Trixuny - I believe that in most stories mentioning the Beginning, it's stated that heroics born from state-legalized vigilantism. So I'm mostly running alongside similar scenario here. The cast might be very well organized and in cahoots with the local police, but it's still de facto vigilantism (only police-supported) and very illegal :v
Guest - Don't worry! No sex scenes, the whole harem is less harem and more four people broken so much that if you piece them all together they make for one functional person. Emotional support sex, ever and always.
(***)
Also, damn. I had a very bad day, I was having some very bad thoughts about my writing as a whole (especially Dead on Arrival, which is kinda dead last in the popularity), then I go to bed. My phone makes a sound. I check it. I got a message that someone favourited it on FF. Turned out that it was the author of the story that initially brought me into writing fanfictions for BNHA. Wow. Really good timing.
[also Incident Zero is one of the best fanfics ever and you can't change my mind]
(***)
WE'RE SWITCHING THE STORY TO BEING PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY, I'M SORRY! The reasons were mostly stated on Cure to Evil, but basically, I'm blitzing too fast, not amassing kudos in an even remotely serious tempo, and I need some time to expand on the backlog of chapters just in case. Don't worry, even if I die, someone's going to publish what I made in my stead.
ALSO I HAVE TWO MORE STORIES IN THE SERIES, PLEASE GIVE THEM A READ IF YOU DIDN'T ALREADY.
(***)
They continue watching without interruptions for maybe ten seconds. Until Uraraka's gunshots fail to intimidate Jetstream.
"Okay, first things first." Aizawa says while the recording is paused. "I commend Singularity for not shooting him on the spot. However, only because she knew that Defiant was en route, and she was clearly trying to hold them back until his arrival. Make it clear to her that if she is cornered like that again, she may shoot her opponents." The last words were clearly directed at Izuku. Who frowned under his mask.
"Really?" He asks. "That's a bit of a change in policies."
"Less than fifteen percent of gunshots are fatal." Aizawa replies scarcely, almost to the point of deadpaning. "If you have to choose between guaranteed death of yourself and a measly fifteen percent chance of your enemy dying, take the second option, please. Just don't approach him when he is down and unload the entire magazine into him."
What he doesn't say is that the policy probably changed a lot when Dabi melted apartment blocks with people inside. Mustard only executed the loose ends during their skirmish in front of Kirishima's apartment (and the few poisoned civilians all recovered). What Dabi did was an escalation.
Izuku isn't happy about that. But he'll relay the message.
"What about his quirk?" Torino speaks. When the eyes in the room focus on him, he adds something more. "I know that I'm spoiling the future events, but the water villain, Jetstream, was apprehended by Defiant and Kappa. He is in Tartarus now, but we don't know how his quirk works. This is a bit of a priority to me right now."
Izuku actually blinks at him a few times in surprise. Not like it's visible from under the mask, though.
"Wait, how do you even keep him in then?" He asks. Torino snarls.
"Sedatives, that's how." The police officer replies. "We're keeping him unconscious until his meta-ability is properly analyzed and a containment method is decided upon. Per the procedures."
Procedures in questions were literally days old and based on a literally single case (namely, Glassmaker) and a lot of guesswork. No wonder Torino looked even less happy than normally.
"Do you have a medical professional present?" Shuzenji asks. Torino glares back at her. "Anesthetics aren't a toy."
"Define 'medical professional'," Torino replies. Clearly unhappy with the direction the talk is taking. Shuzenji isn't happy either, considering how narrow her eyes turned. "It's not like we can just drop by the nearest hospital and start asking people if they want to be a part of an illegal secret detention facility for supervillains. For who knows how long, and without means of contacting their families and friends in the meantime."
"I'll find you someone." Shuzenji replies after a few long seconds of deep thoughts. "Probably more than one person. And enough medical equipment to provide proper care for both the inmates and the wardens on-site."
That took everyone off-guard. Especially Torino.
"Really?" He asks the old doctor, his brow raised. "Aren't you afraid of…"
"Of what?" She interrupts him. "Of getting arrested for that? That depends entirely on the existence of a government capable of prosecuting the case against me and putting me behind bars. And such a government existing in three to five years from now on will surprise me more than the people present in this room becoming some sort of provisional governing council for the independent Republic of Musutafu."
This provokes some laughs. Even Aizawa seems to smile a bit. Of course, his smile is rather intimidating and almost scary. But there is a clear amusement behind it.
(Aizawa will one day remember Shuzenji's words. They won't be even nearly as funny in hindsight.)
"So, quirk?" Torino returns to the subject once the laughs die down. He is clearly asking Defiant.
"I think it's a water manipulation, but a rather selective one." Defiant replies. "Did you search his backpack? Did he have even a single bottle of non-carbonated water inside?"
"No, he didn't." Torino replies, his eyes narrowing visibly. "So it's just carbonated water?"
"That's my running theory, yes." Izuku replies. "I noticed that every bottle he pulled out was of various carbonated water brands when I re-watched the recording before this meeting. The rest was just him concentrating the water to form an impromptu water jet cutter. He should be containable in Tartarus, but you should have a hero, preferably Hijack, present when he wakes up. It…"
"... might be a ploy." Torino takes it over. "So Overhaul might have told him to pretend that it's just carbonated water so that he could surprise us by suddenly controlling normal water. Good point, kid."
Izuku does his best not to melt. Are they trying to taunt him into showing them his face just to prove that he is an adult? Then again, if the words of his friends are to be believed, showing them his face will only make them think he is a kid more.
"And the other new villain?" Tsukauchi asks. "Duststorm?"
"Let's keep watching." Izuku replies. "It will be explained in a moment."
Suddenly, there is a new POV on the screen. Defiant arrived on the scene. Jetstream is incapacitated almost instantly. Singularity retreats. Defiant attacks Duststorm with his capture weapon, only for the villain to block the attack.
Izuku raises his hand. Sasaki's secretary stops the recording.
"I believe that Duststorm's quirk is matter disintegration." Izuku announces. "Most likely through a five-finger point contact, like Singularity. Any solid object that he touches with all five fingers of one hand at once turns to dust."
"So, we've found Decay." Tsukauchi comments. Defiant nods back at the detective.
"Could you elaborate?" Sasaki asks. Backdraft looks like he was to do the same, but the principal moved faster.
"I'm tasked, among other things, with grading villains." Tsukauchi replies. "Both those whose existence we've confirmed and those that we suspect to exist based on urban legends and mentions of unexplained crimes throughout the country. The resulting Rogue's Gallery…" Suggesting that name was an awesome thing to do. Izuku regrets nothing. "... includes twenty-seven potential villains as of now. Decay was on that list, based on the incident in Shizuoka where someone or something turned a family house together with its inhabitants into dust. The local police suspected some unknown chemicals, we suspected meta-ability. Dabi was also on the list, under the provisional name of Blue Flame, for the record. For numerous cases of arson in Musutafu and the neighbouring prefectures."
"What rank is he getting?" Torino wakes up suddenly while the rest are busy digesting the news about the Rogue's Gallery. "I'm not sure if we can restrain him if he can decay matter on touch."
"Artist gloves, handcuffs and permanent oversight, especially when he is using the toilet or eating." Defiant replies. They need to take off the handcuffs for that, especially the former. "But that's a bit too complicated in the long-term. I'd say that he's an A-Rank, set for exile rather than containment."
Jetstream was going to be a B or A-Rank villain, depending on whether he could control other types of water than the carbonated one. That much came without saying.
"Makes sense." Tsukauchi says. Izuku remembers reading Decay's entry - he was already provisionally graded as an A-Rank in the Gallery. The detective was getting the hang of the meta-abilities business. Matter disintegration, regardless of activation mechanism, was almost impossible to contain. And he already killed people, so D and C-Ranks were out of the question.
"Fine, unless someone has something to add, let's continue." Aizawa announces. No one comes forward with anything, and thus the recording continues.
This time they all witness Defiant manhandling Duststorm, and the latter's taunts. Torino actually chuckles when the taunts are cut short by Defiant force choking the villain suddenly.
Aizawa, in the meantime, glares at the superhero.
"I'm alright with fighting Overhaul." Assistant Commissioner announces. "But I'm not fighting Disney's lawyers if they come for you, problem child." Yeah, that's one fight he isn't looking forward to at all, either. "Also, you realize that this is something rather dangerous, right?"
Aizawa should really stop patronizing Izuku THAT much. Izuku Midoriya ISN'T an idiot. And he is very cautious about things.
"I'm acutely aware." Defiant replies. "I had inquired Kan-sensei about his expertise on choking techniques. I had Alchemist calculate the exact amount of pressure to avoid damaging anything. Plus, I also expanded the technique with some basic immobilization measures, including both holding the head and the neck in place and levitating the target slightly. I don't think I'm confident in this technique enough to attempt that on a moving target."
Nor on someone whose biology differs from a human one. So complex mutants, for example. And the range at which he is willing to attempt is several meters at best. He requires utmost precision or he might accidentally kill someone. Still, against a singular opponent, this is an extremely useful technique.
"Kan-sensei?" Aizawa asks. The words are directed clearly at Principal Sasaki.
"PE teacher of the UA Special Course." Sasaki replies. "Coincidentally, a former GSDF ranger."
"I see." Aizawa looks somewhat conflicted about this, but doesn't elaborate. "Let's continue."
They make it until the Defiant's force choke fails because of Inquisitor's intervention. Naturally, this elicits some reactions.
"Wait, what just happened?" Aizawa is clearly confused about it. Izuku thinks that they just arrived at the second-worst moment of this talk after Dabi's Prominence Burn. It's going to be… bumpy.
"Eri?" This time, it's Principal Sasaki.
"The healing quirk user that was mentioned earlier." Izuku replies. "As for what happened… There was another new villain present at the scene. This time one not from the Rogue's Gallery. And you won't like his quirk."
"Please tell me it's not what I think it is." Aizawa ends up connecting the dots almost immediately. And he seems to agree with Midoriya about not liking it.
"What?" Tsukauchi, in the meantime, is lost. And so are most of the people in the room.
"He asked me a question." Izuku replies. "And I involuntarily answered it. Truthfully. If I didn't slam my mouth shut with my meta-ability and then switched my helmet into voice-cancellation mode, I'd end up blabbering out where Eri is. I believe that this villain's quirk compels people around him to answer his every question with the full truth, whether or not they want it."
"So they have a perfect interrogator." Aizawa replies bitterly. "And a wet dream of every counterintelligence agency in the world. Any undercover cop or a police informant near Overhaul will be ousted immediately." Izuku nods. The rest are busy digesting the news.
Worst part? Izuku has at least one even worse implication of Inquisitor's meta-ability being available to Chisaki.
"It gets worse." Izuku, unfortunately, has to share this observation. Aizawa stares at him with a look of being very, very done on his face. "What if Overhaul buys him a megaphone and a directional microphone… and tells him to yell a question about Glassmaker's whereabouts during a local police assembly?"
Torino practically shrinks in his seat. Aizawa looks barely better. Izuku doesn't even mention the fact that the Assistant Commissioner himself is, naturally, a prime target for that.
At least he doesn't know where the Network's headquarters are. Nor the real names or any other incriminating details of its members. And for as long as UA's involvement remains under the table, Chisaki won't go after it and won't send Inquisitor after Sasaki.
"Thankfully, Tartarus' location is something that, aside from its crew, only four people know about." Aizawa replies after a few seconds of thinking. "Me, Tsukauchi, Defiant and Eclipse. Unless you shared it with other Network members?" He asks Izuku.
"I didn't." Izuku replies. He told them that Tartarus exists and that he visited it, but he also told them that it's super-secret and that they should keep the number of people in the know to the minimum. "Alchemist's the only exception. But she is outside of Chisaki's grasp."
"Good." Aizawa replies. "This is still a nightmare, but a possibly manageable one. Also, I assume that he… what's his villain name?"
"Inquisitor." Izuku replies.
"So he, Inquisitor, is a D-Rank." Aizawa concludes. "Although a… priority target at that." Izuku nods. Tsukauchi does so as well. Not a violent criminal, with a quirk that makes him perfectly containable. "Let's continue then."
And now, the truly nasty bit.
Dabi destroys the drone. Inquisitor's intervention breaks Defiant's force choke, freeing Duststorm. Defiant switches to Plan B. He actually admits that at this point he realized they will not win and prepared their retreat, which once again earned him something resembling a stare of approval from Torino.
Then Defiant throws unconscious Jetstream at the still hidden Kappa, who promptly starts running away with the captive in tow.
When inquired about the reasons for deploying alongside her, Izuku replies that the distance from the Eclipse's warpgate to the battlefield grew a lot because of Dabi luring Singularity away. Getting Gargoyle there would weaken him (besides, he was having a shift at Tartarus when it happened). So he took a much lighter Kappa. Mostly in case Singularity was more wounded, and he needed someone to give her a lift while he was holding the villains at bay.
Kappa had a microphone, earpiece, and a camera. Most of those hanging off a headband. With the drone destroyed, all that the people present in the room saw of her was her PoV and the long tongue. Thankfully, they didn't see the 'she arrived at the battlefield completely naked' bit. Ugh.
Then Dabi jumps over the street. And they all get to witness the madness on his face, immediately followed by the Prominence Burn.
There was at least a single more of Alchemist's drones in Marukane Ward that evening. They just didn't make it to the battle. But were able to show the line of fire carving its way through the urban landscape from a distance.
"Oh my god." It's Backdraft. On his face was a combination of horror and shock. Izuku isn't surprised.
"How?" Aizawa responds with a question. "How on Earth did he…"
"Let's…" Izuku doesn't like to interrupt police officers. But this time, he has to. "...watch it until the end before having that talk."
And they did so. As a result, they get to witness what was left of the villain after the attack. His body melting and collapsing under the heat of his own attack, yet his face still filled with maniacal happiness. Announcing proudly his villain name and the title of the Arch-Arsonist of Musutafu while his face melts.
And then his willingness to keep fighting, only for the Defiant to turn tail and run.
"... I'm going to say a word that I didn't use in quite a while." Principal Sasaki interrupts the silence. "What. The. Fuck?"
Izuku would be shocked with the principal using a swear word if he wasn't too busy relieving yesterday's trauma after getting to witness it again. Backdraft looks only narrowly less traumatized. Or, more like, horrified at what he just got to see. His fire department just got itself an archenemy and said archenemy can cause building-melting fires with no tools or fuel.
"Now you know why I thought that your idea of storming Chisaki's stronghold while Mustard was elsewhere was a bad one." Aizawa is the second one to speak, his words clearly directed at Torino. Who seems to still be too shocked by the recording to actually reply to that. So Aizawa continues. "I'm going to join the Principal's question here. What the fuck? How can he have this much firepower? He is less a metahuman and more a living weapon of mass destruction."
"He… he is the first generation metahuman, clearly." Izuku replies. It's the working theory that he had at this point "Hard to guess correctly, but he has to be at least twenty-five or twenty-six years old."
"And?" Aizawa asks, while staring at him questioningly.
"Well, we know that the first generation quirks are either very weak or very powerful, but unstable." Izuku replies. The first-gen was everyone older than nineteen years old, at least as of now. Whether Eri was a third-generation quirk user or was the second generation going to last longer was anyone's guess at this point. "Dabi's quirk is extremely powerful, but he clearly lacks resistance to his own flames. But now he ran into Overhaul, and…"
"...and Overhaul can heal him when he goes too far." Aizawa takes it over. "So he no longer uses his quirk to cause a spark or two to set up a fire, but can melt down buildings."
Izuku nods. Aizawa looks like he aged a decade during the last ten seconds. Backdraft looks only narrowly better.
"S-Rank." Aizawa says. Tsukauchi and Defiant nod as if on cue. There is really no debating this. "And just so we're clear. If you are fighting him in a populated area, civilian lives are always at stake. Fight to kill, not to apprehend him."
Once again, there is really no debating that. Defiant would have preferred not to do this, but… Dabi is a complete pyromaniac who was probably getting a hard-on when setting people on fire. With this firepower at his disposal, there was simply no other option. Not if they were civilians within his range of attack.
Even Defiant was ready to admit that. Despite not liking that.
"I have to tell my men about it." Backdraft finally speaks. When eyes turn to him, he expands on that. "Listen, I get it. You're trying to keep things under wraps to avoid panic, information leaks and public ridicule. But if this maniac is out there, the firefighters need to at least know how he looks and what he can do. Him going after us is only a matter of time."
It makes sense. Dabi is clearly a pyromaniac. Firefighters are practically his antithesis. If they arrive too early at the scene of a fire, and he is still there, he will no doubt engage them. And with his flames…
"This… makes sense." Aizawa reluctantly agrees with Izuku's unspoken words. "Just… Please, don't tell everyone at once. Focus on those you trust to stay quiet for now."
Izuku has an idea.
"It's actually a good occasion, I think?" He says, bringing the attention to him. Ugh. He worded it wrongly. "I mean, the Network members are already cooperating with the police. The local Fire Department knowing about the meta-abilities lets us extend that deal further. And I can think of at least several metahumans within the Network that could be extremely useful in fire-fighting and general rescue operations."
"Really?" Backdraft is suddenly very interested in Defiant's words. Izuku, once again, isn't surprised. Seeing Dabi's rampage did to him what discovering Chisaki's true nature (and the existence of Mustard) did to Aizawa. It changed metahumans from hard to classify oddities into strategic assets. "Like?"
Aizawa probably only showed him the general manual describing the meta-abilities as a phenomenon. Without going into details of what the Network has in store. That was probably one rushed introduction.
"Well, I can mostly think of four examples, myself included." He replies. His ability for precise manipulation of things at a distance (without putting himself in harm's way) was useful. Then again, it was already displayed to Backdraft during the recording. "First one is Earworm. Her quirk enhances her hearing to the point when she can hear every sound at a distance counted at least in hundreds of meters. She should be able to instantly locate buried victims of a landslide, avalanche or a building's collapse. Almost regardless of depth."
"So, practically speaking, a super-detailed human echo sonar?" Backdraft summarizes it quickly. "That sounds useful, alright."
Izuku knows acutely that everyone else in the room is listening to him rather intently. He feels… reviewed and judged. Hopefully, the results are satisfying.
"Second one would be Gargoyle." Izuku continues. "His meta-ability lets him harden himself to the point where his body has the properties of a stone. With a breathing apparatus, he can practically walk through the fire, without noticing it's there. He is also much stronger and extremely resistant to impact when using it, although also heavier. Still, with some correct guidance…"
"...he could avoid collapsing through a weakened structure of a house on fire while assisting the firefighters with his strength." Backdraft catches up on Izuku's logic. "Not to mention, having someone essentially fireproof sounds like a major asset. Good idea."
If only he was Dabi's blue fire level of fireproof. Alas. He is like rock, but Dabi's flames are hotter than lava. He would survive longer than a normal human, but that would be all.
"The third one is Singularity." Izuku continues on. "She can render any object she touches with all five fingers at once weightless, for as long as it weighs less than twenty tonnes." He can see Backdraft's eyes flaring up. "So with someone to instruct her on that, she could…"
The fire chief isn't letting him finish.
"...she could unearth a collapsed building, by hand." The firefighter says, his eyes wide open. "In a matter of minutes, and without having to wait for the heavy equipment to arrive. Alright, I'm officially sold on this, and I'm really looking forward to working with you."
"We're also going to organize some sort of joint training, at least between the Network and the local Riot Police Unit." Aizawa adds. "Overhaul is certainly ahead of us in combined arms training, and trying to fight his elites without that sounds like begging for trouble."
"I'm sorry to interrupt you, but…" Tsukauchi, oddly silent for a moment, suddenly speaks out. "I think I just noticed something odd, and I think that sharing this thought might be a good idea."
"Yes?" Aizawa asks him.
"Look, I realize I might be switching cause and effect here…" Tsukauchi says. "...but don't you find it weird that the first metahuman with a fire quirk we know of just happens to have one of the worst cases of pyromania in human history?"
Izuku, of all people, finds himself lost. Others, naturally, are even more lost. At least judging from all the questioning stares that the detective gets.
"We know that first-gen quirks are all unstable." Tsukauchi elaborates. "But thus far, we've only looked into them causing medical issues. What if they also cause psychological changes to their holders?"
Oh. Ohhh. Now Izuku realizes what this is about. How did he miss that? Sure, Dabi was a rather extreme case, enough to draw attention to the situation, but…
"I think I don't follow?" It's Shuzenji that asks. Clearly, the subject has shifted onto her field of study, so she is active once again.
"I mean, let's go through the known cases of first-gen quirk users." Tsukauchi replies. "Case one: A man with a quirk letting him negate the activation of other quirks within his line of sight. He also is rather grumpy, pessimistic and negative." Aizawa controls himself too well to give his subordinate a death stare. He is still keeping his power a secret. Izuku isn't even sure if Torino knows. "Case two: Dabi and his extreme pyromania. Case three: Overhaul."
By now Izuku is busy running all that metahumans known to him with this idea in mind. He has rather conflicted thoughts about what he discovers.
"He has a quirk that lets him rearrange everything around him, according to his whims." Tsukauchi continues. "Don't you find it odd how much his rather unhealthy level of ambition and his utter disregard for the existence of other people plays into that? There is also case four. Duststorm. He is clearly twenty-something, has a quirk that turns everything to dust, and sounds like someone who cares about the people around him even less than Overhaul."
"Wait, what about the second generation metahumans?" Aizawa replies in a hurry. He seems slightly shaken by this theory, and Izuku isn't surprised by that in the slightest. "I don't see them influenced so m…"
"Second-gen quirks are more stable." Izuku interjects. "Maybe their influence on the minds of their users is less pronounced. But I think I can find one or two signs of this mechanism among the Metahuman Network. The real problem is that I can't tell if, for example, Earworm got her sound-based quirk because of her being so interested in music, or if she was so interested in music because she had a dormant sound-based quirk waiting to manifest. Hijack has a mental quirk, and maybe this aggravates the mechanism. Especially considering his…. slight controlling tendencies."
Izuku really doesn't care what he is doing with Toga when they both lock themselves in his room. Which happens oddly regularly for the past week. At least for as long as she agrees to that.
He thinks he prefers not to know. The worst-case scenario of learning the truth would be Mei getting influenced by it.
"This might as well be a quirk version of a birth defect." Shuzenji chirps in. She seems convinced. "Much rarer in the more stable second generation, but almost universal among the first generation."
"I'll inform Inui." Principal Sasaki announces. "He is in the best position to confirm or rebuke this theory."
(***)
I'd like to point out that Aizawa just announced an open hunting season on Dabi... and Midoriya didn't fight him on that. Looks like things are changing, not necessarily to the better.
Also please don't see the quirk influencing mind stuff as some sort of excuse for the villains. If anything, it only explains why they are mostly somehow worse than in canon. This mechanism seems to only worsen what already was there. I'm only explaining the reeason for them being worse than in canon.