Prologue
"A classy lady who happens to have four arms. A gentleman with a handsome coat of fur. A squishy boy with skin like gelatin. Individuals like these fine people used to belong to the minority."
Thus began the Detnerat Company's ad for hero gear. Striding down the street past the three individuals so named was the Company CEO, long, lean and birdlike.
"But the appearance of the extraordinary continued to accelerate, bringing us into their era. While mass production and consumer culture has been expanding ever since the industrial revolution, this phenomenon suddenly pumped the brakes. By the time everyone realized, it was too late! Those with newer types of bodies spent their days just trying to find products to fit their daily needs." He threw his hands up in the air, his arms crossed over his head, and cried out,
"Many found themselves struggling in this new era for that reason alone. We've made a point of never forgetting that history, while creating products to suit each and every valued customer. We offer customized designs, guaranteed on your doorstep in three days or less! It's the technology and the proprietary system behind this personal touch that have made us number one in the industry! And now the world of heroes too can expect big things from Detnerat!"
Thus ended the commercial. Aired on all major channels, coming soon to a store near you.
Quirks, sometimes known as Meta Abilities, entered the world many years ago. After the chaos brought about by the advent of the extraordinary, people wanted peace. They started planning ways to co-exist with metas. But among metas themselves, there was a pervasive desire. Liberation over suppression. Wielding one's abilities freely seemed like it should be a basic human right. Chikara Yotsubashi, the man who unified the liberationists to form the Meta Liberation Army. He called himself Destro - the one who would destroy the status quo. While the government trudged ahead with legislation, Yotsubashi opposed the powers that be and vied for supremacy, prompting a struggle that ended several years later with his defeat. Yotsubashi's army dissolved, and many of his followers were caught. While in prison, the man himself did some writing before taking his own life. Unbeknownst even to Yotsubashi, he had a child out in the world…
Skeptic, the Meta Human Liberation Army's resident tech expert, placed his thumb to his forehead with his pointer finger stuck out on the entrance of the CEO, the ancestral child of the great Yotsubashi. It was a private board meeting of the head officers of the Meta Liberation Army's secret headquarters; his fellow chiefs of staff, Geten, Curious, and Trumpet, were gathered about the table as well, and gave the same salute as their chief joined them.
"Any progress?" He asked Trumpet.
"We found someone with a potential connection to the League. If we're gonna make contact, it needs to be sooner rather than later."
"Move on that."
"Right."
"They are enemies to the Liberation army, and if the state is struggling to handle them then it's up to us. I swear on Destro's good name we will end the League of Villains!"
"On that note," asked Curious, "What's all this about you expanding into the hero industry?"
"Right. If it's a track record you're worried about, we have it. The country is full of those who lie in wait, hoping for liberation…The products I'm leaking into the black market are constantly monitored. If things are looking risky, I make them self-destruct, leaving no trace. All the while we're gathering a ton of valuable battle data."
"A businessman to the end."
"All to further the liberation agenda."
"Hm?" Said Skeptic. "Your guest has arrived," he said, checking a cell phone monitor.
"So soon?" Asked ReDestro, taking another bite.
"You told us to move on that immediately, and your word is a s good as Destro's. They're saying he's not in a talkative mood. The search for his client list apparently turned up nothing. He claims he destroyed any such lists." Skeptic grinned through his meal.
"What a scrupulous fellow."
The door had opened, and two guards in suits appeared, escorting a man in a white suit, much ruffled, a long pink scarf hanging off his shoulders, heavily disheveled hair and broken, crooked glasses. Blood, dried, trickled from his forehead and lips. The guards walked him to a chair by the table and shoved him down. His hands were tied behind his back.
"He helps the League of Villains recruit and provides them with support items. Yes, there's no doubt that Giran the Broker has plenty of info on the League."
Giran spoke at last, giving a small chuckle. "Of all the…never thought anyone'd trace it back to me. It would have to be someone with plenty of time on their hands. And look what we have here. If it ain't President Forehead of Detnerat himself. I gotta say I resent all this. I've been making bank off this stuff since I got started. But now it's looking like your big legit company is entering my racket?"
ReDestro had stood and approached him. HIs smile had not dropped the entire time. He raised a finger. "Name your price."
Giran leaned his head back and banged it against the chair.
"Business dealings are something y'do face-to-face. And I only make deals with people I respect. Not guys who decide to kick the crap outta me first. Sure, I might know about the League. Might not. Either way, you ain't getting a thing outta me. Cuz what kinda merchant sells out his customers? Thanks, but come again when you got the guts to do this right!" He looked up and met ReDestro's eyes with a wide smile, missing a tooth.
The two black spots on the CEO's forehead had expanded in size and a dead look had come into his eyes. His smile looked much less agreeable now.
"You and I are going to be spending plenty of time together it seems."
2
In a three story manor house in the woods, tucked away among mountains that kept it far away from the view of the rest of the world, a group of men in black cloaks and half skull-face masks had gathered to hold a secret meeting of the Creature Rejection Clan.
They were a hate group known for their rejection of heteromorphic type quirks, a brutal hate society known for ritual murder of heteromorphs going back centuries. In the early days of quirks they had taken to meeting in secret, wearing the masks to hide their identities, tracking down heteromorphs and setting them on fire, stringing them up on poles to hang by the neck, coating them in black tar and feathers, boiling oils, or various quirk attacks. Any form of murder, the more brutal the better, to exterminate these beings from human society.
Of course, as laws against hatred-based crimes came into place the Creature Rejection Clan's meetings became far more secretive. They were in many ways a fossil of a bygone age, yet still affluent enough to afford a three story mansion for a meeting place.
And this particular band was being interrupted unexpectedly in their latest meeting by the arrival of a group of familiar faces.
"How did you all get in here?" Cried the leader as a group of five rather eclectic individuals faced them - a young blonde woman in a schoolgirl uniform with twin buns, a tall athletic man in a black bodysuit with a grew half mask, a magician in top hat and mask, a lizard-type heteromorph in a mask and goggles, and a tall lean, lank man with scraggly white hair and a severed hand covering his face.
"Wait - that's the League of Villains!"
Even fossils from the past couldn't help but recognize the most notorious villain group in recent history.
The eyes behind the half mask of one fell on Spinner, the lizard-type.
"They have a lizard with them. How disgusting."
Spinner's face twisted in a scowl. Nearby, the magician - known by many as Mr. Compress - was looking through the items on the shelves.
"We seek things of value. Are any of these worth anything? We're running low on funding, you see - and yes, yes, I know, common burglary is hardly in vogue. I don't relish it either."
To this, the CRC raised their torches and other items that rather resembled pitchforks and rushed at the League with the battle cry, "Get out of here, you sins against nature!"
As the leader took a swipe at Tomura Shigaraki, the man with a hand over his face, the League of Villains' leader moved with the evasive skills of a very quick snake and seized the back of the leader's head with his right hand.
"We'll leave when we're done. If you don't want us overstaying our welcome, DON'T MESS WITH US."
The leader's head began to decay from the places where the League of Villains' leader's fingers had touched the scalp.
As the CRC's members rushed the League, each met a similar fate. Twice, in his black bodysuit, whipped out a tape measurer that cut through the neck of his attacker. Two fell when sliced by Himiko Toga's blades. A third was cut down as a limb became a marble in the hands of Mr. Compress. And Spinner's massive blade cut through members like butter.
"Guss there's not much money in religion nowadays," mused Twice, or Jin Bubaigawara, fussing with the contents of the drawers.
"In this economy?" Said Mr. Compress, taking a stroll along the balcony. "Everyone is just scraping by."
"Ah!" Toga gasped in horror looking at her needle. "It broke!"
"And my prosthetic is in dire need of repair as well," added Compress. "I shall have to request a new one from Giran."
"And where're we getting the cash for that?" Demanded Spinner.
Some time later the group had returned to their current hideout, a rather dilapidated two story building in the middle of nowhere.
"How long are we gonna keep living like this?" demanded Spinner.
"Until we finish," Shigaraki replied, his feet up on a table.
"Had we agreed to cooperate with the Hassai group, we might be dining on fine sushi now," said Compress quietly from his corner.
"Is that a joke? Not funny," snapped Shigaraki.
"Ha ha ha. Come now. . We're the Mighty League of villains that terrorized the nation, and we live in squalor? We do a disservice to all those who idolize us and what we stand for."
In the corner, Twice and Toga were rooting through the refuse from the heist. "It's just junk."
"Ooh, this is pretty though!" Cried Toga.
"Ooh, real cute!" Said Twice, then as usual contradicting himself corrected, "For a spinster, maybe! Toss it!"
The door opened and Dabi, the League of Villains' resident fire-power, joined them
"You're all just kicking back?" He growled out. "I guess I'm the only one pounding the pavement looking for recruits."
"Yeah?" Said Twice. "Too bad you roast everyone you bump into. And you haven't brought in any fresh blood!"
"They were all worthless. Just trash, living day to day without any real ambitions."
Toga smiled at him. "Maybe you're just bad at judging others!"
"You, of all people, don't get to say that."
Shigaraki, currently eating a biscuit, added, "It has been about a month since they caught Kurogiri, right? He said he was getting us some new power…Oh well. He failed, so that's that. No luck finding the Doctor either."
"Kurogiri was your babysitter," Toga noted as Twice helped her fasten the necklace, "so you must miss him a lot, Tomura. What's so important about that Doctor anyway?"
"He was master's personal doctor. A real cautious guy. The only way to get in touch with him was through the computer at the hideout. Since he's the one who developed and managed the Nomu."
Compress nodded. "No matter how cautious the doctor is, you'd think he could drop us a line, and maybe give us a hand. Especially when you consider that his former employer's golden boy is reduced to squatting."
"He didn't deny missing Kurogiri," piped up Toga. "Aw, Tomura really does miss him!"
"Hey," interrupted Spinner. "Where're we going with all this? I'm only here cuz Stain inspired me to take action! I was born in a real backwater place, stuck in the last century. Around there I was known as the Lizard freak. And I just accepted it! That whole time my heart was totally empty. That is, until I learned about Stain's final stand on the evening news! He was trying to change the world on his own! That day was the day I realized how suffocating society really is. I just couldn't take it anymore! This is the reason I joined up with you people!"
Dabi sneered, "So what you're saying is basically you're just an empty cosplayer.
"That's right! Totally hollow!" He reached down, seized Shigaraki's coat, and pulled him off his rear to look him in the eye. "Which's why I don't get why we're sitting around doing nothing! I was ready to have some new life breathed into me! To be inspired! So answer me, Shigaraki! Where're we going?"
There was silence.
"Like I said, he -" Shigaraki began - but he was interrupted by a terrible rumbling sound.
Something was approaching.
The League seized their equipment and hurried towards the door to see who their new visitor was.
"I WAS WAITING FOR THE SIGNAL," came a booming, terrible voice from far, far above them. They all looked up to see a man the size of a gigantic mountain towering over, a muscular and powerful being that seemed to dwarf them all in size by a mile. A radio dangled from this neck, blaring out the sounds of a curious voice…
"ARE YOU THE ONE WHO SUCCEEDED ALL FOR ONE?"
Shigaraki tipped up the severed hand that covered his face and smiled. "Is this the power you alluded to, Kurogiri?"
Dabi tilted his head to one side. "Soooo, who's this?"
"You mean to say Kurogiri set out in search of this fellow?" Asked Compress.
"He must be the secret weapon Master left behind for me," hissed Shigaraki.
As he spoke, the giant discarded the radio which had hung from his neck. "I…DEVOTE MYSELF TO ALL FOR ONE. NOW, SUCCESSOR. PROVE THAT YOU ARE WORTHY."
The League of Villains didn't know this, of course, but this monster had played an important role in their future many years before…a role in shaping the past of two of their own nemeses…