I do not own My Hero Academia or any of its characters.
Downhill
Lee smiled as the others all answered their phones and announced what requests had come up. They were on Nabu Island working as a hero agency for a project from the school, as well as covering for the island's Hero in Residence until a replacement arrived. Everyone was so excited and happy that the only person besides Bakugo who had stopped smiling so far was Mineta, and that only because he had gotten rejected, but the smile always returned within minutes. Lee was eternally grateful for that. After the last time they'd met Instant's team of freaks, this was exactly what Mina, Momo, and Toru needed. And it wasn't a dangerous assignment, despite the absence of any pro heroes at all on the island, because there had been nothing but minor crimes and favors. So far, they had helped find lost luggage, put up warning signs for a more dangerous stretch of beach, helped a little old lady get to a hospital when she hurt her back, helped with deliveries, recharged a harvester batter, and in Todoroki's case, had made ice for a shaved ice stall at the beach.
"Lee, would you mind helping Old Man Shu with a delivery?" Mina asked. "His car broke down and he's only got ten minutes to get there."
"Sure," lee smiled, standing. "Send me the usual."
Mina nodded, smiling, and took a picture of the map displaying the island with the delivery car's location and the destination both. Legacy, having finally uploaded herself into Lee's girls' phones, used the picture to guide Lee first to the truck, then the destination with the food and pizza, then back with the money. As the entire island was small, only about twenty-five miles to loop all the way around, and he could run around it in about four minutes without his electricity, the delivery itself took about two minutes. Then, he called a tow truck for Old Man Shu's delivery driver before heading back to the island's hero agency headquarters where they were temporarily staying. After several more hours, they were finally done for the day and Lee passed out iced tea for everyone.
"Hey, uh, how 'bout fewer small jobs?" Sero asked.
"No can do," Iida said. "All jobs are equally vital."
"It may be true that we came here as heroes, but remember, we're still just students," Momo said. "We have to work hard and prove ourselves to earn the islanders' trust."
"Plus, in the last thirty years, this island hasn't had any crime worse than an old man with dementia forgetting to put his pants on before going out in public," Lee added. "Short of villains showing up, small jobs are all we've got. However, allow me to reiterate what I said after Winter Break. If Instant or his team show up, every single one of you is to get as far from the fight as you possibly can."
"What!?" Bakugo shouted. "No friggin' way! If any villains show up, I'm gonna crush 'em!"
"No, you won't," Lee said. "One of them would kill you before you even knew he was there, one of them only has to pierce your skin once and he can turn you into stitches to make himself stronger, and one of them may actually be strong enough to go toe to toe with All Might if All Might hadn't retired. And even besides those three, all of the members of that team routinely fight and kill pro heroes for sport. As I said, and have said, all of you will run away from the fight if they show up."
"We will," Midoriya promised. "And we'll make sure Momo, Mina, and Toru do, too."
"Thank you," Lee said. "Now, I have some good news to make up for getting all serious."
"We're graduating early?" Kaminari joked.
"Babes!?" Mineta asked hopefully.
"Better," Lee said, then shot out of the room, only to return with five gallons of ice cream in his arms. "Ice cream!"
Everyone cheered and Lee set down the tubs before leaving for more. And just like that, everyone's good mood was restored. Just as Lee was about to sit, someone knocked on the door, so he walked over and opened it, then smiled and stepped out of the way, allowing a dozen or so citizens from the island in to give them platters of food as thanks for their hard work. Lee quickly took the platters from them and spread them out across the tables while Iida and Momo stepped outside with the islanders to thank them as the class representatives. Everyone waited respectfully for them to return before digging into the surprise feast. Once they were done, almost everyone left to get cleaned up for bed, leaving Bakugo to be in charge of night watch, as he had refused to help with anything all day. Mina and Lee also didn't get cleaned up yet, and instead headed to a secluded section of beach for some alone time, both Momo and Toru having said they were too tired to join them. By the time they got back and had cleaned up, it was already late, and both went to bed quietly. The next day passed much the same as the last, almost entirely small jobs. However, as the sun was setting, just as Lee was finishing up a delivery to grab a new mother the baby formula she'd forgotten at her house, which spoke volumes for how much she trusted him, considering it meant letting him into her home, things suddenly took a familiar turn toward chaos. The island's ferry smashed through the breakwater and sped toward the shore. Lee used his Quirk to rapidly clear its path, and it slammed into the beach, falling onto its side.
Lee shook his head, having Legacy warn his girls that something was very wrong. However, before he could go see if anyone on the ship needed help, three males leapt from the side of the boat that was now on top, and a moment later, a lone female with red hair leapt into the air and began to twirl her hair. Strands of hair that shone red began to fire from her hair in a stream that she swept across the other ships in the harbor, the hair strands setting off explosions that decimated the other ships as she did. Legacy warned the girls that there were villains present who weren't Instant or his team, and Lee shot over to skid to a stop before the three males. One had his body wrapped in red bandages, a black tactical vest with a wakizashi on the back, dark grey pants with yellow knees, leather hip pouches, and pale hair falling around his head. The next was huge with the appearance of an anthropomorphic, blue and white wolf with black dreadlocks reaching back from the top of his head, an alligator tail, and pale-yellow scales on the backs of his clawed hands. The last had long, snow white hair falling behind him, a pair of white dress pants, a white dress jacket, and an armored, black body suit that left his fingers exposed, included a black half-mask over his lower face, had a pair of cylinders with glowing purple sections from the backs of his shoulders, and that reminded him strongly of All For One.
"Who are you?" Lee demanded, only for the one with the bandages on his body to explode forward, slashing with his wakizashi.
Lee's right arm slammed into the blade, which shattered against his exosuit, but at the same moment, the bandages on the villain's arm came alive, shooting outward in a blur and binding Lee in seconds. He swore, struggling to move, and trying to use his electricity to break free, but the bandages resisted electricity, and he was bound too tightly to move.
"Oh, I am not going to be seen captured," Lee growled. "I'd never live it down."
He activated his jetpack, and the bandages covering its thrusters exploded off, loosening the bandages over his arms enough for him to rip them free, then free himself. However, as he landed on his feet, he realized everyone else was gone. He narrowed his eyes as his opponent's bandages shot outward, wrapping around other objects, each one flashing red for a moment before transforming into a vaguely humanoid mummy, which he controlled like puppets, or else simply floated in the air above and around himself. Within seconds, he'd formed dozens of them, and Lee crouched, readying himself. Then, the villain sent the mummies hurtling toward him. Lee exploded forward, spinning around the first and allowing it to explode into the ground before leaping at the second and using his left boot's thruster to spin himself into a round kick, splitting it in half, bandages and all. The next two flashed toward him, but Lee's boots and jet pack activated, hurling him to the ground before he was off again. A trio mummies shot toward him from the front, and Lee smirked, exploding around to the side of one before drilling a blurred punch into it, the pieces of whatever had been used to form the mummy obliterating the other two as well. Then, he turned, drilling another blurred punch into a mummy about to slam into him, the pieces of that one battering half a dozen more behind it and knocking them out of his way. Then, he exploded forward again.
"I don't think so!" the villain snarled, just as over a dozen mummies moved to crush him from all sides.
However, before they could, Ojiro, Tokoyami, and Shoji arrived, smashing all of the mummies before they could hit him, allowing Lee to reach the villain, finally. His fist exploded into the villain's vest, sending him hurtling backward, but Lee had felt it. The bandages had expanded and cushioned the blow, and likely the landing as well.
"Not bad," the villain said, standing. "I didn't expect you to be so quick, or your allies so fast to reach you."
"Did anyone else come for this one?" Lee asked.
"No," Tokoyami said. "They are searching for the other three."
Lee nodded. "I'll take point."
The other three nodded, and they all charged together. The villain snarled in annoyance, swiping his arms as chunks of the ground and piles of sand rapidly became mummies, albeit fragile ones, and the and ones were all leaking and shrinking slowly. However, now that there were four of them, the mummies were rapidly being obliterated. Then, just as Tokoyami smashed the last of them, Lee reached the villain again.
"Let's try this again!" Lee snarled, streaking in from the villain's left. "Pinball!"
He slammed the punch into the side of the villain's face, where the bandages couldn't protect him, then flashed around in front of him, punching him again. Again and again, he sent him flying or bouncing across the beach or shooting through the air, as his jetpack and boots allowed him to keep the target airborne as well now, before finally punching him down into the ground. Ojiro ran over to check on the villain and sighed, looking up as Lee landed.
"He's down for the count," Ojiro said. "Now we should find the others."
Lee nodded and stood. "Where to, Legacy?"
"The furry one is along the beach, about a quarter of the way around the island to your left," Legacy said. "Mina and Toru are in charge of evacuation there."
Lee took off, streaking along the beach until he spotted him. The villain was using brute force to overpower the group fighting him, a group that included Bakugo, Todoroki, Sato, Iida, Sero, and several others. As he roared and exhaled a blast of flames that overpowered Todoroki's instantly, Lee tapped into his electricity, exploding forward and drilling a punch into his head just behind his jaw, sending him crashing backward along the beach as Lee let his electricity fade.
"Well, well, well," the villain said, standing, blood running out of his mouth as he grinned. "You've got some power after all. And since you're here, that means Mummy was taken down. Not bad. But don't think you're going to beat me as easily as-"
His tail flashed upward as Dark Shadow approached from behind, only to be sent flying in the impact with the tail. Lee exploded forward, ducking aside from a punch and throwing his own, only for the villain to catch it, actually withstanding the force. He swung Lee around, smashing him to the ground, then spun again, batting Bakugo away with him. Lee activated his jetpack and boots, twisting his hand to catch the villain's wrist before he rocketed into the air, and the villain laughed.
"Nice reversal!" the villain grinned. "Let's play!"
Lee spun himself, moving to hurl the villain, only for the villain to cling to Lee's arm, dragging him with him. A moment later, both exploded down on the beach, Lee bouncing away from the villain. He groaned, rattled even through his exosuit, and pushed himself up as the villain did the same, shaking his head.
"Not bad, kid," the villain said, then spun, drilling a fist into Sato's arms, hurling him away before catching Ojiro's tail and hurling him into Todoroki and Sero. "You all, on the other hand, are disappointing me."
Lee exploded forward, and the villain spun, catching Lee's bicep during a punch, but shouted in pain as he was forced to take the punch anyway. He rocketed backward, pulling Lee with him, but this time, he flipped, slamming Lee into the ground before beginning to slam punches into Lee's exosuit.
"This is more fun than I've had in a while!" the villain grinned as he drilled his fist into Lee over and over.
"At least one of us is entertained," Lee said, making his voice bored.
"What!?" the villain yelped.
Lee twisted, drilling a punch into the side of the villain's head, throwing him off before flipping and pinning him, grabbing him by the top of the head. "You were punching a helmet that can impact a diamond at three hundred miles an hour and not be damaged. You'd need a hell of a lot more force than that to get to my head. But yours, on the other hand...Lightning Bomb!"
The villain shrieked in pain as electricity coursed through him from Lee, but Lee was very careful to restrict it to a non-lethal level. Then, finally, the electricity ended and left the villain unconscious. As Lee stood, he looked around, noticing several of the others had left.
"Where'd everyone else go?" Lee asked.
"Someone formed a massive illusion of Deku while you and him were fighting and asked us to help him, so Bakugo raced off, and the others went after him," Todoroki said.
"I'll restrain him," Momo said, forming diamond shackles. "Will these be enough?"
"If they're not, we're in trouble," Lee grinned, quickly securing the villain's arms and legs, then took another set to restrain the villain he'd beaten before, who one of the others had brought with them.
Just as they finished, however, there was a sound like a lightning strike and all of the buildings along the edge of the beach went dark.
"A black out?" Momo asked.
"Where are the civilians?" Lee asked.
"The factory," Toru said. "That's where we evacuated them to."
"Let's head over there first," Lee said. "Even if they can't beat whoever Deku's fighting, they'll be able to retreat to the factory."
The others nodded, and they all headed there, finding that Midoriya and those who went to reinforce him actually ended up getting there first, with a severely wounded Midoriya and Bakugo. Lee began to help pass out supplies and cook food with the others. The two villains they'd caught were restrained in the boiler room in the basement, and Bakugo and Midoriya were taken to the back of the factory to be treated. Finally, once the last of the supplies were passed out and everyone had gone to sleep for the night, the class all gathered in a side room to talk.
"Here's the current situation," Iida said. "Communications are down and the electrical grid is destroyed. We can't call for help."
"I made a drone earlier," Momo said from where she was resting on the couch off to the side from overusing her Quirk. "It'll send an SOS message once it's close to the mainland, but the flight is at least six hours. Plus, even after someone comes across it, the heroes will need time to assemble and travel to us."
"In the mean time, I doubt the villains are going to sit around and wait," Ojiro said.
"Right now, our top priority is to protect the people of the island," Iida said.
"We've taken down two of them, but the girl will be trouble, since she's a ranged fighter, and that last guy was giving me a really bad feeling," Lee said. "Plus, according to Mahoro and Katsuma, Midoriya and Bakugo weren't even able to hit him, which means that he's very powerful. And given their descriptions of the fight, it sounded like he had numerous different Quirks. Some kind of gold barrier, lasers from his fingernails, lightning strikes, and some form of blue dragon thing from his back. I need to talk to Midoriya to know if there was anything more, but it sounds like at least four Quirks."
"That sounds like the villain All Might faced," Momo said. "The one who could apparently steal Quirks and use them."
"Yeah," Lee nodded. "If he has that same ability, it'll be really bad."
"It would help if we knew what the villains were after," Iida said.
"Mm-hm," Uraraka nodded. "Then we could come up with a plan."
"I know what the villains are after," Katsuma said, stepping into the room with his sister. "It's me."
"What did you say?" Sero asked.
"That bad guy said he wanted to steal my Quirk," Katsuma said.
"So, it's power theft," Tokoyami said.
"He really does have the same Quirk as All For One," Suu said.
"Okay, we know why they're here," Uraraka said.
"We can just, like, take the boy and run away," Mina suggested.
"It's not going to be that easy," Todoroki said, standing. "These guys are serious. What if they start making threats? They could end up killing somebody if we don't hand him over."
"We have to fight him," Lee said. "But I think we might stand a chance. If we're careful. Katsuma's Quirk is Cell Activation, and according to Koda, after defeating Deku and Bakugo, the villain suddenly seemed in pain, and the woman was going to take over. I think he needs Katsuma's Quirk because his body is breaking down. Using so many Quirks probably puts an insane amount of strain on his body, so he can't do it for long. If I'm right, we can win. We just need to wear him down. As for the girl, we'll need to separate them and deal with her separately."
"He's right," Midoriya said. "The villain seemed like he was at his limit after fighting us. We can do it."
"Deku!" Uraraka gasped.
"You're recovered?" Kirishima asked.
"Yeah," Midoriya nodded. "And it's all thanks to Katsuma." He knelt down. "Your Quirk enhances regeneration and physical performance. It's thanks to that that I recovered so quickly. It's an amazing Quirk."
"You really mean it?" Katsuma asked, smiling widely.
Midoriya nodded, smiling, as Bakugo leaned against the door frame.
"Why are you losers so on edge?" Bakugo asked. "All we have to do is kill some villains, right?"
"Bakugo!" Kirishima grinned.
"We can do this," Lee said. "Myself, Bakugo, and Deku will handle the main event. Todoroki, you and whoever you think you'll need can handle the girl. Anyone else will be forcing All For One's biggest fan to use up his power on the way to Katsuma, where us three will be waiting."
The others all nodded, and they began to strategize.
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