The car sped through the chaos, the tire screeching against the marred ground. Izuku surveyed the destruction the villains left in their wake. They couldn't have chosen a better time to wreak havoc in here? In any case, they really needed to leave to decide their next course of action back home. But when push came to shove, they'd fight.
Bakugo seemed content driving the car amidst the ruins, almost as if he'd already grown accustomed to a sight such as this one.
"Shit. The villains aren't playing around," Izuku mumbled. "Where the hell are the heroes?"
Bakugo only grunted.
"Oh yeah, I agree with you, peanut. Fucking lazy morons. Apparently they're too good to waste their energy on commoners like us," Izuku said, feigning anger.
"I didn't say anything," Bakugo stated.
Izuku groaned. "Can you just let me have fun for once?"
Before Bakugo could respond, suddenly the tire came to a screeching halt. The car rammed itself through a store. Before they could take the brunt of the force, both Izuku and Bakugo made their way out of the car, rolling on the ground as they did. "Jesus!" Izuku yelled as he recovered. "That's Weasel's car!"
"Boo-fucking-hoo, he'll have to live with it," Bakugo blatantly expressed his indifference. "We gotta find a new car."
"Seriously? You want to commit grand theft right now?"
"What choice do we fucking have?" Bakugo asked back.
"Not so fast, you folks," a voice came from behind. Izuku looked behind, only to see a red-haired man with a cowl, a brown trench coat, a purple body armour lying underneath, and a pair of red eyes to boot. "Deadpool, and the Wolverine himself," the man said, hinting at a possible physical altercation.
Bakugo gritted his teeth as he said, "The Wolverine?"
"You haven't heard?" The man tossed the playing card in his hand into the air before catching it between his two fingers. "It's the name that people from all over the underground gave you, and I'll tell ya, they are scared shitless at the mere mention of it. You've amassed quite the reputation for yourself ever since you escaped."
"That's not my name," Bakugo denied.
The man let out a brief laugh as he continued, "Oh, I'm very much aware of your real identity, Dynamight."
"Uh, is there anything that you haven't been telling me?" Izuku tilted his head to Bakugo.
Bakugo answered briefly, "I fucked up a couple of people, but that was in self-defence."
A wry smile tugged at the man's lips as he replied, "Oh, no, no, don't bother, Bakugo-san. No one's stripping you of your innocence. At least not yet."
Bakugo's expression remained still. It seemd that he was slowly adjusting himself to the fact that people would spew petty and childish insults at the sight of him alone. "Who are you? What do you want?" he asked.
"Me? Simple. I'm here to retrieve you both and bring you back to your rightful owner," the man replied simply.
Izuku gripped the katana on his back. "Retrieve? You speak like we're your properties or something."
"That's very much on brand with what you two are," the man said in a mocking tone.
Claws ruptured their way out of Bakugo's knuckles as he hunched his back to the front, preparing himself for a fight. "You really want to do this?"
"Hold on," Izuku held his hands up. "Haven't I met you before?"
The man paused for a moment. He then nodded, replying, "Yes. You were that timid-looking bartender. How could I forget? I was assigned to watch over you, after all."
Yep. That was the guy. The fucking Gambit.
Izuku was on the verge of snapping. "You were spying on me. Under whose orders?"
"You already know," the Gambit smiled wryly.
Izuku found himself unsheathing his katana without further hesitation. The mercenary was ready to go all out.
"Someone's a bit giddy," the Gambit mocked.
Izuku growled, gripping the katana tighter than before. "You know what they did to my face, right?"
The Gambit scoffed as he said, "Oh, come off it. It's not like you were easy on the eyes to begin with, or am I wrong, Mr. 'I'm plain; nobody will ever look at me twice.'?"
Izuku gritted his teeth, ready to lunge at the Gambit at once. With both his katana intact in his hands, the mercenary sprinted forward. The Gambit, without so much as moving his limbs, jumped over the mercenary and lightly tapped him in his back with the tip of his right foot, causing Izuku to fall to the ground. The mercenary quickly recovered, spinning around on the ground as he rose back to his feet.
The Gambit, brandishing a bō staff, rushed forward while charging the weapon with energy. Izuku raised the katana swiftly, preventing the bō staff from reaching him.
They both struggled to push the other one back with their respective weapons.
Bakugo tried to come to the mercenary's aid, but was intercepted by something dropping to the ground from the ceiling above. Rising from the smoke was a blond-haired man with a toned, muscular build. "You're gonna have to go through me, Wolverine."
Bakugo, indignant and fed up, bent his knees as he prepared to fight. He launched himself at the muscular villain, but the latter grabbed Bakugo by his neck and dragged him across the floor. The muscular villain ardently slammed Bakugo against the wall, using every inch of his immeasurable strength to keep the former Number One Hero immobile. "You know, I used to abhor you," the muscular villain said. "But all things considered, I digged what you did at the end."
"And what would that be, asshole?" Bakugo spat back.
Muscular's lips bent upwards, forming a deplorable smile. "Leaving your team behind to die like a herd of stray lambs. That was fucking cold, I gotta tell you. Plus, you made our jobs a lot easier than it should've been."
Their jobs—
Suddenly, something in Bakugo snapped.
Against all the odds, Bakugo broke free of Muscular's hold by slashing a stray fibre of muscle dangling over his chest, causing him to recoil back in pain.
Bakugo jumped over the villain's level, wrapping his arms around his neck. The muscular man tried to hit Bakugo, who mounted himself on the villain's back, only to hit the air instead. "Get off me!"
Bakugo let out the claws as he rammed them straight through the shoulder of the villain, who screamed in turn. Bakugo propelled himself away from the villain, landing his feet on the nearest wall.
Muscular, recovering from the pain, turned around and said, "You'll pay for that dirty—"
Bakugo had already jumped from the wall before the villain could even finish his sentence. The rage-driven Bakugo sliced through a thick mass of muscle fibre in the villain's body; blood spilt everywhere as he did so.
Bakugo rolled over the ground as the claws emerged out of his knuckles once again.
The villain generated another wave of muscle fibres from his body; he charged at Bakugo with every intention to cripple him for good. With precise and coordinated movements, Bakugo evaded each of the villain's sloppy attacks. It seemed that Bakugo had retained whatever muscle memory he had from the time before he lost his memory.
However, that wasn't good enough. With one slip-up, Bakugo lost balance of his footing; as a result, the villain was able to get a good hit on him, sending him crashing to the ground.
Muscular proceeded to pound down on the downed Bakugo.
A loud, metallic clang could be heard everytime the villain's fist made contact with Bakugo's skull.
Preparing himself to deliver the final blow, the muscular villain spoke, "You know, I really enjoyed seeing them in their last moments. I savoured every tear, every little whimper that escaped from their tiny little throats. It was exhilarating. It was the most thrill I've ever gotten from killing."
Bakugo choked out blood, though his injuries were rapidly healing themselves.
"You know what the best part of it was?" Muscular leaned forward to make his point clear. "They were begging for you to come, and you never did."
Bakugo gritted his teeth as the villain kept prattling on.
Muscular let out a bone-chilling laugh as he pressed Bakugo's neck even tighter than before. "A darn shame that I can't fucking kill you even if I wanted to."
Bakugo thrashed around, roaring as he attempted to escape from the villain's grasp.
It was futile.
Well, that was until the villain said something that finally set him off.
"Hey, hear this: I remember a brown-haired girl with round cheeks," the muscular villain's smile widened even more. "Wanna guess what I did to her before she died?"
Bakugo's mind snapped into action.
A brown-haired girl. Kind and welcoming. Her bright smile, her delicate features, her luscious, tender brown hair. Everything about her was perfect.
Who was she?
Bakugo couldn't wrap his head around the full truth.
Bakugo didn't know who she was. But something deep inside him..
That feeling of blazing love lingered in the depths of his tattered mind. Deep inside, he knew who she was and what she meant to him even if the lines were blurry.
"I can give you a hint; it wasn't pretty," the villain persisted.
Bakugo's hands began to tremble. The villain had the chance to walk away. To stop running his mouth around. Bakugo had a pretty good estimation of what the villain was going to say next.
The villain then said, "Like the whore she was, I fucking—"
Every semblance of reason left Bakugo as he let out a lengthy, feral roar; his eyes turned red as he did so. "AAAAAAAAAARRRGGGHHHHH!!!!"
Bakugo pushed Muscular away, forcing the villain to back down.
Muscular thrust his fist forward; Bakugo did likewise. As their fists clashed with each other, Bakugo deployed his claws as they pierced Muscular's left arm all the way to the insides of his wrist; the villain screamed as a result.
Muscular, weary, tried to use his other arm to punch Bakugo away as a last resort. This did not bode well, however, as Bakugo jammed his right hand with the claws out right into the villain's knuckles.
The villain was impelled to the ground with his fists still impaled by the claws, which were emitting an insurmountable amount of heat. Bakugo was on top of him, and he had Muscular at his mercy.
Then, everything went red.
Izuku stumbled back while trying to dodge the incoming energy-charged playing cards thrown at him.
Regaining balance, Izuku flipped over to narrowly dodge the other two cards racing their way towards him.
The Gambit used this opportunity to wham the mercenary with his bo staff. Izuku, quick and flexible, nimbly drew his sword and blocked the weapon from ever reaching him.
The Gambit spun around along with th bō staff, ending with a left swipe of the weapon. Izuku, of course, intercepted the attack once again.
"At this point, neither of us is ever going to land a hit," Izuku remarked, pushing the bo staff away with his katana.
"I'll drink to that," the Gambit retorted.
Before they could fight even further, a thundering, blaring roar could be heard from their right side.
Both the combatants looked at where the source of that roar might be...
And saw Bakugo crawling on all fours towards the two of them.
Mainly the Gambit.
The Gambit, vigilant as ever, threw a playing card brimming with energy at the ground, causing it to explode and produce a large quantity of smoke. Bakugo passed through the mist, swinging his claws blindly at the air.
Izuku watched as Bakugo sloppily attacked the air.
'What the hell happened to him?'
Izuku then tilted his head to the side, and a horrid view greeted him.
It was the maimed corpse of a muscular man. Worst of it all: the carcass was in a state that was beyond the chance of having a proper identification.
At that moment, Izuku understood very well why Bakugo–no, the Wolverine–was feared.
The Gambit was never the one to back down from a challenge. But this one? This was a new experience for him. On one hand, he wanted to call it quits and end the assessment mission, but on the other..
He was itching to fight a strong opponent.
Drawing a couple of playing cards from his sleeves, he deployed all of them to distract the Wolverine as they all erupted. Brandishing his bō staff, the Gambit leapt from every side to strike the Wolverine with it repeatedly.
With every successful hit, the bō staff produced an explosion that forced the Wolverine to back down.
The Gambit felt a tug at his lips.
With one last leap, he was going to land the finishing blow.
Much to his dismay, the Wolverine recovered from the disorientation, whipping his head to the side and holding the Gambit's gaze momentarily as he was suspended in the air.
'Aw fuck knuckles,' the Gambit thought.
The Gambit halted himself from following through with the attack, blocking the Wolverine's claws with his bō staff. He then landed on the floor neatly, sliding across it and passing the Wolverine by a few inches.
The Wolverine growled as he lunged forward, but the Gambit was agile enough to dodge every single one of his claw-based attacks. They were uncoordinated, after all.
One thing he couldn't miss was those red-tinted eyes. It was as if something had overtaken him.
The Gambit tried to dish out more damage, relentlessly striking him with his bō staff from every direction, futile as it was. No matter how much damage he inflicted on the Wolverine, what he got in return was the fear of God instilled in him. That bastard healed almost instantaneously.
The man was an absolute fucking monster.
The Gambit pressed the button on his wrist communicator, as an image of a raven-man greeted him. "Mind giving me a lift here? I think I'm done for the day."
"What did you learn?" The raven man asked in a slightly demanding tone.
The Gambit dodged another attack as he said, "Uh, hello?! I'm in the middle of something here. I'll tell you once you teleport me to the damned HQ!"
The raven man sighed as he said, "You better not come back empty-headed."
Black-tainted energy swirled around the Gambit. The Wolverine lunged forward, his lust for murder growing by the minute.
However, before he could shred the card-playing trickster into pieces, he was already gone, causing the Wolverine to fall over to the ground.
The Gambit fell on his butt as he was teleported abruptly. He whined, "Fuck, should've done the countdown first so I can get ready!"
"What did you learn?" Tokoyami demanded. "And where is Muscular?"
"First of all, I just found out that the Wolverine is one crazy motherfucker. Crazier than I even anticipated. Secondly, Muscular is dead," The Gambit said in a tone of urgency.
"He's— what?!" Tokoyami demanded, shocked. "Muscular was one of, if not the strongest assassin that we have at our disposals!"
The Gambit let out a laugh of amusement. "You're really surprised? This is the Wolverine that we're talking about here. The former Number One Hero. He may not have that weird ass stockpiling quirk anymore, but he's just as ruthless as ever."
"Fascinating..." Tokoyami licked his lips in excitement. "Have you assessed his weakness yet?"
"Not exactly a weakness," the Gambit smiled as he continued, "But it is a leverage that we can use against the two of them."
"Good," Tokoyami crossed his arms. "Let us go to the meeting room. Gather the assassins."
"What about the other mutes that we just sent to their deaths?" The Gambit inquired. "Surely we're above turning our kindred into expendable decoys?"
"...let them die for our cause," Tokoyami said in a cold voice as he turned around and assimilated himself to the darkness.
The Gambit was silent as he watched the raven man retreat to the shadows. Then, he remarked, "That guy can be a jerk sometimes."
He then went to gather the other assassins.
Izuku couldn't believe his eyes when he saw what happened. Bakugo's eyes were tinted red; not a single shred of humanity lingered inside of them. Izuku stepped back as Bakugo began to close the distance between them.
"So, round two then, peanut?" Izuku said, bracing himself for another fight.
However, before Bakugo could advance further, the red gleam in his eyes flickered. His expression softened as the claws retracted back. Bakugo's knees buckled; he fell to his knees as he tried to hold onto his consciousness. "F...fuck..what..what the fuck just happened?" Bakugo said in a slurred voice.
Izuku rushed to Bakugo's side, holding him by his shoulders. "You good?"
"I'm fine, 's just.." Bakugo held his head. "Headache."
"You don't remember what just happened earlier?" Izuku asked.
But before Bakugo could respond, his eyes fluttered shut and he collapsed onto the floor.
Izuku stood there with the prone body of the former Number One Hero. The mercenary then reached for the phone in his pocket, putting someone's number on speed dial. As the other side answered, a voice could be heard, 'Sir Nighteye speaking, who is this?'
Izuku replied, "It's Deadpool, and I might need some help."
Sir Nighteye couldn't believe the gal of this mercenary. The fact that this depraved, dishonourable mercenary called him in the middle of something important was already frustrating enough. Topple that with burdening him with the obligation to tend to the person he hated the most..
Sir Nighteye was beginning to question his own line of work.
Bakugo was resting in the infirmary room of his agency building, recuperating from whatever it was that befell him.
And the worst part? The fool wasn't even injured. Not in the slightest.
Sir Nighteye turned his attention to the mercenary and said, "This information better be good for you to drag this abomination all the way to my agency."
"Trust me, it is," Deadpool reached for a tape recorder in his pockets.
"What is this?" Sir Nighteye asked.
"Some villains attacked us in broad daylight," Deadpool began. "One of them said something that you might find interesting."
"And you conveniently have this tape recorder at the ready? My, my, you must have quite the precognitive ability," Sir Nighteye remarked.
Deadpool shrugged. "Brought it just in case. You can never be too sure nowadays. Plus, plot convenience."
Ignoring whatever that last part meant, Sir Nighteye snatched the device from Deadpool's hand. "And you say this villain said something that might be interesting?"
"See for yourself," Deadpool gestured to the tape recorder.
Tapping the play button, Sir Nighteye listened intently to whatever information that might be contained inside.
'Me? Simple. I'm here to retrieve you both and bring you back to your rightful owner.'
'Retrieve? You speak like we're your properties or something.'
'That's very much on brand with what you two are.'
'I was assigned to watch over you, after all.'
'You were spying on me. Under whose orders?'
'You already know.'
Sir Nighteye rubbed his chin, processing all the things that he'd just heard. "Who was this villain? Any names?"
"The one talking in the tape recorder goes by the name 'The Gambit'," Deadpool replied. "The other was a no-name pack of muscles."
"They got away?" Sir Nighteye inquired.
"Not exactly. The Gambit did, but that muscular guy," Deadpool paused.
Sir Nighteye pressed again, "What happened to him?"
"Let's just say that he got unlucky and got himself at the receiving end of my katana," Deadpool said vaguely.
Sir Nighteye frowned at that. "Do not play games with me, Deadpool. What happened to him?"
"Fine! Jeez, so serious. He died. I killed him," Deadpool said in a lower tone than usual. Sir Nighteye discerned that there was more to this, but decided to brush it off.
The villain died, killed either by the mercenary or that pitiful excuse of a hero. "With your admission, I have more than enough evidence to take you into custody," Sir Nighteye exclaimed.
Deadpool simply winked at him. "But you need me. That's why you haven't."
"Cunning little wretch," Sir Nighteye hissed. He then sighed as he walked to the exit door. "I've heard more than enough. As much as I hate to admit it, you've been a great help. I might bring this case to the HPSC in the coming days."
Deadpool then called out to him one last time, "You got any idea who this 'Gambit' is, by the way?"
Sir Nighteye stopped for a moment. He then replied, "Look up the 'Genosha Underground' if you're so interested."
With that, Sir Nighteye exited the infirmary room.