Chapter 10 - Meeting the Locals

—Cole POV—

Heading straight over to their agency, I found it set up in a hole-in-the-wall office complex. It made sense that they were in a place like this as they were still climbing the ladder. I wasn't saying it was a bad thing, we all had to start somewhere and it was always in a crappy place. Even I started out at the bottom in all five prior lives, especially when I was an assassin. The man that took my orphan self in lived in a collapsed stable because he had lost everything to a corrupt nobleman who took his money and family leaving him with only the clothes on his back.

'It's good to start in places like this, it keeps you humble and makes you cherish what you achieve. Grandpa should have made Dad go through this, if he was going to force Dad to be a Hero this was the way to do it.', I thought.

Walking up to the door, I knocked on it to see if anyone was here. Opening the door a few moments later, a very muscular man answered the door wearing a skirt and cat ears. Keeping myself from laughing I introduced myself to him with a firm handshake.

"Yeah, I know who you are. Can I help you with something?", he asked.

"I came here to introduce myself, and get to know you all. We may end up working together in the future so I'd like to know my potential allies.", I told him.

"Hmm…", he replied staring me in the eyes, "I-"

Thinking I was about to get yelled at for some unknown reason, the leader of their group stepped in.

"Hold it, Tiger, don't judge him by his family's actions. I can take care of this, you can help Pixie-Bob pack up the last few boxes.", Mandalay told him getting between us, "Sorry about that, Tiger's cousin in the States had a really bad experience with your dad and he isn't a fan of the Bolt Agency."

Nodding my head, I admitted that my dad was a complete asshole with few equals. Apologizing for his cousin's treatment, I asked if he could tell me what specifically happened. Explaining that his cousin was turned away at the door, my dad apparently told her that her Quirk was completely useless for Hero's work. Based on what I saw in many online forums, she wouldn't have been the first treated that way by Dad.

"Her Quirk is Illumination, she can illuminate parts of her body or objects she touches.", Tiger told me, "She was devastated that your dad wouldn't even give her a chance to show him what she could do."

"I can understand why you are upset, my dad made a rash call with her and many others. If it doesn't add to the Agency's strength, he doesn't want them. It sounds like she would be instrumental during evacuations and guiding rescue teams to aid people.", I remarked.

Giving me a firm nod, he adamantly agreed with me. Telling me that he would have been fine if he said no after she showed her Quirk off, it was the fact he didn't give her the time of day that upset him. Apologizing again for my father's behavior, I assured him I was not my father.

"We will see.", he replied as he walked away.

"Tiger is very defensive of his family and comrades, I am sorry if he takes it out on you.", Mandalay told me.

"It's okay, it's good that you have someone reliable like him among your ranks. Someone with loyalty like that is hard to come by.", I said with a smile, "I am here to introduce myself, and also meet your team. I will be stationed here in Japan for a while so I want to meet some of the local Heroes. We may end up working together sometimes so I'd like to put a name to a face."

Smiling at me smile, she agreed to introduce me to her comrades. Since I had already met Tiger, she introduced me to Ragdoll and Pixie-Bob. Shaking their hands, I stealthily copied their Quirks as they would definitely come in handy. Fortunately, they didn't even see the momentary, small red arc of electricity so I didn't have anything to explain to them.

"So you are the guy all over the news, it's nice to meet you!", Ragdoll stated with a big smile, "You did a good job saving the applicants yesterday."

"Thank you", I replied, "It's a pleasure to meet the four of you as well. I have researched your agency quite a lot, you all do great work."

"Thank you!", Pixie-Bob shouted with excitement, "We are just finishing up our new office in The Beast's Forest, we will be moving in a few weeks."

"That's good to hear, if you need any assistance moving furniture or anything please let me know.", I said offering my services to help them.

Taking me up on the offer, they said they needed help moving some of the bigger items here as they were a bit awkward to move around. Giving them my number, I told them to give me a call when they were ready to move. Sticking around for a few minutes to talk with them, I excused myself and continued on my way. To keep up appearances, I made several stops at other local Agencies just so no one questioned why I only stopped by the Pussycat's HQ.

Once I had met with twelve different agencies, I went straight to patrolling the city. Hacking into four or five security cameras at a time, I searched around for any of All For One's lackeys or any criminal activity. Finding several criminals hiding in alleyways, I decided to wrangle them up since they were wide open. None of them were really serious threats, just some thugs that took paid work for some of the more prominent villains in Japan. That said, none of them had any information for me on All For One but they did have some information on other groups.

Unsurprisingly there were several politicians in the running for influential positions that had some help from the criminal underworld. From what I learned, the thugs were part of a team that had captured the loved ones of their opponents. Currently holding them in a warehouse outside town, they were barely feeding them while they sat in a shipping container. Bearing in mind that the past few days had been rather hot, I was concerned that they were probably close to death.

Heading over to the warehouse in question, I entered the structure through a light fixture in the rafters.

—3rd Person POV—

Below Kessler sat a few more thugs in the middle of a card game. Since they had to stay nearby to make sure the prisoners didn't escape or cause any noise, the men were frustrated by the current situation. Having been sitting here for several days now, they were becoming stir-crazy with the lack of entertainment.

"Damn it! Where the hell is Tenzo and those other three idiots!? They were supposed to be back over an hour ago!", the strongest-looking man among them said, "They went out for booze and women last night, it's my damn turn to get out of this rathole!"

"Cool it Jet, we are getting paid to just sit here. This is probably the easiest job we have all had in a while.", an ice-blue man remarked.

"Easy for you to say, Ice Man, you can't enjoy a woman's touch cause you'll turn them to ice.", Jet mocked.

"There is a woman that could probably take the cold.", Ice Man replied with a smirk, "I intend to get some hired help to catch her because her dad's a fucking inferno."

Staying out of their conversation the other three men stayed quiet. Everyone knew who he was referring to, and they thought he was insane for going after Endeavor's daughter. If he found out, anyone involved would experience third-degree burns all over their body.

"If you are so pent up, just use one of the women we are watching. Since they have seen our faces we can't let them go anyways.", Ice Man reminded him in a lowered voice, "Breaking one or two of them won't change anything."

Glancing back to the shipping container, Jet seemed to consider it for a moment. Folding his hand, he said he would be back in a bit. Getting up from his seat, he walked over to the container he opened the doors letting out a powerful, putrid smell that had been slowly building inside. Waving his arms a few times to air out the inside of the container, he flicked the lights on inside to reveal their prisoners. Scurrying behind their mothers, the few children they caught trembled with fear remembering what happened to their bodyguards.

"Haha, that's right you fucking brats. Stay quiet and hide!", Jet laughed as he cracked his neck, "Alright then, who wants to offer their body to me? If no one volunteers I will start cracking skulls open till someone does."

Trying to shield their kids from him, the mothers were terrified of what happened either way. Before any of them moved forwards to volunteer, all the lights in the warehouse went out at once.

"Piece of shit building wasn't the mayor supposed to fix places like this!?", Ice Man shouted, "One of you slackers go check the panel, and make it snappy!"

Getting up to go check, the villains at the table heard a loud crackling noise coming from above them. Looking up they watched a man drop down on them from the ceiling. Hitting the ground a massive electric shockwave sent them all flying. Hearing the commotion, Jet ran over from the container to see Kessler standing where the table had once been.

"Finally something interesting happens!", Jet howled with excitement, "One of you fucking Heroes finally found us, and it happens to be a newbie!"

Staring at him, Kessler looked at him with disappointment. Looking behind himself to make sure Kessler wasn't eyeing someone else, Jet became furious.

"What you think you are fucking better than me!?", Jet roared, "I'll fucking kill you!"

Running towards Kessler, Jet dove towards him but passed through him without any resistance. Hitting the ground hard Jet tried to figure out what had just happened. He was certain he hit the Hero head-on, but he sailed right through him. Turning around to figure out what happened, Jet watched a massive chuck of concrete slam into his face like a freight train.

Crashing into the wall behind him, Jet was out like a light in an instant. Getting up off the floor, Ice Man shook off the shock from Kessler's surprise attack. Seeing that Jet was down for the count already, Ice Man became worried that the rumors about Kessler were true. He was supposed to be an inexperienced Pro Hero, but he got the drop on them with minimal effort and had already taken their strongest fighter out in seconds.

"Can…can we talk this out?", Ice Man questioned slowly making his way to Kessler.

"Don't even bother, I already know what you are trying to do.", Kessler said snapping his fingers.

Bursting out of the ground, a tendril of red and black magma came out of the ground. Grabbing him before he could react, Ice Man's movements were completely sealed as were the rest of his team members. Trying to use his Ice Quirk to cool the magma, his ice wouldn't even form because of how hot it was.

"It is Napalm, good luck putting it out.", Kessler told him, "If you manage to break it, you'll be scorched instantly by it."

Immediately stopping what he was doing, he nervously looked at Kessler.

"I thought you only used Electricity!?", Ice Man said.

"Haha, I can use far more than that but you won't remember that.", Kessler replied as he cracked a smile as lightning started dancing around him.

"What…what are you doing!? You'll kill us!!", Ice Man screamed.

"Don't worry, you'll live through this…maybe.", Kessler remarked, "You only have yourself to blame for this, taking women and children hostages. Even going as far as to suggest raping them and a colleague of mine's daughter. Consider this your comeuppance for all the crap you have done."

Discharging a pulse of electricity, as soon as it hit the tendrils they violently exploded engulfing the men in unquenchable flames. Screaming as their bodies started boiling them alive, they ran around and rolled trying to put the fire out but to no avail. Watching them flounder around till they fainted from the pain, Kessler walked over to the storage container where the hostages were.