TOPCAT-59 - True. Invincible is... well, his hero name is no baseless boast. You will know in time :P
Shahryar - Good luck with that. They might have been able to talk calmly a few years ago, but by now, everyone's way too into... this.
Moses Ark Reborn - Thank you :D The first time ever I think that a single chapter of this fic got three comments, huh.
(***)
He got the NVA message. They agreed to the meeting.
It was going to be a… problematic moment. Way too many members of the PLF were going to have some major emotional reunions. Of course, a lot of said members were so far past caring that the big moments in question would be rather disappointing and underwhelming.
'Screw you, I don't want to talk about this' was probably going to be a common approach. It's rather clear to Izuku after merely a single prolonged meeting between them that this was Kouta Izumi's approach to the concept of meeting Pixie-bob.
In the meantime, Izuku had to deal with something important.
"Stain." He says dryly. "I've come to bargain."
"Throw one more ancient reference at me…" The Hero Killer (they are all hero killers nowadays, but for him it's a title) shoots back. "... and I'm going to stab you in the face."
Sigh.
Stain was on the way to one of the Overlook's training gyms when Izuku showed up out of nowhere and practically pulled him into the nearby empty room. It wasn't the regular way of having official meetings.
Then again, Stain was… well, himself. He wasn't a member of the League of Villains. He was hanging around the Inhuman Supremacy Party mostly, but it wasn't recruiting non-mutants. As a result, Akaguro Chizome was kind of existing in the organizational void.
Midoriya eventually surrendered and decided to give him something to do in his spare time. Namely, made him a quirkless combat instructor to his unofficial and active for less than a week villainous mastermind class.
Because when your main skills lie in you being smart, well, this doesn't make you invulnerable to people with sharp objects. Meaning that having proper skills in terms of self-defense was a perfectly logical course of actions.
The kids absolutely hated him. That's how Midoriya knew that it worked.
"Now that's cold, uncle Stain." Midoriya replies. "I'm just here to have a very important talk about your daughter. Then you can go back to your club."
"What club?" Stain asks, his eyes narrow.
"The one whose first rule is to not talk about it." Midoriya replies.
Stain sighs.
"I'm going to prune your guts out of your body and craft the hollowed-out shell of your corpse into a designer animal bed." Stain announces calmly. "Coincidentally, what's the type of a house animal that you like the least? Do you have any that you hate?"
Wow, he really got close with Rini. That's her school of cursing people alright. For now, let's ignore it entirely.
"Look, we're going to have a meeting with the New Vigilante Alliance." Midoriya replies. Stain's eyes lit up. "No, you can't slaughter their entire leadership and craft an improvised shrine to All Might out of their corpses." The light dies out.
"So what do you want from me?" The Hero Killer asks. He looks vaguely disappointed that Midoriya's plans for the meeting do not include a betrayal and a resulting mass murder of the vigilantes.
"I want you to have a lengthy family talk with your daughter in order to make sure that Rini won't slaughter their entire leadership and craft an improvised shrine to Khorne out of their corpses." Midoriya replies.
Stain stares at him in shock for a solid ten seconds, clearly trying to comprehend what could have possibly brought those words.
"Why the fuck would she listen to me?!" Stain shoots back. "She is making it quite clear that she doesn't want to listen to me at all, and is only tolerating me because I'm strong enough to be her sparring partner."
… this is just fucking sad.
"Stain, I'm going to speak to you like one father of an, errr, problematic teenage daughter to another." Midoriya replies calmly. There is something deeply wrong with him offering parenting tips to the Hero Killer of all people. "You're a dumbass."
That's very concise, but in Izuku's opinion also entirely on point.
"What?" Stain doesn't get it.
"She is screaming and being angry all the time, that's not how you tell whether she likes you or not." Midoriya decides to be honest about it. "Trust me here, I have known her for a long time. She actually respects you deeply and is treating you as something of a role model, just don't expect her to ever call you dad, especially in public."
"R-Really?" He actually didn't expect that. Wow, someone was really treating the subject seriously.
"Yes." Izuku confirms it. "But if you try to father her seriously after this, she'll go in the opposite direction than you hope for. She's headstrong to an extreme, and from her point acknowledging someone as a father openly would make her someone's 'child' and that feels diminutive."
Which was a dumbass way of acting, but hey, it was rather clear whom she got that from.
"So keep doing what you're doing, showing her how to get stronger while working just as hard as she does." Izuku continues. "Even if she'll never call you dad or act with a lot of affection, she'll continue to genuinely look up to you. You're, after all, in the same combat league as she is, but no physical augmentation quirk to justify it. You're basically a walking challenge to her, and you're supportive enough to help her overcome it and grow stronger. You're doing absolutely great, even if mostly by accident."
Their personalities were just very compatible. In the screaming way, but still. Also, Rini probably always hoped for a mentor figure, someone to help her grow stronger while being strong enough for her to respect them properly.
Stain is somehow starting to practically glow over those words. Damn. He got really attached in almost no time.
"But I really need you to, I dunno, challenge her to a fight over it, make a bet with her or whatever else, just please, make sure that she sticks to moderate level of verbal aggression, rather than go physical or say something that will make the other side go nuclear on us, got it?" Midoriya concludes the speech. "Because I believe that bringing her might be a good idea, but only if she behaves. Got it?"
"I'll try." Stain nods. He looks like he came upon some sort of resolution. Great.
Izuku can only hope.
(***)
In the end, they decide upon the delegation.
Izuku is there, of course. No other option was there. He was the main planner and strategist, he was the only person who knew what they were supposed to achieve during the meeting. Besides, they were going to meet with the heads of the NVA, bringing at least one of the PLF heads was a matter of basic culture.
Aiko made it clear that she wants nothing to do with the meeting. Tokoyami was out of the potential guest list either way. Ragdoll originally wanted to come, but then decided not to. And Izuku understood it.
Pixie-bob would probably treat her as a sick joke or a walking corpse of her friend, either way.
This didn't stop Jetstream from wanting to come. He said that he was interested in seeing negotiations in person for learning purposes, rather than having a meeting with Ryuko Tsuchikawa. Izuku actually believed him, and decided to include him as something of an intern.
Asui was coming, too. She didn't like the concept of seeing the people that were living in the place of her greatest mistake, but she refused to leave Izuku's side, even if it was just his copy.
Izuku loved her so much.
Yaoyorozu, unfortunately, had to come. Mostly because Yoshihiro Rai decided to come, and she refused to be sidelined in favor of Mastermind. In Izuku's opinion, Mastermind decided to come mostly because Lady Murder was going to be there.
Izuku simply had to bring at least some of the executives with him. There was no helping that. The enemy was bringing some big names on their own, either way. He had to measure up to it.
Bringing Todoroki would result in mass murder. Uraraka wasn't going to be useful during the summit. Cloud, naturally, was too valuable to field her to Naruhata, so Eclipse was going to be the warper for the day.
They were also going to be accompanied by Miruko and Ms. Joke. In their actual bodies. A large offering of peace and good will.
(as if Izuku had any actual good will towards them)
(***)
If there was one positive side of the NVA, it was the fact that they didn't bother to waste a lot of time on pleasantries and other strange things.
Also, Crawler. He was certainly another positive of the NVA. It was his suggestion to make the meeting in Naruhata, rather than in the Marukane Ward. He also made it rather clear that the NVA was going to attend the meeting as Twice's clones.
That sounded like something that Nakahara would demand. She was probably testing how interested Izuku actually was in the meeting, to see if he would tell them all to fuck off. And whether he was willing to trust Crawler's guarantees.
Jokes on them, he didn't trust them at all, but it also didn't matter.
The PLF delegation arrived earlier, had Twice make copies of them (it was nice to see him doing alright, Mr. Compress would be overjoyed that the therapy worked), then returned home, leaving the copies behind.
Including Eclipse's clone, who became a regular member of the delegation due to Nakahara's switcheroo. Which was a necessity in order to bring the NVA delegation from the Marukane Ward.
All of that probably to make sure that Izuku didn't see the details of the Marukane Ward. Because the NVA wanted to give him the minimum possible amount of potential intel in fear of the PLF planning to fake negotiations to get details of their local defenses to do something nefarious.
No idea what, did they expect him to sell them to the government? Decimate his own forces in an idiotic attack against the people that were going to be killed by Invincible & Co soon enough, either way?
Then again, it might have been Izuku's fame doing its own thing. He was kind of terrifying to people (for some reason), and Nakahara knew just how good he was, so she preferred to avoid giving him any intel whatsoever, for as long as she wasn't confident that she could hit him in return.
She was good at it, frankly speaking.
What was left was to wait for the conclusion of the meeting, and see the memories of their clones.
(***)
"Crawler." Ryukyu speaks once she steps through Eclipse's warpgate, doing her best to ignore the villains' existence. Naturally, the other end was in the Marukane, but away from actual NVA facilities - and Twice already returned there, before making copies of the NVA delegation.
Spyglass is there. Ryukyu and Gang Orca are there. Crawler is joining them there. Yui Kodai is there. The Four Natural Disasters are there, Firestorm clearly ready to explode at any given moment.
The fact that they were all clones should keep her more or less calm. But she started making a ruckus when it was clear that she was going to be the only one left behind. Spyglass decided to placate her a little.
Moe Kamiji didn't realize that, if she was going to continue acting like that, she would be the first to be discarded if necessary.
One more person decided to show up, for reasons of more psychological nature. But that was for later.
"Ryukyu." Crawler replies. He is, naturally, wearing his hoodie. They haven't seen each other in a while. "Welcome to the Naruhata Free Zone."
"You should give us all a tour after the summit, I haven't been here before, and I keep hearing good things about the Naruhata Ward." Ryukyu replies, smiling at him.
"Bold of you to assume that I want you in Naruhata after your ghetto stunt." Crawler replies coldly, smile dying on Ryukyu's face. "Follow me, I'll take you to the location of the meeting."
Well, the day started absolutely splendidly.
(***)
The meeting location used to be a conference room of some company that was once housed in Naruhata, placed on one of the higher floors of a high-rise building. The glass windows were, naturally, boarded, to prevent anyone from observing the meeting from the outside.
There was a long table, with the PLF representative sitting on the other side of it. Midoriya was sitting in the middle. To his right, Tsuyu Asui, Momo Yaoyorozu and Rini Usagiyama. To his left, Kouta Izumi, Yoshihiro Rai and, finally, Mieko Eto.
Crawler walked towards the seat at the top of the table, probably to act as the middle man. Right behind him, Rumi Usagiyama and Emi Fukukado were standing, clearly not harmed and not bound in any way.
Phew.
Miruko was clearly pissed off, only to look relieved when she saw Gang Orca enter the room. The giant of a man responded in kind. It was almost adorable what a pair of platonic life buddies those two were.
The reactions in the crowd of the newcomers were… mixed. Landslide clearly stared at Kouta Izumi, only for Jetstream to look back at her for maybe two seconds, then sigh and whisper something to Midoriya's ear. Who promptly smiled faintly.
Kouta then clearly proceeds to ignore Tsuchikawa's existence.
It must have been hard.
Firestorm is, naturally, staring at Midoriya with the purest form of an intent to kill on her face, only for Revenant to completely ignore her. Ayako is slightly surprised that this didn't end in murder.
Earthquake glances at Ms. Joke. He is as unreadable as ever, but he appears to be somewhat happy to see her. Great.
Nakahara ends up sitting in the middle, opposing Midoriya. To her left is Ryukyu, Earthquake and Tornado. To her right is Gang Orca, Firestorm and Landslide.
Yui Kodai sighs and sits on the chair on the other end of it to Crawler, technically between both factions. Nakahara sometimes has no idea what's happening in her head.
"I officially announce the start of the negotiations between the Paranormal Liberation Front and the New Vigilante Alliance." Crawler announces dryly, standing up from his seat for a moment. "Please, at least try to act like reasonable people and do not blow up the building. It's not insured."
Then he sits down. That's one way of starting the really awkward meeting of villains and vigilantes.
"As stated before…" Midoriya decides to break the ice. "... I'm returning the captive former pro-heroes that I've liberated from Tartarus. Aside from Miruko and Ms. Joke, whom I'm really tired of housing, it's going to happen after we conclude the negotiations."
Of fucking course he does that.
"I thought that you promised to give them all back." Nakahara replies calmly.
"Well, should have not changed the meeting location at the last possible moment, then." Midoriya replies, staring at her over the table. "I have little patience for games and you should be happy that I'm giving you those two back right now."
"I've almost expected one of you to be sad to let one of them go, seeing as they share a surname and all." Nakahara comments. Rini wins the 'who explodes first' contest with her mother. Narrowly.
"First of all, fuck you." Rini announces, glaring daggers at Nakahara. Miruko closes her mouth. "I'm Rini Akaguro, not Rini Usagiyama. It's not my fault that the government is giving me the wrong surname, probably because Miruko is more quote unquote notable than Stain That woman over there can go die in a ditch for all I care."
Stain would have probably cried a little (in a manly way) if he heard Rini announcing her new surname to the world with pride. Or, well, so Izuku thinks.
"Second of all, also fuck you." Rini then adds. "I hate all you fucks, and I'd like to politely inquire you to shut the fuck up about me and pretend that I'm not here. Because this will allow me to pretend in return that you do not exist."
There is something weirdly adorable in the Inhuman Supremacy Party's approach to diplomatic meetings. Or maybe Izuku's just being weird about it? Like about most other things?
"Looks like…" Crawler decides to comment on it. "... I'm not the only person that's being moderately pissed off over certain recent events. How lovely. Can we please change the subject? Because, to be frank, agreeing with the High Warlord on something makes me want to puke a little."
"Are you sure…" Gang Orca says slowly towards the bloodier rabbit woman. "... that you have the moral right to call us out over something, despite being the leader of the ISP?"
"The fact that I, the leader of the ISP, is calling you out on something out of moral grounds…" Rini cuts back. "... should tell you how morally fucked up you all are. Congratulations, All for One is probably overjoyed to have such splendid followers… oh, wait, you still think you're following All Might."
Midoriya sighs. While he brought Rini precisely in hopes of shaking the other side a little with her nearly-magical ability to stick a vocal needle where it hurts, a part of him thinks that it might have been a mistake.
But damn, if it isn't enjoyable to look at.
"Don't you dare…" Firestorm barks back, but is interrupted. Because Rini hasn't stopped speaking and, well, she knows how to outshoot people a lot.
"Yes, I fucking dare!" Rini yells at her over the table. "Tell me, did All Might inflame racial hatred for his own political fucking gain? Did he? Or was it All for One? You and your fucking heroic delusions sicken me, you two-bit supervillains!"
The look on Miruko's face betrays the fact that this most certainly wasn't a way in which she expected the talk to progress.
"I think that it might be the moment to tone it down a litt…" Crawler tries to intervene. He is supposed to be the moderator.
"I think it might be a better idea to just let the grievances flow a little." Midoriya replies to him. "We both hate each other and it's clear that a solid half of both sides can't wait to let it be known. Let them shout at each other for as long as no one goes physical."
"Are you sure that you didn't come here just to get a free shot at insulting us?" Nakahara glares at Izuku over the table.
"I assure you that I'm here to come to an agreement." Midoriya replies calmly, Rini still fuming noticeably. "If we all kill each other, we'll have Crawler organize another meeting, maybe it will work this time. Of course, if it happens, we'll waste precious time, resulting in a growing chance of the Government's victory. Be aware of that fact."
He doesn't add it, but he knows that the NVA is the one more threatened with inevitable destruction of their organizations. Of course, without the NVA to occupy a big part of the heroic assets, PLF will find itself hard-pressed in the long-term.
It's a complicated situation alright.
"Well, I wanted to mention something, now that we're in a 'sharing your thoughts' moment." Mastermind announces. Gang Orca instantly tenses. Yeah, he probably preferred to ignore Rai's existence. "I don't agree with the Rabbit Bitch at all!"
… what?
"Personally speaking, I thoroughly love what you guys did!" Mastermind smiles widely, his eyes clearly focused on Gang Orca. "Seriously, I thought about bringing you all CRC robes as gifts but I don't know your measurements, especially Gang Orca's. So you'll have to settle-up with honorary memberships for now. My organization is absolutely honored to have you among us and we're looking forward to more hate crimes that you'll cause in the future!"
… Jesus Fucking Christ. Izuku is suddenly painfully aware that Rini might not have been the right troublemaker to worry about for this meeting.
Gang Orca practically shrinks in shock and probably an awful lot of guilt at Mastermind's words. It's like a slap in the face. Especially against the person that was probably most likely to have lingering moral doubts out of those gathered at the opposing side of the negotiation table.
And also way more than Izuku expected for the 'shouting at each other' phase of the meeting. Mastermind clearly decided that the 'don't kill them' rule didn't include verbal kills, and decided to murder a mutant today.
Even Rini was thoroughly surprised by this, because in his own racist way, Mastermind just assisted her, by further proving her point.
"I think that we should consider this segment of the talk to be over for now, and focus on something more constructive." Crawler realizes that they are an inch away from mass murder, and moves in again.
"Oh, there is no fucking way that I'm missing out on it!" Firestorm yells, standing from the table. "I have a fucking lot to say about Revenant and that patricidal shitheel Frostfire killing Endeavor, and I waited for fucking years to say it!"
Yaoyorozu clearly had a retort ready, but she bit her tongue and stayed quiet when Izuku started speaking.
"Feel free to shout at me." Midoriya cuts back. "I literally couldn't care. But keep Todoroki out of it."
"Why would I do that?" Firestorm glares at him murderously.
"Because, you stupid bitch, while I planned Endeavor's death, I did it for Dabi and Geten, an MLA member with a powerful ice quirk." Midoriya replies. Despite the words he uses, his tone is calm and collected. "HPSC buried Shoto in Tartarus because those assholes couldn't do a proper investigation. And then let him die there, slowly and alone, because you, Ms. Endeavor's Number One Fan, didn't even consider the idea that he was innocent all along, and greatly contributed to the last of Endeavor's family members descending to villainy." Midoriya starts clapping loudly, savoring the shock on her face. "Should have used your influence as a hero to at least visit him in prison, maybe he wouldn't have become a Paranormal Liberation Front member if you did. Thank you for your contributions."
Firestorm's hair ignites. A second later she is practically decapitated by Crawler's Shooty-Go-Kablam that struck her right in her right temple, the clone dissolving into nothingness.
"Which part of 'this building isn't insured'..." Crawler states slowly in the resulting silence (most of the people in the room having stood up and grabbed a weapon on instinct). "... didn't you understand?"
Note to self, Izuku thinks. Crawler massively improved precision and penetration capabilities of his ranged attacks. Good to know. It wouldn't work on someone who wouldn't be so one-sidedly focused on their hatred (Midoriya himself noticed the attack happening), but…
Koichi Haimawari grew up into one terrifying man.
Yui Kodai sighs loudly, stands from her seat and sits on the one that belonged to Firestorm a moment later. She wipes the remnants of Kamiji's clone off the seat with a handkerchief first, of course.
"I think…" She says, her compatriots still standing and glaring at the PLF delegation (who was responding in kind, minus Midoriya who just kept sitting) "... that we should calm down a little."
"I think that this is a wonderful suggestion." Midoriya decides to cooperate. "We've all made it clear that we hate each other… and that some people really enjoy their high horse and holier-than-thou behavior." Crawler gives him a 'not you too' look, while Nakahara stares at him angrily. "Now we should really start having a constructive talk. Especially as the number of war criminals and mass murderers in the room just declined a little."
Crawler sighs painfully. It's going about as well as he expected it to.
Days until the Second Battle of the Marukane Ward:
11