Chapter 61: HintsSummary:
The right people get the right information.
Notes:
Art!
a smile better suits a hero X
CorporealEclectic
Memes!
X X X X X X X
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Izuku wrote down Ochako's current position as Hitoshi hurried through the tunnels. Even though they were all spread out throughout the school, Izuku had given them all comm links so that they could still communicate easily. He'd even given Mei one so she could still participate while she was fine tuning some new toys for Tensei's wheelchair outside in the lab while Izuku was on the computer in his workroom. If all went well, this experiment would both help Ochako improve her quirk and gather invaluable information on how warping worked so Izuku could use it to find a way to track Kurogiri.
"Your accuracy has improved a lot, ochako." Izuku rambled. "But I'm really curious about how much control you really have when you warp, so we need to test your limits!"
Izuku watched over the cameras as Ochako nodded, "That's why you're having Hitoshi hide, right? You want me to focus on finding my anchor."
"Kinda." Izuku hummed thoughtfully. "Assuming that you're actually warping gravity like we think you are, then what I really want to know is if you can appear anywhere your anchor's gravity is affecting. If you can, then theoretically, you might even be able to appear behind a combatant during a fight!"
"That would be convenient." Hitoshi drawled.
Izuku laughed, "Ueah, I thought so too. That's why Hitoshi is going to stay in the tunnels and you, Ochako, are going to try to end up in the hallway outside, instead of in the tunn...no Ochako, I said not in the tunnel!"
"Sorry!" Ochako yelped. "I didn't mean to work, but I got distracted and...oh, sorry Hitoshi! Did I hurt you?"
Izuku stifled his laughter as he Ochako tried to untangle herself from Hitoshi. She had appeared pretty much directly on top of him, which wouldn't have been an issue if he had been crawling through one of the larger passages. Unfortunately for Hitoshi, he'd been crawling through a tunnel that barely had enough room for one…"
"Ocha...ow!" Hitoshi yelped. "You're elbowing me...maybe a little to the left? Just…"
"Sorry!" Ochako was really trying, but there really wasn't enough room in the tunnel to maneuver. "Uh...at least we know that I won't teleport into anything."
"Oh joy." Shinso deadpanned. "Because I definitely wanted to be closer to you than I am at the moment. Move your foot, you're kicking me! Izuku, stop laughing! This isn't funny!"
Izuku snickered again, "It kind of is, actually."
"Just have gravity girl teleport to somebody else." Mei suggested. "It's probably quicker than whatever gymnastics you two are trying to do."
Instantly both Hitoshi and Ochako stopped squirming, "...oh."
Izuku heard a thud as ochako landed on the floor by Mei's desk. Hitoshi glared around the tunnel, obviously looking for whatever camera Izuku was using to spy on them, "You couldn't have mentioned that earlier?"
"Nope!" Mei chirped. "Now get going! Izu-kun needs data for his program!"
"And try not to land on Hitoshi this time." Izuku added.
Ochako winced, "My bad."
She took a deep breath and Izuku was gathering all the data he could as she disappeared. There had to be some identifier that was unique to every teleporter, he just had to find it. By studying Ochako's jumps he could find her identifier and then theoretically, he should be able to extrapolate that data and use it to find other teleporters. At the end of the day, to find Kurogiri, he just had to figure out what made him different from Ochako!
"Good Job Ochako, you're just a few hallways away from your target." Izuku hurried to write everything down before the next round. "Hitoshi, find a new position. Let's do this again."
"I really don't know why you all find this so entertaining." Shouto said calmly, his character getting eaten by a zombie yet again. "You're just watching me die twenty times in a row."
Shigaraki snorted, "We just like watching you make a fool out of yourself. It's like watching a guy get hit in the nuts, it's funny."
"Wow…" Shouto deadpanned. "Maybe I should have streamed my childhood. You would have found it hilarious."
Shigaraki rolled his eyes, "Is your old man letting you back in the door yet? It's been a while since he kicked you out, right?"
"Oh, I can go back at any time," Shouto shrugged, "but that would involve apologizing to him, so no thank you."
As odd as it was to talk about his family life with a villain, it was actually one of his favorite parts of the whole thing. Their watchers didn't seem to care what they talked about, more focusing on how they interacted rather than what the content of their conversations, so they mostly just talked about about whatever. They had to avoid any topics that were too closely linked to their idenitities, which meant that Shouto didn't get any info on the league's movements and Shigaraki didn't get any info on UA, but Shouto had enjoyed having a place ot share his conspiracy theories, so he didn't mind too much. It was kinda fun actually.
"You're really choosing to sleep in an alley when you could be in a bed?" Shigaraki asked. "You must be crazier than I am."
Shouto shrugged, "It's not too bad. I probably need a job, though. My sister taught me how to use a laundromat, but the money the old man gave me when he kicked me out is almost gone. Then again, he was planning on me crawling back after less than a week, so whatever."
Shigaraki gave him a look, "You do realize you already have a job, right?"
Shouto frowned, "Are you talking about my internship? That was only a week and I didn't get paid…"
"Ugh, you are such a noob." Shigaraki huffed. "We make money from streaming you know. If you need more we can start a merch line or something. I'm sure at least some of these npcs would pay for a sweatshirt or something."
Shouto blinked, "Oh...cool."
Shigaraki rolled his eyes, "You're hopeless...what is up with the chat? Why are you all going so crazy?!"
"Hmm…." Shouto frowned and scanned some of the messages. "Apparently they're concerned about my childhood. And yours."
"Why? I had a great childhood after Sensei saved me." Shigaraki paused the game and looked through the chat. "What are they freaking out about? Your childhood wasn't that weird."
Shouto shrugged, "I mean, it was kinda bad. Most people's parents don't hit them trying to make them into the perfect child."
Maybe he shouldn't be saying this, but it wasn't like anyone was ever going to find out who he was, so maybe he was a little careless. Whatever. It was just one more thing that would piss his dad off. Plus, Shigaraki already hated Endeavor like he hated all heroes, so he wouldn't make a big deal of it.
Instead of shrugging his comment off like usual, however, Shigaraki kept the game paused and stared at him in confusion, "They don't?"
Shouto shrugged, "I wouldn't really know, but I don't think so. Most parents see their kids as kids rather than successors. "
Shigaraki huffed and unpaused the game, "Oh, you're just trying to prank me, that makes sense. I'm gonna kill you for that."
Shouto raised an eyebrow, "In game or in real life? I mean, you've tried both already, so…"
"I'm not gonna kill my streaming partner, you idiot." Shigaraki snapped. "Seriously, why is the chat still going crazy? How many people did you get in on this stupid prank IcyCat?"
"Nobody." Shouto said, reading through the chat as his character died again. "But from what they're saying, I think we both had messed up childhoods. Did your Sensei treat you like a masterpiece?"
"Yeah, but that's what a parent's supposed to do." Shigaraki started scratching at his throat. "Sensei needed to train me to carry on his legacy."
"Did he give you a choice?" Shouto asked. "Because I'm sleeping in an alley rather than be forced to further my old man's legacy. And according to...well, everyone , apparently, it's just us."
Shigaraki scratched a little harder, "Shut up! Just...you're lying!"
"No." Shouto shook his head sympathetically. "We're not, but we can drop it if you want. Let's just play the game."
Shigaraki growled, "That's the only smart thing you've said all stream."
Mineta handed the paper over to Kurogiri, who looked at it with an unreadable expression, "Where did you find this?"
"In the support labs, like All for One suggested." Mineta said. "I've narrowed Cheat Code down to two students."
Kurogiri nodded, "And you haven't captured them yet because…?"
"Because if they disappear right after I visited them, it ties their disappearance back to me." Mineta glared at him. "And if you hadn't noticed, I'm not an idiot."
"No need to be so hostile." Kurogiri dismissed. "Just make sure you don't cause unnecessary delays to Sensei's plans."
Mineta rolled his eyes, "Again, I'm not an idiot. Now if you'll excuse me, I have better things to do."
Kurogiri sighed, "One more thing, Trapper. Now that Spinner is gaining some popularity as Stain's successor, it would be beneficial for him to acknowledge his connection to us. We need to add more power to ranks if we expect to fulfill Sensei's vision."
"Don't worry." Mineta didn't flinch away from Kurogiri's gaze. "I'll make it happen."
Notes:
Next Update: August 11, 2021 (MDT)
Apologies: Mental break after Viridian is taking longer than expected.
At the latest, Next Update: August 18, 2021 (MDT)
Chapter 62: StarsSummary:
Somebody plants a glitter bomb
Notes:
Art!
Mossy
ash
Vail X
Memes!
X X X X X 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
Katsuki was impressed with how well he was ignoring his tag-along group of extras, considering how loud they were. Still, despite his best attempts he somtimes found himself almost laughing at Kaminari's stupid jokes or getting hyped up by Kirishima's pep talks. That had never happened with those dumb lackeys from middle school, and Katsuki wasn't quite sure how to feel about it. He was going to be the best, so these guys should be nothing to him...right?
He let Mina's latest rant about the local love triangles go in one ear and out the other as he opened his locker, immeidately flinching and jumping back as something shimmery exploded out of it, covering him from head to toe, "Fuck!"
To his surprise, instead of helping him, Mina started giggling, "Oh my god, Bakguo! You just got glitter bombed!"
"Actually…" Sero drawled, "I think we all did. We were standing a little too close to him, I guess."
Katsuki swore and wiped glitter out of his eyes so he could look around. Even though he'd taken the brunt of the attack, there were patches of glitter all over Mina, Sero, Kaminari and Kirishima. His hands were heating up to explode whoever had dared pull this when Kirishima started laughing his head off, "Guys! We match!"
Kaminari was grinning just as widely as he fished his phone out of his pocket, "We gotta take a picture of this! Come on! Everybody get in!"
"Fuck no!" Katsuki tried to back away, but Mina and Kirishima had already grabbed his arms and were pulling him into the huddle. "You guys are idiots!"
"We gotta put Baku-bro in the middle!" Kirishima insisted. "He's the main attacration."
He scowled, but let the others push him into position as he glared at the camera. These extras were just weird. If this had happened in elementary school, Deku would have immediately started trying to clean him off and just generally being an annoyance, but these guys just brushed it off and started laughing. It was like they knew he could handle a little bit of glitter and they trusted him not to start crying or whatever just because he was a little sparkly right now. Katsuki was definitely still going to find whoever did this and make them pay, but...well, these extras had the right idea. He just had to be stronger than a little bit of glitter.
Present Mic peeked around the corner and grinned, "Nice coverage, you managed to hit, like, five different targets. You kids did good."
Hitoshi blushed, "It was mostly Mei and Izuku. I'm super glad we talked her out of including actual explosives though, thanks."
"It's just about being open minded to other methods...and listening to people with more experience than you!" Mic winked. "Hatsume totally perfected me and Shou's old design though! That was awesome!"
"I still can't believe that you and Da...you and Aizawa used to be pranksters in high school." Hitoshi shook his head. "Uh, I'd probably better get to class. I don't want to look too guilty when Bakugo comes exploding in."
Mic had a small, proud smile on his face as he nodded and pushed Hitoshi away down the hall, "See ya later, kiddo!"
Hitoshi nodded, "Yeah. I'll, uh, see ya at home."
Ochako wanted to say that she was surprised when Mina came running into the classroom covered in glitter, but she really wasn't. Mei and Izuku didn't do anything halfway, so Ochako had honestly expected Bakugo's glitter bomb to coat the entire hallway. Actually, the fact that Mina's body was only half covered was actually an example of incredible restraint!
What Ochako should have expected was that Mina would immediately grin and run around the room hugging everyone in sight, "Glitter for everyone!!!!"
"Whoa!" Momo's eyes widened as Mina ran into her arms. "Um...hi? What happened?"
Kaminari ran in and immediately made a beeline toward Jiro, "Somebody planted a glitter bomb in Bakugo 's locker! It was awesome!"
"Don't you dare, Kaminari!" Jiro dodged his hug smoothly, "Don't get it on me! Go away!"
She was so focused on Kaminari that she didn't notice Mina behind her until it was too late, "Come on, Jiro, don't be like that! Embrace the glitter!"
"Oui!" Aoyama grinned and accepted Kaminari's hug with open arms. "We must all sparkle like the stars!"
Todoroki didn't even flinch when Mina hugged him, "I suppose I have no choice but to accept my fate."
Tokoyami nodded sagely, "Even the dark void of space has its stars."
By this point, Sero and Kirishima had already come in and joined in the mission to infect the entire classroom with glitter. Ochako was desperately trying to smother her giggles, but she apparently didn't do a good enough job at it because Mina suddenly turned to her with fire in her eyes, "Your turn Ochako!"
Ochako squealed and teleported away, only for Kaminari to try to get her when she reappeared. Soon enough everyone was laughing and playing an impromptu game of glitter tag in the classroom. The only one not really participating was Bakugo, who was covered with more glitter than any of them. Ochako had honestly expected him to explode, and at multiple points he seemed about to, but every time he did, either Mina or Kirishima would go up to him to reload, as Sero called it, and he'd take a deep breath and calm down. It was almost disappointing, but it let the rest of the class enjoy their game and resulted in far less destruction of property, so it was probably for the best.
Ochako had just recovered from another warp when Hitoshi walked into the room, eyes widening as he saw the chaos, "What's going on?!"
Mina took full advantage of her distraction and grinned, catching her in a bear hug, "Gotcha!!!"
Hitoshi just blinked, "Uh…"
Ochako shrugged with a smile, teleported to right behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist, "Sorry, Shindig, if I have to suffer, so do you."
Hitoshi just sighed.
Shouta looked over his class, regretting every decision he'd made to get him to his point. Apparently instead of going to shower after getting glitter bombed like any rational person would do, Bakugo and his friends had decided to see how many students they could infect. The answer was all of them. Every single one of his students had glitter all over them and there was absolutely no chance that Hitoshi would allow him to leave here unscathed.
He groaned and rubbed his eyes. May as well turn it into a training exercise.
"Yaoyorozu." Shouta sighed. "Make double sided stickers for everyone, please. Just a six inch circle will do, as long as both sides are adhesive."
Yoyorozu nodded in confusion and started making them. The Iida brothers immediately jumped on the task of handing them out, which was a struggle on it's own, considering that Tensei had apparently decided that the best way to do that was to treat them as frisbees and Tenya was desperately trying to stop his brother from throwing things in the classroom. Why had he signed up for this?
"Does everyone have one?" Shouta looked around and nodded. "Good, now peel the backing on one side and stick it somewhere on your body."
The class looked confused but did as they were told and soon enough, everyone had a giant sticker on them and they all looked to him for further instruction. This was going to be entertaining and at the very least it would distract him from the meeting he was dreading tonight.
"Now take off the backing on the other side." Shouta instructed. "Now the rules: As soon as I call start, the game is on. Do not disturb other classes. Focus on stealth. You can team up if you want, but there is only going to be one winner. The student with the least amount of glitter on their sticker at the end of the time wins. Go."
Souta smirked as his students immediately jumped into action. At least they'd learned not to wait for countdowns.
Izuku was peacefully minding his own business, working on his program, when he heard Kohaku shouting in the lab outside, "Don't track it in here!"
"What's it matter?" Powerloader complained. "Hatsume already covered half the testing rooms in teh stuff while making that stupid bomb."
"Meh, it's biodegradable, it'll be fine!" Mei said cheerfully. "Everything will just be sparkly for a little while."
Izuku frowned and went out, "Is Katsuki here….oh."
Ochako smiled sheepishly, a light coating of glitter all over her, except for a weirdly clean circle on her arm, "Apparently Bakugo and his friends can match you guys in pettiness. Aizawa even made it a training exercise!"
"You're only excited about that because you won." Hitoshi complained. "It's no fair when you can just teleport away from whoever is targeting you!"
Ochako rolled her eyes, "Like you didn't brainwash most of the class into leaving you alone."
Hitoshi glared at her, "I should have brainwashed them into going after you!"
Izuku giggled, "I'm glad you guys had fun...sorry, I guess we kinda thought Katsuki would just storm off and take a shower."
"Next time we'll figure out how to get it to stick only to him!" Mei grinned. "Glitter bomb 2.0 here we come!"
"It wasn't a big deal, it was good training." Hitoshi shrugged. "That was a lot of warps though, Ochako. Are you feeling ok?"
Ochako shrugged, "I'm a little nauseous, but nothing I can't handle. I need to get used to it anyway, since I'll be making longer jumps once I move home this weekend. Oh, that reminds me, can you guys come over and help out? I've teleported with small objects before, so carrying the boxes back and forth shouldn't' be a big deal, but uh...well I kinda just don't want to do it alone."
Izuku grinned and nodded, "I can bring my laptop and get data on all your jumps! It'll be interesting to see if the extra weight from the boxes changes how you teleport!"
Ochako sighed, "I just wish you guys could actually meet my parents."
"Why can't we?" Mei was already turning back to the next invention on her table. "People are objects too, right?"
Izuku blinked, then smiled slowly, "I guess we have a new experiment to run!"
Shigaraki was already streaming by the time Shouto got to the alley they streamed from. It wasn't the best streaming set up, but considering it was pretty much the only neutral ground they had, they somehow made it work. He hadn't showered after class, since that would have made him miss the whole stream, but they never turned their cameras on, so he didn't think being covered in glitter would be a big deal until Shigaraki turned to him and froze, "What the hell happened to you?"
Shouto rolled his eyes and put on the headphones Shigaraki had given him to stream with, "Long story short, one of my classmates got glitter bombed and my teacher turned attacking each other with glitter into an assignment."
Shigaraki scoffed, "Your teacher really is super cool."
Shouto just raised one eyebrow, "I'm not sure if that's a compliment. Didn't you just try to kill him a couple months ago?"
"Meh, he wasn't my target." Shigaraki rolled his eyes as the chat all played along with what they thought was just a running joke. It wasn't, but they weren't going to correct anyone who thought they were just kidding. "Oh no, the cat's gonna be covered with the stuff, isn't she?"
"Not if she doesn't sit in my lap this time…" Shouto trailed off as Epurr jumped off one of the trash cans and immediately started rolling around in his lap. "Yeah, she's gonna be one sparkly cat."
Notes:
Next Update: Aug 23, 2021
Chapter 63: SpinnerSummary:
What to do about the hero killer?
Notes:
Art!
viridenki: trouble magnet
matt is typing....
Beaumains1 X
Katsucurry
a smile better suits a hero
Memes!
X X X X X X X X X X
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Shouta wasn't late to the meeting, but he wasn't early either. By the time he finally managed to get the majority of the glitter out of his hair and change into a new uniform, pretty much everyone was already cramped into the secure conference room Tsukauchi had reserved. Edgeshot and Best Jeanist were the only other heroes present, but the hero commission had also sent Mera over so that they could stay updated. The hero killer wasn't something that the commission could afford to ignore.
Tsukauchi looked up as Shouta sat down in one of the empty chairs, "Thanks for taking the time to come, Eraser. I know your class keeps you pretty busy."
"The hero killer has a connection to at least two of my students." Shouta said tersely. "It's only logical for me to want to be involved in whatever the hell is happening, if only to keep my students safe and in line."
Jeanist raised an eyebrow, "You don't think the Iida brothers will try going after this new hero killer, do you? They're not nearly recovered enough to even think…"
"Ingenium is a good hero." Edgeshot interrupted. "I wouldn't underestimate how fast he can get back on his...well, you know what I mean."
"I think they both have a long way to go." Shouta said firmly. "And while we're working on Tenya's anger issues as much as we can, if Stain somehow survived or spawned a successor, I can't say I trust him to not go rogue again."
"Well, we can confidently say that Stain himself did not survive." Tsukauchi started handing out files. "We double checked the body and the autopsy. We also asked around and it seems everyone is in agreement: Stain was killed by a shadow villain who goes by the name of Trapper."
Mera sighed as he looked over the photes, "You do realize that makes it worse, right?"
Shouta nodded, "The new hero killer has shown evidence of having Blood Curdle, STain's quirk, right? Do you think the league might be involved? It's possible this new hero killer is some kind of Nomu. It would explain his single mindedness at the very least."
"Our current theory is that the new hero killer, Spinner, is most likely an illegitimate child of Stain's or at least some blood relation." Tsukauchi explained. "That's pretty much the only way that he would have the same quirk, so that's what we're working off of right now."
Shouta looked at him skeptically, "Stain was obsessed. You really think he had any time or desire or a relationship?"
"It could have been a one night stand?" Edgeshot suggested.
"Still unlikely." Shouta rolled his eyes. "I knew him for years. Even if he wanted that, which I doubt, no woman in their right mind would go for it."
"That doesn't automatically mean he's a nomu." Jeanist pointed out. "But in the end, our main concern shouldn't be how he got his quirk but what he does with it. Spinner has killed in a month almost as many as Stain killed in ten years. He's a spree killer, which means that he was most likely highly lacking in mental stability when he started his kill streak and what little balance he had is long gone by now."
"We at the commission agree." Mera yawned. "He hasn't confirmed any connection to the league, so we'll cross that bridge when it comes to it. For now, we just need to worry about stopping him."
Look, Tomura apparently wasn't sure of a lot of things in his life, but if there was anything he was sure of, it was that this lizard guy was crazy. Then again, maybe he didn't really have any room to talk...but at least he shut up sometimes. Spinner hadn't hardly taken a breath since he'd started rambling about his precious Stain. The guy was obsessed. Was this how Tomura sounded when he talked about Sensei? No wonder the chat had been concerning. This was annoying!
Spinner started repeating himself again and Tomura groaned, "So, like, are we actually gonna do this raid, or…?"
Trapper rolled his eyes and Tomura seriously wondered where that little twerp hid all the audacity. Sure, Sensei liked him and Tomura had to admit that he was actually a semi-decent spy, but like, he was sticky and two faced, so Tomura tried not to spend more time with him than he had to and left most of the necessary communication to Kurogiri. But hey, if Trapper was willing to be responsible for Spinner, then that meant Tomura didn't have to do it and it was worth keeping him around. For now.
"Yes!" Spinner slashed Stain's katana in midair a few times before sheathing it. "Let's go kill some fase heroes."
"That's pretty much everybody." Tomura muttered under his breath, but followed Spinner and Trapper through the portal. He really preferred solo missions, usually, since his teammates more often than not just pissed him off, but apparently this was essential to linking Spinner to the league. Why they'd want to be linked to yet another crazy person, Tomura didn't know, but whatever, Sensei had a plan and he was smarter than the rest of them so it had to be a good one. Hopefully. Unless Todoroki was right and Sensei was just using him...Tomura shook his head. Stupid chat distracting him and making things more complicated than they were. Sensei cared for him. Why would he have saved him if he didn't care about him?
Tomura ignored the million and a half ridiculous answers that came to mind and flexed his hands as he looked around. Trapper and Spinner had already disappeared up the walls and Tomura cursed as he realized he was the only one left out in the open. Of course he had the lowest stealth stat of everyone. Was Trapper trying to use him as bait or something? Oh, he'd make that stupid little twerp regret ever…
"Yeah, and like, it was totally unfair, you know?" Mt. Lady's voice echoed through the alley and Tomura shrunk back into the shadows that were growing in the twilight.
There were three of them, just like Trapper had said there would be. Mt. Lady, Kamui Woods, and Death Arms, none of which were very high ranking, but Tomura supposed that most of the top heroes usually worked alone and Trapper had been looking for a group. The three heroes walked through the alley, chatting idly on their way to dinner or wherever they normally went after their shift, completely unaware of Trapper landing behind them and setting up an entire minefield of his sticky balls at the entrance. When he disappeared into the shadows again, Tomura took that as his cue and strolled into the light, "Hello heroes."
All three of them stopped and took fighting stances, but Kamui was the first to attack, shooting one of his branches forward, "You're one of the villains that attacked UA!"
Tomura rolled his eyes as he dodged and grabbed the branch, disintegrating it into dust, "Yeah, that was game over a while ago. I had to respawn and start over."
He strode forward again, which made Mount Lady instinctively take a step back right onto one of the sticky traps. Her eyes widened when her foot didn't move like expected, but she'd already shifted her weight and she went down hard, landing on enough of the balls to stick her entire body to the ground, "It's a trap! Wait..."
"Of course it is." Death Arms muttered and grabbed a dumpster, lifting it above his head. "They're villains, so I'm not surprised they'll sink this low...ow!"
Death Arms dropped, the weight of the dumpster pinning him to the ground as the paralyzation set in. Spinner's sharp tooth smile almost glowed in the darkness as he licked the blood off his lips and crawled off the dumpster, "It looks like we've caught two false heroes already! Stain would be proud!"
Kamui gasped and sent his branches to wrap around Spinner, "You're the new hero killer! You're despicable!"
"So are you!" Spinner hissed and started hacking through the branches with his Katana. "Fake heroes like you are unworthy of the title! You make me sick!"
Trapper shot him a look from the shadows and Tomura huffed before reluctantly rushing forward and distigrating Kamui's remaining branches, which was enough of an opening for Spinner to lunge forward and nick him with the Katana. Two seconds later, he licked the blood off the blade with a crazed look in his eyes and Kamui fell to the floor, "And that makes three."
"Spinner, you finish off Death Arms, not that he'll give you much trouble, since that Dumpster already probably broke half his bones." Trapper strode forward, pulling out his knife. "Shigaraki, you take Kamui Woods."
"Don't tell me what to do!" Tomura snapped.
"M-Mineta?" Mt. Lady actually sounded genuinely distressed, but maybe that was just because she couldn't move. "I...when I saw the balls…."
"Don't both trying to use your quirk." Trapper cut her off. "This alley is way too small and there's a park nearby that will get all the dust and asbestos if you destroy these buildings on either side. Actually, I'm pretty sure my balls sticking you to the floor will prevent you from growing anyway, but best not to risk it, right?"
There was a small grunt and Spinner started licking blood off his blade. Mt. Lady had tears in her eyes as she looked up at Trapper, "Is this because of the internship? I swear, I can be a better mentor just…"
"I only interned with you because you were ditzy enough not to notice when I disappeared for hours on end." Trapper knelt down beside her. "Although, being able to memorize your patrol schedule was an added perk."
As Trapper finished her off, Tomura turned back to Kamui, who was staring at him stubbornly. He reached forward, but stopped a half inch away from Kamui's face. Did he actually want to kill him? Did he actually enjoy killing at all? Sensei said he did, but if he asked Endeavor, he'd probably say that Todoroki enjoyed training and they both knew that wasn't true. Was he killing Kamui because he actually hated him and wanted to destroy him or was he killing Kamui because it was what would make Sensei happy?
"What's the hold up, Shigaraki?" Spinner hissed. "Kill him already?"
Tomura snatched his hand back and swallowed, "Nah, he's not worth the attack points. Low Level enemies like him don't piss me off enough."
Trapper narrowed his eyes questioningly, but Tomura didn't flinch as he stubbornly turned his back. Why had he done that?! Why hadn't he just killed him?! Without thinking he reached out to hit the wall, disintegrating a large chunk right out of it. So much for self control...
"Lucky for you, false heroes piss me off more than enough!" Spinner sliced with his Katana and it was over in half a second. "Now, we're done here, right?"
"Almost." Trapper answered, taking out a spray bottle. "I just need to...modify the evidence."
Tsukauchi's face hardened as he read through the briefing one of his officers had just handed him, "A crime scene was just found that links Spinner, Trapper, and the league. It's time to cross that bridge."
Notes:
Next Update: August 30, 2021 (MDT)
Chapter 64: OpportunitySummary:
A completely normal day.
Notes:
Memes!
X X X X X X X X
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Denki felt kinda helpless and wasn't quite sure what to do about it. He glanced over at Todoroki and quickly looked away before he could get caught. He hadn't meant to find out that his classmate was homeless and making enough money to eat by streaming with who Denki strongly suspected was that crusty villain from the USJ, but he sometimes just liked to have gaming streams on in the background and he'd seen that these two new guys were trending and it was pretty hilarious to watch Icy Cat just fail over and over again as Dusty roasted him and he'd kinda thought that their voices sounded a little familiar, but he watched a bunch of these streams so while it was kinda weird, he didn't really obsess over it until he was trying to get some of the stupid glitter off his backpack and Icy Cat described exactly what had happened in class that day, right down to Aizawa making it a class exercise and everything fell into place. Of course, after he realized that Todoroki was Icy Cat, that meant that Dusty was Shigaraki and all those jokes about Dusty trying to kill Icy Cat weren't jokes at all, they were actually true and why was Todoroki voluntarily hanging out with an actual villain who had actually, really, 100% tried to kill him?!
Was it just that he was homeless and had nowhere else to turn to? Why was he homeless in the first place? He'd mentioned something about his dad kicking him out and then him being too stubborn to apologize and move back in, but wasn't his dad Endeavor? Why would Endeavor kick out his own son? Was it safe for him back at home or was he safer...well, considering he was hanging with Shigaraki, he probably wasn't safe anywhere.
Denki knew that he should probably tell the police, but, like, snitching on his classmate, not to mention one of his favorite streamers, just kinda felt...icky? Like, Shouto obviously didn't want to go back home, but if the police found out, then they'd probably send him right back and that would kinda suck. But it wasn't like Shouto was telling Shigaraki anything, right? Beyond vague hints, they never really talked about their lives on stream, otherwise Denki would have figured it out a while ago, so it wasn't like the league was gathering info on them or anything, right? Still, he should do something, shouldn't he?
He bit his lip as their friends finished packing up their stuff for lunch, "Hey guys, uh...why don't we invite Todoroki to eat with us?"
Sero's eyes widened, "Are we sure we want to keep adopting the scary ones? I mean, the only one who's scarier than Todoroki is Bakugo and we've already got him in the bag."
"What did you say, Soy Sauce Face?!" Bakugo's hands popped threateningly, but Mina just patted him on the shoulder.
"Just because he doesn't emote much doesn't mean he's scary." She argued. "I say we do it! Gotta catch 'em all!"
Bakugo looked like he was about to burst a blood vessel, "We're not fucking pokemon!"
"Nah, but if you were, you'd both be fire types!" Kirishima grinned. "That means you'll be great friends. Hey Todoroki! Wanna eat lunch with us?"
Todoroki looked a bit surprised, obviously, but after a long moment of staring at them blankly, he just shrugged, "Ok."
Sero blinked in surprise, "Whoa, that was easy."
Bakugo quietly simmered while they waited in line for their food, but even though he was obviously not happy, he didn't explode, so Denki counted that as a win. As for Todoroki, the rest of the group wasn't really sure what to do with him, but Mina was just rambling as usual as Kirishima encouraged her, so it was almost normal until Todoroki actually joined in on the conversation.
Mina had been talking about punting Mineta into the sun, which was a pretty usual topic for her, when Todoroki, completely deadpan said, "I don't think that's wise. We don't want the sun getting indigestion."
Almost immediately, everyone stopped walking. Todoroki just blinked and looked at them, "What?"
"Nothing dude." Sero grinned. "We just didn't know you actually had a sense of humor!"
Kirishima nodded, "Yeah, dude. Totally manly!"
Denki wasn't quite sure why he was surprised. Obviously, he was familiar with Todoroki's weird sense of humor. It was like, half the reason he was such a popular streamer, but for some reason Denki had just kinda assumed it was just for the stream. Like Icy Cat was a character Todoroki played and not actually who he was, but like, no. Todoroki was acting the exact same right now as he would during a stream and it was kinda trippy.
Eventually, they all got their food and sat down and Sero turned to Todoroki, "So dude, you've actually been using your fire and stuff in class. It kinda sucks, you know? We couldn't beat you before, but now it's just ridiculous."
Todoroki slurped at his noodles, "I'm still trying to get the hang of my flames. I was trying to spite my father by not using my fire at all, but now I'm going to spite him by stealing it back. Pretty simple if you ask me."
"Whoa." Bakugo scoffed. "You really hate your old man, don't you?"
"Yes." Todoroki nodded simply. "He's a bastard."
Kirishima snorted so hard that the soda he was drinking shot out of his nose and everyone started laughing. Todoroki looked mildly concerned, but Kirishima just waved him away, "Nah, man, I'm good. If you're looking to improve your fire, though, I'm sure you're super stoked about those packets Cheat Code gave us."
Todoroki frowned, "A conversation would be more helpful. The packets can be annoyingly vague."
"Just ask Ochako to introduce you." Mina piped up. "You know how she had that weird blank packet? Well, she's totally been improving anyway. Everytime we try to ask her about it, she either laughs us off or teleports away, but, like, I'm 90% sure at this point that she actually knows the guy. Shinso probably does too, because he's acting just as suspicious."
Todorki hummed thoughtfully, "That...I might have to ask them then."
Denki frowned. Sure, he was 90% sure that Todoroki wasn't actually giving any information to the league, but like, that wasn't 100% and if he found out who Cheat Code was…
He really should probably tell someone.
Tenya stood and watched Tensei as they waited for Artiste. They had figured out that she actually taught part time at UA, so it wasn't a big deal for her to come teach them, but Tenya felt an obligation to apologize for making her take time out of her day. He should probably also apologize to Cementoss, who had taken the cement training room and turned it into a beginner skate park. Tensei had wasted no time in exploring, almost giving Tenya a heart attack as he immediately tried to take his wheelchair over a jump. Seriously? Didn't he know he could get hurt again if he did that?
Thankfully, Tensei had started just rolling down some of the hills, which didn't seem quite as dangerous, so Tenya just quietly watched, ready to run forward and help at a moment's notice. He was just about to try to stop Tensei from going toward the jumps again when the door to the training room opened and Artiste glided in.
"Hello boys!" She sang out. "I hear I'm here to teach you how to use those wheels!"
"Hey Artiste!" Tensei grinned and waved, trying to use one hand to wheel himself closer. "Long time no see!"
"Tensei!" Tenya hissed. "Don't be rude!"
"I'm not being rude!" Tensei defended. "Just because I'm a little more casual than your preference doesn't mean I'm being rude!"
Tenya scowled, "You can't just…"
"Ahem!" Artiste interrupted them with a glare.
Immediately, Tenya dropped into a low bow, "My apologies for my brother's presumptuousness, ma'am. We know you're talking time out of your already busy schedule for us and we are eternally grateful…"
"Now let's get one thing straight." Artiste interrupted firmly. "I like all of my classes to be a safe space, so that means we have to be comfortable with one another and that means stop bowing and apologizing for things that don't need apologies. Got it?"
Tenya straightened immediately, "Uh…"
"In addition," Artiste cut him off before he could argue, "None of that ma'am stuff. You will not call me miss, you will not call me professor, you will not even call me Artiste. When we're here learning, I'm Hina and nothing else, ok?"
Tenya opened and shut his mouth a few times, not able to think of anything to say until Tensei laughed and gave their teacher finger guns. Finger guns. "You got it, Hina!"
"What?! No!" Tenya sputtered. "You're our teacher! Referring to you by your first name is entirely inappropriate and…"
"And I'm the teacher, so that means I'm in control here!" Artiste laughed. "Aizawa warned me you were a bit stiff, but my goal here is to foster creativity, not manners. " She wrinkled her nose in disgust. "If you're too worried about the rules, you'll never break them!"
"That's…"Tenya felt like he was having an aneurysm. "Isn't that the point?"
"Of course not, now let me finish!" Artiste had a twinkle in her eye. "If you never break the rules, then you can never create something new and wonderful ! Now, wouldn't that be just tragic?"
"I…" Tenya bowed again, "I apologize, I hadn't thought…"
Tensei cuffed him over the head, "Kiddo, didn't she just tell you not to bow anymore?"
"Oh, right." Tenya straightened. "I am so sorry."
Artiste rolled her eyes, "Eh, we'll get there eventually. That's what it means to just keep rolling along, right?"
She shifted her feet and spun in a circle, then proceeded to skate circles around them, navigating the hills, jumps and ramps like they were nothing. She bent down and tenya saw her grab a piece of chalk from the bag on her hip. Soon enough, she was drawing long, flowing lines all around them. Tenya followed her movements as best she could but it all just seemed so...impossible. Maybe Ashindo could learn to move like that, but he was a runner, not a dancer. After a minute, Artiste spun to a stop and wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, leaving a smear of multi-colored chalk dust across her face. Then she gave them a wink and knelt down to touch the ground. All of a sudden, vines started growing from her drawings, completely blocking the walls and boxing them in with thick thorns and flowers.
"As you can see," Artiste grinned, "it pays to keep an open mind. My quirk is limited by the size and quantity of my drawings, but have you ever tried to draw while running?! It's a nightmare! Even if fighting in roller skates is a bit nontraditional, some might even say it's breaking the rules, it helps me make smoother lines and gives me the freedom I need to make larger drawings. There are challenges, of course, but with a little creative rule breaking, you'll be able to figure out how to roll around all those little bumps in the road. You boys ready to get started?"
Tenya nodded politely, but tensei had a different idea, cheering and whooping as he clapped, completely undeterred by the fact that he was the only one making any noise. It was all Tenya could do not to die from embarrassment.
To his surprise, though, rather than being mortified, Artiste smiled, "That's the spirit! Now let's get started, shall we?" She clapped her hands and the vines disappeared into a shower of chalk dust. "Cementoss has been kind enough to set this place up into an amazing skate park, but you guys already know the basics, so let's get a little creative!"
She grabbed a piece of paper from her pocket and tapped it, making a tennis ball drop onto the floor. She caught it on the first bounce and threw it as hard as she could against the wall, "Your job is to bring me that ball, but let's break the rules a little bit while we're at it." She smiled mischievously, "You can't move in a straight line."
Mineta finished setting his trap and moved to his perch on top of the building while he dialled Kurogiri. From what he'd seen on the maps, this would be the perfect spot to catch that Midoriya kid on his way home from school. There were a few different routes that he could take, but they all converged ehre at one point or another, so even if he switched his routine, he'd almost definitely have to pass by Mineta to get home. A quick call to Powerloader about his costume had been enough to confirm that both Midoriya and Hatsume ahd already left the school, so it was only a matter of time until he could spring his trap.
Mineta still wasn't quite sure if Midoriya really was Cheat Code, since Hatsume could have easily accomplished any of the tricks that Cheat Code pulled at the USJ, but the fact that Midoriya was Nedzu's personal student swayed the suspicions in his favor. Mineta was obviously still skeptical, since the guy didn't even have a quirk to back him up, but if Nedzu thought he was the real deal, then...well, Mineta could at least give him the benefit of the doubt and he'd act as good bait if Hatsume was Cheat Code instead.
Kurogiri picked up on the fourth ring and Mineta didn't even bother saying hello, "Be waiting for my call. As soon as I nab my target, I'll be needing a pickup. I'm sure Sensei will want to meet him as soon as possible.
"Hmm, so you're capturing Cheat Code today, I gather." Kurogiri said boredly. "I suppose I should wish you luck then."
Mineta scowled and hung up, "I don't need his stupid luck. Who does that oversized cloud think he is, underestimating me?"
He shoved the phone in his pocket and popped one of the balls off his head in anticipation. He'd show them that he wasn't just some child that they could ignore and push aside. He'd make them take him seriously. He'd catch Cheat Code and present the guy to Sensei as proof that he wasn't somebody they wanted to mess with.
Mineta took a deep breath. All that was left to do now was wait for his prey.
Notes:
Next Update: September 6, 2021 (MDT)
Chapter 65: LuckSummary:
Ochako gets some quirk practice!
Notes:
Art!
Dandy the Vicious
GuardianSoul X
Memes!
X X X X X X X X X X X X
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Hitoshi huffed as he carried another box out into the living room, "You know, Ocha, you really could be using your quirk to make this easier."
"Oh don't be such a wuss extra-credit-kun!" Mei rolled her eyes as she carried two boxes in her arms and used drones to carry two more in the air above her head, "Just think of it as muscle training. Aren't your parents always saying you need more of that anyway?"
"My adults are monsters." Hitoshi scowled. "They've both been pros for, like, a decade, so they've had ten years to build that muscle. I've only really been exercising for a couple months, so of course I look like a weakling compared to them."
"All the...more reason...to lift boxes." Izuku panted. "Ochako, please tell me we're about done with packing."
Ochako walked in with two boxes of her own and Hitoshi couldn't even say that she was using her quirk to show off because she'd taped over her pinkies so she would have enough energy to teleport all of this to her parents house.
"Thanks for helping me move guys. I know it's a lot of work for right after school, but the contract my parent's company is working on this week is for a remodel of an office building, and they want them to work weekends so that the construction is less distracting. Now was pretty much the only time they were available to stay at home and since I kinda need them to act as anchors…."
"Don't worry about it, Ocha." Hitoshi crossed his arms. "I'm sure Powerloader and Nedzu are more than happy to have a break from these two gremlins."
"Hey!" Izuku pouted. "Nedzu thinks we're fun."
Hitoshi raised an eyebrow, "And Powerloader?"
"Meh, somebody's gotta give him grey hairs, it might as well be us." Mei shrugged. "Ok, Gravity Girl! Are you ready?"
Ochako took a deep breath and activated One for All. The lights in the room seemed to dim as a swirling pink and green aurora formed around her. Hitoshi didn't want to look away. There was so much power at her fingertips and it didn't even phase her. She was so strong. He caught movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to see Izuku smiling at him knowingly. Hitoshi blushed and picked his jaw up off the ground. Why was he so embarrassed? Anyone would admire Ochako, she was amazing.
"Ok Izu-kun!" Mei grinned. "It's your time to shine!"
Izuku jumped and stumbled as he hurried to grab his laptop, "Ok, so...yep. Everything's up and running so I can track your warps and try to figure out exactly what makes you unique. Ok, so we're weighing the boxes, right? That way we can see how the amount of weight you take with you affects your quirk while testing your limits at the same time. Let's start with some of the small boxes first, since we already know you don't have any issues with teleporting with small objects and it'll give us a good baseline for the rest of the project! If you can work up to something heavier, we might even try having you teleport us!"
Ochako nodded and Shinso picked up one of the boxes and put it on a hanging scale that he was pretty sure was originally meant for fish, but whatever, they'd sanitized it.
"This one is about a kilogram." Hitoshi announced, tossing the box to Ochako. "You realize it's gonna take forever to weigh every box, right?"
Izuku didn't even look up from his laptop, "Good science takes time, Hitoshi. We can get a lot better data points if we actually know how much extra weight she's teleporting."
"And we're not weighing all the boxes." Mei added. "Just most of them!"
HItoshi shrugged and sat down on the armrest of the couch, which was currently the only part of it that wasn't' covered in boxes, "Whatever, it's not like you have that much stuff anyway."
Ochako stuck her tongue out at him and disappeared, making Hitoshi smile. Izuku's computer pinged as it collected the data from her jump and he typed frantically, doing...something that Hitoshi had no idea how to make heads or tails of. It was a minute or two before Ochako came back, so she'd probably gotten distracted saying hi to her parents. They must be pretty nice people if they were cool with the whole suddenly being given an extra quirk thing. Hitoshi's own parents hadn't even been cool with his first quirk, so he didn't want to know how they'd react if he suddenly showed up with a second one that made his brainwashing even more powerful. He shuddered at the thought, but thankfully by that point, Ochako had reappeared.
Izuku looked pleased as he finished his typing binge, "Ok! Onto the next box!"
Mineta ground his teeth as he looked down at the street for the upteenth time. An hour. He knew that stupid support student wasn't at the school anymore so where the fuck was he? Mineta couldn't have missed him, could he? No, he'd gotten enough of a headstart that there was no way, unless the kid had taken a different way home...or if he hadn't gone home at all. Since Midoriya and Hatsume were friends, there was a good chance he had gone over to her house after school instead of his own, in which case Mineta could simply nab both of them at the same time and kill two birds with one stone.
The charge in plans was infuriating, but ultimately, it was doable and this way might even be better in the end. The most annoying part was that his targets didn't live anywhere near each other and he wasn't really in the mood to waste another half an hour commuting on top of the hour he'd already wasted waiting for Midoriya to never show up.
He huffed in defeat and pulled out his phone, "Kurogiri, change in plans. I need a ride."
"Ok!" Mei picked out a box and handed it to Ochako. "Everybody make your guesses and place your bets!"
Ochako helfted the box and hummed thoughtfully, "I think...around 8 kilograms."
Mei nodded and wrote down her guess, "And how much are you willing to bet on that?"
"Ten pocky sticks." Ochako smiled and shoved the box into Hitoshi's arms. "Your turn! What's your guess?"
"Uh…" Hitoshi struggled to get a better grip and strugged. "It feels pretty heavy, so maybe 13 kilograms or something? Oh, and I'll bet 3 pocky sticks."
"Not very confident, I see, Extra-Credit-Kun." Mei teased. "Ok, now for the moment of truth. To the scale!"
Izuku grinned as Hitoshi handed over his pocky. They'd started playing this game about fifteen minutes ago and Hitoshi had yet to win a single round. It was getting to the point where Izuku was starting to wonder if it was a passive effect of Uraraka's quirk, but she hadn't actually taken the gravity away from any of the boxes. If it was her quirk, had she always had this latent potential or was it one of the things that had changed when she'd gotten One for All?
There was a ping from his laptop and Izuku looked away from the game to check. It was just the program that he used to track Ochako's warps and with as much as she'd been going back and forth, it had obviously been going off all afternoon, so he almost dismissed it before he froze and blinked at the screen.
"Hey Ochako?" Izuku kept his eyes on the readings to make sure they didn't suddenly disappear. "You didn't go anywhere while I wasn't looking, right?"
Ochako came up and looked over his shoulder, "No? I was just about to leave, but I've been here for a solid five minutes now."
"I thought so." Izuku grinned and popped his knuckles. "Which means that the reading I just took was from someone else. This is gonna be fun."
They weren't coming.
Mineta scowled and threw one of his balls against the wall in frustration. It stuck, obviously, which was somehow much less satisfying than it would have been if it had actually bounced. Mineta growled and stalked away. All that planning and set up for absolutely nothing! Had it just been an unlucky coincidence or had those two nuances actually figured out that someone was after them. Knowing Cheat Code's intelligence, it was probably the latter, which meant it was a waste of time trying to go after them directly. They were too unpredictable.
One of them was definitely Cheat Code though, Mineta was sure of it. He swung his backpack off his shoulders and dug around until he found the page he'd stolen from Hatsume's notebook. He uncrumpled it as he walked, glaring at the various prototype logos like it was their fault he'd failed. He was moving to crumple it back up again when something caught his eye and he froze as a new idea occurred to him. He slowly unwrinkled the page again. Most of the logos were simple sketches in pen or pencil, but they were all basically done in black, white, and grey. Only one was in color, which made it stand out. If she'd taken the time to find markers just for this sketch, then the colors probably had a meaning beyond just looking pretty.
Green. Pink. Purple.
Green was obviously for Midoirya, it was even in his name, not to mention his hair. And if they were going off of hair colors, then Pink was obviously for Hatsume. They were the two strongest possibilities for Cheat Code's identity, but then there had to be a third, someone close to both Hatsume and Midoriya who acted suspiciously when Cheat Code was mentioned and who had purple…Mineta smirked.
Half formed plans whirled around in his brain and by the time his phone rang, he was almost in a good mood again. At least he was happy enough not to cuss out Kurogiri on the spot.
"Hello." Kurogiri greeted. "I take it you were unsuccessful?"
"Obviously." Mineta scoffed. "It's alright though, I've got another plan to lure them out. You've been trying to decide on a target for the summer camp attack, right? I think I might have a suggestion."
Notes:
Next Update: September 13, 2021 (MDT)