Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia. Original characters are in a sort of grey area but whatever.

Ingenium looked at the group of Heroes around the table. In the aftermath of the League of Supervillains managing to escape from that response and Mirko, the Task Force were going over any possible lead on their location. It hadn't gone very well.

His suit, for instance, had had its GPS hacked. Apparently it reported his past positions as alternatively the HPSC headquarters, U.A and New York. The videos on his suit had been replaced with cat videos and Gentle Criminal's blog posts regarding cravats and rating tea brands. Ingenium was giving his account as clearly as he could remember, to incredulous responses.

Death Arms shook his head as Ingenium recounted the events of his capture. "That's insane."

Ingenium shook his head. "No, I swear that's the truth. I know what I heard - Mastermind seems to legitimately think that he's doing Heroes a favour!"

He'd said that he was the Supervillain that Japan needed, that he did what he did to help the Heroes in some bizarre way. And then Stain tried to kill him, then…

Ingenium looked down. "...He g\took a sword for me." The image of Stain looming overhead only for Mastermind throwing himself in the way would probably never leave him.

Mount Lady shrugged. "On the one hand it would kind of fit what he's doing. On the other hand, you were losing a lot of blood at that point. Maybe you imagined it?"

"That, and broadcasting that belief of his is going to put a massive dent in public perception," Death Arms said. When the other Heroes glared at him he put his hands up. "Look, he said that he thought that Heroes were weak. We broadcast that statement and people might panic if they think Heroes can't help them!"

Ingenium sighed, but conceded the point. "And that's the other thing - the League of Supervillains has an extra member."

That got their attention. "What do you mean?" Death Arms asked.

Ingenium gave them a more serious look. "They've got a doctor with them - he introduced himself as Stitch."

Eraserhead sat up a bit more. "I've heard of him." When the rest of the room looked at him he elaborated. "Back alley doctor, one of the best despite his… alcoholic tendencies."

"He operated on me while drunk, apparently." Ingenium shuddered. Even if the doctor had shown how good he was at his job by stitching him back together, he wasn't comfortable with surgery under the influence.

The other Heroes in the room winced. "...Glad you're still alive then," Mount Lady muttered.

Ingenium shook his head. "Apart from his attempts to get me to join him and their somewhat bizarre attitude, they didn't treat me too badly. But it does mean that keeping an eye on Stitch may reveal where their main base is."

"Or he gets warped there by Mr. Warp," Eraserhead commented.

"Still better than nothing," Mount Lady commented, before her head slumped onto the desk. "Which is more than we can say about the possible 'Mirko fan' lead. Might as well have said 'I want Mount Lady to sit on me at full size,' that would have been just as accurate."

Ingenium winced a bit. When Mastermind had blurted out a secret like that, they had half hoped it would be enough to reveal an incriminating fan of hers. Unfortunately, digging through her fanbase had revealed that people with a similar… interest comprised almost three quarters of it. Mirko had found it amusing that Mastermind felt the same way, and joked that he'd probably been excited to get beaten up by her.

Mastermind wasn't making it easy to find him. Still, if Odd Eye grabbed another embarrassing secret… it might narrow it down. Still, at least Mastermind was probably having as bad a time as they were.

—

David Shield looked out at his interns on their last day. "Alright, it's time to go back to U.A - you probably miss your own equipment. Are you ready to go?"

Midoriya looked at the laboratory he and Hatsume had worked in with a last sad smile. "Hard to believe the week went so quickly, eh Mei?"

Next to him, Hatsume sniffed deeply. She looked like she had just lost her first born child. "I-I'll come back for you, my babies!"

The older Support scientist patted them gently yet firmly on the shoulders. "It's time for you to return to your regular classes." He chuckled. "It's nice to see the next generation of support scientists have such passion for their work!"

Midoriya's eyes glittered. "T-thank you, D-Dr. Shield! We learned so much here!" Hatsume nodded with him, head practically a blur. David smiled, just proud to have taught them something at all.

Hatsume and Midoriya had slaved away the past week, only eating and sleeping because the crash from not doing so would have taken more time from inventing. Midoriya had analysed Hero Quirk after Hero Quirk and helped David with his own Quirk copying project on top of his work at I-Island labs. Hatsume had worked on a bit of everything, dabbling with a new field practically every day that they had been here.

Thinking about how much they had accomplished, he gave them a proud smile. "I have to say, having you here has been a breath of fresh air. New ideas, new perspectives… It just helps reinforce what I built this place to be."

As the door opened and they went to get their things, he shook his head, winding back down memory lane. "Crazy to think this all started with me and All Might in a college dorm. I was more than a bit drunk and I said I wanted a, uh.."

"I wanna build a, a, like an I-Island where I can build whadd'vr wan', an', an' I'll have ROBOTS! Lots've robots!" He took a pull of his drink. "N it's… 's gonna fly or somethin'. Gonna… gonna be a moving I-Island."

Toshinori chuckled, his beer bottle looking tiny in his hand. "A whole science and technology based Island. That's a really impressive dream you got there!"

He paused. "Though I have to ask, what does 'I-Island' stand for?"

"M' saying - what I'm saying is - Science I-Island!" He blinked. "Why'm havin' trouble with sayin' I-Island…"

After that, he'd had to dash to the toilet. Later, he'd vowed to never challenge Toshi to a drinking contest ever again.

"... I said I wanted to make a place where the best minds could come together and build wonders," David chose to say. And those had been the days - where everything had seemed so much simpler and he didn't have to go through fifty hoops to make a small improvement to the world.

Hopefully kids like Hatsume and Midoriya would continue making the world, or at least Japan, a better place, one piece of support gear at a time. With the evil that All for One was perpetrating through his Noumu and Shigaraki, Japan needed all the help it could get.

As they boarded the plane he paused. "Just remember-"

"- 'Don't tell non-inventors that stolen blueprints or inventions are a crime worse than murder,'" Midoriya and Hatsume chorused.

He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "No, not that - but seriously, don't say that because they just don't understand."

Hatsume nodded solemnly. "People don't understand the grave threat that Mastermind presents either!"

David chuckled. "Well, while I agree that he's perverted the course of Support science for selfish reasons, ultimately he hasn't acted in a way like Shigaraki did."

Midoriya and Hatsume nodded, uncomfortable looks on their faces. Shigaraki's broadcast from Japan was truly reprehensible - his bombers had come from nowhere and wrecked devastation. Even if Mastermind had drawn Shigaraki's ire there had been casualties from his unprovoked attack.

The footage that came later of Mastermind's response and the ransom of Ingenium had been similarly shocking. Midoriya had watched with his mouth practically on the floor while Hatsume had glared at the newly revealed robot sharks. David could understand why Mastermind enraged her - seeing inventions so similar to yours being used for evil was heartbreaking in a way that non-inventors couldn't understand.

"Nevertheless, the important thing to remember is that our work, ultimately, is to help save lives." David gave them a proud look. "Whether we're designing a Hero's costume to stand up to Heroism or building an essential piece of equipment to make somebody's life easier, we're out to save lives."

He paused. "Oh, and I hope to see the pair of you at the Expo this year. I'll send you the tickets, so bring your best!"

Their reaction was electric. Midoriya flushed strawberry red and started stammering. Hatsume's face split in a grin like a shark's. "We're gonna be there, Doctor Shield!" Hatsume nudged Izuku sharply in the ribs. "Come on Izuku!"

"I-I-yes! Yes I'll be there!" He squeaked, before burying his face in his hands and dashing for the plane. David shook his head - he remembered how he'd acted in the presence of his science idols when he was that age. And admittedly when he was in college and saw All Might in action - though that was more him being a bisexual mess of a nerd with a type.

"Say hi to Melissa for me!" David's heart panged slightly. He had kept in contact with Melissa in weekly video calls, but it never seemed to be long or personal enough. Seeing the report that Shieldmaiden had been involved with cleaning up Shigaraki's damage had been terrifying, even as he knew that she was working to uphold All Might's mantle.

David couldn't help but worry even though he knew Melissa had the strongest Quirk on the planet. A small part of him didn't want her to throw herself in danger even as the rest of him shouted it down for putting down her dream of Heroics.

He watched the plane leave, then turned back to his laboratory. There was so much to do before the I-Island Expo and so little time to do it in.

—

Izuku sat back with a troubled expression on his face. Hearing that his Double had revealed his Hero crush as a result of Odd-Eye… Unfortunately he was going to have to treat Odd-Eye as a high priority, the same as Ms. Joke and… Mirko.

Idly he looked at a photo of Mirko on his phone and shuddered slightly. Hearing that she'd fought Mastermind and nearly captured them… It was kind of hot worrying! He tried to drift off to sleep but a certain fantasy came into his mind.

He felt even worse that he wasn't able to help Dr. Shield make his Quirk scanner more efficient. Technically he could have helped but then Dr. Shield would have asked him how he knew this and he would have been captured. Not to mention that he'd written a lot of papers about how little he knew about his solution working.

Glancing over at Mei as she practically vibrated in place he sighed. He'd had that dream again and he felt… honestly pretty terrible about it.

I get a little bit Genghis Khan...

He snuck a glance over at his friend and shook his head. Maybe when he got back to his friends he could see about sorting his complicated feelings out. Plus he could see how Kacchan was doing!

—

"Dude, what's with that hair?!" Soy Sauce Face pointed at Katsuki's hair, which had been hit with so much product it wouldn't go back into its normal state.

Katsuki snarled at Shitty Hair and Soy Sauce Face as the idiots laughed at his hairstyle. "IT'S NOT FUCKING FUNNY!"

The few bits and pieces he'd picked up from Best Jeanist hadn't been worth his hair being mutilated like this. Going on about 'image this,' and 'public relations matter' that. At least they'd come to common grounds that Eraserhead dressed like a hobo with no self respect.

To make things worse, he hadn't even seen any of those goddamn bomber things. That honour was reserved for four of the lucky bastards in his class.

Meanwhile, Hatsume cackled as she tinkered on some man-sized robot. After much wasted effort, Eraserhead had given up on stopping her from tinkering in class, so long as she didn't bring nuclear material into class. "A-HAHAHA! BEHOLD, A CREATION INSPIRED BY MY TIME ON I-ISLAND - MY NEW AND IMPROVED PEACEKEEPER ROBOT!"

The American looked at Hatsume and her work with sparkling eyes. "That's really impressive work, Mei!"

Hatsume flushed slightly. "Uh, thank you Melissa!" Idly she reached back in and tinkered a bit more.

Katsuki glared at what she was working on. The machine looked square and blocky, kind of like Glasses to Katsuki's eye. Its hands chopped the air in a familiar way. Kaminari glanced over at it. "Hey, looking good Iida!"

Glasses gasped at that exclamation. "Kaminari, if this is a joke, then it is not particularly funny!"

Pikachu glanced at Glasses, eyes wide. Then he turned back to the robot, then back to Iida. A worried look crossed his face as its hands chopped the air. "...wow, it looks just like you man."

Glasses spluttered, hands chopping in sync with the robot. Earlobes smacked a hand to her face. The American started chattering to Hatsume, going all over the robot while Hatsume cackled and explained things.

Across from Glasses going full ham, Grape was talking to Asui. "...And then she-she said I was cool! Can you believe that?! I've never been cool in my life!"

Asui shrugged. "It might be because you weren't a complete pervert as a Hero, kero."

"Oh yeah, Iida!" Sparky grinned. "How do you feel about Mastermind? Dude was crazy cool when he blew up all those Bomber things!"

Glasses took a deep breath. Earlobes shook her head at the idiot. "Wow, Kaminari. You know his brother was held hostage by him, right?"

Sparky winced but Glasses spoke over any apologies. "It's okay, Jirou! Mastermind has cultivated a reputation as a figure like the Phantom Thief, and in some instances I could almost agree that he has admirable qualities! Ultimately my brother can resume his duties as a Hero, and that's what matters!"

"Good to have you back, Class Prez!" Uraraka shouted, new muscles straining her blazer. Seems that Gun-whatever had been a good choice - maybe Katsuki could see about a rematch. The Grape took one look and immediately dropped to do a push-up.

He thought back over the past week, about how Glasses hadn't been as animated as he had been before. Then he scowled. Katsuki wasn't happy that Glasses was back to his normal annoying self, definitely not.

The American looked over at him. "Seems your internship went pretty well, Bakugou. If you're mimicking Best Jeanist's hairstyle."

Explosions popped in his palms. His hair strained under the industrial strength hairspray that Best Jeanist had put on. "YOU WANNA GO, BLONDIE?!"

Zombie leaned back. "Wow, Bakugou, your tsundere is showing."

"I AM NOT-"

The door opened and Eraserhead stepped through. Immediately everything was back in place, even Hatsume and her machine sitting back quietly. "Acceptable response time."

His gaze swept over the class. "First of all, I'm happy you all made it back in one piece from your internships. Some of you had more… eventful experiences than your classmates, so I should stress that this year is quite unusual with the Villain attacks. Try not to make engaging with Villains outside your Internships a habit."

Katsuki wanted to scoff but kept his mouth shut while Eraserhead went over the exercise they were going to do in Hero class. Mastermind's ridiculous antics and Shigaraki's terrorist attack were pretty menacing, though when he graduated he was going to be the Hero who caught Mastermind. Shigaraki must have been really proud of the chaos his stupid shit caused.

—

Tomura glared at the newspaper like it had personally wronged him. Which, to be fair, it kind of had. "'League of Supervillains makes a daring escape'," he said dully. Disintegrating it, he grabbed another. "'Mastermind: Masked Menace Terrorises Japan'."

He flung this newspaper to the ground in a fit of rage. "What the fuck is happening?!" Tomura grabbed another newspaper, glaring at it. "'Hero Killer Stain: His Philosophy, more on Page 5'?!"

"Please clean up when you're done, Master Shigaraki," Kurogiri didn't look up from polishing his glass.

"Why are they getting all the attention?! Our attack actually killed almost twenty people, not including Heroes, and injured about twenty of those fakes! The Bomber Noumu blew up Tokyo Square! WHY ARE WE NOT ON THE FRONT PAGE OF EVERY GODDAMN NEWSPAPER?!"

He flopped back into his chair, wanting to scream and destroy whatever he could grab, only stopped by Kurogiri's disappointed stare. "It's not fair!"

"Tomura,you must remember that fairness is just a word," Sensei's voice cut in. Leet yelped when the TV crackled on, backing away from the Symbol of Evil's visage.

Mon yipped and he reached down to scratch his best buddy, his one fingered glove preventing him from using his Quirk. "We're the more menacing Villains Sensei. We caused more damage in a few minutes than Mastermind ever has. Yet he's the one people talk about!"

"...I must admit, Mastermind has captured the public's imagination… perhaps a bit too well. I expect you to finish him with extreme prejudice, Tomura."

Tomura snorted at the understatement of the century. Mastermind was a secret goddamn boss that kept getting in his way. Compared to him, All Might was a minor nuisance. He couldn't imagine anybody he could hate more than Mastermind.

(In his lair, Overhaul sneezed as he worked on the samples from Eri. Feeling that this was her fault, he took a deep breath and used his Quirk on her.)

Sensei continued, a proud note entering his voice. "Still, Tomura, the League of Villains is gaining popularity rapidly. Especially since you managed to get the Hero Killer's name in association with your group."

Tomura smirked as he picked Mon up and into his lap. That was about the only part of his plan that had actually worked as intended. "I fucking hate that guy but he's tied to us now," he rasped. "And we can use that rep of his to aid the cause of killing Mastermind…"

Sensei seemed to slap a hand to his face. "And killing All Might."

"Oh, yeah. That too."

—

At Spinner's report Stain managed to sit up in bed, ignoring his aching bones. His whole body was covered in bandages as a result of taking a full force explosion, though he would have to get up to resume the purge. Spinner gave him a panicked look. "Sir, Stain, please-"

"Shigaraki said what?!"

Spinner looked away awkwardly. "Well, not so much said as shown, but… just look at this."

He pulled out a gaming laptop and pulled up a video. The footage was grainy, yet Stain was clearly identifiable as he went up and talked to Shigaraki, Stain presently wincing when he implicitly agreed to a team up in the video.

"...But we know differently, don't we?" The Stain on video rasped, right before it finished.

The real life Stain glared at the screen. "...That's taken out of context. They cut the video before the end. Where he showed the depths of his depravity."

Spinner looked downcast. "I-I know, Master. I tried to get it cleared up, but-but people said that I was 'obviously a troll, clearly I don't understand Stain's ethos.' Not the most hurtful thing that's ever been said to me but-"

Stain tried to get up only for his whole body to surge with pain. Spinner quickly pushed him back into bed. "You-you have to be careful Master! You nearly died on the way back here! The doctor said you needed a couple more days of bedrest!"

"That All Might hater is using me to develop his gang!" Stain roared, before tasting copper in his mouth. "That - that Endeavour stan," spat with more venom than 'false Hero', "is a lying scumbag!"

Spinner did his best to hold Stain down. "Master, you need to stay calm! I-I mean, it's not like people are going to go to him because of one video!"

—

In a dingy apartment, a skinny man who looked like he'd been left on the barbeque for too long grinned. "Well, this'll piss off dear old Dad if I join up with him," Dabi rasped. He turned back to his greatest project - something guaranteed to enrage Endeavour so much he'd probably have an aneurysm.

Todoroki Touya: A Musical.

—

"Well, Shigaraki isn't cute at all, he dresses like a hobo… But on the other hand, Stain is a real cutie, you know?" Himiko mused to her latest crush, knife in hand. She licked her lips. "All that blood…"

He stared up at her with tear filled eyes, trying to get away with a knife stuck in his femoral artery. Himiko sighed, pulling on her poncho. "But if I join with Shigaraki, I might have a chance to get with Bakugou and Uraraka since he seems to be attacking U.A a lot!"

"Please…"

She pulled out the phone and showed him some pictures. "Look at them, they're so cute!" Himiko flushed as she looked at their pictures of them covered in sweet, delicious blood, practically begging to be drained dry. Thinking about it, she came to a decision. "Well, maybe I'll give Shiggy a call. Until then… Dinnertime!"

His panicked screams got louder as she yanked the knife out of his leg.

—

Back in the lair with his comrades after school, Izuku glanced over to his friends. "...I guess we need to start stepping up our game," he declared.

Gentle Criminal nodded solemnly. "Indeed. That was our closest call yet."

Golden Grin nodded. "Yeah, I'm too handsome for Tartarus!"

"Indeed you are my friend!" Izuku strode around the room. "Thanks to my experiences on I-Island, I have so many ideas! So. Many."

Golden Grin perked up slightly. "Say, could we get armour that works like your Full Cowling?"

At that Izuku slumped slightly. "Much as I want to, making a full set of armour for everybody would cost roughly five billion yen and take about four months-"

Gentle Criminal stroked his goatee, contemplating. "Well, that's a bit expensive, but having the extra protection-"

"-For each suit," Izuku finished. When the crew stared at him he sighed. "Even taking out the extra bells and whistles, it's still a lot - Shinji and I had to work together and it needs very expensive components! Heck, the carbon fibre muscles alone-"

Inkblot held up a hand. "Okay, we trust your judgement. But can you make improvements to all our gear?"

"Oh yeah, easily! More offensive and defensive stuff, that's easy!" Izuku paced. "And thanks to our money laundering schemes, we're going to have plenty of money!"

Yes, Shigaraki was going to pay for his murderous antics once he overhauled all the Support gear his crew used. Right now, he couldn't imagine hating somebody more than the enraged manchild.

(Again, Overhaul sneezed. Glaring at a coughing underling, they only had a second to scream before they turned into a smear of blood on the wall. "Clean this up," he rasped at a different minion, pulling out his hand sanitizer to get rid of the contamination.)

Thunder cracked as he laughed. "MWAHAHAHA!"

—

Later, Manami hummed as she checked the computers again. When Izuku had heard about the promise his temporary Double had made he had agreed wholeheartedly. "It'll be nice to not worry about everything," he had confessed. Right now he was only acting in an advisory capacity.

Gentle Criminal had found an art gallery that had stolen several art pieces then pretended that they had been found by a generous benefactor. He had decided to actually steal the relevant pieces and have the evidence posted on Hero Tube. Ironically their videos were getting traction not just from their fans but also by the police.

As she did her research she heard Izuku come up behind her. "La Brava? Can I talk to you about, uh…" Izuku twisted his hands. "...Love stuff?"

Manami gasped. Inkblot dropped her coffee cup. "Um-"

"O-oh, it's not with work colleagues!" Izuku paused, and Manami saw his demeanour fully change, going from confident Supervillain to awkward teen. "...So, I, uh, kind of have to explain it but… I'm kind of feeling Genghis Khan for Mei and Melissa? At the same time?"

She blinked. "...Huh?"

AN: Whoo, got this done!

I debated endlessly about some bits but in the end love has prevailed! We've had a debriefing, we have promises to improve gear and we have new and improved bits and bobs!

On a slightly different note, first of all I now have a and Discord. I have decided in the spirit of Villainy with this fic to try and wring some shekels out of you. Please go to the Discord, frankly it's a bit depressing since there's only like one other person there and neither of us have really posted.

Another thing is, since I'm currently looking for work on a casual basis and have applied I may not be updating my fics as often. If I slow my update schedule for a while, then you know the reason is because I want some filthy lucre.

As always thank you Banchoking for editing my stuff to make it readable. If you don't comment on things you liked/disliked about this story I won't be able to charge the spirit bomb and throw it at Frieza. You continued appreciation means a lot to me.

Next time, we're going to do an art gallery heist!