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!

199. Chapter 199

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 199:

"Far from just about anything out here."

"Stay off comms."

Faint chatter on the open chatter quieted down. The sky was clear, no storm around nor any sign of the Army of Death that were all over the vast expanse of barren landscape. Turbonya was an African country with a low population, and the closest village was two hundred miles away. Due to its low population and therefore low number of pro heroes, the nation with over 200,000 square miles of land was often a haven for villains who hid in the savannah and deserts of its flat countryside.

Locating the base of the villains who the Army of Death were currently searching for was more difficult than just spotting an odd building in the middle of an empty landscape though. "Looks like the Digger's really here," Raylei mentioned softly, while drones high up above the surface scanned over it with their cameras zoomed in far. Thermal readings showed nothing, though she doubted they would be able to spot anything through a ground layer villains would make thick enough to stay hidden below.

"Hasn't been much villain activity in Turbonya lately," Angie added from the command connected on a link with the support team on the Cloak's bridge. "The newest class of heroes caught two different villain groups trying to cross over the border back in October and November. Big timers from different neighboring countries."

"Yeah, we sent them the hint on the October one," Rebel mentioned to the woman on his back-right who spun towards him. Angie then looked back towards her own screens with a semi-embarrassed look though also annoyed at the men behind her for not saying anything before she mentioned it on comms. Rebel took a long sip from a large cola he was drinking out of, and then he mentioned to the people who listened to him slurping over comms, "I've been keeping an eye on ADTF heroes as per usual, Death. Can't get a lock on nine of the African members, with Pongo and Simba Joka notably on foreign missions."

"All the best heroes are constantly helping out overseas nowadays," Rampart remarked. He typed into his own right keyboard and added in a lower voice, "And all the best heroes are ADTF."

"Endeavor?" La Brava wondered, as she was not on the bridge but down in a cloaked transport hovering a hundred feet over the ground they were scanning with better equipment to search for villains underground. "Star-Spangled Man and Blitz too," she added, as those were also two who worried her when she questioned.

"Blitz is guarding the U.S. Secretary of State visiting China. Star-Spangled Man, no information on. He stopped an armored car robbery early this morning though," Rampart added as he found a police report that mentioned his name from Houston, Texas. "Still in the U.S. Unlike Endeavor."

"He's at his hotel in Colombia," Rebel said, relaxed as he found that information easily. "Lemillion is in Japan and I have eyes on him. Same with most of the Japanese heroes in the Task Force: Kamui Woods, Jeanist."

"And Outback Man's set for a press conference in Rome to discuss the joint operation he completed with the Italian heroes yesterday," Angie added. She paused and then looked to drone footage Raylei had transmitted over to them. She imagined down near the ground where Death probably was, and she thought to herself, He's been getting more cautious about the heroes who might come for us than the villains we're supposed to be after lately. The ADTF members are too busy though.

Still over half the ADTF out of their home countries at once, Rebel thought, sipping his soda again and keeping a relaxed smile on his face. His eyes were focused on his screens though, and he frowned after a couple seconds while looking back at the information they had on the villain group who had supposedly enslaved the Digger and were forcing the former League of Shadows' base-creator to build them a massive base underneath Turbonya. And this. What kind of villains go after League of Shadows members? Even not a Shadow Boss himself, Digger was still a higher up. Escaped our first raid. Helped Bolivar and King escape us for months, and he survived the whole Age without being caught. I figured he had to be with Eziano now, but this? It might be worse.

A group strong enough to find Digger before we could, and to force him to work for them, Death refocused on his task at hand, but an uneasy feeling swirled in his chest as he did so. Worse, we only have confirmation of two Turbonyan villains we think are actually here. Last seen heading to this part of the desert, and tracked by a citizen's Quirk only to this general area. Reported to local heroes, who couldn't find anything. And then Mchanga Kivuli went missing. After investigating into what could be happening here. The same area we heard Digger was being forced to dig out a base. Too little information. Too much at risk not to do anything about it.

"What are you thinking?" Firefly wondered to her boss behind her. She was standing up near the chairs at the front of the shuttle, but she turned back and stepped through the narrow hall to where Gentle was standing. They had their dark helmets on already, though some of the ten men and women sitting in the back rows of seats facing each other across the vehicle still had their helmets off. She could see a few anxious looks, though most of them were just doing their own pre-fight prepping. "If we can't locate the base first…"

"We don't have the Quirks to search below ground," Death replied. "We could use the excavators under our Confiscators," he continued, though he frowned in his helmet at the option he offered. "But without a more precise location there's too much area to dig. And we'd give away our positions too, and the fact we know they're down there."

"If I could make a suggestion," Exodus began, speaking over comms to the other Squad Leaders on the channel Death was currently speaking on. "I could go down in disguise. Search angrily, claiming to be friends with Mchanga Kivuli. Wherever they rise to attack me, we invade through."

"Doesn't work very well with a white guy," Firefly said. She waited a few seconds after saying it, then wondered, "Not going to offer on your own?"

"I'm not Exodus. They decide to just start blasting, I have no notion I'm surviving," Blackstar remarked back at the woman clearly calling him out, as he was the only black man among the squad leaders.

"I mean, if I was there," Rebel began, sounding like he was willing but just unfortunately couldn't since he wasn't there.

"Hey look," Raylei cut off everyone with her voice. Screens popped up on all the stations in the command center, on the windshield of the Cloak, and in front of the pilots of each of the smaller vehicles that had left the Cloak with the Army of Death. "Check out the sand, here," Raylei's drone slowed down, and it zoomed in more on sand that was starting to fall into a rectangular hole getting deeper each second. The hole was getting deeper on one side than the other, making it start to look like a ramp descending down into the desert. The environment below them had very sparse grass coming out of the sand, with only a couple of trees every few miles or so, so it looked more like a desert than the savannah, though more of a cross between the two. "Picking up heat signatures," Raylei started.

"Well, we found the base," Firefly remarked back to the soldiers behind her. A couple looked her way first, then they followed suit with the others and put on their helmets.

Vintage pushed the sticks forward and their transport moved towards the coordinates Raylei's image had displayed on the bottom of it. "Gentle," La Brava whispered, on a connection between just her helmet that not even Rebel was a part of (not that he could not jump into it if he really wanted to).

"I know, my dear," Gentle replied to the woman. He switched back to an open channel, "It could be that they are opening the exit because some of them are leaving, or maybe it's to welcome us. Hold positions with eyes on the ground. Look out for any signs of weapons' systems emerging from below the sand."

"Ready for a Temp-Emp at any time," Whiteout informed from her shuttle where Charlie Squad were getting up from their seats around their squad leader. "Just tell me when."

"Stay calm. It's unlikely to be a trap," Death assured his forces. We're hidden. No villains are stupid enough to reveal themselves to Death either. This is exactly what it looks like. Their base's secret entrance opening, so that villains… Gentle watched through the windshield closer, seeing his own transport's zoomed-in camera-image of the ramp leading underground. "Here they come."

"Do we stop the vehicles heading away?" Blackstar wondered, saying it now before the convoy could start driving away. There were two other jeeps behind the first one coming out from below the surface, doorless vehicles with the tops open other than the frame of a cabin that could be put up. There were mostly dark-skinned figures on the vehicles, though there were a pair of Caucasian men in the back seats on the third one farthest back as there did not seem to be any vehicles behind it.

"Facial recognition is not picking up on any of them," Electomuzz growled from the opposite side of the Cloak's bridge as Raylei. The man with yellow fur and a face similar to a dog's darted his eyes back and forth across the screen in front of him where a white square kept zooming in on each of the faces only to come up with no matches. "No criminal records, no social media profiles… grrr," Electomuzz tried zooming back on the ramp underground, but that ramp was closing up now that the vehicles had left it.

"What are we doing, Death?" Dongwu questioned from the pilot's chair of a different shuttle than the one Death was in. He glanced back at Exodus to see what Alpha Leader thought, but Exodus stepped right back to the main exit of the transport and hovered his hand over the button to open the back doors.

"Get ready to drop, Alpha," Exodus ordered.

They're driving away. Right? Death felt a pit in his gut. The vehicles down below had men on them without any firearms, and yet they looked dangerous nonetheless. And that convoy had turned the direction of the closest village after rising to the surface. Alright. "We'll hit the convoy first. Ten seconds after taking it on, Exodus and Alpha go through the ramp and storm their base. Careful of traps."

"Here we go."

"Get up Bravo!"

"Everyone on my signal."

"Stay frosty." Gentle said it and then opened up the back of his transport that became visible to the human eye as he leapt out. This is less intel than we've gone on for any mission in too long. Half of the Army doesn't have enough experience for this, and for the other half it's been a while.

"Move!"

"Off the ship!"

"Epsilon cut off the front car," Blackstar called out. He did a front flip and then curled in his fingers in a way that made the soles of his boots start glowing bright blue. He opened up his fists fast and pointed the glowing blue circles in the palms of his gloves behind him as he shot through the air. The jetpack on his back illuminated brighter, as did the jetpacks on the six members in his team flying in a V formation behind him out of the air. Fly-By was in his group, keeping the team of 7 out of view of everyone outside of fifteen meters from them. The only ones they were visible to were others inside the fifteen meter radius, which was solely their team upon landing until the second the furthest forward vehicle in the three-car convoy drove fifteen meters away from Fly-By, which was only twelve meters from Blackstar already three meters ahead of his comrade closer to those vehicles.

Sand skid up in the air as the driver of the front car slammed on the brakes, to the confusion of the people in the vehicles behind that one who had yet to see Epsilon Squad. They were forced to hit the brakes too though, while also pulling their wheels to either side so one car skid to a stop on the left of the front one and the other rolled to a longer stop on the right side. All three entered Fly-By's range so he stopped using his Quirk, keeping his weapon raised though and aimed at the vehicles in front of him.

"Something's up," Firefly said, flying across the air with Gentle and Revellum up above the vehicles that the rest of their forces surrounded.

"Dropping in," Exodus reported in.

Gentle was more focused on the cars below him than Exodus and Alpha's infiltration of the base. They're afraid. They aren't armed, so I thought their Quirks were- What is it?! Danjuro Tobita was thinking too much. He was contemplating all the options, and he seethed into his own head to prioritize, What is the situation? The villains he examined in those vehicles had stopped, putting their hands up in surrender as they had a large number of firearms aimed at them and dark soldiers moving towards their vehicles from different sides. They aren't bait, Gentle ruled out the option. He knew they could have been sent out there by the villains if the villains knew they were coming, so that the Army of Death would get close and then could be destroyed by a bomb inside one of the vehicles. The looks of fear from those men were because of the Army of Death though. He could see those looks were solely directed at his own men and the weapons they were holding.

They're not villains, Gentle saw it, and yet he still knew as he bounced through the air that the people down below were not being used by villains to draw them out. "Exodus pull up," Gentle ordered hard, before Exodus would have hit the entrance Alpha leader was getting ready to smash straight through.

"Pull up," Exodus ordered the others with him.

"Above us!"

"Above you!"

La Brava snapped her head up from where she stood in front of a team of taller soldiers at her back on the right side of the three vehicles full of unknown African villains. Her eyes rose up, then darted back down before most of the others with her. Who are they? She thought while everyone else focused on what their attentions had been drawn to in that instant. She watched several expressions change instantly, but not all of them. Seven making moves. Hidden inside the people they used as bait. They aren't afraid, and the people aren't afraid of them. Heroes.

No one else has this kind of power, Gentle knew it from the look up while his partner knew it from what she saw of the bait team that drew them out. Gentle's breath came in calmly and released slowly as he started dropping out of the air using gravity, which was slower than all the emerging vehicles lowering from the sky above their own visible transports. We've been had.

"How did they…" Rampart muttered while staring at drone footage with his eyes huge. He was leaned forward in his seat as much as Rebel and Angie, and every pilot of a transport and member of the support team back on the bridge of the Cloak, watching as the majority of the Army were ambushed by dozens of Super Jets and heroes who popped out of holes in the ground outside of the encircling circle the AoD had around the bait cars.

As Gentle fell, he wondered what he could have done differently to avoid this situation. So many of the ADTF they were constantly tracking were so far away at the moment, and yet he could see heroes he recognized among them jumping out of hiding spots all over the desert from below the sand. Others like Endeavor, Star-Spangled Man, Blitz, and Outback Man he saw dropping from the jets above that had been cloaked as well as their own ships had to have avoided all their scanners.

Endeavor dropped out of the air with flames pushing down on his back to speed him up towards the ground. The Army of Death were looking up and though he could not see inside their helmets, he imagined the panicked and confused expressions on their faces. For months, Todoroki Enji had been gradually spending more and more time overseas even as the Army of Death had made fewer and fewer public appearances. His time abroad had less and less to do with the Army of Death, and more to do with his work as the top hero of Japan, one of the top heroes in the world, and an envoy of the Japanese hero society. He was not the only one of the top heroes of a nation to do this, with many of the ADTF spending more time overseas, much of that time on missions that would complete with great results over and over, showing that these overseas missions were not a ruse, but just a change in the way things were.

As much as the departure of several heroes from the ADTF had been very publicized and discussed throughout the news, the ADTF was much, much larger than it had ever been. The Army of Death's sixty or so members down on the ground or just above could see over two hundred heroes already emerging in the ambush. Although a few new members declared their entry into the Task Force after certain times the AoD had passed through their country leaving several villains' bodies behind, Endeavor had others keep their involvement secret. It was how he was able to set an ambush despite missing dozens of his ADTF who he needed to have in public places and with their locations known on that day. However, many of those whose locations were known to the public were also there, due to the cooperation of high level diplomats who heroes like Blitz could get to say he was still on protection detail of even though he had left the Secretary of State's side hours earlier. It was thanks to the cooperation of locals who Mchanga Kivuli had assisting him because of their anonymity and lack of any criminal records or online profiles.

Mchanga had emerged from the sand he had been hiding over a hundred heroes below as well. The "missing" hero of the region arose with a force of heroes to surround the Army of Death in just seconds after their convoy of bait cars full of his countrymen and Quirk-disguised heroes had been surrounded.

It was clear from the force of heroes around them and how prepared they were for this too, that the Digger was not there. It was a rumor spread and a tip given to the Army of Death, in order to bring them exactly where Endeavor wanted them to be. Press conferences set in locations around the world would be cancelled as the heroes supposed to be there soon were countries away. Many heroes supposedly off-duty or in their offices had sidekicks wearing disguises at their desks, or ones using Quirks to make them look like their pros. The Army of Death knew where these heroes should be and yet those very heroes were descending on them or surrounding them at that very moment. It was a plan that could only work with heroes gradually shifting the methods in which they carried out missions, how they operated overseas, and with the cooperation and support of dozens of governments and hundreds of people sworn to secrecy who could be trusted to keep the plans from Death or anyone who may support them…

Of course, it was also one of the many plans that Death had seen could be coming and planned countless counters against. As Death was landing on the ground, he said in a calm voice to his troops, "Scenario Bravo."

"It's a trap," Evader whispered in shock as she finally got over looking up and seeing all those top heroes dropping towards her. Then she gulped and a hardened expression covered her face at what Death said next.

"Protocol 1." Death ordered.

"I'm firing missiles!" Raylei yelled, typing quickly into her keyboard, popping open a glass panel next to her and slamming on the button. She used all sixteen fingers typing into her keyboards while four others ran into the support room, and Electomuzz yelled at them to get on the weapons' systems. "B-12 MRMs locked and fired on each squad leader's current coordinates! Get out of there!"

As the mid-range missiles fired out of the Cloak hidden high in the sky and far from the assault location, Death hit the ground running, "Here they come! Endeavor!" He Elasticized the ground below him and bounced up towards the man he just yelled to. "Get your men away from here!"

"Missiles are inbound on our location!" La Brava yelled in panic while pulling out a laptop, opening it up and then throwing it to the ground as if the extra weight was going to slow her down too much as she ran.

"MOVE BACK!" Blackstar yelled at the heroes behind him, swinging his rifle around onto his back and waving a hand for his soldiers to sprint away from the vehicles they had surrounded. He turned back while his soldiers ran away from him, and he yelled at the group in the vehicles in front of him, "Get out of those jeeps! They've been targeted- FUCK!" Blackstar reached to his belt and popped open a flare he tossed forward, just a little ways away from his position where a missile was heading, but a more useful location for the toss to convince the people in those vehicles to get out and run. "Drive away or get out and run!"

"Wh-What's going…" Mchanga was grinning as he emerged from the sand. They had the Army of Death surrounded seconds after the Army of Death surrounded their bait cars, but seconds after that trap had beens sprung the Army of Death were scattering and yelling about something completely different.

"Missiles?" Outback Man repeated what he just heard shouted by people below he was dropping towards. "What did they-"

"Holy shit! They're right!" Crack yelled from up on one of the Super Jets. "We have several bogeys flying fast on this position. We need to move..."

When Gentle bounced on the ground below his feet it was tough because of the sand. He sprung up though with a harder push down on his feet than he would have to on a more solid ground, and he did not look in any way or posture to be attacking Endeavor who he was rising to. All the yells happening at once did not disorient Endeavor at all, as much as his ADTF were getting panicked at the confusing course of events. This Death soldier's reaction showed he was expecting Endeavor's arrival though, again. Inside of the ambush Endeavor had planned on the Army of Death in an empty landscape, again. As much as he felt he had flipped things from the first time this happened, the feeling of deja vu was not felt by Endeavor alone.

This time though, the Army of Death were not waiting on top of some enemy base for the ADTF to arrive and help them. This time, something was attacking them. "It's the League of Shadows," Gentle said, his voice deep and modulated as he told it to the leader of the ADTF before him who recognized the Quirk this man just used. Endeavor also noticed though he was not wearing a purple cape, nor did his visor have a dark purple tint to it. His focus was pulled from this recognition though at what the soldier who rose to him so quickly said. "Those civvies are in danger," Gentle continued while rising up a little above Endeavor to the top of his own arc, then lowering back just below the rest of the ADTF falling above where Endeavor had shot down quickest.

"Did he say League of Shadows?!"

"Missiles are one minute out!" Revellum yelled, flying down and grabbing Ledge who jumped and held his hands up to get his hands grabbed. "Moving to flanking position-"

"We have twenty Stealth Carriers dropping from eighty thousand feet!" La Brava yelled out, her voice being blasted out of her helmet's speakers.

"They're here!"

"MOVE!"

Endeavor snapped his head down, then he dropped to the ground fast just as Gentle was about to touch back down onto the sand too. "Everyone move from the flares," Endeavor ordered, as no matter what else was going on, there were missiles incoming and the Army of Death seemed to know where their exact targets were based on the flares they had tossed around. He saw one of the flares over near the fake entrance of the base that another squad of Army of Death soldiers had been surrounded by another few dozen of his own ADTF heroes. He spun towards the man next to him who started running from the convoy that was being abandoned, while Star-Spangled Man changed direction instead of diving down with the others to instead fly back up and order their jets to a safe distance away for now.

"How?" Endeavor asked, stunned but then wiping it from his face in the next instant. "How" doesn't matter right now! "Is it Eziano Mozcaccio?" Endeavor asked, his voice intense and focused as he thought of the one man who could possibly put something together like this. All the top heroes and the Army of Death at once. If those missiles have payloads large enough, they could take all of us out. "When the missiles explode, get your barriers up around as many people as possible, Gentle Criminal."

"That is not who I am," Danjuro replied, his voice deep, modulated, and semi-annoyed at the hero for his assumption.

"Wait- stop running-" a young man's voice cut off and he spun to the side. Olympia, Endeavor's top sidekick, had grabbed the inexperienced American rookie hero by the back of his shirt and tugged him away as the teen started raising his arms to try and stop the Army of Death members running right towards them.

"Fucking move!" Olympia yelled, as she had had to run back for him as he was holding his ground instead of running like all the other heroes already were.

"Why?! What's going on?"

"This happened before!"

"If it's really the League again-"

"I thought we destroyed the League?!"

"Is it Eziano?" Endeavor asked again, demanding an answer from the higher-up in the AoD so he could relay information to the hundreds awaiting orders and information.

"The other Bosses' subordinates remaining recovered it and are trying to finish us off," was the dark soldier's response.

By including 'finish us off,' I leave the connotation that we have already been weakened by them. That our forces you see down here are all that remains of us. That we are on the defensive and needed your help, which is why I walked right into your trap so I could get your help when they come to finish me off.

The Army of Death appeared weak. Compared to the massive force of heroes, and based on the panicked tones of their voices yelling about the attacks on their positions, they were weaker than both the League of Shadows and the ADTF. The Army of Death running yelled at the heroes they ran to and then with or right past, vague things about the enemies who had them surrounded.

Firefly flew down and grabbed one of her comrades by the hands. "We need to get in a flanking position for their landing!" She yelled while picking him up.

"Bravo Squad get to RP Theta!"

"Jesus, every time we see them," a low voice started in English. Ryukyu looked to her right at Michelangelo who had landed with Metallore and were both running together away from the flares and the jeeps about to be blown apart. She had the civilians who were helping them out riding on her wings and back as she ran on all four claws across the sand. She could not move at her top speed, but she needed to make sure the people they had asked for help would not fall off. "It's always something huge," Michelangelo continued with a glance back behind him, causing others to look that way too where the missiles were about to come down with an unknown blast radius.

"Do we have any chance of shooting them down before they hit- Ryukyu!" Popfire yelled, causing her pro to spin back forward at her sidekick's panicked shout.

The civilians and a few of the heroes running away were immediately confused and looked around wondering what just happened. Ryukyu, Popfire, Metallore, Michelangelo, and Jedenwurst knew though. Jedenwurst felt the biggest pit form inside him, as this was something he recalled himself from not that long ago in Germany. Little did he know that the fake cop from that time was one of the members of Epsilon who ordered Fly-By to start using his Quirk again once he was sure the distance they had made between themselves and the heroes was enough.

The fact that Blackstar was the one who tossed the flare closest to the group of bait heroes in face-altering disguises and civilians, meant that the heroes closest to them were the ones who went to protect and save those people. The Army of Death not turning to help those people made sense, considering they were surrounded by heroes and those "villains" themselves were possibly all heroes too who could be expected get themselves out of there. And one last thing that had given them the time to get out of the heroes' range on that side of the ambush, were the initial shouts Blackstar made: first yelling at the people to get out of the jeeps, then giving them the option of running or driving away after some had already jumped out and were running. The people became confused as they were given the choice, and with the heroes still unsure as to what was going on themselves, they were caught moving back and forth, yelling at each other to try and figure out the play. Should they run back and then try driving away, they might be too slow to start up the cars and get out of there than if they just kept running, but then again maybe just running would not get them far enough from the blast radius of whatever kinds of bombs were on their ways.

"Couldn't you blow the missiles up before they come down?" Gentle questioned Endeavor, who was running with that AoD member in the opposite direction that Ryukyu just lost sight of several members herself.

Star-Spangled Man looked down from above, in the part of the sky that their ships were flying away from but he remained in. He flew there looking down at the flying dark soldiers and how they had each picked up comrades of theirs to lift in the air and fly away with, again.

Endeavor looked back at the man who just asked him that question. "Couldn't you block them, and bounce them away…" He could. He could! Endeavor realized very quickly, that it was not a possible response of this man but rather what should have been his initial reaction. He knows that should we stop the attack together, his forces are still going to be captured. He knows that that's what we're here for, and he's trying to make me choose again-

"Endeavor! I've lost sight of the AoD around me-"

"It looks to me more like they're escaping, than trying to fight-"

Endeavor's fists glowed, and Gentle swung his right arm up to his side early at the man next to him whose comms had been tapped into by Rebel and were now filling his own helmet. Endeavor slammed his right fist into the Gently Rebound the second Gentle got it up, though his fist still pushed so far into it that it hit Gentle and knocked him one way before the barrier bounced Endeavor even farther the opposite direction. "Arrest them!" Endeavor yelled. His teeth ground as he darted his eyes behind him, seeing confused looks on the faces of several of the heroes who were talking about changing plans, the League of Shadows, missing villains they thought could be responsible for this attack, etc.

The shift in mission goal had happened so reactively to the ADTF members who recalled the siege on the League of Shadows' old headquarters. The newer members who watched the more experienced heroes and veteran members of the force followed their leads while having the realizations that they did not understand what was happening here. Many of them had even come to existential understandings of the relationship between the ADTF and AoD to suddenly be able to work together against a common enemy like this.

It was too hard to suddenly realize all that, and then get back into the idea that the people who were running with them and yelling about other villains were actually their real enemies here. What was worse was the fact that so many of the dark soldiers had gone missing. Worse than that was the thought some of them had now about shouts of "RP Theta" and "RP Gamma," where they now wondered if RP meant 'rendezvous point' and that the Army of Death were actually fleeing to positions they had planned out beforehand in case of need for evac or immediate retreat. The heroes had sent their jets away, while Death's transports in the air that had become invisible again after dropping off the AoD soldiers had lowered to those RP positions and were picking up soldiers.

"Bring the jets back! We may have to give chase!"

"Those sneaky bastards," Outback Man muttered, spinning around him and realizing there weren't any dark soldiers in his vicinity despite how when he jumped off his jet he had focused on a few to drop right next to. What was I even thinking about?! How'd I lose them?

"There really are missiles though!" Crack yelled out. "Stay away from those marked locations!"

Endeavor glared forward into the dark figure before him's eyes. "You fired missiles on your own location?"

"I just noticed you were about to attack me, even though we have bigger fish to fry!" Gentle yelled out in English, like that was the only reason he swung up a Gently Rebound there. His yell made more of the heroes running towards him and Endeavor wonder if they still had no idea what was happening here.

"Don't screw with me," Endeavor snarled, his eyes darkening and his flaming eyebrows narrowing down at his enemy. "You are under arrest, terrorist."

"It's all a trick!"

"Scatter! Find those members who just disappeared!" Ryukyu yelled around. "We have reason to believe that if we get close, we'll be able to see them again!"

"Move faster," Blackstar hissed at the others near him as they scampered away from the scary dragon lady who was absolutely right. They moved quickly though trying to keep their footsteps light so as not to move around the sand on each step which those heroes would be able to see, even if their group was invisible.

"Don't listen to any of them!" Endeavor ordered in a loud bellow that echoed across all the comms of his own men and the AoD. "The only ones here are the Army of Death. Capture them!"

"Sir! We're losing them."

"They're escaping!"

"We have three cornered over here."

"Chasing another seven to the west of your location. They're ahead of us but we're catching up- Hey! A Super Jet just landed right in front of them and uncloaked itself! Move faster!"

"Our jets are coming back!"

"Everyone stay away from those flares!"

Gentle turned his head to the west, then he faced back towards Endeavor with his expression dark in his helmet matching Endeavor's. "I won't let you get away this time," Endeavor growled. Where is Death? He should be using his Quirk to allow his comrades to escape. Why is the Gentle Criminal the one stalling me?! Endeavor bit down harder as he glared at the figure before him, then he shot up in the air with a blast of heat coming out of his feet. Flames shot out of his upper back and shoulders next, sending him down over the barrier he imagined was still between him and his enemy.

Fast, Gentle knew the hero had tremendous speed, but Endeavor redirected himself before Gentle was even able to start moving or planning for what Endeavor's attack might be.

The direction he initially started dodging got three thin lines of flames cutting through the sand there in different places and slicing across making it impossible to take one full step that way. So the half-step Gentle made, he kicked down hard on the floor in front of him and bounced himself the opposite direction. Endeavor hit the ground where Gentle just was and shot forward at the man whose dodge he expected because it was what he planned for by blocking the opposite way so close to him. Endeavor covered a fist in flames and slammed it forward into Gentle's stomach, only for his right arm to bounce backwards with his whole momentum swinging him back too to stumble backwards while he sent Gentle flying off his fist and then bouncing away over and over on the sand.

Gentle finally flipped onto his feet after the fifth bounce, and he skid across the sand dragging a ton of it up in the air. He swung his left hand in front of him, sending an invisible Gently Rebound diagonally in the air in the middle of Endeavor's path that bounced him thirty feet to his left upon slamming into it. Endeavor barely slowed down though, spinning in midair and then pointing his hands down below him to keep elevated while heat blew out of the soles of his feet and sent him skyrocketing towards the AoD member he slammed a fist forward at. At the last second though, Endeavor opened up his hand and fired a ball of flames out around the man instead of punching him again.

"Even your flames," Gentle said from inside them, and he bounced up high out of the flames and looked down at the man who stood in front of that blaze. "I can repel away just as easily."

"Their jet swooped down and the three in front of us flew up onto it. Their suits can all fly."

"I'm giving chase," Star-Spangled Man said, shooting over the heads of the group who had cornered those three AoD members only to lose them. The top American hero was not going to let them escape though, not in a Super Jet. That jet was not as cloaked as the other vehicles to the point that he could easily see its silhouette in the air and the people on top of it who were not made invisible at all in a cockpit left wide open to fit them all. "They will not get away."

"Their jets are chasing after us! We can't bring them back to the Cloak-"

"Shit. They're in our comms," Raylei relayed.

"And we're in theirs," La Brava replied. "Which means everyone can hear everyone, doesn't it?" She said it sarcastically, though that was actually a very big problem they all had.

"We're not going to let you get away from here."

"Not this time."

"You terrorists will be arrested right here, right now."

Maelstrom took off her helmet and cracked her neck to either side. She pressed a button on her control panel, and the back of the Cloak started opening up. No one questioned what she was doing. No one in the Army of Death was speaking anymore. There was only one order left they were all waiting for. Maelstrom did not care about a lack of orders though. The back of the Cloak opened, and she nodded out the cockpit at the man next to her sleek plane who pulled a level and disconnected the locks keeping her one-woman jet in place.

The single jet shot out of the Cloak, and she rose up high in the air that was filling with some thick white clouds all of a sudden.

Raylei watched as Maelstrom flew out, then she went back to typing into her computers with her blocky forehead all wrinkled up. Her rectangular fingers typed away so fast it was a blur to others on the bridge, and she bit her bottom lip while going through all the data she had and everything that had happened leading to this event. It still doesn't make sense. The tip was vague. Mchanga Kivuli disappeared on the other side of the country. We narrowed down where Digger could be on our own. If the tip had been too specific, we would have known it was a trap after all! Yet then, how did they get us in the exact location they wanted for their trap?! The bait works, sure. It makes sense. But- but what?!

Rebel hummed and shook his head again, tsking and tapping his fingers on the edge of his desk instead of typing like the other two in the command center. Angie darted her eyes towards him over and over again, but she kept her mouth shut at the look on Rebel's face so focused it was so unlike him. The problem is, we could scan a large area. We were scanning a large area. For the bait convoy to have emerged when it did, they already knew we were there. Yet it's very fucking clear when our transports disappeared, and by their failure to have anyone surrounding the Cloak right now, that they cannot locate our ships. They wanted us to come out into the open, but they knew Death could see that hole in the ground. They knew he would see it in the moment those vehicles left, which means they knew when… Could be a Quirk. It could just be a Quirk.

Rebel did not order either of the others with him to change what they were doing. Instead, he changed his channel to one private just between him and Raylei. "Check all those heroes for a Quirk that could have told if our guys were above them. They knew you were directly above before they started the trap."

"And you?"

"Doing the same, but for each of their agency's sidekicks and support who could still be in hiding," Rebel replied. Raylei got to it without saying another word to the man who just told her he would doing easily five times as much work as he asked her to do. Hundreds of heroes from all over the world, with various methods of keeping records on their staff and their staff's Quirks, various different levels of hacking ability needed to break into their agencies' systems after first locating each and every one of all their agencies worldwide, and translating all of the folders on them…

We have to figure it out before they get to the Cloak, Raylei and Rebel both thought it in similar ways.

Death, you have to get out of there, Firefly thought, standing in the back of her shuttle and staring out the open back door towards jets that were flying in her direction. We're getting separated.

"There's barely anyone left back there," Blackstar said, his helmet off as he climbed on a ship that was landed with its door pointed away from all the heroes who would not be able to see inside like this. "Death's distracting them."

"Yeah, a few of them," Oslope muttered out, then gasped again as the biggest member of Epsilon had just sprinted like his life depended on it to keep up with all the others on the way here.

I won't let him get caught down there, Revellum thought. Having dropped off two different members he picked up by swooping down on the initial scatter, he was now watching one man from above where he was invisible to only the flying heroes near him.

Revellum, get out of there, Evader thought while staring farther and farther back each second from her fleeing jet. I won't be able to keep you hidden for much longer… But, get Death too!

He's all alone now, Exodus curled his hands into fists, glancing over his shoulder once in the direction their leader was. Missiles flew by the side of their ship, and he turned around more fully. With the wrath of the heroes about to be directed solely at him.

Weapons long banned by UN conventions dropped in the Turbonyan desert. Explosions ripped apart vehicles that had been driven by civilians mere minutes ago, blasts caused by missiles fired while those assisting civvies were still inside those vehicles. The Army of Death who had tricked them into giving up their tactical advantage were fleeing but not fast enough that the jets they had called back after sending away for only thirty to forty seconds could not catch up to them. Endeavor stood before one of the AoD, a man who was now surrounded as other heroes had run around and flown above where the guy had landed ten meters from Endeavor.

Gentle just stared at Endeavor as the missiles flew over their heads on downwards arcs. Endeavor was not afraid of the explosions. "The blasts won't be big," Endeavor said right before they had hit down, making sure the others with him did not take their eyes off this man for a second.

"We're heading after them!" A yell came out over the explosions.

"All jets land and pick up as many heroes as you can in twenty seconds."

"If you think they'll escape..." Endeavor started, while the ground shook and the sound of the blasts ripped though the air. The force slammed into them along with the noise a couple seconds before the sand and smoke was going to hit.

In the sound of that blasts though, between what Endeavor just started with and however he was going to finish, Gentle yelled, "Whiteout!"

"E.M.P!" Whiteout screamed, pulling her arms in and glowing the brightest white. The pulse pulled inside her in a single core, and then it erupted out in a massive sphere that extended in all directions of her from the plane that had lingered farthest back of all the jets.

Star-Spangled Man pulled back, his arms lifting and crossing in front of his eyes as he was blinded. "Ahhh," he gasp-yelled, turning away but seeing nothing but white in his vision.

"Oh shit-" Crack pulled up on the sticks, but she had lost control of the jet that she was landing right next to a group of fifteen heroes who were waiting for her.

Other heroes who had just piled into jets yelled at the pilots, but the batteries on all their vehicles were dead. The fleet of heroes' ships that just arrived back on the scene had all landed though, or were barely above the ground where they had been hovering down to so they only dropped a little with harsh jolts for the heroes inside. The bright white light slammed into Gentle and the twenty-four heroes surrounding him, though none of them were blinded as much as most of the other heroes who turned towards that flash were. They had been engulfed in a cloud of sand and smoke after all, and Gentle shot up out of that cloud with a strong bounce a second after everything happened at once.

Just what you'd expect, he thought in dread, as almost half of those heroes followed him out of the smoke or descended at him in the air.

"Elasta-armor," Gentle said aloud this time, re-surrounding himself in Elasticity. He swung his arms upwards, blocking each of the heroes descending on him. The one with wings bounced off, while the other spiraled in the air around where she suspected correctly the Gently Rebound had just appeared. She front-flipped as she was about to hit Gentle first, and the enemy who tried to intercept her had turned around and looked down at his other enemies when he thought he had blocked her.

Her foot bounced back up after she kicked it into the skull of the man bouncing subtly on air, but her kick did send his head flying down over the front of his body that did a flip on the kick. He hit his own Elasticized air that had been below his bouncy feet though, bouncing his body back up right as Endeavor shot around his barriers too and punched a fireball at him. Flames bounced around inside barriers that were popping up all over, though Endeavor moved around the barriers staying on the outside, throwing more and more flames in at the man trying to find a way out of his own corner that got harder to escape each second.

He'll be cooked! Revellum shot out of the air, the same instant he had left Evader's range.

"DEATH!"

Gentle shot out of the one hole he had in his barriers, straight at Endeavor who was waiting for him with arms spread out like he was going in for a bear hug. First Gentle's eyes shot open wide inside his helmet, as the set-up Endeavor was in right now seemed silly and yet also made him feel a pit of dread that it was actually possible that it would work. Then Endeavor's eyes opened wide, as he had noticed the person high above him but was not too focused on him yet. Death? Gentle's eyes grew even wider at that moment too, his teeth baring and both arms at his sides snapping forward fast in that instant he had Endeavor the slightest amount off guard. Endeavor moved forward and swung his arms in, but the barrier emerged between the two of them and bounced Endeavor backwards instead.

This is the worst possible outcome, Gentle thought, while his gear rebooted and his HUD turned back on.

"The delay's too long!" Vintage yelled, while pulling up on the sticks as hard as he could. The ship dropped steeper and the nose was dipping down towards the ground. He had brought his transport up high before the flash though, knowing beforehand how long the reboot would take.

All of the AoD ships had lost their cloaking in the EMP. The heroes who were first worried about losing their enemies had become worried for them instead, as their enemies who were trying to run instead of fight them dropped out of the sky from an EMP blast that knocked out all of their own ships as well. Whiteout could not direct her Electromagnetic Pulses to only target enemy electronics, after all.

However, the Army of Death prepared since the last time. Whiteout had died once inside a ship that had no defenses, that was crashed on the ground, that had been her home which her power had ultimately destroyed. The destruction of the Cloak was necessary the last time though, as her EMP had evened the odds with all the villains at the Villain Summit who had ridiculous amounts of powerful weapons and ships at their disposal. In preparation for another battle like that though, in order to not just even things up with their enemies, but to get back the upper hand, they had taken Whiteout's power into account with every piece of technology they built from the Villain Summit on. So even though her EMP shut everything down, all their ships and all their own personal gear restarted only seconds after the power was cut off.

"How in the… world?"

"There they go," Popfire said, leaning back on the edge of their ship with a sigh.

Metallore spun to the Japanese girl only slightly older than him, then he looked back in the direction of the Army of Death's disappearing ships. He wanted to argue with her that it was not over yet. Their ships were all useless though. Their communications were down and they could no longer hear what their enemies were talking about. His expression did not shift very discouraged though. Instead he turned his head and looked to the closest jet to his own where he had seen another hero his own age but from Japan get on. This isn't over, thanks to him.

"Death," Endeavor said, looking up at the man in front of him who bounced backwards behind his barrier and stared straight back through it at Endeavor.

"Fly back to the Cloak, Revellum. Now," Death ordered it in a darker tone than the man flying behind his leader expected, but he backed up and then turned and flew off as fast as he could.

"Don't let those two escape!"

"Get them and the rest will come back!"

Endeavor heard the shouts behind him, but his focus was narrowing more and more on the man in front of him. His vision was getting blurry in the corners, his breath getting heavier and showing as he panted while staring at his enemy who would not tear his gaze off the leader of the ADTF either. Endeavor was putting the pieces together in his head, which Death could see and made the dark soldier grind his teeth in growing rage and regret. Gentle curled his left middle finger in while keeping his ring finger intentionally held out as best he could keep it while doing that. The cloth on the inside of his left elbow pulled away, and he slammed his right hand towards that soft skin with a needle gripped tightly in hand.

"Get him!" Star-Spangled Man yelled, as he was helping surround the dark figure closest to them after flying back thinking he might need to catch one of their ADTF's falling jets. The pilot of that jet had managed to land upright even though it had been the highest one up when the flash hit though, so Star-Spangled Man changed his objective. He was coming up from behind on the soldier of the ADTF who he also knew as one who had been there at their very first interaction. He charged at that member with the elastic barriers, and he bounced off the air as Gentle flicked his left hand backwards after injecting with that Quirk-enhancing drug.

Ryukyu flapped her wings and shot through the air towards the man. Endeavor pushed his hands forward, and ten other heroes shot off the ground or attacked the man who just shot up like that. Gentle pushed his hands out in front of him with his thumbs touching, then he pulled his hands apart quickly to create the most massive invisible barrier that he could. He pushed forward with both hands and bounced backwards off it and at the same time also up in the sky. He swung both hands down, then to his left and right. He kicked both feet in front of him while in the middle of a backflip, pushing them against a Gently Rebound he formed behind a half dozen other boundaries of Elasticity. He kicked off after his legs pushed far in, and he shot off like a missile into the distance. Star-Spangled Man flew up to try and intercept him, only to hit an invisible Elastic barrier in midair as Gentle Elasticized the air exactly where he thought Star-Spangled Man would try to fly up after him.

Four more Gently Rebounds were sent down through the air targeted at spots around where Star-Spangled Man would be bounced with that first bounce, so when the top American hero recovered quickly and spun to give chase, he just bounced right back to where he just was. He turned to his right as he realized the enemy had planned for his second move, and he flew into Gentle's second trap, bouncing him straight into the third one meant as a trap that bounced him down into the sand. The American hero hit on his hands and knees, flipping himself over at the last second to land like that instead of flat on his back. He lifted his head from his hands and knees and looked up into the distance, where his enemy flew off faster and faster with bounces faster than he could fly himself. Once he gets in a cloaked ship…

On The Cloak, the AoD ships were arriving one after the other just above a white cloud, one of many scattered throughout the sky. In the meantime, not too far from where the Cloak was awaiting all its arrivals, darker clouds were forming. Dozens of soldiers emptied out of ships and fastened them into the hangar, while also yelling about the trap they had just walked right into. The Cloak had gone closer to the scene but stayed just out of Whiteout's range until the Temp Emp so it would never lose its cloaking and get spotted by the heroes.

As everyone was yelling and arguing about those events that had been very dangerous, Raylei and Rebel yelled over the rest of them. "They're tracking you!"

"We don't know how they're doing it, but they knew you guys were up there before they sent that bait out so generously," Rebel added, speaking sarcastically when he mentioned the heroes' generosity. "Scans of the Cloak are showing nada though!"

"We aren't seeing any of them who have Quirks that could be following…"

Gentle and La Brava could hear the entire open channel and the yelling conversations going on, but the two of them were speaking on a more private channel too. Rebel was in on this one though, as Gentle said to his partner quietly, "Endeavor heard Revellum call me Death. We fought, and he put together what has happened."

"No way," Rebel muttered, moving his head back from his computer and then lifting a hand and rubbing his forehead. He rubbed harder, grinding his teeth angrily which caused the other two in the command to stare at him with huge eyes at the reaction. FUCK!

La Brava stepped away from the others she had gotten off a jet with, and she put her head against the closest wall to her with a gasp slipping out her lips. The short woman shrugged off the hand of a man behind her asking what was wrong, snapping, "Get to the bridge and help find the tracker!" Zach. I'm sorry. We should have, we should have seen this coming.

"I'm bringing the storm with me," Maelstrom reported in to the Army who quieted down at her voice. "I'm taking an Ultra-Jet 2.1 to lead the heroes off in a storm. I'll shake them off once they chase me, but in the meantime find and get rid of whatever's tracking us."

"We need a coordinated search," Raylei ordered, as more and more people were filing up into the bridge. "Squad leaders, send your teams around the Cloak to search every inch. Our scanners aren't picking up on anything…"

On the bridge, several of the people who just arrived ran off again or awaited orders from squad leaders. One large man who stepped inside came closer to Raylei though. Alpha Squad's leader stared down at the computer screens Raylei had up that she was doing scans on and yelling at as nothing was coming up. Ralyei continued on the open channel, "Everyone think of all your recent interactions with the ADTF. The last few times we've met with them, do you remember any of them doing anything to you? Think on any interactions you have had with heroes over the last several months. Heroes who could have…"

Raylei turned her head to the right. There were 16 people still on the bridge of the Cloak, and one of those people just reached up and started taking off his uniform. Exodus took off his tight black shirt, and everyone in the room stared at the body of the man most scarred-up of anyone in the entire organization. Some people like Raylei knew though, that many of his scars were from before he joined as well. Exodus took off his costume and lay it flat on the counter next to Raylei's keyboards at the edge of her work station on the third row back on the left side of the bridge. I thought he quit the ADTF. He was no longer a member on the oil rig. I saw him down there. I saw, Suneater.

Exodus paused. He stared down at the back of his uniform, and he closed his eyes and thought back on the oil rig. He thought of the young man who he had saved, who had fought alongside him through that night. They had talked. And there had been one moment in it, where the man behind him had… Exodus reached down and scratched at the top right of his uniform near the back of his shoulder. The black fabric looked the same as everywhere else on his costume. He burnt through the glove on his right hand though, an action that alone made everyone in the bridge stare at him with much wider eyes as he destroyed the glove instantly. He no longer had his helmet on either but clipped down on his waist, and his expression was cold and emotionless, yet somehow livid all the same as he scratched his nails on his costume on the spot he remembered being tapped by a young hero.

I thought nothing of it, Exodus thought, and yet it had been the first thing that came to his mind when he saw Tamaki Amajiki at this ambush. We fought the same enemy. We were saving hostages, and fighting villains… Exodus' fears, became reality. He dug his fingers under a crease that had not been there until he was digging so hard for a few seconds. He stopped, and others who had stepped close stared with huge eyes as he clenched on that piece he started lifting up. Exodus peeled it away, revealing a faint red glow underneath a tiny piece of black fabric that looked identical to what their costumes were made out of. The moment he stripped it off too, Raylei's computers started blaring with alarms on alert as the scans picked up the tracker hidden by whatever had been stuck to his costume.

"Whatever they covered it with," Raylei began as she faced her computer and started typing again. She spoke in a low voice, "It must have been getting around our defenses-" she turned her head to the right, as a flash of white light showed Exodus curling his fist around the tracker he pulled out and incinerated. He then lifted up the small spherical piece of fabric that had been covering it up, glared at it so harshly for a moment, then he lowered it and looked into Raylei's eyes while holding it out for her.

Raylei lifted up her right hand, staring at it in surprise that Exodus did not just destroy it all. Then she grinned as she took it from him. "You're right," she said to the man who had not said a word. "We should try to figure out the make-up and reverse engineer it." Exodus nodded at her, and then he turned away. Raylei lowered her grin with a sadder look spreading over her face as she watched him walk away. Others around the room looked to the huge man whose expression was as stoic as always, but no one wanted to mention anything to him as they could feel the anger radiating off his body.

"It was you, Exodus?" Gentle's voice came through frustratedly and in a scolding tone.

"Suneater. At the oil rig," Exodus replied to Death speaking to him on his way back to the Cloak, the last one now that Revellum was waiting just inside the hangar. "I didn't…"

"Endeavor fought Gentle," La Brava said to the man who was in the link just between the squad leaders. "And heard him get called, 'Death.' He knows now."

Rebel and Gentle both grimaced at what she just said to him. La Brava felt it was harsh too, but she yelled, "You should've checked yourself after each fight for trackers! Especially after interacting with ADTF members!"

"To be fair, Suneater shouldn't have been part of the ADTF anymore," Blackstar mentioned.

"It was Exodus?!" Maelstrom exclaimed. "Hahaha- sorry. Sorry. Not funny, but if anyone-"

Rebel cut off Maelstrom who was finding it too ironic that Exodus had been the one to mess up. Mica was not one to usually help out when someone was getting poked fun of or joked at the expense of. The silence from Exodus was getting painful though, even for him.

Exodus left the bridge and got down back to the hangar when Death was arriving. He stepped towards his leader, no helmet on while the doors closed behind Death landed in the hangar. Revellum looked like he wanted to say something, but he turned back and forth confusedly between Exodus and Death while they stared at each other. Gentle covered up his earpiece too after having taken his helmet off, and he said in a low voice to the man before him, "He would forgive you."

"I-" Exodus started. His face scrunched up, and his teeth ground over each other in sheer agonizing rage and grief at the same time. "I messed up."

Down on the ground and getting farther away each moment, the ADTF were regrouping and trying to figure out their next move. Endeavor had the sidekick of the second ranked hero in all of Mexico at his side. He was finally able to get in contact with ADTF support in Geneva, Switzerland. "Which way is the tracker going?" he asked. Although he could see the dark clouds forming in the distance and heading one direction, he felt it was too likely that was a trap to lead their forces the wrong way.

Unfortunately, Kayla responded to him through José Guacamole whose voice came out sounding like hers, "The tracker's signal just got cut off." Endeavor frowned at the sidekick in a green costume who pulled his head back a bit at that intimidating and dark look. Kayla kept speaking through the man whose hero name had more to do with the costume he wore to look friendlier to the public and children than with his Quirk, "I don't know what happened. Maybe they found it?"

"It is supposed to be able to survive an EMP while inside that Thine material," Endeavor remarked, agreeing with the hypothesis that it must have been found as he doubted that EMP blast had knocked it out. "Alright. We'll be here until the Temp Emp runs out. Whiteout's EMP's do not last." Though somehow their tech negates her Quirk quicker now. We are always too far behind them. One step, is all they need. We had them… But, even though we lost them…

ADTF members around the area started arguing with each other about their failed plans. Newer members complained about how the veterans had made them think something else was going on when they were ready to stop the AoD. Older members and top heroes were cursing themselves for their failed judgements. Endeavor stepped away stoically from the rest though. He moved away and just stared off into the desert with a glare and dark expression over his face in the direction of the rising storm. Even thought I lost him, I know now that wasn't the original Death. That Death, is the Gentle Criminal. Which means the original Death really was Zach Sazaki.

The one they called Death had to have been the one wearing purple all those times at least, Endeavor thought to himself, separated and alone so even his own sidekick looking his way did not want to get any closer. Almost certainly the Gentle Criminal based on his fighting style and Quirk. Taking up the role of Death not because Death has died but because Death left the organization. And to cover that he had left, they told people who they had been saving to report that they had died and been revived by Death, in order to protect Lifebringer. This Death cannot revive people and yet those are the reports we have received since he has become Death. It was all a lie.

"It's alright," Gentle assured the man he put a hand on his right shoulder. He had already scolded him, and now he just gave Exodus a slightly softer look. "He'd understand."

"He'll find a way out of it," La Brava remarked too.

"If anyone can," Rebel admitted. "He can."

Endeavor rose up his right hand in front of his body. He stared down at it while also looking above his fist and into the distance he knew the AoD to be escaping into. The leader of the Anti-Death Task Force felt his stomach turn over as he stared at his own fist. He was in shock. That disbelief was impossible to believe in anymore though, even though he had pushed himself so hard to believe that Lifebringer was not Death. I really didn't think he was. And if I could believe it, as someone who had come across Death multiple times and fought alongside him even, I know Sazaki could convince anyone… Except my son, and his friends. But, but if-

The fist Endeavor had risen rose more towards his face. He opened it up and pressed his fingers into his forehead. God damn it. Endeavor stared into his palm and he ground his teeth in anger. In his head, he could see the hero licensing exam back in January he had gone to. I knew that it wasn't him that day. I knew, because if I believed even a little that he could have been Death, then I knew what had to have happened to him for him to have acted as he did that day. The Death I saw at the Sports Festival, wasn't someone who could have done what Sazaki did at the licensing exam. To not show any sign that he had done those things while he fought so carefree… I didn't want to accept he could still be Death, because if I could, then that would mean he had broken apart. And yet it is him.

Endeavor knew who Death was. He knew Lifebringer was Death, and yet the revelation only gripped at his chest and hurt him to understand. I respected him! Endeavor thought it with his teeth grinding harder behind his lips. And- and I don't think Sazaki has big plans for the villains of Japan. He could have done them just as easily as Death and he wouldn't have had to go to jail first! So, Death really just couldn't take it. He sounded like- that day! I could hear how close he was. The voice I heard last April when Sazaki stopped the attack on the Sports Festival- and then I heard two days later from the Chinese heroes about the Villain Summit. Crane said how devastating it had been for the AoD. I heard the accounts from the villains who talked about what really happened which we ignored to tell the story that more of them accepted instead. I knew the truth though. And I already knew, from what he had told me.

Death had been fighting every day. So much fighting that it had ripped him apart. As a kid. A seventeen year old kid. He- "You really think I'm just a fucking mask?! There's a person inside here, you know?" The reason it had been impossible for Endeavor to think of Lifebringer as Death echoed in his mind as he heard that voice screaming through the helmet. The panicked, scared, desperate voice of a kid who just needed someone to make it easier on him. "If you tell everyone what they tried to do, then, then what did I kill them for?!" He could see Death screaming it in agony, even though he could not see the face behind that mask. Even though a big part of him until that moment had just thought of him as that mask.

Endeavor remembered hearing all of this at the licensing exam too. He could hear everything Death yelled at him at the Sports Festival, the day he had accepted creating the biggest conspiracy of his life. He fought, every, single, day. He sounded so stressed. The surge he was afraid of coming if he let the failed Sports Festival attack become known, it might have destroyed them. They always seem so weak. Like one push is all it would take, and it's just by skill that they keep themselves alive. But, I know about the Villain Summit. He made it sound like an extra surge would have been too much to handle, and maybe that was true, considering what I heard happened only a couple days later. Yet after that Villain Summit, the world changed.

Most people gave credit to the Sports Festival, and I know it was because of the Sports Festival too. Shoto, Class A, all of them showed the world the strength of heroes. But for existing villains it wasn't that public affair but the Villain Summit that changed everything. And everything else Death was doing that month too. That April, the end of the March before it too leading to about a month later from what I could see. Three to four weeks straight of just countless anonymous tips around the whole world giving locations of every wanted villain. It was absurd. I couldn't keep up. I didn't even pass it along to everyone in the ADTF, since most tips didn't show any indication of it being them. They all were though. Countless tips of villains who had "been fighting each other" or who someone "overheard" talking about a deal nearby. Only for heroes to arrive most often and find hundreds of villains unconscious with bad wounds and firearms on them or drugs in the same building… Almost none of the villains would say it was the AoD who caught them, and every hero in the world had to accept the villains would not say anything.

Many just let themselves believe that it was nothing out of the ordinary. Anonymous tips being a real thing made sense to some. Anyone who saw it happening on an international scale understood though. Anyone who could see the sheer number of similar cases like it that happened every day knew that something huge was happening. Bigger than all of us. Endeavor narrowed his flaming eyebrows into the distance, then he slowly started turning his head. He looked across the horizon, and he turned himself around to stare back to the east in the direction of Japan. Prisons around the world filled up and everyone gave the credit to us heroes. Though I know we helped, that was just it. We were the ones helping, but the ones really changing the world and how things worked were the AoD. I knew that! I knew, and I accepted but played the part- Endeavor's fists curled at his sides, his teeth baring even harder and his eyes squinting in rage and frustration into the distance.

I know what I have to… what I should, do. But the peace the world lives in now was built on more lies than just the one at the Sports Festival that I helped cover up. I know that the entire world is built on a web of lies the AoD created. That he created. I accepted it though, because I had been working more internationally than most heroes. I saw the state of the world over a year between Sports Festivals that was more chaotic and horrible than any I had ever seen before. The amount of dead children, massacred innocents, corrupted governments and companies, guns and drugs like never seen before… I was getting ready for a war.

Endeavor shook his head and lowered his eyes down to the floor. A few heroes behind him had started looking his way noticing the ADTF's leader standing on his own and glaring in so much anger and regret, and with such a thoughtful look out to the east. Endeavor rose his eyes up slowly after his last thought that reverberated through his mind causing him to look down in shame. I knew it though. I realized that I could not step into All Might's shoes, and instead I was going to have to lead a new breed of heroes against a world darker than before, but one we could still stand up for the innocents in. I had accepted that the term "heroes" was going to change in its meaning, and that we were going to have to start fighting villains more brutally. Like a war. To do that though would have turned the world darker. If heroes were killing people.

If the people the side of good looked to were fighting more like a war, and less like they were stopping criminals, it would have changed everything. Endeavor let out a sharp breath, and he shook his head before raising his eyes up to the sky. I never think about any of this. He let out a heavier breath, and he turned himself more and looked back at all the ships and all the heroes on them and around them. He looked at heroes from all parts of the world, many of whom were already looking towards him. I, know… that I avoid thinking about this just as I know any hero who started to understand it looked away, to avoid finding out just how much the AoD did rather than learn the truth. To allow history to be written the way it is… In order to preserve a peaceful world.

As is our job.

We had to accept it. For the peaceful world. To protect the innocence of people around it, who I was ready to let see a much darker version of heroes they never had to… I accepted it in order to keep what it means to be a hero as a hero's true definition, keeping everyone's heroes from becoming monsters as Death saw himself. Endeavor's eyes flinched but he kept them from opening wide at his last thought. The monsters I thought we would have to become… who he saved us from turning into.

"Endeavor, sir," Olympia walked towards her boss. She stared at him in a semi-hesitant way at the strange look on his face and how he was facing all of them now. "How are we going after them? They were all fleeing in that direction, but more likely southwest than northwest where the storm is heading-"

Endeavor shook his head at the younger woman who hesitated upon seeing that look on his face. Her questioning had led everyone else to look over to see how their leader would respond. Endeavor looked around everyone in the task force meant to take down Death, and his expression hardened and became firm for everyone to see. "As of this moment," Endeavor began. He paused for a few seconds, and then he said just as firmly, "I resign as the leader of the Anti-Death Task Force."

A few hundred people stared towards Endeavor with their eyes opening huge at the sudden declaration. Endeavor turned away from them all instead of answering any questions though. He just started marching off through the desert all on his own. His eyes shifted towards a crater with some burning carcasses of vehicles in it, but his gaze focused back straight ahead of him with no regret in his eyes. Knowing what I know, believing what I believe, I can't find it in me to go after them with any real effort at all. I won't take the lead position of this task force only to treat it as a joke.

I accept the Army of Death is clearly smaller now. It still acts with impunity, and it needs to be stopped without Sazaki at its head- Endeavor grit his teeth at that thought, and he closed his eyes frustratedly but then just bowed his head darkly. It needs to be stopped, he reminded himself with his eyes opening back up. But I don't consider them villains. They aren't terrorists. I trap them by making them think they're coming to fight terrorists and villains, save captured heroes… It's always been hard, to convince myself otherwise. I don't think of them as villains now though, and I don't think I ever will again. I know more than anyone else… though I'm sure my resignation won't be enough. It's over for him.

…I'm sorry.

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A/N Thanks for reading... Chapter 199 hits with the ADTF and AoD going at it. Hope you enjoyed. Chapter 200 coming up next... Leave a review telling me what you think is coming, predictions, comments, questions about the chapter and more.

DarkJokes chapter 198 . Nov 8

What the actual f... the moment Zach pictured killing the girl right there and then had my heart racing. This chapter really reminded me of how much fear people have of Zach and I love it. Been a while since he showed complete authority. I'm gonna say it again that you should write a real novel and sell it. I've never seen anything as good as this fanfic and I won't even call it fanfic anymore. It is it's own thing now and it's fucking great

Oh yeah. He can only act so well for so long, then his real rage draws out. People do fear Zach a lot, and we also see with that small moment of imagining killing her that they are RIGHT to fear him. I'm glad you think I should write a real novel, I'm actually planning on that as my next project after Death instead of going right for another fanfic as I've done pretty much on a chain for years now. People have been telling me to go for it for years, and though I've got a new job now I'll still be more focused on writing than working at the ski resort this winter. On the plus side, I did get that job! I will be skiing all winter and working as a waiter at the mountain. And this past weekend I went up with a friend to finalize my paperwork, and we found me a house that I rented out for 4 months at a great deal and I'll be moving to in a few weeks! Anyway, I'll have a lot of time to write between now and then: no job, no nothing going on, so I'll try to get the chapters pounding out faster again! Thanks for the review!

xPricefieldx chapter 93 . Nov 8

I haven't even thought about it until now but holy crap you are like a master of character development, this is on par with land of the lustrous' character development but even more natural, if you ever right a book I'll be first in line to buy it.

Thanks a lot! Know it might be a while before you reach this far, but love that you decided to review after 93 (still probably my favorite chapter). Lifebringer Incident was nuts to write, and it's hard to believe that was about a year ago now that I wrote it! Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter (whenever you get to it!) XD

GuestP chapter 198 . Nov 10

I like how NovaAwakening is just in denial about Jenny being dead that it kinda hurts, lol. I remember having the same thoughts, but then I realized that Zach has a time limit with when he can revive them. And even then, if I remember correctly, she didn't really have a body to bury, no?
Anyways, this chapter was super frickin awesome (the next time someone tells you a funny joke and you're done lauging about it, tell them "that was so /frickin funny (or awesome)/ in like the most 'surfer dude trying to discuss something quickly and intensely' accent you can muster up, it's fucking hilarious and my brother does it all the time lol) because you get to see that Roady is super cool at acting, but then you look at Zach and he's basically one of those actors that literally adapt to the personality of the character in order to be really good at acting it out. Zach's a cryptid sometimes, tbh.
Lot's of shit went down, and I had shivers run down my spine because of the fact that Zach just had an urge to kill the lady and I had so many flashbacks to his urges of wanting to murder someone, like, woah, I haven't seen that in a while. Also, a little bit of the Commander, Death leaked into his personality when he didn't give a crap that the Korean President was literally standing in front of him. The balls of this man...must be humongous.
Also, banter between Roady and Zach. Loved it! ALSO ALSO, ZACH THINKS OF HIMAZURI WHICH IS NICE, AND YES THAT TOTALLY COUNTS THANKS. Honestly, we've had five best girls so far, Jenny, Ashido, Cee, Darling, and La Brava, but the newest edition is HIMAZURI EDITION YAAAAA
Well, anyway, I really loved this nice and beefy chapter, it had me really interested and in 'woah' mode so, yeah!~
Loved this chapter!~~
Can't wait for the next one!~~~

Hahaha I keep seeing that. Usually the disbelief fades in a couple chapters, but he/she's really holding onto that hope! XD Anyway, glad you liked the last chapter! Lot of fun Roady stuff, Zach acting, cool chapter of infiltration and mission (and some Himazuri too ;) ) but this time heads off to the AoD getting in some shit. Endeavor finds out Zach's Death. The idea that Death's been going around reviving people ever since Zach got arrested is shattered to Endeavor who sees through it all, and yet also sees more than anyone else... Chapter 200 coming up next. Enjoy.