A/N: This is it, folks! Either Todoroki and his women are going to succeed, or the forces of evil will triumph. Just a word of warning: there is some triggering stuff in this chapter.
Todoroki's team was still going strong as they ascended the staircase of One America Plaza.
"24," said Todoroki.
Despite having ascended this far without serious injury or death, Todoroki's squad would find itself hampered when Deko slowed down and grasped her head. Uraraka wrapped an arm around Deko and put her other hand on Deko's shoulder.
"Deko, what's wrong?" asked Todoroki.
"It's One For All…it's telling me…somebody's on the top floor…"
"Who?"
Deko's head throbbed. "I…I don't know, but…powerful…very dangerous!"
"Could it be the leader of the PRWO?" asked Uraraka.
"I…maybe…not sure!"
"Then if it is the leader, let's keep going!" said Todoroki.
"No…leave me behind!" said Deko.
Todoroki put a hand on Deko's shoulder. "I'm NOT leaving anybody behind! Either we all go up, or none of us goes up!"
"Boss, don't be a fool!" said Kendo. "Can't you see she's hurting?"
"Kendo's right," said Tokage. "Let her rest!"
Todoroki briefly glared at Kendo and Tokage before casting his glance back at Deko. As much as he wanted to complete the mission, Deko meant a lot to him, and he couldn't live with himself if he allowed her to come to harm because of his stubbornness, so there was but one thing he could do…
"All right. Deko, take a rest."
Deko collapsed and sat down, while Uraraka attempted to comfort her.
"Hagakure, you scout ahead and see if there are any more villains awaiting us," said Todoroki. "I'll back you up. Everyone else, cover Deko."
"Right!" said the women.
Hagakure went on ahead, while Todoroki covered her. The 24th through 29th floors were bereft of villains, however.
"This isn't normal," said Hagakure. "Shouldn't there be more of them than this?"
"Keep your eyes open," said Todoroki. "There may be more awaiting us."
However, there were no villains awaiting them on the 30th or 31st floors. When they got to the 32nd floor, however, a whole slew of villains was awaiting them, so Hagakure headed back down to alert Todoroki.
"Bad idea!" whispered Hagakure. "We gotta get the rest of the team up here!"
"Right!"
Todoroki shot a whole chunk of ice to block the villains from following them down while him and Hagakure fell back. By the time they got back to Deko and the rest of the women, a CHP SWAT team had arrived, a familiar face leading them…
"Todoroki, what are you doing here?" said Stickell.
"We got intelligence that this was the headquarters of whoever's pinning attacks on Hero Agencies."
"That reminds me: we tested that note against the samples you gave us, and you're cleared of all charges."
Todoroki turned to Deko. "Deko, how are you feeling?"
"I'm feeling a little better, but my head still hurts!"
"Do you think you can make it the rest of the way?"
Deko nodded weakly. "I'll try."
Todoroki turned back to Stickell. "Sergeant, you and your men secure the lower floors. We'll take it the rest of the way."
"Right. Be careful!"
Todoroki gave a thumbs up. "Will do. Ladies, let's move!"
Deko clambered to her feet and did her best to move along with everybody else. She would need all of her strength, too, for the villains had somehow broken through Todoroki's ice and were bearing down on them. However, they managed to mow most of them down, barring a villain whose skin turned to metal if an attack was detected. However, Todoroki's flames and Ashido's acid made quick work of him, and the heroes made their way to the top floor, where they found someone…
"Whoever you are, give yourself up!" said Todoroki. "The building's surrounded, and you can't escape!"
The person in question – a tall Asian man with short hair who wore a dark gray suit and horn-rimmed glasses – turned around.
"Do you heroes even know who you're dealing with?" said the man.
"You're the leader of the People's Reactionary World Order!" said Todoroki.
The man nodded. "Indeed. The world knows me as the reclusive billionaire Hanzō Tachibana. In reality, however, I am the villain known as Hopeless, quite fitting considering that all of you are hopeless to stop me."
Suddenly, Todoroki found himself overtaken by a flood of bad memories involving the abuse he'd suffered at the hands of his father.
"See, my Meta Ability digs deep inside people's minds and brings light to their deepest, darkest, most depressing memories," said Hopeless. "I have no need to fight when I can simply break my opponents into killing themselves."
Todoroki wasn't the only one who was caught in the grip of Hopeless' Quirk. Deko was trying to contend with memories of her life before she got One For All from All Might, how she was relentlessly bullied and mocked for being Quirkless and how her own mother had failed to comfort her in her darkest hour. Ashido found herself being reminded of very scary villains that she faced down in order to save her friends. Overall, things looked very hopeless for Todoroki's squad.
As for Yaoyorozu's squad, they found themselves face-to-face with a villain wearing what resembled a bomb squad suit with a bunch of wires sticking out of it. He was carrying a detonator, too.
"FREEZE!" shouted Yaoyorozu. "You're under arrest for threatening to blow up a building!"
"I'M under arrest?" The villain laughed. "Do you broads even know who you're dealin' with?"
"How DARE you use such discriminatory language against us!?" said Shiozaki.
"See, I'm the Bomb Villain: Explodor, and my Meta Ability allows me to turn entire buildings into explosive devices! I press this button here, and we all go BOOM!"
"Not if we have anything to say about it!" said Jiro.
"Don't get your panties in a knot! Throw down your guns and give up, and I won't blow us all to kingdom come!"
Jiro turned to Yaoyorozu. "I think we better do what he says. I'd rather not get buried under a ton of rubble."
"How do you know we can trust him?"
"I can read his body language. He's more scared of us than we are of him."
"HA! I'll give ya 'scared' when I press this goddamn button!" said Explodor.
Yaoyorozu threw her hands up. "No no, wait! We give up!"
The rest of Yaoyorozu's squad followed suit and gently laid down their weapons.
"Good!" said Explodor. "Now gently back away!"
Yaoyorozu and her squad did so. Then, in an unexpected turn of events, Jiro shot her earphone jacks out.
"What the hell!?" exclaimed Explodor.
One of Jiro's earphone jacks stuck into Explodor's detonator and ripped it out of his hand, while the other stuck into Explodor himself and stunned him with an electric shock.
"NO FAIR!" said Explodor. "Gimme my detonator back, ya dumb bitch!"
"DUMB BITCH!?" Yaoyorozu whipped out an M202 FLASH. "I'll give you 'dumb bitch'!"
Yaoyorozu readied the launcher as quickly as possible, and taking aim, she fired an anti-tank rocket at Explodor, which not only pierced his blast suit, but blew him to bits. Fortunately, Jiro had pulled her second earphone jack out of the way before it could suffer any damage.
"Guys like that make me sick!" said Yaoyorozu.
"Definitely!" said Jiro.
"I second your sentiments!" said Shiozaki.
"That was a clever move, Jiro," said Tsu.
Jiro chuckled. "You weren't so bad either, Asui!"
"We all pitched in!" said Yaoyorozu. "If it weren't for our boss inspiring us, then this wouldn't have been possible! Speaking of which, I wonder how Todoroki's doing…"
Todoroki and his squad were still trembling from Hopeless' Quirk, and a bunch of them were fighting the urge to turn their guns on themselves. However, they weren't out quite yet, and Todoroki was trying so desperately not to be out…
"Ladies…d-don't listen to him! It's…an illusion!"
"Give up, Shoto Todoroki," said Hopeless. "How can you possibly escape the sins of your past? No amount of firepower can overcome my will."
"T-that's what y-you think!"
"Todoroki, I…I can't do this anymore!" said Hagakure.
"P-please, just let us d-d-die!" said Kendo.
"I'm not…letting any of you die!" said Todoroki. "C-can't…stop…n-now!"
"Why do you persist?" asked Hopeless. "The result is inevitable."
"That's…what you think!"
"H-help!" said Uraraka.
"Deko…Uraraka…everyone…j-just because…you're women…that doesn't mean y-you're powerless! Got to…use…your minds! All of you…strong…d-don't…give…"
While Todoroki was doing his damndest to rally his women, something unexpected happened: Deko's dark energy that was part of One For All shot out of her body in random directions, but a really strong tendril shot out at Hopeless himself, wrapping itself around him and throwing him out the window. All Hopeless could do at this point was scream and flail about until he met his end by landing on a San Diego PD cruiser below.
"What the hell!?"
The officer who drove that cruiser – who had been writing a speeding ticket – spun around and was shocked to see Hopeless' body sunk into the large dent on top of the car.
As for Todoroki and his squad, they all took deep breaths to steady themselves after the living nightmares they'd been through.
"How are all of you feeling?" said Todoroki.
Deko gasped in horror. "I…I…I killed him!"
Ashido fell to her knees.
"YOU GUYS! THAT WAS SUPER MEGA SCARY!" cried Ashido. "I NEED A HUGGLE!"
Todoroki gasped when confronted with his women getting so emotional over the ordeal.
"Deko…Ashido…it's OK! It's gonna be OK! Here…have a huggle! Have all the huggles!"
Todoroki rushed to comfort Deko and Ashido, and all of his women crowded around him in one big group huggle. Even if he was overwhelmed by their collective sadness, he nevertheless felt extremely grateful, not only for defeating the villains, but also for helping his women to get where they were today and also to be someone to lean on.
Back at the office, Todoroki just had to congratulate all of his women:
"I'd like to give a big thanks to all of you for your hard work and dedication! Because of your outstanding efforts, not only have you made the world safer for heroes everywhere, but you've also proven that women can do whatever they put their minds to! I couldn't have asked for a better group of heroes!"
"We couldn't have asked for a better leader!" said Deko.
"Or a cuter one!" said Ashido.
The women all had a good laugh, while Todoroki blushed.
"Also, if anyone is still troubled by this ordeal and needs someone to talk to, I'm always here," said Todoroki. "All of you mean a lot to me."
"Awww!" said the women.
"Hey, why don't we get a picture of all of us together?" said Uraraka.
"Yeah!" said the women.
Yaoyorozu conjured a tripod, and Uraraka set her phone up while Todoroki and the women all got together. Thanks to the timer feature on her phone, she was able to get a picture of her, Todoroki and the rest of the women.
"Hey Todoroki, guess what time it is?" said Hagakure.
Todoroki looked at his Timex. "It's 1:37."
"IT'S TICKLE TIME!"
"Uh-oh!"
Just barely escaping the women's grasp, Todoroki fled the building and ran down the street with his women in hot pursuit, while a street band played "Cleveland Rocks". Even if Todoroki's dream of opening his own Hero Agency hadn't unfurled in the way he expected it to, if he were given a chance to do it all over again, he would've done everything exactly the same way.
Criticism is gold. Negativity and nitpicking are pyrite.