Over 4 months since I last touched this…wow, I have to admit, I have no clue that it would take this long, having originally planned for this to come out sometime in April but then…yeah, I got delayed big time. As the previous chapters set up, the students have suffered a major L during their training camp. Let's get back to the action then, shall we?

Chapter 51: The Taste of Defeat

(Previously)

"It's been five minutes since the signal and yet you're still fighting? I thought you would have taken care of this," Kurogiri asked them as the plan had been clear on his part. He wasn't to engage in combat, but seeing how it was only three students and both two of the capture targets were present, it wasn't too bad. "No matter, it's time to leave," He told them as he opened up portals all around them, allowing the league to pull out.

"Thanks, Kurogiri, I had some real fun tonight!" Toga cheered as she walked on through.

"Later loser!, Bye-ye friends!" Twice gave the students a salute and a little finger before he literally dived right in.

"I had some fun, Bakugo. Maybe next time you'll actually make me sweat," Lizard told him as she looked to the side as the nomu picked up the two captives and moved towards one of the portals.

"Dammit, get back here you damned lizard bitch!" Bakugo yelled as he tried to run towards her but Shoji held him back as he pointed towards the wrap gates.

"Bakugo, wait!" Shoji's unworded reminder was clear as they couldn't move without a clear plan as Kurogiri could easily capture them or send them to who knows where.

"Hold on, we can't leave without Endeavour's brat, he's one of the targets," Dabi pointed out as they had only had two of the three targets.

"Oh him, you wouldn't need to worry about that," his words caught the three off guard. "They were so proud of themselves for picking my pockets that I allowed them a moment of joy,"

"Allow me to impart a little lesson onto you hero students if a simple tenant of magic. If I'm flaunting something shiny, it's because there's something else, I don't want to see." He told them as he reached for his mask, removing it and revealing that in his mouth, he held a marble much like the others but they knew that that was the one that wanted. To prove his point, he released his quirk on the ones that Shoji had managed to take, revealing that it was all useless stuff from branches to some of Todoroki's ice.

"Misdirection always makes for a good twist ending, forgive me that this is the end," Mr. Compress mocked them as he took a bow, by this point all the portals except for the one that Dabi and Mr. Compress were going to use were gone, allowing them the slim shot to try and grab him as Bakugo shot forward as dark shadow was close behind.

"Like hell!" Bakugo yelled as launched himself as fast as he could towards him.

"One last boy before the curtain fall-!" However, as he rose from his bow to leave, a rock struck his face, shattering his mask and making it spit the marble out in pained shock. The three students looked to the side where the rock came from to see one of the girls from 1-B, bloody and bruised leaning on a tree. But her tired-looking grey eyes were determined as she fired off more rocks toward the two villains as she held her left arm to her chest.

"Yanagi?!" Tokoyami was the only one that recognized her, but Bakugo didn't pay it any mind as all he saw was a chance and he was going to take it!

"Don't think, just grab it!" He yelled as he raced towards it, Dabi also reached for the marble but Bakugo pushed him back with an explosion to the face.

"Fuck off, patchwork!" Bakugo yelled but with both hands busy, he made the split-second decision to kick the marble away, towards the ghost-looking girl who didn't know what to do but catch it.

"Dammit!" Dabi cursed as they saw that they had lost one but they still needed to pull back.

"She ruined my finale!" Mr. Compress complained as he dashed through the portal.

"Forget it, two out of three it is," Dabi told him as he left, he turned to eye the students as Compress released his quirk, resulting in a very surprised Todoroki falling out of Yanagi's hands to the floor.

"Enjoy the inch you just won, heroes," He told them as he walked on through, the portal closing behind him but not before he said one last thing. "We just won a mile,"

(And Now)

As the portal closed and the villains escaped, the students couldn't help but just stand there, their minds unable to accept the reality. However, slowly they came out of their funk as they looked around, seeing nothing but the forest around them in flames, smoke billowing into the air from the numerous fires raging. Todoroki felt like a failure, as he was captured by that masked wearing villain before he even realized it, Shoji could barely move as the stab wounds and burns started to catch with him, leaving Tokoyami to help him stay up. Bakugo…he was silent, as if everything around him had faded away, his eyes focused on nothing as his mind replayed the previous fight, how he was so close to saving Deku and the crazy cat lady but was thwarted by that Lizard bitch that didn't even treat him as a threat.

As his eyes regained their spark, the sight of a forest in flames greeted him as he screamed towards the heavens in frustration and loss.

"GOD DAMMMIT!"

This served as a grim day for them all, top off by the sight that met Uraraka and Asui once they caught up with the boys. The sight of them in tears as Bakugo repeatedly fired off blasts into the sky, at a target only he could see as his eyes blurred from the tears.

(The next day – UA High)

"I'll give them one thing, they sure are persistent." Present Mic's comment about the press wasn't without fact as even before they all showed up for this meeting, there were reports camping outside UA's gates, waiting to ambush them. Honestly, he was just grateful that there were deep enough in the school that they couldn't hear their insistent demands for answers they didn't have, or just the chance to run their names further threw the mud.

"Just be grateful that they can't get in." Snipe didn't sound all too pleased with this, but then again none of them did as most were either asleep or already at home when news broke of the attack, before they could even attempt to make their way there to help, it was already over.

"We have bigger things to worry about than the press not knowing when to quit." Tiger pointed out from his seat next to Mandalay, the two standing members of the Pussycats having been invited considering the situation. Kota was also present, but Recovery Girl was keeping an eye on him, and unlike in the past, he was much more subdued, the events of the previous night no doubt to blame for his lack of resistance.

"Indeed, Tiger. Though one must acknowledge the irony of our camp for training the students for villain attacks was subject to one." Nezu agreed with the much larger pro as he looked over the numbers in the report. He may always try to smile, but this was one of those days when he didn't have much reason to.

"What are the numbers?" Cementoss asked the question they all wanted to know.

"Terrible," Nezu replied as he looked away from the report, having already memorized its information as he instead looked towards the gathered pros and teachers.

"15 students were hospitalized due to breathing in the villain, alias-Mustard's gas. 10 others, excluding Pixie-Bob, were injured either from what we know to be a Nomu or one of the other villains on-site at the time. One was a powerful flame user, another appeared to have been a teenage girl with a small blade, and the beforementioned Mustard had a firearm. Though I been told that all are expected to make full recoveries given time." Nezu filled them in as he could see that even with their years of experience, they all flinched, however slightly as they heard some of the details.

"Physical, you mean?" Power Loader corrected as he may spend most of his time in a lab, but he had seen his fair share of injuries while out in the field and the effects they could have on those who bared them. He couldn't imagine how hard the students, first years at that, were handling this.

"Yes. And if things couldn't get any worse, both pro-hero Ragdoll and Izuku Midoriya are missing." Nezu agreed with him as Mandalay gave Tiger a comforting pat on the arm, he was no doubt furious with himself for not being able to protect both his students or his teammate, when they had reached where Ragdoll was supposed to be, they just found a mess with her bloody headset being the only thing of her present.

The reports that the police managed to get from the students the previous night didn't make things better as both pros had heard from the boys that fought the retreating villains how bad the two missing greenheads were injured.

"And all we have to show for it is the capture of three villains, all three taken down not by us, but from students forced to fight for their lives." All Might couldn't help but grit his teeth at that. The USJ was bad enough, Hosu at least wasn't on them, but this…How they could call themselves heroes when on two separate occasions, their students were forced to fend for themselves?

"Hearing all that, it's little wonder who people are so on edge, they caught us with our pants down and now we're paying the price." Cementoss thought aloud as this was an embarrassment.

"Indeed, we knew that the League would resurface, more so after the Kiyashi Ward incident, but we failed to recognize their goal of destroying hero society," Nezu said.

"Regardless, could we have really done something to foil this attack? They're moving pieces we didn't even know they had, now could we have predicted that they could have located and attacked such a remote camp." Midnight asked as she could see why this looked bad and that things largely were, but the fact is most of the criticism has the benefit of hindsight. "Besides, with All Might having eliminated most organized crime, not just us but law enforcement, in general, have gotten rusty when it comes to facing such an organized, planned opposition." She added in.

"I guess that all of us got it into our lives that we'll be riding the sweet life for good." Present Mic stated as it was a bitter thing to swallow, the fact that they as the guardians of peace and order had fallen into the same slumber as the rest of the population.

"Despite that, the fact remains that our enemies, these criminals figured out information that only those in attendance were even aware of. Not even the students where they were going." Mandalay spoke up as they needed to figure things out now, they could wallow in their mistakes AFTER they recovered Ragdoll and Midoriya.

"Could they have been followed?" Cementoss asked the most obvious question but Nezu shook his head at that.

"Unlikely, each bus driver was instructed to dive as if they had a tail, and both were closely monitored the entire time for any such tail appearing. We even included two additional decoy buses carrying actors of similar build to the students which joined them at busy tunnel points as to fool anyone that tried to follow them so long as they didn't get too close to see through the deception." Alfred, the ever-silent head of security, had believed this would be enough to ward off any tails or observers, but it seems he was wrong.

"What are you saying, Alfred?" Midnight turned to the elder gentlemen.

"I doubt I need to spell it out. The league couldn't have just known about the location of the camp, nor that they'll be minimal pros present, not without someone telling them that." Alfred's words only heightened the tension in the room as the visiting cats were hearing about this for the first time.

"Still, would it be wise to entertain such a notion at this time? If we start to suspect one another, we'll be playing right into their hands." All Might spoke up as while this was largely out of his depth, he had been in team-ups where members were suspected of double-crossing them in the past and had seen what that suspicion can do when left unchecked.

"But if we don't counter with some safety nets and protocols, we'll be doing the same thing." Snipe gave the counterpoint as if there was a traitor, they couldn't just go on as if nothing was wrong.

"So what? Damned if we do, damned if we don't? If that's the case, how would we even prove who it was? Each of us is in a position where gathering information would be child splay." Present Mic asked as they were caught between a rock and a hard place with this one.

"He's right, Alfred is head of security, he would have the easiest time gathering info, but at the same time, that fact also makes him a perfect scapegoat for whoever the real traitor could be, myself included." Midnight pointed out.

"Midnight's quite right, I could be the traitor as it's not a secret that I have an ax to grind with humans, but I will say that I'm not the traitor, and I have no reason to suspect anyone in this room of being such a thing, despite the fact I have no way to prove either my own innocence or yours." Nezu decided to table that discussion for now and focus on the more immediate situation. "We can discuss that later, for now, we must focus on the matter at hand."

"It was foolish to have carried on with the Sports festival after the USJ, while the intention of presenting that we were still standing strong makes sense, in hindsight, it was just pointless posturing as we couldn't even ensure that one student wasn't kidnapped." Snipe pointed out as he felt like an idiot considering he was one of those who pushed for the sports festival to carry on as always. Now, he felt like a cardboard cut-out of a peacock.

"Every news outlet is having a field day condemning UA high. If Midoriya was one of their targets, then the league has certainly won this round. The only question is to why him?" Nezu asked one of the questions they needed to answer as while it was easy to just believe the League chose at random, considering they came with presumed targets in mind, they couldn't afford to take the easy route.

"Recruitment? He does make some good support gear for himself." Alfred suggested but Power Loader shot that down.

"Doubtful, if all they wished for was support great-why not snatch one of the 2nd or 3rd years? Even then, it's not like the criminal underworld doesn't have access to people willing to supply them with such gear." The kid had talent, but the odds of the league choosing him for that were incredibly low, at least in his opinion.

"Could his quirkless status be a factor? He would be considerably easier to manage than most others?" Tiger gave his two cents on the matter.

"It's not impossible, but the League has shown no opinions towards the subject of quirks, nor do we suspect any ties to quick supremacist groups." All Might had seen his fair share of such in his career, and the league didn't act like any of them, and if the league really was a front for…him, then it was even less likely as that demon was many things, quirk based discriminatory against one of them. How could be when he could give and take them as he pleased? "However, Rag-doll is a different story." This brings him to a possible reason as to why someone like Ragdoll was kidnapped.

"And why is that?" Mandalay asked him, he gave a look towards Nezu before turning back to them, they deserved to know.

"Because I…we have reason to suspect that the monster behind the Nomu has plans for her quirk." All Might started to explain, but before he could get into it.

A phone call is here! A phone call is here!

Feeling like a teenager caught doing something stupid all over again, he was about to silence his phone when he saw the caller ID. "Excuse me, I have to take this." All Might gave Nezu another look, hoping that he'll fill them in on All for One in his absence.

"Seriously, he couldn't even put the darn thing to vibrate?" Present Mic chuckled at that.

"Who sets themselves up as their ringtone?" Midnight knew he was corny like that, but come on, surely there was a limit.

"What kind of symbol of peace couldn't even protect his students?" Once out of the room, and the door closed behind him, he allowed his muscle form to relax, having kept it up with the cats present. "Yes, Tsukuachi? What seems to be the problem?" He answered the call.

"I think we may have a lead on the League of Villains." He couldn't stop his eye-widening at that, or the smile that started to grow on his face, he could always count on his old friend.

"Are you really going to make me say it?" As this was happening, two other pros were on the road heading towards the Midoriya residence.

"Say what?" Mt. Lady asked Kamui Woods who just signed as he kept his eyes on the road.

"You care for the kid, don't you?" Kamui Woods's response wasn't one she was expecting, but she did a pretty good job at hiding it.

"What are you talking about?" She turned towards the scenery.

"Yu, please." Kamui Woods used her name to draw her attention, she took a breath before turning back to him.

"Was it that obvious?" She had to know.

"Not at first, no. But over time…I started to notice stuff, small things at first, but you finding your way to his home so quickly was just the confirmation." Kamui Woods had only put the pieces together when she asked for a lift to the Midoriya residence. It had only been 11 hours since the camp assault, so there were few options as to how a non-investigative pro could have that knowledge.

"You're not going to say anything about it?" Yu had to admit, she was expecting more of an opinion from the man about this. Sure, he couldn't know how intimate their relationship was, but surely, he would have something to say about what he could gleam.

"I won't. You're a grown woman capable of making your own choices. I trust your judgment more times than I worry about it. If you care for this boy as much as I think you do, then he must care for you just as much, even if I can't understand why you're together." At his words, she let out a smile as she knew that he could remove that stick from his ass when he wanted to.

"Thanks, I didn't think you would get it." In response to her words, he let out a short laugh.

"I barely do, but I would advise that you be careful about it, otherwise it could end poorly for the both of you." He may be willing to just accept, but the media sure as hell wouldn't.

"I'll keep that in mind," Yu replied as they sat in silence for another 20 minutes before arriving. Kamui offered to wait for her, but she waved him off, she could get to Sir Nighteye's agency from here via train, which was why she brought along a change of clothes so as to not have to deal with people while on public transport.

Looking around, she saw that the place was the same as she remembered it, with not a mic or camera in sight, which allowed her to breathe a sigh of relief. 'Good, the press doesn't know where she lives yet.' Inko was many things, good under pressure wasn't one of them and if the press ambushed her when her son was missing, she just knew it would be a disaster. She walked up the stairs towards the familiar door and once there, gathered herself before knocking.

"Inko? It's Yu." It was amazing how quick the woman could move as she picked up the sound of her rushing from the kitchen towards the door like an excited pup, nearly ripping the door off its hinges as she tore it open.

"Do you have news about my baby?!" Inko demanded her face a mass with snot and make-up from all the crying and worrying she no doubt had been doing.

"I don't. I only got the alert a couple hours ago, I wanted to check up on you. See how you're holding up." Yu asked her, trying to keep her calm before she fainted.

"My child has been kidnapped, and no one knows where they took him!" Of course, that was easier said than done with how emotional Inko was right now, but she had trained to deal with this and had done it so many times in her time active.

"Calm down, Inko. We'll find him, but you won't do anyone any favors if you pass out, breath with me, come on." Yu instructed her as she placed her hands on her shoulders, slowing her breathing and keeping it steady as she coached the mother of her lover to do the same, after a few minutes and hiccups, it seemed to have worked for the most part.

"Better?" Yu asked her, seeing that she was steadier than she was before, even if she looked like a mess.

"A little…" Inko replied as she took another deep breath, as she did so, Yu could see that she was still wearing her sleeping gown which meant that she had been up all night as she seriously doubted if she was able to sleep once she heard the news.

"Let's head inside where we can talk, I think you should know as much as I do about it," Yu said as Inko nodded her head, letting the blonde into her home as Yu quickly closed the door behind her and removed her shoes. "Where's Hisashi?"

"He left for work two days ago. Oh God, I haven't even told him about it yet!" Inko seemed to just realize that but Yu once more calmed her down as she led her to the living room where they took a seat on the couch.

"And we will, but you need to breathe. Panic won't do you any good." Yu told her as she looked her over. "Inko, have you been up all night?" Inko had the decency to at least look bashful about being seen in her state.

"I couldn't sleep, I was about to head off to bed when I got the call, and then I tried to call the police to get more information, but then I couldn't get anyone USEFUL so I threw on a coat and went to the station but they refused to help me, then they told me to go home and had someone 'escort' me but-!" Inko was about to go on one of the Midoriya's famous tirades so Yu had to put a stop to that before she run out of breath or just started talking nonsense.

"Okay, here's what we're going to do. You're going to wash up and take a nap, and I'll call Hisashi with the news." Yu told her, helping her as she led her towards where she knew the bathroom was.

"But-!" Inko looked ready to fight but Yu nipped that in the bud.

"You look like you're going to kneel over any moment now. Please, I know you're worried, I'm worried, but you need to think about your own health too. What would Izuku say if he saw you like this?" She had to play that card as the Midoriya was extremely caring people, and if there was one way to get one to do something, it was to frame the request in such a way to make them see it as a means to help someone else.

Once Inko had agreed to this and walked into the bathroom, she waited outside long enough to hear her removing her clothes and the shower turn on before she made her way back to the living room, collapsing onto the couch.

"Fucking hell, how could none of us see this coming? UA already had a target on their back, a trip to the middle of nowhere was just asking for it!" Yu nearly screamed but she managed to muffle her frustration by speaking into her forearm.

"Miss Takeyama, please keep your voice down." Oh, she had forgotten that Neko was connected to the entire apartment.

"Sorry….sorry, I just…thought I would be better prepared for this."

"From what I've learned from research articles on the subject, no healthy person is ever fully prepared for loss." For an AI, Neko could communicate with a fair amount of emotion and intrigue.

"At least I'm sane in the membrane you mean." She joked as she wiped away a tear from her eye. She would cry after she had her man back in her arms, which hopefully would be after she had the chance to stomp those damned villains into the ground.

"Miss Takeyama, there is something you should know." Neko sounded off as if she had some secret.

"What could that be, where Izuku could be?" Yu asked as she closed her eyes.

"That's correct." At that response, she nearly jumped to her feet. She would have called BS if this was anyone else, but Neko wasn't one to play games, much less mess around with the emotions of others.

"Explain, now." Just like that, she went from concerned girlfriend mode to Pro-hero mode.

"As you wish. Prior to master Izuku's capture, he gave me instructions to keep monitoring the GPS locator in his phone. That signal is still transmitting as we speak, whoever it is growing weaker." Neko's response gave her some hope that was sorely needed.

"But how, you mean to tell me that the villains didn't take his phone and other electronics?" Yu still kept that in check as she thought the villains would have taken away his tools considering how much he relays on them.

"I assume that they did just that, but they never had the chance to take his phone as he destroyed it and swallowed the GPS locater, it has an internal battery but even powered down, its charge won't last any longer than another 12 hours, 34 minutes," Neko replied with some pride in her voice, it seems she was quite proud of the fact her creator managed that on the spot.

"Then why didn't you tell Inko?" Yu asked her as Inko had been at home the entire time, surely, she could have informed the mother BEFORE she left for the police station, they would have been much more willing to talk if she had that. At her question, the AI paused for a moment, seemingly processing the best way to explain its actions.

"…I judged her to not be mentally stable enough to make much use of this information. By the time I was alerted to this change of events at the camp, she had already returned from the station and was for the lack of a better phrase, messed up." That made some sense, if Inko had tried returning, she would have been turned back before she could get a word out, and considering the mess she found her in, she seriously doubted that she would have been in any condition to properly convey her words.

"How did it take you so long to get that info?" Still, she always thought that Neko was always close to Izuku, but it seems that he didn't have her on hand for the camp.

"A copy, Miss Takeyama, not the full version. As it is the protocol for any incoming messaging to be scanned for viruses and other malware, it takes approximately 30 minutes for any message sent by my lesser copies to be opened and analyzed." Ah, smart move on his part, the enemy of a tech-based hero would be viruses and her mother had clicked on what were clearly ads and other crap enough times to understand the importance of good software protection. "There is also the added reason that while this alert gives us the master's present location, it does not tell us what his present condition is, he could already be dead and merely leading up to his corpse." Yeah, it would have been unwise for Inko to be informed that this.

"Tell Inko they found something and I need to go." Still, she had some crucial information she can work with as she raced towards the door.

"I hope you find success, Miss Takeyama." Neko gave her some much-needed good luck as she closed the door behind her, having put her shoes back on in record time as she whipped out her phone and started dialing.

"Me too." She muttered to herself before the call connected. "Nighteye."

"Mt. Lady. Why are you calling?" The elder pro's question was straight to the point, good, she didn't have time to waste.

"I found a lead about the missing UA student; I need your help in getting it to the right people as soon as possible," Yu told him as she made her way down the stairs towards the street.

"What have you uncovered?" She figured he had just sat up in his chair at that.

"I was visiting his mother to check on her and discovered that he swallowed a tracking device and his gear is still tracking it. We got a possible location where they're keeping him." She would answer his questions on how she knew where Izuku lived later. Nighteye took a moment to process this, along with the other questions she suspected he had before he answered.

"I won't ask how you came into such knowledge, not right, so for now we'll just focus on the information itself. Meet me at the 4th police station in an hour." He informed her, the sound of his chair moving clear on the phone.

"Make it 45 minutes, we don't have time to burn," Yu told him and hung up, having reached the road, she run for a couple blocks to throw off anyone that may have questions about where she was coming from before she activated her quirk, using her increased size to speed up her travel time.

"Understood." Nighteye's response didn't get through as Mt. Lady had already hung up. He would let that go for now considering the circumstances, but he has bigger things to worry about as he picked up his seals. "Bubble girl, what do you suspect is going on?" He asked his sidekick/assistant as she caught him as he walked out of his office. The blue-skinned woman yelped as she moved to follow his brisk pace.

"I-I-m not sure what you mean, sir." She replied, having not heard the conversation itself.

"With Mt. Lady. We all got the alert on the H-Network at the same time, yet she was able to locate the Midoriya residence in such a short amount of time. I think she's hiding something from us." Nighteye suspected something more was going in there.

"Maybe she bumped into them once or twice, you meet all kinds of people out and about in our daily lives." Bubble Girl, on the other hand, didn't see anything particular off by it as people run into one another all the time. She couldn't count the number of times she run into the same fans in different places.

"I suppose, I'll let you get back to work, tell Centipeder that I stepped out." Nighteye supposed she could be right. Either way, he'll ask her once they finish this crisis. He didn't wait for a response as he knew Bubble Girl would do as instructed. He walked towards his car and was on the streets within moments, racing towards the meeting spot as he thought about what he had suspected about recent events.

'These Nomu are not normal, if the reports of Hosu are accurate, then it means they have multiple quirks…or rather, they were given multiple quirks.' He only knew of one person…one monster that had the capabilities to create Nomu. 'If All for One is really involved, All Might is in great danger, if my math is right-he's much weaker than he was the last we spoke, while we have no clue as to the condition of that mad-man, he could be weaker, more or less the same, or God forbid even stronger.' He felt the sweat on his brow as he ground his teeth together, his hands tightening around the steering wheel.

"No, it's too early for it to be All Might's time, we still have another year or so, that much I know…as much I wish I didn't." He took a breather, he couldn't afford to lose it now. Even if he wished it was false, that he had been wrong, for some miracle, he knew it was too early. He knew that All Might wasn't going to die.

At least, now for a while.

As Mt. Lady made her way to the police, all over Japan, the news and other media personalities couldn't find anything but the attack on U.A.'s Summer training camp. Everywhere one looked, either on the news, on the web, or on the radio-all people could talk about was how U.A had become a target, how they couldn't even protect their own students, or how they wouldn't want their family or children to go there. All this was heard by the league from their bar hideout as Tomura couldn't help but smile at it all. "Man, I'm so grateful to the media for all the attention, though it's a two-timing bitch." He chuckled as for years, heroes were the darlings of the media, yet here they are all but fearmongering either out of a sense to make that green, or because they genuinely thought that the heroes were no longer adequate to keep things nice and quiet.

"I mean, really, they're so quick to panic and doubt the pros after a couple failures?" He didn't think his master was right, but here he was eating his own words.

"They're spoiled, that's what they are. As soon as anything goes wrong, they can't help but act like headless chickens." Kurogiri added as he placed down a drink for Toga who gave him one of her big smiles as she started drinking her chilled water.

"I want some chicken! With some gravy sauce, too!" Twice was as excited as any of them though Dabi and Spinner were calmer in their joy over their successful mission, though the scaled villain had some bandages covering his wounds from his tussle with half the Pussy cats.

"We did bloody their nose, no doubt about that." The flame user admitted from his spot by himself in the corner, on his own phone checking another news feed which apparently had boots on the ground outside U.A. itself. He didn't expect much from them though, there was little chance U.A. would take questions from them, not before they can come up with some kind of response.

"By the way, where's Magne?" Spinner asked as he had noted the absence of the magnetic quirk user when he had come down from his room. He would have thought her to be the type to party it up.

"I sent him out on a little errand, he should be back soon," Kurogiri replied as while he would normally handle most of the league's more minor duties, he had been busy earlier and asked for help which Magna gladly gave.

"You mean she." Twice corrected the mist villain, giving him his best stink eye for a person in a mask.

"Of course, my apologies. She'll be back soon." Kurogiri corrected himself.

"Speaking of missing folks, where the hell is that big Lizard? She's too busy shredding her skin or something?" Dabi in turn spoke up, he didn't like her and as much as it had to do with the fact he wasn't sure he could incinerate her before she would make good on her threat-there was something…unnatural about her, not in the same mindless way of the Nomu but in a way he couldn't quite put his finger on.

"Jealous?" Tomura mocked him, turning his gaze towards the villain he had the worst time getting along with. "Master wanted her present for when he has his little…chat with the prisoners."

SPLASH!

"Fucking hell!" The first thing Midoriya felt as he came to was the ice-cold sensation of a bucket of water being tossed over him.

"Wake up, weakling." H turned towards the source of the face and saw the same lizard villain that had beat him, her clawed hands also carrying an empty pale. As he fully woke up, he looked at his surroundings and saw that there was all grey, the walls looking like they were made from concrete or something, all except for the clear glass looking which made up one of the walls. He saw a thin mattress in the corner with a shirt thin blanket to cover it, in the opposite corner was a toilet. He wasn't wearing his clothes from the attack, rather he was dressed in some plain blue and white sweats and a sleeved shirt.

"Where…where am I?" He asked as he tried to get up, only to fall like a house of cards as pain screamed from his leg, reminding him that Lizard had shattered it in their short bout. Though when he looked down, he was surprised to see his leg had seemed to be tended to, with it covered in a thick white cast which he wondered as to how it had escaped his notice earlier. In fact, he looked towards the glass wall and saw that all of his injuries had been tended to.

"Where we want you. Don't move around too much unless you want to lose the leg, of course, could do just that, not like we need the whole thing." Lizard's flat response didn't give him much to celebrate as they must have only given him medical treatment to keep him alive, after all, part of their goal was to capture him and he seriously doubted it was just to kill him away from the rest of the teachers and students. But that only brought him more questions, such as how long he had been out of it, he wasn't a doctor but he knew enough about medicine from his dad to know that treating injuries such as a shattered leg took time, was he in some kind of coma? Did they have something with a healing quirk on their side? What about the other perso-!

"Ragdoll…Ragdoll! I saw her! When we came here! Where is she? What have you done with-ARG, DAMMIT!" Midoriya turned back to Lizard, demanding to know where Ragdoll was, having only just recalled in his haze in-between being captured and waking up in this cell, he saw a young woman with green hair and there was only another person present who matched that. Though in response to his demands, Lizard batted him aside with her tail, he didn't land on his bad leg but the blow itself had more than enough punch to remind him just how much of his physical superior she was.

"The kitten's alive…for now. The good doctor will be finished with her soon. Who knows, maybe you can share stories to pass the time." Lizard answered, but her sharp-toothed smile only made him dread what could be happening. He didn't need to wait long for an answer as Lizard took to the door, where both could make out the sound of something mechanical approaching. It wasn't a limb so much as it was a smooth, polished grey metallic tentacle that first greeted them. Followed by a second as behind them, a man walked into the room, his body being held up by six of these robotic octo-arms.

"No…" Though it wasn't so much the machines that poured ice into his veins, as it was the person that was using them as he directed his fat face towards Midorriya, giving him a smile that while looking normal enough, was as welcoming as the jaws of a great white.

"Oh yes, my dear boy," Sam replied as he walked over to the boy, his feet never touching the ground as one of his octo-arms reached out and grabbed Midoriya by the shirt, lifting him off the ground to Sam's eye level. "How are you doing, Izuku Midoriya?"

"Sam…what in God's name happened to you?" Midoriya was sure that he was dealt with. Sure, they never found his body in the helicopter crash but he was involved in a helicopter crash for crying out loud. His nerve sensitivity quirk couldn't have helped him survive them. In response to his confusion and growing fear, Sam only laughed at him.

"You forgot so easily? It seems you're proving my point on your lack of intelligence. I was involved in a helicopter accident not too long ago. Courtesy of that blonde buffoon." Sam did have scars from the incident, the biggest one being a large burn covering the lower left-hand side of his face, though Midoriya couldn't make out much else as he was wearing a pair of black tinted goggles along with the green and yellow bodysuit.

"I trust you've met Lizard here; I hope she was accommodating in getting you here." At the mention of her name, the villain waved at him, her own smile not much better than Sam's as he put the boy down, but wasn't as careful as he could have been as he fell right back onto his ass.

"So…you the one that created all those damned Nomu?" Midoriya at least could confirm that to All Might once they rescued them. His comment got a growl from Lizard as she glared at him.

"Watch it brat, you don't need all your fingers." Considering what she had done to him earlier, he wasn't about to overlook that threat as alive he was needed, in one piece was optional, and didn't want to give them any reason to consider that fact. Before anything else could be said, one of Sam's other Octo-arms reached out and gave the muscle-bound dinosaur of a villain a…comforting pat on the shoulder?

"Calm yourself, Lizard. As for your assumption, it is quite false. Lizard is much more the any of those mindless puppets. I'm sure even an imbecile like yourself has noticed that your wounds have been treated, but only enough so you don't croak on us just yet." Sam didn't linger on that long, seemingly wanting to move things along which at least fit some of what Izuku knew of him, and how when he worked as Shield-sensei's assistant, he wasn't one to stay on one thing longer than necessary.

"I'll be back so we can have proper chat, until then, Lizard will keep you two company," Sam told him as he and Lizard moved to leave him in his cell, but seemingly as to give him someone to talk to, or maybe as a means to taunt him, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a remote, pressing a button on his way out which turned the once mirror wall into a clear glass, allowing him to see Ragdoll on the other side.

Much like himself, to his relief, she had her wounds treated too as she had some thick wraps around her head and left arms, but was awake and looking over to him, dressed in the same kind of clothes as he was.

"…You okay in there?" She asked him as the door to his cell was closed, the noise of the locks slamming into place clear for both to hear.

"About as much as you." Midoriya didn't really know what to do in this situation, falling back on whatever the hero would say when he saw them caught on TV, though the difference between real life and fiction made his comment lose most of its punch.

"That's not reassuring." She muttered to herself, taking in his beaten look. "Sorry." And to think she was a rescue specialist; it'll be hard to keep saying that after the fact she got captured and needed a rescue along with the civilian.

"For what?" Seeing her downtrodden appearance, Midoriya moved closer to the glass.

"For not being strong enough to protect you…any of you. I didn't realize how bad things were before I was taken out like some newbie." She was sure that the rest of the Pussy Cats put up one hell of a fight, making sure to defend as much ground as possible, whereas she…didn't. Being the first to go down and in record time no less.

"I don't think any of us could have predicted…this. Do you have any clue where we even are?" Midoriya tried to keep her spirits up, he didn't want her to think any less of herself for this, not without a fight. In response to his questions, the fellow leaf-haired prisoner shook her head. She could make a guess, based on the fact she only needed to use the toilet once, but with the lack of natural light and the fact she recalled being in a…operating theatre of some kind, she couldn't say as she could have been under for some hours, or a few days.

"Figures." Seeing no luck there, he could only just sit there and hope for the best. "How long till someone finds us?" Before Ragdoll could respond, Villain's voice came through over some speakers built into the two cells.

"I wouldn't count on it." His taunt brought attention to the fact that there were large cameras mounted in the corners of each of their cells, keeping an eye over them, and apparently, they each had microphones if Lizard's comments were any indication.

"I don't know, but I know that they must be searching for us as we speak. It can't have been too long since we were captured…right?" Ragdoll still answered his question as all they had to judge time was either mentally keeping count, or through their bathroom schedule.

"I…think so, I was out of it for the most part." Midoriya hoped it hadn't been too long. No, it couldn't have been too long, not if his emergency plan was still in effect. All they had to bide their time and wait, as much as he wished they could do otherwise.

"Tell me about yourself."

"What?" Ragdoll's request came out of the blue as Midoriya turned back to her, seeing her giving him a small, but warming smile.

"Tell me about yourself, what were your plans for winter break?" Ragdoll repeated her question, wanting to fill the time with something other than the silence. Call it her hero's instinct to offer comfort, or perhaps the fact she was hyperactive and couldn't stand the silence, at the end, she just wanted to get something done.

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"I hope you had some fun, but we really must be going now." It was sometime later, maybe an hour…more or less than the door to Midoriya's cell was opened up as Sam came back in, bringing along with him some kind of wheelchair that had too much going on with it to be store-bought. At the same time, the door for Ragdoll's cell was opened with Lizard having a similar chair in her procession.

"I want answers, Sam-something." Izuku hoped that his relationship with the villain would get him some answers, but Sam didn't fall for it.

"Want, not need. You'll get want we give you, understood?" Sam told him as his octo-arms man-handled the struggling Midoriya into the wheelchair, which had the added features of having arm and leg clamps that appeared to keep him from moving, with the exception before for the leg in a cast as the clamp wasn't large enough to fit but even then, it wasn't going to be doing anything with it.

"Leave him alone, you don't need to be this-OOF!" The heroine's resistance was cut off by a backhand from the larger villain which dazed her.

"Ragdoll!" Midoriya yelled out as he could nothing but watch as she was placed into her own wheelchair, its clamps keeping her from moving as some blood started to leak into her head-wrapped bandages.

"Stupid cat." Not caring for the fact, that she had reopened some wound on the woman's head, she merely grunted out her annoyance as she wheeled her away, in the opposite direction to the one Sam was taking Midoriya.

"Let's go, I have a special room set up for our talk." Sam's cheerful voice-only promised pain as he was led down the empty, dreary halls without a window in sight. Midoriya tried to memorize the route, but with everything looking the same, all he could do was memorize how many lefts and rights they took till they reached a new room. It was similar to his cell, except there was no wall of glass viewing into another room, there was a table in the corner with a cloth covering its contents, and what looked to be the stand for another table in the middle of the room.

Sam had his octo-arms push him towards it, from which his wheelchair connected to it, shifting its form to reveal itself to be the table itself, which in some corner of his mind he saw as genius as it limited the time the captive would be out of their clamps. Once he was in place, he was left tied to the table while the villain hummed some song to himself as he 'walked' towards the table which he was sure held tools of torture. Honestly, he had no idea how the cartoons made this seem pleasant as he couldn't help but shiver in fear for what was to come."Now, that you're comfortable. Let's start: What's your code?"

"What?" Sam's question threw him for a loop as he had expected a lot from him. Demands secrets about his classmates and UA, whatever he knew about One for All and All Might, and any number of other information but a code? To what? His work computer on I-island? Surely, he wasn't after his own tech, was he? Clearly, this wasn't the response Sam wanted as he turned to him, glaring at the boy with the hate he had known he had was keeping under the surface.

"You heard me! What is your code! I know that David gave you one. What. Is. It?" Sam stalked up to him, his octo-arms holding something out of his line of sight as he leaned over his prisoner. Trying to channel as much All Might as he could in this situation, he gave his response.

"Sorry, but I'm not Mason, I don't know what the numbers mean?" What he wasn't expecting was for Sam to crack a smile as he leaned back, chuckling.

"Funny guy, aren't you?" Sam asked him, seemingly recalling all the 'good times' the two shared in the lab, working on projects or the elder simply helping him out with something he couldn't do himself.

"It's part of my charm." Midoriya replied, doing his best to keep his fear down as he tried to prepare himself for what was to come.

"Since you are familiar with the joke, I'm sure you're familiar with the methods they use in Black Ops." Sam's chuckle turned dark as his octo arms revealed that they were holding a pale of water in one and a cloth in the other. "Let's try the waterboarding first." All the preparation in the world couldn't stop him from whimpering in fear of the coming actions as he struggled in his binds to move away from the metallic pawns as the sack was forced over his head, robbing him of his sight.

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And that, my readers, will be where I'll cut this off. There was more planned for this, for one thing, we were supposed to get a scene of Izuku being tortured for information he's not even sure he has but…well, that was way too dark as while I don't have a hatred for dark and edgy, it does have to be like with everyone else in a story, needs to serve a purpose and such a scene here simply didn't serve one as I can just imply most of it and it gets the point across just fine. Other stuff that was cut but will be shown in the next chapter would be the reaction to all of this from the students, and what some of them plan to do with the fact a classmate was kidnapped. Now, as my heater is busted and my fingers are starting to get chilly, let's just get to the reviews, and thankfully(and somewhat depressible) there aren't that many to address.

Blaze1992: No…no he didn't. If anything, Lizard won herself a nice human fur coat.

Risky Flamingo: Thanks, I almost gave it to Kirishima since it would have been easier buuuut….I wanted to change things up.

Scandalf: Yes, I have to admit that you were right in your review as I got lazy while writing out the finalized chapter if I stayed more accurate to my notes, then the fight would have been both longer and more believable in its showing off how Lizard is such a power-house. It actually would have added around 2 to 3.5k more words as I watched a lot of the Spectacular Spider-Man to get tips on how the Lizard fights.

RandoFox: Can't say I blame you, wasn't really considering that when I wrote this, it's an issue that I took into account with my villain story as I've planned to write backstory chapters detailing how Izuku went from a near-perfect copy of his canon self-to Taskmaster while at the same time, having the story continue in the present, and I've only done around 2 of these chapters which s far have only explained the how he's different from cannon Izuku, and the how he got and what his quirk is.

Rodenrock: Already addressed this.

D3lph0xL0v3r: They will…eventually.

kratos1991: To be fair, aren't most Shōnen manga/anime protag like that? No one's ever accused Goku or Naruto of being smart, hell the first didn't even understand what kissing was(making the question of how he fathered two kids even more confusing) and the second was such an idiot/slacker that before he could take the office of Hokage, they had to lock in him a classroom and force him to study till he met the bare minimum requirements. I think one story said it best when it explained that All Might wouldn't choose Mirio if there was another option for the fact the boy reminds him too much of himself and while he doesn't regret his life choices, he would want his successor to experience the things he either couldn't or choose not to. Shinso gets over his inferiority complex pretty quick as far as the anime's concerned by the joint training arc, he's largely over it and is an active team member.

Chronosign: He probably did.

Zukafew119: Well, wouldn't you be insulted if someone compared you to a brainless puppet? And yes, she is a secret project, but not fully one of AFO's. Shoji seems like the type capable of coming up with crude, but practical plans in a pitch considering his personality and grades. I can't understand why the league left Moonfish in his binds, the best guess being that they knew he was unstable and only planned on using him for this one operation, with the end goal either being his capture, them killing him or AFO stealing his quirk and then handing his ass back to the cops.

Yeah, this time around, Asui and Uraraka got unlucky as they didn't have their friends rushing in to save them from Toga who we all saw had both beat, more so due to her experience and her personality as she's relentless when blood is involved, and extremely unnerving which would throw most people off their game. I can't say that she's motivated to kill, only that death is the most common result of her 'affection' as by her logic, she wants to 'be like the people she 'loves' and she can't do that without a steady source of their blood, and corpses can't supply that. She is also shown to be smart enough that the case can be made that she would also hold back from her more dangerous ways of showing affection to keep the cops off her as injuring two U.A students, that's one thing, but killing two of them? That's a sure-fire way to get the hammer slammed down on your head.

Twice is really fun to act thanks to his multiple personalities and penchant to either just say something random, or just say whatever everyone else is thinking. Also, we see that later on, the league becomes quite close-knit so I wanted to sow the seeds of that early as while not friends yet, they are still capable of being social. For example, Magne has that one cross-dressing friend who while we're pretty isn't a criminal, they were still someone that Magne saw as a friend. With the final fight, yeah someone who uses flames would only help Bakugo sweat more, hence why despite his power, Dabi isn't a good match for Bakugo. That last bit was me trying to give both hero classes attention as in the show proper, the only thing of importance they did during the attack was taking out Mustard and helping Momo plant the bug, the rest was 1-A which I get as they're the main cast but you have to give the side characters something to, right?

XXxxxandissssXX: Meh, I didn't have much better ideas at the time.

taiwoeretan1: Where I went to high school, teachers would have to handle a class of around 40 students so it was perfectly within the realm of what's normal and possible for a teacher to handle.