Chapter 112:

"Well, we have to look at the statistics from all over the world. You can't just say-"

"But in Japan at least, let's just start here," a newscaster held up a hand to stop his co-host who he was arguing with. "For the first time in, several months, since June! And even June was just lower because of all the Tartaros escapees going off the rails in May. December, is the first time since that we've had an actual decrease in villain activity."

"A small decrease," his co-host countered, but the woman leaned back in her seat and offered up a palm after saying it. "However I will agree that that looks good. Since we don't have anything to point to like in May for why November was higher than December, it seems like we really hit a new peak." She lowered her hand and then said in a more serious tone, "There is also the possibility though, not that the rate rises back up, but that the level it was at in November and stayed close to in December is now just the average for crime. December is still higher than October's, and we are still in the most unstable time of our lives."

"I agree that villain activity is still far, far above desirable levels," the man sitting across from his co-host agreed. The man with a yellow horn sticking out the middle of his forehead tapped on the table with his right hand, then he added in a tone that sounded optimistic but still cautious, "I like to believe that this is not just a fluke though, nor a sign that things are stabilizing here at a level we don't want them to get stuck at. Japan is not the only country to have had that drop last month."

"It wasn't everywhere though," the female host started countering right away again. "Not even half of the countries of-"

"But before December, way more than half were still on the rise. In November we saw that increase was slower in a few places, but December we've really seen a slash in some huge places. Let's see: well for one Gorran is back on the decline like they were in October, which a lot of people were disheartened by when they went back up in November. That was a case study being used often and now those same pessimists and cynics saying that nothing was changing are seeing Gorran at levels in December lower than anything they had all of last year."

"You sounded like you were going to state examples, and yet you went for the most obvious choice. Gorran's flip can be a fluke-"

"But their government was active," Indo Suzuha said firmly. He leaned over the table and said to his co-host looking more serious, "They made their difference. Constant policy changes, and more changes when the first ones did not work out. They finally outed the terrorists working in their less inhabited regions, they have started measures to train the public in self-defense, so to look at these things and then turn away and say that they had nothing to do with the results they were looking for, it's ridiculous!"

"They did not oust those terrorists on their own mind you," Kuzano Rehi retorted. She leaned back from the table while her co-host looked at her in some surprise, and she continued, "Gorran is finally feeling the effects of Shakad's death and the absence of SISIS in their country. And it was the Army of Death who hunted down Shakad with Gorran's heroes, and one of their members who killed him too."

"Are you trying to say that those terrorists-"

"They were not labeled terrorists at the time," Kuzano started, holding up her hands defensively as she already saw accusations coming. "And no one's defending the things they've done, but if Gorran's current success can be attributed because of the Army of Death's influence, then how is that a good measure of showing the world moving into a better stage? It's not like the Army of Death can move around everywhere now that they're-"

"You sound like you disapprove-"

"Don't put words in my mouth Indo. You were the one who was coming up with examples. Have anything better than a country saved by terrorists?" She said it in a sharp tongue and narrowed her eyes at her co-host who just nodded back and then held up his right fist.

Indo's right thumb stuck up, then his index, then his middle, and he listed out five countries before lifting his left hand. "…Guatemala. Chile. Desrambo. These aren't in order mind you, based on how much the rates of villain attacks have gone down, but each of them have had their decreases be they minor or major."

"And some of those decreases are as small as Japan's was last month," Kuzano said with a shake of her head.

"Why are you so against accepting that something good might be happening?"

"It's not that I don't want to accept it, but I'm a realist Indo. We've had nonstop descent since the loss of All Might as the Symbol. And the Sports Festival Invasion was a catalyst for villains all over the world. Tartaros escapees, the worst ones, are the ones who weren't just caught right away in May. And we saw with Mongoloid that they went out there to assist an already unstable world reach this horrible point we're at right now." Kuzano took a deep breath and then she looked seriously dark back into her fellow host's eyes, "Who is to say that another huge event will not happen again, and devolve this world farther into the darkness?"

"Saying things like that is going to keep people fearful-"

"Maybe we should be! You want everyone to treat things like they're fine, because of a small increase in the amount of villains caught last month? We're in the start of a new year Indo, so instead of just looking at the last month, why don't we look at an average for months of last year? Why don't we look at last year compared to the year before, or an average of the fifteen, twenty years before it?" She paused and then snapped in a frustrated voice, "We aren't focusing on that, because the idea that things have gotten that much worse is a horrible thing to imagine. Yet it's true, and I won't even start to feel optimistic until we see a trend in decline. One month means nothing. We all celebrated back in June when things started going down for a minute, and everyone remembers how June turned out with Raijin and the Lifebringer Incident."

"Bringing up the Lifebringer Incident at a time like- actually," Indo calmed himself down, lifting up both palms in front of him and leaning back from his seat. He took in a deep breath and then lowered his hands to the table, and Kuzano took in a deep breath too. "Things can get heated in here, that's why I always enjoy this part of my day." Indo paused, then he started again, "But let's focus on the future then. If you're talking about an average of the last fifteen, twenty years, including last year," Indo smiled and lifted his eyebrows to the sides of his horn while finishing, "Then last year was the fluke."

Kuzano rolled her eyes and started shaking her head, but Indo lifted his left hand and continued, "Listen listen. If you're going to say we can't take December as a trend for one month alone, and you want to look at the big picture, then look at the world over the past few decades compared to what it was before. We're safer, heroes are everywhere, and even when villains get out of control like they have been lately, our heroes are here to protect us."

"You can't go from zoomed so far in, to zooming super far out," Kuzano said in a frustrated tone that Indo was now backing up so much farther than she wanted him to. She lifted that look though and added, "However, I will agree that looking to the future is the move right now. I said I was looking for a trend, and the way January is going things are looking hopeful to push that trend forward."

"You're talking about the Christmas gift?" Indo asked, smiling and liking the shift of topic. "The gift that just keeps on giving?"

"The total count now is over five hundred villains captured since Christmas day associated with the villain group known as 'The Syndicate.'"

"Well, not all of those arrested were villains-"

"Oh, you can bet I'm including all of them in that group," Kuzano countered right back. "It's the one country I really wish you would have added in your list before, even if their crime rate did not drop in December because of how high it was at the start of the month. Arkistan is cleaning house, and I continue to be impressed by the actions of G-4, Tyton, Urakao, the Rynzo Group, and the other Arkistani heroes who have been unrelenting in their actions these past few weeks."

"Prime Minister Fornkak, half his cabinet, dozens of government officials," Indo was listing them off with an impressed tone himself. He had to lift up another hand while listing, "Heads of police, and even the most unthinkable, their own fellow heroes. They got the proof they needed though, and yet to think that a group of heroes could weed out corruption that deeply rooted inside a country is just, amazing. And we knew!"

"That's right."

"We knew, Arkistan was corrupt. The UN corruption index had them near the very top, and now! Now they're quickly making their way down that list." Indo shook his head in amazement, "All those heroes you mentioned are not only heroes for their own people, but for all the people of the world who were being affected by The Syndicate's operations. I never realized just how big that group was, but the information they sent to heroes in so many countries keeps resulting in more Syndicate-related arrests."

"The most interesting part about all of this," Kuzano started, and Indo leaned in with an interested look to see what she thought about it. "The Atlas Corp," she said, and Indo started nodding fast at her in agreement. "Holdings in all of those West Asian countries, and the headquarters in Arkistan winds up working with the Syndicate? That has to make it difficult for the countries around Arkistan to trust that label anymore. The Atlas Corporation has already thrown all of their guilty parties under the bus, but they keep shutting down-"

"They should be shut down, not shutting down," Indo said. Kuzano hummed and nodded in agreement with the man who added with a disappointed shake of his head, "If nothing more than just to make an example of them. Show what happens when legitimate businesses stoop to the levels of villains. Working alongside them, the rumors of even funding them! It's as bad as being the villains carrying out those crimes themselves."

"Blaming every worker for the entire company for the actions of a few with a lot of power is a bit harsh," Kuzano began. "However, as much as I don't want hundreds, thousands of people to lose their jobs." Indo tssked and started nodding, but then he paused and nodded faster as Kuzano continued, "There needs to be a deeper investigation into who knew about the Atlas Corporation's connections with the Syndicate. Did shareholders? Did the owners and all upper management not just in Arkistan but around the region? What we need is for the Fergus Conglomerate to either firmly deny that this was a larger issue inside a company their group is responsible for, or to send an investigation to-"

Midoriya turned from the tv that just clicked off and spun towards the pro hero he was interning with. The man he had been working for over the last several months now, SkyLord, motioned towards him with a nod of his head. He had a red mask on over his head but with the beak and mask pulled up to rest on his hair, and he walked away with Midoriya running up behind his yellow wings and then to the hero's right side where SkyLord made some space for him. "Are we heading out?" Midoriya asked.

"Yes," SkyLord said, and he walked with his intern who was at this point his number one sidekick. "FlyGuy and ReBird are on the roof already, Deku. Are you ready for the mission?"

"I'm prepared," Midoriya replied. His expression was intense, and the lean green-haired boy with a New Year's haircut that had it only a few inches short off his head walked into the elevator after his pro hero. Tokoyami was very busy the last few days, and suddenly SkyLord had an important mission for us. I did not want to pry as Tokoyami has said before that his activities with Hawks are confidential, but I think that I'll be learning today anyway. What could have the Number 2's attention? It's not for sure, but I think the way Tokoyami was acting today definitely seemed like something big was coming, and now that we have the weekend ahead of us too it's a good time. This weekend, something is coming.

The young hero and the pro rose to the roof and then moved to the middle where two of their comrades were. It was Friday night and though still early in the evening, since it was the middle of the winter the sky was already dark. There were dark clouds in the sky too, and the heroes' breath hung in front of their faces because of how cold the air was. They lifted off the roof.

The heroes wore winter costumes, and they soared through a freezing night with the wind pushing into their faces. Deku rose up between the others, then he dropped down to the roof of another skyscraper he bounded to. He leapt up in the air again even higher than before, nearly touching the bottoms of the clouds, and he stared out into the distance where he could see U.A.'s enormous campus.

SkyLord's agency's Tokyo office was not as large as its headquarters in Osaka, and the skyscraper it was inside of was shared with other businesses and offices and another hero agency even. Midoriya expected the mission was going to be nearby considering he did not have to take the bullet train to Osaka, but that he was heading back in the direction of his home city was unsettling to him. His eyes shifted from the school over to a part of the city they were heading towards where his childhood neighborhood was in. Musutafu hasn't had a big villain attack in months. I won't let another happen. What's going on? "SkyLord," the boy in a green mask with two weird points sticking off the top and waving behind his head in the wind called out. He called it towards SkyLord and then kicked the air below his feet to keep himself up instead of dropping all the way to another building this time.

"You'll be briefed when we get there," FlyGuy bellowed over the wind. Just like all of us, he thought with his eyes narrowed forward. His expression was intense, but Midoriya spotted frustration on the face of the older sidekick who yelled that to him.

Do any of them know? Tokoyami probably wouldn't have said anything to me anyway. After those Arkistani heroes were revealed… but could Japanese heroes really be working with, villains? It's why Underguard kept the Breakneck operation small, but somehow the League found out about it anyway. Midoriya frowned but kept quiet for the rest of their trip, until SkyLord called out for everyone to head down to the police station.

Deku dropped down and landed on the roof of a building reaching high into the sky. He hopped off the edge still covered in Full Cowling, and he pounced off at 38% One For All to the street below. When he was about to hit down, he flipped himself over and swung his legs down below him. Deku made sure not to swing his legs too hard that the wind force would break through the street, but it did create enough wind to slow him down and flip him up to his feet right on the sidewalk off the road. FlyGuy and ReBird lowered down on Midoriya's sides, and SkyLord flapped his big yellow wings and then dropped to the ground when he was still fifteen feet up above the stairs in front of Midoriya.

The hero and his sidekicks walked up towards the front doors of the station. A few cops outside the building about to head down the steps moved to the sides and looked at the team of heroes as they went past. They did not look too surprised, but a few of them looked towards the middle of the sidekicks behind SkyLord. "Ey look, it's Deku."

"Bringing in students for something like this…"

Midoriya turned his head to the right and looked over to a couple officers, but they kept down the stairs and actually quieted down as their sergeant gave them a harsh look. What is up? It's weird that the officers already know but we weren't told beforehand. Maybe those guys were part of this and not everyone is, or maybe… Maybe it's not about keeping it a secret at all. This could be too big to try and hide. We just have to trust that everyone involved is on our side.

The heroes headed into the front lobby of the station, and an officer behind a desk not far from the doors lowered the phone from his ear. He waved a hand his direction and then pointed to the right, and the heroes nodded at him and then headed farther into the station. Midoriya walked in and looked around the police station he had not been inside of for a while. He looked over towards an interrogation room where he saw a couple of detectives walking out of and talking to each other in hushed voices, a villain on the other side of the closing door looking down at the metal table in front of him. The face of the villain he was looking towards was replaced by his own, and Midoriya thought about the questions asked of him in that same room half a year ago.

"Where would he go?"

"Were you close to Zach Sazaki?"

"How did he know the Gentle Criminal?"

"Do you know anything that might tell us where he is going?"

Midoriya walked out of the bigger room and into a hallway leading down to a stairwell. He shook his head and regained his intense expression, focusing on the task at hand, whatever that may be. He walked up some stairs behind SkyLord, and then he stepped out into a hallway on the second floor that went left and right from the stairs instead of straight out from them.

"Ch, you're here Deku?" Midoriya spun his head to the right with his eyes wide in surprise. Bakugo pushed off the wall and gave the boy in a green costume next to him an angry glare.

"Kacchan?! I didn't know you were-"

Bakugo turned around with a humph and started off down the hall of the police station. He had on a black costume with a white X strap on his chest from his belt to the attachments on his shoulders. He had his green gauntlets on, his blond spiky hair was flanked by the explosion-like black armor with a red highlight on the edges, and above his black boots on his knees were more green heavy armor pads. He got an annoyed look on his face as Deku ran up to his side and started walking down the hall with him, "Have you heard anything about-"

"Shut up," Bakugo grunted. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the other heroes back behind Midoriya looking his way. "They sent me to get you," he said, sounding a lot more annoyed as he announced that. Deku stared at him in more surprise, which Bakugo saw and darted him a furious look at which made Midoriya pull away. Bakugo spun back forward and kept marching forward with his fists clenched at his sides and an even more frustrated look on his face now.

Of course they called Deku. Damn bastards. If the half and half bastard shows up I'm gonna… Raaa! Don't send me to do fucking grunt work!

Bakugo led his classmate and the other three heroes down the hall then turned to the left and slammed his fist on the door three times. He grabbed the knob and twisted it, throwing the door open and then stepping into the wide room as big as the first floor of the station's main room. Instead of a headquarters full of desks and lined with offices and different rooms, this was just a wide room that had half of it as a flat floor with the walls far away from each other leaving a big open space. The other half of the room rose slightly in elevation with gradual staircases that had rows of chairs breaking off of them, eight chairs in each section of the row. The sections were in the middle, right, and left sides of the two staircases that split the rows of chairs into thirds. A couple of heroes were sitting, and Midoriya recognized Underguard and Rubbergirl already in seats instead of up and mingling with the other heroes.

Midoriya was quick to scan out the room Kacchan just led them into. "Wow," he whispered, surprised by the fact that there were over twenty heroes already gathered before him in the room. There's Hawks and Tokoyami! I knew this had to do with-

"Ah, Midoriya." A deep voice spoke in a pleasantly surprised tone on Midoriya's right.

The boy still wearing his green mask spun and then said in surprise, "C-Cementoss sensei. I wasn't expecting-"

"Ah, I suppose I should have called you Deku," Cementoss realized, as hearing the boy refer to him as "sensei" made him feel strange at the moment. "Please, Cementoss is fine right now. We are not in school."

The last line Cementoss said got Midoriya to nod seriously back at him. Then he turned back into the room as he noticed everyone else had turned towards the door as they realized who it was who just came in. "Midoriya," Ashido called out, and she started running over towards her classmate who had been surprised to see her too. "Who would've thought you'd be here?"

"Ashido, and Yaoyorozu," Midoriya said, nodding behind Ashido at the taller girl walking up to him as well.

"How's it going SkyLord?" Hawks said, walking to the man with yellow wings who had stepped past Midoriya's left side.

"Hawks, good to see you," SkyLord said. He would have held his right hand out to shake his fellow hero's hand, but since Hawks did not have a right arm to shake with SkyLord just nodded in a serious way at him. "You've brought in a lot of heroes for this. It's unlike you."

"Just because I called you doesn't mean this is all just me," Hawks said, holding up his left hand defensively like he did not want to be known as a guy who would get things together like this in the future. "Plus, we're still waiting on a few more."

SkyLord looked around in surprise. With the four of them who just entered, the room now had twenty-five heroes in it. SkyLord's head turned to the right and his eyes narrowed at the four students on his right side, then his eyes shifted and he added another to that list as Hawks' sidekick Tsukuyomi walked over to his classmates as well. Then SkyLord turned his head a bit more and looked towards two other young heroes who he recognized a little after he noticed the students from U.A.'s most famous, Class A. He turned back to Hawks and said, "Quite a few students here."

Hawks scratched the back of his head with his left hand and nodded. His red wings were folded in and pulled close behind his back, though not as close as SkyLord's who actually managed to overlap his yellow ones and press them fully into his back so they were not sticking out to the sides at all. "Any reason for that?" SkyLord asked, and Hawks lowered his arm before glancing over his shoulder farther into the room.

"Tell you in a bit. Let's wait for everyone," Hawks said, glancing back forward at SkyLord through his goggles. SkyLord hummed but nodded at Hawks, accepting that he would get the information he wanted soon enough.

"Oh come on Tokoyami," Ashido said, leaning in towards the dark boy who had his beak sealed of all secrets. Bakugo tssked and turned away with his arms crossed and an annoyed look on his face, and Midoriya looked a bit disappointed too that Tokoyami still was not going to say even though they were all at the same meeting now.

Yaoyorozu accepted Tokoyami's desire not to start revealing what might be secrets though, and she turned back to Midoriya herself, "Did you come all the way from Osaka, Midoriya?"

Midoriya hesitated, then he shook his head no. The others all looked in at him, and he said, "After school I got a message to go to the Tokyo office instead today. I kind of thought," he turned his head a bit to Tokoyami who opened his eyes wider in surprise. "Something was going on," Midoriya finished.

Bakugo shook his head and turned to walk away. He listened as Midoriya threw his hands up and tried telling Tokoyami that he didn't really give anything away, and Tokoyami said he should not have been bringing his work back into the classroom. Ashido tried prying again, and Yaoyorozu scolded her to just be patient. Midoriya looked between the girls in front of him and towards where Bakugo was walking, and his eyes widened in surprise at the two who turned to the boy walking their direction.

The sight of Fera Indago, known at U.A. as the strongest of the current third years, did not surprise Midoriya too much. He knew that she and Bakugo had been interning together for a while now, since the first term of their second year at least. They were already into the third term now so he had seen the two of them together a lot, but he did not know the guy over there to be someone working with them too. He recognized a man walking towards them as a pro hero he knew as Gargantuan, and the other third year from U.A. who had been talking to Indago nodded at his hero and then walked off with him to go meet the heroes who just arrived.

Yaoyorozu spotted where Midoriya was looking, and she looked over her shoulder too and over to the tall teen with straight black hair who she recognized just like Midoriya. They spotted another of the top recruits of U.A.'s third years, someone they had both heard about from a classmate of theirs who had gone to the same middle school as him only in the year before. Nagiso, Mondo.

The two looking towards their upperclassman watched as he stepped right up to SkyLord when Gargantuan got his fellow hero's attention. Nagiso stuck out his right hand and shook SkyLord's hand with an intense look on his face, "It is an honor to meet you."

"Jelloman, right?" SkyLord asked while shaking the teen's hand back. Nagiso nodded his head and SkyLord nodded back at the firm grip the eighteen year old had. "It's going to be good working with you. I can tell." SkyLord let go of the handshake and turned to Gargantuan, "Never took you for one to take a sidekick out of your usual Quirk-set."

"He can get big," Gargantuan assured, cracking a smirk with the right corner of his lip lifting.

Nagiso nodded when SkyLord looked back at him, and the older hero humphed and then said, "I'll have to see that." His Quirk is Jello if I recall. How- SkyLord turned as three knocks hit the closed door back into the hallway he came in from. He watched as the door opened and an officer led another two heroes inside before heading back out.

Bakugo glared over at the door and scowled at how this time they got a regular officer to do that job. Indago shook her head and said, "It's not like you're being social. Might as well be the runner. No need to waste precious police time-"

"My time's more important," Bakugo grunted at her.

The girl just an inch shorter than Bakugo was slender and had blonde hair falling just below her shoulder-blades. She looked at the side of his face with a roll of her eyes, then she grinned and said, "You don't know half the heroes in here do you?" Bakugo shrugged with an uncaring look, and Indago smirked more before leaning back where she stood and putting her hands behind her head. "That's why you're still behind Deku over there. Saw on his face the second he walked in that there wasn't a person he couldn't name-"

"I don't need to know the names of weaklings," Bakugo growled.

"You don't know anyone's name, because you're an idiot and can't remember them," Indago remarked back. "Nice excuse though," she taunted, while Bakugo ground his teeth angrily and tried not to give her the satisfaction of a response to that. She already knew it got to him without him saying a single thing though, and she started laughing at the younger teen at her side who was actually only a couple of months younger than her. Bakugo was the oldest in his own class, and Indago was one of the youngest in hers, yet that just made the dynamic between the two interns all the more frustrating to Bakugo who was struggling to restrain himself at the moment.

"Everyone's here, you two," Bakugo and Indago looked over at the hero they were interning with. She motioned at them to come with her with a single motion of her head, then she walked over to the middle of the room's front row and sat down without moving up the stairs or anything. Miruko leaned back in her seat, and she put her arms up over the chairs on either side of her. Her arms were curved around the tops of the seats, and she opened up her hands and pointed her index fingers in and down for her interns who reluctantly started towards her.

Bakugo moved to the right of the seat Miruko was pointing at on her left, as he had a feeling she might actually put that arm on the top of his chair around his throat should he sit there. He figured it was a good move too when Indago left the seat on Miruko's right side open as well.

When Miruko came back into the room, two other heroes re-entered with her who Midoriya was seeing for the first time. And for the first time since Midoriya arrived at the police station, he did not recognize one of the heroes he was seeing. "Who is that?" Ashido asked, looking behind Encode and at the older hero with a red cape on and blue spandex that looked a little too loose on him. She turned to Midoriya when she asked, then her eyebrows lifted high and she asked in a lot more surprise, "You don't know?"

"I… don't," Midoriya replied slowly.

"Deku," SkyLord said, looking over towards his intern who nodded back at him and then nodded at his classmates. It was kind of a goodbye, but not really, so they all just nodded at each other before heading off to their respective heroes who were moving for the seats in the huge briefing room.

"Talk to you in a bit," Ashido said, leaning in towards Yaoyorozu for a second before pulling off to run over to All Tight. The female hero with the Quirk- Tightening, was heading up the stairs and walked into the row on the right side where Underguard was sitting. She went over and sat next to her teammate, and Ashido sat on her other side like Rubbergirl was sitting on Underguard's.

Yaoyorozu glanced to her right as she started up the steps. She looked towards Bakugo who had his arms crossed and was leaned back in his seat with an annoyed look. He's not nervous. Tokoyami's expression has me cautious, and I could see the others are serious as well. I wonder how those three do it? She glanced at the two women in the front row with Bakugo, then she looked up herself towards Ballerclava and Shiro Swan who were on her left and sitting down with one open seat left for her in the aisle.

Tokoyami sat in the front row on Bakugo's other side as the open seat between him and Miruko. Bakugo glanced at him wondering what he was doing sitting there, but Tokoyami was fully focused ahead and Bakugo lifted his eyebrows as he realized Tokoyami only chose the seat because it was the closest to the front of the room. Bakugo looked over his shoulder and checked real quick, I count thirty. On the nose, and that's everyone. Thirty's a lot. What's up with seven of us being U.A. students? Weird coincidence for something this big. So that means it's not one.

Hawks stood up in the front of all the chairs along with the other two heroes who had walked back in last. They stood in the middle of the half of the room below everyone else, and Miruko let out a long yawn while leaning her head back over the top of her seat. It had only been a second since the last person sat down, but she was an impatient person and lowered her head to glare at Encode in a way telling him to start talking.

The hero in the middle of the three and farthest forward took another step up towards the rest of the heroes they had gathered. "As you may know, my name is Encode. I have been a pro hero for ten years." The man was thin, five foot four, and he had on thick glasses. He wore a white button down shirt with tight white sleeves on underneath sticking out on his wrists before his black gloves. The white undershirt also went up from under his collar to cover his neck and the bottom of his chin before stopping. He had on a pair of tight black pants too, with sneakers that did not look to match them. He had a nerdy appearance, yet he was lean and not scrawny as his tight clothes saved him from the worst first impressions. "I have called together this task force with a sole mission in mind that I wish to accomplish by the end of this weekend."

"Which is…" Miruko started, leaning her head forward and raising her eyebrows a few times. The dark-tan-skinned woman narrowed her thin white eyebrows down after asking. Her long white hair fell straight down behind her all the way to her seat, and she did not like sitting for too long in boring meetings like this. The muscular woman had tight white sleeves slid up her arms and on her legs that were usually exposed out of the white leotard she wore to fight crime. She had on long purple boots tight to her skin and extending from her feet all the way to her mid thighs, going underneath and then out the top of the white elastic leg-sleeves she had on. The bottoms of her boots had special equipment attached as did her waist with the metal plates on it and her thick white gloves. The woman with tall fluffy rabbit ears narrowed her intense red eyes while smirking at the heroes, specifically Hawks who she continued towards, "You promised me a good fight."

Hawks sweatdropped at the Number 4 ranked hero in the nation. The older hero behind Encode on his other side got a much darker look on his face as he glared towards Miruko, and she turned to the man who looked at her like that. As Encode opened his mouth to continue, Miruko snapped at the older man first, "And what's with that look old-timer? Who even are you?"

He pulled back as Miruko immediately snapped at him for looking at her that way. The hero with a long red cape glanced around the room and did not see looks of recognition from the others looking his way either. Encode glanced back at him, and the man nodded and stepped forward himself. "Sorry for the last introduction all of you. I am, Yuno Kasegawa. I was once known as the Wrangling Hero: Wrangler."

ReBird glanced to his right at the younger boy next to him who he thought might know. "Even the fanboy hasn't heard of him," he muttered mainly to himself, though FlyGuy nodded with a skeptical look on his face while looking down at that old man.

"What are you doing here?" Miruko snapped, already bored of his introduction. She turned back to Encode, "Actually, tell me what we're doing now."

Wrangler paused with his mouth open, then he sighed and lowered his head while taking a step back. Most people in the room felt back for the old hero, though a couple agreed with Miruko and were looking to Encode to finally hear what this was all about.

"The Cult of Stain," Encode stated. His head lowered a bit and a glare caught his glasses' lenses so that his eyes could not be seen through them anymore. The man did not sound much like a nerd at all anymore, as he said in a dark voice, "The number one cause of hero fatalities in Japan over the past year. We will crush them this weekend." His head lifted back up and he stared through his glasses straight into Miruko's eyes, "Does that sound like something worth your time?"

"Hmph," Miruko leaned back in her seat and got a satisfied smirk on her face. She said while sitting there smiling, "Why didn't you just say so? Fuck yeah it's worth my time."

"It will definitely be the fight you asked for," Wrangler said. The group of heroes facing the front of the room looked to the old hero who spoke in a much more ominous tone than when he was meekly introducing himself a moment ago.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Miruko asked.

"How about we let them give us the briefing?" SkyLord remarked up towards the woman who spun her head and glared up at him. "I am sure they will explain it all in time." Impatient woman… She's probably like this because she never goes to these things. I'm surprised Hawks managed to get a hold of her for a minute, always bouncing to and fro. Can't sit still that one.

She just shows up wherever and does her own thing. Try planning something out for a change, Underguard looked her direction through his mask under his dark green hood. As Miruko turned back after shooting SkyLord that glare, Underguard swore he saw her red eyes dart to look straight under his hood. Though, she is sitting here. It seems she does plan to give it a chance. As long as she does not hold us up for much longer.

Ashido got chills when Miruko's eyes shot over her, and she did not know why the badass woman suddenly did that while in the middle of turning back forward. It looked like she looked past me. Maybe at All Tight.

"Hawks and I have been attempting to track down these cultists together for several weeks now," Encode started. "We had both been doing our own work regarding them, however together we were able to ascertain whereabouts of certain cult members. I located a pattern in their movements, in the selections they made for what heroes to attack which has been reported by the mainstream media as 'random' so far. There are always patterns. Patterns that show what a villain is thinking, what their motives are, and where they will go next." Encode paused, and then he lowered his voice and continued, "But when I was on my own, for the first time, I thought I must have found true chaotic behavior. No pattern, no design… just chaos."

Encode's eyes got shadowed over by his silver bangs as he bowed his head a bit. "Until I realized that what I was seeing what not chaos at all, but a guise of chaotic behavior. Because no one can act that sporadically, it became clear to me that it was controlled chaos. It was a decision to do things at random. Intentional actions to make random results. The pattern was in the fact that it was so hard to locate the pattern, and yet I was able to convert that unpredictability into a code of my own. To determine where the next random actions would take place, however there were too many possibilities. Yet with Hawks' help, we were able to locate certain Stain Cult members and track them. They are insane, but… Their actions are those of professionals. Each individual member of the cult is so careful, so intricately placed and carefully maneuvered, and to have such chaos mixed with such refined villains seemed impossible. Insanity does not oft' make for elusiveness."

"So there's a big bad, in charge of the Stain Cult?" Indago asked from two seats down on Miruko's right. "The videos they've put out of hero executions suggested the same thing. The man in the red cloak."

Encode nodded his head, but he said in a lower voice, "Everything that man says in those videos however, we now believe to be a lie. Every word out of his mouth… It is all a manipulation. The videos are just a tool of his to gain more followers. Stain, was just the stage which he could get the most attention-"

"So you're saying this cult doesn't follow Stain's teachings at all?" Entertainer asked, frowning and clenching his fists on the armrests of his seat in fury.

"That's not it," Wrangler said. The old man with short white hair that was balding in the middle, and white stubble on his chin and cheeks stepped forward. His eyes were narrow and his voice low, and his old wrinkled hands clenched at his sides. "Each individual member likely believes they are following Stain, or perhaps, each one believes something different. They will all be loyal to him though. The man in the red cloak." Wrangler paused and bared his teeth, and the other heroes in the room all felt a strange sense of unease. The sight of this old man looking so troubled, the lines that covered his face and the fact that he looked twice his age at the mention of that, it was alarming.

"He wears the cloak, to hide his face, because everyone would know just by looking at him that every word he utters is a lie. He can't help but smirk, like he's laughing at all those who he's fooling at all times," Wrangler clenched his fists tighter, and he was starting to pant as he rose his eyes from the floor to the heroes before him. "But the cloak has another purpose. Wearing it, keeping his appearance hidden, it shows those who follow him that he doesn't care about the glory. He doesn't care about being known as the best villain, or about his own ego. Wearing the cloak convinces everyone around him that what he says is truth, because if he's not doing it for himself then he's doing it for the reasons he claims. He does not follow Stain's teachings because he wants to be the next Stain, or because he wants Stain to know he is a loyal follower, but because he truly believes in what Stain stands for… Or at least, that's what he'll have convinced all the others."

"How do you know so much about this man?" Underguard questioned down towards the old man. "And, you said that you 'used to be' Wrangler. I take it that you're retired."

"I retired, the day we captured him," Wrangler said. "Because, I couldn't…" he grit his teeth in regret, and he hissed out through a choked voice, "For twenty-four years, his face has haunted me."

"You captured, him," Midoriya started softly. He started breathing faster, and his eyes started opening wider as he stared into his lap. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears, he felt time slowing down around him, and he was putting things together faster than ever. Eight months earlier, in an internship he had up in Hokkaido, he remembered hearing something after the fighting was over. The next day in the hospital, he heard a voice telling him a story that Breakneck had revealed while trying to stall. Is it, the same one from the story? Zach said, Breakneck sounded unnerved by the guy he mentioned riling people up about Stain.

"So what, is he a Tartaros escapee?" Miruko asked, frowning at the old man who was acting all dramatic about this.

"He is," Wrangler replied. "And he, is the most monstrous thing that was inside that prison. Worse than All For One, or Stain himself, this man is the worst villain I have ever known."

"All For One destroyed half of Camino Ward," Ballerclava started. "Tell me something to convince me that you're not just an old man, afraid of an enemy from his past. You say you retired because of him? Did he injure you-"

"No," Wrangler said, shaking his head as he did. Hawks and Encode got dark looks on their faces, and Bakugo glanced to his side as he noticed a much darker expression spreading on Tokoyami's, as well as a bead of sweat dripping down his face. The top of Wrangler's face covered in dark lines and he said in a low voice, "Twenty six years ago, I started hunting him-"

"You keep saying 'him,'" Miruko interrupted, to the chagrin of a lot of the people there. "What's his name?"

"We called him X," Wrangler said. "He was designated as Prisoner 04879. His true name was never discovered, and currently he is known by the others in his following solely as, Faith." Wrangler shifted his gaze off of Miruko who lost the look she just had as Wrangler said that. Everyone in the room started shifting their positions, and leaning forward, and opening their eyes wide as the old hero continued. "I had been a hero for thirty odd years at that time, but I had never seen anything like the crimes he committed. A serial killer, a bank robber, a car thief, a weapons' dealer… he was everyone, and no one at the same time. X, was the designation we gave him because when he was a serial killer he would, carve X's into his victims in a hidden place somewhere on their body, or inside it. I once discovered a victim recently killed, her chest stitched up the middle, and an X carved directly into her heart. There was no reason for it. He only did it that one time…" Wrangler paused and he bit down so hard, shaking his head and closing his eyes to try and shake the memory away.

"Then, he started getting his followers," Wrangler started, opening his eyes again and returning to a serious tone from earlier. No one was interrupting him now though. They all just stared at the older hero who continued in a dark voice, "Everything before that, was experimentation. He found his calling with manipulation. Getting others to do things that, that no humans should have ever been able to do. And he wasn't brainwashing them, he wasn't, controlling them. He indoctrinated people like I had never… I've seen villains willing to kill for each other before, even die for each other. But the people who followed him had no connection with him, they believed different things and all of them believed that he felt the same way. He was a, a mastermind. A supervillain. And I spent years hunting him down. Every time I'd get close, he'd slip away and start a new enterprise, find new followers, a new goal. Then, when nearly three years of this cat and mouse game were gone, my wife with them, since he had showed up at my house one night that second year of-" Wrangler's fists clenched at his sides and his teeth bared in rage. His eyes were widening though, and they shook not in pain of his loss, or anger at the villain.

Wrangler's eyes shook in fear. The room was silent as the man's fists unclenched, and he whispered, "He went too far. He shot too high, and, and he got the attention of people who he didn't know existed. Who I didn't know existed. A man known as, Lavamander," Wrangler paused and he lowered his gaze to the floor for a second. Then he rose it and continued, "Many of you, I am sure, have heard of anti-heroes, and the anti-hero society that lingers inside our own?"

Five heroes in the room, the youngest ones all sat there with their eyes wide. A few of the heroes nodded, but the majority just looked confused. Wrangler continued while looking to Miruko and the boys on her side who seemed to recognize what he was saying, "At the time, Lavamander was… And he still might be, the strongest man I had ever met. An anti-hero, who joined us and defeated every single hero in our team when we tried to arrest him first… He lurked in the shadows, and he came to us to take down X. The next night would be the fateful night that we defeated him once and for all. Losing, half of my team in the process, against new followers he had obtained in such a short amount of time. And, and yet, when I finally grabbed him and got that hood off his head. As I looked into those eyes, and he smirked at me, I was terrified he knew something that I didn't. Like, he knew he would escape one day. And that haunted me for twenty-three years, the idea that he would one day escape from Tartaros. So when he did, I had to come out of retirement. It took me some time, and I'm not what I once was. I need to stop him though-"

"So you are here for revenge?" Cementoss questioned. Midoriya looked down a row in front of him where his teacher asked that in a serious voice towards the old pro who Midoriya was still feeling bad for right now. He told himself he had to be thinking the same as Cementoss though and looked up sternly towards Wrangler himself.

"No, no," Wrangler said, his voice getting softer on the second 'no.' "If anything, I wanted to flee the country as soon as I heard he had escaped. Or kill myself." Cementoss opened his eyes wide and leaned back at that response. Wrangler looked tired, and he explained, "I feared he would be after me. The things I saw that night… the look on his face as his followers ate- I saw, what I believe to be pure evil. He didn't damage me that night. I wasn't injured, but he had done to me what he did to so many. He broke me. But after I thought about running away, I considered just how many people he had hurt in those years I hunted him. That evil was in the world again, and I knew I had to do something. As the one person with experience fighting him, I knew I could do something."

"And without his help, we never would have determined the identity of Faith, the Stain Cult's leader," Encode finished. He stepped forward and put a hand on the right shoulder of the older man who just stepped back while letting out a deep breath as he had to speak for a while there.

"Hold on," Miruko started. She looked next to Encode at the old man who stopped stepping back, and she asked, "What's this guy's Quirk? If he's not controlling the people he uses then-"

"Quirkless," Wrangler said. Miruko froze with her mouth open, and her eyes started growing huge as did everyone else sitting near her. Wrangler's expression was dark and serious, and he just repeated, "He is, by all means, Quirkless. I never once saw him use a Quirk. I, I could be wrong. Maybe he does have one hidden, but even as he was being tied up with his face bloodied and his body burned, he only tried reaching for a knife. That's not to say he's weak, or that he can't fight but- but his strength isn't what makes him terrifying."

"Listen," Encode started firmly, stepping forward and stopping Wrangler from continuing any further about the villain of his past. "Don't let this villain scare you… And if he already does scare you then fine, let him. We have to stop him though. He used the cult following that Stain had, to create an actual cult that does whatever he says. He's been methodically killing heroes, including several that the heroes in this room have worked with. Powerful heroes, heroes who were separated from their teams or weakened from other losses…"

Gogogo, Underguard thought. I'm still looking after Sameko. I couldn't bring her here though. When Hawks told me it wasn't a good idea, I knew this would have something to do with them.

Midoriya thought about the same woman for a second who he had fought alongside in Mosu Esupa. Then his thoughts shifted to the same two people who the rest of his classmates were thinking about with sad looks on their faces. Mandalay, Pixie Bob… Oh- oh wait. Was Mandalay, was that payback for what they did at Tartaros? Or, did this villain convince the others that going after them was revenge for it… Or, did he just, he just killed them because Stain- The look in Wrangler's eyes. Midoriya's hands clenched down on his knees. We are up against someone truly dangerous. I don't accept that he's worse than All For One. I, can't believe that. But I can accept that it's a different kind of evil. All For One was a calculated force, this is chaotic evil. As much as they're both manipulators, what goals does this villain have other than to just, destroy? Is there a reason behind it? Wrangler fought him for years, and he just thinks it's insanity. An intelligent, chaos.

Shizuka. Emi Fukukado lowered her smile that she tried to always keep on her face. Ms. Joke leaned forward in her seat and focused in on Encode, wondering if he knew about the friendship she had had with Rinse n Repeat.

"…the pattern I discovered we were able to narrow down more and more based on locations of the most recent attacks, and I believe I know for sure where they will be next. I am not going to wait for them to attack more heroes who are off guard, and then try to sweep in and save them. We are going to attack them. The bait they usually set up, we're going to give them ourselves."

"What are you talking about?" Miruko asked in annoyance at the cryptic way Encode just said that.

Bakugo crossed his arms and frowned, but he realized what the man was saying before he even explained it to his pro hero. "It's simple," Encode began. "We stage a fake villain incident. Several if need be. We will have the same small group go in at the area we suspect the cult will attack next over the next few days. Other villain incidents, this small team will also be responsible to go take on. The real ones could be real, or they could be set-ups for the Cult. Whether the team has our fake villains on their side or not can make a big difference, but the plan is that when the Cult of Stain launches their trap and surrounds the first group of heroes, we set off our trap and encircle all of them. We will call in the police at that point and set a wide perimeter, and we will take down all of the Stain Cultists in one swift blow."

"So we're not just using villains as our own bait, but the heroes who are going after that bait too," SkyLord started loudly. Encode got a darker expression on his face, and a few other heroes slow to realizing it opened their eyes wide. "Waiting for an ambush to go off on members of our own team before everyone else moves in-"

"The ones in that first team are going to be at high risk," Encode finished for him. "You are absolutely right. But we need to do this, because we need to get the Stain Cult now. We need to get rid of them soon, this month, as soon as possible. For so many reasons on top of just saving our fellow heroes who will not be able to handle the army of cultists when they're ambushed."

Cementoss nodded his head in agreement a couple of times. "You are speaking of the 'trend' we have constantly been hearing about," Cementoss said. Midoriya looked down at the back of his teacher's head, and his eyes were wide for a moment as he remembered what the news anchors were arguing about before he left SkyLord's agency. The hero and teacher continued, "Everyone is talking about wanting to see a 'trend' upwards, out of the darkness. It is symbolic, yet also very important for the sake of the country that everyone see this trend continuing. It discourages future villains, inspires heroes, and raises the morale and feeling of safety in the public."

"And this is a risky play, riskiest one we have," Hawks said with a nod of agreement towards Cementoss. "If we fail, and the Cult of Stain winds up killing the bait and all us ambushers, the trend is gone. We can kiss it goodbye and any hope of progress. Fear spreads." Hawks sighed and cracked a small smile as talking so serious felt unusual to him. He scratched the back of his head and looked towards Tokoyami then the boy right next to him, "The Class A students we've specifically made sure to bring in might make it even worse, but as much as that loss would be a lot worse, a victory with them makes a win matter so much more."

"If you try to keep us out of the action and then just hand us credit later, I'm fucking leaving," Bakugo snapped at the Number 2 hero looking his way.

"Oi," Miruko clenched her fist and slammed it into the top of Bakugo's head, making his whole body hunch over from the powerful hit.

"Just shut up," Indago snapped past Miruko over at the spiky-haired blond lifting his head with his eyes huge and pure white and his teeth bared.

Miruko put her hands in both of the students' faces and pushed them away as they leaned over the empty seats on her sides. "It's unlike you to have sidekicks with you, Miruko," Hawks said, looking at the rabbit-woman who frowned back at him for saying that.

"I like these two," she chided back at the hero whose rank she wanted to overtake. "Besides, they're technically still just interns and I'm training them. It's not like I teamed up with anyone like a weakling." Her eyes narrowed and she leaned back in her chair, "I don't like this set up. Traps, ploys, they're weak."

"Miru-"

"But!" The woman snapped at Encode who tried speaking up. He paused and closed his mouth at the angry look she shot him. "Those cultists have killed some good heroes. People I liked. If you're giving me a chance to kick their asses, I'm taking it."

"Who are you thinking for the bait?" Cementoss questioned. His tone was serious and everyone in the room looked over towards him. The seven U.A. students all spotted their teacher shift his gaze around them after he asked. Cementoss looked seriously back at Encode who nodded in response.

"I suppose it is time to get to that," Encode said. He turned to Bakugo and said while looking the young man in the eyes, "You do not need to worry about being handed any credit. Everyone here will be taking part in the fight. We do not have the manpower or confidence to leave capable heroes on the sidelines during the ambush." Bakugo humphed and narrowed his eyes, not yet feeling satisfied but not feeling as annoyed as he was a minute ago. "We need everyone there to be fighting, because the Cult of Stain is not a joke. They are believed to be made up of several Tartaros members, as well as dozens of followers, their exact numbers being anywhere from 60, to 150."

"That's a big range," Underguard said in a dark voice.

"It is difficult to differentiate between members when they are all cloaked. During the attacks and their videos we have gotten very little information as to who is a part of this cult, or what their Quirks are. They rose to prominence right after the Tartaros escape though. The Sports Festival Incident incited more to follow the group that had founded and made its first videos, and it was not taken seriously enough at the start as a legitimate villain organization. As the threat we now know it to be." Encode paused and then when he was about to speak up again, he turned his head and looked up into the seats where a student just lifted his hand.

Deku lowered his hand and started speaking when Encode looked his way. "I heard, back in my internship in May," Midoriya began. Others in the room all looked over and the boy who had been frustrated and clenching his fists took a calming breath before continuing, "The Tartaros escapee Breakneck described the Tartaros breakout in an attempt to stall for time. During it, he mentioned a man who had tied together prison guard uniforms as a cloak he wore," Midoriya slowed down for a moment as he saw Wrangler looking towards him with his eyes huge. He took another breath and then said in a serious voice, "When Stain was leaving right after going through the portal to escape Tartaros, this escapee called to him asking to come along. He called out that they all followed Stain's ideals, and others… before Stain left, he told the man that he worked alone and not to get in his way, but he also said that he wouldn't get in his. Breakneck said that this man was the only person in the room full of Tartaros escapees and League of Villains who he, was afraid of…"

"Breakneck told you all of this?" Encode asked the young hero in surprise.

Midoriya hesitated. He sat there with an uncertain look on his face for a second, and then Underguard spoke up across that half of the room, "Zach Sazaki." Midoriya lowered his gaze down, unable to meet the looks of his classmates who all started staring at him with wide eyes. Underguard continued after a moment, "He made that report after the attack, that he questioned Breakneck in an attempt to make the man try to stall him and reveal what he, wanted to know about the escape." Underguard paused, then he added, "I believe that information is reliable, and, he also mentioned that the man Breakneck described in that cloak, showed off the ability to control blue electricity."

"What?!" Wrangler exclaimed in shock. He shook his head and then looked down, muttering to himself for a second before looking up with disbelief. "I don't see how that can be. When he was captured, he would have had the chance to… How can you think this information is reliable if it came from-"

Wrangler froze. He paused with his mouth open, as several people in the room in front of him started glaring harshly at him. "Zach wouldn't have lied about stuff like that," Ashido called down defensively.

Rubbergirl glanced down past Underguard and All Tight to the pink girl a few seats down from her. She lowered her head under her green hood similar to Underguard's, and she thought about the frustration she felt when Sazaki changed up their plans for the Trigger lab raid in Mosu Esupa. The things he had known which told her she could not trust him at all. Yet he told us all that, knowing we wouldn't be able to trust him afterwards. That's what Underguard said. He said we could trust him, then he went and, killed Kurogiri. The raid would have went without a hitch if Kurogiri hadn't brought the League there... We would've gotten the Apocalypse too… Lifebringer, wasn't a bad kid. "He had no reason to tell us that stuff," Rubbergirl started. "He described a conversation that he regretted because doing that instead of catching Breakneck, he allowed Breakneck to slip away from him only for Deku to catch him later on. He messed up, but he got us a bit of information that right now seems pretty useful."

"Then we'll check that report and see if we can determine which other Tartaros escapees went with Faith based on the story he heard," Encode said, sounding like he was trying to shift the focus back as he could see people looking ready to argue with each other. Others had their mouths open ready to back up Lifebringer, but Yaoyorozu and Tokoyami both closed their mouths at Encode's quick acceptance. "Right now though, I will go over the bait team. If you do not wish to be a part of this team, say the word and I will remove you. I believe I have created a perfect team however for our purposes. One that the Stain Cult, and specifically Faith, will be unable to stop themselves from coming out to attack."

Attention shifted back to the task at hand immediately. Wrangler still glanced up towards Deku with his eyes shaking and his mind racing as he tried wrapping his mind around the idea of his worst nemesis having a Quirk. Why didn't he ever use it? If it was a secret, why use it in front of all of them? Why? How?! Wrangler started taking heavy breaths, but he did turn his head to the right and nod at Encode when the younger man gave him a questioning look to see if he was alright. Wrangler quieted his panting breaths, and he took in a deep breath to get himself under control. I have to stop him. No matter his power, his ability, how many followers he has. X! I won't let you have your way with this world! I won't, let you get away again.

"Put me on the team," Miruko started.

Multiple heroes in the room had to stifle groans. Encode looked at the woman in front of him and replied calmly though, "Unfortunately, neither you nor Hawks will be able to take part in the bait team. They will suspect something big is up if you are seen with multiple heroes, and they will be less inclined to come out if a top ranked hero is in the fray."

Miruko frowned deeper and she clenched her hands on the seat backs to her sides. This is why I don't like teams. I'll do what I want. "Fine," she said, lifting her head and tilting it back with a bored look as the rest of the meeting did not matter much to her anymore.

"Ms. Joke," Encode started. The green haired woman wearing an orange bandanna nodded her head and smiled at the man speaking directly to her. "With you on the team there is a clear excuse why the fake-villains we will have as bait do not need to be physically harmed. Changeling will turn myself and-"

"If Changeling is-" Miruko started.

"Please, let me finish," Encode started to the woman he knew was about to snap back in when he brought up Changeling. "After the initial attack when they trap the bait team we have fighting the fake villains, the fake villains will need to fight alongside the heroes against the enemies trapping them. They will realize that it was a trap and be more careful, however with only the two fake villains we had turning against them and revealing themselves as heroes, it will not make them flee. Our goal is to keep them contained at whatever location they ultimately spring their trap, until we can have a full perimeter around them. Wiping out the entire Stain Cult in one decisive blow, not spooking them into scattering and regrouping."

"Fine!" Miruko exclaimed, and she leaned back again with a look showing she was finally going to accept it this time. She crossed her arms and glared at Encode, "Finish it up."

I would be finished already if you weren't- AHH! Encode's expression was completely calm and he just nodded back at the woman who was frustrating him to no end. "The second member of the bait team will be Deku," Encode continued. All of Midoriya's classmates glanced over at him. Bakugo had an annoyed expression, and he glared at his classmate only to lift his eyebrows for a second as Deku never looked down towards him. Midoriya just stared forward with a serious and accepting look, and he nodded his head once at Encode.

"Deku will be a part of this team because of the reports taken from the attack at the U.A. summer training camp. The villain known as Spinner stopped one of his comrades from attacking Deku, which we know he did because of the Hosu Incident where Stain killed a Nomu that had assaulted Deku."

Midoriya lowered his gaze down, his fists clenching harder than they just were in the serious acceptance of his role. He could see Stain saving him from that Nomu, and then he saw the look in Stain's eyes right after that. Then in his mind flashed a lifting scarred face with eyes full of as much conviction, and Midoriya had to try and shake it out of his mind. It was difficult just hearing about Spinner too though and bringing up so many incidents from the past he remembered that face being in with him.

"…We believe that villains consider Deku as a hero who Stain thought was worth saving."

"Wouldn't that keep them away?" Shiro Swan questioned down. The white-haired young woman who was sidekicking for Ballerclava had a confused expression on her face wondering why Deku would be part of that first group then. Midoriya gained a similarly confused look as he had just accepted it right away as part of the plan, but now that he thought of it the idea did not make much sense to him either.

Wrangler spoke up this time though, "No." The others all looked to the older man who shook his head and then said in a confident way, "That will only interest X- no, Faith more. Because he'll want to see if he can turn them against him, or maybe he'll try making Deku follow him…" Wrangler's eyes shifted straight to Deku, and Midoriya's eyes opened wide at that look.

"I would never become a villain," Midoriya said defensively at the older hero's nervous look.

A lot of the others in the room darted Wrangler angered looks at his distrust, but Wrangler only eased back a little at Midoriya's quick response. "Yes, yes of course," he said, sounding apologetic like he did not know why he looked at Deku like that, but yet he did not sound too sure of his apology. As much as some of them wanted to call out Wrangler on his distrust, the thought of Faith being manipulating enough that he would be able to turn heroes, or just that Wrangler thought it was a possibility, was not something they felt like belittling.

"Ms. Joke will get the villains to laugh, and we will use the excuse that Deku's attacks would be too powerful to show why he is not beating on villains unable to defend themselves. We will only have thirty minutes for each fake villain attack based on the time restraints of Changeling's power. Ms. Joke will handle taking on myself and Ballerclava, who will be the other fake villain in the bait scenarios," Encode paused and looked up at the hero who wore a black ski mask. Ballerclava nodded at him in acceptance, and then Encode continued while looking back Deku's direction. "Other than Deku and Ms. Joke, SkyLord will also be there since these villains should know that Deku is working with him."

SkyLord nodded. He was feeling unsure about this until that moment, not liking the idea of sending in his intern with a provisional hero license in the middle of a bunch of hero killers as bait. As long as he was there as well though, he figured it was a better play. Hawks started up after SkyLord nodded down at Encode, "Realistically, Deku is the most important part of this mission." Midoriya looked down into the Number 2 hero's eyes and his own widened a bit at Hawks' look through his goggles. "Your ability to stall and act like a 'true hero' in front of those cultists could give the rest of us the time to surround the ambushing enemies. Most of them are idealists, and even if Faith is able to sway them a bit, should you act in a way that Stain would consider heroic, or that those people think Stain might consider heroic," Hawks paused and he scratched the side of his head. "Really, just try and get them to believe what the public thinks of you ever since that Inhuman fight."

"Currently the top prospect for Class A, and admittedly for all of U.A, is Deku," Encode agreed. Midoriya felt a little odd hearing that, especially in a room with two of his upperclassmen including the number 1 recruit of the year above him. Indago's mouth lowered into a deeper frown, and Bakugo was already grinding his teeth a few seats away from her which Miruko noticed out both corners of her eyes and smirked at. Midoriya noticed most the look from the boy Nagiso though, the upperclassman who looked his way with narrowed eyes and a frustrated expression, and he wished the pro heroes would stop talking him up already.

"And that is why Deku's appearance there makes the most sense," Encode continued. "If the villains do see him as someone Stain thought was worthy, then we think Faith will convince them to go after him. And if they don't think the same way that Spinner did, and instead all they see is that Class A has constantly had media attention, their names have been plastered all over the news, just like fake heroes… well, that works just as well. We can still expect them to make some sort of speech to him explaining why they chose him."

"Just those three then? Five if the ambush takes place at one of our planned locations," Ballerclava said. She mentioned the 'five' as an aside because there was a possibility that they would need to send their bait team after actual villain incidents too if the Stain Cult went by their usual strategy and did not fall for a fake villain attack.

"I will be going with them as well," Wrangler said. A lot of the heroes in the room looked towards the old man with hesitant looks, and some appeared ready to counter him on this. "I reapplied and obtained my hero's license in full. I may be old, but I am still a hero." He said it obstinately, then he narrowed his eyes at the group before him and continued, "Besides, we are not taking any chances. Should Deku's appearance not be enough, or even that our calculations are off by a bit and the Stain Cult is attacking somewhere else but still nearby, my appearance there will make the difference."

"Won't Faith know-" Indago began from just in front of the old man.

"He will," Wrangler said. "And though it will show that I know he should be around there, Faith will not step down from the challenge. Seeing me there alone, searching for him while the others focus on the actual or fake villain attack, will make it Faith's move." Wrangler's eyes darkened, "And he's been at the same game for months now. We have to get him before he moves on, and this is the time to make him do it. This is where he'll throw away his followers, as he had done so many times in the past. If the pattern is starting anew, then he will risk everything just to go after the most interesting things left as Faith: turning followers against someone Stain believed was a true hero, and taunting a man who came after him after so long only to lose him again."

"We suspect that Faith will do it even if he suspects it's a trap," Encode started. "However, he will not tell the others." Most of the heroes in the room nodded as that made sense to them. It sounded like Faith was already manipulating everyone with him, and if Stain's goals really were not important to him, then they could see him giving up all the dozens of villains they were after just for a shot at Deku or Wrangler himself. "We can't be sure," Encode started in a darker tone, "but that's our plan. It's what we've decided, and we're going to follow through with it to force Faith to come out, to finish this on our terms and not his own. And I believe with this team," Encode gazed around the room, at the twenty-nine heroes in there with him. His silver eyebrows narrowed in and he said with confidence, "We can really stop them."

A/N Thanks for reading! Hope y'all enjoyed the chapter. Sorry for the slow updates recently, I've had a whole lot of stuff I'm working on currently for school. Applications for my degree, for a job in Japan next year, for expungements for my misdemeanors (I drink too much :P ), and doing a few projects and research experiments. It's a busy end of the semester, and although Thanksgiving break's coming up, doubt it's gonna give me more time to write this considering I've got two 30 hour drives to do back to NY and then back here to college. Anyway, just a short explanation as to why my updates are a bit slower recently than the every day or every other day I had for the majority of Death up 'til now. Glad you're all still reading Death, and leave a review telling me what you think of the chapter! No Death/Zach this time, though we see from afar what the world's seeing in the aftermath of the Syndicate battle!

Lief 17 chapter 111 . Nov 10

Now THIS! is how you execute an attack! The detailed setups and explanations clearly depicted what was going on in the story while it made me anxious reading this chapter the entire time! Maybe the Army of death really fits because every single death strengthens them to pursue their goals. A bit sad about the others that died and I was hoping the boy lived but another great chapter nonetheless! Let me ask one thing though, are these chapters pre-written or do you write them in between posting?

Yes! Really glad you liked the battle! That chapter I really just had a couple of ideas set up for before starting it, so most of it was during the chapter I had to sit there and come up with plans on the spot. I think it turned out cool, and def the Army of Death got really motivated there at the end knowing they now have to fight for the memories of their comrades who fell before them too. Sad about the nuke boy, and the others, and as for the last part... most of the time I've got some chapters pre-written. Up until a few chapters back I usually was working on a chapter a couple ahead of the next one I was going to post. Right now though, I barely have anything in the next chapter written out yet. So it's gonna be a bit until the next post, sorry. Thanks for the review though! And I hope you enjoyed the new chapter!

MiladyAnna chapter 111 . Nov 10

Wow Zack is so badass. Juste the wings ans the claws was great utilisation of his quirk. Poor Cee, it must be horrible to die twice. A new leage Mhmmm, new ennemi. Why they want attack Paris my country do nothing xD. I love this story continued like this.

XD Badass Zach for the win. Zach's powering up and taking on the big shots now. The League of Shadows, sounds mysterious and foreboding, especially with Eziano rumored as just one of the Shadow Bosses. Glad I've got a reader from France! Don't worry, Zach's protecting Paris from the villains! Haha, I'm glad you've been enjoying the story, and thank you for the review!

Naruffoku chapter 111 . Nov 10

Reading the last line gave me chills

Nice! Sometimes it's difficult ending a chapter, last chapter admittedly was one of those. Glad I managed to make it work though. Thanks for reviewing!

Polw3 chapter 108 . Nov 10

No action doesn't make this chapter any less cooler. This is way more awesome than SHIELD's helicarrier.

Glad you think so. And the SHIELD helicarrier was part of what I got my inspiration for The Cloak's design from (the other part being the Super Maria Bowser ships XD). Thanks for the review!

Justceecee chapter 111 . 12h ago

NOTICE ME AUTHOR-SAN!
I love your story, anyway...
Can you please list down all the OC who joined the Army of Death? Yeah. I'm really overwhelmed and kinda confusing. Thanks!

Noticed. ;P I'm glad you're liking the story! As for listing all the OCs... man, there are a lot I have added in recent chapters. I'll put some down here but I probably won't get all: Exodus (Light), Darling, Jetflame (former British hero), Seraphim (knock-outs putting hands on temples), Jackhammer, Jughead, Juno (Q=Air, also Dead), Akhmed (Q= cloaking Quirk, also Dead), Hummingbird (Dead), Le-Q (dead), Hank (Former EMT), Miraculu, Mark (liquid control), Yang and Xia (Chinese twins, Yang just died first time last chapter, he's back though), Cee ( ;( ), Rebel, Access (Whoreslayer42), Raylei (Anon 3, also joined up for real like Access), Scotty (another support team member), Cherasaw and Rampart (Rebel's new support team at his command), Pastor (Dead), Yuri (Dead), Wreck'd (Dead), Tina (Dead, died first time in Saudi Arabia, second time with Gentle's team while Zach was in US), Grabble (died once in Saudi Arabia, guy with Pincers), Michael (beast-type Quirk, had a thing for Cee), Sagitus (centaur guy), Flare... Alright I'm gonna stop here. It's def a bit overwhelming with all these additions coming without real introductions to each of the characters. Each time I add more in it's kind of me showing that time is passing and more recruitment is going on in Army of Death, as well as developments b/w characters and additions to Army of Death's strength, LIKE with Maelstrom who I almost forgot who has Weather Manipulation Quirk. Anyway, lots of fun characters to get to know. Lots of OCs, but I hope I'm really giving them character, or at least the major ones- I know a few have just been thrown in as background characters. Thanks for the review! Hope this helped!

Big Fan of Death chapter 111 . 12h ago

Why such a long break, im getting withdrawal symptoms, im sleeping worse. :(

Sorry Big Fan! Here you go, only 12 hours later!