personal-0004

To the left was a figure, dressed much like Izuku but with the full suit jacket and tie. A black vest on a black shirt, together with a green tie. A full-face helmet with a glowing green question mark hid his features and hair. A fedora accented with a purple and green flower in its band rested on top of it. He tilted his head, and a slightly distorted drawl came through the speakers. "Well, now. It seems that makes four objectives in reach of our hands. Eleven still left to hunt for."

The other figure nodded, tapping furiously on her computer. Her outfit was different, a long black dress with pink-tinged snake scale patterns winding around it. Her mask was a full-face gas mask, with an attached hood and short scarf around her neck. "We have possible locations for another seven objectives and Animal is continuing his search pattern from the tunnels to try and find the rest."

Standing up, Kingpin walked around the holograms to a slot of light between two curtains in a large glass window and looked out, observing the noon sun rising into position.

"Pull the Cash-Out plan on the bank. Hacker, Con Man, you're going to be up in a few hours. Get some rest, we've been up half the night. Assault, help set up a chase with the government crew. Have Hold Up and Graffiti take the truck and a civil-bot hostage. Have Drug-Runner prep for them in the northern half, in the fourth tunnel," he called out, eyes tracing the faint lines of smoke from near the bank. "And tell them to bust out the guns for this. Leave an impression."

"Will do, King." Mezou nodded. Con Man and Hacker both murmured agreement, stretching before they stood and headed for the doors to the left.

Mezou started to relay orders and Izuku stood silent, waiting.

The opening moves were done, Bakugou was going to force the momentum sooner rather than later. All he had to do was lead it the wrong way.

Time to change the rules.

"Too bad. It's a nice looking bank too."

Eijirou was pumped. The tension, the fight against the 'Dark Forces of Evil' that Tokoyami and Kuroiro presented! It was so… SO… MANLY!!! And he got to work with Tetsutetsu! The two of them had a hell of a time blocking and catching the incoming vehicles. Even with strength and durability, momentum was still momentum and Dark Shadow had a hell of a throwing arm.

As the bright light of high noon finally began to hit, he watched the two villains retreat into the bank. Kuroiro turned the dark space behind the glass into a wall of twisting shadows as the two vanished.

Bakugou stood next to him, standing at the end of the street. A moment passed, and he reached up, tapping his earbud.

"Iida, swing wide to flank. Shiozaki, try and clear an entrance on a higher floor. We'll charge in sixty seconds."

As they gathered, ready to move, there was a sudden sound in the silence.

Bakugou's phone was ringing.

"What the fucking hell," he muttered.

Eijirou was sure Bakugou had silenced it! Weird!

Bakugou lifted it and saw a new text message, with another video-stream link. He glanced up and scowled, before tapping the link. A moment of loading later, it started to play.

"Ah, Kacchan. I have to say, you and your teams have been impressive so far. Iida even found the access point! I was sure that would be a secret for a while longer."

"Get to the fucking point, Deku. What the fuck are you calling me for?"

"Oh, just keeping you away from the bank for a bit longer. Don't want you caught in the blast radius after all. Enjoy the show!" With a click, the stream cut off.

Tetsutetsu paused, blinking in confusion, looking at the bank. "What does he mean by blas—"

Things happened quickly, but everyone would remember it for years to come. First was a flash, the windows on the bottom floor, no longer concealed by Kuroiro's blinding smoke, were blasted out by a shockwave, followed by a burst of flames. Along the central column of the building, more explosions rang out in quick succession, the windows blowing out in a cascade of broken shards, leading up.

For a moment it was still, before with a slow echoing crash, the building began to fold in, collapsing in on itself, sending a cloud of dust racing through the streets. All of the teams present covered their faces, trying to see through the dust as it lingered. When it finally began to thin, they almost wished it hadn't. The building was gone, nothing but rubble spilling into the adjacent buildings and the street in front of it.

"He… he blew up the building." Sato was trying to stay calm, but Kirishima could see the faint glint of terror in his eyes.

At that moment, he couldn't blame him.

This was suddenly far more real than he thought it would be.

6 days before the exam (lunch)

Izuku ate slowly, taking time to send glances at Shouji, Yaoyorozu, and Jirou, before tilting his head at the doorway to each of them. Soon enough, Izuku cleaned off his plate and slowly made his way to the door. Out of his periphery, he could see Jirou and Yaoyorozu stand and walk to empty their tray and Shouji beginning to stand as well.

He pulled out a notebook, flipping through to the new pages he had started last night.

Rewritten notes about the three people who had confirmed villain status, or at least implied it.

Shouji's questions were mostly limited to his arms' capabilities. How complex and how detailed he could manipulate his flesh. A quick sketch of a possible villain attire added to the paper.

Similar sketches and notes filled pages for Yaoyorozu and Jirou, though he left the 'weakness' section blank. If they paid attention and decided to suddenly defect and join the heroes, he'd rather keep the weaknesses he had noticed as surprises.

He stood and waited and soon the two girls stepped out, glancing around before Jirou stepped forwards. "Hiya, Boss. We want to join the villains."

They paused as Izuku roved his eyes around. "I'm not exactly in a position to decline, you understand. But, why join me?"

"Mineta. In part. We plan to tell him we're joining the heroes and then pull a fast one. Beyond that..." Jirou trailed off, looking at Yaoyorozu.

"In the Sports Festival… we didn't do very great. Both us were taken out in the cavalry round and we feel like we were unprepared. Now that we've gone to internships, despite how useless my internship was, we want to prove we are better than we were," she swore, looking up at Izuku, who was shocked to see the sheer anger in her gaze.

"Well, welcome aboard." Izuku gave a smile rubbing his head sheepishly, and the tension drained from the group.

With that Izuku turned and started walking, leaving the girls to look on in confusion, before jumping as a rough voice spoke up behind them.

"We should follow him. I think we'll find it quite informative," the six-armed teen muttered, before nudging them both gently.

The girls nodded, and the three villain team members hurried to catch up to their leader.

Before long they stood together looking at a heavy-duty steel door with the name card that inspired fear in those who recognized the name on a personal basis.

Support lab 4: Hatsume Mei.

Fear, Lies, and Heavy Weaponry

Chapter Summary

Reactions across the city, and a stalemate breaks.

(Updated with final edits, 5/2/19)

Day 1: 11 hours, 19 minutes (11:19 am, local time)

The standoff at the government building was momentarily distracted.

The sound of explosions and the growing cloud of dust and smoke in the distance made all heads turn that way; the heroes looking on with disbelief, the villains with a sense of relief and tension. Next was his turn.

Inside his gas mask, Kaibara Sen was also talking frantically with his partner. "He said to use the gun?"

"You heard him as well as I did! I'm just thankful that Forgery is here to help me finish setting this up and I hope to God that Hacker's guns work the way she said. This is going to be rough either way."

"Fine. Forgery, Sparkle, you two good?" he asked.

"We'll be fine. Animal already has the escape route open and we are less than a minute from the third objective. Then we'll take the low road back to HQ. It is quite a shame that we didn't have enough explosives to blow up the government building in its entirety in order to cover our tracks, but we have enough incendiaries to make do. Your bluff was well played."

"Alright, I'll kick us off here, I guess. See you guys soon," Sen muttered, seeing the heroes turn back. He raised his hand, showing the detonator with a tilt of his head that belied amusement.

The sound of an engine roaring to life echoed over the radio.

"Oh, and Awase, if you run me over I'll fucking break your neck," he muttered.

"Oh, relax. I know how to drive a box truck. I do it for my uncle during the summer all the time!"

The sound of the truck roared, and he could hear the squealing of the tires.

Mineta Minoru shivered, seeing the explosion in the distance, hearing the swears and exclamations over the comms. It was frightening. He had joined the heroes because he overheard that Jirou and that smoking hot piece of ass Yaoyorozu would be joining, and by the time he realized overwise he was here. And then Bakugou, the fucker, had to put him on a team with only one girl. One!

And now he had to deal with this bullshit! Explosives!

He shivered, glancing back at the masked guy with the damn detonator! He was tempted to just run. Fuck the consequences!

The villain spoke. "Well, it's been real and it's been fun. But it hasn't been real fun. You get what I'm saying, heroes?"

Wait, what was going to–

"But you know how it goes. Your team finishes up a mission, you realize your bluff is boring, and you call a ride. My Uber should be here any–"

The last word was cut off. The sound of a truck engine roaring to life as it came swerving and drifting around the corner to the north. Minoru panicked, looking at the once white truck. The rear box was now a deep red–

"–moment."

–And painted with a massive black sigil. A black blade wreathed in black wings sweeping down from the handle, with a bright acid green V overlaid over the entire image.

A voice yelled, both over the communicator in his ear and from in front of him. It was Todoroki.

"THE DETONATOR IS FAKE. HE BLUFFED US, ATTACK NOW."

In a panic, Minoru reached up, beginning to frantically toss his sticky balls at the gas-masked figure while Todoroki reached back and readied a wave of ice. Sero and Bondo began to fire glue and tape at the figure too.

With a shout, the figure seemed to twist and crouch before he was assuredly springing across the street, dodging the first wave of the attacks. He seemed to twist and shift, parts of his body rotating at his joints to toss him from side-to-side and redirect his motion across the asphalt around the assault of quirks.

"Fuck, that's Kaibara! He's a close-range fighter, don't let him get near–"

Whatever else Tsuburaba was going to say was drowned out as the squeal of braking tires and the skidding of steel on steel made Minoru turn. He barely had time to take in what was happening before a blur of blue ice from Todoroki blasted out. The elemental teen had unleashed his readied ice in surprise, which is perhaps the only thing that prevented a skidding box of steel, that had detached from the driving truck, from slamming them head-on.

The cargo box also broke the line of sight with Kaibara, leaving their only information a muttered "Holy shit" over the comms. The team, with Minoru following with reluctance, swarmed to climb the ramp Todoroki made to reach over the cargo box.

When Minoru finally stood on to of the box, he froze with terror and nearly shit his pants.

There, bolted to the floor of the truck bed, was a fucking Anti-Aircraft Turret. Kaibara was grabbing and twisting, that strange twisted-body thing proving he was using his Quirk to help aim. As it swung around, Minoru could clearly make out the words Hatsume Industries painted in bright pink on the outside surface of two of the four boxy barrels closest to them. At the back, there were large canisters full of ammo connected with belts hanging from each.

Kaibara Sen's voice, still distorted by his mask, called out.

"Surprise, motherfuckers."

Todoroki instantly summoned a flowering shield of ice, diving backward. Bondo formed a wall of quick-hardening glue as he turned to cover a screaming Komori. Sero was also diving back, one arm flailing as he used the tape to yank him down and out of the line of fire.

Minoru didn't react in time.

All he heard was a sudden rapid-fire rattle; like someone had dropped the world's largest collection of balls down steel escalators, before he was engulfed in pain.

Pain and the color red.

Kaibara Sen grunted with exertion. The recoil wasn't that bad, but aiming accurately with the turret was a bitch. The 'red goo' rounds Mei had taught Momo to make (and that UA itself used in the second year gun safety-and-countering class) was harmless, really. A quick-setting, hard-coating red goo that would dry in seconds to be breathable, albeit hard to break. It was technically the evolution of paintballs. It was far more debilitating and you could still technically fight even if disabled. The fact it left bruises was par for the course and a valuable learning experience.

That was a single shot, however, and Mei had not held back with the fucking beast of a gun she had sent out.

Four muzzles. A firing rate of 25 rounds fired per second, each with a full 7,500 rounds of ammo per gun.

In Mei's words, "You have about five minutes of 'fuck that one thing in particular.' Make them count."

As he swept up, he saw the perverted little purple bitch get slammed with the wave of red with satisfaction.

He snapped the turret across the ice and the glue, painting both with a quick hardening shell to slow them down.

"GRAFFITI, HIT THE GAS!" he yelled, shifting the turret up and around to strafe the perch where the second team was. They were already diving for cover as he pressed back down on the triggers.

At that moment, as he smelled burning rubber from the spinning wheels, he glimpsed an inferno coming from the other side of the red-coated ice.

He strafed back and blinked at the hiss of steam as the bullets of paint evaporated.

And then the van was skidding away like a rocket, chased by a wall of flame twice its size.

Cursing, Sen stepped down, feet flat and stance low as he tried to stay on the back of the truck.

Luckily, that's when the incendiaries in the government building went off.

The windows around the back lower floor of the government building blew out, a wave of flame encasing the lower level.

He could see through the inferno that Todoroki's eyes widened and he started to gesture. The three members of his team still up (though Sero was red from a shoulder down) all turned and started towards the fire.

"Good escape, but Bakugou's already been informed. He's sending people to try and cut you off at the pass. Take the next left, head to the north stash," Hacker's voice, full of glee, came over the comms. "They'll remember how my baby performed. That was awesome!"

As the truck went to take a corner at high speed, Sen sent a few shots down the streets, splattering the corners in case anyone got the idea to come storming around there.

"Glad you enjoyed it, Hacker. Coming up on the parking garage for entry now. Second floor down, southeast wall, yeah?"

"That's correct," Kingpin cut in. "Come on home, boys. We have lunch ready at Woods. I think it's time to start to talk about the changes to Phase 2."

With a grunt, Sen spun the turret so it was aligned with the rear of the truck once more, kicking a locking mechanism into place.

"Yosetsu, take us in."

"With pleasure, Sen."

And with a turn and the skid of tires on asphalt, they entered a subterranean parking lot, driving deep under the layers of parking and below the city, leaving no trace for the heroes to find.

6 days before the exam (lunch)

Izuku stood before Hatsume, watching her flip through the notes he had taken that morning just for her.

"I have to say Ten Million, you are ambitious. That's GOOD! It's fun that way!" She flipped through the books some more before her expression fell. "But I can't make some of this. Designing it would be fine, but production would take days for some of these smaller parts. The comms and computers in particular. Even the best of 3D printers and mills can only build so much so fast and there's a waiting list for that," she sighed. "As it is now, unless you have a miracle, there is no way to get most of this done, especially considering the suits and the materials going into them."

Izuku nodded along. "Well, you see, I actually do have a miracle. Or more precisely, I have a team member with your miracle." He turned and looked at a suddenly surprised Yaoyorozu. "So what do you think, feeling 'Creative' Yaoyorozu?" He gave her a shy and genuine smile, filled with eagerness and hope.

Yaoyorozu couldn't help but laugh softly. "You can call me Momo, Midoriya. And sure, I'll help her out. But you're buying me dinner sometime soon for this."

"Wait. Explain," Hatsume said, glancing around.

"Mei, let me introduce your new best friend. This is Momo. She has a Quirk that lets her make anything as long as she knows its composition inside and out. All you have to do is buy her dinner," Izuku said, before looking at Momo and smiling. "And please, Momo, call me Izuku."

Hatsume froze.

Slowly she turned, looking at Momo dead on.

As the two girls began to talk, Izuku leaned back, slowly letting a breath out. He was surprised when he felt someone approach and looked to see Jirou at his side.

"That was interesting, Green. You normally aren't that suave. What's up?"

Izuku blinked and then blushed. "W-Well. I'm supposed to be the villain, right? So last night I watched a bunch of Herotube videos about famous fictional and historical villains. What makes a villain a good character? How do you make a villain threatening? What traits do villains have? I've been using them to try and act like a villain… Is that... weird?"

"That's really cool, actually. You're method acting! That's really important for a stage persona. Just remember to keep some of your personality in there too, yeah? Now come on, let's get the geeks apart, we need to head back to class soon."

Jirou stepped away and towards the girls, but Izuku was caught in thought.

'Method acting… that might just be the key I needed to do this.'

'I just need the right script.'

What We Know, What We Plan, Lunch