Snatch and Grab

"Alright everyone. I want you all to listen up and to listen well, because we're going to have only one chance to go over this information before we need to act." Daitaian stepped out in front of everyone, already dressed in his combat gear. "Just the other day, following the convoy mission, Aurdel healed the members of the task force who were injured in the raid against the group we are henceforth calling the NCRC. During this process he managed to retrieve a fragment of metal shrapnel from Katsuki's head, one that was initially dismissed as nothing more than debris from the home. However, it has since turned into our greatest lead." An image projected in front of them, "Following testimony from the injured members of the task force, this fragment of metal was identified as a piece of the helmet that was thought to be completely destroyed during the blast that completely demolished the NCRC's hideout. Because of this a second examination was performed on the fragment, and we were able to positively identify the helmet destroyed at the scene as a fake." A fake… "That second examination also allowed us to determine the origin point of the metal used to create the helmet. From there the Imperial Guard raided the factory responsible and quickly discovered the black market ring that was skimming material off of a production line to sell it to illegal manufacturers."

A photo of a man was projected. "Who's that?" Toru asked.

"This is our target, Professor Kaona Noma. Prior to the collapse eleven years ago he was a machinist working for one of Japan's major aeronautical engineering firms, but nowadays he's an educator at one of Japan's recently established public technical colleges. However it seems that he believes what he's being paid by the government isn't enough to cover the cost of his knowledge, and as a result he's turned to producing equipment, mostly weapons and tools, for the criminal underworld. That, of course, includes the fake helmet the task force found." The photo disappeared, "The fact that a fake helmet exists raises a number of possibilities, many that, at this time, cannot be verified. However, one is for certain. In order to have created this fake helmet, Noma must have come into contact with the real thing. Whether or not that means he actually held possession of the real helmet, or just knew someone who did, cannot be determined. In either case, it means that Noma is aware of who has it. That means that if we're able to capture Noma and interrogate him we'll be one step closer to tracking down the real helmet, and two steps closer to uncovering the new League of Villains. Now," he stood up straight, "All combat-worthy members of the task force will be taking part in this raid, along with a detachment from the Imperial Guard unit."

Tenya raised a hand, "Should members of the Hero Support Corps not be taking part in this raid as well?"

"For a number of reasons, the Hero Support Corps will not be taking part in this raid. These are as follows: One, the amount of time between the convoy mission and this raid has not been long enough to organize a response from the Hero Support Corps. Two, the Hero Support Corps suffered severe casualties during the convoy mission and is hesitant to act again so suddenly. And three, as of now an investigation has begun into determining whether or not the Hero Support Corps was responsible for leaking the route of the convoy to the Villains who ambushed it."

"Is there any evidence to support them being responsible?" Shoto asked.

"Nothing at this time. However, only a select group of people, consisting of the relevant members of the Hero Support Corps and the members of this task force, were privy to the information regarding the planning and execution of the convoy mission. Aurdel would rather investigate the Hero Support Corps first, given the implications of the latter. I hope you can all understand why." Izuku winced, he could very well understand why. And, looking around the room, he knew that everyone else knew too. There were a few of them that had different reactions than the rest, though. Namely…

Katsuki furrowed his brow, "How long will that investigation take?"

"Seventy members of the Hero Support Corps were involved in the convoy, fifty six were physically present. Of those fifty six, thirty seven are still alive. That leaves us with fifty one to investigate, which should take about a month."

"A month, huh…?"

Minoru quickly piped in, "There can't really be a traitor, can there? I mean, after everything we've been through…"

"As much as it pains me to say this, given our shared history…The chance that someone within the task force has turned coat isn't impossible," Tenya said, "I don't think I need to remind to that while we were all still first year students at UA, no one wanted to believe that there was a traitor leaking information to All For One and the League of Villains. We placed our faith in each other, and the idea that none of us would betray the other."

"That faith was misplaced," Katsuki sneered, "It should go without saying that, if there's no traitor among the Hero Support Corps, the list of people who are on this task force is a short one. And once you take the time to account for the people who couldn't have turned coat, that list gets even shorter. So if there's someone who's gone traitor I'll tell them this now: Save us the trouble. At least the last time this happened the bastard had some sense of remorse, and chose to die to fix his mistake. You won't be nearly as lucky if you choose to wait."

Daitaian let out a dry cough, "Right… Now, back to what I was saying. Due to the fact that the Hero Support Corps will not be participating, barrier duties will be delegated to the Imperial Guard detachment. As such, restraining and transporting the target, along with any other additional suspects, will solely be the duty of the members of the task force. We're counting on all of you to make sure the target gets out of there safely. Otherwise, we've lost our best lead yet." He looked around the room, "Are there any questions?"

Izuku raised his hand, "Do we know if the suspect we're going to take in has taken any actions to prevent his capture? Or if the new League has tried anything to the same effect?"

"Unfortunately, I can't give you an answer for sure. If I could then that would mean that we already have a team watching the suspect, and if that were the case then we wouldn't be wasting any time preparing this mission to capture him when that team could achieve the same result. All we can base his status on right now is law enforcement radio chatter in and out of the area."

That wasn't exactly promising, and he knew that Daitaian could recognize that fact too. However, there wasn't much that could be done about it. All they could do was hope that Noma would still be alive when they got there.

"I have a question too," Mezo said, "Say the investigation finds that there were traitors among the Hero Support Corps, what happens then? Having the Hero Support Corps to perform on the ground legwork is a vital part of our operations."

"More likely than not there'd be a purge in the ranks, along with a lot of replacement picking. However, that's something that takes time. It'd be a few months more without support. But we can worry about any next steps when we get there. Until now, focus on the mission in front of us." He looked around the room, waiting for anyone else to raise any questions about the mission. "Alright. In that case, I want all of you to perform your final checks on your gear. We're moving in the next fifteen minutes." Chairs clattered as everyone stood up from their seats. Or at least, just about everyone.

Katsuki walked over and grabbed Izuku by the shoulder, "We need to talk."

"Kacchan, if this is about-"

"I'm not blaming you for anything. But I need you to shut up and listen to me, because this can't wait." Katsuki dragged him over to the side of the room, taking him far enough to ensure that no one would be able to eavesdrop on their conversation without being noticed. "I can't wait for an official investigation. By the time the first one finishes, whoever the traitor is will have already managed to cover their tracks. We'll lose our only chance.

"You think that it has to be one of us?"

"I know so, because it's the only way to make any sense of this situation." He took a deep breath, "Just think about it. Everything surround that raid was perfectly set up to have us scrambling for our asses. They used the possibility of having the helmet to get your attention, convincing us to raid the building. Then they made sure that when we raided the building people from the NCRC would be there, fakes to get us to panic."

"They were fake?"

"There's no way to prove it now. But given that the helmet was fake, I don't think it would be a stretch to think they were fake too. Especially since the whole building was rigged in a specific way to get rid of any definitive evidence to prove their identities other than visual confirmation."

"That does make sense…"

"Now compare that all to the attack on the convoy," Katsuki folded his arms, "I only know about it second hand. But from everything that I do know, it just screams 'desperate' to me. If their goal was just to kill a few of us, and not anyone in specific, they could have just mined the road to minimize any loss of their own strength. Instead, they brought out a crap ton of weapons and manpower to kill the four of us. Or, given what Ochako said in her report, it's entirely possible they did all that just to try and kill one of us specifically. Most likely me."

"But why? None of you four could have visually identified the helmet as a fake. And even if the fragment was important, none of us knew it's importance at the time."

"Exactly, no one except for those who set up the trap could have known. But the rest of the task force, and the doctors who worked on me, were the only ones who could have known about the shrapnel." Izuku grit his teeth, knowing the logic was sound.

"Then… who. Who would choose to help the League?"

"I don't know, but the list isn't all that long when you take out all the people who can't be traitors," her turned his head toward the wall, "Myself, Koji, Kyoka and Tsukauchi were all almost killed during the raid, so that counts is out. It can't be Denki since he wouldn't do anything that might kill his wife. It can't be you or Ochako since I know you're not dumb enough to get involved, and you would have known if she got involved. It can't be Tenya or Momo, since they've got too many metaphorical sticks up their asses to even consider becoming a Villain. The last two it can't be are Daitaian and All Might, since the former is too loyal to Aurdel and the latter wouldn't even give a thought to something like this."

"That still leaves eleven of us to consider."

"Yeah," he let out a sigh. "Izuku, I want you to find out who the traitor is."

Izuku took a step back, in shock. "You want me to…? No way! I can't."

Katsuki turned back around, "It's not a matter of whether or not you want to do it. You need to."

"But why? Daitaian said-"

"Because it's like I said. By the time an investigation into the HPSC is done, whoever the traitor is will have covered their tracks. But I don't think that even after that investigation is done, the one into the task force will happen." He half closed his one eye, "The old man, Aurdel, won't have the heart to actually carry out an investigation into us. He didn't have the heart to do it even when we were still in school, and he barely knew us. What makes you think he'll be able to do it now, now that he's known us for years? When he knows your kid and everyone else's?"

Again, Izuku could see that the logic was sound. "Then why me?"

"Because out of everyone here, you're the only one that I can trust. In fact, you're the only one any of us can trust for sure." Him? Katsuki turned back around, "Don't pretend to be so surprised. For one, you're Aurdel's favorite. That means any decision you'll make is one that he'll back up. But for another, you're the one shoved All For One into a grave. Even if almost everyone else was there and tried to help, none of them could have done anything if it weren't for your decision to take him down."

He scratched his cheek, "Taking down All For One wasn't much of a decision. It was just the right thing to do."

"Doing the right thing is still making a choice. I'm counting on you for this." After that, Katsuki walked away and left Izuku to mull over their conversation.

The possibility of one of them being a traitor… Izuku supposed he was in the same position that Mr. Aurdel was in, because he didn't want to even consider one of them turning to the League. After all, they were all his friends… No, more than that. They were practically all one, large family. And family isn't supposed to attack family.

But if there really was a traitor among them, then that meant that whoever they were didn't agree with them. They had tried to kill a few of their own. More than that, they were getting other people besides them, from the HPSC, killed. It was only a matter of time before civilians started dying as a result too.

He needed to make a decision.

Izuku sat in the back of the armored car, his hands folded together. Inside his head he was still mulling over that conversation.

"Daitaian, have civilians been evacuated out of the area?"

"No."

"No?!" Tenya turned, "But if this turns into a battle-"

"I would evacuate them if I could, but we don't have any other choice. Not only do we not have the manpower now, the attack on the convoy proved that the League is more than likely several steps ahead of us. Starting an evacuation would get rid of the only advantage we have now."

"Even if that's the case…"

Izuku felt a tingling sensation go down his neck. He stood up. "They're coming."

"What?"

"Police scanners reporting a disturbance near the target's apartment!" The guard in the front passenger seat shouted, "Gunshots confirmed!"

"Damnit!" Daitaian turned back towards them, "Rapid assault team, disembark and pursue the target!"

"Roger!" The doors to the back of the armored car flung open, and then charged out.

"Recipro Boost!" Tenya led the charge on the ground, blasting his way down the street and setting off car alarms. Shoto followed in short order behind him, skating down the same street using a growing path of ice.

"Black Fallen Angel!" Fumikage rapidly took to the sky in the direction direction, Izuku close behind with Ochako tagging on using her quirk and one of her grapples.

They needed to make it!

Izuku soared through the sky, "Where's the source of the gunshots?!"

"There!" Ochako pointed down to one of the apartment buildings. He could see a series of flashes as a gun battle went on.

"Fumikage!"

"I'm already on it!" Dark Shadow extended its claws out from under Fumikage's uniform, grabbing Izuku and Ochako. Izuku could feel his body become weightless as Ochako's quirk spread to him. Then… "Go!" Then, Dark Shadow threw them as hard as it could.

Ochako grabbed his back. Izuku raised his hands, fighting against the strong opposing wind. "Smash!" Swinging his arm, he let out a Detroit Smash in the direction of the ongoing fight. The attack served to barrage the trio of gunmen he saw down below, as well as slowing him down as they approached their stop.

"Gravity Cannon!" Ochako let go of his back and jumped off to the side, her grapple still attached. As Izuku used One For All to come to a stop she kept swinging in a parabolic arc, her legs pushed out. All three gunmen went down as her boots came into contact with them. Ochako detached her grapple at the last second and landed on the ground feet first.

"Secure them please, I'm going after the target!"

Izuku sprinted into the apartment building to chase down his target. And, upon doing so, he was met with a veritable wave of civilians. Someone had pulled the fire alarm in the midst of the shootout, and now that those who'd been exchanging gunfire were down everyone was taking their chance to run. And he could see exactly who had done it. "Professor Noma, stop right there!"

"Stay away from me!"

Izuku walked straight into the crowd, carefully trying to weave he way through as quickly as possible. But any time it looked like he had an opening to pass through it would just fill right back up. Damnit! Izuku touched his comm, "Tenya, I'm about to lose Noma. He's making his way towards the apartment building's rear entrance with a group of civilians. Cut him off!"

"Roger!" Izuku then quickly turned around, knowing that Noma wouldn't have nearly enough time to make the same move and leave through the front. He pushed his way through the crowd with more urgency this time. They couldn't afford to lose him.

It took him roughly a minute to get back outside. The moment his feet his the pavement Izuku charged up, then leapt into the sky straight over the apartment building. After that he quickly redirected himself back towards the ground, using the momentum to carry himself over towards the rear entrance. By the time he made it he'd found Tenya already there, corralling the crowd.

He walked over, "Noma isn't here."

"What?! But he was heading in this direction!" Izuku turned his head back towards the apartment building, seeing that people were still trailing out the rear door. Could he still be inside? He tapped on his comm again, "Fumikage, do you have eyes on Noma? We failed to capture him exiting from either side of the building."

Circling above, Fumikage would have been able to see all of the civilians who'd exited the building. And with goggles equipped for long distance target recognition, there was no way that-

"Negative, I haven't spotted Noma exiting the building from either side."

"Then that means he must still be in the building." Izuku turned his head back towards the apartment building, there was smoke coming out of one of the first floor rooms. "Daitaian, which apartment was Noma staying in again?"

"Apartment number fifteen."

Given the side of the building they were on… Noma had set fire to his own apartment. "Roger, tell fire department and police to delay their response!" Izuku jumped to the side, "Smash!" Then, he kicked straight through the rear left wall of the apartment building's bottom. The fire was almost instantly extinguished.

"Noma isn't here!" Tenya shouted, quickly running over.

Izuku frantically searched around, there had to be some sort of- "There!" Out of the corner of his eye he spotted a slightly discolored section of flooring. Ripping it out of the ground, he found that he'd uncovered some sort of escape hatch.

"He must have escaped into the sewer access tunnels underneath the city," Tenya said, pulling off his helmet momentarily. "Given his set of skills he very well may have also gained access to the electric car network that maintenance workers use, meaning that he can get through the tunnels at an exceptionally quick pace."

"How much ground is there to cover?"

"There's nearly ten thousand miles in total of major tunnels across the entire city, and there's an intersection at every city block. Counting all the minor access tunnels in each block that skyrockets up to nearly thirty thousand miles." Izuku grit his teeth, that was an unfathomable amount of ground to cover. But, they would only get close to that number the longer they waited. Izuku crouched down, grabbing onto the side of the hole and putting both legs in. "What are you doing?"

"We can't afford to lose this lead!" Then, he dropped down into sewers. For a moment the only light he saw was that of the lights on his uniforms. Then, he emerged into the access tunnels.

Tenya followed soon after, dropping onto the concrete edge. "I can hear him."

"Pick a direction and start sprinting, we need to catch him!" Then, the two of them split up.

Tenya sprinted in one direction while Izuku went down another, the both of them chasing after the sound of grinding metal as Noma used an electric car.

But, chasing after it wouldn't be so simple.

"What the-?!" Izuku felt his leg push through something as he launched himself forward. Then, an explosion went off in front of him. "Smash!" Izuku fired off a Detroit Smash, blowing away the resulting fireball and the ensuing rubble.

Tenya quickly began to speak over the radio, "Izuku, watch out for-"

"Traps? I've already run into one. What about you?"

"Barbed wire, snared around my leg. But I can keep running."

"Right, just don't push yourself too hard." Izuku quickly refocused, this time ensuring that he paid attention to just exactly what was in front of him. And it paid off. Izuku cleared over rows of trip wires, blew past hurdles of pressure triggers and even narrowly avoided entire electrified sections of the tunnel. Making their way through here was like navigating one of those obstacle courses Mr. Aurdel had set up. Of course, this time with the intention to kill.

"…your orders." Soon enough, the sound of the electric car began to get closer. Then, he could hear a voice.

"Professor Noma!"

"Shit, you can't throw me out like this!" Izuku redirected his course, blasting his way through the walls of a number of minor access tunnels. Causing damage to public property was something they were supposed to avoid, but this was just too important.

"Professor!" Soon enough he emerged into the same tunnel.

"I told you, stay away!" Noma turned around brandishing a strange looking weapon, then opened fire.

"Hrgh!" Izuku grit his teeth as he sprung from wall to wall of the access tunnels, barely able to avoid the bullets coming his way in such a confined space. "Professor Noma, you are wanted on charges of embezzlement, fraud, treason, accessory to-"

"You think I don't already know what you want me for?!" He shouted back. Noma kicked a box he had with him off the electric car then opened fire again, riddling the box with bullets.

"More explosives?!" Izuku braced himself for another explosion to the face, only to instead be met with an immense cloud of smoke. He reeled his fist back, "Smash!" His blow ripped through the underground tunnel, blowing all the smoke out of his path in an instant. At the same time it threw the electric car off of the rails carrying it, along with the professor.

"Damnit…" As he approached Noma on the ground the professor suddenly ripped a nail gun out of his jacket. "Take this!"

"Not going to happen." Izuku used Blackwhip on his left hand, swarming the professor with tendrils and stringing him up. He put his other hand up to his ear, "Everyone, I've secured Noma."

"Good work," Daitaian said, "Bring him back up to the surface."

"Roger." Izuku walked over to the professor, "Professor Kaona Noma, you're under arrest."

"'Arrest.' Idiot, I won't live long enough to see a jail cell."

"And why's that?" Izuku pulled the nail gun out of his hands, then released sections of Blackwhip. Searching Noma up and down he found a few remote trigger explosives, an empty handgun, a set of razor sharp knives and a handful of burner phones.

"Because I'm a dead man walking. I know about the League, and they can't afford to let me speak."

Izuku released Blackwhip completely, then grabbed Noma by the back of his neck. He began to walk back in the direction that he'd chased Noma. "The government is more than capable of handling the League of Villains. After all, we just took down your would-be assassins."

"'Would-be assassins'? Don't mock me. Those weren't the assassins sent by the League. I'm too important to be killed by a few random gangbangers."

"I'm sure you've already figured it out if you've come all this way, but I made that reproduction helmet for Mustard."

Izuku tightened his grip, "Why?"

"Obviously because the League paid me-"

"Not that. Why did Mustard order a reproduction of his helmet?"

"Because they knew it would screw with you," Noma turned his head, "The League of Villains hates all Heroes for the way society changed after the last war. But Mustard has a special hatred for two people, and you're one of them."

"But how?" Izuku grit his teeth, "I watched Mustard die, he shot himself in the head. There was no way he could have survived."

"You're asking the wrong man. All I can tell you is that the Mustard I met is-"

They were interrupted by the sound of a deafening explosion going off overhead. "What the hell was that?!

"My death." Then, another deafening explosion went off. This time it ripped through the sewer access tunnels, causing the massive network of steel and concrete to collapse on top of them. Izuku didn't have anywhere near enough time to react, disoriented by the explosion.

He was covered in darkness.

When Izuku's eyes finally opened again it was still dark. The smell of pulverized concrete and sewer waste was heavy. He could barely breathe. "Smash!" In an instant he blew the rubble off of him. Turning his head to his side, he could see that Noma had been killed. Crushed to death by the rubble. Their only lead…

"It figures that you would be the one to catch him. Your Spartan's favorite, after all. Though, I suppose you could just chalk that up to him picking whoever's the strongest." Izuku looked up, finding that the tunnel system he'd once been standing in had been almost completely

Dismantled. He could see straight up into the sky, and it was filled with smoke and fire.

He grit his teeth, "Who are you?"

The figure who'd spoken hovered in the air above him, their arms folded. As far as he could tell they were a woman, given their voice and long hair flowing out from under their mask. And as far as outfits, they were wearing what looked like a full body latex suit and mask, both colored with vertical red and white stripes.

"I'm Spartan's new nightmare!" As soon as it looked like she was about to attack Izuku kicked away using One For All to launch into the sky. A crater was left in the wake of where he'd just been.

Then Izuku froze up.

His eyes widened as he looked at the level of destruction surrounding him. Entire city blocks had been completely flattened, cars and buses were strewn about like discarded toys and fires raged just about anywhere he looked. But most horrifyingly, there were bodies everywhere.

Everywhere.

In a mere moment hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent lives had been taken.

And it was all at the hands of this person.

Izuku's mind began to fill with anger. "You…"

"Like I told you, I'm a Spartan's nightmare!" Izuku scaled up to one hundred percent and launched straight at the woman, she did the same. The two of them collided fist to fist in mid-air. Their collision resulted in an immense shockwave.

"You… YOU'LL PAY FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE!"

"That's only if you have the guts to stop me first!" Izuku swung his leg, his opponent dodged out of the way.

Izuku didn't reply, because he knew that there were no words strong enough to express the anger that he felt. So he did the only thing he could in this situation.
He fought.

Blackwhip ripped out from his arms, tearing its way through the sleeves of his uniform and spiking their way towards his opponent. His opponent, meanwhile, kept dodging through the air, effortlessly weaving through each swing. Izuku refocused his efforts, pouring One For All into the tendrils and reasserting his control over the quirk into a form he could control.
Izuku chased her across the sky, swinging one arm after another and using the tendrils of Blackwhip like flails. But again, not a single one of them struck his target.

Izuku's brow stiffened, there had to be some way to hit his target.

Then, an idea popped into his head.

He bolted for the ground, using Float to slow his descent. As soon as the tendrils were in range he used Blackwhip to grab a veritable mountain of rubble, making sure that he didn't disturb any bodies in the process, then shot straight back into the sky. The moment that Izuku reached his target he scattered Blackwhip's tendrils throughout the air, surrounding his target in a veritable weave of rubble and sheer power. Then, he closed it.

At practically blinding speeds every tendril and piece of rubble closed around his opponent. An ear piercing explosion went off from the combination of air being compressed, concrete being pulverized and sections of steel being viciously warped all at the same time. If his opponent had been some average Villain Izuku knew for sure that using the kind of attack he did would have killed them for sure. However, he knew that from the level of destruction that whoever he was fighting was no normal opponent. Even so, he-

"I can see why Spartan chose you. You're strong." As the smoke and dust cleared, Izuku could see that he had clearly caught his opponent with Blackwhip. But they didn't seem to have even a single scratch on them. He tightened Blackwhip's grip around, intending to at least break a few limbs so that she wouldn't move freely. But he didn't even seem to make a scratch. At the same time, he began to feel the stress of pushing himself so hard on his own body. His limbs began to tense up, a sharp pain trickling through every nerve. But he couldn't let go, not now. "You won't defeat me, not until Spartan has drawn his last breath!" Then, somehow, the woman was engulfed in a great light. The light began crawling its way up each tendril of Blackwhip, forcing Izuku to release her.

Then, the woman blitzed her way forward. Izuku swung one fist after another, blowing huge columns of wind at her. But each time they came into contact they broke upon her like waves against a rocky shore. Izuku flung himself back repeatedly to increase the distance between the two of them, simultaneously firing off attack after attack in an attempt to slow her down. But it was no use.

Then, she finally got her only hit in.

The woman brushed a finger across the side of his head. "Izuku Midoriya, remember the name Old Glory!" The very next second the world began to twist around him. A tingling sensation, different from the one he felt while using One For All, spread through his body. Objects warped in size, shrinking and growing again and again. Lights spun in circles at impossibly fast speeds.

Everything went dark again