Chapter 10: Stayin' Alive

The night had already gone to hell in a handbasket. Sasaki vanishing in the middle of a crisis was completely unnecessary.

Shouto didn't even know how long he'd been gone before they noticed. Needless to say, Endeavor wasn't pleased. He'd get on Shouto's case later for bringing along a troublesome classmate.

Hopefully, whatever had caused Sasaki to run off wouldn't kill him. Shouto may not know Sasaki that well, but he'd learned plenty from the USJ. If Sasaki thought someone was in trouble, he would run in to help.

They'd barely run another block when Shouto's phone went off. The alert was a location from Sasaki.

Shouto stopped running, fear racing down his spine. What had Sasaki stumbled into that he needed help with?

"Shouto?" Endeavor asked.

Shouto made his decision. "I'm needed elsewhere. Send back up to Echo and 4th street if you can." He turned on his heel and ran.

"Shouto!"

Shouto did not turn back. Endeavor would want Sasaki to get himself out of whatever mess he'd run headfirst into, but Shouto wouldn't do that. He wasn't going to be the kind of hero that turned his back on someone that needed help.

Xx

The fight went well for thirty seconds. Izuku used fire to keep his distance from Stain, and he blocked a few thrown knives.

Stain hadn't become such a deadly threat for nothing, though. Despite Izuku's best efforts, he got in close.

Hand to hand was old hat for Izuku. He'd even fought people wielding knives. Swords, though? That hadn't come up before. Plus, Izuku had to be careful not to let Stain behind him to where Iida and Native were paralyzed.

A sword slashed his right bicep. "Damn!"

Stain jumped back, grinning. He lifted the bloody edge of the sword to his mouth.

"No, Sasaki, run while you still can!" Iida begged again.

Izuku hurled his fire at Stain, but it died halfway there, fizzing into smoke. "What…" He couldn't move. His arm was frozen in mid-air and his feet were glued to the ground.

Stain licked his lips. He'd swallowed Izuku's blood, was that how he paralyzed Iida and Native?

The information didn't help at this exact moment. He needed to know how long the effects lasted and if there was a way to break it early.

"Most heroes are all the same. They're all talk, and all they care about are the latest polls," Stain said. He walked past Izuku, towards Iida. "But you're different from these two. You might be worth keeping alive."

Izuku couldn't even see what Stain was doing. He'd left Izuku's field of vision. "Stop it! Leave him alone, fight me!" He'd never been more terrified in his life, not even when his father was shooting at him. One of his friends was about to die and he was standing here useless.

Stain chuckled. "That's exactly what I mean. You're not just all talk, are you?" Metal scraped against stone, the tip of Stain's sword dragging across the street.

Izuku begged his body to obey him, willed his muscles to move, damn it. All his attempts were in vain.

Iida let out a choked gasp.

"Get away!" Izuku yelled desperately.

Flames that weren't his own brushed past him, and Stain jumped back into Izuku's field of vision.

"Sasaki," Todoroki said behind him.

Izuku could have cried with relief.

"You shouldn't have run off by yourself. I was almost too late." Todoroki was the picture of calm and collected.

"You, too, Todoroki?" Iida asked, voice heavy with disbelief.

"Sorry, it's a bad habit, I'm working on it," Izuku said. Calling for help before he was bleeding was progress, right?

"You're also going to have to explain yourself to Endeavor," Todoroki said. He stomped his right foot down and spread ice over the street, making a pillar to raise Native out of the way and a ramp to slide Izuku and Iida behind him. Izuku landed in an uncomfortable heap on his side, limbs still posed from when he'd been standing. At least he could see now, even if his mask had shifted and was partially blocking his sight.

Izuku didn't let himself think about how furious Endeavor was going to be with him. That was a problem for future Izuku, if they all survived this fight. "Be careful, Todoroki, you can't let him cut you! He ingests blood and controls them, that's how he got us!"

"That explains all the knives," Todoroki said. "I'll just keep my distance—"

A flying knife cut off his sentence, slashing through his cheek. Stain followed behind it, on top of Todoroki before he had a chance to find his balance again. His tongue darted out for Todoroki's bleeding cheek.

Izuku watched in horror. Not even thirty seconds, and Stain was about to have all of them at his mercy.

Except Todoroki burst into flames on his left half, and Stain retreated.

This was going to be terrible to watch. Izuku wasn't sure he could do it. He wanted to jump in and fight himself, to protect his friends. He didn't want to be a burden to Todoroki, but he couldn't so much as lift his face off the filthy street.

Iida babbled something along the same lines, constantly trying to tell Todoroki to save himself. Todoroki entertained the idea as well as Izuku had.

"Stop it! I'm the one who inherited my brother's name, I'm the one that should stop him. The Hero Killer is mine!"

"You're Ingenium now?" Todoroki asked, not even sparing a glance back as he continued to defend them with ice and fire. "Strange, the Ingenium I knew before never had that look on his face. You've got a dark side. Guess my family isn't the only one."

If he wasn't stressed out of his mind, Izuku would laugh. He was the one that really took the cake for dark sides in a family. But now wasn't the time for that. Todoroki had made a huge ice wall to buy a few seconds, but Stain was already cutting through it, and two knives had just found a new home in Todoroki's left arm.

He needed to help, damn it all! His fingers twitched, aching to do something useful.

Wait.

His fingers twitched.

Stain had his sword ready to kill, and he was aiming for Native.

Izuku blasted him back with fire, wrapping the flames around Stain's arms and pinning him to the ground. "I don't know why, but I'm able to move."

"So there's a time limit," Todoroki stated.

"No," Native said, barely twitching where he lay. "That kid should have been the last one to be freed. I still can't move a muscle."

Stain, even with his arms pinned, managed to hurl another knife at Izuku. Todoroki caught it in a quick sheet of ice.

"He swallows a person's blood to control them," Izuku said, mostly to himself, but Todoroki tilted his head to show he was listening. "I've got three theories. It could be less effective the more people he uses it on, and the amount ingested could play a part. There could even be a difference based on a person's blood type."

Stain narrowed his eyes when Izuku said that, confirming the last theory.

Native and Iida tossed out their blood types, and Stain grinned. "So, you've figured it out. Bravo."

Izuku frowned. "It doesn't really matter if we know how his quirk works." They still needed to either contain him or stall him long enough to get Native and Iida to the main roads, where the pros could find them.

"Can you keep him pinned like this for long?" Todoroki asked.

Stain laughed. "I can get out of this whenever I want." To prove it, he tore one arm through the feeble flames.

Izuku's control over fire was good, but it wasn't all powerful. At the end of the day it was still fire, more gas than solid, and it had drawbacks just like any other quirk. If people were willing to risk getting burned, his attacks were that much weaker.

"That answers that," Todoroki muttered.

"Can you get him with your ice?" Izuku asked. He tried again to wrap bands of flames around Stain's wrists and keep him still, but the best he could do was slow him down.

Todoroki stomped his foot and ice shot out. Stain attempted to jump back, but slowed as he was by Izuku's fire, he wasn't fast enough to avoid the glacier growing around him, trapping each of his limbs. "I can't keep him in this forever or it could cause serious injury."

Stain struggled against the ice. It wasn't as thick as the glacier that trapped Sero during the sports festival, and with enough strength he could possibly break out of it.

"Allow me," Iida said, slowly and carefully climbing to his feet.

Izuku moved to help him, but Iida brushed him off. Emotions raced across Iida's face, too many to tell what he was really thinking.

"I owe you both an apology for dragging you into my mess," Iida said. He stepped past them, towards Stain. "I acted shamefully, and you two were hurt because of it."

Stain sneered at Iida. "Don't pretend to be something you're not. Fake heroes can't change who they really are."

"Regardless of what I am doesn't change the fact that you're a villain, and fake hero or not the outcome is still the same," Iida stated.

"Well said." Izuku grinned at Iida. They couldn't let whatever nonsense Stain spewed get to them. He couldn't be sure Iida wasn't internalizing some of it, but hearing him say that meant it wasn't sinking in too deeply, at least.

"Call it what you want, but you and I both know what you really are," Stain said.

"I am Ingenium," Iida said. "And this is for my brother." He slammed his fist into Stain's face, knocking his head back against the ice.

It didn't knock Stain out, but it did daze him. He slumped in the ice, the fight leaking out of him.

And just like that, they had captured the Hero Killer.

Izuku let himself relax. "I can't believe we're still alive right now."

Iida turned back towards them, shoulders trembling. The confidence he'd had moments before was shattering in front of their eyes. "Todoroki, Sasaki…I'm sorry. You're both hurt because of me, because I was blinded by my own vengeance…"

Izuku's arm wasn't all that bad, but he couldn't say the same for Todoroki's. The latter had rivers of blood running down his hand, and he definitely needed medical attention. So did Native and Iida, for that matter.

"You're hurt, too," Izuku said. He didn't have a lot of medical supplies on him, definitely not enough to deal with what looked like two stab wounds, plus the deep cut on Native's shoulder. "And you were doing this for your brother. I get it."

"That's no excuse. Manual said heroes need to use their powers solely for the sake of others, but I wasn't. I had too much rage, and I didn't know what to do with it."

Izuku put a hand on Iida's shoulder. "Iida, it's okay. You were hurting. Maybe it doesn't excuse you, maybe there were better choices you could have made, but everything worked out in the end."

Iida made a fist. He wouldn't look at Izuku. "What I did was shameful. We don't even have our provisional licenses yet, I was essentially acting like a vigilante…"

Izuku couldn't help it. His laughter burst out of him before he could attempt to stifle it. He really did know how to pick friends, didn't he? "Sorry, I shouldn't be laughing...vigilantes aren't a joke." He almost lost it again. "But I'm not going to lecture you about them." He wrapped what little gauze he did have around the wound's as best he could.

Todoroki used his own medical supplies on Native, but he had one eye on Izuku.

"Not to mention, you saved my life," Native said. "Personal vendetta or not, I'm grateful you showed up. Just don't do it again, understand?"

Iida didn't look convinced. He leaned back against the wall, holding his left arm and still refusing to look at any of them.

It reminded him of his own existential crisis the other day, and he tried to recall Aizawa's words as best he could. "It's not wrong to get upset for someone else. Heroes have emotions, too, and we do have to control them so we don't jump into things without thinking. But we're only fifteen, and he hurt your brother. You're not a villain or anything just for that."

"But that is the definition of a vigilante, and that's not much better," Iida spat.

And. Well.

Izuku may have let his own emotions get the better of him at that. "Hey! Vigilantes might not have official licenses, but they're still trying to do good! They're still helping people that pros wouldn't be able to, and I know plenty of people are damn thankful to a vigilante for saving their life!"

His little tirade caught everyone off guard, and he shrank down after he said it.

Iida and Todoroki were both giving him strange looks, and they'd be questioning him about that outburst later for sure.

Stain laughed behind him, reminding them that he was merely contained, not beaten. "You really aren't like the others, are you?"

Izuku dragged a hand over his face. "Okay, I think it's time to call the police or something."

"More pros should be here soon," Todoroki chimed in. He'd finished patching up Native and was wrapping some gauze around his arm now.

Native was finally starting to get some movement back, and he took control of the situation. They found rope to bind Stain with, and he put up much less of a fight than they'd expected.

Izuku didn't like it. He was being too docile after all that power he'd showed earlier. He didn't even protest them taking all the knives they could find on him. He didn't think Iida had hit him that hard.

The pros finally arrived when they walked onto the main road, and they were quick to call all the proper authorities.

Izuku looked anywhere but at Todoroki's scrutinizing look. He didn't want to deal with the interrogation the latter was clearly planning.

He blamed the post-adrenaline rush haze on not noticing a Noumu swoop down over the street. Once he did notice it, he was too surprised at realizing it was another Noumu to properly dodge. Sharp talons ripped into his arm when he tried to block, and then his feet were off the ground.

"Sasaki!" Iida and Todoroki yelled.

Izuku was already halfway down the street, and climbing higher. His shoulder popped, straining against his body weight pulling him down, and he screamed when he felt it dislocate.

Before he could even begin figuring out how to get out of this one, Stain had a knife lodged into the Noumu's brain, and they were falling again. Izuku's ankle snapped in the rough landing, and he crumpled on the ground and didn't move for a few seconds. His hood had fallen off, and the edges of his mask dug into the back of his neck. His right arm was a bloody mess, lying at an unnatural angle that made him sick to look at, and his left foot sent waves of nauseating pain up his leg.

Stain stood over him, holding a knife they'd apparently missed.

Not good. Not good, not good, not good.

"That idiot's making a move. He's so noisy. I'll dispose of him later," Stain muttered. He tightened his grip on his knife, glancing down at Izuku. "Everything that I do is to create a stronger society."

Even without his injuries, Izuku wasn't sure he could move. The aura Stain was emitting…his bloodlust was a tangible thing, cloying the air and paralyzing all of them.

Stain's eyes narrowed at him, and he turned to give him his full attention. "I've seen your face before."

Izuku stopped breathing. They'd never met, he was almost positive about that. He would have remembered meeting someone like Stain.

But someone like Stain probably spent all his time on the same dark web Izuku did, which meant he'd probably come across a certain bounty. Izuku had done his best to take the bounties down as soon as they were posted, but he wasn't perfect.

"You're Izuku Midoriya," Stain said. "I wondered why there was a bounty out for a child. Now I see why a villain thinks you're a threat."

Izuku pushed himself up on his good arm. "So what, you want the reward?"

Stain grinned and turned his back to Izuku. "Nah. You're the rare hero I think deserves to live."

Was that supposed to be a compliment? Should Izuku be flattered a serial killer thought he was a real hero? He probably wouldn't if he knew Izuku's story, but still.

Iida and Todoroki were giving him a weird look, which ruined any hope Izuku might have had that they hadn't just heard all of that.

"Stand down, Stain," one of the pros said. She was a female Izuku didn't recognize, wearing a green and white jumpsuit. She didn't look nearly as confident as she sounded, eyes darting between Izuku and Stain.

Stain's reply was cut off when flames burst onto the street.

"Why are you all standing around like fools?" Endeavor demanded. "The villain must have flown this way, right?"

Stain chuckled. "Endeavor. I've wanted to get my blades in you for a long time."

Endeavor's eyes narrowed as he assessed the situation. "Hero Killer Stain. What a perfect opportunity!" He threw a wave of fire forward, despite the protests from some of the pros.

Izuku honestly wasn't sure if Endeavor hadn't seen him or if he had but trusted Izuku's ability to protect himself. Either way, Izuku blocked the flames from hitting him.

Stain darted across the street racing towards the number two hero, bobbing and weaving around the fire.

Todoroki made a wall of ice to try and protect the pros from the backlash of Endeavor's fighting, and then he came over to check on Izuku, helping him sit up properly. "Are you alright?"

"I'll live," Izuku said. "Should we help him?" None of the other pros had moved yet, but Izuku couldn't blame them. Endeavor's fighting style was erratic on the best of days. Without some kind of protection, it was easy for allies to get caught by the embers.

"No, he's the number two hero, he can handle this," Todoroki said. "Stain doesn't have all his knives, so he won't be able to get close enough to use his quirk."

Izuku curled some of the excess flames away from Todoroki's ice wall. There wasn't a need to make it melt faster if they didn't have to yet.

"What he said, about Izuku Midoriya…was that true?" Todoroki asked.

Iida spared them a glance when he heard the question, and Izuku sagged in exhaustion. "Yeah. I'll explain later." Hopefully never. Maybe he could push the conversation off long enough they'd forget about it.

Bright orange flames caught his attention, curling against the ice wall. Todoroki reinforced it, though half the pros were peeking around the sides in case they saw an opportunity to jump in and help.

Endeavor didn't need help, though. He kept blasting Stain with wave after wave, but Stain was fast and agile, able to duck and jump and weave around every flame. He got closer than any of them expected, but Endeavor wrapped himself in fire the way Todoroki had and forced Stain back whenever he was too close.

Then he purposefully let Stain get in close, but only so he could wrap a hand around Stain's neck and slam him to the ground amidst a raging inferno. Between the hit to the head and the heat stroke, Stain finally lost consciousness.

Izuku let the relief wash over him and drag away the tension, leaning against Todoroki's side.

This time, for sure, the Hero Killer was beaten.

Glancing at Iida, Izuku expected his classmate to be excited about that. Instead, Iida clenched his fists and stared hard at the ground, a mixture of shame, guilt, and anger burning in his eyes.

Xx

Their stay in the hospital was awkward. Endeavor had indeed been furious with Izuku, threatening to terminate his internship early for the stunt he'd pulled. He would have, if Todoroki hadn't intervened. If Izuku hadn't run off, both Native and Iida would be dead, and the Hero Killer would still be on the loose and would probably kill more heroes before they found him.

Endeavor relented, but he glared at Izuku on his way out. Izuku was somewhat grateful to spend a few days in a hospital and away from him.

It did mean he was stuck with a still guilty Iida, and it took both Izuku and Todoroki several long conversations before they started getting through to him.

Of course, once they got through to Iida, he and Todoroki tag teamed Izuku about his passionate stance on vigilantes and the bounty for Izuku Midoriya. So much for pushing that conversation off.

"Were you saved by a vigilante?" Todoroki asked.

Iida made chopping motions with his less bandaged arm. "Yes, I'm curious as well. Most heroes feel that vigilantes only get in the way. They don't have the same restraint as heroes, and they make more work for police."

It took everything in Izuku not to start bragging about his accomplishments as Alley Cat. In a way he probably had created more work for the police, if by work they meant handing over criminals for the police to process.

At least Todoroki had given him an easy way out of this mess, even if he did hate lying. "Yeah. Did you ever hear of Alley Cat?"

Todoroki tilted his head. "Not extensively. He was too far away for news to really reach me."

Iida nodded his agreement.

"Well, he saved me. He saved a lot of people. He stopped muggings all the time, and rapists, and a bunch of other stuff the police never would have even paid attention to." Saying Alley Cat saved him was going a little far. He hadn't needed to be a vigilante, but it had helped him feel like he had a purpose while hiding from his father.

Maybe Alley Cat had saved him.

"You sound like you knew him personally," Iida ventured.

"I used to live near a neighborhood he watched. He helped me out a few times," Izuku said.

"Do you know what happened to him?" Todoroki asked.

He had to consciously stop his hand from reaching for his scar. "He got hurt, and then he was caught."

They picked up on his tone that he didn't want to talk about this, and they eagerly switched the topic to something else.

"So, you have a bounty on your head?" Todoroki wouldn't stop staring.

Izuku sank into the pillows. Aizawa wasn't going to be happy about this. Katsuki would be even less pleased.

"Stain had to be mistaken." Iida pushed his glasses back up. "I find it inconceivable that you could have done anything to warrant a bounty on your head as a middle schooler."

Oh, if only he knew. Iida would probably have a heart attack if he ever found out how Izuku actually spent junior high.

"No, he wasn't wrong. I…ran away from my dad," Izuku admitted with a glance to Todoroki. "He's actually a villain, and my running away wasn't exactly…quiet."

"Is that when you were stabbed?" Iida asked.

Fair guess, Izuku supposed. Most people didn't have as many traumatic life experiences before high school that Izuku had.

"Ah, no, actually. That was a separate incident."

Iida looked horrified.

Todoroki took it all in stride. Considering his past, it probably sounded somewhat normal to him. "So your father put a bounty on you?"

"Yeah. He promised to kill me the next time he saw me." Izuku fiddled with the edge of the blanket, not meeting their eyes.

"That's why you avoided the cameras the other day," Todoroki stated.

Izuku nodded.

"And the real reason you weren't allowed to participate in the sports festival," Iida guessed, causing Izuku to look up sharply. "I assume some, if not all, of the staff are aware of your situation?"

Times like this reminded Izuku why Iida was at the top of their class. "Yeah. Only Kacchan, Aizawa, Yamada, and Principal Nedzu know the full story, but everyone else knows the general situation."

"There's more to it than that?" Todoroki narrowed his eyes.

Clearly Todoroki wanted to prove why he was also at the top of the class.

"It's…secret?" Izuku winced. He could at least not phrase it like a question.

"I understand," Iida stated. "We won't press for details. I assume we are to keep referring to you as Sasaki?"

Izuku nodded. "Please." That was easier than he'd thought it would be. He glanced at Todoroki to gauge his opinion.

Todoroki's mouth was pressed in a firm line, but he nodded. The curiosity was probably killing him, but Izuku wasn't the only one with a past he didn't want to talk about. Todoroki couldn't judge.

The conversation switched to lighter topics until the Chief of Police came in. He gave them a thorough dressing down of proper protocol as heroes in training. While Izuku rolled his eyes at the legal stuff, Todoroki had a harder time biting his tongue and almost punched the chief.

Amazingly, even with Todoroki threatening bodily harm, they weren't in any more trouble. Endeavor was getting full credit for Stain's capture, and the three of them were being painted as helpless victims who'd needed saving.

He should be grateful they weren't getting the credit; that meant the media didn't care about them, and he didn't have to awkwardly avoid the attention.

It still irked him. Up until the Noumu had shown up, they'd had everything under control. Izuku almost wanted a do-over. This time he wouldn't be caught off guard, and he'd be able to burn the Noumu when it dive-bombed him. Even if it still grabbed him and he was in the air, he could have still used his quirk to burn the wings and then caught himself in the fall.

He shouldn't have let his guard down so much after the fight. That was the same exact mistake that got him stabbed before. That shouldn't be a lesson he needed to learn the hard way more than once.

Granted, flying Noumu were a little out of the ordinary, but any number of random things could come out of nowhere at him.

He'd been lucky to survive both times, and for now he'll be grateful he's alive at all. Alive, and with friends.