Chapter 9: Enter the League

League of Villains Hideout, Kamino Ward

Gordon sat at the bar, having downed a few shots of vodka already as he flipped through a book, one of many, that Caroline had strewn about the hideout for...'enrichment' purposes. No one seemed to read them, they mostly used them as coasters, doorstops and paper weights. It was an old, leatherbound book Gordon swore must've been written in the late 1800s from how aged it looked, titled 'Barriers to Trans-Dimensional Travel.'

"Christ… They were still using amputation to treat bacterial infections and yet they apparently knew about quantum physics. I actually think I read something once about how during the Civil War, the South and North were tinkering with the idea of quantum theorems… though then again, I figure they were just drunk. You'd have to be drunk to think of quantum mechanics. Drunk and high even."

"Still, I've never once heard about this book or whomever the fuck wrote it and I figure they would've mentioned it at some point in my postgrad courses if there was any valid theory in it. So I'm going to assume it's just prose. Probably something HG Welles would have written..." Gordon had briefly introduced himself to the rest of the League, with most having vaguely known who he was just simply being 'Lambda' alone. Gordon recounted his experiences at Black Mesa as seen from his perspective, though It was an abridged version which placed heavier emphasis on Gordon's victimhood in the face of overwhelming odds, and his, in his words, "badassery" as having survived anyway. Same for his encounter with the Ethereal Vanguard and his skirmish with Hawks, Endeavor and Fatgum on the roof.

"I heard you shot Hawks in the arm. How did you injure Endeavor?" Dabi sat at the bar, leaned back against the bar with his elbows propped up. Gordon idly rocked his shot glass of vodka around with the flat of his palm.

"I clipped him in the ear, which honestly, I wasn't even really trying to. I mean, I got shot in the ear back at Black Mesa-" Gordon gestured to his partially destroyed ear, still wrapped up in bandages.

"At least It's a free piercing..." Tomura had mostly been glaring at Gordon ever since he had arrived, "What is your Quirk?" More questions out of the blue with this guy...

"Yea, free piercing, but if I'm going to wear earrings, I want to get both ears pierced, I don't wanna look like I'm gay or something..." Gordon leaned back and took another shot, sighing heavily and slamming the glass against the bar. Finally, he glanced back at Tomura, the effects of the vodka starting to kick in...

"Quirk? I dont have one… It's a little rude to ask someone a personal question like that, Handy..." Gordon poked the bar before directing an accusatory finger at Tomura's chest, he just continued to stare daggers at the drunk scientist.

"What's your Quirk? Huh? Haaaaands?" Gordon waggled his hands about his face in a sort of spooky manner, drawing out his question to sound eerie.

"I got hands… He has hands-" Gordon raised his hand, before leaning back and grabbing one of Dabi's hand.

He instantly jerked them away. "Back off! Go ahead and try that with Shigaraki and you'll find out what his quirk is real quick." He joked morbidly, and fortunately for Gordon he ignored his suggestion.

Gordon then turned to Kurogiri, looking down and realizing he indeed did NOT have hands, but wispy, gaseous stumps where his hands should have been, he looked back up to Kurogiri's face, raising his eyebrow.

"He's… Oh, you were in an industrial accident, sorry… I thought you had HANDS… But, what was I saying...?" Tomura pursed his cracked lips, seeming ready to just dust Gordon right now for that little comment, but obviously Sensei wouldn't really appreciate that, not in the slightest, so he held himself back… For now.

"So Endeavor, did he cry at all?" Dabi returned to the subject of Endeavor, now sliding Gordon's shot glass away in a not-so-subtle attempt to cut him off from the tap. Gordon shrugged, shakily reaching to his retreating shot glass like a man dying of thirst "I uh… Don't really remember all that much. I was running off of no sleep, morphine, and a bag of Doritos so, kinda blurry."

As Gordon reached to grab his shot glass, a knife dropped down right between his fingers, courtesy of Toga standing off to his side. "Jesus!" Gordon's eyes darted up towards Toga and gave her a shocked, then inquisitive look.

"You remember me, dontcha?" Toga tilted her head, her canines showing from her beaming smile. Gordon rolled his eyes and reached around Toga's knife to grab his shot glass.

"Yea. I remember you. I never forget the face of someone who made me bleed, until they're dead. You're the one who stabbed me in the arm yesterday..." He bitterly recollected.

"A few days ago, actually~" Toga tapped the top of her knife's hilt with her fingers before violently removing it from the bar.

"Days? Christ..." Gordon stopped mid-sip. "I'm gonna wind up sleeping my life away at this rate..."

"And youuuuu almost broke my face~" Toga pointed the end of her knife at Gordon's face, he just stared with his lips wrapped around the edge of his glass.

"I'm beginning to think I should have shot your homicidal ass instead, Malichi…"

"It's Toga." She corrected him, his reference going over her head.

"Right… So what's your superpower…? Knives? Terrifyiiiiing..." Gordon said drolly, looking Toga up and down before drinking another shot, wincing and shuddering from the burning alcohol taste. It didn't matter to him, he needed a drink so badly at this point he'd have settled for antifreeze. "I've seen meth heads in Cabo do the same thing without superpowers..."

Toga snickered, not at all offended by Gordon's insults or threats towards her. "Actually! I like blood~ I love blood, in fact~... Its my Quirk~!"

Gordon, upon hearing that, poured himself a particularly tall shot of vodka. "Y'know, I had a co-worker that liked blood. And I mean really liked blood. The guy would stab himself with a fork during lunch and drizzle his own blood on his fries or whatever like ketchup, or in his drinks. I don't really know what his deal was, maybe he was a schizo or it was just a fetish thing. But If I ever had to go over to his place to borrow something I usually went armed. He was probably a cannibal, wait… are you a cannibal?"

Toga's smile faded during Gordon's rambling, his line of questioning causing her to become a bit uncomfortable.

"Yea, uh… I'm just going to go now..." Toga unceremoniously slipped off as fast as she could. Gordon watched her with an eyebrow raised. "Yea bye… creep..." He muttered before taking another shot, then leaning back in his chair and shouting at her as she left the room, "It's not that hard of a question!"

"Dr. Freeman." A voice came from a nearby television screen where a dark figure sat in the shadows. Gordon looked back, having been busy inspecting his now empty bottle. "Yea...?" Gordon asked.

"Caroline told me a great deal about your unusual skill set, alongside your efficiency during your battle just last week, going toe to toe with some of Japan's Top Heroes while also fending off an active terrorist group single handedly is a rather remarkable feat, especially for a man who is Quirkless."

"Quirkless? You're Quirkless..." Gordon slurred out, swinging his bottle towards All for One's silhouette.

Demonstrating his uncanny ability to put anyone around him off guard, even the League's enigmatic leader was momentarily taken aback by his behavior, "Erm… Yes… Well, it seems as If you've only just arrived, and yet you've already done a great deal in such a small timespan… With a man such as you, I believe you could be of great use to the League of Villains."

"Timespan...? It's only been like..." Gordon glanced up and around the bar to find a clock, there was none. "2 hours..." Gordon had been drinking for 5 hours now. "Wait… are you, are you offering me a job? Do you need to see my resume...? I have good references, I'll have to get you Dr. Kleiner's contact details though, he'll vouch for me. Now If you-" Gordon retched a bit, before swallowing. "-If you look up a background check on me, A DUI in the city of Little Rock in 1991 was on completely bogus charges, they were stopping everyone outside of the bar, and that's profiling. Which is illegal."

All for One really had no idea what Gordon was getting at, but considering his position and his line of work, he was far from a stranger when it came to dealing with the antisocial or the outright deranged dregs that entered his service. He cleared his throat. "Perhaps it's my fault for attempting to speak to you at such an inopportune time, I won't fault a man for his vices. Of course, I've long since given up my affinity for the bottle… Perhaps you've had enough for the day… Dr. Freeman...?" Gordon looked at the empty vodka bottle, then to All for One and clumsily dropped it onto the counter. "No, I'm still thirsty." He turned to Kurogiri, expecting him to pass another bottle his way. All for One gave him a look...with what little facial expression he could muster… that told him to cut Gordon off.

"I'm going to make this brief and simple. If you're willing to work with the League. We can provide you with shelter and food for your services. And… whatever material or monetary means we can afford to you and Caroline… just as long as you both continue to produce results. Is that clear...?"

Gordon was busy attempting to wrestle another bottle of vodka out of Kurogiri's hands, he paused and glanced at the television screen, sniffling. He recalled Caroline's words despite his alcoholic haze.

"Uh… Yea, sure. Whatever you say, Cobra Commander...I'm with you."

Despite the odd confirmation, All for One clasped his hands together with a smile on his broken face. "Perfect. I look forward to your cooperation then, Dr. Freeman. We will see each other soon..." With that. All for One's visage vanished from the television screen.

Later, Gordon entered Caroline's lab once again, observing the various machines and stations closely, trying to find something that was familiar to him.

"So uh… What exactly does this 'All for One' expect us to do anyways?" Gordon approached a whiteboard covered in equations… one of which being Newton's Equation for Gravity. Caroline was busy modifying a machine that sat on a table near where Tsuyu was laying, still unconscious.

Caroline answered, "He expects us to produce weapons and support equipment for the League… Test and manufacture them."

Gordon rubbed his chin, picking up a marker from nearby and began writing on the board. "That sounds more like RnD's jobs than ours."

"What do you expect? They're not just going to hire us to conduct research for the sake of scientific discovery. They want things that they can use" Caroline scoffed, "You do not want Shigaraki tampering with our equipment..."

Gordon hastily erased a bit of his work, muttering obscenities to himself. "The guy with the hand fetish? What does he do anyway?"

The arm Caroline was controlling paused its work for a moment, she turned and looked at Gordon, "Upon direct physical contact between a solid piece of matter and all five fingers of either of his hands, he dissolves the covalent bonds between its constituent molecules, reducing it to its most elementary components."

Gordon's mouth opened as he nodded in understanding, "Disintegration… Got it, yeah, let's keep him out of here." Before going back to his work. "Who the fuck is 'Endeavor' by the way? The burn victim was asking about him."

"Endeavor is the Number 2 Pro-Hero in Japan currently. These people rank their heroes in a sort of tier system depending on their performance. You fought Endeavor, Hawks and Fatgum last week."

"These names… Christ almighty. So Endeavor's the number 2 Pro-Hero? Who's number 1? The Undertaker?" Gordon turned to grab a calculator off of a nearby desk and began feverishly crunching numbers.

"All-Might, Toshinori Yagi, is the number 1 Pro-Hero. People seem to look up to him as a sort of idol. With his track record, I can honestly see why. Though I still find this entire affair pointless." Caroline accessed a nearby computer and displayed a picture of All-Might rescuing a group of people from a flaming wreck of a bus. Gordon paused.

"Ohhhh! Yeah! I saw him on a calendar when I was back at that training lodge… Man, I wish I could get my hair to do that. Maybe not the rabbit ear shit… So wait, is there an archive for villains then?"

"No. Well… there is a ranking system, but its nothing like the Hero Ranking System at all… which on the subject of a Villain ranking system, congratulations, you are now officially a Villain to the Pro-Hero Council." Caroline flipped the computer over to a recent news feed with the headline 'New Villain on the Rise in Japan' with a photo of himself during the assault on the Vanguard compound taken from a security camera. He was in the middle of yelling about something and looked a bit… off in the photo.

"As of right now, based on what has been released by the Musutafu Police Department. Lambda's identity has been verified as a 27 year old, American, theoretical physicist by the name of Dr. Gordon Freeman. After the graphic assault and killing of 35 members of the terrorist organization known as the Ethereal Vanguard, Dr. Freeman went on to attack and wound Pro-Heroes 'Hawks' and 'Endeavor' whom were assisting local law enforcement at the time, currently, Endeavor has been discharged from medical care and has returned to duties, whereas Hawks will be undergoing surgery to repair damages to his shoulder caused by a 9mm gunshot wound..." Gordon was flabbergasted watching the news footage.

"Okay, first off, that Is the most unflattering photo I have ever seen, theres no fucking way they didnt choose that on purpose. And second off, I didn't shoot him with a 9mm, I shot him with a fucking .357 magnum. How I didn't destroy that asshole's arm is beyond me. And he started it! Everyone started it! I'm innocent! And I guess Lambda is just my fucking Villain name now? Great… Villain. Y'know, I wouldn't consider myself to be a villain, I'm more of a… well, maybe not an anti-hero… but..." Caroline sighed.

"Well, according to this world's sensibilities, to the greater public you're a Villain now. So. I'd say it would be wise to start living with it..."

"I suppose so..."

Several minutes of frenzied writing later, Gordon slammed his marker down, his eyes glazing across each written number or variable, his lips moving as he muttered some proto form of an equation out to himself. "So… how do you figure it's going to happen… the death of this universe?" Gordon's eyes never left the board, though his train of thought slowed a bit to receive Caroline's answer.

"Well...Think of It like this..." The robot arm operating on Tsuyu's helmet rushed over and snatched the marker out of Gordon's hand, much to his indignation. The robot began to draw a simple sphere on the board, marking it simply as 'Home Universe' very quickly drawing a near perfect recreation of the Aperture Science logo, with Gordon furiously adding a poorly drawn recreation of the Black Mesa logo next to it, giving the arm a defiant look as he handed the marker back.

"This is our original universe. The Resonance Cascade caused by the events of Black Mesa sent forth a wave of energy akin to that of say… a wave in the ocean. This wave was composed of highly energized particles traveling not just within our universe… but beyond it as well. Gathering more power as it goes." Caroline traced a line from the 'Home Universe' and created several more spheres on the board with various placeholder names.

"Now this drawing is not an exact replica of the map of the multiverse...nor is it to scale, but for the sake of demonstration, these are different universes, including the one we reside in now." Caroline drew a big circle around a universe labeled 'Hero Universe.'

"Once the Resonance Cascade's effects impacted this universe, the Higgs field, which has so far been consistent across every universe I have visited, was affected, and has been broken out of its metastability."

"The wave of the Resonance Cascade crashing against this universe's Higg's field is like a tsunami against a dam… the dam has been damaged, but not destroyed. Now there is 'water,' foreign material, leaking in, from outside of the universe...you for example. Not only that, but the energy levels of the Higg's field are rising. Which means that frankly, at any time now, this universe could suffer a rapid False Vacuum Decay or… the foundations of physics will completely crumble, and the universe will slowly die. Or, depending on the location in this universe and speed of the decay, it may already be in the process of dying. Whichever one It is, neither you or I intend to be around for whenever It finally does occur."

"...Yeah. Obviously fucking not."

To Be Continued

"Do you hear that knocking sound by the way?... I hope someone ordered pizza… Fucking bottle of vodka's got me starving..."