Disclaimer: My Hero Academia does not belong to me in spite of it all.
Bakugo Katsuki wasn't sure about a couple of things. That he was the greatest, that went without saying. Also, Deku was a gigantic nerd. That was also true.
But lately, he'd been thinking about that damn Sludge Villain. How the guy had overpowered him with a cheap shot sneak attack. How he'd been choking to death while the Heroes were only watching. And then that fucking Mastermind douchebag saving him. He... he hadn't needed to be saved!
He'd had the Sludge Villain right where he'd wanted him! So what if he'd barely been able to breathe! So what if he'd barely been able to move afterwards! And screw people who said that he'd been crying, because he hadn't! He wasn't going to lose to a damn pile of crap like that!
What he was confused about was, was that thing the goddamn hag had set up for them. That had also had his dad involved, a stubborn expression on his face.
"I'm signing us up for therapy, Katsuki! We kinda need it because you were nearly killed out there and we had to watch it on the fucking news!" His mother had trapped him in a goddamn bear hug when he'd gotten home and he hadn't wanted to break free just couldn't be bothered with getting the hag off of him. "I don't... I'd rather not see that happen if I can help it, Katsuki. And, honestly, you need help just as much as we do, probably more!"
He'd scowled back then, had torn into her about it. That he wasn't weak enough to go to therapy. He didn't need any of that shit! But then...
"Bakugo Katsuki, you are going to a therapist, same as the rest of us! And if you don't go," his mother's face turned to a shark-like smirk, "I'll tell Inko-chan about it. And then she'll get your stubborn ass in gear."
So Bakugo had gone to the stupid therapist. Mostly because he didn't need Midoriya-san to get involved. He didn't like feeling small when she glared at him. And the therapist? She had a job to do too. And Katsuki wasn't going to be rude to her any more than he'd be rude to a doctor - what? Bakugo wasn't such an asshole to mouth off at people who would keep a hero going like a support nerd doing costumes. Like Izuku Deku. So he'd gone, and, well. She'd not entirely been some damn extra. She was tolerable.
Deku... that was the other thing that had been confusing him. Deku had been going out somewhere after school for the past month. The first month he'd been going different routes (not that Bakugo kept an eye on him or anything dumb like that. Let the damn nerd do whatever. He didn't care.) Then the last week he'd been going to one place. Bakugo had asked him politely where he'd been going.
"Oh, Kacchan!" The nerd had bubbled. "I'm, well, doing some self-defence stuff." He looked down at his shoes. "I kind of, well, got involved in a fight a couple of weeks ago? And it went badly for me? So I'm, ah, going to a class! To learn how to defend myself!"
"Who the hell beat you up? I'll kick their ass! I'm the only one who gets to do that, Deku!" He'd politely asked again. Not because he was worried. But because anybody who thought they could mess with Bakugo's friend annoying classmate was going to fucking die. They would never find the body.
But the nerd just shook his head. "Some jerk at work. Didn't catch his name. But it's alright, Kacchan." The nerd's face had fixed itself in that weird determined expression again. "I'm not going to lose to them again."
Bakugo just scoffed. "Whatever, nerd. And don't even think about getting in my way again, especially if you try to get into UA! You do that and I'll kill you..." Bakugo tried to think of something worse, followed it up with, "and then I'll kill you again, you got that, you damn nerd?!" Deku, the useless fucker, just smiled and waved him off.
Bakugo scowled, stomping off to the agreed on spot for the therapist. Damn Deku. Making him feel shit.
The therapist was waiting for him. "Good to see you, Bakugo-kun." The extra had introduced herself as something - Tomomi? Whatever.
"Glasses," Bakugo grunted, slouching into the chair and putting his feet up on the desk. Glasses simply pulled out a notepad and pen. Time to talk about feelings and shit.
After that encounter with Eraserhead and that discussion over cake, I talked it over with Gentle and the others. I didn't really want to admit it, but they were right. As skilled as I was, as relatively cleanly as I had gotten away, I was still an amateur. Supervillains needed more than just luck to get away from Pro Heroes. I mean, sure, I knew that. All of my heists were carefully planned. But at my skill level, I couldn't get away from somebody like Eraserhead.
That really got at me. It felt like I was backing down. But I knew that they were right. I had nearly lost, and there wasn't anything I could really do to change that. I could only acknowledge that I lacked experience and grow from there.
So we decided that Mastermind had to lay low. While I was keeping my head down for a while, I was going to be getting some self-defence training from Gentle and the others. Which, well, I wasn't that bad in a fight ,was I? Plus, I had support gear to build for my friends and myself. Mastermind's triumphant return couldn't be overshadowed or complicated by inferior support items in his partners, after all...
In Gentle Criminal's garage, now repurposed as Mastermind's second laboratory, La Brava looked at Mastermind as he sighed, stepping back from the android and wiping his hands on a rag. "Alright. This is test 32 of the DEKU. Here's hoping that it works. Mwa-hahaha!" After the obligatory roll of thunder, he pressed a button, watching the robot start to get up. "The power cell is stable. Now, time to see it move."
He pressed the button on the pad. The machine stepped forwards, stiff and barely responsive. Then it toppled on the ground. Mastermind sighed, turning the robot off. "And that's DEKU test 32, proving that it is a way to not build an accurate android duplicate of myself."
La Brava looked over the robot. "I don't get it. All the parts work correctly, right?"
Mastermind nodded, pulling open the head. "Getting the movement of humans down is pretty hard. I'm going to check the code again." He inserted a wire into its head and linked it to his computer. Looking at the screen, he leant forwards, tapping at the keys and checking through the code. Interested, La Brava went over and looked at the code with him.
After a few minutes of this and Mastermind's muttering she turned to look at him. "You wrote all of this yourself?"
Mastermind nodded. "Bits of it, anyways. I'm not the best programmer."
La Brava nodded. "I can see that. There's a few parts that I think could be redone."
Mastermind swivelled in his chair, looking at her. La Brava waved her hands around. "I-I-I mean, there's whole functions that are linked in inefficient ways to the servos, and there's a bit of code spaghetti in there as well, but...but I'm-I'm sure that you know what-"
"La Brava... what can I improve?"
La Brava spluttered, waving her hands around. "What? Eh? I-I'm not... I mean, this is just-"
Mastermind scooted his chair closer. "La Brava, it's okay." He spun around, pointing at the screen again. "I mean, as I said, I'm not the best programmer. My area of expertise is more in, well, I don't really have one area. I'm a bit of a jack of all trades. I guess my best area is Quirk analysis?" He tapped the screen. "I mean, I work hard and I guess I'm a genius, but there's people online who can just do things that I couldn't even dream about doing!"
La Brava flushed bright red as he got out of his chair. "So please, La Brava. I may be Mastermind," A loud crack of thunder followed, "but even my brilliance values different perspectives."
La Brava stood there for a moment, hands clasped. Then she nodded to herself, a determined expression on her face. "Right!" She hopped into the chair, looking over the code. "Well, let's see this bit here..." her hands blurred over the keyboard, adding bits here, deleting bits there. Mastermind watched, mouth running a million miles a minute while he furiously wrote down the changes.
Toshinori Yagi and Mirio looked out over the beach. Toshinori was sincerely impressed with the progress made. "It's only been five weeks but it's already looking better!" Toshinori praised, clapping his arm around Mirio's shoulders. "Just keep at it, and we'll be ready for you to take One for All in no time!"
True to his word, he'd been checking out the past wielders of One for All in his spare time, to see how they had used the power. He'd continue looking up the past users. He just had a roaring feeling in his gut that he was getting to something important on the fourth.
Mirio just nodded, a small smile on his face. "I have to admit, it's unorthodox but it's working. I feel a whole lot stronger already, Yagi-sensei!" He pumped his arm, eyes sparkling with determination. "Let's get back to it, then!"
Before they could return to their work, a young and familiar voice rang out. "Ah, Yagi-san, Mirio-san! Good to see you!"
Toshinori and Mirio turned around to see Young Midoriya run up to them, waving and smiling. Mirio went over to talk with the young boy, smiles all around. Toshinori just leaned back, enjoying the moment. Meeting an earnest young man like Midoriya was refreshing. That first time had been awkward for all parties all around, but soon the young man had become a small part of their lives. He wondered how the young man would fare in life - would he be a policeman? A doctor? Or would he be a fine hero like Mirio?
Anything was possible for that young man. Toshinori was sure of it. Certainly the young man was brighter than he'd been at that age.
Midoriya was talking, gesturing as he talked about the thing he had been working on. "-so, the project went really well, Mirio-san! It went so much better than I could have ever hoped for! But I've got some extra studying to do. I'm aiming for the Support course in UA, after all!"
Well. This was good news. Toshinori should have guessed from all of the materials he had been getting from the beach. That, and all of the tinkering he had seen the young man do. Toshinori had just supposed that it was part of the robotics club - he should have thought that the young man would want to try his talents elsewhere. "It's quite a hard course to get into, I hear," Toshinori ventures. "Some people say that it's almost harder to get in than the Hero course."
Toshinori had been brushing up with Nedzu about the various courses. He had brought up the subject after Midoriya had mentioned the importance of wearing gloves and having a first aid kit all that time ago - he felt that he needed to know more about teaching than just winging it. The Principal had gone over what each course had to do to qualify. For Heroics, Toshinori knew what qualified easily enough. For the business course, they had stringent exams and practical work regarding marketing opportunities. And for the Support Course... well, Toshinori wasn't worried for the young man, though. From his heart to his skills, he was sure that young Midoriya would make it into UA's Support course.
Midoriya Izuku turned to him and nodded, eyes sparkling and a small, determined smile on his face. "Well, what's the point otherwise? Plus Ultra, after all!"
Toshinori just laughed, pumping a fist with young Mirio and Midoriya. "Plus Ultra indeed!"
Mirio nodded with him. "Yeah, I get that feeling working with Sir." He laughed about it good-naturedly. "He's really pushing me with prediction."
Midoriya tilted his head. "Prediction?"
Mirio nodded. "Yeah! It's actually a really important skill to develop with my Quirk. Using my Quirk at its fullest means that I'm blind and deaf with only the air in my lungs. Even stepping through a wall has a whole bunch of steps involved in the process!" He tapped his finger against his temple rapidly. "I need to know where everyone and everything will be around me when I go solid again, so by training my prediction abilities through experience, I've really improved! You should have seen me when I first started!" he laughed again. "I could barely go through a wall without accident!"
Midoriya looked at him with wide eyes, a smile on his face. "Experience..." he breathed, eyes on Mirio.
Toshinori nodded. "I have to agree. Sir Nighteye knows more than anyone the value of foresight." His side ached and he grit his teeth slightly. "Believe me, I know."
Mirio nodded. "He's amazing! His biggest piece of advice, which I try to follow, is this: 'always stay three steps ahead of your opponent.'" He nodded proudly. "Keep that in mind and you're sure to stay ahead of anything!"
Midoriya nodded, face shadowed by the setting sun. "Thank you, Mirio-san! I'll keep that in mind for my future endeavours!"
Mastermind looked at his fellow partners in crime. "Well, even though you described what your Quirks are, I'd like to go a bit more in detail so that I can design support equipment that best suits you."
Inkblot nodded, arms crossed. "Makes sense. Alright, let's get into it."
She then reached her arm behind her back. "Well, Cartoon is pretty versatile. The more ink in my system, the higher quality stuff I can make, and more of it too." She pulled out the dark grey mallet again, waving it around. "This was one of the first things I made and well, it's a hammer." She swung it around, over her head and SMACK into the concrete, shaking the ground slightly and leaving a near circular indent. She pulled the massive mallet up with one arm.
"Wow..." Mastermind breathed. "Is it heavy?"
Inkblot nodded. "Feel it for yourself, dude."
She gently passed the handle over to the shorter villain. He gripped it and tried to lift the hammer, only for the head to hit the ground.
She chuckled. "Yeah, it's pretty heavy." Taking it back with one hand, she idly spun it around like a cheerleader's baton before putting it back behind her.
The other villains blinked a bit. "Okay, where the hell does that go?" Golden Grin asked.
Inkblot shrugged. "I'unno. It's just another part of Cartoon, I guess. I keep all kinds of stuff there."
Mastermind's eyes sparkled. "You have a personal pocket dimension? That's - that's incredible!"
Inkblot shrugged. "As I said, Cartoon has a whole bunch of benefits." She wiggled her arms in the air, the other villains watching as her noodle limbs flailed about, sometimes twisting nearly a full circle. "I've got stretchy, noodle limbs an' I can stretch pretty far with 'em." To demonstrate, she reached over to Mastermind with a rubbery stretching noise, patting him on the head from a full two metres away. "Also means that explosions and punches don 't do too much to me."
She paused, pulling out another bottle of ink. "I just have to keep refuelling if I do wackier stuff."
Mastermind nodded, notebook out and handwriting blurring across the page. "Uh-huh. So maybe if I can think of something that doesn't need you to have so much ink, maybe ink storage of some kind. Maybe some stuff that could fit in your pocket dimension!"
Inkblot nodded. "The other weird thing about it is that my Quirk's effects aren't as big on living things. Like, if I swung that hammer at your face, what do you think would happen?"
The other villains looked at each other. "...I'd die?" Golden Grin spoke.
Inkblot shook her head. "Nah, you wouldn't. Believe me. Any bombs I make level buildings just fine but don't do much more than blow smoke in people's faces. That hammer blow? You'd be dizzy and disorientated, with little tweety birds orbiting your head, but you wouldn't be dead. Which is a pretty good thing!" her grin faded a bit. "I mean, I really don't want to kill people."
Mastermind raised a hand. "Is everything you make black and white?"
Inkblot shook her head. "Nah. If I want colour I need to drink some other colours of ink. I just drink black since it's my favourite."
Mastermind blinked, writing down. "So what does ink taste like to you anyway? Do different colours of ink taste different? Well, I mean they obviously must given you have preferences," his hand was a blur as he wrote stuff down, "but how much ink do you have to drink to get different colours? Are you limited by the colours you put into your body or does it just come out in colours you want anyways? How much ink can you drink in one sitting? Does the ink go into the same space as your pocket dimension or does it sit in your body?"
Inkblot laughed, slightly nervously. "Well, I'll talk about it later. Maybe somebody else should show what they can do."
Golden Grin laughed. "Sure can!" He stepped up, looking across the yard at the target they'd set up. "You ready?" When Mastermind nodded, he took in a deep breath. His mouth started to glow with a golden light. He then braced himself, and then opened his mouth. A thick beam of golden light shot out at lightning speeds, hitting the target and punching through slightly as he bit the beam off. The last of the laser-light dispersing around his mouth, he turned to the rest of them. "Pretty sweet, right?"
Mastermind nodded. "Really cool! How long did it take you to get that good with it?"
The other villain shrugged. "Eh, coupla months. Firing at targets, that kinda thing. My family's got a lot of people with laser Quirks, after all!"
Inkblot and Mr Compress shared a look. "You, ah, only hit the edge of the target though," Mr. Compress pointed out, showing that the beam had barely hit the edge.
Golden Grin looked away. "It's pretty hard to aim man, come on. I get the light in my eyes!" Inkblot and Mr. Compress let out noises of understanding.
Mastermind nodded, turning to a new page in his notebook and sketching away. "I've got some ideas to help with that. How many times can you fire it in quick succession?"
Golden Grin shrugged. "A fair few times, but then I need to cool down. Otherwise I could blow up my stomach. I mean, used to be I would fire once and then I'd need a five minute breather. Now I can fire up to 7 shots before cooling down."
Mastermind nodded. "Is it a temperature issue? Does it have something to do with your core muscles? How does your stomach even work if the power builds up there? Do you digest food faster as a result of your laser stomach?"
Golden Grin tried to wave him down. "One question at a time, man!"
Golden Grin had contributed in his own way for the villains, hauling some exercise equipment to Gentle Criminal's house that he swore just fell off the back of the moving truck. Mastermind panted, running on the treadmill with his armour on. Golden Grin stood to the side, head tilted to one side. "Dude, why are you running in your armour anyways? I thought that this was, like, fitness stuff."
Mastermind nodded. "I... I wear this for every job... as a super villain... designed it for all of this... kind of need to be able to run in it..."
Golden Grin shook his head. "Kind of crazy man but, if it works it works I guess." He watched as Mastermind came off the treadmill, passing the shorter man a bottle of water. He then turned to the treadmill. "Guess you can't wear your armour outside, huh. Cause running on a track is really good for you." He turned on the treadmill and started running on it himself. "Shame you don't have, like, body weights or something. That'd make it easier to go out and-"
"Ah, I knew there was something to do!" Mastermind snapped his fingers. "Arm and leg weights so that I can simulate my armour outside in public!" He started mumbling, clearly itching to go back to the lab. "M-maybe if I can swing it as an excuse to go outside and run on natural paths, I can-"
"No way, Mastermind!" Inkblot smacked him over the head. "You're reasonably fit, but we've gotta up your stamina and speed, so no tinkering until you're finished! Then, it's back to learning how to actually fight!"
Mastermind slumped. "Aww..." Grumbling a bit, he went over to the mat and started on his push-ups. Golden Grin shook his head. Crazy. Still, Mastermind hadn't gotten this far by being sane.
Golden Grin just pushed on his own exercise routine. Sure, he wasn't quite as strong as Inkblot was, but he was still pretty good in a fight! Firing laser beams from your mouth is pretty dangerous. With how powerful his were, it didn't bear thinking about.
They continued like this for a while, Mastermind running through routines and Golden Grin working hard as well, before Inkblot checked the time. "Alright, time for a break!" Mastermind practically collapsed, breathing heavily. Inkblot leaned over, handing him a bottle of water. "Tell you what, then. You make these weights, we'll hit the park."
Mastermind just nodded feebly, sucking in deep breaths to try and recover quicker.
Gentle Criminal and Mr. Compress checked over the plans on the computer yet again. "It's going to be pretty difficult even with Mastermind's proposed Support Gear," Gentle Criminal mused, hand stroking his goatee.
Mr. Compress nodded, "Major jewellery stores like that are always hard to break. But that's where the fun is, after all."
Stitch looked up from the medical textbook he'd brought from his clinic. "The Heroes are going to be in force. And once they realise that you're teaming up, they're going to mobilize more people."
Gentle Criminal nodded. "That's a risk to all of these ventures. But if it's to show people that these companies aren't the greatest in the world, then that's a fine price to pay!"
Stitch shrugged. "I'm mostly going to be working on distractions anyway." He returned to his book. "Still, considering that All Might has been seen more in Musutafu, we're going to be running the risk of bumping into the Symbol of Peace himself."
Mr. Compress checked his gloves. "We'll have to hope it doesn't come to that then."
Mastermind just nodded. "I-I mean, this plan is about as good as it can get, but if All Might shows up..." he swallowed. "Then it's over. I don't really have a plan for All Might beyond trying to tie him up in other areas."
Gentle Criminal and Mr. Compress shared a look. Stitch was the first to speak up. "I thought you were the master planner?"
Mastermind shook his head. "Well, it's just not realistic to say that any one plan is the perfect plan!" He looked down. "People don't do exactly what you plan. So you work around that. You try to stay three steps ahead, keep them on their toes. Trying to plan around the Number One, with his experience? That's difficult."
Stitch nodded. "Exactly. Glad to hear you've got that straight. Especially about staying ahead of All Might and the heroes like that."
Mastermind nodded in determination. "The world of Heroes may think that it's hard enough... but soon, Mastermind and the... ah..." he scratched his head suddenly, lost in thought.
"We're going to have to come up with a cool Villain Team Name, aren't we..."
Gentle Criminal raised a finger and opened his mouth, then closed it. "He does have a point..."
Mr. Compress shrugged. "Not good presentation if we don't have a uniting theme..."
The rest of the meeting was devoted to brainstorming various villain names. A whiteboard was called out and markers scribbled over the surface, some names getting a vote and others getting lines drawn through them. Arguments broke out, but were thankfully quashed. Stitch left after an hour, citing a need to get back to his back alley clinic, but soon enough, they had hammered out a name.
"It's catchy. I like it," Inkblot nodded.
Gentle Criminal nodded as well. "What a marvellous name. I would have preferred the Gentle Criminal Subscriber Army, but this will work as well."
"Okay, that's most of our prep done!" Mastermind said brightly.
"Really?" Golden Grin frowned.
"No, not really. Most of the Support gear I'm working on isn't quite ready yet."
Detective Tsukauchi looked over the various pieces of paper that comprised their information with the rest of the heroes and policemen. Death Arms was leaning forwards, expression interested. Mount Lady sat forwards, pen gripped tightly in her hand. Kamui Woods looked impassive as ever, arms crossed. "So, let's have a look at Mastermind's criminal activity."
The projector changed slide, Tsukauchi pointing at each bit. "The first incident, at Makoto Industries." Mount Lady scowled at that. "The villain broke in through the front door, then deployed an EMP, most likely from his Quirk. He then stole several items of support equipment-"
"All the stinking good stuff, probably..." Mount Lady muttered, pen creaking in her grip.
"-and then left the building from the front, making a grandiose declaration for the Heroes to find him. A few minutes later, he goes over to a crime scene in progress-" another slide changed, showing a teenager being pulled out by a short man in armour. "He deployed other devices, including what seems to be a freeze ray and a grappling hook. Note that there's no sign of his loot now. And then he escapes."
Death Arms frowned, cracking his knuckles.
"About a week and a half later, and he strikes again at Kinsara Bank, just when another villain -" another slide, this one showing Gentle Criminal's thumbnail for his video - GENTLE CRIMINAL AND LOYAL SUBSCRIBER TEAMUP - KINSARA BANK HEIST, along with security camera footage. "Was making his own move." The other heroes looked sympathetic - at least they'd gotten off light compared with those guys.
Detective Tsukauchi continued, flicking through stills from the video. "The pair of them were able to take out several Pro Heroes, and took the money as well, presumably to fund their next heists."
"They're certainly terrible," Kamui Woods muttered.
"And then the most recent incident." The slide changed again, showing the devastated storefront of Bespin Cakes. "Mastermind showed up here in some form of vehicle with no registration number. He then proceeded to steal-" the detective hesitated for a brief second, then rallied, "steal forty cakes for purposes yet unknown, loading them up into the vehicle. He then engaged in a high speed pursuit with police and heroes, but was able to shake pursuers."
He then turned to the rest of the room. "I got a report that he had been tracked by Eraserhead, but was able to shake him off using an improvised binding device."
Murmurs broke out in the room.
Detective Tsukauchi turned back to the monitor, clicking through it. "Now, Mastermind has proven himself to not be just a typical villain for the, ah, things he leaves behind."
Mount Lady's pen broke in her hand. "Those lousy bastards..." she growled out. She'd been specifically mentioned as a 'country sap who wouldn't know good support equipment if it bit her in the ass.' She'd had a long, hard talk with them about the gear that they had given her on the pretense that they couldn't get shoes to work at all with her Quirk.
Death Arms offered her a pat on the back. "Hey, they got what was coming to then, didn't they?"
She scowled. "All that time learning how to work with barely protected feet, when I could have had shoes on... All that wasted time..."
"Indeed." Tsukauchi picked ups the small, black USB drive, one of the pieces of evidence. "Mastermind somehow made recordings of important phonecalls as well as gained security camera footage from both the bank and Makoto." He looked over the current report in his hand. "And somehow, uncovered evidence that Bespin Cakes was associated with a group known as the Shie Hissakai, acting as another source of income for that group."
The Heroes shared a look between them. "So... he thinks he's Oji Harima or something like that?"
Tsukauchi just shrugged. "We're going to have to do more digging. What we do know is, that Mastermind is an individual wearing potent Support Gear, most likely with an electrical Quirk that powers it all."
The door opened at that point. "Hold it," a familiar voice drawled out. Coming through the door, clean-shaven and in a suit, stood-
"Eraserhead? I thought you were doing something else for the investigation?" Death Arms asked politely.
Eraserhead shook his head, muttering something about the situation being 'irrational.' He then pulled out a laptop. "Please listen to what my boss has to say."
The laptop was opened up, displaying a white screen with an 'N' picked out in gothic font. A distinct piano tune began to play. A voice started to talk, sounding distorted, androgynous and scratchy. "Greetings, police, Heroes. My name is N, and I would like-"
Detective Tsukauchi put a hand over his eyes. "Principal Nedzu, do you have to do this every time you get involved in a police investigation?"
There was a brief pause, then the Principal of UA High popped out from the next room over. "Oh, let me have my fun! It's not every day that I get to play with a mind like Mastermind's!"
He hopped up onto a chair, gesturing Eraserhead to shut the laptop and pass it to him, which the Hero obliged. "So! I'm glad to see fine heroes like yourselves up and about, trying to capture this villain!" He turned to Mount Lady, something vaguely sincere in his eyes. "How are the boots treating you, by the way?"
She nodded, a smile on her face. "They're treating me pretty well! You, uh, probably shouldn't have had to add them on."
He waved her off. "Nonsense! If there's a problem, then I'll just fix it! But enough about boots, I wanted to talk about this villain!"
His tone lost its chipper edge. "I've only had access to the recordings up until the last encounter. It was then that I was able to get Eraserhead out on patrol. After all, he does have the time for it now!"
Eraserhead twitched a bit, but didn't comment. "What I saw didn't impress me. He's an amateur. Even if he was a genius like Nedzu, he didn't really show it."
Nedzu nodded. "Agreed! At this point he's still learning. But that encounter was quite informative! I got a lot of data from those cameras I placed on your Support Gear, Eraserhead!"
"Wait, when did you-"
Nedzu pressed a few buttons on the laptop, opening up a screen. "Here, I was able to confirm some of my theories just watching Aizawa fight him!" He tapped the image. "From the past reports and this, I can confirm that this villain is indeed a genius, having built or developed most of this technology by himself. He has also been steadily improving his gear beyond just a costume change. And finally, I believe that our villain does not have an electrical Quirk, but a less obvious one, potentially even one unrelated to inventing or intelligence?"
The other heroes and policemen sat there for a second. Then, there was uproar.
"Wait, not an electrical Quirk? That can't be right!"
"A genius? Are you saying that he's like you then?"
"These devices you've planted in my support gear, did you remove them?"
Nedzu waved them off, trying to calm them down. "Please, please! Allow me to explain my reasoning." He pulled up the image again. "I first supposed that Mastermind had built this equipment when I had a chance to examine it in older videos!" He zoomed in on one example. "Look at the craftsmanship, the detail. This was not made by any of the typical villain support gear manufacturers."
They craned their heads to see the image. Death Arms was the first to speak. "I don't see it."
Nedzu shrugged. "You see, but you do not understand. I like to try and keep abreast of various villain tech patterns. I can recognise a manufacturer just from a few screws. But this one - wholly original! He must be making the gear himself."
He tapped his head. "The second supposition of genius is simply a rational one! After all, to plan a heist like this complete with escape routes, infiltrate his targets and develop this tech, why, not thinking him some flavour of genius would be insulting!" He grinned. "Certainly he's not in my league! I've simply too much experience and know-how for that. But he is playing the same game."
"You mentioned improvements to his gear," Tsukauchi looked closer at the Principal.
Nedzu just nodded. "There's differences here - some bits of his armour have been streamlined, refined. He must have near completely reworked those boots of his, they're a smidgen thicker on the soles and build."
Eraserhead nodded. "I didn't have too much of a chance to examine his gear in detail." His eyes sharpened. "Now, what was that about him not having an electrical Quirk?"
Nedzu grinned. "Ah, there's the rub of it!" He pulled up the video taken from a camera labelled 'GOGGLES'. (Eraserhead was furiously checking the goggles to find the camera.) "Now then, we see the most important thing... here."
Eraserhead and the heroes looked at the screen. "...I don't get it. He's been caught by that floating scarf thing. What's the hold-up?" Mount Lady asked.
Nedzu's eyes shone. "Exactly! He's caught here! But the important thing is, he isn't reaching for his Quirk!"
Eraserhead blinked, mind running at a million miles a minute and goggles dropping to the floor. "Not using his Quirk..." he breathed, eyes narrowed.
Kamui Woods looked closer. "We thought he had an electrical Quirk of some kind... so why wouldn't he use it here?"
Nedzu just grinned. "Even if you know about Erasure, wouldn't your first instinct be to try and use your Quirk to break free? But he doesn't."
"He might have been out of juice!" Mount Lady argued, still remembering the sting of electricity when she'd grabbed his car. "Maybe he didn't have anything left in his battery!"
"Ah, but he may well have tried, and that's the point! No attempt at all! After that, he's clearly trying to get away, and only narrowly caught you with the cape trick of his!" Nedzu leaned back in the chair. "A couples of theories lend themselves to my imagination. The first, is that he has an Intelligence Quirk, something that boosts brainpower past the human limit. That might account for some of his stumbling with Eraserhead."
The High-specs hero paced. "The other theory is that he is a natural genius with a weak, inconsequential Quirk, something that wouldn't help the situation. Something like the ability to slowly levitate objects into your hand, or creating a marble once a month. That or a minor physical mutation like scales for skin or glowing eyes."
He looked at the screen again. "The third, I don't consider too likely."
Eraserhead was the first to speak. "And that is?"
Nedzu shrugged. "It would be pretty impressive. But the third theory is that he fought like this because he's Quirkless." As everybody in the room started at him, the Principal shrugged. "It makes sense. After all, you wouldn't reach for a Quirk to use in a situation..."
"...if you didn't have a Quirk to erase in the first place," Eraserhead finished. Already, his mind flashed back several years, back to a vigilante with a brutal right hook and a fearless grin on his scarred face. Such things weren't outside the realm of possibility.
Nedzu grinned. "Well, as I said it's just a theory. That one is the least likely outcome." He started to cackle, paws steepled in front of him as he stared at a frozen image of the villain, tied up and helpless. "We won't know for sure until he next makes an appearance..."
AN: Wow this chapter got long.
Probably should have split it up into different chapters but I wanted to get it all out.
Quirk training and tech development, whoo!
La Brava is, from her stats, smarter than Canon Izuku and is a hacker good enough to break into UA, the best Hero School in Japan. So she's definitely good at coding.
I forgot to add a training montage bit, damn.
And Nedzu's on the case as well! That's probably not good.
Next time, an attack at a mall and the reveal of the villain team name! What is it?
... I don't know.
Please like and review, for this is the only way I can feed my family.