Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia. This really is a labour of love.
The third day of Support classes saw the students eagerly twitching in their chairs, waiting for the day to start. Kobayashi and Hidaka were quietly talking about the merits of various materials, other students watching the huge spider girl as her arms swept around her in generous arcs.
Izuku grinned at Mayumi, pen flashing as he looked over the blueprints on her desk. "Wow! So by using this design you can simulate a human-like intelligence? And you've been working on these since the first day?"
Mayumi's normally exasperated expression was replaced by an enthusiastic grin. "Yeah, I've been working with Kitagawa on the A.I. cores that U.A. uses. They're Nedzu's initial design, and the rat really went all out on them."
Kitagawa nodded, deep blue eyes sparkling. "Power Loader designed all of the robots U.A. used for heroics - they made that change because parents were concerned about potential damages."
Izuku paused. "Even the Zero Pointer?"
He'd seen the design. Based on Kacchan's description it hadn't exactly been careful with how it had been moving.
Mayumi shrugged. "Well, don't blame me. But it's not actually named the Zero Pointer - that's more of a designation." She looked around her, then lowered her voice. "It's actually called the Majima."
Izuku gasped. A new piece of Hero trivia! "Why's that?"
Kitagawa shrugged, then a devious grin crossed her face. "Maybe it was Sensei's way of compensating for his short height-"
She was cut off by Power Loader slamming a fist on his desk. "Alright, settle down, everybody!" He glared at the suddenly much quieter class, before he tapped his clipboard. "And for the record, I am not short! I just have a slouch!"
Izuku privately considered that nonsense, but kept quiet. Power Loader's Napoleon complex had been discussed often on the various Hero message boards he frequented. After Power Loader had brought down a Villain with a gigantification Quirk with excessive brutality then started screaming at him, 'who's the short one now?!', Izuku had concluded that Mastermind would not be making any short remarks around Power Loader.
Their homeroom teacher made the role call, checking off everybody, then looked around the class. "Now then, today is going to be a bit special."
That got every student to look up. With all of the work they had done in the labs, they wondered what a 'special' day meant in this context. Knowing U.A. and the rumours surrounding 1-A's homeroom teacher, there was a lot to unpack. Would they be building some sort of training device for the Hero students?
Power Loader gave them all a grin. "You're going to choose a class president."
That got a lot of mixed responses, ranging from cries for the position to confusion about how mundane this situation was. Izuku wasn't sure what to make of it. That seemed… a bit normal for U.A. But on the other hand, maybe it was an opportunity. Maybe being the Class President meant that you got better chances? Increased responsibilities would probably help in the Support business.
If Izuku hadn't secretly been a Supervillain, then maybe he would have applied for the position. As it was, he already didn't want to draw too much attention to himself.
Rego was the one to ask the question on everybody's minds. "So… how should we determine who is Class President?"
Power Loader looked the class over. "Why don't you discuss the potential options with your fellow classmates?"
Izuku briefly wondered why his teacher was taking such a backseat. Then, the answer made itself apparent. Power Loader was giving them a test of some sort. Maybe it was to determine independence?
Around him, the rest of the class murmured, thinking about how to decide. Next to him, Mei looked bored. Izuku shuffled over. "Aren't you interested in being the class President?"
Mei shook her head. "That'd take away valuable inventing time! If I was founding my own company, then sure I'd be in a leadership position. But I already waste enough time eating and sleeping!"
Izuku shrugged. He'd briefly toyed with a drug that would reduce the need for sleep and sustenance, only to swear it off when he realised it would mean not eating his Mum's cooking. "Honestly I kind of feel the same. I-I'm not really interested in being a leader-"
"Alright, how about we just put it to a vote?" Kitagawa shouted.
The other students quieted down as Kitagawa stood up. "That's the simplest way of doing it! And just to make sure that we actually get interesting results, no voting for yourself!"
"So we're gonna be writing down our names on our slides?" Chiba asked.
Kitagawa shrugged. "Sure! Or we could ask Murakami to touch the votes, since he can check who touched it." The flamboyant boy nodded, glitter falling through the air.
She grinned, looking out at the class. "Is that okay, Power Loader?"
Power Loader grunted. "Not bad, Kitagawa."
Izuku and Mei traded looks.
—-
In the cafeteria, Izuku grinned at Mei. "It seems that we chose our class president well!"
Neither of them had wanted the position, so they'd decided to vote for who they thought was the best candidate. Izuku had voted for Kitagawa, since it was her idea and she seemed the responsible type. Mei had voted for Mayumi, to the taciturn girl's surprise. In the end, Kitagawa had taken the President position with Hidaka as the Vice President.
Mei cackled as well, glancing over at Mayumi. "What do you think?"
Mayumi shrugged. "Well, at least Kitagawa's sane, and she might help you guys not think about inventing 24/7."
In response to that, Mei stared at Mayumi as if she'd just said 'eating children is ethically responsible.'
Izuku had gone up to Ryouri, asking for the next creation in addition to his usual lunch, which had turned out to be broken glass with some sort of purple sauce. Edibility was such an incredible Quirk! Picking up the shard of glass, he dipped it in the provided sauce and crunched it down. "Huh, glass under the effects of Ryouri's Quirk tastes a bit like potato chips. Cool!"
Mei picked up a shard. "Really?" She crunched a shard, her crosshair pupils focusing on some point in the distance. "Wow! You wouldn't have thought, would you?"
Mayumi took a breath, then shook her head. "You're both weird." Picking up a piece of Ryouri's product, she dipped and tasted it. "Not bad."
Lunch continued in this way, until the alarm went off. Izuku looked up. "What - what's going on?"
"Security Level Three has been breached. All students, please evacuate in a calm and orderly fashion."
Everybody else in the cafeteria was similarly confused. For a brief moment things were calm. Then there was a stampede to make it to the exits.
Izuku looked over at his friends. "Level Three?"
A fleeing student turned in his hurry to run away. "Means somebody got into the building! It's never happened before! I'm getting out of here!"
Who had-? Izuku got up, Mei and Mayumi trying to follow. Then the crush of the crowd swept them up. Izuku tried to stay abreast in the sea of people - he was briefly happy that his Double hadn't gone to school today, since it might have caused him to dispel. Then:
"EVERYBODY, PLEASE STAY CALM!"
The crowd paused. Izuku looked up, the voice familiar. Could it be-?
Sure enough, it was the tall teenager with glasses he'd tied up over the toxic chemical vat! Iida something! Izuku smiled. It was good to see somebody he'd menaced get into U.A! Just more proof that what every Hero needed was an archnemesis to drive them further!
Mei looked up at Iida as he spoke, crosshairs focusing on him. "Well, he's certainly got the proper Heroic build. Maybe I should talk to him about gear."
Mayumi shook her head. "You're just going to use him as a billboard."
Izuku sighed as Mei just nodded to that last statement. Still, he could see that Iida was going places. Maybe he was in the same class as Kacchan!
—-
In a certain bar, an angry manchild glared at the misty figure. "Can't believe that some asshole jacked my guild name," he grumbled, viciously tapped the buttons on his handheld console and killed another collection of pixels.
Kurogiri sighed. "We still have enough manpower to go ahead with the assault on the USJ. Even with the Villain you nearly disintegrated."
Shigaraki looked up. 'Why the fuck didn't you tell me about this 'League of Supervillains?' This is mostly your fault!"
Kurogiri stopped polishing the glass in his hand. "Shigaraki, I did, in fact, try to tell you. On numerous occasions. I encouraged you to read a newspaper or watch the news among other things."
His tone switched to a less polite one. "To quote you, Shigaraki, 'why should I waste my time on the corrupt, Hero obsessed mainstream media when I can get my news from meme websites and video games,' 'fuck off Kurogiri I'm playing Minecraft,' 'shut up Kurogiri I'm stealing candy from a baby,' and 'fuck off Kurogiri I'm suicide baiting a V-tuber.'"
Shigaraki glared at the misty Villain. "Well, I don't see why I should. And that bitch had it coming."
"You should listen to Kurogiri, Tomura."
With a yelp, Shigaraki dropped his console. "S-sensei!" He scrambled up to the screen of the television their Sensei had set up in the bar. "Can you believe it? Some fucking jackass jacked my guild name! Why didn't you tell me?"
On the other end of the television, All for One sighed. "Tomura, the phenomenon of Mastermind and the League of Supervillains hasn't exactly been hidden. He seems to revel in his publicity and inane antics. That name has been on the underground's mind for a while. I thought you would see the signs - that you have not seems difficult to accept."
"But Sensei!" Shigaraki whined. "I've been thinking of that name for years!"
"Tomura, complaining won't turn back time," All for One rebuked. "Consider this a lesson - reading a newspaper or watching the news is an invaluable form of intelligence gathering. Think of it as… reading the patch notes to an online game."
Shigaraki pouted, scraping his shoe on the ground. "See, that's plain Japanese. Why couldn't you have put it like that, Kurogiri?"
Kurogiri didn't comment.
Shigaraki turned to the screen. "I-I won't let you down, Sensei! I'll give you All Might's head on a platter!"
"I wish you the best of luck in your endeavours, Tomura. Use your League of VIllains well. If you succeed, nobody will ever think about the other group again."
The screen turned off. Shigaraki turned back around to Kurogiri. "Kurogiri, let's prepare for the assault. We can't let Sensei down."
Kurogiri nodded. "There are a few more types who would be willing to listen to us. Are you sure we don't need to gather more intel on the students?"
Shigaraki waved them off. "A bunch of snot nosed NPCs like them? Nah, they're gonna be fodder for our party to use as an XP farm. Why should we worry about them?"
Kurogiri tried, once again, to make his boss see reason. "Sir, we have already suffered from not knowing about other Villains. Do you want to-"
His charge had already picked up his game. "We have Nomu, don't we? And besides, they're not the target, All Might is."
Seeing that he wasn't going to get anywhere else with this discussion, Kurogiri returned to cleaning up his bar. At least Sensei had managed to intervene with sensible advice.
—
In a darkened room, All for One turned to his doctor. "You have a photo of his face, don't you?"
Doctor Ujiko nodded, passing him the screenshots. "He looks quite grumpy in them! And I've got his whiny pout down perfectly."
All for One looked at the selected images using a rather obscure Quirk, and laughed about it for a good couple of hours.
The means of encouraging Tomura's hatred of society had resulted in some incredible entertainment which almost made up for the annoyance of his successor sabotaging himself like this. Still, the League of Supervillains was not a serious threat.
All for One was confident he could stamp them out if need be.
—
After another exciting day at U.A, Izuku left Kacchan on a different stop. "Part time job, Kacchan!"
His friend/archnemesis scowled. "Whatever. Don't get yourself killed, nerd."
Izuku smiled. That was nice of him! "See you tomorrow, Kacchan!"
As his rival left, Izuku grinned, heading off to the League of Supervillains' collective lair. Grinning as he entered, he waved to La Brava. "Hey guys! I'm back!"
La Brava turned from the computer. "Good to see you, Izuku! How was U.A.?"
His smile nearly split his head. "Oh, I've learned so much! I've been working with Mei on Hagakure's costume, and we're getting close to making it work!"
La Brava gave him a cheery thumbs up. After hearing about how a teenage girl had been given a costume that consisted of a pair of gloves and shoes, the female Villains had been very slightly angered by that. At least they knew what their next target was! "That's great to hear! I'm sure she's going to love it!"
Across the room, Izuku's mirror image looked up from where he was putting the finishing touches on something under a tarp. "Still having problems with the power output?"
Beaming, Izuku practically dashed over to his Double. "Hi, me! How was your day?"
The Double gave his original counterpart a wide grin, wiping his hands clean with a rag. "Pretty good, pretty good! I'll show you what I finished! How did it go?"
Izuku pulled out his notebook and Endeavour recorder. "Pretty good! I've got some new notes on the A.I. systems that U.A. uses!"
Double looked over the notes, his smile becoming a little strained. "Huh. These are… pretty good notes! And look at that - I would have never thought about wiring these up like that!"
Izuku's smile diminished. "Are you alright?"
Double shook his head. "I'm fine! I'm fine."
From her spot on the couch, Inkblot looked at the Double with a concerned look on her face. "Seriously, are you okay? You've seemed a bit… on edge lately."
On the couch, Bubaigawara had the same expression of concern as Inkblot. Probably more concerned, since it was close to his own personal issues.
Double just waved it off. "Let's get back to the important stuff."
He led Izuku over to the looming Erasure ray. "It's taken a while and a lot of testing, but we've managed to get the Erasure beam down to an easily portable size! I was even able to get the trick down with the different energy signature."
Izuku beamed, since he'd really enjoyed working on Erasure's energy signature. "That's great! And the, uh-?" he gestured to the ten figures on their respective plinths. The most prominent was huge and muscular. A pair of twin tufts stood up from its head.
Double grinned, pointing at the figures. "Well, it took a bit of doing, but I was able to get them all operational!"
That got Izuku to smile. "Perfect! Then we can improve their A.I. cores using these notes! We are definitely going to have to change them up, since Nedzu made them and I wouldn't put it past him to build a remote shutdown into the system if somebody tried to hijack them, but it should work!"
Double frowned, tapping the notes again. "They would be more autonomous, wouldn't they?"
Izuku frowned, looking at his Double. "Look, I know me. You're not okay."
Double looked away, before sighing. "Sorry, it's just… I keep worrying that you're going to try and replace me, you know? And… I don't really want to just follow your orders all the time."
Reflecting on the various decisions that he'd made without input from his Double, Izuku scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "S-sorry. I'm just, you know, trying to keep Mastermind out there while giving us an alibi at school!"
Double looked down at the ground, still frowning. "I know that - it's just, well, annoying!"
There wasn't anything Izuku could think to say to that. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Twice and Inkblot watching both of them. "I'm sorry, me. I-I should have been more considerate of your feelings."
His Double sighed. "I-I'm sorry too. It's not your fault! Mastermind's gonna come back, better than ever!"
The pair of them grinned, then hugged. Inkblot and Twice sighed, backing down. They came apart, Izuku grinning. "So, what about Twice's enhancers?"
Double grinned, the joy of creation lighting his eyes up. "Coming along great!" Pointing at a gauntlet, he gripped it. "This with the modified boots should simulate a basic strength Quirk!"
Izuku hummed. "What about faking a Quirk that can only double mundane objects?"
Double hummed. "Maybe! But I thought that we wanted to stay far away from revealing a connection to Twice's actual Quirk!"
With a nod, Izuku argued, "but asking Twice to not use his Quirk at all is… pretty bad! Even if only half, we should incorporate it!"
Twice, for his part, just grinned, seeing that the pair of Izukus had come to something resembling an agreement. "You guys are the best! I'll murder you in your sleep."
Inkblot gave him an odd look. Neither Izuku seemed perturbed. Izuku gave a grin. "Well, it's been a day. What about…"
Double gave a grin. "I just finished it! It just needs a few more tweaks, but…"
He dramatically swept a curtain aside, revealing the Mastermind armour and cloak. Izuku approached it reverently. "Behold! Our new and improved suit of armour!"
The new suit seemed sleeker, more refined, its bright red sheen promising Mastermind's particular brand of Supervillainy. Over the top, the teal waistcoat contrasted the now black shirt. The teal cape fluttered on its stand, the red hexagons dotted across its length shining. Mastermind's helmet had been streamlined slightly, the mouthpiece now having its lines picked out in glowing green lights. Even the utility belt had been changed slightly with a few new pouches added, glowing green lights separating each pouch.
It definitely matched Mastermind's brand - suitably Villainous without being completely menacing. Izuku sucked in a breath. "You managed to finish it…" he breathed. He'd nearly finished it himself but seeing the completed armour was still a treat.
Double grinned, pulling out a datapad and scrolling through it. "The armour's been made lighter yet stronger thanks to the gold titanium alloy Giran helped source for us! I made some similar improvements to the cape and clothes - carbon fibres coupled with similar soft robotics to what we have in the cape to make them even more durable! Not just that, but-"
"You added in all of the essential devices and they work? Erase ray, springs, the-"
Double nodded. "Yep! Plasma reactor's online, so everything should work!"
Izuku smiled. "That's incredible!" He paused. "So, do you want to try it on or-?"
Frantically his Double shook his head. "No, no! I had the pleasure of working on it all day-"
With a wave of his hand Izuku cut his clone off. "It wouldn't be fair! Besides, you worked on it, you should have the first go!"
His clone shook his head. "I-I know you want to make me feel more involved, but I'm being serious. I wouldn't have finished it if you hadn't been working on it already."
Izuku hummed. "Well-"
The Double gave him a cheeky grin. "Besides, I already tried it on for a bit, so-"
His head whipped around to glare at himself. "What! Come on!"
Double didn't look ashamed. "Supervillain, remember?"
Huffing indignantly, Izuku pulled the suit on. He tapped the heads up display, gasping in awe as he saw the new possibilities. "The camera improvements work then?"
"Night vision, infrared, and an updated energy scanner!"
Mastermind whirled around. "And thanks to the lighter materials we're going to have more space to add gadgets!"
The pair of Supervillains laughed at that. Double eventually recovered, donning a more serious expression. "Well, we're going to need to move quickly."
Mastermind paused, adjusting the cape as it billowed dramatically. "Oh? Why's that? Have they tracked the League of Supervillains to here?"
Now it was Inkblot's turn to look awkward. "Well…"
La Brava turned around from the computer, a sombre expression on her face. "We've been keeping an ear out on the underground, looking for the next job and just staying aware. And… apparently somebody's been recruiting for a 'League of Villains.'"
She scowled. "Somebody nasty. We haven't heard what they were planning but it seems like it's going to be violent."
Mastermind's smile slipped. "They're using our name? That's… that's just unacceptable!"
Double nodded, a similar frown on his face. 'Yeah! That's what I thought!"
"We-we worked hard on this!"
Mr. Compress nodded. "We certainly did! From what I hear of this League, they're recruiting Villains who are… really not up to our standards. A lot of really nasty types." Next to him, Gentle Criminal sniffed derisively.
Inkblot nodded - she enjoyed a fight and living free but she wasn't out to cause bloodshed. Sure, violence was a means to an end - to escape from the Heroes or proving a point. It wasn't the goal.
Izuku frowned. "Well, I guess we know what target we're going to hit next." He whirled around, cape billowing dramatically. "Do we have any idea where they are?"
La Brava gave him a confident smile. "Working on it!"
Mastermind and his Double grinned. This League of Villains had no idea what they had done!
—-
AN: Well, I finished this chapter!
Now there are two of them. Things are certainly heating up.
I need comments to live. Without comments there can be no happiness.
Next time… we're going to be spying on the criminal underworld! Not just that, but we're going to be in school over the weekend!
But before the next chapter, I may or may not write some of the Shenanigans of Class 1-A in a separate work! Stay tuned, for my mood is fickle!
