45 Dominos and Butterflies: Ch 4

"Why do you spell Principal as Principle?"

Because I'm retarded, and my autocorrect, across three different websites, doesn't catch it.

Also, most of you got it, but for those of you who didn't know- Queen Bee is from a manga called Vigilantes, a prequel to MHA. So she's not an OC or anything like that.

-Rain of Sins-

-Dominos and Butterflies: Ch 4-

UA hadn't always been a problem.

Nezu, before all the bad blood between them, had once been a staunch friend of the Safety Commission, who, in turn, once had high hopes for the rat.

It had been the HSPC that had stepped in and put their legal weight behind the notion that Nezu's intelligence meant he should be classified to have human laws be applicable to him. It was because of the HSPC that he had been allowed to participate in society, rather than be locked up in a government lab somewhere.

Nezu had been incredibly grateful, and was keen to repay the favor. Lending his most valuable asset- a mind that could put supercomputers to shame, to crack the toughest problems. From break open decades old cases that had long since run cold, and helping to track down trails of blood money though countless hoops and dead ends, back to the politicians and bureaucrats that had signed pacts with All for One.

It was the collaboration between the Safety Commission and Nezu, the seamless lending of influence and information, that had eventually tracked down and cornered the shadow king. Systematically killing his agents, striking at his stockpiles, and cutting his connections until All Might had struck the final blow.

Then things changed.

When Nagant, the HPSC's best agent, had rebelled and nearly toppled the castle of cards from the inside out, Nezu had dug deeper into what had gone wrong, to try to pin a motive and a pattern beyond just the brutal killing of any and all HPSC members she could get her hands on.

…He hadn't liked what he found.

But Nezu was nothing if not rational. He was a realist that had time and time again stood with the HPSC on operation plans, against the objections of All Might's idealism. There had been a genuine possibility that Nezu would have, if not understood, at least put aside his moral concerns for the long term stability of Japan.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard the previous president of the HPSC had tried, he had never truly managed to entirely erase the one trail Nezu could never be allowed to sniff out.

The trail that led HPSC money to fund the doctor who had created Nezu in the first place. The one who had experimented on, and done operations so extreme and painful, that not a single other test subject had survived.

That was when Nezu, and by extension, UA became a problem.

It was by Nezu's hand that had forced the HPSC into such a passive role recently, that scared Kino into being so against taking risks, that had turned an organization that had once rivaled the likes of the CIA, into an overstretched and undermanned paper filing organization, relegated to regulating hero licenses and score boards.

For all the damage that Nagant had done, Nezu had done far more. The rat had influence, and seemed to always know everyone important. Whether it was in politics, the media, or the Hero scene… especially the Hero scene, Nezu had demonstrated an exceptional ability to move a lot of weight against anything he didn't necessarily like.

Nezu needed to be brought into line.

But they never could. He was far too slippery, always one step ahead of them, and had them cornered in basically every way.

At least, until the USJ.

The attack had taken a lot of the wind out of UA's sails, but Nezu had managed to expertly twist mid air and miraculously land on his feet, with him and his school coming out near spotless for what had happened.

However, All Might was injured.

All Might was injured, and had been forced to take it easy in the month that followed. Effectively robbing Nezu of the presence that his best chess piece provided.

If All Might hadn't been injured, or the attack hadn't been as bad, Nezu would probably have been able to manage it. But as it was, it had forced Nezu to redirect his attention to this new threat, and had given the HPSC the breathing room to begin moving around behind the scenes again, without alerting the rat.

It had allowed them to regain some momentum.

It had also allowed Dixie to overstep his bounds, violate just about every unspoken rule the HPSC had, and risk it all on a gamble to put Nezu on the backfoot..

The plan had been fast and simple, detonate a bomb in an abandoned area of the park, fake a death with a small-time Villain who'd "escaped" captivity a week ago, then have the HPSC swoop in and discover other explosives littered all over the festival premise.

The fallout would let them take the emergency control Nezu had denied them, and finally get a wrangle hold on UA and Nezu. It wouldn't have been permanent, only a few weeks at most, but it would have given them the time they needed to get back on their feet.

Kino should have been angry, and should have had the security chief's head on her desk for both his recklessness and his audacity. But it had been because he'd had his agents waist deep in everything while it went down, that allowed them to know exactly what all was going on, and to take advantage of everything so efficiently.

She would hold her judgment. For now. After all, there were other things that demanded her attention.

"I want results." Kino said to the men across from her, both impossible to read.

Martin, because he was everything a HPSC member should be. Cold, stoic, unflinching, with no tells or ticks.

Dixie, because he was the complete opposite, and always looked unbearably smug no matter what he was planning. He'd shake your hand and shoot you in the back, with the same stupid smirk on his face.

"We're on track to pass a law that tramples various personal rights, and upends decades of legal precedent all in the name of safety. We need to show that we can actually give that safety. I want a crackdown on everything. Drug dealers, smuggling rings, black market traders, gangs, Villain hideouts, all of it."

"That might be easier said than done." Martin commented. "The bill isn't set to be voted on until tonight, and won't go into effect until the Prime Minister signs it tomorrow. Not many actually think it will pass, but our intel suggests the important players in the underworld are scrambling to get everything they have underground, just in case. By the time we get boots on the ground, most of our current leads will be useless."

"Which is why we strike now." Kino said without the slightest bit of hesitation, as though what she was suggesting wasn't something that could put in Tartarus for life. "They're already unbalanced, which is why we hit them now and knock them over. The public is scared, concerned, and looking for solutions, this is our opportunity to earn their trust and support. I want this to be a killing blow that goes down in history as something the underworld will never fully recover from."

"If ya don't mind me askin', what all are we allowed tuh use on this operation of yours."

"Everything." She replied, shocking the two men. "You'll have every resource the HPSC has available, and then some. The PM has given me temporary authority over Hero agencies and the power to request assistance from the military. You name it, and I'll find a way to get it to you."

Kino narrowed her eyes at them.

"Bring the underworld to a standstill."

-Rain of Sins-

All her life she had been a nobody.

Growing up on the streets had been hard, no one cared what your name was or how tragic your past had been. All that mattered was what skills you had, how well you could handle yourself in a fight, and how much of yourself you were willing to sell to survive.

Her name hadn't mattered, no one cared for it, no one remembered it when she told them, so she had to forge an identity from her actions.

It had been hard. Scrounging for scraps in the dumpsters, having to fight tooth and nail so that the bigger kids didn't just steal it from you. Stealing from vendors on the sides of the streets. Huddling up in the tattered threads of trashed blankets to keep warm in the pouring rain.

…Eventually having to bite the bullet and sell her dignity to avoid starvation during the hard times. There had been other girls more unfortunate than her in that regard, they had been forced to give everything, while she had been able to scrape by with only selling her mouth… They said her fangs and rough, prehensile tongue made her… exotic.

Sometimes she would still wake up with the taste of it all in her mouth, and have to rush to the bathroom to throw up.

That had been the lowest point, and what had pushed her into joining the gangs.

Better to die on her feet than live on her knees. (Literally)

So she became violent. She fought, she beat, she killed. She clawed her way as far up as she could, stepping on the shoulders and heads of others to do so.

Before, her name was just a common whore. Now, it was the crazy bitch that even the most doped up jackass would think twice before crossing.

Eventually she found her way to the Scavs, a notorious gang that frequently got into fights with other gangs, and shootouts with police. To others their name was one of violence, bloodshed, and death. But to her it was one of a people who refused to kneel to anything, be it a person, laws, or morals.

She had made many mistakes throughout her life, and had a number of regrets… but this… This had to take the cake.

"I-I get it now." She said, trying to keep the panic out of her voice. "You're fucking insane!"

She thrashed violently against her restraints, but the metal cuffs keeping her arms, legs, and neck, secured to the sterilized medical chair, held firm.

"Make powerful quirks from scratch, give them to the people loyal to you, while ripping them away from anyone who isn't!? You couldn't sound more like a megalomaniac if you tried!"

There was a sound in response, a hum of disappointment that echoed out from the suffocating darkness. The cold bit deep into her skin and she had to fight to keep from shivering.

The cuff around her neck bit into her throat and limited her airflow, as she craned her neck and tried desperately to spot her captor. Her eyes, oversensitive to light and usually incredibly useful in the dark, worked against her. She could barely make anything out in the darkness of the room, outside of the blinding white spotlight that pointed directly down onto her.

The tap of metal boots on the steel floor filled the room, echoing off the walls in the confined space of the operating room, and seeming to come from everywhere at once. She squinted and strained her vision, glaring out into the dark. The fog that coated the floor danced with shadows, to feign movement and figures in her panicked mind.

There was a soft, metallic hiss that bordered on a rattle, and she whipped her head around towards the noise, and nearly jumped out of her skin to see the Scientist standing silently beside her.

'When did he get there!?'

Izuku stared at her in thought, tilting his head slightly in a way that she might have found cute if she weren't strapped to a table and terrified out of her right mind. Slowly he began walking around her, boots clacking with every step, hands clasped together behind his back, and his metal tail swishing idly behind him as if it had a mind all its own. The metal segments clinked lightly against one another as it weaved in the air, mimicking a soft metallic rattle, all while his eyes never left her.

Eventually he looped back around, until he was standing directly next to her head, blocking out the spotlight with his hair.

"You seem to misunderstand what exactly it is I'm trying to do."

"Misunderstand!? What's there to misunderstand about your plan, you freak!?" She spat out.

"No. Misunderstand, not my plan, but reality." Izuku said. "Quirks need to be reeled in. Controlled. If left unchecked quirks will mutate out of control, until humanity destroys itself from the inside out. As quirks have become more powerful, more people have begun to realize this, but their panic has caused them to resort to… extreme methods. Genociding populations in an attempt to wipe out quirks is both evil and irrational. They don't need to be entirely wiped out, simply brought to heel. Quirks are dangerous, yes, but they are still a powerful tool to our species. However people fail to realize that is all they are. Tools. They are something that's most effective way to benefit humanity is to be put on and taken off like gloves, for whatever job a person may be working."

"As they currently are, acting as a pseudo-religious bloodline based doctrine that all of society bows itself under, they do nothing but hinder us. They have turned the world from a meritocracy, into a twisted mirror of itself, similar to the blood based lineages of old. They stifle technological advancement, they stifle societal advancement, and they have even managed to turn the act of attempting to understand them into a taboo amongst science."

"Tools? Taken off like a glove?" She spat at him. "What about mutants like me? Huh!? Our quirk isn't just some flashy trick, it's literally part of our bodies! You'll kill us if you rip it out!"

"That is a fair point, and one I have considered greatly. However, with my rapid recent breakthroughs in the field of genetics- genome mapping in particular, I believe it is possible to allow people to safely revert back to normal with a slightly more lengthy process than would be necessary for emitter quirks."

"NORMAL!?" She shrieked in fury, spitting out the word. "Mutants are normal! I'm just as normal as anyone else!"

Izuku winced. "That's… not what I meant." He sighed and began walking away.

"There are people out there literally made of liquid! What magic Bull Shit do you think will be able to turn them into a normal body without killing them!?"

The scientist ignored her as he came to two sterilized metal tables. The first one contained a large number of knives, scalpels, scissors, and all sorts of surgery equipment, while the second only had a thick glass beaker, with blue liquid in it, made of fogged glass.

"I am aware there are issues with my ideas, but I am confident that with enough time and scientific study, I will be able to overcome all of them." Izuku said as he went over the tools on the table, taking a large pair of tweezers, and a scalpel. "Unfortunately, It's clear you've already made up your mind. Dismissing what I'm saying as crazy, refusing to even acknowledge extinction staring down the barrel at our species, and instead deflecting away. Putting your whole weight and attention behind points that, while important, are overshadowed by the sheer immensity of the larger picture."

Izuku's tail snaked towards the second table, its end opening up like a claw to delicately grab and lift the beacon.

"Fortunately I don't need you to understand, or even necessarily agree." He said as he stalked back towards her, the spotlight illuminating something floating in the glass jar. "The general information just needs to be accessible in your brain."

Gently the tweezers dipped into the beaker, and slowly pulled out the wriggling, bloated, form of the Queen Bee. He held the deformed maggot by the wings, and brought it to hover above her eye.

The woman began thrashing violently, shouting strings of insults and pleas for mercy, squeezing her eyelids shut as a drop of cold goo dripped from the Queen and into her eye.

"I had originally planned to use anesthesia, but then again…" He glared down at her, eyes cold as ice as he slowly lowered his hand. "Of all the gruesome things you bragged about doing to people, you never gave them pain killers."

Not even the thick metal doors, long empty corridors, and heavily insulated walls of the Origins Lab, could block the visceral screams of torture and gut wrenching sobs that followed.

-Rain of Sins-

Kuin Hachisuka opened her one good eye to a splitting headache and a sore throat raw from screaming, as consciousness slowly returned to her. It was a familiar sensation, the same one that all Queens woke up to after attaching to a new host.

Wait. New host? What happened to-

The Villain Factory. Ujiko. Pedaling Trigger. A concert. Six. Struggling to maintain control as the host rebelled. Kazuho- the Crawler. Endeavor. Explosions. Sleeping gas. A cold operating table. Doctors huddled around. A blade slowly descending to her eye… then nothing.

Kuin began coughing violently as the final memories of the last queen slammed into her.

"Fascinating." A voice hummed. "The Quirk has dug deep into the subject's cerebrum, wrapping around the edge of the frontal lobe, and into the temporal lobe. Normally such an injury would be debilitating, but the Quirk has been incredibly slow and methodical in its approach, obviously in an attempt to keep the subject alive. The approach has its downsides though, longer time to take control mean a larger possibility of the process being interrupted, and while the subject was kept alive, the half hour process was agonizing, and the subject begged for termination at multiple points- even trying to suffocate themselves on the neck restraint."

"H-Hello?" She croaked, voice cracking. "Who's here"

"Ah, she's awake. End log."

From the dark strode a tall man, wearing a black lab coat, and a rebreather that covered the bottom half of his face. He had dark green hair, and matching eyes.

Kuin tried to sit up, only to panic as she suddenly realized she was fully constrained. "Who are you!? Where am I!?"

"Don't worry Queen Bee, you're in no danger." The man stepped forward. "My name is Izuku Midoriya and I'm loosely affiliated with the group you worked for in the past."

She calmed down slightly at the news she wasn't about to be carved up, and looked him up and down, dully noting his black lab coat.

"You work for Ujiko?"

"In a sense. I'm his protege and designated successor." Izuku removed his rebreather, pocketed it, and smiled at her. "I hope that won't be an issue. I'm aware that you worked for him in the past, and that there was a… tense work relationship towards the end of your career."

'You mean I was rightfully pissed at him because he viewed me as expendable and got me killed TWICE?'

But she didn't say that, instead just like before she bit her tongue and put on a fake smile. "Eh, yeah, but that's in the past. I'm over all that, totally! Let bygones be bygones, bury the hatchet, and all that."

"You seem much more amicable than I expected." Izuku raised an eyebrow.

"It's all in the past, so it's not like I can do anything about it." Kuin shrugged and offered a disarming smile. "And please, no need to be formal. Just call me Kuin. Kuin Hachisuka."

It was the only name that had ever been hers. Not the body she was using, or the Villain name police used for her file, but one that referred to her. She'd grown fond of it while undercover in the body of Tamao Oguro.

"Now-" She shimmied her arms at her sides and looked at Izuku expectantly. "I don't suppose you could get these off? My limbs are starting to cramp."

"Of course, Kuin." Izuku nodded, his tail snaking out and taping a small button on the side of the table, causing the restraints to open. "It's good to see you're in high spirits, and that there weren't any major complications in the… implantation process."

He waited for her to slide off the table and get on her feet, before turning around and motioning for her to follow. "The relevant information should be available in your new host's memories, but I'd like to get you up to speed on the details of the plan, and how you'll fit into it."

"Of course."

Her friendly smile dropped as Izuku turned and began walking away, her eye narrowing as she watched him making his way out of the fog filled room.

Memories from the past hives slowly trickled into her head through a staticy haze.

She'd worked for the Villain Factory, worked for Ujiko. She'd died. Had been treated as expendable, and killed multiple times, then frozen and stuck in storage for years.

She'd had enough of being controlled by suspicious shadow people. Everyone viewed her as something, rather than someone. A parasite, a quirk, but never a person. There was no one she could trust but herself, and it had been proven time and time again.

In a moment, she blasted forward, her legs and wings working together to propel her at extreme speeds. The wind bit her face, but it couldn't get rid of her grin as she threw all her momentum behind a punch aimed for his head!

Izuku's hand snapped up, grabbing a hold of her wrist and canceling all of her momentum through brute force. Her eyes widened as she realized what happened, and swung her other fist at him.

Or, at least she tried to, as something cold and solid snaked around her right arm and clamped down, dragging it back down to her side. She desperately tried to wrench her arms free, but she was firmly trapped, the warm hand somehow having a stronger grip than the metal tail.

"Tisk. Tisk. Tisk."

Kuin shivered at the gravelly voice that echoed around her, mixing annoyed venom with amused caramel in every letter.

Izuku's free hand reached out to cup her chin, and gently tilted her head up to meet his glowing Emerald eyes that shone like spotlights in the dim room. The warmth in them previously, was gone, replaced by cold metal.

"That… was a bad idea."

The Queen Bee shivered as the rich voice danced in her left ear, while the tip of his tail traced ever so gently across her right cheek. A single drop of blood falling from the shallow cut.

"Don't you think?"

"Y-Yeah." She choked out, lips suddenly dry.

A lone amber eye gazed into deep pools of emerald, as she struggled to breathe, and adrenaline rushed through her system, flight or flight instincts screaming in her ears as her heart nearly beat out of her chest.

Izuku leaned ever so slightly downwards, looking for something in her eye. Their noses were a hair's breadth away from touching, and Kuin's legs felt weak.

Then the moment ended.

Izuku promptly let her go, and she fell to the ground on her ass, staring up at him with a flushed face and an owl-like expression.

"I need a competent assistant, not an expendable henchman. Society views you as a parasite to be eradicated. Ujiko, as a test subject to study. I am willing to offer a spot as equals, if you're capable of earning your keep." Izuku turned and began walking away, once again showing his back to her without the slightest hint of fear. "This is the best deal something like you will ever be offered. I suggest you don't waste it."

Kuin watched him go with conflicted feelings, wide eye, a fierce blush, and the profound feeling that she'd just brushed shoulders with death.

Slowly she collected herself and pushed herself to her feet, legs feeling like they were made of jello, and jogged after her new boss.

-Rain of Sins-

Kuin fidgeted as the elevator rose higher and higher. They had been on for several minutes now, and the thing was obviously going retry fast. Just how far underground were they? How big was this lab?!

She glanced to her right, Izuku was standing completely still, his hands in his coat pockets, and his eyes glowing green as odd wiring noises came from the motors in his tail. He was relaxed, as if completely unperturbed by the fact she had just attacked him not even five minutes prior, and didn't even see her as a threat to him.

'But considering how quick he put me down, I might not be.'

And of course it didn't help that she was still adapting to this body, and that her mind was currently in a jumble, trying to assimilate the memories of her new host, as well as all the past hives.

The Bee shivered and hurriedly looked away, instead taking interest in her reflection on the sheen metal door of the elevator.

Honestly, for having grown up in such a horrible environment, she hadn't turned out too bad.

She was on the shorter end, only five feet tall or so, this time around, and her breasts weren't exactly anything to write home about, but her lower half was nice.

Thicc thighs and a phat ass that jiggles. Grade A quality. And she was a pretty good judge, the idea of this reflection being "her" hadn't fully set in subconsciously yet, so she was free to ogle for maximum fulfillness.

Twin insect wings sprung from her shoulder blades, they weren't bee shaped unfortunately, more jagged than round, but she found them rather neat. None of the past hives had been a mutant.

She ran her fingers through her silky black hair that fell to her upper back, carefully making sure that the bangs she'd pulled down concealed the mess of her left eye.

Her right eye sparkled amber, like crisp honey, with the iris being ever so slightly tipped around the edges to resemble more of a curved hexagon than a perfect circle. The pupil in the center had a strange sheen that reflected light in an odd way, that hinted at its compound nature.

She grinned and opened her mouth, revealing her fangs and slightly off-pink tongue that rolled out a bit below her chin and ended in a point.

Heh. She could get used to this whole mutant thing.

The elevator dinged as it arrived at its destination, and the door did open. Kuin jumped, and snapped her mouth shut in surprise, biting the tip of her tongue as it failed to fully retract in time.

Izuku marched forward, and she followed him into a room that was absent of the usual growth vats and malformed genetic things she had seen on the walk here. Instead it had microscopes, glass cabinets full of different vials, funnels, burettes, and several centrifuges. It was a chemistry lab.

"I read over everything Ujiko had on you, and compiled it all into a profile. I have to say, I'm intrigued by your abilities." Izuku said as he opened one of the cabinets. "In the past you filled your bees with Trigger, and had them fly around the city to sting people and turn them into instant Villains when they went into blind rage from being injected with the drug."

"This." He tossed her a small vial of black liquid. "Is Entropy. It's a reverse form of Trigger, a quirk suppressant."

"Wait, it's a what!?" Kuin yelped, suddenly holding the thing as far away from her as possible. "You know I'm a quirk, right?"

"Yes, I am… aware." The way he paused told her all she needed to know about how he hadn't actually considered that. "But having your bees drink Trigger didn't cause any effects on you, so having them loaded with Entropy shouldn't either."

"That's not entirely what I was talking about…" She muttered, the fact this substance even existed weighing on her.

"Regardless, it's a mere stopgap in my attempts to remove quirks in a way that doesn't require a multi-day process, but I can't deny its effectiveness. However issues arise when it comes to use in combat. The liquid form is passible, but other than getting someone to drink it, the only way to use it in combat is by hitting someone with a syringe, which is clunky and easy to dodge on top of useless against armor. The gaseous form is far more useful in combat, but it's to diluted to achieve optimal results, and requires prolonged exposure to take effect."

"You," He nodded at her. "Have the unique ability to circumvent that problem entirely, and administer the full dose in a consistent and hard to avoid attack."

"Okay, I see where you're coming from. But if you're fighting Heroes, and already injecting them with something, why not just use poison?" She then added under her breath so that Izuku couldn't hear. "Please, literally anything but this stuff."

"Trust me, that's a bad idea." Izuku sighed. "I used to be a huge Hero fan when I was little, and could list off every fight the top twenty had been in that ever made the news. The amount of times a Hero has gotten poisoned and then just grit their teeth and kept going is honestly stupid. My best guess is that the evolutionary step that gave us quirks and made us more adaptive, also made humanity more resilient to toxins." He shrugged. "Or we could just be living in an action anime where the MCs get through everything with the power of friendship."

"That's a stupid theory, don't even suggest that." Kuin pinched her nose. "But yeah, you're right they do tend to just ignore them. Ugh. Fine! I'll use the demon serum."

"I'm also interested in the extent you can modify your bees. Particularly I wanted to see if you could make them capable of extracting instead of injecting, so they could draw blood similar to a mosquito. It would make genetic sampling far easier."

The Queen Bee winced.

"Other than a few fancy tricks here and there, like regrowing stingers or being able to swap out what they inject, my bees are really just normal bees controlled by me."

"You can make your bees explode, how is that something bees naturally do?"

"It's not!" Kuin hissed, her temper spiking at the memory. "Ujiko pulled me out and modified me without even fucking asking! Causing them to blow up hurts like Hell!"

"Would you like me to make it not hurt?" Izuku asked as he took the vial of Entropy from her. "Ujiko is a master of his craft, but when it comes to genetics specifically, I have him beat. I could do it painlessly, and without even removing your true self from your body."

"You're… asking me?" She looked at him bewildered. "And why would you do that, isn't it, like an inefficient use of materials, or something?"

"Yes, I'm asking you, and no it's not. As I said, I need a competent assistant, not an expendable henchman." He furrowed his brow and stroked his chin as he gave her a look up and down. "Actually, there are several things I can think of that you might find useful, like sealing up that eye of yours so you can just get yanked out." He hummed. "I'll draft up a list, and you just check off what you want. It'll be like shopping and going through a store catalog! Actually, the insect quirk seems to be adapting to you rather well, so I wonder if I could-"

Kuin stared at Izuku as he began rambling, a smile on his face. This wasn't at all what working for Ujiko had been like! Why? Why was he-

"I am willing to offer a spot as equals, if you're capable of earning your keep."

He… There was no way he'd really been serious about that!? She was always just a parasite to be removed, something to test an experiment on, but never a person. No one had ever…

Kuin swallowed the lump in her throat and cleared her head. Regardless of what he said or how he acted, his plan was still to turn quirks into tools for humanity. To turn her into a tool. Granted she couldn't really blame him for not considering that, she was almost guaranteed to be the only sentient quirk out there, but the point still stood. She was a quirk, and if Izuku's plan was anything to go by, he didn't exactly view quirks in an all favorable light.

Ujiko had been bad, but he wasn't likely to re-write her entire being on a whim because she pissed him off. She would pay along for now, but she needed to escape, and if these "upgrades" could eventually help her do that, well, she'd already failed miserably with what she was now.

Kuin stepped towards Izuku, clearing her throat to snap him out of his muttering, and reached out her hand.

"I think that's a great idea, thank you for asking." She winked at him (or at least tied to). "I look forward to working for you!"

"Excellent! I look forward to working with you as well!" Izuku gripped her hand delicately, but shook it firmly as he beamed at her.

And Kuin couldn't help her smile becoming a bit more real, stretching her lips wider at the genuineness in his expression.

-Rain of Sins-

Mercury whistled in appreciation as he popped open the lid of the briefcase. He pinched a small amount of the incredibly fine white powder between his fingers and brought it to his nose where he took an ever so light sniff.

"This is some high quality Trigger."

"What can I say? I only deal with the best." Roman Torchwick took a puff of his cigar, and twirled his cane like the aristocrat he wasn't born as, its black and red colors matching his bowler hat and red hair. "The Roman name is synonymous with high class, and my number one rule is that I don't sell anything I wouldn't use."

Mercury nodded, knowing for a fact that was complete bullshit. "Right. Regardless, here's the money we agreed on." He put his own case on the table, opening it to reveal crisp stacks of $100 bills. Roman had a reputation of buying foreign and exotic, so he preferred dollars over Yen. "Now you said you had a new product that might interest my boss?"

"Indeed I did, and indeed I do."

Roman smirked and pulled out a silver cigar case from his coat pocket, he flicked it open with practiced ease and presented it to Mercury, but instead of tobacco products, it contained a row of strange shaped bullets.

"After the attack on the festival, everyone's been going crazy about the quirk suppressing gas, and trying to recreate it. A few days ago, these started popping up."

"What are they?"

"Quirk erasing bullets."

"You're shitting me."

"I'd never lie to my best customer." Roman smiled with so much smarm and smug that it almost matched the look of a used car salesman. Actually, he shared a lot of traits with those people, had he made a living by selling cars at one point? If so, everything about the man suddenly made a lot more sense.

"They only last for about 24 hours, but they're immediate, and effective." Roman snapped the case shut and slipped it back into his pocket. "I'll be willing to negotiate a price with Cinder, but stock is very limited, and demand is very high."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Mercury shrugged and picked up the case of Trigger. It wasn't like such a bullet would be useful on him, his quirk was stolen… Not that anyone but Cinder believed him. "I'll pass the word on to Cinder, just don't get your hopes up for a quick response, you know how she can be someti-"

There was a subtle shift, one of the well dressed guards at the edge of the room standing up straighter than usual and adjusting his hat, and suddenly Mercury found himself standing down the barrel of every gun in the warehouse.

"Woah, woah, woah." He dropped the case and held his arms up in mock surrender. He fought with his legs, so holding them up wasn't as disarming as people tended to think. "What's going on guys? We've been business partners for years. Why backstab now?"

"That's what I'd like to know too." Roman leveled his cane, the end of it flipping open to reveal a barrel. "Jimmy's dangersense quirk just went off, so why don't you tell me why you are backstabbing now?"

"My name isn't Jimmy…" a guard muttered sadly in the distance.

"Shut the fuck up Jimmy, no one asked you!" Another guard snapped.

Mercury raised an eyebrow and glanced around the large warehouse full of storage containers and armed guards.

"Well I know I didn't do anything, so…" His eyes widened and he dove to the ground just as the roof and every window of the building exploded inwards.

Gunfire erupted as smoke bombs and flash bangs flew in and detonated, followed shortly by men and women in full black combat gear and military grade rifles.

"I THOUGHT YOU HAD GUARDS AROUND THIS ENTIRE BLOCK!" Mercury yelled at Roman over the sounds of gunfire and small explosions.

"I DID!" Roman shouted back. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!"

Roman's men were dropping rapidly, their old tommy guns and pistols finding it hard to penetrate the military grade armor. But just when things seemed like they couldn't get any worse, Heroes began entering the building as well.

"Cheers love! The cavalry's here!" A bubbly hero in orange spandex flashed around the room in a blue light, stealing the magazines out of the guards' guns, tying them up, and generally being a lot less lethal than the men in black.

"Oh, fuck me. This is bullshit!" Roman took a large puff of his cigar before throwing it to the ground and angrily stomping it out. He raised his cane and pointed it towards a large stack of crates the Hero was standing on. "Unfortunately for you idiots, I don't feel like going back to jail today."

He pulled the trigger, and a small rocket flew out of the cane. It missed the Hero by a large margin and slammed harmlessly into the containers.

"Shucks love, I think yeh missed!" The hero teased.

"Shwucks wove," Roman mocked in a horrible British accent. "I think you're retarded."

The several hundred pounds of explosive fuel in the container then detonated, promptly erasing the girl, as well as the entire third of the warehouse behind her.

"Holy shit!" Mercury cursed as he was flung back from the explosion. He hurriedly scrambled to his feet, and began running towards the exit as fast as he could

His phone buzzed, and he swore in relief at the familiar tone, swiping it from his pocket and answering the call.

"Emerald! Roman's been compromised! The Heroes, Police, and fuck knows who all else is here! I need an evac! Now!"

"What!?" Emerald shrieked, and Mercury could immediately tell something was wrong from the fact gunfire was audible on the other side of the phone. "We're under attack here! We need you back ASAP! Cinder's holding them off right now, but they brought a bunch of water Heroes, and- OH SHIT!"

"Emerald? EMERALD!?" He shouted as the line went dead.

He grit his teeth and hurled himself through one of the last intact windows, ignoring how the glass cut into him. He landed hard and rolled back to his feet, but froze as he came face to face with an entire police car blockade, supplemented by black APCs, and a black helicopter circling overhead.

Slowly he raised his arms above his head as guns were leveled at him.

"Fuck."

-Rain of Sins-

"Fuck fuck fuck." Girian muttered under his breath as he hurried his way down the street. "Why is this happening now!?"

He'd been keeping an eye on that "security" bill making its way through the courts. Normally he wouldn't have even bothered, the thing was far too radical to ever be taken seriously, but with the festival attack fresh in everyone's mind, combined with how unnaturally fast it had made its way through all the legal red tape, and then the fact that the media had been as quiet as the grave about it…

Well, he thought it was better to be safe than sorry, and had been working on the down low for the past week.

But he hadn't expected this!

His network was on fire! The majority of his safe houses had been stormed by police and Heroes, warehouses full of fortunes of contraband gone, most of his contacts failing to respond.

What the Hell was happening!?

He opened the door to a small cafe and ducked inside. The singular waitress behind the counter didn't look surprised to see him, instead she just gestured to one of the red silk topped bar stools, and passed him a cup of coffee exactly how he liked it.

This was his worst case scenario safe spot. It had everything he needed to disappear for a while and even whatever he could need for a getaway hidden underneath it. But most importantly, it was a completely, 100% legitimate business that he owned under a fake ID. He didn't even launder money through it! It's entire purpose was to be a rock to hide under when shit hit the fan.

"I'll be closing up shop soon sir, so I hope you enjoy your coffee, but please don't linger for long long." She said.

I'll get out of here so there isn't an eyewitness. You should get moving soon before they catch you. She meant.

"Don't worry, I won't be staying very long." Girian sighed and took another sip of coffee, relishing the brief moment of peace. He just had one more meeting scheduled for today, and then he could disappear until things cooled down.

Said peace was rudely interrupted as the bell above the door chimed, and a group of men in black suits walked into the shop.

"Sirs, I'm sorry, but we're just about to close." The waitress said as she walked over to them. "So I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"Don't worry, we won't be staying very long." The man in front ignored the waitress and stepped past her, the three others took this as a signal and dispersed around the cafe and began making a mess of the place. They looked under chairs, pulled paintings off the walls, and one even made his way behind the counter and forced open the cash register.

Girian could barely hear his thoughts over the sound of his heart thumping in his ears. The man had just mocked him! How had they been listening in!? How LONG had they been listening? Was the cafe's cover blown!?

He took one last long sip of his coffee, slowly stood up from his chair, and began walking towards the restroom as inconspicuously as he could- something that was difficult when you were one of only two people in the room not wearing full black.

"Kagero Okuta."

Girian froze at the use of his real name.

"You're under arrest."

"On what charges!?" He snapped at the man. "With what warrant!?"

"On suspicion." The man in the suit smiled, leveling his pistol at Girian's head. "And with this one."

Girian glanced towards the wall, specifically at a burnt out light behind the bar, then back at the gun. And mentally cursed his luck as he raised his hands.

"I want my lawyer, my rights read, and my phone call."

"What makes you think you're entitled to any of those?"

"Because it's the law!" Girian hissed as his hands were roughly dragged behind his back and cuffed. "If you really think police can get away with this-"

"Those laws no longer apply to national security threats." The man pulled his wallet out of his pocket and Girian's blood went cold at the badge on it. "And it's very bold of you to think of the Safety Commision as just police."

-Rain of Sins-

Agent Tanya shouted in pain as she was thrown back and into a wall. Her quirk, sticky hands, wasn't suited to combat, but was pretty handy at holding onto things while being thrown across the room. In fact, most quirks in the police or the HPSC weren't suited for direct combat- typically if someone had a quirk they could use to fight, even in a vaguely indirect way, they were sucked up into the Hero industry, or their power got to their head and they became a Villain.

So instead of flinging laser beams from her fingers, or singing her opponent to sleep, she firmly pressed the stock of her rifle to her shoulder, lined her sights up, and then held down the trigger until the abomination of nature in front of her stopped moving.

She snapped her hand up to her uniform's collar, and pressed down hard to activate the radio in it.

"THIS IS STRIKE TEAM ALPHA THREE! CODE RED! WE NEED REINFORCEMENTS NOW!"

"We read you Alpha Three, help is on the way! ETA five minutes. What the Hell is happening down there!?"

"This is a-"

Tanya was forced to cut the radio and bash the butt of her gun into an exposed brain as one of the creatures leapt at her. Meanwhile to her left, one of the Heroes that they had brought along for extra firepower was dragged to the ground screaming by several nomu, and had his throat torn out.

"THIS IS A FUCKING SHADE FACILITY!" She screamed into the mic. "WE'RE BEING OVERRUN BY THE THINGS FROM UNDER THE STADIUM!"

"Alpha Three, just hold on! We're sending every free unit i- the area! J-st h-d a -tle -onger-."

"BASE!?" She screamed as the radio descended into static. "DO YOU COPY!?"

"Well, well, well. What do we have here." A voice crackled to life on the speakers throughout the facility. "Well, I mean, I know who I think it is. But what I want to know is: Who do you think YOU are!? You think you can just come into one of MY labs, fuck with MY schedule, fuck with MY research!? The arrogance! Raaaagh!"

The doctor slammed his fists on the table in frustration. He wasn't even in the lab they were attacking and he felt like he was about to burst a blood vessel in frustration.

"I am going to kill you!" Ujiko paused, his brain trying to think of what else to say. "And then kill you again!"

-Rain of Sins-

"I'm here to join the League."

"Bwahahaha!" The thug leaned back in his chair, laughing from his gut, taking a few seconds to collect himself. "Wait, you're serious?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Mustard bit out, cautiously eyeing the scene around him.

He was in the bar that the League recruiter directed him to, which was currently jam packed to the brim with every sort of person you wouldn't want to run into in an alleyway, all eagerly chatting and drinking.

"Why would you?" The guy scoffed, clearly amused. "You look like you're still in Middle School, and don't get me started on your physice. You look like you couldn't outrun a toaster oven."

"Fuck off!" Mustard bristled at the jab to his height. "I'm a professional Villain! And I have a kickass quirk. I could take this whole room down at once! And so what, even if I was a middle schooler, it's more schooling than you look like you've ever had."

The thug glared at Sulfur, amusement gone, and slowly pushed himself out of his chair, rising to his full height.

Sulfur gulped nervously, as the seven foot tall man sneered down at him, his body covered sporadically with thick brown shells like you would see on a tortle.

"Go on then." The man growled. "Prove it."

"I, uh, w-well."

"You said you could take the whole room." The man gestured to the rest of the bar, full of Villains. "Surely you could take little old me, with this oh so great quirk of yours."

"A-Actually, see, about that-'' Sulfur stammered, nervously shuffling back as the man came around the table. "I kinda need you guys to give me the gear to use it without getting mysel-"

He was cut off, and his world spun, stars dancing in his vision, as the thug's fist struck in him the jaw. Sulfur fell like a sack of bricks, hitting his arm against the table on the way down, and smashing the back of his head hard on the dirty ground.

He coughed and sputtered, mind reeling as blood dribbled from his chin, and the rest of the bar erupted into hoots, laughs, and jeers.

"Ha! That's what I thought!" The thug laughed, giving him a swift kick in the side, before heading back to his seat. "Some kickass quirk you've got there, buddy."

Mustard pulled himself up with as much dignity as he could muster, leveling a burning glare at the man.

"What the fuck dude? I thought your recruiter said you were, and I quote, 'willing to take anyone'."

"Yeah, well, things change." He shrugged and nodded his head towards a light blue haired guy in the back, with chopped off hands all over him. "The big boss wanted as many people as he could get, but then the coppers sized up and started slipping in agents. We got rid of 'em, but he wants to be a bit more selective in who we let in." He chuckled. "Though it's not like we're gonna run out of good recruits, even after upping standards. Everyone wants in after what we did at the festival."

"I was at the festival."

"Sure you were buddy." He shrugged. "Look, I know I got a bit heated there, but it's nothing personal. Go do some laps at the gym, beef up a bit, and come back when you've got something impressive. You gotta stand out in a work like ours."

"Stand out?" Mustard raised an eyebrow at him. "I can't use my quirk without a gas mask, that I don't have, how the Hell am I supposed to do that?"

Almost as if the universe itself decided to answer Sulfur's question in the bluntest way imaginable, the doors to the bar exploded off their hinges in a plume of blue fire.

"WHERE IS SHIGARAKI!?"

Villains desperately jumped out of the way, as a man covered in charred skin, and cloaked in sapphire flames, stormed into the bar like a comet.

Tomura tilted his head back to get a better look, from his spot at the bar. He downed the rest of his drink, and stood up, clearly tipsy from how he stumbled slightly.

"Depends. What's it to you?"

"You." Dani growled, his ice cold tone mirroring his blazing fire. "You attacked the festival. You went after Endeavor. You tried to steal my kill!"

"Kill stealing is a valid strategy, just like spawn camping." Tomura shrugged. "Besides, I didn't see your name on anything at the festival."

"Endeavor is mine to kill. I've made that very clear in the underworld over the last few years. You ignored my warning." Dani stalked forward. "I'm going to kill you for that."

"You could try to." Tomura scratched his neck. "Or you could join, and use my guys to kill Endeavor instead."

Sulfur watched with wide eyes at the scene in front of him, but was pulled from his stupor by a poke to the shoulder.

"That," The thug said, "Is how you be impressive and stand out."

-Rain of Sins-

Sulfur pouted as he sulked through the streets.

The representative of the guy he'd been lined up to buy a gun from, Girian, had messaged Sulfur and told him that the location had been changed to some dinky cafe on the poor side of town.

Originally he was supposed to have had this meeting several days ago, but he'd been holding out. Not for any moral dilemma, mind you, it was mainly because his bank account had been frozen, and he had hoped the League might have been able to supply equipment for free if he joined.

Unfortunately that hadn't exactly happened.

He sighed and opened the door to the caffe, not noticing how it was slightly bent off its hinges.

"Yo Girian! I'm here!" He shouted into the air as he walked deeper into the diner. The place was a mess, which was kinda expected for this side of town. Painting were on the floor, tables flipped over, menus scattered on the ground. It was like someone had turned the place upside down looking for something.

"I uh, don't exactly have the money we agreed on anymore, for the gun and the mask, or even either of them individually, but I was wondering if we could do maybe like a loan or something."

He glanced around the wrecked room, a suspicion that maybe something was wrong, growing in his mind.

"Hello? Anyone there?" He slowly turned in a circle, surveying everything. "Huh, maybe they went out for lunch?"

His eyes locked on the row of lights on the wall behind the counter, and he felt his eye twitch, annoyance bubbling over any worry he had before,

"Seriously guys?" He sighed in exasperation as he made his way over. "You're just going to leave a dead lightbulb out? Think of us OCD dudes."

Mustard grunted as he reached up for the bulb, having to stand on his tippy toes to reach it.

"You have five lights! And the one that goes out couldn't be one on the edge, or in the middle, no! It just has to be the fourth in line."

He grabbed the light, and twisted, but instead of coming out, it… clicked?

A loud THUNK echoed through the room, and Mustard looked behind him to find that a whole section of the floor had slid open, revealing a stone stairway that went down into the ground.

"No way." Sulfur gasped. "Dude, that's sick! A secret tunnel? It's just like in Scorcher VI!"

Without pausing to consider the consequences, or the dangers, he jumped over and began making his way down the stairs towards the basement that didn't legally exist. Not even noticing how the floor slid shut behind him.

-Rain of Sins-

"Whoah."

Sulfur's jaw dropped as he took in the garage like room in front of him.

In the middle of the room was a very nice car. With a perfect orange-black paint job, and polished to perfection.

The walls of the room were covered in cool shit. One section had boxes full of food rations and water, like something out of a Fallout game. Others were lined with high end counterfeit Hero gear and support equipment.

But the far wall… oh baby. The far wall was full of nothing but weapons.

And guns.

Rows upon rows of guns.

"Woah-Ho-Ho! Check this out!" He laughed as he skipped towards the weapon wall. "Now this…" He trailed off as he picked up a military gas mask, made of thick metal and attached to a helmet. "Now this is awesome!"

His eyes trailed over the rows of highly illegal weapons, a sly grin growing on his face.

He was a Villain after all, and what self respecting Villain didn't steal what they wanted? (Plus it wasn't like anyone was using them.)

Sulfur pulled on the gas mask, and Mustard promptly went to work like he was a kid on Christmas morning.

"Oh! I'll take this, and THIS! And THAT!" He grabbed a pile of duffel bags and began filling them with anything and everything that even remotely caught his attention. "And some of THOSE! Oh, and I gotta take THAT."

"Yes! Yes! YES! No." He strapped two types of shotguns over his shoulders, along with an assault rifle, but passed on the dart gun.

"Ahhhh YEAH!" An entire shelf of grenades into one duffel bag.

"ALLLLL of THESE!" Every type of conceivable ammo into five others.

"And THOSE!" Just about every type of small arms into several more.

"And THIS THING!" He pulled a special ops uniform out of its locker.

"Ohhhh, this one will do." He strapped an absolutely wicked knife to his leg.

"What the Hell is this?" He laughed as he picked up a small snub nose revolver from the shelf. He hadn't even seen the thing at first with how small it was. "Who would ever use this thing? This is a baby gun, a little kiddie pea shooter. I'm looking for BANG BANG, this thing goes pew pew, what fucking limp-dick loser would want this?" He tossed it over his shoulder, where it bounced off the hard floor and skidded into a corner.

"New this is a REAL weapon." Mustard whispered in awe as he reverently pulled a rocket launcher off its socket on the wall. He gently placed it atop his pile of loot and took a step back to admire his work.

The pile of stuffed duffel bags and stolen equipment had grown to four feet tall, and at least six feet wide.

…

"Now how am I gonna move this?"

The answer came to him in a flash of divine inspiration.

Just steal more!

Mustard whistled (or at least tried to with his mask) as he strutted over to the car parked in the center of the underground garage, picking a crowbar off the shelf on his way.

It was an old American muscle car, which had been renovated to the brim with modern parts, armor, bulletproof glass, and the most powerful engine money could buy. Of course Mustard didn't know any of that, he didn't know anything about cars. He just knew it looked shiny.

But he'd played GTA, so he knew how to steal a car. Obviously.

Mustard reared back with the crowbar and swung it like a baseball bat at the window.

It promptly bounced off without leaving a scratch, and caused him to drop the crowbar as every bone in his arms shook like a plucked string.

"Alright tough guy, you wanna go? Let's do this!" He shook out his arms, picked up the crowbar, and shoved it into the crack on the edge of the door. He planted both feet firmly on the ground, cracked his knuckles, and pulled with all his might.

"Raaaaah! Grrruh! Hyyaaaah! Wooooaaaah!"

But no matter how much force he put, the door refused to budge.

"Alright, fine! Watch this! I can use my brain, can you say the same?"

The door, surprisingly, didn't reply.

"Yeah that's what I fucking thought." Mustard marched back to the car, a sledgehammer hoisted over his shoulder. "Because you don't have one. Now just open!"

Mustard swung the hammer, hitting the edge of the crowbar, but instead of providing the force to break open the door, the metal strained under the pressure before snapping in half.

"Oh come on!" Mustard shouted at the broken pieces of the crowbar. "I'm done messing around, I'm not seriously about to lose to a fucking door!"

Mustard flipped the bird, and pulled a pistol from his belt. He pulled the trigger and put a piece of hot lead through its smug non-existent face. At least, that was the plan. And to be fair, he did put a piece of hot lead to its smug non-existent face, but the bullet ricocheted off the bullet proof glass, and slammed into an electrical box in the ceiling, which caused a nearby lightbulb to explode.

…

Numbly, Mustard holstered the pistol.

And as he stared at the tiny white mark on the window, where the bullet had hit, his eyes drifted past the glass to the jet black key sitting in the driver's seat. The key was inside the car. But, if someone left their key in their car, didn't that usually mean…?

He reached out and pulled the handle.

The door opened without issue.

…

"Huh…"

He stared off into space for several seconds, while he questioned his life choices.

"Neat."

-Rain of Sins-

"So wait." Dabi put down his glass and pinched his nose. "You're not the guy behind the attack."

"No, I am." Tomura said.

Keep comin', hit the ground runnin!

Keep comin', and never stop gunnin!

"But you said you didn't actually do all the stuff that targeted Endeavor!"

"Yeah."

"So you're not behind it all."

"No, I am."

Straight down into Hell I run.

Big Guts and Bigger Guns!

My work is never done!

"Hello? Do we speak the same language? You said you didn't do that stuff, and the one who did isn't a member of the League."

"That's right."

I'm gonna rip it up, I'm gonna rip it up, I've gotta rip and tear! Get outta my way!

I'm gonna rip it up, I'm gonna rip it up, I've gotta rip and tear! Rev up for Doomsday!

"So he doesn't work for you, which means you weren't responsible for his part of the attack!"

"He does work for me, he just doesn't know it yet."

Load-Up.

Dun Dun

Roll-Out!

Dun Dun

Boots-Down.

Dun Dun

Hell-Bound!

"That-" Dabi grit his teeth, blue flames sparking around him as his temper flared. "Not a word that comes out of your mouth makes sense."

"Sounds like a skill ish-you, not really an ish-me. Maybe you should try leveling yo-"

Hold down that trigger son!

Big Guts and Bigger Guns!

My work is never done!

Big Guts and Big - ger GUNS!

"WHO THE HELL IS PLAYING THAT OBNOXIOUS METAL MUSIC!?" Tomura shouted, his cup shattering against the wall as he threw it in anger. "I can't even hear myself THINK!"

Everyone around the bar looked at each other in annoyance, trying to find who was responsible, until one guy near the entrance shot up in his seat.

"It's getting closer!" He yelled. "Get out of the way!"

Once again, there was a scramble as everyone near the (now patched up) doors, tried to get out of the firing line, not wanting to relive their experience from when Dabi made his entrance.

…

Only to actually run into the way, as a car crashed through the wall next to the door, a giant stereo speaker just shy of sticking out of its open passenger window.

'I'M GONNA RIP IT UP! I'M GONNA RIP IT UP! I'VE GOTTA RIP AND TEAR! REV UP FOR DOOMSDAAAAAAAY!'

The driver's door was kicked open as a man wearing full military combat gear, a bullet proof vest, and a metal gas mask with red lenses pulled himself out of the car, slamming the door behind him.

The guy was loaded with weapons. He had two shotguns strapped to his back, a pistol on his hip, grenades hanging from his belt, an ammo belt across his chest, and a knife on his leg. And that wasn't even mentioning the assault rifle he had in his hands.

It all looked even more outrageous on his short frame. And it was also horribly inefficient- you couldn't use all those guns at the same time in a firefight, your ammo space would have to be split between all sorts of different bullets, and all the extra weight would just slow you down.

Also, only about half of the gear was even secured correctly.

All in all, it looked more like a kid trying to imitate the things they saw in movies, thinking every soldier had to carry a full arsenal of weaponry on them at all times, just like Rambo and Master Chief did.

But, of course, the fact that all the weapons were real was more than enough to make even the toughest Villain in the room sweat.

"I'm Mustard! Fearsome Villain who was on the front lines during the attack on the festival!"

He raised his gun into the air and squeezed the trigger.

He then hurriedly reached over with his left hand, flipped off the safety, and squeezed the trigger again. Bullets tore through the ceiling, showering the room in plaster and wood flakes.

"And I'm here to join the fucking League of Villains!"

Everyone was quiet at the declaration, most of them still trying to understand what had just happened. Kurogiri continued to dry a cup like nothing had happened, Dabi raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him, and Tomura just tilted his head slightly.

"Who the Hell do you think you are?" A familiar thug marched his way over, his skin covered in turtle shell. "You can't just crash in through the walls and dema-"

Mustard immediately leveled his gun and opened fire.

People shouted in surprise and dove behind tables for cover, and the thug screamed in pain, falling to the floor and curling up into a ball to shield himself, as bullets bit into and bounced off his shell-like skin.

"I'm gonna beat you up plum-fum! And then I'm gonna wear your clothes!" Mustard shouted, marching over and bashing him over the head with the but of his rifle. "And I won't even need my quirk to do it!"

The man whimpered and curled in on himself tighter.

"What? Nothing to say? That's what I thought!" Mustard kicked him, wincing as he nearly broke his toe. "Call me short again, say I look like a middle schooler again, I dare you!"

Across the bar, Tomura slumped back into his chair as he laughed at the show in front of him.

"It's about time some real DPS showed up!"

"Counterpoint." Dabi said, pointing to the guy, just to make sure Tomura was seeing the same thing as him.

They watched as Mustard began to air-guitar his rifle to the beat of the heavy metal music his car was playing, almost slipping on a puddle of booze from a broken bottle.

"He's an idiot."

"That doesn't matter." Tomura shrugged and took a sip of his drink. "I'm the one who makes the plans, I need people who can fight, not who have a brain they won't need to use."

"Whatever." Dabi scoffed, and went back to ignoring the world around him. "I'm only here for Endeavor, as long as you don't stick that idiot with me, I don't care what you do with him."

"Stick him with you? Huh, that's not a bad idea." Tomura scratched his chin, his grin widening. "A squad of my best characters! An elite vanguard unit! I like the sound of that!"

Dabi sighed, wondering where he went wrong in life to have so many regrets.

"Is it too late to go back to trying to kill you?"

"Let's see, you have fire, and he has explosives and guns. He also has that gas mask, so maybe even some chemical weapons?" Tomura hummed in thought, completely ignoring Dabi. "How about 'Hazard Squad'?"

"Absolutely not."

"Oh are we making team names?" Mustard jogged over.

"We are not." Dabi scoffed.

"We are!" Tomura cheered. "And I'm open for good suggestions! As long as it isn't anything friendship themed."

"Oh, I know a good one!" Mustard cleared his throat. "What about the League Of Villainous Evildoers Maniacally United For Frightening Investments in Naughtiness? It kinda, you know, builds off the theme you guys already have."

"That's the worst thing I have ever heard, and it has single handedly taken years off my life." Dabi sighed in physical pain.

"That's brilliant!" Tomura stood from the bar and cracked his neck. "Kurogiri, get us out of here. This bar is too cramped, and I need space to think." He paused. "...And bring that car with us. It's pretty cool."

"What about the rest of the people here?" The bartender asked.

"Leave them. They're all cheap one star trash pulls, and we have hundreds of others just like them, I swear drawing a good character is like finding a needle in a haystack."

In a wave of purple gas, the first members of the Vanguard Action Squad/ Hazard Team/ L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. were whisked away.

Only a few minutes later, every Villain left in the bar was on the ground and in cuffs by the Safety Commission.

-Rain of Sins-

Satin grit his teeth as his vision swam in a mixture of pain and blood loss, he could barely run straight. He clutched his left arm tightly, wrapped in his scarf which was somehow even more crimson than usual as blood dripped from the soaked fabric.

"He went this way! Hurry! Don't let him escape!" A voice called out behind him, accompanied by a stampede of footsteps.

How many were there!? He'd killed his target, and then it seemed like every Hero in the entire city had descended on top of him! And those soldiers they had with them! They were everywhere!

Snipers on rooftops, machine gun nests in the sewers, armored cars in the streets! Who were these people!?

"FREEZE!"

Light flooded the alleyway, cutting through the dark night sky as a helicopter swerved over him, its spotlight glaring down on him. Freeze, they might have said, but the gunner opened fire as soon as Stain was in range, the mounted machine gun tearing up the alleyway.

Stain lunged to the side, crashing through a low hanging window, but even with his speed, searing stakes of burning pain ripped through his lower back and legs, as bullets ripped though his flesh.

He crashed into the dark room with all the grace of a dead horse, tumbling to the ground and coughing up blood as he rolled to a stop.

"Hands up!"

Two flashlights flicked to life, aimed at him to announce he was no longer alone.

"Stain." A Hero in a yellow suit and bulging muscles marched forward, with hate clear in his voice. Two of those black soldiers behind him, with guns locked on the Villain's head. "Surrender now, or I break your skull in." The Hero cracked his knuckles. "You killed some of my best friends during the festival. So please, pull that sword of yours out. Give me an excuse!"

Stain hissed in pain and forced himself to his feet.

"I've killed many of you tonight, what's three more? I won't die here. THE ONLY ONE WHO WILL KILL ME IS ALL MIGHT!"

The Hero grinned and began to lunge, but one of the men behind him screamed in pain. He spun and threw a punch at whatever he saw, but it easily slipped under his fist and danced around him, casually slicing his neck open as it did so.

The other soldier, a woman from her rage-filled shout, opened fire, but the gun barely spit out a few rounds before her head was removed from her body via an amalgamation of metal.

Stain stepped back, trying to make an escape during the chaos, but wound up slipping on his own blood and falling. But soft arms in fluffy fabric swept around him before he could fall to the floor.

"Shhh, it's okay Stainy~Sempai. We've got you now~" A gentle voice purred.

Stain looked up, his consciousness rapidly fading, as he took in the faces of the new arrivals.

One was a girl with blond hair and a wide smile, her face uncomfortably close to his. Her eyes were a toxic yellow, with pupils like a cat. Behind her was a lizard mutant with green scales.

Both were wearing red scarves.

"Shit! He's in bad shape! We've gotta get him to the others! Monoka is a doctor, she can fix him, but we've gotta hurry!"

"Don't worry Stainy~" The girl giggled in an unhinged sing-song tone, her bright yellow eyes standing out from the dark as unconsciousness took him. "You're safe now~ I'm gonna get you out of here."

-Chapter End-

Wooooooah, no way! *Throws up arms in an over exaggerated way* Stain got his message out without immediately getting captured, and it had  CONSEQUENCES !

And since Stain is still around, and Tomura isn't able to set himself up as his de jure successor, the fanatics waited to find Stain instead of just joining the League.

(Seriously, why has no one had Stain actually meet the Stain cult? It's just one of those things that kinda scratches my brain.)

*Sips Hot Chocolate*

And now it looks like the Vanguard Action Squad might be split up, at least Tomura can still get its most important members. Like… *Checks notes* Moonfish? Yeah, very important.

And speaking of shitty VAS members who don't even last an episode before getting clapped-

I just want to make it clear. Mustard's entire mini-character-arc here is entirely based on a crappy shitpost thread I read, back when the second season of MHA first aired, about how "Mustard could be real Villain if just have bigger gun".

And as an American, I can confirm, when you shoot a shotgun for the first time (especially as a Teen), you definitely feel like Doom Guy…

I mean, You're not.

You're not, and your footing is horrendous, and you're going to break your thumb with the way you hold it, and put the thing to your  shoulder  you idiot, and you couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with that aim- But you  feel  like Doom Guy!

*Sips Hot Chocolate*

The HPSC is always fun to write.

SC: We're a weak organization, Nezu bully us!

Aizawa: You literally control Hero rankings, parts of the media, and can influence elections.

If it isn't obvious by now, because the cannon doesn't give me anything to work with on them other than Hawks and Nagant, I'm basing them loosely off of how the CIA used to act. (Maybe how they still do act, most of the unclassified documents I read about are from decades ago.)

CIA: Can we shoot down a passenger plane and blame it on Cuba? :)

President: No, wtf.

CIA: Waaaah, we are a weak group, and our ability to protect the country is compromised!

President: You literally assassinate people you don't like, and blackmailed Mcarthy, an American senator, during his Red Scare crusade to keep him out of your hair.

CIA: Yeah, but we have to ask for permission :[

*Sips Hot Chocolate*

Ochako and AfO's meeting was supposed to was supposed to happen this chap, but we're already at 12k words for what was supposed to be a small chapter, focused on catching up with all the Villains. I can only hope it's sister chapter (the next one), catching up with all the Heroes doesn't spiral as out of control.

(And besides, Ochako is a Hero student, she can fit in the "Hero" chapter fine as well.)

Next Chapter: Mar 31 (ish)

And as always, join the Discord, you nerds.

https://discord.gg/Hy7g6UqGQd