Chapter Text
The rush of adrenaline, of energy pulsed through every bit of Izuku's body, as he swung through the city at massive speeds. In movements, it was a little different from how Izuku had been moving all day. Which was a limitation he hadn't really thought about before.
Unlike running, there was no pushing yourself to go even faster than your regular top speed with web-swinging. He'd built up momentum a lot with the swing after the skyscraper, but now, after that momentum had died down after a few swings, he couldn't simply regain it with some effort.
This form of movement was based on momentum, of keeping the pendulum going. An eternal consistency. That reliability of the pattern was a strength, but also a limitation in how hard it was to push it beyond it's regular speed, at least beyond having a good start point to jump off.
"BOOOOOMMMM!!!"
The massive sound shook him and venom through the webline, the shock feeling like an earthquake had rocketed the entire city.
Off in the distance, at the spot where Black Cat had told them NOT to go, he saw massive fires burst into the sky.
So that was presumably where she was heading.
He didn't need to worry about it.
At least that was what he told himself, as he saw a large building lighting up like a candle.
As he continued moving, he felt, rather than heard Mina follow right behind him, as more explosions went off in the distance.
"Which one we headed for first?!"
It was a good question. One which highlighted something Izuku logically knew the moment he'd jumped off the skyscraper.
They could only choose one of the centers of explosions to go to at a time.
It was blatantly obvious of course, but despite his great strides in mastering his own abilities, Izuku was now faced with a harsh reality. For all their powers, he and Mina were only two people. They could only be at one place at a time.
Even if they split up(Which he was not planning on suggesting, as the idea that these brain guys might be even a fraction as strong as the man that had gone up against All Might, made any suggestion that they could divide their total fighting power in any way, something he wouldn't even consider), they couldn't cover even half of the sites of the explosions at once.
No matter where they went, someplace or another would be left to fend for themselves.
It was a galling thought. And the more he thought about it, the worse it seemed to him.
What if they weren't strong enough to deal with these villains? Or they ended up having to fight just one for half the night?
What if he chose a villain they couldn't defeat while choosing another spot might have ended with an easy victory?
He understood, no, he KNEW in his bones that lives could and would depend on the answer.
The only thing he could hope for was that any spot he and Mina didn't choose, other heroes would go to. He could only pray that any who were, were up to the task of the coming battle.
In the end, fears and doubts were thrown aside, as screams made themselves clearly known, as to their right, on a set of train tracks the second half of a train had been disconnected(Though ripped off from its front half was a better description.) was currently the site where at least one villain was to be found.
Izuku had almost completely missed it, due to the lack of loud explosions. Even though it was right by.
He made the choice without considering it.
"The train tracks!"
---
As Black Cat studied her target from behind, she considered how to go about dealing with him.
The white-haired man who had led the raid that had targeted the class of her pride and joy was standing on top of a water tower alongside the mist man that had played such a crucial role there.
She noticed that the man was wounded on his right shoulder, with some basic patchwork over the wound.
Both of them had their backs turned to her, as she surveyed them from the top of a roof, 5 buildings over.
Had they been at the edge of said roof, she would have ended it immediately. Them being up on the water tower made it much, much more complicated.
She'd need to either scale it from below or jump up.
Against regular foes, she might have risked it. Unfortunately, the white-haired guy happened to have one of THOSE powers. The instant kill kind. If he managed to touch you with his hands, you disintegrated. Along with being "Ludicrously fast" according to Uraraka, that was the worst kind of enemy.
She had seen way too many heroes making a jump attack against this kind of foe, only to be hit with whatever instant win power they had as they were in the air, without the capacity to dodge.
Scaling the tower wouldn't be hard. She'd make that in less than 4 seconds. If his reaction times were as good as his massive speed though, he'd react before she hit him.
He could attack her directly, which could be bothersome… Or he could simply disintegrate the tower itself on the spot, robbing her of any solid foothold, as his companion could simply turn into a giant cloud and attack her midair.
An image of her successfully knocking white hair out, only to suffer the fate of being bisected by a portal cut by way of the black mists danced through her head.
That's how Drew had died.
Not a good way to go.
As it happened though, she had another way to deal with the two of them, which would not involve her feet leaving the ground.
She made her move in a burst of a
speed, one, two, four rooftops cleared in practically no time at all.
She cleared the fence around the uppermost floor of the final building.
Then, she hit the final rooftop, feet running.
She moved right towards the water tower.
It was a well-made one, though obviously not all that well well-kept. Still, not a fleck of rust-covered it that she could see. Each of its four pillars was nice and strong.
Perfect.
She stopped her momentum forward as she ended up underneath the water tower. Then she went to work.
Four kicks, one after the other hit each of the four-tower beams with such speed and rapid movement between each beam that the tower was only beginning to shake as she hit the final one.
Then, she grabbed the now freefalling beam she had just separated from the ground, and as it had just barely begun falling, she moved forward, and using the beam, she WRENCHED the entire tower forward in an arch.
"CRRRRAAAASSSSSHHHHH!!!"
The water tower exploded into water and shrapnel of steel, coating the entire roof in both… Though other than some droplets of splashing water and the suddenly wet floor coating her boots, it did not affect Felicia much.
She had been shielded by the large, square floor the water tower itself was standing on though.
Wrenching the beam loose from said floor, Felicia made her way around the remains of the water tower, wary and on guard.
"Owww….."
What greeted her was the sight of the two villains lying on the floor, both soaking wet, and with tons of bleeding cuts from the busted metal all around.
Both of them weakly tried to get to their feet to face her, though the white-haired man slipped and fell straight on his ass again.
Just like she'd been told, he wore a severed hand over his face, along with clothing that looked like a set of all-black pajamas.
His wound had opened right back up again she realized.
Unfortunately for him.
"Black Cat… This is… A most unlikely encounter." The teleporter groaned with the voice of someone trying to put on a slick and smooth voice after having fallen into shit.
She laughed.
"If you don't wanna be spotted, roosting on the tallest spot like cockerels isn't a good way to go about it. Not that you're gonna have to worry much about that in the future."
Quicker than one would have believed, the leader made his move, lunging at her. One second he was stumbling to his feet, the next he was barreling right at her, clearing the distance in the blink of an eye.
At least in the blink of an eye of regular people.
Felicia lazily brought up the steel bar and pointed it so that the tip would hit the wounded shoulder.
With a burst of blood, it did just that, and the man moving at such speed slammed into the thing hard, blood immediately bursting out of the reopened wound that the steel beam hit so nicely.
She'd expected him to fall flat on his ass after that, and he did indeed do so, but before that his hand went up despite the obvious pain he must be in and gripped the beam.
She immediately let go of the beam, and moved back away from it, just in case the disintegration might spread from it to her or from it to the ground to her.
Neither happened.
Then, Black Mist exploded from the teleporter.
Instinctually she thought he was targeting her, and acted accordingly with a massive burst of speed to the side, but instead, the mists engulfed… The remains of the water tower.
This time, she did a move backwards and away from the two of them, as, just as she predicted, the entire mess of steel dropped from above, in front of the two villains, where she had just been two seconds ago.
It was a basic and effective, if horribly unimaginative use of teleportation portals.
As the entire thing slammed into the ground and burst to pieces a second time, Felicia kept her distance, certain that a follow-up attack would be coming from the white-haired guy. That was what any competent and experienced team would do, coordinate their deadly abilities for maximum effect.
Instead, as the sounds of crashing steel died down, the man was just standing there, having gotten to his feet again(same with the mist guy), and glaring at her, most of his face covered by that ridiculous hand Mina had described.
"Dammit, all…"
The whiny tone of his voice took her completely out of it.
"We really need to get a healer in the party… This is just getting ridiculous… And why is one of the optional bosses here? This wasn't at all meant to be a hidden boss level."
It could have sounded at least somewhat dignified, but the voice and tone he used as he said it… She couldn't help but think of every time one of her kids had thrown a tantrum over the years.
It had the exact kind of energy as Mana crying because she didn't get the final slice of cake on her 6th birthday.
This was the guy who would usher in another apocalypse? An edgy manchild who spoke like life was an RPG?
Miles Warren was a college professor, she reminded herself. Looks can be deceiving, Felicia, you learned that lesson long ago.
Right. She had to finish this.
"Wow, you idiots sure didn't prepare much for this outing. Not only did you miss me, but Endeavor's here too tonight. You're bloody lucky you didn't run into him. He would just have killed you. Me? I'll be satisfied just ripping your arms clean off since your powers have such a blatant method of disarming ."
It was as she began moving, that black mist exploded once more, this time engulfing the white-haired brat with a hand on his face, as well as the man spawning it completely.
Barely in the nick of time too.
Had it been half a second later, his buddy would have suddenly found himself without a right arm.
As it was, the punch that made a sound like a bullcrack whip, only found empty air where Shigaraki's shoulder had been.
The mists dissipated, leaving only her and the busted remains of the water tower on the lonely rooftop.
She sighed.
Great. She'd had one simple, easy shot at this. And she'd wasted it by overestimating her opponents' combat capacity.
Had she known they were this inexperienced at the art of battle, she'd have risked it all by taking them out at the start. Judging from what she'd seen just now, she'd had little to fear by doing so.
That was the problem with relying on hearsay and reports to judge your foes' combat capacity.
It was easy to make mistakes, one way or another.
Another huge explosion went off in the distance, and she turned her head towards it.
Right, there were still the Nomu-like guys to deal with. As well as that other problem.
---
Izuku landed on the train's roof, Mina following just behind him.
As he quickly made his way over to the ripped open part of the train, he heard noises from inside.
Screams, crying, people needing help.
He did not hesitate, and as he jumped down onto the ground from the train roof, he twisted midair and landed facing the interior of the train.
He recognized the villain immediately.
Long spindly arms and legs, with a sick grey color, wearing nothing but a set of jeans. Just like the villain All Might had fought during the invasion.
He was covered in blood. And before it was a young woman and a younger girl, most likely a child or a daughter, both looking absolutely terrified.
He didn't think. He just acted.
A black line slammed into the man from behind, taking him straight in the back. Then, with strength so massive, that had it been a regular creature, the sheer force of the pull would have broken the villain's spine if he had been a normal man. Instead, he was wrenched out of the train and sent flying in a sideways arc out over the other train tracks, then slamming into the concrete sides of the tracks with enough force that they cracked.
Izuku didn't stop though, instead sending 4 balls of inky blackness straight into the villain, as it wrenched itself free of the line and got onto its feet again.
The four balls were followed by a scream, but unlike the web, Izuku hadn't thrown restraint to the wind with his cannonballs, so rather than making 4 circle-shaped holes in the villain's body, they instead just slammed into him. Still, they broke the skin every single spot they hit, and blood coated the ground.
The balls of black, having now served their purpose, disintegrated immediately.
For a moment Izuku expected the man to fall over, either in pain or from the internal damage.
Instead, the wounds began to close. Then a few seconds later, it was like there had never been a wound at all.
So a powerful healing factor. Great.
It was the first time Izuku got a full, good look at the man, and frankly, what he saw churned his stomach.
He was different than the man called Nomu, who attacked class 1-A and battled All Might, but there was no mistaking a clear connection.
Whereas that man had been a hulking Behemoth only barely smaller than The Rhino, this man was also tall but rather than thick, sturdy muscles, he was instead lanky, with long, overly elongated limbs. His skin color was a grey-green, but just like Nomu, he had one, immediately obvious feature, that even in the world of Quirks, stood out immediately.
A gross, exposed brain, where his upper skull should have been.
That would have been disgusting enough, but there was also the fact that, unlike Nomu, this guy had 4 eyes, all of which were located inside of that exposed brain.
Mina put it best.
"Holy shit that's disgusting."
Then as if in response to her comment, the guy moved forward at high speed.
Izuku immediately tensed, and thinking the man was attacking Mina in response to her comment, he prepared to act accordingly… Only for the man to lunge at him instead, raising his long, elongated arm high above his head while preparing to smash it down on him.
Which was cut off by several things.
Firstly, a black leather boot hitting his left ankle with the force of a shotgun, and a black
line slamming into his jaw.
The ankle broke with a sickening "CRACK!", immediately setting him off balance, making the force as Izuku forced him down,
impossible to resist.
The uppercut that hit the four-eyed abomination's jaw lifted him a good 9 meters off the ground, and as he fell, he went down over the railing.
If there was one good thing about fighting someone with a healing factor, it was that one didn't really need to hold back.
They heard the squelching sound as he slammed down into the pavement below.
Both of them made their way over to and then jumped on top of the railing at lightning speed, only to be met with the sight of the small crater below being empty.
"Where'd he go?"
"Below us."
He was about to jump down to ground level, only for a massive crashing sound to be heard below.
Then the entire ground under them shook, and the railing, as well as the entire section of the train rail they were standing on literally, began to fall out from under them.
In the brief second before the reality of it all began to set in, Izuku felt a strange sense of deja vu.
Mina moved first, jumping from the now-falling railing over to the nearby buildings, and from there made her way down to ground level.
Izuku made the less gracious, but also simpler move of just jumping down directly to the ground.
That he jumped also meant he hit it after the entire structure slammed into the ground, making everything around it shake from the force of tons of stone hitting the ground, and countless pieces of smaller rocks sprayed all around like shrapnel.
Izuku didn't take notice, his black suit making all of them feel like raindrops.
His focus was instead on his foe, as he landed on his feet and whirled around.
It was a scene of complete and total chaos.
The pillars that their foe had ripped down were now just a part of a gigantic pile of rubble, mixed with the crashing concrete from the section of the bridge the train rails were located on.
Izuku thanked his lucky stars that this had happened later in the day because if this had happened while the streets were full, the death toll would have been in the hundreds.
As it was, he could only hope no one had been crushed to death by the tons and tons of rubble that had suddenly come crashing down.
As he stared at the pile of rubble, Mina jumped down beside him.
"He's still alive right?" She asked in a resigned tone.
He briefly closed his eyes and felt everything around him. At least as far as souls went.
And sure enough, he felt one inside the rubble, something in pain, but very much alive and strong and… Wait… No, there was something different about this one. Something very, very different. Something WRONG.
-Wait… Is that… Well, would you look at that! It's undead.-
The alien sounded almost bemused.
"What?" Izuku asked in a whisper.
Then out of the rubble, an arm shot out, punching a hole in the giant rock it was under.
-It's a corpse that someone has modified to walk around, and do their bidding. Actual fucking necromancy. An abomination against all things living.-
Izuku's eyes went from the emerging foe to Venom, and then back to his foe. He knew full well that Venom had seen his fair share of things across the universe… But necromancy was out there, even by the standards he had learned to accept after bonding with him.
-We should have seen it back during the invasion with the big guy. But we were too distracted by the pajama guy and his hatred that shone like the sun.-
Izuku wanted to ask a question, but he was interrupted by the man… No, the living CORPSE, launching itself at him with high speed.
It wasn't anything compared to the likes of Black Cat and Mina though.
A large, sideways sweep of one of those long, elongated arms came crashing towards him.
He did not dodge though. Instead, he brought his left forearm up to block.
A loud smacking sound echoed down the street as the arms collided with enormous force, the force of which shot down Izuku's spine, and almost lifted him off the ground.
He'd prepared a decent stance and glued himself to the ground though, so he wasn't going anywhere.
Neither was his foe.
Like a snapping eel, his arm shot down from its guard position to close around his foe's arm, making sure he wasn't going anywhere.
He could feel the skin, bone, and muscle break under his grip.
The enemy roared and brought his other hand up, prepared to slam into him from the other side.
It wasn't able to think, Izuku realized.
If it was, it would have realized Izuku would just do the exact same thing he had done with the other arm.
As it was, it never got the chance to bring the arm down.
"CRAAACKKKK!"
Mina's heel slammed into the shoulder of the offending arm with such force that Izuku saw bone protrude from the wound.
Then, she used the spot she had just brutalized as a point to plant her feet and jump to regain distance from her foe.
Still holding one arm in his vastly stronger grip, and the other just having become utterly useless for the time being, Izuku lifted his leg, and with a side kick with all his titanic strength behind it, he planted his foot into the blood-covered zombie thing.
Right between his legs.
The full kicking force of someone who could easily have kicked a football to the top of a skyscraper.
As he made contact, he let go of the arm, and as so, as he felt, more than heard the two small cracks beneath his heel, his foe flew through the air from the force of the blow and slammed back into and once more being buried beneath the rubble from which he had just emerged from.
Then, Izuku immediately followed that up by webbing him and the entire bit of rubble in a cocoon of black mass.
Mina once more came up beside him, as over in the rubble, their foe slowly began recovering, before ripping through his webbed cocoon.
Still, as their enemy staggered to his feet again, he did not do so with the simple yet effective power he'd done the first time.
Instead, the monster moved very, very awkwardly as it staggered towards them, with both his legs out to the side making him look like nothing so much as a crab.
Undead or no, the thing was clearly still able to feel pain.
"Man… I really, really hate fighting regenerators." Mina said in a resigned, yet also angry tone, her look as she glared at their foe being way, way more intense than Izuku would have expected. "But at least he's nowhere near the level of Tokage, so it's not like fighting Wolverine. He's still affected by pain too though, so that's good. That means he can't just shrug off blows and keep attacking while healing."
"Any advice?"
"Eh, we just gotta keep pummeling him until he stops getting back up. Healing quirks always have a limit, and the key to beating them is to keep beating them until you reach that limit. At least that's what mom always said. Also, we got to make sure we don't accidentally kill him while doing so. Then we web him up and move on."
It was a good plan.
However, Izuku also saw a glaring problem with it.
Namely that he had no idea how long it would take before the… The Zombie's healing quirk went out. In fact…
"Any idea how long it will take before he stops moving Venom?"
What he really wanted to ask was the nature of reanimating corpses. Was there stuff he should know about that? Weaknesses, hidden powers, or the like?
Of course, with Mina being there, he had no way of actually asking that question out loud.
As it was, Venom gave him an answer but did not elaborate on what he really wanted to know.
"Given how he's struggling to repair his balls, we'd say he'll probably go down after 10-15 minutes of a good and brutal beatdown."
15 minutes.
This guy was dangerous, but not immensely so. At least not to him or Mina, who he could easily tell both were more than capable of beating the tar out of him.
Izuku was stronger than this guy, and frankly, from what Izuku had seen, it was not by a small margin either. Meanwhile, Mina was ludicrously faster, and was more than capable of causing grievous injury to the man… Zombie… Whatever he was.
But despite the difference in power, the two of them would be stuck with him until he stopped healing.
All the while other villains roamed the city, and there wasn't a damn thing they could do about it before they had dealt with this guy.
And when they were done with this guy, it would be the same story again somewhere else. He really could only be one place at a time.
---
The city was in complete chaos.
The sounds of large, massive explosions rocketed through the streets, and everyone, civilians, police, patrolling heroes, or otherwise suddenly decided that they all had somewhere to be.
Whether that be away from said explosions or heading towards them.
Iida Tenya was walking down the streets when the explosions began happening.
However, rather than following his current teacher as he called for him to follow towards the flames and explosions, Tenya instead stood, frozen to the spot as he looked down an alleyway, not even considering following Manuel, nor even hearing what he said at all.
The first thing that ran through his heart was utter shock.
Had Tenya been calmer and collected about it all, he would probably have marveled about the chances of him actually succeeding. That he actually came upon his quarry in an alley as he was walking down the streets.
But there he was, in a random alleyway Iida was passing by that he just happened to look down. Tall, muscular, with a bandanna-like mask over his face, and a mane of ragged black all around his head. Hero Killer Stain, the man who had crippled his brother, was currently holding a hero up against the wall of the alleyway with one hand and gripping a katana in the other.
It was one of the most unlikely coincidences imaginable, up there with the comedy of ludicrous coincidences that had led to an Austrian Archduke being assassinated so long ago, and kickstarting one of the most important wars of the human race.
Tenya did not dwell on any of that though.
Instead, he moved. As the hero Manuel made his way towards the centers of chaos and where screams for help were aplenty, Iida Tenya veered sharply to the right, and down the alley at full speed.
He felt every doubt and hesitation burn away, as his mind became focused on his target, Stain.
Hate, anger, wrath.
All of them danced through his mind, body, and soul, as he barreled down the alleyway with a speed that his family had cultivated for the better part of a century, through breeding, training, and surgery.
Of all the members of his class, Iida Tenya was one of the only ones that had had a true teacher to help him master all his naturally born gifts from the day he could walk.
He, Mina, and Shoto. The heirs of successful heroes, all 3 of whom had won the superpowered, genetic lottery.
Had Tenya been the same inexperienced boy that he had been during the entrance exam, who had never seen real battle for all his training, the blow would have hit him straight in the neck, and sent his 15-year-old head rolling along the alleyway as his body kept going for a little while longer, carried by momentum.
As it was, Iida was able to come to a screeching halt and force his head away from the blade.
Or so he thought.
In response to his evasive movements, his enemy changed the motion of the in-flight cut slightly, and the blade bit into his helmet instead.
The blow made him see stars, and he felt the cold ground come up to meet him as he slammed into it back first.
He blinked, then shot up in a sitting position, beginning to rise to his feet.
It took a moment before he realized his helmet and his glasses were both gone, both having fallen off him during the fall.
No matter. He grit his teeth, as he looked up at his enemy.
He was nearsighted. He would not need his glasses for this fight. Not here in this alley, where there was nowhere for his enemy to run.
As his sight cleared and the ringing in his ears evaporated, he saw his foe clearly for the first time.
Having sought him out for days, Iida had built up an image of his quarry in his mind, being built on the reports of what few details about the murderer had been picked up by witnesses, of whom his brother was one of only a few survivors.
He had imagined the man as a tall, monstrous figure draped in red scarlet, with monstrous, demonic features.
The reality of it all was that though there were a few similarities, the man in front of him, did not live up to what he had imagined.
He was tall, and like Iida had been told, he was dressed in red, with a massive red scarf around his neck that was in dire need of some repairs and maintenance.
As for his outfit, equipped with a dozen smaller blades on his person in various holsters, knee protectors on his legs, along with a set of combat boots modified with sharp points on the front where they would do the most with a kick, his outfit looked like something a man with little cash might put together.
As for his face, rather than some demonic grimace that Iida had expected, his jawline was instead long and narrow, and his eyes(that was covered by a red bandanna across his eyes) that looked down on him was filled with confused befuddlement, rather than monstrous wrath.
All in all, he didn't look particularly dangerous or out of place compared to the costumes that Iida had encountered.
Hell, Venom's larger form looked far more threatening than this villain.
Disappointment with the reality of his quarry's appearance did not deter Iida much at the moment.
The only thing that danced through his mind was anger.
"A kid in a costume…"
The monster said in a confused tone. As he continued, his voice shifted into something more serious.
"Get out of here. This is no place for children."
Then, the alleyway, the ground, the very buildings around them shook, accompanied by a massive, massive explosion in the distance.
Iida did not think about that, instead focusing his eyes only on the man in red.
"A scarf red as blood. Armed to the teeth with blades… You must be the hero killer Stain right?"
As he spoke he staggered to his feet, despite the buzzing pain in his head.
His quarry merely cocked his head, his eyes narrowing ever so slightly behind the bandanna over them.
"I've been pursuing you. though I didn't expect us to meet so soon. I am- "
The sword tip was right up in his face, just an inch from the spot between his eyes.
He froze in shock. When had his foe moved it up? He hadn't even noticed it move.
"You're out for revenge aren't you?"
The man's tone changed as he spoke, becoming more growly, and as he continued, a thick layer of disgust crept into it.
"Watch your damned mouth… Or your age won't be enough to save you."
Iida responded by backstepping and putting some distance between them before replying.
His foe did not move to pursue, instead just staring at him with a grimace on his face, and those accursed eyes narrowing at him.
Iida grit his teeth, the gal of his enemy's words gnawing at him.
"To save me?" He spat. Every word filled with anger.
"So you don't even consider me a threat do you?"
The idea that he would have come so far, to actually confront this man, only for him to completely dismiss him as a non-threat stung far, far worse than the head blow had.
"Listen up. Criminal! I am… The younger brother of a hero you attacked! The younger brother of a Hero amongst Heroes! And I've come here to stop you in my brother's stead! So remember this for the short time you have left! I'm Ingenium . The hero who is going to take you down."
As he spoke, he felt the anger, the rage, the hatred turn from seething anger, to something cold, yet also incredibly satisfying. It felt good to say what he'd wanted to say to this monster ever since he saw what had become of his brother in the hospital.
Stain's tone as he spoke was unimpressed.
"That so? Time to die."
Iida felt his legs explode, as they always did when he kicked off, with a burst of flames from his exhaust pipes.
His kick produced a sonic boom as it came straight at Stain's chest.
It was a savage blow, the kind that would have caved in a normal man's lung.
Stain was in the air before it was halfway towards reaching him.
Iida blinked. Fast. Stain was really, damnably fast.
His thoughts about the ludicrous speed of his opponent, however, were suddenly interrupted, as Stains spiked boots slammed straight into his left arm with a wicked force.
Most of it was deflected by the armored parts of his costume. The rightmost spike though slammed straight into his soft, cloth-covered flesh.
The pain shot through Iida's and he instinctively moved in reaction to the blow… Which allowed Stain to easily slam the heel of his other for straight down, slamming him into the floor.
"Gaaahhh!"
"So weak."
The tone was harsh and contemptuous, and he followed it up by placing his foot upon Iida's head.
Then, as if to hammer in the point, he slammed his sword straight down into Iida's shoulder.
"ARGHH!!!"
The pain was insane, worse than anything Iida had ever experienced. He felt the moisture at the edge of his eyes. He blinked the emerging tears away bitterly, biting down the pain. This was no time to cry dammit!
"Both you… And your brother are weak… I did my research on him… A real poser he was… Just like you…"
Iida froze.
Then felt his anger and rage rise up once more, like the furnaces of hell! Despite the insane pain in his shoulder, and the boot planted firmly upon his head, he tried to force his face up just so that he could glare at his foe.
It didn't work though, as Iida's face was to the left, while the ne'er do well was standing on the opposite side of him, as all he got was a good look down the alley he had come down from.
"THAT'S why you attacked him? Because you didn't like his style?!"
Stain snorted.
"Fame... Glory… Cash… Your family is built upon your boundless greed for both recognition and money… A perfect example of-" "SHUT UP EVILDOER!"
Iida heard his voice break as he screamed, but he didn't care.
The idea that THIS was the reason why his brother had ended up as he had, overrode any sense of fear, reservation, or self-preservation he had left.
An image of his brother as he laid there, in that bed, his strong, amazing big brother…
"THE DAMAGE YOU DID TO HIS SPINAL CORD MEANS HE'S PROBABLY GONNA BE CRIPPLED FOR LIFE! EVEN IF HE GETS OUT OF A WHEELCHAIR, HE'LL NEVER BE A HERO AGAIN!"
To his great shame, he felt tears come to his eyes as he screamed. As he continued, he did so, desperately trying to hold back the tears with nothing but will alone.
"My brother… My brother saved so many people in his life…. He's a leader... He's a great hero."
Iida recalled memories of older days. Better days. Days of seeing his brother help others, both on tv, and in person.
Images of Iida Tensei in the prime of his life.
As Tenya would always remember him.
The man who had inspired him to be all he could be.
"He's my hero…" He felt his tears of rage and frustration just… Break through.
This man… This… ANIMAL… Had destroyed that man, for petty, stupid reasons.
"HE'S A GREAT HERO… WHO INSPIRED ALL MY DREAMS! I'LL KILL YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID TO HIM!!!"
"Try saving that guy first."
...What?
He blinked.
Though Iida couldn't see it, his enemy was now dramatically pointing at the third person involved in this little drama in this Japanese alleyway.
A pro hero called Native, who was currently lying paralyzed up against the wall.
"Forget about yourself for a second, and try saving others. That's what a hero does. Instead of trying to save this guy, you came into this alley set on murder and revenge."
Stain's tone, which was already pretty contemptuous, turned even more venomous as he continued.
"Getting trapped by your own selfish hate and personal needs… That makes you the furthest thing from a hero…"
Iida's mind spun. Was… Was this guy… This Monster was seriously trying to lecture him about what it meant to be a hero!? The very idea just made his anger burn even more intensely.
"S-SHUT UP!"
"And that… Is why you have to die."
In one surprisingly elegant motion, Stain ripped out the sword from Tenya's arm and brought it up so that the back end of the tip of the blade was right in front of his lips.
Iida was hit by such pain, that it made the previous pain seem like stubbing his toe, as the sharp blade was ripped out of all the nerve centers in his shoulder.
Then… Nothing. The pain ceased, along with any sense of touch in his body, as a force suddenly came over him. It was like weights suddenly were placed over his body, anchoring him in place, as absolutely everything below his neck suddenly became completely, and totally incapable of motion.
"Consider yourself a humble offering… To the betterment of society…"
"Thwack!"
Suddenly, the weight of Stains foot upon his head disappeared.
Iida blinked.
Behind him, he heard the sounds of Stain moving about.
Iida blinked through his tears of frustration, as his head was as if glued to one direction, his only line of sight being down the alleyway, from which he had come.
Down the corridor, flanked by bricks on both sides, and with a burning fire from the building on the opposite side of the street, walked a figure.
Tall, wide, contrasted by the light of the flames behind him, the man was dressed in armor lean as sin, the color a mixture of black as coal and red as blood.
Over his head, he had a cowl-like helmet of red, with blank, scarlet pupils, and over his forehead, two devil-like horns.
In his hand, he held a set of weird sticks, and though he didn't catch what it was that had caused it, he distinctly heard a "Click" from one of them.
"I'm going to have to ask you to step away from the lads."
His voice was growly, like concrete. His expression however was more neutral, as he looked at something behind Iida.
A Hero was Iida's first thought. Another hero had stumbled onto the scene of this crime, just as he had.
He had no idea who he was though. He had never seen this man before in his life. He certainly was not a ranked hero then.
"Daredevil… The Devil of Hell's Kitchen."
Stain's voice was… If not exactly revering, it was far, far more respectful than anything Iida had heard from his lips before now.
"Oh, you know me then? That would be a first for Nippon."
"Of course I know you… We were Kin once you and I… You were one of the greatest of our kind… Relics of this age... But I was weak… Indecisive and without conviction… You though… You were one of the great heroes of the clone saga… You helped save the world. And yet you sought no credit, no reward, no fame. A real hero."
Was that… Admiration in his voice? How could this… This bastard possibly feel admiration for a hero? And what did he mean by saying this man helped save the world? Iida had read up enough on the Clone Saga, and the players in that confusing drama that almost brought about the apocalypse, and he was certain that he had never once come across the name Daredevil.
The man snorted.
"Ranks, fame, and fortune have never interested me. Beating up those who prey on those weaker than themselves though…"
Then he charged.