A/N: Well, with All For One intentionally taking a back seat to villainy and All Might preparing to retire, what's our resident psychotic man-child to do? Killing All Might's a little pointless if he's going to be out of the picture anyway, which is about as far as Shigaraki planned for his overall schemes at this stage of the game.
Shigaraki was frustrated. He hadn't heard from Sensei at all for months! He considered a few reasons why that would happen, but none of them made any sense. And then Kurogiri had dropped the bombshell that All Might would be retiring! Which would mean his entire – wait. "Kurogiri, I think I have an idea…"
"Shigaraki-sama, what is your suggestion?" asked the shadow butler.
"Killing All Might is now a side quest because in a few months he'll be worth no XP anyway… But a couple noobs? It'll be worth something, especially on our villain rep meter," Shigaraki grinned.
"That would be accurate," said Kurogiri. "What is your plan?"
"We still have Nomu, who was supposed to beat All Might," said Shigaraki, "But now that it doesn't need to beat All Might… It'll turn those kids into a red paste on the floor."
"A sound suggestion," said Kurogiri, "Though I believe you need some allies."
"Nah, screw the other lowlifes," said Shigaraki, "All they do is grind worthless side quests and gain tiny rewards. We're gonna aim bigger."
"So, Shigaraki-sama, I assume you wish for villains of some repute?" asked the shadowy man.
The hand-having man nodded. "We're making a clan, and we're gonna be high rank. Do it."
"Understood, Shigaraki-sama," said Kurogiri. "I'll have Giran place some… invitations."
It wouldn't take long for Giran to find some more reputable 'associates' for Shigaraki to consider, most notably Stain and his apprentice Spinner, as well as a few other followers of Stain's ideology, like Dabi and Himiko Toga. A few others showed up too, such as Magne, the brute Muscular, the veteran thief Mister Compress, as well as the up-and-coming teen menace Mustard, the demented Moonfish, and, oddly enough, one Lady Nagant, who brought the message that Sensei was retiring.
Stain had been spoken to first, and brought up an interesting point: What was the point of action if you had no conviction behind it? He punctuated the point by saying that he and his apprentice were ridding the world of fake heroes, one cash cow or domestic abuser at a time.
Initially Shigaraki hadn't had an answer to the question, but eventually he came up with one: "Endless grinding for nothing is a stupid goal because enemies spawn infinitely," he summed it up. "So why not be that infinite horde and get rid of some useless nobodies in the process?"
Stain had ended up liking that answer, convincing Spinner to come with, and similar logic had appealed to his other followers, as well as Twice.
When it came to the rest of them, Shigaraki got blunter about it: "Kill some filthy noobs polluting the player base and hit their fancy school where it hurts," he said, and that was all it took to get Muscular, Mustard, and Moonfish onboard. Magne had been a bit tougher to convince, but after Shigaraki had correctly guessed that the fact she was, well, a 'she,' rubbed some people in the exact wrong way that Quirks like his did, it had been just the incentive she needed.
Mister Compress had been bought over with promise of insider info and a fairly substantial reward if he managed to siphon some funds from UA's systems, and so all that was left was Lady Nagant.
Of course, Lady Nagant posed a bit of an issue for recruitment: Unlike the rest of the prospective squad, who either had no qualms or could ignore them for some other substantial reward, she had a very staunch 'no dead children' policy. Stain had had one too, sure, but after Shigaraki had showed him files on class 1-A, he resolved to cast it aside to deal with the more… unsuitable elements of 1-A. In his eyes, those were the ones not committed fully to being a hero, or whose attitude showed severe problems if they ever did become heroes. Others, he would simply ignore, as would Spinner.
By comparison, Nagant was adamant she would not join if she had to kill a kid. Which was… awkward, to say the least, considering that was Shigaraki's entire plan at that point. She stated, in no uncertain terms, that if the plan was to kill kids, she would walk right out the building.
"Alright, if curb stomping noobs isn't your style…" Shigaraki paused, realizing he didn't really have an alternative. "Kurogiri!"
"Yes, Shigaraki-sama?" said the shadow butler.
"Introduce Nagant over there to Nomu," Shigaraki chuckled darkly.
"As you wish," said Kurogiri, wrapping a tendril around Nagant and warping her to the Nomu production facility, located a few blocks away. When she glanced up at the hulking beast, she readied her rifle.
At that moment Shigaraki warped in. "You're not beating this guy," he said. "Proper super tank capable of taking hits from All Might, all day, every day. Now, I'm gonna give you a choice: Either beat or outrun the Nomu and you walk, or don't and you work with me. You even think about betraying me…" He picked up a nearby calculator and turned it to dust.
Nagant opted to simply escape, which was the wrong option. Bolting into the street, she attempted to climb up the side of one of the buildings, intending to use the tall warehouses and factories as obstacles in Nomu's path, getting it trapped and allowing her to go free.
What she hadn't counted on was Nomu charging out after her, and catching up in a single jump. The last thing she saw before blacking out was the hulking mass barreling into her face.
When at last she woke up, she'd been strapped to the couch and gagged while the others ignored her as though she was somehow less than them. On some level, she realized they may have been right. Before she could mull on it further, Shigaraki appeared again. After disintegrating the gag, he signaled to let her speak, which she did with a scoff. "Alright, Chappy, I'll join you in your crusade. But this is the only time I'm taking out kids, got it?"
"Stubborn off-meta, don't you know what you just did?" asked Shigaraki. "You've made yourself into traitor bait, and I bet first chance you get, you take one of us out. So yeah, this will be the first and only time you're taking down those corrupted noobs. Because it will also be your last."
Lady Nagant shrugged. "So be it." Glancing down at her restraints, she added, "Alright, are these coming off or what?"
"Hahaha no," Shigaraki guffawed. "I take them off, you'll shoot me in the face like the backstabber you are. So those stay on." With that he quite literally yanked her chain (rope, really) and dragged her down into the mancave, where most of the others were watching Spinner and Twice play Hyper Bash Bros. Special DX (with New Chunky Kong Mode)
"Alright, guys, somebody watch this bitch," said Shigaraki, shoving Lady Nagant into the group.
"Ooh, your blood smells so pretty!" moaned Himiko. "I'd like to really get to know ya better…"
"Lady Nagant, was it?" asked Mr. Compress. "Don't worry, you'll fit right in. Mind if I show you a magic trick or two?"
The best sniper in all Japan sighed. This operation was going to fail, and her name would be on its list of perpetrators. It was not at all what she'd expected to be doing when she'd gotten a call from the newest man-child on the block. Especially not the knockout punch from that bird beast.
When Twice, playing as the Ice Climbers, ended up semi-wobbling Spinner, playing Impa, and he was sent flying sideways at speed, giving Twice the win. As he placed the controller down and got up, he realized Lady Nagant was in the room and also tied up.
"Alright, what's going on here?" he asked.
"That bitch is too high and mighty to rough up a couple kids to prove a point," Dabi scoffed. "Handjob decided he'd tie up that loose end after this quick op."
"Doesn't wanna hurt kids, does she?" said Spinner. "Sounds like someone I know…" Turning to the woman in question, he said, "I'm Spinner, apprentice of Stain, and like you I don't usually take kindly to hurting a kid. But some kids are too far gone, so they have to go. Besides, way I hear it, you used to do the same thing Stain did all the time. Why not keep doing it?"
"I snapped and shot the HPSC president," Lady Nagant spat out. "Sentenced to 30 years in Tartarus. Escaped during the whole mess with mouth blades and Schwarzenegger over there and haven't found something I wanted to do just yet. What I know I won't do is blast a hole in a kid's head."
"Again, some kids are lost causes," said Spinner. "Most of the kids at my school avoided me like the plague just because I looked weird. I know for a fact that most of them are training to be heroes. The exact kinds of heroes you used to take out."
"You ever think about, I don't know, talking them down?" asked the sniper. "I can't because of how I approach engagements but you're a close range fighter. Rough a kid up a bit, scare them straight, and then you don't have to kill them later."
"I used to think that worked," sighed the lizard kid. "Sometimes it does, mostly it doesn't. But honestly when it comes to fear tactics I don't think there's anything scarier than an undetectable threat. Which is what you are thanks to your sniping."
"Alright, so say I shoot a kid in, I dunno, the balls from maximum range," Nagant supposed. "I've seen what happens then, instead of freaking out, half the time that just sends a kid into a rampage."
"So then you shoot them in the head, problem solved."
"And what about the other half?"
"Shoot them in the head with like a tranq dart or something," shrugged Spinner. "If they bleed out, that sucks, but if someone finds them in time, when they wake up they'll probably rethink their decisions."
"So it's faith-based," said the assassin, unconvinced.
"Hey, heroes are supposed to provide faith and hope for society. It's just that some of them do neither," said Spinner simply.
"Don't I know it," Nagant sighed. "Anyway, what part of 'snapped from the pressure' do you not get?"
"Well now you can do that… on your terms," Spinner said. "Lemme guess, you snapped because they kept asking you to kill heroes who in your eyes weren't doing anything stupid. Well you've just been given a chance to do it your way."
The shapely sniper considered this. "That's… tempting, in all honesty. Probably won't deal with kids though, unlike you misfits."
"Hey, don't you know the ragtag bunch of misfits always wins?" Spinner chuckled.
"Can't argue with that logic," said Nagant. "Alright, I just might stick with you societal rejects after all. I mean, I suppose I am one too."
"Oh, I think that'll work just fine," laughed Spinner. "Hey, you wanna play a round of Bash Bros?"
"Hands are tied," Nagant deadpanned, glancing down at the rope.
Spinner sighed. "Hey, Shigaraki! I think I talked Nagant into this!" he called out. "Should I untie her?"
"Huh, guess you trainees are good for recruitment!" said Shigaraki from his room. "Alright, fine, do it. She knows what happens if she starts team killing."
With that, Spinner untied the rope and handed her a controller. Nagant settled on Zero Suit Samus, and went up against Dabi, who had been absolutely crushing everyone else with Ike. "So, finally realized you're one of us, did you? Took you long enough."
Nagant shrugged. "Just pick a stage already."
Dabi grinned. "With pleasure."
"Wait, Nagant, you play this?" Twice asked. "Fucking normie tier whore."
The others paid him no mind. Everyone simply watched in awe as Nagant proceeded to JV3 Dabi on Battlefield. And then 3 stock him on Final Destination. And then JV4 him on Small Battlefield.
"When the hell did you get so good at this game?" asked Dabi at the end.
"I had a friend." Nagant said cryptically. And that was that.
A/N: Well, the League has just formed their Vanguard Action Squad, including Lady Nagant this time around! Needless to say the USJ is going to be a lot tougher this go around, especially since Nomu will be after the kids immediately. Oh, and I've made Smash (Bash in this universe) a thing because why not. Here's the League's mains, for reference:
Shigaraki: Chunky Kong (semi-clone of DK himself who's heavier and a little slower but has a better grab game, which shouldn't really be possible but hey)
Dabi: Ike (Who gained some special mechanics on his Up-B in this DX version that reference the skill it's a reference of; it heals while the blade spins then does ludicrous damage on the drop)
Twice: Ice Climbers (Who can still wobble but it's just really hard to set up)
Stain: N/A, doesn't play
Spinner: Impa (Sheik, but with more emphasis on trap set-ups instead of straight combos)
Magne: Mewtwo
Toga: Female Villager (She uses the axe. A lot)
Mr. Compress: Link (who has more Champion influences, such as the various special techniques and more use of runes)
Muscular: N/A, doesn't play
Moonfish: N/A, doesn't play
Lady Nagant: Zero Suit Samus (who remained as part of Samus instead of splitting off; switch with Down B, which still actually drops a bomb)