45

Chapter Text

The bugs within the mansion dispersed, their presence no longer needed for the process of aiding the remaining police officers and heroes within the now-seized building. Cleanup continued on as usual.

Meanwhile, nearly two blocks away on a rather indiscriminate rooftop of a local supermarket, Izuku sat down on the roof's edge with a sigh, his role complete.

"That wasn't too bad, I suppose," he spoke to the open air. "Two out of three leaders caught, as well as over ninety of their goons. Twisted Dragon is probably done for, since any remaining members who weren't in attendance will likely disband and ultimately dissolve the organization." Izuku let out another sigh. He reached for his face and — making sure that nobody was around before he did so — removed his mask. 

Breathing in the cool nighttime air, Izuku found a moment to relax. He laid himself flat against the cold floor of the roof, his costume providing a comfortable makeshift barrier between himself and the roof. His eyes stared up to the starlight sky while his legs dangled just over the roof's edge, swinging back and forth and bouncing against the building's brick-laid walls at a steady beat.

"But then there was Kentaro," Izuku added, continuing to stare into the endless night sky. "And there was something off about him." He let the silence take control for a few moments before he spoke again.

"He knew you, didn't he? And you knew him."

A soft sigh floated through Izuku's head, almost blending in with the soft sounds of the night. There was a pause after it, a resigned lull in the silence. Izuku knew better than to say anything. He wasn't going to let her divert the conversation away. He was going to wait; he wanted answers for once. 

"He was… is, somebody from my past," QA finally spoke, her words shattering the fragile silence.

Izuku nodded his head, but didn't speak, and instead waited for QA to continue. 

"He's… callous. And cruel, and everything in between. He sees the world as his playground and doesn't care for the damage or hurt he causes. All for the satisfaction of changing the planet for the worse."

"And he's stayed under the radar for so long?" Izuku asked. "And what's this thing about a team? What's Centaur have to do with it? And why would Kentaro sacrifice an entire powerbase of dozens of people in exchange for a mere eight individuals?" 

"..."

"QA." Izuku's voice was stern.

"He had a team before; him and eight others," QA revealed. "All of them were just as, if not more, as messed up as Kentaro. They were murderers, psychopaths, serial killers, and the like. They razed whole towns, killed thousands. All for J — Kentaro's games."

Izuku's eyes furrowed upon hearing the story, his fingers tapping against the cold stone of the rooftop. "That sounds like something I would have heard about," he said. "I'm sure you know how much I look into the hero scene. Surely, Kentaro would be one of Japan's most wanted if what you're saying is true. You're leaving something out. What is it?"

"... The group was based overseas. And… It was a bit ago. A different time, a different place. I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't in any history books."

"How long ago?"

There wasn't a response.

"QA, how long ago was this? How long has Kentaro been out and about?"

"We… I need to go work on something, Izuku. It'll be a crucial addition to our arsenal if we want to survive another encounter with Kentaro. I might refrain from talking for a while."

"What are you saying?"

"I'll still be listening in of course. And I'll help if you need it, but it won't be my primary concern for now. So… Be careful with yourself, Izuku."

The tentative connection cut, QA's presence fading into the recesses of Izuku's mind.

Izuku instantly shot up into a seating position, nearing losing his balance on the roof's ledge before he reorientated himself. "QA! QA, hold up a second! I still have questions!"

Izuku let out a huff, his fist smashing against stone. "Are you serious, QA? This is vital information that I need to know!"

He was only met with the faraway sounds of cars and the buzzing of his bugs.

Shaking his head, he slowly removed himself from his precarious position on the roof, standing up and wiping himself off. When he turned to head to the staircase leading off the roof, his eyes had to do a double take off to the side.

There, just a few feet away, was a device on the gorund. It was haphazardly covered in wires leading to an untold many places, one of which was the digital counter on the front. Which was counting down. And worse, only had two seconds left on it.

Izuku flinched, bracing himself for the inevitable explosion.

… 

DING!

…

He opened his eyes. His attention immediately went to the piece of paper that had ejected itself from the device. His head jerked from side to side, but found no hide nor tail of any potential perpetrator responsible for the device. Neither did any of his bugs sense anyone suspicious within his range.

Slowly, Izuku made his way to the device and swiped the paper from where it was held by a thin rod. Izuku immediately regretted doing it, thinking that the obvious bomb-looking device could have been set off by that action alone. But it didn't. Sighing again, Izuku looked down and read the paper.

Have a great night, Dragonfly. ~ Sincerely, Kentaro

Izuku blinked. He looked again at the bomb. A dud, from what his now searching bugs had discovered. The only question was how it got to where it was.

Phantom definitely didn't place it there. I would've noticed her carrying a tire-sized box with her when she teleported in. But… if I recall directly…" 

Izuku surveyed the rooftop. He went back and crouched down in the position he was in when Phantom had appeared. His bugs confirmed his suspicions.

"The device is in the exact same spot Phantom was in when she teleported behind me. But… it wasn't there when she arrived nor when she left. And it never came in at any time before or after the raid. I would have noticed the flash of light, no matter how repressed it was. Or at least a giant block of metal showing up and slamming on the ground. But then, where did it come from?" 

The radio crackled to life yet again. "Midoriya, you there?" It was Edgeshot again.

Izuku answered the call. "Yeah. I'm just… trying to figure something out."

"Can it wait? We need you here at the mansion for debrief."

Izuku slowly nodded to himself. "Yeah. We need a bomb squad up here, though. Don't worry!" He added hastily, cutting off Edgeshot's shout. "It's not a real bomb. My bugs already confirmed that. We just need someone to dispose of it."

"I… alright. Wait there for the squad then. They'll be over in a few."

"Thanks, Edgeshot."

"Are you sure you're alright? Nothing bad happened on your end?"

"... No."

"Hm. I'll be wanting an explanation later, Midoriya."

"Of course. I'll see you in a few." Izuku set the radio aside. 

He stared back at the device in front of him. "How the heck did you get up here?"

A good twenty minutes later and Izuku was standing in the front yard of the mansion. He found Edgeshot and a few officers standing over a table and observing one of the drones that had been defending the mansion.

With more time to look at them now that he wasn't chasing around villains, Izuku got a clear view of the drone. The one in front of him was a pristine silver. It's rectangular body was around a foot in height, and no obvious lines of separation were present that gave clues into its ability to transform and reveal the weapons it held within its chassis. 

"Why are you guys doing?" Izuku asked, coming up from behind the group.

"Ah, Dragonfly. Glad you could join us," Edgeshot said. "Since you're curious, I suppose I could tell you." He gestured to the unmoving drone. "The other hero we have on sight used his quirk on the drones. Zapped them straight into turning off."

"Yup!" the officer on Izuku's left exclaimed. "They're entirely deactivated. My quirk lets me sense electrical signatures." He tapped the drone a couple times. "These guys completely fried as far as I can tell! Hooboy! The boys in the lab are gonna have a blast examining these guys." 

The officer tsked after a second. "Shame we only got two of them though."

Izuku tilted his head to the side. "Only two?"

Edgeshot nodded. "Mhm. The rest activated their self-destruct mechanisms. They used some sort of internal system to disintegrate themselves. There's nothing we can salvage from their ashes, of course."

Edgeshot moved to leave. "Thank you for your efforts officers," he nodded to the men surrounding the table. Then he gestured to Izuku "Come. I'd like to talk about what happened with Kentaro with the others."

Izuku went to follow, though before he was able to make much headway he was interrupted by the sudden arrival of Setsuna.

"Heyo, 'zuku! Looks like you're doing well."

Izuku glanced at his friend. Setsuna was missing almost her entire left side; a clear cut had removed half her face, her arm, and her leg. In fact, she was actually floating, considering her current inability to walk.

"You follow too, Lizardy," Edgeshot suddenly said.

Izuku moved to continue and follow Edgeshot while still looking at his friend. Setsuna followed not too long after.

"What the heck happened to you?" Izuku asked, taking a sidelong glance at his friend.

"Heh. It was the drones," Setsuna replied. "They had some of that Pathogen girl's spores in them. I had to discard my entire left half to prevent the growths from spreading."

"It was… uncomfortable, to say the least." She shivered. "And I can still feel them a bit. I probably need to go back later and get my limbs and burn 'em. If just to get rid of the sensation while I wait to regrow."

"Are you… okay?" Izuku asked.

"Yeah. Just wasn't expecting the raid to be so brutal."

They reached the tent, Edgeshot holding the entrance flap open for the two. Once he was inside, Izuku noticed that the previously mentioned "others" Edgeshot had mentioned turned to include the heroes who took part in the raid and a few higher ranking police officers. 

Izuku immediately spotted Highbrow and Reverb surrounding the paper-ridden middle table. Two other uniformed men were there too, one with an afro and another with some fairly thick sunglasses. There was also another hero that Izuku didn't recognize who wore a black bodysuit and a purple coat. Izuku assumed that he was the one who had deactivated the drones.

"So," Edgeshot began, taking head of the table. "What happened with Kentaro, Dragonfly?"

"Huh? Oh, umm…" Izuku wandered over to one of the remaining spots around the table. He quickly began organizing his thoughts; he hadn't expected to be put up on the spot just like that. 

As such, he spouted out the first thing that came to mind.

"Well, the basement was completely sealed off," Izuku offered. "My bugs couldn't get in to neutralize the target."

"We found the door open, though." One of the officers had spoken, one who had an afro on his head. Officer Kuron, if his badge was telling the truth.

"That is correct, Mr. Kuron, sir. Kentaro purposely left the door open, as far as I can tell, to let me in."

"And why ever would he do that?" It was the hero Izuku didn't know. Due to his costume, Izuku decided to call him Purple Coat for the time being.

"He had a couple others in there with him," Izuku said. "Nine of them in the room in total. Some pretty powerful quirks, too. And they were heavily entrenched there. Not that they really needed it, considering they have a teleporter."

"You mean they didn't just run out of the building?" Kuron asked. "And what teleporter? We haven't had any clue of such."

"Kentaro called him Waypoint, if that rings a bell," Izuku said.

Kuron shook his head. "No, it doesn't." He bumped his shoulder against the other officer beside him. "How about you, Haru? Heard the name before?"

Haru similarly shook his head. "No."

"Hmm. We'll have to set up a profile on him later then," Edgeshot said. "What else do you have for us? How about that bomb?"

Izuku let out a nervous laugh. "Yeah… about that… I'm not all too sure."

"Meaning…?" Purple Coat asked.

"The bomb sorta came out of nowhere," Izuku admitted. "It wasn't there one second, and it was there the next."

The unknown hero scoffed. "You sure that you just weren't paying attention?"

"Yes," Izuku reaffirmed. "I'm sure."

"Alright," the hero gibed.

"Enough," Kuron said. He turned to Izuku. "Is there a chance that the bomb came about because of one of the villain's quirks?"

"I suppose that's possible," Izuku mumbled. "I wasn't able to figure out the quirks of everybody in the room."

Edgeshot nodded. "Alright. Then we need to get on that. Dragonfly, I want you to give us as detailed a description of each of the villains as possible. We'll go through the database and see if any…"

There weren't any flashes of light. Izuku just saw it floating there, just on the peripheral. Almost like it had been there since the start of the meeting. He saw a brief gust of steam emit from its body.

"Everybody out!" Edgeshot yelled. He transformed and shot towards the door. Setsuna reacted almost as quickly, most of her pieces shooting out of the tent in a blur. Her hands were the only things still left behind, and they found themselves wrapped around Izuku's arms and basically dragging him out.

Izuku eventually found himself moving his own feet, relieving Setsuna of her efforts. He didn't dare use his eyes to look at the drone, lest he slow himself down. His bugs, however, weren't as limited, and had the perfect view of the situation.

The drone's parts had already separated from its body, revealing the weapons hidden beneath its metallic sheen. But it wasn't firing at them. A reddish glow gradually revealed itself instead.

His bugs noticed the two police officers running out to leave the tent. However, the hero Izuku had dubbed Purple Coat was still within the tent, standing still.

The hero waved his hand at the offending drone, releasing a stream of untampered electricity. However, the drone didn't drop as it had before. In fact, it actually tilted in the air, almost as if in amusement.

Izuku saw the hero's eyes widen just as the drone flashed a harsh red light. That was the last thing Izuku saw before the wave of heat and flames consumed the tent.

Izuku hit the ground, the blast knocking him off his feet and leaving his ears ringing. Shaking his head, Izuku found that Setsuna was already fussing over him, checking him for injuries.

Izuku flinched as the ground shook again. Another explosion had gone off in the midst of the yard. 

And not too long later he felt it, an explosion of gas. He felt as a portion of his bugs grew heavy, becoming larger and losing their ability to move and breath as organic growths overtook their little bodies.

Izuku watched in horror, with the steadily disappearing vision of his bugs, as the same thing occurred to the police caught within the radius of the gas.

Izuku dodged the incoming attack, moving to the left to avoid the foot that was aimed for his face. He countered the next attack, bringing up his arms to block the attempted punch at his chest. 

Izuku countered and kicked his opponent straight in the chest, launching her backwards. As she rolled to the ground, Izuku called upon his bugs in waiting. In mere seconds, his opponent's legs were wrapped in heavy bounds of spider silk.

"Oi! I thought we were still on the non-quirk combat stage of your training?!"

"Sorry Kaniko!" Izuku yelled, obvious amusement in his voice. "But you know how real villains are! We have to keep them on their toes. All that matters is bringing them in, not whether or not we play dirty. I considered the same situation here."

"Ohhhh? So that's how we're playing it, eh?" Kaniko mused. "Alrighty then!" Her arms went down to her legs. As her hands neared the webbing that immobilized her, Kaniko's middle and index fingers took the shape of scissors. Her quirk cut through the webbing like a hot knife through butter.

"Are you serious?!?" exclaimed Izuku. "Do you know how hard it is to cut that stuff up?!"

"Of course I do!" Kaniko exclaimed as she ran forward. "The stuff can be tougher than kevlar if weaved together correctly!"

She closed in on Izuku, adopting a sudden burst of speed that caught Izukuoff guard. Izuku subsequently collided with the wall of the room, and was effectively pinned between Kaniko and the room's training cushions.

"Ha!" Kaniko laughed. "Looks like I won this one, eh? What are we at now? Seven to seven?" 

Izuku smirked. "Nah. Eight to seven."

Kaniki narrowed her eyes. "But I had six wins on you last time, didn't I? Hmm… Now, I don't thin—"

She suddenly sputtered, grabbing for her throat and falling to the ground coughing. Izuku felt his minion slowly travel down Kaniko's esophagus.

"Ew! Ew ew ew!" Kaniko stuck her tongue out and attempted to brush it off. "You made me swallow a fly!" 

Izuku smiled. "Don't worry. I made sure that he was clean."

Kaniko eventually sat up on the floor and glared at Izuku, crossing her arms. "Hmph."

There was a lull in their interaction, where Izuku looked on as Kaniko decided what to do in revenge. To Izuku, the moment allowed for thinking. And in turn, a reflection over the past day.

Izuku's smile faltered. "I have another question," he said, switching topics.

Kaniko raised an eyebrow, her lips thinning. "Shoot."

"It's about Traveler. Is he with you guys, or is he an independent contractor?"

Kaniko bit her lip. "The latter."

"Hmm…"

"Traveler is clean, Midoriya. He's been working with us for a while, and he's proven his worth. He's been thoroughly checked and vetted; heck, he brings his daughter over to some of our stations sometimes! He isn't the source of any leak." 

"I see."

Kaniko sighed in exasperation. "Midoriya." She walked forward, placing her hand on Izuku's shoulder. "Asking about every single little detail isn't going to change anything. What happened last night wasn't your fault. It wasn't anybody's fault."

Izuku shook his head. "Thirty-seven people, Kaniko. Twenty-one officers and one hero. And fifteen others that are now forever deformed and unable to serve. Kentaro knew what he was doing. He knew about the raid, even. And he got that information somehow."

Kaniko shook her head. "Midoriya—"

A shrill ringing broke the air and chimed in their ears. Kaniko reached down into her pocket, her eyes shooting up in surprise.

Her foot began tapping against the floor. She held a finger up to Izuku. "I need to take this, Midoriya. It might be important. Just… hold on. We're not done talking about this yet."

Kaniko answered the call, bringing the phone up to her ear with a bright smile. "Fat-yan! It's nice to hear from you! Are you finally done with that operation they had for you?"

"..."

"Uh huh, uh huh. Yeah."

Izuku refrained from sending in a bug to listen to the conversation. It would just be plain rude. And Kaniko would end up telling him about the call if anything ended up being important. Probably. Maybe he could just send a—

"Oh! You're taking in that Suneater kid again? Oh? And another one too? Calls himself Red Riot?"

That caught Izuku's attention. What was this about Kirishima? 

"Ha! I can imagine. Yeah, I'm currently sparring with that problem kid that we have here."

"Hey!"

"Yeah, he'll be there. Try to be nice, okay?" Kaniko nodded her head. "Well. good luck to ya then! Try to stay safe out there! Bye!"

Kaniko ended the call.

Izuku's eyebrow rose. "Fat-yan?" he asked.

"Hmm?" Kaniko turned his way. "Oh, yeah! He's a good friend of mine! Though, you probably know him better as Fat Gum."

The name rang a bell. Fat Gum was a hero with a rather tanky quirk called Fat Absorption. He was also known for taking in one of UA's big three for work study. Suneater was probably Tamaki, in that aspect.

"He's taking Kirishima for work study?" Izuku concluded. "Huh. Wonder what happened to working with Fourth Kind."

"Oi! No changing the topic over to Fat-yan. We were still talking about the raid."

"Kaniko—"

"It's important that you don't blame yourself for everything that goes wrong during a raid. Especially if just because you think you could've helped with something. You aren't omniscient. And even well-experienced heroes can stretch themselves too thin. You can't be doing that to yourself."

Izuku sighed. "I know."

"Then you have to prove you do," Kaniko said. "I'm sure that Edgeshot mentioned that other case we're putting you on?"

Izuku nodded his head. "Yeah. But he was a little vague about it."

"He was supposed to. We can't have any information getting out before we're ready after all!" Kaniko turned a critical eye towards Izuku.. "But that doesn't matter. What does matter is you getting your head in the game and being ready for when the time comes."

"What are we going to be doing, anyways?" Izuku asked.

"You'll be summoned to a meeting with a couple others soon," Kaniko explained. "You'll get more info then."

Kaniko made her way to the doorway and motioned for Izuku to follow. "Now come on!" Her smile came back in full force. "We need to get you back to Edgeshot."

Izuku shook his head, running up to and matching Kaniko's pace. "Can you try not to drop me off right in front of the agency this time? I had a hard enough time explaining away my absence to Setsuna."

"Why don't you just tell her then?" She nudged Izuku with her elbow. "It'll be easier for you in the long run."

Izuku shot her a look. "Right. Like I won't get in trouble if I do?"

Kaniko shrugged. "I won't tell."

Izuku raised an eyebrow. He wouldn't put it past Kaniko actually not telling her superiors if he actually did so. But still.

"Doesn't matter," Izuku said. "I'm not going to tell any of my friends. Not yet, at least. I don't want them to be unnecessarily worrying about me when I'm out on the field."

"Oh?" Kaniko shot him a mischievous smile.

"Yes," Izuku reaffirmed. "Now please, try to drop me off a few blocks away from the agency. I was barely able to keep Setsuna busy with my bugs when we left. She got a bit close to discovering me getting into your car." 

"Alright, alright," Kaniko placated.

"You'll do it?"

"Heh. Maybeee."

Izuku sighed once more.

Notes:

And there we go! A new player out in the field, and they introduced themselves with a bang! Just what will this new group be doing? Well, only time will tell. Stay tuned everyone!