Chapter 81: BlackoutSummary:
Things escalate.
Notes:
Art!
claire ;P X
Memes!
X X X X X X X X
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Izuku knew that something was wrong as soon as the power went out. He waited for the backup generators to kick in, but when nothing happened, he immediately kicked into action. He tried to check the cameras, but without the power from the grid or the generators, they were still offline. They would have still had visualization of the students from the little spider bots that Mei had created….if his computer hadn't been affected by the blackout. This was bad. This was very very bad.
"Mei." Izuku asked. "What would cause a critical failure like this?"
"Sabotage." Mei answered grimly. "Someone would have had to destroy or disable every single backup generator and the backups to the backups before cutting the power to get it to go out like this."
"So this is an attack." Izuku took a deep breath. "How soon can we have power back online?"
"Give me five minutes." Mei was already grabbing her tools, "Maybe ten if I run into trouble."
Izuku nodded. "I need to track down my laptop. I'll try to find some of the students and have them guard you. Our highest priorities are to get power back online and probably find uraraka, since she'll make communication easier…."
His phone buzzed in his pocket and he frowned as he looked at who the message was from, "Why is Kaminari of all people texting me?"
There was an image attached and Izuku clicked on it hesitantly, expecting a meme, not a photo of Hitoshi tangled in Minetas purple balls in one of the back halls of UA. His mouth went dry.
"Nevermind." Izuku swallowed. "Priorities changed."
And then they heard something crash.
Mina hurried down the hall, looking for any one of her classmates. She'd gotten separated from her partner by some of the 1B students with creepy quirks and hadn't been too concerned about it, but then the lights went out, so it was just her, acid skating down the hall in almost pitch black darkness. She heard a large crash and pushed herself even faster.
She saw an odd shape moving away from her through the darkness and called out, "Hey! Wait up!"
The shape started going faster and Mina huffed in frustration, "Hey! I said, wait up, don't run away from me!"
She skated after them as fast as she could go and rammed into them within seconds, sending the shape sprawling to the floor.
"Hey! What's the big idea?!" Mineta's shrill voice echoed through the hall and Mina groaned. Of course it had to be Mineta.
She looked around the hall and froze when she saw Shinso, unconscious and completely stuck in a net of purple balls, "Uh...you weren't partnered with Shinso for the exercise."
There was just enough light for her to see Mineta roll his eyes, "Yeah, no shit. Now just run away and maybe I'll let you live."
"What are you talking about?" Mina scrambled to her feet. "What are you doing with Shinso?!"
"None of your business, bitch." Mineta growled.
"Uh, no?" Mina coated her hands with acid. "You're trying to hurt one of my friends so, uh, duh , yeah, it's my business!"
She skated by and tried to grab Shinso, only to get tripped up by a barrage of sticky balls landing right in her path. She managed to catch her footing again and turned back toward Mineta, dropping into a fighting stance, only to freeze as she realized the balls were dissolving as soona s they came in contact with her acid.
"Wait, that looks familiar…" Mina's jaw dropped. "I saw pictures of that on the news. You..you're Trapper, you're a villain!"
"Nice of you to finally catch on." Mineta said dryly. "Now get out of my way!"
Todoroki looked around the room when the lights went out, taking in the teachers' expressions with a growing sense of dread, "The blackout isn't part of the exercise, is it?"
"No." Aizawa said seriously. "It isn't."
"Well, the plans to attack the camp obviously didn't work." Shigaraki said. "So instead of abandoning the quest, they must have decided to keep going after their objectives and attack UA directly. If they had the balls to do it though, they didn't run it by me at all."
"Is there anything else you can give us?" Nedzu asked. "I cannot imagine you would come here without significant leverage."
"I can tell you the party members and their quirks." Shigaraki offered. "They did the little side quest at the mall to try and hide them, which I didn't know about either, for whatever that's worth."
Tsukauchi flipped to a new page in his notebook, "You've got a deal, what are we up against?"
"The most serious threats will be a frid chicken nugget called Dabi and a psychotic bitch named Toga." Shigaraki said. "Fire powers and a quirk that lets her look like anyone, but they're both smart and know what they're doing. In terms of immediate danger, though, you're looking at two esscaped convicts. Muscular and Moonfish. I trust you don't need more info on them."
Todoroki watched as Tsuakuchi went pale, "No. I think we know their threat level just fine."
Shigaraki nodded, "Ok then, outside of those four, we've got a couple wild cards. Mustard can create a poison gas, Magne has magnet powers, and Mr. Compress can do what his name says: compress stuff into these puny little marbles. They're all dangerous. Sensei wouldn't have recruited them otherwise."
"Very well." Nedzu said. "Aizawa, get ahold of Present Mic. I think we have a use for radio communications. I will call Mandalay and have her use telepathy to inform the students."
Muscular grinned and shook out his fist, "How did I do, boss?"
"This is about killing false heroes, not showing off." Spinner complained.
"Oh, come on now." Mr. Compress cut in. "Destroying the wall of UA with one punch is quite impressive."
"See?" Muscular flexed. " Someone appreciates my greatness. Now let's see some blood!"
"Blood." Moonfish's groans sounded almost inspired."
"Finally." Spinner growled. "We have work to do."
"Yay!" Toga jumped up and down. "I get to drink all the little heroes blood! This is gonna be so much fun!"
"Just make sure you get enough." Dabi said. "Mustard, cover our path so the local heroes can't give back up."
"Don't tell me what to do." Mustard growled, but even as he spoke, he was already letting off a large cloud of poisonous gas. "These fake heroes don't stand a chance."
"Before we fight, just remember that Trapper's been exposed." Dabi warned. "So if you see him, get him out. Oh, and Shiggy's a traitor, so kill him if you get the chance and assume these heroes know your quirks."
"Heh, as if that'll help 'em." Muscular cracked his knuckles. "These heroes don't stand a chance."
Notes:
Next Update: January 7, 2022 (MST)
Chapter 82: PoisonSummary:
Things are in full swing!
Notes:
Art!
GuardianSoul X
Compass
Memes!
X X X
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
For once, Nedzu did not have the chance to open the door before Midoriya slammed it open and came barging in, "I need my laptop."
Nedzu nodded and gestured to the laptop, "We received a ping from your program just moments before the loud crash."
"That means the league has already arrived." Midoriya nodded and crossed to sit at Nedzu's desk, shooing Shigaraki out of his seat so that he could sit down. "Based on the lack of fighting, I'm assuming there weren't two traitors after all?"
"No, what does everyone keep thinking that?" Shgiaraki complained. "Icy Cat never gave me any info at all. And who are you anyway?"
Midoriya looked up and glared at him, "You can call me Cheat Code. I'm sure you'll understand why I don't trust you."
Shigaraki gulped, "Oh. You're the little cheater from the USJ."
"It's not cheating if it saves lives." Izuku turned back to his computer. "Now tell me everything you know. What am I up against?"
//
"What is that smell" Hagakure sniffed the air. "It's like rotten eggs."
"I'm not sure." Jiro slammed her hand over her mouth and nose as she started to feel lightheaded. "I think we should get out of here."
"It's probably just...one of class 1B's...quirks." Hagakure said, more slowly than she should have, which made alarm bells go off inside Jiro's head.
"No." Jiro heard unfamiliar footsteps and turned toward them to see Spinner and a bunch of people she didn't recognize emerging from the growing mist. "It's villains."
She was passed out before the villains even noticed her.
//
Mei dashed through the halls, her tool bag swinging by her side like a weapon as she held the phone to her ear, "Come on pick up!"
"Mei?" Ochako sounded confused when she answered, "Do you know what's going on?"
"No time." Mei snapped quickly. "Extra credit kun has been kidnapped. Go get him."
She hung up and slid down the banister, eyes narrowing in on the door to the maintainance cabinet. She just needed to get to that room and she'd be able to get at least partial power back. Hopefully.
She scrambled back as a long blade slammed into the floor in front of her, "Flesh...give me blood!"
Mei swallowed and looked up at a guy in a straight jacket who looked even crazier than she was, "Oh crap."
The minute that ochako heard that Hioshi had been kidnapped she was by his side within seconds. He was completely covered in Mineta's sticky balls and Ocako cursed under her breath" Mineta? How did I miss that?!"
Hitoshi blinked, raising his head about an inch to look at her, "Ocha...what?"
"I'm here."Ochako wasn't quite sure how to grab him without getting stuck." I'm gonna get you out of here, Where's Mineta?"
"Fighting Mina." Hitoshi slumped back down. "She figured out he was Trapper."
"Ok." Ochako swallowed. She'd help Mina later. "Let's get you someplace safe. "
"Show me your blood!!!!" she ducked down and hid behind Hitoshi just in time to see little kouta running for his life down the hall as the largest villain ochako had ever seen reached out to grab him.
"Shindig…" Ochako whimpered. "I have to…"
"Go. Save him." Hitoshi smiled. "I can still talk, I'll take care of myself."
Ochako nodded and disappeared.
Tsu really hoped that Ochako was ok. She'd left in a hurry, but then again, she usually did these days, so it wouldn't have been too concerning if it hadn't been for the blackout and the phone call right before. She had the feeling there was something else going on besides the exercise.
Her night vision was a bit better than normal due to her quirk, but the shadows were still putting her on edge as she made her way through the halls to where Ragdoll was supposed to be. She knew that was most likely the point, since it was a test of courage, but it was still enough to make her pay more attention to her surroundings. That was probably the only reason she didn't miss the knife flying at her out of the corner of her eye.
She hopped to the side just in time and the blade embedded itself in the wall instead of her braid. A blond girl with high buns and what looked like huge needles hanging from her backpack came out from the shadows with a pout, "Aww, but you'd look so much cuter if you were a bit more cut up."
Tsu swallowed, "No thanks."
She didn't recognize this girl from class 1b, which didn't paint a very nice picture when combined with the blackout and Ochako's sudden disappearance. If there were villains here, then were they under attack? Were they allowed to fight back? What was going on?!
A voice rang out inside her head, "Students, this is Mandalay. The school is under attack by the league of villains. As the attack is happening on UA grounds, you are allowed to use your quirks to defend yourselves, but do not initiate attacks. Make your way to the cafeteria as soon as possible."
Mandalay then started listing the attackers and their quirks as quickly as she could. Tsu gulped as Toga started to circle her, a hungry look on her face. Ok, so those needles must be so that she could gather blood and turn into other people. First priority was to keep Toga from getting her blood, then get away and meet up with the rest of the students.
She shifted into a fighting stance, which made Toga smile, "Are you ready to bleed now? You kinda spaced out for a minute and that's no fun! I want you to feel it when I stab you! That way you can enjoy it too!"
Another knife came flying at her and Tsu hopped out of the way, "I think we enjoy different things."
Toga scowled and this time, she threw her needles. She was fast and it was all Tsu could do to dodge until out of nowhere Toga yelped and stumbled as if she'd taken a hit from behind. Tsu felt a hand on her shoulder and whirled around to see a floating head that she thought she recognized as a girl from 1B.
"Sorry for scaring you." the girl's head said. "I'm setsuna, I'm in the other class. Komoro has a plan, but we need to get that girl's gasmask."
Tsu nodded and flexed her tongue, "I can do that."
Students, this is Mandalay. The school is under attack by the league of villains. As the attack is happening on UA grounds, you are allowed to use your quirks to defend yourselves, but do not initiate attacks. Make your way to the cafeteria as soon as possible.
The villains quirks are as follows
Dabi: cremation
Spinner: Lizard traits and blood based paralysis
Toga: blood based appearance changes
Mustard: poison gas
Magne: Magnetism
Mr. Compress: compression
Trapper, aka, Minrou Mineta: sticky hair
Mei bolted to the nearest tunnel entrance and quickly solved the puzzle to get inside before slamming the door behind her. The knives slammed through the wall, but that psycho couldn't get to her if he didn't know where she was, so she moved quietly as she made her way back to the labs. She really hoped the time she'd waste would be worth it, but there was no way she'd be able to do this without her babies. She dropped down into the lab and grabbed a variety of her projects, both the successes and the failures. The successes would do what they were supposed to and the failures would blow up, so it was a win-win!
She ran back to the basement as fast as she could through the tunnels, exiting to the view of the straightjacket guy still attacking the wall where she'd disappeared. He'd almost completely ripped it open by this point and Mei got a determined look as she launched a stink bomb into the air, "Look alive!"
The guy turned toward her like some sort of eldritch entity, but soon enough reared back as the stench of the stink bomb filled the hall. Mei covered her mouth and nose and hoped this actually worked. She'd tried to channel her inner Izu-kun and she'd seen that the guy was wearing a blindfold, which meant that he wasn't finding her by sight, which meant that it was either smell or sound, but he hadn't been able to find ehr in the tunnels and if he had enhanced hearing then she'd be a shishkabob right now. That left that he was probably smelling for her blood or something creepy like that and that was easily countered by a stink bomb. She smiled as her opponent became disoriented and she realized that she'd been right.
Izu-kun would be so proud.
She grabbed one of her failed babies that was supposed to be an early version of her jetpack and turned it on before launching it at the guy's head. It exploded about a second earlier than she'd hoped, but it was still enough to force him back. She ran for the maintenance room door, only to find her path blocked by knives. Again. This was getting old.
"Blood. Flesh…"
"What a mad banquet of darkness."
Mei felt hands grab her and she yelped as she was carried around the corner by one of the hero students with a full six arms, "Are you hurt? You're one of the support students, right? We need to run."
"No, what we need is to get the power back on." Mei pushed the student, Shouji if she remembered right, away. "And to do that, I need to get in that stupid room."
Shouji blinked for a moment and nodded, "Alright. Then Tokoyami and I will help you. Stay behind us."
He raised his arms into a shield and raised himself up to his full height. Mei got ready to run. They were running out of time.
It took longer than he preferred to figure out where the hell Mustard was and lure Mina into an affected area. He had his gas mask, obviously, so he wasn't affected, but the stupid pink idiot could hold her breath for an inferiatingly long time. At least she was out of the way now, but Mineta was definitely not in a good mood as he finally hurried back to where he'd left Shinso. Sending that text as a threat to Cheat Code hadn't seemed like a risk at the time, but then again, he hadn't been planning on running into one of his classmates.
He breathed a sigh of relief when Shinso was still there, stuck to the floor exactly where he'd left him. He hadn't even woken up yet! Mineta chuckled and kicked Shinso in the ribs, "Wake up Sleeping beauty, rise and shine. "
Shinso blinked, bleary eyed and raised his head, "What? What time is it?"
Mineta immediately looked at his watch. if he was correct, Shinso's quirk relied on confusing his target, so no matter what, he needed to know what he was talking about, "11 pm."
His eyes widened as Shinso smirked, "got ya."
"What are you…" apparently he was just confused enough by Shinso's reaction for the quirk to kick in because he felt his brain go fuzzy and his arms fell limp at his sides, "Dissolve these stupid things and let me go."
Mineta had no choice but to obey.
Notes:
Next Update: January 14, 2022 (MST)
Chapter 83: BattlesSummary:
The fight is coming to a head.
Notes:
Memes!
X X X X X X X
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Dabi was supposed to be able to focus on traumatising Shouto tonight, but no. Of course he had to go and find the stupid gamer boy who should never have been put in charge of the league to begin with and kill him. Trapper had tried to give them as much info on the school's layout as possible, but it'd be built by a literal rat, so it was a maze. Speaking of the rat, Dabi was betting that he'd find Shigaraki right in his office. It was probably near the center, basing things on a traditional rat maze, but he wasn't too concerned about solving anything right now. That was what the new recruits' quirks were for, after all.
"Just compress the walls in front of us." Dabi ordered. "We're not playing by the rules of their little game."
The frog girl was pretty cute, and Himiko was still deciding on her opinion when it came to mushroom girl, but she thought the lizard girl could definitely use some improvements, "Why don't you bleed when you split apart? You'd be so much cuter if you just bled a little more!"
"Yeah, because that's not creepy at all." Setsuna muttered.
The disembodied hands were grasping at the ugly gas mask around Himiko's neck and she would have given it up if it hadn't also been connected to her blood canisters to let her drink on the go. Not that she had any blood in them at the moment, but she was working on that!
"Come on! I just want a little taste of your blood!" HImiko cried out. "I'm only gonna hurt you a little, doesn't that sound like fun?"
"No!" all three girls answered in unison and it would have been cute if they were just bloodied up a little more.
The frog girl's tongue came barreling toward her again and she managed to slash it with her knife, but the attack created an opening for the lizard girl to send a leg and kick her in the back of the knees, which then allowed the frog girl to wrap her tongue around the mask and pull. The tubing popped out and Toga scowled as she stood back up. "That was totally not cute."
"Setsuna, get out of here." the mushroom girl said. "Asui, put on the mask."
"Call me Tsu." the frog girl said, putting on the mask.
"Oh, Tsu?" HImiko's eyes lit up. "What a cute name!"
The frog girl glared at her from above the mask, "only my friends get to call me Tsu."
HImiko smiled, "Well, I guess this means we're friends th.."
Her voice cut out when she suddenly stopped being able to breath. There was a slight mist in the air, "M...Mustard?"
"No." the mushroom girl answered. "Spores. You're not getting anybody's blood tonight."
The mist disappeared, but she could still feel it in her lungs as her vision went spotty, "Wha…?"
The lizard girl ran back up, "I found a rope, let's tie her up."
Well, that hadn't been fun at all.
Shouji shielded Mei with his arms as Dark shadow grappled with moonfish. Shouji could use some armor for his arms, but she'd have to be careful not to restrict his range of movement. Maybe something like a cape, made of kevlar obviously, and Tokoyami's needed some more in terms of defense and maybe some offense too, but she'd have to experiment and…
Mei forced herself to pay attention to the fight and brav someone for babies, just some taser marbles, so nothing fancy, but still effective enough that a faceful of them was able to keep Moonfish from slicing off one of shoji's extra arms.
As soon as Moonfish reared back, Shouji dashed forward and yanked the door to the maintenance room open, "Go! We'll make sure he doesn't follow you!"
Mei nodded and dropped one more stink bomb, just to make sure Moonfish still couldn't' rely on his sense of smell, then ran into the maintenance room. She slammed the door behind her and Mei turned on a flashlight and opened her tool bag, "Alright, time to get this baby working again."
Shinso ran through the halls, trying to put as much distance between himself and Mineta as he could. He'd ordered him to go turn himself in to the teachers, but Hitoshi wasn't stupid. He knew that the likelihood of something knocking Mineta out of his control before then was almost a guarantee and he didn't want to be anywhere near the creep when that happened. Izuku had warned them that there had to be another traitor. Why hadn't they focused harder on figuring out Trapper's identity?
He scrambled back when Spinner dropped from the ceiling right in front of him, "Hello again, hero. We didn't quite get the chance to finish our conversation last time."
Ochako teleported to Kouta, "Hey, I'm gonna get you out of here, ok?"
"It's him. It's Muscular. The...he killed my mom and dad!" Kouta's eyes widened and he pointed over her shoulder, "Watch out!"
A punch barred into her from the side, knocking her through the wall. She groaned and stood up to see the huge villain gloating as he towered over her, "This is the hero they sent after me? A puny little girl?!"
Ochako shifted into a fighting stance, "A puny little girl who beat all might in a fair fight."
The villain Laughed, "Oh, you've got spunk, but even All Might couldn't beat me. I'm gonna love killing you."
Ochako grit her teeth, "And I'm gonna love beating that stupid grin off your face!"
She felt a tingle run down her spine just in time for Muscular to throw a massive quirk-enhanced punch right at her face. She channeled one for all and moved faster than she thought possible, grabbing him in preparation for a judo flip and activating her quirk so that she could actually slip him completely over her shoulder and slam him into the ground.
It didn't even keep him down for a second. He twisted her arm and she helped as she felt the bone snap, "Pathetic. Maybe killing the kid will be more fun."
She bit her lip and launched herself at him, "Don't touch him!"
The most she'd ever teleported on repeat had been when she'd first developed her quirk. Ever since she'd learned to control her jumps, she hadn't teleported for more than two or three times in a row. The only exception had been the mall, but even then, she'd only been teleporting herself. The only time she'd teleported on repeat with another person in tow had been that one time with All Might and that had only been twice. She knew it'd be draining, but at the moment, she really couldn't bring herself to care. She grabbed onto Muscular and teleported to every single one of her classmates, not staying at any of them long enough for Muscular to get his bearings. Around number ten, she started getting nauseous, but she didn't stop. She wasn't going to let this guy hurt Kouta or anybody else!
She let loose a guttural yell as she teleported to Aizawa, pouting as she threw a now exhausted Muscular to the floor. It took her a minute to push down her nausea and realize that there was now an entire roomful of people that were all staring at her in shock.
Shigaraki was sitting right next to Izuku, who was sitting at Nedzu's desk, which was the only reason why she didn't immediately grab him and give him the same treatment as Muscular. He gave a low whistle, "and this is why I'm glad I'm switching sides."
"You're still on thin ice." Izuku said without looking up. "Eraserhead can handle this goon if he wakes up. Hitoshi got himself out, but we know he's a target, so back him up. The teachers are getting the rest of the students."
Ochako nodded, "Got it. See you soon!"
Mineta cursed under his breath as he put on his gas mask. That stupid brainwasher! How had he gotten the jump on him so quickly?! And now his bait for Cheat Code was gone and the entire attack was going so far off of the plans that it wasn't even close to the same attack. He was out of backup plans to his backup plans and now was firmly in the improvisation territory, which was not where a trapper preferred to be.
He took a deep breath. He could still make this work in his favor. Sure, he'd let Shinso slip through his fingers, but Mustard had already set up the gas trap and he just needed to make sure as many of his classmates as possible got caught in it. Most of them still didn't know he was the traitor, so he'd just lure them into the gas and take down as many as he could!
He saw Sero up ahead, his freakishly large elbows backlit against what little light there was, "Hey, do you know what's going on."
Sero's eyes widened and instead of greeting him like a friend as Mineta had expected, Sero immediately shot out his tape, "Guys, the traitor's here, get him!"
Mineta swore and used his balls to stick Sero's tape to the wall instead of to him, but he wasn't quite sure what other backup Sero had. Who had he been paired with for the exercise? What members of 1b were around? It had to be more than one person from what Sero had said, so the safest option was...well, to do what he planned to begin with. He may not have planned to have his classmates know his true intentions already, but actually this made his job ironically easier.
"Catch me if you can, bitches." MIneta muttered under his breath. "Until you can't breath, that is."
He ran as fast as he could in the direction of the gas, running just slow enough that his classmates stayed focused on him and not on the gathering mist until it was too late. He could hear multiple sets of footsteps, probably between three and five, so a good number if everyone fell for his trap. He adjusted his gasmask and kept running until he heard a few thumps behind him, then turned around and doubled back. Sero and a brown haired kid from 1B had fallen for it, but whatever others there were had gotten away.
Mineta shrugged it off and went to go find more students. There was no lack of targets wandering the halls at this point, he just had to find some more prey.
Hitoshi swallowed and stared down Spinner, "What conversation? Last I remember you were trying to kill me."
Spinner frowned, "You said I had other people in my head. Explain what you meant."
"O-oh." Hitoshi hesitated. He could take control right now, but...Spinner didn't seem intent on killing him at the moment and he could always brainwash him later. Izuku was always emphasizing how important information was and for some reason, Hitoshi was intrigued. "Uh, ok? It was just one other presence, but it just...felt like there were two minds? Two consciousnesses, kinda? It's hard to explain."
"But whose?" Spinner looked so confused and almost angry. "Whose mind is it?"
"I-I don't know." Hitoshi's mind spun. He did not want an angry hero killer. "I might be able to brainwash it though. To interrogate it! Um, I don't know how else to figure it out, sorry."
Hitoshi silently cursed himself. He had just offered to brainwash the angry murderer. Of course that was a brilliant plan. Way to not make his opponent angry!
"Do it."
Hitoshi reared back in surprise, "What?"
"Do it." Spinner ordered again. "I'm not going to have other people messing with my head, not while I go about Stain's important mission. I need to know what I am fighting, so figure it out or I swear on Stain's blood that I will cut you down where you stand."
"Ok." Hitoshi took control immediately. "That's a pretty convincing reason to brainwash somebody, not gonna lie."
He took a deep breath and hoped this actually worked. Honestly, brainwashing Dark Shadow from Tokoyami's brain had been hard enough, and he was still working on taking half control so that people could actually talk under his brainwashing, so there was every chance this was going to blow up in his face.
But if it didn't, it would be really cool.
First, he focused on Spinner's mind until he could feel the other presence inside it, then he pushed a little forward. The other mind didn't resist his control, not in the way Dark Shadow's had. In fact, it was almost like it knew what he was trying to do and hesitantly approved of the plan. After he had control of both, he let go of Spinner, not trusting himself to be able to successfully interrogate if he was trying to brainwash multiple people and, oddly enough, he was pretty sure that Spinner wasn't going to kill him until he figured out who the other presence was, so it was a pretty safe move. Or at least, Hitohisi hoped so.
Then he dialed back his control. He gave the other presence just enough control to be able to speak, but carefully kept enough that it should answer his questions. If everything went according to plan, that was, so it was about a 50/50 shot.
Hitoshi carefully thought through the wording of his question before speaking, careful to phrase his question as an order, "Tell me who you are."
Spinner's voice spoke blankly, "I am Stain, the hero killer."
It took all of Hitoshi's willpower to not drop his control right then and there.
"I thought you were dead." Hitoshi said. "Tell us how you're here."
"A part of me was torn out when All for One stole my quirk." Stain answered. "He is the one who had me killed."
Spinner let out a guttural scream and Hitoshi stumbled back at the sheer rage emanating from him, losing both his control and his footing. He scrambled back as Spinner drew his Katana, "He lied. Sensei lied. He told me that the heroes killed Stain. He lied."
Hitoshi didn't know what to say, just scrambled backwards to put as much distance as he could between himself and the hero killers. Both of them. Oh no. he needed to ask a question and quickly. He froze, no need for Spinner's, STain's, paralyzation quirk, when the hero killers turned on him.
"I have no reason to kill you, for now." Spinner said, fire in his eyes. "I have more important prey to take care of."
He leapt onto the wall and scurried away and Hitoshi waited for him to disappear completely before falling onto his back in relief, "What the heck just happened?"
Ochako suddenly appeared beside him, "What did I miss?"
Notes:
Next Chapter: January 21, 2022 (MST)
Chapter 84: LightSummary:
The students fight to get power.
Notes:
Art!
BitchAssWitch(Winter)
Memes!
X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Monoma did a double take as soon as he saw the obvious pair of villains literally carving their way towards Nedzu's office, "Well, now, that's interesting."
Pony grabbed his arm, "Stop. Teachers will take care of them. We run."
Monoma scoffed and shook his arm loose, "You can run if you want, but I know you've noticed the gap between us and 1A. What's the difference? Not our test scores, that's for sure. They've fought real villains! I'm not going to let them keep leaving us in the dust!"
Pony hesitated for a moment before giving a determined nod, "We go."
Monoma grinned and cracked his neck, "Let's do this. Try to pin the guy in the yellow coat, he looks like he's got a useful quirk. I want it."
Shouji hissed and grabbed his arm. The hand wasn't a big loss, he could grow it back, what was an issue was that Dark Shadow hadn't taken kindly to one of it's friends being hurt. As soon as Tokoyami had seen Moonfish hurt him, he'd completely lost control and Dark Shadow had started going berserk. It had gone after moonfish first, thankfully, and the villain was somewhere down the hall with who knew how many broken bones, but now Dark Shadow was stalking anything that moved, which was unfortunately mostly Shouji. Tokoyami was trying to get it to calm down, but wasn't having much success.
Suddenly, there was a cheer from inside the maintenance room and Shouji felt a stab of fear as Dark Shadow zeroed in on the noise. It let out a massive roar and launched itself at the door. Shouji knew that the wall wouldn't stand a chance and that support student wouldn't be able to do a thing against it before she'd be torn to shreds. He took a step forward, not knowing what he could do, but at the same time knowing he had to do something.
And then the lights turned on.
Dark Shadow whimpered in the suddenly harsh lighting and Tokoyami was almost sobbing with relief as Shouji went to go comfort him, "The agent of chaos must have restored the power. What a mad banquet of darkness, but...I...I think I'd prefer to stay in the light for now."
Shouji nodded, "Yeah. That sounds like a good plan."
Kendo was lightheaded even now that the gas was finally clearing up. This poison gas smelled nasty and she would have known to avoid it even without Mandalays's warning, but knowing all the villain's quirk definitely gave them an advantage, as did knowing who the traitor really was. She thought she'd seen Mineta through the fog once or twice, but everytime she tried to chase him, he disappeared before she could find him.
At least she and Tetsutetsu had knocked out that Mustard kid. Now, though, they had to find everyone who had passed out from the gas and get them to Recovery Girl. Hopefully nobody but Tetsutetsu had gotten hit with any bullets, but Kendo wasn't counting on that, so they needed to hurry.
She made her hands as big as she could and started running, "Come on, let's grab everyone we can and get back to the Pussycats."
Pony shot her horns forward and snagged Mr. Compress's coat,
"Dabi, wait."
Dabi glared back and shot a stream of fire in the students general direction, "Get yourself out of it, you dumbass, or I'm leaving you behind."
Compress sounded like he was pouting underneath his mask, "Ah, but my coat will rip."
Dabi rolled his eyes, "Suit yourself, I've got a traitor to take care of."
Monoma waited until he was around the corner before dashing forward and ripping Compress's glove off, "And now, let's see what your quirk can really do."
"What are you talking about?" Compress sounded confused. "My quirk is…"
He disappeared and Monoma was left holding a marble, "Ok, this is going to be nice."
Ochako sighed after Hitoshi finished filling her in, "Ok, so what now?"
"Well, the lights are back on." Hitoshi shrugged. "And I'm no longer being targeted by a serial killer, so…maybe go back to the teachers?"
"Maybe…" Ochako frowned. "But I feel like the biggest threats are still out there."
"Like Shigaraki?" Hitoshi asked.
"No, he's apparently on our side now." Ochako answered absently.
Hitoshi blinked, "Wait, what?"
"Izuku was being almost polite to him when I dropped in earlier." Ochako said. "I think he's the one who gave mandalay the info on the villain's quirks."
"Oh." Hitoshi frowned. "I guess...I guess I was wrong about Todoroki being the traitor then."
"Detective Tsukauchi was there too." Ochako said. "So I think he interrogated both of them. I don't know what's going on, but I'm just scared that Kurogiri is going to teleport in and mess everything up. If I just had an anchor on him, then…."
"Then you'd be able to keep up." HItoshi nodded. "I can brainwash him long enough for you to touch him. I don't think the villains have figured out my quirk yet. Mineta thought it was based on confusion, so...we're still in the cellar."
"I just hope he's still around." Ochako said. "If he is...he's probably after Shigaraki for turning on them."
She grabbed Hitoshi and felt the world shift as they jumped. A second later, they were in Nedzu's office and Hitoshi was talking deep breaths to calm the nausea, "I think I'm actually starting to get used to that."
"What do you guys need?" Izuku said. "Now that the power's back, I'm kinda busy figuring out how to best use the weapons systems."
"We were hoping to track Kurogiri." Hitoshi answered. "Figured here was a good place to start, since the villains are probably going to be after Dusty here."
"I'd be offended if you weren't right." Shigaraki whined.
"Yeah," Todoroki drawled. "You knew what the consequences of switching parties would be."
Shiragaki groaned, the cat on his lap nuzzling up to his face to try and comfort thim, "Don't remind me. I'm still worried about the big boss."
"The big boss?" Todoroki asked. "Your Sensei?"
Shigarakai nodded, "All for One."
Nedzu nodded grimly, "Then I will call All Might and tell him to be prepared for an attack. It is a good thing that young Mei managed to get the power back on so we can bolster our defenses."
"What did I do?" Mei popped her head out from a secret tunnel in the ceiling. "Oh, um, hi? What's one of the villain's doing here?"
"Switching sides." Izuku answered. "Now get down here and man Nedzu's computer. The students have taken care of most of the villains but Mineta and Spinner are still on the loose."
Mei nodded and jumped down, "Any others we need to worry about?"
"Just this one." Izuku pressed the button that opened the door to Nedzu's office, revealing one very surprised villain who had been about to blow down the door. "Welcome Dabi. We've been expecting you."
Notes:
Next predicted update: January 24, 2022 (MST)
Chapter 85: BrothersSummary:
The villains find out some interesting information.
Notes:
Art!
Dia
qwirt1
Memes!
X X X
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
There was a long moment of awkward silence as the heroes just stared at Dabi, who stared right back. Shouto thought Midoriya was absolutely insane for opening the door like he was inviting in a friend, not a villain, but he had to respect the audacity of the power move. It immediately put the heroes at an advantage and took away the element of surprise that Dabi had almost definitely been counting on.
Finally Nedzu broke the silence, "Oh my, this office is getting rather crowded isn't it?"
Dabi responded by sending a stream of fire directly at Shigaraki, but Shouto created an icewall to protect him just in time. The wall melted immediately under the heat of Dabi's flames, and Shouto glared at him, "Don't you dare touch him."
Epurr hissed in agreement and launched herself at Dabi, scratching at his scars and the staples on his face until Dabi ripped her off and flug her away with a snarl, "Get out of my way, Shouto Todoroki."
"So Mineta told you my name." Shouto rolled his eyes, "how impressive."
Aizawa stepped in front of them, "Cheat Code, you take the others back to your lab. Use the tunnels, we'll deal with him."
"Fat chance." Dabi tried to shoot more fire, but Aizawa shot him with a glare. "Oh, fuck this."
He reached his hand into his pocket and grabbed something. Aizawa rushed forward, but Dabi just smirked, "Too late, he's already on his way."
Nedzu's fur stood on end, "And who would that be?"
A swirl of purple mist appeared in the middle of the room and Kurogiri stepped out, "You called?"
Mineta was stuck to the wall, hiding in a patch of shadows near the ceiling as he watched the students gathering. The Pussycats were doing a headcount of all the students while the UA teachers stood off to one side, handcuffing all of the villains that the students had managed to take down. They had done a lot better than he'd thought they would, or maybe it was just that his allies had done worse, because the only villains missing from the captured pile were Dabi, Kurogiri, and himself.
And now the lights were back on.
This entire attack was turning into a disaster and Mineta didn't know how to turn it around, not with their current numbers. However, they couldn't' afford to fail either, because failure meant that they lost Shigaraki, who knew enough to cripple them...which was probably why their attack had failed in the first place. They needed to pull out something that the heroes coudlnt' predict, something that Shigaraki's knowledge wouldn't help against, something so powerful that no matter even if they knew what they were up against, they wouldn't be able to fight.
Mineta pulled out the phone he'd stolen from Kaminari. They needed the big guns.
Ochako looked over at Hitoshi, who nodded and both of them rushed forward.
"What do you think you're doing here?" Hitoshi yelled. "If you want to get to him you're going to have to go through us!"
"What are you…?" Kurogiri went limp just in time for Ochako to barrel into him and knock him from the brainwashing. She scrambled to her feet with a grin as Kurogiri started floating.
"Got ya." Ochako put her hands together, "Release!"
Dabi scowled and turned to Kurogiri, "Nevermind you useless waste of oxygen, I'll handle Shigaraki myself."
Kurogiri nodded and disappeared and Ochako grabbed Hitoshi's hand, "Let me know if you need me to stop."
Hitoshi's expression hardened, "I'll stop when we catch him."
Gravity shifted and they ended up on top of the school, but the moment they got there, Kurogiri left again. After three more jumps of his, Ochako stopped, "He's trying to wear us out."
Hitoshi looked green, "It's working."
Ochako bit her lip and looked around. They'd ended up in one of the fake cities that UA used as a training ground, "If I can just get...oh, i'm an idiot."
"What?" Hitoshi fornwed. "What did you just realize?"
"Well…" Ochako started. "I can determine more or less where around my target I appear, right, so if I appear close enough, then I can grab him and bring him back."
"Only if you're fast enough to do that before he gets away from you." HItoshi pointed out. "His teleporting hasn't been throwing yours off, has it?"
"Not enough that I can't make this work." Ochako's eyes were determined as she dropped Hitoshi's hand. "I'll be back soon.
Hitoshi nodded, "And I'll be waiting."
Shouto glanced back and forth between Shigaraki and Dabi before turning to Midoriya, "There's a tunnel entrance just right here, right? The one your girlfriend came out of."
Midoriya looked like he was about to say something else before he stopped himself with a blush, "Yeah. the one my girlfriend came out of. That one."
Shout didn't have time to figure out that reaction, nor did he think that was the most important thing to worry while there was a psychopathic flame killer after them, "I'll stay back and help Aizawa, you two get Dusty to safety."
Hatsume nodded, "Got it."
"Do I get any say in this?" Shigaraki complained.
"No." Midoriya answered shortly. "Good luck Todoroki."
"If you're going to do something, do it quickly." Aizawa snapped. "I do have to blink eventually."
Shouto glared at Dabi and went to stand besides Aizawa, "Go. we got this."
"I believe that I shall accompany you." Nedzu said to Midoirya. "I do not believe the computers in this room will be functional for that much longer. Your workroom has a better set up."
"And whose fault is that?" Midoriya responded.
There was a scramble behind them as they got into the tunnels, but Shouto was more concerned with the staring contest he was having with Dabi, who looked confused and angry, "Since when are you all buddy-buddy with Shigaraki?"
Shotuo shrugged, "Since my old man kicked me out and he was the one who kinda took me in."
Dabi did a double take, "Wait, Dad kicked you out? He didn't even kick me out."
Shouto froze, his thoughts racing as he tried to make sense of that until everything finally clicked, "Touya?!"
Kurogiri knew he hadn't completely shaken the girl, Uraraka, that would have been a ridiculous assumption. If what Trapper had said was correct, she now had a permanent tag on him that could not be removed without a significant change in weight and it would not be safe to return to the base until that happened. He could starve himself for a few days, that would be simple enough, but there was the question of if the change would be sufficient. There was also the option of amputation, but he did not want to impact his usefulness to Sensei if he could help it. Basically, for the moment, he was out of good options.
He felt something barrel into him and then all of a sudden, the world was shifting just like it did when he warped. He knew the girl must have grabbed him and forced him to teleport, but why would she do something like that? He was used to teleporting and ending up in a new location, so there was no way she could throw him off using that strategy!
He readied himself for a fight before he even figured out where he had ended up and his eyes widened when he heard Tomura's voice, "I'm not coming back, will you stop trying to grab me already?!"
"You surely can't be abandoning Sensei so easily…" Kurogiri felt his brain go blank again, realizing too late that young Tomura was nowhere to be seen. He'd fallen for their ruse and this time, there was no one around to knock him out of it. He was somewhere within the UA training grounds and alone with the teleporter and the brainwasher. Wonderful.
"Alright, Hitoshi." The girl said. "He's all yours."
The brainwasher, Hitoshi Shinso, came into view, fiddling with a mask on his face that Kurogiri recognized as the support item he'd used during the sports festival. His quirk must have something to do with his voice, then, rather than confusion as Trapper had suggested. Sensei would be pleased.
"I am really getting sick of this stupid sensation." Shinso muttered. "Multiple people in the same head, which based on Spinner's answer, means you've got someone else's quirk. So? Whose quirks do you have?"
Kurogiri didn't answer, obviously. He didn't even know what Shinso was talking about. He wasn't a Nomu, he was simply...Kurogiri. That was who he was and that was who he had always been.
Shinso facepalmed, "Oh, right. I need to phrase it as an order, not a question. Tell me what quirks you have."
"Warp Gate is created from multiple quirks." Kurogiri answered, the shock of his response almost enough to knock him from the brainwashing. Not quite, unfortunately, but Kurogiri's brain was absolutely reeling. He was a nomu. He was just another one of the doctor's creations. But the nomu were slaves and he was Sensei's trusted servant...right?
"Ok…" Shinso hummed thoughtfully. "Tell me where you got them."
"All for One gave them to me." Kurogiri answered. "He stole them from their original holders."
"Ask him more about All for One." Uraraka said. "I'm pretty sure he has something to do with One for All."
Shinso nodded, "Tell me about All for One and his connection with One for All."
As soon as he'd said his name, Dabi turned tail and ran. Shouto gave chase as he threw himself out the window and Shouto used an ice slide to follow him. Dabi, no, touya, snarled as he shot another jet of flame in Shouto's direction, melting the slide so the other heroes would have difficulty following, "So you figured it out. What? You want a gold star or something?"
"No, but an explanation would be nice." Shouto dodged the attack and shot back with an ice spear, "I thought you were dead."
"Yeah, well maybe it should have stayed that way."
Dabi snapped. "What you guy going to do now, go away to the old man?"
"Are you kidding? I haven't talked to Endeavor in weeks." Shouto said. "He kicked me out, remember?"
"Why?" Dabi huffed but didn't send out any more flames, which was progress, "why would the great endeavor kick out his masterpiece?"
"He was trying to prove that I needed him and his power to succeed." Shouto shrugged, "And I figured out that I didn't."
Dabi was silent for a long moment before he suddenly cracked up laughing, "That is a bigger fuck you to Dad than I've ever even though of. Are you even going to be a hero?"
"If I do, it won't be full time." Shouto said. "I'm actually making a name for myself as a gamer, so I want to see where that goes before I commit to anything."
" a gamer!?" Dabi cackled harder. "Endabor's perfect masterpiece is dropping out of heroics to be a gamer? Oh my god, that's amazing!"
Shouto considered pointing out that he might not be dropping out of heroic entirely, at least not right wavy, but figured at this point that strategy might start another boss fight, so it was probably better to just keep his mouth shut and let his brother have this.
Eventually, Dabi stopped laughing and gave him anod, "do me a favor and don't tell dad I'm alive. I've got plans for how to devastate him even more than his failed masterpiece already has."
Shouto smiled, "I guess I look forward to seeing what you come up with then."
Dabi shook his head and laughed as he walked away, "A gamer."
Shotuo rolled his eyes. He took pride in being a disappointment, so dabi's reaction didn't really bother him. He needed to reunite with the students and…
"I can't believe you got him to just walk away."
Shotuo tried to shoot a stream of fire in the direction of the voice, but his quirk didn't work. Shouto deflated in relief, "Oh aizawa, it's just you. How much of that did you hear?"
"Enough." Aizawa's hair fell. "But don't worry. It would be illogical for me to spill a secret you already promised to keep. Plus I'm curious too. Also…" he shot out his capture weapon and caught shouto as he couldn't' run away. "We need to talk about your current living situation."
All for One was angry. He was a patient man, he enjoyed pulling strings and then watching those tiny actions have great effects over decades. He had been looking forward to the sweet devastation on All Might's face when he realized Shigaraki's true identity for almost fifteen years now and yet, that plan had been ruined in a moment by the stupid child's teenage rebellion! He'd raised Shigaraki to be his masterpiece and carefully controlled his upbringing so that he would never question it, but no, somehow when he wasn't looking, Tomura had decided that he wanted to be normal, as if that was even a possibility.
Well, All Might's face when he realized he'd been too slow to save his master's grandchild from being murdered by his arch nemesis would not be quite as exquisite, but it would make a half-decent consolation prize. It would have been easiest to have Kurogiri warp him over to UA, but for some reason, he was unable to get in contact with that particular project, which probably meant he had fallen into the hands of the heroes. It was a terrible loss, one that he could undoubtedly blame Tomura for, but at the very least, it would lead to the heroes learning his true identity, which would deal a powerful psychological blow in All for One's favor. Not ideal, but it was something he could work with, and arriving normally would make for a grander entrance anyway.
He stood in front of the UA gates, undamaged so far. The heroes inside hadn't yet called for outside backup, most likely because they had the attack under control and to avoid any negative press coverage that could damage the school. All for One smiled. They wouldn't be able to cover it up after what he was about to do.
He held up his hand, "Air Cannon times three."
Notes:
Next Update: January 25, 2022 (MST)