It was a cloudy night in the small city of Windsor Canada, the sun having just set not long ago, the city of Windsor and the city on the other side of the river were due for rain as the clouds grew darker with the moon light shining through the clouds with the city on the other side of the river, Detroit glowed as the lights of its buildings shined and towered over the much smaller town of Windsor and it was where the underground hero Stealth Bug was operating
Stealth Bug had heard rumors of villains getting together, normally Windsor was quiet with the occasional trigger smuggler here and there, but this time was different, rumors had circulated of a new quirk enhancing drug that would supposedly be hitting the streets.
Stealth Bug learned this through her very informants and through interrogating some small time crooks she managed to locate one of the villains heading to this meeting and was currently trailing him to Detroit, her quirk allowed her to communicate with small bugs such as fly's, ants, or cockroaches, a fly currently was under the seat of the villains car feeding her the information as to their whereabouts as Stealth Bug trailed the villain from a distance
Fortunately, Stealth Bug was a dual citizen of both the United States and Canada and had a hero license to operate in both territories which was useful when she would sometimes need to travel to Detroit for certain cases she would be working.
After passing through customs and a bit of a drive she found herself in the abandoned industrial area in Detroit having parked her car a few blocks away, it made sense to have a meeting like this here since nobody was ever around this part of the city and pro heroes never patrolled these parts.
'Time to get to the bottom of this, if my sources are correct this could be bad news.' Stealth Bug thought to herself.
Stealth Bug made her way into the abandoned warehouse and to the crowd that had formed inside, in front of her was a group of around 100 or so villains from around Detroit and a few from neighboring areas such as Windsor or smaller towns from across Michigan, lucky for her she wore more casual clothing as to not stand out.
"So, remind me why were all gathered here again."
"Not sure, I just heard there was some new drugs hitting the market and that this new stuff is supposed to put trigger to shame"
'Eh, I'll believe it when I see it, after all it's not like we haven't heard about a promising product before only for it to not be as good as advertised."
"My dealer says the stuff is legit, said I wouldn't even need him anymore."
"Hey is your dealers name Bernard by any chance."
"Yea, we must have the same dealer, small world huh."
The comment about this new drug being potentially more powerful than trigger a drug that could enhance someone's quirk greatly concerned Stealth Bug, it wasn't long ago that Stealth Bug had busted a trigger smuggling ring, if there was another drug coming about that was even stronger than trigger, she had to prevent it from hitting the streets.
As she listened to everyone talk it was mostly about the same stuff, after 15 minutes one of the villains began to get antsy.
'Damnit where the hell is this guy, was this rumor even true."
"Oh, I can assure you the rumors are indeed true" a voice said as everyone turned to see where it had come from.
Looking above them, they see a man on a catwalk.
Stealth Bug notes everything about the figure's appearance, he was wearing a black and dark purple trench coat with a black and dark purple top hat and had an all-white mask with red eyes piercing through his mask which gave a very unsettling feeling.
"Are you the guy who spread this rumor and set us this meeting" one of the villains shouted.
"Indeed I am" the masked man replied.
"Then what the fuck is this meeting about and just who the hell are you" the villain said.
"You can call me Shade and this meeting was just to see what little fish would bite the hook"
Stealth Bug found his language very unsettling after referring to the villains coming to this meeting as fish biting a hook, it put her on edge and she had no intention of drawing attention to herself, of course some of the villains who had been referred to as fish by this Shade individual did not take too kindly to it
"Who the fuck you calling a little fish, and where's the product, did you come here to waste our time?"
"Settle down now, allow me to explain. The rumor about the product is true and as for the meeting, those of you that have arrived will be showcased the product and many more things to come" Shade said.
Stealth Bug's face went grim upon hearing this, one drug was bad enough but if there were multiple it could be a serious problem, a few villains had become restless and were demanding to see the product, Stealth Bug was also restless and wanted to see the product.
"After all, I don't even have the product on me" Shade declared.
After hearing this a few of the villains attempted to use their quirks on Shade but shadows appeared beneath them, and they were all dragged into the ground through the shadows.
"Now if you are all done making a fuss" the shadows around him extend and appear to swallow him entirely before a large shadow appears on the side of the wall with Shade seemingly stepping out of it.
"It would be my honor to take you to where the showcase is being held" Shade said.
Stealth Bug was taking in all she could about him, his quirk was nothing short of powerful allowing him to seemingly not only control shadows but use them to warp, warping quirks were rare, and it was clear that this Shade individual was a dangerous villain.
"Fine, we'll go with, after all it's the whole reason we came here" a thug said as others agreed.
"That is excellent news, while in bound to our destination try not to get lost in the shadows, I doubt I'll be bothered to look for you" Shade commented.
The shadows once again shifted and grew around them as it appeared to swallow them whole, Stealth Bug feels shivers up her spine before the darkness is gone just as quick as it appeared as they were now in a hallway that looked rather fancy.
The hallway had red carpet with crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, Shade then proceeded to walk down the hall motioning the other villains to follow him
"What type of shit was that?"
'Don't you ever do that shit again"
"That felt pretty weird not gonna lie."
"Do that shit to me again and I'll kill you."
"Where the hell are we?"
"Exactly where we need to be" Shade said as he reached the end of the hallway where there was a giant door, he was then scanned by a bright light and tipped his hat as the door began to open.
Stealth Bug braced herself for what she was about to see as the door opened and she as well as the other villains were hit by barrage of loud noise.
"Feel free to mingle, after all there are villains here from all across the United States and some even from Canada" Shade stated.
Stealth Bug dropped her jaw at the site before her, it had to be thousands of villains sitting in the stands of a stadium that had a giant jumbotron above it with the letters L.O.D on it as well as what looked like the picture of a skull as well as a timer on it counting down and the count showed there was only one minute left which Stealth Bug could only assume meant one minute before the showcase
Stealth Bug followed her group to a spot of the arena with open seats in attempt to calm herself as she was processing what was happening and what she had learned up to this point as the seconds ticked down on the jumbotron.
'This is much bigger than black market drugs, the rumor was just to lure all these villains together, then that shade character brings us here, there are at least sixty thousand people here men, woman, hell there are even children here.'
'Shade said that there were villains from all across the states and even some from Canada here, that's a bad sign, not to mention we have no clue where here is' Stealth Bug thought to herself.
As she turned her attention back to center stage the timer hit zero and the lights slightly dim, Stealth Bug turns her attention to focus on the stage as a woman in a red dress gets on a lifting platform as all the cameras focus on her, Stealth Bug pulled out a notepad and a cockroach flies to her and lands on her finger as she puts a small hidden camera on its head before having it fly off and land somewhere it could get a better angle
She notes the woman has her hair in a bun with shades sitting slightly off her face and a large dragon tattoo around her body.
"Welcome one and all to this very special showcase, my name is Roulette and I'll be running this gig tonight, now all of you are here for different reasons, some of you are here for drugs, some of you are here for money, some are here about the prospect of killing some of those disgusting pro heroes, some are here to find a solution to their own problems and ladies and gentlemen i can assure you we can offer all that and more"
Roulettes words sparked cheers from a majority of the crowd
"Now i know a lot of you thought when you went to the rumor meetings that would be it, but you better strap in because this is the big leagues, as of right now this location is undisclosed to all of you, at least to all you guests, so let me be the first to welcome you to the headquarters of THE LEGION OF DOOM"
That statement got hundreds of whispers and murmurs across the stadium as Roulette smirked, Stealth Bug's mind began to race as her concern was turning into fear, part of her wanted to get out of there but she couldn't, she had to learn as much as she possibly could about this so-called legion of doom.
"Now, now, settle down everyone, let's get right to business. This entire showcase we have planned is for recruitment so if you're not begging to join us by the end you must be a fool, we have a lot to offer" Roulette stated.
"Hey bitch, we don't care about your stupid fucking league, we just want the drugs the rumors talked about" a villain shouted.
Stealth Bug is surprised she can hear him even though he has no mic and is on the other side of the stadium close to the stage floor, it appeared that his voice was coming through the speakers, as she looks around, she notices his face across different screens in the stadium.
'This guy has no mic, but they play him shouting over the speakers?' Stealth Bug thought and then looked to Roulette who still had a smirk 'they clearly want this guy to be heard.'
"Well, well, somebody is impatient. Fine let's start with that'' Roulette says as she turns to the crowds.
"As you know most of the worlds trigger supply comes directly from here in the US, it makes you all powerful right, wrong, even with it you are no match for the pro heroes which is why the legion of doom will be putting out its own superior product, Bane come out here and show our guests what they are missing out on."
Stealth Bug watched as a massive man 4 feet taller than Roulette ascended to center stage accompanied by a few men, Stealth Bug assumed that this was bane, she noted his appearance, he wore combat clothes and a harness, with green glowing tubes that stuck into different parts of his body, the most striking feature was his black and white luchador mask.
"Ladies and gentlemen I present to you Bane the breaker of the mighty, he is in charge of production of our new drug that we call venom, with it bane has his strength increased to a level higher than most strength quirks, why, id even say he can take down you and your boys himself" those last words directed at the villains who shouted at her moments prior who did not take kindly to this
"You picked the fight with the wrong one bitch, my quirk increases my strength by five times and with trigger its fifteen" the villain says accepting the challenge.
The villains moves to strike Roulette as she does not move, or flinch and bane catches it with one hand with ease the villain tries to pull back, but his eyes widen in realization that Bane is much stronger than he is as Bane effortlessly throws him across the stage as his gang rushes in to help.
The whole stadium watches in awe as Bane effortlessly beats down fifteen gang members most of whom have quirks suited for combat.
"Take note everyone, fifteen villains and not a single one of them could defeat my friend who hasn't even started using venom yet nor his quirk, pfft haha, not like he even has one for you see Bane is QUIRKLESS" as Roulette says this the stadium goes quiet.
'He's not just strong, he's tactical, and that makes him dangerous' Stealth Bug thought.
"No fucking way that guy is quirkless, i call bullshit, no way me and my boys would lose to someone without a quirk" the villain on stage shouted.
"Call it what you like, it's the truth, now the fifteen of you should shoot up with that trigger in your pockets."
The villains are shocked that she knows all of them have trigger in their pockets but they use it anyway because they want revenge for their humiliation, as they shoot up Bane touches his harnesses as his muscles begin to bulge, the now noticeably more powerful villains charge Bane only to be defeated, Stealth Bug and the others in attendance watch in shock as Bane beats down on each of the villains punching one villain with such force he was sent flying into the crowd
The main villain with the strength quirk tries to slam Bane but bane just grabs both of his arms and breaks them causing the villain to scream in agony.
Bane drops the villain and walks off having not uttered a single word as henchmen drag the villains off the stage.
"Well that's what you get for not taking our word, now listen up, everything we say is the absolute truth, we at the legion of doom are the real deal, you wanna be real villains, bane who's quirkless just took down fifteen trigger villains while using venom, imagine what he could do to heroes, or what you could do, these are the kind of resources you get when you join us"
Stealth Bug was horrified, if it was true that Bane was quirkless he had just taken on 15 villains on trigger with that venom stuff alone, imagine what villains with quirks could be capable of while on venom, she tried to shake off these feelings, 'Bane was tactical and they weren't that's the only reason he could've won, but what if Bane trained them?' she shook her head at the even worse thought before someone else spoke up
"Is it true that guy was quirkless"
Roulette turned to see a rather plain guy.
"Indeed he is" she responded.
"Then is it possible i can become like him if i join you, i came here because i heard a rumor that you can make the quirkless stand on par with the quirked."
There was a large part of the crowd who cheered upon hearing this Stealth Bug didn't realize how much quirkless people were actually in attendance.
"Indeed, that was the rumor we spread to gain the attention of the quirkless, in this world 80 percent of people are born with quirks while the rest aren't and in this society those who do not poses quirks are shunned from society, treated as less than human when they were the original humans. Sir what is your name."
"Adam"
"Well Adam, you've seen venom but do you think its right for you" Roulette asked
"No mam" Adam responded
"Well Adam, you don't have to worry because i will now present our other special products, for the past 200 years this society has focussed so much on quirks that it has become stagnant in other areas of technological advancement as all technological development has gone to helping the heroes with their precious support items, if it weren't for quirks you guys would have conquered space by now but not to worry because we, the legion of doom, have pioneered a new age of technology far more advanced than anything i-island has to offer, in the field of science we hold all the cards so to give you a taste a senior member of the legion of doom known as Mr Freeze has given us some of his is amazing cryo technology"
As Roulette said this a group of henchmen came to center stage sporting high tech gear, part of Stealth Bug wanted to leave, she had enough info with this new drug alone to shut this place down, but she couldn't take her attention away from what she was currently seeing, if what she said is true about this technology being more advanced than the technology at i-island she had to see what this technology was and gain as much information as she could about it, she also took note of another villain, Mr Freeze
"Adam why don't you come down and help" Roulette asked the man who obliged, when he stepped onto center stage, he was given a high-tech backpack that came with a rather sci-fi looking gun.
"Now for a little information for all of you, our member Mr Freeze is a scientist with a PHD in cryonics. Now Mr Freeze has a quirk, but it is not one that helps him. His quirk makes it to where he can't survive outside of subzero temperatures and that's it, despite his name Freeze has no power over ice, but using his intelligence he created patented cryo tech that can be used by anyone, carry on with the demonstration."
"Stealth Bug took note of as much as she could as it would be useful in taking down this legion of doom but it did not prepare her for what she saw next, Adam was instructed to fire at a target and when he did it was entirely encased in solid ice, Stealth Bug had never seen such a thing up until now, a smile grew on Adam's face as he blasted the other targets.
"If I get to use tech like this, I'm in" Adam remarked.
"Do you hear that people, we got out first new member, welcome Adam to the legion of doom" after Roulette said this thunderous cheers erupted from the stadium as thousands declared their loyalty to the legion of doom.
'This is not good, only two products and over half this stadium is already proclaiming loyalty to the legion of doom' Stealth Bug thought.
"Now before we go any further i think we have entertained our unwanted guests long enough" it took Stealth Bug a split second to think on what she had said before her eyes widened in realization as she jumped for her seat and made a break for it but was tackled to the ground by multiple henchmen before being tied up and dragged down to center stage.
"Well, I knew we were expecting some unwanted guests but twenty underground heroes, i thought you'd all be a little more careful, catching you all was pretty easy" Roulette said.
Stealth Bug looked up to see nineteen more heroes tied up alongside her and if what Roulette said was true then all of these individuals were heroes, the knowledge that heroes had infiltrated the stadium had caused an uproar amongst those in attendance.
"People please calm yourselves, all infiltrators have been caught and will be dealt with, now let's say we have a little game, Adam, would you like to participate."
"Yes mam" Adam replied in response to Roulette's question.
"Now we have seen you hit stationary targets but let's see you hit moving ones" as Roulette said this Stealth Bug felt her ropes loosen but chose not to move as some of the underground heroes tried to make a break for it only for seven of them to be frozen in blocks of ice."
"My, what a nice shot" Roulette commented.
"I had firearms training to protect myself from people with quirks" after saying this Adam freezes 6 more heroes as the remaining heroes who had not yet been frozen made it to the edge of the stage only to hit a barrier that they were unable to see.
"Another one of our technologies, a particle barrier powerful enough to withstand a missile" roulette announced which got the crowd cheering, the heroes realizing there was no escape had no choice but to fight now, some went for Adam and others went for Roulette.
Acting quickly Adam quickly took them out in rapid fire before jumping in front of Roulette to protect her.
"My how noble" Roulette said with a smirk.
"Think nothing of it mam, it will be my honor to serve the legion that gave me the power I have always dreamed of" Adam said.
"Keep this up and you'll make it quite far here" Roulette said.
Soon it was just Stealth Bug on her knees, her mind was telling her to run but her body did not move, Roulette walked up to her with Adam behind her acting as a bodyguard as Roulette knelt down and grabbed Stealth Bug by the face forcing Stealth Bug to look at her.
"Tell me hero, did you enjoy the show so far" Roulette asked.
"Your legion won't succeed, the heroes will stop will" Stealth Bug retorted with a scowl on her face.
"Oh please" Roulette rolled her eyes upon hearing Stealth Bug's words "the heroes of this world are weak and so are its villains, we the legion of doom, will show this world what real villains are like and will rule this world."
"Star and Stripe will stop you, the heroes will stop you, All Might himself will put a stop to you and your legion."
Stealth Bug was trying to command the cockroach she had installed a tiny hidden camera on to get out and get the footage to the nearest police station or pro hero, but her eyes widened at realization that she could no longer communicate with it.
"Funny how you mention all might, he's a decent hero but the legion as seen greater, and we've beaten greater, and if you think your little bug can get the message out to your hero friends or law enforcement, I have bad news for you, also what a disgusting ability, just nasty, were done here, Adam, make it slow" Roulette said.
"Yes mam" Adam responded.
Stealth Bugs legs were then encased in ice as it slowly grew up her body, Adam keeps a consistent beam on her as Roulette walks back to the stage and asks them if they like what they saw as they all responded in cheers, as her head was being encased, she heard Roulette announce the next part of the showcase.
"Now to those here who have children allow me to introduce you to brother blood and his hive academy."
Those were the final words Stealth Bug heard before being completely encased in ice, her heartbeat slowing down before stopping entirely.