What if?

The villains had arrived at the edge of a forest and were told to walk in a straight line. For two hours they walked in complete silence, they all felt tense. All of them felt an intense pressure coming from somewhere within the forest but none commented on it.

They eventually arrived at some tables covered in weapons and a single man doing maintenance on them. Anyone could tell that he wasn't the only one there, many hidden agents and heroes were in the surrounding area patrolling around in case there's any unwanted interference from the locals.

"Wow, when they said that they were going to give us guns I was kinda expecting nerf guns. These... these are what the Association make in the dark, away from prying eyes? Damn." Eve spoke with unhidden awe in her tone.

Nobody could disagree with her either, the guns in front of them are what should have been made at least fifty years ago. But with most technology being practically stalled ever since the first quirk was ever discovered in 2014, some people have started to wonder when they would ever be introduced to new quality of life changes.

They have waited over a century and they still live exactly how their great grandparents have lived, but the current year is 2139. People believe that they might be able to see flying cars or some sort of advanced A.I. soon, something to change the mundane everyday cycle of the same old technology.

The few things that have somewhat advanced with time are prisons, government owned buildings, and hero schools after they were first introduced in the second generation of quirks in 2044. Everything else was deemed irrelevant and not worth advancing since 'there are quirks that can do better, they get stronger each generation anyway.'

Transportation? Speed and flights quirks are your friends if you're lucky enough to be born with them. Feeling sick or have an injury? Find someone with a healing quirk. Problem solved. Born quirkless? Well sucks to be you then. If you don't want to be seen as anything else than useless garbage then study and become useful in the medical or quirk field. But remember, someone with a quirk could always do it better.

This is what most political leaders have stated around the world, but the real message hidden here is 'we will never waste our money on the unimportant masses and would rather spend it on improving the wealthy few.' Every little penny goes to quirk enhancing items for hero schools, quirk restricting items for prisons, hero merchandise for the children to play with so they could be inspired to be heroes in the future, etc.

The heroes bask in the future with their support items while the general public is trapped in the past with the (un)fortunate few being given lifestyle items for their unstable quirks. Hell, there's even a man made island, something that should have been considered a world wonder with how many scientists live on there making new technology.

But about ninety percent of that technology is dedicated to heroes and wealthy folks, even getting to the island is impossible unless you're rich, apart of anything hero related like the schools, or smart enough to be allowed in to make more hero focused technology.

"I honestly didn't think that I would live long enough to even hear about a new type of futuristic gun being made, let alone hold one. Are these advanced weapons really necessary for just one kid?" Maurice asked as he inspected one of the 'lasguns' as the Association named them.

The dozens of heroes that were assigned to watch over the villains gave him a pitying stare, which told them all they needed to know. There were many different varieties of lasguns on the tables, from ones that look like pistols to ones that looked like something a futuristic soldier would use in space battles against aliens.

Michael walked over to the laspistols and picked one up, it felt surprisingly light in his hands. It looked a bit square and blocky, but maybe it was necessary for the design? Michael didn't know, but what he did know was that he felt like he was just given an airsoft gun for Christmas all over again.

"Can I shoot it?" That was all Michael asked, and the hero merely motioned towards a tree. It seemed that the hero was either unafraid of letting a villain test out a gun while within the danger zone or he just simply didn't care about the possibility of getting killed at all. Being in the Association does that to you, but everyone is already used to this kind of behavior.

Nodding his head in confirmation, Michael held up the laspistol and fired once. The red burning hot laser beam easily pierced through through five trees and found itself digging a few inches into a sixth one behind it, leaving the bark charred.

None of the villains reacted, because they didn't know how to react. An advanced weapon that could easily damage six trees to that extent in the palm of their hands, they couldn't even begin to imagine what it could do to human flesh. It almost felt unreal. Yet here they are, in the middle of some random forest prepping themselves to kill a kid while armed with laser pointers.

"This is just the pistol right?" Michael couldn't help but ask just to make sure he wasn't wrong. The pro hero simply nodded tiredly and pushed the other lasguns forward for the other villains to arm themselves with.

The villains were surprised that they were allowed to touch these weapons while around the pro heroes guarding them. Weren't any of them afraid of a potential revolt? One of the villains might be able to kill one of the heroes if they're quick enough, but none of them wanted to risk getting killed here when freedom was just around the corner.

'One kid, we just gotta kill one kid and we're free. That's all we have to do, easy.' Thoughts like these were running through the heads of the eight inmates, they couldn't help but smile in anticipation.

But even though they were being armed with such amazing technology, Michael couldn't help but notice that the invisible suffocating pressure from before only seemed to increase.

'I'm starting to think that they lied about what we're up against, there's no way a kid could make me want to pull the trigger on myself... right?'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It has been around three hours since Abel has been kicked out of the helicopter, he has spent his preparation time well. He walked around the forest discovering the hidden cameras scattered around and flipped off each and every single one he could find.

He knew that he would be having a lengthy conversation with Galister later for doing so but he didn't care at the moment.

Abel's mind was occupied with more important matters.

'I wonder what else Galister cherishes, he's been getting rather close to that one new intern girl. Should I make an 'accident' happen to teach him a lesson?' Clearly more important than the fight to the death that was rapidly approaching.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Commissar Galister suddenly felt a chill run down his spine as he focused his attention on the massive headache known as Abel. He's spent the last hour listening to the reports of this exercise from his subordinates and watching Abel flip off the hidden cameras.

Ever since he got back from the forest Galister has been looking over his shoulder, paranoid of Abel suddenly teleporting behind him and just dropping a little ball on the ground while telling him that it used to be the Commissar's house. While teleportation isn't one of Abel's abilities, it possibly could be one in the future.

Sometimes Galister wonders what would have happened if he had not picked up that phone call from his old coworker Rian. Would that little twat Abel still force his way into Galister's life? Or would the boy already be facing off against Star and Stripe in a battle to the death?

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts of the what ifs questions, he looked over to the camera feed and saw that things were finally getting started.

"I bet fifty bucks that these guys won't last more than five minutes."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"That's the kid? Eh, I expected more." Jason scoffed as they spotted Abel in the distance, the boy seemed to be looking up at something in a tree.

"What were you expecting, a mini Star and Stripe?" Maurice chuckled softly as they glanced around to check their surroundings, just to make sure the kid's quirk didn't affect the forest in some way.

"From the way that pathetic hero described him I was expecting him to be a twenty foot tall man eating mutant freak. No offense to you Tony, or you Bob." Hentie shrugged as he aimed his lasgun at the back of Abel's head, he figured he'd do the kid a favor by making it quick and painless.

Michael and the rest of the villains visibly relaxed as Hentie fired the lasgun, they already started fantasizing about where they wanted to be instead of America.

"Eh?" The short gasp of surprise escaped Hentie's throat as he caught the attention of the seven other inmates around him. They saw him frozen in shock as he stared at Abel, causing them to follow his line of sight. They finally understood why he was petrified.

The laser fired from the lasgun that should've tore through Abel's head like it was butter, looked like it imploded in mid air right before it was supposed to hit Abel. It morphed around the boy as he turned to face their direction before it dispersed completely, his sharp gaze focusing on the villains and only them.

For the first time since they've met her, the only other female villain with them named Layla finally spoke.

"Now that's fucked up."