Class 1-A were in their first class of the day when Bakugou's phone rang.
Aizawa glanced up from the notes he was lecturing from to glare at the student.
"Phones are supposed to be on silent, Bakugou. You know this."
"It was on silent," Bakugou grumbled, yanking his phone out of his pocket. "Only my mom's number is set up to ring."
Bakugou looked at the screen and found he was right: it was his mother. After the incident at the summer camp, they agreed to have their phones set up so that even if their phones are on silent, if they called each other, it would ring. That way, if there was an emergency, they could reach each other no matter what.
"Sir, I need to take this," Bakugou said.
"Put it on speaker. I want to know what is so important that she is willing to interrupt our class."
It was easier to just do as he was told rather than argue. In the end, Bakugou was getting what he wanted and that was all that mattered. He quickly swiped his finger across the screen to answer the call.
"Mom? What's the issue?"
He was met with muffled sobs.
"Katsuki… It's… Did you hear about the villain attack last night in our neighborhood?"
Everyone in the class froze, even Aizawa. Bakugou straightened in his seat.
"What? Are you guys okay?"
"You're father and I are fine. It's… Fuck, Katsuki, it's the Midoriya's! The villain crashed into their building and used his quirk to completely destroy it. They found Inko's body, but they aren't sure if they have Izuku's. There were a few bodies so heavily injured that they can't identify who they are. But… They're gone. Fuck, Katsuki, they're gone!"
Bakugou didn't move. All the blood drained from his face, leaving him as pale as paper. His red eyes stared straight down at the phone, unseeing and unblinking. Kirishima climbed out of his seat and came over to Bakugou's side.
"Mrs. Bakugou," he said. "I think Bakugou is pretty shocked. I'm going to hang up now and take him to Recovery Girl or something."
"Kirishima? Why do you have his phone?"
"He had to put his phone on speaker to be allowed to pick it up. I'm really sorry for your loss! Oh shit, um, I think he's starting to hyperventilate so I've got to go."
"Take care of my boy!" she said, almost panicked, as Kirishima hung up.
Aizawa had made his way over as well and was kneeling beside Bakugou.
"Bakugou, can you hear me?" Aizawa asked, carefully putting his hand on the boy's shoulder. When Bakugou flinched, Aizawa let go. "Bakugou, I'm sorry that I made you put the phone on speaker. I will not be doing it again. You're dismissed from class for the rest of the day. Kirishima is going to walk you to Recovery Girl's office. You will be staying there until she says you are allowed to leave."
"No," Bakugou croaked out.
"What?"
"No, I need… I need to go. I need to go over there. I have to find him." Bakugou struggled to get out of his seat but was quickly grabbed by Aizawa.
"There is nothing you can do, Bakugou."
"I never apologized. Fuck, I need to find him and apologize. I promised myself I would. You have to let me go!" Bakugou snarled, tears welling in his eyes. He tried to shove Aizawa off, only to weakly push at his shoulders. Kirishima wrapped Bakugou in his arms and let Bakugou bury his face into Kirshima's chest.
Aizawa gave Kirishima a nod.
"I'll take him to Recovery Girl," Kirishima said, already guiding Bakugou towards the door.
"Stay with him until he calms down."
--
"We can share a room, Izu-kun!" Toga excitedly said, dragging Izuku through the hideout, showing him around. He stumbled along behind her, trying not to giggle at her antics as they finally settled in the living room. Magne, Spinner, and Compress were all lounging and watching TV. "We'll have to get you a bed or something but there should be room! Oh, maybe we can get a bunk bed! That would be so fun! And sharing a room with me will be a lot better than sharing with Dabi or Twice or any of the others."
"Give the kid a chance to breathe, Toga," Magne scolded.
"You're going to need a villain name too! Unless you want to use your real name, like me," Toga continued.
Izuku awkwardly rubbed at the back of his head. "I don't know how much villain work I'll really be doing since I'm still not great at fighting. I've been getting better with my computer skills though so maybe I can choose a hacker name. If I end up helping you guys with a mission or something, we can just stick with that name I guess."
"Hacker name, villain name: not much of a difference," Spinner scoffed.
"Hush," Magne said, swatting at his leg. "I think it's a good idea. What were you thinking, Midoriya?"
"Well, I was thinking about using Deku. This friend I had as a kid called me that to call me useless and make fun of me for being quirkless, but I want to take it back, you know? Reclaim it."
Toga squealed, clapping her hands together excitedly. "It's so cute! I love it!"
Spinner leaned forward in his seat. "Alright then, Deku. Show me what you can do with a computer? I'm curious."
Izuku, newly coined as Deku, sat down next to Spinner and pulled his laptop from his backpack. With a few keystrokes, Deku had the computer booted up and had the wifi pinging through various satellites, hiding his actual location.
"Okay, I'm set up. What would you like me to hack?"
"The CCTV cameras in Hosu City," Spinner said, the answer immediate. "I want to see the Hero Killer, Stain, on his last night as a free man."
Deku nodded. "Yeah, I can do that. Hold on."
It only took him a moment to find the footage, even though it was older. He pulled it up and set it to run. There was no sound, but they were able to see a teenager, probably near Deku's age, enter the alley as Stain made a move to kill a hero. The teenager's hero costume was similar to Ingenium's, making Deku wonder if the boy looked up to the retired hero.
The pair talked for a moment before the teenager lunged at Stain. The boy's leg came around to kick at Stain's head, only for Stain to dodge and knick the boy with a blade. Stain quickly licked up the blood from the blade and the teenager went still. He collapsed to the ground, completely unable to move. Stain seemed to monologue before approaching the immobilized pro hero, who Deku then realized was Native, and stabbed the hero through the heart. The hero shuddered before falling limp: dead. Stain continued to monologue, circling the boy. The teen yelled something that seemed to piss Stain off. With a snarl, Stain lunged and slashed his blade at the boy's face, leaving a weeping gash from his forehead, across the bridge of his nose, and down his cheek. The boy screamed in pain, though his body didn't flinch, since he was still paralyzed. As Stain raised his sword to drive it through the boy's chest, a blast of flames shot out from off camera, catching Stain in the chest and sending him flying backwards. Another teen came running on screen. This one piqued Deku's interest.
The new teen had bi-color hair: half was red and half was white. His hero suit was rather plain, at least compared to others. It was just a blue jumpsuit with some white detailing and a belt. The boy stood over the other teen, shielding him from Stain. His face was rather intense. There was almost a hidden anger behind his expression. He looked almost familiar…
"That's the Todoroki kid. Endeavor's son," Spinner hissed, eyes narrowing.
That was when Deku realized where he had seen the other boy before: the Sports Festival. He and Kacchan had fought each other. Kacchan had beaten him, but hadn't seemed particularly happy about it. Back then, Todoroki had only used ice, though the commentator had said the boy had a Half-Hot, Half-Cold quirk. Deku had been curious back then what that had meant, and now he had his answer.
Todoroki could also wield fire.
Stain snarled something at Todoroki and made to lunge again only to be struck with a blast of ice that sent him backwards again. The wounded boy on the ground was shouting again, though neither Todoroki nor Stain responded.
Before Stain could get up again to attack, Todoroki formed a wall of ice that spanned the alley, splitting Stain away from them. As soon as the wall was up, Todoroki was trying to lift the other boy from the ground, quickly trying to make his exit. Just as he got to the entrance of the alley, Stain leapt to the top of the ice wall and threw a knife at the two teens.
The other boy seemed to have regained mobility and swung his arm up, shielding Todoroki and allowing the knife to sink into his arm. He gave a scream, but it gave Todoroki a chance to turn around and send a blast of flames at Stain. It struck him in the chest and knocked him backwards off the wall of ice. The pair of boys hurried off camera, drops of blood leaving a trail behind them. Just as Stain managed to climb back to the top of the ice, a massive wave of fire ripped through the alley, completely melting the ice and burning Stain. Endeavor stepped into view, flames licking up his arms. Another burst of flames shot up, frying the camera.
Spinner and Deku were left looking at a blank screen. After a beat, Deku closed the laptop.
"That's it, I think," Deku said, slipping his laptop back into his bag.
"Children…" Spinner whispered. "Children defeated Stain."
"No, they didn't defeat him. They evaded him. They fought back just enough to escape." Deku paused, cocking his head for a moment as his mind began to race. "The situation would have been vastly different if Native hadn't been killed. With that two toned hair boy, Todoroki, being the only one mobile, it would have been impossible for him to keep Stain back and get both of the others out of there. With Native dead and the only other person in the alley being the other student, Todoroki only had two choices: take on Stain alone or get the boy to safety. He made the right choice, in my opinion. There is no way Todoroki could have defeated Stain alone. If Stain got ahold of any of Todoroki's blood, then all of them would be dead."
Spinner glared at him. "Are you taking that boy's side?"
Deku's eyes went wide as he frantically shook his head. "No! I'm not taking anyone's side! I'm just… you know… analyzing the fight and stuff."
"Cut him some slack, Spinner. Not everyone is obsessed with Stain as you are," Magne said. "Though, I think if we gave him the chance, he'd be a fan."
"Stainy is ah-mazing, Deku-kun! I can tell you all about him, okay?" Toga said excitedly, her eyes sparkling.
"Oh! Uh… Okay! Thank you, Toga-kun."