Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia.
Toshinori Yagi, better known as All Might, had to admit that there were times when he was honestly confused. Usually those times were things like young fans asking him about his Quirk, or Nedzu's rambling/ranting about teaching. Even the Number One Hero could be confused sometimes, in spite of his lengthy experiences.
He had been going down the road, form diminished. His time had gone out, and he was stuck as ordinary Yagi, All Might's personal secretary. The Sludge Villain was still imprisoned in the empty soda bottles he had hastily repurposed. The student that he had saved and gifted an autograph had wanted to grab him and keep fanboying, he could tell that, but his time had been steadily shrinking. He'd made a safe landing and was just on the way to the police station...
When he saw a short figure in a rather garish costume striding purposefully to an office building he vaguely recognised as a Support Industry one. With a teal cape and red visor over what looked like medieval armour, the figure had a rather loud colour scheme. A small crowd had gathered nearby, watching this latest - Pro? Maybe? Toshinori honestly couldn't remember all of the new heroes that came out. His mind blurred, trying to remember if this was a Pro he'd met before.
The short figure stopped near the door, mumbling something near inaudible. Then, it extended a hand and pushed through the door. The man strode through, cape fluttering dramatically in the breeze.
He then spoke, in a loud and synthesised voice, sounding like an angry robot. "MWA-HAHAHA! TREMBLE, MAKOTO INDUSTRIES, FOR YOU ARE BEING ROBBED BY -urk!"
This last bit was said because, just as he wound up for it, the door closed behind him. It snagged the fluttering cape and pulled the figure back.
Toshinori had been told that he wasn't allowed to drink for his health.
After this, he wanted a second opinion.
The building that Izuku had chosen for his debut as Mastermind had needed quite a bit of research. Makoto Industries had a couple of offices around the country. They sold cheap support gear to heroes who needed it. Their gear was reputed to be of high quality.
Izuku's digging told him more.
Still, he had needed to confirm it. And when he had, he knew that here was where he needed to debut.
After freeing his cape from the wretched prison known as a door, he glared.
Coughed.
Come on Mastermind, this is what all those years at the Drama Society were for!
"Ahem. As I was saying... TREMBLE AT THE HANDS OF MASTERMIND!"
Thunder roared. The various employees stared at this short figure in their midst, who was even now striding forwards towards the larger tech labs. This stillness lasted for just a moment, then they sprung into action. One of the employees levelled a rather bulky looking support item, what looked like a small arm-mounted cannon at the approaching villain. "H-HALT!" He yelled. One of his co-workers was already reaching over to the panic button on the desk. "If you go any further..."
"You'll what?" Mastermind asked pleasantly. Idly, Mastermind clenched a fist, and some small lights lit up on the gauntlet's knuckles.
The office worker readied the cannon, a small light building in its centre, and then Izuku tapped his palm.
-Doomph-
A pulse shot out, and all of the lights in the building went out to the sound of screaming. In front of him, he just saw the piece of gear being primed and then it stopped with a dying hum. There was a general cursing and clicking from the direction ahead of Mastermind. His visor lit up, scanning the area around him. It was crude and rude heat signatures along with a mini map of the building guiding his progress, but it was enough. Quickly, Mastermind ran for the main labs. The man in front of him tried to body block him, but a swift blow to the man's protruding stomach with his gauntleted fist and he went down like a sack of dropped rice.
"SHIT! EMP! HE'S GOT AN ELECTRICAL QUIRK!"
Mastermind shook his head. "FOOLS! NOW THAT YOUR SECURITY GRID IS DOWN, I AM FREE TO PILFER YOUR HEROIC SECRETS!" He then bowed. "Now, please excuse me. The lights should be coming back on in a few minutes, so try to remain calm."
The lab was just over here. Now for the next part. Izuku reckoned he didn't have long before the EMP wore off, so he had to act now. He tapped at a small screen on his right hand. The items he had planted before all of this should work, if he'd properly shielded them.
It had taken him a little bit of rather disgusting thievery, but he'd managed to swipe some of Kacchan's old gym socks. Since the blonde's sweat was always a nitroglycerin compound, it was an expenditure that he would not have to make in future.
The doors to the lab exploded, adding yet more chaos to the area. Mastermind knew that nobody would be too close to the doors of the lab, since all of the security guards were hampered by the doors being shut down. Quickly he headed to the main vault of the lab, grabbing as many items of tech as he could. An idle scan and he made sure that what he'd grabbed was the best items. Curiously, he left some items that looked to be of the same quality as others he had taken.
Objective? Secured.
Escape? Already working on it.
Mastermind grinned, and charged back out the way he came.
Yagi was having a small fit about his weakness. He'd used all of his time today, and he couldn't draw on even a drop of it when there were people in danger right now! Come on, One for All. Just one more minute. Please.
The lights in the building had gone off, and suddenly there was just chaos. People in the street jostling each other, panicking and wondering where the heroes were. For Toshinori Yagi, the whole situation was just a bit ironic. Somebody collided with him particularly hard and fell down, dislodging the bag that Yagi had been using to hold the bottles of villain in. But even in his diminished state Toshinori couldn't just abandon somebody who needed help.
"Are you alright?" He helped the man up, dusted him off.
"Y-yeah..."
The young man looked over at the scene. "Damn. Who'd be dumb enough to rob a support building in broad daylight? All Might's gonna crush this idiot!"
Yagi winced. "Y-yeah, I think he will..." Something about this whole situation seemed strange. Normally Toshinori could force the embers to light up, but this time... his gut just didn't seem to be in it.
As he watched as workers started coming out, trying fruitlessly to reach emergency services, the young man started to glance around on the ground with what seemed like panic. "Ah! Sorry!" The young man bowed to Yagi. "I'm really sorry sir!"
Yagi blinked, trying to reassure him. "Sorry about what?"
"I- I accidentally used my Quirk on that bag!" The poor man sounded panicked. "I-I'm really sorry!"
"My bag?" Yagi blinked, then looked for his bag. Which had gone missing. He turned around. "W-what happened to it?"
"That's the thing! My Quirk - I - I can only teleport small objects! I usually use it to put my shopping away! It- it should be nearby! Like - uh - " he looked sheepish. "50 metres?" He chewed on his finger. "S-sometimes it's gone further, but - that's usually on a good day."
Yagi's eyes widened. Shit. His head whipped around, trying to see where it could have gone.
Then the front door of the office opened, and out strode the villain - Mastermind. Yagi watched as he seemed to almost - pose in the doorway, cape fluttering and accompanied by a burst of smoke, coming out from his cape apparently.
"MWA-HAHAHA! THE GREAT MASTERMIND ABSCONDS WITH THIS PRECIOUS HERO SUPPORT GEAR! AND THE HEROES HAVEN'T EVEN SHOWN THEIR FACES YET!"
Another boom of thunder (Yagi saw a tiny remote in the figure's hand. Was that a machine they'd built?) and another maniacal peal of laughter followed. "But now I must go! The heroes haven't heard the last... of MASTERMIND! Please let them know!"
And with that, the villain turned to leave, a bag of spoils in his hand. The police showed up, but apparently he had been expecting that. Suddenly, the smoke around him exploded outwards, covering the area. Toshinori thought he heard sounds, a clash in there. When the smoke cleared... the villain was gone. The police looked around, shouting, but there was nobody to be seen. Yagi's fists clenched at his side. A villain attack right in front of him, and he couldn't do anything. He'd just... just stood there. And now...
There was an explosion, from far off. Toshinori's head whipped around to the sound.
Oh no.
Mastermind was honestly a bit disappointed that no heroes had shown up.
"Talk about a waste of time..." he muttered. Still, at least he had the items he had been looking for. He needed to improve his costume, he knew that much. He had actually taken the simplest means of escape, which had been to deploy the full smokescreen and then swing onto the rooftops. He'd practiced that manoeuvre with the grappling hook for weeks until he'd been confident of pulling it off.
Mastermind had quite thoroughly scouted out the area beforehand, and had made sure to stay two steps ahead. A drone was waiting for him on this specific rooftop. He placed the spoils in the waiting box, and then tapped a few more buttons. The drone's outer shell flickered, then changed to a conventional delivery drone. Just one of dozens already out there. As it flew off, Mastermind swung ahead with the grappling gun.
This was kind of proving his point. Heroes needed to be won top of these things. Maybe he'd let off the EMP too early? No, he'd been careful about the size of the EMP only affecting the area in the building. He'd mapped the place out pretty thoroughly.
I knew that it was going to be difficult to get started as a brilliant villain. You needed resources, you needed genius, you needed preparation. So I prepared.
I did all of my homework as thoroughly as I could. If there was a historic villain I was mimicking, it was The Uncanny Thief, Oji Harima. Destro's work was a bit... iffy. He had some really weird ideas about Quirkless people, referring to them as less than human in the original printing. And most other villains were only in it for fun and profit. There were a few vigilantes as well, some people who didn't fit into the system, but I could respect the Uncanny Thief's aims.
I didn't have much in the way of conclusive proof about it, but I spotted a trend. Heroes with Makoto Industries' gear had a higher rate of injury. They claimed it was because their gear got damaged in the fights, but I suspected something was up.
So I took inspiration, surprisingly enough, from a character from well before the time of Quirks - Arsene Lupin. A master of disguise, of being underestimated. He never hurt anybody with his stunts, and always gave flowers to a woman even when robbing her blind.
I had a couple of jobs that I applied for. One false beard, a stoop, glasses and some hair dye later, and I was janitor Benji, just looking for work. Makoto Industries had been hiring a janitor, and I was able to get in by appealing to the manager's sensibilities. That I said I was Quirkless also helped. A few planted cameras and recording devices later, and I had been paid to map out their building and find the best entrances.
Listening in only confirmed it. They were using substandard materials for some, but not all, of their gear to cut down on costs. Usually given to newer heroes with less of a support network. Workers justified it as being part of the hustle - 'the customer gets what they paid for.'
Honestly. No wonder Heroes aren't as super as they should be.
Bur they had also, similarly, been cheap on their security systems. No electromagnetic shielding for them. Maybe they figured that the Heroes would always be there to guard them? So in the process of robbing them, I planned to leave the substandard gear for the inevitable police investigation. Along with a few tapes of calls about heroes they were ripping off.
The first thought that went through Mastermind's head when he heard the loud explosions was that Kacchan had snapped and turned into a villain, which. Wasn't very fair. "How can I be his Nemesis if we're both villains?" He muttered, swinging over. "I mean, really, Kacchan, that was kind of the whole plan! You be the Number One Hero when All Might retires, I make some terrible puns and menace you, I drive you to be the greatest hero of all time! That was the plan!"
He swung down to ground level, where he saw a large crowd forming. Behind him, he saw a rather skinny man looking at him with wide eyes, who looked like he had just run over to the scene as well. The man pointed at him. "You-"
He coughed up a torrent of blood, and Mastermind panicked.
"Oh my god, sir, are - are you okay? I, uh, have something for that, please don't die, oh my god oh my god-"
For the second time today, Toshinori Yagi was flustered by something unusual, and by the same person, no less; Mastermind - the villain who'd attacked a support company in broad daylight and set off an explosion indoors apparently - anxiously fumbling in his tool pouch for a handkerchief while frantically babbling at him to stay calm.
"Who - why are you here?" Toshinori Yagi knew that he could stretch One for All. Just a moment of distraction and he could take this Villain out, make him reveal where he'd stashed his loot. But again, he just couldn't find it in his heart to get this villain, who even now had a handkerchief in hand - an All Might handkerchief of all things. (The irony was not lost on Yagi.)
Yagi tried to speak but the villain frantically shook his head. "AH! Sir, please don't talk more! You might cough up more blood!" The villain pressed the handkerchief into Yagi's hands, his own stylised face staring up at him in an almost accusing manner. The villain's head whipped around. "Ah! Maybe a hero can help you-"
Another loud explosion cut them off.
And with that, the voices of the Heroes on duty started sounding through.
Izuku was about to wipe the blood away from the protesting stranger's mouth when he heard the heroes talking. Backdraft, trying to keep the fires under control. Mount Lady, trying to get into position. Death Arms, arms crossed and a ferocious scowl on his face.
"It's like a minefield out there! We can't even get close to him! That slime villain is too slippery to grab, but the boy with the explosive Quirk is resisting him!"
Mastermind just stopped like a broken clock. What...? The next words from the heroes hit him like a ton of bricks.
"DAMN! There's no-one here who can stop him!"
"We just have to hope for somebody with the right Quirk shows up!"
"Keep the damage to a minimum! We just need the kid to hang on!"
The skeletal blonde man next to him clutched his stomach with an anguished look in his eyes. Mastermind couldn't blame him. He was feeling pretty sick himself.
Why weren't the heroes doing anything? Why were they just standing around, not trying anything? Furiously, Mastermind was about to go over to the heroes and give them a piece of his mind, when across the smoke, he met eyes with the victim.
Kacchan.
With a look in his eyes that showed that he was...
Terrified.
Mastermind...
Mastermind found that his body was moving on its own.
Yagi was pretty sure that he'd nearly died of a heart attack when the villain suddenly lunged forwards, tearing towards the boy in the middle of the Sludge Villain. The other heroes seemed about to shout at him to stop, then seemed to think better. Yagi's eyes widened - after all...
"Who's that Pro?" Death Arms yelled.
"Don't know! Maybe he's got the right Quirk for the job!"
They'd made the same mistake as he had.
And at that statement, it seemed that Mastermind almost sped up. Toshinori watched, agape, as the blonde was forced to swing around, palm outwards and sparking with heat. The villain ducked the explosion, the heat burning off some of the tabard, then reached out with an arm. A grappling hook shot out and dug into the slimy mass, wrapping around the teenager.
"You... YOU UTTER FOOL!" Mastermind yelled. There was a press of buttons on the other hand, and suddenly there was a startlingly bright light flaring out from the gauntlet. The sludge villain howled, slime covering his eyes, and then Toshinori's heart leapt into his chest as he saw the grappling line recede. The sludge villain tried to follow, but the villain pulled something out of his belt - a small gun, white with a blue light on the end. A blast of blue energy hit the villain's bottom half, and then the Sludge Villain roared in pain.
"What did you do to me? What did you do to me?"
Looking closer, Toshinori could see that the bottom half of the sludge villain had frozen solid. Mastermind didn't answer him, instead continuing to reel the explosive blonde in.
"Who are - WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?" The hostage yelled, tears streaming down his face.
"MASTERMIND DOES NOT KNOW! BUT I DO KNOW THIS..." The villain braced himself against a piece of upturned concrete, both arms on the wire.
"IT'S A BAD DAY FOR HEROES WHEN A VILLAIN HAS TO DO A HEROES' JOB!"
With one last tug, the blonde was free, Mastermind stumbling back before pushing more buttons on his gauntlet. The sludge villain roared, trying to push forwards, but the other heroes took action. Backdraft shot a firehose stream of water at the villain, pushing him back. Before the villain could really recover, Death Arms had leapt into the fray. Charging up his might, the Pro hero unleashed a devastating series of punches, disrupting the villain's sludgy body. The villain, again, tried to recover, lunging at Death Arms in a last desperate attempt, but a fortunate save in the form of Mount Lady came through, an almighty stomp turning the villain into paste on the ground.
"Bleh." Her expression was one of disgust. And with the villain subdued, the crowd erupted into cheers for the heroes, along with a few mumbling that they 'wanted to be under her almighty heel.' And Toshinori Yagi watched this small moment with a heavy heart.
Toshinori just sighed. He... was kind of pathetic, wasn't he? Letting that villain get away, not stopping this Mastermind... But at least the heroes had managed to prevail here, in spite of his weakness. He cast a look at the villain again. He wondered what was going through the head of that villain.
Izuku Midoriya had no idea why he'd done that. He'd just seen Kacchan in need of help, and he'd just... ran in. Was he losing his touch already? Was he going to perform a Heel Face Turn on day one of being a Super Villain?
"Hey! Are you a Pro?"
He stiffened, turning to the crowd in front of him. This was so much more intimidating than the Drama Society. A whole stressful of people, staring at him. And the Pro Heroes were looking his way, oh no. And there was that blood coughing guy from before, looking at him with a look that was undecided on reproachful and confused. Oh god. What do I say?
Take a deep breath. This is the moment. Make yourself known to the Heroes. Not that hard.
He turned around, and walked to a specific spot he'd seen before.
Showtime.
"Heh... heh..."
Bakugo coughed and retched up more as he heard that oddly distorted voice start laughing. Around him, the Pro Heroes tensed. The figure in front of him, the guy who'd saved him, started laughing, softly at first, shoulders shaking. Then, the shithead threw his head back and belter out a maniacal laugh, with his back arched and arms outstretched like he was some sort of goddamn supervillain or something.
"MWA-HAHAHAHA! FOOLS! I AM NOT A PRO HERO! RATHER, I AM THE MASTER VILLAIN, KNOWN AS... MASTERMIND!" Thunder roared even though it was a clear day as he continued laughing and smoke started coming out from his cloak. He changed his posture, dramatically pointing at the Heroes. "AS I SAID, I, ah, CHOSE, YES, CHOSE TO COME HERE SINCE I SAW YOU WERE TOO WEAK TO DEAL WITH SUCH A PATHETIC VILLAIN!"
The heroes bristled, Mount Lady ready to grab the little man as he laughed once again. Death Arms banged his fists together, electrical sparks coming off of the action. Kamui Woods prepared to bind this villain. Bakugo wanted nothing more than to charge this giggling asshole, but there just wasn't much strength left in his body. He'd never let off so many explosions, and such strong ones at that. His arms and lungs felt like they were on fire and he felt slightly light-headed. Honestly he felt like shit rather than The Shit.
"KNOW THIS, HEROES, I HAVE ALREADY GOTTEN AWAY WITH STEALING YOUR PRECIOUS SUPPORT ITEMS AT MAKOTO INDUSTRIES!" The Heroes flinched back at that, if only a little. "YES, CONSIDER THIS A WARNING! YOU HAVE NOT ESCAPED YET FROM THE BRILLIANT MACHINATIONS OF..."
The heroes lunged forwards, but it was too late. Bakugo could only watch from the sidelines as suddenly the smoke burst out in a massive cloud, engulfing the entire crowd of bystanders and the alleyways around. he could only watch as the Heroes charged in, with general cries of 'WHERE IS HE?' and 'CALL THE POLICE! GET A CORDON UP!' When the smoke cleared...
The villain was gone. All that was left was a small black box, resting just a short distance away. The heroes watched it carefully, ready to throw the civilians away if it turned out to a bomb. The box squawked.
"THE GENIUS SUPERVILLAIN, MASTERMIND!"
With that, the box crumpled up on itself, dissolving into a thick sludge. The heroes searched the area, furiously calling police, organising a search team. Bakugo could only stare at the ground where the villain had been...
A manhole cover.
Shit.
He wanted to get up, but when he tried, the world spun in an unpleasant way. Fuck, he needed a drink of water. As he fell, he saw somebody coming up with what looked like a bottle of water. Tall guy. Scraggly blonde hair. Skinny as fuck. He would have been more judgemental, but the guy had a bottle of water. Greedily he drank from it. When he felt like he wasn't going to die, he managed to get out, "Sewer grate," before returning to the bottle.
The tall man just nodded. "Are you okay?" he asked.
Bakugo scoffed. First a villain and now this guy. "I'm fine! Just... just a bit tired." He would have sworn, but the guy had given him a bottle of water.
"Kid! I have to say, you were incredible out there!" One of the heroes came up to him. Some guy in a bird mask. "And you've got such a great Quirk, too! You want to be my sidekick once you graduate?"
Bakugo looked away. Some hero he was, standing around doing fuck all. "Listen. I think the fucker went into the sewer system. That's where he stood. Over... over there."
The hero looked over, and then nodded. "You've got a good eye kid. We'll check it out. You should probably get home." He grinned. "Check the news tonight. We're definitely going to get that villain!"
In the crowd, he briefly saw a head of green hair wandering off, but he dismissed it.
The manhole cover had been one plan of escape, thought of in the spur of the moment. But I've found that I have one great strength, as a Quirkless nobody. I'm pretty plain.
So I set off that smoke cloud, and employed the best/worst feature in my kit - the Quick Change function. I designed the suit to be taken off easily and to fold up into a convenient school backpack.
Arsene Lupin blends in with the crowd. He is the man on the street. So I escaped by being just one more panicking civilian, another face in the crowd. With my hair covered by my cloak, my voice and eyes disguised by my mask and visor, I was... anonymous.
And so I came back to my Evil Lair (TM) with a huge amount of Hero Support gear to cannibalise for parts and a huge public debut.
I suppose... this is the story of how I became the greatest Supervillain of all time.
