Rating: T+

Pairing(s): Midoriya/Uraraka; Kirishima/Ashido; Todoroki/Yaoyorozu; Iida/Hatsume; Kaminari/Jirou; Shinsou/Asui; Ojiro/Toru; Mirio/Nejire.

Genre: Romance; Superhero Action; Thriller; Suspense; Dark Humor; Mature Themes

Notes:

Hello everyone! Zancrow here!

So, has it ever happened to you that you have such an interesting idea (to you, at least) that you can't wait to put to paper (or Word, as it were), but when you sit down to write you just draw blanks? A version of Writer's Block I imagine. Still, those thoughts aside, please enjoy this next chapter of this story where All Might is a bad guy, Deku had no idea what's going on, and everyone is going to get bit by the love (lust?) bug… eventually.

Disclaimer: Don't own My Hero Academia, or Oumagadoki Zoo.

He was beginning to think this had been a bad idea. A very bad idea.

He was led through the outskirts of the city, through trees and dirt and corpses, for what seemed like hours. Guiding him, as if he were some sort of dog on a short leash, were two "professionals in the art of persuasion" as they had called themselves. He acted like he believed them when they said they wouldn't hurt him, but he knew better. The male before him, half man, and half horse, had a glare so menacing it seemed to outright penetrate him. The female, on the other hand, happy and charming yet drenched in the stench of dried blood that was utterly impossible to ignore. How did he end up here, guided to his death so effortlessly, by two members of the dreaded Yatsudoki Circus?

"Right this way," the young looking girl, Toy-Toy as he had heard the other call her, sang. Before the three, almost out of nowhere, stood a large circus-like tent, right smack in the middle of these dark and dead woods.

"…Well?" The horse-man spoke up, his tone sounding irritated yet his face betraying no emotion. The boy who now stood between the two of them momentarily froze. He had heard of them, because of course he had. He had seen the reports, seen the pictures of those killed by them, and worse, heard all the rumors that The Regime tried their best to deny.

The people, no, these monsters were killers of the worst degree, and now here he was, right in their grasps, with no way to escape and no bargain to make.

So he took a deep breath, and entered.

The inside of the tent betrayed its outward appearance greatly. What was seemingly a worn down circus tent was filled with colors and lights and sheer oddities from within. The smell of death was even replaced by that of sugar and popcorn, in a way he couldn't even begin to describe. And, at the very center, sitting in a highly decorated chair which seemed to have more in common with an actual throne than it did to anything circus related, was a grizzly figure with its eyes dead set on the boy. It made his blood turn ice cold.

"Why do they keep getting smaller?" the creature asked, a bear-man if he had to try his best to describe him, but even that failed to do it justice. He was more like an unholy combination of the two, like a werewolf half transformed.

"Hey, we didn't actually pick this one," Toy-Toy replied, her tone still jovial despite how utterly threatening the bear-man sounded. The boy, despite all common sense, liked that about her. She was cute, he believed. "Allow me to introduce you to, well, Yuu!" she cheerfully introduced the boy, gesturing at him with her paw-like hands as if giving a show to an unseen audience. "Unlike our previous, erm, volunteers, this guy actually came in her willingly!"

"A-Ah, y-you must be the Ringleader," Yuu managed to speak out, shrieking a bit the moment he felt the Beast's eyes dead set on him again. "…I-I had heard about it, about the power you offered those loyal to you. I wanted to-"

"Silence!" The Ringleader demanded with a ferocious roar, and Yuu silenced himself immediately. "I will speak to you in a moment," he instructed, and Yuu nodded, his fear evident. "But first," he continued, turning to the other circus members. "Since when are we so open about our status? I need strong individuals who can survive the procedure, proven heroes or villains, I don't care which, but not random nobodies who you bump into on these filthy streets! Every single person you've brought to me is lower than the last!"

"Well, you sort of have The Regime to blame on that one," Toy-Toy coyly responded, completely unfazed by the Ringleader's anger. "Getting in and out of Musutafu City is getting to be a real hassle, what with the drones and the anti-Quirk guys all up in our asses every time we try to approach anybody."

"…They've added a curfew for the citizens," the horse-man spoke up, his tone serene and respectful, dignified even. "We may have to move our hunting grounds, otherwise we might have to engage with The Regime before we're actually ready."

"That damn All Might!" the Ringleader cursed, slamming his claw onto the chair, ripping a chunk of it clean off. It was enough to make Yuu visibly jump, yet both Toy-Toy and the horse-man remained unaffected. "We can't just return empty handed! If we don't hold out our end of the bargain, we'll be worthless in our treaty!"

"Hence why," Toy-Toy interjected. "We brought you this guy! Maybe, just maybe, instead of trying to force our power into people, we can try it how we ourselves did it. On someone who wants it, wants it so bad they're willing to die for it."

"…" the Ringleader paused, as if contemplating the girl's words. He seemed calmer, or at least, intrigued. "Boy," he addressed, and Yuu quickly stood up straight to offer him his undivided attention. "What did you say your name was?"

"I… I'm Yuu Kikuchi, sir."

"And why do you want this power?"

"…To end The Regime, sir."

"And why would you want that?"

"B-Because, sir, they…" Yuu began, forcing himself to swallow his fear and answer earnestly. "They took everything from me! My family, my friends, I've lost so much people to their brand of justice! To what All Might is doing!"

"…As have we all," the Ringleader concluded, apparently pleased at the boy's response. This made Yuu hopeful at his chances, a small smile daring to appear on his face. "All Might," the Ringleader continued. "That monster is responsible for me and my crew being forced to scavenge the city as we are now. Even with our power, with this great gift given to us by our new comrades, we cannot hope to match him, not yet. If you accept this power into your body, you just may become a worthwhile asset to us, and perhaps, grow closer to achieving the revenge for you beloved you so desperately crave."

"Yes! That's it! That's what I want!" Yuu exclaimed.

"Good, then allow me to welcome you, to your new family," the Ringleader declared. "This is the Yatsudoki Circus of Fright, a bemusing title given to us by the media, but one which we are quite evidently recognized by. I am the Fright Ringleader, Shikuma Kasshoku, they furry girl who brought you in is called Toy-Toy," he introduced, signaling the girl whose name Yuu already knew.

"The label me the Fright Bitch," she added with a grin.

"…Introductions should be reserved until after the procedure, otherwise we are simply wasting our breath on a dead man walking," the horse-man complained, still ever-so politely, but added: "But I will be professional about this. My name's Rodeo Esroh, and they refer to me as the Fright Rider."

'Rodeo,' Yuu thought. 'He's almost as frightening as their leader, yet somehow I feel as if he-'

"And I'm the Fright Tamer," a black haired young man told Yuu, inches from his face, appearing out of nowhere and only being seen the moment he spoke up and introduced himself. Yuu outright fell on his ass as he pulled away from the sudden invasion of personal space, his eyes wide in shock but instinctively covering his mouth to avoid screaming. The Tamer just smiled at his reaction and continued, "And my actual name is Taro Suzuki, please to meet you future-partner-if-you-don't-choke-on-your-own-entrails."

"Taro," Shikuma addressed the young man far more calmly than he did Yuu, the boy noticed. "You've returned. Any progress?"

"Oh, not much I'm afraid," Taro replied, turning to their leader and offering him a light shrug. "These creatures are strong, but their dumb as bricks. It's going to take me a little more time to be able to control them properly. If only Hierou didn't take my best ones out with him, I might have had a little more success."

"Wait, old clowny hasn't returned yet?" Toy-Toy asked, visibly displeased by the news.

"Not yet," Taro answered, turning to the dog-girl. "He and Byakkov are probably still in the city. Our Intel suggests that Nejire Chan was actually sighted scurrying about with a group of kids with exceptional Quirks. Knowing Hierou, I can probably predict his whereabouts at the moment."

"Wait, there were actually strong people around and we weren't told!" Toy-Toy complained, ending her statement with a childish pout.

Taro just shrugged in response.

"We would do well in trusting his abilities," Shikuma told them all, before setting his eyes onto Yuu once again. "Now then, Yuu Kikuchi, allow us to begin the procedure. Taro, if you would?"

"Oh, of course!" the young man happily said, before giving out a sharp whistle that made Toy-Toy wince in pain. She shot him a glare to which he gave her a soft apology for. No sooner had he whistled though, than had a huge, yellow, winged creature descended from the very top of the tent and landed right in front of Yuu, like a trained animal displaying its prowess. Yuu was speechless.

"Yuu Kikuchi, take from that creature the vial," Shikuma instructed, and as if on cue, the winged demon presented the youth a vial containing a blackish ooze. The half liquid, half solid thing seemed to move on its own, as if alive, reacting to those around it. "That will be your power… if you can tame it, of course."

"Tame it?" Yuu repeated, confused. "How?"

"First, you swallow it!" Taro answered, extending his index finger as if to show the "number one". "It will then proceed to outright eat you inner organs and substitute with its own kind. If you allow this process to go to fast, you will die from shock or blood loss, whichever comes first," the Tamer continued in his ever-so cheerful manner, as if he was calmly telling Yuu how to boil eggs for breakfast. "Or you could simply end up like one of the ones I'm currently getting house-broken; strong, but lacking a will of their own. A powered-up corpse, in a way; I'm sure you wouldn't like that."

"No, I don't think-"

"Enough talk," Shikuma ordered, and Yuu tensed up. "You wanted power? This is the only chance you'll have to it. Now, your clothing, remove them. Then take the vial, and survive its effects."

"…W-Wait, my clothes, why do I…?" Yuu couldn't help but stammer. What did his clothing have to do with anything?

"This will be your new skin, in a sense," Taro once again answered as if he had given these responses already. "Best not to have foreign materials obstructing it. If you have any tooth filling, you might want to rip those off too, just to be safe."

"That sounds-"

"I said, no more talk," Shikuma repeated, and Yuu visibly tensed. The boy turned to the side, his eyes catching glimpse of Toy-Toy, who was looking at him with an eager glint in her eyes.

Yuu knew that protesting of her presence would surely anger their Ringleader, and could even make him decide against allowing Yuu to join their ranks. So they teen swallowed his shame and took off his clothing as instructed, trying his best to avoid looking at Toy-Toy as she eyed everything.

His clothes laying on the side, with the coldness of the night hitting him harder than he imagined, Yuu took the vial from the demon into his hands. Its content squirmed in his hands, as if just as afraid of him as he was of it.

"Please let this one at least turn into a half-decent zombie," Taro jokingly pleaded, now standing next to Toy-Toy and Rodeo without Yuu ever noticing him move.

"Considering the display, I don't think you'll get anything half-decent from this child," Toy-Toy remarked, her eyes still shifted downwards, a look of disappointment in her face.

"…That's a low blow," Rodeo commented, surprisingly taking a bit of pity on the exposed teen.

Yuu would have tried to defended himself, it was very cold after all, but he knew he best not utter another word. So, for the sake of revenger and power, he opened the vial, and took the thing into his mouth. It instinctively burrowed deep into his trachea, creating a massive sensation of choking the mere moment he "swallowed" it, which was quickly eclipsed by the massive stabbing pain he felt in his chest.

His eyesight was lost.

His body began to quiver and the convulsion took him to the ground.

A bloodcurdling scream was all he had time to make, which was slowly mutated into a demon's roar midway through; a sound he felt coming out of his own body, yet one that sounded completely alien to him.

-0-

Chapter Three

"Yatsudoki Circus"

-0-

"I hate clowns!" they could hear Bakugou shout from all the way up on the building they had been tossed into. As Midoriya, Uraraka and Kirishima stared at the scene before them; their friends currently surrounded by four skinned corpses resembling creatures Midoriya knew, and a dark, scary clown guy staring down at them, web surrounding him as if he were a spider and they the mere flies.

"What's a Nomu?" Uraraka asked, turning to Midoriya, her eyes showing confusion beneath her makeshift helmet.

"…I don't know that much about them to be honest," Midoriya replied, clenching his fists as he hoped against hope he was wrong in his assumption. One of those things was enough of a threat to give Pro Heroes like All Might or Endeavor a hefty challenge; there was no telling how much four of them could do to kids like them. "Even from where I'm from, or the memories I have, we never got around to fully understanding them. They were artificial humans, created by a League of Villains in order to bring down the Pro Heroes. They had Quirks of their own, powerful ones at that, and it took a lot of damage to bring them down… A lot more than I think we can dish out at the moment."

"No really, tell us how you really feel about how screwed up we are," Kirishima joked at the grim prospect they were facing, allowing himself a light chuckle at it all. "They hit like a truck, that's for sure, almost felt my armor crack with that hit."

"Yeah, if it comes down to resistance, they'll win," Midoriya added. "Still, I've never seen this. The Nomu I knew were artificial, yet these ones look like they are clearly corpses of actual heroes. I don't know how to even begin with this."

"What options do we even have?" Uraraka noted, her fists clenching and hovering herself onto the building's wall, to both steady herself and prepare herself to launch. "We need to act quickly, before it's too late!"

As the three young heroes steadied themselves, back down on the street the other three pressed their back against each other even more, as the four corpses surrounded them, their fleshy, exposed muscles twitching at every single step they took.

"This is seriously wrong on so many levels," Ashido said, both frightened and repulsed by what she was seeing. She couldn't quite understand why, but one of those things looked like it was actually observing them. Observing her.

"Like I said, we can't win this, we have never fought against true villains before," Shinsou repeated, his tone even more shaken than before. "We have to retreat. All of our training is to be of use as back-up to the Big Three, not to engage a member of the Circus on our own."

"Yeah, let me just ask the fucking murderous clown if he's free next Tuesday," Bakugou sarcastically replied, as Shinsou felt a vein pop.

"You really should listen to him," Hierou Michinoke told the trio, his voice sounding just as creepy as he looked. "It would be a very bad idea to have as your first opponent the infamous Fright Clo-"

Then Bakugou blew him up.

The explosions happened so fast that neither Shinsou nor Ashido saw it coming until he had already blasted the roof Hierou was standing on.

"Are you serious?!" Ashido screamed out.

"…We are so dead," Shinsou added.

"He really went and did it," Kirishima noted from all the way up on the building.

"That's what I was trying to avoid…" Uraraka softly cried out.

"…I've lost count of how many flashbacks I just had," Midoriya muttered, but then his attention shifted downwards. Down on the ground, surrounding Shinsou and Ashido, something seemed… amiss.

"And that's what you get you ass-clown," Bakugou declared as he landed on the remaining debris of what once was the roof of the building the self-proclaimed Fright Clown had been standing on. "I've already been talked to death once tonight by that nerd over there, not about to have the whole villain speech thing given to me by a Clown Prince of Crime Wannabe."

"And that's why you younglings are so quick to die," the clown spoke up from the rubble and dust clouds, causing Bakugou to tense up. Not because he was still alive, because despite his power, even Bakugou knew that a single blast would not have taken the villain out. But rather, because the villain was still standing in the very spot Bakugou had hit him in. There no longer was even a roof to stand on, and yet, there he was, hanging in the air by the very threads he could somehow create.

"The hell?!" Bakugou shouted. "I felt that hit you and send you flying!"

"To your credit, you did hit something," Hierou replied, pointing downwards, "You see, my pets are very loyal to their master. They don't like to see me get hurt."

Then Bakugou noticed what he had hit. One of the corpses, who had somehow jumped after Bakugou the moment he had launched himself at Hierou, and who had gotten itself in the way between the clown and the dynamite on two legs, just before the blast. Said corpse, now set a bit on fire, was currently in the process of standing right back up, its eyes dead set on Bakugou.

"…That's just fucking wrong."

"Can't say I disagree," Hierou mused.

The corpses then lunged.

"We need to move, now!" Uraraka instructed, launching herself from the building like a missile towards the others. Midoriya and Kirishima mentally slapped themselves into action, and followed right behind the flying heroine as they went towards their friends' aide.

The Nomu, as Midoriya had referred to them, were quick. Very quick. Quick enough to reach Shinsou and Ashido well before the others could.

But, fortunately for them, their exposed bodies also served as a way to expose their movement ahead of time, at least to a well trained eye. Ashido's bug-like senses picked up on their attacks, and was quick to launch her acid in the direction of all the attacking Nomu, aiming to try and blind them with it.

It hit, but they didn't even react to it. Their faces burned of the muscle that was left, exposing more bone, but the attack continued. Ashido would have been hit, had Shinsou not followed up her attack with his own.

Within moments, all three Nomu were caught within the steel wire alloy cloths Shinsou employed, tangling up the three as best he could within that moment's notice. "Perhaps restraining them is our best course of action."

"Incoming!" Kirishima shouted out, as Midoriya, Uraraka and himself landed on one of the Nomu each, using their Quirks to strengthen the hold Shinsou had on them: Midoriya and Kirishima used brute force alongside gravity to sink into them and smash them onto the concrete, while Uraraka activated her "Zero Gravity" Quirk to make the Nomu float up and keep it off the ground and tangled in the cloth.

"I can't believe that worked!" Ashido celebrated.

"This doesn't mean we've won," Shinsou corrected. "If they can shrug off one of Bakugou's explosions like nothing, then his won't hold them for long."

They then heard the echoing explosions coming from higher up, as Bakugou blasted the Nomu down once again, only for it to slowly pick itself back up and lunge again. It got blown up once more.

"Try all you want zombie," Bakugou boasted. "But I've got plenty more where that came from. I want to see just how much you really can resist."

The Nomu went at him again, but as Bakugou set up another explosion, it launched a different attack on him. Spikes, or horns, formed around its head and went towards Bakugou at an alarming speed. The boy had no choice but to blow those up, allowing the Nomu to get much closer to him than he had let it before. In order not to be clawed by it, Bakugou had to dodge its attack and place his heel firmly on the things chin, or where the chin should be at least, kicking it to the side to gain some distance.

He then realized that Hierou had approached him at that very moment.

"Boo."

Bakugou exploded himself away from Hierou out of pure instinct alone, but not before the clown had managed to use one of his "claws" or whatever it was his fingers turned into to slice his cheek open and cut his right earlobe in half, causing a lot of blood to pour onto his face, neck and shoulders.

"Shit!" the bloodied blond cursed as he landed away from the clown, back onto the bridge the corpses had originally been found hanging from. "Bastard almost cut my fucking ear off!"

"What are you crying about?" Hierou asked, sounding annoyed. "I missed."

'Missed you son of a bitch, you actually…' Bakugou's thought process paused, as he felt his cut with his index finger. It had not started at his cheek, like his pain would indicate, but rather, near his neck; causing the young hero to grow cold as realization finally hit him. 'It's so close! Less than an inch from the artery! He did miss, that attack wasn't meant to hurt me; he was going to kill me! Damn it, I have to calm down; or we are going to fucking die.'

"Bakugou, you alright man!" Kirishima screamed out, trying his best to locate Bakugou on the bridge while also struggling to keep the Nomu within his grasp from escaping. "I saw blood, we should try and-Hey, you okay man?"

Kirishima looked at Midoriya, whose expression was one of sheer dread.

The others noticed as well, Shinsou, Ashido and especially Uraraka turning to him for a moment. But, before any of them could say anything, Midoriya began to mutter something.

"…That attack, I've seen it before, it's can't be, but… it is just like," he said, as he eyed not Bakugou or Hierou, but the Nomu Bakugou had kicked down, now walking slowly towards them, likely being sent to free the others. Ashido had already set her sight on it, being the only one among them who was free to move.

"What are you saying?" Ashido asked, preparing her acid.

"It can't be, but I know that attack, I know her," Midoriya continued, and the all froze when he said so. Her? Had he…? "The size of the body like a student of our age, the lower limbs resembling an animal because of her Quirk, the horns she can shoot out from her head! She's one of our schoolmates, from Class 1-B! Pony! They couldn't have done this to her!"

'Class 1-B?' Shinsou thought.

'From his story!' Kirishima thought.

'That means that this…' Uraraka thought.

'…Is one of the students from his memories. A friend?' Ashido thought.

Once more, before they could even react to the news, Midoriya launched himself at Hierou with such ferocity that none of the young heroes realized what he had done until moments later. The youth activated his "One For All" with all the power he could, and launched a punch so massive it blew the entire building away, the resulting backdraft threatening to blow the other heroes away as well. Hierou, whose attention had been focused exclusively on Bakugou, was caught off guard by the attack, as he was outright smashed into the pavement, resulting in a shocked look from everybody present at the sheer display of power…

…and at a volatile response not from Bakugou, for once.

"Midoriya!" Uraraka cried out, beginning to try and float towards him, but she was held back by Shinsou, who uttered at her to wait.

Back at the rubble, Midoriya regained his stance, his arm still shacking from the attack. 'Too much, I used a bit too much. Thankfully it wasn't broken, but a little more and I would have torn something. It's just, I can't accept that, she was our age, they couldn't have, what did they even-?'

"That's one hell of a punch you got there kid," Hierou praised, causing Midoriya to give him a look of utter shock as he saw the clown get back onto his feet and dust himself off. The man looked utterly undamaged after an attack that had decimated many a villains before, and Midoriya could barely process the fact himself.

"How…?"

"I mean, I actually felt it," he boasted, a phrase Midoriya had heard many times before but which had never frightened him as much as it did now. "Last time I was hit that hard, I think it was by Lemillion, but unlike him, you don't look intangible, or are you?"

Even with his fast reflexes, Midoriya couldn't properly dodge or block Hierou attack, which sent the boy flying right back and onto the bridge, collapsing the infrastructure as his body collided against it, sending even more rubble onto the streets and scattering the heroes and the Nomu alike. A cloud of dust covered the district, as Hierou gave out a soft laugh, which he felt he had earned.

"…I-I'm not done yet," he heard Midoriya muster out from underneath the cloud of rubble.

"I, however, am. You see, I've decided that both you and-" Hierou froze, feeling a sensation hit his entire body that he had never felt before. As if something was clawing at his very thoughts. He forced his vision to look through the rubble, and his eyes went wide.

"Got you," Shinsou spoke up in Midoriya's voice, a voice-changer mask placed on himself as he stood right before a still seemingly knocked out Midoriya. "Don't move."

'What the hell did he-!' Hierou screamed in his head, as his body refused to move any longer. His eyes scanned the area, and slowly, he began to see the heroes. His Nomu were still tied up, being held by Kirishima, Ashido and Uraraka; and as he saw this, his blood went cold. 'Wait! Where's-?'

"Up here asshole!" Bakugou screamed out, floating above Hierou with the powers of Uraraka, taking aim at the villain with the gauntlet adorning his arm. "Let's see you tank this!"

'No! I can't move!'

Bakugou removed the pin from the grenade-like gauntlet.

The explosion that engulfed Hierou Michinoke was so massive that nearby buildings shook violently, with the resounding boom being heard from miles away. A singular drone flying nearby, one of the many "peace keeping" toys the Regime employed, registered the blast and began to make its way towards its direction.

-0-

Mei Hatsume woke up startled, her body drenched in cold sweat from something she couldn't quite remember, and as she motioned to sit up, the sharp pain she felt near her abdomen gave her a small reminder of what exactly had almost killed her. She moved her hand, placing it atop of her wound, now properly covered by several bandages she knew she did not put there herself. Her eyes shifted, her Quirk activating and zooming in on the patchwork done to her. It wasn't a stellar medical job by any means, but way more than she had expected to receive. She also realized she was still not properly clothed, not that it bothered her much.

"You shouldn't be moving," her savior Tenya Iida told her, as he walked back into his "lair" from upstairs, carrying what seemed to be a tray of medical goodies.

"I shouldn't be breathing actually," she corrected. "I was certain I had gotten a lung pierced by that thing."

"Almost," he informed, taking a seat next to the mattress she was laying on. "I did my best to tend to the wound. The bleeding has stopped, which is a very good sign, and it seems I removed all of whatever that thing that attacked you was. I have to say, it actually-"

"Where is it?!"

"-Huh?" he asked, flabbergasted. "Where is it?! Why'd you want to know that?! If anything, your first inquiry should be whether I burned it or took it to a dark alley and shot it! I have tended to injuries before, let me tell you, and this is the first time a foreign object I try to remove from someone actually tries to protect itself! Like, it tried to cut me!"

"Oh my goodness," she mouthed, her eyes wide. "That sounds… so cool! I really need to study that thing!"

"What?! No! Absolutely not! Never! No way! Nunca!" Iida spoke louder with each denial, even forming an "x" with his arms for added emphasis. "I need to get rid of it, not give it back to you! We have no idea what it even is, for all we know, it'll simply try and reattach itself back onto you!"

"Precisely why we should study it!"

"I'm going to chalk up your lunacy to blood loss and try to forget this conversation!" he declared, standing right back up and turning around in a scoff. "Try to get some rest, I'm going to go prepare you something to drink to see how your stomach manages with liquids before we try solids. We need to try and get you something, though, as I'm certain you are severely dehydrated, if not worse."

With his intentions clear, Iida moved to leave the "lair", but was stopped by his sleeve being grabbed.

"I'm being serious, ya know?" Hatsume told him, her voice reflecting the seriousness she was describing. "I know it sounds crazy, and I am probably still a bit woozy, but that thing is a piece of a very dangerous enemy for everyone you and I both know… And this wouldn't be the first time I risk myself for science. So, please, I'm grateful, but I need that foreign body and I need to get back out there. My friends are probably assuming the worse already."

"…So you have some idea of what it is?"

"A theory," she replied. "Or, well, a few theories. It gives the circus members powers which resemble Quirks, but the function a lot more like a parasite that they do a mutation. I never knew they could try and assimilate another host if separated from the main one, nor am I one-hundred percent certain that was what it was trying to do to me. For all I know, it could have been simply trying to kill me on its previously received orders, who knows? That's why I have to study it!"

"That doesn't reassure me in the slightest!" he argued. "Circus members? Are you referring to the Yatsudoki? Do you have any idea of how dangerous those bastards are? How many people from this district disappear thanks to them? Even the Regime can't fully restrain them, why would you want anything to do with them near you?"

"Because," she smiled as she replied. "I'm part of the group not afraid to fight back for our freedom. Our real freedom. Your name was Tenya Iida, correct? Allow me to properly introduce myself to ya, well, as properly as I can manage in just my panties, but still…"

He failed to hide his blush.

"…My name's Mei Hatsume," she introduced. "And I'm part of the "Return The World To How It Was Before All Might Became Fucking Insane And Began To Kill People Left And Right Movement", who are similarly seeking out a better name to identify us by, so suggestions are welcomed!"

"…All Might?" he repeated, shocked. "You're actually trying to-"

"Why did you think I showed up here, of all places?" she asked him. "Your brother, Ingenium, was one of the most vocal about the Regime when it first started, and he was very helpful to any who were trying to hide from its Anti-Quirk measures."

"And that's why he's no longer with us, unfortunately," Iida added, his tone pained but never losing that spark of pride that it always had whenever his brother was the center of the conversation. "He stuck to his roots until the very end, and if I know anything, is that I plan to do the same. So if that whatever it is can assist in your efforts, so be it."

Mei was thrilled…

"However!"

Mei was less thrilled…

"…You young lady are still heavily wounded, so no experiments until I am certain you can sneeze without spitting out a kidney or something like that," he instructed, and for once she visibly shivered.

"Have you seen that happen?" she asked, half joking, half worried.

"Perhaps," he lied. "But let's first see if you can drink some fluids. Your subject of study is safely guarded, I placed it somewhere where, given how weak it grew after I dislodged it from you, it will have a very hard time escaping."

"You have materials strong enough to contain it here?" she asked, sounding genuinely impressed. "Considering that I saw it actually punch through concrete, I must say, you really have everything in this lair of yours!"

"Of course," he boasted, before he thought, 'Punch through concrete?! Shit! Need to put it somewhere else other than that pickle jar!'

No sooner had he thought that, than a very soft beeping began to sound all throughout the lair, alerting them both. Hatsume quickly scanned her surroundings, half expecting they had jinxed their luck and the foreign object had broken out and was on track to murder them both; a thought the alarmed Iida seemed to share. But, despite her powers, she didn't see anything amiss.

"Does this mean that…?" she asked, trying and failing to get off the mattress, as her legs were still too weak to lift her up properly.

"…No, it's not our little friend," Iida replied, having appeared to have figured out the reason for the sound. "That's my brother's secret alarm, which can only be heard within these walls. Someone, or something, must be trying to break into the house."

"A break-in?" she repeated. "How safe are we here?"

"…Not very," he admitted. "I'm going to lock us in here until I can figure out what's going on, but this lair isn't all that well hidden if you are actively looking for secrets. It wasn't built as such. There is another way out of here, if we find ourselves in need of it."

"That's what I like to hear," she said, despite her attempts at getting up causing her pain and straining her voice. He quickly moved to her, using his arms to gently keep her from moving any further.

"I told you, you mustn't strain yourself."

"Heh, I fancy myself a super heroine too, you know?" she said, her eyes looking straight up at his. "But given my current state, I think I'm going to be in need of further assistance from my hero, so, if you would, care to help me get dressed? I'm starting to feel a chill, well, everywhere."

"…Must you be so descriptive?" a blushing Iida asked.

"You have no idea," Hatsume replied, giving the boy a teasing smile. She then glanced down, seeing the motors which made up the Quirk this boy had. Just like a car's engine, she observed, a very fine tuned mutation is she had ever seen one. Just above one of them, she noted, was one of the anti-Quirk ankle monitors the Regime was so quick to slap on anyone the felt posed even the slightest of threats; a travesty if anything. "Do you think…?" she began, shifting her attention back to his eyes. "If I can remove that ankle bracelet from your leg without blowing us both up, that you'd be able to get me out of here before whatever is out there murders us?"

His eyes widened ever so slightly, as if he was surprised by her question, but not as much as he expected to be. At least, that's what she observed by his body language. She knew she was asking a lot, he had already risked everything by just hiding her. If he did this, well, he'd probably be just as wanted a felon as she was, hunted down by both the Regime and the Circus alike. She should never ask him, or anyone else for that matter, such a risky thing, but she was against the wall. She had no idea if Power Loader had been able to escape or not, or if her MIA status had alerted her allies and someone had been sent to retrieve her. She couldn't just keep putting people at risk because she was unwilling to take further risks.

However, given his physical response, it would seem she was more conflicted about this proposal that he himself was.

"I'm pretty confident in my speed," he said, and it didn't sound as boastful as the sentence would imply. It almost sounded sincere.

"How fast are you?"

"Depends on what's behind me."

"Ha, ha, ha, ouch." It hurt to laugh. "…Then you are going to be a blur."

They then heard another alarm sound off, this one louder, and they got to work quickly, because just three minutes after the second alarm sounded, Iida's house was completely swarmed by people they had no intention of coming into contact with. Ever.

-0-

Izuku Midoriya opened his eyes, and it took less than two seconds for him to remember that he had just been smacked by a very nasty villain into something quite hard, and that it was in his best intentions to regain consciousness in full. No sooner had he tried to move, than he realized he was restrained fully, both his arms and legs held in place, and a hand placed over his mouth. His eyes widened in shock, but before he attempted to flare up his Quirk in an effort to escape, he saw that the hand keeping his from speaking was too small and too soft to belong to a Nomu or to the Frighty Clown or whatever he called himself.

He looked up, and he saw Ochako Uraraka, motioning him not to scream or shout.

"We're still not safe," she whispered. "Don't alert them, keep your voice low."

He nodded, understanding his situation a bit more. As soon as he did, he felt his limbs be released, and he was quickly able to sit back up. He noticed it had been Shinsou who had tied him up, likely in an effort to keep him from flying back into action without even knowing what had transpired.

"That aside, are you hurt?" Uraraka asked, and as he turned back to face her again, he noticed something.

He had been laying in her lap when he came to, hence why he was able to see her looking down at him. And he had stupidly gotten up without realizing, and now that he did, all he could do was blush thirty shades of crimson as words failed to come out of his mouth.

"I-I, I'm f-fi-great even, I t-think," he tried structuring a proper sentence.

"Good to hear," she said. "We're still not out of the woods just yet."

"Now that's putting things mildly," Bakugou spoke up, and Midoriya was surprised than even the ever volatile Kacchan was keeping his volume low. Now that he thought about it, Midoriya had never heard Bakugou whisper before. He had no idea the boy even knew how to communicate any other way that through overly manly shouts. "The clown freak that punched you into next week managed to resist my best attack, and now we have several drones flying about, searching every nook and cranny of the city limits in search for the Quirk users which caused that destruction."

'Drones?' Midoriya thought, then he managed to turn his focus onto his surroundings. His group, all of them thankfully, were currently inside some building, a proper one this time at least, but not less abandoned. It was dark, they had not even turned on a match it would seem, likely as to not alert the drones. Bakugou was near a window, peeking out towards the city, and Ashido seemed to be doing the same.

"How many do you count?" Bakugou asked, likely to Ashido.

"Hmm…" she pondered. "Around eight, I think? At least nearby. They are doing a thorough search, though, so we might have to move again."

"It'll probably be easier now at least, with Midoriya once again conscious," Shinsou whispered, moving from next to Midoriya towards Bakugou and Ashido, taking a peek out the window as well. Whatever it was he saw, Midoriya noted, was bad enough that it made the boy frown.

"I told you we should have dumped him down the sewer and just hide ourselves," Bakugou added, as Uraraka, instead of glaring at him, merely smirked in his direction.

"All that boasting, and yet," she spoke in an almost song like manner. "You were the one carrying him all around. Now he wants to play up the macho man role."

"That-!" he began, but he was silenced by both Shinsou and Ashido placing their hands on his mouth at the same time, almost double slapping him. He would have outright attacked the two if he didn't know that would certainly spell doom for them all.

"Don't push him Uravity," Ashido told Uraraka, her tone less like a partner and more like a scolding older sister. "He's doing his very best to keep quiet, let's not trigger any louder responses from the poor boy."

"I guess," Uraraka replied.

"So are we moving?" Kirishima asked, moving from the back, likely watching the doors, and crouching next to the still sitting Midoriya. "You alright man? You took quite the nasty hit. It did give Shinsou the opportunity to catch the bastard off-guard, though, so it wasn't entirely wasted."

"You caught him in your power?" Midoriya asked, utterly impressed. Such a strong opponent, who could almost one-shot Midoriya, dominated by Shinsou? Man, ho he wished he had not been knocked out to have been able to witness such a badass move.

"More or less," Shinsou replied, his attention still focused on the nearby streets. "It's like I got a part of him. After you got hit, I managed to fool him using my voice synchronizer to mimic your voice as best I could. It's not a perfect replica, but it was close enough to fool him. Not entirely sure I needed it to be honest, since I can't be entirely certain if he knew of my power or not, but I couldn't risk it. If it's true he had done whatever it was he did to one of the other students from the academy, then there is a risk that they know about us. Still, I managed to restrain him enough for Bakugou to strike."

"Bastard somehow protected himself from my blast," Bakugou added, clenching his fists. "Kirishima says you gave those creatures a name; that you've seen them before. Have you?"

"At least something resembling them greatly," Midoriya replied, as Bakugou turned his focus onto him.

"…Then can you explain to me what the hell it was that we all witnessed?" Bakugou asked, his eyes narrowed as he awaited a response from Midoriya.

"What do you mean?"

"It managed to move," Uraraka explained. "Even while caught in Shinsou's power. No one has been able to do that before."

"Except you," Bakugou added, an accusing finger pointed directly at a shocked Midoriya. "In that "My Hero Academia" fantasy land you cooked up."

"That was…!" Midoriya tried, but forced himself to keep his tone low. "It's not like that. What I told Kirishima and Uraraka was that the walking corpses resembled Nomu, artificial humans from my… world? Memories? Whatever it is that the Pro Heroes fought against. They fought like them too, not feeling pain and even using Quirks, but…"

"That still doesn't answer our chief concern…" Shinsou told him.

"Hey, are we seriously going to keep up this little game of accusing Midoriya of everything that goes wrong?" Uraraka defended, shooting both Bakugou and Shinsou a glare, but neither boy backed down.

"He appeared and it all went to hell," Bakugou explained.

"And no sooner does he describe an unheard of scenario than it actually happens," Shinsou added.

"Hey! For what it's worth, Midoriya here had been at our mercy twice now, completely knocked out, hell, he was even naked once I might add," Ashido protested, but rather than feeling relieved Midoriya almost fainted again out of the sheer humiliation he felt at remembering that scenario. "How far do you think someone would go against nobodies like us? Or do you think that punch the clown guy gave him was faked, because I saw how Midoriya's skull almost broke against the bridge, thanks to my eyesight."

"That's not where I'm getting at," Shinsou explained, but he tensed up a bit as Midoriya stood up and confronted him directly.

"I'm just as lost as all of you on what's even going on," Midoriya told him. "But, if we are going to have a chance at getting out of here alive, we can't keep doubting ourselves like this. I want to help, and I think I've been more than willing to answer anything and everything you all have asked of me. So, let's put an end to this. You still have doubts? Then put me under your control and get the information out of me. You can do that, can't you?"

Shinsou said nothing, just stared down Midoriya, both of them not backing down an inch. Within moments, Bakugou placed himself between them, his eyes focused entirely on Midoriya.

"I don't think you're in any position to be making requests here," he warned, and Midoriya merely shifted his glare to him.

"And you, I've tried from the start to come to a peaceful agreement with you, and yet, you try to pin the blame on me again and again. What else do you want me to do or say Kacchan?" Midoriya asked, no one there raising the volume of their voice, yet the conversation felt almost like a shouting match regardless. "I have no idea where I am, or what happened. My memories are totally different from all of yours from the moment I tried to save you from that sludge villain onwards. I don't know why. But all I know is that the more we fight against each other, the more time we waste saving Hatsume. You saw what happened to Power Loader. That… That Nomu I'm sure was a girl we, I mean, I knew. She was an aspiring Hero, just like us all. And she was turned into that. So tell me, Bakugou, are we going to keep fighting each other, or are we going to try and save people?"

Bakugou didn't answer right away, a surprising move if there was ever one. He seemed to be pondering his response, pondering the words Midoriya had told him. The glare was still there in full effect, however, and Midoriya even felt he might have come out a bit too strong, but he was tired of all this back and forth. And he was worried about Hatsume, and about everyone.

Neither boy got the chance to say anything else, as Kirishima quickly came in between the two rivals that looked seconds away from resuming their fight, and placed a strong grip onto Bakugou shoulders. "Mina's right, Bakugou, he's been more than selfless in meeting our demands. Until we know what's going on, we need all the help we can get, and I saw the punch this guy gave that clown. If he had wanted to, he could have tried hitting you with that. I know you're a strong dude, and you explosions could probably match his power, but if he caught you off-guard with that, you'd be feeling it on the morning."

"Is that meant to sound reassuring?" Bakugou asked, his sarcasm evident.

"I'm just trying to help," Midoriya added.

"What I mean is, let's focus on the enemy out there," Kirishima explained. "And on saving the people we were assigned to actually-"

A huge drop of wetness fell from the ceiling, landing squarely in between Midoriya, Bakugou and Kirishima, narrowly missing the latter's hair by an inch. The three boys froze, their eyes shifting from each other and downwards, where a thick puddle had just been formed. Then they looked up, towards the darkness above them.

"…We are under a roof, aren't we?" Kirishima asked.

"Maybe there's a crack?" Midoriya guessed. "Is it raining outside?"

"In what world does that look like fucking rain?" Bakugou countered, then turned to Ashido. "Hey, Pinky, can you-?"

Then he saw that she had a horrified expression on her face, her eyes directed at the area right above the three. Her mouth moved, making no sound but mimicking words. Bakugou was never the best at lip reading, but this wasn't that hard a message to understand.

Move.

Bakugou ignited his palms in an instant and fired directly up, at whatever it was that had Ashido so petrified, the resulting explosion blowing the unsuspecting Midoriya and Kirishima backwards in opposite directions. Part of his intention, following Ashido's advise in a rather unorthodox manner.

The explosion was strong enough to not only blow most of the roof clean off, but also shatter all nearby windows, leaving the six heroes in training without cover. The nearby drones took very little time to get a proper fix on their location, and begun making their way to them.

Bakugou found his footing once again, palms ignited, and as he looked up at the new sunroof he just made, he felt a chill hit his spine as soon as he saw what he had blindly fired at. It was someone from the Circus, of that he was sure, but unlike the vaguely humanoid clown guy, this Beast was way more monstrous than he could ever imagine. A cross between what seemed to be an undead tiger or lion, mutated with a demon wearing the skin of another demon.

The other heroes got back up, all of them except Ashido ready to reprimand Bakugou for blowing their hideout clean away, but their complaints were silenced as soon as they caught sight of the Beast before them. It had been watching them there, motionless, and they didn't know for how long. Had it just gotten there? Did it get there before Midoriya woke up? Or, was it there since before they even arrived?

"C-Can we fight that?" Kirishima asked, his Quirk activating completely involuntary as a fight or flight response, coating his body in his signature sharp alloy, just because of the sight of the monster.

"No," Shinsou replied, finding no use in sugarcoating anything.

"I never saw it move," Ashido said, droplets of acid falling out of her fingertips as she prepared her power. "It was there all along, watching us, hunting us."

"It's just like the fucking clown," Bakugou cursed. "I blasted it and that damn black liquid thing moves to protect him."

"That's how the clown did it?" Midoriya voiced, more to him than to any of them. He had not seen it, but now, it looked outright tarrying. The Beast had a gooey substance moving across his body, forming a coat around it, almost like a second skin. 'What even is that?'

"…"

The Beast seemed to be thinking, as a soft hum left its fangs. They all tensed up even more, at the idea that it was actually plotting against them.

"…You'll go first," it voiced, its voice sounding just as monstrous as it looked.

And, as soon as it spoke, not even Ashido was able to follow his movement when he initiated it, only managing to catch up on its form once it was halfway to its destination. Too late to react. Too late to do anything. The creature reached Shinsou in an instant, and as the bewildered boy realized he was the target, the Beast slashed him clean across the chest. Once Midoriya was able to see the attack, despite himself, his mind was easily able to calculate the damage. Such an attack, with such force, was to leave such a gaping wound on Shinsou that they would have to sew it shut if they were to have any hopes of saving him.

Desperation consumed him, and "One For All" was activated instantly, in an effort to save his friend. But, in the darkest reaches of his mind, he knew. He knew he wasn't going to reach them in time. He was too far away.

So the Beast slashed at Shinsou…

…And its claw was met with the hardest of materials.

Red Riot had intercepted the attack, just barely, his body as hard as he had ever felt it, and yet, his arms bleeding all the same. The floor had also cracked by the weight of the hit, but Kirishima still resisted. "D-Damn, that was close…"

"Red Riot," Shinsou voiced, trying his best to process the fact that he had almost died.

"…Impressive," the Beast softly growled, and as both Midoriya and Bakugou charged at him, their efforts to save Shinsou now focused on getting that thing away from either of them, the Beast spared them little thought. "Hierou struggled with you?" it asked, and out of nowhere its tail seemed to materialize.

It struck both the incoming heroes almost at the same time, sending them both in opposite directions, as if swatting an annoying fly. Then, in what amounted to the same movement, it added pressure to the arm currently engaged to Kirishima, its claws buried deep within the crimson hero's arms.

The resulting force of the creature merely finishing his strike was enough to send Kirishima tumbling through the floor, crashing onto the lower floor and going through that one as well. Kirishima fell through four floors, leaving a trail of destruction over each. As Kirishima laid on the ground, defeated, the Beast turned to the other five.

"Who's next?"

Shinsou shot his cloths at him the moment he regained his footing, as the breaking of the floor had almost toppled him over as well. Unlike the Nomu, who could be briefly restrained by it, the Beast purposely wrapped its arm around it, striking at it with its claws with all his might. It didn't tear, not outright, which seemed to produce a slight impressed reaction from the Beast. Shinsou did not waste this chance, as he steadied his hold and pushed the Beast arms down, in an effort to use its own massive weight against it.

"Whatever it is you guys have in mind!" he shouted. "Do it now!"

The four others charged at once, Midoriya with a flying kick, Bakugou with an explosive tackle, Uraraka alongside pieces of the building to use as missiles, and Ashido skating in her acid while taking aim directly into the Beast's mouth. Their attacks never reached.

It instead yanked Shinsou up, using his own cloth against him, violently pulling him to it, and launching him straight at Bakugou, who slammed headfirst into the boy. Then, with the cloth still in its grasp, it blocked the acid from Ashido, before it grabbed onto Midoriya's leg, and used the boy's own momentum to twirl him around and launch him straight at Uraraka, finishing by using the acid stained cloth as a whip to strike Ashido on the torso, sending the girl flying to the side. In just a moment, all five of them had been counterattacked at the same time.

As Midoriya landed, the struck Uraraka lost focus and dropped her makeshift weaponry. She blinked, her vision slightly blurry, as Midoriya stood right back up, what little was left of his shirt and boxers now fully stained in blood and ash.

"Are you okay?!" he asked, almost as he was begging.

"Yeah," she replied, still a little shaken. "But, Kirishima, we have to-"

"He's pretty tough, of that I'm certain," Midoriya assured, then he turned to the side. He could see how Bakugou, Ashido and Shinsou had landed close together, and were also in the process of regrouping. Bakugou and Midoriya locked eyes for a moment, and Bakugou pointed downwards, without a word. Midoriya just nodded. "But we can't let this guy go towards him. Can you still activate your Quirk?"

"Yes, I told you, I'm okay," she replied, and he nodded. She could see he had an idea, or at least the beginning of one. She'd be fine with that.

"The try to lift as much rubble as you can."

She didn't ask why. She just got up and ran, all around the Beast, who then turned his focus on the duo. She activated her Quirk as much as she could, lifting as much rubble as she could, causing it to begin to float all around. The Beast narrowed its eyes, failing to understand the motive. It wasn't that big of a rubble, so it couldn't mask an attempt to flee. Nor was it moving at that high a speeds, so it couldn't hurt him in any way. Not that it cared very much either way, he was going to kill them all shortly, but it was still a disappointing display after Hierou had hyped them up so much. So he began to target the girl, when he was hit by a rock flying at immeasurable speeds.

'What the hell!'

Then another piece hit him, right across the face, so hard it caused him to lose sight of Uraraka. It was here he noticed what was hitting him. It was the rubble she was lifting up. But it wasn't just her power. It was the half-naked boy, who was punching and kicking the rubble at him with all of his power.

"It's working!" Midoriya roared, and he continued flipping between floating rubble, launching them like oversized bullets.

Uraraka continued lifting everything she could touch, keeping her distance from their enemy. She couldn't help but be impressed, though, given how quickly Midoriya had managed to combine their Quirks so effectively. 'He has to be telling the truth,' she thought to herself. 'He must really know us all, in order to plan like this.'

"You little-" the Beast began, but was silenced by another hit to the snout.

"He's not like the clown! He can't attack at long range!" Midoriya announced his deductions, and he made another flip and kicked a piece of the roof the same way you'd kick a soccer ball, landing it squarely on the Beasts torso.

'We got caught off-guard,' Midoriya noted. 'All of us charging at him almost got us killed. And Bakugou is way too drained to be able to use as many explosions as normally, so we can't depend on him. If he can get Kirishima out of here, then we can safely escape, I just hope they have something else in mind, because Uraraka and I are going to run out of ammunition very soon.'

As the two fought the Beast, Bakugou and Shinsou found themselves four stories under, near ground level, next to a knocked out Kirishima.

"Looks like Uraraka and Midoriya managed to form a proper strategy up there," Shinsou observed, as he helped Bakugou put Kirishima onto his back.

"Yeah," Bakugou replied, then turned his attention upwards and shouted as loud as he could. "Time to go! Pinky, you're up!"

Midoriya, Uraraka and the Beast heard that at the same time, just as Midoriya launched on of the last iron bars at it. The Beast managed to catch it within its claws, catching Midoriya off-guard, but his fear tripled when he saw that it was taking aim and Uraraka with it, as if preparing to launch a spear clean through her.

"Hey wait!" Midoriya pleaded, the Beast only smiled.

"Try to make this float," it growled, and Uraraka tried her best to prepare herself for the attack, despite how her stomach was starting to protest at the overuse of her Quirk just moments before. It moved to attack, Midoriya had no choice but to try and tackle it to stop it, and Uraraka prepared to minimize the damage as best she could.

Then, through the broken down windows, came Ashido, skating down with her Quirk. She wasn't alone.

About seven drones were on her heels, firing short, controlled bursts at her retreating form. The Alien Queen dodged them by shifting her movement in a zigzag formation, as she launched herself right at the Circus Beast. It decided to take aim at her, as the sight of the drones triggered a sense of dread even on a monster like him, and he much rather she not do what he felt she wanted to do. This proved a mistake, as no sooner had he taken aim at her, than had Midoriya grabbed the cloth the Beast still possessed from Shinsou and used all his power to pull it clean off, slicing several parts of the Beasts torso the process. As the Beast growled out in pain, its instinct instructing it to maul Midoriya to death above all, Ashido took aim and fired her acid right into the gashes the cloth had just made, causing the Beast to let out the loudest roar they had heard it utter.

She slid right under him with her powers, with the pursuing drones shifting their aim to it instead, launching a barrage of bullets at the Beast. The still sliding Ashido slid right past Midoriya, shouting out to him to: "Let's move, move, move!"

He looked back, and saw that Uraraka had ran towards them, and as soon as she reached him, the three heroes jumped down the building and towards the lower levels, escaping through the debris as the drones kept their steady fire focused on the Beast.

"Do you think Kirishima is alright?" a clearly worried Ashido asked, as the trio made their way to the others.

"I'm sure he is," Uraraka replied, trying her best to keep what little lunch she still had left inside her. "We need to tend to his injuries, regardless."

"He saved Shinsou, when none of us could have," Midoriya added, following the girls closely behind, as they ran and leaped through broken concrete. "And believe me, that guy's not going to go down with something so-"

He never finished, as the Beast shattered through the concrete, its body broken beyond recognition as the black ooze they had seen before outright bled out of every single wound the drones had inflicted upon it. It seemed to say something, but it was impossible to make out what it was. What it sounded like, however, was outright nightmarish. Like multiple beasts at once, crying out for blood. The echo of many, coming from one. Before they could even react, it took hold of Midoriya within its jaws, slamming the boy against the side and breaking clean through it with him.

Midoriya lost count how many walls he felt break behind him, or just how far he was dragged by the Beast. His instinct only focused on the arm caught on the Beasts fangs, which he knew was at the risk of being torn clean off if he did even the slightest of wrong movements. Out of pure instinct if nothing else, Midoriya grabbed a nearby small piece of debris, thankfully sharp enough to work, and lodged it directly into the Beast's jaw, right where the bones should meet. Given the way he was released, Midoriya considered himself lucky.

He managed to get himself free, and as he fell to the streets, rolling across the pavement and stopping just short of another wall; the hurt and broken boy just stared up onto the dark skies. His arm hurt, extensively, and he was sure his shoulder was not attached correctly. He was bleeding, and he was sure he was crying.

Why was the sky so dark?

Did this place even have a sun?

'All Might, what do I do?' he asked, as he felt he could no longer fight. He could barely breathe. 'I try, and try… but I can't understand this. This is a nightmare. Everything's trying to kill us, and I don't have the strength to do anything about it. I can't…'

He then heard the Beast roar, as it stood back up, its jaw slowly healing itself with that ooze.

Midoriya didn't even bother looking, what was he supposed to do?

He closed his eyes, bit his lips, and remembered the words that had saved him from himself what seemed like a lifetime ago.

"…So clench your buttcheeks kid, and yell this from the depths of your heart!"

Midoriya clenched everything he could, his butt, his fists, his feet and resolve. He pushed himself up, with only one working arm, and stared down the oozing Beast before him. If he couldn't win, if he couldn't escape this hell, then the least he could do was to buy the others a few more seconds. He focused all his power onto his available right arm, shouting in his mind: 'All For One: One-Hundred Percent!'

It's been a while since he'd broken his arms fighting. Feels like this Beast had more than earned this display.

The Beast seemed surprised, but the pain it had sustained easily clouded that. It charged, as did Deku.

In an instant, the Beast was tossed to the side, with such velocity that Midoriya could barely register it. It landed on the other end of the street, and the only thing Midoriya could say for certain was that he had never struck it. He had never made the hit, as his unbroken arm could attest to. The Beast, standing up in a fury, likewise was shocked by whatever it was that made it fly.

Then they saw it, as feathers fell all around them. And, just like that Midoriya saw an angel.

"Byakkov, what's the Fright Beast, doing all the way out here, so close to my city?" the winged Hero Hawks asked, levitating slightly from the ground, he's majestic wings fully extended as he placed himself between Midoriya and Byakkov, as the Beast was called.

"Hawks?!" Byakkov growled, but for all its animosity, it did not charge.

"The one and only," Hawks replied. "You are technically not in my jurisdiction, but given that the citizens could clearly hear the ruckus, I can still put you away for Public Disturbance."

Byakkov didn't respond. He simply ran. Down on all fours like the tiger he mimicked, so fast that he was gone within seconds.

And, despite what Midoriya expected, he never saw Hawks try to detain Byakkov. He didn't launch his feathers, not give chase. He just stared, with a fixed smile. Then he turned to Midoriya. He glanced at the boy, from head to toe. "And you…" he said. "Three inches less of clothing and I can arrest you for Public Indecency."

"Hawks, I," Midoriya tried, no longer caring how close to naked he was or not. "That monster almost killed me and my friends, he's incredibly dangerous! You can't allow him to-"

"I can't?" Hawks repeated, and the tone caught Midoriya completely off-guard. It sounded so off-putting, but Midoriya didn't know why. "You are in no position to be barking orders at me. Listen up kiddo, usage of Quirks is a big no-no here, and I don't see you ankle bracelet anywhere, which leads me to believe you were up to no good."

"What?"

"So, if you'd be ever so kind," Hawks instructed, as he flapped his wings and placed his feet on the ground. "Allow me to arrest you without any hassle."

"What are you saying!?" Midoriya cried out, but as he did, he saw that multiple armored trucks began to park themselves nearby, clearly blocking the exits Midoriya could try and take. Then, as he turned to Hawks in an effort to understand everything, he saw it. The All Might symbol adorning his outfit.

'All Might… in this world… he really is a…'

"Cuff him," Hawks ordered, and the men armed with advance weaponry and all sporting All Might insignia, began to move towards Midoriya. The boy couldn't even process it all.

Then something crashed right into Hawks.

It was a drone.

Then another drone crashed; followed by multiple drones landing everywhere except where Midoriya stood. The boy just stared, as he couldn't understand anything anymore. Then he heard her voice.

"Midoriya," Uraraka called out, flying right out of the sky and towards him. "Take my hand!"

He used his Quirk to jump straight towards her, not sparing the situation a single thought. She grabbed his hand and lifted him with her. The two flew right out of there, but not before Hawks emerged from the rubble, utterly unscathed.

"Ouch," he whined. "Didn't know it was a rainy day today," he mused, as he looked up to the sky at the two retreading criminals. He sighed. "I'm going to have to work for this one, huh? Just my luck."

Uraraka tried her best to balance Midoriya with her powers and keep her flying alongside her. She turned to him, and she could see that he was in a state of shock, not that she could blame him. "Midoriya, it's going to be okay. We… We're going to work something out. Eraserhead has a plan."

"…Hawks is also part of the Regime?" he asked, even if the answer was obvious. He didn't know much about the winged hero, but he was certain that the version he knew would never be part of anything like this. In what world would the "authority" decide that a broken and hurt young man was more of a concern than something like Byakkov?

Uraraka said nothing. She knew the feeling, she could relate. She knew how shocking it was just how many heroes followed All Might down the path he had taken.

Then a feather almost sliced her throat.

Both Midoriya and Uraraka turned, and they saw Hawks flying right at them.

"Uraraka, he's coming right at us!" Midoriya exclaimed.

"Hold on," she instructed, as she grabbed onto his body, and focused as much as she could to try and outfly him.

She began to zip across the sky, with Midoriya in tow, flying in between tall buildings as Hawks got closer and closer. She tried her best to shake him off, to zigzag every time, to keep her pattern unpredictable, but it never worked. Hawks had his eyes on them, and he was gaining on them with every passing second.

Midoriya was trying his best to think up a strategy, but he had no idea what to do. He knew Uraraka couldn't technically "fly", as even now, she was at best floating in an angle, as fast as she could, but that wouldn't be enough. Hawks would catch them.

As they tried their best to avoid him, Midoriya could now see the actual city, and unlike the abandon, well, everything he had seen prior, he could see actual people about. On the streets, inside the buildings, on moving vehicles. There were lights, and sounds, and everything. A proper city, alive and well, with the only change being how nobody seemed to mind how a Pro Hero hunted down a group of kids right before their very eyes.

Uraraka kept on zigzagging, as her face showed how much she was forcing herself not to hurl, but as three other feathers passed by, one even slicing her arm open a bit, the heroine knew she was cornered. 'I'm already in the city,' she thought. 'I had no choice, I couldn't risk going to the others with Hawks behind me. I have to lose him first. But I can't keep my Quirk up for much longer… I… wait…'

She then turned to the boy she was holding onto.

"How much do you trust me?" she asked, a hint of uneasiness in her voice.

"With my life," he answered, and it surprised her how honest he sounded. Why did this boy trust her so much? Was it because the "other" Uraraka was close to him? How close was she to him for him to trust her so blindly? She shook her head, she had no time for such thoughts, or for the blushing the caused.

"Good, and I trust you, so please, think fast!" she told him, and before he could even ask what she was going to do, as he knew for certain that Hawks was a much, much faster flier than she was, she cut off her Quirk. Hawks reached the two at that very moment, but even the Pro Hero was unable to predict her action and ended up missing the attack he made with his wing, as Uraraka and Midoriya fell right out of the sky, just beyond his reach.

"Are you kidding me?" Hawks groaned, as he then set his sights downwards, and flung himself towards them, pretty confident in being able to catch them before the hit the ground. 'Clever girl,' he thought, quoting his favorite movie. 'But I'm still faster at flying than you are at falling my dear, so all you did was by yourself a… why is the kid flicking his finger at m-?'

The resounding shockwave hit him before he could react, breaking all the windows of the nearby building and activating the car alarms of every single vehicle on the street below. Hawks had no idea what had hit him, but he knew that one moment he had seen the boy tuck his middle finger onto his thumb, and then he simply flicked it at him. Hawks initially assumed he was flipping him off, wouldn't have been the first, but the shockwave, it was almost like getting hit by…

"Um… Yeah, it's me, Hawks," Hawks spoke on his radio, standing inside the building which Midoriya had now given him easy access to, on the account of there no longer being any glass, anywhere. He looked down at the street, where many citizens surveyed the damage and the commotion, but where his prey could no longer be spotted. "I think we have a code red. Two troublemakers made their way into the city, both possessing strong Quirks."

He heard a reply.

"What? No, I didn't see any of them with engines for feet," he replied. "Just get a search team out here, and it might be time to set up another curfew for our citizens. We're going hunting tonight!"

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