10.08.2021

It's-a me, Martin and I don't really feel like monologuing so let's jump right into the comments!:

Bucio - Oh, it definitely is a double edged sword but like x10! I figured that I didn't really explain what the Nanite Stim did, but I got that covered in today's chapter! And more action! Enjoy ;D

dragon slayer of death 98 - Jeez, that's a mouthful. Not quite like Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight, but definitely getting there (it's a joke don't be offended), whilst I absolutely love both Genos' and Raiden's designs I also love Adam Jensen from the Deus Ex universe, which is what I've based Midoriya's power on. This means no cybor Izuku, but he's definitely not entirely human!

And now, the action!

Kendo was glad that she had Tetsutetsu at her side as they continued their search for the gas Quirk user. Tiger ordered his group to split up into pairs and spread out to cover more ground, as eliminating this Villain was a very important task that needed to be done quickly.

The orange-haired girl knew they were getting ever closer to their enemy, because the mist around them became thicker every couple steps. At this point, they couldn't really see that far, but with any luck, the Villain would have the same problem as them.

The universe seemed to immediately prove her theory wrong as a loud bang rang out upfront and Tetsutetsu was suddenly struck in one of his arms. It took only a few moments for them to register what had happened.

"A gun!", they thought simultaneously and dove into cover behind two different trees.

"Tetsutetsu, are you alright?!", she yelled out, worried about her classmate.

"I'll be fine! The bullet went right through without hitting anything important!", the Steel Quirk user answered quickly as they focused back on the Villain.

"Well that's a shame! I'm pretty sure I was aiming for your thigh!", a surprisingly young sounding voice shouted from afar. "You must've thought that you are pretty smart, huh?! But let me tell you, splitting up was a bad move! Don't you guys watch horror movies?!", the Villain ranted for a short while before shooting two more times and hitting both teens' cover.

"Think Kendo!", the orange-haired girl needed to assess the situation and come up with a plan, because as great as Tetsutetsu was as a hero, his academic achievements were few and far in between. "If he is using a gun then he probably is weak in hand to hand combat and wants to keep people at a distance. But how does he know where we are? Is it the gas?", getting close was probably the best idea in this scenario, but there were many variables that could influence the outcome of their actions. "So I need to limit them! Tetsutetsu! I have a plan, but you have to trust me on this one!"

"Of course I trust you! You're our Class Rep for a reason!", the boy shouted and she smiled at that.

"First, I need you to get to where I am!", Kendo shouted and then heard her classmate chanting 'Metal! Metal! Metal!' rapidly as he ran towards her. Three more shots rang out, but all of them bounced harmlessly off of the boy's steel skin.

"Whew, that was close! What now?!", the orange-haired girl shook her head in slight amusement seeing as being shot at didn't have any sort of effect on her friend, but she soon focused back on the action.

"Now, I'm sorry", Kendo said mysteriously as she grew her hands to their max size.

"Um, what for?", asked Tetsutetsu, completely puzzled. His confusion only grew when he found himself held tightly in her grasp and then raised off the ground.

"For this!", she shouted as she threw him upwards with relevant ease.

"Metal! Metal!", the Steel Quirk user yelled in panic as he gained altitude.

"You may have saved your friend, but who will save you?!", the Villain shouted as another bullet whizzed past Kendo's cover.

"I'll save myself!", the orange-haired girl shouted as she left her cover and charged her enemy hand-first, trying to shield herself from the projectiles.

The bullets hurt, but her Quirk offered her enough protection so that nothing vital was at risk. The only problem was that she didn't really know where he was and because of that, he managed to shoot her from the side, hitting one of the straps of her gas mask, which meant that it wasn't sufficiently secured.

The second she took a breath, she was assaulted by a strong coughing reflex that she miraculously managed to fight off as one of her hands went to hold the mask in place. Kendo turned to the right and charged once again towards where the shots were coming from.

"Stay away!", she heard the Villain shout which meant that she was probably on the right path this time.

Unfortunately, holding a giant hand in front of you meant that you couldn't really see where you were going. Because of that, Kendo hit something with her left foot and was stumbling to the ground, the gas mask sliding off of her face halfway and allowing even more gas to enter her lungs as she let out a gasp. As if this wasn't enough, she found herself face to barrel with the gun wielding Villain.

"Hah! You got arrogant, Hero! Didn't you know that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer?!", he laughed as he loaded a fresh set of bullets into the revolver he was holding.

"Why do I feel like that was a reference to something?", Kendo groaned as she felt her consciousness rapidly escaping due to the gas being more condensed in this part of the forest.

The Villain only shrugged at her question, before pointing the gun at her head. "Any last words?", he asked as he cocked the hammer on his revolver.

"Metaaaaallll!", a loud shout came from above them, but neither of them had a chance to react as a heavy projectile landed next to them, cracking the ground around the point of impact and making the Villain stumble, the gun flying out of his hand.

Tetsutetsu didn't waste any time in laying some hurt on the still standing Villain, who was knocked out by only a few solid punches to the body. The mist didn't vanish instantly, but at least it started to dissipate now that it wasn't being produced anymore.

"Your plan worked Kendo!", the 1-B student shouted with an excited grin as he turned towards his Class Rep, only to find her unmoving on the ground. "Kendo? Kendo!"

"Hello, Hero!", Stain greeted the green-haired student upon being recognized.

"You've finally decided to come after me personally instead of sending your minions?", Midoriya asked, standing protectively in front of Kota.

"I've given some thought as to the type of people I have allowed into my… social cycle", the last two words were said with no small amount of disgust as the Villain looked at Muscular's lifeless body. "Their goals seemed to align with mine at the time, but we seem to have grown apart in terms of our ideologies", he explained and started calmly strutting around.

"How so?", Izuku questioned keeping himself between Kota and Stain even as the Villain moved around.

"Oh, I was almost sure that you would say that me and him are one and the same in your eyes!", Stain exclaimed creepily with a small grin. "Seems I have underestimated you once again. You see, I ordered my… friends to bring you to me. Because I wanted to talk"

"Seems like a major overkill on your part if everything you wanted was a chit-chat", Midoriya quipped motioning towards the massive wildfire raging through the valley.

"Yes, not all of my associates seem to control themselves like I would've wanted them to. Regardless, here we are, so I hope you can spare at least a few minutes of your precious time", the Villain stopped his movements to look towards the two boys. "So what'll it be? Can you answer some of my questions?"

"What questions?", the student decided to indulge the madman at least for now, this could shed some light as to what motives the killer had for his actions.

"First, do you see the state of society around you? How… reliant, dependent… addicted to Heroes the world has become?", starting with the heavy stuff, huh? What next? The trolley problem?

"It's hard not to notice that Heroes have become a part of our daily routine, but what's wrong with that?"

"Do you know what people think as soon as they see a simple thief steal a purse off of some poor old woman? They yell for someone to call a Hero. A Hero! For a simple purse snatcher! Why can't someone just… tackle him to the ground and call the police? Why do they always have to call for the spandex-wearing celebrities?", even though Stain was a criminal, and a crazy one at that, his monologue did paint a very accurate picture of what would probably happen. Midoriya was still deep in his thoughts when Stain picked up his speech once again. "And do you know what usually happens to these petty thieves who steal because they have no other choice? They get thrown right into jail! And their whole lives are ruined, because of what our society has become! The people love Heroes and Quirks. But what about those without powers, hmm?"

Once again, Stain was bringing up unnervingly important points. As it turns out, he may not be as insane as one would imagine at the start.

"Where are you going with this?", Midoriya cut off any other possible rants and forced the Villain to spill the beans so to speak.

"The society is sick, poisoned by the fake heroes that care only for fame and glory. They are like cancer and I'll remove it tumor by tumor!"

"If you really were a doctor then you would've known that it's better to eliminate the source of the problem instead of battling the symptoms. You say that you'll remove this 'cancer' tumor by tumor, but wouldn't it be better to make sure that no new tumors appear in their place?", the whole cancer analogy was weird, but also strangely fitting.

"And how exactly would you do that?", Stain asked without his previous zealous excitement, which was replaced by something akin to a hopeful

"By acting like a hero should!", Midoriya shouted out the answer with conviction. "There's little we can do about the current generation, but we can give the next one someone to look up to, someone to inspire them to give it all they've got and not for the money or fame, but the simple smile from a person we saved that we may as well never see again!"

Kota was standing back, staring in confusion as the Hero and the Villain talked with no violence whatsoever. This entire scene was akin to that of two friends discussing something that they both are passionate about, if it wasn't for the circumstances of this particular meeting that is.

Stain seemed to roll the proposed solution in his head for a few moments, prodding and looking at it from different angles, before abandoning his slumped pose from earlier and standing ramrod straight.

"It looks like you've put quite the amount of thinking into this, which only shows that you understand the world around you on a deeper level. Very well then, your answer is sufficient", the Villain stated which confused the student.

"Sufficient for what?", the boy demanded.

"For me to step aside of course. I've been following you ever since the day our paths crossed-"

"That's weird"

"- and I've come to realize that you are one of the few real heroes that want to help people because that's the right thing to do. I believe that you will do what I've tried to do. That you will change society by being yourself. People will follow you and grow because of that. Mark my words", the Villain turned around, aiming to leave after saying what he had to say.

"Do you really think that I'll just let you walk away?!", Midoriya shouted with tightened fists.

"Yes, your friends need help afterall", Stain threw over his shoulder.

"You are going to answer for all your crimes one day!"

"If it comes to that, I hope you'll be the one to bring me in, Hero", and with that, the Villain vanished behind some cliffs and boulders.

Izuku stood there for a few seconds, staring blankly at the spot where Stain was just a couple of moments earlier, mulling over everything he learned before someone tugged on his shoulder.

"We should probably join the others", Kota said with uncertainty.

"Right, no use standing out here in the open any longer. Can you run?", he received a nod in return. "Good, try to keep up and shout if you can't", Midoriya instructed and they both took off back into the forest.

Ragdoll and Mandalay should probably be worried about a second Villain appearing right next to Kota's and Midoriya's position, but they were both pretty preoccupied themselves.

Tiger and his students came back a few minutes ago, bringing some more wounded to tend to as well, so everyone had their hands full with treating them. That's why Ragdoll couldn't hold watch over the area with her Quirk and that's why they were surprised when a couple of Villains wandered onto the clearing.

One was wearing a torn up black coat and seemed to be covered in stitches and burns, prime nightmare fuel if you ask some people.

The other was wearing a black and grey bodysuit that covered him from head to toe.

Last person to enter was a man in black waistcoat and suit pants with an orange shirt. His face was covered by a white mask with some simplistic geometric design and he had a brown top hat. He also carried a walking stick, though it was probably a weapon since he didn't seem to limp at all.

And on top of that, there was a four-armed Nomu following them with two of its arms ending in chainsaws. Great.

"It seems that we've finally found you, heroes!", the burned man shouted as the groups sized themselves up.

"Didn't Stain only say to bring him the ones he wanted? Let's kill them!", the bodysuit wearing one yelled in two distinctly different voices.

"This is bad", Tiger quickly stated. "It's 3 vs 4 and they have that giant monster with them"

The situation did look rather grim for the heroes if it wasn't for Aizawa and Vlad King arriving a few moments later and taking most of the people by surprise.

"Tch, I was sure I lost you in the wildfire", the stitched up man said with annoyance. "It doesn't matter anyway, you will meet your end here and now!", blue flames appeared around his fists as the bodysuit wearing Villain started making copies of himself.

"It's showtime!", the last one shouted as he threw some bright blue marbles in their direction.

Aizawa didn't want to take any risks so he used his scarf to deflect as many of them as he could, but he couldn't get all of them. Several of them flew over the Pros' heads and then suddenly turned into giant stones.

The Heroes were forced to scatter not to get squashed by the boulders and Villains used this distraction to begin their assault.

Ragdoll, who was isolated by the previous attack, seemed to be their first target as the Nomu went straight for her in hopes of cutting her to pieces.

This plan was foiled however when another combatant entered the fight.

"Fuck-Off Smash!", Midoriya shouted as he dove heels first into the beast's abdomen, making it take a few wobbly steps backward. "Tell Mandalay that Kota is safe with the rest of the students, I'll take care of the big, mean and ugly over there", he practically ordered before charging the monster once again.

It had already shaken off his previous attack and was well prepared to receive the next one. What it wasn't prepared for however was the immense strength that the greenette now possessed.

The Nanite Stim has been activated for about ten minutes now, breaking down Midoriya's cells and replicating itself at an exponential rate, shortening his lifespan rapidly. It should be considered a miracle that he was still alive!

For that price, each new nanite strengthened his bones, muscles and augments. The previous attack was quick and rash, meant only to put some distance between Ragdoll and the Nomu. Now however, now he could go to town on the monster.

As soon as he got within striking distance, he slapped one of the chainsaw arms away and nailed the creature right in where its liver was, if it even had one that is. Whatever the case, the beast roared in pain so it must've worked.

What followed wasn't exactly what one would call an 'exchange of blows', because that would mean that both sides dealt damage to each other. In this case it was more of a one-sided beatdown that Midoriya dished out without care for the state of his own body. His punches and kicks staggered the monster enough for it to be unable to fight back or even protect itself in any meaningful way and effectively forced it to take the punishment where it stood.

However, not everything was going so well. The Pros were locked in a battle with the remaining Villains and their copies that the bodysuit wearing man produced at an unprecedented scale.

The stalemate was broken when a powerful bang rang out and almost everyone turned their heads to see the Vice Rep of 1-A standing in front of the makeshift field hospital with a cannon beside her as every uninjured student stood behind her. "Let's even the odds a little bit!", she shouted with courage and determination in her voice.

The students released various battle cries as they charged into battle, quickly discerning the two real Villains from the fakes and turning to face the latter, giving their teachers a chance to go after the pain duo. What they didn't account for was the masked trickster, who used this opportunity to secure them a way out.

Back with the greenette, his fight was going as good as it could, each blow cracking, bruising or even breaking something within the beast, which annoyingly enough didn't show any signs of slowing down or giving in, meaning that it probably possessed some form of regeneration.

Midoriya didn't have time to deal with a nuisance like that. So he decided to finish it with an axe-kick to the exposed brain. It took a moment to set it up since there wasn't anything to jump off of and the beast seemed to be very aware of its weakness, always keeping - or at least trying to - some form of defense near the head.

That's why Izuku decided to back down just a tiny bit and provoke the beast to strike. It worked as a charm, because not even a moment later a chainsaw swung right over his head followed by a giant fist. The Augmented Hero used the second arm as a springboard and aligned himself mid-air, heel ready to turn the beast's brain into mush.

But then Izuku felt his heart skip a beat. And then a second one. And another one. And another one. His head felt dizzy, his vision blurred as his body suddenly locked up. This allowed the Nomu to finally land its first hit, sending Midoriya through one of the boulders and towards the main battlefield.

The fighting stopped as everyone watched the greenette's still body laying on the ground, broken and bloodied. But still alive.

Before anyone had a chance to react however, the mask-wearing showman appeared next to his accomplices.

"I'm back and I've secured myself an audience!", he shouted whilst he struck a dramatic pose with one of his arms outstretched towards the crowd, three marbles visible between his fingers. And in the marbles-

"Jiro! Kendo!", Yaoyorozu was the first one to spot the two students inside.

"And they have Koji too! Give them back!", Ashido yelled in anger, rage even.

"No, I don't think I will. They are our spoils after all!", the showman answered.

Then a shot rang out and the Villain cried out in pain as a hole appeared in his hand, forcing him to drop the marbles.

"Iida!", Yaoyorozu shouted towards their speedster as her shaky grip tightened on the revolver she created in an instant.

Tenya revved his engines as hard as he could and dove towards the marbles scattered on the ground, picking them up and quickly returning among his friends and classmates.

Then a purple mass of swirling mist appeared and from it stepped out someone who looked to be made out of the very same mist dressed in a slick tuxedo, two bright yellow eyes shining like stars in the night sky.

"Kurigiri, took you long enough!", the burnt man yelled at the new arrival.

"I'm terribly sorry, but I've had some… troubles with Stain, he appears to have turned his back on us", the now dubbed Kurogiri reported.

"It doesn't matter, I guess, the message should be quite clear right now. Compress, meat shield, please"

The showman stopped screaming in pain, flashing the now injured hand towards the students and making them gasp in surprise. How was this possible? They clearly saw Momo put a whole right through it! There wasn't even a scratch on the red glove he was wearing too!

"This indeed has to be one of my best acts yet!", Compress shouted with glee as he took another trio of marbles out of his sleeve. "Let's see how I did!"

He released his Quirk and all the marbles burst, revealing their contents. Jiro and Koji appeared next to Iida, unconscious and on the ground, whilst the third marble turned into a twig.

Students and teachers turned towards the Villain and spotted him holding onto an unconscious Kendo.

"Only one out of the tree…", Compress sounded very disappointed in the fact, but quickly went back to being jovial. "I guess it's still better than nothing!"

"Let's get out of here, if any of you move-", the scarred man threatened as blue flames danced across his palm, which he brought dangerously close to Kendo's face. "- there won't be anything left of her but ash"

The Villains started slowly backing up towards the portal with Nomu at the front as everyone grit his teeth in helpless rage, forced to watch as one of their own was being captured by the Villains.

"Pathetic… This may be my end and what I'm doing? Laying on the ground when they take her away… Move… Move… Why won't you move?!", Midoriya's eyes snapped wide open suddenly as the nanites seemed to grant him this one last wish.

His body obeyed the command as if on autopilot as wild lightning surrounded his body. In a flash he found himself right in front of the beast, his left fist cocked back with all the power he had left. The attack nailed the monster, blowing it back and nearly splitting it in half as Midoriya's arm exploded in a mess of bone, muscle and orange liquid that used to be his blood.

He didn't stop there however. All of his momentum transferred into the Nomu and allowed him to turn in place, facing Compress and kicking him away in one swift motion, grabbing Kendo with his good arm and materializing himself next to his friends.

It took five entire seconds for everyone to process what they just saw or more precisely what they didn't see, Izuku having moved faster than the human eye could perceive and surprising everyone.

The first one to shake from that stupor was Kurigiri, who quickly created a smaller portal under Compress and threw both of the remaining Villains through the portal he came out of before entering it himself and closing it behind them.

Izuku was… content? He saved his friends. He saved Kota. He saved Kendo. He should be happy. But he wasn't. For he knew what awaited him now as the nanites had probably started breaking down his organs. At least he did everything he could.

And that made him feel content in the face of Death.

Ooh, boy! I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it! It's safe to say that I've been itching to get to this climax for quite a few months already, so let me state my satisfaction with the final version.

Also, I decided to not let anyone get kidnapped like it happened in the canon, because some of you enjoy the differences between canon and my fanfic.

I can say however, that in the original outcome, Izuku took IIda's place in front of the hospital, but instead of deciding to help the group safe the kidnapped student, he beat his classmates into submission and interrupted their clearly rash and possibly suicidal mission.

Anyways, that's all I have to say for now, so have a great day and come back for the next chapter when we see how everyone deals with the fallout.