AN: This is a side story to The Hero Overmind, if you haven't read that to at least chapter 22, you are spoiling yourself. Probably should get to 39 if you want to understand all the background.

Somewhere deep inside Shadow Brood's main planet in Alpha Centari, the three sentient members and their gravely worried evolution apprentice gather to plan a new creature for their glorious swarm.

"We need a baneling evolution." Shoto says stoically.

"Indeed, the terror of the base strain on it's own guides us to our objective." Tokoyami agrees.

"We should begin with increasing speed." Reiko suggests.

"If we make it too fast no one can see it. Then our enemies can't be terrified." Tokoyami argues.

"But watching their allies dissolve out of nowhere is terrifying as well." Reiko counters.

"Middle ground. Slow enough to see but too fast to do anything about." Shoto suggests.

"A true festival of darkness.""A worthy leader."

"It should be bigger." Shoto says.

"The size of the greater baneling, known as the Kaboomer, should be sufficient." Tokoyami says.

"And make it roll." Reiko adds.

"But what if it was bigger?" Shoto asks.

"Too big to move." Reiko says.

"Truth, but perhaps a quirk could help? We have Mt. Lady's quirk now." Tokoyami says.

"Mmm. good size. We need more quirks." Shoto says.

"Nitroglycerin is an obvious choice." Reiko says.

"True terror." Tokoyami says with a shiver, remembering when he was bombarded by flashlings.

"Zero Gravity." Reiko suggests.

"It can fly now?" Tokoyami asks with a smirk.

"It can fly now." Reiko mirrors, sharing a chuckle.

Shoto stares at them for a moment before accessing the hivemind to find the origin and reasoning behind the inside joke, and just as the two calm down he laughs awkwardly.

"Continuing forward." Reiko says after a short uncomfortable silence. "How about a bunch of lasers?"

"That would be terrifying, if useless." Tokoyami says with enthusiasm. "We're adding it to a prototype."

"We should finish it off with mushroom." Reiko suggests.

"I say we add fire as well. Target gets sliced by lasers, burned, melted by acid and send flying before mushrooms sprout from every surface and add poison damage... Perfect." Tokoyami says.

"Then ice." Shoto says firmly.

"Then ice." Reiko agrees.

"No." Izuku says after the group's presentation on Luna. He sits with Momo, Melissa and Ochako around a semi-circular creep covered platform that acts as a table.

"But it's very good at killing things and being scary." Shoto argues.

"You know how expensive it would be? How long it would take to evolve?" Izuku argues.

"Well... no." Tokoyami admits.

"And it has one fatal flaw." Momo says as she stands carefully and walks past the group towards one of the prototypes.

"What is it?" Shoto asks, not realizing Momo was pausing for a demonstration.

Momo lifts an arm, which suddenly has a mechanical gauntlet of sorts on it. With a whoosh, a rocket fires from the gauntlet and approaches the largest prototype. In a tremendous bang, which had the presenters burrow instinctively while Melissa dove behind the platform, the creature exploded; acid spread all over the testing area and then mushrooms and ice coated everything.

"It could use a bit more durability." Tokoyami says

"We'll just drop it from orbit." Reiko argues.

"Just no. keep it simple." Izuku insists before dismissing everyone.

AN: Say hello to a new side story, one filled with swarm strains with way more quirks than any sane person would consider. Some chapters will be more focused on development, others on critique.

And yes, Aoyama's laser still creates bile, so if nothing else from this monstrosity kills you, the infection will.