Izuku sifted through the various emails on his laptop. Spam was deleted, orders were catalogued, and others emails were left for later. Then something caught his attention.
An email from U.A. High school.
He had to surpress a sigh. "More hero business nonsense?" he muttered as he opened the email. "Hello Young Midoriya Izuku, this is principal Nedzu of U.A. Hero Academy. One of my staff members showed me a video of your demonstration to a collection of investors and it piqued my interests. I believe our support course would greatly benefit from a mind such as yours entering the school." Izuku paused reading the email aloud to scowl. "Our school is well funded and boasts a Zero tolerance of bullying and discrimination. I feel that U.A. would be a great fit for such a bright young mind such as yourself. Signed Principal Nedzu." Izuku finished as he shook his head.
He knew this would potentially happen. The moment a Hero school smells a genius they have to scoop them up and make them work for them. Izuku sneered before he closed the email. He wasn't going to work for them, no matter what they tried to pull.
All For One scowled as he looked over the recent news. The Moleman had gone completely off the grid the very same day he had sent the scouts out to find him. No one had been hit since, even as he kept scouts looking at every single jewelry store within a four prefecture radius.
It was as if he knew that he wanted him, and disappeared.
All for One slowed his breathing. Then summoned forth another tablet. He began scouring through the current data and started connecting dots. A collection of security feeds began playing in his mind as they followed the Four man heist that happened before the Moleman first struck. He paused it, then replayed the scene where two of them used some sort of electric weapon on Kamui Woods and the cops.
Then he connected to the videos from the cameras of each jewelry shop that had been hit. Each of them started as normal, then they slowly went static, before turning off for a long time, then resuming less than a minute later with the shop now ruined. This same scene played with each and every single camera from every single one of the shops. He replayed each scene again and again.
Then it struck him.
The interference was technology based whether than Quirk based.
He's been alive long enough to know the difference.
"So, the moleman is indeed connected to the Four brutes." Afo muttered. The digging as an escape method, the powerful electric weapons, the almost mechanical actions taken for each step. It all lined up, pointing towards a brilliant mind with a talent for robotics.
He traveled through the internet, browsing through articles and websites on potential matches.
'Too Old.'
'Far Too Crazy.'
'He already works for me.'
'That's a hero.'
'Those aren't hands, those are feet.'
'He's dead.'
'That's a Hero Comission Rat.'
'Quirkless.'
'Naive and fearful.'
'Wait.' he paused his pondering as he turned back. He replayed the video on the boy's machines. Then he compared it to a video feed of the Four in action. "Far too different. A close match but far too varied." He muttered before continuing his browsing.
'Another Hero.'
'Way too Morally corrupt for simple Robberies.'
'That's a chimpanzee in a trenchcoat.'
Izuku breathed out a sigh as he looked over his newly finished machine. The Droid stood tall, even taller than any of the Brick Models, it had two primary arms and a set of deployable secondary arms. Rather than treads it stood on four bulky hydraulic legs. It had no decoy head, just a bulky torso.
This was a Heavily Armed Combat Droid, (H.A.C.D.) or Head mk1 for short.
Behind it stood eight Brick Models all ready for actions. Half of them were armed with the same tools from their previous heist, the others were armed with some of his newly made tools. A group of four Issue mk1s stood in front of them as a small legion of R and B models stood at the sides, ready for any command.
Izuku walked over to the computer and typed in a set of commands. The Droids lit up and saluted him as Izuku let out a dark smile. "Gentlemen, your next mission starts now." he said as the Droids were lowered into the tunnels.
"This is the Daily News reporting live as a group of heavily armed villains are raiding the Dynamo Suppott Company. They have an unknown number of hostages but are described as armed and dangerous. The Heroes and Police outside are stuck waiting on the villains demands, hesitant due to the concern for the people inside." The news reporter spoke with great concern.
Izuku resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He had two of his Brick Units corral the workers into the single safest room in the building while the others began to take everything apart. Several of his R and B units had tagged along, attached to the sides of the Bricks and Head Units to not arouse suspicion.
What none of the knew was that Issue's were there to. Carefully digging an escape tunnel as the R and Bs took everything none traceable. Head stood guard at the main entrance as a single Brick Unit guarded any other way in. He'd have the whole place emptied out before anyone could do anything.
"Oh, but a new hero has arrived on the scene. Its All Might, I thought he was going to be teaching at U.A. but he's here now." The reporter said. Izuku raised his brow before he typed in several commands as quickly as possible. Careful to wipe the sweat from his brow before he glanced across his various monitors.
Togashi was a simple man. He worked long hours to support his family, spent his free time reading manga, made sure to play a part in raising his children when he could.
His life was fairly normal.
Then just half an hour away from the company lunch break a group of heavily armed villains broke in, took out any form of security that attempted to resist them, and rounded everyone else into the large break room.
They told them to stay in there, that they'd remain unharmed if they did. The villains even left a tray of finger food for them. So he knew they were going to be stuck there for a long while.
He'll never finish that project by Saturday, no chance.
Then the door opened and one of the Villains entered. It said nothing, grabbing me by the collar and dragging me out. "Do not move from this room, failure to comply will result in usage of the M.S.G." The other villain said in a deep voice to the other workers in the room. M.S.G. sounded like a gun, not something anyone would want to be on the wrong end of.
The villain carried him through the halls. He craned his neck around in an attempt to see what else was happening. Then he saw the front entrance, and all the Heroes and Media on the other side. The Villain passed him to their big boss, some terrifying man covered head to toe in a metal armor. The Boss took him by the collar and walked to the door.
The Heroes and Police shouted for the villain to let him go. The villain ignored them as Togashi felt the large metal hand of the villain wrap around his torso. "Do not attempt to interfere, Interferance will only result in the harming of workers. We have the means to kill everyone in this building if compliance isn't met." The boss spoke in a deep and intimidating voice from a speaker.
Even All Might paused mid start up. "Know that they will be unharmed if you remain where you are." The villain said. All Might seemed to grit his teeth. "Do not think that I am bluffing. Let me show you." The Villain said as Togashi felt tears flow down his cheeks.
His wife was probably in tears right now, his kids were in school so they may be spared such a scene.
The Villain's other arm straightened out before he heard a brief humming. Togashi closed his eyes and braced for the worst. He heard shouting, he heard panic, yet nothing came. He felt that he was moving, that he was being passed back to the other Villain. Togashi opened his eyes, just to see that the entire street to the right was out. Not a single light was one, not a single car was moving. Every man, be they police, hero, or reporter, were on the ground in pain.
"It can be worse, remember that." the Boss said as Togashi was taken back with the others.
He prayed to anyone who would listen that he and everyone else make it out of this alive.
Izuki shook his head. This command was made specifically to counter All Might. He may never create a machine that could rival the strength of the Number 1 Hero, but he knew just how to stop him. All Might was one of the few Heroes who wasn't so brazen enough to charge in when the villain made a threat like this.
All Might may be an idiot, but he wasn't stupid.
Show them that the hostages are unharmed, tell them that they would remain unharmed so long as they didn't try anything, Show what they can do in case they think we're bluffing. By his current estimation the Mass Shock Gauntlet could cook someone's insides from twenty meters away at max power. On a lower setting a whole street could be wiped out with almost no issue.
Not even All Might could stop the speed of the Gauntlet's weapon, at least not according to his current calculations.
Either way, this bought him around another hour or so. The R and Bs were almost through with taking the whole place apart. Soon they'd all be out thanks to the Issue's escape tunnel, and Izuku with have more technology to work with for his illegal operations.
He hated having to get this tech from a Hero Support Company, but few other companies had the tools he currently needed for his next project. He had to bite back his resentment and use it for what he needed.
All Might grit his teeth. He was almost down to his last hour and nothing was happening. The Villains had threatened the workers, then showed just what they'd do to a collection of police and heroes just on his left.
The paramedics were still busy treating those affect by the mysterious weapon in the Villain's arsenal.
He had to grit his teeth and bite back his ire. His mind would occasionally dance to the image of what that weapon would do to the workers in the building if he did something rash. The images bringing back painful memories of having to face that Monster.
Then something happened.
The hostages began walking towards the entrance in a single file line. They all had their hands above their heads and were walking at a brisk pace. They left the building and the heroes rushed to their sides. Each person was escorted to the medics on scene as All Might prepared to surge forth.
Yet the moment the last hostage walked out the doors the whole building shook. Everyone could only watch as before it seemed to still. All Might rushed in first, many of the heroes following after him. He burst through the doors, clearing the main hallway with little difficulty.
Yet he found nothing. There was no Villains, no equipment, nothing. Then he walked to the lab, and found it in ruin. What was once a work place was now a deep crater inside of the building.
All Might grit his teeth once more.
They had given him the slip.
Just like that Monster.
Izuku felt giddy, almost ecstatic even. He had stopped All Might, his plan worked. Every last one of his Droids returned and now his hidden lab could now be assembled. He no longer had to rely on the warehouse for his illegal activities. With all the digging he's had the Issues do over the last few months he was ready to expand his illegal activities.
He was still keeping the Warehouse. It'll still be used for making his P.A.M.s and other legal projects. But he had greater plans, and other places to work. Now he just had to set it up.