Author's note: Hey everyone, back again for another chapter! Chapter 8 means that there's only one more chapter after this one in Arc 1! It's been a great ride so far with y'all, and I have a LOT more plans for the future, so I hope y'all enjoy.

Also, if you want to get into a place with other lovers of MHA, and specifically IzuJirou stuff, come on and join this Discord server that I'm on:

/eFtmT8cTbY

We're only kind of crazy, and not at all a cult... except, we also kind of are. Anyway, yeah, join that!

I hope you enjoy this chapter! It's cross-posted on Ao3 as well. Leave a review if you want to. I welcome the feedback! See you next week.

"Two more taken down. I sent the hostage down the hallway to wait outside the hospital. He is going to be safe now." Fumikage said over the comms.

"Wonderful. Three left on that floor." Mei said.

Izuku and Hitoshi turned a corner and bumped into something. Hitoshi fell down, but Izuku was able to keep himself from falling. The thing that they both bumped into… well, it wasn't a thing. It was a person. Izuku looked up to see an absolute beast of a man. At least six feet tall and built like a bull. A thick, bushy black beard hung, at minimum, three inches off of his chin.

"What the hell are you brats doing here?" The man bellowed.

"We should ask you the same question." Izuku said, taking up a fighting stance.

"Fighting, huh? You're braver than I thought. That, or just stupid." The man said before guffawing and taking up his own fighting stance.

"We'll show you that you're the stupid one for trying to fight us." Hitoshi said.

"What did you ju-" The man stopped dead in his tracks.

"Now to get him tied up. I don't want to be on the receiving end of one of this guy's punches." Hitoshi said, walking towards the man. As he pulled one of his many sets of handcuffs off of his belt, Hitoshi stopped. He swore that he saw the man move. But he shouldn't be able to. Not with Brainwashing in effect. Hitoshi looked up at the man's face and immediately jumped back.

The very large man's eyes had started to glow bright white. Hitoshi ran towards Izuku to get out of the way, but before he could get very far, he felt something grab his arm. Or rather, someone. And before he knew anything else, he was thrown into the wall, slumping over.

Izuku had seen the whole thing. The man's eyes had glowed a bright white shortly after his body had started twitching. Hitoshi had tried to run towards Izuku, but was grabbed and tossed aside like he was nothing. With a roar, the man's already impressive size grew even further. Now standing another inch taller and with slightly larger looking muscles, he looked down on Izuku.

"I knew you were stupid, but I didn't think you were stupid enough to limit my movement with a quirk." The man cracked his knuckles menacingly.

Izuku's hand shot up to his earpiece. "NightHawk, we're gonna need something big. Overwatch, try to guide him to my location. I'm going to be offline for a bit." Izuku once again took up a fighting stance.

"Okay, NightHawk. Head towards the center of the floor. Take a left here, and once you get to the end of that hallway, take a right. I'll help you again once you're done with that." Mei explained.

"Right!" Fumikage said.

"You made a mistake, boy. The name's Riot." The man pointed to himself. "Anyone tries to immobilize me with their quirk, I can break out of it and I get a strength boost. Prison Break. That's my quirk."

"This is not going to be easy. He got even stronger. I'm going to have to be smart about this to stall until Fumikage gets here. I have to be defensive for now." Izuku thought to himself.

With a yell, Riot threw a wild haymaker with his right fist. It was deceptively fast. Izuku brought his arms up in an 'x' in front of himself to block, barely managing to catch the strike. Izuku was thrown down the hallway by the sheer force of the attack.

"Damnit, that hurt." Izuku thought, shaking his arms at his side. He grimaced slightly as he put his hands back up in front of his face. Izuku surveyed his surroundings, eyes darting around the hallways. They finally settled on pieces of debris. That would work.

"Ready to go for some more? By all means!" Riot charged at Izuku, his footsteps thundering through the dark, empty corridor. As soon as he took off, Izuku rushed to a smaller piece of debris and threw it at the ground directly in front of Riot. As soon as the debris left his hand, he concentrated on Riot and activated Luck. He quickly searched through the probabilities until he saw 'Trips on Debris: 45%'. He immediately grabbed that slider and cranked it up as much as he could, topping out at 100%. He smiled.

As Riot approached, the debris slid along the ground. It played out almost in slow motion. As the debris slid, an oblong part of it caught on the ground and flipped. Its trajectory changed just slightly enough to catch Riot off guard. Izuku could see the slight surprise in his eyes as his foot came down right on the debris and his ankle bent in a slightly unnatural way. It wasn't enough to cause too much lasting damage, but it was enough to throw him off balance, literally and metaphorically. Riot's foot came out from under him, and the hulk of a man fell to the ground with a massive crash.

"I heard that sound. Snake Eyes, are you okay?" Kyouka asked over the headset, her tone wavering slightly in fear and concern.

"I heard it as well. I'm close by." Fumikage said.

"I'm fine. He just slipped is all." Izuku replied. He could feel himself smirking.

With a groan, Riot stood up, his hand nursing his skull. "Lucky shot, kid." In the faded crimson light of the hall around them, Izuku could see Fumikage turn a corner and run towards them.

Izuku's smirk only grew. "Exactly. NightHawk! We're gonna need some force for him!"

"It's dark! I'm concerned about Dark Shadow!"

"You have your way to calm him down. I'll help you as much as I can." Izuku said.

"Very well…" Fumikage nodded.

"You kids think a little trip and a third person is going to be able to stop me? Whatever just happened may have thrown me for a loop, but I'm not out of the fight yet! I can do this all day!" Riot's face contorted into a twisted grin. It was… unsettling.

"I'm not going to stop you." Izuku started. He pointed behind him at Fumikage. Said boy was now wreathed in what looked close to black fire. It grew until it enveloped him entirely. A guttural growl escaped the blazing darkness that was Fumikage. The darkness flared further, finally coalescing into some kind of form. It was Dark Shadow like Izuku remembered, but much bigger. Easily twice the size of Riot, and instead of bright yellow eyes, Dark Shadow had deep crimson ones. "That is." Izuku finished.

With a roar, Dark Shadow lashed out its massive arm towards Riot. Riot tried to duck away, but not only was Dark Shadow incredibly large, it was still as fast as it had been before. Riot's attempt to duck out of the way was met with failure as Dark Shadow's claw slammed into his chest, sending him directly into the wall. Another roar echoed out, shaking the building slightly.

Riot dusted himself off. He was bleeding from his nose. "Finally!" He used his hands to crack his neck. "A real challenge!"

Dark Shadow only roared in response. A wave of shadowy energy erupted from the massive form and seemingly swallowed Riot. Several seconds of screaming later, the mass of dark energy shot Riot out. Riot landed against the wall, unconscious, and bleeding at multiple places from what seemed to be lacerations.

"Wow, NightHawk. Remind me not to mess... with... you…" Izuku turned his head to see Dark Shadow's menacing red eyes now staring into his soul. With a growl, the figure approached him. "NightHawk… NightHawk, the flashbangs!"

"I'm… I'm trying!' Fumikage grunted, doing his best to move his arms through Dark Shadow's surprisingly solid form. Dark Shadow reared back with one of its massive claws and swiped at Izuku. Izuku managed to jump out of the way just in time, tucking in his legs as he rolled back to his feet. He turned around and looked at Fumikage who had managed to grab both the flashbang and pull the pin from it. With a yell of absolute will, Fumikage threw the flashbang down at his feet, closing his eyes in the process. Izuku managed to close his eyes in just enough time to not be blinded by the light. Dark Shadow had been… not so lucky. With the bright light tearing through the halls and piercing everything in a good chunk of the hospital, Dark Shadow was quickly overwhelmed. Almost immediately, Dark Shadow shrunk and receded back into Fumikage.

"That was close. But you did it. I'm proud of you. That's a good trump card." Izuku said, smiling. Even though Fumikage couldn't see it.

"Yes, it was a bit too close for my comfort. Maybe I should not be the only one to carry my quirk's kill switch." Fumikage suggested.

"Y'know, that's fair." Izuku chuckled to himself. His eyes trailed to Riot. "He is going to need to be bound..." Izuku thought out loud. "But he said his quirk is based on being restrained by other peoples' quirks. Not sure if regular bondage and restraint would count."

"I will do that. You check on our comrade." Fumikage said, pointing at Hitoshi.

"Damnit, you're right. Mastermind!" Izuku rushed over to his friend. Gently patting him on the cheek, Izuku spoke to him once again. "Hey, hey Mastermind. You good? Do we need to get you some help?"

"H-hey…" Hitoshi blinked as he was woken from unconsciousness. "Did we get him?" He asked.

"Yeah, NightHawk took him down. Tip for ya, don't get on his bad side." A small laugh escaped Hitoshi, but that was soon replaced by a groan as he sat up from the wall.

"Can you stand?" Izuku asked, offering his hands for support.

Hitoshi gently pushed away Izuku's hands. With a sharp inhale and a few shaky grunts, Hitoshi managed to lift himself off the ground onto his feet. He rolled his neck backwards, earning a few sharp cracks. With a sigh, he met the gaze of Izuku. "I'm fine now. We can move out. This guy needs to stay asleep for a while." Hitoshi said, pointing at Riot. "And we still have two more people on this floor to evacuate."

"Hey guys, I know you were all fighting, but I managed to find more people." Kyouka's voice sounded through the headset. "There was a nurse locked in a room with a patient. I escorted them out."

"That should be everyone here on this floor then, right?" Izuku asks.

"That it is. Now, onto the next floor, there's…" Mei trailed off. A sharp gasp was heard over their comms.

"What is it, Overwatch?" Kyouka asked.

"All four of you need to get up to the third floor now. They're moving. I think the sound of Dark Shadow scared them… Damnit! A good number of people on the second floor are making their way up to the third. It looks like they're congealing their forces. Get up there. I'm heading in. I'll provide cover fire when I can." Mei explained.

"How are you going to get to us fast enough?" Hitoshi asked.

"Meet me on the second floor. I made a new baby the other day. I think you guys will like it. Snake Eyes, your group is near the stairs. Go towards where NightHawk came from and turn left. Heartquake, you're a bit further away, but if you take the first three rights you come across, you should meet up with the others. I'll see you there!" Mei said cherrily over the headset. After letting them know, the pinkette took out a small device from her jacket that looked like a firearm, but slightly different. She took a bundle of wire with a metallic hook at the end from another pocket and put it in the device, hooking the end of the wire onto a sturdy metal rod near the back. As she closed the chamber, she pushed the hook into the barrel until she heard a clicking sound. Grappling hook primed and in hand, she aimed it at a nearby light pole and launched it. The hook spiraled around the horizontal level of the light and then latched onto itself. She swung from her rooftop towards the hospital. With how dark the sky was, even her swinging underneath a light shouldn't attract too much attention. As she approached a window, she extended her feet and prayed that this wouldn't hurt very much.


Soon, Kyouka had met up with the others near the steps. The four of them rushed up the stairs to the second floor. As they caught their breath, Kyouka looked out the window. She had to admit. It was a beautiful night. Even with the bright lights of the city in the distance, she could see the stars in the sky here. And then something moved. Her eyes immediately went to the movement only to see Mei swinging from a lamp post… directly towards them?

"Guys, get down!" Kyouka said, tackling Izuku to the floor. Hitoshi and Fumikage jumped to the floor as well.

Seconds later, Mei came smashing directly through the window in a faux drop kick. She quickly cut the wire with a knife and got up from the ground.

"Overwatch, what the fuck was that?" Kyouka yelled.

"This is my new baby! It's a grappling hook with detachable wire and hook! Speaking of which…" Mei opened the wire chamber, unhooked the last of the wire after being cut, and replaced it with another wire spool and hook. "Now that that's taken care of, let's go!" Mei said.

"Yes. The third floor, right?" Izuku asked, standing up from the ground. He helped Kyouka get up as well.

"Yeah, they're all there. I think everyone left on this floor are hostages or patients. We can avoid them for now, I think. We just need to get these people taken care of so that Prometheus can get our encryption going."

"Top priority is stopping whoever it is that has this Fog of War quirk. They're who we're after. Let's move out. Overwatch, watch our flank. Follow me up the stairs." Izuku turned and began moving up the stairs once again.

Upon reaching the third floor, Izuku put his right hand up, signaling to his teammates. The four of them stopped.

"Mastermind, I want you to scout ahead of us. The four of us are going to move as a unit, and you're our spearhead. Think you can do that?" Izuku asked.

Hitoshi smirked before activating his cloak. His image blurred, and if someone didn't know he was there, it would be incredibly difficult to spot the man. "I'm on it." Hitoshi pulled his hood up and seemingly disappeared into the hallway.

"You did such a good job with his cloak." Izuku said to Mei.

"It was a pain in the ass to make, I'll tell you that much. But I'm very proud of Baby number 837." Mei said before speaking into her comms. "Okay, Mastermind. Most of the people are in the same room according to their heat signatures. It looked like it was close to the center of the building." Mei pulled up the floor plans again on her phone. "I think I know what room it is. From where we are right now, Take the first two rights and then a left, and it should be the second door on the right."

"I feel like I should be with him." Kyouka said. The remaining three others looked at her, and then each other.

"Huh." Izuku simply said.


Hitoshi did as instructed. As he neared the room, he pressed his ear up against the door. He could barely hear anything on the inside. He backed up slightly. "I feel like Heartquake should be here with me, too."

"THAT'S WHAT I'M SAYING!" Kyouka whisper-yelled into her earpiece.


"Heartquake, you can join him. Just try to be stealthy about it." Izuku said.

"Alright." Kyouka nodded to Izuku. "Mastermind, I'm on my way. Sit tight." Kyouka sprinted off in the direction that Hitoshi went, following Mei's directions from earlier. Surprisingly, she was very light on her feet, making close to no noise as she ran down the hallway.

"Are we idiots for not thinking about that?" Mei asked.

"Yes, absolutely." Izuku said almost immediately.

"Alright, good. Just making sure."

Fumikage just chuckled.


Kyouka arrived at Hitoshi's location about two minutes later and immediately dropped to the ground on her knees, her jacks extending and piercing the wall. She put her hands on her headphones to drown out any other noise and focused on the inside of the room.

"Hurry up and crack it, you idiots! There are heroes here! We need to get out as soon as we can!" A woman's voice called out.

"I'm trying. Your yelling isn't helping very much with this lock, though." Another woman's voice.

The first woman started talking again. "We already have a buyer for this shit. Let's get as much as we can and go. I stopped anyone from calling the police with my quirk. We should be able to get out before they deal with Riot. And if not… Mortar, you'll be up."

"Of course, Blackout. I'll start prepping immediately." A male voice spoke.

Kyouka relayed the information through her earpiece to the others.

"That's concerning. We're on the way." Izuku started. "Mastermind, take some of Heartquake's speakers. Sneak around best you can and place them around the room. Let us know what the room is like if you can. And if you get caught, stall for time."

"Heard." Both Kyouka and Hitoshi said.

Hitoshi looked at Kyouka. "If I get caught, you have permission to blow all of these up. Even if they're on me."

"Oh… Okay? Let's hope you don't get caught, then. That would hurt a lot. You'd probably need a lot of the medical supplies in here that we're probably saving. What a waste of time that would be." Kyouka said, her smirk apparent to Hitoshi even though he couldn't see her face.

"Okay, wish me luck." Hitoshi slowly cracked open the door and snuck in. Thankfully for him, all of the people in the room had their backs turned to him and the door. They were too focused on… a safe? And not a regular run of the mill safe, but a massive wall safe that looks like a bank or military compound safe. "Why the hell do they have that big of a safe in some random hospital…?" Hitoshi asked himself. He shook his head. He didn't have time to worry about that. He had to stop them. He slowly moved around the room, ducking between the few tables that populated this room, whatever it was, and placed several of Kyouka's small speakers along the perimeter of the room as well. There were times when someone almost saw him, but he stopped moving almost immediately, letting his cloak pick up his slack. He caught sight of what seemed to be the leader. She was standing in the center of the room barking orders to the other people in the room. She was fairly average sized with dark raven hair. She wore dark green… everything. "That's kinda tacky…" Hitoshi thought to himself.

Soon after, he snuck out of the room, leaving the door open just slightly so that he could hear what was going on without Kyouka's help. As he made his way out, both he and Kyouka heard a loud click followed by a light grinding of metal. And then laughing. Lots of laughing. Izuku, Mei, and Fumikage rounded the corner just in time to hear the laughter.

"What did we miss?" Mei asked.

"There's a giant ass safe in there. I think they just got into it. I set up the speakers in the room. They're primed to go." Hitoshi relayed, removing his hood and turning the cloak off.

"Then Heartquake, if you're ready. Do it." Izuku nodded to Kyouka. Kyouka's jacks descended to the ports in the shoulders of her jacket and she pulsed her heartbeat through them. Suddenly, the laughter that had filled the safe room was drowned out by a massive wave of distorted whitenoise.

Several people immediately ran out of the room, covering their ears. Izuku and Hitoshi immediately jumped into action, taking down each person that fled the room with swift kicks and punches. Mei immediately pulled out her pistol and shot at one of the fallen people.

The four of them looked at her with disbelief. "What?" she asked before shooting another. "They're adhesive bullets. To hold them down." The four then looked down at the two she had shot, and true to her word, they were covered in a glob of some kind of apparently adhesive substance that was a very pale yellow.

The woman in the center of the room, 'Blackout' as she was called, turned to see the two people standing there over the unconscious bodies of four of her men.

"Seems like we were too slow. No matter, we can still get out of here." She said before starting to laugh. An irritatingly nasally laugh, but it quickly became menacing as a dark fog began to form at her feet. It coalesced around her before spreading out and covering everything in the room. And then it seeped out of the room.

Everyone's vision was immediately obscured. Izuku immediately took up his stance before calling out to his allies. He heard nothing in response from them. Instead, he heard the same laughter from before.

"How does it feel to be alone, hero?" Her voice echoed.

"I'm not alone." Izuku responded. He tried to look around for where her voice was coming from, but it seemed to be coming from both everywhere around him and nowhere at the same time.

"Is that so? Then where are your allies?"

"They're here." Izuku put his hand on his earpiece and spoke. "Can any of you hear me?"

"Ohhh, that's not going to help you get to them. My quirk blocks out sight, hearing, and transmission of anything or anyone that I choose to be blocked. You aren't the first hero team to try and stop me, and you won't be the last. Because I'm getting out of here."

"That's where you're wrong."

"Oh?"

"You're not leaving, and we're not heroes." Almost on cue, Izuku felt the ground shake beneath him. He could hear just the briefest sound of a powerful roar, and he recognized it as Dark Shadow when in darkness. "And that's gonna be a big problem for you." He said, alluding to that roar.

Soon after that, Izuku felt something come into contact with him. As soon as contact was made, he was able to see that it was Kyouka. She, likewise, was able to see him as soon as contact was made.

"Snake Eyes! Ah, it's good to see you!" Izuku immediately felt the girl embrace him. "I was… I'll admit that I was scared. Hearing is like, my thing. And I just kind of lost it when that darkness happened. I started to move to find someone. I'm glad I found you."

"Me too. I think this will be over soon. Let's try to find our way out of this. I believe that NightHawk could have this covered soon." Izuku, holding onto Kyouka, slowly stumbled out of the darkness, accidentally kicking a few of the people that were glued to the floor. They soon exited the wall of darkness, and it was like a flood of senses coming back to both of them.

"I… I wish we could do more." Kyouka said.

"I think this is his time to shine, though." Izuku said.


When the darkness enveloped Fumikage, he immediately hardened his resolve. He could feel Dark Shadow starting to stir again. He heard his quirk speaking in his head.

"Let me out! I can take her!" Dark Shadow said in his mind.

"No! I can't allow… the darkness to consume us!" Fumikage strained. He was trying his hardest to hold Dark Shadow in, but being in such… pure darkness elicited something in Dark Shadow that he had never experienced before. Such elation… such power… it had to be felt.

"I will not be held back from this!" Dark Shadow roared before forcing himself out of Fumikage's chest. It being called painful would be an understatement. It felt like his chest was being ripped open from the inside. His entire body felt hot. Scorchingly so. Dark Shadow had never done this before. And then the pain seemed to just… fade. Fumikage opened his eyes that he hadn't realized were shut due to the pain. He knew and felt that he was in the darkness, but he could still see? Dark Shadow had completely swallowed him, it had seemed. And Fumikage couldn't do anything but sit and watch. The darkness had made his Quirk astronomically more powerful, even more than earlier that night. Sudden movement jerked Fumikage out of his musings.

Dark Shadow moved towards the one known as Blackout. Blackout seemed shocked by this.

"Y-you… You're not supposed to see me! I control this darkness!" Blackout said.

Dark Shadow looked at Blackout, seemingly piercing her very soul with its now red eyes. "I am darkness! This is my domain!" Dark Shadow roared, and with a wild swing, tried to hit the woman with its claws. Blackout dodged to the left, tucking and rolling out of the way. Another roar escaped Dark Shadow. Its entire form surged at Blackout. In a flurry of strikes, Dark Shadow assaulted Blackout. Blackout, to her credit, managed to deflect two of Dark Shadow's strikes with well-timed blocks with her arms. The first two strikes rendered her defense sundered, as Dark Shadow's claws caused moderate lacerations on her arms. But the third, fourth, and fifth ones made it past her now broken defenses, and made contact with the woman. Blackout immediately collapsed, unconscious. The darkness dissipated upon her being knocked out. With this being done, Mei was able to easily shoot at the now unconscious woman, immobilizing her in the glue rounds.

"NightHawk, try to calm down Dark Shadow!" Izuku shouted.

Before anything else happened, a bright flash of light filled the room. Fumikage, not being in control of himself at the moment, was able to see it. Sitting in the corner was a man holding up his arm, which was a canon of some sort. Just as Blackout was held down by the adhesive, he began to charge his arm cannon. A bright flash of light, followed by a large explosion, and then an impact to Dark Shadow himself, came soon after the charge.

With the bright flash of light, Dark Shadow was almost immediately tamed, and then the impact rendered it almost unusable. Fumikage immediately retracted Dark Shadow and breathed a sigh of relief.

Mei immediately shot the man with the hand cannon, rendering him immobile as well.

Izuku stepped forward, looking into the room and at the rest of the people in there. "I believe it would be best for the rest of you to surrender. Unless you want to end up like them." Izuku gestured to the unconscious people in the hallway and their leader.

The remaining members of Blackout's group raised their hands in surrender. Izuku, Hitoshi, and Mei all immobilized and restrained the remaining people.

"Well, I guess that's that. Let's make sure that everything is safe and back in the safe. After that, we need to put down an Egg and get out of here." Izuku suggested.

"Snake Eyes, you do realize that we're going to have to talk to Inko, right?" Kyouka asked.

"Oh… damnit…"