Cutting straight through the forest seemed like a good idea in the moment, but Izuku Midoriya would come to regret that decision dearly. The fight with the villain Muscular had robbed him of his r8ght arm, leaving him helpless to do anything but plan. He had hoped when they met up with Tsuyu and Uraraka the escort mission would go even easier than he had hoped. That is, until he disappeared. At first, Midoriya assumed he had run off to take on the villains by himself (that was very Kacchan of him) until he saw the man in the brown jump suit, cane and mask made himself known.

"If you mean him, I made him disappear with my magic." The villain proclaimed, tossing a blue pearl in hand. "This one shouldn't be on the heroes side, you know." He added.

Midoriya felt a sense of rage overtake him, knowing that Kacchan was in danger. It was like the Sludge villain all over again, and probably he didn't know it. "Bring him back!"

The villain chuckled. "What a weird thing to say. Bakugo is his own person. You're so selfish."

"Move!" said Todoroki, son of Endeavor, stepping in front of Shoji and Midoriya. A wall of ice went to the villain's perch. He leapt out of the way and onto a different tree.

"We want to show him a different path. An alternate way of thinking outside your strict values. Kids these days are made to choose a path."

Shoji looked around in alarm. "It's not just Bakugo. They got Tokoyami too!"

"To talk with us now, you underestimate us." Todoroki said defiantly.

"Sorry. I was an entertainer. It's a bad habit." He said dismissively, even mockingly. "Moonfish, the man with razor teeth, was on death row without appeal. Tokoyami dealt with that killer quite easily so I figured he was a good catch too."

Midoriya wouldn't have any more of it. "Damn it, bring them back!"

"Calm down, Midoriya." Todoroki said. Midoriya tried to remember what came next but it all came as a blur as they traveled through the forest, and strapped themselves onto the raincoat wearing villain and landing in a clearing with other unfamiliar faces were. Villains, it had to be.

"Give us back Kacchan and Tokoyami!" Midoriya shouted, stomping the raincoat-wearing villain into the ground. Midoriya could hear other voices in the background even a girls' squeal but didn't pay any more attention to it. What he did notice was a flash of blue fire. Izuku leaned back, hoping to dodge it. He did so, but holy crap, it was hot! Midoriya felt right like he was back at the UA Sports Festival and next to Shoto Todoroki's fire. What was that about?

Midoriya felt the familiar sense of coldness next to him, seeing Todoroki sending a wall of ice to a villain wearing black and white suit, white covering his eyes. Midoriya had only a moment to blink before some blonde girl who was kind of pretty sent a needle careening Midoriya's way if he hadn't dodged it as he saw it. "I'm Toga, Midoriya!" She said as she talked him to the ground. "I thought so earlier too. If you had more blood on you, you'd look more handsome." Midoriya didn't care for her words, only the knife that was pointed right at his face. To Midoriya's great relief, Shoji knocked her aside. Whatever she said, Shoji did not like in the slightest, holding out one of his original arm for support. Todoroki sent another ice wave, but this time, the white and black villain was prepared and slashed through the ice, setting himself up on a platform.

The rain coat wearing villain appeared once more in front of the villain, reaching into his pockets but panicking when he couldn't feel anything inside. Shoji held out the two blue balls that Midoriya had seen earlier that night. That was it! The rain coat wearing villain had some ort of compressing Quirk where he could store anything inside! What if it didn't have either of them? Midoriya refused to consider that thought, only rushing forward to be sure. As he, Todoroki and Shoji charged, they saw a giat muscular form of a man with an exposed brain protected by some sort of purple armor. There was only ont thing it could be. "Nomu! This way!" If Midoriya wasn't in so much pain from his arm being broken, he might have heard more of what they said. But he just kept running forward and into a portal. They didn't run into it per se, but they saw those familiar yellow eyes glaring down at them. Midoriya glared back up at it. He would never forget those eyes he first saw the the USJ, the one who teleported them in in the first place.

"This guy." Shoji said, clearly angry about the memories.

"The warp-guy!" Midoriya said. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say in that moment, but he was so tired he didn't care so much.

"It's been five minutes since the signal. Time to go, Dabi."

All around them, portals started appearing. Izuku was too exhausted to see all of them, but he could hear the crazy lady call out to him at some point but he didn't listen to it. There was only one portal left in a second, the one where the scarred villain and the coat wearing villain were passing through. "Wait, the target is still…" Izuku heard some but didn't make out the rest of it, the pain in his arm being too great. What he did make out was something about a 'present.' Whatever the present was, it couldn't have been good from them.

"It's a habit, one of the basics of magic." The coat villain said, peeling his mask off to reveal a sleazy man, someone who could con a grandmother out of her life savings sort of evil. "When I flaunt something, there's always something else I don't want you to see."

Midoriya looked around frantically. This villain was clearly taunting them so maybe there was something even he missed.

"Don't count on it." The villain said as if reading their minds. He stuck out his tongue, with two new blue pearls resting on the tip of his tingue. 'We'd been tricked! He cam compress anything he wisheds! Even people!' Todoroki and Midoriya thought, without realizing it was simultaneous in thought. The villain went on an excessively long rant about how he smuggled Todoroki's ice sliced by the black and white villain and himself and compressed it so it would resemble their fellow students. Midoriya paid no attention to the rant, instead charging forward to try and reclaim the blue marbles, living or dying be damned. Midoriya was going so fact and concentrating so much he didn't notice that Todoroki had caught up to him.

"If you noticed what was in my right pocket, you would have rushed in immediately." The trio were too far away to reach for him, if it weren't for Aoyama's timely intervention in shattering the magician's mask. He spat out the two marbles out of instinct, Sjohi and Todoroki reaching for the as one unit. Midoriya, his arm jolting with more pain than he ever felt them before, caused Midoriya to stumble behind them. Shoji grasped hold of his marble, but the scarred villain had better reflexes than Todoroki, taking it in hand. He seemed to taunt him for a moment. The tranchcoat villain held his top hat, looking as if a young child didn't get his Happy Meal for lunch standing next to the scarred villain. In that moment, he looked so much like Todoroki it startled Midoriya but a moment like this could not be wasted. The magician released his pearls, Tokoyami falling to the ground in shock in one pearl's case. In the other, Bakugo stood with a look of shock as if he couldn't believe he was in any danger at all. "Kacchan!" Midoriya shouted as he charged to the disappearing portal. The two had known each other for at least 10 years now, and Midoriya had yet to recall any moment here he looked this afraid for his life, tears streaking down his face.

"Stay away, Deku!" Bakugo's face was the most scared Midoriya had ever seen it being. Midoriya lunged forward, swinging his arm wide to try and snag Kacchan. By some miracle, he grabbed hold!

"Yes! Hang on, I got you!" Izuku called out, pulling as hard as he could. The scarred villain was stronger still and Izuku found himself pulled through the portal. Midoriya found himself in the middle of a bar, a rather shabby bar at that. Midoriya could see Kacchan strapped down to a chair, looking fearful as Midoriya's head was held on the bar surface.

"Let's have some fun with him. Come on let's do it!" Midoriya looked to see the crazy lady who was part of the villain attack gleefully cheering him on. For what, Midoriya didn't want to know. The tried to punch at anyone nearby, landing next to an assortment of villains, one of whom is the hand-wearing villain who led the attack on USJ.

"We meet again, Midoriya." The hand-faced villain grabbed Midoriya and pinned him against the bar rim. Midoriya tried to recall as much information about him, something about the USJ Midoriya couldn't quite make out. If the pain in his right arm was mad before, it was a genuine monster now. The same villain laid a hand on his face much like the mall. "I did want to thank you again for helping me see clearly. I understand everything now. But your usefulness has run out, so goodbye."

"Stop. We may still have use of him." A cold, malicious voice rang out throughout the bar. Midoriya looked up, only seeing a computer screen with purple coloring. Kacchan was already strapped down into a chair, unusually quiet. Was it just Midoriya or was the bar getting hotter?

"What other use could you have for him, sensei?" Shigaraki asked, anger evident in his voice as if he were deprived of his favorite toy. "He was on my list of heroes in training to kill. He must die! You know what he's capable of."

"With his power, he most certainly is a threat." The voice reasoned. Midoriya tried to focus on what was said next but his vision had long been swimming before it went black. The next time, Midoriya saw them in a concrete warehouse being dragged through. They passed between rows of tanks that let out strange green light.

"What is this place?" Midoriya whispered, still dazed. He felt like fainting again but Midoriya kept his eyes open.

"This is our unofficial headquarters where the real magic happens." The coat wearing villain said, his mask discarded. There were two others who were dragging him, but Midoriya couldn't make them out. They traveled deeper into the warehouse, the Nomus looking bigger and nastier than even the one at USJ. A sense of horror filled Midoriya as he guessed what they were going to do.

"You can't do that!" Midoriya shouted, trying to pull himself from the villain's grasps but they held on tightly.

"What are you…" The raincoat villain looked to the tanks. "Oh don't be so gauche. Nothing of that sort is happening. You're going to be our guinea pig for something very special. We're here." He stopped, tapping his foot on different tiles. "Here it is." He kneeled down and peeled it up, revealing a set of stairs going down. "We only discovered this a month ago." He explained as they group traveled down into the darkness, only illuminated by dim bulbs on the wall. Dark… Midoriya felt his head lulling but he forced it back up. "The Japanese government during the time of Quirk emergence was very secretive, experimenting on children and adults who had these powers never seen before. So many secrets, so much knowledge lost or ground down in this society." He scoffed. "We will change that soon." They traveled down the empty concrete hallway until they reached a metal door. "Spinner, could you open the door for me please?"

"Fine, Mr. Compress. Move." One of the villains, Spinner, stepped to the door and grunted as he pulled but the door swung open. The inside was a square room filled with desks, rotting paper, explosions. What caught Midoriya's eye was the doorframe in the middle. It was metallic with a set of red lights overhead and in the middle was a swirling grey almost like ocean waves.

"What is it?" Midoriya asked.

The raincoat villain, Mr. Compress, grinned at him. "That, is what we're here to find out."

"What do you mean?" The lizard man, Spinner, asked. "I'd never seen or heard this before."

"It's a portal." Compress said, making his way to the papers on a nearby desk, "Created just as hero society was starting out. There's not a lot of documentation that remains from that time and what is left is vague and confusing. It makes reference to some man who appeared during the fall of the old world, a man who stabilized the chaos and ushered in a new age before boop!" Compress snapped his fingers, "Disappearing into thin air. No one knows what happened to him. No name was given either, just referenced him as Gunslinger."

"Gunslinger?" Midoriya muttered to himself. He had spent many years before going to UA studying everything he could to be a hero, history especially. Gunslinger never once came up.

"Never heard of him. How is he relevant?" Spinner asked, sounding out of patience.

"He created this, under contract from the Japanese government." He gestured to the portal. "No one knows how he made it or how it works but was listed as quote 'the key to everything,' whatever that means. They also say you need this to use it." He produced a metal plate from his jacket. It looked just like a plate but the closer Midoriya looked, the more he saw a smudge of blood in the corner and the symbol, a white leaf with a curled stem. "This will be the first time in 300 years this has been used. What lies on the other side? Can we work it so we have a backup in case Kurogiri gets caught again? Oh, the possibilities!"

"Compress, let's get this over with." Spinner said, taking Midoriya to the portal after snagging the metal plate. He held it up as instructed. The rippling got more intense than before and the light turned green up top.

"You're not thinking about going through too!" Compress stated, sounding shocked.

"And we rely on a boy who is our enemy to tell us what he sees?" Spinner said. "I will trust my own eyes." Together, they went through.

Midoriya gasped as he felt himself being pulled through. Wind rushed through his ears as they were sucked through the black tunnel. Midoriya felt himself being buffeted around. Something about this place felt wrong, as if this Gunslinger was inexperienced building portals and this was his first attempt. "Stay close!" Midoriya screamed as Spinner pulled him closer to him. "If Stain saved your life, then you're worth something to the world. don't deserve to die like this."

"Stain…" Midoriya's eyes widened. The fierce glare he sent to Endeavor sending chills down his spine even in memory. As they fell through, Midoriya saw shadows dancing about them. People, people with what Midoriya assumed were mutant Quirks, and other things he honestly couldn't wrap his head around like a lizard that looked more like a kite than reptile. Even with the wind though, Midoriya started hearing voices singing softly and with a child-like quality to them. This is what he heard, "Tommyknockers, tommyknockers, knocking on my door. I wanna go out, don't know if I can cuz I'm so afraid of the Tommyknocker man!"

"What's a Tommyknocker?" Midoriya muttered to himself. Spinner heard him, and looked nervous enough to where his eyes never stayed in one place more than a second. Midoriya heard the song get louder until in a flash, Midoriya saw the tunnel wall bulging inward before something came through it! It looked something like those little green aliens you'd see all the time in America except these ones had long and tall heads, slender bodies, fangs the size of eagle talons and solid black eyes that held evil behind them.

"Behind you!" Midoriya shouted. Spinner turned, his eyes widening. He lifted his sword and stabbed it but the monster was tougher than either had anticipated. Sword still embedded, it snagged Spinner and with an inhuman screech, pulled him through. Midoriya was alone now. He looked around, watching for anything that might come after him again. He still had one good arm and both legs if he had to give another 100% smash.

The song didn't come back again, but Midoriya did see the tunnel walls bulging once more and a long purple tentacle had appeared. It scoured around but didn't seem interested in Midoriya. It opened the inside of its tentacle and to Midoriya's horror, saw rows of razor-sharp teeth on the inside. It lunged at Midoriya but he punched it. "Aah!" Midoriya screamed, feeling the teeth digging into his wrist but the job was done. He was propelled faster through the tunnel, the tentacle disappearing behind him. In a flash, Midoriya felt himself land on his back on solid ground.

"What a night." Midoriya muttered, sitting himself up. The tunnel was gone, the portal sitting up next to him.

"Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop there, human!" Midoriya looked up. A man was standing there, wearing a white sleveless vest and a mask only overing the eyes. He had a pair of deer horns on the top of his head, some sort of mutant Quirk. Deer-like senses perhaps? Still, he wasn't friendly and Midoriya had enough.

"Smash!" Midoriya sent only 10% of One of All to the man, who was smashed against the wall. Midoriya followed the tunnel, running as fast as his legs could carry him. There were other voices in the tunnel but they died down and finally stopped. Midoriya kept running still, reaching a door on the far end. With a nudge, it gave. Midoriya saw a city sprawling out before him. The buildings were uniform and grey, no bright lights that Midoriya had associated with any city in Japan. "Where am I?"

"You're in Vale, young man." Midoriya turned to see an old man with silver hair standing next to him. He wore a green vest and shirt under a black suit, black pants and a very small pair of glasses. He held onto a metal cane and looked like he knew how to use it. "The better question is, who are you?"