End of the Night. A Sit Down and Chat
AN: Been playing Mortal Kombat again. Please take all necessary precautions to ensure your enjoyment while reading. If it brings up a bad feeling, please skip it. Enjoy the show!
At his feet lay the man responsible for ruining, possibly ending, his life. Every endorsement, every sacrifice, every step he'd taken to rise above his family's criminal past was about to be thrown away because of one stupid, beautiful, and kindhearted man struggling for breath at his feet. Hawks looked over to where Fatgum's remains still smoldered. His friend faced his end with courage and honor. That's what they would say about him. He knew better.
His friend died full of fear. A fear born from the uncertainty that those he cared for, that had grown under his tutelage, might die because his incompetence. It was a fear born from failing to save those you cared for. He didn't want to feel that fear any longer.
It hadn't taken him long to find his apprentice. Yami landed like a meteor in the heat of battle; rage blinded him as he became focused on hurting those that were killing his friends instead of working to save those in peril. It was a lesson Yami needed to hear, but Hawks doubted he'd get to be the one administering it.
He'd landed just as Yami's phone call ended. It had to be Uravity. It made sense. He'd received a message shortly after asking him to reconsider his offer. A career of working with villains in espionage, and Hawks still felt filthy every time he had to make a deal with one. His phone rang.
"Hello?"
At least this deal might save someone he cared about.
"You make your decision?"
"Two conditions." He knelt by Yami. His labored breathing worrying him. He'd contacted Tartarus, but the helicopter was still a few kilometers away judging by the sound of the blades.
"Name them, Hawks."
"You fix and watch after the Tokoyami. Nonnegotiable."
"Done. Now-"
"That's a two parter. I have another condition."
Silence from the other end. Hawks continued.
"Promise me you have a plan. I'm about to put a lot of our asses in the fire; you're bringing the HA down on us hard. I need assurances that when the dust settles, and All for One is dead, we aren't going to be left to hang."
"I'm not the Hero's Association, Hawks. I protect all who work for me."
"I didn't say I'd be working for you."
"Welcome to your proper career in villainy, Hawks. I'm glad to have you onboard."
The phone clicked off. Hawks looked at the screen, heard the chopper getting closer, and knew he had to move. He sent one last message, got a quick response, and dropped the phone to the ground.
"Not a lot of this is going to make sense. You might even feel betrayed by all of this."
He stood and crushed the phone under his heel.
"But understand this, Tokoyami. What I do now, I do for you. To keep you from making the mistakes that have led me to this place. I hope one day you can look on me with pride and know that it has always been my privilege to be your mentor."
With his parting words the winged hero took to the sky and waited for the greater peril that would greet him next.
The floor felt cold pressed against his face. Kirishima's body ached; arms were shattered, and his heart ached, but he forced his eyes open. He needed to keep fighting. If he kept his eyes open, he could look for an opportunity to…what exactly? He was broken. His fellow heroes lay dying or about to be tortured to death by these villains. His wife lay bleeding out next to him.
Tai told me to be strong and find a way out of this. Miri needs her father, and I won't let her grow up an orphan!
He opened his eyes and took stock. In front of him the heroes were in sorry shape. Tetsu and Kendo lay beside Mina and himself. The dents in his chest and face told Kirishima that if he broke his metal form the trauma would kill him. Kendo was sporting three less fingers across both her enlarged hands. The sounds of Moonfishes munching brought the bile in his stomach to the back of his throat, but Kirishima fought the urge the hurl.
Behind him Camie struggled to scream as Himiko Toga took her fill of blood from the hero. A few stray officers were being used as punching bags by Muscular. The pulpy masses he reduced them to were almost worse than Moonfishes audible cannibalism.
Monomo sat head down at the far corner, his new stubs cauterized. He wasn't sure if the mouthy hero was even still conscience.
"Don't get greedy, people. We still need a few of them for hostages if we don't hear from the boss soon."
"I don't get it," Rappa called from above him. The fighter cracked his knuckles and walked towards Dabi.
"Why don't we have Kurogiri just warp our asses out of here, and let the rest of us have our fun before we do?"
"I'm with Rappa, Dabi. Let me tear a few of the heroes apart. I love the way their bones go snap."
Kurogiri? No one in the news was supposed to know, but the word among the heroes was that he'd died in Louisiana along with Shigaraki. Kirishima stretched his neck and sitting in a wheelchair, hooked up to life-support, a suited black cloud wheezed and huffed next to the body bag that contained his fallen master.
"If you meat heads would get your minds on the job, you'd know why that's not an option."
"Yes, you lunkheads seem to have forgotten I'm not in perfect health. I maybe have one warp left in me, but it could be fatal."
The bruisers shrugged and went back to their business. Muscular put another screaming officer up on a meat hook. Kirishima could make out Dabi getting a message when Rappa pulled him from the floor and put him on his feet. He stumbled a little, but found his footing.
"Steel boy doesn't seem to be worth much. I'm hoping you can last a little longer."
He had just enough time to harden his face before the punches came in one right after the other. His jaw cracked, joining the list of broken bones, and shifting plates in his body."
"Come on and get your guard up. Otherwise, I'll start in on the alien chick."
Rage overrode common sense as he charged his tormentor only to be knocked back to the floor.
"If you…ca…ar…is…ld…on. H…p is…ing."
His earpiece kept cutting in and out. His mind swirled with the hits. He couldn't focus. In front of him Camie went pale and passed out as Toga withdrew her needle and made her way to Mina.
"You don't seem to have much juice left in you, Pinky. I know they said we needed you alive for now…" she jabbed the needle in, "but you won't mind if I take a little taste."
Behind him he could hear Moonfish starting to rise. Kendo began to whimper, tying to crawl away but a spike through her leg held her in place. Everywhere he looked, there was no opening. What could he possibly do?"
"I…hear…e…ho…n. I…al…st…re."
Rappa closed in on him, shattering his arms again with one punch and lifting him high off the ground.
"Barely even a punching bag. What good are you?"
"What good are you?"
The room stopped. All around him every villain and conscience hero looked towards the sound of the voice. Rappa dropped Kiri to the floor, fresh pain shooting through his overtaxed body. Dabi spoke first.
"I'm sorry, but what was that?"
Monomo stood. He stepped forward, arms shackled, threw his head back and began to laugh.
"I said what good are any of you? You worthless, society rejects. You've only crawled forth from the gutter by our benevolence and don't understand you should just lay down and die before your betters."
Kirishima remembered what a jackass Monomo had been throughout highschool. The mouthy bastard had it out for class 1-A from the drop, and the ego/inferiority complex of a proper villain. Kiri was as shocked as anyone when he graduated the hero course and joined his agency. In the years of working together he was always worried something like this would happen, but the stress and truth of their situation must have finally brought it out.
The nutter has snapped. He's finally lost it.
"What? Do you think you can ignore me you ignoble apes? Do you think taking your pleasure out on those pathetic excuses for "heroes" shows your strength? They aren't worth a speck of me."
"Monomo…" Kiri heard Kendo whisper. "Please. Don't."
"You are all already dead and don't even know it yet. I'll dance on all your graves! Spit on them! Piss on them! I am Phantom Thief, and I will be your doom!"
"Dabi?" Muscular and Rappa were approaching Monomo in tandem. Dabi stepped forward with them.
"Why not. They won't miss this one."
Kirishima couldn't move but he shut his eyes. He wouldn't watch another one of them die.
Monomo's maniacal laugh continued as he heard them lift him into the air. It mixed with cries as he heard shoulders snap and skin tear, interspersed by ragged gasps as a wet mass thudded to the ground. Beyond his eyelids, fire flared up and dully lit his vision. The laughing stopped.
He was only allowed to mourn the braggard's death for a second before something clicked in his mind. His earpiece…
"Ohhhh sure. You fools think you're so manly, huh?"
He got to his feet.
"Eijiro, no. Please don't…"
Mina reached out to him. He felt the eyes on the back of his head and how much she needed him. He closed his eyes, fighting through the pain to call up every wild night that led to late mornings in bed. He recalled Miri's first steps and the sounds of laughter as he and Mina made the dumbest faces they could imagine. He remembered the first night he told Mina that he loved her, and her face when she came to him with the news that he was going to be a dad. He took her hand both times and promised he'd be her forever man. Wherever she'd go, his heart went with her.
Mina, my love, it may have been a short life, but it was the best life because it was with you.
"That's right you ugly bastards. Phantom Thief was the worst of us, and even as ashes he's a thousand times manlier than you. I'll make sure to dance in his absence. I'll do a jig on your corpses and sing like a lark!"
"Muscular. Rappa. Hold him."
The men gripped his shattered arms. His head swam and every bit of him wanted to pass out, but he kept on smiling. He forced a laugh through the cries that wanted to come.
"You heard me, zombie. Since you're back from the dead I'll dance on both your graves. I'll give you a fresh one."
The flames started to leap from his fingers.
"You and fatty where close weren't you? I'll let you die like him. Fitting, no?"
Kirishima looked him in the eye, not giving an inch. He found a memory of Miri splashing pool water in Mina's arms and held onto it.
"Do your worst."
The flames began to leap toward his legs, but never reached him. Somewhere high above, glass shattered, and smoke filled the room.
The thhwwiiip of rope snapping taught over and over again came around the room. Somewhere behind him there was a cry and a thud as it sounded like Toga fell on her ass. The villains' grip on his mangled arms slackened as a loud crack could be heard above him. In front of him, Dabi was knocked back across the room.
Kirishima got to his feet. All around him, the smoke began to coalesce into the form of a sensuous woman in an evening gown. He turned to see an old man removing the blade that pinned Kendo. Once free, he picked up the injured hero and released a length of rope from his free arm, jettisoning himself high enough into the rafters to not be seen.
In front of him stood a slender man in a long gray cowl and cape. He turned, revealing a facemask with two orange round eye windows and some sort of modulation box. His gloved hands held no obvious hero gadgetry and besides what looked like reinforced fabric, Kirishima couldn't make out any body armor.
"I…who are you?"
"Kind of a pointless question," came his savior's modulated voice. "It would defeat the point of the mask."
"Jericho!" Rappa got to his feet. Muscular prepared himself as well but stalked in a circle.
"Jericho, somehow I knew you'd wind up in this. I haven't forgotten our fight in the swamp."
Swamps? Was this an American hero? He could have sworn Jericho was an American villain name.
The masked man didn't answer as both Rampa and Muscular charged their position.
Kirishima tried to harden once more. The broken plates throughout his body ground against each other, but he had to push through. These two men would kill them otherwise.
Jericho rose through the air and arched his back, sending a split kick into the faces of both assailants. The force of the blows knocked the villains off their path and into the ground on either side of him. As he landed Jericho roughly pulled Kirishima away from the downed man and into a defensible corner.
Hawks watched as Mr. Compress opened a roof hatch and snuck away from the battle that was brewing below. He felt bad for the showman turned villain. He didn't have the stomach for violence that the League required of its members these days. Hawks popped out of the shadows and put a hand on the man's shoulders.
"GAAAHHH! Oh, Hawks it's only you. Phew. I thought you were one of those new heroes that showed up all of a sudden."
"Relax, Compress. Relax. Everything is under control."
"Control? You call this control? You're supposed to be my handler and I've gotten nothing about these guys. Who are these heroes? What else is the HA refusing to tell me?"
"I said relax," his blade entered the man's chest.
Mr. Compress grabbed for Hawks, but the hero pressed his blade out and away from him. He withdrew it, letting the magician fall to the floor.
"I'll be taking your spot from here on in. I'm sure the Hero's Association would like to thank you for your service."
He stepped over the body.
"Their appreciation tends to look something like this anyway."
Dabi cursed himself for getting sloppy as he retreated to the body bag. Of course, the idiot would show up with plans to ruin everything. It wasn't enough that he'd wiped half of them out in that infernal swamp. Now he had to fly halfway around the world to finish the job. He wouldn't let that happen.
He began to find the words to convince Kurogiri to open one last warp, but the inky purple blackness already lay open before him. He looked at the suited nomu.
"This was always the plan, Master Dabi. Our master expected this eventuality."
"But you'll…come with us. This is no place to die, Kurogiri."
"I assure you, Master Dabi. I am exactly where I need to be."
All around them the sounds of battle filled the room. Muscular, Rappa, and even Moonfish where giving everything they had to pin the little shit down. Every time they got close; he'd evade. Whenever they tried to attack the injured hero; he'd push them back. Worst of all, Dabi knew now that Shigaraki's suspicions had been proven true. Shiggy's little brother was tearing them apart, and Dabi was sure he was only using his body augmentations to do it. If that was true, they needed Shigaraki to fuse with their master. It was the only way they could stand a chance in this fight.
"Run along now, Master Dabi. I'll tend to Master Izuku."
Dabi puzzled over the creature's words but decided even a reanimated monster had to have a few secrets. He began to heave his friend's body up when Toga appeared.
"Here, I'll take his feet."
He shot fire at the traitor.
Toga dodged the attack and crouched low, ready to move at the next sign of fire.
"You almost had me fooled, Toga. I got to hand it to you. But it turns out some spies are just better at their job than you." He slipped through the portal as the assassin watched, eyes filled with rage, betrayal, and shame. The sounds of the battle left him as the portal shut. He was alone in the dark. He hung his head and bid farewell to the League of Villains.
"The boy's been trying to fight me with these busted arms, but everyone is out of your sightlines now. Molly's getting them stable, but you'll have to finish patching them up once you clean up this fine mess you've pulled us into, Master."
"Thanks Riggs. This get up was getting stuffy."
Izzy landed in the middle of the room. He cracked his neck and allowed his body to relax. In front of him Muscular began to wrap more and more muscle fibers around is frame as a quirk booster flowed into his veins.
"That's it! You're dead, runt. Just who do you think you are?"
"Someone asked me that once," Izzy said as he popped his mask. He let the stifling thing and cloak fall to the floor.
"She wanted to know how I would define myself. What lines I would give decide not to cross in order to carve the raw animal I was brought to her as into someone worthy of the word, 'human.'"
He stripped the reinforced top of the costume, leaving him bare but for a shirt and his pants. His gloves he tucked into his back pocket.
"I've made a lot of progress on those questions, almost got them figured out, I think. However, there's something I still can't deny."
He clenched his fists. Dark currents began to course over his body as his muscles tensed with energy and raw power.
"I'm still my father's son."
Rappa charged him, fists flying, as he tried to land a hit on Izzy. The young man dodged every blow save one he caught. The next punch he threw came at a snail's pace compared to what it was supposed to be.
"Speed and strength amplification through your arms and shoulders. Useful."
Izzy's blows fell fast into Rappa before his final punch exploded through his sternum.
"But redundant." He placed a gnarled hand on the man, passing his quirk back into him as he died.
Moonfish charged despite Muscular's protests. Izzy anticipated the razor teeth coming at him and jumped high over the convict's head.
"Extendable razor teeth. Scary, but unsightly and unnecessary." He ripped Moonfish's head from this body. The gasps of the vile thing left the room as Izzy landed in front of a quaking Muscular. The old murderer steeled his resolve, pumped up his body to max power, and attacked.
"I don't care you who are, runt. I'll tear you to shreds!"
"You can't."
He sidestepped, brushing a hand on the villain's oncoming arm. It disappeared in a burst a red mist. Muscular collapsed to the ground, pain choking out all ability to speak or scream over the loss of his arm.
"But I can."
The other arm exploded in the same fashion.
"I can remake you."
He put the arms back.
"And unmake you."
They exploded again with a scream of agony.
"As often as I want!"
He thrust his hand through Muscular's grotesque abdominals. His arm pierced the flesh, and his hand grasped the man's spine. He squeezed until he felt the vertebrae snap between his fingers. He savored the sounds of his victim's struggle for air.
"I am Izuku Midoriya, the true heir to All for One's legacy. No one, not even my father, will stand against me, and when I am done, I will be free of all of you."
He tore a path with his free hand and pulled Muscular's spine out through his belly and chest. The head came with it, and Izzy stood in front of the corpse with his trophy. He let the grizzly memento fall to the ground and studied his bloodied hands.
"Don't think I've forgotten you, Kurogiri."
Izzy looked to the wheelchair bound nomu.
"You and I are going to have a little chat."
He began walking towards his former tutor.
The roof of the industrial park offered little in the way of a pleasant view, but there was a sunrise, nonetheless. That would have to serve as scenery.
Izzy wheeled the chair to the edge of the roof, adjusted it so that the sun's rays weren't directly in their eyes, and took a seat on an exhaust duct that lay beside the wheelchair. He tied a full Windsor and snugged up the cravat under his collar and finished himself by pulling his gloves on snug. It felt good being dressed again.
"Still a full Windsor, I see."
"I learned from the best."
"You're picking up your father's penchant for monologues."
Izzy winced. It was true what they said. No one could hurt you like family."
"I think it's healthy. Villainy is a lonely profession. Not many in the way of compassionate and patient partners for us, and therapists don't keep confidentiality if they know you're a criminal. You have to talk through what you're going through somehow."
"That makes sense I suppose." He avoided looking at the nomu. The practical training he received from Kurogiri was the closest thing to happy memories he had with the League.
"I heard you've met someone."
Izzy's blood ran cold. He clenched his fist, but Kurogiri patted his hand, taking it in his own.
"Yes, he knows. He was bound to. It's his will."
"I'm not affected by that anymore. Miss Josephine-"
"'s quirk helps you resist it. But you aren't impervious. Where your goals align, is will is there. Why do you think you've been so taken with Miss Uraraka."
Kurogiri pulled up a tablet. On the screen pictures of Izzy and Uraraka from the fun park filled the screen.
"Paparazi from the Hero Gossip Corp. The HA will have them edit out your face, but he's already seen them. For what it's worth, I'm happy for you."
"Why tell me this. You want to, what? Break my resolve? Tell me this is all pointless?"
"I'm fulfilling my duty, at the end of my life."
The nomu squeezed his hand. Izzy tried to grapple with the strange mix of rage and sentimentality that flooded through his system.
"I was brought into this world to serve my masters. I've served Tomura by ensuring he will return to life. All for One will get his new body because of the actions I take today."
Kurogiri turned to Izzy.
"And despite this state you've left me in, I still serve you, Master Izuku. I know you and believe that this woman brings you happiness. Makes you a more complete individual that is capable of protecting himself. Your happiness and safety have always been one of my primary concerns."
"I think I understand."
"Good, then I think you've learned your lessons well. The other masters, and the others who wish you harm as well, will try to use her against you."
"Let them try," Izzy said as he gave his first mentor a final squeeze. He went to the life support system, cranked up the morphine, and turned off the oxygen. He couldn't be sure, but he thought he saw a smile on the cloud's face.
"Father's will be damned. I want her by my side, and I'll do whatever it takes to keep her there."
"Good, Master Izuku." Kurogiri closed his eyes.
"Very good."
AN2: One more chapter to go, and that's a wrap on part one.
