Chapter 101: Hosu Incident (End)
[Third Person's PoV]
Tony spotted a news helicopter approaching, so he placed his foot on the downed cyclops and raised his giant fist to the sky.
Inside the helicopter, the reporter narrated the scene. "It appears Tony Stark has taken down the beast after flying it out of the city to minimize damage. At such a young age, he's already doing the work of pro heroes—without even having a Quirk. It seems we can expect great things from this rising hero!"
From Tony's arm, a chain made of nanobots materialized, wrapping around the cyclops' body. With his powerful thrusters, Tony lifted off, heading back to the city with the cyclops dangling beneath him.
"Friday, give me an update on the situation in Hosu," Tony ordered.
"Right away, boss. All of the Nomu have been taken down thanks to the combined efforts of the Iron Legion and Melissa Shield, who's been leading the charge. Izuku Midoriya has also successfully apprehended the Hero Killer Stain and rescued Tenya Iida from danger. Casualties have been minimized, but we have a problem..."
"He got away, didn't he?" Tony muttered, his face darkening.
"It appears so," Friday confirmed. "Endeavor chased after you, leaving the captured villain to his sidekicks. Unfortunately, he was taken by hands reaching through a warp portal before they could react."
Tony sighed, then smirked. "Looks like my plan worked."
"Forgive my programmed curiosity, but what plan, boss?" Friday asked, intrigued.
"The Quirk Nullification cuffs I placed on Shigaraki. They have a hidden tracker. I gave Tomura to Endeavor because I knew he'd botch the job and let Kurogiri rescue him. Now, we can track them to their hideout," Tony explained.
"So you based your plan on the failure of the Number 2 Hero? What if he hadn't failed?" Friday asked, puzzled.
"Then we'd have captured a major villain. It was a win-win, no matter what happened. Come on, Friday, you should know me by now. I don't do anything unless it benefits me in the long run."
As the city came into view, Tony accelerated, arriving in mere seconds. As he touched down, Endeavor appeared, floating above with arms crossed and a scowl on his face.
"You! What do you think you're doing? Playing hero could have caused even more harm. You should have left it to the pros!"
"I did leave it to the pros, and look where that got us. Shigaraki escaped. I handed him over to you, and now, because of your ego, if more people die, that's on you," Tony shot back, setting down the cyclops.
"What? He hadn't escaped—I left him with my agency's sidekicks!" Endeavor replied, shocked.
"And I left him with you because you were the only one who could stop his escape. Great job, Number 2. Now everyone knows why you're stuck at second place," Tony said as his Hulkbuster armor opened, allowing him to step out.
Endeavor's flames flared with his rising anger. The heat around him intensified as he glared at Tony.
"Listen," Tony continued dismissively, "can you go be useless somewhere else? I'm in the middle of something. If you head that way, you'll find Stain. You can take credit for someone else's work and boost your popularity or something."
"You think just because you have these fancy toys, you understand what it means to be a hero? You've shown nothing but arrogance since we first spoke. If you don't learn some humility—"
Tony ignored him completely, turning away. "Friday, recall the Iron Legion. Great job with them. And store the Hulkbuster too."
Endeavor clenched his jaw in frustration, but realizing it was pointless to argue with Tony, he let out a blast of fire and flew off toward the direction Tony had mentioned, searching for Stain.
As the two wing containers for the Hulkbuster appeared above them, the nanobots swam away from the Hulkbuster and back into Tony's armor. The Hulkbuster began to dismantle itself and store away inside the containers before blasting off into the sky. In the midst of it all, the Iron Legion followed, blasting through the atmosphere and back into space, where they positioned themselves, ready for another mission.
Melissa appeared next, landing in front of Tony on one knee with her fist to the ground. As she landed, her mask retracted, and Tony's did the same.
Melissa stood up and gave Tony a tight hug, and Tony hugged her back. "It seems this has affected you more than we expected..." Tony muttered softly.
Melissa nodded in confirmation. "It was awful seeing all those injured people."
Tony kissed the top of Melissa's head. "Well, I hope you find comfort in knowing you helped in every way you could."
And thus, the Hosu Incident came to an end.
---
In a hospital ward:
Tony poked his head inside a hospital room, finding Iida in bed with Deku sitting beside him. "Hello, hello! I've come to visit!" Tony said cheerfully.
"Tony!? What are you doing here?" Deku exclaimed.
"I'm the class president. It's kinda my job to check on misbehaving students in my class," Tony teased, glancing at Iida, who winced at being called a misbehaving student.
"Where's Melissa? It's weird not seeing you two together," Deku asked with a small, awkward smile.
"Home, resting and taking care of my intern while I'm on business. I brought you a gift basket," Tony said, entering with a gift basket and sitting down on the edge of Iida's bed.
"Intern?" Iida asked, confused.
"Mei Hatsume," Tony replied.
"Ah," Iida nodded in understanding—sort of.
"So, you got your butt handed to you?" Tony said, hands on his hips.
Iida looked down in shame, and Deku tried to deescalate the situation. Just then, Gran Torino opened the door, entering with the police chief and Mr. Manual, the hero Iida had chosen to intern under in his quest to find Hero Killer Stain and seek revenge.
"Gran Torino!"
"And Mr. Manual!"
Both Deku and Iida exclaimed simultaneously.
Gran Torino glanced at Deku with narrowed eyes. "I'm still going to chew you out, kid, but before that, you have a visitor," he said, motioning towards the police chief.
"Hm? I didn't expect to see you here, Mr. Stark," the chief of police, Kenji Tsuragamae, nodded toward Tony.
"This is Kenji Tsuragamae, Hosu's chief of police," Gran Torino introduced.
"Actually, I'm glad you're here, Mr. Stark, as this pertains to you as well," the chief said with a serious expression.
"Me? What did I do?" Tony asked, looking confused.
"I'm just going to pretend you didn't really ask me that," the chief sighed, shaking his head in exasperation.
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