It was perfect; too perfect. On the street below, Tamao, Soga, Rapt, and Moyuru were walking and talking, as if just the day before, they hadn't come face to face with the monstrous spidery visage of an Instant Villain. Her former host was skipping school, but Candi couldn't bring herself to care, her eyes locked onto the quartet's shadow. With a brace on his leg and a crutch to support his weight, the ease with which Knuckleduster stalked his daughter and her friends, trailing them from rooftop to rooftop, was startling. But compared to Candi's memories when she'd fought him as Kuin, she could see that the vigilante was older, slower. His body was weaker while she'd only grown stronger.
Candi had to give it to the goggles-wearing man with the walrus mustache, he'd chosen her body well. She'd never inhabited the body of someone with a mutation Quirk before. To survive, she needed to blend in and hide amongst the crowd. Individuals with obvious bodily mutations tended to attract attention, attention she'd rather go without. But now, Candi wasn't sure she could go back. Something about this body felt right, like an itch she'd had all her life but never known about suddenly getting scratched. She liked having wings to fly with. She liked her striped abdomen, and the stinger that capped it. She liked her antennae and compound eye. For the first time in a long time, after a string of hosts she'd taken and discarded at her whim, Candi felt like she finally had the body she'd been subconsciously searching for all this time, and now she could finally test it out.
Her sole eye watched Knuckleduster as he pulled out a grappling hook and tossed it over the empty space of a deserted alley to the rooftop of the next building. With a mental command, a few bees emerged from under her bangs and took flight. As Knuckleduster tugged on the cable, testing it to make sure the grappling hook was secured, her bees quietly made their way to where the cable and hook intertwined, before landing where they lay waiting for her signal. Satisfied, Knuckleduster stepped off the roof into the abyss and Candi struck.
At her silent command, the bees exploded, snapping the cable and sending Knuckleduster tumbling through the air. A momentary stabbing sensation resounded in Candi's head with each bee's death, but she was pleased to note the damage wasn't physically reflected as it had been when she was Kuin. Knuckleduster's momentum carried him into the fire escape he'd been swinging towards, but he bounced off it, falling some more before slamming into a small extension jutting from one of the buildings, then finally hitting a dumpster that he rolled off onto the ground.
Candi's wings blurred as she lifted herself into the air. Flying forward, she lowered herself down gracefully to the alley below. "Well, well, well," she cooed through gold painted lips, "What have we here? A creepy, old man in a mask stalking a bunch of college students? Tsch, tsch, tsch, you're quite the pervert. Somebody ought to teach you some manners."
Knuckleduster groaned as he slowly sat up, casting her a glare before he used his crutch to pull himself to his feet. He smiled but his grin was forced, stained red by the blood leaking from his nose. He wobbled a little even with his crutch to support him, demonstrating how his injured leg was affecting him, and the multi-story fall hadn't helped matters. "Aww, what's the matter?" Candi mocked, unsympathetic to the man's plight. "Don't tell me that little tumble actually hurt. That'd take all the fun out of this."
"Parasite." Knuckleduster responded simply through bloody teeth.
Candi glowered, "I am not a parasite!" She hissed. With another mental command, several stingers pierced her skin as some bees hidden under her clothes injected Trigger from her quickly dwindling stock. After this she'd have just under half left from the initial amount given to her, but that would be more than enough to finance the start of a new life after she killed the man in front of her.
As the drug flowed through her veins, Candi smiled a sharp toothed grin. She felt stronger, with Trigger enhancing her physical abilities she should have little trouble handling an old man who couldn't even walk right without a crutch. Crouching low, Candi pushed off the ground, launching herself forward. Knuckleduster fell backwards, his crutch rising into the air as he tried to get out of her reach, but his weak leg kept him off balance, allowing Candi to duck low under his guard. She jabbed her hand forward, sharpened nails targeting his exposed stomach, a wide smile on her face as she prepared to draw first blood. Her fingernails cut through his shirt, but instead of piercing the flesh of his stomach they instead bounced off his chest. Candi's eyes widened in shock, 'Body armor?' she wondered, but her confusion turned to panic as she caught sight of Knuckleduster's face. The man's former panicked expression had turned into a mad grin, and Candi immediately understood that the man's weakness had been feigned. He'd left himself exposed to draw her in, and she'd fallen for his trap.
The cackle of electricity reached Candi's ears, her eyes darting towards Knuckleduster's crutch drawn back like a spear, ready to be thrust forward to impale its target. The man's finger was pulling a hidden trigger concealed beneath the handle grip, and from the rubber tip now jutted two prongs between which flowed tiny bolts of lightning. "No!" Candi screamed as memories flashed through her mind: a desolate rooftop, a concert in the distance lighting up the Naruhata night skyline with its bright lights, while she looked on from afar. Footsteps behind her, 'You're coming home, Tamao. Mom's waiting.'
"'Come home'? 'Mom's waiting'? Sorry old man, but I've got no idea what you're talking about."
'I wasn't talking to you, parasite. I was talking to Tamao Oguro, my daughter.'
She'd laughed as he'd begun to attack her, one hand cackling with electricity just as his crutch now did. 'So that's your weapon of choice? Taser knuckles? Trying not to harm a hair on your little girl's head?' Her arrogance had let him hit her; she'd been so focused on his weapon that she'd disregarded his unarmed hand. 'You're using your fists anyway? Then what's the fucking point of having a weapon?'
'I'd rather end this without landing a taser hit actually. This is top-shelf gear. High voltage, high amperage. Graze a limb and you'll drop like a sack of bricks. A hit to the chest could very well stop your heart.' Deep down, she hadn't thought he could do it, let alone would do it. It was too risky, too many things could go wrong. No sane man would gamble with their daughter's life, but he wasn't as sane as she'd presumed he was. No, he was a mad dog, one that'd finally caught its prey and was going to dig in regardless of the mess it made.
He'd hit her, an electric shock straight to the chest that left her body splayed out across the ground twitching irregularly as he stood over her, a shadowy wraith. 'The shock I just delivered has got your heart spasming. You're about to lose blood flow to your brain. That body's already dead. You could shock your heart back to life. That'd be one way to save your body, but I ain't gonna let you.' Her vision had begun to go fuzzy, but she could still hear him, lecturing even as everything went black. 'Since Tamao's your host, when her brain stops, you'll lose the ability to think too. You've lost control, your swarm's gonna flee the dying hive on instinct. You'll be all that's left, a queen without a kingdom. Unable to fly, unable to think, nothing more than a maggot. But don't worry, I won't let you die alone. I'll call your swarm back with a nice pheromone cocktail and then send you all off with a candlelight vigil to boot.' Pain. A wave of light and heat, the buzzing of her workers and drones as they burnt along with her. Embers afloat in the Naruhata night, shining like pop stars until they burnt themselves out.
Rage burnt through her like the Trigger flowing through her veins as Candi twisted her body out of the way, yet even with her artificially enhanced physical abilities, she was unable to dodge completely, the electric prods that had formerly been about to stab her in the chest instead found the flesh of her left arm. Candi screamed as electricity flowed through her before she managed to force herself backwards trying to put as much distance between her and Knuckleduster as she could. Her injured arm hanging limply by her side, completely numb.
"Aww, don't tell me you're running away again." Knuckleduster mocked, hobbling forward that same goddamned confident smile on his face. Candi growled, giving a silent mental order to her hive. Within a second, a swarm of bomber bees emerged from under her bangs quickly taking flight towards the vigilante. Even then the man didn't falter, his left hand reached into his trenchcoat from the depths of which he drew forth a watering can, one misshapen and clearly modified for an unclear purpose. That purpose though was quickly made clear, pressing down on the trigger caused the can to expel out not a deluge of water, but a wall of flames. The bomber bees didn't stand a chance, their already fragile bodies burnt away instantly, with the only sign of their passing being the momentary explosions they left behind as the fuel within them ignited.
Shielding her face from the unexpected heat, Candi attempted to fall back but Knuckleduster's crutch stabbed through the flames, the prongs penetrating her thigh. Candi screamed as electricity raced through her body as her leg went numb and she collapsed helplessly to the ground. The flames stopped as Knuckleduster reappeared, stepping forward to stand over her once more.
How? How had she lost again? She had the advantage, the element of surprise. She was stronger, her body younger while he'd grown weaker, weighed down by age and past injuries. There was no way she could have, should have lost. But Candi knew, even if she didn't want to admit it, why their positions were the same as they'd been all those years ago. It was because, just like Kuin, she'd underestimated the man. Once again, her overconfidence had been her downfall.
"Let me guess," she bit out, her eye glaring up at the masked face of Knuckledust- no, of Iwao Oguro, "this is the part where you stop my heart and kill me all over again?" She might be about to die, but she would not give him the pleasure of having her beg for her life.
"No," the man answered, his voice thick, "I've already electrocuted you too much. Anymore and I don't know what'll happen. Forget resuscitation, I could very well kill you outright. I'm going to have to do this another way."
"Oh?" Candi cocked an eyebrow. "And just how are you going to do that? Turn me into the authorities so they can extract me professionally?" She laughed, "Don't worry. It might take a while, but I'll find you again eventually, and we can do this dance all over again. Go ahead, call them. Let's get this over with."
"No," Knuckleduster's voice was as stoic as the Earth, "This ends today. I'm forcing you out of that body one way or another." He fell silent, contemplative, but when he spoke again, his voice was different, darker. "That body of yours, I recognize it. Suzume Bachi, reported missing a while back. She's a small-time criminal connected to the Entomo gang, mostly minor offenses: prostitution, vandalism, drug possession. Though she's now wanted in connection to the death of the gang's boss, Raiju. Was that your doing?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Candi hissed. It was true too, from the memories she had, Suzume had never even met this Raiju guy.
"They said they could have saved him if they'd found him in time." Knuckleduster seemed to be speaking to himself, but his eyes remained locked on her sole one. "It's amazing what Quirks can heal nowadays. Cuts, stabs," the spout of the flamesprayer rose until it was pointed directly at her head, "Even burns. All of it healed in moments, as if they were never there. Although with the rarity of healing Quirks, it's still a roll of the dice. It's your choice, parasite: either come out willingly, or get cooked inside your host. I'm more than willing to take my chances they'll be able to heal whatever damage I do. Question is, are you willing to do the same?"
"No," Candi begged, she hated herself for the weakness she was showing, especially to him but she didn't care, "Please. Have merc-"
Knuckleduster answered by pulling the trigger, and Candi screamed as flames consumed her. She was burning again, though this time, she could feel it. When Knuckleduster had last torched her in her bee form after extracting her from Tamao, she'd been severely weakened. Consciousness had been more of a dream than reality, and due to her small size, it'd at least ended relatively quickly. But now? Now she was able to feel it all.
Feel the flames as they licked her skin, catching on her clothes and further fueling the cascade of fire. Her lovely blonde hair caught like dry leaves, the flames licking at her sensitive antenna. Her delicate, fragile wings had no hope of surviving, the flames first burning holes through them before finally incinerating them into ashes. With no means of escape or retaliation all Candi could do was scream. Scream as the flames continued to torch her, as Knuckleduster held down the trigger until he finally decided to stop.
Candi didn't get up. She laid there in the dirty alley whimpering, curled into a ball to protect herself as best she could. Her wings were all but gone, only the barest of charred stubs remained attached to her shoulders. Her skin wasn't much different, similarly charred and blackened, her clothes had long since burnt away, leaving her naked save for a few patches of cloth that had been seared into her skin like a botched branding. Only the barest trails of blood actually leaked from her body, while what little hair Candi had left was glued to her scalp where no trace of her antenna remained.
"So?" The demon asked coldly. "Had enough?" Candi could do little more than whimper, tears leaking from her only eye. Knuckleduster sighed, and she quietly sobbed as the weapon was once more pointed her way. However, as he pressed down on the trigger the world seemed to answer Candi's prayers for help. A wall erupted from the ground, completely filling the alley as it rose higher and higher, a clear divide separating Knuckleduster and Candi. Knuckleduster's frustrated screams could faintly be heard on the other side, but without his grappling tool that Candi's bees had destroyed, his hope of getting to her in a timely manner were next to none with his injuries.
Candi chuckled grimly, It wasn't like this saving grace would matter in the end; with her injuries, he could take his time hobbling around to get to her and she'd still be here when he arrived. The question of if she'd still be alive was a much better question. She could try and abandon Suzume's body, but she wasn't sure her situation would be any better if she did. The flames hadn't just washed over the hole that was her left eye after all, they'd entered her body, meaning both the 'parasite' as Knuckleduster called her and her host body were in mortal danger.
The sounds of footsteps interrupted Candi's inner soliloquy, and she weakly raised her head half expecting to see Iwao having somehow found his way to her already. Unfortunately even that simple act proved too much for her, and her head fell to the ground, meaning all she could do was listen with what remained of her damaged senses. "Hey, Izu-chan. She's not looking too good." The voice was girlish and peppy, clearly young; it was all too easy to picture belonging to a cheerleader.
"No, she is not." This voice, likely Izu-chan, belonged to someone male. "Still, I must say I didn't expect Knuckleduster to go so far, especially after he'd clearly bested her." Candi's skin prickled at the reminder. While it might have been an involuntary reaction of the ground against her fresh wounds, she believed it much more likely to be from the conversation she was overhearing. These two, they'd been watching her fight. Why?
"Can you fix her?"
"I think so," Candi's widened eye blinked, the only visible sign of the shock she was feeling.
"Well hurry up, she looks like a piece of raw meat that was dropped on the floor, humped by a raccoon, cooked wrong, then deep fried, only to be tossed in the dumpster, bounce off and get run over by a garbage truck after a week in the elements." …Well fuck you too, bitch.
"Alright, for what it's worth, if you can hear me Miss, I'm sorry in advance, this next part might hurt a little." A hand pressed against her head and she hissed in pain. He was right, it did hurt, but then the pain grew exponentially. She'd thought the fire was bad; this felt like she was being taken apart at the most basic level, piece by microscopic piece, only to then be reassembled as a whole new being. Thankfully, despite the moment seeming to drag on it was over near instantly. One moment Candi Baal was lying in the alley, a burnt husk of her former self, the next she was crouched on her hands and knees, head bowed before her healer and his companion.
"Well, that's certainly an improvement." The schoolgirl complimented. The boy reprimanded her, but Candi wasn't paying them much attention. Slowly, she raised her hands in front of her face until she could examine them with a disbelieving eye. They were completely fine. In fact, now that she focused, she could feel her wings across her back. A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed their presence before her hands swiftly rose to her hair; hair that was all there, unburnt and as soft as it'd been when she'd awoken this morning. Even her antennae had returned, poking out from her blonde locks, twitching nervously in the air.
"Excuse me," the voice shook Candi from her self examination and she quickly turned to the speaker. She was surprised to find herself facing a teenage boy, one that blushed as he took in her nude form. Evidently, her clothes hadn't been restored as she had.
"Hey, hey, hey, don't look." The girl, a blonde schoolgirl Candi now saw with only a single arm, raced forward pulling off her beige cardigan before thrusting it into Candi's hands. Without needing to be told, Candi pulled it on, though due to her height and ample assets, it stopped just above her belly button. "Shoot, I thought that'd work," the girl muttered, seemingly entranced and unable to look away. Izu-chan cleared his throat and reached out, laying a hand atop the cardigan. Under his touch the outfit shifted. Opening at the back, the fabric moved down, extending the bottoms to the middle of her thighs. "Yeah, that'll work for now," his companion nodded. "We'll have to get her something to wear later, but that should be good enough to move around in."
"Excuse me, but who are you people?" Candi interrupted, unable to restrain her questions now that she was dressed. "How did you heal me? Why? What do you-"
"I'm Izuku Shigaraki, this is Toga." Izu-chan spoke, gesturing first to himself then the blonde. "Izuku is my given name, Shigaraki my adopted one. Feel free to call me Izuku. As for why we helped you… well I have some questions I want you to answer. Although," he looked around the alley, "I do find our surroundings to be rather unfitting for our discussion. Do you mind if we move it elsewhere?"
"No." Candi answered, though she couldn't help but feel she had no say in the matter.
"Great, let's go." When Knuckleduster finally made his way to the alley a few minutes later, there was no trace of Candi, only a few patches of blood and scorch marks showed there even been a fight at all.
When another growl once again disturbed the peaceful ambience of the bar he oversaw, Kurogiri decided it was time for him to address his charge. "Tomura, is something wrong?"
The pale haired man growled once more, his eyes locked onto the television where two news anchors were addressing the most recent hero killing. "Hero Killer, Hero Killer, Hero Killer." Tomura snarled as he switched between news stations, all of which were discussing the murder of Pro Hero Native. "They've already moved on from us. We're old news! All they want to talk about is him! We targeted All Might, injured him even. All he did was take out some no-name that didn't even break the top thousand." A hand idly scratched at his still healing shoulder where Stain had stabbed him.
Kurogiri could only sigh as Tomura's fingers tightened around the television remote, quickly reducing it to dust. "You shouldn't criticize him too much. The cities he's appeared in have actually seen drops in crime rates across the board. Some theorize it's tied to an increase in hero awareness."
"That's great," Tomura mocked, "so much for culling those fake heroes Stain talked about so much. Hero Killer? More like Hero Breeder. I knew it, we're incompatible; our goals are just too different from one another."
"Oh?" A new voice interrupted from the television speakers. The news turned off, replaced with the words, 'Sound Only'. "Then how are you going to turn this situation to your advantage?"
Tomura smiled darkly, "I'll put the League back in the spotlight. Make it impossible for them to ignore us. Stain, his crusade, they'll be forgotten, buried beneath our shadow."
"Hmm," Sensei hummed, "A decent start, I suppose. Now, how do you plan to accomplish this?"
"Sensei, how many Nomu are ready?"
"...Several. None are at the level of the anti-All Might though."
"Give them to me. You said I can crush whatever I don't like, right? Well, I really hate the Hero Killer."
Sensei took a moment to mull over Tomura's request. "I'll give you three, take this opportunity and learn something." Tomura laughed as black sludge appeared in the bar around him, dispensing the Nomu he requested. Kurogiri sighed, setting down the glass he'd been polishing. He supposed it was time to work.
"Are patrols usually this boring?" Mina asked, hands behind her head. "This is the second day we've gone out and it feels like we've been doing a lot of walking and not a whole lot of, you know, heroics?"
Her mentor, Manual, laughed, "Yeah, it's been pretty quiet this week, hasn't it? But you know, that's not necessarily a bad thing. When I'm out on patrol, usually I'm just waiting for a call to come in that I'll respond to. If there's no calls that's a good thing, it means everything's fine and no one needs our help."
"So what do you do if nothing's happenin'?"
"I try to just be visible," Manual answered after a moment of thought. "Let people know that I'm here. If someone needs help with something, they know they can come to me, and I like to think that my presence discourages criminals from trying anything."
Mina hummed thoughtfully, "Yeah, it'd be pretty stupid for a villain to try something in front of a Pro Hero, wouldn't it?"
"You'd be surprised," Manual sighed, "Some take it as a challenge. If they can defeat a Hero, that not only increases the public's fear of them, it also breaks their trust in Heroes. After all, how can you place your trust in someone to protect you when they've already failed to do just that? No Hero is the same: Quirk, appearance, style, it all varies but in my opinion the most important trait a Hero has is reliability."
He looked around and Mina did too, taking in the people walking up and down the street. Some were pointing at them and snapping photos while others merely raised a hand in greeting, Manual never failing to return each one as it happened. Casting her mind back to their time spent patrolling, Mina recalled how her mentor seemed to greet everyone with a smile and a warm word. He talked to some people by name, others he questioned about what was going on in their lives, yet through it all the people never seemed bothered, merely happy to catch up with a friendly face. "That's part of the reason I do these patrols, to stay close to the people. If they know me as a person and not some distant figure with a title and a piece of paper that says I can use my Quirk, then I at least think they're more likely to rely on me come hell or high water."
"I think that's something I can get behind." Mina said, nodding slowly.
Manual went to answer but paused, reaching up to tap the side of his helmet where Mina knew a hidden radio was located. The Normal Hero listened for a moment, nodding before he responded, "Got it, Normal Hero: Manual and Hero internee: Pinky are enroute." Turning to an attentive Mina, Manual merely yelled, "Come on," as he took off running Pinky following close behind.
"What's going on?" She asked. Manual went to answer, but before he could, an explosion sounded from the intersection ahead of them. Thick plumes of smoke rose into the sky while civilians ran screaming from the scene. Over the collective panic, a loud screech echoed as a figure rose into the air above the fleeing crowd, borne aloft by a pair of pale yellow bat-like wings. Clad only in a pair of jeans with a gas mask-isque device over its mouth, the being clutched a struggling costumed figure in its taloned feet. As Mina and Manual looked on, the villain screeched again before it folded in its wings and dropped. Picking up speed, the villain slammed feet first into the street, cratering the ground beneath its unfortunate prisoner. No longer airborne, it was all too easy to see the creature's exposed brain, a trademark feature of-
"Nomu," Mina murmured in horror.
Even though it should have been impossible to hear her over the chaos, the winged Nomu seemed to perk up. Looking towards the new arrivals, it stepped forward placing a talon on the back of the Hero's head, pushing it into the ground before it looked up and, with seemingly casual ease, twisted its talons to snap the Hero's neck.
As the unknown hero's rising arm fell limply to the ground, Mina's hands rose to cover her mouth, while Manual's expression hardened. "This is Normal Hero: Manual," he reported stoically over the radio, "We have confirmed Nomu attacking Hosu City. At least one Hero is KIA. Hero internee: Pinky will assist with evacuations and has permission to use her Quirk in self defense. She is not to seek out or engage enemies. I am preparing to intervene and will stall until reinforcements arrive." Lowering his hand, Manual didn't even look at Mina as he addressed her, "You have your orders. Go."
"But-" Mina wasn't even sure what she was going to say, 'But I can help.' 'But what about you?' 'But I don't know how to evacuate citizens.' In the end, it didn't matter as Manual cut her off.
"But nothing, you are not ready for this, not yet. Get out of here and do what you can to help others. Now go!" His shout, so unlike the usual easy-going Manual made Pinky unconsciously step back. One backwards step became another, then another till the pink haired alien turned and ran from the scene.
Throughout Hosu, thick clouds of smoke drifted into the air from numerous fires burning out of control. Screams echoed constantly through the streets as confused and scared civilians rushed first one way then another, desperately attempting to find safety but unsure of where it was. None of that mattered to him though. No, as he crouched in the shadows of the alley, watching and waiting, his thoughts were not on the chaos, but on his prey swiftly approaching.
It was fitting he supposed, that his target would have his brother with him. A dynasty of fakes, three generations prancing about in their suits of armor like fairy tale knights, yet they acted not in the best interest of others, but only for themselves. Each generation only furthered the corruption plaguing them. Their accumulated wealth bought the family a castle and entrance into high society. Connections forged in the halls of nobles let them grow their influence. It was sickening, a festering rot that needed to be cut away. This was his purpose, his calling and as his target rushed down the alley, his younger brother close behind, Stain slid his sword from its sheath, preparing to once more enact justice on the criminals masquerading as Heroes.
The ambush came out of nowhere. Racing towards the closest villain attack, Intelligine was hot on Ingenium's heels as the two cut through an alley to save some time. But, just as they were approaching the other end, a shadowy figure launched themself out of the shadows above. A flash of steel, the sound of metal cutting through flesh and Tenya grunted, stumbling backwards, a hand instinctively moving to clutch his side where the figure's sword had found a slight gap in his armor.
Warm, red blood soaked Intelligine's gloved hand as Ingenium turned, though Intelligine had to admit within his mind that his brother's worried shout of "Tenya!" was reassuring to his pain-addled mind. He opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, his body locked up. Legs stiff, Intelligine toppled forward, though even as he lay paralyzed on the ground, his eyes remained focused solely on his brother.
"Ingenium," the voice came from behind his back and though the speaker remained out of sight, Tenya could feel the hairs on his body standing up from the sheer hatred with which the word was spat. "Grandson of Pro Heroes Nitro and Horsepower. Son of Blitzkrieg and Breakneck. Heir to the Iida family and leader of Team Idaten."
"Intelligine," Ingenium spoke up, ignoring the man's speech, "are you alright? Can you move?"
Intelligine struggled to reply. His mouth felt stuck and unwieldy, as if it were glued shut, but he forced himself to move it, "No, my body's frozen."
"Ignoring me to check up on your sidekick? Do you truly think that will save you?" Intelligine felt something prod his side, "Hmm, his armor's quite similar to yours. Not a sidekick then. Family perhaps?"
"Leave him alone!" The boosters on Ingenium's elbows fired, rocketing the hero forward. Intelligine felt the villain leap backward as his brother passed over him and out of view before the sound of metal on metal told him that the two were now fighting. Unable to see anything, all Intelligine could do was listen.
"Do you truly think I would lower myself to harm children?" The villain sounded disgusted by Ingenium's mere suggestion. "Children are the future, the heroes of tomorrow. It is our duty to teach them right from wrong. You are a poser, a fake. Your brother, he can be better than you. Learn from your failures. He can be a real hero!" Tenya couldn't tell if his brother responded to the mad man's remarks, if he did it was lost in the sounds of their battle.
Intelligine didn't know how long he was paralyzed, struggling to move a body that refused to do as he wanted. Eventually though, control slowly returned to him. His fingers clenched, his toes waggled, and eventually he was able to force himself to his feet. Turning, Intelligine saw for the first time the villain his brother was fighting. The boosters on his legs fired and Intelligine charged forward to assist. Yet even though he wasn't looking, the villain's skill, experience, intuition, whatever you might call it showed. A slash of his sword which Ingenium dodged and would have normally been redirected was allowed to continue on its path. Sparks flew as it impacted the metal of Intelligine's helmet with enough force to knock it from his head and send the hero in training to the ground.
"As I thought, nothing more than a kid in a costume." The villain muttered.
"Tenya! Recipro Burst!" Flames burst from the boosters on Ingenium's elbows as the Hero overtorqued his engines. Rocketing forward, Ingenium launched a supercharged punch at the villain's head with enough force to send his body gyrating to the ground after impact. Standing over the villain's limp body, panting from exertion, to Tenya, his brother looked to be the hero he knew he was.
For a moment, Ingenium stood still, recovering, before he lowered his arms and turned towards his brother, "Are you all right?'
"Yeah," Tenya clasped the hand extended towards him and was pulled to his feet. He turned to look at the still body, "Is that who I think it is?"
"I think so. A scarf red as blood. Armed to the teeth with blades. This has to be him, the Hero Killer: Stain." As Ingenium uttered the villain's alias, the alley seemed to grow just a little more eerie, the shadows stretching just a bit farther, the air feeling just a bit colder, though it surely was just their imagination.
The moment seemed to stretch, as if the world was waiting for something and then a sound, a low chuckle that quickly picked up pace and intensity sprouting into a mad cackle. "Yes," The two Heroes fell into a fighting stance as the seemingly unconscious body slowly rose to its feet, "Stain is the name bestowed upon me by society. A fitting moniker, though one misunderstood. Stain shouldn't refer to the blood that stains the ground in my wake. No. No, no, no, no. It instead embodies my mission, the goal I work towards unwaveringly. To purge the stain on our society, fake heroes, false gods only in it for fame and money."
Stain raised his sword to his face, eyes focused on Ingenium, "And now, I'll continue my mission by purging you." An extraordinarily long tongue flicked outward, licking at the bloody blade.
To Tenya's shock, his brother immediately collapsed to the ground with a grunt. "Tensei!"
"Tenya. Run!"
"But-"
"No! This is an order not from your brother, but Ingenium your mentor. You will run and get help! I am forbidding you to engage Hero Killer Stain in combat. You know what that means."
Tenya did. He knew very well the consequences of going against his mentor's orders, disobeying a Pro Hero entrusted with his well being. Expulsion would very well be the least of his worries. A ruined reputation, blacklisted from ever taking the Hero Licensing Exam, even jail time was a distinct possibility. His dream would end before it really had a chance to begin.
"Good, good. Protecting others even when you yourself are in danger. Tell me, do you think that acting like a Hero now at the very end will save you?" Subtly pulling out his phone, Tenya fiddled with the device for a moment before stowing it away. Pressing down his nerves, Tenya strode forward to stand in front of his downed brother.
"Tenya? Tenya! No! Run away! That's an order!"
"Sorry Tensei," crouching down, Tenya pressed his hands into the ground as he adopted a runner's stance. The engines within his calves roared as they prepared to fire, "but I'm not going to run away. This time, it's my turn to protect you."
Stain slashed his sword, spraying the blood covering it across the alley wall. "You wish to protect him child? Fine, show me the kind of Hero you are." Stain charged forward and with his engines boosting him, Intelligine rushed forward to meet him.
As the streetlights in Hosu flickered on signaling the onset of night, Mina ran through the now deserted streets. The civilians that she'd seen walking them every time she'd patrolled were now gone, giving an eerie feeling to the city. Burning fires, shining billboards, and lights aglow behind glass windows illuminated the darkness of night, but Mina paid them no mind. Her attention focused on her phone and the map it displayed.
She'd been obeying Manual's orders, helping people get away from the chaos breaking out when the message had gone through, although she hadn't seen it immediately. It was only soon after, when there was no one else around, that she'd looked at her phone expecting… what? Even she wasn't sure. A message from Manual maybe saying the situation was now handled and to meet him at his agency? A distressed call from her parents about her safety fueled by paranoia from the news of Nomu rampaging in the city they knew she would be interning in? Rather than either of those she'd merely seen that Tenya had shared his location in the class group chat.
Rule strict, robot-in-human-skin Tenya, who even after months of help from the pink alien queen herself, still struggled to socialize with the rest of the class. Even his texts in the group chat tended to reflect this: him chiding classmates for language, behavior, or even off-topic subject matter until Itsuka or Yaomomo told him to stop, their authority as class reps enough to get the blue haired boy to back off.
There was no accompanying message, no explanation, just his current location. A few classmates had asked Tenya in the chat what was going on but received only silence in response. Most passed it off as an accident, that Tenya'd accidentally sent it and was too busy to follow up, but Mina couldn't help but feel like something was wrong, that there was more to it. Biting her lip, Mina tapped Tenya's location, opening the map app on her phone. They were both in Hosu and it was only a block away from her. Already knowing what she was going to do, Mina took off running.
Up the street, across the empty road, ignoring the no crossing sign. Was it this alley? No, the next one. Down it, a bend and voices. Slowing down to keep them from hearing her approach, Mina pressed her back against the alley wall as she subtly peaked around the corner. The sight made her want to cry out but she slapped a hand over her mouth before she could. Two distinctive armored knights lay sprawled across the ground like ragdolls. Tenya was easy to recognize lying prone on his back with his helmet off, albeit with one of the lenses on his glasses cracked and a cut on his forehead that coated half his face in a layer of blood.
There was a third figure though, one who stood above the other prone body Mina recognized as Ingenium, Tenya's brother. The hero was lying in a slowly expanding pool of blood, his body unresponsive. It was obvious the figure above him was the culprit responsible, considering the wet, freshly drawn blood slowly dripping from his downward pointed blade.
"Tensei! Tensei!" Tenya screamed.
"If he receives medical attention soon, he will live." The villain stated, Tenya falling silent at his voice. "He is lucky, I intended to kill Ingenium. His death would've helped spread my message across Japan, but having a living example of what will become of those who stray from the straight and narrow path of true heroism will be sufficient as a warning. While I have deemed him an inexcusable insult to genuine heroes like All Might, whether it's because you are his brother or a true hero lingers beneath that false visage of grandeur he shamelessly portrays, I will not ignore the fact that he still holds within a spark of justice." The villain swiped his blade through the air, splattering Ingenium's blood across the ground. "My blade struck true, piercing the spine of the false hero. Even if he is fortunate enough to recover, it is likely your brother will never walk again. The Turbo Hero: Ingenium is dead, though the man, Tensei Iida, will live."
"You dare?" Tenya's voice was murderous as the Hero Killer turned and began to walk away towards the corner where Mina hid. "My brother is a great man. You dare to judge him? What gives you the right?! I'll avenge him. You hear me, Stain? Whether now or in a decade, I'll bring you down! In the name of Ingenium, I'll kill you!"
Tenya's words halted the killer's departure. For a few moments Stain stood unmoving, waiting though for what neither the wrathful Tenya or the onlooking Mina knew "Your brother might have deserved to live," Stain said, his voice cold, "but you on the other hand. I thought there was a spark of heroism within you, but it seems I was mistaken. What Hero swears to kill? To prioritize vengeance over protecting the defenseless? Anyone can see it in your eyes and tone, you meant what you just said. You really will hunt me down if I let you go. To think I bothered giving you a moment to correct your statement. I don't kill kids, but I'll make an exception for you. Better to kill you now than let you grow up to pollute Hero society with your mere presence. You would have found yourself on the end of my blade eventually, I'm just saving time."
Walking over to the downed boy who struggled against his invisible bindings, the Hero Killer's back was to the corner where Mina hid. Standing above Intelligine, Stain raised his sword aiming the tip at Tenya's head and Mina chose that moment to strike. Charging around the corner, Mina unleashed her most potent acid at the Hero Killer's unprotected back. Stain leapt away and Mina pursued, rushing past the downed Iida brothers.
Tenya screamed in agony behind her, his voice full of overwhelming pain, but Mina didn't risk looking back, her yellow eyes locked onto her opponent. If she failed to stall Stain until backup arrived, the pain Stain had somehow managed to inflict on Tenya just now would be the least of her concerns. "I called the police," the alien queen spoke, hiding her nervousness beneath a false demeanor of confidence, "Pro Heroes are on their way, and my mentor knows I'm here."
"Plenty of time to test you," Stain responded with a dark smile, an unusually long tongue unfurling from his mouth to lick blood from his sword, "and to put the boy to the blade."
"Not if I can help it." Mina growled. For a moment neither moved, but then Stain's arm blurred as he swung it. Mina was already leaping aside as three knives flew through the space where she'd just been. Her eyes flashed to them before returning to where the villain had been, but he was gone. It took a moment for her to find him, and by that time Stain was already leaping towards her, having pounced from a nearby fire escape, his sword swinging towards her head. Mina's arms rose as she sprayed acid from her hand, a protective layer of acid instinctively forming on her face to protect her from the blade. Twisting his body mid-air, Stain managed to dodge Mina's acid spray but his new position forced him to redirect his sword too. Instead of the pinkette's horned head, he slashed at her extended arms. Mina produced some acid in an attempt to protect herself, but she still screamed in pain as the sword cut her, though it paled in comparison to Tenya's ongoing cries.
Mina clutched her injured arm, eyes locking with Stain, who'd already retreated backwards. Raising his sword to his mouth, Stain's tongue extended but it froze centimeters above the blade. Eyes darting down, he examined it with a critical eye. Where the blade had cut the girl revealed holes that were slowly growing in size, faint trails of smoke rising up from where the clear-grayish liquid around her red blood was eating through the steel. "Acid?" Stain guessed.
"Yeah," Mina confirmed, a forced smile on her face as she clutched her injury protectively. Stain's sword finally snapped the broken piece of steel, clattering against the ground as it struck it. For a moment, Stain examined the broken blade still attached to the hilt before he tossed it aside uncaringly. Reaching behind his back, the Hero Killer drew forth a pair of long knives, one in each hand that he twirled expertly.
"That's a lot of blades you have." Mina commented, her brain firing on all cylinders, "And once you cut somebody, you seem to have a thing for drinking their blood. Is that your quirk? Some kind of paralysis through blood drinking?"
Stain didn't answer, at least not verbally. The man instead charging forward once more. Mina dodged backwards, spraying acid to force the man backwards, trying desperately to keep him at bay. She was mostly successful, but she was still a student fighting against an experienced combatant, one who wouldn't hesitate to end her life at the slightest mistake. More than once did Stain's blades cut her, though never deep enough to end the fight, and Mina was careful to protect her injuries with acid, making it so even if Stain could drink her blood, he'd risk burning his tongue off in the process.
Stain soon discarded his long knives as the blades melted away in favor of throwing knives that he used liberally. Mina held strong though, her selective acid protection was no longer viable in the face of a continuous onslaught, but she refused to let Stain pass. Acid spurted from her skin, coating her entire body in a protective shell that the knives couldn't pierce through before they dropped uselessly to the ground. Even as her skin began to sting from the continuous use of her Quirk, Mina held firm.
Their stalemate ended when both combatants heard the sound of distant sirens in the distance growing steadily closer. Mina wanted to cry in relief, but she didn't allow herself to relax yet. "It seems the time has come for us to part." Stain spoke, his voice sending a tremor up Mina's spine. "You have potential, but I'll be watching. If you stray from the proper path, we'll meet again. And next time, this dance will go very differently."
"You're not getting away that easily." Stain whirled and leapt away from the direction of the unknown voice, but even with his reflexes, the Hero Killer was unable to dodge the ice that erupted from the ground below to encase him midair.
"Todoroki?" Mina questioned, letting her acid armor slip from her control to splatter across the ground as she collapsed to her knees in relief.
"I'm sorry for the late arrival." The heterochromatic boy replied coolly, "I got both Tenya's and your message, but I didn't think anything was wrong until I saw the latter. It took me a while to get away from my father and even longer to get here, but I'm glad I was able to make it." Todoroki's eyes examined Mina for a moment before they rose to look beyond her. His eyes widened, "Iida!"
Mina whirled at his sudden shout. Sometime during the fight, Tenya's screams had fallen silent, but now that she was free to look without the danger of attack Mina could see why he'd been screaming in the first place. Somehow her acid had struck him. 'It had to be your initial attack,' her brain helpfully informed her, 'the surprise one Stain dodged.' The one she hadn't been holding back on, desperate to simply force Stain back.
Mina scrambled desperately to her feet and raced towards Tenya, Todoroki close behind her. Sliding the last few feet on her knees, Mina had push down her urge to heave as she was hit by the smell of burning flesh. She frantically examined her friend, yet she hesitated to touch him, afraid of making it worse. Thankfully, Tenya had passed out, his mind attempting to escape the excruciating pain he'd been suffering. His damaged glasses had at least protected his eyes but the acid that'd splattered his face had eaten through his lower face. Tenya's nose was gone, a depression being all that remained where it'd once been. His teeth were visible through holes in his cheeks, with faint stretches of muscle and visible bone being all that kept his jaw attached to his face.
The acid had also eaten through the metal on his chest, melting through it until it could attack his body directly. Even worse, parts of the liquidized metal armor had followed the acid, contaminating the wounds and possibly entering his body directly.
"I-I can try and freeze the acid, would that help?" Todoroki asked, the normally emotionless boy displaying clear worry and fear as he looked down on his injured classmate. "Mina, would that help? Mina!"
"I… I don't know." Mina sobbed, "I-I injured people when my Quirk first came in, but never like this. I don't know what to do." Ice cracking behind them made the two hero students whirl but it was already too late. Where the Hero Killer had been imprisoned was now only a broken block of ice, the only sign of his presence the broken half-melted weapons that littered the alleyway.
Turning back to her injured friend, Mina couldn't control the downpour of tears that leaked from her eyes. She broke down, sobs wracked her body as she hugged herself, trying desperately to drive away the self loathing and hate building up within her. Todoroki stood nearby, frozen, unsure what to do as the sirens in the distance grew closer, unable to arrive soon enough.
Author's Note:
When I first started plotting out Rival Heirs there were a few scenes that I pictured. One of them is this one here, a sobbing Mina holding the broken body of Tenya Iida in an alley while Shoto looks on, Ingenium lies nearby and red and blue emergency light illuminate it all. It was heartbreaking, it was devastating, and I KNEW I needed to make it happen.
In other news happy Halloween everybody. I had plans to upload something else but they fell through so instead I decided to include something dark to fit the season, this chapter. Next chapter will be Izuku's reaction to Tomura's attack which I'll release tomorrow to keep to my new chapter on the first rule I've been trying to follow. Over on P-atreon we've concluded this arc, had an interlude and are starting the I-Island arc. I'll just need to rewatch the movie first before I start writing...and maybe theanimeboiis's abridged version on Twitch for a laugh.
Speaking of movies I did see the new MHA movie in theatre, it was empty which was nice though I am a little disappointed overall. I was hoping for somebody inspired by All Might's words who wanted to become a true hero but whose ideals clashed with Izuku own. Izuku wants to save everybody this person is willing to make sacrifices for the 'greater good' of the whole not the individual. Something like that. Instead we just got Overhaul 2.0 with knockoff Precepts included. Still when Japan falls I'll probably include them.
As always leave a comment since I read them to keep writing and I need more of them. Otherwise follow or favorite if you haven't already and enjoy this Samhain celebration. Sacrifice a Kit-Kat or Almond Joy in my name and until tomorrow this is the devil excited to sleep with the Morrigan signing off,
- D'yavol Lucifer 3:)
*IMPORTANT NOTICE*
All the cover art for my stories are ones I found online. I am really interested in using fanart provided by you the readers to replace them. If you're interested draw something up and pm me so I can send you the details on where to send it or pm me and I'll give you some details so you can draw one. As I say in my bio if I use it I may add you as an oc in one of my stories! Isn't that exciting!
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