Chapter Twenty:

"What's the point of this meeting, Shigaraki?" Tattletale asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" I said. "The heroes are going to attack soon. We need to get ready."

"He's probably right," Grue said. "I doubt they're going to take our kidnapping of a hero very well."

"Exactly," I pointed at Grue. "Like an MMO, you take precautions before you do anything stupid."

"True, but it's a little late for that," Trickster put out his cigarette.

I narrowed my eyes. He's insulting me?

I didn't even want The Travelers here. They were still mad over me, blackmailing Coil, and as a result, blackmailing them. They were only here because I knew The Undersiders weren't strong enough to handle all the heroes by themselves. So I was stuck with them.

I summoned All The Undersiders and Travelers here. Everyone was here except for Skitter. Who I assume was busy with Izuku, but it was annoying, regardless. We were at Coil's base because all of them were 'uncomfortable' going to our bar in Japan. Even though it was two footsteps away with Kurogiri. This is why I hate kids. They want everything their way without settling for anything else. While I was left here, scratching my neck.

Why was it always my neck that itches?

The Travelers were on one side, with Trickster standing in front of his team. In front of Ballistic, Sundancer was in the corner, and Genesis was here in her actual form. Sitting Right next to Sundancer.

The Undersiders were on the right side, with the order going from the right and left. Tattletale, Hellhound, Grue, Imp, and Regent. Regent was simply leaning on the wall, Imp and Hellhound were sitting, while Tattletale and Grue were standing.

"Let's focus on the task at hand," Kurogiri said to get us to focus. "Shigaraki. Tell them of the formidable strategy you have at play."

"Right," I said. "So I have a plan, not surprising, considering I came up with the last plan."

Tattletale rolled her eyes. "So what's the plan, then?"

"I say we all stay at Skitter's base, for when they do attack."

"Woah there, pal," Regent said. "Some of us have territories we have to tend to."

I half groaned, half sighed. "Fine, do you know your territory coordinates?"

"Who gives a shit about that?"

I leaned in. "You don't freakin' know?"

"Why would we?" Regent asked.

"It never seemed important to know," Grue folded his arms.

"What if you met someone with a warp quirk? They need coordinates to work!" I walked over to Grue and Regent. "Are you telling me you never prepared for the chance of that happening!?"

"You must understand, Shigaraki," Kurogiri projected his face over to the side of my face. "They couldn't plan for every eventuality. They're not like…you know…"

Didn't take a genius to figure out he was talking about Master.

"I can't excuse stupidity."

"Not stupidity. Just…a difference."

I sighed in disgust.

"We can tell you later," Imp suggested. "When we return to our bases."

"Fine," I said. "You'll have to do it sometime today."

"What for?" Ballistic said.

"Isn't it obvious? So Kurogiri can warp you from your base to Skitter's at a moment's notice. Except for Sundancer, and Genesis."

Sundancer looked up. "What? Why can't we help?"

I sighed. "You can. You just don't need to be in the area, you two just need to stay out of the area and bring your powers through the portal. Like with the last time."

"Oh, right," Sundancer said.

Genesis wheeled over to me. "What would you have us do?"

"Genesis, you can change the density of your projection, right?"

She nodded.

"Good. We'll have you turn your projection as hard as steel."

Genesis took a glance back at her team. "Wouldn't that make it too heavy?"

"No, can you simulate a body at the cellular level?"

Genesis looked at The Undersiders this time. "What?"

"He's asking if you can simulate a Quirk," Tattletale said.

"Oh, no. I don't understand things on that small of a level," Genesis said.

"Dammit," I put a hand on my chin. "We'll have to rely on powerful winds and increased muscle strength."

"I don't even understand muscle strength that much."

"Figure it out," I looked at Sundancer. "As for you, you need to crank up your sun full blast."

Sundancer put his hands in front of her mouth. "No, I can't do that. I have a strict rule against killing!"

"I know," I said with invective. "But it's exactly the reason we lost in the first place. Because you didn't kill Weld."

Sundancer frowned. "That is not why we lost."

"Really? Because something tells me if you guys went all out, it would be damn easier to win. Not like the heroes can fight, if they're dead, the same goes for The Undersiders."

Grue looked at me. "Us? What are you talking about?"

I pointed to Kurogiri. "Kurogiri told me about what he saw at Regent's base. People just standing perfectly still. And doing anything he asks, I doubt he inspired loyalty. I'd sooner believe that he has a hidden aspect of his nerve powers."

"Well, you'd be right," Regent confirmed. "But we can't use it on a hero. Due to it being…well literally body control."

What? Why couldn't we use it? It was only body contro-

Oh…right…

"Dammit, I didn't realize what I was even saying," I admitted. "It'd be just as constructive to ask you to roofie them," I paused. "But wait…if that's the case, why even do it to anyone?"

"As long as no one knows about it, we'll be fine," Regent said.

What? Did he actually think like that?

"It's…not preferable," Grue said. "But we don't have a choice. We have to take control any way we can."

"Besides," Tattletale began, "how do you know it's not one of those mind control powers where the victim feels nothing?"

"That only applies to mind control, not body control." I looked at Regent. "You'll stay out of this fight."

"What? Why?" He asked.

"Because I don't want to work with a sexual deviant. That's gross."

"I'm not a sexual deviant. I'm not." Why'd he say it twice? Was he lying to me? "I just have a gross power."

"Close enough. I don't want to work for you."

"We have to make use of all our allies," Kurogiri said. "If we don't, it could mean the difference between close calls and disaster."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine, but he goes on the front lines."

"Ummm, I'm better in the back."

"Unless you want your boss to get his teeth kicked in by the top heroes, you'll listen to me."

Regent frowned, and Trickster grunted. But he relented. "Do as he says."

Regent put his hands in his pockets. "Fine."

This is what I like about this blackmail business. Usually, I have to resort to my confidence and charisma to gain followers. That meant tempering my anger and ego. 'Cause if they were out full force, they'd be scared off. I already lost a magnetic villain, and one masked villain with the ability to turn things into marbles. Both would've been useful to the fight at the USJ. but was lost the second I showed what they considered too much aggression.

But this was so much easier. Now, I didn't have to worry about crap like that. Now? All I had to do what snap my fingers and they would come to my call. I get to assert so much power over them. I don't even have to destroy them. They'll destroy themselves.

Makes my job so much easier.

"And what about me?" Sundancer asked. "Do I have to kill the heroes?"

"If you want Noelle to be protected, then yes," I said.

She looked down. Was she actually considering letting her friend die? 'Cause, that wouldn't be good for us.

Trickster stared at her with accusatory eyes. Something tells me he didn't like what he was seeing. It'd be easier for him if he just let go of his concern for teammates. He's such an idiot.

Then again, it's because of that idiocy that we got this far. So I really should let it slide.

Ultimately, she relented. "Ok."

"Back to The Undersiders, Tattletale will stay out of the fray, watching the fight from cameras we will hook up."

"What?" Hellhound's facial expression changed into something fierce. "Fuck that. We made a deal that Tattletale would get in the fray as well."

"I don't care." I put as much venom as I could into that sentence. "Tattletale works better as the woman in the chair than as someone on the battlefield."

"Funny," Tattletale put one finger on her cheek and looked up. "I didn't hear you saying anything about it when we attacked the PRT base."

"I asked why you were going into the battlefield. The implication being I thought it was stupid. And if I remember, you were nearly killed during that fight."

Tattletale pursed her lips. "I was fine before Izuku Midoriya came along. All humans got more durable when powers came along. The Kaboom Kid only gave me a few bruised ribs."

"Doesn't change the fact that you're better on the back burner, watching the fight and assisting us. I'll…be there with you."

Tattletale stared. "What?"

I sighed. This was going to be worst than I thought. "After all, I'm just as good as analysis as you. I should be assisting. I can join the battle if they start to lose."

Tattletale sneered. "If you really think I'm fucking going to work with fucking you-"

"Tattletale!" Trickster stopped her childish rant. He looked at me and tried to smile, but what came out was a small crack in his confidence. He looked back at Tattletale. "You have to work with him."

"Are you kidding me!? Why do you want to work with him!? He's using Noelle as a hostage!"

"NO SHIT! Why do you think we're working with him!?"

Tattletale paused for a second. "Ok, but-"

"He didn't even do anything to you," Ballistic said. "Do you really think you have a good reason not to work with him?"

"It's not even a difference," Kurogiri said. "He's just too similar to you."

Kurogiri bought his eyes to Tattletale. "If you spent more time working together," He bought his eyes to me. "And not insulting each other, you'd be surprised at one you could accomplish."

I stared at Tattletale, who looked at her team. They all gave her meaningful looks.

She sighed. "Fine."

I breathed a sigh of relief. I don't know why. This was the easy part. "Great, let's get to the rest of the plan. We got a lot of work ahead of us."

Later

Skitter clearly didn't know how to be a supervillain.

First off, her base wasn't hidden. It was just in a warehouse in the middle of the boardwalk, a common villain mistake. You don't just pick empty warehouses for your lair. You pick the most hidden lair, with attainable luxuries and defenses if you can afford and/or need it. Most newbie villains would just pick a warehouse, especially in places like Paragon City, because that's what all the villains in the TV shows do. But it's not just cliche, it's dumb.

Even worse, she's using her power all around the base. Bugs and creepy crawlies surround the base and cover it with cockroaches, bees, flies, and worse.

And I thought Coil was creepy.

But it's not just that. It's the fact that taking the bases was supposed to be a secret. The PRT wasn't supposed to know, at least not right away, but here she was, advertising it like it was a billboard or something. Does she want everyone to know about what she's doing? What would Coil say about one of her guys basically telling everyone that her base was a thing?

When I walked out of the car Coil got for me. I saw people standing around, sitting, and working with power tools. But one thing was common, all of them were silent. Even the children were silent. And children are never silent! This means Skitter isn't inspiring them to work with her. She was terrifying them in order to work with her. And the first thing Master taught me was that never works.

So I got to work with an idiot brat that gets all her ideas for supervillain ideas from TV shows and doesn't even inspire loyalty.

Joy.

I walked into the base. Where Skitter was sitting on a box of supplies, watching over her minions. I walked up to her, only to get stopped by two girls. A red-headed girl and a brunette

"Hey!" the brunette said. "Who are you? Are you a part of the ABB? You can't just walk up to Skitter!"

ABB? Weren't those guys taken down? How stupid is this girl?

"It's ok, Charlotte." Skitter said. Charlotte? Was that her name? Eh, who cares? "He's working with me."

"I'm working with your boss." I clarified.

The red-headed girl looked at Skitter. "You have a boss?"

Skitter stared back. "Sorta," she leaned to me. "Shigaraki, they weren't supposed to know that."

"Half the city will probably know, or at least suspect, thanks to your fuck up with the PRT. Plus, your secrets are not my concern. All I care about is looking over that brat."

Skitter sighed. But moved out my way, "go ahead."

I walked up the stairs to the upstairs room. Then walked to Skitter's room, where the brat was wrapped up in silk.

"Hello, Izuku."

Izuku frowned. "You're not one of the people who can call me that."

"I know." I walked into the room, closer to the brat. "So, how have you been doing with Skitter?"

The brat rolled his lips into his mouth. Then said, "Not pleasant."

"Of course, she is the one the revealed your secret…tell me," I walked over to him. Looking eye to eye. "Why did All Might pick you?"

The brat titled his head. "What?"

"Do I have to repeat myself? Why did All Might pick you? You," I paused, to give what I was going to say more believability. "You must be a wonderful hero in order for him to pick you for his power."

"I don't have-"

"Don't lie to me." I said. "We all already know you have All Might's power. You might as well admit to it."

"You sound annoyed." He said. "What's wrong? Don't want two All Might's running around?"

"Just answer the question. What makes you a selfless hero?" I feigned confusion. "I just don't see it."

"Of course, you wouldn't. You're too evil to see it. You know, when The Undersiders and The Travelers attacked The PRT base, I jumped over to help All Might after I fought through the pain. My body moved before I could think. My body just instinctively went to save All Might. That's why All Might picked me. Because I'm a true hero."

I put one hand on my chin. "I see, wasn't because you were strong. It was because you were good. I bet you didn't even have a quirk! Or any kind of power! You just got lucky to be picked by the one guy who could give you his power. The chances of that happening must be so low, it nearly reaches zero."

"All Might saved half the citizens of Japan once in his life. It was obvious he was going to save me eventually. The only lucky part was that he found me before I tried to take on the exams by myself."

"True." I agreed. "I thought you would have a power that would increase with All Might's quirk. But if he didn't pick you because of his power…and instead because of your character then," I paused. "That might be even worse."

His eyes went wide. "What?"

"If you want to save people more than anything, to the point to your body moved before you could think," I raised my hand to the brat's face. He tried to lean back, cringing all the while. "you going to spend as much time as you could to save people. Just like All Might, but without his timer. You could become All Might as he was in his prime. That…" I plucked a hair out of his head. "Cannot happen."

"What…What are you doing?"

I sighed. "If only Skitter would let me kill you. If she wasn't such an idiot, we could have you dead, and have an All Might on our side."

The brat frowned. "Hey! Don't ta…wait, what?"

What? "What were you saying before?"

The brat looked down. "I…I didn't want you to insult good morals like that. What were you saying about having an All Might?"

Well, I don't believe that for a second. But what was he talking about? "I said that because we have a doctor that can copy quirks. If I give him this hair…"

His eyes immediately went wide. "You can't do that!"

"Oh really? Why not? It's not like you can stop me. I can do whatever I can to ensure my survival."

"You're not…"

"I'm not what?"

The brat stopped himself. "I was…I was going to say you don't care about your survival."

I smiled. "Maybe I don't. Not that much. But one thing for sure, with another All Might on our side. Yours will be short-lived." I turned to walk away. "This conversation has gone on long enough. I'll go." I walked away.

"If you make another All Might-"

"Don't worry brat, I'm going to hold on to this for a bit." I stopped at the doorway and looked back. "I have a stop I have to make first."

Later

The PRT base was a mess. Broken window, cracks in foundation, and if it wasn't for the high-tech, it would look like every other building in this goddamn city.

How much of this was from the attack on The PRT?

Didn't matter. I'm only here for one thing. I walked out of Kurogiri's portal and up to The PRT base with my three Nomu. A low tier, a middle tier…

And a High-End.

This is a new Nomu the doctor has been working on. It wasn't finished. But I'll give it back before the day was done. I only need him for intimidation.

I stopped at the street and stood there, waiting for them to arrive. "Kurogiri, stay here."

Kurogiri came out of the portal. "A precaution?"

I nodded. "Just in case one the heroes gets the wrong idea."

"Of course."

Eventually they did come.

All Might was first. Jumping from the roof of the building. Was there already a hole there? Was it from the fight from last night?

All Might came down with the force of a truck. He took Thirteen and Present Mic with him. Assault and Battery jumped down, Assault landed with no damage to the street. Battery was the complete opposite, creating a crater when she landed. Triumph came down by slowing his descent with powerful sound waves and eventually landing with ease. All Might caught Midnight when she jumped. They must have an unnatural amount of trust in him to do that. Eraser Head swung in from the building with his scarf, taking Miss Militia and a fat woman with him. She really shouldn't be swinging in a skirt. Who is she?

If she's with the heroes, but not in a hero costume, she must be the boss of these guys.

Good.

She talked first. "Who is this?"

Aizawa spoke. "That's Shigaraki." What? Does he know English?

Then I saw the device in his ear and realized he used that to talk to them. His English must not be good enough to speak to them without it. What an idiot.

The heroes' boss looked at me. "You're the one ordering The Undersiders. Or is it your boss that's ordering them?"

Neither. It's Coil. Well technically, me and Coil…

But I decided not to say that. Instead, I put one finger to my nose. "What's your name?"

The Heroes' boss frowned. "I don't think that's your business. All you need to know is that I'm the director."

"I figured," I said. "Just so you know, this is not an attack."

"I figured," she stole my line. "But that does little to ease me."

"Ease us," Aizawa said.

"What business do you have with us, Shigaraki?" All Might said. I noticed he wasn't even smiling. "I doubt it's bringing Young Midoriya back."

"That would be correct." Kurogiri said. "We came to issue a warning."

"What is it?" Assault asked. "You already kidnapped a child. What more could you do? Kill our dog?"

"That's a good idea," I said.

Assault frowned.

"No," Kurogiri said. "We're here specifically to talk to All Might."

"All Might?" Miss Militia looked at All Might.

"What for?" Battery said.

"To tell him," I said. "Not to come to Skitter's base at 5:00."

"You expect him not to save his own pupil?" Triumph asked.

"What!?" All Might said. "Young Midoriya is not my-"

"We already know, All Might," Midnight said. "There's no point in hiding it anymore."

"What was the point of hiding it in the first place?" Present Mic asked.

All Might smiled. "I don't know what you're talking about!"

"We'll deal with this later," Eraser Head said. "Why can't All Might come to get Midoriya? It's his money on the table."

"He doesn't have to be the one to deliver it," I pointed out. "Even if All Might wasn't one of the strongest heroes, you think he wouldn't try to save him?"

"So you expect him to stay here?" Thirteen asked.

"Yes, I do. Or else we'll use this guy to kill him." I pointed to the High-End Nomu

All Might Eyes went wide. "WHAT!? YOU CAN'T DO THAT!"

"Why not? If you come, we lose. So why not kill him when we have the chance? Just to wound your pride?"

They all stared at me. Wanting to do something, anything, to stop me…

But they couldn't…

And I loved it…

All Might could punch away a city block, he could move faster than a sniper bullet, tank ten grenades to the face and it would do nothing but damage his clothing.

And I have more power than him at this moment.

I smiled. "Just so you know, the last Nomu All Might fought was nearly as strong as him. This one is five times stronger."

Nearly all of them backed away from the Nomu. Even Eraser Head backed away.

But All Might and The Director didn't.

"Well, that was it." Kurogiri opened a portal. I backed into it. "Have a great day. Come Nomu."

The Nomu followed.

And when we made it to Coil's base. I smiled.

There was no way they were going to win this.

Author Notes: Next chapter up! this one was a bitch to write. But I still loved it. The next one will be back to Izuku. Things are about to get tense and action-packed soon enough. Get Excited!

Remember that I have a Patre0n that if you support, you will get a new chapter of Lighting Bug! Related to the plot and world, possibly related to Cauldron.

Also, I will post an original web novel called Ultimate soon enough. After I'm done with Lightning Bug. Which will be done next month. Ten more chapters left. This web novel It's even better than Lightning Bug, no shit. So get ready for that.

That's all I had to say. This is Super Ultimate Number One, sighing out. Peace!