for the first time in years.

"You wanted my best? Have a taste of my Damascus Steel!" He yelled as he pulled back his arm, getting ready to finish this. All while Kota watched and as he did so, he recalled the words his aunt had told him when he came to live with. How she told him that his parents didn't want to leave him, that they chose to help people even if it meant their lives were forfeit. He didn't understand then. Maybe he still didn't really understand but right here and now, he was seeing what she meant.

He was seeing someone be a hero.

'One for All 10,000%!' Tetsutetsu channeled his power into this last attack, even though Muscular moved to try and avoid it, he didn't give him the chance as he got in too close, too fast for the villain to escape as his fist came down like the hammer of Thor. "Damascus Steel – Manhattan Fist!" Muscular attempt to block the attack with his only remaining bulked-up arm didn't help him as Tetsutetsu punch went right through it, cutting through the muscle fibers like a hot knife through butter before slamming into his face.

SLA-BOOOM!

Even then, his punch didn't stop as his jaw was almost blown to bits from the attack as Muscular was sent careening into the mountain, colliding with such force that the entire thing shook from the impact. Once the dust cleared, Muscular was left in a crater in the side of the mountain 6m(19ft) wide and 9m(29ft) deep. His lights were well and truly, out.

And standing victorious, even as his quirk first lost its new form before turning off fully, was Tetsutetsu. Even from where stood, he could tell he was wrecked, but he still had a smile on his face. He didn't waver even for a moment. 'W-why?' Kota couldn't help but ask himself before he spoke out. "Why did…you risk your life like that?"

"Even though you barely know me, even when I was so mean to you..!" He yelled, trying and failing to wipe away his tears of joy, confusion, of sadness. He didn't know what they were, all he knew was that he was crying.

"Why did you try so hard to save me?" He asked him.

"I…I told you, didn't I?" Tetsutetsu, who had approached him as he lost his composure and wasn't looking spoke up, getting the boy to look up and see that he was giving him a smile that reminded him f the ones his parents always gave him whenever he was scared, to tell him that he was safe. That they were there. Tetsutetsu put his arching, but relatively undamaged hand on the boy's hat and ruffled it as if it was his hair. "I promised you that I'll keep you safe. Pro or not, I always keep my word." At that, he couldn't help himself as he all but threw himself into his arms, crying all the while thanking him and apologizing.

Even though it hurt like a bitch right now, Tetsutetsu didn't mind as he only let the boy have this while hugging his close. He made his promise to protect him and to live to see another day.

.

.

.

Looks like he kept both.

---

And that is the end of that! Man, I gotta tell you, when I reached the end, I was like 'I could have sworn I planned to have more going in in this but then I looked at the notes of what I wanted to include in this chapter and realized that I have covered pretty much everything. Any more would be including stuff that's supposed to be in the next chapter. Now, as you all just read, a lot happened in this chapter, some of which happened in the show but other stuff happened that wasn't canon. First of which is that since Midoriya has no clue where Kota was, it was up to Tetsutetsu to go after him. The second change was the fact that both Midoriya and Yaoyorozu disobey direct instructions to go off searching for the others.

Now, the reason I had her chance after him, rather than have him ask for her help, was to show that she's grown to a point way past what she was in the show, as in the moment, she was both observant enough to read the situation, and decisive enough to act on that information based on her own judgment. Another change, even if it was minor, was how Kendo and co were moving around to avoid the gas, which was tree hopping. I based that off a game I used to play with my friends when we were younger which had us climb trees and jump branch to branch, escaping some unseen predator on the ground. Was it dangerous? Yes. did any of us get hurt? More the once? Did our parents tell us to stop being morons? Also yes but at this point, you can guess we didn't listen because it was fun.

Now, as for why Tetsutetsu needed Kendo's help to get to Kota's location in time, the reason is twofold. The first of which is that he's in a different starting position to where Izuku was in cannon, and since the woods form the backdrop to the mountain where Kota's hidey spot was, I'm assuming that there was a greater distance between where he was, and the clearing. The second reason was that unlike Midoriya, who already had a high-speed movement technique in the form of Full Cowling at this point, Tetsutetsu does not like his version(which I'll get to in a second) is an unrefined one as he mainly used OFA to boost his defense and strength.

Now, as to the fight. I need to establish a few things with it. The first of which was that he was no match in a straight-up fight as if Muscular wasn't toying with him, he would be dead. The second of which was that I needed to show that he could act as a symbol of peace, and show people that he's a worthy successor to the power of OFA. The last thing I wanted to show was that the power of OFA doesn't just boast the power of the quirks in it, but also the quirk of the current user. This would be impossible for All Might and Deku as both started out quirkless, but for those who had their own quirk before they received the power, it grants them a kind of…boast.

As to why he called his power Damascus Steel, he'll explain his name choice later but I chose it as Damascus steel is an ancient style of steel that was said to be, among other things: Extremely strong; resistant to shattering, capable of being honed to a sharp, resilient edge far longer than a regular steel blade and in some cases, magical. Damacus steel is characterized by its distinctive patterns of banding and mottling, which look a lot like flowing water or sometimes in a "ladder" or "rose" pattern. This is why Tetsutetsu steel skin was making those lines.

In that fight, this started happening with Tetsutetsu before he saw the vestiges of the previous users, that was the reason those lines were forming across his skin. When they did finally appear, it was to save him as with Izuku, they appeared to help him win a contest which is…kinda low bar as he already had been in a life or death fight at the USJ before then but they didn't manifest. I wanted to make their appearance more of a reward for his refusal to let someone die when he can protect them.

Lastly, we got more hints as to who 'she' is. This time around Magne gives us the clue that whoever she is, she's much more dangerous than a Nomu and in comparison, she would rather take being attacked by one of the league's brainless pawns than here. We also saw that she can spy on people without anyone being the wiser and that she could move silently. The last thing is that she's present for a single reason. To hunt down Izuku, as to how he'll fare against, you'll just have to wait and see.

---

Now, Reviews:

SoaringxDragon: Already addressed this.

SoaringxDragon: Bakugo acts different to canon as here, he acknowledges Midoriya's strength, so the two of them are kind of the more traditional anime rivals. As for why he acts indifferent to people to look down on him, he stopped caring what they think, accepting that a portion of the population will always disregard him or think less of him. As for the therapy thing, he got to this point because he had the support to do so, from both his parents-the Shields, Yu and a professional skilled in handling people's problems. So yeah, he's something that needed therapy at one point in his life, the personality you're seeing is the one he has at age 15, he didn't have it when he was say, 12 or even 10.

D3lph0xL0v3r: Thanks, and as you just read, he was really messed up. And no, his new form didn't heal his wounds, it just helped him ignore the pain and slap a fresh coat of…steel(?) onto him the same way repainting an old car doesn't make it any better.

LoveLifeForever: Sorry buddy, that's been closed for a long…long time. As for your choice, Kirishima is already a popular choice with more than a couple of stories having him take the power. It's not like you gave a bad reason, I agree with you on most of the term, but the same can be said about Tetsutetsu, at least in the broad strokes.

Blaze1992: Got the idea off a Youtube video some time back.

Boi: Thanks.

LoveLifeForever: Simply, Mei didn't see it that way. In her eyes, while Midoriya is showcasing that his equipment can help HIM be a hero, she was showcasing that her tech can help EVERYONE. She can guess that he has no intention to sell most of his stuff and while he might surely become the best tech-based heroes, she'll make the larger splash by supplying heroes with her high-quality gear. Think of it as say, Mei as McDonald's and Izuku as a small family-run shop. He may produce the better quality food, but she can sell to s to a much…much wider market.

AadenHelan: We all have our tastes, thanks for sticking around as long as you did.

WOKELAND: Thank you.

JackBlaze123: I know, and I did. Chapters 1 through 41 have all been redone to try and get rid of as many mistakes.

Zukafew119: Yeah, there are those days when I can't even write down something. Which is a shame as I already come up with the broad stroke plot points and ideas in advance up till chapter 59 but the issue there is that if I only wrote with the broad stroke ideas, chapters would be much…much shorter, like around only 4k words. While I have the main ideas for the chapters and story already planned, there needs to be other stuff going in that doesn't mess with the flow, characters need to have a conversation with one another and grow and etc. Point is, I can't produce chapters as fast as I would like to.

Yu messing with Bubble was fun to write as she seems like the type to do that, and to be fair, seeing the position Sir Nighteye was in with his side-kick doesn't make her case. As for the cut to her and the rest of the heroes outside of UA, it was something that should have happened in the previous chapter but it was too long and needed to be moved. Also, recall that the Yakuza that he and Mt. Lady fought had guns, remember that since it will be important later.

With the conversation between the doctor and AFO, I wanted to both show how he acts when he isn't looking after Tomura and to show off how the two created this unknown creature. She'll make a full appearance soon, don't worry but for now, she's just this unknown threat, a powerhouse so much different to a Nomu. The doctor's known the Underworld king for decades now, so he's one of the few who can get away with talking to him like that simply because AFO respects him and his opinions.

With the Jiro freak-out, I really wanted someone in their two classes to figure it out seeing how in most media, whenever a group of friends has a secret, it's always a group 3-4 people large. Bakugo I suppose counts but All Might does not, meaning that as far as the anime is concerned, someone else in the Deku squad needs to figure out the Deku's secret to round out the group. Jiro's reaction is based on what I would assume any of their classmate's reaction would to hearing about this battle between good and evil that has been raging in the shadows for decades. Jiro's description of AFO is based on how he sees himself as in one of the flashbacks to the first time with AFO, the man himself says he wants to be like the demon lords they read about in light novels. The only said thin there was that the first didn't ask him to be like Satoru or be as bad as Ainz is in Overlord.

Ragdoll is just filled with energy and doesn't know what to do with it, but yeah, it was an asshole move with the pots and pans. With the pranks, they may be mean but seeing how her character is prankster, at least here, it's not as bad as it could have been, she has restraint. The section with the improved robots was something I got when I was thinking of a story where Izuku would be in the support class, I can see him making those improvements just in his spare time and letting hero course students use them as practice. As for their conversation, I had some trouble writing it but I wanted to do it anyway as I wanted the three of them to realize that they're similar in what their goals are.

With Elton John, I may have said decades, but that was because saying centuries would be too much of a stretch when he's still very much alive. For all we know, medicine could make leaps and bounds and John may live to see the year 2040. With the whole tracking him, only to fail, I got the idea off Iron Man 3 when Tony was testing out his(at the time) latest suit.

War Horses: Has it been fixed now?

Kkmememesha: Sorry about that, the mistake should have been corrected by now.

taiwoeretan1 c: Iron man is a bit overplayed, he can borrow elements but I really didn't want him to just be Tony Stark.

HanBaron: Thanks, and IDK, I might need to check out those stories of yours, I've found that in the past, good fanfiction can get me interested in the canon material.

Drax152: Well, he's isn't present in cannon, and where people assume he's a deadbeat, dead, or a villain, can't we also assume that he a swell guy that works far from home?

Manga154: Thanks.