Izuku found that he quite liked Mistral.
Walking through the streets of one of the four great kingdoms was a novel experience for the lost hero, especially when he saw the people of this world bustling about. It made him feel as though he was living within what he supposed a medieval society would have looked like, were they to have quirks.
Man, woman, and child roamed the street in every manner of design and color, which made Izuku feel right at home and sparked his curiosity.
What kind of semblances did these people have? He didn't know, couldn't know, semblances were far more fickle and unpredictable than quirks had been, and it wasn't as if they had any physical cues that would clue him in as to what power they might possess.
It made him so very curious! And it made Mistral seem all the brighter for it, like he was visiting the house of a new friend.
Too bad this house had its fair share of spiders that lurked in its dark and hidden corners like any other.
He admired their attempt to keep tabs on him -really he did!- but when compared to the villains and hitmen All for One hired to kill him they may as well be amateurs, their emotions ran too rampant for Danger sense to simply ignore and he felt the bloodlust from those faceless killers who kept their eyes on him.
Not like he could blame them, though; nobody in this world outside of him was aware of how his quirks worked after all or that he had such a power in the first place.
'The spider organization.' He mused to himself in contemplation. That was the name of the group the guy who attacked them belonged to.
How would he deal with them? Should he wait it out and gather information on them like the Shie Hassaikai Raid? or should they just jump in guns a' blazing like the heroes had during the villain raid?
'So many options to choose from. Maybe I should ask Amber?' He wondered internally before something caught his attention.
Turning into an alleyway to avoid getting civilian lives involved, he allowed himself to appear harmless to lure out the one who had been following him extra closely. He was rewarded when an attack was sprung on his head to the side, just as a blade passed right where his head once was. He watched as the ethereal weapon disappeared into motes of gold, and the sound of clapping began.
"To think a Mongrel such as yourself would be able to dodge such an attack, how entertaining!" a haughty voice spoke out, and Izuku couldn't help but notice how some of the ire on his person that the spies had directed was suddenly aimed at the newcomer.
"Oh? Why the sudden silence? Your future queen addressed you, so one should naturally answer no?" were the words of the small blonde girl who walked up behind him. Her red eyes narrowed upon his person with interest, and dressed in clothes that didn't seem all that appropriate for a child her age.
"Not that it matters, your death shall be swift." The air rippled with her words, and a golden portal opened behind her person with a bladed point sticking out.
"Rejoice, Mongrel! For mine, Divine self shall deliver you a swift death!"
"Before that," Izuku began, amused, "Can you at least tell me what I did that deserves being killed over?"
The girl's face soured at his question as if his words struck a nerve, "... Lady Malachite desires you dead." She held up her red tattooed hand towards him. "And so I shall deliver your head to her even if I am acting outside of her orders."
Ah, a child assassin then.
"Malachite... who is she?" He asked, a hunch overtaking him at the familiarity which caused him to utter his next words, "Is she the Leader of those spiders?"
Several things happened at once.
Ethereal Blades flew forward towards him, bullets were shot at him, and several people ran at him.
Danger sense blared to life, and One for All sprang to life in a shower of green sparks, allowing Izuku to safely dodge out of the line of fire and spring atop a nearby building.
'Well,' Izuku sweatdropped as he looked at the swarm of people ready to give chase and dispose of him in the name of their mistress, 'Isn't this something...'
Blake Belladonna was not proud of what she had done.
Despite being one of the more well-respected members of the White Fang thanks to her partnership with Adam and being an activist for all things Faunus, a part of her was well aware of how, ironically, inhumane the current agendas and actions of the once peaceful activist group turned terrorists were.
Still, she held out hope that the White Fang would revert to their once peaceful views, all the while justifying the past three years of harm and mayhem they've caused as nothing more than the Faunus lashing out since their protests were doing nothing.
Was she lying to herself? Yes, yes, she was, and she knew that.
Especially when she considered just what type of person she and Adam's current client were.
"Don't be fooled into thinking that people like Ozpin are the only powerful enemies we have. Every city, no, every Kingdom has its fair share of shadows that are just as influential as the light they hide from."
Those were the cryptic words Siena had given her and her partner before they left to meet the woman. Her cold lavender eyes bore down at them while a bored smile tugged at her lips, twisting her face into an ugly mimicry of an inviting expression.
Lil' Miss Malachite was a terrifying woman and someone that even Siena was afraid of.
And Blake could now understand why.
Even just standing before the unarmed woman with weapons, aura, semblances, and so many more tools at their disposal that would allow them to remove the woman, it felt as though she was in power, like a predator staring down its prey.
"You two showed up faster than expected. Glad to see that you animals know how to do something right." Blake had to physically stop herself from reacting to the words of the woman.
It was a provocation, and she knew that. Yet...
Her hand tightened on Gambol Shroud, ready to attempt to attack the foul woman at a moment's notice.
A glance at her side told her that Adam felt much the same. His hair stood on end, and his breathing grew erratic while his hands clenched at his side.
But he didn't move.
The woman continued to smile, vile poison pouring from her lips.
"So easy to rile up, aren't you?" She tutted, "If this is all it takes for you two to get worked up, perhaps you shouldn't be in this line of business. You wouldn't hurt your client, would you?" She mocked their poor attempt to hide their hostility. "So uncivilized and rabid, the lot of you."
She leaned against her desk hauntingly, eyes dancing with sadistic mirth.
'Must... not... ATTTACK...!'
Those words were easier said than done, they weren't exactly the picture of emotionally sound teenagers after all.
Her hand shot out and caught Adam's wrist before he could draw his blades, causing the two to struggle against one another as Blake reinforced herself with her aura to hold back her stronger counterpart.
All the while that awful woman watched them, blonde hair swaying as she tilted her head in amusement.
The temptation to let Adam go and join him in thrashing the woman grew in her, but she quickly stamped out those feelings.
"You asked us for a job." Blake ground out through gritted teeth.
"That I did," she agreed, "There are a few... people of interest you could say, that I need you two to keep an eye on." The blonde began. "Two boys and a girl."
"And what does that have to do with us?" Adam growled, annoyed. "You said they may be enemies of the White Fang."
"The three whom I'm talking about are loose cannons in a sense. They are wanderers and have no affiliation to anyone or anything but themselves."
"That still doesn't tell us why they should matter to us."
She realized her mistake a moment later.
"Let me put it like this." The spider hummed, "Among the three I'm talking about, two of them are strong, possess unknown semblances, and do not hesitate to kill. Not to mention that they've appeared in Mistral at random and immediately attached themselves to a potentially high-profile celebrity. One whose fame they shamelessly exploited to remove any and all evidence that they even exist."
Each word she spoke wove another layer of the web.
"As of now, their intentions are unknown." She shrugged with a devil-may-care smile. "Perhaps they are just here to visit a relative? Or they can be criminals like us, I certainly can't tell you~"
She could feel Adam's rage nearing its limit, and Blake herself couldn't blame him.
"Then this should not matter to us." Blake spun on her heel and began to drag the nearly frothing-at-the-mouth partner with her. "They pose no threat to us, so your call to hire us is invalid." She said to the woman coldly and reached for the door handle.
"I wonder if you can keep that same attitude knowing that one of those people is an agent of Ozpin?"
Her words were like a splash of cold water to Blake as her brain processed the words spoken to her.
"Ozpin's... Agent?" Adam asked, voice hoarse with disbelief at her words.
"Ah, never mind me, these people pose no threat to you after all." She said almost innocently.
Blake and Adam looked at one another through their masks, a silent conversation passing between them before they approached Lil' Miss Malachite's desk once more.
"These persons you speak about, if they truly are one of Ozpin's, then they are enemies of the White Fang and need to be eliminated," Adam spoke to the woman, his distrust for humans shining through as his mind raced to formulate plans to combat these unknown individuals.
Lil' Miss Malachite's smile grew again now, and Blake shuddered.
This woman truly was terrifying, wasn't she?
Adam's eyes narrowed, and against her better judgment, Blake listened to the woman's words as she began to play into the woman's hands. The seed of doubt had been planted in her heart, and getting information on their newest targets seemed more appealing than before.
"What do we need to do?"
Six words from Adam's lips undid their careful attempts to sidestep her words and all but made sure they were ensnared in the vile woman's web.
"I'm sure by now some of my more eccentric subordinates have begun to monitor and possibly engage these people behind my back, " she said, smiling knowingly at one of the officers in her office.
Said man stiffened under her gaze but didn't falter.
"And while I plan to punish them for this thoroughly, we can use my subordinates' idiocy to our advantage. So just do as I said, keep an eye on them, gather information, and if they prove too troublesome—" she began, her smile growing and becoming colder.
"-Kill them."
Izuku knew his luck had sucked ever since he was young.
One doesn't go through life completely powerless and only meet people like him after he gains power of his own.
Such was the cruel irony of his life.
But that wasn't the main point, now was it?
Watching as his pursuers flew across rooftops and in between buildings to find him, he let out a sigh. Really, how was he to deal with this? He didn't even have a plan to deal with the Spiders! And attempting to round all of them up using the black whip was just asking for problems further down the line.
He was just intending to keep tabs on the Spiders, not take them out... yet.
Maybe he could have them lead him to their base of operations?
'No,' He thought, watching how there had yet to be any response to the large group of clearly hostile individuals chasing him, leading him to a single conclusion. 'Either Mistral's Huntsmen are incompetent... or the Spiders are more influential than I thought.'
Just as Izuku was about to move out and attempt to reunite with his group, a hand quickly grabbed him and dragged him further into the alley where he was hiding. Alarmed, Izuku quickly spun around to face who he guessed was another spider.
For his assailant's part, she showed to be quick on her feet, dodging the sweeping kick Izuku launched at her before jumping away from him to avoid a punch to her side.
"Hey! Hey! Relax, kid!" She whispered-shouted at him with her hands up in the universal sign of surrender, "I'm not gonna do anything to ya'" She attempted to reassure him. "What do you want from me? Are you working with them?" He hissed back, his guard raised and quirk active.
Danger Sense had not registered her since he was so lost in thought, and so his natural instincts kicked back in, screaming for him to distance himself from the woman who could have easily get the drop on him.
"I'm not," She assured quickly before adding, "Not anymore, not entirely."
His eyes narrowed on her, his disbelief palpable.
A sigh escaped the woman when she saw her words weren't getting through to him, so she decided to switch gears. "Look, I know that you're on the mistress's bad side for whatever Oum-forsaken reason she could think of in that head of hers, but I need your help to destroy the Spiders." She stated, laying out her schemes in the open.
'?' Izuku's brain short-circuited at the admission, confused.
"What?"
What the hell was this woman going on about?
"Why should I believe you?" He asked in an attempt to regain control of the situation and center himself.
"'Cause whatever I do is gonna have me end up in a ditch on the outskirts of Mistral, so might as well go down fighting." She replied simply as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"I-I think I'm missing a bit of context here..." The boy muttered out as he stared at the strange woman before him. His mind was trying to make heads or tails of the situation.
'!'
"Looks like they caught on to us," Izuku muttered out loud as he dashed at the woman, surprising her as blackwhip burst forth from his back and wrapped itself around him as he jumped into the air.
'"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU-!" The woman began shouting at him for an answer to his sudden actions before cutting herself off when an ethereal sword the size of a small car obliterated the area where she and the boy once stood.
"Oh..." was all she could say as the little blonde girl's loud, arrogant laughter echoed out behind them as the blade faded away and the spiders gave chase.
"CONGRATULATIONS, MONGRELS! YOU"VE EARNED MY IRE AND THUS, THE RIGHT TO BE BEHEADED BY MINE DIVINE SELF!"
'A little girl shouldn't be saying such disturbing things, ' Izuku grimly thought as he began to turn up the output of One for All to 12% while activating float.
Using the edge of one of the buildings as a foothold, Izuku kicked off
"AAAAAHHHHHHH!" The scream almost deafened the poor boy as he flew off with the woman in tow, kicking off the walls of buildings to maneuver around and avoid slamming into something, making him appear like a bolt of green lightning that slammed against different surfaces.
'Alright, new tactic,' The boy thought as he sped up before suddenly spinning around and flying towards one of the Spiders in a burst of speed. 'If I can't capture all of them, and trying to lose them will be too much of a hassle, then the next best option is!'
His fist slammed into the surprised Spider member, the man's head jerking sideways harshly as he flew into a wall, unconscious.
'Then the next best option is to divide and conquer!' He thought before continuing his little game of cat and mouse. Dissappearing into the buildings before popping out to pinball himself against several of his pursuers whenever they looked about to cause any large-scale damage or pull out anything that looked too dangerous.
"KILL HIM YOU FOOLS!" The blonde girl yelled angrily in the distance as Izuku doubled around and flew back towards the much smaller group, only to narrowly dodge the large battle axe that had been thrown at him before taking out the rest of the group, leaving only him and the small blonde girl.
Standing before her, Izuku watched as she tried not to shrink under his impassive gaze, no longer feeling as confident or confident in her ability now that her allies were down and on the ground.
Glaring at the boy defiantly, she held her hand out towards him, the golden portal behind her growing in size and golden sparks emitting from it as she pushed her all into one final attack.
Izuku just sighed and asked, "I don't suppose you can lead me to your boss, can you?" The girl just growled at him in response.
"And accept defeat by someone as lowly as you?! NEVER!" She ground out, red eyes burning with power.
Izuku's eyes widened as he felt a sensation he'd only felt from Amber.
Magic.
The golden portal behind her finally launched the stored weapon at Izuku, the Golden Sword burning with electric fire, primed to smite him with the power belonging to something far more ancient.
One for All was charged to 30%, and Izuku backhanded the attack away, a large shockwave exploding outwards from it as he sent both the attack and the strange element away from him and far into the distance. He ignored the stinging pain from the attack and narrowed his eyes upon the girl with newfound interest.
"You're a Maiden." His words were a statement of fact rather than a question. He watched as the girl flinched back at the words, her eyes widened in alarm, and power spiked, beginning to panic. Izuku raised his hands in a placating manner.
"Hey, hey, it's ok, calm down, I'm not going to do anything to you." He tried to reassure her, but she just scowled back at him. "I promise! I even know another Maiden!" He tried to plead his case, but that didn't help; in fact, it only seemed to dig his grave deeper.
"You..." she ground out, her sclera becoming living flames, "Are you with Ozma?"
Izuku's eyebrows raised at this new development, body tensing in preparation for how much more dangerous she felt. Not to mention that at the end there, it sounded as if another something else, another voice, one far more ancient than Remnant itself, spoke alongside the girl.
"No, I'm-" Izuku's words were prematurely cut off as fire bloomed to life and rushed towards him in a dense wave that scorched the earth beneath him as he floated upwards.
"Hey wai-" Izuku began again, only to be cut off when a large slab of earth rose from the ground to slam into him.
His first made quick work of the attack, however, and the concrete piece fell into small chunks of stone on the ground while he huffed and dropped back down, only to be met by blades of wind that carved the ground open while a dagger attempted to impale itself into his skull.
"If you are an ally of that bastard..." she growled, "THEN YOU CAN PERISH!"
Izuku watched as the golden portal expanded while the concrete flew up to encase and hold him in place. The tip of a far larger sword poked through the ethereal ripples, still covered in that strange element.
It was only now that Izuku decided that trying to rationalize with the newly discovered Maiden was useless, and so he cut his losses. His muscles flexed, breaking his prison with laughable ease before he blurred forward towards the girl. Her eyes widened in surprise at the untraceable speed at which the boy moved as he appeared beside her and chopped the back of her neck, causing the world to fall to black as he gently laid her out.
"Now, what am I to do with you?" the boy muttered, wondering whether or not he should leave her here or take her with him. "No, that's probably a bad idea, she's way too volatile to take her with us, not to mention, I'm not sure of the full capabilities of her semblance or the powers of the Maidens."
His lips pursed together in contemplation as he went over the events that led up to this scenario, he found himself in. If he wasn't sure, the Spiders saw them as a threat before, then he was certainly sure about it now.
Speaking of Spiders...
Izuku turned back to find the woman whom he'd scooped up still in his black whip cocoon, unconscious and foaming at the mouth. It caused the boy to sweatdrop, perhaps he had moved too fast and too suddenly? Then again, she was a potential enemy and had information on the Spiders, so...
"You can feel bad later," Izuku said to himself as he moved the woman onto his back instead after wiping away the foam leaking from her lips. It was, at the very least, more comfortable than a whip cocoon.
"Now, how am I supposed to explain this?"
Chameleon had experienced a great many things in her life as a top executive among the Spiders.
She killed, stole, fought, ran, betrayed, trusted, and so much more. Hell, she'd even fallen in love! Her! It was an absulote mindfuck for her back then to try and make sense of those weird feelings but-
Ah, wait, no, she was going off topic. What was she thinking about again? Right, experiences, she'd had a lot of those, and waking up strapped to a chair and surrounded by weapons wasn't exactly new for her.
What was new, however, was the fact that she didn't wake up strapped to a chair and surrounded by weapons. Instead, she stretched out her body and allowed herself to try nursing the headache she'd gotten after being jostled about from the high-speed chase she'd been forced to-
Her eyes shot wide open, her body springing upwards into a sitting position while she took in her surroundings. To her right, on the single-seat couch, was a brunette who lazily cast a side eye at her before turning back to the Television, which displayed some kind of fighting game, while calling out to someone named 'Deku'.
She turned downwards, following the sounds button mashing, She saw two children, one who looked no older than 6, while the other seemed to be around 14, both seemingly unaffected by her presence as they continued to try beating each other in the game.
"Oh, you're awake." The green-haired boy she'd run into a while back came into view and stood off to the side of the couch, offering her a cup of... tea?
"I'm not going to drink this, you know?" Chameleon said honestly, eyeing the tea wearily before turning back to address the boy, "Also what's with this set up? Shouldn't I be tied to a rusty chair in the basement somewhere?" She couldn't help but ask, to which the brunette just shrugged.
"Not to sound rude, lady, but pretty much all of us in this room can incapacitate or kill you," she said, sending a small spark of electricity at her as a demonstration, causing her body to lock up at the discharge before finally uncoiling itself after some time.
"...Duly noted."
"Sorry about that," The green-haired- Bah! that was to much of a damn mouthful! she was just gonna call him Greeny from now on! "But I hope you understand that we don't exactly, well, trust you. However, we are willing to work with you if you truly do want to take down the Spiders."
Oh, ok, that was easier than she expected... Chameleon was honestly expecting a bit more of a challenge to convince them to work with her but...
"Not that I'm complaining, but why are you willing to work with me so easily?" She asked again, confused.
Grenny scratched the back of his neck sheepishly and looked towards the red-haired girl on the ground, who she now realised was sulking at her loss to the hand of the frankly adorable six-year-old boy. "Well, we originally were going to stay in Mistral for a bit to get somekind of footing but with the Spiders putting our student in danger and the suspected corruption within Mistral's government, it wouldn't exactly be to smart of an Idea to set up a base of operations in what amounts to a vipers pit." He explained. "Not to mention the Spiders have someone among their ranks that caught our interest," The brunette chimed in with an excited glint in her eyes. "And like I said before we could always just incapacitate or kill you, so no harm, no foul."
"...I don't like you," Chameleon growled at the girl who flipped her the bird.
"Neither do I."
A/N: And a new member joins the team!
Yea sorry this took so long to get out. For some God forsaken reason, this chapter fought tooth and nail to NOT be posted. What with fanfiction crashing mid story writing, files refusing to save and me needing to retype the damn thing cause I kept writing myself into a corner. So I took a step back, revisited and edited a few of the earlier chapters and actually thought about what I wanted to come out of this first arc. So reread the earlier chapters if you want things to make sense or just want slightly more fleshed out character interactions.
And, yes, Deku did meet another Maiden whose character is based on a certain King of Heroes. Why? cause why the fuck not. I have really cool ideas for her dammit!
Oh yeah, and Chameleon is there to cause I needed an insider from the Spiders to make my future plans plausible. Thank God all those hours scouring the wiki for ideas were not put to waste!
Anyways, Sorry again for taking so damn long, it almost midnight and I really wanted to be done with this chapter and move on cause the itch to write was ditracting me and I got exams.
So hope you enjoyed the read and criticism is welcomed.