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!

113. Chapter 113

A/N Hey guys. Sorry it's been a week. Still very, very busy. Just got this finished though and who doesn't need some Death to get them out of awkward Thanksgiving dinners? XD Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

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Chapter 113:

"Are you nervous Midoriya?" Ashido asked, leaning in towards her classmate she ran up to as they headed through a hall of the Musutafu Police Department.

They were on the second floor heading to the stairs back to the first, and it was later in the night on Friday after they spent over an hour going over specifics of the mission after revealing who was on the bait team. Midoriya looked to his right at Ashido with a steady look, but then he admitted after a moment, "A little. But I'm ready. If we stick to the plan I think we can do this."

Ashido smiled brightly and did a small skip before walking at his side with a confident look on her face. "Yeah! I think so too. This Faith guy sounds pretty tough, but we've faced worse."

I, hope that's true. Midoriya nodded despite his doubtful thought. He can't really be worse than All For One, Shigaraki, or Dandy on Apocalypse. If Breakneck thought he was the one to look out for though, and Breakneck was very powerful. I need to be careful. Does he really have a Quirk? I'm hearing it from a secondary source, tertiary even. Zach heard it from Breakneck, who said he saw it himself but could have just been trying to stall for time… Yet, it works out too well that the manipulator running the Stain Cult would be the one who escaped Tartaros, the one who even right after the escape was already making his plans. While All For One recovered, and Stain fled on his own, and even Breakneck stayed behind with the League for a little to get situated, he moved right away. Faith, was ready. He wouldn't have been out of jail at the time of Stain, but he still knew exactly how to gather strength using the idea of him, just like All For One did. Planning so far in advance…

We only have that information at all, because of what he asked Breakneck. He's not even here anymore, so much has happened, but he asked questions like those to prepare for stuff like this so far in the future. Midoriya's eyes shifted from straight ahead of him down to the floor as he continued to walk. Zach was always like that. Playing the long game. Looking so, so far ahead. He talked about how long it would take for me to become the Symbol, Kurogiri striking fear in hearts of everyone, always big picture. Which is why, he considered all the anti-heroes' deaths as deaths numbering in the thousands, because of all the people they wouldn't be able to save… Just like with his parents. Midoriya bit down hard, thinking about the courthouse. He thought about leaping up and looking towards the portals, and watching as Zach walked through without looking back. He thought about Zach's eyes as he shouted at them.

"How many people have you killed?"

"Hundreds! Thousands! How many?! I don't know! Every night I lie awake thinking of all of them! All the people my dad didn't save, all the people…"

"I have to change the answer…"

Midoriya snapped his eyes open and stared forward intensely. He entered the stairwell and started down without focusing on anyone around him, so he did not notice that Ashido was staring at him with wide eyes at how intense he suddenly was which had her getting more serious herself. I was never once able to figure out Zach's plans. Did he know that information he got from Breakneck would somehow come back and help us right here? I don't know. But, just because I know that he has reasons for everything he does, doesn't mean I can accept what he's doing now in faith alone that it will turn out good…

"Shiro Swan, you will stay with Creati during the ambush. Creati if you do come up with plans or realize something is wrong, inform Encode right away. His Quirk, Calculate, is designed for improvisations on the fly." Ballerclava walked in front of her sidekicks who were nodding at her back as she spoke. "He calculates probabilities of success in instants, and he is an intelligent man who I have worked with on several successful missions in the past. Trust his current plans, but remember that there is no way of knowing what will happen out there."

Ballerclava looked over her right shoulder out the holes in her black mask at the two younger women at her back. "In the field, things can change in an instant from being in our favor to a worst-case-scenario. Be it against hero killing cultists, or an average every-day thief, an incident can turn life-threatening in the blink of an eye. Stay flexible and ready to change up your roles in this plan instantly if the need arises. Am I understood?"

"Yes ma'am," Yaoyorozu replied.

Shiro Swan was a little slower to answer, and then she said in a lower voice and slower than Creati's response, "I would not usually mention anything about being outnumbered, as I know, we are pro heroes and should not have trouble facing a greater number especially with thirty of us."

"Then don't," Ballerclava started.

"But there are several Tartaros escapees, who we believe are aligned with Faith," Shiro Swan continued anyway despite Ballerclava's initial response. Ballerclava stopped and Shiro Swan said to the woman standing before her at the top of the stairs down to the first floor, "Not all villains thrown into Tartaros are powerful monsters… but the ones who escaped and have evaded capture for this long, they've got to be among the top tiers of the escapees."

"You must have mistaken all this talk of a 'trend' for something that is currently already in progress," Ballerclava said. She looked at the younger woman behind her and then at the teen girl at her side too to make sure she was understood. "Crime is still higher at this moment than it has been for decades. We have two of the top ten heroes in the nation with us right now, be glad that we have them and count those blessings. Yes, it is not a sure thing that we will be able to do this without taking losses. Does that scare you enough that you will not come?"

"That's not what I'm saying, but if we know that losses are possible shouldn't we wait until-"

"There is no time," a male voice said behind Shiro Swan. She glanced back and then leaned away from the handsome man standing there with red wings pulled in close to his back. "I want to wait too, but we think Faith's going to know we're getting close no matter what we do. He almost always managed to slip away before, usually with one last big event that he escaped during to start a new operation. If we don't do this now and wait around instead, he'll make the final move without us able to control any aspects of it. That's what we're thinking at least. Wish I could give you some better news," Hawks started walking past her, on her left side so his right was closer to her and she had to stare at the space where his right arm was missing from.

Shiro Swan turned back to Ballerclava as Hawks walked by her too, and then the sidekick nodded at her pro hero with a more accepting look on her face. "I understand. I just hope we aren't taking unnecessary risks. We are intending on this being something to keep the trend going, something to reassure citizens. Even if we win, if we lose a bunch of heroes during it-"

"Then they would become martyrs," Yaoyorozu said. Shiro Swan turned to the girl next to her in surprise, but Ballerclava grimly nodded once at the teenager who gained a more grim look herself as that was confirmed. "When heroes were dying and things were getting worse, it wasn't so," Yaoyorozu continued while turning towards Shiro Swan. "However if the trend continues, then the heroes whose lives it took to ensure that return to peace will be treated as the reason. A galvanizing push… You don't think that Encode is…" Yaoyorozu held her tongue, but Ballerclava nodded at her to continue and she did so but in a lower voice. "You do not think that he could have called in more heroes, but did not just to-"

"No," Ballerclava said. She said it assuredly, and she actually relieved that worry Yaoyorozu had and that Shiro Swan was starting to feel. "We do not trade heroes' lives even for the aspect of peace. As heroes we must be ready to lay down our lives, but I know Encode well and he is a true hero. He would not trade our lives. That is not to say he does not understand the risks, but he knows, that each one of us is here because we are willing to be a part of the solution…"

"You don't seem to have a great relationship with your classmates," Indago said to the spiky-haired boy she was walking with across the main room of the police headquarters' first floor.

"Shut up," Bakugo muttered back. He saw her opening her mouth to continue about it, and he snapped, "You don't have a damn clue what you're talking about." Indago paused with her mouth open, her eyebrows lifting up at the tone in that statement.

It is true I suppose, Indago told herself. "Hm," she hummed at his response, smiling which just made Bakugo frown in more annoyance at her reaction. Class A has been through much together. The attacks. Losing their homeroom teacher. The betrayal of their classmate, Raijin. Lifebringer… failing to stop him. Their looks when Wrangler questioned whether Lifebringer's information was good, even you looked pissed that he doubted him. Indago lowered her smile a bit as she looked at her fellow intern for Miruko. Killmore's Office Takeover, fighting Inhuman, the Class A is strong. And perhaps I misread the interaction between you and your classmates, Bakugo. Maybe you're more than just a fiery temper after all…

"Everyone, can I get your attentions please?" Encode called out to the first floor of the police station. The heroes had gathered down on the main floor, and the headquarters was full of a lot more cops than usual. "Most of you already have an idea of what's going on this weekend, but it's time you're given the specifics of this operation. No matter when your shifts are, you must be ready through this whole weekend to come at a moment's notice. As soon as we spring our trap on the Cult of Stain, we need the full force of the Musutafu Police Department to establish a perimeter and evacuate civilians from the area."

The Musutafu Police Chief nodded his head at Encode and then asked, "Your trap, where do you plan on setting it?"

"Every location we will attempt to lure them in will be one with a low population density," Encode ensured the chief. "Villains do attack in areas with lower amounts of people more often anyway as there is usually less hero presence in low populated areas. Although we suspect that Faith, the leader of the Cult of Stain, will predict that we have a trap planned, we cannot just set our fake villain incidents up out in a secluded area. We do not want the rest of the cult to think that something is up, and they will know it is a trap right away if we try getting them in a location perfect for one. However, our trap locations do have many vantage points and good focal points for ambushing villains which we will go over tonight in preparation for the next two days. There is also a high chance that the villains we suspect to already be in the city will set their own trap as they have done many times in the past. Should this occur we would have less control over the ambush, and our team of fake villains that myself and Ballerclava will be on must be ready to go with Changeling to the scene of the attack…"

I have to let him know, Officer Pedoro kept a steady expression, though sweat dripped down the left side of his face. He saw a hero look over his way and tried to just keep focusing on Encode, They just think I'm nervous about going against cultists. That's all… Why couldn't you have called me out anyway? Pedoro ground his teeth behind his closed lips as the female hero who had looked his way turned straight back to Encode. No, if I was discovered, he'd do it. He'd kill my family just like he threatened he would. I can't tell him though! All these heroes, and kids! There are damn kids they're sending in… but my kids, Jessie, Tyke, Yura… If I tell him, these heroes will die. Nothing will change. If they catch him it won't matter, but what if they fail? I'm the only one who could let him know and make the heroes fail… but what if the heroes just fail anyway?! How- what am I supposed to do?

I have to let him know. Another officer in the headquarters stared forward in a completely calm way, nodding his head with the other two officers at his sides who were in his squad. These heroes are just making moves to try and get publicity, because of how the media's been treating them for the past few weeks. That's the only reason they're doing it now! Fucking fakes. Only I can do anything. I'm the only one who can let Faith know, prepare the others for all these fake heroes. I can do more than any of the ones actually killing could. Just like he said, this all relies on me. I can make the difference Stain wanted to see in the world!

"…The trap is designed this way because the Stain Cult thinks they're acting like Stain." Encode continued to explain his plan to the officers who would in turn prepare even more who were not there at the moment, though a large portion of the police department was gathered. "They set up a small crime so heroes come, then they swarm with overwhelming numbers, then they slip away before more heroes arrive. Stain always escaped before more heroes were able to come and stop him, and this group has done the same so far. This time we'll swarm them immediately though, converge all around their initial ambush and make sure they don't escape. It is a trap inside of a trap, trapping their trap."

And they will trap you inside of that trap.

What if their real ambush turns out to be on our second ambush though? It, it will be if I say anything. Fuck. What am I supposed to do?

"…We believe Faith may have an electric-type Quirk, however you must be careful while confronting him of his words too. Do not listen to anything he says. He is a master of manipulation and…"

Yaoyorozu stared towards Encode as serious as she could but her eyes shifted down to the floor as the hero continued on. A master of manipulation, just like you were. Her fists clenched and she glared at the floor harder, only for her eyes to soften and a sadder look to spread over her face instead. That manipulation is how you got this information. It's how you pulled off taking-out Kurogiri, weeks of manipulating everything and everyone around you. Zach, you tricked everyone… but it doesn't change a thing for me.

I made the same New Year's resolution as last year, Yaoyorozu thought, her fists clenching hard as she thought back to New Year's Eve. They had not done a party this year on New Year's with the two second year hero classes. The world had fallen too much into the darkness to celebrate the previous year. The fact that Kaminari was the one who pushed the celebration the year before was another big reason they did not do anything. She still watched the countdown with some others in her class though, and Yaoyorozu could not help but think about her wish from the previous New Year's. Last time, he came back days later. I wished it would happen so hard, and I, I couldn't believe it when he really came back. Now though… I can't imagine it coming true. As much as I want you to come back, Momo Yaoyorozu lifted her gaze back to Encode and her expression intensified. Her fists opened at her sides, and Creati focused on the task at hand. You've got your life, and we have ours. Saving people, stopping villains, fighting for good. It's how we can save this damaged world.

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"Damn, the conditions look suspicious," Hawks' voice filled the tiny earpieces that every member of their team of thirty, and a few police officers, were wearing.

Encode and Ballerclava were in the backseat of a police car, their bodies transforming back to normal as the driver of their car spun the wheel. Changeling sat in the passenger seat with an intense look on his face, and he tapped his earpiece to say, "Do we redirect over? If anyone's watching us-"

"It definitely appears like the set-up, no, exactly like the set up of their most recent attack," Hawks' correction had everyone listening feel a sense of unease. "They never do the same set-up a second time. Looks like they know."

"It's starting then," Wrangler said, while running down the street with another three heroes. His eyes narrowed and he took in a deep breath while trying to keep up with the younger heroes who had just left the fake villain incident they had established. The real villains had not attacked them there, and when they heard about the attack going on halfway across the city they shoved a disguised Ballerclava and Encode into the cop car before running off.

"Not good. Alright, Mt. Lady and Death Arms have both responded to the call too. They're closer and about to reach the villains."

"We need to get there faster," SkyLord said, darting his gaze to Ms. Joke and then back at Wrangler lagging just a bit behind. "Deku, grab Wrangler," he ordered his intern before looking next to him at the green haired woman wearing an orange bandanna. Ms. Joke nodded back at SkyLord, and she lifted her arms to the sides while SkyLord flapped his yellow wings behind him. Civilians were standing on the sidewalks on either side of the road the heroes were running down into a more densely populated part of the city, and those people cheered out as they saw SkyLord fly up in the air with Ms. Joke. They cheered a lot louder too as Deku grabbed the older hero in a red cape and leapt up into the sky with him.

"Ack- gah," Wrangler coughed and winced at the sudden jolt into the sky. Midoriya darted his gaze down at the old man, but Wrangler grit his teeth and nodded to let the boy know he was alright. "Let's get there," Wrangler said, sweat on his face pushing back with the wind considering how fast they were soaring through the air.

"Three villains total in the bait. They definitely know you're coming. Let Mt. Lady and Death Arms know as soon as you arrive. No point in hiding it and it's better to have a team of six in the initial stage that we wanted anyway." Hawks let the team know as he watched them soar through the air in the direction of some rising black smoke in the east side of Musutafu. He lowered his hand from the earpiece he was holding onto while speaking, and he glared down below the white clouds he was floating just at the edge of the bottom of. He was almost invisible to anyone looking straight up, just a little less hidden than the twenty others his red feathers were holding up in the clouds around him.

Three other heroes were holding themselves up in the sky, while the majority just floated in the damp air inside of the cloud Hawks held them in. They could not see down below, and Miruko snapped down, "Bring me lower."

Hawks thought about arguing back, but instead he just lowered her feather down to near the edge of the bottom of the cloud, leaving her a bit higher than himself. Where are they? Hawks thought, darting his eyes around the buildings near the bait which was a jewelry shop that had turned into a hostage situation already. The flames are getting civilians out of there. Cops need to show up there and set up a perimeter already. Shit, so we'll have the initial perimeter of cops, six heroes, then villains, then the outer perimeter we set and our large group. The bait villains need to be stopped early on too-

"He's, here," SkyLord said, his voice cautious and low. His eyes were narrowed, and he had just landed down on the road where the attack was taking place. SkyLord, Deku, Wrangler, and Ms. Joke stood still as the villain they had landed in front of, lifted up a red cloak and draped it over himself to shadow back over his smirking face. The heroes up in the sky hesitated, and SkyLord continued, "He came with the bait."

To be right in the middle of what's about to ensue?!

Does he expect to be caught?!

This isn't good.

He knows something. He never comes with the bait! How much does he know? Is it more than just the fact we know he's here in the city?

Does he know our plan?

Why in an area with no skyscrapers? No vantage points to ambush us from up high. Nothing but three and four story buildings, apartments over stores, clothing and jewelry. Hawks narrowed his eyes and said in a calm voice while tapping his earpiece, "Everyone calm. Bait team, take him down. That's all there is to this until the others spring their trap."

"Faith," Wrangler said, stepping forward after standing completely still at Deku's side since he landed. The fact that the villain who turned their way upon their landing was the one they were after, the fact that he looked at them so knowingly, the look of excitement and insanity on his face, and the smirk they could still see under the shadows of that hood. The other two villains were back in the jewelry shop with some hostages, and SkyLord turned and called out for the other civilians who stopped on sidewalks to look over that they needed to evacuate the area.

Mt. Lady stepped a big foot down the road that had two lanes which meant it was wide enough for her. Death Arms was running up from between her legs, and Hawks reported calmly in everyone's ears that Backdraft was on his way to help with the fires going on in the buildings on either side of the jewelry store. "What's the situation?" Death Arms called out while running down the road towards the group of four facing the store.

"So you came after all," the cloaked figure said, staring from under his hood straight at the old man with sweat all over his face. He was just outside of the front of the store, the windows and glass door behind him all shattered, and he wore a black and yellow villain costume underneath the red cloak he just draped over himself. "I was hoping you would-"

"It's the Cult of Stain!" Deku called out without looking to his left. He kept facing the cloaked figure who stared straight at him next after his shout. "This is their leader, and there are others around us right now about to attack!"

Mt. Lady was leaning down, but she froze and her huge eyes widened more. Death Arms skid to a stop and his eyes darted right and left in the street that was nearly empty at this point. "You people, get out of here!" Death Arms called over at a group at the edge of an alleyway who were looking out with wide eyes into the road. "It's not…" Death Arms slowed down, and his eyes opened huge as three people came out of that alley, and then three more behind them, and they all lifted up black cloaks and put them over their bodies. Windows smashed open on the second and third stories of both enflamed buildings, and hooded figures moved into view on every single window.

"There they are!" Miruko called out.

"Hold…" Hawks began, keeping her back with the feather she was held by. Not yet.

"Mt. Lady! Come closer to us!" Ms. Joke called over to the huge woman who started looking back and forth in shock at how many figures just appeared out of nowhere.

Setting up our own trap was better. We had all the nearby buildings under surveillance to watch for suspicious activity and know all their attack points beforehand. SkyLord's eyes darted along the buildings across the street to the alleyways to front doors of buildings he had seen people rush back into to get off the streets while they were arriving. They're everywhere! Why is Hawks holding back?!

They're using their numbers to swarm. Just like usual. He knows something is up though. If he predicted our predicting his moves, what is his next step? Hawks ignored the others around him calling out to set their trap.

"Kill them all," Faith said.

"They're coming!"

Fuck! "Let's go!" Hawks called out. "All teams move in."

Why is the leader showing himself so soon? Bakugo thought while being pulled down through the sky by a red feather, in a horde of heroes moving as a massive force towards the black smoke rising in the city.

Midoriya rushed at Faith. "Get him!" Ms. Joke called out, a big smile on her face while pointing towards the villain who smiled even wider under his hood back. SkyLord and Death Arms moved for the group of six figures in black cloaks who just rushed out of an alleyway, and Mt. Lady slammed a fist down to one side of the road where two villains had run out the front door of a building.

"Haha, haha," Faith chuckled while hopping backwards. Two figures shot out of the jewelry store behind him, guns lifted in their hands. They were fast. They were each so fast because their Quirks were speed-based ones. The villain on the left of Faith had a jet engine sticking out the middle of his back and blasting through his black cloak he had thrown on inside. The other villain used his long lanky legs each with four joints to sprint out with giant strides straight at Deku. The two of them were smirking too under their cloaks, snickering and chuckling… but they weren't really laughing.

Midoriya was slower. He realized it as soon as he leapt at Faith, that his jump was not 38% Full Cowling like he attempted. He was still fast, faster than the villain retreating back from him into the jewelry store full of screaming hostages getting more scared by the fact that the walls were catching on fire. Eight holes opened on the ceiling of the store, and complete darkness fell inside which was immediately followed by a lot louder screams from the hostages.

"Keep going inside!" Ms. Joke shouted at Deku. Deku ducked down and then leapt to his left, slamming both legs into the stomach of the villain who pointed an assault rifle at him. The man's jet sputtered on his back, and the faint glow on it dimmed to nothing. The man on Midoriya's other side snickered and spun to point his gun at the boy, but Midoriya rushed right past and into the building behind him. The villain with lanky legs turned and aimed after Midoriya, only for a glowing white rope to wrap around his chest. He looked down, right before the yank tugged him halfway across the street and into a fist of brass knuckles.

Mt. Lady tossed three unconscious villains towards the middle of the road, then she pulled her right leg back and slammed forward into a muscular villain whose arms started enlarging massive sized. Her kick knocked away the guard of the man with giant arms, then slammed into his body and sent him flying up into the air. Mt. Lady was quick to reach out before he flew too far, and she caught him before throwing him down the street towards a window where another villain with wings just jumped out of and turned to the smaller heroes in the center of the street.

Death Arms threw a villain back into the wall on his side, and SkyLord dropped two from high up behind Death Arms where they landed and started yelling out in pain about broken legs. SkyLord lifted up the blunt sword he was holding in his right hand, grabbed it with both hands by the hilt and lifted high, then he soared down and swept at a woman who rose her arms to block him. She blocked and a loud Clank rang out through the street. SkyLord narrowed his eyes at the woman's hands while he pushed down harder on her, and he focused on the extending nails of the woman which had his eyes snap up towards her shadowed face.

"Black Widow," SkyLord said, naming a Tartaros escapee who they knew was a part of the Cult of Stain.

"I am no one, but one of Stain's disciples," the woman replied, then she snickered and swept her arms up at SkyLord. He pulled back, and he managed to dodge her attacks easily. Her nails aren't extending as far as we know they can. And she's not laughing. None of them are laughing.

"Something's wrong," Ms. Joke said after she and Wrangler finished knocking out the two villains in the bait group of three with the leader. She glared into the darkness of the jewelry store where they kept hearing yells, and she and Wrangler started running forward only to stop short as a figure walked out of the darkness in the doorway. It looked like just pure blackness that Faith stepped back out of, and the yells continued from inside the store along with the sound of a crash of something breaking.

Ms. Joke's fists clenched and Wrangler lifted both hands, creating white ropes in them that he held so tightly while looking Faith in the eyes. He could barely see those eyes under the shadow of Faith's hood, but he saw a look in them that had his heart racing fast in both fear and fury. "You won't escape this time," Wrangler said. He glared harder at Faith and his fists balled around the white ropes furiously. "I won't let you."

"Ha, haha," Faith started laughing, and then he turned to Ms. Joke and stopped laughing. He just stopped himself while she took a step forward, and then he smirked so much more and started chuckling at her expression. "Ms. Joke. The reason we're not laughing, just smiling and chuckling, is that we have a Quirk Depletion Field up. All over this area," he said it and had a huge smirk cracked on his face at the looks of the heroes in front of him. "Because when Quirks don't matter and the playing field is evened up a bit, then numbers really are all that matters aren't they?"

Only forty or so villains attacked in the ambush. Hawks had noticed something strange about the way they attacked the group. As he flew out of the sky, he had seen more and more of the villains who just attacked being taken down by their team of six alone. Death Arms, Mt. Lady, SkyLord, Ms. Joke, and Wrangler were all taking care of the villains who suddenly ambushed. A dozen villains were already out cold or beaten too badly to keep fighting before their team was even at the tops of the buildings they had been hiding so high above.

Then a hundred villains emerged at once. Conceal released his Quirk, Hide and Seek, and the roofs of the buildings around the ambush area became lined in villains all already looking up at the group descending from the sky. The group from the sky was already at the tops of the buildings when they emerged. They darted their eyes around, and they could see that the villains were not just on the buildings on this street, but the ones on both of the adjacent streets as well.

We're surrounded! Hawks tried pulling all his feathers up as he flapped his own wings down, but he found each individual feather was not listening to him very quickly.

The cultists all around them pointed weapons or Quirks at the heroes they ambushed. The trap of the trap inside of the trap was just trapped, but when a team of thirty pro heroes got trapped it did not mean the end of a fight. All of them reacted quickly. Dark Shadow emerged and spread in front of Tokoyami and five heroes around them while Hawks' shaking red feathers pulled away. Yaoyorozu lifted her arms on either side with bulletproof shields forming on them pointed to the villains closest to her. Miruko called to Indago without losing the smirk on her face, and despite her intern feeling weaker, Indago lifted both arms that extended out towards Miruko's flipping body.

Quirk, Rubber. Indago's body extended and stretched, her skin tightening and her light red costume pulling tight to her stretchy body. The girl at the top of the U.A. hero course's third years reacted in a moment and her sides extended around the six others falling near her who she saw caught more off guard or with less means to protect themselves. Her arms simultaneously stretched to Miruko right behind the older woman in mid-flip. Miruko pressed her legs against Indago's arms that pushed back a bit with the pressure, only to snap back out at the same time that Miruko was jumping herself. "Trampoline!" Indago called out. The reaction was so fast that Miruko slammed into shocked villains who just emerged all at once since Conceal could not cover them when they were all moving, and they all only started moving to attack the heroes passing them.

BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG… The gunfire aimed at the group of heroes falling from the sky brought the attention of those below up into the air. An explosion ripped apart the top of a roof, and villains flew up in the air in all directions. Miruko bounced to the next building on her right, making more villains stop shooting at the heroes though most had stopped already. Bullets flew back at some villains who missed their shots by firing into Indago's body instead of the heroes she was protecting. Those bullets pushed into her body and then bounced off right back at the men and women firing at her.

Explosions are smaller. Bakugo realized it when Hawks' feathers started dropping, and he noticed the speed of Indago's body stretching around the others was slower too. He did not even need to make an explosion to realize it, and he blasted with more power knowing that it would still just be enough to shoot him towards a building that no one else was attacking yet. As he blasted himself that way, Dark Shadow wrapped around Tokoyami's body and they spread their wings to soar the same way as Bakugo.

"Bakugo! Our Quirks are weaker!" Yaoyorozu called to the side, while protecting herself and Shiro Swan in their final descent towards the ground from ten meters up. The jetpack forming on Yaoyorozu's back started shooting out flames, and she grabbed the older girl falling with her who she had just been holding a shield up in front of for the last two seconds. Shiro Swan grabbed the shield Creati was dropping as Yaoyorozu grabbed her by her white costume instead, then they hit down on the ground and lowered to one knee each for a second as they had still been dropping pretty fast.

"Shit! Move!" Shiro Swan stood and tackled Creati to the side, right before four other heroes dropped down right where they had just been. The two girls came out of their rolls and rose back up their bulletproof shields, and dinking sounds slammed into them right as they got them up. Yaoyorozu skid back on her knees and held both arms on her shield as hard as she could with her eyes huge. The clanking stopped after a second and she started panting heavily, her eyes snapping open wide with panic.

"It's alright, let's get back on the offensive," a calm voice said on Yaoyorozu's right. She looked that way and saw the blonde girl from the class above standing there with her entire body pulled out twenty feet to either side, up above, and curving around them in a semi-dome. Villains on one side of the street, the side where there were still a lot more still firing from the roofs than the side Miruko started off on, had to stop firing down at the heroes they ambushed since bullets kept ricocheting back at them off Indago's body. "Creati! Shiro Swan! Get up!" Indago shouted. Her head was on the inside of her curved body that looked completely red with her stretching costume's material surrounding her. She glared at the sidekicks of Ballerclava who jumped back to their feet and stopped hiding behind shields that were no longer helping with Indago protecting them anyway.

"You two!" Shiro Swan and Creati spun to see All Tight calling to them from just past a couple of heroes down on the ground with minor injuries. Momo recognized the sidekicks from SkyLord's agency: ReBird and FlyGuy, both hurt either from falling too fast when they tried using their Quirks to stabilize in the air and found them weaker, or from bullets that had pierced both of ReBird's arms and his left wing. Nagiso stood next to them while another hero: Repairman, was trying to patch ReBird up or just stop the bleeding for now. All Tight called to the girls and motioned at a building across the street that was next to one on fire, and which had villains inside the windows and on the first floor through an blown-open wall.

Gargantuan rose up in the street to fifteen meters tall, his whole body expanding too. His shoulders broadened, his muscles bulged in his costume, and he called out, "Hold on Mt. Lady!" Gargantuan ran the direction of the huge woman falling backwards, and he slammed his fist towards the top of the building she had just been attacking.

"Wait!"

"AAAEEEEE!"

"Get down!"

Ka-BOOOOM

Ms. Joke spun and looked up when Faith mentioned the Quirk Depletion Field and their superior numbers. She looked around with her eyes huge as the reinforcements they had coming in to attack the ones who trapped them were attacked and lost the full uses of their Quirks. "He got us," Wrangler started, his teeth bared hard from next to the young woman who glanced his way before spinning back to Faith. Everything that happened as the rest of the hero team came down occurred at the same time and in a matter of seconds. Heroes were rushing off the street into the buildings on the sides of the road full of villains, gunfire kept going off and more explosions were followed by more flames and more black smoke rising into the sky in east Musutafu.

"Dampener's Quirk Depletion Field, is a similar power to the fake hero Eraser Head's," Faith began when Ms. Joke looked him in the eyes. She froze. She had started to open her mouth but she froze with it half-open. "Except he was unable to use it over a wide area, on everyone inside. He died such a pathetic death…"

Ms. Joke bit down and then took a step forward with her fists clenched and her eyes narrowed straight at Faith. Wrangler's head was spinning towards her before she even started moving. "No don't-" Wrangler started lifting up his arms and the white ropes in them lifted off the top of his clenched fists. Wrangler was hit by a fist in his side, and he was slammed away letting out a gasp of pain. As he started falling though from his arc, he snapped his hands forward and lassoed the man who hit him from the opposite side as Ms. Joke. "Never listen to him!" Wrangler yelled before hitting the ground, his face full of panic when Ms. Joke finally saw it.

She saw Wrangler and the man he dragged away who had attacked him from the opposite side as her. It hit her in that moment, that Faith knew Wrangler would see it coming that he was just trying to get her riled up, and that Wrangler would look her way in order to stop her, and that would give his other subordinate time to attack. It hit her so fast that Faith knew all that was coming, that she filled with terror because she realized she was standing right in front of that man who was controlling everything around him without moving. And then she was hit by the villain who Wrangler expected to be coming for her anyway, because she was so scared in that instant that she had to turn back towards Faith instead of behind herself where Wrangler knew a villain was attacking her from.

A spike pierced through Ms. Joke's right shoulder, then a foot planted in her back and kicked her forward right towards Faith who she skid to face-first on the pavement. Ms. Joke pushed her palms with skid marks on them down on the floor at her sides, and she started lifting her head in a shaky way. Through blurry vision, Ms. Joke could see flames pouring out the buildings on her left and right, and directly in front of her was a man in a dark red cloak who lifted his right hand and showed her a long serrated dagger he was holding. She opened her mouth, and Faith grabbed her by the green hair with his free hand and yanked her up as she screamed. Faith slashed his knife across her face diagonally from the top right corner over her eye to the bottom left of her chin, then he cut up in the other direction diagonally as Ms. Joke continued to scream in pain.

Faith kept smirking, though he no longer felt like snickering at all. He just smirked at the woman in front of him who had blood pouring down her face. He smirked so nostalgically, at the X he had just carved into her face. Then he lifted his knife, he brought down, and he slashed through open air which made him lower his smirk a little. He turned his head to the left, watching the woman whose face he just cut up got yanked towards a man who wrapped her up with his white ropes. Faith looked that way, then he lifted his head a bit to get less of his face shadowed by the hood. Wrangler lowered Ms. Joke down, then he lifted his head and stared towards his nemesis, towards his worst nightmare, whose face was visible in only the flicker of the flames around him.

After seeing what Faith just did to Ms. Joke's face, Wrangler could not hold himself back. He stepped forward with his teeth bared, and he yelled furiously at the top of his lungs, "X!"

Inside the building behind Faith, Midoriya Izuku was on his own against eight villains in a room with twelve hostages. He had flown into the room right after darkness descended inside, and he went straight for the hostages before anything else to get between them and a man laughing sadistically and moving their direction. That man was now imbedded in a jewelry case with a lot of blood around him considering he was smashed straight through the glass.

Another two villains were down already, but Midoriya was facing off against a villain in a mask who was too much for him to just get around to fight the others. He was slower, his attacks were not anywhere near the power he could usually reach with One For All, yet he was still moving a lot faster than all the other villains in the room except this one. He's not faster! Midoriya realized it while bouncing to his right, pushing his feet and hands against a wall and then ricocheting himself up to the ceiling. He watched his opponent sprinting around a corner of the room stop, press both feet into the wall next to him, and then shoot right up at the same spot Midoriya was flying to. "Smaaasssh!" Midoriya flipped and slammed his right leg forward, but his eyes opened wide as while in mid-flip, the villain he was about to attack started flipping over too. I knew it!

Their legs collided in midair, and the power of the collision had everyone else in the room pulling back. All except for one man who was down near the middle of the room, holding up a submachine gun and grinning under his cloak as the two figures up above bounced away from each other. Dampener makes it so my illusion can't go too far, but inside this building it's as if I'm full power. Mirror Mind fired towards Deku, and the kid bounced away from the spot the villain was aiming. Mirror Mind frowned as Deku bounced away, because he almost got hit by some of the bullets. He had time to dodge. His best path though, was in the direction of the hostages. "Hmph," Mirror Mind lowered his gun and then started reloading. Faith is sure of it though. "You can pretend all you want kid! We know you're not a real hero!"

"And what is this doing to make real heroes?!" Deku started shouting. He stopped himself though after the first outburst for two reasons. The first, was that he did not think he was going to be able to convince all these villains to stop fighting. The second, was that a five foot ten villain was zipping his way across the jewelry store from the opposite side. Almost have it, Midoriya dodged again, and again over to another part of the room instead of attacking. The villain he was fighting had a white mask on, yet Midoriya could see green curly hair sticking out around the sides and top of the mask that had him unnerved at first. His own hair was hidden below his green mask so the hostages did not realize it, but Midoriya recognized those eyes through the holes of the mask.

"Stopping you fakes, is what Stain believes in!"

"We follow Stain's will!"

"Everything we do is for Stain!"

"Deku! Help us!"

"Please!"

There!

"As a fake," Mirror Mind started. "You could never-"

Midoriya shot towards the middle of the room, straight at the masked figure flying towards him after bouncing off a turned-over table. Mirror Mind stopped talking, his eyes opening wide and his body leaning back, right before he gasped out in pain from Deku slamming into his body at full force. Mirror Mind slammed on his back, and the other villains in the room shouting at Deku stopped with their mouths wide open. They all froze and stared in shock at the boy in a green costume on top of Mirror Mind.

"Ack- h-how?" Mirror Mind gasped out. He lowered his head and looked at the boy's green mask, and he saw Deku open his closed eyes and glare straight down into his. "You knew-"

"Mirror Mind, Quirk- Mirror Illusion," Midoriya said. He had done his research. Their team did not know this Tartaros villain was going to be a part of the Cult of Stain, but Midoriya had researched all of the escapees of Tartaros after his run-in with Breakneck the year before. "Your weakness which allowed your capture eight years ago, is that your illusions are only physical to those looking at them. It can't sneak up on someone, can't attack without being seen, and if I closed my eyes while about to collide with it," he paused while explaining how he knew he could dive straight through that masked figure to tackle the real villain instead. Midoriya pulled his right arm back when he saw Mirror Mind reaching down to his waist. Then he slammed his right fist down into Mirror Mind's gut, making the man's body hunch up above and below the punch.

"Get him!"

"He beat Mirror Mind!"

"Does that mean he's a real hero?!"

"Wait-"

"AHH!"

"Get them, Deku!"

Just outside of the jewelry store that still had a black veil covering the front to keep the inside and outside from seeing each other, Faith stepped closer to Wrangler who was shaking while looking back into his eyes. Villains and heroes were battling it out on the street around them, in the buildings on either side, in the air above that was getting harder to fight in with all the black smoke rising into it. Wrangler's legs tried so desperately to pull back, but he was holding strong to his will as best he could and leaning forward despite his pale wrinkled face covered in fear. "I won't listen to you!" Wrangler yelled at his old enemy who had his heart racing absurdly fast at every word coming out of his mouth.

Faith kept smiling at Wrangler and everything around them just kind of blurred away. Wrangler stared straight into his old foe's eyes, and his heart raced faster and faster as Faith said to him, "Yuno. I knew you would come. You always overestimated the loyalty of the police. You know, the same ones who worked with you way back in those years are the ones who told me when your wife would be home alone. Did you know, she took her own life?" Wrangler was lifting his arms, but he froze and all other sound drowned away from him. He stared at Faith in confusion with his eyes opening wider and wider, and his breath unable to escape through his mouth while he heard a pounding in his head.

"It's why I was smiling that night, when you captured me," Faith continued while cocking his head to the side, and smirking more at the look on Wrangler's face like his expression that night had stayed with him for decades. "I wanted to do it myself, but I gave her a weapon to fight back with and she, she just kept calling out for you because she couldn't run at me. And when you didn't come, and the hope left her eyes as she realized you couldn't protect her, she turned the blade on herself. Of course, I went and cut her up afterwards so there was no way you could ever know, but I smiled at you that night knowing you would live your whole life thinking you had failed her and never know just how much you had. Thinking that it was me who did it, and being wrong! She killed herself because she had no faith you would save her. Not that you would have shown up if she had lasted another few minutes, considering I did all the chopping up in your own home."

Wrangler stopped hearing the rapid pounding in his head. He opened his mouth while tears streamed down his face, and his right hand that was lifting up towards Faith pulled back in towards his body instead. The smirk on Faith's face spread so much wider, his teeth showing in the biggest most sadistic grin ever that just had Wrangler's shaking bloodshot eyes bulging more while more tears streamed out of them. Wrangler clenched his right hand into the loose fabric of his costume over his chest, his mouth opening and closing as he tried to suck in breath. "I expected this would happen," Faith said with that huge smile on his face as he watched Wrangler fall to his knees. "You should have taken the officials' advice and stayed out of it, especially with that heart condition of yours." Faith said this while walking towards Wrangler who was shaking violently on his knees.

Wrangler's vision was turning red, getting blurrier in the corners. He could see his wife's smiling face as she turned to him after a long day at work, and then he saw his empty house that day he came back to it. And he saw the pictures Faith had left for him on his dining room table. He saw the smile as the beaten man was taken off for Tartaros, and how he thought he had gotten justice for his wife who he had killed. Wrangler pulled his head back away from Faith, sheer absolute terror and despair on it mixed with all the pain of dying as he currently was. He pulled back in all that fear, because Faith leaned in towards the dying man and said, "I'd tell you that you were going to a better place now, to be with your wife, but we both know she won't want to be with you. She can't even stand the sight of you."

Wrangler's leaning back body fell backwards, flat on the street and without another movement. Fifteen feet away, Ms. Joke lay on the ground with her hands over her face grabbing it in pain after Faith had cut that X into it. Wrangler had pulled her aside, and she lay there motionless at what she just heard from so close to that villain. Her teeth bared and she pressed her face into the floor below her, sweat mixing with the blood on it as her entire body trembled. And she pushed her shaking palms onto the floor at her sides, and she tried pushing herself away only to freeze at the voice she heard shout in front of her.

"Wrangler! Faith, what did you-"

"I didn't do anything," Faith said, while turning and looking at the boy behind him. "The man's heart just gave out on its own, after hearing the truth."

Deku's eyes darted to his right, then to his left. Cloaked villains were turning towards him. There were a lot more around Faith than anywhere else on the street. More than on any of the buildings' roofs, or inside them, or on the adjacent streets surrounding the heroes who were still trying to capture them too, there were over twenty villains gathered on the road around Midoriya who he spotted from a single glance around. Faith started shaking his head at the boy in front of him who just looked around like that. "It's disappointing to see," Faith said, sounding genuinely upset as he shook his head at Midoriya.

"Deku, you had so much promise," Faith said. He lifted his head to look at the boy in the eyes, and Midoriya stared into the shadows of that hood with so much anger on his face. He could still see Wrangler's unmoving body behind him, he was keeping Ms. Joke in his peripheral vision as he noticed her freeze and stay still when he called out for Faith who he had seen turning towards where she lay. He watched the villains closest to Ms. Joke to make sure no one tried to get a finishing blow on the woman already with a lot of blood puddling around her. He spotted SkyLord across the street behind Faith up on the roof to his left, fighting several villains at the same time. A loud thud followed by the entire street shaking indicated Gargantuan hitting the floor at the end of the block, and smoke hovering just above it was blown with a huge force across the air so embers and ash swept down into the road too keeping a low visibility in all directions.

"You had so much potential that Stain even decided you were worth saving! But that, was long ago," Faith said, his voice getting darker and more ominous as a haze of heat and ash blew through the area. "If Stain could see you now, all this power yet doing nothing about it. The power to beat a former big-shot villain like Mirror Mind in under a minute," Faith smirked at the boy and blue lightning sparked on either of his hands at the unwavering look in the boys' eyes that he saw the best through the eye holes of Deku's costume. He could see it better than the other villains who he had already given this spiel to, who were already glaring at the boy Faith had them all hating with a passion. "You had so much potential that you threw away. Why, do so many people die when you are so strong?"

No one has control over this situation. Hawks just said to fight them and capture them all. With our numbers, can we really lose even to a group so much bigger?! Where is the Dampener? If that Quirk goes off, I could jump around and take care of everyone around me in an instant. I could- "You could stop so many villains before they get anything done," Faith continued. Deku tried pushing the man's voice out of his head, because he knew that the man was using his own thoughts against him, even if it frustrated him knowing the man was not actually reading his mind at the sight of those small blue sparks on his hands. "But you don't, why is that? Is it because of the devolution of your heroes, All Might and Wonderlass? When heroes so powerful become so weak, the ones they train to take their places need to step up, but Deku, you just don't cut it. They had to retire because of their injuries, but if you overdo it too much more then you won't be able to be a hero anymore, and so you don't."

That's not true! Stop! Don't think about that. How do I stop him? Their numbers are on the high side of what we projected, that doesn't matter. Numbers shouldn't matter to pro heroes, and the majority of them aren't Tartaros villains. The others in that shop besides Mirror Mind were nothing special. If everyone has done some research too they should know the weaknesses of the strongest villains here, all of whom seem to be weakened themselves because of the Quirk Depletion Field…

"You're too afraid to step out and become the heroes that they were, or that Sazaki was," Faith continued to the teenage hero before him. An explosion blew up out of a building on Midoriya's right, and Faith called out louder while raising his arms at his sides, "Lifebringer was a true hero! And of course you would be terrified of stepping out and being more like him, because it got everyone he cared about killed! His friends, his family, his… mother." Chills went down Deku's spine and his body leaned back, his breath hitching and his eyes shaking at the smirking man looking back at him. "That's what it means to be a hero!" Faith called out. Then he pointed his sparking right arm forward and yelled, "Deku can't make that sacrifice, and that's why he isn't a real hero. That is why he will die with the rest of the fakes!" Faith roared the last part in a deeper voice, bellowing it and then clenching his right hand into a fist.

Faith's comrades charged. They roared, in fury, in rage, and Midoriya's eyes darted around to see faces of pure hatred under the hoods of all the cloaked villains charging him. They were activating their Quirks, and attacking en-mass, and there were more than the twenty he had thought he'd seen a few seconds ago.

"Deku!"

"Midoriya!"

Charging villains on Midoriya's right spun around at the sound of those shouts. Midoriya sprinted straight forward at Faith as he saw villains charging wide-range attacks at him. He sped forward, ignoring the villain on his right who was fastest and about to reach him. A black whip wrapped around that man's neck in a second anyway, yanking him backwards towards All Tight. She Tightened the whip so much that it choked out the villain she dragged towards her, right between three other female heroes running down the road.

Yaoyorozu swung the metal pipe in her right hand down, then she rose her shield and blocked the spiked-arms of the villain who jumped away from her slash.

Ashido swung her arms and splashed Acid at the villains who dove away since they knew the Quirk of this U.A. student. They dove away, only for the street below them to start lifting up as Cementoss slammed his hands down thirty feet behind his pink-skinned student.

Shiro Swan sped down the street faster than her younger comrades, and she spun around on her right foot in what looked like a dance, only her left leg kicked out as she did the three-sixty on her spinning leg. She kicked three villains in their faces, and the third one she hit, her left leg started spinning itself, sending him flying down the road doing cartwheels right into another villain running at Deku from his other side. "Creati! Get Ms. Joke some cover!" Shiro Swan charged behind Deku's back, at villains moving for Ms. Joke who was pulling back onto her hands and knees.

Deku swung his right leg at Faith from a short distance. Faith uppercut his left arm at the same time, his arm moving faster surrounded in blue sparks. He punched a small blast of blue lightning at the boy who pulled his head to the side fast, his green mask pulling off the top of his head as the attack caught one of the points sticking off the top. Midoriya's kick was not as strong as usual, but the wind was still enough to cause Faith to stumble backwards and need to steady himself. Midoriya landed in the meantime, and he bent his knees upon landing to instantly put himself in a pouncing position. His arms went out to his sides with his hands curled forward, and he grit his teeth before pushing off the ground at double his normal power. He grit his teeth in pain as he used his Doubling to spring off with as much pain as it would usually cause him to double his 38%. Even though it should not be as straining to his body, he was not wrapped in a strong Full Cowling at the moment and using that Doubling was more than his body could take at his current strength.

FlyGuy flapped his wings behind him, and he rolled down the road at forty miles per hours thanks to the roller-skates he had. He could not fly, but his wings sped him up flapping behind him and with the shoes Creati made for him, he took out the two villains running for Deku and Faith and lifting up their guns. Midoriya was about to dodge, but seeing FlyGuy taking them out let him pounce the other direction, right over the top of Faith's head while the villain was swinging his right fist forward and down at him. Midoriya rose over sparking blue light, then Faith ducked to dodge the right hand of the boy above him reaching down to grab him. Faith started turning, his eyes narrowed and his smirk staying in place even as he saw the boy passing him pressing his feet against the top of the first floor of the building at his back.

"Nice move," Faith started. Midoriya pushed off the wall as he said it, but he was unnerved by how unaffected Faith looked by his rebound. Then a shadow came over the top of Midoriya's head, and he saw someone falling from the roof of the building he was bouncing off. Blood rained down around him, mixed with yellow feathers, and he heard FlyGuy shout in panic down below. "Black Widow," Faith finished, suggesting he was not telling Midoriya that it was a 'nice move,' at all.

The woman on the roof above Deku dropped off, her sharp nails extended a foot out from her hands and her mouth twisted into a huge smirk despite her own bruises and cuts from her fight with SkyLord. Midoriya flipped himself over in midair, kicked his body up towards SkyLord and tackled his bloody pro hero back into the building Black Widow was diving off of. He recognized her from the Tartaros escapees too, though he also knew she was with the Stain Cult already. Midoriya tackled SkyLord into the second floor of the building, then he spun towards the window and bounced back towards them, right as Black Widow reached in and grabbed the outsides of the window. She leaned her head forward, right as Deku re-reached the window and extended both feet into her face.

As Deku flew out of the window, his mind raced faster than his body could move at this point. Black Widow's nose cracking below his feet, two explosions going off on his right side, a dozen fights between heroes and villains happening around him, Faith looking up towards him. We need more help, and it doesn't matter who because things were already leaked. Somehow they knew not just that we were suspicious, but the exact details of our plan. A hero or a cop had to have betrayed us. That doesn't matter right now! We need help. As long as Dampener is here, we need more forces. Hawks called in half the police making the perimeter to come help with fighting, and they called for more hero reinforcements too, but who is closer? Who are the closest ones to us right now?!

Down the road at the second closest intersection, Ballerclava yelled, "Step on it!"

"We need more help out here!"

"Where are those reinforcements?"

"There's too many of them!"

The police officer in the front seat of the cop car spun the wheel and they skid out into the intersection. Two police cars behind them sped out in similar fashions, one of them skidding up onto the curb for a second and then speeding down the sidewalk before dropping back on the pavement. A black truck whipped up behind them, a dozen officers in full riot-control gear strapped in the back. The car in the front was a normal police car, and Changeling spun in the passenger seat to look back at Encode, "What's the move?"

"We need to keep our far outer perimeter so none escape," Encode replied hastily. "But having enough cops out there to keep the perimeter steady means not having enough to bring in to fight. The police aren't supposed to be fighting here either, they don't have permission to use Quirks-"

"Fuck permission!" Ballerclava yelled up, right before throwing the back door to the cop car open. "We need everyone fighting as long as that Dampener is out there. Quirks or not, each person's gonna- OH SHIT! BAIL OUT!" Ballerclava let go of the door and dove from the back of the speeding car.

The other two cop cars closest behind them stepped on the brakes and started swerving back and forth as they tried coming to sudden jolting stops. Encode threw the other back door of the car open and yelled to the front, "GET OUT!"

Twenty six villains just emerged on the sidewalks and in the middle of the road in front of them, as Conceal released his power again. More precisely, the sudden movements of the villains in the road released Conceal's power for him, unable to control it anymore thanks to the Dampener's Quirk. The reason Ballerclava dove out of the car though, was that the villain she spotted through the front windshield right as they started moving, was pulling the pin off of a round green object that he had several of strapped in an x-pattern over his chest.

"Grenade!"

Encode jumped out of the back of the car, though he was looking into the front still with his eyes huge. Changeling did not just open his door to jump out, because the officer driving them down the road panicked when all those villains showed up. He let go of the wheel, making the vehicle start spinning out right as Encode leapt from it. Changeling pulled the officer out from his seatbelt, opened the door-, BOOOM! The police car blew into the air on fire, a fiery explosion blowing out of the windows and shattering the front windshield.

"AHHHH!"

Bakugo and Tokoyami stumbled into each other. They were on the third floor of a building which was on fire above them and on the floor below but not on theirs, for the moment. The two boys stumbled into each other, then Bakugo turned and pressed his back harder into Tokoyami's. Tokoyami felt that push and his eyes widened for a second, then they narrowed in understanding and he pressed his back into Bakugo's too.

There were three villains on the floor with them, one of whom had his hood down as it just fell off again when he snapped his head back. Hangover lifted the bottle of Everclear over his mouth and downed another chug of it. The drink with 95% alcohol content, illegal to sell in Musutafu or anywhere in Japan for that matter, burned as it went down Hangover's throat. Tokoyami said between panting breaths while pressing his back harder into Bakugo's, "I doubt you, that you looked it up yourself, but that guy's- he's hungover. I mean, he's drunk, but his name's Hangover and-"

"I don't need any o' your help!" Bakugo shouted in annoyance, though he pressed his back harder into Tokoyami's back. He clenched his eyes shut for a second and then snapped them open and tried focusing on Hangover, while the man lowered the bottle in his hand and started laughing at the looks on the boys' faces. "I get his Quirk already, damn it," Bakugo told his darker classmate who was ready to snap back in frustration to Bakugo's stubbornness. "You ready?" Bakugo muttered in a lower voice.

Tokoyami shook his head around fast, then he said in a lower voice, "Before this place, gets any more lit- like lit up, you know?"

"Let's get them!" One of the other two villains shouted. A burly man at eight feet tall, his body started to wave around and shake more than it was already in the boys' shaking visions. He started to transform, while the other villain whose face looked more hesitant under his cloak's hood kept glaring at those two students for a little longer.

Even with their Quirks Dampened, these two are…

"URRRPP- Get 'em!" Hangover shouted, lifting his hand with the bottle in it, then fumbling the bottle as he tried lifting the hood with that hand only using a couple of fingers.

"Black Ankh!"

"AP Shot!" Bakugo's body pushed backwards as he fired condensed blasts out of his hands. Tokoyami swept his arms forward and they extended with Dark Shadow covering his body, large claws reaching out and swiping at the villain in front of him. They both used excessive amounts of power for a time when they were already having trouble balancing, but they used each other to steady and attacked like wild with the building catching fire around them.

Hangover lifted up a pair of pistols from his sides and aimed forward. Bakugo's head turned partially left, his left hand shifting over. Tokoyami's head turned a bit to the right, and his claw that just slammed into a different villain swung that way. The Tartaros escapee fired his automatic pistols with more blowback than they looked to have, and he stumbled backwards farther into the room while cracks were spreading out more on the ceiling above him. Tokoyami and Bakugo both fired off attacks in his direction, and they kept leaning back forgetting that their comrade's back was no longer right behind them. Bakugo's explosion while Tokoyami was turned that way made Dark Shadow reel back too, right while the two of them were thrown backwards by Bakugo's blast.

It was just a good thing the windows were already shattered. They flew out of the third story of the building, and down below Fantasma snapped her head towards the building she had been keeping an eye on. The top half of Indago's body stretched out to the sides while her arms reached to the base of the building, and she stretched out just above the floor tight enough that when the two drunken teens flailing around as they fell from the third floor hit her, they bounced back up like they were on a trampoline. Indago snapped her bottom half up to the building and caught the two as they dropped down from the top of their arcs, and then Bakugo snapped his head towards her with a furious look on his face. "WHY DON'T YOU MIND YOUR OWN-" Bakugo froze, and he shook his head around in confusion.

"Look," Tokoyami said, feeling his stupor going away while motioning up at the third floor of the building above. The three of them stared up towards the windows they just flew out of, where bright orange flames exploded out of a few seconds after the ceiling farther in that floor had broken down and landed on a man still inside. A second after that explosion, two other figures came flying out of that window and falling from the third floor engulfed in flames, screaming their heads off.

"Idiots," Indago muttered, though she threw her hands up in the air and grabbed the men. She yanked them back down faster than they were falling, her body stretching out at the sides and curving in at the same time. Indago, known by her hero name Fantasma, wrapped them up and cut off all oxygen to the flames. She winced and clenched her teeth in pain for a second, then she recoiled her body back to its normal size and checked out the four around her. Both badly burned but alright. Those two look fine. "You two, on me," Indago bent down and slammed her right fist into the burnt face of one of the two villains who was still moving, and she stopped that movement instantly. "We have to get to the outside and help establish the perimeter."

"You want to run from here?" Bakugo snapped in annoyance.

"It's the fucking plan," Indago snapped right back. "We don't want to be the ones stuck in a trap. We want to trap them. They could turn and run at any time so that this was all for nothing!" Indago took in a deep breath and then slammed her right leg down hard on her next step. She pressed down on her right knee, squeezing her leg tighter down between that knee and her foot. Her skin compressed, then it straightened back out with a pumping motion that she repeated a second time while her skin started to match the color of her costume. Steam came off of Indago's body, and Bakugo pointed his hands behind him. Tokoyami spread his arms and surrounded himself in Black Ankh again, then the three of them shot down the street so fast that two villains running their way barely had time to let out shouts of regret as they were slammed into.

They could see me.

Fucking small ass explosion.

Dark Shadow's quiet. We need to find this Dampener.

"Where is the Dampener?" Hawks asked. He stood in front of a man on top of a roof at the end of the road from the initial villain attack. Behind him, Mt. Lady was helping Gargantuan onto his feet. They were both staring at the Number 2 hero with huge eyes at how quickly Hawks incapacitated their enemy. Banshee lay unconscious near the edge of the roof already covered in cracks from the fights between the two villains and the two giants. The other villain who was up though, floating actually, who the giants had been unable to take down on their own, had each of his six appendages pulled to the sides by clumps of feathers. Hawks' back barely had any feathers left on it, but he had seen how strong the villain was, and he was using almost all of his feathers to restrain him like this.

"Stop it! You're hurting- AHH!" Hawks' feathers pulled opposite directions.

"You know, I recognize you," Hawks said. "The Ant, a former League of Villains member. You escaped the Sports Festival Invasion but took down a lot of heroes that day, heroes who stopped the death toll in this city from being any higher than it was." Hawks spoke calmly, but in his eyes through his goggles was a cold look that scared The Ant silent instead of making a snide remark. He was only silent for another second though, before all the feathers holding his limbs pulled different directions. "So today, you're going to help save heroes instead. Where is the Dampener?"

"I don't know! I swear!" The Ant shouted it and then yelled in pain. All the feathers stopped pulling and for a second The Ant thought that Hawks was just bluffing the whole time. Then all the feathers on his upper right arm yanked backwards in a direction his arm was not meant to bend, and Hawks broke the villain's arm. "AHHH! YOU FUCK-" Hawks twisted the already broken arm more. "AHH- I swear! I don't know!"

Hawks grimaced as that sounded like the truth to him. He'd talk. Faith knows some of them might though, probably keeps his plans secret. Definitely his true intentions. Alright. Hawks was about to lower the villain, but he narrowed his eyes and stepped closer to the man who started seething in anger at him but also with the look of a cornered animal in his eyes. He'll do anything to get out of this. Hawks started putting pressure on the other appendages that made The Ant's face fill with a lot more panic at all the pain he could imagine in them. "Why aren't you on Trigger?" Hawks wondered. "You aren't even looking to reach for it, so it looks like you don't have any. You only managed to kill Fullbright because of it."

"I don't have any!" The Ant shouted at the pro hero before him. "And Fullbright was a great hero- a real one! Not like the fakes we hunt now-"

"I don't care about whatever it is you're trying to say," Hawks said in a bored tone, and he applied more pressure to every appendage while he hovered The Ant above the cracked roof. The Ant let out a seething hiss of pain and then screamed as he could not hold it while Hawks moved his broken arm around. "Why don't you have any? Do the others here?" With a group this large attacking near the middle of Musutafu. We can't allow them all to inject with Trigger. We'll have a repeat of the SFI on our hands. "Does anyone?" Hawks growled.

"No way!" The Ant shouted, then he pulled his head back at Hawks' cold look. "I swear! It's- it's unlikely I mean. Someone might, but no- probably- def- no probably not! It's hard to get Trigger now! Ever since the Chemist was taken down, everybody has to get shipments from overseas since there's no big labs, at least that I know of! Please, no more!" Hawks started twisting the guy's arms more, and he let out a scream and then snapped his head forward in panic. "The Yakumob! Those Chinese's is who we bought the guns from! Military tech including the bomb-"

Mt. Lady and Gargantuan were talking and about to rush off to another location to keep fighting. They froze. Hawks' eyes opened huge behind his visor, and The Ant seemed to realize his mistake as that secret slipped out of his mouth. He froze with his mouth wide open, as he realized he was definitely the first person to let that information go, based on the looks of the heroes around him. Hawks stepped forward until he was right in front of The Ant, then he leaned his head up and pulled The Ant's head down with the last of his feathers so their eyes were inches away. "What bomb?"

Hawks started breaking The Ant's opposite arm as the first one, and as the cracking noises started The Ant shouted, "I'll tell you where! I'll- I'll show you-" Crack Hawks snapped his arm backwards as the man tried to talk his way into a good position to escape. "AHH! Please- oh please no more. I'll tell you. It's over in…"

Ding

Shoto Todoroki stood at the bottom of the stairs in his dorm room at Heights Alliance. He stared towards the common room where seven of his classmates were standing around watching the tv with their eyes wide at the breaking news story. Some of them started reaching for their phones, and Todoroki realized that his was not the only one to receive a message. He lifted his phone and looked down at the screen, and his blue and gray eyes snapped back up huge. Midoriya!

"They're in trouble!" Sero shouted, lowering his phone and staring back at the screen with his eyes huge. The news that just started reporting on this did not have any idea of what was going on, but Sero ignored the titles on the screen and he turned and fired Tape towards the stairs anyway.

"Sero-kun, wait-" Iida began.

"Iida!" Kirishima shouted at the taller teen at his side. "Let's tell Class B and everyone!" Iida's eyes bulged as that was not what he was expecting Kirishima to say to him. "They need our help!" Kirishima yelled, "And half of everyone are out at internships! We need to go!"

"Agreed! Get your costumes on!" Iida yelled right back, while lifting his phone and switching to different text messages as quickly as he could. Kendo, Principal Nezu, Vrishnuku sensei, Midnight sensei, Cementoss sensei, Present Mic…

"We don't have time for putting-"

"That is not something we run into without being prepared! Get your costumes on now!"

'Everyone! Put on your costumes and help Class A! They're going out there!' Itsuka Kendo sent the text into her Class's group text, a nervous but certain look on her face as she did it. "Kurama," she started towards her pro hero who was streaming a news clip they needed to look up online since they were not close enough to have that news station. They were not even in the same country let alone the same city, but Kendo suspected the story was about to become big enough that they would be getting it on the stations in California too. Her study abroad internship had been going great until that moment, as all Kendo could think about now was getting back.

"There is nothing we can do," the older woman said in a low voice. The hero had a matching shade of orange hair as Kendo's only longer and falling straight down instead of spiked back in a ponytail behind her. She stood in front of the other eight heroes gathered in the room, all watching in near silence as the events unfolded in front of them on the screen.

The second years in the hero course at U.A. were quick to rush out of their dorm buildings. Iida sent out follow-up texts with a picture of the messages he received from Midoriya, showing everyone the map sent to him with the location highlighted on it, and the single message below stating 'Help'.

As Class A and Class B started running for the main school building, third years came running out of their dorms too. Iida looked over nervously while his Engines shot him down the road, only for his eyes to widen as the third years started running down the road or using their Quirks to speed them towards the main school building. Iida spun forward next as he saw the school's doors open up ahead, and Nezu ran out with five different teachers in the direction of the students.

"First years without provisional licenses are not allowed to leave the premises! All other hero course students, let's go!"

"Students," Nezu called out to the mostly surprised teenagers at their teachers reactions. "There is a police perimeter around the outside of the attack area. I have received word that it is the Cult of Stain fighting a team of heroes on location. Do what you can, to stop this before it can get any bigger! We must stop this right now. Everyone, do your best. Stay together! Remember your training and protect the people of this city!"

"Class B! With me and Midnight!" Vlad King shouted over at the eight students from Class B who finished running up towards them. He saw more running down the road from farther back, and he roared at Sen Kaibara and Hiryu Rin, "HURRY IT UP!" He turned and started running without waiting for those two to catch up, and the two dark-haired boys started sprinting to try and catch their classmates.

Who else is over there?! Is it just Midoriya? What about Yaoyorozu? And Ashido? And Uraraka? And Tsuyu? Mineta ran after the others in Class A, their homeroom teacher, and Ectoplasm. He gulped while speeding up more, and he took off two Pop Offs, giving himself stepping stones to bounce farther forward just to catch up with the rest of the class. He did not throw any more, yet, but he slowed a bit while looking out into the distance where he just heard an explosion. In the small boy's head flashed memories of the Sports Festival, all the explosions around the stadium and the screams ringing out everywhere.

Then in Mineta's head, he saw the city of Musutafu in April. After the Sports Festival, the deserted streets, the broken homes with no one trying to fix them, meaning that the people who had lived there were either dead or had run away. He balled his fists at his sides, and the shortest boy in Class A took in a deep breath before pulling off more Pop Offs to speed his way downtown.

"Please, go faster Ryukyu," Uraraka called down in a worried tone from the back of the dragon she was holding onto with a dozen other heroes. The Dragoon Hero Ryukyu, or Ryuko Tatsuma, flapped her huge wings and shot across the sky over Japan. Everyone on her back had to hold on for dear life, their bodies waving around easily if they loosened their grips even the slightest bit thanks to Uravity removing all of their weight. "Deku's in tr- they need our help!" Uraraka changed up what she was calling out, but it was clear to the pro hero in her tone alone how worried the girl on her back was.

"Uravity," Nejire Hado started. Uraraka spun to the blue-haired girl on her right, and Nejire gave her a single serious nod before saying, "We're on our way. Don't be too frantic when we get there. We still don't know if the situation is-"

"I just received word," Cyberling called up from farther down on Ryukyu's back. The Dragoon Hero herself and the other heroes all listened closely as their comrade with half a body made of metal called out to them the communications he just overheard. "That a hundred students and teachers from U.A. are rushing to the incident's location right now! There are upwards of a hundred and fifty villains part of the Cult of Stain on location, including one Tartaros escapee: Dampener, who has all the Quirks in the area currently weakened. Hold on… Oh my God," Cyberling whispered the last part at what he just heard over the line. "There's a bomb!"

Tsuyu Asui's big frog eyes opened wider and she leaned back from Cyberling in shock. She turned her head and looked off the side of Ryukyu's body, into the distance where she could see the metropoles of Tokyo and a half dozen nearby smaller cities. She could see the black smoke rising in the direction of Musutafu, creating a darker sky in the direction that Ryukyu flapped her wings again towards. "Gero," Tsuyu whispered nervously, her hands tightening on Ryukyu's back.

"Hawks and Miruko are on the scene already…"

"The attack by the Stain Cult has thirty heroes in a team trying to take them down trapped in east Musutafu near twenty-fourth and…"

"Just received word that the Chinese hero team The Great Wall are arriving at the outer perimeter from Tokyo where they were…"

"I need the entire police departments of Tokyo and Hosu to get their asses over here! The perimeter is too scattered as we've been sending in squad after squad- get those cars sideways on the street! Someone confirm the takedown of Conceal already, we need to know where these villains are and make sure there aren't anymore lurking in the shadows before we send these kids in there."

"We're going in."

"We have to go."

"Hold the line!"

"You kids, on me!"

Boom CHH CRASH Ba- DOOOO- Momo Yaoyorozu propelled herself backwards with the flames coming out of her jetpack. She aimed her right hand to the side and fired, and the grappling hook shot out and connected to a streetlamp she pulled herself away using. Creati still lifted her other arm up in the way of the flames blowing out of the building on the other side of the road as her.

When Yaoyorozu landed on the ground, she lifted a hand up to her ear immediately. "Is Backdraft here yet? Twenty-fourth street between Grand Avenue and-"

"Keep the talk of a bomb quiet! If we start a panic it'll cause mass chaos and slow the reinforcements from getting here! Just get the cops to expand the perimeter much farther out!"

"What kind of bomb is it?!"

"Do we let the ambulances go through the perimeter? Who called for-"

"Let them in! We need immediate evacs of Ms. Joke, SkyLord, Pinky, ReBird…"

Pinky?! Yaoyorozu's eyes opened wide, and then she spun her head and looked down the street she was on where she saw a group of figures running out of a building in mid-fight. "Ballerclava!" Momo started running that way, then her eyes shot open wide and she sprinted so much faster. "Min- Pinky!" Yaoyorozu corrected herself shouting her classmate's hero name instead, and she ran right up to All Tight and an injured Shiro Swan who were backing away behind Ballerclava. There were ten villains ahead of them, and Momo snapped her head up as the shouting villains called in attention of others on the roofs of the buildings on either side of the road that were not as enflamed as others in the area.

"Good, Creati," All Tight said when she heard the other girl behind her. "Get Pinky out of here, I can't carry her and fight at the same time." All Tight lowered Pinky to the ground and then stepped back forward, and Ballerclava stopped backing up at the same time.

"Oh, did you think we were retreating just because there are some more of you?" Ballerclava asked the villains, most of whom gained hesitant looks at the scary woman in a black ski mask. Ballerclava lifted her buff arms that were missing the sleeves on them, and she cracked her knuckles before slamming her fists together in front of her. All Tight pressed both feet flat down on the ground, and everything around them started to tremble. It all got shinier too, the street and the sidewalks and the buildings around them. The villains felt the ground below them feeling strange, and their bodies tensed up at the sight of the shifting floor. A couple of the villains were unperturbed though, and they ran forward without giving it much regard.

"Go!" Ballerclava shouted, as there was no time to argue this or act tough to hold off the villains for any longer.

Shiro Swan picked up Pinky and limp-ran backwards, "Guard us. We'll get her out of here and then come back. The reinforcements are here so we should be good…" Shiro Swan reached up to Yaoyorozu's side, and Momo looked at her older comrade's head with huge eyes for a second at the blood running down the right side of Shiro Swan's face. That blood was not what had Yaoyorozu's eyes so wide though, but the fact that Shiro Swan just looked down with her teal irises and looked so nervously at the teenage girl she was helping down the road.

"Mina," Yaoyorozu whispered, looking down Ashido's body towards her right side.

Mina Ashido lifted her head a bit, looking next to her as she heard her friend's voice again. "Momo," Ashido whispered. Yaoyorozu was jogging alongside the other two, and she looked into Ashido's eyes as the pink girl spoke to her. Yaoyorozu stared straight into Ashido's dazed eyes, only for those eyes to widen in panic and for the dizzy girl to shout, "Behind you!"

Yaoyorozu started spinning her head, her right arm already snapping up from her side with a tazer in it. She lifted it, but her arm lifted below the arm already reaching over hers. The arm reaching at her was covered in blood, and the man in the cloak behind it was smirking ravenously at her while his muscular arm covered in fur made a slash at her throat. Then something slammed into his arm and knocked it away, and Yaoyorozu brought her tazer up higher and slammed it into the furry man's chest.

"AHHH!" The villain roared in pain, staggering backwards as shocks filled his whole body.

"Keep going!" Yaoyorozu shouted at Shiro Swan behind her without looking back.

"We can't without you-"

"Go with them!"

"You fake bitch!" The villain roared, recovering from his shock faster than most people could. Yaoyorozu opened her eyes wide again as the man leapt towards the girl who just tazed him, only for his extended arms to sink into a different person instead as that man dropped between the girls and their enraged enemy. "What the- what the hell is this?! Let me- hey- HEY!" The villain was trying to tug his arms back, but the slimy mushy body he had slammed his arms into started sucking his arms in.

Nagiso lifted his arms up over the top of the villain's head, making the man lift his head up and his hood to fall off behind him. His eyes opened huge, then they rolled back as Nagiso slammed his two fists down into the face of the man looking up at them. He finished sucking the villain into his body using his Quirk- Jello. His body grew larger, ten feet tall and eight wide, translucent through his costume and skin which had all turned a clear-purplish color. The villain inside his body started scrambling around, swinging his arms and then reaching at his throat where Jello was pouring into fast. Nagiso flooded the villain's windpipe and suffocated him to the point of knocking him out, then he sucked that Jello back into his body and pushed the villain out of him.

"Get going," Nagiso said while he was finishing off his opponent. "There's an ambulance just at the end of the street. The road is messed up over there from the giants' fighting, so you need to get her there yourself. Quickly!" Nagiso called out, glancing back and seeing a lot of blood dripping on the floor below Pinky.

"Thanks!" Shiro Swan called at the young man who she spun away from. She started limping with Pinky faster towards the direction Nagiso motioned too, and she called out, "Creati let's go!"

Yaoyorozu stepped backwards from Nagiso, staring at him with wide eyes for a few more seconds. Then she turned and she ran after her classmate and her fellow sidekick. "Yeah… but even though we were in the same middle school, it's not like we're… I know he doesn't like me. I got to be the captain of our cross country team in my second year while he was a third year, so maybe that was it. He's strong though. And a hero type too… I always knew that, I just don't want to try and make friends with him knowing, well, knowing I lied to him for years about not having a Quirk. I think he's a good person. I mean, anyone trying to be a hero has to be a certain kind of person, right?"

I had forgotten… It wasn't that you told me that he was a bad person. I just disliked the idea of him, because who could dislike you? Yaoyorozu shook her head around and then darted her eyes around. She kept them peeled for villains, and she spotted an explosion go off on top of a nearby building that had her holding her breath. Is that- she spotted a spiky-haired boy flipping up in the air over the top of that building, and two cloaked villains with wings coming out of their backs rising up after him. They moved into a plume of black smoke and Yaoyorozu lost sight of them, though she saw a few flashes come from through the smoke indicating Bakugo was still fighting out there.

It wasn't the bomb. Not yet. We all had bomb defusal training. I could disarm it… If I mess up though, it won't be a small explosion in our faces. It could be the destruction of a huge area of the city…

"Ack-" Ashido opened her mouth and blood splashed out of her lips.

Yaoyorozu spun to her right again, her face covered in horror at what she just saw. Everything she was just thinking about came to a screeching halt, and she snapped her head back down to Pinky's side where her costume was all ripped up and she was bleeding, badly. "Shiro Swan, get that ambulance over here!" Yaoyorozu shouted at her comrade who also stopped when that coughed up blood got all over her arms. Shiro Swan stared down at the paling pink girl with a nervous look, then she lifted her head to Yaoyorozu who started pulling bandages out of her glowing chest.

The older girl understood why her comrade was not going to run off herself while she was the one with the hurt left leg. Shiro Swan nodded and then sprinted away as fast as she could, making blood splash out of her left leg as she ignored her own wound to get to the supposed ambulance faster. There has to be a way to get her to it without moving her anymore. She's too… Damn it!

"Momo, it's fine," Ashido whispered, leaning her head up a bit while Yaoyorozu worked on stopping the bleeding on her side.

It's not just external. The wound is so deep. I'm getting blood everywhere- Focus! "Just stay quiet," Yaoyorozu said, shifting her eyes off of her blood red hands and up to Ashido's face for a moment. "We'll get you on an ambulance and Recovery Girl will be there to save you right away."

"Nah, it's fine," Ashido whispered again. She smiled at Yaoyorozu who got a panicked look on her face at that expression. Mina Ashido lifted her head more, and in a dizzy tone as she was losing a lot of blood, she said, "Don't worry. Even if, I died, Zach would come save me." Ashido said it and then smiled at Yaoyorozu whose shocked look only lasted for a brief moment when she saw those bloody teeth in her friend's smile.

Yaoyorozu did not look too sure. She still looked worried, and Ashido's confident expression wavered at that look on Momo's face. Yaoyorozu lifted her right hand and put it behind Ashido's head for a second, wrapping it into her wavy pink hair. "We're not going to find out," Yaoyorozu said. Because I won't let you die!

"Creati!"

Yaoyorozu turned her head, and she saw flashing red and yellow lights coming through smoke on the street to the side she heard Shiro Swan's shout. Her comrade was standing on the opened back of an ambulance, and Shiro Swan called over, "Gargantuan flattened out the road so we could get through. Get her inside!"

Creati nodded and picked up Ashido as gently as she could. The other back door of the ambulance flew open, and a couple of EMTs rushed out to help Creati lift up the other young girl and get her inside. "Are you coming with us?" The driver of the ambulance shouted back as Creati put one foot up on the back of the ambulance to try and follow after Ashido and make sure she was okay.

Yaoyorozu froze and she stared at Ashido with so much worry in her eyes. Then she spun her head and looked back into the fiery warzone behind her, then she spun to Shiro Swan, "Stay with Pinky. With your leg we would just need to call the ambulance back in to get you-"

"Watch how you talk to your senpai," Shiro Swan scolded in a harsh tone. "And get back out there, Creati," Shiro Swan said, showing she agreed with her younger comrade even if she disliked how Creati said it at first.

Yaoyorozu nodded and turned, hopping back out of the ambulance and running off again. She lifted off the ground using her jetpack, heading back towards where her pro hero and All Tight were still outnumbered.

Behind Yaoyorozu and back in the ambulance driving away, Ashido leaned her head left and right as she tried to focus on what was going on around her. One of the EMTs injected something in her arm and she found herself getting even more dizzy. She lost most of her focus and just shifted her head slowly to look down at her right side where she felt a pinch. The two EMTs were working as fast as they could on emergency treatment, and Ashido winced before closing her eyes. She looked at that spot on her side, and she mumbled in a slurred, disappointed tone, "Awww, it got me, same place Bomber did."

Shiro Swan looked towards the younger girl's face in confusion at why she would be disappointed by something like that. Pinky's eyes closed though, and she started smiling while mumbling quieter, "Now I won't get new scars…" her voice was only slightly disappointed, and she whispered as she faded out of consciousness, "the coolest heroes, all have scars."

---

"Third year, Valerino Kimchi reporting in from 23rd and Tobe. Intersection is secured." Valerino stood in the center of the four-way intersection, four of his fellow third-years standing at each of the streets breaking off from their crossways. The seven foot tall teen with tan skin and a cannon as a right arm held his cell phone to his head and continued to the police he had just called to organize with, "Eight hostiles captured, Cementoss has received minor injuries but is stable and being treated by Med-Med."

"Cementoss sensei, how are you feeling?" Med-Med, or Gina Jio, asked her teacher who was sitting up in front of her with a white bandage around his rectangular head.

"I am doing much better now, thank you, Med-Med." Cementoss gave his student of three years his gratitude, and the biggest smile spread on the girl's face as she thought, Cementoss sensei just called me by my hero name. That's so cool!

A block away and past a wall of steam and rising smoke much thicker than anywhere else, Bakugo leaned back against the large piece of debris behind him on the road. "Ch, who asked you to come?"

Todoroki did not turn away while helping Backdraft put out the flames on the side of the street closest to them. Kirishima grinned at Bakugo and countered, "We were asked to come! Midoriya texted us and we told the whole school-"

"Ch," Bakugo tssked in annoyance a second time. Of course it had to be Deku. "Well come on," Bakugo turned and he started marching down the street, ignoring his blood-soaked left arm and the fact that he did not have either of his green gauntlets anymore. "Let's go find-"

"Bakugo," Todoroki started, turning his head and calling to his classmate. "We should stay put until-"

"I'm on this mission, do what I say," Bakugo snapped back and shut up Todoroki. And you don't have headsets, so you don't know the news. Shit's about to get fucked.

Encode ran into a building not touched by flames. He sprinted inside, then to the stairs to the basement, then he ran down and skid to a stop in the doorway of a large storage room. He froze in place, and he stared forward at the other man in the room who had his only good arm lifted to his head. Hawks ran his hand through his hair over and over, then he bent down again and tilted his head to the side to check some other wires, connected to larger cords, connected to what looked like different colored ropes all tied to poles and crates around the room.

"So lifting the bomb out of the city," Encode whispered, looking to the middle of the room at the object all those wires stuck out of.

"Not an option," Hawks repeated to the man he told about this in secret, not even wanting the rest of their team to know just yet. "I've found a couple wires so far that are clear dummies. Cut those and pushed them to the sides, but it's still a jumbled mess."

"That's a H-3 Cyclone Bomb," Encode said softly.

"I know," Hawks muttered in response, lifting his left hand and scratching his head again with it. "Faith probably has a trigger of his own, but look," Hawks motioned around the side, and Encode carefully stepped past and over wires to the far side from the door. He looked down at a note taped to the top of the device, and then below that note at a small screen with a countdown on it. '08:43… 08:42… 08:41…'

Encode lifted his right hand to his mouth and covered it up, narrowing his eyes behind his glasses that got a glare over them as he thought rapidly. Calculate, calculate, calculate… How much time would I need to defuse? To find the exact wires, in a set-up this complex? And knowing Faith, there must be a trick- a riddle! Encode pulled off the note he had only glanced at for a second, and he stared at the writing on it in confusion. What does that mean? 'X marks the spot' could mean… "Did you see any wires crossing like they were put that way intentionally?"

Hawks nodded his head, "The smaller ones have like ten that match that description. He's just messing with us. He doesn't want us to succeed."

"We have to start somewhere."

"You want to just start cutting and see what works out? This thing'll take out over ten city blocks, and there's no way we evacuate everyone in time. My feathers couldn't do it even if that Dampener wasn't still out there fucking with us."

"Then we need to figure out a way to defuse it in eight minutes." Encode lifted a hand to his right ear, "Everyone, listen to me." Hawks glanced at Encode with a look showing he disapproved, but he went back to examining the bomb instead of telling Encode to be quiet. "We have located the bomb. It is in the basement of a clothing store on 27th street between Grand and Abe Avenue."

"Have you disarmed it?"

"There are still villains gathered in two locations, at least. We need the focus on them. They won't set off the bomb while they're still-"

"Listen," Encode repeated, his voice grim and serious, shutting up everyone still fighting on his team. Miruko and Fantasma paused what they were doing, facing off against one of the last two large groups of villains along with twenty other heroes surrounding on different sides. Bakugo stopped moving, staring forward intensely while Kirishima glanced at him in confusion. Shiro Swan turned around in the ambulance and looked through the back windows as they drove off, her eyes bulging in fear. Deku stared down the three villains in the building with him: Velkro, Dampener, and Faith, but yet as his eyes started to widen he saw Faith's smirk grow once more from ear to ear. "The bomb has an explosive yield strong enough to… to take out ten city blocks. It's not nuclear, but it is on a timer. There are eight minutes left until it goes off, and moving it from its current position seems, impossible. Hawks and I are going to work on defusing it here. I'll keep each of you updated as to the situation as it progresses. What you decide to do from here, is up to you… Good luck."

Cementoss lowered his head. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. Then he looked up and stared forward with such focus that Valerino Kimchi froze in mid-sentence to his classmates. "Blast, listen up," Cementoss said to his student. Valerino turned his way, and Cementoss stepped forward towards him before saying in a loud voice for all his nearby students to hear, "You are leaving this intersection and retreating back to the perimeter. Take the captured villains with you, and then inform the police that they are to shift the perimeter back and keep moving back."

"Cementoss, what's going on?" One of the third years behind Cementoss called out.

We cannot create a panic. We need everyone who is able to help to stay, and this will cause many to flee. I am sorry students, but you are heroes now as well! "Just listen to me," Cementoss ordered, and his students stared at the usually soft-spoken man with their eyes huge. "Have them push back the perimeter and evacuate all civilians farther back as well. There is a danger in here that we need to ensure the public's safety over. Now all of you, go!" Cementoss turned the opposite way that he just ordered his students to go, and he started running farther into the attack area.

If I can cover the bomb in enough cement, perhaps I can contain… most of the explosion. It is the best that I can think of.

Bakugo turned to Kirishima and responded to his classmate who just asked what Bakugo was hearing, "They said to send the reinforcements back to the perimeter." Kirishima looked at Bakugo in surprise, and the blond boy added while turning back away from his best friend, "Get out there and tell them to push the perimeter back. And go fast, something might be heading that way."

"What about you?" Kirishima asked worriedly. "You're all alone in here-"

"Shut up. I'm meeting up with my agency," Bakugo snapped with his head tilted back so he could shout it behind him without looking towards Kirishima. "Just get going!"

Best way to counter an explosion, Bakugo thought, his eyes darkening and his teeth clenching as he heard Kirishima shout towards him that he got it, before running off. Bakugo glanced over his shoulder towards his classmate, You better harden if this goes south. Bakugo looked back forward and pointed his palms down behind him. Because a blast that big is just, fuck… FUCK! Bakugo blasted his hands in front of him and shot himself up higher in the air, then he blasted himself to a different street where he saw ice rising up on a flaming building. "Oi! Todoroki!" Bakugo shouted down.

Todoroki immediately knew something bad was happening. He was already suspicious when he saw a couple heroes rushing behind him thirty seconds ago, shouting over at him and Backdraft to get to the perimeter since villains were about to attack it. He had not believed them, and the look in Bakugo's eyes told him it was worse than a few villains trying to escape the area. Dad, did you pick a bad time to go abroad. "Bombs can't explode if you freeze them, right?!" Bakugo shouted down at his classmate.

"Where is it?" Todoroki yelled right back up at Bakugo who kept popping himself up with continuous blasts.

"Principal Nezu!" At the police perimeter on the north side of the evacuated area, Nezu looked at the police captain standing in front of him panting and with a nervous look spread across his face. "Call your students back out of the evacuation zone. Right now."

Nezu looked behind the captain and down the road past the perimeter. Police cars were speeding his way as were the black trucks sent in to pack up the captured villains and get them away from any comrades who might still try to help them. Nezu's beady eyes started growing huge as he spotted heroes and several of his students running his direction. Oh no…

"SMASH!"

All the glass windows of a building Todoroki and Bakugo were speeding past exploded outwards. The two of them looked in at the building that covered in cracks, and then a man came flying out of a shattered window wearing a red cloak that had Bakugo's wide eyes narrowing fast. His hands turned to his right and he shot himself left and then back at where the leader of the Stain Cult was soaring backwards out the breaking building.

As Bakugo turned himself though, his blasts sent him flying much farther than he thought they would. Faith turned his head towards the boy speeding towards him too fast. A knife flicked over in his right hand, and he threw it at Bakugo from a few feet away. A massive pillar of ice shot up between Bakugo and Faith, stopping the knife and making Bakugo slam into the pillar that had a frozen knife stuck in it inches from where he was flying.

"I took down the Dampener. I'm after Faith right now."

Bakugo turned his head to the right a bit as he bounced off the ice pillar, his face scrunched in pain and a ton of frustration. Midoriya had started running after Faith only to see Bakugo almost get hit unawares, so he had to let everyone know about the villain he had just Smashed behind him. Bakugo realized it too while he put his hands back and blasted himself up again, this time to the side so he could get around the ice pillar Faith had kicked himself away from.

Faith had already seen Dampener go down and reacted immediately in response to it. He had seen Bakugo just fly past the window when he was jumping out of it, and he knew the kind of person the boy was and had the knife ready before Bakugo even used a blast back towards him. Todoroki looked up in the air past his ice where the villain in a red cloak dropped down and landed on the cracked street. Bakugo and Midoriya both rushed forward on Todoroki's right coming down from the air, and then both redirected themselves backwards and landed closer to the boy with red and white hair.

Blue lightning sparked in a dome around Faith. He lifted his bowed head a couple inches, and he grinned at the three boys facing him on the street. Todoroki stood behind Midoriya and Bakugo, in between the two with his left hand lifted and an intense look in his eyes as he stared back at Faith's. That red cloak. This is the Cult of Stain's leader. He's insane!

Lightning. Good, Bakugo curled his fingers in at his sides a few times, cracking his knuckles with a smirk twisting onto his face to match his enemy's.

"Electricity-Quirk users like us are just naturally better," Faith said.

"Like us," it echoed in the minds of the three students whose hearts started racing. Their eyes widened and darted around. Each of them had been thinking about it in some way or another. However deep thoughts of Raijin were in their minds though, each of them were thrown off by a single sentence. Midoriya knew it after a single second of darting his eyes to the right and left for Kaminari. We don't have time! "Todoroki! Get to the bomb-"

"I don't know where it is," Todoroki replied fast.

Faith started backpedalling. He rose his arms with blue electricity sparking around them, and he threw his right hand forward as the boys started to run after him. A blast of blue electricity flew off his hand and slammed down into the pavement ahead of the teenagers who had to stop for a moment to not run into it. "I can beat him," Midoriya said, his fists clenched at his sides as he stopped for a second next to Bakugo. He darted his gaze to the left and Bakugo snapped his eyes right. "Go stop the bomb-"

"Fuck that! I'll stop him!" Bakugo shouted back. He darted his eyes forward and snarled while pointing his hands behind him, "I already know how I can." BAM Bakugo blasted himself down the road after Faith who smirked wide and visibly under his hood. That smirk made it seem like he was hoping Bakugo would come on his own, but Bakugo was not buying it for a second. Don't listen to a thing he says. Don't believe any of his expressions. The smirk could have just as easily been something to just throw him off again like suggesting that Raijin was there with them even though Bakugo knew he wasn't.

Kacchan… I'll believe in you. "Todoroki!" Midoriya turned and started running. "There isn't much time!"

"How far is the bomb?"

"It's under a clothing store on…"

In the basement with the bomb, Hawks and Encode lifted their heads and looked each other in the eyes. They looked back down, and Encode rose both hands up to his head to run them through his hair. Hawks lowered the red feather blade he was holding in his left hand down to the thick rope-wire connecting to the wall behind him. The usually calm and composed hero got a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his face, and then he cut down and snipped the rope. Nothing exploded. Encode lowered his hands from his head and let out a few deep breaths, then he spun back to the bomb as Hawks did since the timer was still going down.

"It's not connected down here anymore," Encode started.

"That doesn't mean anything as long… we have to go for deactivating."

"There are so many failsafes, so many traps," Encode whispered, moving around the side of the bomb they had opened a panel up on. The panel was only slightly moved off to the side, because there were wires taped to the inside of the panel that could be connected to something else important they were unable to see with the panel only opened as far as it was. All the wires inside were red too, so there was no differentiating between them.

"We just have to cut a wire," Hawks said.

"That could be suicide," Encode responded in a low voice.

"Well we'd be staying down here anyway until it goes off," Hawks said. He said it logically, thinking about how this was going to end already one way or another. "I guess we should wait until the last second, give the others the most time to evacuate. Let's pick the wire now though."

"I'm telling you, I can't just pick that easily. The wiring is all jumbled, nothing like I've seen… if they were just different colors at least. If I could see deeper inside without that panel in the way-"

"But Faith planned for that," Hawks said, shaking his head and then glaring so hard at the bomb before him. The bomb itself made Hawks feel like Faith was grinning at him in smug victory. There has to be a way to get the bomb out of here. It must have been put together in this room, since it's much too large to get out through the door. How did they manage this? If the bomb goes off in the basement, will the blast be at least a little smaller? There's no way they've evacuated even a quarter of the total people in a ten block radius. Thousands on the line. Millions affected. Billions when the world descends deeper into the darkness because of this. Snipping the wrong wire could spiral the world. Kill off the U.A. students. Destroy a city trying so hard to rebuild from its last destruction. Me, Miruko, Deku.

Hawks lifted his left hand and ran it back through his dirty-blond hair. If I just ran out of here, I'd never get what I want. A society where heroes can just enjoy some boredom. We mess this up and heroes are gonna have our work cut out for us forever. Come on. Where is the hole? Where is the-

"Hawks! Encode!"

The two heroes leaning in close to the bomb snapped backwards. Neither noticed the silence that had happened between them. They had been so lost in their own thoughts while their eyes shot back and forth over the bomb and all the exposed wires, finding nothing to indicate the right one. They turned to Deku, and they looked behind him to see Shoto Todoroki running down into the basement with them. "Move back," Todoroki said to the older heroes.

"Stop," Hawks said.

Todoroki stopped walking forward and glanced at Hawks quickly, wondering why he was saying that. Hawks darted his eyes over to the timer on the other side of the bomb as the kids, then back at them with a grimace covering his face. Encode began to the confused boys whose purpose for being there he already figured out, "One of the failsafes we have managed to uncover so far, the most simple one to identify actually, is a temperature regulator. The instant you try to freeze this bomb," Encode did not finish the sentence, but he did not need to.

How did he know?! Or, or is it just everything? Todoroki's eyes narrowed at the bomb in front of him. Is that man just planning for everything? Why make it the most simple to find, unless he really didn't want me, or someone else, to freeze it? "What if that's just," Todoroki started slowly. "His way of stopping us from trying to freeze it? If he made it that easy to see-"

"You're right," Hawks told the teen. "You think you can freeze it fast enough that it doesn't explode?"

Todoroki looked into the Number 2 hero's eyes with his own huge at the question. I don't have the experience. I, I don't know. "I don't know," Todoroki replied. I can. I think I could, but, but how big is this explosion going to be? What if I make it go off?

Deku's eyes were darting all around the room. He saw cut wires, the thickest ones holding the bomb inside the room, and then he lifted his head and looked up at the ceiling. "IF ANYONE'S IN THE BUILDING, LEAVE NOW!" Deku shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Under two minutes," Encode warned, while at the same time stepping back from the boy with curly green hair no one was arguing with.

"Todoroki!" Midoriya called out, while jumping up at the same time. Midoriya's body surrounded in Full Cowling to the point he was glowing, his skin brighter and a aura flashing around him as he shot at the ceiling of the basement. He flipped over and over, and he slammed his right foot up, 50% "Miamiiii… SMASH!" Midoriya shattered the ceiling above them, which was also the first floor of the store, and then everything above it ripped apart too.

The force from Midoriya's kick was so strong that the wind that blew out below him slammed into his comrades and knocked them backwards. Todoroki planted his feet down hard though and pointed his left hand up at the rising debris while Midoriya was slamming down into the ground in front of him. "Incinerate," Todoroki fired a pillar of flames out from his hand and the second blast slammed into his comrades and knocked them farther back this time with a ton of heat pressing into them. Todoroki incinerated all the rising debris before it could fall back down, and the pillar of fire faded away.

Midoriya and Todoroki were both panting. It only took a few seconds in total but now they had their new route. They used attacks so powerful that Encode was just gawking at them for a few moments despite a ticking bomb timer in front of him only a few feet away. Hawks let out a whistle while looking up through the hole in the ceiling. They were now in a basement with no building above them, only some cracked walls of a first floor that no longer existed.

Beep

Everybody slammed back into reality quickly. As powerful of Quirks as they had, as amazing as those attacks just were, the hunk of metal on the floor was a jarring reminder that no one was all powerful. They stared at a weapon from the past, a Cyclone Bomb, one they knew they could not let go off right here but also had no way of stopping its detonation. The bomb was going to explode. The idea of defusing it was at this point off of all their minds. And they had a minute left, less, if the incessant beeping every second since it hit 60 seconds was an indicator.

"Hawks, can your feathers," Encode started.

Hawks was already on it. His red feathers surrounded the bomb, and then more surrounded it, and then some more. Beep beep beep beep beep… Creaaakk Hawks stopped lifting. His wings were down a lot of feathers, but the bomb just hoisted up the smallest amount. And when he lifted it that small bit, he shot more of his feathers to it and steadied the bomb that was as heavy as it looked.

"Don't move it too fast."

"You need to get it high up right now."

"All the triggers and-"

Click

"The timer!"

"Hawks get it up there!"

"Moving it fast is what made the timer speed up in the first place-"

"There's no time!"

"DEKU!"

"Oh my- URARAKA! GET OUT-"

"No, Midoriya! Uraraka quickly!" Todoroki shouted up, pulling Midoriya back with one hand to shout it. He was about to make an ice slide up to her to get her there faster, then he turned to Midoriya instead. "Get her here right now!"

Deku bit down and then shot up in the sky. He reached the descending dragon in an instant, and Uraraka was already jumping off the side. He held her tightly, and Uraraka only got pink cheeks for a moment before she let out a yelp at how fast they shot back out of the sky. Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep Uraraka's eyes opened huge as she was met with the sight of a bomb with a timer that went from 15 seconds to eleven in the span of a single second. Hawks was rising the bomb, and Midoriya held Uraraka up in front of it after bouncing off the ground.

Uraraka reached out and removed the bomb's gravity. It became weightless, though Uraraka's stomach churned and she felt herself getting sick as it weighed more than she was expecting. Deku started falling back the other way, pulling Uraraka with him and twisting around so his back was to the bomb speeding down. All of Hawks' remaining feathers pushed into the bottom of the bomb that was no longer hard to lift at all, no longer had heavy components inside to slide around with the slightest shifts in weight. Hawks pushed the bomb higher, and higher, and past Ryukyu who flapped herself down faster while the heroes on her back screamed in panic.

Midoriya landed in the basement and kept his arms around Uraraka. Todoroki pressed his right foot down hard, and ice walls shot around his classmates, himself, and Encode. He wanted to give Hawks one too, but he did not want to mess with Hawks at all at the same time. Hawks stared straight up through his goggles, and he pulled all his feathers off of the bomb that continued to rise at his feathers' max speed since it had zero gravity and nothing to stop it from keeping rising. He pulled back, and an ice wall started rising around him, and then there was a bright flash in the sky.

Tsuyu stared up at the flash with her breath caught in her throat. Then one of Ryukyu's giant wings curved around all the heroes with her. The Dragoon Hero pulled her head away from staring at the flash, and she shouted, "Brace yourselves!"

Down the block, Miruko and Indago turned away from the boy in the middle of the road they were looking at in impressed ways. They turned from him and his downed enemy and looked to the sky, and Bakugo kept panting while standing in the middle of the road but turned his head and lifted it as well. "Fuck," he muttered, and then he crossed his arms as the flash turned into an explosion that ripped across the sky and turned the sky red. The explosion burst out with a shockwave across the sky, tearing through all the white clouds and blowing them away.

Iida stopped calling to his classmates on a different block to get out of the area he just heard there might be a bomb in. He turned and looked up where he heard the blast, a thundering Boom so massive that all the shouting people around him went completely silent. The shockwave rippled across the sky high above, and when Iida saw the clouds get blown apart his eyes shot open huge. "Everyone! Get to cover!"

A wave of force and heat collided with the city below. Windows cracked, and ice started melting, and heroes felt the heat from the distant explosion pressing into them. Everyone looked back up, into the sky full of fiery explosion, an explosion that did not go off inside the city they were in. They looked at a bomb they all realized was just sent up in the sky, and then they started to cheer. People hiding far inside their buildings stepped back closer to their cracked windows, letting out breaths of relief and then smiling as the city outside was still there.

The fires were all under control. There were hundreds of heroes and police in the evacuation area. The last of the villains were being handled by heroes who had the full uses of their Quirks and overwhelming numbers. The villains who had surrounded the heroes trying to surround them after surrounding the heroes were finally trapped for real on all sides. Faith was down. The bomb went off a safe distance away.

Heroes had won the day. The Cult of Stain was defeated. And in the entire battle, not a single civilian had been killed.

---

A helicopter flew through the sky up towards a shimmering shape just below the dark clouds covering the whole sky. The pilot tapped a button on the top of the cockpit above him, and the almost see-through ship ahead turned black. The Cloak's cloaking systems went down, and then the pilot tapped another button while talking into his headset to someone in the command center of the massive ship he was approaching. The helicopter slowed down, and it moved carefully up the side of The Cloak before curving over towards one of the marked helipads on the top.

Three others sat in the helicopter along with the pilot. "It's pretty cool, huh?" Hybrid asked the man across from him, leaning out and grinning as he looked down at The Cloak himself.

"Why are we still going over? Just use that one-"

"Scotty says to use Pad 3. So I'm going to Pad 3," Yusef retorted to Theo who sat on the seat next to the pilot's chair. "And just heard I've gotta go pick up Fillian and Exodus from their recon mission right after this, so hop out quick you three!" Yusef covered up his headset's mic while calling that out, then he started talking again to Scotty over the line, "Yeah, he's here too. Yeah, yeah I'm dropping them off now. I got it! I know where to go, and I've still got fuel so I'll be right out for the extraction…"

The older man in the back of the helicopter glanced to the front for a few seconds, then he shifted his attention back outside. His eyes scanned over the man across from him, and he saw Hybrid staring once again at him with an amazed look on his face. The awed twenty-three year old with dark brown skin and dreads did not have his helmet on just like the others in the helicopter though they were all still wearing their black uniforms. The black haired man sitting across from Hybrid had a katana strapped on his back and knife sheaths on the sides of his torso, on his arms, his waist, and his legs. He stared down at The Cloak through blood red eyes, and he stood up as they were about to touch down on one of the helipads.

"They'll bring it down inside soon as I lift off again!" Yusef called out, turning his head and shouting for the others to hear. "Good luck, and good to have you with us!"

Chizome Akaguro hopped out of the helicopter without saying a word in response to the pilot. Hybrid jumped out next to him, and Theo popped out of the passenger seat of the helicopter a moment later. Theo closed the door and smacked the side of the bird a couple times, and Yusef pulled the sticks and brought her back up in the air. Clunk Chizome looked down at the helipad that started sliding down into the surface of the black ship. As they lowered, his eyes rose back and darted around the surface of The Cloak as it once again started to turn invisible.

The pad lowered down below the top of the ship, into a massive hangar in the middle of it. It clunked again as it attached to a metal pole to start lowering through the wide hangar, and the man who had never seen this before stepped forward on the pad with his eyes wide. Over a dozen military grade vehicles: helicopters, jeeps, humvees, trucks, supply vans, as well as some more casual cars and a few motorcycles. There a few people already in the hangar, most of them not wearing helmets and just looking over and up at the lowering helipad. One figure did have his helmet on as he stood on the floor facing the group that just arrived. He stared up with hazel eyes, straight through his black visor and to the man in the middle of the three on the helipad's edge.

Hybrid and Theo just walked up to either side of their new comrade. Hybrid was on his right, and he glanced in to see his older comrade's eyes shifting around everything in their headquarters. Hybrid smirked and then said, "Well, we're home now. Welcome to The Cloak, Stain."

---

A/N Happy Thanksgiving! Huge chapter finally finished up. I haven't written a word of the next chapter yet so gonna get started with that now. Hope y'all have been having good Thanksgivings though. I have a ton of work due next week, then finals week after it, then... Winter break! So I'll probs get back to a quicker schedule around then, but next few weeks'll probs be slow. Sorry about that. Death has never had a week break between chapters twice in a row before, so I get why a couple of you feel it's taking a while. This one was also kind of tough to write, getting in lots of diff plot lines, trying to tie in these characters with overall importance of Death which is why the story came over to check on them anyway. Anyway, end of the chapter with a cliffhanger! XD Cult of Stain chapters coming to a head with Stain himself arriving on The Cloak. What's gonna happen next?! Find out next time on Death!

Big Fan of Death chapter 112 . Nov 15

Ah, I understand. Well take your time then, the wait was worth it once again. Have a nicr Thanksgiving and xmas if you celebrate those

Hope you enjoyed! Thanks and I hope your Thanksgiving is going well too! XD Merry Christmas too, though got a bit til then!

Big Fan of Death chapter 112 . Nov 20

*after any chapter of Death*
Day 1without upload:'oh its fine, he'll upload tomorrow'
Day 2 without upload:'uh oh'
Day 3 without upload: *slight despair*

Nice new account name! Haha was cool to see that, sorry about another late update! (pretty sure you're the same person I just replied to, but could be getting bamboozled rn).

Electrikitty chapter 1 . Nov 21

Dude. 1.2m words... dude, you are PROLIFIC. Excited to see a fic pointing out that the fact that there would be Quirks that wouldn't be sunshine and roses, and... 1.2m words. I could be here for a while but I am EXCITED. Plus Ultra!

Thanks! Hope you catch up soon and see this! PLUS ULTRA!

Laxca chapter 112 . 8h ago

No holiday updates?

Don't worry Laxca! How could I go Thanksgiving without giving y'all a chapter? What I'm grateful for this Thanksgiving is all you guys. Hearing what you think about this story, seeing all the views, it really feels great knowing the work's appreciated. You guys are the best and I hope you all keep enjoying Death!