Now, we really are in the endgame of Series Three of this story, as we wrap up one storyline with the aptly named arc:

Dark Kingdom!

Back in U.A., things only seem to be getting progressively worse. The students are all following Aizawa's orders like zombies, Aizawa is growing more eratic and controlling, and the teachers are beginning to adopt his mannerisms as well, as if they are contagious. The rest of the school is starting to feel the effects as the collective lapses in memory continue, and Aizawa continues to assert his control over the academy, acting as its defacto ruler.

And Aizawa has the glowing rock in his pocket to thank for that. Thanks to the power of this stone, which he recalls to be the Mind Stone, everyone at U.A. finally understands the reality of hero work. They finally understand what he is teaching them, and they finally listen to him and his rationality.

But now, after the report on Iida's murder... he needs to start expanding his reach. Iida died because he wasn't being rational, he wasn't being logical. It all made sense. If he wasn't being so emotional, then he wouldn't have killed so many people only to be killed in turn. If everyone wasn't being so damn emotional, then things wouldn't be going wrong all the time. Things like Spider-Man and Spot wouldn't be running around, things like both Wars of the Symbiotes wouldn't have happened, everything would be perfectly logical!

And he could do that now. With the stone. He could make them all finally see his logic.

And the things that don't make sense to him, the things that aren't rational or logical... Spider-Man, his villains, the Symbiotes, the Stones, and everything else... they will all make sense soon. The voices in his head, louder than ever now, they've all told him that everything will make sense soon enough.

Everything will finally be rational and logical, as they should be.

But not everyone is willing to see things his way. A growing number of students in the other course, from support to business to even Gen-Ed, are growing concerned with Aizawa's increasing irrationality and controlling behaviour, and have begun to document his transgressions. However, these documents are continuously found by the teachers, whom are increasingly showing signs of Aizawa's personality, and are destroyed, leading to the students to begin taking other measures to record their misgivings about what is going on at U.A..

And that only serves to fuel Aizawa's increasing paranoia. Seeing enemies at all hides and surrounded by those who do not possess any kind of rational thinking, he resolves to start taking extreme measures.

When Momo returns to U.A., she is as zombie-like as the others in the hero course, listless and mindlessly following Aizawa's orders, who's become more paranoid than ever. Hatsume tries to speak to her again, but she is brushed off by her best friend. Even the hero students are showing signs of Aizawa's personality traits on them. Worse yet, they are all working themselves to the point of collapse, starving themselves and not sleeping at all in order to do whatever Aizawa tells them, following his orders mindlessly, and stranger still, there seems to be some sort of strange negative effect around them, just out of the glimpses of their eyes.

And then U.A. begins to lock down on students and others trying to enter and leave. The new campus grounds is sealed off on Aizawa's orders, and the villain bots that the school was able to salvage from the old campus grounds before it was taken over by S.I.L.K. are turned into patrol staff alongside the teachers, with orders to detain any of the students trying to leave and to take them to Aizawa.

Realising that Aizawa has effectively trapped them all inside, Hatsume, alongside Shinso and Maina, resolve to try and expose Aizawa, end his reign on U.A., and free their friends and the rest of the school from whatever control that he had over them.

And so, they begin to get to work, making use of their contacts in all the courses to begin to gather and secret away as much information as they can against U.A. and Aizawa and transmit it out to the proper authorities, including the Spider-Gang and the head of S.I.L.K., Adriana Soria. However, they discover that Aizawa has cut off all communications to the outside world thanks to the enthralled Power Loader, and has gathered and destroyed everyone's phones and smashed all the computers in the school.

Realising that they have no other way of contacting the outside world, a group of students try to make a break for the outside world. However, they are caught by the teachers and brought before Aizawa, and Hatsume and the others watch from a hidden area as Aizawa pulls out a stone from his pocket - which Hatsume recognises as the last Infinity Stone, which she guesses to be the Mind Stone - and uses it on the students, turning them into his obedient followers, covered in that strange negative energy sprouting the same nonsense about logic and rationality as the others do.

Realising that Aizawa has been using the Mind Stone to enslave his students and fellow teachers into following his orders and ideals, Hatsume and the others begin to panic, especially when Aizawa drops all pretences and locks down U.A. entirely. However, Hatsume is able to summon up the courage to rally the students and bring them all together, and resolves to find a way to break out of U.A. and end Aizawa's reign once and for all.

So, they decide to try and find a way to communicate with the authorities outside. However, this objective is made difficult when Aizawa's enslaved goons and robots barge into the support department and begin smashing up equipment that could be used against him. Hatsume, Maina, and the other support students are able to save as much as they can, including Hatsume's prototype armour, but it isn't enough to make an effective communicator to contact the outside world.

They need Momo's help to make a new one.

And so, the students plan a trap to isolate the brainwashed Momo from the rest of her class, break the brainwashing on her, and use her quirk to build the radio they need to make contact with S.I.L.K. and the Spider-Gang.

However, this proves to be too much for them, as despite being brainwashed, Momo is still highly trained and capable to standing up against the gathering of untrained students, especially with her Iron Spider Suit. The only reason that the other students are able to put up something close to a fight against her is because she is physically exhausted and running on fumes.

Soon enough, other students under Aizawa's control, and even some teachers, arrive to support Momo and put down the students, and Hatsume, Maina, and Shinso are forced to retreat as the rest are placed in Aizawa's thrall. Realising that they have no other option, the three students elect to simply rush the entrance to the school and pray that one of them manages to get out.

And so, they go through with their plan, and Mei suits herself up in her unfinished prototype armour, which she had begun designing after she had made the Iron Spider suit with Momo. Originally, she had planned to patent it off as a product to support companies and hero agencies. But then, the HPSC's treachery and the Clone Crisis struck, followed shortly after by the first War of the Symbiotes, and Hatsume realised that her friends out on the field will be forced to confront massive threat after threat, and she no longer has any desire to sit on the side-lines and see her friends come to harm. Not again.

Now, she was ready to fight by their side.

However, the suit isn't quite ready yet. It needs a power source. A battery. Something that Hatsume doesn't have yet. So the suit's weapons are useless right now. It's just a suit of armour. However, it is enough, and she, Maina, and Shinso make a run for it to the gates of the school.

However, they are quickly intercepted by Aizawa's thralls, their master having anticipated their plan. Soon enough, they are being picked off one by one by the enemy, first Maina, and then Shinso, right before they can make it to the only way out of the school, the main gates.

Then just as she is about to be caught, Hatsume, barely saved by her unfinished armour, makes it to the main gates and throws them open, legging it out onto the main streets and running as fast as she can.

Behind her, U.A. seals its doors once more, and Aizawa is absolutely livid at Hatsume's escape, seeing what she is doing as completely illogical. As he enthrals the rest of the school's population with the Mind Stone, the Mind Stone in turns continues to corrupt him, influencing his damaged mind and convincing him to continue his crusade to make those around him see reason, to see his logical perspective of things.

And so, he decides that it is time to reclaim U.A.'s old grounds once more, and make everyone there see things his way.

Meanwhile, Hatsume ends up arriving at the door to S.I.L.K.'s headquarters, and bangs on the door to be heard, desperate to try and get them to listen to her.

But then, the door opens up and she is greeted by Adriana Soria herself, accompanied by her friend, Spider-Man.

And with tears in her eyes, she explains everything to them, and S.I.L.K. goes on the move.

Hatsume is brought inside by Spider-Man, and she tells him of what Aizawa has done, and what has happened to Momo. She then realises that she has feelings for Momo, and resolves to save her.

As such, she finishes her armour, and goes to join the rest of S.I.L.K. as the Spider-Gang flying under Adriana's banner (that being Jessica Drew, Kirishima, Tetsutetsu, and Twice) gather together.

Meanwhile, Aizawa leads his enslaved army from the new grounds of U.A. to their old school grounds, gathering more people along the way and enslaving them to his will as well. By this point, any sense of real rationality has been erased from Aizawa's mind. The Mind Stone has completely corrupted him. Now all that is left is what he believes to be rational and logical. Now all that is left is his will, and his newfound need to impose it on all those around him.

But then, right outside the gates to the old school campus, he is stopped by a small army of S.I.L.K. operatives, including Adriana's portion of the Spider-Gang, Spider-Man, and Hatsume herself.

Adriana asks Aizawa what the hell he is doing, and Aizawa responds that he is simply taking his school back. The short interaction between them is brief and tense, as Adriana prods him as to what the hell he has done with everyone at U.A., whilst Aizawa retorts that he has simply made them see his way of thinking.

Then, finally, Adriana begins to point out the conclusion that she has drawn up. When the Green Goblin first arrived, six stones, the Infinity Stones, were scattered across Japan. Osborn found the Space Stone and Reality Stone quickly, but they were seized when he lost his Infinity Gauntlet at Kamino. The Soul Stone had been seized from the old HPSC and Doc Ock's experiments in cloning Peter Parker, the Power Stone had been taken from the braindead Wolfram back from I-Island, and the Time Stone was collected from Nine after All Might and Peter's time travel fracas.

All that was left was the last stone. The Mind Stone.

And that was what Aizawa was using to control the others, wasn't it? The Mind Stone.

And that is when Aizawa explodes. Nothing makes sense. Nothing about these Infinity Stones makes sense. Nothing that Adriana said makes sense. Nothing that has happened in the last year has made sense. Alternate dimensions, Symbiotes, powers beyond quirks, nothing is rational or logical anymore!

If it seems like Aizawa is suddenly holding the Idiot Ball of all things, then that's the point. Aizawa is not longer thinking rationally at all. He hasn't been for a long time.

This is where we get into the crux of Aizawa's character: his insistence on being rational and logical is ultimately his undoing, and it is all because of the massive amount of chaos and devastating events that has happened since Spider-Man's arrival in Japan.

Aizawa is ultimately what would happen when you put someone who favours thinking about things coolly and logically into the world of Marvel, specifically the Marvel comics, or even just into Gotham from DC. Considering the amount of events and disasters hit them again and again with such a short amount of time between them, especially considering all the supernatural threats, superhumans, and even gods and deities that bring about said disasters, it would only make sense that someone who favours rationality over emotion would snap in the face of such insanity. The Mind Stone only helped to accelerate that mental degradation.

That being said, Aizawa's choices were all his own. He was already of a dangerous mind before the story began. When he lost Oboro all those years ago, while others accepted and moved from his death, Aizawa blatantly refused to let go of his death, and clung onto it like a lifeline, allowing it to influence his decisions and fuel his toxic mentality. It is implied that Aizawa might have been in love with Oboro, but decided to let his crush's death affect his mind and force him down an increasingly dark path, using Oboro's death as an excuse for his actions.

Ultimately, all of Aizawa's decisions are his own to make. He chose to use the Mind Stone on his students, he close to brainwash them into his mindless drones, he chose to do it all.

He could've sought out help earlier. He could've stopped this a long time ago, but he didn't.

This is all on him.

And as Adriana and Hatsume lay this all out on him, whatever shred of mangled sanity Aizawa has left completely snaps. He explodes into a rage, and all the power of the Mind Stone floods into him, forming that familiar negative energy from before that completely covers him.

And then, Aizawa faces them with his army, now sporting a new skin coloured in glowing negative colours.

He is not longer Shouta Aizawa. Now, he is this universe's version of Mister Negative, and U.A. are his Inner Demons.

Mister Negative and his Inner Demons then go on the attack, with Negative lashing out at everyone around him and sprouting the same stuff about logicalness and rationality, none of which holds up anymore. Adriana and Spider-Man go up against him, and the rest of the Spider-Gang and S.I.L.K. operatives, including Hatsume in her new armour, who goes off to take on the brainwashed Momo once more, this time now more than a match to her thanks to the armour that she is wearing.

And during their fight, Hatsume declares her love for Momo, and refuses to leave her side. Not again.

She declared herself to be Iron Heart, and kissed Momo on the lips.

And that is enough to break Momo out of the spell, as she finds herself returning the kiss.

Soon enough, Iron Heart and Iron Spider find themselves fighting side by side against Mister Negative's Inner Demons, and help to stem the tide together, right up until All Might arrives and lands a solid blow on Aizawa, freeing Shinso in turn and allowing him to use his quirk on the rest of the Inner Demons, freeing them from Mister Negative's control, ending his threat.

But Mister Negative himself refuses to go down. His mind still shattered, and even more firmly footed in his ideal of making everyone see the same logic as he does, he uses his quirk on the confused masses to depower them and goes on the run, fleeing out of sight and with the Mind Stone still in his possession.

Adriana is uncharacteristically furious at this loss, and momentarily loses her cool. However, she quickly recomposes herself and regains her cool, ordering her agents to go after him and for the rest, including the Spider-Gang, to assist in helping the formerly brainwashed students. However, Spider-Man takes notice of this, but decides to keep this to himself for now. He's still quite bitter about her executing Toga.

But he doesn't focus on that for now. Instead, he focuses on the reunion between Momo and Hatsume, who are hugging each other tightly. Momo cannot deny that she feels something for Hatsume as well, like she had done for Peter in the past as well. However, as it stands with Peter, she is still not ready for a relationship. However, this time, she simply asks Hatsume to wait for her.

Hatsume eagerly agrees, happy to know that the person that she likes feels the same for her as well.

And Peter looks over them with a smile, happy to know that, despite everything that they've gone through, can find some happiness in the mess that has become of hero society.

But not everything is sunshine and rainbows for them, as the next day, with the aftermath of this latest crisis, now being labelled the Negative War, Adriana meets with Nezu and the leadership of U.A., themselves still in shock from being brainwashed by their former co-worker - who has now been labelled as one of the most wanted villains in Japan - and expresses her hidden anger at their negligence at preventing Aizawa from doing what he did and not firing him and sending him into psychiatric care a long time ago. Before any of them can even get a word in, Adriana makes her point clear. U.A. has been struggling too much since the beginning of the school year, and now this? This is just too far.

As soon as the school year ends, not too long from now, U.A. is to be closed.

And meanwhile, Aizawa, Mister Negative, continues to lurk in the shadows, and fumbles with the Mind Stone in his hand. None of them see it. None of them can see his logic, his rationality.

But they will.

Soon enough, they will.

I kind of lied at the beginning, didn't I? This isn't so much an end to an arc, as much as it is simply putting a bow on it for now.

And to all those hoping for Momo and Peter to get together, yeah, sorry. I kind of planned on them to stay separated from each other back in the Big Time arc, when Momo decides to leave her feelings for Peter behind, as I didn't want her to just become a satellite character for Peter and simply exist around and because of him.

So instead, she gets Hatsume! Maybe. Everything that is happening in the present with the Life Corporation, the Meta Liberation Army, and her parents are still weighing her down, so we're going to need to wait until we know if a relationship between them is going to work.

Reality is complicated and messy like that.

(But can I just say that I am a little biased towards this ship in particular, if only because I've been reading NotBurgerKing's works and I really don't agree with their portrayal of Hatsume there, and I wanted to do something with her and Momo as a pairing here as my own little response to it.)