I do not own My Hero Academia or any of its characters.

Prepared

Lee sighed as he leaned against the wall, watching his girls race to catch up to him, Rumi having reached him about a second after he'd finished with the villains. It was just a low-level street gang who'd tried to up their reputation by robbing a bank, so it hadn't taken hardly any effort to stop them, especially compared to what Instant's team had put him through, and that had been without Twitch or Ion, without Spider fighting at all, and without the three main members. It had been a little over a week since the ambush, and they'd all been training themselves bloody since then. Even Rumi. The girls had handled Pornstar catching them better this time, by far. It had triggered their trauma from the first time, but it had only lasted a couple of days. Now, while no one was particularly happy, and the defeat hung over them like a dark cloud, they were getting back to normal, and just in time for the work studies to end.

"That was the first time, wasn't it?" Rumi asked. "The first time you ever outright lost."

"Yeah," Lee nodded, staring down at his new exosuit.

It was exactly the same as the last one, but Spider's webs had damaged the last enough that when he'd collapsed it into its bracelet form, it had shattered, and the boots had been ruined. It had only taken Momo about fifteen minutes to make a new one, once they were all ready to function again, and Momo had finally gotten the jetpack to work properly, as well as having formed his new boots with upgrades. The boots now had thrusters on the bottom which, when an electrical charge was run through them, would emit electricity that looked like blue flames and that would allow him to fly on their own. The jetpack worked the same way but with more power. When testing them, he'd managed to reach about three hundred miles per hour using all three but had found the jetpack was for speed while the boots were required to control his flight. On the other hand, the boots had enough force that he could reach a hundred miles per hour even in close quarters if necessary, allowing him to use them to avoid strikes in midair, finally, and expanding his options for mobility in close quarters. Legacy was designing similar jetpacks and boots for the girls to use, albeit at a slower speed, though they'd have to have power supplies for theirs.

"Losses happen," Rumi said. "But that was definitely the worst beating I've had in a long time." She shook her head. "Even you won't be able to handle that team alone."

"I know," Lee nodded. "And if Spider had wanted, he could have killed us at any time, rather than keeping us corralled. Whenever I have to face the full team, it's going to be a nightmare. I don't think I'll survive it."

"You will," Rumi said. "And if at all possible, call me and I'll be there to help."

"I will," Lee nodded as the others finally reached them. "So, back to school tomorrow?"

Rumi nodded, sighing. "I'm almost going to miss having you all around. Even though I had to turn down two separate booty calls."

"I'm sure Midnight wouldn't mind you showing up at school unannounced," Lee smirked.

Rumi rolled her eyes. "It's not Midnight!"

Lee and the girls laughed, and they waited there for the police to arrive before heading back to the office, Lee taking the time to practice his control while flying. The next day, they all gathered their things and got into Rumi's car, her driver taking them to the front gate.

"Lee," Rumi said as the girls walked through it. "Call me for anything. I'm here for you."

"I will," Lee said hugging her.

"I never did want kids," Rumi said, then sighed, "but you're not so bad."

Lee laughed. "You're just proud that I have my own harem."

Rumi laughed. "It definitely helps. Now go on. Before Midnight chews my ass about you being late."

"Oh, right, like you wouldn't enjoy that," Lee snorted.

Rumi rolled her eyes. "I wish I'd never told you about that drinking party!"

Lee laughed, hugging her again before activating his Quirk to catch up to his girls.

"Sorry I haven't checked in for a while, Spider. I've been busy."

"It's fine," Spider said, staring coldly at Instant as he stepped into the shaft of light from the hole above.

"So, what's your assessment?" Instant asked.

"Per your orders, I didn't kill any of them, and you owe me for that," Spider said. "As for Mach...if we mean to kill him, it'll take all of us, including you three, and we'd have to fight him while he's still trying to protect those three girls. But then, we'd also have to be careful not to kill them first. In that last fight, he'd have beaten the others all easily if he hadn't been fixated on trying to protect the others. It clouded his judgement and made him predictable and easy to take down, even without my help. However, even in that fight, if Pornstar had killed them, even one of them, he'd have killed us all, even me, though I don't think he realized it at the time. It would cost him more than emotionally, but he'd kill us all. In order to cut through that exosuit, I had to apply enough pressure to cut through diamond. The way that suit of his is designed now, I doubt if even All Might could have broken through without going all out. He didn't realize how hard I had to work just to cut into his arm, and neither did that AI in his neural implant. Even with openings already cut into it, as soon as I stopped squeezing, the webs stopped cutting through the suit."

"I see," Instant nodded. "And if we all fought him when he's alone?"

"We might be able to win," Spider said. "I'd wager it's a fifty-fifty chance in that case. If we attacked them all together and killed the girls, even one of them, before him, we would stand no chance. In that regard, Pornstar is a liability. After being denied twice already, I've had to keep her restrained personally to keep her from trying to claim those three again. If she gets to them before we kill Mach, she'll kill them instantly just to satisfy her obsession with killing. She isn't even considering playing with them first, now, like she was last time, just rambling about killing them. We should cut our losses with her and find someone new."

Instant nodded. "Alright, you can do it yourself. Consider it repayment for sparing them before. Now, the rest of the assessment?"

Spider nodded. "Killing him is one thing, and it would definitely not be easy. We'd probably lose most of the team, not that you care about them. As for our other goal, gaining his Quirk should be a relatively simple matter. We'd have to target them together, as with killing him, but we could easily take his Quirk while he's distracted protecting the girls. I'd recommend killing him while he's weakened once we take his Quirk for our new benefactor, but you want to kill him when he's able to fight back for your pride, so that's not what you'll choose."

Instant grinned. "I'm so grateful to All Might. If he hadn't taken All For One down, I'd have to give him a living victim to steal from. But now, once our benefactor has what he needs, I can obliterate Lee to my heart's content."

Spider shook his head. "You're the most insane of us all, Instant. Anyway, I'm going to head back and deal with Pornstar. Are you going to pass on the updated roster as a warning like you did the last one?"

"Of course," Instant grinned. "Our game of Cat and Mouse is only fair if he knows which cats will be chasing him."

Spider nodded. "I'd choose more carefully this time. I recommend one with a more personal stake, and one whose obsession doesn't rival yours."

Instant nodded, and when Spider blinked again, he was gone. Spider turned, walking back the way he had come, keeping his webs arranged into their net around himself to dissuade Instant from turning on him, as he always did when he met with him. He hated working for Instant. He hated anyone whose mind was so warped that he couldn't read them. He didn't trust them. Frankly, Instant terrified him.

Lee took a deep, slow breath as he listened to the phone ring. Finally, a female voice picked up.

"Hello?"

"This is Lee Tanaka, Hero name Mach," Lee identified himself. "I'm a Hero Course student at UA High School."

"Yes, I've heard of you from All Might and your other teachers," the voice said.

"I'm sure you've also heard of the villain with the moniker Instant, as well as his team, and by now the report on the last time I fought them, along with Mirko, has reached you," Lee said. "I'm going to make this very simple. With All Might no longer able to fight crime, I'm the only one capable of dealing with Instant. So, I need an answer here and now. If it comes down to it, if I fight him and have the opportunity to end the threat that he poses permanently, may I? May I kill Instant and his team?"

There was a long silence before the voice responded. "If it comes down to it, you may deal with his entire team as necessary. I urge you to use as little force as possible to stop them, but you may deal with them as you deem necessary in the event of the battle you expect to face. And for Instant in particular, you have permission to end his threat."

"Thank you, Madame President," Lee said, disconnecting and putting his phone away.

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