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!

118. Chapter 118

A/N Somehow this turned into my second longest chapter. Wasn't expecting it but I just kept writing out more and more... anyway enjoy another 30k+ chapter (we're at like 80k in 3 chapters XD ).

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

---

Chapter 118:

In the common room of U.A.'s Class 2-A dorm at Heights Alliance, Toru Hagakure was watching tv on the middle couch with Yuga Aoyama sitting to her left on the one closer to the door. They were watching the news and both of them were smiling as the co-hosts went back and forth in their banter on current events. Indo Suzuha and Kuzano Rehi had their Evening News Show on HTV at prime time and was one of the most watched news programs in the country. Hagakure used to not like watching the show, because the program did not pander to their audience at all and instead had been reporting the real news for the past two years which she did not often like to see. Tonight though, the news hosts had similar looks that she and Aoyama had as they watched the station even if the anchors were a little more reserved with their smiles and happy looks.

The man with the yellow horn sticking out of his forehead held up his right hand and said in a teasing tone to the woman across the table from him, "But didn't you say yourself that 'it's not all countries.'"

"Hey, I stand by that," Kuzano countered her fellow anchor. "We were not sure, early last month, that the trend was real. What continued through the rest of January was nothing short of amazing though, Indo."

"The way January ended was a perfect start to the year," Indo agreed with the woman across the table from him. "And the way February is starting, is looking to continue that trend. Thousands of arrests have been made across the globe in the past week. It's too much in fact that villain processing is being backed up, trials are booked almost constantly in criminal courts, but let's not look at those numbers right now. When we could instead be looking at these," Indo made an animated graphic pop up on the screen. The cartoon pulled to the corner of the screen with some wooden crates busted open and a crowbar leaning on them, one box turned to the side with guns falling out of it, and a big red word going diagonally over the graphic that just said 'CONTRABAND.'

"Let's look at the drug bust we heard about earlier today in Singapore," Kuzano said after the graphic appeared. The screen changed to show a recording from one of their reporters in the field who had taken this clip earlier outside of a warehouse surrounded by police and heroes with a lot of villains getting led away to big black vans. The camera zoomed in on the police chief and the two heroes who had been in charge of the bust, and behind them were stacks upon stacks of wooden and steel crates. Some of those crates were in front of the three men, the tops of them popped open and on the floor and on long tables in front of them was a display of all the various contraband the police had confiscated. "Assault rifles, Trigger, Riot, cocaine, V, K-lax, fake passports and shipping licenses. It is crazy to imagine just how much this gang alone would have been able to do with all this, yet what's crazier to me is that this is not even close to one of the largest raids this past week."

"Villains had a system in place that we didn't know about, Kuzano," Indo said with a shake of his head, the camera angle going back to the news hosts. "And with that system broken, heroes have nothing stopping them from taking down the villains scattered around the world. Seeing this much come out of it though…"

"I know what you mean," Kuzano said with a nod of her head. "It just goes to show how much power and information those villains were really in control of. To me, the thought that there was an even stronger League out there than the League of Villains is…" Kuzano saw Indo's eyebrows lift up and his eyes widen a bit, and she trailed off with a nervous look coming to her face for a moment. Hagakure and Aoyama lost their smiles, and then Kuzano started speaking again quickly, "However we must be cautious still to make any overarching declarations about the state of crime around the world, even if we can say with assurance this time that the decline is real…"

Hagakure kept frowning even as Kuzano tried to continue like she had not just paused there. She's afraid, the invisible girl slouching back in the couch thought. Saying that the other League was stronger than Shigaraki's, she's afraid he might just attack her to prove a point. And the worst thing is, I could see him doing it. Hagakure pursed her lips and tried to get back into the mood she had been, and that most of U.A. had been in over the last week as more and more news of arrested villains came in from around the world and even in their own country. As good a thing as taking down the League of Shadows was, it's not the end of anything. The League of Shadows only controlled the very top, and removing them won't just end crime, it just creates new tops of the villain world.

Aoyama had a bead of sweat on his face as he thought similar things to the invisible girl to his right. Behind him, Sero stopped walking behind the couch from the kitchen to look over towards the tv himself that he had been listening to. He frowned too before turning and heading over towards the stairs. It's a great start, but it's going to cause a lot of problems people don't realize. Vrishnuku sensei was right to get annoyed at us for acting so carefree about the League of Shadows' destruction. Sero slid his hands down into his sweatpants' pockets and lifted his head to look up as he started heading up the long flight of stairs to his room on the fifth floor.

They controlled the top, which means there's a power gap now. Some less experienced villains will come in sure, but maybe just the ambitious and powerful experienced ones who did not have the ability to move up any higher before because of the League of Shadows. Sero sighed and then he cracked a smile as he kept heading up the steps. Power gaps breed more villains, but with all the new elections, new leaders quickly filling into old spots on platforms of anti-corruption and rooting out any corrupt ones who might be left… maybe that'll stop villains from getting as much power as they had again. Or maybe the villains will just figure out new ways to get around it, Sero's smile of optimism lowered down, and his expression got darker this time with his eyes looking sad too as he shifted them to his feet.

And if villains come up with new ways to stay that strong, if more villains will always rise after old ones fall, then that means the Army of Death will never be able to stop fighting. Sero shook his head around and he moved up the rest of the steps trying to distract himself from what he just thought. As he headed for his room though on the fifth floor, he narrowed his gaze down the hallway towards an empty room at the end. They're still designated as terrorists. UN couldn't change the verdict or it would make all those other ambassadors look like they were just influenced by villains the first time. Sero turned into his room and he walked over to his bed he fell right onto on his back. He stared up at the ceiling and furrowed his brow, Even if it wasn't unanimous this time, the other countries, like ours, demanded the ones who didn't want to vote 'terrorist' to abide by the same rules and let the ADTF know of any Death sightings. Endeavor's back on it, sounding as dedicated as ever, even if he had to recruit a whole bunch of new heroes when a third of the others backed out. And of course they would! Just like those countries that don't want to call them terrorists after all they've done now, with the League of Shadows especially…

"…there were members of his own forces who lost their lives for good in the fight against the League of Shadows…" Sero thought about what he heard Star-Spangled Man said and he closed his eyes for a second, his eyelids scrunched up in worry. They died for real? Does that mean, the one who was bringing them back had gone down? Or is it just that he already, brought them back once before so he couldn't… Damn it. If villains never stop, they'll never stop either and… The worried look on Sero's face faltered and he opened back up his eyes. He thought about a video he watched of a convenience store in Mississippi and he frowned again. I hope you're alright Zach, if you're really with them. Or even if you're not…

Sero reached his right hand over towards his pillows and slid it underneath. A smile covered his face as his fingers touched the piece of paper beneath it. Stay safe, buddy.

---

In a vehicle flying over forty thousand miles above the Atlantic Ocean, Zach Sazaki sat at a station in the command room of The Cloak with his head bowed towards the keyboard his hands were resting over. He had headphones in and plugged into the computer before him, and he rose his eyes up slowly from his hands and to that screen again. The screen had a map on it that Zach tried to focus on, but his mind was swirling way too much and he just bit down hard as his eyes lowered once again.

It's getting harder every time we lose someone, he thought, while staring at his right hand and clenching his teeth. Our numbers are still rising faster than we lose people, but still… It should be easier. We get more motivated every time we lose someone. Every time there's another person who we need to keep fighting for. Their memory, pushing us forward into… into… But as much as I want to keep fighting for what they died for, I can't imagine losing anyone else. Yet I know it's going to happen. I know, I can't keep winning forever. And even if we do, I'll lose people. My friends. My comrades. These people who, who have become my new family. I care about all of them so much, and I can't imagine losing them all, but I also can't do this on my own. And they're all here because they choose to be. All I can do is keep them alive, as best as I can while still sending them into battles with murderers and rapists and monsters. So many have already fallen. Too many, yet we're not even close to the end. The League of Shadows felt like a final battle, but it was just another fight. Just another step on the road to our goal. My unobtainable goal, that so many died for because they believed me when I said we could do it.

It's not unobtainable! I believe in it. I have to. I have to be the one holding that ideal stronger than anyone else. If I don't believe it then there's no point in sending anyone else to die for it. We can stop all villains. The Army of Death can stop more from rising. In the shadows, ignored by heroes but known as monsters to villains. A force that normal people barely hear about, yet villains know can be anywhere at anytime. A deterrent for any new villains. A Symbol of Fear… terrorizing… Zach rose a hand and he pressed it into his forehead, closing his eyes and letting out a long, gasping breath. If Mom could see me now. Dad, the Akers, Jenny, Aizawa sensei… Webb… Cee. Zach lowered his hand from his head and he let out another breath though much calmer and under control this time. Don't waste time with unimportant thoughts. Reflection is for after. There is no room to doubt now. I can only move forward. On the path I have chosen and led so many others down.

Zach's fingers started moving on the keyboard, his lips flat and his eyes scanning the screen as he zoomed in on southern Asia. He kept listening to a song softly in the background, and then it faded off and a bar appeared at the top left of his screen showing the new song on his mix that autoplay had just switched to. Zach smiled so softly at the sight of a song he used to listen to often, before he was Death. Zach switched the political map he was looking at with just borders and dots or stars for cities into a satellite one, and he scanned the geography around the area the red dot they had marked on the map was. He turned the map 3D and checked the topography, different elevation levels, and then he checked temperatures in the area over the past few weeks, and he clicked the red dot on the map to make a more specific information set on that area to appear in front of him. The local heroes, pictures of villains they were able to get from information or names they were given from others, rumored Quirks of the villains in that town in India, there was a lot for him to look into as he considered heading that way soon.

He zoomed out of the map and then saw a notification appear on the top right corner of his screen. He sighed while looking at it, unable to even smile at this point as it was so often that he was not getting excited each time it happened anymore. Zach clicked the notification and then scanned his mouse across the computer screen over towards Germany. There were too many red dots clustered in the same area there, so he had to zoom in a bit and then once he was just on Europe, North Africa, and West Asia, he managed to differentiate which of their future ventures was just taken care of by heroes. Didn't even send in any tips about that one. They've got their own ways to get information too, though I wish they hadn't gone in there. There's a reason I didn't help out, I wanted to get more information from them… Hopefully no heroes got hurt. Zach dimmed the red dot on his screen and then zoomed out a bit, but he pulled the map aside anyway and started checking the internet for more news on that notification.

Good, they're fine. Even against strong villains like Nitrous, pro heroes are too much. They're stronger than the Army of Death most of the time. We wouldn't have stood a chance against the ADTF. That was so risky, and it had the best results… almost the best results I could have asked for. I knew a high risk would result in high rewards, but too many Shadow Bosses escaped their destruction at the LoS base. King slipped away, Bolivar wasn't even there at the time, and Eziano… I got his message from that assassin who killed Yusef. I wish I could've taken him with us after beating him, but there was no way we could take prisoners when Endeavor was barely letting us go in the first place. All For One, King, Raijin, Bolivar, Shigaraki, Fergus, Eziano Mozcaccio. So many villains capable of so much are still out there, and who knows what others-

Zach had his music on at a low volume in his ears, and he heard the sliding door hiss open in the back of the command center of The Cloak. He glanced over his shoulder and past Access who was leaning back at his station behind Death's with a headset of his own on. Access' was a big headset over his head though with padding around his ears to drown out other sound, whereas Zach just had small earbuds in with a wire connecting them to his station. Zach turned his head a bit to the side and looked past the soft captain's chair in the middle of the command center, a chair he had still yet to once sit on. He looked back at his computer after seeing the man walk in, but the man walked right up behind him and then stepped onto Zach's right side.

Gentle looked through the front windshields of The Cloak and out into the pitch black night sky ahead of them. They never kept lights on around the exterior of The Cloak which would give away the invisible ship's location, but they were above the elevation that most planes flew, and their radar kept them from crashing too. It was so dark outside and the command room was only dimly lit too, lights from the consoles and screens lighting up the room while the lights on the ceiling were off. Gentle glanced over to his right and let out a sigh as he saw La Brava with her head down on her hands in front of her chair as the third person in the cockpit at the moment. "You should get some rest as well," Gentle suggested, glancing down to his left at the boy who he knew could hear him despite those headphones he had in.

"I'm not tired," Zach replied.

Gentle sighed again and then he walked behind Zach and over to an empty seat. Zach thought he had just come for La Brava, and he glanced out the corners of his eyes towards the man who sat near him and just slid his chair closer to the screen directly on Zach's left. Gentle flipped on the monitor and started clicking away as he got on similar tasks as what Zach was doing. Zach faced his own screen and tried focusing despite the man just sitting right next to him. There's so much I can do, Zach thought, pulling back up a complete map and then watching their ship's trajectory over the ocean and on top of a black line that marked their route that the ship's auto-pilot was taking them on.

Villains don't tell heroes, but they tell me, Zach thought while looking from red dot to red dot around the entire continent of Africa. When I ask about all their contacts, all their businesses and operations and labs, etcetera. They don't know what the Army of Death will do to them and that unknown scares them. Villains are all cowards when it comes down to it. Heroes think there are so many villains who really do believe in codes, who are hard-asses and strong-willed, but so few really are. It's just when faced with heroes, many of them are able to keep up their masks through arrests and proceedings and even into jail. They stay strong because they know there isn't much the heroes can do to them. But they know no one's stopping me from doing the worst things they imagine. And so there's so much info I have. Too much. I wish I could give more to heroes, but then the line of information gathering ends there, most of the time. If it seems like there's more I can get, I need to go myself to get that, to stop the rest of them.

There's too much though. I have to speed up the rate of fighting them, or more will just fill into gaps that the rest of the structure still exists around. I need to destroy entire structures of drug trade and production and distribution. Eliminate the corruption that allows drugs to cross borders and get into ports, and take down the ones making the bribes, stop the blackmailers from making new corrupt leaders. Destroy facilities where false documents are made for villains and turn over the men who make them. Break the supply lines of weapons' manufacturers, and shut down their factories, take out the villains whose Quirks make it so easy to mass produce firearms, and drugs, and counterfeit money. Why are there so many different kinds of crime? So many different kinds of villains. Ones who are just ideological, and ones who are just insane, and ones whose crimes are on the borderline and I don't know what to do with them. Vigilantes who murder villains without looking too deeply into their crimes, the consumers of illicit drugs who don't sell or just sell to their friends, blackmailed government leaders who really had no choice. People who own illegal firearms but maybe just because they're Quirkless, or have never been allowed to use their Quirks, so they need them for self-defense. Who am I to say those crimes are bad, when I kill villains? When I inject with Trigger? When I've threatened cops and heroes and leaders with turning over dirty secrets about them if they didn't shape up? When I have tons of illegal weapons on this ship including The Cloak itself?

Zach shook his head and refocused on the screen in front of him and all those red dots, none of which indicated crimes like the ones he was just arguing about with himself. Those crimes will decline as the larger ones do. Junkies can't stay hooked when their drug prices go through the roof because I shut down all the production plants. Good people won't need to buy guns if I can make them believe that the world is peaceful again. Vigilantes… I can give warnings, or just tell them why it is I do things this way and hope they listen. Lavamander won't change, and he's angry now… I hope he'll help though. With this. All of this. Zach took in a deep breath and then scooted his chair forward and focused intensely on the screen before him. I have to speed up the rate of our villain fights, but I won't let the Army of Death fight without me. So I have to split it up, but make sure that I'm in the loop about everything. To stop any groups from taking the holes left by League of Shadows we need to keep moving and fast. Divert tasks around my trusted friends and comrades, but stay involved with everything. Be everywhere. It'll be hard, but it'll keep everyone alive.

Zach zoomed in on the area of land the black line marking their trajectory was going to pass over first. He pulled open another tab at the same time, and he paused his music as he opened up an Arabic Level 2 audiobook, while zooming in on the map of North Africa and the Mediterranean. Zach sat there preparing for the next missions, and Gentle looked over to see what he was doing before leaning back in his chair and opening up an audiobook of his own, only in lessons on Intermediate Spanish.

Flying to the east meant that the sun was rising faster than usual, a short night for the Army of Death. The UTC time the Army of Death tried to use as their standard was the time zone they were only two hours from flying into now, which meant morning for them was going to be the actual morning outside too. Zach tried to plan out their flight path with rest times in mind, which was why long flights over the ocean usually coincided with night for the Army of Death. Zach worked on his Arabic for over an hour, and he noticed in the corners of his eyes as he was studying, a few others had come into the command and were using the computers set up around the room. It was not the only room on the ship with computers in it and Zach wondered for a bit each time he saw another person if they all really needed to crowd into the cockpit like this.

Down the hall from the sliding doors into the cockpit, a woman who had just checked inside that room was heading back to her room in the barracks' hallway. She walked past two guys who were heading the other direction, and she went back to her room and over to her bed that her comrade was sleeping on the bottom bunk of. "Hey, Maelstrom," Replay shook her friend by the shoulder for a second and then lifted a finger fast to her lips when Maelstrom sat up fast, ready to fight since someone was waking her up from her sleep. "Let's get the morning started," Replay said, and she motioned with her head to the door of their room.

Maelstrom glanced around the room in confusion for a moment. Half of the other bunks were still occupied, but she nodded at Replay while grabbing a tablet off the table next to her. "It's early," Maelstrom whispered, as she got up and started getting dressed into her black costume next to her bed. She clipped her helmet onto her belt and then walked with Replay back out of their room before asking, "What's up? We getting close or something?"

"You got enough sleep, didn't you?" Replay asked like she did not need a reason for waking her friend up.

Maelstrom looked at the girl next to her in some more confusion, lifting one of her orange eyebrows at the response and oddly excited tone in her comrade's voice. Then she just sighed and let out a yawn while putting her hands up through her frizzy orange hair. "If I've got to get up this early, I'm taking a shower-"

"Later," Replay said, shaking her head and then continuing down the hall. Maelstrom looked at the girl who was the same age as her at twenty-five. Replay turned back to her with a small smile and said in a softer voice, "Let's just, start the day first."

What is she talking… Maelstrom looked towards the command center they could see when they turned down the end of the hall. She saw the doors open up and two of the guys who had been there longer than her, Sagitus and Grabble, both heading into the command before them. The short women moved quickly down the hallway and then turned and entered into the command room. Replay smiled as she stepped back in, and then she grabbed Maelstrom by a hand while the orange haired girl was looking around in surprise. Replay brought Maelstrom over to the side of the room where there were a couple of chairs open, and they sat down just like twenty others already in the room.

Grabble sat down next to Michael, and Sagitus walked up behind them on his hooves. He scooted a chair to the side so he could get right up to the console, and he checked on what Michael was doing before looking at Grabble and going, "Let's check out the hits we've got in Sudan." Grabble nodded in agreement without saying anything in response, and the room stayed mostly quiet as people spoke in whispers or did not speak at all.

Darling walked into the command quarters and she shook her tired expression out a bit as she saw how many others were already in there. She jogged up through the room and then right behind Death's seat, the far right seat on the left front row of consoles just off of the center aisle and close to the windshields. She stopped though when she saw him looking at his screen so intensely, half of it covered in a map and the other half with a language program up covered in squiggly lines she did not understand yet. Her eyes opened wide as she heard Zach reciting Arabic words she could not comprehend, then she spun her head to the left as a man sitting there rolled his chair to the side. He grabbed a chair on his other side and pulled it around his own, looking to Darling and lifting a white eyebrow at her as he offered the spot up.

Darling smiled wide at Gentle and then sat on the chair and pulled up next to Zach who glanced at her and nodded once with a small 'good morning' smile. She still looked tired and a bit out of it, but she smiled back at him and then checked on what he was doing so she could get caught up on it. Even if you've got to be everywhere, then I'll learn everything and be ready to go anywhere too! That way I can come everywhere with you! Darling shook her head around to get rid of her tiredness, and she scooted her chair right up to the console so she could get only her screen in her vision and fully focus on it (even if she made sure to keep Zach in the corner of her eyes).

La Brava heard whispering and her eyelids scrunched before cracking open. She looked at her arms and realized her strange sleeping position, and she lifted her head a bit and looked to her right where two others looked back at her with apologetic looks as they shut up their whispering conversation. The two just put back in their headphones and got back to their screens in silence, and La Brava yawned before lowering her head back down to her arms. It's still dark, she thought lazily, then she opened her eyes again in confusion as she realized where she was sleeping. I should go back to… Manami Aiba glanced around the cockpit of The Cloak expecting to see a ghost crew since it was dark and pitch black out the windshield.

What are they doing? La Brava thought while looking over her shoulder and then to the sides of the room too. There are other places to do stuff like… her eyes shifted over to her left across the center aisle of the command room. She looked to the seat across from hers as she was on the far left of the front right row of equipment. He's still here? Doesn't he sleep? La Brava started pushing back from her station, but she looked past Death, and past Darling, and then her eyes locked on Gentle who she watched let out a long yawn that he covered up his mouth while doing. Then he lowered his hand back to his keyboard and got to typing into it quickly, working on something she didn't know what.

"Now what could cut this time down?" Gentle looked at the map of northern Africa and the western Middle East on his screen. He had a time constraint on the bottom of the screen, a black line cutting around all the different red dots on the map, and another time above the red time limit that was still over the time he had set himself. He muttered under his breath, "Perhaps…" he clicked on one of the red dots and took the black line off of it to make the line straighter from the last dot to the one after it, then Gentle clicked on a green line marker on the side of the screen and clicked the dot again, making a green line split off from the black one and then connect back to it past the next red dot the black line passed.

Do we need the full Army for Bakkat? If Delta takes on… Death will need to get down there and will stall the move into Bakkat, unless he goes to Bakkat first. Delta can do more recon on Varduck that way… a waste of time for such a low level gang. Varduck may have information, but if he does not then it was a waste of personnel for valuable time, and risks putting the Bakkat situation in jeopardy. Gentle rearranged the path The Cloak was moving on some more, and he scratched his chin before lifting his lips up into a surprised smile as he saw a name pop up on the top of his screen. He turned his head to the right and looked over towards a short woman who had spotted what he was working on and jumped onto the shared map file.

A comment popped up on the side of the screen that Gentle read from his lover across the room, 'What's everyone doing in here? It's so late."

'I came to get you and bring you to your room…' Gentle replied it and left the '…' at the end while staring at the screen himself thoughtfully. He turned his head and glanced around the room a bit, then he looked to his right over at their leader. He started typing again with a small chuckle, 'Death has had a hard time as of late. We should all take our shares of the workload.' Is that it? Gentle wondered after sending the message back to his partner. Although everyone is quiet, we are keeping Death company. Sitting around him, working on our own things… Or perhaps, his work ethic spreads to those following him. They all look up to you, Sazaki, so if you are here this early working then they want to be here too. To mimic you. To do their parts. And because, they enjoy being around you. And I think they know, you enjoy their presence as well.

Others came into the central command room at the front of The Cloak gradually through the late night and into the early morning. Zach shifted from his Arabic lessons back to looking at the villain locations they knew about and were heading towards. He looked up the files where they had put the information they learned about each location from villains who were all now in jail, handed off to heroes or left unconscious in their hideouts as an anonymous tip was called in for them. Zach read off the information that he had put in the system himself back when they first heard about each place, each warehouse, each hideout, each group of villains he was after and would have to fight that day. He studied his enemies and thought about each of their Quirks that he knew about, figuring out ways to fight them and counter their abilities. He thought about these things until the crack of dawn when his eyes shifted over his computer as he realized there was light outside.

Man I'm hungry, Zach rubbed his stomach with his left hand, then he put it on the console in front of him and pushed back with his seat. He unplugged his headphones and stood up, and he turned around only to lower his bottom lip a little as everyone in the room was looking towards him. Most of them looked back at their screens, but he saw each of them had looked his way when he got up and he felt a little weird getting all those looks. What time is it? Zach had noticed many people coming in, though he had no idea it had risen to this many from the last time he had looked back. He turned and looked out through the front of the ship, into the illuminated sky far ahead of them that was getting brighter and making everything around them brighter each minute.

"Use some breakfast, Death?" Sagitus asked, looking back over at the leader who was standing and looking through the glass towards a sun that had not yet risen over the horizon. Death looked the other way, and Sagitus said, "I'll start up on it early today, my shift after all."

"Oh!" Replay hopped out of her seat as she thought about the chore "duty" list and remembered she was on cooking detail with Sagitus that morning. It was before they usually started on breakfast, but seeing so many others around them awake she decided to get to it as well. "Me too," she said as she jogged up to the four-legged centaur man.

Seraphim stood up from her seat and let out a long breath after just saving her work when Death stood in her peripheral vision. "I could go for some coffee," she said, and she walked out into the center of the room and started for the door. Zach could see her hair was down instead of tied into a ponytail like usual, and the slender woman in her black costume stretched an arm up over her head that she grabbed by the elbow with her other hand, and she leaned back too accentuating the curve in her back.

"Hey Death," Michael started, as he got out of his seat and looked towards the younger man. "I've been thinkin' about the remnants of the Immortals. I don't think we need to hit those guys ourselves. We could just let Dreamscape and Pointer go after them-"

"That would actually work rather well," Zach turned to his right and saw Gentle standing next to him. He looked at the taller man who continued while starting towards the center of the room himself to go around the equipment, "If we can leave that to an anonymous tip, you can save a few hours to head south instead, as we do plan to move through North Africa and straight into the Arabian Peninsula…" Gentle paused and looked over his shoulder, and Zach started walking forward as Gentle seemed to be waiting for him to start walking alongside him.

La Brava and Darling came up behind the two of them, and Grabble got up finally after closing off a few windows and flipping off the screen he was working on. Grabble stood as the group started past him, mentioning how he was hungry and then looking over towards Access, "You coming?"

"Go ahead," Raylei said over towards the man who was currently in command of the cockpit. Access looked across the room in some surprise, as he had not noticed with so many people coming in over the past couple of hours that Raylei was even in there. She was not sitting in her usual seat, though she started over as Mark got up from it. "Me and Whiz have the next shift anyway. You and La Brava go eat, just be sure to bring us some in a bit."

"You got it," Access replied back over to her. He let out a long yawn and walked out of the command room with a dozen others who followed after Death as he started down the halls of The Cloak.

"Hey Seraphim," Michael called up to a woman just a bit ahead of the front of the group where he had started walking with Death and Gentle. "Mind making me a cup too?" He asked it in his most sincere voice with a big smile on his face, which from him that just made it sound more sarcastic.

Seraphim looked back and narrowed her eyebrows in at him for a moment. "I'll make a pot," she replied. Then she turned to Death and lifted her lips into more of a smile, "Would you like a cup, Death?"

Michael's jaw dropped in mock shock, and Zach smiled and let out a small chuckle before nodding his head at the older woman. "Yeah, that'd be great." I didn't sleep last night, but everyone else is getting up now so it's time to start the day. I'll get some rest between missions, I'm already set up for most of the next ones.

"Milk and sugar?" Seraphim asked while walking backwards up ahead of Death.

"That's fine," Zach said, lifting his left hand and giving a small wave of it like he did not want to bother her making him a complicated drink.

"I'll put one of each in there," Seraphim replied which had Zach's eyebrows lift up and then him to let out another small laugh while shrugging his shoulders as that sounded fine to him.

"If you wouldn't mind pouring me a cup as well," Gentle requested, in his most chivalrous voice which did not sound much different from usual.

Seraphim nodded at him and then turned back forward and continued quickly off for the cafeteria. Michael started jogging forward, "Hey! Are you really not going to make me one…"

Zach turned to Gentle as they kept walking after the other two. "Thought you were more of a tea drinker?" Zach mentioned, lifting his tone at the end to show he was asking Gentle about him getting coffee.

"I am," Gentle replied, lifting his chin up to look down his nose like to not drink tea was beneath him. "But it was a long night, and I could use the caffeine."

"Did you get any sleep, Gentle?" La Brava asked, running up to Gentle's side and looking up at him in a questioning way.

"Ah yes, before I came to the cockpit I did get some rest…"

"Hey Death," Darling walked up on Zach's other side as Gentle when Gentle turned the other way to speak with La Brava. Zach turned to the girl at his side, pretending not to notice that fifteen people were behind him heading for the cafeteria at the same time. "We have a long day today, don't we?"

"Seems like it," Zach replied. "I'll let everyone know what I'm thinking after the normal breakfast time, once everyone's up."

"That gives us time to discuss the flight path," Gentle remarked, turning back to Zach who nodded in agreement. He had seen Gentle working on that and received some messages sent over from a few computers down while they had been working.

The Army of Death went to the cafeteria and the group who were already up all went to the same two tables. They sat around them and started talking about what they had been working on after going to the command room, and then Sagitus and Replay called out from a window at the side of the room connecting to the kitchen that they were ready with some breakfast. The soldiers in black uniforms got up and walked over to the window, grabbing trays and piling on fruits from metal tubs where cans of them had been poured into, they grabbed some bacon or sausages, and there were stacks upon stacks of pancakes ready too. Michael walked around the side of the door and called in to Sagitus for some bull meat, and Sagitus went to a freezer and pulled out a package labeled 'Michael- Bull.'

"Hold on, Michael," Zach said over while he was about to head back to his table. Michael looked over and listened as Death said, "You should go with eagle today. I could use you doing recon in Bakkat later-"

"You got it," Michael didn't need to hear Death's reasons, he just agreed and turned back to Sagitus. "Hold on that order." Michael turned with the tray he already had stacked with food, which was mainly bacon and sausages though he had some canned peaches in the corner of the tray too. He had the feather of an eagle back in his room that he would go touch in order to gain the attributes of one in a bit, but for now he was still on cougar and was nearly drooling at the smell of the meat on his tray. His Quirk, Animal Life, let him change up his body into the last animal he touched. He was able to choose which animal counted as the one he was touching so the bacon and sausage on his plate were not making him part pig, though there was a long cooldown before he could shift up his DNA again once he did it.

Seraphim came over to Death as he was sitting back down, and she placed his piping cup of coffee down in front of him. Then she put Gentle's down, before walking over next to La Brava on her other side as Gentle to sit with her own cup. Replay walked over across the table from Seraphim and placed a cup of coffee down for Michael who thanked her in a very grateful way, before immediately looking across the table with a smirk at Seraphim who frowned that he was still able to get out of making his own cup. "You didn't have to get him that," Seraphim informed the younger woman who she wanted to know that for the future.

"Oh, but," Replay glanced back at Michael and then the older woman who she also did not want to say 'no' to. "He is my senior. It's nothing really," she said it with a smile like it was no problem and then headed back for the kitchen as she saw a couple others heading into the room who had not been in the command earlier but had woken up at the break of dawn.

"Hear that?" Michael asked, leaning over the table and grinning even more at Seraphim. "I'm her senior. Hey, aren't I your senior too, Seraphim?" He cocked his head to the side and lifted an eyebrow while smirking at her about it.

"No, you joined two days after I did," Seraphim replied very calmly while lifting her fork and taking a bite of a pancake.

Michael lowered his smile a little and leaned back, then he shook his head and said, "Wait. No I definitely-"

"Actually dude," Grabble cut in from his right side.

"She's right," Access finished on Michael's other side. He spun his head and looked back and forth at the other two who had both been there for even longer than him and Seraphim.

Seraphim continued to eat but a smirk cracked on her face without looking at the man she knew just looked back at her. "Out of everyone here," Seraphim said, lifting her gaze up towards Michael whose bottom lip lowered at what she started with. "You're the new recruit-"

"Hey Shang come sit-" Michael started calling to one of the twins walking back from the food line, but he froze at the look on Grabble's face that he was looking past. Grabble tried to hold back the laughter, and Michael dropped his jaw for a second as he remembered something. "Wait- wait don't! Ugh," Michael rubbed his forehead as Shang came over to their table, now looking confused as to why Michael seemed so disappointed by his approach when he had called him over like he needed him a few seconds ago.

"Forgot he was here before you too, huh?" Seraphim asked, while calmly taking another bite of her pancakes so her mouth would be full and she would not start laughing in Michael's face like Access started doing.

Maelstrom came up behind Shang and sat down on Grabble's other side as Michael, and Michael finally let out a nice sigh of relief which got Maelstrom looking around in confusion at the people at the table. "Hey Death," Maelstrom started, as everyone got back to eating and she saw no one had Death for a moment. "We'll be hitting land soon. Would you like me to make it cloudy ahead of us?"

The question had Grabble sweatdropping, though he tried to just keep eating without showing how jealous he was of his junior's epic Quirk. His eyes did shift to the top of his vision for a second though to glance up at his Pincers, then he got back to eating quicker and angrier for some reason. Don't talk about changing the weather like it's such a simple thing!

"Yeah, please do," Death replied. "Keep them white though. We know some have started to notice that we bring the storm."

"'We bring the storm,'" Michael repeated, shaking his head with a huge smirk on his face at how cool that sounded.

Access was smirking huge too, but he shook his head more in disbelief as Death looked across the table at the two of them in confusion. Doesn't even realize how badass he is. Damn, I wish I could say cool shit like that in random situations like eating breakfast. During missions is okay, but there's a limit to how awesome you can be dude. Access had to start eating again to get that smirk off his face he knew Death was still confused over. He yawned again after taking his next bite though, and he lifted his eyes up to the ceiling as he wondered what he was going to do now.

I had the night shift, but I did last night too and slept a bunch yesterday. It might not be morning for me like it is for everyone else, but I should still just start going like it's the start of today. Go on missions with Delta. Could probably be the on-site tactical with whatever Death is going to get Michael doing in Bakkat. If I'm too tired at my next shift, well, I'm glad La Brava passed out last night. She'd be cool with it if I slept at my station, wake me up if anything happens. At least, Access glanced across the table at the short woman with pink pigtails who was talking to Gentle as they both drank some coffee. I think she'd be. She's pretty strict with anyone who's not Gentle.

"After breakfast, everyone get ready for the day," Zach started loudly, looking around his table but also turning and calling out to the rest of the room too. "We're heading to Zuwaiya, Libya all together first. New gun factories popping up all over the place now that Turbo doesn't have a monopoly on them. No controls on them means we won't be able to find all the factories even if we find out who got the ones in Libya running and shipping across the Atlantic so fast." Zach paused then he called out, "But more on that in the meeting room, two hours from now. I'll make an announcement too after wake-up in a few." It was still earlier than the time Zach had set that everyone had to get up unless there were reasons for them not to. He glanced back down after finishing his announcement to the cafeteria and looked straight at Access. "If you want to get-"

"I'm feeling fresh," Access replied quickly. "Down to go on that Bakkat recon mission. If you need me to," he added, not wanting to sound too enthusiastic about it in case there was something else Death wanted from him.

Death nodded back at Access, then he glanced to his right over at La Brava who just lifted up her coffee mug and took a sip which was all the response his silent question needed. Zach nodded at her answer then he finished up his breakfast quick, and he got up to head back for his own room. Darling was up right after Death started leaving, and gradually the cafeteria started emptying out of the first group though more people were still coming in for breakfast from around the ship.

Off the barracks' hallway, the rooms were set up long-ways and not very wide from the hall to the edge of the ship. The wall opposite the hall in each of the barracks' rooms was the interior of the hull, and there were windows in the rooms that light started coming through, though there were also shutters that could be closed over those windows to block out the sun when it was night for the Army of Death in locations where it was broad daylight. The windows were mostly open that morning though as the inhabitants knew they were going to be hitting morning the same time the sun was actually rising. Alarms still went off through the different barracks, and dozens of Army of Death soldiers rolled out of their beds and started getting ready for the day.

Not everyone got right into their black uniforms, with the majority who woke up getting into more comfortable clothes first. They put on pajamas or sweats and then headed out of the room and down the corridor in different directions. Still on the same side of the hallway as their rooms were the bathrooms, on one end for the women and at the other end of the hall for the men. The barracks were made to be able to fit a lot more people than were enlisted in the Army of Death at the time of The Cloak's creation, but already there were talks about setting up more bunk beds in some of the rooms to prepare for the possibility of many more recruits joining them. Rebel had been telling them that he was sifting through a lot more applicants and vigilantes than usual, finding more people who wanted to be in the Army of Death than ever before. The press Endeavor got them was something most of them attributed to it, even if the UN had labeled them terrorists again a day later.

Some of the new recruits walked out of their barracks together, and they started down towards the bathroom with towels over their shoulders and their toiletries in hand. The mens' room was split in the bathroom area and the showers farther in; the room was bigger than any of the individual sleeping rooms. A couple of guys started brushing their teeth or taking pisses, others headed in and went straight into the showers, tossing their clothes onto wooden benches in the middle of the floor or using one of the shelves that lined the wall just before the shower half of the room started. There were more black uniforms in those boxes today, as many people had been up and about that morning before actually going to shower and get ready for the day.

"Scatter's cleaning the bathroom today boys," Michael called out as he was showering off with steam coming off his body at how hot the water he was pouring on himself was. He grinned and called out, "So don't worry 'bout leaving the place a mess!"

"Missappear and I agreed to clean the opposite sex's bathrooms," Scatterbox called back, glancing over his shoulder from the opposite side of the large shower area which was just a tile floor with shower heads sticking out of the walls in lines on either side of the room. There were drains on the floor out below each of the shower heads and also in the middle of the room that slanted down a bit before the long thin metal grate separating it down the middle. Scatterbox added while turning back to his shower head, calling it out while closing his eyes and letting the water run on his face, "So leave it a mess if you want, I'll tell the girls when Missappear starts spreading rumors about us that it was all you Mikey-"

"Nobody better leave toothpaste spit in the sinks," Michael snapped over towards the opening into the other half of the bathroom.

Scatterbox smirked and he raised his hands to run through his hair. On his right, Fillian glanced in for a moment and asked, "Did you really switch?" The man at his side with the Quirk, Scatter, just grinned back at him which could have been a 'yes' or a 'no.' Either he had been clever enough to get Michael to flip in an instant, or he was lucky enough to get to clean the girls' room instead of their own. The grin could have been for either and Fillian just laughed as he could not figure it out.

"You're the only one who leaves the place a mess," Grabble retorted over to Michael a few showers down. He was just on the other side of Access and had to look past him to talk to Michael who looked back at him with his eyebrows raised.

"Ehh?"

"We share a bunk, so don't pretend like I don't have to aim when I drop off the top bunk to make sure I don't land on any of your shit," Grabble continued when Michael tried playing innocent with that held out 'ehh.' "Don't know how many times I've landed on your uniform with my smelly feet-"

"You what?"

"And considering how often you do your laundry, or how rarely…"

"You're bullshitting me," Michael stated in a deadpan voice.

"You know the rest of us actually put away our uniforms, right?" Grabble asked, lifting an eyebrow at him and then smirking as Michael was frowning deeply at him, as if he was wondering if Grabble really was just messing with him or if his bunkmate had been using his costume as a mat.

"You guys always flirt like this in the showers?" Access asked from between the two who stopped looking across him and at him instead. That made Access lower the small grin he had at his joke, and he continued, "Pretty weird looking at each other in the shower while we're all naked-"

"Ohhh?" Grabble held it out as he and Michael both smirked at the same time and shared a look.

"Got something to hide, huh? I thought you were the 'slayer of whores,' Whoreslayer," Michael's smirk rose up even more as Access spun his head back and forth at him and Grabble, then spun back forward straight at the wall as the guys on his sides had turned inwards. The two of them just got emboldened by his self-consciousness though and started making fun of him more.

Prado Marsinnian looked to his left over at the three who were messing around and being way too boisterous right after he woke up. The young man with wet brown hair pushed down over his head so that his bangs were just down over his eyebrows focused on the man in the middle of the three who seemed to be getting picked on by the other two, though Prado figured he had brought it on himself. Prado, who went by the name Dead Silence as a vigilante and still with the Army of Death, looked closer to him at the man on his side who was also looking that way and let out a laugh at the others. "Hey Sagitus," Dead Silence started. The man next to him with four legs who had finished up cooking for the morning and just started his shower turned back to his comrade on his right.

"What's up?" Sagitus asked.

"Those three," Dead Silence started, nodding past him at Michael, Access, and Grabble. "Those tattoos they have," he continued, looking at the left side of their chests where there were black skulls tattooed into their bodies. "What's up with-"

Michael spun around and looked past the man next to him on his other side as Access, and Sagitus, all the way to Dead Silence who stopped with his mouth open as somehow Michael heard him over their own loud conversation. "So you want to know about these huh?" Michael pointed at his chest and grinned proudly.

The man between Michael and Sagitus turned left too, a young man at only nineteen years old with spiky black hair that somehow stayed in its five unique spikes even under the running water. Spiral was one of the newer members and though he had headed into the bathroom with a couple of other newbies, the showers were pretty full so he had just walked to the first empty spot, not that he thought it mattered before. All this conversation in the shower was a little different from usual, though most of them seemed more awake than usual for some reason anyway.

Dead Silence nodded after a second of Michael looking over expectantly at him. Sagitus started shaking his head, but Michael grinned more and continued, "It's something only those who've died for this can have." Dead Silence looked past him and to Access who nodded stoically and in cool agreement.

"That's right," Access said, his voice low and his face intense. "It's only the cool-"

Sagitus had to step in. "They had me give them the tat's thinking it'd catch on, but it's only the three of them." Everyone else in the showers started laughing, then most of them shut up quickly as Michael darted his eyes around and smirked his sharp teeth.

Grabble sighed at the truth in what Sagitus said, but he smiled and shook his head anyway. "It's still a cool tat," Grabble said.

"I think I'll-" one of the new guys on the other side of the shower started.

"Don't even think about it," Michael called back. He turned and his eyebrows lifted for a second as the reason he was going to give would not work even with this recruit who had been there for just two weeks, because he had joined in time for the League of Shadows. Michael remembered watching a bullet tear through the front of his helmet and right out the back of it. He shook his head and just said the actual reason instead, "Death cut it off at us, doesn't want something that can give us all away as Army of Death…" Michael frowned and his eyes shifted back next to him at the man with spiky black hair who had kept chuckling even when most others stopped at his dangerous smile around the room a minute ago.

Michael had thought it was pretty ballsy of him to keep laughing even though the guy at his side was closest to him and others much farther off shut up at the sight of his look. Seeing him start smirking a lot more though made him narrow his eyes and lose his impressed feeling, getting annoyed instead at the nineteen year old who had the look on his face of the others who had been in the room when Death first told them that reason and started laughing. Since then, no one had really made fun of it like that after they all started laughing about it together so Death wouldn't feel so bad about saying that to them, but Michael didn't know this new guy very well. He looked down at the top of Spiral's head and asked, "Real funny huh?"

Spiral turned and his smile dropped instantly as Michael was not smiling in a dangerous way anymore, but was actually glaring at him with his lips shut so his sharp teeth were not even showing. "Uh, a little bit," Spiral replied, cracking his smile again at the older man who kept frowning at him and made sweat form on the younger man's face so that he wanted to turn his water onto cold.

Michael smirked again after giving the newer member a hard time for a few seconds. He just laughed and continued washing off in the shower, looking away as it did not really bother him much at all now that he thought about it. "You're a crazy bastard, Spiral," Michael said. It sounded like a compliment to the guy next to him who grinned himself and let out a laugh that immediately cut off as Michael continued with, "I think you're definitely dying next."

Access spit some water out that he had just opened his mouth and started drinking from the shower as he realized he was thirsty. He spat it and nearly choked as he was not expecting to hear that on his right side there. "Huh?" he said, glancing right at Michael which reassured Spiral that that really was a confusing thing Michael just said.

"The way you were out there in Argentina dodging bullets like they were damn water balloons," Michael said with a laugh, and he reached up and started washing his hair while the man to his right started smirking again at what Michael was saying. "Swear I saw them miss him by this much, like ten times in a row," Michael held up two fingers close together as he said it, shaking his head in disbelief.

Spiral kept smirking and leaned his head back as he boasted, "I'm just too fast to get hit." Scatterbox rolled his eyes behind Spiral on the other side of the room and he refaced his shower that he turned off, feeling like he was done already and only staying for the conversation. "Besides, I'm still on life number one, unlike some people."

"Don't talk like that," Michael said. He kept washing his hair and did not look at the man next to him who turned with his smile lowering back down again. Michael was really frowning this time though, and he just said in a serious way while facing the wall in front of him. "It's not a joke dying. You need to take it seriously."

Spiral waved a hand off to his side and started, "I'm just messing. I know it's gonna hurt when it-"

"Let me stop you there," Michael cut him off again, and Spiral started frowning though he tried not to get an angry look on his face as Michael got a darker one on his own at that moment. Michael glared out the corners of his eyes at Spiral and said in a low voice, "Really, don't die." The way the younger man was saying it made it sound like he expected to die sooner or later, and Michael's glare was cold which had the whole shower silent. Scatterbox stopped over at the divide between the halves of the room, and Vince stopped brushing his teeth for a second as he heard that low order that almost sounded like a growl coming from Michael.

Spiral lowered his lips into a frown though, as he was tired of having to try and appease the man at his side. "You're being overdramatic," Spiral said, surprising most people in there who did not think the younger man would keep pushing Michael's buttons when he looked this genuinely mad. "I'm ready to die for this-" Spiral started, his tone intense and serious to match Michael's and show him that he meant it, try and gain the older man's respect.

"I don't care if you're fine with dying," Michael snapped though, cutting in on the spiky-haired man and glaring in a pissed way at him for not listening. "You'll learn after how hard it really is, but fuck it. If you want to try dying just to see how it is then I'd be fine with letting you, but it's not that simple." Michael glared harder at him, then he grit his teeth and said in a lower tone, "I just don't want Death to have to bring you back for being an idiot, like he had to for me."

Grabble and Access both looked to their rights in surprise at their friend who rarely talked about that day on the mountain in Switzerland at all. There were some things the three of them didn't mess with each other about very much, very few things that were off limits, like the Saudi invasion for Grabble, or Scotland for Access. Michael glared into Spiral's eyes and the younger man opened them wider as did a bunch of the others in the shower as Michael growled, "Death has to feel it each time we die, go through all our pain, and pretty much die to bring us back. And when I opened my eyes, and Death said to me, 'I told you not to get cocky.'" Michael grit his teeth and his lips parted to show how hard they were bared after he recited that line that was etched into his mind.

"I knew I had fucked up," Michael continued in a dark tone, glaring harder at Spiral and making the younger man gulp at that look. "I had made Death feel that pain, but worse than the pain, was the regret I heard in Death's voice right there. Like he thought he had brought me into all this just to get killed, because I was too stupid to take it seriously." Michael leaned back and stopped glaring at Spiral as hard at the wide-eyed look on the shorter man's face in front of him. He turned forward and leaned his head back to let the water fall over his face, then he lowered his head a bit and continued without speaking to anyone in particular, "So I decided right then that I wasn't going to die again, that I was going to stop treating it like a game and get serious."

"Oh yeah, 'cause you're always Mr. Serious," Grabble laughed, and Michael's lips curled back up into a grin as he turned towards his friend to chide back at. The mood in the showers lifted in an instant, and half of the showers turned off in that next second as a bunch of guys realized they were already done. Scatterbox saw others turning off their showers and he turned to get out of the way, while wondering how he had never heard that before since he was there that day in Switzerland.

Michael turned off his shower too and he kept smirking towards Grabble as he did. "Must be tough, huh bud?" Grabble was reaching up over the top of his head and he ground his teeth at the taunt coming from Michael that he had heard far too many times before. Access started snickering and turned off his shower too, while Michael continued, "What with those stubby arms and all-"

"My arms are longer than yours," Grabble retorted fast.

"If only they were just a bit longer though," Access said, shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders like there was nothing to do.

Grabble had his arms lifted straight over his head, reaching to his pincers and scrubbing more than halfway up them, though he was having difficulty washing the tips. He had to bend over to get them wet too since they stuck up too high that they did not get hit by the water coming out of the shower-head unless he hunched himself. We need taller people in the AoD. Get a reason for a higher up shower-head.

Michael turned and he called over to a large man still in the showers who had stayed quiet the entire time the others were talking. "Hey Exodus," Exodus turned towards Michael, fully turning his body and standing there letting everything hang out with a questioning look on his face. "You should help Grabble out. He's having a hard time."

Grabble ground his teeth in more frustration as he was trying to get that last part to wash off quick so he could get out of there already, then he spun with his jaw dropping and his eyes wide as he saw a man walking towards him. Michael started laughing so hard his voice traveled down the hall outside the bathroom, and he turned and started heading off as Grabble quickly started telling Exodus that it was fine and he could wash his own pincers.

Down the hallway past all the rooms with soldiers getting dressed and ready for the day, the women of the Army of Death were taking showers too. Some of the girls just walking in asked where their comrades had been when they were getting up, and Flare leaned in towards Tama with an upset look on her face. "Why didn't you wake me up? Death probably thinks I'm lazy-"

"It wasn't everyone," Tama said quickly, waving her hands around in a way to try and reassure her red-haired friend. "Not everyone would have fit in the command center anyway-"

"You still could have told me something was happening."

"Nothing was 'happening.' We all just decided to start working early," Tama looked away like it was no big deal. "You know, it's some intense stuff we're doing. I just wanted to be more prepared for the day instead of just getting my briefings and going out. You could've-"

"We're always pressed for time," Flare countered defensively, now really feeling like she had to defend herself over this which made Tama sweatdrop more. "I'd do stuff like that too if, I mean… You should've woken me up. What if I die now and-" Flare stopped herself, then she lowered her gaze for a second and muttered, "That was uncool. My b," Tama had looked at her with her bottom lip dropped that Flare was going that far about this, but she decided not to stay upset over it as Flare looked upset enough already that she had started letting that slip when they both knew how serious it was.

"Next time something like that happens, I'll come get you right away," Tama assured. Flare lifted her head and met her friend's gaze, then she matched her smile too and nodded in agreement.

"Grabble?" Replay lifted her eyebrows up incredulously at the girl on her right in the showers. They were on the opposite corner of the shower area as Flare and Tama, and they were talking about stuff a bit less serious.

"What?" Maelstrom asked defensively. She pulled back a bit as if embarrassed, then she leaned back forward and said, "He's handsome-"

"Ehh," Replay lifted her right hand and turned it back and forth in an iffy motion.

"Don't like his pincers?" Maelstrom asked.

"More like I'm not into bald guys," Replay countered. She ran her hands up through her short black hair while saying it and then smiled while letting out a sigh of euphoria like the feeling of hair was the best thing ever.

Maelstrom rolled her eyes and then bent down and grabbed a bottle of shampoo off the tile floor in front of her. She lifted it and squirted some in her hand, then she looked to the right while putting the shampoo into her long orange hair that she needed to wash well to keep it from getting all frizzy. Replay started while her friend began shampooing, "I'd say something about Death," she got quieter and cupped a hand to her mouth, "but you never know when Darling might be listening."

Maelstrom's eyes were darting around already before Replay even finished that sentence. Don't joke around like that, Maelstrom thought, a bead of sweat rolling down her face. Past Replay's other side, Seraphim glanced over at the younger girls whose conversation she had been staying out of as it was a little immature for her. She did lift a corner of her lip up though at the nervous looks on the girls' faces though as Replay started looking around too after mentioning that as if checking to make sure Darling did not hear. Then Replay finished, "Because he's hot."

"Hmm," Maelstrom hummed, not as much as if she was pondering whether Replay was right but just trying not to keep it from sounding too affirmative just in case Darling chose that minute to jump in the showers with them. Seraphim had to crack her smile more at that unenthusiastic response from the orange haired girl who was clearly picturing something even as she hid it. The newcomers are always put off by Darling, though Maelstrom's been around for a while. Seraphim chuckled once and started washing her own long purple hair. It's only once she calls you out on being into Death and you deny it that she'll ever really relax on you. She didn't even give me much of a stink eye when I offered him coffee earlier.

"What about Michael?" Replay asked, trying to find some common ground and bouncing her eyebrows at her friend. Michael and Grabble had similar body types before their heads started, and Replay grinned as she added, "Now that's a hunk, maybe the hottest-"

"Do not go for Michael," Seraphim said, and she continued to shower like she had not just spoken out about it.

The other two girls looked over in surprise as she cut in. Then Replay's eyes lit up brightly. Oh no, Seraphim thought, trying to stifle a groan. La Brava let out a snort behind her across the room as she heard what was coming already without turning around. "He has a thing for you anyway," Replay started, sighing as she did as if it were such a shame. Maelstrom nodded in stoic agreement and let out a sigh as well. Faye looked in from Seraphim's other side and smirked, and she glanced to her other side at Slipspace who grinned too at what Replay was attempting.

"Ha. You're wrong," Seraphim scoffed and shut it down immediately.

"We see him flirting with you," Maelstrom started, leaning in towards the older woman on her right and bouncing her orange eyebrows in a playful way. "Teasing you and everything-"

Seraphim looked to her side and Maelstrom pulled back, since as much as she was trying, she was a bit shy and that look almost seemed confrontational. Her eyes also glanced down from Seraphim's for a second before snapping back up, trying to avoid looking at her extremely sexy body that the girls on Seraphim's right now had a free chance to look at with jealous expressions. "He acts that way with everyone," Seraphim said as Maelstrom cut off. "You'll see the more you get to know him."

"I don't know, I feel like I know him pretty well," Maelstrom started, raising her tone at the end, implying something there.

Replay grinned too and she shook her head at Seraphim, "Uh uh. You get it way more than the rest of us."

"Trust me, he's not that subtle," Seraphim countered, looking back forward and speaking without giving the younger girls anymore chance to keep this going. "I've known him for months, and I know how he acts when he's into someone. With me, it's just Michael being Michael."

The mention of Michael being into someone made Maelstrom lower her eyes down and then turn back to the wall herself to get the shampoo out of her hair quietly. Replay saw that change in Maelstrom's expression, and she looked back and forth between the two on her right a couple times before asking softly, "Was it Cee?" They looked back at the girl who pulled away a bit at their looks, though hers was already apologetic despite never having met the woman they were thinking about. "I heard Michael yelling her name before we rushed the League of Shadows' base," Replay explained softly.

On the other side of the shower, Flare and Tama glanced over to their side in a bit of confusion, wondering why La Brava had suddenly looked down at the floor with such an upset look on her face. The younger and shorter woman rose her head back up though and turned off her shower, and the other two looked away quickly so she would not see they had been staring.

Seraphim nodded at Replay's question after a few moments of silence. She looked a bit sadder herself, as a blonde teen's face appeared in her mind. Then next to that face appeared Juno's, who had asked her for a 'kiss for good luck' before that mission in the Dragon's Den, which she had told him sounded so corny, right before giving him that kiss. "So the first missions are all in Africa today," Replay started up, washing her hair and changing the subject completely as the mood had dipped too far too fast. "Did you girls see anywhere that might be a tough one?"

"Treat them all like tough ones," Seraphim started.

"I know I know," Replay said, waving her hands so as not to be misconstrued. "But still, you know what I mean. I've been checking out our next stops all morning, and to me it seems like we can handle most of what's coming pretty easily as long as we stick to Death's-"

"I don't know what you mean," Seraphim cut back. "Any of those places that might seem easy, the villains could see us coming. Expect Eziano Mozcaccio knows our exact location, and could be sending assassins to assist any of our enemies. Any villain group no matter how small could get bolstered, which is why we do so much recon. Make sure you're ready to let us know if an ambush is coming," Seraphim said, giving the younger girl a harsh look as she reminded Replay of her responsibility.

"Yeah, I'll be ready," Replay said, making sure she sounded very serious too so she could reassure Seraphim. The older woman nodded back at the sight of that serious look, then she turned off her shower and headed over to the lockers to grab her towel.

Flare watched as Seraphim started heading out, then she turned off her own shower quick. Everyone else got so much in before I even woke up. I've gotta go get some breakfast quick then study up on my Arabic. Have to at least know the imperative commands: Run, come, get away, retreat, fall back, with me, Death, Army of Death… Gun, pistol, rifle, knife, shoot… help, heroes, civilians, thank you…

Zach stood alone in his own individual shower inside of his private quarters. He locked his bathroom door even though he always kept his actual room's door unlocked, and he sighed while looking out the corners of his eyes towards the knob that wiggled around and then stopped. He could imagine Darling tssking on the other side of the door with a disappointed look on her face, likely no clothes on as she tried to sneak in on him in the shower again. I don't have time for this this morning, Zach thought, and he just turned straight forward and pretended not to notice the doorknob had wiggled. Don't turn a finger into a lockpick, you know why I locked it. Zach lowered his head and the hot water of his shower fell onto the back of his head and ran over the sides.

He rose his right hand and pressed it into the wall in front of him. His head stayed bowed and he took in some deep breaths. He rose his head a bit so the water was hitting the top of his head, and he closed his eyes while it ran over his face. Rules for today. Don't break them no matter what. Number one, don't let anyone die. Two, figuring out who managed to not only set up new gun manufacturing factories, but who connected them to the Gang of Banditos. The Hombres Malvados were getting guns from the Banditos too, so these factories were already supplying major ideological villains, the guns they used to kill Green Gal. Zach ground his teeth at the thought of the Argentinian hero who had died a day before they reached that country to fight the very same villains she fell against.

How? He asked himself. We didn't just take down Zolo. The heroes found most of his contractors and assets, that they knew of at least. I wish I had kept more of the information we found down there instead of letting Endeavor take it all. He treated it like he deserved it more than us even though… No, just be happy he didn't make me fight all of them just to get the Army out of there. And the heroes are doing work. They're doing so much all over the world every day. Dying just like we are for these fights. So I need to find out how this is possible to stop any more of them, or us, from getting killed by guns somehow being shipped around the world with no one running this shit anymore!

Kabo was a big thing too. With him, Zolo, the other top trade runners in all the different… But there were people below them. People the top guys wouldn't have ratted out to the heroes when they were caught, people who knew the ropes and could take over quickly. And without the ability to interrogate those guys the heroes already caught, we don't know who those guys that used to be below them are. We don't know who took over, but we know they must have been related to have been able to take over so quickly and smoothly. Zach curled his lip as he thought about it, putting pieces together and racking his mind over the villain situations of the world. I was more worried about the ambitious small timers from before moving into the spotlight, taking over after the power gap, but there hasn't been that power gap yet. Villains can't act as freely, or as widespread, but they have trade lines established and know how to do things. They were ready to take over. The ambitious weren't just limited to small timers who were at odds with League of Shadows, but the guys just below the Shadow Bosses who've probably been waiting for this for so long.

There's still so much interconnection between villains. Deals going on faster than I can stop them. Zach clenched his right hand into the wall in front of him and then curled it into a fist so his fingers would not dent into it as he felt them about to. Pressing his fist into the wall was not much better, but his eyes opened up and glared darker through streams of water falling from his bangs. I need to stop them at the sources. Fix situations in countries that are prone to breed villains. Make better, the world. Just stopping villains isn't enough to stop all villains. Preventing them from meeting up with each other which makes both sides stronger, keeping them weak with no weapons or Trigger that we'll still have, taking the advantage back from them. Doing whatever it takes, everywhere, every day moving forward… Everything…

---

Zach stood behind a few of his comrades who were watching the two lined up side by side at the shooting range. Most of the back half of the ship was made up of the hangar, though the brig extended below it too. The front half of the ship was split up into a lot more rooms though. There were all the dorms of the barracks and the bathrooms at their sides, and across the starboard-side hall farther back near the center of the ship was a cafeteria and the kitchen. In the middle of the front-center region of the ship though, just past the kitchen, was the meeting/war room, and there were a couple of small interrogation rooms after that before the hallway around the front of the ship but before the cockpit.

On the other side of the center region of the ship's front half though, were all the training rooms for the Army of Death. There was a wide gym, weight systems set up along the walls and in the middle of the floor. There were heavy weights all over the place, the most high-tech machines, and there was a counter covered in supplements and blenders near the wall too so the soldiers could have their pre-workout or post-workout shakes right there in the gym. The weight machines were all far towards the bow of The Cloak, then there was a much larger and more open space behind it between there and the shooting range back near the wall to the hangar. There were two doors on the wall connecting to the hangar, one that actually went into the hangar and the other closer to the hull wall since there were rooms on the exteriors of the hangar where the ship extended out a bit on the stern too, since it did narrow in towards the front from a more aerodynamic flying experience.

The group in front of Zach between him and the two lined up shooting at the targets started clapping, and a few of the guys smirked and started saying stuff to Mark who turned to his side with wide eyes at the younger girl laying prone there. Darling turned her head and had a smirk on her face after outshooting the man at her side, and she turned her arms back into real arms before pushing them down to get up. Mark muttered as she started getting up next to him, "Well of course, I mean. The revived have better eyesight, no shakiness in their hands-"

"You don't have bad eyes or shaky hands," Darling countered the man giving reasons for why he lost the shootout, with her getting more points on the targets they shot at. She smirked at the man who others started laughing at as she finished, "I'm just better." Darling turned and looked between the people behind her after saying it, and she smiled wide as she saw Zach watching her. He nodded at her, giving her a small smile as she managed to beat Mark which he was actually surprised by considering how accurate Mark always was.

Zach turned away as some of the others in front of him started challenging Mark to shootouts too, going to try and see if they could beat the man who really wasn't the best in the AoD. Mark felt relieved as they started asking him, and he grinned and accepted readily all their challenges. Darling lowered her smile a bit but she turned back to the targets ahead of her and narrowed her eyes at them again with her smile reappearing on her face. He was happy I got so good! Now I can help Him more! I need to get even better!

Zach walked into the big sparring area in the middle of their training grounds. He looked over towards a pair holding training swords in hand and setting up for another spar. The one farther from him looked his way for a moment at the sight of Death watching, and his hands tightened on his blade. The one with his back to Zach turned his head a bit to the side and then gripped his sword tighter too. Zach watched as the one farther from him mentioned starting, and the two of them ran at each other and started slashing their swords, blocking each others' blows and parrying before slashing again.

Switch is getting better with weapons. He, really has no idea how strong he could be, Zach started at the man who originally had his back to him, who moved to the right in a circle, switching which hand was his dominant one on the top of his hilt and turning the blade a different way for a moment to disrupt his opponent's thoughts. Shang turned his blade to the side too though, and the Chinese man slid his right foot back behind him in a circular movement on the floor that distracted Switch for a second as he wondered what Shang was doing with his fancy footwork.

Shang pushed down on the foot he slid behind him, he crouched, brought his sword down to stick out the side near his leg and it dragged on the floor as he ran forward. Shang made a huge movement slashing his sword up, a lot of power behind it that Switch jumped back to avoid instead of trying to block. Shang stomped his back foot forward after Switch jumped back though, he grabbed the sword hard with both hands on the hilt and brought back down with even more force after slashing up diagonally like that. Switch moved back again, and Shang had him on the defensive with these powerful blows that Switch was hoping would start to tire him out.

Switch's teeth ground in frustration though, as he spotted Xia walking into the room with Grabble over at a wide gap in the wall that went right into the hallway. You need to change it up, Switch, Zach thought as he saw the European man realizing he was not going to tire Shang out before he tired out himself. Switch decided that meant he had to attack now, and after dodging back again, he sprinted forward right as Shang missed the slash. Shang saw Switch look away when his sister entered though, and he saw it coming. Shang did not make the last slash as hard, and he pulled to the side to dodge Switch while yanking up his hilt with both hands. Shang let go with his left so there would not be as much force in it, as he smashed the hilt into his comrade's face.

"Ooof," Switch fell backwards and slammed down on his back, making a grunt of pain mixed with a gasp as he lost all his breath. I picked the wrong Quirk. I really, shouldn't have… Switch regretted so many decisions leading up to that moment while he reached up his hands that had let go of his sword and grabbed his nose with them.

Zach turned away as Shang bent down to help Switch back to his feet. Switch can take other people's Quirks, permanently, but it's different from All For One's. The Quirk he takes switches with the one he current has, and he always has one Quirk so unless he gives his to a Quirkless person, then switches again with a really bad villain, there's no real way to just take a villain's power away, though leaving one with a bad Quirk isn't beyond his ability. He's not too powerful though. Taking a Quirk from a villain whose power he doesn't understand much, and he gives them the one that he may have just started to learn how to use anyway. Zach looked back out the corner of his eyes towards that man. But, he says he's had a lot of Quirks before. So he knows how to use a lot that he takes for the first time just from instinct, and he takes them at the power they're at. His current one he got from the Banditos powerhouse is a really powerful one he can't train easily, especially on a ship like this. I get why he's already regretting it.

Switch got back to his feet with that look of regret still on his face. Death says I can't even use it. We're precise, we don't want mass damage… though, it is good I got it away from that villain. Switch sighed and put himself into a stance with his training sword readied again. I can't just give another villain this power though. I've got to find some weak-Quirked civilian with a good heart to trade this with, then trade up after on the next villains we face…

Zach walked over to a different group sparring in the open area. The most soldiers out of anywhere were in this part of the training ground, as they had six hours until they were reaching their next big mission. Zach had decided to stay on the ship for it, deciding to finally get some rest, and to oversee The Cloak and plan the next mission which was one he was worried was going to be a really intense one. He was glad everyone was practicing their skills and training up for the next fight, and he stood to the side and watched as four guys faced off against each other in teams of two.

Barboon and Jackhammer were facing off on Zach's left side, but they stopped for a second to look over as the group of four started a more intense spar with Death watching. Barboon walked up to Death's left side, his big hairy arms down in front of him with his wrists curled in so he pressed the back of his hands into the floor with each step. Barboon's Quirk, Gorilla, made him the biggest soldier training in the room and the largest member of the Army of Death in total. He walked up to Death's side still taller than the teen despite his body being hunched forward so he could walk using his fists too like a real gorilla would.

Jackhammer rubbed his right arm while stepping up on Zach's other side. He was a big man himself, and his Quirk, Break-Up, was fairly powerful. The last spar was one he was glad to get a break from though, and he grinned and called out, "Whoop 'em Jughead!"

Jughead and Cluster were facing off against Sagitus and Flare. The four of them were using their Quirks too, though they were treating the fight like one they would need to be really careful about collateral damage. They did not want to interrupt other training sessions where many of the others were not using their Quirks to avoid the same thing, but Flare and Jughead were both working on getting more precise with their Quirks too and this was their only place to really train on the ship.

Zach watched for thirty seconds before his eyes narrowed in at Cluster who just got a good hit on Flare's back with the wooden stick he was using. The stick was in the shape of a katana, and after hitting Flare in the back with it, Cluster dragged the fake weapon across her back like cutting through. Zach's eyes shifted over to Jughead who he saw Sagitus scramble back away from as the large man slammed his big fists down at Sagitus's head. Sagitus had wide eyes as Jughead's hits were known to be really strong, and the way he slammed them down together like that was dangerous.

Sagitus did not want to say anything about it though, and the man with the lower body of a horse charged forward fast after stopping his movements backwards. He charged ahead at Jughead right as the more muscular man had started running his way himself. Jughead started bringing back his right arm for a punch, but Sagitus picked up his speed that was not yet at its fastest. Sagitus charged straight into Jughead who rose his other hand and pressed his palm up into Sagitus' chest, up into his specialized black armor to fit his half-man half-horse body. Jughead pushed back against Sagitus' momentum while he skid backwards, then Sagitus tripped as Cluster took out his front right foot with the wooden blade. Sagitus tried to balance on his other feet, but without that leg that Cluster lifted high up into his body, Jughead's force back against him was too much and reversed their momentums. Jughead reached forward with his other hand and grabbed around the sides of Sagitus' chest, and he tossed backwards flipping Sagitus right back over his hind legs that reared up to try and stop a full flip over.

Cluster stood back up from the slide he went into to take out Sagitus' leg, and he lifted his wooden sword and rested it up over his right shoulder to point behind his head in the other direction. Jughead crossed his arms and flexed with a grin on his face, while Flare and Sagitus got back up in front of the winners of the spar. "Cluster, Jughead," the two of them turned to the right and watched as the man who they had gotten so intense for stepped in front of them. "Few things," Zach continued, and the two opened their eyes wider at what he said.

"We just won though," Jughead said, sounding confused as it felt like Death was saying they messed up.

"Kicked their butts-"

"When you stabbed at Flare," Zach started, interrupting Cluster. He looked at the older man who frowned for a second but then nodded at the boy who he could see really was trying to help him. "You made too much of a jabbing stroke with your blade. If it was real, you never would have been able to slide it across her back in an actual slashing motion. It would have gotten stuck in her back, and even if you had managed to yank it through, it would've wasted a lot of your energy and only resulted in an injury for your opponent beyond anything we're going for, especially when you have the drop on them."

Cluster opened his mouth to say he wouldn't have gone for the stab in a regular fight but since it was a wooden sword… but he closed his mouth and just nodded at Death instead. He figured he should be training as he would actually fight, and that of course Death would say that to him assuming he was training that way already. "And Jughead," Zach started. "You give away your attacks too early. Sagitus saw how you were going to punch before he even started running at you, and you advertised that punch the whole charge so even if you had managed to swing it in time, he probably would have been able to dodge with his mobility."

"What about us?" Flare asked. Zach turned his head, and he saw the short red-head behind him looking at him with her lip furled. She did not like that Death was saying so much to the ones who had just beaten them, as it made her feel like they had done so much worse if the winners had made so many mistakes.

"You should have switched who you two were going against at the start," Zach replied, looking from Flare to Sagitus next. "Cluster realized it early that Jughead was the slowest of the four of you, and he knew that's why you would be fine with Sagitus going against him despite the strength difference. But even though Sagitus is faster than you, Flare, your smaller body would have been better for dodging around Jughead. It also would have given Sagitus a chance to take on Cluster who is stronger than you, and if Jughead had turned from you when you were only dodging so that he could go help Cluster face Sagitus, that's when you use your speed and take Jughead from behind. You could catch him off guard when he's looking away by firing a flare to one side, then when he turns that way thinking you're attacking from that direction, that's the moment you come in from the other side and get him off his feet."

Flare started nodding along halfway through what Death was telling her, and she nodded again at the end of it as that sounded like a perfect way to use her flare in the next fight. She grimaced though with a glance back towards Jughead as she knew he would be expecting it now, but that just made her start thinking of running in behind her flare that he would never turn to fully if he thought she was going to come from the other side. Sagitus nodded in agreement too after the end, and he looked back towards his opponents and said, "Let's go another round."

Cluster nodded as it sounded good to him, and he figured it would be a better fight this time with Death giving their opponents some help. With him and Jughead it was more things they needed to work on for the long term, Jughead getting quicker and him making sure he kept his sword-fighting style non-lethal. Cluster took his wooden sword off his shoulder and grabbed the hilt with both hands as he put it in front of him. Flare lifted up the two thin black sticks that looked a lot like her usual steel weapons that were thin and worked like extendable police batons. Sagitus lifted his hands with his fingers curled forward in a fighting stance, then he stepped to the left while Flare moved to the right. As they did that, Jughead moved to the side and Cluster to the other, and they both grinned at the two who frowned more at them. It was clear Cluster and Jughead were not just going to go along with letting their opponents switch who they were going after after hearing Death explain how that would give the other team the advantage, but there was no more time to think about that as Cluster and Jughead ran forward to keep the other two from figuring out their way of separating them.

Another sparring session went down, this time lasting longer than the first one as Flare and Sagitus first sprinted to different sides as each other. They ran around and even darted over past other groups fighting giving them just a wide enough berth that they were not technically interrupting their training. Jughead and Cluster both went after Flare though, and Sagitus curved around the other side of two sparring partners to run back, right at Jughead's back since he was the farthest back of the three going the other way. Cluster called for Jughead to stop and turn and get Sagitus, while he kept going for Flare, thus keeping them after the same partners they were against the first time. This time though, as Sagitus ran at Jughead, the muscular soldier with a cylinder shaped head advertised which arm he was going to punch with again far too early again. Sagitus ran towards that side just long enough that Jughead could not go back, before darting the other way and sprinting right past Jughead's other side. Jughead tried lifting his left arm to stop Sagitus, then he realized what was happening and called out, "Cluster!"

Cluster turned and saw Sagitus running at him, Jughead getting farther behind him every second. He darted his eyes back as he saw Flare stopped running away from him, instead curving to the side of the room to run around and go for Jughead's back. Others near the side of the room who had started watching pulled back to the wall to get out of her way, and Cluster's eyes darted quickly from her to Sagitus and back again. On one hand, if he ran after her then it was going to be a two-on-one as Jughead was still running after Sagitus. He could tell Jughead to turn and go after Flare instead, but that was what their opponents wanted. If he said it himself though, at least Flare would not have the drop on Jughead as he went for Sagitus himself. Cluster knew already without needing to think about it though, that he was not going to last long against Sagitus on his own. Death had not even needed to say anything about the two of them fighting really when he suggested the switch, and he had not argued that point at all since he knew it too. Sagitus knew it as well, and Cluster knew that even if Jughead did manage to catch Flare by turning to face off directly against her, it would take him longer than it would take Sagitus to get him. He also doubted Jughead was going to catch Flare when she was not going to be fighting very hard against him, instead going to stall for time so Sagitus could come help her make it a two-on-one.

Cluster started running for Flare after his hesitation as he almost turned to face Sagitus. "Get him off me! Take the shot on the run!"

Jughead opened his mouth wide. He aimed at Sagitus' back and tried not to slow down even though it was hard to aim with his tall and jug-shaped head bouncing around with each step. Flare lifted her hands that glowed red, and she threw both red flares she created towards Jughead who ignored them knowing she was too far and they were just a distraction. He got ready to fire the water from his mouth, then his head turned to the side right as he fired, because one of the red flares hit him in the right arm and actually started burning him. "Oh shit- those hurt?!" Jughead blasted his water down at the flare on his arm, then he snapped his head up and aimed at the woman who tried running at him after throwing the flares. She cut in from one side of the room, Cluster tried sprinting faster to intercept her, but he had to turn and throw his sword as Sagitus was faster and going to intercept him first.

Jughead rose his head and fired the last of the shot at Flare who was not expecting so much force still after seeing him put out her flare and splash the floor beneath him. She crossed her arms and got pushed back, the red light going away between her fingers after she created two new flares. Cluster hit Sagitus in the face with his sword, doing nothing to slow Sagitus and not even getting the man to flinch and close his eyes for a second as Cluster was at least hoping for. Cluster rose his arms to block the fist he saw Sagitus clenching with his right hand, then Sagitus' front right hoof lifted up and slammed up into Cluster's chest. It was not the bottom of the hoof which Sagitus could have kicked with a lot more force, but still the front of his lower leg had enough in it to knock Cluster off his feet and backwards at a loss of breath.

Flare got pushed back far by the water, but she uncrossed her arms and steadied on her feet as the water stopped slamming into her. She lifted her wet head up with some red hair falling down in front of her face and to the sides of it in a messy way. Her eyes were intense as she snapped her head up, only for those eyes to open wide as Jughead was already charging at her, his head thinner than a few seconds ago only wider at the top of his skull and around his chin. He ran at her with his right fist still normal sized though, but he opened that big fist into a hand at least as he wound up to the side. Then Sagitus slammed into Jughead's left side and took the big man off his feet, knocking him backwards as he was trampled by the half-horse man who toppled over Jughead's body too at the speed he was running at.

"Ooooo," a bunch of people who had started watching pulled back and made the 'ooo' noise, wincing as their comrades rolling across the floor over each other looked painful.

Flare was still up though, and her wide eyes from when she saw Jughead running at her, that had widened when Sagitus crashed into him, widened even more as she realized they just won that spar. She had thought it was unfair when Death was scolding them before that he did not mention how maybe their teams of two were just mismatched as she had thought after the way the other two had beaten them last time so easily. Flare turned a bit and looked towards Death, and she saw him looking over with some worry in his eyes towards Sagitus and Jughead, only to nod in a glad way as the two strong men were quick to start getting up. Then he looked her way, and he nodded at her with a small smile formed on his face as if telling her it was 'great job.' At least, that's what she interpreted the smile as, and she smiled back wide at the sight of it.

"You guys need we should bring Curalia here?" Clash asked. The dark-skinned African man in his late fifties did not know great English, but the two who got up in front of him understood what he was trying to say and both glanced in at each other.

"Took a big roll there," Jughead started while lifting his eyebrows at the man who had toppled over him.

"Couldn't avoid it, felt like I was running into a damn wall," Sagitus remarked back, and he laughed instead of saying something back like Jughead should be the one who needs it. He actually felt a lingering, bad pain in his hind right leg, and he grimaced as he tried putting weight down on it. There were a lot of people looking over though, and Sagitus put that leg down before just grinning at Clash. "Before we head out for sure, but I'm still good to-"

"Don't wait," Zach said, taking a step towards Sagitus who turned his way at the sound of that. "If we head out there and get a lot of injuries, bad ones, we'll need Curalia fresh. Piling on injuries for her to fix up right before we head out won't give her time to recharge before we're back."

Sagitus frowned as he was trying not to make a big deal of it, but he nodded at Death in agreement, putting the next mission first and pushing back the bit of hurt pride that he had just done this to himself with a bunch of others watching. "Nice job taking down Jughead," Zach added to the man who finally started showing the limp on his back right leg with his next step towards the gap in the wall. "You were pretty sneaky for running so fast on hooves. I don't know how you kept him from hearing you coming."

"I can be light on my feet, when I need to be," Sagitus replied, grinning again as that was not something any of the others were even thinking about after seeing him tackle Jughead. They were thinking about it now though, and some of them looked down at his hooves wondering how he managed that on the hard floor of the training room.

"I think it was more- Jughead got too focused on the girl who burned him," the group who just sparred, and Death, and a bunch of others around all looked over towards the gap in the wall where Gentle was standing having come in during the end of that spar. He glanced to the side at Flare who looked at him with lifted eyebrows, and Gentle said to the girl who was soaking wet, "It did seem she was caught very off guard. There was no sign she was even going to try dodging Jughead despite how slow he was coming at her."

Flare's cheeks reddened as that was true, she had been flustered by Jughead's approach right behind his water and thought she was going to be hit for sure. Jughead also frowned over at the white-haired man who was a lot more slender, and a few inches shorter than him. Cluster got back to his feet, rubbing at his chest and wondering if he should check at the infirmary for bruising, maybe ask their new healer for help too or just get some help from Hank if it was not too bad. He looked over with a bit of a frown towards Gentle too, wondering if he was going to come up with a way to insult him too after hearing all of that.

"Any, constructive criticism?" Zach asked, lifting an eyebrow at Gentle to see if he was going to add anything there. Gentle frowned back towards him though, as that was him trying to be constructive even if it did just sound like he was straight-up criticizing them.

"And what would you have done?" Jughead asked, crossing his arms and looking at Gentle expectantly. "If you had seen Sagitus running at you while in my position. Even if I had started to turn, even if I fully turned, he was going so fast he would've taken us both down anyway-"

"I would have put up a Gently Rebound, and he would have bounced away," Gentle remarked calmly back, looking like he was almost letting out a scoff at the amusing concept of Sagitus' charge being a difficult thing for him to stop.

"Well what about without your Quirk?" Flare asked, making Gentle turn back to his left at the shorter girl who crossed her arms now after tucking the hair from in front of her face back behind her ears. "Jughead used his up on me, so if you have to go from Jughead's position, then you have to think of it like you couldn't use your Quirk anymore either. Or is there no limit to your Elasticity?"

"There are limits to all Quirks, Flare," Gentle said, assuring her there was no question there. She felt a bit satisfied at the response for a moment, as he used her name this time at least instead of just calling her the 'girl.' She frowned again though as he continued, "Though mine would not have run out nearly as quickly- But! I will, for this hypothetical, imagine that I could not use it. In which case, I would have jumped." Gentle said it like it was simple, and he looked behind him back towards the gap in the room where Sagitus had walked out instead of listening to him. "It was only the mass of the horse half that took down a man of Jughead's size. Jumping and pulling away, only being hit by a part of Sagitus' upper body, it would have done more damage to the man whose lower half was still moving so fast when his top half was snapped back."

"Sagitus had his arms ready though," Zach started over towards Gentle. Gentle looked the younger boy's way, and he frowned at him but Zach continued anyway, "Even if you could jump, without using your Quirk, high enough to avoid being hit by Sagitus' lower body, he had his arms up so he would have used those to push forward and not get snapped back. His momentum was so fast too, the push still would have taken you down."

Gentle did not reply for a moment. And Zach noticed in that moment that every person around the training room was looking over at them. There was a path between them with no one standing there, and then the inevitable happened after Gentle frowned at Death like that. "I think he thinks he'd beat you, Death," Cluster called over, with a smirk over his face like he thought it was unbelievable that Gentle was even considering it. His tone too, and calling it out with so many people around to hear it, immediately the entire room knew what was up.

"If in a hypothetical fight," Gentle began without waiting for anyone else to speak up. "There were no Quirk uses allowed, then without our Commander's hack-level ability, it would not be much of a match."

"You gonna take that Death?!" Jackhammer called over, his eyes wide and a huge smile crossing his face. It's happening!

"He thinks he could beat you!"

"No way!"

Zach looked around the room, wondering why everyone really thought this was happening. All of them have to realize what they're doing. Like, they're all smirking like all of them are being the ones instigating it. Like they're riling everyone else up, but everyone is instantly riled. They all want to see me fight Gentle? Just because he thinks he could… I mean, he can't. Does he really think he could? Zach looked towards Gentle with a scrunched up face for a second like all of this was a bit over the top, then he shrugged and stepped backwards to make the gap look more inviting for Gentle. He nodded in front of him, and the room went absolutely nuts in that instant.

Gentle's eyes opened wide too. He looked in front of Zach where the teen just motioned with his head, and now the gauntlet was down. He frowned for a moment but lifted his lips back into a smile as he was not going to go out there looking like he regretted starting this. He did look at Death hesitantly for a moment though, still with his smile on his face but with an eyebrow lifted. Zach saw that look and his own eyebrows lifted right back, and a few of the more perceptive others around them noticed the looks and got confused at the conversation that seemed to be going on while everyone else was just getting loud in anticipation.

He really thinks he'd beat me, Zach thought. That look, he's worried he'll beat me and make the others think less of me. I'm their leader. I need to always win. And he's showing me he's not going to hold back unless I give him a look to. He actually wants me to tell him to hold back so he won't beat me. That's crazy. I, I should use this though. Zach's expression got straighter. His lips flattened and his face looked more intense. The others around them quieted down, and Gentle's smile lowered a bit but then he shrugged as it was clear to him that the boy wanted him to fight for real despite him offering to go down for the sake of the army.

Gentle lifted the left corner of his lips up a bit and opened his mouth, but Zach started first, "Exodus." Zach said it, and the others on Zach's left side turned as a set of weights made a loud clanking sound. They turned and watched as a large man over six feet tall and covered in big muscles started walking their way. They moved out of the way of him and Death, and Exodus walked straight over before stopping in the gap between the others as Death continued, "Help Gentle. The two of you fight me, no Quirks."

There was complete silence around Death for a few seconds, and then Cluster pulled back and lifted his right hand over his mouth. "OH SHIT!" He yelled into his hand, turning towards Gentle after he yelled it and leaning his head back even farther at how huge a burn that just sounded to him.

Sazaki, Gentle's eyes had narrowed far down and his smile was gone. Most of the others around the room were all watching quietly, though the excitement filling the room was thicker than the tension they could feel around Gentle now.

After Cluster's shout, a few others were ready to go nuts like that, but Exodus said, "Understood, Commander." Exodus walked over towards Gentle who watched him approach and just stared at him as the taller man stood at his side and rose up his fists into a fighting stance.

"What's going on?" Michael and Access walked into the room, and Michael asked Grabble who was near the entrance and had a flat expression. Michael could not tell the mood in the room, since some people were smiling wide like Cluster who he had heard from down the hall, and others looked really serious, while some looked nervous too.

"Death's taking on Gentle and Exodus at the same time," Grabble replied, keeping his voice steady though the two who just walked in heard the excitement in his voice. Grabble looked more serious than most of the others, as he thought something along the lines that Gentle did and was a bit worried now about how it would look if Death was beaten here. He shook his head around though, trying not to be intimidated by the size of the man who had just walked right in front of him, the man who he considered to be the strongest in the Army of Death and he knew many of the others felt the same.

Access dropped his jaw at the sound of it, but Michael grinned huge and he started pushing around to the side and kept in front of all the others watching, making a few move to the sides where he stopped to be able to keep looking to the middle of the room. Across from Michael, Darling pushed in front of some others too, and Mark stepped up behind those people with some of the others he had been embarrassing over at the shooting range. The entire training area across the port side of the ship had stopped all activities, and everyone there, over forty people, were watching the three in the middle of the open space who looked the most calm out of anyone in the room.

"Sure you want to do this?" Gentle asked, aloud this time instead of just giving Death a look. This time it was not much of a sly warning though, but something obvious to the people watching that it was for them as much as for Death.

"If you go down, that's the end," Zach replied. "Once both of you are down, it's over."

"Or once you are down?" Exodus questioned. Zach tried not to sweatdrop, and he just nodded at Exodus instead of explaining that he was subtly trash talking back to Gentle with the confidence in his previous statement.

"I'll call it!" Darling called out. "Three-"

"Good luck Death!"

"You've got this Gentle!" A high-pitched cheer called out behind the white-haired man who grinned as he was glad La Brava was going to be there for this, as it was a conversation they had had on occasion a while back.

"Two!"

Zach took in a deep breath. His feet slid apart from each other, and everyone around the open space they were giving the three backed up farther. They backed up to give the three more space, as just Death spreading his legs like that made it seem like he might go in any direction so everyone felt the need to back off in case he was about to dart at them. His eyes narrowed straight on Gentle, though they made a quick dart to the side and into Exodus' eyes. Then they snapped back to Gentle right as Darling called out the final number, "One! Fight!"

Gentle ran forward. Exodus had seen that look in Death's eyes darted straight at him like he was only pretending to be focused on Gentle, and it was really him that their leader was focused on. Death's eyes were locked on Gentle though as he was the only one to reach him, moving fast across the gap straight to him while his partner was still far behind as Exodus did not charge at Death recklessly at the start while wondering what he had planned. Death did not dart any direction though, only came out of that position that made it look like he was getting ready to dart around away from his two opponents that his first look at two seconds left made it seem he was going to. His look had showed him cautious, ready to dart around and look for an opening on two of the other leaders in his Army of Death, men who were known to everyone around them as some of the strongest in the Army. The looks of the others who had backed up, and the fact that they had all backed up, added that feeling for Gentle who saw all those movements and looks right before he started sprinting forward. Death getting out of that somewhat crouched position, his right leg sliding back and his left pushing harder down on the ground, it made Gentle's eyes grow wide and him to doubt everything that he was doing.

Only a few feet in front of Death, Gentle realized how far back Exodus still was behind him. Death's left foot pressed down so hard and his right started lifting, and Gentle was in full run towards the boy who waited before darting a direction: straight at him. Zach stomped his right foot forward, but Gentle still had the speed advantage as Death was only just starting to move. Gentle opened his right hand at his side, swinging it in front of him while just a bit farther than reaching range. His left fist clenched as he was stepping his left foot forward again too, and his right toes curled as that left foot stepped down hard to be his planting foot for the kick of his right foot when he lifted it. When he swung his right hand, he made sure to try and block Death's vision of his left hand that curled into a fist at that moment. When his right hand finished swiping, Death could already see his left fist punching forward.

Zach jumped up in the air. If there's a kick, Zach thought, seeing the punch Gentle formed but being careful and not dodging in a way that would put him in too good a spot to be hit by a follow-up kick if the punch was a feint. He jumped, his eyes locked straight on Gentle's, and he pushed his left hand across the front of his body while rising, slamming his palm into the side of Gentle's fist and knocking it completely to the side in mid-punch. Zach slammed his right knee forward while raising his right arm to pass in front of Gentle's face and block his vision. His knee slammed into the top of Gentle's chest right below his chin, and as it started knocking the man back, Zach snapped his right leg fully out from that kick and slammed his boot into Gentle's chest too, speeding up how fast the man was hit back from him and throwing Gentle onto his back.

Zach landed and crouched down, spinning and slamming his right leg out for Exodus' right foot. The larger man started coming at him when he was slamming his knee into Gentle, a moment where Exodus thought he would get Death off-guard. Exodus jumped back fast as his punch missed the teen who ducked immediately upon landing after hitting Gentle. Exodus was fast, and strong, and his leap backwards put some distance between him and Death. The distance was made in midair though, and Death was already sprinting forward when his kick missed, not that it was ever supposed to hit the man with such muscular legs that the kick would not have taken him off his feet. Zach sprinted to where Exodus was landing, and when the blond man landed down he ran forward right away to try and get Death while he was sprinting. Zach did not slow though and just cracked a smirk, making Exodus freeze. Zach made like he was going to jump, then he dropped into a slide and ducked Exodus' blocking arms, going to the right of Exodus' left leg and sweeping it up with both arms. Zach was crouched there as he picked up Exodus' leg, so he uncrouched in a swift motion to jolt the man who would be reaching down at him, then as soon as he popped Exodus' leg high up, he slammed a kick into Exodus' other leg and pushed all of the man's body weight to that side.

Exodus hit the ground hard with a loud thud. It took under ten seconds. Zach let out a single panting breath as lifting Exodus' weight like that was not such an easy task, especially while exerting himself to the fullest physically and mentally already for every moment of that fight. It did not last long though, and his panting did not last either. He just let out that breath and took in a deeper one, before standing up straight and lowering his arms down to his sides.

"Holy…" Jughead lifted a hand to his head and scratched it a couple of times.

Grabble ran a hand over his bald head to the right of his Pincers. He shook his head, a smirk spreading over his face. What was I even worried about? That's Death. Death! "Haha," Grabble chuckled under his breath and lowered his hand from his head. It's because I knew him from before he was even Death, but Exodus has always been that powerful guy who joined us already a monster. Gentle's always been the same too… well, I mean, he has changed. All of us have. He's stronger too now, Exodus too… Has Death really gotten that far ahead? Or was Zach, always just…

Darling's face was bright red and she quivered where she stood which got a couple strange looks from the two on her sides. Her lips pursed, and then she just said in a soft voice, "Of course that's how it went."

Mark rubbed his nose back behind Darling, and he shook his head while looking towards Death in an impressed way. Always taking the biggest risks. Such a ballsy kid I'm following. He's not even smirking or acting all smug about that win. As much as he could be after the way Gentle-

"Exodus," Zach started. The man who he dropped second stood up quickly in front of him, and Zach smiled at the big man who he continued to, "You're stronger than you know, and you think too much of me, thinking I'm a hundred steps ahead of everything you're thinking of." Exodus nodded at Death in gratitude for the advice, and Zach turned towards Gentle who had started looking at him in surprise at what the kid just said to his partner. Everything Zach did though from even before the start of the fight, it was all planned out. The confidence he had shown without hesitation from the moment he called out Exodus' name, to when he shifted him a single look that he knew would get Exodus holding back, to the smile he made like Exodus had fallen into a trap that did not exist.

"And Gentle," Zach started, lowering his smile down and just looking at Gentle seriously. "You should know my strength better than anyone yet you went in far too cocky against me," Zach said. "You should've worked with Exodus when I made it clear you needed his help."

Gentle frowned deeply. He glared at Death and opened his mouth to say something witty back to him. "If you would not mind," Exodus began, and Zach turned back towards him. "I would like to take your advice, and go another round. I believe we will do better this time around."

Gentle slowly closed his mouth. He kept frowning, though he realized that saying anything witty or clever in response to what Death said to him, would only make him look like a sore loser after that pitiful display he just showed. So instead of using words, he just agreed with Exodus to Zach's surprise. And Zach also got a lot more serious right away after seeing Gentle's agreement, because he just gave the two of them advice on how to beat him. This time though, he cracked a small grin as he thought, Now it's training for me too. Two of the best fighters in the Army. Maybe the second and third, with their Quirks, though Mark and Seraphim probably have them beat Quirkless. Alright. Time to show off some moves. Give all the new recruits a lesson while beating them, show the others moves that they should learn, and win. Win so that afterwards when I explain to them how I beat them, how I beat two tall, strong fighters who looked like they should beat me easily, they'll all listen. They'll take it to heart. And it'll keep them alive.

I've been doing basic training with all who want to learn for a while. And I told them I'm fine teaching all of them my techniques too. I want them to ask me, but no one wants to bother me for the time when they all know how busy I keep myself. So I'll teach them all like this. Lead by example. In fighting techniques, weapons' training, martial arts, and in battle tactics, operations, interrogations, they all need to know everything. To be the best, not only in their wills, but in their actions.

---

In southern Kazakhstan, five miles outside of a small town there was a bar right on the side of the only paved road across a huge section of rural and uninhabited countryside. There were mountains to the north covering the entire horizon line that was clearly visible due to the bright full moon and stars filling the sky in a region with few towns and no cities to make light pollution. Outside of the bar, there were motorcycles lined up all along the sides of the building and out in front. Some were even left partially in the road, almost daring anyone who might drive by that night to try and hit one, see what would happen.

More motorcycles pulled up to the ones out front, and seeing the ones already left on the road, the new arrivals smirked and left their bikes there too. Two black cars rolled up behind some of the motorcycles, and one of the guys on a bike called back at it, "Everyone in! Tab's on Dastan tonight! Hahaha!" The bar had a red sign on the front of its second floor that said 'Dastan' and the others all laughed as they knew their night was about to be all-inclusive.

Already inside the bar, there were twenty plus members of the gang sitting around tables mainly on one half of the room. Another man at the bar stood up and headed for the back door, grabbing his leather jacket and getting out of there as he saw more lights pulling up outside and the shouts of the people who the boisterous half of the room started cheering about their arrivals. The bartender moved to the side of his bar, and he grabbed his daughter by the arm and pulled her back behind the bar from the two men talking to her just at the edge of it. "I'm assuming all those new arrivals are going on your tab, Karl?"

"Oh yeah, don't worry about them," Karl replied, smirking back at the bartender whose eyes widened as the man he was talking to was not even pretending anymore. Karl's voice had no intention in it to pay the final tab, and the door of the bar opened up that next second with a horde of bikers and gang members moving in and straight to tables that had emptied out around their comrades when they started getting too noisy.

"Get up to your room," Dastan whispered, looking back at his daughter who was an adult herself, but who nodded at her father fast as he said it and headed for the back and some stairs to their actual house above the bar. Dastan looked back forward after saying it, checking to see if anyone was watching her go. Most of the others were busy getting up and yelling greetings at their friends, clapping each other on the back and calling out their names. Many of their names did not sound like real names at all, and Dastan gulped before turning back to his bar and going over to wash some glasses. Keep them happy. That's the best way to minimize losses tonight. Damn that Karl, if he ever comes in here alone again I'm putting a bullet between his…

Dastan gulped at the sound of someone shouting Karl's name behind him in a happy way, glad to see his comrade who called back 'isn't this place great?' Dastan's thoughts of revenge were squashed at the idea of angering that entire gang, and he could only grind his teeth in frustration before looking up and nodding at a customer in a white cloak who had not gotten up to leave when the rest of the gang came in. "Coming right up," he said, and he gave the woman in front of him a smile with some big gaps between his teeth and a gold filling replacing his front right tooth. The smile was friendly despite his teeth though, and he reached forward and grabbed the cash she put on the counter in the most grateful way.

Before he made her the drink she asked for, he bent down like he was putting the glass he had been scrubbing away under the counter. Dastan reached below the "safe" he had below his actual register, and he grabbed a floorboard after darting his eyes around to check that no one was watching. No one was, but Dastan still winced as he heard the sound of a breaking glass come from his left on the side of the bar the group were most condensed. He looked down and slipped the cash into the secret place on his floor where there was a lot more stored in secret. I'll need this to replace those glasses tomorrow. Dastan stood up fast and glared towards the gang. "Hey!" He called out, keeping a strong look on his face so the menacing men over there would not think him a pushover. "Which one of you broke that?"

"This idiot right here!"

"So sorry 'bout that."

"Just put it on my tab," Karl called over, a smirk on his face and a tone in his voice that made the others around him start laughing.

Dastan grumbled but then shook his head in annoyance and just turned to start making the woman at the bar a drink.

On the opposite side of the bar as the actual bar counter itself, along the front wall in one of the booths, a group of five were sitting around a table. There was a man well over six feet tall who looked even bigger because of his muscular body. He was wearing a dark blue tank-top, his jacket resting on the back of the booth behind him. His arms were crossed and he had been silent for most of the time since entering the bar, which Dastan noticed from the bar every time he looked over to see what their group was doing.

The bartender with messed-up teeth had black hair on only half of his head, the other half shaved and revealing a nasty scar over the top of his skull that made it difficult for hair to grow in evenly on that side anyway. As he handed a drink off to the woman in the white cloak, he looked towards that group again who were the only ones still sitting in a booth that far to the left side of the bar. There were only a couple of others still left in there, regulars who usually sat at the bar in front of him or at the tables spread through the bar, but who were all gathered on the right side now around pool tables and a tv, using small tables and stools over there and giving nervous looks to the other side of the bar every few seconds. Dastan was hoping his regulars would stay there, help him keep the peace if the gang started getting too rowdy, help him protect his daughter if things got too far. They were men from the nearby town who came out to his bar despite it being known to occasionally get rowdy like this, being out in the middle of nowhere like it was. Those regulars were fighters too, and they had not moved too far when the first part of the gang alone was in there, but the numbers just got seriously mismatched and the looks of the men on the other side of the room when they looked back towards them were of men ready to fight and kill if they were challenged.

Dastan wondered about the group of five straight ahead of him though. Like the woman still at his bar, and who was not sitting all the way at the end on his right like one of his regulars was, they did not look perturbed in the least by the villain gang. Dastan got interesting customers all the time, and behind the bar there were some framed pictures above the top shelf of drinks that showed him in pictures with some of his "best" customers, which were really just pictures of him with as many of the most powerful men he had ever had in his bar as possible. Some of the people at the table he kept glancing to had given those pictures careful looks after entering his bar, something he thought meant it was a good move he had put them up. After looking at them though, that group had given him dark looks, and since then they had just been absorbed in their own conversation and were not bothering to care about the gang that was getting more rowdy every minute.

The gang spread more into the middle of the room. Some of them went along the side of the bar, a couple of brave souls went over to try and hit on the woman who shut them down immediately to the amusement of others who started laughing along. Then those laughing others tried mentioning how their comrades were not so smooth, making moves on the woman themselves which had her standing up, taking one step to the left, and sitting on the next stool down without responding to them. The ones who were laughed at in the first place smirked back at their comrades who got shut down too, then they started calling the woman a 'dyke' behind her back in voices that were just loud enough for her to hear. Yet she still ignored them.

At the table behind the woman in the white cloak, a muscular figure in a hoodie turned his head and looked over towards the bar. He wore a black hoodie that partially shadowed over his face just as the black bangs over his eyes did. He was not nearly as big as the man on his right side farther into the booth, but he was still a large figure himself. He was sitting at the edge of the booth with his elbow sticking off the table and over the main floor area to show he was not pulling back into the seat at all. Across from him, a girl with brown hair tied back into a ponytail behind her head turned a bit to the side and glared towards the bar too at the look she saw on her leader's face on the other side of the table. "Want to see if she wants to sit with us?" Darling asked, glancing back towards Zach who turned her way and shook his head once in response.

"More than likely she's a mercenary. Or a villain who's just not afraid. Wouldn't see a normal civilian antagonizing men like that," Zach said it, but he still looked over towards the woman in the white cloak again with a frown on his face. The men around her were not acting too villainous, but he still glared at them for the way they kept trying on the woman who was clearly not interested in the least. He heard some loud slamming and turned his head more forward, looking past Darling and to the other end of the room where some men were slamming their hands down on the table calling for rounds to be brought to them. One shouted asking about the bar-girl who was missing and not bringing them drinks anymore, and one of the men who just entered the room called out to Dastan that 'their girls' would help him out.

On Zach's right, past Exodus and at the curve in the booth so technically the head of the table, Danjuro Tobira lowered the cigarette he was smoking and pressed the smoldering butt into an ash tray in front of him. He let out a long breath of smoke and then continued the conversation they had been having, ignoring the situation in the bar that he assumed got rowdy like this on occasion considering its location and reputation, and those pictures of villains above the bar. "If we just use tips in southern India, Sri Lanka, etcetera, we can avoid a six hour long detour by crossing the north. Then we reach Vietnam before the shipments are sent out and there is no problem."

"There are big hauls we're going for in those ports on the Indian Ocean," Darling countered back. "Leaving them up to the angels to take isn't safe. Don't want any more fallen angels after what happened in Italy. Now they're at a shortage of angels and the people are worried-"

"We'll head back to Italy every time we're passing now. Until they've got things back under control," La Brava said on Darling's left. She wore a pink jacket and had a hot pink sun-hat on with a big rim all around her head. Her jacket was as fancy as Gentle's purple coat that was still buttoned with the six fuzzy buttons down the middle of it but a bit to the right side. She darted her eyes to Darling, "And even though we could rush around that peninsula, even if we made it in time, we remove any chance of error. If they decide to push up the shipment time in fear that we're coming, we could lose it and that shipment could fuck us later on."

Gentle had a short brown cap over his head with a front rim not as long as a baseball cap's. It was a soft cap that looked like one an old-timey detective would wear, and he had a sword strapped to his back when he entered the room that was now resting against the back of the booth at his side. His hands were in white gloves over the table, though there was an ashy spot on his right glove where some of his cigarette ash had fallen. He lit up another cigarette as they sat there, and he turned his head as the others did as their group leader and the youngest person at the table started speaking. He and the girl across from him were close to the same age but he was a bit younger than her, yet her and all the older people at the table listened closely as he spoke.

La Brava nodded her head in agreement with something Death said, even if it did make her eyebrows furrow and a frustrated look to cover her face. She reached for the glass in front of her, but it was all out and the twenty-two year old tssked before raising her right hand and making a motion at the bar. Dastan caught her look but the man was busy pouring drinks constantly for the group who were downing them in drinking games that were making him increasingly worried. He turned with two more full mugs, and he handed them to one of the beautiful girls the group had brought in with them after the second half arrived. The girls looked pretty young to Dastan, but they took the drinks with cold glares at him and then turned with big smiles on their faces as they headed to the gang.

"…I'm flying to Kosovo then I'll make the arc through Russia and cut back down to eastern Kazakhstan before The Cloak arrives in Mongolia. La Brava head to the border post first where we're flipping the blackmail on that checkpoint the Vacationers have been using to cross party favors. Darling head north and go to the big Russian dot on the map, do some recon on the area with Charlie, take Fillian along-"

"I want to come with you. You shouldn't be doing so many missions on your own."

"I need someone I trust running the recon there. We know it's something big and you're the only one I can put in charge of this."

"Okay!"

La Brava rolled her eyes but still grinned at how easy that was for Death. "Am I with La Brava?" Gentle asked, suggesting it in his question that Death say 'yes' to him.

"Actually, I'm hoping you can run The Cloak's main path before reaching her. I want Exodus going with Mark south to recon India with Delta before we do the straight cut through the middle. If we can't do all the ports and can't cross over the top, this is the best option, but we're still not going to rush as much as we're trying to get through India quickly. Exodus," Death turned a bit to his right. "You won't have Fillian but take whoever else you need for the recon."

Exodus nodded in understanding once, and he refrained from replying 'Understood, Commander' as he always did. "Sure thing," he said, in a totally static and unnatural way but one that Zach nodded at as he was glad the man was attempting to stay somewhat undercover. They were not being too incognito with what they were talking about, but there were certain codes they were using and words they were avoiding. Talking about Death, the Army of Death, and helping heroes were things they tried to avoid in situations like these where that talk would draw a lot more attention than just shady conversations about anything else.

Death continued talking to his fellow leaders in the Army of Death, but his eyes narrowed and shifted past Darling as he was talking. His face was mostly shadowed so the others could not really see where he was looking, plus they were not looking directly at him either like they were receiving orders. Exodus ordered a drink too, making a larger motion of his arm that got Dastan looking over more seriously towards them. Exodus put two fingers up after he met his gaze with Dastan's, and his cold blue eyes glared into the bartender's until he nodded back and started making them those drinks.

"Hey," one of the top honchos in the Rogue Road Ragers, Triple R, was glaring over at the man who just made that motion at the bar from not nearly far enough from his gang. He had come in late, and he turned towards Karl and Erkin. "Who're they?" He asked, motioning with a nod behind him over towards the booth not too far from them. It was on the front wall and none of those other booths were occupied, as none of the gang members were really sitting far away from the main group. Most were standing around the same tables or sitting at those tables like Karl and Erkin were.

Erkin had a hand on the ass of the woman on his right who kept jolting and giggling when he would squeeze. He lowered his mug with his other hand and cocked his head to the side, looking over like he had not even noticed them until now despite being part of the first half who had been in the bar for a while now. "Oh them?" He said, looking back up at his buddy, "Some fuckin' nobodies Torque. Won't even look our way."

Torque looked back that way though, and he narrowed his eyes as the guy in the aisle seat of the booth on the far side seemed to be looking towards him there for a second. That hooded figure turned back to his right and continued speaking in a conversation that looked casual, calm, like there was not a huge gang in the room who could attack them at any time. They annoyed him even more than the woman in the white cloak did, because his guys were at least messing around with her and had gotten her to get up and move away in annoyance to show they succeeded. She was getting more annoyed too as some of his men were standing on either side of her and leaning on the stools around her now, trying to see which of them could actually get her to start talking to them.

"Before I go up to Kosovo, I'll head to Turkey to make sure we get the there deal done right. Alpha should be there soon, and Mark will pass over with The Cloak in a couple of hours to pick up Grabble and the others once I'm gone. G, keep a mean face on but try and keep the rim down. Darling, don't look too upset. La Brava and Exodus just drink like it's normal. I'll do the talking." Zach switched up what he was talking about without changing his tone at all, without turning first to show why he was talking like that. The others did not react by turning or looking to see what he meant either, they just did what he said. Gentle lowered his head a bit and rose his lit cigarette to his mouth, putting a flame tint on his face as he took a long drag through frowning lips, his eyes masked below the rim of his hat.

Exodus rose up the glass that Dastan had just brought over for him, and he pounded it back before lowering it with a satisfied look on his face. Then he glanced to his side and frowned a bit, before just looking forward and taking another sip with the woman across from him who taunted him for drinking slower than her despite his huge body and her tiny one.

"Hey there," Torque stepped right to the side of the table. He grinned at the group, on a face that would be unsettling for normal people. His grin was creepy, with scars on his gums and a bad burn scar on his right cheek that looked like it never healed right so it had scarred as a mushy mess. He had long black hair slicked back over the top of his head, and a black and red leather jacket on with 'RRR' over the front right side of his chest. He had some necklaces on around his neck with teeth on the bottom of them, some animal, some oddly human-looking. He had earrings in both ears, several in each, and a nose ring looping through the middle of his nostrils. "What're a couple of ladies like yourselves doing sitting over here? Oh, and you've got some cute girls with you too!" Torque turned to the side of the table with Darling and La Brava and started laughing.

Exodus clenched his left hand into a fist over the table and he rose up his drink, taking a long sip while glaring at Torque. Zach glanced to his right at Exodus once, and the larger man turned away from Torque's ominous smirk. Zach turned back to the man, and he cracked a smile himself at him before lifting the drink of cola that he had barely sipped so as to keep it full and looking like a cocktail of some kind. He just lifted it and said in a calm, friendly, but dismissive tone, "Just came for some drinks and a place to sit. We'll be leaving soon."

Zach turned away from the man on his left, looking back at Darling who cracked a sly smile at him before losing it and darting a glare to her side again. "Don't look away from me," Torque said, and Zach lowered his frown deeper while turning his head back to look at the man next to him. "You know who we are? We're Triple R, baby," he held his arms out, then he lowered his left down to the girl's shoulder sitting across from the young man who had the gall to turn away from him like that.

Darling shrugged her shoulder to get the man's hand off, and everyone at the table glared towards him when he kept his hand there instead of letting go. He let go when all four of the others turned towards him at once and started glaring, and then he frowned deeply at those looks. His smirk came right back though, and he looked closely at the man at the head of the table who lowered his head a bit at that look. "Hold on, don't I know you?"

Gentle rose his head back up, and he lifted his chin more so his whole face was revealed. He was showing that he was not hiding at all with that look, but Torque got a full look at him and nodded, a bigger grin spreading across his face at the sight of him. "Oh yeaahh, you're that Gentle Criminal. I've heard about you."

Torque smirked and looked around the table at everyone there. Some of them started to look nervous, hesitant like the two women on his left. The man he said that to smiled though and said, "I am pleased my name is so well known throughout the world."

La Brava smiled at the sound of that too, but Torque turned away and looked down to his right. "That would mean, this right here," Zach started lifting his head, and he rose it higher this time so more light was on it and the scar below his right eye was visible. "Lifebringer," Torque said, a huge grin covering his face at the sight of the boy. "That's wild. Just, wild!" Torque shook his head in amazement. "What're you doing all the way out here, Japan boy?"

Zach stared at Torque silently, a cold glare into the man's eyes that had Torque's smile twitching and then looking angrier as he stopped leaning in towards him. He frowned some more and looked around the table, at the same time that Zach was looking past him again and over to the side of the room where he saw some others looking Torque's way with smirks on their faces. Some of them looked ready to come over and mess around too, but Zach's eyes focused on a girl who looked younger than the other three he saw over there. She looked the most nervous of the four from the start, though she had been acting like one of their groupies too, following different guys around and laughing at what they said, bringing them drinks and smiling when they groped at her. The men around her all looked Zach's direction though, and in a single instant Zach saw a flash of fear cover her face that was quickly replaced with a smile and a happy look.

"You know, Lifebringer," Torque started. "We're villains ourselves. Yeah," he said, nodding at the boy who turned to face him. "Not just bikers, but we've got some guns on us. And we sell some guns too. Weapons' dealers the whole lot of us." Torque examined the teenager's dark face, and a smirk crossed over his own at that expression. "Haven't heard that much about you for a few months," Torque said, "but you-"

Zach started lifting a hand. Torque pulled back and his hand shot to his waist. Zach's left hand lifted and he turned his head to look past Torque and towards the bar. "Dastan," he said, calling over to the man past the woman in the white cloak and the guys around her who Dastan was currently serving. Dastan looked past them as they all turned, even the woman in the cloak who turned her head a bit to the side and looked out the corners of her eyes in that darkness over towards that table. Dastan was surprised to hear the hooded figure, as the brown-haired girl sitting across from him had ordered his drink earlier. "Bring us a bottle of whiskey," Zach said.

"Oh man, I'm sorry," Torque started, holding up his right hand in a stop motion for Dastan. He relaxed but had a deeper anger inside him now that he had flinched so hard and reached for his weapon when the teen was just making a motion for a drink. He could not tell if that was what the boy was going for either, and he ground his teeth but kept smiling in an apologetic way as he said, "We've actually bought out the whole bar for tonight. Those drinks, technically mine," he said, tilting his head to the side as he said 'technically' like he was apologetic, but also hinting something to the boy in front of him.

The men at the bar started laughing, and they turned to Dastan and called out that all the drinks were theirs. "Didn't you hear?"

"Bring out the bottle service old man!"

"Guys guys, come on, I'm trying to run a-"

"Now, I'm gonna need two bottles of whiskey."

The men at the bar froze with their mouths open still in smiles. Torque's eyes widened, and then they darted from the boy who just said that to the other four at his table who were all staring straight at him with eyes so intense he forgot where he was for a second. He turned back to Lifebringer, and he narrowed his eyes at the boy who just said that directly in contrast to what he had said about the bar's drinks all being his. Dastan was staring towards that hooded figure with his jaw dropped at that statement, and the woman in the white cloak in front of him got out of her seat. She got out of her seat and turned the other way as the group of gang members, moving towards the side of the room with very few people still in it.

A few of the men at the bar watched her go, nervous looks covering their faces at how calmly she just got up to go at the sound of that, like there was obviously something coming. Torque turned his head to the left, and he made a small hand motion at some of the guys who were looking his way but had been talking so loud amongst themselves that they did not realize what was going on. Some smirks covered the faces of those men, and a few of them started nudging each other and motioning at the booth which had the rest of them start smirking and getting up from seats. All of those men getting up got the guys at the bar smirking more as they remembered just how many of them were in there, and it had Torque grinning too though he could not hide the sweat bead on the side of his face.

"I don't think you understand, friend," Torque said, smiling again as if saying he would understand if this was all just a misunderstanding. "Those drinks are mine. If you want a couple bottles, you'll have to ask me. Unfortunately, I'm not really in the mood to sell. Though, I guess if what you were offering was right," his eyes shifted back to his left at the women, and neither of those girls changed their expressions at all at his threatening look. He turned his gaze back to the boy on his right without faltering, and he finished, "Then I might consider it. So what's it going to be? Want to give me a turn with those fine bitches you've-"

"You don't seem to understand," Zach countered, like he was ignoring everything after the first part of what Torque just said. "That if there aren't two bottles of whiskey on this table in ten seconds, I'm going to have to buy every single bottle in this bar." He said it in a calm tone, and he even smiled as he looked up into Torque's eyes, "Including the ones on your tables."

Torque's lips curled down far. The bar had become quieter, really quiet as everyone heard the last thing that figure said directly to one of the gang's leaders. Torque glared in a pissed-off way into Zach's eyes, and then he said with the right corner of his lip curling back up, "You know, I heard a rumor, Lifebringer…"

A woman on the other side of the room as the gang who was getting close to the back door froze. She stopped where she was, her eyes opening huge under her white hood just as everyone else's in the room did. Lifebringer? She turned and stared towards the table and the hooded figure Torque was staring at. Sweat covered her face, though not nearly as much as covered Dastan's. That man behind the bar took a step back, and then he reached behind him to hold onto the shelf to steady himself.

"You shouldn't believe everything you hear," Gentle stated. He lowered his cigarette and pressed it into the ash tray in front of him, a trail of smoke coming up from it and in front of his face. He let go of the cigarette and then brought his hands back over the top of the table, his eyes dark and glaring straight at the man who had said some very un-chivalrous things in the past minute.

Zach did not respond to Torque. Torque glanced back towards his left and the rest of his guys, making some of them start reaching for weapons, preparing themselves for this. Torque glared back at Zach and then said with a smirk on his face, "You know, there're bounties out for your head. A lot of people are looking for you, Lifebringer. I wonder if I'm only getting Zach Sazaki's bounty though, or if that reward is going to be something so much more."

"If you aren't sure, and you really don't know the answer to that question," Zach started, and the entire room was silent as he glared into Torque's eyes. "Then maybe, your best course of action is to turn around, and get me those drinks I asked for." Zach's hazel eyes were cold, dark, and Torque felt a chill down his spine at the look of them. There was no fear at all in his voice. It was just about the most ominous thing he could have said. None of the others at his table looked afraid either, and a cold chill crossed the entire room.

Torque's eyes shook and his lips twisted in rage as he stood there glaring at the boy who just scared him with a single sentence. Torque balled his fists, and he saw the large man next to Lifebringer balling his own over the table, moving his right from the glass he slid towards the center of the table. All of them were just glaring at him, though none in a way that unnerved him more than Lifebringer. Yet he glared right back at that boy, and he snarled, "Your army isn't here to defend you." Zach did not flinch. There was no denial on his face to what Torque just said, yet still no fear either which had the man in front of him shaking even more, his fingers twitching and his eyes narrowing more at the boy. His lips twisted up, his fingers twitching faster, and yet when he saw the boy's fists clench he growled, "You've got a whole army following you now. Are you really going to die over a couple drinks?"

Zach stared straight into Torque's eyes, and then after three seconds he replied, "Someone is."

Torque's twitching right hand opened and moved for his waist. Zach's left hand snapped out first and grabbed it before it could grab the gun there. Zach slammed the man's hand to the table and then smashed the knife he rose in his right hand down through the back of Torque's hand, into the table, and so deep in it that when he jumped up and slammed his fist into Torque's face, it did not even knock the man backwards. It just snapped Torque's head back and then jolted it forward when he could not fall, the knife just tearing through some of his flesh in his hand as his body was almost pulled back. Zach slammed two more brutal punches into Torque's face and then got behind him on the opposite side as where a bunch of others pulled their guns and aimed his way.

Zach yanked Torque and ripped him from the blade, tearing it through his hand and out between his index and middle fingers. Then he ran forward while pushing on Torque's back to keep him in between him and the others who could not shoot his way. Two long tentacles whipped around the sides of Torque and curved behind him for Death, only for bright white lights to shoot up at those tentacles like beams and sear them off in the middles, causing the man who had extended what were always his arms to scream in agony. The men who were near the bar fired at the group at the table, and all the bullets slammed into an invisible wall and bounced back their ways, slamming into them and into the bottles behind the counter, making a rain of glass and liquor down into the bar.

Darling's right arm pointed to the side, and the cannon it turned into fired small round gray spheres in different directions. Smoke came out of the balls as they hit the ground, and La Brava reached to her side and pressed her hands into Gentle who got up from his seat and surrounded in a flare of pink energy.

"Everyone out of the bar!" The woman in the white cloak shouted at the others around her when the bullets started flying. She ran towards the bar herself and she swung her right hand for the bartender who had hit the floor and started yelling out for everyone to stop shooting. All five of her fingers on her right hand shot out like thin white threads that wrapped around the man and then yanked him back towards her as those threads retracted fast to her hand. As the threads came back, they curled around and recreated her fingers in tight little loops that pressed into each other all the way to the reformed tips of her fingers. "Go upstairs, get your daughter," she snapped, then she pushed the man to send him to go do the job she had been about to do when she first got up from her seat at the bar.

"Stop shooting! We're just going to hit each other!"

"Where are they?!"

"AHH!"

Gentle rushed through the smoke at fifty miles per hour, blasting through a side where it was not too thick and making a human-shaped hole in the cloud. He had leapt forward with his elbows pulled down at his sides, his fists clenched hard and his muscles bulging while the pink flame surrounded him. One men quicker than the others snapped his hair forward and pulled triggers on his fingers that shot pieces of his hair forward like bullets. Those bullets went through the pink flare of Lover Mode energy around him, then they hit his Elasta-Armor and bounced away harmlessly from the man who punched his right fist forward and into the shooter with a huge amount of force behind it. The speed at which he was coming, the force of the punch in Lover Mode, and the fact that his hand was surrounded in Elasticity, send the villain flying back between three others. The man with projectile hair knocked over a table and slammed into a wall so hard that all the wood around his collision broke outwards, and half the man's body smashed through the wall before he finally stopped moving.

Gentle landed and he opened his hands into palms while pointing to his sides. A green liquid bounced off one Gently Rebound, and a long black spike pressed farther into the other wall only to bounce back too. The man with the black spike pulled it back into the heel of his right foot though as he rose up, above the invisible wall that he knew there was a height limit of. Earlier when bullets first flew at the group, not all had bounced back. Some inaccurate shots had hit the wall of the front of the bar high enough that it was no danger to the people sitting there. He kicked his right foot down again, this time his left swinging down too to extend another black spike at the Gentle Criminal.

Gentle reached his right hand up and caught the black spike that came down at him around the tip, then he slammed down in front of him into a man running at him from the front. He turned his body sideways and dodged the second spike that had enough strength and sharpness that he had seen it push into the Elastic wall on his left before. Then Gentle swung the man he was holding to the left, making him bounce off the inside of the Gently Rebound and into the other one on its other side. "Infinite Rebound," Gentle said, and then he backflipped into the smoke with a smirk on his face, as the villain in front of him screamed in terror at his bouncing that was only speeding up.

"He~ll~lll~lllp M~ee~eee!" His voice was vibrating as he slammed back and forth on nothingness in midair, and then he puked up all his drinks and the food he had eaten for dinner. His body started spinning as he bounced more and more, then a blue aura surrounded him and slammed him down into the floor.

The villain was dizzy, had no idea where he was, and he was laying in his own puke, but the man who slammed him into the ground walked forward on his side and snarled, "Get up. If we kill Death we get-"

A black wind flew into the two men, and they both collapsed down to the ground before even seeing what had sent that wind through the smoke.

"Keep my position in mind, would you?" Gentle requested from a solitary place in the smoke.

Gentle had seen some darkness whip by on his right side, and he heard a voice behind him not where he expected the boy to be, "I am." That assurance was all Gentle needed to continue rampaging without worry that he would be getting knocked out accidentally.

Torque had been pushed forward by Death when he reached again during the push. It was before Zach had covered himself in his Nightmare form, and despite the blood all over his damaged right hand, Torque grabbed at the ground with both hands and a look of pure rage over his face. He reached to his waist and lifted up a device next to his gun that he was not going to use in all this smoke. He brought the device to his face and turned it on, and then he twisted it up to its brightest setting. A bright white light filled the bar, shooting through all the smoke and flashing inside the madness of Dastan's bar. Torque's eyes glowed white, and they were what started flashing as all the light from the device he was holding filled his eyes more and more.

"Let's see how you like-" Torque started lowering the device and raising his head with a glowing smirk on his face.

Death popped up directly behind Torque when he faced more towards the middle of the room. Zach put his hands on the sides of Torque's head after moving there silently, and the man's glow went away as he fell forward and collapsed to the floor. Then Zach pointed his right hand to the side and snapped it back with his fingers extended like a gun, and a thin black line shot out of his hand before breaking off from his finger. That line kept moving though as it was thick enough to cross the bar before fading, and it slammed into the chest of a man who was running his way, taking him off his feet so he wound up skidding to a stop on his face.

Darling pressed her left hand into the side of a villain's neck. Karl started turning his head with his eyes huge at the sight of the girl who had appeared behind him silently, moving without ever crossing in his vision despite him being almost with his back to the wall. He started falling as the syringe that was two of Darling's fingers combined injected the paralyzing sedative into him. Then Darling pointed her other hand to the side and fired the cannon arm, slamming a smoke grenade into the face of Erkin who was facing her with his mouth open and fire coming from inside his throat. The smoke grenade flew straight into his open jaw, right as Erkin tried firing the fireball out of his mouth. An explosion of fire blew Erkin's head apart, and shards of metal from the smoke grenade blew around making Darling cross her arms with a panicked look on her face. "Oops," she muttered.

The young girl then lowered her arms that were covered in blood but luckily did not get slashed by that shrapnel. "Hey, it's alright," she said, bending down and putting a hand on the shoulder of a girl pressing her back into the wall in front of her. The girl who looked just as young as Darling, maybe younger, lifted her head and saw the girl in front of her smiling with blood all over her face, her head cocked to the side in what was supposed to be a comforting way. The look just made sheer terror cover the younger girl's face though, and Darling pulled back with a somewhat hurt look, before reaching an arm up to wipe her face of the blood she thought might be the problem. Smearing the blood around with an arm just as bloody, while the man she had just killed lay without a head a few feet to her right side, did not help one bit.

"Ahhh-"

"Wait! WAI-"

"Let's get out of-"

"None of you will escape."

Darling did not fire any more smoke grenades after the one that accidentally blew Erkin's head apart. That one released some of its smoke upon that explosion, but that smoke faded with most of the rest. A lot of windows had shattered, and there were holes in the walls too that smoke poured out of and left the room looking just hazy after a couple of minutes.

The room became clear enough that Zach could see his other four comrades all at the same time again. There was a faint white gas covering through the air of the bar, thicker on the side of the room most destroyed than the other end that was almost completely empty. Dastan and his daughter had not left their bar though. When they finally gathered the courage to try and run from the safety of their home out of the bar altogether, they stopped on the first floor because of the noises they heard from the other side of the bar. Between them and the five crazy people in his bar, the woman in the white cloak was standing and watching ahead in silence and with her eyes closely examining what was happening.

Exodus marched forward and reached down to a man who was pushing back on his butt to get away from the big man. Exodus grabbed him by the throat and lifted him from the floor up into the air by one hand like he was picking up a ten pound weight. He lifted the gang member and then waved his left arm up and deflected a punch of spiky knuckles, hitting the side of the man's arm instead of the front of his fist so he would not get cut. He pushed the man's arm aside, then he slammed his left fist up into the man's face and tossed him backwards as he was unconscious from the single blow. Exodus threw him straight into a wall that he hit and then bounced off right on top of five other bodies.

La Brava had gone over to help Darling out, giving the four girls who had not been harmed during all of that a better smile and more reassuring look than Darling could covered in blood. La Brava still had her own Elasta-Armor on that Gentle had covered her with before even putting his own on, and her feet bounced up a bit with every step, a kink of the armor that she had not managed to get used to yet like Gentle had. She looked to one of the girls who had been close to Darling when Erkin's head exploded, and she saw the girl grabbing her right arm but doing so in a way so no one would notice. "Here, let me help," La Brava offered, and Darling looked over only to open her eyes wide as she saw the girl let go of her arm to reveal a piece of shrapnel still stuck in it.

"I'm," Darling started, but the girl who looked up at her just got a hesitant look on her face as she pulled back. "Sorry," Darling whispered quieter, turning away as she did and then heading off to help Death.

La Brava glanced over her shoulder for a second, then she shook her head and got back to getting the shrapnel out of the girl. "So," La Brava said, looking at the woman who looked around her age, probably the oldest of the four girls there. "How do you feel about what we just did?"

"Thank you," the woman La Brava questioned replied. She smiled at the shorter woman and then let out the longest breath of relief La Brava had ever heard. "That was, all of them. The whole Rogue Road Ragers. You killed them all-"

"They're not all dead," La Brava said, and she kept wrapping the woman's arm with bandages she pulled out of a pouch on her side. "But they can't hurt you anymore," La Brava assured.

"You're not going to kill them?" Dastan asked, stopping where he was after walking towards the group who were finished fighting. He stared towards the short woman who said that in his bar that was barely cloudy at all anymore. "They'll come back here! For revenge, or just-"

Death turned his head and looked at Dastan darkly. "Shut up." Dastan's mouth slammed shut and he stared at the boy he heard was Lifebringer, and he also heard the implications of who he really was. "If villains didn't know from a single glance above your bar that you serve their kind, you wouldn't have these problems on your hands. Stop serving villains, or let heroes know when they show up." Death reached down, speaking in his dark raspy voice and surrounded in an aura of darkness.

"No! No, get away!" A man who was pretending to be unconscious on the floor snapped his eyes open and tried reaching for the blade at his side. He was out cold before his fingers even touched the hilt.

"And let people know what happened here," Death finished, while standing up and glaring at the man in front of him. "Not who we are. Not who I am. If I hear rumors coming from around here, Dastan…" saying the man's name in that dark scratchy voice was the most terrifying thing Dastan could have imagined, and he started nodding fast at the man in front of him.

Zach nodded at that quick response, then he continued, "Villains will steer clear of here knowing that I am around. Knowing that I might show up…" And if they don't, they'll come after you and your daughter just for being in this place where Death showed up. How do I counter that? If I try telling him to say he's under my protection, I'll just fail them. I can't be everywhere. I can't protect everyone… I'll go talk to the heroes in Ingresh. Make sure they keep an eye on this place for retaliation from other villains. If the villains torture Dastan, he'd talk. Then again, villains already think it's me. If he says my name, they might not even believe him and think he's just going with the most obvious option, it won't really matter. Fuck. The heroes better step it up around here. I'll threaten them that if they don't protect these people- Dastan's daughter just looks scared. And who is that? She's just watching. This whole time she's just been watching, though she helped a bit getting everyone to leave... Don't let down my guard yet.

Zach turned and he walked over towards the girls who were all up now and sitting on chairs that Gentle had picked up for them to sit on. The girls looked towards the figure who walked towards them with the black wisps fading off of his body. He rose his hands and took his hood off, and he shook his black hair out though it stayed pretty messy after being in his hood for a while. "How'd you come to be traveling with this gang?" Zach asked the girls, keeping his expression soft but his lips flat as he had not made any decisions yet.

The youngest of the group, who had some blood splashed on her that La Brava was trying to clean off since the girl seemed to be too scared to move herself, looked towards the scar-faced boy with a scared look in her eyes. His lips lifted a smaller amount more into a little smile. "You're okay now," he said, and the girl stared at him with her eyes wide at how genuine that expression looked compared to the scary ones he had shown Torque before or the most terrifying skull face with red eyes she had seen a few moments ago.

"We were their slaves," the older woman who La Brava had started speaking to before started. She itched around the wound that the short woman had wrapped up, then she lifted her head and gave a dark look to the boy she knew was questioning them to see if they were just part of the gang. "They bought us from sex traffickers. I'm the oldest here, but they bought all four of us at the same time-"

"You didn't look like slaves," the daughter of the barkeep called over from across the room. She glared at the girls who had treated her so poorly before, who had called her names and laughed when the men had grabbed at her like they had been doing to them. "When you were laughing and drinking with-"

"If we didn't act like that-" one of the others started shouting. She froze though, and she bit down on her bottom lip and then turned away without finishing her sentence. "We, we had to. They like it more when we're smiling and laughing. The others who…"

The oldest in the group reached out and put a hand on the quiet girl's shoulder. "We weren't the only four bought together. There were six of us in total a few weeks ago."

"We learned, to be compliant. They're our, they wer- they're our lovers. We love-" the woman who looked second youngest lifted her hands in front of her face. She stared at them, confused at what she was saying and why she could not just feel like she had been freed. She looked over at one of the men who had scared her so much that she had changed her entire personality. She had even started thinking like a different person to please them more, to stop getting hurt as much.

Dastan looked back towards his daughter and gave her a stern look. The looks he was seeing on those women's faces, was the exact thing he was so afraid of happening to his own daughter.

"Hey, Death."

Zach turned his head and looked back at the woman in a white cloak. She reached up and took her hood off, letting a long blonde braid fall over her right shoulder and down over her small chest nearly to her waist. She waved her head and flicked the braid back behind her with the motion. Then she smiled at the teenager who figured she was probably ten years older than him by the looks of it. She had lighter skin than most people in Kazakhstan too, and she had a vertical scar on her right cheek from about the height of the bottom of her nose to down under her chin and onto her neck before it thinned and faded. The other four with Zach all looked at her too, as did the other six still conscious in the bar who wondered what her deal was.

"Who are you?" Zach asked.

"Eloper," she replied. Darling's green eyes narrowed towards the blonde. "Nothing to do with marriage, just the disappear and never come back part," she continued while smiling at the boy in front of her. "My Quirk is Threads," she rose up her arms and they started unraveling. Each millimeter of her arms separated from each other, turning into very thin white loops that curled around extending longer from her body. Her fingers split off in different directions, and thicker strands in her arms broke apart with new strands moving aside and making waving motions to show her control over them. Her hair started to unravel too from her braid, turning white and waving behind her back in a huge mane that spread two feet in every direction behind her skull so there was a big white circle behind her of vibrating Threads.

"Cool, what about it?" Darling asked, frowning and looking down her nose at the woman. Eloper glanced towards the shorter girl who was not nearly as short as La Brava but still shorter than Eloper. That girl had blood all over her face, smeared around yet not looking that threatening as Eloper had seen her trying to get it off only to fail which made it look like that. "You need something?"

"Well, that's what I'm asking," Eloper replied. Darling frowned more but turned away in annoyance. Eloper looked back towards Death and she asked, "If you want my help, I'd love to give it. I was here looking for information on the Wild-Ones. My current target."

"You're a vigilante?" Zach asked.

Eloper hummed and her hair reformed into a braid that fell over the front of her right shoulder again. She looked to the side and at a man whose body was stuck upside-down through a table, then past Death to a man Gentle had slammed through the wall early on in the albeit short fight. "Usually I wouldn't go, this far," she said. "So if that's your definition of a vigilante, I guess I'm not as hardcore as you." She leaned back, and her smile was so unthreatening along with her expression as a whole that Zach wondered if that was why she kept her face shadowed for so long. She was really beautiful too, and her Quirk looked pretty strong to him. Neither of those things really mattered much to him though. "But I could see you guys were holding back pretty hard there so-"

"Do you want to join the Army of Death?" Zach asked.

"Yes," Eloper replied.

"Alright," Zach replied just as fast as she did.

"Whoa, really?" She asked, surprised despite having responded so fast since she was hoping he would ask.

"Yeah," Zach replied. "Could you call up some heroes here, Eloper? And Dastan, you're a witness. A witness to how they tried to rape your daughter like they did these girls. Mention the slaves they had, I'm going to get them somewhere safe. I'll leave their weapons around here for some more evidence, and remember that we never fired a single shot while we were here. That means the men who got hit by bullets and are laying around dying, or already dead-"

"They killed themselves," Dastan finished, understanding where Death was going with this. "Murder, slavery, possession of illegal firearms, rape… They really will, not be coming back here."

"That's right," Zach said. Then he turned and he walked back towards the oldest woman out of the four girls he was about to get out of there. "So, you mentioned they bought you from sex traffickers?" Zach asked, and the woman he questioned looked at him oddly and then with big eyes as she started nodding. Zach glanced to his right over at Gentle and Exodus, then to his left at Darling and La Brava who nodded at him too. Eloper smiled wide behind him, her fists clenching determinedly as the boy turned back to the former slave and finished, "Where?"

---

A/N Thanks for reading! Another long chapter down. The Army of Death continues their crusade around the world. The League of Shadows' fall turns out not to be the complete collapse of villains as the world knows them. Still a lot of work to be done, but the Army of Death is getting more powerful and more determined all the time. I hope you guys enjoyed the long chapter of development for the Army of Death, as well as that fight there at the end. Anyway, review responses:

Naruffoku chapter 117 . Dec 5

Oh my... Oh my GOODNESS! This chapter is sick! It feels so good to see everything like this. Army of death are gonna be like avengers ffs. This got me so hype, thank you for writing.
One thing though. If AoD are not labelled as terrorists anymore, will Zach be able to come back to Japan? I'm pretty sure he's still a criminal for killing Kurogiri, but won't the Japanese people forgive him for that after everything he's done? I'm just asking because Yaomomo is waiting for him.

Oh my Goodness is right! Haha, I'm glad you're so hyped over this. AoD do get re-labeled as terrorists so there goes that plan, as we also see Sero thinking there in the beginning about how as long as there are still villains all over then the AoD is going to be stuck fighting them forever... No spoilers for anything else! XD Thanks for the review!

diddles321 chapter 10 . Dec 5

My second review. I didn't read the chapter before positing my first one. WOW. Im kind of surprised the league of shadows was taken down so easily. I better not get punked and this is some illusion caused by a quirk tampering with a captured heroes mind or something... All I can say is great chapter. Which japanese heroes were present? I read something about Red Riot? Were 1-A members there? Keep up the good work!

Endeavor claimed they were defeated, though that was their main headquarters, a couple of their leaders, their structures... the whole League of Shadows is not completely destroyed, and the villains still have a lot of power, but definitely really happened so no illusions at play here! As for the Japanese heroes present, no one from Class 2-A were there (they're already late in their second year, not 1-A anymore). Suneater just thought about Kirishima for a minute there as he was trying to figure out if it was Lifebringer like he knows Red Riot thinks Death is. The Japanese heroes were: Suneater, Lemillion, Kamui Woods, Ryukyu, Popfire, Endeavor, Olympia, Best Jeanist, Gilgamesh, and that's it I think. Popfire and Olympia are both OCs I made btw. Thanks for the review, and hope you enjoyed the new chapter!

Lief 17 chapter 117 . Dec 5

Well that escalated very quickly. I thought the confrontation with the League of Shadows would be the ultimate showdown/epilogue of this story but BAM! It's done! You created a very big skip which I hope we can get more chapters about to help supplement the plot. Also, I HATE that there are AOD members who died again. Hopefully none of the main members coz it would really, really, reaallllyyyy suck. You're making me feel like I'm playing a RTS game and I just lost a high level platoon I worked hard on in just 1 chapter. I'm very excited with what's in store next. Maybe more about U.A? Raijin? The LOV since I doubt they were in that base. Also the prominent shadow bosses' revenge. Keep up the good work and I hope you have a wonderful December!

BAM! Outta nowhere! Subverting those expectations hard. I didn't actually skip very far at all, as I tried to show that it was not too long after the Kabo thing that happened in the chapter before it. Zach even thought about how he could have waited longer until he had more strength, but instead he went in right after getting the information and just used the villains coming after him to make it a feasible option going after them so early on. He shouted to his people too that it felt like the final battle even though they were just starting. Anyway, Zach thinks about Yusef biting it to one of Eziano's assassins, though we don't really hear about anyone else who I'd named before kicking it during that battle (for good), though Zach's thoughts make it seem like there were a few right at the start... Hope you have a good December too, and thanks for reviewing!

Yes chapter 117 . Dec 5

"Some lost their lives for good"
This means either zach didn't reach them in time, or they had already been killed once. I don't remember who every person who died one time are but if Darling is Dead I'll chuck a peanut at you.
Or I'm misinterpreting that sentence.
I'm also surprised that the entire LoS "arc" was skipped, I had thought such a thing would be a long one, spanning multiple chapters and even being a "end of story" kind of arc.
About zach being a terrorist, I believe that zach will remain a terrorist along with his organisation. It would be quite hard to register them as a Hero society(?), vigilante group or something other than villains, especially since multiple members are already actual villains. And even if he were labelled a vigilante group, certain members probably have high bounties in their home towns, as well as the fact that vigilantes are universally frowned upon. They would be listed as lower priority but still of importance and hunted down anyways.
This also brings us to what will happen to momosaki, Yaomomo would have to join AoD to make this a thing, assuming he isn't somehow labeled a Hero and returned to japan (something he would not willingly do). Pretty much never happening, it's not like they're gonna dump zach back into UA, he's practically a pro at this point.
Also I love darling clearly and want more of her thaannnkkkkssss. (Dont pull a jenny)

Alright, didn't put everything here since it was a huge review. I'll try to respond to a lot though since this is one of the five I'm responding to today! We see Sero at the start there worried about what that "lost their lives for good" thing meant too, and the Army of Death is taking their losses seriously though some new members (Spiral) need a reminder once in a while, from Michael no less. Don't worry, Darling's alive and still trying to sneak in on Zach in the shower ;). The League of Shadows were introduced as the new top of the world, worst villains who wanted the most evil stuff, and that's why Zach went for them as early as possible. He hasn't been holding back against anyone, taking on any groups even if he thinks a research lab might be run by a nation's government, or going after guys like Kabo who claimed to be associated with Shadow Bosses, he's been going hard this whole time. Not all of the LoS are destroyed, and we hear in this one that there are still a few out there, including Eziano. Who knows what will happen in the future? Will Zach ever get back to Japan? What about Darling? Will she be a new Jenny?! XD Thanks for the huge reviews, hope I got most of it in here (what I didn't is probs because I don't want to spoil anything).

Guest chapter 117 . Dec 7

Did you see Kuroi's quirk?! He can merge with black colored things apparently... has that been reflected at any point now that we are starting to know more class 1-b quirks?

Yeah I saw. It looks pretty awesome. I wished I knew what Class B's Quirks were a while back, especially for the Sports Festival Arc which they would have been really good for. I kind of guessed Kuroiro's Quirk a bit a long time back, original training camp and Camino Ward arc. I didn't show it in action much though since I knew there would be a time when the Quirk's true power would be shown and I'd have to either backtrack or just accept it as part of this AU. Anyway, the current arc looks fun, can't wait to see Monoma and Shinso vs Midoriya and Mineta next chapter... (those others too). Thanks for the review!