Hostages

"What is this damn world coming to?" Mistuki exclaimed, "Just last night that fucker Mastermind gave the heroes the slip. Put a hero in the hospital too, from what I heard."

"It's just terrible! I wish that they'd just catch him already, it's nerve wracking every time I turn the news on now. I'm so worried for Katsuki when he starts UA!" Inko fretted.

"Yeah right, like some weak fucker like Mastermind could beat me!" Katsuki said, "They should have sent stronger heroes to the raid. The reason that hero got hurt was because he was weak!"

"Shut up, brat! Don't go speaking ill of the injured like that!"

Izuku played with his food and tried not to react. Dinner with the Bakugos was always difficult, having to act natural with Katsuki so his 'friend' wouldn't have any reason to kill him, but it was even harder when he was the topic of conversation. Izuku wanted more than anything to smirk and take credit for his crimes, or even kill Katsuki right here and prove that he wasn't weak, but he was smart enough to realize how stupid that would be. He'd just escaped a hero raid with his identity intact, he wasn't about to go giving himself away now. It still didn't make it any easier to navigate this conversation.

"Well, I'm just grateful that it didn't end up any worse…" Masaru said quietly.

Inko looked at him like he'd grown a second head, "He got away and a hero was injured, how could it have gone any worse?"

Masaru set down his fork and looked at Inko, "According to a friend of mine with the police, a huge crowd gathered shortly after the raid began and they were worried Mastermind would take hostages. We're lucky he just disappeared."

Izuku's head snapped up as the cogs in his brain started turning. Hostages , he thought, now there's an idea.

"Did you enjoy dinner with Katsuki's family? You're kinda tired tonight."

Izuku nodded, "Yeah, it was great, as always. It's just...I'm kinda tired. I think I'm just gonna go to bed early."

Inko looked at him with concern, "Don't you want to watch the news?"

Izuku just shook his head. It'd all be about the failed raid, anyway, "Goodnight Mom."

Inko looked like she wanted to protest, but pity won out, "Ok, Izuku, Goodnight."

He shut his door and immediately went to his desk and opened the untraceable laptop he'd gotten from Giran. Hostages. It was such a simple idea, but it would be extremely effective. Because the first rule of hero work was to prioritize the rescue, any time a hostage was in danger, the heroes would have to do whatever was necessary to keep the hostage safe, rather than catch the villain. But who to take? Izuku sighed, kidnapping civilians and holding them somewhere just wasn't practical. As shitty as his life was outside his villainy, it still existed. He didn't just have an underground bunker somewhere to keep hostages fed and alive for an indeterminate amount of time. If only he could just threaten to kill more heroes if they caught him or something, but then he'd be caught and wouldn't be able to kill them.

He paused. Mastermind had never had to be physically present to kill anyone as long as he had interested buyers, it was one of the reasons it'd taken the police so long to acknowledge his existence. Izuku smiled slowly. What he had in mind would take a lot of preparation, and he wouldn't be able to do it alone, but he was sure it would make an impact. He opened up his Mastermind account and drafted a message to a hacker named La Brava that Giran had recommended. The heroes wouldn't know what hit them.

If there was anything good that had come from the failed Mastermind raid, it was that the guy hadn't shown his face for two weeks. Tsukauchi didn't know if he should be happy the guy wasn't committing crimes, or frustrated that they couldn't find him, but the fact remained that Mastermind had gone to ground immediately after the raid and hadn't been heard from since. Nedzu had warned that he might be planning something, but Tsukauchi didn't know what it could be. He decided he'd just count his blessings that the media had finally stopped camping in front of the station trying to get statements. It was bad enough that the vultures had finally gotten ahold of the fact that Kamui Woods wasn't just injured, but had been viciously burned alive. He'd been lucky to survive, but there'd be a lengthy recovery process before he'd be able to return to hero work.

Tsukauchi's thoughts were interrupted by his phone ringing.

"Hello?"

"Detective, are you watching the news?" Nedzu's voice sounded worried and alarm bells started ringing in Tsukauchi's head. He'd heard the principal sound gleeful, sad, even frustrated, but he'd never heard him sound worried before, "Turn to channel 5."

Tsukauchi grabbed the remote to the small t.v. by his desk and turned it on to find two terrified looking news anchors looking into the camera.

"...left on the desk of the main producer of our station this morning with instructions to air it or our entire production team would be killed. We do not know yet what is on this tape, so we urge viewers to stop watching as there is the possibility that it could contain sensitive information or images that could be triggering to some viewers."

The screen cut to a dark green background. A black circle with a capital M inside it was superimposed on the green and Tsukauchi found it hard to breathe. He'd seen that symbol before on some of Mastermind's latest plans, it was a sort of signature he'd added in the past few months, probably to discourage copycats. This was bad.

The image faded to reveal Mastermind in a dark room, his toxic green eyes looking directly into the camera. His voice was somewhat distorted, but it still sounded young and male.

"Hello! For those of you who don't know me, my name is Mastermind! I'm the strategist behind the recent uptick in hero deaths. You're welcome!" He said cheerfully, "So, some of you may have heard already, but the heroes almost managed to catch me last week," he slow clapped, "Congratulations, heroes , and I'd say better luck next time, but," he turned deadly serious, "there won't be a next time. You see, this video is just a courtesy to let you know that this is now a hostage situation. If I am caught or killed, the murder plans for all top 50 heroes will be automatically released to interested buyers."

Tsukauchi couldn't look away. Taking the top 50 heroes hostage? Mastermind couldn't be serious!

"Now, I know what you're thinking, 'But Mastermind? Heroes can defend themselves! You can't take them hostage!' " His eyes took on a wicked glint, "But, you see, that's where you're wrong. I've proved over a dozen times that heroes aren't as invincible as you all want to believe. Just ask Mt. Lady. Stretch? Or maybe Glimmer?"

"Detective? Detective?" Tsukauchi raised his phone to his ear again from where it had fallen on his desk, "I'm here."

"Please tell me this is a bluff." Nedzu pleaded, "Tell me that he doesn't actually plan on doing this."

Tsukauchi swallowed, "My quirk hasn't registered any lies…" Nedzu swore, another first for the principal.

"Now," Mastermind continued, "in case you think that this is a bluff, I'm going to give you proof. I'll wait until this video airs, then I'll release the murder plans for Pro Hero Wash. He's in the top 10, a pretty competent hero by all accounts. So go ahead, try to protect him. I'm frankly excited to see you try." Mastermind was smiling now, if his eyes were any indication, "And just remember, once he's dead, that if you catch me or kill me, you'll have a lot more dead heroes on your hands. You might be able to save some of the top 50, but there's no way you'll be able to save them all." Mastermind waved to the camera, "Good luck!"

The screen cut back to the news anchors, who began to discuss the footage, but Tsukauchi could hardly hear them. Mastermind had just gone from a dangerous up and coming to an S ranked villain instantly. And they couldn't do a thing about it.

"I'm sorry, Wash, it'll just be for a few days until we can determine Mastermind's threat level."

"It's ok, detective," Wash held up his hands placatingly, "I understand the need for extra security. Mastermind had Japan on edge even before he announced his plan to take pro heroes hostage. I just hope everything works out and we can catch him soon."

Tsukauchi sighed and shook his head, "You and me both."

They were currently in a safe house, which meant that Wash had to take a few days off hero duty, but it wasn't the end of the world. At least this would prove to Japan that the police and heroes were able to protect the top 50 and render Mastermind's "hostage situation" harmless. It would all be worth it in the end.

"Start the stream!" A voice called out and Wash and Tsukauchi immediately went on high alert. There wasn't supposed to be anyone but them here right now. The other officers weren't scheduled to arrive for another 20 minutes. Tsukauchi took out his gun and looked at Wash, who nodded his head and took a place behind the detective. They flinched as an explosion sounded and the door to the safe house flew open. Four thugs ran in with gas masks, the one at the back holding a phone out in front of him. Tsukauchi fired as Wash shot a stream of water at the villains. All of a sudden, Wash spasmed and fell to the floor.

"Wash!" Tsukauchi cried out.

"Hah, water's an awesome conductor, isn't it, hero?" the lead thug said. Tsukauchi aimed for him, only to realize that one of their quirks created a bulletproof shield and all his bullets were falling ineffectually on the floor. He grabbed a lamp, the nearest thing he could use as a weapon, and stood in front of the conconsious hero, preparing to make a last stand. One of the thugs rushed him and Tsukauchi knocked him aside easily, but the next grabbed his lamp and forced him to grapple. All of a sudden, his opponent let go of him and stood back, but rather than catch his breath, tsukauchi stiffened as he felt electricity run through him and he fell paralyzed against the couch.

"Make sure you get this on camera! Mastermind wants the world to know what he's capable of. It's the least I can do to rid the world of this scum that arrested my brother."

The thug with the camera nodded and Tsukauchi watched helplessly as the lead villain took out a gun of his own and shot Wash twice in chest. He paused a moment, then put another bullet in the hero's head.

"You can never be too sure," He laughed, "Roaches like that are tough to kill. Come on boys, lets go."

Backup arrived as Tsukauchi was finally able to start moving again. He watched as paramedics rushed to Wash first, only to shake their heads and come to help him instead.

"Are you ok, sir, can you move?"

Tsukauchi nodded and flinched. The paramedics continued asking him questions and he answered numbly. Nedzu arrived as they were leading him to the ambulance with a shock blanket around his shoulders.

He must have looked pretty bad because the principal immediately looked at him with concern, "Are you ok, detective?"

Tsukauchi shrugged, "My entire body hurts like hell, but the paramedics say I'll be ok."

Nedzu got a strange look in his eye, "No, I mean emotionally."

Tsukauchi rubbed his eyes in frustration and was surprised when his hand came away wet. When had he started crying?

"The leader had an electric type quirk. When Wash got hit with it, I thought he was just unconscious, but it just paralyzed whoever got hit with it. I was awake the whole time. I had to...oh god, I had to just watch while they killed him and I couldn't do anything about it." He looked at Nedzu helplessly, "What are we gonna do?"

Nedzu just looked to where the media were already starting to gather, despite the fact that Wash's death had been live streamed, "I don't know," he whispered, "I really don't know."