"We need fire suppression on Canel Street!"

"Manual here!"

"Redirect any ambulances away from Tender Heart, we just lost main power and are on generator!"

"Cancel request at 6th, we've pulled the survivors out."

"Officer down! Officer down!"

"Supposed rioters misidentified. Civilian watch group. I'm deputizing them to use their quirks to assist with the fire at the Clarkson Building. Be advised!"

"The Nomu came out of the fucking sky!"

The calls didn't stop coming.

Ahsoka had thought that she was used to dealing with chaos. After all, she had become a Padawan during the Clone Wars. Constantly moving from planet to planet, unable at times to remember what sector she was in, having to see the same face a thousand times over and remember who they were… and knowing that she might also never see them again if the battle went the wrong way. Always wondering what new horror the Separatists would be sending her way. Her master coming up with an insane scheme and if it wasn't him it was her grandmaster!

But never had she felt so… helpless… as she did in that moment.

The calls kept coming in. And it wasn't even the bad ones that were getting to her because there was so many good ones as well. People telling her that the threat was over, that they'd found the civilians that were in danger, that the fire was out. They were beating back the madness and destruction that had been threatening Hosu. They were going to win, she could feel it.

But the calls didn't stop coming.

"Tano?" Nedzu said and she looked down to find that he had gotten out of his chair and was pressing a hand to her leg. It took Ahsoka a long moment to realize that, even as she continued to type on her keyboard, her breathing was so hard and sharp that it was physically hurting her. "Tano…"

"I… I'm fine."

"You're not," Nedzu said simply. "But I sense that you won't stop until this is all over with. Once we are done I will be contacting Hound Dog and you will begin therapy."

"…we call it Mind Healing," she said softly, even as she switched from actually hearing the calls to getting them as text messages; she didn't like that as sometimes, if there was too much background noise or someone's words were slurred it caused a translation issue with the software but it allowed her now to talk with Nedzu, her own typing being turned into an automated voice that directed the heroes, police, medics, and fire rescue to where they needed to go.

"Whatever it is called you will be seeing him." He patted her leg. "There is no shame in it. Several of your classmates are assisting with this and I will be asking for therapy for them as well. Most likely demanding it."

"Right."

"The best thing you can do is break it down. Understand that you can't do everything at once. Imagine it is a wall of ice. Yes, it keeps building upon itself, will keep coming at you… but you can't change that. All you can do is keep breaking off chunks until the sun comes out and melts it all away. And when it melts it will be so sudden that you will be terrified by how quickly it goes silent."

"…okay," she said, swallowing before focusing fully on the screen.

"Water main break on 12th!"

"Present Mic reporting in! Sorry I'm late!"

"Shots fired! Shots fired!"

"Villains are headed towards Evacuation Area Code 17. Be on alert."

"Still looking for- wait, I just found the kids parents!"

"Nomu is NOT down! I repeat, the Nomu is NOT down!"

~MC~MC~MC~

The group of nine slowly strolled along the street like they didn't have a care in the world.

Perhaps they didn't.

Normally Izuku wouldn't have thought too much of that, seeing as he had spotted via his sniper scope many people making their way towards Evacuation Area Code 17. But the report he had gotten directed to him by Ahsoka, that there were reports of villains headed his way, had him on edge.

And the nine men that were currently making their way towards him did NOT look like scared civilians.

"Officer Hirosi," Izuku said, tapping his ear piece to get in contact with the police officer who had been assigned command of the Evac Area, "I have nine potential hostiles making their way towards the main entrance."

"That's not good, kid," the Officer said. "We are trying to get the latest arrivals through but they are injured. And I don't have anyone to send you."

"…understood," Izuku said. "I will handle it."

"How do you do it?" Izuku asked Rex, the two of them getting some water after their latest run through the obstacle course on Dagobah Beach. "How do you remain calm in a battle? That's always my biggest fear… that I will panic in the middle of one."

"I wish I could tell you some secret trick to keep calm," his mentor said as he wiped his mouth with the back of his head. "But I've never found one that works for a single person. I can tell you what drives me to keep calm."

"And that is?"

"I think of every person that will suffer if I panic. How they are all counting on me. How I have to keep going to make sure THEY can keep going. And for me… that is enough."

Izuku took a breath.

"This is Evacuation Area Code 17!" he called out. "If you are here to leave the city drop your weapons and identify yourselves!"

"We-" one of the nine, a short little man with flowers growing out of his head, began to say, only for another figure to cut him off.

"I don't like talking to someone I can't see!" he snapped. He was taller than the four smallest members of the group but still shorter than the other four, who were all rather tall. But the new speaker was thickly built with hands that seemed to be made of steel.

Izuku considered his options. 'Right now I'm in the best position if there is a fight. They can't see me. I can fire on at least 4 of them and put them down before the others can attack and I could easily get to a new vantage point. But… that would mean a long, drawn out fight afterwards that risks the Evacuation Area. If I go down there I put myself at risk and if they get past me they will breach the Evacuation Area… but I might also be able to delay things long enough that they can call for reinforcements…'

A no win situation.

Rex had presented those many times to him. Explaining how in war there were times where, no matter what you did, someone would suffer. You just had to decide who it was.

Izuku would be a hero.

So there was really no other choice.

Slinging his rifle over his shoulder he repelled down the building, landing in a crouch before the nine.

"I am Hero Intern Longshot. I was assigned to protect this evacuation area from any that would see it harmed."

"Anyone that would see it harmed… or villains?" the eldest of the group, an old man with a bushy beard, asked him.

"Harm," Izuku stated.

The old man let out a sigh. "We are criminals."

"What are you doing?" another of the shorter men hissed but the old man waved him off.

"However we don't wish to remain in Hosu during all of this… it is far too dangerous and we have wounded." Izuku had spotted one of the men, a burly man with light brown hair and a neatly trimmed beard, favoring his left shoulder. "But as you can imagine giving our names to the police might cause us some trouble. I assure you we mean no harm… but we won't be providing our names and we won't allow ourselves to be brought into custody. Will that be a problem?"

Izuku considered the old man for a long moment.

He knew what many would say he should do. They had openly admitted that they broke the law. Had hinted that they would attack him if he didn't give them what they wanted.

But… they were also clearly worried about their friend and had done nothing as of yet.

Izuku touched his comm.

"I have nine more coming in. False alarm with the villain report. I've already cleared them so get them through."

"Understood," the officer said.

"Thank you," the tallest, and most fair, of the nine said.

"Don't make me regret it," izuku warned before going back to his perch.

~MC~MC~MC~

Endeavor growled to himself as he looked about for another Nomu to fight. He wanted to do something showy, something impressive. Something that would get him the lead headline on every paper in the country, on the home screen of every major news website, and all the reporters clamoring for an interview with him.

After his conversation with Star Might he was less than impressed with how soft hearted the girl was. She concerned herself with the wrong things, focusing on foolish civilians that didn't know when to get out of the way rather than worrying about stopping the villains that were destroying the city. It was a way of thought that would only embolden more criminals and he needed to show her just how wrong she was. Him being splashed everywhere, hailed as the hero that had ended the threat to Hosu, would go a long way to doing just that.

'I need her to see that my way is better than her father's,' he thought to himself. He just knew that the reason why she had acted as she had was because of All Might; the man was a giant bleeding heart, fretting over every little kitten and bunny rabbit he saw. Well, those that he actually saw. Sometimes the man was so utterly blind to things too which made Endeavor so… frustrated. Naïve, blind, stupid. That was All Might. 'And he's made his daughter the same way. New heroes, the ones that are coming out of UA and the rest, they need understand how things are. You can't show mercy to villains… you need to come down hard on them. Everyone talks about All Might being the Symbol of Peace but it is all of us below him, cleaning up his messes, who are the true reason peace has been achieved.'

It was something that frustrated Endeavor to no end. So many people… they just didn't understand the world at all. Didn't get how their society worked. You had the bleed hearts like All Might who worried about every innocent person and wanted to make sure that they were cared for. Except that made them unable to do what they needed to do. They held back for fear of hurting one of the stupid little sheep, ensuring that the weaklings were able to continue on breeding and producing more sheep. It was simple evolution! The strong and the smart survived, the weak and the stupid perished. But by doing all he could to lower himself down to their level, worry about their existence, All Might allowed them to continue on and thus weaken the world. And he also allowed the criminals, the villains who were the true blight on the world, to breed. Some said that villains were like rabid dogs but Endeavor disagreed… they were diseased deer. They could cause violence, of course, but they could also infect others. Through breeding. Through friendships. Through ties of love. They led people to believe it was okay to break the rules and that was something Endeavor could not allow. Everyone needed to understand their place.

"Give them another chance!" people would tell them. "They can be redeemed!" He'd heard about Star Might setting up a rehabilitation program for villains and knew that once they were married that would be the first thing he'd get his new bride to stop. Villains could not be redeemed.

"We just don't know what happened… he was making such good work in the programs."

Those words, spoken by a weak-willed hero while Endeavor's father's lifeless body was rolled away, echoed through his mind.

Star Might… she would probably pat every Nomu on the head, tell them to behave better next time, and then go off skipping away. It would only be when they killed another innocent person that she would be shocked into action… and, unless Endeavor was there to mold her into a proper hero, let them off with a 'stern warning'.

'I will get her to see how the world truly is,' Endeavor thought as he landed on a roof, scanning Hosu for more signs of trouble. There was plenty of it to go around but he was trying to save himself for the Nomu. The true threats. Let the lesser heroes deal with the lesser villains; it was a waste of Endeavor's time to go after such small fish. 'I will impress her with how well I do in Hosu… how I put an end to this madness. She will see how little she did, how she is ignored by the papers. How the villains she tries to spare just go back to their ways and the civilians demand more and more from you even as they refuse to listen. I will wear away that foolish idealistic shell of her's and then…'

He smirked.

'And then we will set about together creating the next generation of heroes.'

But first… he needed to find a Nomu-

Something slammed into the back of his head and he whipped around, cursing himself for becoming distracted. He reached up even as he scanned the rooftop, his fingers coming back coated in some kind of powdery substance. He rubbed it, staring at it carefully, trying to figure out what it was. He had had more than one young punk throw something at him, thinking that they could get one up on 'the man' by being that foolish. The last one had ended up tossed into a jail cell for 6 months for assaulting a hero. Oh, his court-appointed lawyer had tried to argue he was just a stupid kid but kids needed to learn that actions had consequences!

'Usually its water balloons,' he thought as he still studied the powder, having found no one on the roof. 'Maybe a bag of shit if they are really brave. What is this though…'

Another something hit him on the side of his head and he whipped around, seeing something darting through the darkness. He moved to charge only for the figure to stop… and Endeavor to glower.

"The Hero Killer."

"No… not The Hero Killer."

"You deny that you are Stain?" Endeavor asked as he walked towards the ragged figure.

"I am Stain… but I am not The Hero Killer."

Endeavor snorted at that. "What? Going to try and pin this on someone else?"

"Not at all," Stain replied casually. "its merely that you all of have pinned a name on me that doesn't actually work. See… I haven't killed a single hero."

"Then explain the bodies you've left in your wake."

"Bodies… but not heroes. They were never heroes. They were vain little celebrities who desired nothing more than to be idolized by a public that was blinded to their failures. Or they were glorified villains who used the cloak and cowl of heroics to allow them to brutalize all in their way without fear of being punished. I have not killed a single true hero… I have cut away the rot that has invaded the Heroic Society so that new growth could occur again. That is why you hate me, Endeavor… because you know that in the end the history books will look upon the two of us and see me as the true cure for the ailments of our society… and you as little more than a violent thug that caused more damage than he ever stopped."

"How utterly delusional," Endeavor said with a scoff. "Believing that you will be seen as anything other than a villain who killed others."

"And you expect me to believe that you care? It is well known how you feel about your fellow heroes, Endeavor. You see them as weak. Pathetic. Stepping stones towards your greatness. If they are willing to bow to you then you are show them a bit more care but you still deride them for not being strong enough to challenge you. You hold that you are an island in a sea of mediocrity. You use that to justify your crimes."

"I don't commit crimes."

That made Stain laugh. "Look around you, Endeavor!" He threw his arms out wide. "Your reckless pursuit of fame and position has done more damage to Hosu than these demons that are now attacking the city! You are the reason why civilians question reporting a villain attack… they fear having YOU assigned as the one that will come to "rescue" them."

Endeavor took a step forward. "Enough of this," he said darkly. "It is time that you were brought in. And unfortunately for you the Hero Commission would prefer not you in a body bag. Had you attacked me in public, like someone that actually had an ounce of courage, I would have been forced to disobey their orders and let you live. Now though?"

"Now you do what you do best: submit to another."

Endeavor growled. "I submit to no one."

"You submit to anyone that can give you just a tiny bit more power, butcher."

"I… am a HERO!" And with that he let his flames explode from his body.

There was a horrific flash and Endeavor let out a cry as he was blinded, falling to his knees as he brought his hands to his face, rubbing it in hopes of undoing what… what had just happened.

"That was a special mix of powders," Stain stated, "very combustible. But only at a certain heat. I was afraid that during our little conversation you would have a flare up and ruin our war of words but you showed an impressive amount of restraint. I must thank you for that." Endeavor thrust out his hands towards the sound of Stain, sending out a gut of fire. But there were no screams, no cries of torment and pain, and after a moment Stain made clear that he had missed. "Isn't it ironic that only when you are blinded do you allow the world to see what you truly are: a pathetic little bully, lashing out at others to try and make yourself feel so much bigger."

Endeavor didn't bother to answer, instead shooting his hands down in hopes of blasting himself off the roof. But the moment he did so he felt searing pain in his arm and then he froze up.

"You are not allowed to leave here. This is your trial! The defendant must be in the box, ready for me to pass judgment. This might not be my gavel…" And then Endeavor was slammed down to the ground and he felt cool steel pressed against his face, "but it will work all the same. Let justice… be done."