Hello crazy, beautiful world! It's the end of summer, did you all have a nice time? Mine was great, I got to spend almost every day inside at the computer! Living the dream!

By the way, expect a bunch of gambling puns for the next few chapters, I just can't help myself.

Reviews:

whkestila: F in the chat for the tv, he was just doing his job!

Engineer4Ever: Yeah, Angel isn't taking part in the Stain takedown. I've got my reasons for her going off on her solo adventure, I hope you enjoy it!

Borderlands is owned by Gearbox and 2KGames and My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Funimation. Lyrics belong to Cage the Elephant. Please support the official release.

Please rate and review!

"This means someone is talking."

'This means someone is thinking to themselves.'

This means it's a flashback.

*This means it's a sound effect!*

{This means I'm speaking in a different language!}

Angel in a Gilded Cage

"{~Ohh, there ain't no rest for the wicked, money don't grow on trees...~}"

Angel moaned and shifted amidst her cocoon of sheets and covers, the singing coming from her phone pulling her from the dregs of sleep. She rolled over onto her back and opened her eyes to the dim interior of Maya's room, the only light coming from under the crack of the door.

She brought her palms to her face and massaged it, rubbing her eyes before dragging them down her neck. She smacked her lips before grimacing in disgust at her morning breath.

Well, she wasn't going to solve that from her bed.

Letting out a deep sigh, she reached over and tapped her phone dormant. Next, she pulled herself up only to touch her temple from the twinge of pain, an aftershock from her "experiment" last night.

Nonetheless, she got to her feet and opened the door. She trudged through the short hall into the living room, heading to the kitchen while trying to shake off her drowsiness. The countertop smelled like stale coffee.

She opened the fridge, momentarily getting blinded from the bright light inside and retrieved a jug of orange juice. Against all odds, she found a clean glass and poured herself a cup.

She took a sip and let the cold, sweet fruity nectar clean the bad taste out of her mouth. She turned, planning on drinking the rest while watching the news on the couch, just to find it already occupied.

The entirety of Double Tap were sitting on the couch and one of the easy chairs, gazes fixed on the television, a news segment already playing. It looked like she hadn't noticed them in her dazed state.

She sweated a little at the circular, fist sized fracture in the corner of the screen, a spiderweb of cracks making several of the pixels bleed into each other, but it was still functioning at least.

"U-Um… what's going-?" She started.

"Ssh!" Axton hissed, waving her off. "Keep it down! They finally caught the Hero Killer last night!"

Her eyes widened and her mind became clear.

"Really?" She asked in disbelief, setting herself down in the other unoccupied easy chair.

"Yeah! Finally caught the bastard!" Salvador nodded. "Look! Here it comes now!"

Sure enough, the breaking news graphic flashed and was swiftly replaced with the news anchor at their desk.

"Now for the story you all at home are likely tuning in for! Yes, it is true, the Hero Killer, Stain has finally been apprehended!."

Behind them was an image of a single man wrapped in a quirk restraining straight jacket, tethered to the several police officers leading him away. He was tall, pale, thin and had a rat's nest of black hair hanging over his face.

"At approximately eight PM last night, amidst a spontaneous riot in Hosu that has left several wounded and caused millions in damages, the infamous murderer responsible for seventeen fatalities was finally brought to justice by the Flame Hero, Endeavour. The killer's quirk has finally been identified, a form of blood induced paralysis. In other words, the consumption of a victim's blood will result in them being rendered immobile for a certain amount of time.

According to police, the Hero Killer was discovered in a back alleyway, using the chaos to attempt to kill the pro hero Native in secret, but was happened upon by three high school students, right before Endeavour arrived on the scene."

The image switched to a picture of said hero, scowling as he did at the camera with a somewhat distant look on his face. "When asked on why he was in the city at the time of the riot and subsequent arrest, Endeavour had this to say:

"I had been working on this case in the background for a few weeks now, keeping up appearances in my own jurisdiction. Then, noticing a pattern, I decided to investigate myself and it appears that my hunch was right. I am just glad that I had arrived in time to prevent any more heroes from losing their lives.""

"Aaah. Of course that hotshot says that. I bet he just got lucky." Axton grumbled.

"He is the number two for a reason, Axton." Maya chided. "Don't mistake his drive for luck when you refuse to work as hard."

"Ow." He massaged his bruised ego.

Off to the side, Angel felt a modicum of relief. Now that the Hero Killer was finally behind bars, she felt just a little bit safer.

'Even if he was as far as...Hosu…' She froze.

Then her eyes shot wide open as realization slammed into her skull!

Hosu!

Hero Killer!

High school students!

Iida!

Midoriya!

Her glass slipped from her hand and shattered on the floor, spilling orange juice all over the carpet! She leapt from her chair and bolted back to Maya's room amidst shouts of surprise.

"What the hell?! My carpet!"

"Where's the fire amiga?"

"?"

Maya's hand glowed. With a flick, the orange juice and pieces of glass lifted themselves out of the rug. All the while, she watched her protege leaving the room with a concerned glance.

Angel's heart was racing as she grabbed her phone and immediately dialed Midoriya's number. She held it to her ear, her anxiety skyrocketing as she heard the dial tone.

"Come on, come on, come on… pick up!" She whimpered.

It rang some more, then…

"H-Hello?"

She immediately sagged in relief at the sound of her friend's voice.

"Midoriya! Are you okay?! I just heard about Hosu! The three students who found the Killer, that was you and Iida, right?!"

"U-Uh… y-yes. Todoroki-kun as well." He answered uneasily. "H-He just so happened to be in town with his dad and got my message. S-Small world huh?" He chuckled a little.

She flinched and gripped her phone tighter, feeling a stab of guilt. The group text he had sent last night, she had just assumed that was Midoriya sharing his location, when really it had been an SOS. That meant that her friends could have very well died while she slept, blissfully unaware.

It had almost happened again. Someone had almost perished while she stood by and did nothing.

She clutched her face, eyes burning with tears as she sniffled, brimming with self loathing.

"Eh?! A-Are you crying?!" Midoriya asked. "Oh crap! I-I made a girl cry! W-What did I do?! I-I'm s-so sorry!"

That only made her feel worse. Of course gentle, altruist Midoriya would blame himself for something he didn't do.

"I-It's not that!" She choked out, her voice wobbling as she tried not to completely break down. "I-I... you called for help, b-but I did nothing! If Endeavour didn't show up, y-you'd be… you'd be-!" She covered her mouth, unable to continue.

She heard nothing from the other end, Midoriya probably taking a moment to process this development.

Finally, he breathed in and she cringed in fear of what he had to say.

"Angel-chan…" He spoke softly and she paused, never hearing her first name leave him without so much as a stutter. "Don't be so hard on yourself, please. There was nothing you could have done."

"I-I could have." She weakly protested.

"No, you couldn't. How could you? You're miles away." He questioned calmly. The way he wasn't patronizing, rather, he was carefully walking her through her turmoil logically.

"I-I… I guess that's true." She admitted.

"Then relax! We're all good over here at the hospital! We've all got some cuts and bruises, but other than that, we all made it out okay!" He told her cheerfully. "So again, please don't be so hard on yourself."

At those words, a comfortable warmth grew in Angel's chest, burning away her remorse. A small part of her knew that it wasn't her fault, but it never hurt to have her friend say it himself.

She sniffled again, the ghost of a smile on her face. "I have a bad habit of doing that, don't I?" She stated, eliciting a small laugh on the other end of the line.

"You're not the only one! Trust me, I know how it feels to beat yourself up all the time."

"Figuratively or literally?" She teased, wiping the tears from her eyes.

Midoriya chuckled bashfully. "Eh-heh, y-yeah. S-So, uh, how's your internship going?"

"It's going great." She said as she relaxed and set herself down on the edge of Maya's bed. "I met this one pro who's been teaching me so many things on how to use my quirk! It's amazing!"

"Really?! Like what?!" Midoriya probed, his interest piqued. She could hear the notebook and pen from here.

"Hmm… I dunno. Wouldn't you like me to show you when we get back to school?" She teased, making him whine, like a puppy.

"Aww… you sure?"

"Yeah, I think so. I want to see your reaction first hand, it's going to blow your mind!"

She continued chatting, unaware of Maya, prying from the other side of the door. She stood there relieved that Angel was not only alright, but also happily conversing with her friend. She really wanted to keep listening, but they needed to get to training today.

*Knock! Knock!*

Angel glanced up at the door.

"O-Oh, sorry Midoriya-kun, but I've got to get going! I'll talk to you later!"

"O-Okay, bye!"

She gave a small wave despite being very far away and hung up. Staring down at her phone, she sighed.

'What did I do to deserve a friend like him?' She wondered, marvelling at her fortune.

*Knock! Knock! Knock!* The tapping echoed again.

"Come in!"

The door eased open and Maya stepped in.

"Everything good in here? You gave us a little bit of a scare there." The older woman asked.

"Y-Yeah, I'm cool."

"You sure you're okay?" She pressed further, stepping over and patting her shoulder. "The raid is tomorrow and we'll need your head in the game, alright?"

"No, no, I understand. Trust me, I'm feeling a lot better." She assured her.

Maya raised her impeccably trimmed brow and shrugged. "Good. Now let's get you a hearty breakfast. I'm going to work you hard today. You up for it?"

"Heck yeah!" Angel grinned, leaping to her feet and following her mentor out.

"So who was that on the phone? Your boyfriend?" Maya asked with a wry smile.

Angel immediately flushed. "W-What?! He's not my b-b-boyfriend!"

A month ago, if you asked Ieyasu Okuma where he thought he was going to be, he'd probably give a shrug and a sarcastic remark about still being single and stuck in a dead end service job.

He'd definitely not say: A, over a million yen in debt. B, being carried through the backhalls of a casino by two muscular men wearing suits, black sunglasses and earpieces. Or C, wetting his pants.

Yeah, March Ieyasu would probably laugh at that. For April Ieyasu though, it was anything but funny.

"C-Come on guys! Do we really need to go through with this?! I promise I'll pay it all back, I'm good for it!" He begged as his escorts continued to silently drag him through the suddenly cramped hallways of the Pretty Penny casino, holding him up by his shoulders with the tips of his shoes just scratching the hardwood floor.

When they gave him no response, he sagged in their tight, ham fisted grips and whimpered.

'How did it all go so wrong?' He wondered. 'Oh yeah, it's because I was bored.'

A few weeks ago, Ieyasu's life had fallen into a sort of rut. It was always wake up, go to work, stand at the cash register, stock shelves, go home, eat dinner and go to bed. Day in, day out. Ever since he had dropped out of college he had been in an endless cycle of work, sleep and boredom and it was slowly killing him.

It was only when he had taken a stroll down an unfamiliar street that he had discovered the Pretty Penny casino and the joys of gambling. He had never played American casino games before, what with them being so limited in Japan nowadays.

On a whim, he had entered the shining palace of opulence and pleasure, beckoned in by gorgeous women dressed in tight leotards who promised thrills and fortunes for his time and a little of his pay. After he filled out an identification form(probably to make sure he didn't have a quirk that'd let him cheat) he was let loose into this strange world, filled with cheers, laughter and fun. Not really sure what to do, he wandered around until he found himself in front of them.

The slots. He had heard of rumors of such machines, flashing and golden. He stared at it for a moment, before wondering what the harm could be in trying one spin.

Almost innocently, he took a complimentary token, pushed it and pulled the lever. The wheels spun, lights blinking and sound chips buzzing. Then with a jingle of electronic bells, three cherries slammed into place. A cascade of tokens spilled into the tray. He won!

He felt elated, amazing even! A drought of achievement and excitement had left him starved for gratification and it was so easy, just a pull at the lever!

Giddy and drunk on happiness, he played again.

And again.

And again.

More wins! More tokens! More money! He was on top of the world and there was no stopping him!

Until of course, something did.

Ieyasu started to win less and less. Sure, he got some tokens back here and there, but he slowly began to lose all of his gains. Soon enough, he was out of tokens and back where he started.

'It's just a little run of bad luck!' He assumed.

'I just need to buy some more tokens and I can win again!' He assured himself.

'I don't need a lot, I just need to make more than I lose, then I'll stop for tonight!' He promised.

But he didn't get lucky. He didn't win and he didn't stop. Over and over, he ran to and fro from the token exchange, dipping his hand deeper into his savings. They even let him take a couple loans, they were so nice. All the while, he told himself that he just needed one more win.

But it never came.

Several hours later, Ieyasu was slumped on the stool in front of the machine, staring blankly at the mechanical swindler, not a single yen to his name.

That's where he was found by the two gorillas that someone mistook for casino security and which led to his current situation, his trousers soaked and scared shitless.

'Are they going to break my limbs?! Threaten to kill me?! Sell my kidneys?!' He fretted as they turned another corner and faced a single door, marked "Management".

He swallowed. The man on his right knocked on the wood.

"Bring him in." A creaky voice ordered from inside.

The man opened the door and Ieyasu was carried into a lavish office. A golden chandelier cast amber light over the interior, expensive looking paintings and sculptures lining the walls and shelves. In the centre was a large, redwood desk, with an ashtray and crystal bottles filled with various alcoholic beverages on top, the perfectly cut quartz resplendently reflecting the light. There was a chair on either side, the one on his end being a wooden seat, but the other was tallbacked, black leather chair.

And leaning back against the tight fabric was a man dressed in a neatly pressed, black suit with pinstripes, holding a smoldering cigar between his fingers adorned with rings. Looped around his neck was a gold chain, some words in English resting against his chest. Set in front of him was a small plate titled "Milton Redman".

"Ah, Okuma-san, it's so good to see you!" He exclaimed in faux surprise and gave him a smile. He gestured at the empty chair. "Why don't you take a seat and we'll figure things out?"

He nodded at his employees, who immediately relinquished their hold on Ieyasu, who just barely caught himself from falling to the floor. Giving a nervous glance to the two men behind him, then the one in front, he circled around to the offered seat.

"Y-You know my name?"

"Of course I do!" He quipped. "Every person who walks into my casino is a valued customer and we treat our customers like royalty. So relax."

For the life of him, Ieyasu couldn't bring himself to do so.

"Now," The owner leaned forward and rested his arms on his desk. "It's come to my attention that you've been racking up quite the debt. In only five hours, that's got to be a record!"

"Y-Yes and I'm so sorry, um…" Ieyasu glanced down at the plaque to make sure he didn't screw up the name. "Redman-sama. I-I just got carried away a-and-!"

"Woah! Woah. Take it down a notch will ya?" He told him, taking a drag from his cigar and blowing out a puff of smoke. "You owe us money and we want it, but we're not gonna beat it outta ya hide or something. This happens all the time."

Ieyasu froze. "W-Wait. R-Really?" He stammered in disbelief.

"Yeah and we have a simple solution for all of this." The man placed his cigar in an ashtray before he reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a couple of forms. "This is a standard loan repayment plan. Through an easy duration of service to the casino, you'll earn back the money you owe us, guaranteed!"

He slid the papers across the desk, as well as a pen with a ruby set on the top.

Ieyasu stared down at the contract, stunned beyond belief. Was it really that easy? All he had to do was sign this form and he'd make the money back? He wasn't going to have to sell his organs after all?! If anything, it sounded like he was being offered a job!

"So? Do we have a deal?" The man asked.

"Y-Yeah, sure! You've got it!" Ieyasu smiled and laughed happily, taking the pen and writing his name on the dotted lines. He had an out! He was going to live after all!

"T-There! All done!" He said, pushing the now signed agreement back across the desk. "So when do I start?"

The man took the papers, giving them a look before his smile broadened. "Hmm… how about… now?"

In the next moment, Ieyasu felt two familiar, ham sized fists grab him by the shoulders and lifted him up again!

"H-Hey! What gives?!" He yelped.

"Boys, take Deadbeat here and throw him in with the rest. The truck's coming tomorrow, so try not to rough him up too much." The man ordered without looking up from the forms, leaning back in his chair and resting his polished dress shoes on the desk.

"Why are you doing this?! I thought you weren't going to hurt me!" Ieyasu yelled, thrashing in his captor's vice like grips.

The suited man placed the sheets back on the desk, looked up and gave him a sleazy smirk. "I said we treat our customers like royalty. You're not a customer anymore. You're property now and that means your ass belongs to me, eheheheh!" He cackled, retrieving his cigar.

"I hope you'll enjoy your stay. And if you don't…eh." He shrugged without a care. "You won't be staying long."

He gave a small wave and a rag was stuffed in Ieyasu's mouth before he was dragged out in a flurry of kicking and muffled screaming.

"Ahh…" Pretty Boy let out a satisfied sigh, holding his cigar between his grinning teeth. "I love this country."

It was funny in a way. She had heard people call cities or otherwise large metropolitan centres as a "Concrete Jungle", as if mankind had advanced so far from their humble origins only to trap themselves in an artificial forest of their own making.

Truly though, none of them could comprehend how true the metaphor was without witnessing it through Angel's own eyes.

From the top of an incomplete office complex, she could see the endless stream of cars flowing through the traffic lanes, akin to a river coursing within it's bed. The rumble of their engines, combined with the white noise echoing in her head felt like the roar of a fictitious current.

The scores of people walking along the edges were like insects, ants possibly, carrying their burdens back to their nests and hives. The nests or hives being the tall, concrete "trees" like the one she was standing on or the ones on all sides of her.

Below the streets were the "snakes" or "moles", burrowing under the earth in narrow tunnels, the hiss of their wheels on the tracks reaching her even here.

There were even birds in this microcosm. Tilting her head skyward, she spotted an airliner roar across the orange canvas, dragging a white trail behind it.

She took a deep breath through her nose as she closed her eyes, the sounds of the world surrounding her just like the wind that tugged at her hair and her costume's sleeves. It made for a good distraction from her upcoming role, twisting a knot of worry and stress in her stomach.

She knew what was about to happen, what she was about to do. Didn't make it any harder for her mind to pace back and forth, imagining the possibilities of what might just go wrong in the next couple hours.

Thus, she passed the time waiting for the members of Double Tap by going through Maya's exercises again, meditating on her control over her powers and slowly moving through some of her katas again.

'Wonder what someone would think, seeing me doing this up here?' She wondered, whimsically amused by the prospect of a passerby on the streets below or an office worker glancing out the window to see her doing some slow, elaborate dance on the top of a skyrise still under construction.

'Crazy kid.' They'd think, surely.

"This thing on? Test, test?" Axton's voice buzzed on the wireless transceiver built into one of the fins of her headset. A recent addition to her costume that she had requested after USJ, in the event she ever needed to call for help.

Opening her eyes to the bright, late day sun, Angel put a finger to her ear.

"Reading you loud and clear." She reported.

"Ah, good. Everything okay with you and Zer0?"

"He's, uh…" She glanced up to see the enigmatic ninja above her, perched on the hook on the end of a construction crane winch, balanced on one foot as he scanned the horizon. "He's hanging out."

"Right, cool. We're almost ready on our end. We'll keep you posted. Just be ready to go."

"Gotcha. Um, over and out?" She shrugged and the line went quiet.

As she let her hand drop, she was suddenly hit with the feeling of an inverted dejavu.

"Huh. So this is what it's like. Weird." She muttered, turning her head in the approximate direction of her destination, the Pretty Penny. She could just barely see it from here, the top of the large neon signs and other lights glowing from the other side of the three buildings in the way.

Letting out a shaky breath, she rubbed her hands together nervously. Seemed like an opportune moment to go over the plan.

She and Zer0 were the infiltration team. They were the ones who were going to sneak inside and find enough evidence to incriminate Pretty Boy, as well as any clues as to the whereabouts of the missing persons.

Axton was currently acting as the operation's coordinator a couple blocks away, closer to the casino, monitoring the situation from a van parked in an alleyway. He had Angel's former job, communicating with the rest of the team as well as backup in case things go bad.

And that left Maya and Salvador as the undercover team. The operation will start with them. The two pros will enter the casino from the front, disguised in some way(Maya was strangely tightlipped about it) and will cause a distraction of sorts. Angel didn't know what it was, but the idea was that they would grab the attention of the casino security in order to make it easier for her and Zer0 to sneak their way in.

Speaking of, as soon as the distraction was in play, Axton will signal her and the two of them will approach the building from the rooftops, entering from the top floor. Once inside, Zer0 will escort her to the security office where they're likely keeping their files and footage. That was their best bet to find anything about the victims and put Pretty Boy behind bars.

Once they had what they needed, Zer0 will move in to arrest said owner by himself while Axton calls the police waiting on standby.

Simple, except for how many things could possibly go wrong. Like her and Zer0 getting caught, she doesn't find anything on the servers or something just explodes?! It'd be just her luck, really.

'Man, and I thought Iida over-thinks things.' She groaned, rubbing her face.

Then she frowned. Now she was worrying about her friend when she should be focusing on the mission ahead.

Still, she couldn't help herself. It was obvious now that Iida had purposefully chosen his intern at Hosu, trying to find the Hero Killer in order to avenge his brother. And as it turns out, he had succeeded, just like she had feared. Thankfully though, from the news report and her call with Midoriya yesterday, it sounded like Iida was still alive and well. She was sure that if he had gotten seriously injured, her other friend would have let her know.

The question however; how was Iida now, mentally? The man that had crippled his brother Tensei, his ideal version of the prefect hero, was no longer a threat and would likely be locked up for life.

'But is that enough for him?' She pondered. For all she knew, he had fallen off the deep end completely, thinking that he wouldn't be satisfied until Stain was dead.

She could imagine him now, with those eyes, burning with an obsessive, vengeful glare. Just like…

'No. No, no, no!' She shook her head, clapping her face a bit. 'Now's not the time for that! There are lives on the line here Angel, focus!' She told herself, straightening her back and sucking in a breath.

She would worry about all of that later. Right now, she was a hero on a mission.

"Okay, everybody ready?" Axton asked on the channel.

"Hell yeah cabrón! The Zerker is ready!" Salvador declared.

"Blue Banshee here, let's get this done. This outfit is killing me." Maya hissed.

"G-Guardian Angel! S-Standing by!" She stuttered out, still getting used to the idea of being referred to by her new heroic label.

"Let us begin." Zer0 answered stoically.

"Looks like we're good to go. Bravo team, wait for my signal. Alpha team, it's time to move in!" Axton ordered. Angel could hear him smiling with his next sentence.

"Operation Double Down is a go! Send in… Señor Money Shot!"