Shouting, laughing, men screaming in Spanish as they placed bets on the two fighters in the dirt arena lined with Barbed wire. Both fighters were haggard, with sallow skin and sunken eyes; they'd been in the pit much longer than he had, and this was probably their last fight.

Izuku felt the jitters already coming, the pining urge for another hit. He hated that feeling, but what could he do?

With a sickening crack! the fight was over as one fighter landed a harsh hit to his opponent's jaw. Before he was even down, the man was on top of him, raining blow after desperate blow down on him.

It took the ref five minutes to finally call the fight. The winner was dragged out and given a shot, immediately turning his tired, panic filled eyes with numb complacency.

"Your turn, mijo." The man beside him sneered as he inserted a needle into the base of his spine and injected a yellow liquid before pushing him into the ring.

He blacked out.

…

He woke up in a steel room, one of the few they'd been able to make that could contain him.

"You're not doing too good."

He chuckled quietly, staring at the corner of the wall, where a small gap between the sheets of metal allowed him to converse with his neighbor. "What else can I do?" he asked miserably.

"You can fight back."

"With what? Spice's gonna kill me in a few more weeks. I'm already losing time…I don't even remember the fight."

"...got a buddy who helps on the fab floor. Not smart, but he follows instructions…just something to think about."

The boy looked at the gap for a second before looking down at his floor, where frantic scratches had been cut in the stone. It was messy, almost illegible.

But he could just make out chemical compounds and garbled words.

"Yeah…something to think about."

Izuku hummed quietly to himself as he examined the specimen that had been given to him. He'd been hard at work for the last seven hours in an attempt to find an anti-venom and was having some difficulty discerning the compounds within the drug.

"It's resistant to a lot," Izuku muttered, a tape recorder noting down what few things he had discovered. "From the tests I've done, it almost immediately begins to absorb and alter blood cells at an immense rate. I don't even want to know what it would do to fat, muscle and tissue cells. Attempts at using the Detox solution I created for my own Venom has resulted in this unknown drug - which I will now refer to as Venom X - aggressively replicating itself to overwhelm the chemicals needed to safely come down from regular Venom. It acts more like an aggressive virus than any drug I've ever seen and I'm wondering if I will need to study one of the cadavers to find an effective solution." With a sigh he reached up and pulled his glasses off and rubbed his eyes in frustration. "I'm missing something, I know I'm missing something." He stood up and went to a nearby bookshelf.

His movement had Uravity perking up, watching as he looked through the textbooks on the shelves before pulling out a thick leather journal from between two physics books. "What's that?" she asked.

"My original notes for Venom," Izuku said as he opened it and began flipping through the pages. "Something isn't adding up with this new strain and I don't know what...it seems...familiar…"

Uraraka walked over, peeking at the pages as Izuku scanned them, looking agitated when he couldn't seem to find what he was looking for. Her eyes widened at the complicated chemical compounds and diagrams picturing support equipment she recognized as the ones Bane used when he was still a supervillain. "I'm surprised you have that." she said, giving him a suspicious glance.

"Just cause I'm a villain, doesn't mean my research was seized," he huffed, pouring over his notes, "my research isn't just Venom. I've devised cures for several biological agents, detox solutions for Trigger, drugs and support gear to take down villains, drugs and support gear to help civilians - and all of it? It's in this journal." He flipped through a few pages. "Just because your hero association thinks I can go villain at the drop of a hat, doesn't mean I will."

Ochako hummed at that, but inside she was feeling a little guilty. It's what she had thought going into this op. "So what seems familiar?"

"I'm not sure…it may be the protein chains…possibly the gene sequence? No, it's not that, maybe it's the few chemicals I can recognize, or the parasitic aspect? Podría ser la reacción a la sangre que he visto en algunas variantes defectuosas…O tal ves sean los efectos secundarios de las víctimas-"

"Uh…what are you saying?" Uraraka questioned in confusion.

Izuku blinked then chuckled. "It might be how the blood reacts, or the side effects this thing has on the victims, but I can't exactly pull out my old notes. All that was burned, save for the few notes I made in this." He sighed and closed the journal, putting it up. "Are you hungry?"

"W-what?"

"Comida, food, you hungry?" he asked again, pulling his coat off and hanging it up,
"I've hit a roadblock until Nezu gives me access to the dead, so let's eat."

"I, uh…okay…" Uraraka muttered, following him upstairs, her gaze once again going to the toys and drawings littering the floor and fridge, "So…you have a kid?" she asked.

"Eri," he said, "mi bonita copo de nieve, my daughter," he smiled as he began pulling pots and pans out, turning on the stove. "You'll probably see her some time today if you stick around long enough."

"Oh…um, how old is she?"

"Eleven come June," he said, looking up when the door opened.

"Orale, Jefe!" The call made him chuckle a bit, "what chu doin' here during the middle of the day?"

Uraraka tensed as a man walked into the living room. He was bald, with tattoos covering his exposed arms and face; the markings on his face making it look like a skull instead of a regular human face, and the scythe on his forehead immediately set her on edge. He was carrying a white pastry box, his tired eyes skimming over Uraraka with vague interest.

"Pinche deberes fired me," Izuku scoffed, "asshole fired me for being a former villain."

"Otra vez?" he asked, walking up to Izuku and clasping hands with him, before bumping fists, "can't catch a break, can ya, Jefe?"

"You know it," Izuku said, eyes going to Uraraka, "Hey, Uravity, stand down." He said easily, his eyes holding a glint in them, "this is a good friend of mine, Chato Santana-"

"-El Diablo, I know," she quipped, doing her best to relax, "Sorry. I still remember the USJ."

"Wasn't there to fight Chica," Santana said with a shrug, "and if you remember, I fought that Nomu thing."

"That's why I'm wary."

He grinned, then turned back to Izuku, "why you got heroes in here? I know Yagi's cool, he's an OG, but Pink Cheeks?"

"I'm helpin' out with a case," Izuku explained, "can't explain much, but it's big."

"Hmm…what's for dinner?" he asked, heading towards the kitchen, setting the pastry box down on the counter.

"Who said you were getting any?" Izuku objected.

"I did," Santana scoffed. Opening the pastry box, revealing an assortment of cookies, "Hell, you're lucky I brought these in instead of eating them on the porch." He started to reach into the box until Izuku grabbed his wrist. "Touchy about your food, gordito?" Santana taunted, his smirk disappearing when he saw the furious glare in Izuku's eyes. "Oye jefe, I was just-"

"-you didn't eat any of them right?: izuku demanded to know. Uravity peaking over his shoulder, "not even a lick of frosting?"

"No way carnal, it ain't mine." He said, looking between them in confusion, "had your name addressed."

Izuku let his wrist go, picking up a cookie and smelling them, his face scrunched up in distaste, "Venom." He said to Uravity, making her eyes widen.

"They tried to get you, too." She whispered in shock.

"The fuck did you get into if someone's trying to spike your cookies?" Santana sounded offended - who messes with someone's cookies?

Izuku picked up the box, carrying it down to the lab. "Someone's trying to recreate my Venom formula," Izuku growled, Santana and Uraraka following. "The fact that they tried to get me, too, means that they don't want me finding out."

"Are you thinking the old crew?" Santana asked.

"Nah, none of them had the stones for this…" he put the box in a safe and locked it.

"I'll alert Ryukyu." Uraraka said, pulling her phone out.

"¿Quieres que salga a la calle?" Santana questioned quietly, (want me to hit the streets?) "¿Obtener información de la rata?" (Get some information from the rat?)

"No," Izuku muttered with a shake of his head, "lo hacemos segùn sus reglas por ahora…" (we do this by their rules for now) "pero manténganse atentos." (But keep an eye out.)

Santana nodded, "I'll get started on dinner." He said, sparing a glance to Uravity, who had watched their conversation with narrowed eyes, "feel like you're gonna be busy."

"You're right." Izuku sighed, holding up the cookie he had picked up before, "pendejos just handed me their compound on a silver platter, time to find out exactly what we're dealing with."

WVWVWVWVWVWVWVWVWVWVWVW

Uraraka watched in fascination as Izuku mixed chemicals and wrote down formulas and notes faster than she could track, he'd been at it for a few hours now, the realization that he had been targeted lighting a fire under the young man.

"This is some gnarly stuff," he said, carefully pouring the mixture of chemicals into a beaker and setting them over a flame, "you don't even need a small bite to get this brujeria to work, and the compound's so aggressive the odds of you surviving it are slim to none."

The door slid open and Aizawa and Nezu strolled in. "We got your call," Aizawa said to Uraraka, "Is everyone alright?"

"No one ate the cookies, if that's what you're asking," Izuku said, leaning back, with his arms crossed over his chest, "they're lucky no one ate them."

"Yes, a rampaging monster in this neighborhood would be devastating," Nezu said with a nod of his head.

"And the bodies I stack for hurting my family would be bad for your publicity," Izuku said darkly, making the three heroes tense up.

"Indeed," Nezu said with his usual jovial tone, a particular edge to his words. "Let us all be grateful for your quick thinking. Were you able to learn anything new?"

"Yeah, whoever did this was sloppy," he grunted, taking the compound off the flame and stirring it. "The compound is aggressive by nature, but every chemical used was tripled or quadrupled past the required dose, hence why the victims were deformed so extremely. Not only that, but there's still a compound that I can't identify."

"So you're telling us that this stuff not only resembles your Venom, but that it's supercharged?" Aizawa asked.

"Yes and no," Izuku began pouring the finished product into different syringes, "it's supercharged in the sense that it's stronger, and more powerful than the first string stuff I made. In fact, the power drawbacks I ran into have been completely fixed in this compound, but it's also extremely unstable. All the victims weren't killed by your responding heroes, their bodies gave out because the serum's aggressive parasitic makeup forced the body to burn up its natural energy to the point that the bodies collapsed." He reached under the table and pulled out a suitcase, opening it to reveal a padded interior, "this should help combat this strain." He continued, carefully setting the syringes inside the suitcase and securing them, sliding the case across the table. "It's not a foolproof antidote, but it should at least stabilize the affected victim and give them mental control once more."

"And their chances of survivability?" Aizawa questioned.

"They have a 12% better chance of making it than those who don't get the injection," Izuku said slowly, "best I could do on short notice."

"Keep working on it," Nezu instructed, nodding to Aizawa, who picked up the case, "until we've located the threat and neutralized it, a guard will be placed with your family to ensure you're protected."

"I'll pull Eri out of school for now, just in case." Izuku mused.

"Probably for the best," Nezu agreed, "Toshinori's upstairs with her now."

"-along with Chato Santana," Aizawa grumbled.

"Don't start," Izuku interrupted, pointing at him, "you knew the kind of people I hang out with. The barrio's not some highrise either, expect former villains to be around; don't like it, find someone else to save your ass."

"I believe it's time we left." Nezu said as Aizawa shot a furious gaze over Nezu's head at Izuku, "Uravity, your relief will be taking over tonight at midnight. Pro-hero Tailman will be your point of contact, codeword is "Argile."

"Yes, sir." Uraraka sounded off, staring after her former teachers until they were gone. Once they were, she pivoted. "Why don't you like Mr. Aizawa?" She asked Izuku.

"Besides the obvious 'hero/villain grudge'?" Izuku asked as he cleaned up his lab, "We ran into each other a couple of times over my career. He never could capture me, but he made a mess of my operations and even put a lot of friends behind bars…got some of them killed. He's the reason the heroes turned on my men down in the Yakuza tunnels."

"I was there," she said quietly, "He didn't make the call lightly."

"He still made it," he said pointedly, heading up the stairs, "never found out the reason either."

"He didn't tell us," Uraraka sighed, shaking her head helplessly, "he had a habit of doing things without explaining…he's a good man though."

"Sometimes those are the worst kind of men." Izuku emerged into the main house, letting Uraraka move out of the basement before he locked it all down. "Whatever he is, we don't get along. I'd rather anyone else handle this case."

"Papa!"

Uraraka did her best to hide her surprise in how quickly Izuku's surly and hostile demeanor suddenly did a 180 and he was scooping up a white-haired eleven-year-old into his arms.

"Hola, mija!" Izuku boomed with a Jovial laughter, "how was school?"

"It was great! Satsuki and I beat the boys in a foot race!" She chirped, then her eyes landed on Uraraka and her smile disappeared, replaced with suspicion. "Papa, who's she?"

"This is Uravity, a hero." Izuku set his daughter down, resting a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I'm helping her with a case."

"Like you do with Ojisan?" Eri asked in wonder.

"Exactly like that," Uraraka said, squatting down to look the girl in the eyes with a friendly smile, "Ochako Uraraka, also known as Uravity! Nice to meet you!"

"N-nice to meet you." She stuttered shyly, "I'm Eri."

"Nice to meet you, Eri!"

"Come on you two," Izuku said, picking Eri up again, "Dinner should be ready."

WVWVWVWVWVWVWVWVWVWVWVW

Izuku couldn't sleep. The close call from earlier had set him on edge, and now he was sitting outside at one in the morning with Santana, drinking a beer while their guard stood off to the side, arms crossed and seemingly not paying attention.

"Crazy someone would try and poison you with your own stuff," Santana muttered, downing the last of his beer and crushing the can before popping another one open, "you'd think they would've been more subtle."

"They think I've gone soft," Izuku said, tapping the side of his can - a nervous tick, one that helped him think. "Haven't been in the game for six years. I'd take a shot at an old jefe who's left the life behind…we did a couple times, and they weren't even out the game yet."

Santana chuckled at that. "All for One hombre didn't see you coming. The shock in his voice when you sent him flying with that opening punch." He made an exaggerated chef's kiss, "Perfect."

Izuku cracked a smile. "Yeah, back when we were criminals with a conscience." He leaned back. "But you're talking like you never took on a big bad and won, or do you not remember going Aztec God on that Nomu?"

"Nah, I still put that on my resume." He laughed, "could be for a..a carpet cleaner or some shit, they gonna ask, 'do you have any experience?' Man, I'll pop off with 'yeah, I removed that Nomu eśe, full sanitation y todo!" The two shared a long laugh at that.

As they calmed down Santana got serious, the smile falling to be replaced by a stern glower. "So, what's got you tied up in knots?"

Izuku shifted, taking another sip of his beer. "Can't talk about it."

"Bullshit, you can't. Oye, Tailman, can he not talk about it?" He asked the man behind him, who jumped at being addressed.

"Oh…uh, he was never told it was classified, so…" he said awkwardly.

"See? You can talk about it, and you already told me some earlier, so what's the harm?" Santana said with a smirk before tossing Tailman a beer. "Come take a load off, you're making me nervous."

Tailman slowly walked over, popping the top off the beer and taking a tentative sip, grimacing at the taste.

"Don't grimace, cabrón, it's good for you." Santana said, turning back to Izuku, "so you gonna fill me in?"

Izuku sighed. "It's the chemical structure of this Venom variant," he grumbled, leaning forward with a hand on his chin. "It's way too similar to my early failed experiments to my liking, and the additive they mixed in…it's scratching at the back of my head but I can't get anything to connect…"

"Hmm…sounds tough, but you've had harder puzzles. Hell, you created your first successful super steroid while high on Spice. That's shit's impressive."

"Spice…" Izuku muttered.

"What's Spice?" Tailman questioned

"An enhancer native to mother México," Santana explained, "Nova Spice, you mix it with a drug and it increases its potency three times over, but at the cost of the user's mental capabilities over time, they're also much more suggestible."

"Nova Spice…no, it can't be," Izuku muttered, standing and striding into the house, Santana and Tailman right behind him.

"No way it's Spice, man," Santana said, going slightly pale as he realized what Izuku was thinking, "we burned it all with Los Muertes."

"What's Los Muertes?" Tailman almost demanded to know, mind whirling as he followed the pair.

"It can't be, it can't be," Izuku ignored both of them as he re-entered the lab, pulling the samples out and immediately began conducting tests, his old journal out.

"Is he gonna answer me?" Tailman asked, looking to Santana, and was surprised when he found the man biting his thumb, arms crossed, eyebrows creased in worry, "is this stuff really that bad?" he asked quietly.

Santana's eyes darted to him, then back to Izuku, "Nova Spice was how the cartels took over in Mexico," he muttered, "you drug enough officials, you can do whatever you want. And with a veritable army of powerful quirks enhanced by Spice laced Trigger? They set up shop in an old prison that got trashed during the rise of quirks over 200 years ago…they called it Los Muertes, the city of the dead…that's where I met him, quirkless 13 year old forced to fight while high on Spider, what they called the steroids they used, cooked the mind, threw gaps in your memory."

"And he was able to make a viable steroid while like that?" He asked in awe.

"Spice is an enhancer," Izuku said, not looking up. "I was always smart for my age, guess my brain interacted differently with the Spice. While I was blacked out, I started writing out formulas, barely legible, barely viable. Guesses were what they were…but after almost eight months of feeding information through Santana, I was able to get enough favors cashed in to make the new steroid." He looked at the vials he had set up, "even with my mind clear and on something that didn't destroy it, it took another four months for me to get through the withdrawals from Nova, and even now I still shake from the after effects…" he looked up at Tailman, "You heroes better hope the tests are negative…cause if Spice is back? And on the international market? This morning's downtown attacks won't be the worst thing to go down."