It wasn't that Tenya didn't appreciate what Midoriya was doing for him. Really, he understood, and he was grateful for the consideration. He knew that Midoriya had organized the sting operation so that Tenya could help bring in his brother's attacker, but more than that so Tenya wouldn't be tempted to do it himself. Midoriya was trying to protect him, and Tenya was perfectly aware.

But Midoriya had never been in this kind of pain. He had never known a craving for justice like the one burning in Tenya's veins. Tensei wasn't crippled, but it was a near thing, and it would be months, perhaps years before he could return to hero work. The idea that his light had nearly been snuffed out kept Tenya up at night. It demanded action; not the cold, impersonal justice of the law, but a swift and brilliant defeat by the burning hatred in Tenya's chest. Only then would the fire inside him flare and burn itself out.

So, when they went out on patrol as a group, he hung back. He let himself slip out of range of the earpieces and watched the alleyways himself. If there was a chance, even a sliver of hope, that he could find the Hero Killer before the others did, he had to pursue it. When the fires started he'd almost given up, and when the others started running off in different directions to deal with the various threats Tenya was tempted to just give up and go along.

Then Yamada-sensei paused. He looked into the alley and saw something, and that something made him send Midoriya away. Tenya looked too, and saw his prey.

After Yamada disappeared into the alley Tenya hastened to follow, but he wasn't fast enough to beat the supersonic scream. He wondered as it reached his ears if he was already too late, and Yamada had already taken down Stain in one hit, but when Tenya sped into the alley he found that wasn't the case. Yamada had gotten off an attack, but he had taken a hit in turn, and he was now bleeding from a wound just inside the collar of his jacket, somewhere high on his chest. Stain was holding up him against the alley way by front of his shirt, sword poised to sheath itself in Yamada's throat. Yamada wasn't moving.

"If you call yourself a hero, you should choose your last words with care," Stain said, voice rough and cruel.

He drew back his blade.

Tenya shot forward, engines blazing as he aimed a kick at Stain's wrist, intent on knocking the sword from his hand. At the last second though Stain turned, his blade striking out at Tenya's face, knocking him back and sending his helmet flying. Tenya fell to the ground on his side, stunned by the hit. Had he really been deflected so easily?

"A child wearing a suit," Stain noted with only mild interest. "Who're you?"

"Tenya," Yamada said hurriedly, "run! Run now, as fast as you can, and get to-"

"Quiet, hypocrite," Stain cut him off, shifting him against the wall slightly. Yamada's stiffly gelled hair had forced his face to one side, and he was turned away from Tenya, watching the scene unfold out of the corner of his eye.

"You're carrying blades all over your body," Tenya noted, drawing Stain's attention back to him as he rose to his knees. "And you're wearing a blood-red scarf. You must be the Hero Killer, Stain!"

"Tenya please," Yamada said, voice trembling. Tenya paid him no attention.

"It's you right?" Tenya went on, looking up into the eyes of the Hero Killer, watching them narrow in confusion. "I've been looking for you, but I didn't think I'd find you so soon. I am-"

Stain's blade whistled through the air, and Tenya paused when he found himself with the tip of the villain's sword centimeters from his nose.

"Your eyes are searing with vengeance," Stain noted, with a cold kind of detachment, as though the observation was barely worth making. "Be careful what you say next. If need be even someone your age can be my target."

"No, please!" Yamada gasped, panic in his voice as he addressed the Hero Killer. "He's only a student! He doesn't know better, he doesn't deserve your judgment!"

Tenya's fist clenched at his side, anger boiling within him. "Are you saying that I'm not even a threat to you?" he demanded.

"Tenya run!" Yamada shouted. He seemed to be struggling for breath.

"You listen to me criminal," Tenya said, slowly getting to his feet. "I am the brother of an incredible hero who you attacked. He's the best older brother that anyone could hope for. I have come to stop you, because he can't right now. You're going to remember his name for as long as you live, because it is in his name, the name of Ingenium, that I will defeat you! That I promise!"

"Then so be it," Stain said solemnly. "Die."

Tenya's engines roared to life again, launching him forward at the Hero Killer. "For Tensei!" he shouted, kicking out with his right leg, intent on breaking Stain's legs, his ribs, his spine, whatever could be most easily reached by-

Stain moved so fast Tenya could barely register it. He leaped up and over Tenya's kick, diving through the air over Tenya's head. Before Tenya knew what was happening Stain was above him, speaking in that same cruel voice.

"Ingenium," he apparently recognized the name. "So you're brothers. I let him live so he could spread the good word. Word of me!"

Stain kicked, and a spike on the toe of his boot dug into Tenya's shoulder. Pain shot through him, blinding him for a moment, and in that instant he was slammed into the ground beneath Stain's foot. Tenya's face scraped along the filthy alley floor as he tried to turn his head, tried to look back up at Stain.

"You're a weakling," Stain concluded, "just like he was."

He threw his sword to adjust his grip, then drove it down hard into Tenya's arm. Tenya let out a

strangled cry as it pierced him, blood spraying from the wound, pain searing along the limb to further blur his vision. He'd lost his glasses at some point.

"You aren't heroes," Stain said, as though he were giving a lecture to a young child. "You have no right to be called that. Both of your are nothing but fakes."

"Shut up villain," Tenya began, intent on correcting him, but he was almost immediately interrupted.

"Let the boy go," Yamada's straining voice spoke up again. "He has time yet to grow, to learn, to become a hero according to the ideals you've described. You can't claim the moral high ground while killing a child!"

"Neither of you have the first idea what makes a hero," Stain told him, turning away from Tenya to look over his shoulder. "He could never be any more of a hero than you, pompous fake."

"Don't ignore me!" Tenya shouted, hot boiling rage screaming inside him. "I won't forgive you! I'll kill you!"

Stain looked back at him, in a bored sort of way. "Shouldn't you be worried about saving him?"

The words cut through Tenya as sharply as the sword, yet somehow hurt twice as much. Icy dread creeped into his heart as he realized Stain was right. He looked over to see his teacher leaning against the alley wall where Stain had dropped him, as carelessly as if he were a piece of trash. Yamada was injured, unmoving, possibly paralyzed and maybe even bleeding into his lung, if the harshness of his breathing was any indication. He wasn't coughing up blood, but he might not be able to. He had been trying to save Tenya throughout this whole exchange, urging him to run and find help. Yet somehow the idea that Tenya needed to help him, needed to get him out of the alley and to somewhere he could get medical attention, had completely slipped his mind. Even now the concepts seemed very far away and unimportant.

"So busy with your grudge you forgot about him," Stain went on. "You plan on using your quirk only for yourself. You're completely blinded by a selfish desire for revenge. You're about as far away from being a hero as I can imagine."

Another pained sound left Tenya as the sword was withdrawn from his shoulder. Stain held it up to his own face, watching Tenya's blood drip from the blade.

"And that's why you'll die tonight," he said, and licked.

Immediately Tenya felt something in him snap, like a tether had been broken in his mind. His body felt numb and strangely disconnected, as though it were no longer his own. He tried to move it and found he couldn't even lift a finger.

Stain held the sword over Tenya's head. "Goodbye child," he said. "May your death bring about a better world."

"No!" cried Yamada, and he was clearly trying to be loud, but his voice was softer, like it was fading. "Please, spare him, he's not, you don't-"

Tenya was looking up at Stain, so he saw when the Hero Killer's head turned. His ears were full of nothing but Yamada's pleading, so whatever had caught Stain's attention escaped him. What could not escape him however, was the body that collided boot-first with Stain's face, knocking him away from Tenya and sending him reeling backwards across the alley floor.

There were markedly fewer people on the street than there had been as Izuku sped back toward the alley. He considered going back to grab someone at one of the police checkpoints, but the alley was equidistant between two, and he didn't dare waste the time. Someone had to help Mic now.

As he went he pulled out his weapon, which was stashed in the pocket of his jacket on its smallest possible setting, and his phone. If he wasn't going to go find help, then he'd have to call for help once he got there. He typed out a quick message -- Stain! Help! -- and then primed it to send his location. He could only hope that Hitoshi, Shouto and Iida would check their phones in the middle of their fights.

Izuku turned sharply as he reached the alley, then once he could see inside took stock of the situation. Mic was down, slumped against the alley wall, and fear stabbed through Izuku's heart to see him completely unmoving. Iida was on the ground, splayed out and equally immobile with his helmet dropped several feet away, with a man standing over him. He wore a red scarf, and he was holding a sword raised to bring down on Iida's unprotected head.

It was unmistakably the Hero Killer.

Izuku waited until he was about halfway between the mouth of the alley and where Stain stood over Iida. Then he extended his force lance to staff length so that the tip of one end caught on the ground and used it to vault into the air. He was going pretty fast because of the compressed air propulsion system, so his leap carried him easy across the distance between himself and Stain. He clicked his heels together as he went, retracting the in-line skates, and so it was the heavy metal sole of his shoe that connected with the Hero Killer's face as Izuku flying-kicked him in the head.

Stain stumbled back and way from Iida, and Izuku dropped to the ground on his feet, standing protectively in front of his friend.

"Who's there?" Iida asked, voice shaky, almost as if he had been crying. "Midoriya?"

"Don't you worry Iida!" Izuku said, trying to sound reassuring, probably sounding more fearful than anything else. "I'm gonna save you!"

Stain was picking himself up, several paces farther into the alley, so Izuku took one hand off his weapon and reached into his pocket to find his phone. He hit send without looking, and heard it beep in confirmation. Then he took his hand back and held his weapon ready.

"Midoriya, no!" said Mic softly, and Izuku's heart leaped to hear his voice. He looked over, giving Mic a closer inspection, to see that he was bleeding out of the collar of his shirt but was otherwise awake and alert. His hair forced his head to the side, and he was looking at Izuku out of the corner of his eye with a wild, panicked expression.

"I'm sorry Sensei," Izuku said seriously. "I know you told me to go help Junebug, but I couldn't let you fight him on your own. Iida, can you stand?"

"I can't move my body," Iida told him in a hoarse voice. "It must be his quirk. Since he cut me I've been paralyzed."

"That's the kind of quirk people on TV said the hero killer might have," Izuku agreed. He kept his eyes on Stain, to see the villain looking at him contemplatively. Was that recognition in his eyes? "So cutting somehow activates his power huh? Maybe-"

"Midoriya please," Iida bit out, obviously in pain, and Izuku glanced at him to see that he too was

bleeding from multiple wounds in his arms. "Don't get involved! This doesn't have anything to do with you!"

"No," Izuku said. He looked back at the Hero Killer, mind already made up.

"Get out of here," Mic ordered, but his voice was strained, and as he spoke a little trickle of blood came from the corner of his mouth. He was bleeding into his lung. "Midoriya, as your supervisor I am-"

"I'm sorry," Izuku repeated, refusing to allow himself to think beyond what he needed to do, right now, in this moment, "but I can't do that!"

"You showed up to save your friend's life," said Stain suddenly, drawing Izuku's attention back to him. "You even made a big entrance. But I have a duty to kill him and this so-called Pro."

Stain leveled Izuku with a piercing look, and Izuku swallowed panic.

"When your friend chose to fight me," Stain said, "it guaranteed that the weaker of us would be culled. So, what will you do?"

He's different from the villains who attacked us before, Izuku realized. Those are the eyes of a fanatic. He won't run away like Shigaraki did. If I don't stop him, or stall him until help arrives, he's going to finish his mission.

"I'll tell you what I'm not gonna do," Izuku called back to Stain. "I'm not going to let you hurt anyone any more tonight!"

Stain scoffed and readied his sword.

"Listen to me!" called Tenya from behind Izuku. "Stand down! Run away! I told you this has nothing to do with you!"

"If you really believe that, then why are you trying to become a hero in the first place?!" Izuku demanded.

Tenya made a small noise of surprise, but Izuku didn't look back at him. Instead he glanced at Mic, to see him looking back at Izuku with wide, fearful eyes.

"I know you don't think now is the time, but you were right Sensei," Izuku said, looking at his teacher's terrified expression. "Seeing someone suffering and having to help them, even when it's not your business, is what being a hero is all about!"

Stain gave a bark-like laugh and smiled, pleased by something Izuku had said. He feared to speculate what. Instead he ran forward, swinging his staff as Stain's sword came to meet it. He feigned like he meant for the two weapons to clash, then adjusted his grip and twirled the staff like he had in training, using the move he'd copied from Yaoyorozu. He didn't let Stain off with a light whack in the face though. Instead he shortened the weapon as he twirled it, so it finished its twist at baton length and lodged itself underneath Stain's chin.

Then Izuku released fifty thousand volts directly against the Hero Killer's neck.

Stain jolted back with a gruff yelp. He had brought out another blade while Izuku had rushed him, and both it and the sword had grazed along Izuku's sides. As Stain stumbled back Izuku looked down, but there were no cuts on his body. His jacket hadn't even torn. Apparently this body armor was good stuff.

Izuku looked up, to see a knife flying directly at his face. In the time it took him to check himself over Stain had recovered, and had thrown the knife at the only exposed part of Izuku's body. Izuku batted the knife away with his baton, then lengthened it into a staff again and squared off against the Hero Killer, still between the villain and his intended targets.

"You're undisciplined," Stain told him, eyes not on Izuku but rather examining the blade of his sword with disappointment. "You jumped in with only half a plan, and barely avoided my second attack when I recovered faster than you predicted. You need more training; raw talent and reflexes will only carry you so far."

"I'm still a student," Izuku agreed. Get him talking. "Iida and I will have more time to learn to be better heroes."

"For him, impossible," Stain said, turning his attention back to Izuku. What was he looking at his sword for? "For you, perhaps. There are countless false heroes around here who are all talk, your mentor being one of them, but I think you're worthy of staying alive. Back down, child."

Get him talking, Izuku reminded himself again. He seems to like me. Maybe I can use that.

"Mic-sensei taught me what it means to be a hero!" Izuku shouted, and with that he threw himself forward again. He swung his staff at Stain, who parried with his sword and flicked Izuku to the side like a gnat.

"He didn't shape your character," Stain argued easily. He ducked under Izuku's next swing, then slashed at Izuku's middle with his sword. Izuku jumped back, and the tip of the sword just barely grazed him. Still, the leather of his jacket didn't give, and Stain growled in frustration.

Clearly he wouldn't be able to paralyze Izuku without cutting him, and Izuku considered the way he had examined his sword. Is it blood? Is that what he needs?

"My character was shaped listening to his radio show every day!" Izuku insisted, striking out at Stain's legs next.

Stain leaped over the staff and brought his sword down toward Izuku's head from above.

"Watching him on TV!" Izuku went on, parrying like he'd seen Stain do and knocking the sword away.

Stain swiped at his face with another knife, and Izuku blocked with his arm, trusting the body armor to do its job. The hit bruised, but it didn't bleed.

"Seeing the spectacle he makes of himself that you hate so much!" Izuku concluded.

Stain's foot shot out, and unlike the sword when this caught Izuku in the stomach it didn't just graze. Izuku was knocked backwards, tripping over his own feet to go sprawling onto the pavement. He had barely reoriented himself enough to lift his head when a boot slammed down on his chest, punching the breath out of him and holding him down.

"And for that spectacle you would give your life?" Stain scoffed, looking down at Izuku with obvious discontent.

"The work he does, that reaches and inspires so many people, is worth any petty sacrifice to protect!" Izuku declared breathlessly.

Stain raised his sword. "So be it then."

Fire shot through the alleyway, and Izuku wheezed when Stain pushed off his chest to leap out of the way. Izuku turned his head and saw two figures at the mouth of the alley, past where Iida and Mic were laying immobile. One of them was burning, flames blossoming all along the left side of its body. The other was surrounded by the floating ribbons of a capture weapon, eyes glinting purple in the dark.

Shouto and Hitoshi were here.

Shouto did his best to keep pace with Junebug, but she was very, very fast. They had gone out of reach of the earpiece radios right away, before Yamada-sensei had even finished giving instructions, and they didn't even stop to let the police at the next checkpoint know the operation had been abandoned. He figured they could guess, what with chaos blossoming all over the city, but it he couldn't help but think it might have been good to let them know they could help with the evacuation. As they went Junebug pulled farther and farther ahead of him, and she didn't slow down even when he called out to her.

Then his phone went off. Shouto paused and dug it out of his pocket, thumbing it open to read the message. It was from Izuku.

Stain! Help! it read, along with an attachment. His specific GPS coordinates.

"Junebug!" Shouto called immediately, putting a hand to his earpiece. He was met with only static, and when he looked back at the street ahead of him he could see she was already too far away, nearly at the source of the smoke and screaming.

Shouto didn't waste any more time than that. Immediately he turned and sprinted back the way he had come, back toward the place where Izuku's phone said he would be. If he estimated correctly, it was nearly just where they'd noticed the trouble around them. They had left Yamada-sensei and Izuku alone just as their path had crossed the Hero Killer's. He hoped that Junebug would notice him missing and come back to find him, but he couldn't waste time running after her.

He paused at the police checkpoint this time, only briefly to tell them to radio for as many Pros as would answer and send them to the alley where the Hero Killer was. They nodded decisively, almost as if he were an adult Pro, and got to work. Shouto didn't dwell on it. He kept running.

As he neared the alley he saw Hitoshi using his capture weapon to rappel down to the ground off a building. The two of them exchanged dismayed looks. They were both alone, without their supervisors.

"Junebug got too far ahead of me," Shouto explained as he and Hitoshi took off side by side. "Aizawa?"

"Too focused on the flying thing," Hitoshi shook his head. "I couldn't get his attention. Looks like it's just us for now."

The two of them skidded to a halt at the mouth of the alley, and Shouto widened his eyes to let them adjust to the dark. The first thing he saw was Iida's white armor, sprawled on the ground and completely immobile. They he caught sight of Yamada, leaning against the wall of the alley and also unmoving. Farther into the alley, some distance from the two limp figures, was a man in a red scarf, holding a sword high as though to bring it down hard, with his boot holding Izuku down on the ground.

Shouto didn't give himself time to think about it, he just held up his left arm and shot fire from his hand. It blazed down the alleyway in a long column, forcing Stain to leap back and away from Izuku. He landed several feet back, with Izuku between him and the others, and immediately Izuku forced himself into a crouch facing his opponent.

"Thanks," Izuku called, then gave a little cough. "I knew I could count on you guys."

"We wouldn't leave you to fight alone," Hitoshi assured him, letting his capture weapon settle around his shoulders.

"Please," Yamada said, and Shouto looked over to see him awake, but with eyes unfocused, like he was close to passing out. "Both of you. Run. Get help-"

"The Pros will be here soon," Shouto said, half to Izuku and half to Yamada. "As soon as they're done with the other trouble they'll be back to deal with this. We can hold him off until then."

"Both of you keep your distance," Izuku instructed. "You can't let that guy get your blood, I think that's the key to his power. I'll fight him close range because I have armor, so you two support me from behind."

"Sounds good," Shouto said, then stepped forward with his right foot, sending a wave of ice sweeping across the alley toward the Hero Killer.

As Shouto and Izuku began fighting Stain together, Hitoshi crouched next to Iida.

"Can you move at all?" he asked quietly, trying not to let himself be overheard.

"No," Iida said, but Hitoshi could see that he was moving a little, trembling slightly with the effort to move his limbs. "I'm completely paralyzed."

"What about you?" Hitoshi turned to Mic. "Can you use your quirk? You can still talk-"

"It starts . . . in my chest . . ." Mic said. He was clearly in bad shape, bleeding profusely from a stab wound and with blood dribbling from the corners of his mouth. "I can't . . . get a proper . . . breath . . ."

"What about you?" Iida demanded. "Try to use your quirk on Stain! If you catch him you can end this-"

"I don't want to draw attention to myself just yet," Hitoshi shook his head, then cast out his mind with his quirk. "I want to try something first. Iida, respond to me."

"Why?" Iida asked, and Hitoshi felt his control click into place.

"Iida," Hitoshi said, in as commanding a voice as he could manage, "you can move. Believe you can move and then do it. Stand up."

Without seeming to exert any particular effort, Iida pushed himself up and got to his feet. His eyes were still blank white, but he was clearly under Hitoshi's control, not Stain's. Hitoshi released his hold on Iida's mind, and Iida gasped. Then he looked down at himself, lifting his hands to flex his fingers experimentally.

"You broke me out of his control?" Iida asked incredulously. "How?"

Hitoshi didn't waste the time to answer, instead turning immediately to Mic. "Sensei!"

"Yes!" Mic called, and Hitoshi could see a little of the fire was back in his eyes before they turned white.

Izuku dodged a swing of Stain's sword, then immediately had to duck under a swipe from another of his knives. Stain made to strike at him again with the sword, this time bringing it up from below, but he quickly had to leap back as a wall of ice erupted between him and Izuku.

"Careful Shouto!" Izuku shouted as Stain turned toward him, then used his force lance to vault over the ice wall. Without the momentum he'd had before he had to use its lengthening feature, but it still brought him down hard against Stain's back.

Still, he wasn't fast enough to stop the knife that Stain threw, and when he looked up at Shouto he saw a small cut had been made on his face.

"Izuku look out!" Shouto called.

Izuku looked down, but before he could get Stain back in his sights the Hero Killer was twisting around beneath him. A knife flashed in one hand, and Izuku didn't have the leverage to get out of the way. The blade plunged through the weaker denim of his jeans and into the meat of his right calf, and Izuku gave a cry of pain that turned into a yelp of alarm as Stain pushed him off and rose to his feet.

"Finally," he said simply, then raised the blood-soaked blade to his lips.

Izuku knew he had only moments before he was paralyzed, and then he would be useless to the others for the rest of the fight. He would be a liability, at best dead weight for the others to carry, at worst a hostage to be used against them. He had to do something, but he had only one more trick up his sleeve.

"Shouto!" Izuku called, throwing his force lance in baton form through the air so that its arc took is past the Hero Killer. "Catch!"

Shouto reached out a hand, but Stain was quicker. Still holding the bloody blade to his mouth he threw his sword up, then caught Izuku's force lance in his free hand. Izuku felt a strange numbness overtake him, which he could only assume was Stain's quirk taking effect. At the same time Stain, tongue out and wet with Izuku's blood, closed his fingers around the force lance and activated the fingerprint scanner.

Izuku didn't know what voltage the force lance's anti-disarming failsafe used. Judging by Stain's reaction however, it was higher than the voltage used for the taser. His whole body jerked as soon as his fingers closed around the weapon, and he continued to convulse for a few a moments before dropping it to the ground. He stumbled back, away from Izuku, and stood panting for several seconds while his sword hit the pavement point-down and stuck upright.

Then Stain was knocked abruptly back past Izuku as Iida kicked him in the face.

Izuku hadn't realized Iida could even move again, and so when he came out of the dark with engines blazing blue fire Izuku could only gape from his position on the ground. Stain had clearly not been expecting it either, and he went flying from the impact. He hadn't gone very far though when he hit a wall of ice that had sprung up behind him, creeping over the walls of the alley to create a kind of chamber, boxing Stain into a corner.

"What-" Izuku began, but suddenly he yelped as he felt something slithering around him like the coils of a snake. He looked down, to see Hitoshi's capture weapon wrapping him up, and then the scarf tighten and dragged him back toward the others. He came to rest just beside Hitoshi, who was crouched on the alley floor a little ways behind Shouto.

In front of Shouto stood Mic.

He was hunched over as though in pain, and his stance was wide, like he was afraid he might lose his balance. Still, with great effort he straightened his back and held his head up, facing the Hero Killer. Stain looked back at the wall of ice trapping him, then forward to where Mic stood. Mic took a deep, ragged breath.

"STOP!" Mic shouted, and the noise was deafening, reverberating through the alley at a volume that didn't seem like it should be possible. Stain was blasted back, hit the ice wall and kept going, body limp as it flew through the air. He hit the ground and rolled for several feet, then lay unmoving.

For a few seconds nobody moved. Everyone in the alleyway held their breath, waiting for Stain to twitch, to shift, to get back on his feet and continue the fight. He did not. Then suddenly Mic coughed, and Izuku saw a little blood spray from his mouth as he did so.

"Sensei!" Izuku shouted, but his body refused to move to let him go support his teacher. "Izuku," Hitoshi said sharply.

"Help-" him, Izuku was about to say, but he suddenly felt the fog of Hitoshi's control settle over him.

"You can move again," Hitoshi ordered, voice resonant in Izuku's head. "Stand up and move normally."

Izuku's body stood on its own, but when Izuku's brain and vision cleared, he found he could move his limbs as usual again. He tried to go immediately to Mic, but when he put weight on his right leg it gave out from under him and sent him to his knees.

"Izuku!" said Hitoshi and Shouto at the same time, and the two of them hastened to prop him up on either side.

It felt strange, having Shouto pressed to one side of his body and Hitoshi up close against the other. Shouto had positioned himself so that his left side was holding Izuku up, and he was unnaturally warm against Izuku's arm and hand. Hitoshi, on his left, had his capture scarf floating close around his head, responding as though unconsciously to his anxiety, and it brushed against Izuku's cheek gently. The whole effect was kind of nice.

"I've got Yamada-sensei," Iida said, moving to put himself under Mic's arm to hold him steady. "We should tie up the villain and get everyone out onto the street."

"On it," Hitoshi said, transferring Izuku's weight to Shouto, then darted forward toward the Hero Killer. He let his scarf go first, the strips of white cloth flying ahead of him to wrap Stain up tight, securing his arms behind his back.

"Take his weapons too," Izuku said, then grunted as he tried again to put weight on his right leg and found it wouldn't support him.

"Let me help you," Shouto instructed, arm tightening around Izuku's waist, and Izuku reluctantly

leaned more heavily against him, balancing on his left foot.

With Shouto's help Izuku retrieved his force lance, and together they managed to get one another, and Stain, out onto the street. Iida looked like he might be in shock, and Hitoshi was clearly wary of the villain he was dragging, but all the interns were on their feet. Mic looked significantly worse, leaning heavily on Iida with eyes drooping closed, breathing irregular and labored.

No sooner were they out on the street however than Izuku heard the sound of running feet, and turning he saw Junebug, Manual and Eraserhead sprinting toward them.

"Sensei!" Hitoshi cried happily, but no sooner was Eraser within range than his capture weapon shot out and wrapped around Hitoshi, dragging him up against Eraser's chest with the Hero Killer trailing limply behind him.

"Problem Child!" Eraser growled. "You were given explicit instructions to stay by me and not engage with the Hero Killer!"

"I tried to get your attention!" Hitoshi protested. "When you wouldn't answer I figured it couldn't wait!"

"What kind of excuse is that?!" demanded Junebug, going to stand in front of Shouto and Izuku the better to berate her own intern. "You were told to run away from this fight and you did the opposite!"

"Mic?" asked Manual anxiously, making Eraser and Junebug both look over at him. He had gone immediately to Iida, but was now occupied by looking into Mic's pale face.

"He was injured in the fight," Izuku explained.

"He needs medical attention," Shouto elaborated. "He might have died if we hadn't intervened."

"An ambulance is on its way," Eraser said. When Izuku looked over at him, he seemed oddly pale as well.

"And that doesn't excuse-" Junebug began angrily, but before she could finish she was cut off by a horrible, inhuman screech.

All of them looked toward the source of the noise to see the flying creature from earlier rounding the corner at the nearest intersection. It was streaking toward them, screeching all the way, and as it neared the group it stooped into a dive. Izuku heard someone shout to get down, and beside him he felt Shouto start to lower the two of them to the ground, but not fast enough. The creature whipped past, and as it passed over him Izuku felt its claws close around his middle.

Izuku gave a wordless cry as he was ripped from Shouto's grasp, and he heard several people call his name. The group of heroes rapidly shrank below him as he was carried higher into the air. His ears were full of the roaring of the wind and the creature's cries, and the sky spun crazily above him. Desperately he flailed, trying to break its hold, but it was no good. He dug into his pocket for his force lance, wondering if he would also get shocked if he tased the creature. Would it make a difference in his landing if he were to extend the force lance toward the ground and-

Suddenly the creature went rigid, and Izuku could no longer feel the jolts from the flapping of its wings. Instead it continued to glide, but it was losing elevation rapidly. It hadn't released its grip, and Izuku twisted desperately, but a flash of silver above him drew his attention. A strong hand gripped the back of his jacket, and he was ripped from the creature's grasp and dangled along behind it as it crashed to the ground.

Izuku looked up, still reeling, at his savior. It was the Hero Killer.

Stain was hunched over, facing away from Izuku and the crowd of heroes. He had a knife dug into the creature's head, and Izuku could see now that its brain was exposed, like the one that Shigaraki had called Nomu at the USJ. Stain let out a noise of inarticulate rage, and Izuku felt a pang of fear go through him.

"Everything that I do," Stain jerked the knife out of the creature's head with a squelching noise and a spray of blood, "is to create a stronger society."

Stain's hand was still pressed between Izuku's shoulder blades, and Izuku began fighting to get up. It was no good though, Stain was much too strong, and he held Izuku down against the ground as he himself struggled to stand. Behind him he could hear the heroes conferring, but he couldn't make out what they were saying over Stain's grunts of effort and discontent. Then suddenly Stain went still.

"Endeavor," he hissed, his mask starting to come loose from his face.

He let go of Izuku and rose to his feet, and Izuku hurriedly flipped over to face his opponent. What he saw made his blood freeze in his veins. Stain was looking back at the group of heroes, and his eyes . . . his eyes looked half blind. This was not the shrewd, calculating combatant from the alleyway, this was a zealot at the height of righteous indignation. The vitriol in his gaze as he surveyed the heroes was a living thing, a thing with teeth and claws and jaws to swallow the world whole.

"You false hero!" Stain shouted. "I'll make this right!"

He took a halting step forward, and Izuku's eyes darted to the rest of the group. Endeavor was indeed with them all of a sudden, looking at Stain in confusion and alarm. Hitoshi was on all fours on the ground, his capture weapon in tatters, looking up in undisguised terror. The others all seemed equally affected, struck still and silent by fear.

"These streets must run with the blood of hypocrites!" Stain screamed. "Hero! I will reclaim that word! Come on! Just try and stop me, you fakes!"

Stain continued to take slow, deliberate steps forward, and Izuku was terrified of what would happen if he reached the heroes. What would he do? Could he fight them all at once? He seemed somehow bigger than his body, like he could squish the entire team beneath his boot.

"There is only one man I'll let kill me!" Stain cried. "He is a true hero! All Might is worthy!"

Something about that statement cut through the haze of fear that had been created by Stain's words, and Izuku sucked in a breath as the spell was suddenly broken. All Might was . . . the only hero? Stain's ideology centered around worshiping him? But All Might was just a man. He had weaknesses, he had bad days, he messed up and said the wrong thing. He hurt Izuku without meaning to, in a way that Mic, who Stain reviled, had taken the utmost care to avoid. It wasn't right. It wasn't just.

It wasn't true.

Izuku stuck out his hand, numb and jerky and hard, and jammed the tip of his force lance into Stain's leg. Then he activated the taser.

Stain cried out as electricity shot through him for the third time that night, but he seemed to be at his limit. When Izuku pulled the force lance away he fell, collapsing to the ground like a

marionette whose strings had been cut. He lay there, smoking gently from the electrical burn, and didn't move.

Izuku heard more thudding, and looked over at the heroes to see Junebug, Iida and Shouto also kneeling on the ground, eyes wide and shocked over what had just happened. Hitoshi had dropped to his elbows and his head was hanging down between his arms. Slowly, carefully, wincing at the pain in his leg, Izuku stood on his own two feet.

"Not as worthy as you," came a wheezing voice from the heroes, and Izuku looked up to see Mic grinning at him with bloody teeth.

The police and the ambulance came soon after that. Stain was restrained and taken away in a police car, and Mic and Izuku were pronounced to have the worst of the injuries and loaded onto the ambulance. Mic was laid out on the gurney and Izuku sat nearer the door as his leg was examined and treated, but he watched his mentor as the paramedics worked to stabilize him.

"Izuku," Mic said softly, after they had managed to stop the bleeding into his lung temporarily. "Sensei?" Izuku asked, wondering if Mic should even be talking. His voice sounded very weak.

"No matter the circumstances," Mic said solemnly, "no matter what you think of me, you are not allowed to give your life for mine, you hear? You are forbidden from dying for me."

The words were kind and protective, certainly the type of thing he would expect Mic to say. Even though they rang false, the request seeming unreasonable to Izuku's exhausted mind, he knew only one answer was possible.

"Yes sir," he said, then leaned his head back and closed his eyes.