"Are you sure it was right for us to not call any back up, sir?" Several young police officers stood around their chief, a different man wearing a red and black bodysuit with lightning accents.
"We've got O'Clock here, and we're ready to call reinforcements whenever." The chief replied, his eyes never wavering from the target in front of him.
The squad of 9 was standing in front of a large parking garage, its withered walls emanating ruin. O'Clock took a deep breath, looking towards the police chief and nodding. "I'll be out soon." His deep voice was unfiltered by the mask he wore as he entered the building.
O'Clock slowly paced into the building expecting conflict, but found that even the guards stationed at the entrance were entranced by the fights being held inside. The pro quickly shed his mask and suit, replacing it with a black mask and a camo green trench coat. He also retrieved a knife from the ground nearby, using it to enhance his disguise.
With his legs slowly dragging him into the arena proper, he bore witness to a large man with orange hair grab another man with green hair and slam his head into the cage that surrounded them. 'So the rumors of cage fights were definitely true. Let's see if the ones of enhancers have any merit to them.' O'Clock watched the orange haired man, referred to as The Rappa, finish his match with a chokeslam.
"The Rappa wins again!" The announcer exclaimed, with a loud cheer coming from the crowd before the victor left the stage. "Is there anyone who would like to have a match!?" His long arms drifted around the arena as several hands shot up. O'Clock watched calmly as a man with blue hair and pale skin somehow teleported into the arena through the metal cage. His opponent, an older man with flaming red hair, opened the door to the cage and stepped inside with a smirk. "Here we have a new arrival! What's your name, pajama man?" The announcer brought his microphone up to the blue haired man's mouth.
"Sparkler."
The announcer held back a snort, but the rest of the crowd began to laugh wildly as the man prepared to fight "A-Alright we have Sparkler here fighting against a fan favorite En! En is currently 2-1, can he grab a third win under his belt? Or will he be handed another loss by this man who just got out of bed?!"
With the crowd roaring in approval, many of them voting on their phones or at the several booths located around the edge of the arena, the announcer stepped out of the cage and locked it. "Begin!"
En held out two fingers, firing a pair of fireballs towards Sparkler. The man easily dodged them by sidestepping before En flicked his fingers to the side, causing the fireballs to mimic the action. The blue haired man's hair slightly spiked up before he vanished.
"Where'd you go?!" En yelled, looking around the arena wildly before the cage itself began to spark brightly. A stray bolt of lightning hit the man's shoulder before he jumped into the middle of the arena, staying far away from any of the conductive barriers.
The fireballs En was controlling sputtered in the open air several times before bursting into 10 separate flaming orbs, each controlled by a finger. "Come out, coward!" The man shouted, flicking his head around to stay alert.
.
.
.
.
Sparkler had taken into account what Loki had told him about lack of information. So he decided until he got a feel for the average power in Japan, he would spend a bit more time playing with his food than usual.
From within the fence, he watched lazily as the man continued to complain and yell. 'What a waste of time,' Sparkler thought. At the speed of lightning, he was in the middle of the arena with a hand curled around En's throat.
"I expected more when I came here, not some low level trash." The man said, slowly increasing the strength of his grip. "Announcer, you better have someone better than this under your belt." Sparkler instantly threw the man into the still electrified fence, knocking him out.
"E-En is unconscious! Sparkler wins!" A few woohoos were heard from the audience, but most of them were booing Sparkler's performance. "Are you staying for another fight, or cashing out?"
"Well how much did I make?" Sparkler watched the man re-enter the ring and cover his microphone.
"Well with everyone betting against you, the odds were kind of crazy. If you don't die, you'll be walking out of here with at least 5 million." The announcer explained, taking the man's attention away from the medical crew assisting En.
"Pretty decent… I'll keep going for a while."
The announcer nodded before whispering one final thing, "if you do end up getting injured, we have some trigger on hand to get you up and running again."
"Trigger?"
The lanky man ignored his question and uncovered his microphone. "Sparkler over here says he's staying in! En probably whittled him down a bit, so who's going to come in for the kill?!"
Sparkler sighed, quickly connecting the dots. 'So trigger is the drug Ryuji mentioned. Is it an enhancer, a supplement? Or is it more like cocaine? Why would they want a bunch of druggies fighting, entertainment? If a person can supply drugs to anyone injured so haphazardly, then they must already have a ton of money…' Sparkler shook away his thoughts as the next fight began.
O'Clock watched silently as the pajama clad fighter easily handled several more opponents. The pro was stealthily making his way towards the medical ward, watching the line of defeated fighters being carried in a line towards a certain room.
The doctors were clearly having trouble with the increased rate at which people were being defeated, so O'Clock put on a happy face and walked up to a pair struggling to carry a hefty looking man. "Would you like some help? I see you're having a few problems."
The two doctors, a girl with red hair and a man with black hair, turned around with a smile. "If you would, thank you so much! Just to the room on your second right, okay?"
'Easy' O'Clock smiled and took the fighter off of them. He followed the line of doctors towards the room and quickly stepped inside, locking the door behind him.
He placed the unconscious fighter he was holding on the ground and looked around, with most of the doctors in their staring back. "Who are you? Why did you lock the door?" One of them asked, a bald man wearing square framed glasses. O'Clock instantly quickly dashed around the room, invisible to the naked eye as he knocked every single medic out with a chop to the neck.
The pro breathed deeply after stopping, restoring his oxygen before he began to scour the room for files and folders relating to his goal, evidence of trigger.
"Rumi! Where're you going!?"
"I smell something good, I'll catch up later!"
A tan girl with snow white hair and bunny ears followed the scent she had loved all her life. It didn't smell like flowers, or new leather, rather the scent itself just had an 'aura' to it that she couldn't help but be allured by.
Rumi Usagiyama, her infamy around the Hiroshima area made her more feared than some gangs, but rumors of her did escape the confines of the western provinces. Her alias, or nickname rather 'Usako' was connected to several incidents involving fight clubs and street fights in general.
She didn't mind the attention really, to her it was all one big ploy for another, stronger, opponent to come after her. She fit on both sides of the field, trouble found her, and she was more than eager to look for it. So the telltale signs of a fight were nothing new to her as she heard the roars of a crowd from some rundown parking garage.
The presence of police didn't matter to her, all that did was the source of the oh so intoxicating smell. With each push of her strong legs, only further enhanced by her rabbit mutation quirk, she crept closer and closer towards the building with a manic grin on her face.
She was absolutely not prepared for what she saw once she was inside. A man with pale skin and blue hair striking his best Michael Jackson pose as he continued to fire off bolts of lightning with movement in his legs. The visage of his opponent's spasming body wasn't lost in her eyes either with the crowd laughing out loud at his performance.
'The source' Rumi's eyes glittered in delight as she kneeled down before leaping into the cage straight from the building entrance. She was glad she always wore shorts under her dress uniform for this exact purpose.
"Oh!? A new challenger appears!" The announcer continued to hype the girl up as the man's previous opponent tried to crawl away from the cage, only to be zapped as he touched the metal barriers.
Her new opponent stopped posing, directing his attention towards her with narrowed eyes. "You're the first girl I've seen here."
"And you seem pretty strong!"
"That I am." The man swept some of his hair back while yawning. Only now did Rumi realize he was wearing pajamas and slippers, with a beanie cast off to the side. "So are we fighting or not? I'd prefer not to hit a gi–" He raised his arm mid sentence, deflecting Rumi's powerful kick without even flinching.
What she expected to snap a bone or two, had no effect on her opponent as the man grabbed her leg and slammed her against the ground like a ragdoll. "That said, I'm all for equality. Sparkler's the name." He spoke coldly, letting go off the girl's leg as she laid, stunned on the floor staring into the overhead lights.
"Rumi, but I think Tiger Bunny will be the name I use for this." The girl smiled widely, much to Sparkler's surprise. A good number of heroes would drop out after that show, but the girl seemed more excited than ever to continue.
Sparkler's eyes narrowed as Rumi instantly hopped to her feet, rolling her shoulders with a wide smile. "I think you'll be the perfect opponent for me." She said, barely withholding her excitement within the confines of her body. Her opponent barely gave off a shrug before getting into a boxer's stance.
"You seem a bit better than the fodder here, so I'll at least do this." As soon as the least word left his mouth, Sparkler blocked another drop kick, but was unable to catch the girl's foot before she landed on the ground and tried to sweep out his feet.
The man hopped over his opponent's legs, barely noticing the burn marks her legs left on the floor as they traveled. Her attack finished, and Rumi already planted her hands on the ground for the next one.
Sparkler put up his hands to guard in case of a mule kick, only for Rumi to feint it and leap over him, planting her legs on the cage walls behind him. "Did you forget about the electricity?"
Rumi's eyes widened as thousands of bullet ants seemed to bite at her feet, sending her sprawling across the ground and twitching in pain. She feels a hand on her shoulder before she is lifted up, the pain seeming to flow off of her as well.
"I absorbed the shock. I won't do it again." Sparkler warned, taking a few steps backwards and getting into his stance. Rumi's smile threatened to split her face in half as she ran forward, throwing a kick towards the man's left arm.
Sparkler easily blocked it, parrying the kick only for the girl to use her arms as springboards so she could throw an ax kick towards him from overhead. The man stepped backwards, dodging the heel strike and the subsequent dent that formed in the arena after it missed. 'High school students can break concrete? What the fuck is going on in Japan?!' Sparkler gripped a fist, a bright javelin of lightning forming inside of it.
"Catch." He said, smirking slightly as his attack left his hand with an underarm toss. The girl was still recovering from her ax kick, foot stuck in the ground so she couldn't dodge. Right as the attack was about to land, Rumi's back leg gave out and she did the splits to dodge it, subsequently dislodging her heel at the same time.
The attack hit the cage barrier, tearing apart with ease and silencing the crowd. Rumi looked around, eyes narrowed. "Oh come on! Don't just watch us fight, join in! Mingle with yourselves!"
Sparkler laughed wildly as the crowd began to fight with each other, Rumi also watching with a smile. "That was genius!" Sparkler chuckled, helping the girl up with a hand.
She accepted graciously and jumped back, ready to start the fight again. "Where were we?" Sparkler narrows his eyes as a swirling vortex of black slowly grows behind his opponent.
"You're a rabbit, right? Not a black hole." Rumi looks behind her, right as a hand reaches out until Sparkler grabs her and throws her behind him. "Get out of here kid, you have potential, don't waste it dying here."
"Save me the sappy shit man. Plus, it's not like we can." Rumi looked around cautiously, with Sparkler's eyes following. Those same vortexes of terrifying nothingness began to interrupt fights between crowd members. Sparkler's eyes widened when he saw a man with huge tusks lose them as a hand grasped his shoulder, while another was injected with some sort of black fluid.
"Girl! Come here!" Sparkler latches onto Rumi's hand right as another portal opens up behind her and leaps towards the edge of the cage before bounding out of the building at lightning quick speeds.
The fast splashing of water behind the two drags their attention to a man clad in black chasing after them, somehow managing to match Sparkler's speed.
Several alarms blare out around them, lighting up the dingy driveway as pink gas begins to flood the area. "Hold your breath." Sparkler orders, "and this is going to hurt a bit." He changes into electricity, quickly teleporting inside of the circuits connecting the alarms and heading outside.
O'Clock, now followed by some random fighter that Sparkler defeated, was escaping the building wearing a gas mask when suddenly the shutters began to close. The steel doors which were once used to protect people's cars were now trapping them like a bunch of rats.
"Rappa, can you break through these?" His partner nodded and sprinted ahead, smashing through the doors with ease. Right as they make it outside, they see Sparkler and a girl fly out of one of the flickering street lights nearby.
The two groups quickly converged, Rappa dragging O'Clock behind him while he tried to convince Sparkler to have a rematch. "Shut up. Look behind you." Sparkler's tone was dark, and he stood protectively in front of the unconscious high school girl he had appeared with.
O'Clock's head swiveled around to find a man in a black hood standing there, the same one that had chased Sparkler. It turned its face up, two glowing yellow eyes boring into the group. "Can you two take the girl and get out of here?"
"Not until I get my re–" A bolt of lightning falls from the sky as Rappa is incinerated into dust.
"Hero, do you have any problems with my order?" O'Clock gulped and quickly grabbed Rumi before running away. The hooded man and Sparkler stared each other down, each getting into a fighting stance.
"Master. Warn. Me. You." A hoarse, but also snide voice echoed from the hooded enemy.
"Master huh? Only one guy I can think of that has a fetish to be called that." Sparkler narrowed his eyes, almost to the size of slits before he called down another bolt of lightning.
The being in front of him easily evaded it, throwing his arms widely as they lengthened into fleshy whips. He threw both of them forward like flails, easily breaking the sound barrier as they closed in on Sparkler's position.
"Blue." Hood muttered, watching as his whip-like arms ricocheted off of Sparkler's glowing skin. Before he could blink, his opponent appeared in front of him with a fist reared back to fire. Sparkler's fist shot forward, becoming a blur in the night before a dusty purple vortex opened in front of him, and a second one to his right.
The man barely dodged as his own fist flew through one gate and out of the other, blowing away any trash in the area. "Here I thought we were being fair." Sparkler pulled back his arm just in time for the gates to close, he would've lost a hand if he was a second slower. Hood ignored the comment as his arm slammed into Sparkler's side, earning a large electricity burn for his attempt. "You're weak." Sparkler lurched to the side at the impact, but didn't feel enough pain for him to think he'd been bruised. He quickly straightened his fingers, attempting to spear Hood through the head before the man could escape.
Hood leaned backwards, letting the attack narrowly miss as it tore his jacket to shreds. Sparkler's eyes widened as he made a retreat, jumping over 20ft back. With Hood's clothes destroyed, Sparkler finally got a clear view of the monstrosity hiding below.
Bright, unfocused eyes attached to a pulsing brain. The thing's mouth was attached by some form of stitching and wool, looking like an eldritch take on a sack doll. "What the fuck…" The villain had never seen something so horrifying in his life, but it wasn't the time to panic.
"Master. Clothing." The creature gripped its head, pupils dilating before he focused on Sparkler's glowing form. "Sparkler. Enemy." The thing's arms extended outwards, flailing in every direction possible at the speed of sound. Each change in direction resulted in the sound of a whip being cracked echoing throughout the entire suburb. Sparkler carefully eyed the attacks, narrowly dodging past several of them while preparing his own attack, his first named one.
'Stitch together a weapon for me.' By a well trained command he focused his thoughts. Hood's arms flailed widely, he'd clearly lost his mind after his appearance was revealed. 'Be my sword and shield.' Sparks of electricity fell from the heavens as Sparkler ignored the attack that just landed on his side, blood openly flowing onto the pavement. 'Protect and kill for me,'
"Notus!"
The electrons in the atmosphere excitedly collected within his right fist, creating the glowing form of a blade. Sparkler swung wide, deflecting one of the arms coming towards him with his weapon before spinning around and reaching towards Hood's neck with a slash. A purple warp gate started to form in the trajectory of the attack and Hood's stitched mouth formed into a smile. A second warp gate opened behind him, patiently waiting to transport the man's attack. "You. Lose." Hood muttered.
Sparkler quickly dragged his arm through the gate, while also contorting his body to the right, letting his blade pass harmlessly by his hip. "No. You did." The man's blade reverberates wildly, slowly concentrating into a thin needle that extends far beyond the original attack's reach. The ashy smell of burnt flesh permeated the air as the needle of lightning went straight through Hood's brain, burning the organ entirely upon contact.
"Kurogiri. You'll be punished for this." The soft beeping of a respirator was easy to hear in the quiet room. A man, attached to the device like it was his only lifeline, and a shadowy figure with golden eyes similar to those of Hood's.
"Yes sir." The shadow almost seemed to quiver as he knelt down, ignoring the video camera laying directly in front of him.
"Why is he here!" The man gripped the arms of his chair tightly, imprinting his hands onto the wood permanently. "Why… hehe." The man's frown lowered, slowly morphing into a smirk, before a wide grin. His sickening laugh, cracking due to injury, bellowed throughout the halls of his hideout. "This puts a pin in my plans for now, but I still managed to get a nice boon from it, or several." The man stood up, his servant dutifully filing behind him. "Recover the body if you can, it's still useful for testing."
"Yes sir." Kurogiri held out a hand, his misty form morphing into a wide oval that he stepped through.
"No doubt about it. This'll either be the greatest opportunity or obstacle in my way. With his quirk, I'll be untouchable." He tightened a fist, blood slowly dripping onto the floor while he walked away. "Anyway, onto the next pet project."
Sparkler carefully studied Hood's dead form, watching it twitch from the live volts pulsing through its veins. "What a sick experiment." The man growled. He may have been a villain, but even he had moral boundaries he wasn't willing to cross.
He barely noticed the swirling vortex of darkness forming below Hood's body as he called down a thunderbolt, incinerating his enemy in an instant. "Nice try." He watched two beady golden eyes sink back through the portal before it vanished, without anything to take back.
"It may have only been a little bit of money, but I think the information gained was worth it." He channeled a small amount of lightning to his palm, using the heat to cauterize his wound. Sparkler dragged his phone out from his pocket, idly tapping away until he pressed the call button.
"What is it now?" Loki's annoyed voice snapped over the call.
"We've got a problem." The aura of his partner instantly shifted as Loki quieted down, losing the annoyed tone.
"Care to elaborate?"
"All for One, or whatever his alias is now, is on the move. He's conducting human experiments and creating creatures with exposed brains and extremely strong quirks."
"Hmm, alright. Do you want me to key in the Japanese authorities?"
"I think it would be for the best, there was a pro there as well. I'm not sure whether it's a double agent All for One planted or someone investigating the place we were at. Should I approach him?"
"Oh fuck. Watch out, you're going to have a problem at your position soon."
"Your turn to elaborate."
"Since you went to Japan, I decided to hack into All Might's call system, his bat signal thingy. It just went off from a call near your location, it should take him a few minutes to reach you."
"Alright. I've just got one thing to grab before I go."
Loki laughed over the phone quietly, "this another friend you made?"
"Oh you know me, charismatic and all. I just had to make another while I was out."
"Sure buddy. I'll get onto alerting the authorities soon, but we have a client in Russia begging for my attention first."
"Who? I thought we stopped all contact with them after Snow Day."
"It's one of Jaqueline's men. They're stationed there and need an escape at the border. Just the usual cut off all the security and call a cab sorta thing."
"How the world has changed when we can call armored insurgent forces cabs." Sparkler chuckled and gave a quick goodbye before ending the call.
"Alrighty, let's go grab the rabbit and go." The man hopped between his feet before once again intruding on the circuitry of the city for traveling purposes.
O'Clock had just finished convincing the chief of police to call All Might to their location when the blue haired man made his reappearance through a street light's globe. "Sup. Mind if I take the girl?" He gestured to the high school girl he had with him when they left.
"What happened to the hood guy?" The pro asked, trying to buy as much time as possible for All Might to arrive. This was a man who killed another without flinching, he had to be dangerous.
"I killed it. Same way I did to your friend, and how I will do to you if you don't hand over the girl."
"Hand over? I assume you're not her guardian then." O'Clock narrowed his eyes, shifting ever so slightly so he was closer to said student.
"I know you're trying to buy time for All Might, and don't think it'll work. Or, don't think I won't kill you without a second thought if you don't follow my orders." In the face of overwhelming force, O'Clock froze, something that wasn't lost on the villain.
"I AM HERE!" A bold, deep voice boomed, gathering the attention of everybody. The pavement under them cracked as a hulking hero landed, throwing up dust everywhere.
He grinned widely, flexing his muscles as the dust settled to reveal his red, and white hero costume. Two long blonde tassels of hair sprung up from his head almost like a rabbit's ears. The stripes of his costume wrap to his muscles like they were hopelessly trying to bind his overwhelming strength. He easily stood over 7 feet tall at full height, hulking over any villainy that may occur in his path.
"All Might!" O'Clock yelled, thankful for the hero's timely arrival. The number one hero turned to respond, only to halt when an explosion rocked the entire area, throwing some of the weaker police officers off of their feet. The entire group turned to see hundreds of the crowd members and underground fighters beginning to run through the city, attacking civilians indiscriminately. "So this is why I was called." All Might hummed, barely leaning over before he sprinted towards the villains. O'Clock and the police force watched in shock as the American influenced hero sped through hundreds of villains, defeating them all in a matter of seconds. 3, to be precise. Those 3 seconds however, were more than enough for Sparkler to grab Rumi and make an escape, hopping past several buildings at the speed of lightning. "Mission. Complete!" He chirped happily, bouncing off of another building's roof before pulling out his phone to notify Ryuji.
Sub to the for early chapter n that