"The biggest criminal bust of the year is making waves as heroes, police, and villains—yes, you heard me correctly—villains work together to bring down the Omoto crime family. You can see the footage behind me, clearly depicting number nine Pro Hero Ground Zero not merely tolerating but working together with known members of the League of Villains, Dabi, Twice, and Spinner to round up known affiliates of the Omoto organization. The police took the criminals into custody and ignored the infamous villains completely. What does this mean for the future of Japan? Stay tuned—"
The screen changed to the start screen for a racing game—a crowd favorite in the base with so many extra bodies roaming around. Not everyone had the same sharp-shooter and hand-eye coordination skillset that Dabi, Shigaraki, and Denki had, of course, so switching off and cheering for whoever was bringing up the rear in the easiest racing game would have to suffice.
Adding Uretori's quirk to the mix always made things more interesting.
"Easy level or hard level?" she asked from the doorway, propping the gas mask on her hip while the group debated.
She would only use it if they chose the hard level. She still struggled with seeing everyone's hallucinations during bad trips. Besides, she would need to act as the sitter in that case, anyway.
That night when she had inadvertently gassed up the entire League had done wonders for understanding her own quirk better. She thought that she couldn't control whether someone had a good trip or a bad trip, but then Midoriya pointed out how unlikely it was that everyone would end up having a bad trip if it wasn't something that was tied to her quirk, especially when Isozan noted that good trips were more statistically likely than bad trips were.
It took some trial and error, and Uretori was sure that her willing participants would eventually give up before they finally figured it out, but they didn't.
"I know what you're thinking," Hitoshi had told her early on in the process. "And I don't need Isozan's quirk to know what's running through your mind right now," he added with a hint of humor that had her walls tumbling enough to hear him out at the very least instead of keeping her defenses up. If he could joke around about a quirk that had almost killed his soulmate—that had been set upon his soulmate with the intent to kill him—then she could listen to what he had to say.
"Am I that obvious?" she asked. "Or maybe just that ordinary that anyone in my position would feel the same."
"I think that's more empathetic than ordinary," Hitoshi commented. "But no. I know because I've been in your place. What?" he said with a sly smile when she looked him up and down, trying to determine his sincerity with what he was telling her. "You think I had participants lining up for me to practice my quirk on them? Not a chance! Denki, Neito, and Dabi never hesitated or wavered, though, even when everyone else wouldn't even look at me in fear of me trying to start a conversation with them."
She looked across the room at the three Hitoshi mentioned. They were in the middle of playing a card game with Hawks, Shigaraki, Twice, Toga, Spinner, and Isozan. Spinner stood up suddenly and whirled to face Denki, yelling out oddly specific threats.
"If you wanted to win so bad, you should have invited Kobaru and bribed her to help you cheat," Denki retorted to his threats, seemingly completely unphased. "I warned you before we started playing that I already used up all my bad luck and I literally can't lose. I don't know what to tell you, man!"
"The rest of them, too," Hitoshi said. "They're all in this for the long haul. Not even because it's the right thing to do. Not because you're their friend, though I'm sure that would help if it came down to it. Not because they're sure you have it in you. Not because they're sure it'll be worth it in the end. Not because you'll feel like you owe them one after you're finally successful. Even if all of that is true, it doesn't even cross their minds when they're making the decision to help. It's because, to them, to us, it's a fun adventure. It's not a tedious task, no matter what you think it must feel like to us. It's also because they want to help, and just because they damn well want to, and they always do what they want."
"You feel the same?" is all Uretori could find in herself to ask.
"How could I not?" Hitoshi asked. "After all of these years surrounded by the most selfless adrenaline junkies around?"
He finally got her to laugh at that. She empathized, though it was probably a much different feeling always going along with Isozan's plans than getting mixed in with Neito and Denki, she was sure.
"Says the one that literally snatched me from the ground while suspended in midair with a capture weapon he was still learning how to master," Denki sassed.
When had he snuck up behind them?
"Oh!" Neito added, tone indicating that he was going to help Denki and not come to Hitoshi's rescue. "Do you mean the same one who is not lightning-resistant in the slightest and still ran up that mountain after us?"
Hitoshi held his hands up in faux surrender. "I never said I wasn't also an adrenaline junkie. Fate would have fucked it up pretty bad making you two my soulmates, otherwise. We'd be giving each other heart attacks every five minutes!" he argued, not one to back down from riling his soulmates up.
"Oh, I thought Neito was supposed to be the dramatic one," Denki said, bringing his hand to his chin in thought.
"You—!" Neito started. He took a breath, breathed out harshly, and continued, "you're the one who broke out of Tartarus, so now who's dramatic?!"
Denki inhaled, offended. "They were trying to kill me, Neito! What was I supposed to do?! Sit around singing Kumbaya until they either succeeded or changed their minds?!"
"Gods, no," Neito hissed. "I hate that song!"
A pause, then unrestrained laughter, the soulmates unable to keep the charade going any longer.
"Uh, is there a medium level?" Haze asked, raising his hand but not waiting to be called on to voice his question.
"Nope!" Uretori chirped with an easy shrug. "Only good trips or bad trips. No medium trips. I don't even know what that would consist of. Wouldn't that just be playing without my quirk at all?"
"Oh! Or maybe my quirk? I can do the fog thing, too," Haze said. "Mine just doesn't have the aftereffects that yours does. Mine's a little more straightforward than yours."
"Sure makes breathing a hell of a lot easier," Hitoshi muttered from his place on a bean bag chair, not in front of the television as he was not in the first round of races this time.
"It would make it harder to see the screen," Haze continued. "Would that be considered medium level?"
"I don't know," Midoriya ventured thoughtfully, resting the controller on his lap and leaning his back against the couch as he thought from his place sitting on the floor. "I feel like that would bump the good trip option down to medium level because I think hallucinations would still be more distracting and difficult to navigate than a stable, fixed visual interference."
Denki was enjoying all of this immensely. Sure, he was in some weird limbo with the Hero Public Safety Commission not officially redacting his defected hero status and reinstating him as a full-fledged Pro Hero once again, but the Pro Heroes were getting along with the League of Villains.
Just two days prior, Spinner was walking down the street after making a snack run and jumped in to help Creati with a take-down. Maybe that wasn't so impressive because Yaoyorozu was from Denki's graduating class, but that doesn't explain the fact that Twice had jumped in to help Thirteen with an impromptu rescue two weeks prior with not a single move to arrest him in the process. Just exchanged pleasantries, a 'thank you,' and off he went after the scene was secure.
Who needs vigilantes when heroes have literal villains willing to step in and help them? Or did this make the League of Villains into the League of Vigilantes instead?
-.-.-
The trio patrolled together, unofficially and off the record. It was nearing midnight, so Mindjack was the only one who was actually on the clock, but that didn't stop Phantom Thief and Chargebolt from tagging along with him.
Or maybe it was the other way around. Was Mindjack tagging along with Phantom Thief and Chargebolt? He was quite a few miles off from his normal patrol route.
It was good practice to switch up patrol routes to not allow any unsavory individuals to get too comfortable or complacent, but that wasn't the reason that the trio were wandering down a dark alleyway together that night.
Quill approached the trio and his footsteps stuttered and then halted when he made out just who he was looking at in the darkened alley. He took a hesitant step back but knew as his eyes scanned over Mindjack's capture weapon that he didn't stand a chance of escape, and that's excluding the fact that Chargebolt could literally turn himself into lightning and travel at the speed of light, which Quill still had difficulty wrapping his mind around, despite watching the online videos over and over again.
"Hey, Quill," Mindjack greeted easily, rocking back on his heels, hands not even being removed from his pockets.
"Uh, hi," Quill returned, waving his hand a little as he made sure to keep both in clear view of the three at the other end of the alleyway. It sounded more like a question than anything.
Quill didn't have time for this; he was running late already. How was he supposed to lose these three and then circle back to make it to the meeting on time? How was he going to convince these three to let him go about his merry way and that he wasn't up to no good when he was late to a meeting with a bunch of high-level villains? He wasn't a great liar. Maybe that was something he should work on. He added it to his mental to-do list.
"Looks like we're all going to the same place, so we might as well travel together," Mindjack said, heading straight for Quill.
Quill tensed only for Mindjack to throw his arm around his shoulders and lead him back toward the other two who started in their direction. Quill's heart jumped and got stuck in his throat as Phantom Thief squatted down to remove the manhole cover to reveal the ladder that led down to the maintenance tunnels of the metro grid below the city.
When he said that they were all going to the same place, Quill thought that Mindjack meant that they were all heading over to the jail or something and Mindjack was just being cheeky. He didn't think that Mindjack knew where his intended destination actually was, and oh he was so dead because there was no way that he'd be able to escape these three and there was also no way he'd be able to deny leading them exactly where they wanted to go. If any of the villains survived the night, he was surely going to be hunted down, and he would deserve it, Quill decided.
The League of Villains broke him out of jail once before after he went along with Mindjack's whims. Would they be so kind as to help him out against other villains, as well? It was better to not get his hopes up, Quill decided, just in case.
Chargebolt hummed a familiar rhythm that Quill couldn't place as they walked. Quill dragged his feet, trying to delay the inevitable, and the trio either didn't notice or didn't mind. It probably helped that Chargebolt must have been acting out some kind of musical number in his head as he hummed and mumbled the lyrics to a song under his breath, arms out straight for balance as he walked on the rail before randomly and suddenly bringing his arms straight up to assist him in turning faster when he decided to throw a random twirl into the mix, wobbling on the rail when he completed the turn and continued forward.
"That's a little ominous, babe," Mindjack said, making Chargebolt stop his humming but nothing else as he continued his little balancing walk with the upmost effort.
"Being down here like this makes me feel like I'm in a horror movie," Chargebolt answered.
Despite the words, he had a bright smile on his face as he risked looking up to meet Mindjack's eyes before looking back down to watch his step, pausing and wobbling for the effort but regaining his balance before he had to step off of the rail. The sparse lighting from the spread-out lamps that occasionally flickered only helped sell the horror-movie set mood.
"It makes me sad that I missed out on being down here with you guys that first time," Chargebolt said. "It also makes me in the mood for some buttery popcorn."
"You would have been great," Phantom Thief said. "All of this is because of you, you know?"
Chargebolt stopped then, turning on the rail to face Phantom Thief, and Quill suddenly got the impression that all of the wobbling was part of the performance that Chargebolt was putting on in his head because he was steady as could be in that moment.
"It's all of us," Chargebolt said with an edge in his voice that dared him to argue. "And it'll continue to be all of us."
Because to Denki, it was true. Without Hitoshi and Neito praising his methods when he was first captured by the League of Villains and stressing the importance of limiting collateral damage and injuries on all sides, including the villains involved, he wouldn't have had the confidence to stand tall and continue down this path. Without Hitoshi and Neito also holding these same values, the rest of hero society might not have seen what an asset something like this could turn into. Change is scary, after all, but it's so, so necessary.
They approached the door, and it was unassuming enough that Quill hoped that they would walk right on past it.
Quill should have known better.
They didn't even knock. Why would they? They were obviously there to take all of these villains down at the same time. Why else would they be invading a secret villain meeting spot during a meeting?
"Hey! We made it! Haze! Razor! You better be decent!" Mindjack announced, bursting in through the door.
"Oh, like you're one to talk!" Haze spat, coming over to punch Mindjack's shoulder.
Mindjack just shrugged at him, giving a shameless smile. "I mean, have you seen my soulmates?"
"We picked up a straggler on the way," Phantom Thief said, unphased by Mindjack's statement, moving further into the room and out of the doorway to reveal Quill to the rest of the villains already inside.
Maybe not completely unphased by Mindjack's statement if the way he brushed his fingertips along the back of his neck was any indication, Quill thought. They shared a heated gaze. Was it heated? Or was it scheming? Phantom Thief's quirk was Copy, and Mindjack's was Brainwashing, so was this all an elaborate set up? What kind of game were they playing here? What kind of trap were they setting?
"Hey! The people's hero! It's been a while!" Razor said, reaching out to greet Chargebolt.
Chargebolt laughingly received him, his face reddening at the title, still not use to such high praise.
"I have you to thank for that, don't I?" Chargebolt said. "Saved my ass during my first internship!"
"Yeah. By the way, how the fuck did you get the League of Villains to spare Full Throttle after all that shit he pulled?" Razor asked. "I showed you the way out of a collapsing building, very well could have saved your life, right? And Dabi threatens to light my ass on fire for the effort! But Full Throttle gets to actually threaten your life—more than once, mind you—and he somehow isn't engulfed in blue flames? Make it make sense!"
Chargebolt shrugged. "He's very charismatic."
Razor squinted at Chargebolt, bringing his fist to his mouth to hold in whatever first impulse response wanted to rush from his mouth. "Right," is what he ultimately settled on. The simple answer had humor dancing in Chargebolt's eyes, but he didn't offer further explanation, and Razor decided to drop the issue for the time being, getting down to the reason the meeting was called in the first place.
"Any signs that All For One has taken over Shigaraki's body, yet?" Razor asked.
"None," Chargebolt reported, humor leaving his voice as he dropped into business mode. "We're ready to move as soon as it happens, though. We don't want to give him any more time than absolutely necessary."
"So, when we get the signal, we cause distractions to keep the media busy so that All For One won't have any way of figuring out what is actually going on," Haze said, wanting to clarify the plan again for those who weren't there in person the last time.
"Right. We also had been thinking that maybe you," Phantom Thief said, looking directly at Haze, "could provide extra cover around Shigaraki's body while the actual battle takes place."
"I mean, I could definitely give it my best shot, but I thought the showdown was to happen outside to give the powerhouses as much room as possible," Haze said. "My quirk works best in enclosed spaces. It dissipates too quickly out in the open and wouldn't do much good for visibility. At least not long-term or reliably. There's a lot that could go wrong."
Phantom Thief nodded. "That's why we were hoping to pair you up with Full Throttle." There was a collective inhale throughout the room. "I don't know what you know about his quirk, but it's not a death sentence like it might have seemed."
"I've been under its influence multiple times," Mindjack offered. "His quirk, Full Throttle, essentially kicks up another's quirk up to eleven."
"Which is why I think a better alias for him is Eleven," Chargebolt grumbled under his breath.
"When it's a quirk like Vibration or Electrification," Mindjack continued, "it doesn't allow the user to turn the quirk off and instead steadily builds the power until it overwhelms the user. Chargebolt was able to overcome this by discharging the extra energy after he gained the ability to travel by lighting. It lasts for six hours exactly, but I can also cut it short by using my quirk to cancel out Full Throttle's, so Chargebolt has only gone the full six hours once. We would obviously test it out beforehand and if it had any ill-effect, I could cancel it out, and we would scrap the plan."
"What does the quirk do to you?" Haze asked. It was a fair question.
"It allows me to read minds." Absolute silence. "It's not so intense that it overwhelms me like the power would Chargebolt, or well, used to. Even Chargebolt can keep it at a steady hum for quite a while before needing to zap off some excess. Anyway, I can focus it to read one person at a time or just allow things to passively come and go. After a few times, I figured out how to send my thoughts to others, as well."
"That's really fucking cool, and I want to try it!" Haze declared with little pause. "Are you reading my mind right now?! What number am I thinking about?"
"I'm not under Full Throttle's influence right now," Mindjack said. Then, after a pause and a sly smile, added, "sixty-nine."
The villains guffawed as Haze's jaw dropped. "Are you sure there aren't some residual effects?" he joked. "That was scarily accurate!"
"Just a good guess," Mindjack assured.
"And after all is said and done—" Razor started.
"If we survive," Haze interjected good-naturedly with a wide smile on his face. Even being laced with humor, it was still a valid statement to make. They were dealing with All For One, here.
Razor continued, "we'll get full pardons from the Hero Public Safety Commission. Chargebolt worked it into his deal with them."
Typh, the aqua blue villain with the weather-type quirk hummed, placing his hands on the table as he leaned forward to take control of the conversation. "So, the League of Villains gets taken down, we get full pardons for our involvement, and then the rest of the League hunts us down anyway?"
"Not quite," Razor said. "All For One gets taken down, bringing Shigaraki down with him during the transition. With the leadership out of the way, the League of Villains will get pardons, too, especially with how they've been helping out on the streets recently—"
"Dabi and Hawks will kill us all," Typh said.
"They're soulmates with each other, but Shigaraki isn't included in that, no matter what it looks like," Chargebolt said. "They'll have each other to fall back on."
"I still don't like this," Typh said, dark blue brows furrowed in thought as he weighed out the pros and cons. "What's in it for us, really?"
"We get full pardons," Haze said, holding up a finger when Typh opened his mouth to argue, "not only for our involvement with whatever we use for the distractions element, but everything we've ever done. You could rejoin society. Hell, you could become a damn hero if you wanted to."
"Okay," Typh cut in, skepticism weighing his voice down. He decided to take a new line of questioning as he turned to face the heroes, if they could even be considered that anymore. "How will you even know when All For One has taken over? I think he's smart enough to pass himself on as Shigaraki."
"Oh, that's easy!" Chargebolt said. "I'm going to roll my eyes at him!"
Phantom Thief cackled at the stunned, confused faces of the villains who didn't understand how such a delicate situation could rest on such a simple "plan" as Chargebolt rolling his eyes and hoping that would be enough. "Now you all know what we've had to deal with!"
Mindjack shrugged, coming to Chargebolt's defense. "Hey, they'll learn to trust these plans eventually. They always work out."
"I'm just very lucky," Chargebolt informed the group like it was a fact, like he was giving directions to the nearest gas station. "All my bad luck ran out years ago."
A/N: OCs in this chapter:
Sezuno Isozan – Quirk: Full Throttle
Sezuno Uretori (aka Phantasm) – Quirk: Hallucinogenic Gas
Quill – Quirk: Porcupine
Razor – Quirk: Sharpening
Haze – Quirk: Fog
Typh – Quirk: Typhoon