Death

by tmb1112

Death is a Quirk that can only kill. A perfect Quirk for a villain, but what if the boy who manifested that power just wanted to be a hero? Enrolling in U.A. might not be enough when all your Quirk can do is kill people. Follow Zach Sazaki from his first day in Class A on a story that spans years, as he learns to be a hero, finds out more about his Quirk, and too much to summarize!

52. Chapter 52

A/N I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 52:

The front door of Class A's dorm opened up at two-thirty in the morning. A slender boy with black hair entered the building, and he looked towards the couch area to his left where a group of people just stood up from. He saw disappointed looks on most of their faces, and Hanta Sero looked apologetically at them as he took his shoes off and started walking over. The tall boy with tape dispensers in his elbows put his bag down behind a couch, and he looked around at the others who were still up this late. "Can't sleep?" He asked.

"Shh," Jirou said, putting a finger up to her mouth after Sero's question. Sero got confused, then Jirou motioned her head to her right side where Sero spotted a set of pajamas that he only just realized actually had someone inside them. Hagakure had fallen asleep where she sat on the couch next to Jirou, and she did not wake up even when Jirou jolted up at the sound of the door opening. Most of the students in the room already knew Sero was on his way back, though they had not been told when he would arrive or how he was getting back for some reason. "What took you so long to get back?" Jirou asked softly.

Sero stepped around the couch and sat on the armrest next to where Kirishima was sitting, looking more awake than the rest of the people there and also one of the most worried. Sero yawned after sitting at the edge of the couch, and he said, "There was this whole big thing. They didn't want my parents driving me back, had cops come get me instead with a pro hero. It was weird."

"Even though it wasn't the League of Villains," Todoroki said, mainly to himself on Kirishima's right side just past Mineta who sat between them. Todoroki hummed and wondered why the heightened security if Kaminari's kidnapping really was just a coincidence as the news made it out to be.

On the center couch on Jirou's left side, Yaoyorozu nervously looked towards Todoroki as he said it, then she looked back towards the television that was the only light in the room other than the students' phones if they had them out. Nine of them, ten now that Sero was there, though nine still if Hagakure being asleep meant she did not count, were sitting in the common room late into the night. Sero had planned on going up to his room as soon as he arrived, but now he just wanted to stay there with the others. "Did Zach-" he started.

"Still hasn't come back," Jirou interrupted, glancing harshly at Sero for bringing it up since the group message would have said something about it. He just looked hopeful though, and she felt a little bad as he lowered his gaze down to the floor in front of the bright tv that had the news on. They were just waiting for more breaking news, and most of them could not sleep if they wanted to. The ones who were not in the common room, the rest of them suspected were having the same problems up in their rooms by themselves.

"I should have told him to stop," Sato whispered, on the couch across from the one Sero was on. "I saw him acting weird after we talked about Kaminari's messages. Like he had… I don't know," he whispered. He had already told them whatever he could, and he had not seen Zach leave earlier as Zach had just gone off on his own to check out Kaminari's room. Sato shook his head, then he said, "Sero, did you see the demands?"

"Whoa, what?" Sero said, his eyes opening wide.

The others all turned to him, and Mineta spun around on the couch to talk to the boy on Kirishima's other side. Kirishima just leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees, his chin on his hands, as Mineta said over him in a hushed voice, "Those guys, the War Boys' leader Shatterer guy, he made a ransom video. It was intense, and they blurred out people's faces on the news-"

"Was Kaminari there?" Sero asked, keeping his voice hushed as Mineta's tone reminded him that Hagakure was there, which he had forgotten again.

"It was too blurry to tell," Jirou replied softly. Sero looked towards her as she said it, and his eyes opened wide as the girl with earphone jacks for earlobes turned back to the tv with such a depressed look on her face. "But he did say, all the hostages are still alive… for now."

"Jirou," Todoroki began sternly.

"They're not going to give them what they want," Jirou muttered.

"It was absurd though," Mineta whispered back to her. Then he spun towards Sero who was still confused and said, "They want 10 billion yen, and he wants a private jet all fueled up. And he said that if he gets all of that, and can get a safe route to the plane from wherever he turns out to be, then he'll release ten hostages."

"Only ten?" Sero whispered. "What about-"

"He claims he will release the others when he reaches his final destination, though he did not say where that would be," Todoroki replied to what Sero was about to ask. "But he also said," Todoroki continued, turning back to Jirou and then frowning more as he hated that he had to agree with her negative attitude, "That if he doesn't get what he wants by sunrise, he'll kill ten instead."

Sero lifted his hands to the sides of his head and ran them up through his hair. "That's…" he started, but he shook his head and did not know how to finish. Now, there was no way he was going to be able to sleep tonight. Before he thought maybe he could just go to bed and hope that he woke up to hear that Kaminari and the others with him had been rescued, but knowing that by sunrise he might be dead, it changed everything. He glanced towards Hagakure who was resting against the side of the couch next to Jirou, and he thought, I wonder if she was awake when they made the ransom video public? How long have these guys all been down here?

Next to Sato on the couch across from Todoroki, Ashido turned her head left from the screen. She looked at the couch in the middle of the room and over at Jirou. Kyoka. Yao-momo. She looked back to the right and the screen where there was a phone number on the bottom as a tip help-line for anyone who had information on the villains and their possible location. Hero search teams had gone out looking since the previous morning, but there was no trace of the villains or their hostages so far. Kaminari, Ashido thought nervously, putting her hands together on her lap while staring at the screen. And, Zach. Why did you leave? I know you want to find him, but the location he sent us, heroes have already searched everywhere near it. I don't know what you think you can do! Why can't you just, pick up your phone? Talk to us for once.

He probably broke his phone, Yaoyorozu thought while staring straight ahead at the tv. Kaminari, I am so worried for you. These villains do not seem to be playing around at all. Did you listen and try to fight back earlier? Or are you biding your time? Or are you already… No, I must think he's still alive. I know, Zach must think that as well to have gone after you. Zach, why couldn't you at least leave a note this time? You broke the rules again. You told me, next time you did that they were going to expel you. That doesn't matter right now though. Where are you? What are you doing? Kaminari's going to die if they don't get the villains what they want, unless the heroes already know where they are and it's like Camino Ward. Maybe they're already on it, maybe, the plan's already in progress! I can only hope. And when the heroes save him, and everyone else, please come back. Yaoyorozu put her hands together over her legs, her fingers interlocking and her eyes closing. Both of you, just come home safely.

---

"They want assurances that the hostages are all alive."

"Fuck 'em! Let's kill a few just to show we're serious!"

"We don't have unlimited hostages. Every single one of them is important. Each could be an individual shield if heroes attack."

"I'm getting tired of this waiting though. I'm getting sick of it. Furious. Angry! Mad."

"Screw it, if they aren't going to give us what we want, we'll show them at sunrise we don't make bluffs." The man speaking had red skin and two white horns sticking out his forehead and curving up in front of his spiky black hair. He turned towards the groups of hostages, split up in different sections, two with eleven in them and one with ten. The group with ten hostages was the most terrified of the three, as the villains around them in the dark room of the building they were brought to kept mentioning "ten."

The red-skinned guy turned towards the hostages and walked towards them, a smirk on his face while the others near him watched him head over. "In the meantime though, I'm tired of just watching these toys."

Whimpers and gasps came from a few of the hostages who leaned backwards. They all had their hands tied up behind their backs and were forced to sit back-to-back with others in their groups, and the villains shouted at them to keep their heads down whenever they started looking around. Hearing the red man walking over though and referring to them as 'toys,' it made them look up at him in terror. One girl who looked up met eyes with the horned guy, and she immediately snapped her head back down with an even more terrified look on her face.

The villain licked his lips after the girl snapped her gaze back to the floor. "Oi, you," he said.

"Damian, what are you doing? The boss said-"

"Shut up," the red man snarled, and the guy talking to him shut his mouth fast. "Don't you fucking talk to me like that. If Shatterer's got a problem with how I 'watch' the prisoners, he'll come let me know himself." He walked forward and reached down, grabbed a girl with a long brown ponytail and yanked her up to her feet in a single tug.

"AHhheeee!" She screamed, then Damian smacked a hand across her face and her scream cut off.

"Hey! Don't you-" the bus driver who started speaking up shut his mouth as Damian turned to him with a sadistic and crazed look in his eyes. The man tried hard to keep his eyes on the villain, but he was too afraid and looked down while biting hard behind his lips.

"Speak to me like that again," Damian warned. "And it'll be the last time you ever have a tongue to speak with."

The bus driver's face turned pale and covered in sweat. The girl the villain lifted up was tall, but she was young, and yet none of the other hostages could say a thing as Damian started chuckling in a dark and menacing tone. And then the person who had been sitting next to that girl stood up slowly. He got up to one foot and then the other, lifting his gaze and looking at Damian with a scared look on his face, but also a smile as he looked into Jessica Thompson's terrified eyes. "Um," the blond sixteen year old began, refacing Damian, "could you let her go? I'm sure the heroes and police will get you what you-"

"Shut the fuck up and sit down!" another villain farther back than Damian shouted over, pulling out a pistol and pointing it at the boy held sideways.

Kaminari gulped, but then he said in a quieter voice just to Damian, "To tell you the truth, she's really not as cute as the glasses and ponytail make her out to be. I know you might think I'm just saying that," Kaminari said, leaning forward but unable to lift his palms up in front of him like he wanted, with them tied behind his back. "But I'm serious. She's also like, flat as a board. I mean come on, I'm sure once you're all millionaires you won't-"

"This is what amounts to heroic these days?" Damian asked, his eyebrows lifted up and his mouth curved in a huge smile. Kaminari's own small smile faltered, and then his eyes opened huge as the red guy leaned forward and said, "We know who you are, Denki Kaminari. Never thought we'd wind up taking a hero as a hostage." Kaminari's eyes darted around as he saw every hostage look up at him with wide eyes. Damian just smirked more at all their hopeful looks though, especially the girl he was still holding up by her brown hair. "You can't do much in a situation like this though, can you? The stupid news broadcasters loved showing footage from the Sports Festival. I didn't really remember seeing you there until I saw the footage, and I laughed at how useless you are!" Damian leaned closer to Kaminari, and he swung Thompson forward by her hair so the girl's face was right in front of his. "Look at this girl. You see her face? It's the last time it's going to look like this hero, and you can't do a thing to-"

Kaminari jumped forward and he slammed his head forward to try and headbutt the guy while shouldering Thompson away. Damian yanked back on the girl and shoved her aside though, and he slammed his own head forward and cut across the side of Kaminari's forehead with a horn while mainly just slamming the boy back ten feet where he landed on his back. "You're a fucking fool," Damian said, then he started cackling but in a low an twisted manner. "Trying to attack us now? We were going to keep you all alive, but let's send that message after all." Damian turned his head and looked at a few of the others behind him, "Rue, Kratos, get the camera and murder him. Do it here around the other hostages, he can't fight back that way," Damian said it and smirked back towards the blond boy sitting up with blood pouring down one side of his face from the cut on his forehead. It was not that deep, but head wounds bled fast and he was starting to panic at how red and wet he was getting.

"Help us."

"Please."

Kaminari heard whispers on both sides of him as he lifted his head a bit. He turned to both sides, then he heard a scream, "Please! Kaminari!" He lifted up more and saw Damian dragging Thompson away. "Help me!"

"I-" Kaminari started, and he pushed his hands down together behind his back. He did not have a great way of pushing himself up, and he had to roll onto his stomach and then slide up to his knees, but when he rose his head again, there were two villains between him, and Damian and Thompson.

"Where are you going?" A ten foot tall man leaning back against the wall with the top of his orange mohawk almost touching the ceiling asked as Damian dragged Thompson by.

"Where do you think?" Damian remarked back before cackling again. "I'll just be gone for a bit. Twenty minutes," he turned and looked the seventeen year old girl next to him who stared at him in terror, then he looked back and called out, "Make it thirty!"

"AHHH-ah!"

Kaminari's body surrounded in electricity as one of the two men reached for him, and that guy pulled back fast while Kaminari sat up farther on his knees. "I won't let you-"

"Here," the other guy said, reaching down and grabbing a ten year old boy from next to his mother who started screaming only to get a kick in the face. The man who had reached for him pointed a gun around as a few of the hostages looked emboldened by the screams, and they all bowed their heads at the serious look in the villain's eyes like he would kill them without hesitating. Kaminari stared at the little boy with huge eyes of his own, then to the dark-skinned man holding him with two of his four arms, reaching the other two down to grab Kaminari and lift him up. If Kaminari shocked him now, he'd be shocking the kid too, and he realized that while the man yanked him up to his feet and then slammed a fist into his face. "I'll rough you up before the execution, make it look like you fought us harder. I'm sure people'll think you're a cool hero, and they'll think us all the worse for ridding this world of your filth. We both know you're nothing more than a fake though."

"You know that, huh?" Kaminari said, opening one eye and the other full of blood from his forehead wound. He looked into the little boy's eyes as the kid was being squeezed in front of him, and he lost the smile he tried to show the child at the sight of the villain squeezing him. "I won't resist," Kaminari said. "Just, put the kid down."

"I'll stop squeezing, sound like a compromise?" Kratos replied. He turned to Rue and said, "Bring the camera and a chair. And the rest of you. Try anything, and I kill the kid on camera instead. A hero in training, or a little boy, I wonder which'll be more likely to get us our plane?"

This is really bad. I don't know what to do in a situation like this. I, I can't do a thing, like this. If I don't, they'll kill me. If I do though, Kaminari looked around at all the people only feet away from him, and the other villains even farther away looking in and guarding them from the sides of the room. I- I really don't have a solution to this! Kaminari's eyes grew huge, especially as he saw the guy Rue walking back over with a camera in hand. Oh man. Where the hell are the heroes?!

---

"…with that number exactly. You do not want to make me have to hunt you down again." Zach glared with red eyes at the man in front of him who nodded rapidly back at him. "Alright, you can go." Hunter needed no further incentive, and he spun and flew off the ground as fast as he could. He jumped up and flapped his wings, shooting as far as they would take him before he had to lower down again as his thin wings could not take his body very far in the air which Zach and his other comrades noticed as they had followed Hunter across Japan in the dead of night.

Zach turned away after Hunter flew off, and he tapped his chest and walked over towards Mythril and Webb who were standing back at the front of the black Hummer. "Let's move," Zach said as he walked alongside them, and he kept going up the slant ahead of them. They were parked between some trees off a dirt road, and Hunter had given them the information of what lay directly ahead which he scouted out for them after leading them here. He glanced to his right at Webb as he moved up the slant, wondering if the blind man next to him had anything to say about what he just told Hunter before sending him away, but if Webb heard he looked fine with it, or at least he just looked fully focused on the current situation.

"Trusting the word of that villain," Ganji muttered under his breath. "Even if he is that afraid…"

"You're right," Zach said. "He might have just been trying to get away. I doubt it, but we have to look for ourselves too."

The three of them moved ahead from their truck in the direction Hunter had given them after his reconnaissance. They stopped speaking, even though they all had in small earpieces connected to each other so they could speak quietly and hear each other in their black helmets. Only the bottom of Webb's face showed, no other skin for him or for either of the other two who had on their helmets with their visors down. Zach walked forward fastest and between the other two, staying low but speeding forward through the trees that were thinning out towards the top of the cliff just ahead.

"If Hunter was even just a little off with the guards," Ganji, dressed as Mythril, whispered. "We'll be spotted."

"I don't sense anyone directly ahead," Webb whispered. "Though the guards who are out this far are being very quiet."

"Shh," Zach shushed slowly into his helmet, not really an order as much as a suggestion as he started moving slower himself past the furthest tree up. He slowed down and got lower to the ground, and lower, and then he flattened out and crawled forward army style until his head was just at an edge for him to look over. A secret base. In a secluded valley like this, it's so far from the highjacking… How did they get all their vehicles here without anyone noticing? How did they get the bus- or did they bring it somewhere else and take only the hostages here? No, that doesn't matter- unless it's one of their Quirks that's strong enough to do something crazy like this. Someone who can fly and is strong enough to carry a bus here, and all their other vehicles? Or a portal-user who can transport whole vehicles? Or maybe there are just mountain roads around here, connecting to the smaller paths cutting through the valleys.

Zach stared down towards the building ahead, and he kept his breathing steady and silent. There was water to the back of it, but only a lake and not a sea or anything. They were pretty far inland on the main island of Japan, and they were fifty miles from any even medium-sized town. Zach breathed out calmer and slower as his eyes darted around some figures below walking around outside the front of the building. There were trees around the clearing, and some guards standing at that tree line looking out and protecting the base. The building itself was pretty dark, though there were a couple of lights on inside. It looked almost like a boat house to Zach, except bigger and more like a factory. He thought maybe they made boats there, but it didn't make much sense to him to have that on a lake like this. Maybe that's just it's disguise then? It's not a building repurposed for the villains. Maybe one of them just has a Quirk that allowed them to build a base, and they tried to make it blend in well. That, or it's something I'm still not getting. Water-energy plant? Storage warehouse? Whatever it is, it's full of villains.

Zach scooted back down the slant a little, and he looked right at Webb and then left at Ganji. "Alright," Zach whispered. "We confirmed it." He took in a deep breath, then he got up to his knees and stayed low while whispering, "It's time to call the police."

Both of the others turned back towards him fast. Mythril's voice spoke first, "Are you serious?"

"Yes. We still have time until that daybreak cut-off. We shouldn't just attack on our own thinking we can handle this," Zach lowered his gaze to the floor even as he said it. Kaminari, he thought, his fists clenching hard at his sides. "It's up to the police and a group of pro heroes I'm sure has already been gathered, to stop them. There are just too many," he added, looking towards Webb so hopefully the man would turn to him and agree.

Mythril hummed through the headsets he provided them, then he nodded his head once and scooted down the slant himself. "I must say, I was not expecting that, Reaper. The judgement and quick thinking to get us here, but also the composure not to go off looking for revenge. You really are a-"

"I agree Reaper," Webb said, but the fact that he was cutting off Mythril unnerved the other two. They turned towards him and saw Webb still laying on his stomach with his head far forward only pointed straight at the floor. They were all silent for a few moments, then Webb continued speaking in a low, dark tone, "You make the call, because you decided to do this." Webb turned his head and Zach started panting as he stared at the top half of Webb's mask, and the lip of the man who Zach could start to read his emotions based off of alone. "But I must tell you what I just heard. They will not wait until daybreak. A hostage is about to be killed. And a young woman is currently screaming."

Zach bit down so hard he thought his teeth might break. "I'll call the cops now," Zach whispered. Webb started lifting a hand to his head, but then he paused as Zach continued, "We're going in though."

"You can't have it both ways," Ganji said, turning to the boy and sitting up straighter. "We either go in, or the cops and heroes come in. We don't call on ourselves."

"Someone's going to die in there," Zach whispered. "And that girl… If you want to leave, then I'll do it myself. I won't go in there thinking I can beat them all, and risk not calling the police. But I can't just sit here and let someone die right in front of me." Zach turned and he scooted forward up the slant to the edge of the small cliff again. He hesitated, then he cursed himself for doing so. There is no time to sit here. I don't know how long I have. Zach dropped off of the cliff, while at the same time pulling a disposable phone out of his pocket he got for the mission. Sorry to drag you two into this. If I can stop them and get out before the heroes arrive that's ideal, Zach thought, while firing his grappling gun towards a tree branch he was falling near, and swinging down and up on the other side of it. He judged his release from the first branch carefully, and he landed on the second one on wobbly legs but managed to stay on it.

Zach lifted the disposable phone in his other hand and he made the call. He sat there on the branch for a total of twenty seconds before putting the phone away. His heart started racing as he thought about what he said over the line, using an intentionally lower voice even though he had turned off Nightmare. I sent the location, and I said it's the real deal. How would they know though? Would other people prank call them about this? Zach lifted his phone and he zoomed in, and he took a picture from a distance and then sent it before putting the phone away again. Time to move in.

Zach felt the branch vibrate and he spun to his right. On the branch a few feet away from him was Webb in his skin-tight costume, a deep frown on his face below the mask covering the top of his face. "Webb," Zach whispered.

"Letting you go in alone would leave a bad taste in my mouth. At the first sign of the heroes or police, I will disappear. You would do well to do the same."

"The Hummer has no VIN, the plates are registered under an imaginary name, but admittedly I really liked that truck."

Zach's eyes opened huge at the voice he heard in his ears. "Mythril," he whispered. "You don't have to-"

"You're right, Reaper. I don't. I do this because I choose to. As we all do." Ganji moved forward on the ground level of the forest, and he stopped as Webb told him not to move.

Webb jumped away from the thick branch Zach was standing on, and he said in a quick voice while dispatching of the villain guard who was headed towards where Mythril made noise, "Reaper. The first floor has all the hostages on it including the one about to be executed. On the second floor is the girl. I can hear her screams, but it doesn't sound like, she has yet to be-"

"We move now," Zach said. He jumped off the branch, and he said, "I'll go for the girl."

"Are you sure-" Mythril began.

"If my friend sees me he might recognize me. I doubt it, but if he sees my power he'll know for sure."

"Go then. Right now Reaper. Move it," Webb's rushed voice made Zach speed up even more, his eyes going wide as he wondered what could make Webb sound in that much of a hurry.

I thought, it was too late. If it's not though, I won't let it be! I have to be stealthy, or, or at least I should be! How do I get there-

"Ah!"

"What's that?!"

"Over here!"

"There are people in the woods!"

Zach was just at the edge of the forest, trying to figure out a way to get to the second floor and about to give up. He was about to make a mad dash for the entrance and just figure it out from there, but he managed to wait a few seconds for the guards he could see in front of him to all run the same direction where he heard gunshots start going off and people shouting. Zach sprinted straight towards the main entrance of the building, lifting his right hand and sliding his fingers out his glove again. He tapped his chest hard and surrounded himself in Death in an instant. He breathed out a heavy breath of black steam through his mask as he charged the doors of the base, then he rose his grappling gun and aimed it at the second floor. He fired, and he clicked a button as soon as it smashed through a window and locked against the wall past it.

The wire retracted fast, with such a hard jolt that Zach was thrown off the ground and towards the second story, right as some villains came running out of the first floor trying to find out what the commotion was about. Their comrades were calling back some strange information from the woods, and it did not seem to them like heroes had arrived by the descriptions the others were giving. Zach flew into the second floor and landed on top of some broken glass, and he almost fell and did a roll on it but managed to just skid forward on his soles. He yanked back hard and pulled the sharp metal hook out of the wall where it dug into after smashing through the glass, the three-pronged hook sharp enough to pierce even stone.

Zach put the menacing black grappling gun away and sprinted down the second floor hallway towards where he heard a high-pitched scream. "What is going on out there?!" A loud voice roared. Zach sprinted at the door ahead and leapt up as it started to open. He extended a leg to slam it the rest of the way open, only for the door to swing all the way open itself and the man on the other side to slam a bulking muscular right arm out and into the boy who tried changing his trajectory mid-jump and just wound up getting punched square in the chest by the red, horned villain. "You think I didn't hear you running down my hallway?!" Damian shouted, snapping his head down and smirking madly at the short figure gasping and lying on his back in a strange black costume.

Zach's closed eyes snapped open and they glared at the figure who leaned back as he did not get a good look at that face the first time, and still didn't. It was just a pitch black face with a glowing red glow coming out of the visor he could not even see through the outer black aura. As he looked into those red eyes, Damian felt weak in his knees and he stumbled backwards, before lifting his left hand and smacking himself in the face with a loud roar. "What did you do to me?!"

"What did I do to you?" Zach asked in shock while getting on his feet, feeling like there was a pile of bricks pushing against his chest. Zach stood and he looked past Damian at a girl on the floor, her clothes in tatters around her and a look of sheer terror on her face as she stared at the two of them. Zach's entire body started shaking, and in his same dark and menacing voice he yelled, "WHAT DID YOU DO-" he stopped screaming it for two reasons. He knew if he finished 'TO HER,' that the villain would be able to use the girl who looked only a bit older than him as a shield. He also stopped screaming in his horrifyingly dark and scary voice, because of the tears that streamed out of that girl's eyes even faster. Zach cutting off mid-sentence confused Damian, but he ran forward and bulked up both arms this time, and his horns elongated off the front of his forehead that he lowered to aim them at the shorter fighter's face as he charged.

Zach dove to the side to dodge those horns, pulling out a knife as he did and throwing it at the red villain. The villain missed his double-fisted slam down at the boy who just dove to the side in time, and those fists hit the ground so hard that it cracked and send pieces of floor at Zach as he was landing. His head snapped towards the girl who screamed though, and he saw a splash of blood come off of her right cheek as she was hit by something. She had no shirt on or anything under it, but Zach noticed as he gave her a once-over that she was wearing a pair of underwear, despite everything else she wore being strewn about the room in tatters.

Zach spun back towards Damian who his eyes opened huge at the sight of, as the man turned towards him with an animalistic look on his face that showed he was loving this. He reached a hand down to grab the knife lodged in his side, then his eyes rolled back and he dropped down to his knees, then collapsed forward head-first into the floor. Zach gasped out and relaxed a bit as he thought the guy was going to try smashing another one of those huge blows at him while he was not in a great position to dodge. Good thing I covered the knife in Death before throwing it. I don't think it would have even slowed him down otherwise.

He got up to his feet and turned, and his eyes shot open huge as the girl on the ground in front of him started scooting backwards, and she let out a scream again in terror. She pushed her hand down next to her and cut it on the glass of her own glasses that the villain had shattered. She had a bruise on one side of her face, one on her stomach, a bloody nose, cut right cheek, and she whimpered after her scream while backing up farther. "Listen, I came here to…" Zach stopped himself, as his voice in this form sounded far too scary. He could hear voices in his ear and knew Webb and Ganji were out fighting, but he could not leave yet. He touched his chest with his right hand, glancing back to Damian for a second to make sure he was down for good. "See? I'm not actually a-" Zach started, but the girl just got an even more scared look on her face as despite the black veil fading and red glow going away, the figure before her was still terrifying in his all black costume with a scary mask.

What is this- this feeling? Zach felt his heart breaking, and he had to take a full step back at the look of that girl. Did I save her? Is that enough? Just, stopping the villain? If she's looking like this though… I can't! But, it's what a hero would do! But I'm not a hero right now! I'm an anti-hero. And yet, and yet I can't… Zach's eyes shot open huge, and his arms started lifting at his sides as he walked forward. "Hey," he said, his voice softer. The girl pushed her hands down harder for a second, but she got an unsure, hesitant look on her face at the tone of his voice. It wasn't very deep at all, and it was soft, and caring. People, who need saving. They're always in such scary situations. I know, because I've been saved so many times. Just saving lives, isn't enough. I've had my life saved before, and I wasn't alright. Zach brought his hands to the sides of his head and grabbed his helmet.

"Reaper, what are you doing?"

"It's okay now," Zach said, ignoring Webb's voice in his ear, and taking off his helmet in the middle of the villain's base. He dropped it on the floor next to him, What was I thinking? The girl in front of him stared up at Zach's face in the illuminated room in the middle of the second floor of the base. She stared at that face, the scar under his right eye, the split ear, and the smile he had as he leaned forward and reached out his left hand for her. "You're going to be okay. Just come with me," he said.

"Y-Y-You're," she whispered, her left hand lifting off the ground shakily at her side, and reaching up for Zach's.

"I'm here," Zach said. He grabbed her hand and pulled her up to her feet, then he darted his eyes around and said, "One second." He ran to his side and her eyes opened wide as he left her, only for them to open even wider as Zach ripped an entire curtain off the wall covering up a window to prevent light from inside from getting out. Zach ran back over, and he wrapped the curtain around her.

"AHHH!" Zach heard a voice that sounded like Ganji's yell out in pain both over his headset and outside the building.

"Listen, you're going to make it through this, but you need to be strong for-" Zach stopped talking as the girl in front of him was shaking. Her entire body was violently trembling, her lips quivering and the tears she was holding back barely staying in the corners of her eyes. Zach cursed himself that he could not stay there and comfort her, but he knew his comrades needed him downstairs, the other hostages needed him too. I can't just leave her here though. Other villains could show up. "Come with me. I'll get you out of here," Zach said, and he held her hand again and spun back to the door.

Thompson was pulled behind Zach and she had no other option but to lift her feet and run after him. She tugged away as they neared Damian's collapsed body, but Zach held her hand tighter and turned to her with a smile on his face despite the sweat on it and how anxious she suddenly saw he really was. He's smiling. He, he's saving me with… Thompson's hand tightened in Zach's and her feet picked up faster. "We have to save Kaminari," Thompson said, and Zach's eyes opened huge while he spun around to face her.

"What?"

"They're going, to kill him. He tried to save me!"

"Kaminari," Zach whispered, spinning back forward and picking up the pace even more. He heard two villains down the hall coming around the corner, and he let go of Thompson's hand while reaching down both arms. He grabbed two more knives from his belt and flicked them forward as the men passed the corner of the hallway. He kept running forward while his knives collided with one of them in the right kneecap and the other in the left shin. He tapped on his chest and covered himself in a black veil, and he made a big movement with his right arm. He swung a black wind down the hall thick enough that when it hit the two yelling men who looked up and leaned away, their eyes rolled back and they collapsed in two seconds flat. Zach tapped his chest again and made sure the aura was gone from his face before turning back to Thompson, and he smiled at the girl whose eyes were huge again at what he just did. "Kaminari," Zach repeated, holding his left hand back for the older girl to take. "Let's go save him."

Downstairs, a dozen villains stood around the hostages who were all clumped in a single group now except for the boy on a chair who had been being video-taped getting beaten. Kaminari's eyes attempted to widen when he started hearing the gunshots outside, but his left eye was swollen and his right still full of blood so it was difficult.

"What's going on out there?!"

"Should we start killing hostages?"

"Let's kill him now!"

"Idiots!" a voice roared and everyone in the room spun at once. They all looked back and saw a tall bald man marching into the room in his villain costume that looked much better than any of theirs. It had a black spiked collar and thick red stripes going down the sides of it. It was dark brown over most of his body, covering up his arms and legs too but showing there were large muscles behind them. He was six and a half feet tall, and everyone in the room shut up when Shatterer shouted at them. "The hostages are the only thing keeping them from coming in here. Fucking heroes wouldn't dare charge us now."

"Boss," Kratos started, stepping towards the man and holding up a dark fist. He glared back at the boy strapped to the chair, and then looked forward and said, "Let's at least kill this one. Toss the dead hero kid out to show them what'll happen if-"

"I already fucking said it, we aren't killing him!" Shatterer yelled. He sounded a bit nervous as he called it out, and the hostages around the room, the other villains, and Kaminari himself all looked towards the boss whose eyes darted back and forth after his yell. He stepped towards Kratos noticing the four-armed villain's confused and angry glare, and then both of them snapped their heads towards a wall as they heard a scream from a villain outside.

"Why not?" Kratos hissed, turning back to the leader and getting a threatening look on his face like he was considering disobeying him here. The walls were closing in around them, and fear of Shatterer was not overwhelming his reason. "What are you-"

"You saw those videos they showed him in," Shatterer said while stepping forward, glaring even harder at Kratos who leaned back from the boss. Shatterer marched right up to him and leaned forward his bigger head so their faces were right in front of each other, "You saw him with this hostage. We aren't killing him, and bringing that demon's wrath."

Kratos' eyes opened huge, then he leaned back forward himself and hissed, "Are you really afraid of-"

Kaminari's eyes also opened wide at what he heard the villains arguing about right in front of him, even if his vision was blurry and everything around him sounded muffled. He opened his mouth to chime in something cocky after hearing the big bad's concerns, but his mouth froze like that as the lights cut off around them. The room plunged into total darkness, and Shatterer shouted, "Grab the hostages! Get the lights back-"

"AHH!"

"There's one in here!?"

"Show yourself, or I'll kill-"

The lights on the ceiling flashed on, and Kaminari's jaw dropped as the villain Rue flew fifty miles per hours past the front of his chair with blood splashing out of his mouth. The lights cut back off just as fast, then gunfire from an assault rifle acted as a strobe in the room, only for that rifle to fly out of the villain's hands and slam into another as that man was lifting his own pistol towards a nearby screaming hostage.

Lights flashed in the room again, and then Shatterer yelled, "ENOUGH!"

The whole floor of the room broke apart, and Kaminari's chair fell over as the ground beneath it broke. He yelled out in pain then winced and started pulling at his hands from behind his back, his wrists getting burnt by his struggle. What the hell is happening? Is there a hero here-

"Wait! Please don't- AHH-"

A scream cut off, then a window shattered and Kaminari spun his head towards the sound of it. A floodlight turned on at the side of the room farther from that window, and Kaminari felt blinded for a second so he clenched his eyes shut. The screams continued from around him, of both villains and terrified hostages. Denki Kaminari squinted his eyes open and looked around in panic and pain from the beating he took. He could see through his blurry vision though, and he shook his head more to try and clear it up even though he was feeling pretty dizzy. His vision focused, and then his eyes opened wide in shock, Oh shit. Who is that?

"AHHH!"

Zach heard a scream and his breath hitched, his body covering in sweat as it was the second voice screaming out in pain in his headset in a matter of a few seconds. Mr. Ganji! Webb!

Outside of the building, Mythril sprinted towards the tree line closest to him. He heard the increasingly loud spinning behind him, past the two villains he had just been fighting hand-to-hand. In the air above the spinning mechanical turret, Birdman yelled, "Fire!" The huge muscular man with giant white wings sticking off his back and an orange beak in front of his face had a loose muzzle over that beak. His body was covered in loose chains, and he swung one of those long chains forward to command the man in the back of the truck he just dropped straight in front of the base.

"Kya kya kya kya kya!" The hyena-looking man at the back of the truck cackled, and the muscular fighters behind the truck ran out of the way right before the turret unloaded out towards the retreating enemy. Mythril sprinted into the trees and ducked behind one, and then all of the trees around him started ripping apart. Entire trees fell one by one as the heavy caliber bullets ripped through them, and Ganji ducked down even more as the tree behind him started getting hit and shards of wood flew out to the sides. The top of the tree started falling forwards, and Ganji already had blood covering the left side of the top of his face where his mask had been broken.

The man in all black snapped his gaze up, then his arms bulked and he reached them above him while staying in his crouched position. The huge tree trunk falling his way into the forest fell flat above him, and his arms wrapped around it. Mythril groaned, but he stood up fully as a tree to his right side was getting ripped through and another just past him on his left started falling. He stood up and swung, spinning his body and throwing the top of the tree behind him. It only flew a few meters, but it became the instant target of the gunner on the back of the truck who started lighting it up.

"Over there!"

The villain firing the turret was laughing too hard and the gunfire was too loud, but he saw the villains on his left start raising their fists and his eyes opened huge while his head started turning. In the cover of darkness, Mythril had run around another tree trunk while staying low, then sprinted out past the top of the now shredded tree's canopy. He barreled towards the two villains he was fighting before who lifted wavy whip-like arms or ones that looked like flamethrowers. The villain on the turret spun his weapon, but then he flew backwards as a rock slammed in the center of his chest. Ganji grinned as he kept running forward, as both combat villains snapped their heads to the sides to dodge his throw only for him to hit the guy he was really aiming for.

Mythril jumped up in the air and pulled back his right arm, thinking, Two and a half! A strong pair of talons clenched into his shoulders, and Ganji snapped his head up in shock and pain to see Birdman had flown down before he could drop powerfully on the other two villains. "Fiend!" Mythril yelled, and he brought both arms up himself and grabbed on the bottom of Birdman's legs just above the talons.

"Hehehe! Is that all?!" The villain yelled as Mythril clenched as hard as he could. Birdman clenched harder and his talons dug deeper into Mythril's shoulders, through his costume and making more blood splash out in the air. They flew higher up and Ganji could feel his muscles tearing above his arms, yet he just grit his teeth harder instead of yelling in pain, then he snapped his head up furiously.

"I will defeat-"

Birdman's eyes rolled into the back of his head before Mythril could finish, and the two of them started dropping with Ganji staring in shock at the villain above him. He was staring in utter disbelief, because of the thin red line that just shot out of nowhere and into the head of the villain carrying him. Birdman's wings fell limp as they plummeted forty feet towards the ground, but the thin line emerged from Birdman's head and turned thicker and darker as it dropped down after Mythril, catching him and lowering them both to the ground in a softer way than Birdman fell. "Ninpou: Thousand Sheet Pierce," the thin figure in front of Mythril said, right as Birdman crashed down into the ground behind him.

He stood much shorter than the anti-hero in all black. The thin man had gray hair styled into three distinct spikes, and he wore a red and blue uniform with a red cape that flapped behind him. "The Ninja Hero, Edgeshot," Mythril said. He did not just say it out loud for no reason though, or because of the shock he rightly felt. Mythril lifted his right arm and grabbed his left shoulder where he felt the talons dig in deeper, and he turned his head to the side while biting down in pain.

"Edgeshot?!"

"What's that big shot doing here?!"

"Are you the one who called in the tip?" Edgeshot questioned, while spinning away from the man and towards the two villains who just leaned back after shouting in panic while facing him.

"The hostages are still inside," the tall, dark-clothed figure behind Edgeshot said. "We'll talk after!" He yelled, and he started charging at the building.

"Wait!" Edgeshot called out over his shoulder. Then he spun forward as he saw the other villains charging, and he saw more in the corners of his eyes, as well as one in the back of the truck who was rubbing his chest but laughing madly and moving for the turret again. The number 4 pro hero stood in a ninja stance and then shot fast towards the first villain closest to him using his Quirk: Foldabody. What hero is that? I did not recognize him.

"Heroes are here. It's time to leave," Seiki Ganji said, while avoiding the building he had seemingly ran towards altogether.

Zach ran through the first floor of the building, and he heard Ganji's voice in his head. He already heard him say Edgeshot was there, but he could not focus on that well. He had made it downstairs after hearing Webb's yell that had followed Ganji's earlier scream of pain. Zach stood there on the first floor with the girl he saved upstairs standing behind him, though he told her to stay back as he moved farther forward. Did Edgeshot get here first, because he's the fastest of the ones they called? Who else is coming? Can we just leave like- Zach stopped as he got a view into the big room where he could hear all the hostages were. He had heard them shouting, heard the gunshots as he made his way over fighting the occasional villains, but he froze and his face covered in sweat at what he saw.

One of the villains had his arms raised and bright lights flooding out of his palms and into the room. Another taller villain with darker skin and four arms had a woman lifted by her neck, standing behind her with a hand curved in and his fingernails extending so Zach could see red drops coming out of her skin already. In a single instant he could move and tear her throat out, and Zach did not know how he was going to knock him out in under that instant, though there was one way he knew he could take the man out before he could do a thing. None of the villains had noticed him yet. There were still five of them standing in that room, though there were more than that laying around injured or unconscious, and Zach sweat more as another who was leaning back against the wall on his butt started pushing himself up. His eyes darted around at all of this, but then they shot back to the first things he saw when he stepped past the corner to get a view in there from around the bend.

On the floor with a foot stomped on the side of his head, was his best friend. He had blood coming out of his head from a gash on the right side of his forehead, and Zach did not know if it was recent from the foot stepping on him, but that whole side of Kaminari's face was red already, and his friend was panting heavily and not looking very good. The man standing on him was ten feet tall and had a spiky orange mohawk, and a furious look on his face as he stomped down harder. He had a gun pointed down and to the left at a younger boy whose mother had both arms wrapped around him and was trying to shield him with her whole body, while most of the other hostages were laying flat with their heads in the ground and their hands tied behind their backs. This was only one of the two things that caught Zach's eyes though, and it was not what made him sweat so much and his breath to hitch after he entered.

It was Webb, who had screamed out after punching towards Shatterer, because the villain had moved faster and grabbed him by that right arm. It was Webb, whose entire right arm had shattered. All the bones in the arm from his wrist to his shoulder, they were like dust, and Webb's arm looked like jello the way it was waving back and forth with nothing holding it in one place. Shatterer had Webb's other arm grabbed now after the man with the top of his head covered by a mask, the mystery man Kaminari had really hoped would save them, tried swinging that arm in at Shatter's left temple. "Who else is here?" Shatterer asked, then he kneed up into Webb's gut when he did not receive an answer immediately, and to stop the leg Webb tried lifting as a knee himself.

Blood splashed out of the mouth of the man who had a mask over the top of his face. His mouth was left open afterwards showing all of his teeth covered in red, and Shatterer pulled him in and said, "One last time. Who else is here?"

"Trickster! Go shout out the front door that we'll kill hostages if they send anyone else in!" Kratos shouted, keeping the sharpened nails of one of his upper arms on a frightened woman's throat but thinking of a way to get them more assurances of immediate safety. "We haven't lost the upper hand yet!"

"I'm taking one with me," a short man at five feet tall with spinning spikes coming out of his arms shouted. He ran across the room, a bruise on his right cheek but some blood on a spike on his left arm from where he grazed the man currently being tortured by Shatterer. He reached down as he ran and put his spinning drills in front of a man's face before saying, "Get up!" The guy scrambled to his feet to prevent being impaled by those drills, then Trickster started running for the exit of the room closest to the front door.

"Stay out of sight. Don't come out for anyone."

"You can't," Thompson whispered, reaching out a hand for the younger boy's back. Her hand froze though as she held it out, as she could see part of the shorter boy in front of her's face. The corner of his lip that she could see lifted up, and her arm lowered down while her eyes opened wide.

I'm scared. This is crazy. I don't have a mask on. Edgeshot is here. Shatterer beat Webb! The hostages could be killed if I try something. They'll be killed if I don't! Trickster's going to drag that guy to the door and kill him and throw him outside to stop anyone else from coming in! I know it! I have to move! If I don't move here, no matter the consequences, no matter what it'll mean! Zach tapped his chest with his right hand, and he sprinted around the corner he was ducked behind when he saw the foot moving in front of it.

A black aura surrounded Zach's body, and Trickster let out a scream, just as the man being pushed by Trickster's right hand did. A pitch black hand shot by that skinny office worker's face though, and it grabbed Trickster by the middle of his, and then slammed forward making the man already leaning back lose his footing. Everyone in the room spun towards where Trickster was just leaving. They saw the man he had been holding falling to one side with huge eyes, while the villain himself was coming down to the ground, and then slammed so hard into it that the room filled with the loud thud and nothing else. Zach let go of his hand before it would be too long that he was holding it there, though he had slammed the villain's head down with enough force that he was still worried. There was no time to think about that though.

He breathed out a heavy breath of dark air that lingered below his face that was pointed down in the crouched position he was in after slamming Trickster down like that. Two villains who were still conscious but on the floor with injuries and trying to get up suddenly felt the urge to get up vanish. The tall man standing on the side of Kaminari's head opened his eyes wide, then he reached down fast and grabbed the teen beneath him by the side of the head, bringing his other arm in and putting a gun to the blond's head while sweat covered his face.

Webb's head turned the smallest amount to face past the bald man before him who was still gripping his left arm so tightly it might break before he even had time to Shatter it. Shatterer had turned too though, and his eyes were as wide as everyone else in the room's as he stared at the figure shrouded in a black veil, with a skull through the aura on his face, and glowing red eyes at the top of that skull. Zach lifted his head and glared those red eyes forward into the room that was absolutely silent as he stood there. The man with the orange mohawk yanked Kaminari up to his feet with a hand through his hair, and Kaminari's eyes were huge in panic as he felt the gun pressing up to his skull. He did not know what was happening, until the ten foot tall villain pulled him to his chest and spun so Kaminari was between him and the monster behind him.

"He came," Shatterer whispered. "Agh-" He leaned back as the top of his face covered in a sticky white substance, and then the arm that just shot that at him ripped from his grip before he could Shatter it. Webb dropped to the floor, bounced up to the ceiling, then shot towards a shattered window and right over a villain's body slumped half through it.

Zach's red eyes darted over towards the window as many of the villains spun after Webb and shouted not to try anything or they'd kill their hostages. Webb was gone though. Zach heard in his ear a second after Webb was out of the building, "Destroy your earpiece… You shouldn't have taken off your helmet. Don't respond."

Zach bit his jaw down harder while his gaze shifted towards Shatterer again. The bald man who ripped webs from his face only spun after Webb angrily for a second, but his head turned back too and he locked eyes with the glowing red ones of the dark figure standing in the main exit of the room. Trickster lay unmoving at Zach's side, and the hostage Trickster tried taking with him had pushed himself back against a wall with a look of absolute terror spread across his face. All the hostages who had their heads facing the floor lifted them, only for most to whimper and stare back down, or to get even more afraid at the looks of the villains around them who backed away from that shadowy dark figure with a thick black aura.

"What the hell? I mean seriously, what the actual Hell?" A villain pointing a sharpened right arm forward lowered it a little, and he took a step back before bringing that sharpened arm towards the woman he was holding up in his other hand. His hostage was shaking so much and she actually leaned back farther into the villain's chest.

Kratos pressed his sharpened nails harder into a woman's neck, making more blood spill and the woman to let out a yelp that cut into a whimper of sheer terror. "Stay back, monster."

Kaminari's eyes were huge as the tall man with the orange mohawk took a step back himself. He was terrified of the guy's gun, and whatever his Quirk was, and he was in a lot of pain and knew he had lost a lot of blood. Kaminari stared forward with shaking eyes though at the dark figure's face with red eyes that moved slowly back and forth to stare at each of the villains.

"I didn't think- but I knew," Shatterer said, and he reached down to his right while stepping forward, grabbing a hostage of his own and yanking that young woman who looked to be in her twenties up to her feet. Zach took a step forward and his mouth twisted farther down, his jaw grinding on his skull, his black aura getting thicker around his hands that were still at his sides but were preparing to swing up. "It really was you," Shatterer said, his lips curling into a smile but his voice cracking towards the end in a way that made the other villains and the hostages feel even more nervous of what this thing in front of them was. Shatterer held up the woman by the back of her head and said, "Don't move, Reaper."

"That's not my name," the dark figure said, his voice low, dark, and scratchy. Zach heard screams in his head, "What is your name?! Tell me your name! Who are you?!" He bit down hard, and he opened his mouth, "My name…" the yells in his head got louder, "Not Lifebringer! Not Lifebringer!"

"Zach!" Kaminari shouted.

The bus driver of the captured tour group had seen the Lifebringer video, and he saw the resemblance between what he saw at the end of that video and the figure before them now. That name confirmed it though, and the man who snapped his head back to the floor while making himself as small as possible so as not to get grabbed and lifted as a personal hostage, lifted his gaze back up. "Lifebringer?" He asked, his voice shaky.

"That's-" Kratos started, then his eyes darted back and to his left at the tall man holding Kaminari so tightly towards his chest. Asgard knew it. I should have realized, that this is what Shatterer was afraid of. Kratos turned his head back to the boy ahead of him, and then he loosened his nails around the woman's neck he was grabbing. Death, right? Kratos slid his hand around the side of the woman's neck, grabbed it tighter, then he pushed forward towards the boy surrounded in a black shroud. At the same time he reached one of his lower arms down to his side where he had a sidearm to use instead of his Quirk- "AH!"

The woman in between Zach and the villain fell towards him, but Zach moved reflexively out of the way, while throwing a knife forward and into Kratos' arm before he could grab at his gun. The villain stared down at the knife sticking out of his bicep in terror, because of the black strands coming off of the blade and wisping around in the air. The other villains near him all stared with wide eyes at that knife losing its dark color, but not before Kratos started falling to his knees. "What the, fuucckk…" Kratos fell to his hands too, then his elbows and knees buckled and he collapsed to the ground.

Zach breathed out some more dark steam, and he ordered in his dark voice, "Put down the hostages, and get on your knees." He lifted his hands at his sides, his right holding a knife and his left an open palm with a growing sphere of black on it. Wisps of darkness came off of his sides, and Kaminari's eyes opened even wider at Zach's completely black body with only his skull showing white and his eyes glowing red. Zach continued to the villains who were all sweating even more as Kratos went down and their enemy so easily sidestepped the woman who was thrown at him fast and fell behind him to his side. "Villains," Zach said, "The building is surrounded by heroes. You will not be escaping here."

"Don't try anything!" a man yelled across the room while holding his hostage tighter.

"I'll kill your friend!" Asgard shouted, his spiky orange mohawk getting shinier, just like his arms and even his gun that he held up against Kaminari's head. "It would only take a second, Lifebringer! AHHH-"

Asgard's entire body flashed yellow and everyone in the room spun towards him with huge eyes. The other villains pulled back and held their hostages tighter, panicked looks forming on all their faces, except for Shatterer whose expression got oddly calm. Kaminari dropped down to his feet while the man holding him was frozen exactly where he was, his entire body burnt, and Kaminari said with his mouth curving into a big smirk, "It doesn't take a second, to blast you with electricity." The villain who took the gun off the other hostages in order to threaten Kaminari and stop Zach collapsed backwards, and Zach's mouth curled up more too.

"This is bad. Real bad. Boss, what should we-"

The gunfire outside had been a constant for a while now, going off every few seconds or constantly for several at a time. The villain turning to his boss spoke louder to be heard over it, but then his voice cut off and all that could be heard were bullets firing past the walls, and then a scream of a villain outside who the remaining few villains in the room and the man speaking all recognized as one of their comrades. They all looked towards their boss, and their jaws dropped as the man had turned and sprinted into a wall and right through it. The wall shattered around him, and he was carrying a woman with him who let out a scream as she realized what was happening and pieces of wall fell around her.

"Every man for himself. You fools couldn't even watch the hostages!" Shatterer's voice shouted back at his shocked remaining men.

Zach thought this would make it better, but every one of the villains who no longer had a leader looked even more nervous and quick on the trigger or to use their Quirks than before. They were darting their eyes around and all started screaming at each other at once as they tried to figure out what was going on.

"What do we do?!"

"Get a hold of yourselves, we have to stay-"

"Wait a second! Isn't it too quiet out-"

Zach and Kaminari were both panting, both ready, and they both opened their eyes huge as all four of the villains who had hostages they could easily kill if anyone charged them, collapsed one after the other. The two students dropped their jaws, and all the hostages on the ground who were already looking up in shock as Shatterer ran, dropped their jaws even more at the figure appearing there in the middle of the room. He appeared after taking out the last villain who was the least prepared to kill his hostage when the hero entered and just spun around in confusion when the others were dropping.

"Edgeshot!" Kaminari called out, then he started coughing and he hunched over a bit, rubbing at his bloody face with a hand.

"Is everyone alright?!" Edgeshot shouted as he darted his gaze around the hostages, then he turned his head and looked towards the dark figure next to Kaminari. He already knew of the blond boy training to be a hero, but that other figure unnerved him even though he seemed to be facing off against the villains when he arrived. "Who are-"

"Holy crap the police are here!"

"We need to grab some hostages!"

Edgeshot, Zach, Kaminari, and all the hostages spun to the hallway behind Zach where those voices just came from.

"Edgeshot!" Zach shouted, his panic rising as he did not think there would be more villains still around. He saw flashing blue and red lights start coming in faintly from the broken windows, but Zach continued yelling while running forward himself, his voice coming out loud and dark, "Protect everyone here! Shatterer's getting away, and he has one of the hostages with him!"

"Zach! I'm coming too!" Zach turned his head and saw Kaminari running after him, staggering a bit but shaking his head and running straighter and faster to keep up with him as they ran through a hole in the wall and farther into the base. They entered a small hallway and saw an open doorway up ahead that had been smashed apart with some rubble falling around it like it was just destroyed.

They ran towards that darker room and Zach heard Edgeshot shouting after them to be careful. Edgeshot, he just listened to me. Does he know who I- Kaminari said my name so maybe… "Kaminari," Zach said, his voice low, deep, and hesitant as he looked forward upon entering the next room but kept his head on a swivel. Kaminari looked at Zach's back ready to hear something important, only for Zach to add in a softer voice, "I'm glad you're okay." Kaminari's eyes widened, then he grinned again and opened his mouth to say something, only to pause as Zach continued, "Let's go save that woman."

Kaminari closed his mouth for the cocky response he had ready, then he nodded his head after a second of wide-eyed surprise. "Yeah. Let's-" Kaminari and Zach spun to the right as a wall on the second floor of the huge room they entered just blew into pieces. There was a staircase up to a second floor viewing room of this big darkened room that had a giant boat in the middle of it, but that boat got full of holes as the wall that had shattered was slammed by a big fist and all the pieces shot out towards the two sixteen year old boys.

"Gah!" Kaminari stumbled backwards and grabbed at his right arm with his left hand as it was hit by a chunk of wall so hard he heard something crack.

Zach would have turned towards him, but a chunk of boat above him where the ship was held up by all sorts of supports started falling and he had to dive to the side to avoid it. As he landed, he heard a scream up above and in the smaller room up the stairs. "AHH! Help me!" "ZACH! HELP ME! AAAHHH!" Zach's hand shot up as he heard screams overlapping in his ears and in his memories. He fired the grappling gun he rose on instinct, straight up through the new hole in the second wall and at the man running the other way in that room. His hook slammed into Shatterer's lower back and the man let out a roar of pain, and he turned with a furious look at the sharp pain, only to go wide-eyed at the dark figure flying up towards him.

He smacked away the wire which pulled the sharpened hook out of his back, and Zach lost his momentum and fell before reaching the hole. He let go of the gun and reached both hands forward as he started to fall too early, and he just reached his right arm high enough to grab onto the ledge. "Zach!" Kaminari shouted from behind him, looking up to see Zach hanging high up, higher than the fall he took back at Ground Omega a week ago. The room was that large, and as Zach smacked his other arm up to grab the ledge, the floor he was holding onto shattered apart and he started to fall far.

"Turn it off!" Kaminari shouted while running forward, lifting his left arm though trying to raise his right too which just made him shout in pain.

Zach's eyes opened huge as he heard Kaminari's shout and how it got closer as he fell. He brought his right hand into his chest as he dropped, his head starting to turn back too while the ground of the second floor viewing area collapsed before him towards the first floor. He looked down right as Kaminari was reaching below him, and a panicked look formed on Kaminari's face like he just realized how fast Zach was falling at him. At least Zach did not have his Nightmare form on anymore though, though both of them still yelled out in pain as Zach collapsed on Kaminari and then chunks of floor from above fell on top of them both.

Would it have been any harder, if I had just hit the ground in Nightmare? Zach thought in annoyance, though he muttered after hearing Kaminari's moan below him, "Thanks, but we have to keep chasing-"

THUD Zach was starting to push up with his left hand down on his side, but his eyes opened huge as he stared net to him at the villain who no longer had his hostage with him. "Can't have you chasing me," Shatterer said, his head partially bowed and a terrifying look on his face, and in his eyes. Zach stared into those eyes from mostly on his back, and Kaminari's clenched eyes from the pain shot open too only to shake as he stared into the villain's.

"HELP!"

Hearing the voice of the hostage above made Zach's immediate feeling of murderous rage quell. His first thought when Shatterer dropped was how screwed they were, the second was how Shatterer did not have his hostage which meant he probably killed her, the third was his calming thought after hearing her scream. It was still too many thoughts to have though, and Shatterer's right foot slammed forward with such strength that he dug up the ground between him and the two boys. Zach pulled in his left arm he was using to push himself up, no idea how they were going to get out of this, but he grabbed onto Kaminari and then rolled them both away from Shatterer's kicking leg.

Debris flew at them as they rolled away, and Kaminari let out a scream of pain as his back was to the flying debris for the start of the roll. Zach came out of the other side of the roll and tossed Kaminari using their rolling momentum to send him farther away, then he rose up his right hand and snapped all of his fingers out of the glove towards Shatterer who jumped up in the air in panic. Zach was not really reaching for Shatterer's leg though, only to get some distance before he brought that hand in and grabbed his own forehead with it to reapply Nightmare mode. Zach scrambled up as Shatterer was still rising, then the villain reached his hand to the side and grabbed the side of the big wooden ship already full of holes.

The entire port side of the ship that looked finished broke apart. Shatterer's hand clenched onto one large piece of debris, and he pulled back his arm as he started his downwards arc. Zach lifted his left hand up under his right armpit and drew a knife that he threw up at Shatterer as he fell, only for Shatterer to put the chunk of boat in the way with quick reflexes, then throw that whole chunk down at Zach. Zach jumped backwards leaving a trail of black mist behind him, just avoiding the debris that Shatterer slammed down on top of an instant later.

"Why did you have to come here?" Shatterer growled, his voice sounding unhinged as he lifted his villainous gaze into Zach's flaring red eyes. Shatterer's eyes widened again as those scary eyes looked back into his, but then they narrowed and his twisted lip trembled before he shouted, "We just wanted to leave the country! I just needed the money too, so we could get situated once we escaped to China." Shatterer's fists clenched so hard at his sides and Zach saw blood trickling between his fingers. He clenched his eyes shut, then the ground beneath his feet and beneath the already shattered boat chunks started to break apart too, while other rubble from the ship still rained down behind him. "We wouldn't join up with Shigaraki's army, and he killed Rage-Rider and Hugo," Shatterer's clenched eyes opened back up and so did his bloody fists, though his fingers curled forward as he lifted his hands towards Zach. "I knew it was you. I saw you…"

Rage-Rider and Hugo were the other leaders of War Boys. Escape to China? Shigaraki's army? It kind of sounds like how the League destroyed other groups before to make them join up… but why does it feel worse? Why, does it feel like it's for something big? Shigaraki left big groups alone if they weren't clashing, it sounds like he's forcing everyone in now! "…Reaper, I knew when I saw that video. I knew it was really you."

Zach's eyes narrowed, and he pulled out a knife right as Shatterer started running forward, the ground breaking under his feet with each step. His arm muscles tensed and his veins popped on them as he flexed as hard as he could, and Zach dove to the left at the moment Shatterer kicked up his right foot. He kicked his leg through the ground that shattered apart around it and kicked up more debris, then he slammed his right arm out towards where Zach was dodging to. "I saw Kratos hold on," Shatterer started, but Zach jumped again after landing and just dodged Shatterer's opening fingers trying to touch his skull. Zach pulled his face back with reflexes that should have shocked him, as he had only just landed and Shatterer moved fast, faster than he had thought the big man could. Zach's red eyes were also growing wider at what Shatterer said, what he had realized.

Kaminari realized it too as he was sitting up not far away, his body wobbling from side to side but straightening as he thought about what Shatterer just said. Like Ectoplasm-sensei. He knows there's an amount Zach needs to hit him with, so he thinks a small touch he can get out of it- but just one touch and he can shatter Zach's skull! Kaminari felt his right arm scream in pain and he knew it was broken, and he stopped trying to get up with it and just used his left instead, holding back the scream as he started sparking electricity and giving off more light into that dark room.

Kaminari's sparking electricity turned Shatterer's head to the side as he was jumping after Zach. Even though his took his gaze off though, his body still twisted fast to the side in midair and dodged the knife with a black coating around it, making Zach's eyes open much wider. He didn't get to lead a gang with just his Quirk- that doesn't matter! Zach stopped stepping back and he stepped forward instead, ducking down under the arm reaching for his face. He brought both arms forward and swept a wind off of them for when Shatterer would jump back. Shatterer saw the tendrils of darkness coming off of Zach's fingers though, and he jumped high up instead of back, dodging the black wind that swept beneath him and thinned out the aura around Zach's body.

After Zach missed though, his head spun to Kaminari and he nodded while jumping back and crossing his arms. Kaminari ran towards the direction Shatterer was dropping, and he yelled out, "One point three million volts!" He lifted his left hand and then slammed it down, focusing all his electricity out in one direction though it sparked all over the place violently too. Shatterer reached to the side and grabbed one of the support posts for the large ship mostly destroyed on its port side already. The support he grabbed onto was metal, and the electricity that hit it coursed up and hit him even though he dodged the majority of it. Shatterer's teeth clenched and Zach looked up hopefully towards the villain, only to lower his jaw as the entire pillar shattered, and the ship barely holding on started falling to its side.

"Move!" Zach yelled, running forward again towards Kaminari. He wanted to touch himself and turn off Nightmare to tackle him away, but as the ship started falling, Shatterer started diving down towards them. Zach's eyes shot open wide as the man did this, because he saw a huge deranged smile on Shatterer's face. That's right! This doesn't make any sense! He could get out of here, he probably could have even before he attacked us! Unless he thinks I could track him again- But he might just be mad because I was with the League, and the League killed his comrades! He's a villain. He's insane. He's liking this fight, because he's about to get his revenge if he kills me. He left the hostage up there though, so he can take her after he kills us! He's thinking rationally while also going mad with vengeance! Zach's breath picked up and the black steam trailed behind him as he sprinted at Kaminari like he was going to tackle his friend out of the way. One knife left, Shatterer's grabbing part of the falling support, Kaminari can't make another blast like that this quickly!

Zach pulled out the knife, while Kaminari whose face got a little duller and more confused started turning to him. He shook around his blank face for a second, then he turned and ran farther towards the wall to dodge both Zach who ignored him and ran past his side, and the falling boat. The bloody blond dove, while Zach covered the knife he grabbed in so much more darkness than he had the other times, actually charging it around the knife instead of just covering it immediately before his throw. "Super Move…" Zach started, while making it up on the spot. Not a grenade. That's not what I need! "DEATH-" he twisted the knife around in his hand, while the darkness covering it started to change shape from just a thick mass covering his whole hand and the knife, to a longer and thinner form with a sharpening point at the end. Zach slammed his right foot on the ground while Shatterer pulled the debris in front of him, and the ship continued to fall. "SPEAR!"

Zach threw the knife up, no longer throwing it like he would a knife though. His hand did not even feel like it was gripping around a knife, but around the long black spear he was holding where most of his Death had focused leaving his actual black costume showing with only some wisps coming out of it. The black spear of Death shot up and slammed into the debris Shatterer pushed in front of him. Clink! The knife inside hit the metal of the support, while all the darkness flying with that knife exploded around the sides of the debris and behind it, some of it flying right through Shatterer's arms on the sides of his body not close enough behind the exact middle of the blocking shield.

"RAAA!" Zach heard Shatterer roar above him. Then everything fell. It all happened so fast. Shatterer's blocking shield and his body getting hit by other falling debris, and the other debris falling on Zach. That side of the ship was already lined with destruction, but the whole boat fell towards this side because of the lack of supports and destroyed left part of the hull. The top of the mast snapped off as it hit higher up on the wall, but the more of the ship to fall down the slower it got, until the ship stopped sliding down at all because too much of it had scraped against the wall and slowed. The fall itself collapsed the starboard side though, which had not been fully completed unlike the port side of the half-finished ship.

Zach tried surrounding himself in more darkness, but he used up a lot for that last attack. He pushed as much as he could above him and in his arms that he crossed over his head while ducking. A side of the ship collapsed down on him, while Kaminari slid down the wall and lifted his hands up only to gasp out in shock. The part of the ship in front of him had skid too much on the wall and stopped just over his head, leaving him in a small gap between the floor where the ship was and the wall above his head. He lifted his left hand and wiped off some sweat with a relieved 'fwew,' then the boy whose eyes were wide and face kind of blank turned and started crawling out through the narrow corner space.

Kaminari saw an opening not far from him, but he stopped for a second as some more wood fell just past it. He was slower to move out from there, then he stood up and walked out from the wall a few feet. He glanced up as he heard a shout for help from the floor above, then he looked back in towards the collapsed ship with wooden rubble and fallen steel supports all over the place. "Zach," he said, stepping up on some wood on the outside. "Where are-"

A hand shot out from the wood in front of Kaminari ten feet away. The hand rose, and black wisps came off of it. A large plank of wood lifted up and dropped down, leaving a gap in the debris that Zach put his hands down on either side of and started pulling himself up. He had some blood on his left arm, and he could feel the gash that he gone through his Death armor and his costume fabric. He winced as he put pressure on his left arm to use it and push himself out from the rubble, but he managed to get up and onto his knees before throwing his arms out to the sides for balance as the rubble he got on was unsteady. Kaminari took a step forward to try and help him, but Zach pointed a palm at him for him to stop, and he lifted his red eyes towards the boy he thought might have been too stupid at the moment to remember that they could not touch while he was like this.

He did not know if Kaminari just thought he wanted to get up on his own, or if the nodding blond boy actually understood the reason, but Zach let out a small breath of relief before dragging himself up to his own feet. "I think-" Zach started in a low voice, lifting his right hand after he stood. CRASH! Zach snapped his head to the side and his red eyes opened huge, at the sight of a mass of shattering rubble flying up into the air only ten feet behind him.

"Uh oh," Kaminari said, taking a step back only to fall down as the ground below him shifted. The rubble was still collapsing and not very sturdy in the position it had stopped falling at first, and Shatterer's bursting from the middle of it did not make it any sturdier. The gap where Kaminari had been before just collapsed in on itself, and the villain in front of them leapt up in the air with blood on the left side of his head and a paler face. He was panting hard, but Zach's eyes were huge that the man could even move at all after he just charged so much Death that he threw at him.

"REAPER!" Shatterer roared, lifting up both hands and putting them together as one fist.

Kaminari scrambled up to his feet, and he jumped backwards faster than Zach thought he could, though he was happy to see it since he was worried he had to try and get Kaminari away too. Zach leapt away himself, both him and Kaminari in different directions and crossing their arms as Shatterer slammed down between them. He slammed down on the collapsed ship, and he used his Quirk as he hit the ground, shattering the rubble small enough that with the force it was all blasted to the sides. And yet at the same time that this happened, Shatterer's feet slipped, and he fell forward and into the ground below where he just shattered all that wooden and steel debris.

Zach winced in pain as some sharp shards flew by him and he felt like a rock slammed into his face. Kaminari let out a yelp of pain too from his other side, but both boys lowered their arms and stared at Shatterer in surprise, then absolute shock. Zach's head snapped to the left, and Kaminari's to the right, and they stared at a girl wrapped in a tan curtain who had both hands down on the floor in front of her. She was at the edge of the room, but there was a trail of slimy substance going out from her hands straight over the edge of the rubble and to the spot that Shatterer just landed and fell.

"Thompson?!" Kaminari shouted.

Zach also felt like shouting that, but the girl screamed at them first, "WIN!"

Zach's huge red eyes returned to their normal size, and he lifted up his arms and forced all the Death around his body towards his hands at the same time. Kaminari's eyes opened even wider, then he spun his head back and lifted his arms with electricity sparking off of every single finger. Kaminari's lips curled up, and although the black veil was almost gone from around Zach's head, his jawline lifted into more of a smirk too and there was a flash in his red eyes as he grinned.

"Of course!" Zach and Kaminari yelled at the same time.

Shatterer was getting back up but was only on one foot as the two boys screamed. His head snapped to the right at Kaminari and then the left, and his eyes shot open huge before he could get his other leg up. Zach swung both arms in, and Kaminari slammed his hands down towards the floor. The entire room filled with a bright flashing yellow light, and that lightning shot forward while the darkness pushed the other way, and the dark wind and sparking electricity collided on top of Shatterer who opened his mouth and roared, "RRAAAAaaaaa-" his voice cut off, his body collapsed, and the sparking electricity went away leaving the room in much more darkness, though there was light coming in.

Bright lights came in through the windows at the top of the big room they were in, brighter than the blue and red ones also flashing from outside. Kaminari and Zach started panting heavily, and Kaminari dropped down to his knees after that attack, his face much more blank yet also showing his exhaustion. He lowered his gaze to the floor, and then someone sprinted up to him and he lifted his head a bit to see a girl dropping down in front of him with a worried look on her face. Kaminari had drying blood covering the right side of his face from the gash on his forehead that had stopped bleeding, but also a lot of wet blood too from his still bloody nose and he had bruises on more of his face and body too. His right arm was limp at his side and he moaned as he looked at the girl in front of him, instead of saying an actual word like he tried.

"Are you two…" a voice started.

Zach turned his head towards the wall he could see light coming in from on the other side of the room. He saw Edgeshot at the destroyed entrance, and he did not know how much the pro hero had seen although they really had only taken down Shatterer a couple of seconds ago. Maybe he saw it, Zach thought, while pushing himself to step forward. Or maybe he didn't. Either way. "We're, alright," Zach said. "The other hostage," Zach said towards the man whose eyes widened at what the boy was saying. Zach lifted his right hand, hesitated with it near his body, then he just touched himself without really caring. His dark aura vanished quicker than ever with so little of it already on him, and he said, "She's up there." He lifted his left arm and pointed up, then his eyes focused on that arm and he saw the cut in his sleeve above his elbow where blood was running out and getting over his sleeve.

Edgeshot looked up towards the hole on the second story, and then he turned to Zach, then towards Kaminari and the girl with him who threw her arms around that blond boy's sides and hugged him tightly. "I'll get them out of here," Zach said before the hero could voice his concern, and Edgeshot turned back to see Zach walking over to the two. After Jessica Thompson hugged Kaminari, she started crying, tears spilling out of her eyes and her whole body shaking. Kaminari was dumb, and confused, but he lifted his left arm and put it around the girl on the back of the curtain wrapped around her. "You get her," Zach added to Edgeshot, right after someone screamed 'Help' again from up on the second floor.

Edgeshot nodded after another second, and he started for the woman while calling out to her that he was on his way to save her. Zach walked across the first floor, subtly dropping an earpiece on the ground in front of him and stepping on it hard without breaking stride. Zach stepped over to Kaminari and Thompson, and he looked down at the two of them hugging on their knees. The girl was sobbing so hard, and Kaminari's face was blank. Her arms lowered from around Kaminari's sides, and she started gasping while her body bowed, and Kaminari looked down in confusion at what was happening. She was bruised, and scared, and Zach stared down at the back of the girl's head as she panted there on her knees, her legs sprawled out to either side of her. She's exhausted, he thought.

"Thompson," Zach said, having heard Kaminari call out her name when he saw her a minute ago. The sniffling and panting girl turned her head slowly to the side and looked back at that voice that was soft and not at all dark or scary. She looked back and up at the boy with a long scar on the right side of his face thickest just below his eye. He was smiling at her, and he lowered down to one knee in front of her and said, "It's okay now. I'll get you out of here." He said it then turned to Kaminari who gave him a blank look before lifting his left hand with a thumbs up, though he winced as he did and Zach realized he probably tried lifting his clearly-broken right arm too. "Both of you," Zach added, and he smiled back at Kaminari and gave him a thumbs up too. He turned back to Thompson quickly though, and he made sure she could see his smile, see, that everything was alright.

I know I messed up, Webb. I know, I asked too much of you all. Your arm is fucked. I don't know what happened to Mr. Ganji. The cops are here, I've left clues, and you two were seen, and… Zach watched the expression of the girl in front of him changing, her sobs catching in her throat as all the terrible things she had just been thinking about started to fade. The smile he was giving her, it really made her feel like things were going to be alright, and it made everything else fade from his mind too. But I don't regret this, Zach thought. Whatever the consequences may be.

---

"There it is! Just up ahead!" The female reporter in the passenger seat of the van leaned forward and pointed down the dirt road towards a building up in front of them. It was still dark, but the sky was not as black anymore as it was the crack of dawn. The sun had not yet started to rise, but everyone staring at the screen in the dorm of Class A at six in the morning had worried and scared looks on their faces. The entire class was there, as anyone who had been asleep had been woken up by the shouts of their classmates in hope and panic.

Nineteen students were gathered around the couches, though the ones who had been sitting on them longest were either leaned forward in their seats or on their knees, only not standing because the others behind them shouted whenever they jumped up. The camera was pointed through the windshield of the media's van, and it pointed down a line of cop cars ahead of them four long. The reporter in the passenger seat turned her head sideways to look back in the camera as they continued speeding forward, "For those of you just joining us, we have news on the kidnapping of the Tour Japan bus. An anonymous source provided the police the location only a short while ago, and we have reported that the number four hero Edgeshot is already on the scene. He was searching closeby when he received the information, but we are not far behind him. This could be the middle of a fight with villains right now!"

The cop cars reaching the end of the road split out, driving to the sides of the clearing outside of the trees and in front of the building. All their sirens were on, and there were a few other cop cars already there which had arrived before the news broadcasters. The cameraman zoomed forward through the windshield and at the large building at the edge of a lake, then the camera panned around the clearing in front of it. There was a truck with a big dent in the side of it, all of its tires flat, and a turret on the back that had no one behind it but an unconscious man slouched half out of the vehicle at its side. One side of the clearing had a dozen tree stumps and fallen trees all around it, and there was one tree out of place not in those woods but lying farther into the clearing and in several more pieces than the others as it was ripped apart. There were other villains laying around including a large one with slumped white wings on his back, and there were also a couple of heroes out there in the clearing holding down some villains and calling cops over.

"Whoa," Sero said, lifting his right hand and putting it up through his hair. He looked at the building ahead of those heroes and villains, and he saw a villain laying halfway out of a shattered window on the first floor, but windows shattered around that floor and on the second floor too. There were bullet holes on the side of the truck and on the building's front wall, and there were a couple of guns laying scattered around the floor far from where the villains were laying. "Did the heroes, win?" Sero asked, as it sure seemed like that.

"What about Kaminari?" Mineta whispered. Even if the heroes had won, none of them were celebrating until they knew about the status of the hostages.

"We're pulling up behind that car there," the reporter said to the guy driving her van, pointing at the cop car that would give them the best angle from behind the established perimeter. As soon as the van stopped, the side door opened and the cameraman jumped out and pointed the camera forward at the reporter who hopped out from the front. They rushed towards the police cars and as close as they could get without passing the perimeter, but the reporter spoke fast as she saw something going on near the front door where two heroes in red capes, a man and a woman, started waving their hands outside. The other villains who were outside, not all of whom had been down for the count, were now either restrained or knocked out. "There they are!" The reporter called out, her voice clear and excited.

People started running out of the front door of the large building up ahead. No one in Class A started cheering though. They all just leaned forward. Every one of them stared at the people running out of the building, each of them one by one. The two heroes closest to the doors were looking the hostages up and down as they ran, looking like they were counting them while at the same time making sure that no villains were trying to sneak out and run with them. The male hero ran next to what seemed to be one of the passengers, except he knew the appearance of the bus driver well and he started asking that man questions while pulling him away from the pack.

"I count over twenty, this is- twenty five," the reporter sounded more excited each second. "That's the whole group, it looks like," she said, her voice slow and her head leaning to the side to try and see if anyone else was running out of the building. The female hero in a red cape ran after the back of the pack after glancing once more into the doorway, and she called out instructions towards the freed hostages, telling them to head towards the cops who were setting up an area just outside the perimeter and to the left of the media van. The camera started panning after that crowd, watching them all head towards the police ushering them towards them and zooming in on the individuals' faces.

No one in Class A said a word. They all had had their eyes peeled. Some of them started gulping, a few others got tears in their eyes, while some looked around at each other trying to figure out what this meant. "Where is he?" Mineta whispered, turning towards Shoji and looking up at the tallest boy in the class. Shoji looked down at the shortest boy who was right next to him, and the muscular teen with six arms leaned back at the tears in Mineta's eyes.

A mouth appeared on the top left of Shoji's arms, and he whispered, "We don't know anything yet."

"Wait look!" The reporter called out. Everyone in the building held their breaths as the cameraman spun the camera back towards the building. "It's Edgeshot! And he has another hostage with him!"

All of Class A looked towards the building, then their excited looks turned to ones mostly of despair and dread as they saw Edgeshot carrying out a woman with tears in her eyes who had her arms wrapped around his body as he held her bridal style. The bus driver talking to the other hero up ahead spun towards her, and the man let out a gasp of relief, grabbing at his chest at the sight of that woman sobbing but alright. The hero next to the bus driver turned too, but his eyes were huge at what the man had just said to him.

"She's fine!"

"Alright they did it!"

The cameraman turned his camera towards the group of hostages, some of whom were moving back towards the perimeter and calling those things out with looks of excitement on their faces. They had tears in their eyes, but a few of them were even smiling as they looked towards the building and the woman who Edgeshot just took out, the woman so many of them were terrified for. Edgeshot ran towards the perimeter and he lowered the woman down near the other hostages, and the reporter and her cameraman started running towards him. "Edgeshot! Edgeshot are the villains defeated? Did you take down Shatterer?!"

"He is defeated," Edgeshot replied, turning towards the camera and assuring the public he knew was watching. He turned his head away though and continued, "But it was not I…" All those smiling people behind Edgeshot who were so happy that the woman was alright opened their eyes even wider. Their shocked looks were only replaced by even bigger smiles, and more of them who had not stood up the first time got up now and looked towards the building in shock. They started calling out in excitement and someone yelled 'she's okay!'

Edgeshot stepped back towards the building but stopped while staring at the doorway, and the bus driver and other hero next to him farther forward turned towards the door as well. "And it seems like there's more," the reporter started saying, her voice televised live across the country while the cameraman turned back. "Hopefully this is everyone. It seems we must be close to thirty-two by…" her voice faded off as the figures just inside the doorway started stepping out. The camera zoomed in, "Is that…"

Class A dropped their jaws. Every one of them who looked at the screen hopefully, lowered their bottom lips and opened their eyes wide. They stared in shock at the screen, as did any of their teachers watching it, or anyone in their school, and many people all over Japan who were up at six in the morning to watch the news. They all stared at the screen, at the building covered in broken windows and bullet holes, and they looked at the front door where a figure was walking out of. He had a girl on his back, her head resting over his left shoulder with her eyes closed, his left arm down holding her up better by her left leg up against his side. She had a curtain wrapped around her that was only partially visible since she was behind him, but she had some blood on her face too and looked like she was hurt. His left arm that was around her leg had some blood on the sleeve, but other than that he had no outwards injuries. On his right side was a boy limping with his right arm dangling next to him with blood on it, looking like it was broken. He was limping so much that the slightly shorter boy on his left had his right arm under the blond boy's left shoulder and wrapped around his back to help him move.

Zach stared ahead past Edgeshot, towards the hostages he saw smiling their way in so much relief at the sight of the girl Damian had dragged away before the heroes arrived to save them. Although they had been relieved to see the girl Shatterer had taken away too, none of them even expected to see Thompson there and they were all shocked and started cheering louder at the sight of her. Some of them had tears in their eyes, but Zach's eyes shifted from them towards the camera he saw. His eyes almost widened, but he managed to stop himself. I'm on camera. Is this recording? The media. Public speaking… No, it's more than that. Those other hostages, and not just them, people everywhere are watching me. People are scared. So not just for Thompson, but for all of them- I represent something! Like All Might did! What is it I need to do right now?! In as much trouble as I might be in, there's only one thing I have to do.

Zach's lips pulled apart and he smiled as he continued walking out of the building. He smiled confidently, making sure not to stagger, making sure to stand as straight as he could even with a person on his back and a dead weight on his right side. His left arm hurt from the gash on it and more from trying to hold something heavy with that gash, but he smiled despite it and said, "It's okay now." Even on Kaminari's dumb-looking face, a smile broke out over it at what Zach said, and the former hostages all cheered together.

"They did," Edgeshot finished in a loud enough voice for the camera behind him, so his voice echoed over the country.

"YEAAHHH!" Kirishima threw a fist up in the air and jumped out of his seat he was kneeling on and leaning forward off of.

"How did he-" Sero shouted, leaning forward and staring in utter shock at the screen.

Yaoyorozu's heart was pounding as she stared at that smile on Zach's face. He's okay. He, found Kaminari. He- Zach- Her trembling lips curled into a smile, and then she cheered. Yaoyorozu jumped out of her seat she had been on the edge of since sunrise had been almost upon them, so for a few hours now. Yaoyorozu's excited shout made Ashido look up at her in surprise, and then the pink girl looked down and next to Momo at the girl next to her who she thought would also have a similar reaction. Ashido's eyes just opened huge though as she saw the wet lines coming out the corners of Jirou's eyes and streaming down her face.

Jirou was staring at the screen with a trembling expression, but she lifted her right arm and started rubbing her eyes hard as she felt the tears all over her face. You idiots, she thought, even as a smile cracked below her arm and her sleeve got even wetter as she held it over her eyes.

Midoriya leaned forward over the back of the couch behind where Kirishima had jumped off of. He heard sniffling on his left as Uraraka lifted her hands and rubbed at the corners of her eyes, but all he could do was stare in shock at the smiling black-haired boy who was carrying two people out of that warzone. "It's fine now. Why?" Midoriya's shocked expression started shaking, seeing in his mind a video he had watched likely a million times. "He's laughing!" Midoriya's trembling lip started lifting up at the corners, Zach. "Because I am here!" Is that, is that what you're saying? Wait, wait a second, Midoriya shook his head around, getting too caught up in the moment and he knew it. How did he get there?

Bastard, Bakugo thought, his eyes narrowing all of a sudden as he snapped himself out from his shock. He was just a little farther behind the couch area as the others, looking between them towards the screen where the reporter started shouting about who that was in front of them carrying people out of the building. How the fuck did you do that? Bakugo's lips curled farther down, and his teeth ground behind them. But…

As much as it raises questions, Todoroki thought. A smile came back to his face as the rest of his classmates around him started shouting and talking to each other in rushed, shocked, and happy voices. They're okay. That's what, really matters right now.

"How did Zach…" Mineta whispered, rubbing his eyes and staring at the screen like he must be imagining things. "He really got him," Mineta said, his voice getting louder.

Sato gawked at the screen, his jaw dropped as he thought about the morning prior, not even twenty four hours ago. He thought about how worried Zach looked, then how thoughtful he appeared to be as he rushed off. How did he do it? Where did he go? How did he find them?! This doesn't make any sense!

"I don't get it," Hagakure said, turning to Ojiro next to her after rubbing her eyes that no one could see. "How did Zach know where Kaminari was?"

Ojiro turned to her, and his big smile started lowering down at her question. It's not like it did not occur to him, but he was too caught up in the moment to care enough yet. At her question though, he did not have an answer for her, and it made his expression start to change. Hagakure did not ask it quietly either, since she did not realize what she was asking until after it came out of her mouth so it was more like she thought maybe Ojiro would have an answer for her.

If any of them knew how Zach would have found Kaminari though, they would have all known about it by now. Tsuyu and Koda looked right at the two of them, then back to the screen where Zach had gone over to the other hostages and lowered down the girl with him and Kaminari.

Ambulances were driving up now, and the other heroes were all rushing back towards the building to go gather up the unconscious villains inside. Zach saw the camera point away from him in the corners of his eyes to aim back at the building Edgeshot and some other heroes ran towards, while cops moved forward towards the restrained villains and brought chains and cuffs with them. He felt a little relief at the loss of the camera on him, but he kept his expression the same knowing it could come back at any time. Kaminari looked about ready to pass out, and Zach said to his friend who was sitting right in front of where he stood, "Go ahead Kaminari. Get some rest, you've had a long day."

"Thank you, Lifebringer."

"Lifebringer!"

"Not-" Zach opened his mouth and the word came out, but he stopped himself and his face twitched. He quickly smiled and shook his head, "It's nothing," he said, turning and giving all the freed hostages a smile. "I'm just glad you're all alright." Enjoy it while I can. After this I'm fucked. While I'm here though, I need to show I'm not ashamed of what I did. As long as that camera's on me. Even if I am wearing this costume.

"What is he wearing?" Tokoyami said in a low voice as he looked closer at Zach, now that his attention was off the fact that the two of their missing classmates were alright.

A few of the others had noticed it already, but the ones who did not all focused on the black costume he was wearing. They looked at the black sheaths all around it, more than he had on his white costume at school. It was thicker around him and not as skin-tight, and the top of it went up his neck all the way up to his chin unlike the other than had a normal collar.

Kirishima glanced behind him and around at his classmates who were starting to get more hesitant looks on their faces. He turned back to the screen himself and lowered his smile a little for the first time since seeing them. If you had a way to find him, you should have told us. You should have told me. Wait a second- how could you even… This doesn't make…

"We have just confirmed, all thirty-two hostages are safe. I repeat," the reporter said, while the sun rose higher and the sky was dyed in its light. The camera pointed back towards the hostages, and the one hero still over with them looking down at his blond friend and smiling at him, then laughing at something the blank-faced teen just said that made a couple of other former hostages laugh along too. "All of the hostages are alive, and though there look to be some injuries, the ambulances are here. I don't want to jinx anything," she turned back to the camera and smiled now while EMTs ran over to help Kaminari, and Zach stepped up to help them get him on a stretcher they brought over. The woman smiled, the same time most everyone in Class A started smiling too, "But this is clearly a win for heroes."

---

A thousand miles to the northeast of where the news was broadcasting live, Shigaraki Tomura scratched his neck faster and faster while glaring at the tv screen in front of him. His other hand shook on the remote he was holding, while he scratched harder and glared between the fingers of the hand attached to his own face. "If it bothers you this much, perhaps I should grab him now?" Kurogiri offered from a few feet to Shigaraki's right side. It was only the two of them in there watching the news, and Shigaraki scratched even harder at Kurogiri's suggestion to the point the portal-user thought he might break skin.

Then the door on the right of Shigaraki opened and his eyes darted over. He was furious, and then his eyes widened and he snapped, "Is the video done yet?!"

The short man who entered the room had thick black piercings all over his face out his nose, ears, cheeks, and even out of his forehead. The dark-skinned man wore a pair of horn-rimmed glasses, and he stared through them with pure yellow eyes at Shigaraki, and he responded, "Yes."

Shigaraki's hand stopped scratching his neck, his eyes widening more at that response. Kurogiri spun towards the figure too, and he said, "Hackerman, when did you-"

"Just now," Hackerman replied. He lifted up his right hand with his index finger up, and around that finger was a small circular disc. "Had to change up the layout after that boring biography stole some great scenes from practical use." He said, sighing with a mock disappointed tone. He sniffled in and then reached over and pulled the disc off his finger, holding it out in front of him for Shigaraki who just turned to look back at the tv with a growing crazed smile on his face. "And now we're all set for phase one," Hackerman finished.

Shigaraki started laughing, and he scratched his chin again while saying, "Leave him be, Kurogiri." His eyes narrowed more behind the hand on his face, and he said softer like he was speaking to himself, "Enjoy it while you can. Go ahead and give them a fake smile, I know it's fake. It has to be," Shigaraki's mouth twisted in anger and he scratched his neck one more time really hard, then he stopped and he smiled again. This time his smile spread much farther up so the edges of it were hidden beneath the sides of the hand, and his eyes were huge behind the fingers as he said, "It'll make it so much better, when I take it away!"

---

A/N Thanks for reading. Very long chapter this time, had me editing 'til 3:30 a.m. Let me know what you think of the battle with the War Boys and how it turned out in a review below! Zach takes his helmet off mid-fight and everyone sees him in his dark costume. Though most people don't understand, Zach's got some explaining to do... We'll see if he can get out of it. What is Shigaraki planning? What's on that video? What will happen to Zach now? Hope you enjoyed! Review responses:

Xxxsal chapter 51 . Jul 30

haha I love this chapter. Zach made Hunter his own toy

Thanks! Always good to have a useful guy like Hunter on call... Glad you liked the chapter!

gods-own chapter 51 . Jul 29

good stuff

Thank you.

LordOfTee chapter 51 . 20h ago

Dude Zach can be scary as fuzz, his acting was great! When Zach called himself the devil it gave me an idea for his villain moniker: The Reaping Devil.
It seems like it would fit he's acting like he is the devil and he's making a deal with someone, plus his name is Reaper pretty fitting I'd say ay?

Zach's just got such an easy ability to be terrifying with. Even this chapter surrounded by villains, the whole room of them and hostages were practically wetting themselves. He has considered being an actor before, admiring their work back on his Kyoto trip and thinking about his own skills with it. Cool villain name, though hopefully Zach doesn't need a new villain name anytime soon... or ever? Well, I'll keep it in mind ;). Thanks for the reviews! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!