"Remind me why I'm tagging along with you, and who these two extras are?"
Izuku gave a good natured eyeroll. "These are two friends I made at the start of last semester, and you might want to be nicer if you want them to help you. They're too valuable as friends to lose because of worthless pride."
"Tch. I'm m being nice by not lying or mincing words, and you still haven't told me who they are."
"Okay, you got me there." The greenette says sheepishly. "The one with the dirty hair is Doro Umeru, he's living in a herb shop and knows everything about herbs and salon treatments." The soil controller waved as Izuku gestured to the other person, a boy with black hair and neon red and blue eyes. "This here is Zaiku Shikake, the guy who made my bike and the weapon I'm training with."
"Correct," Zaiku spoke up measuredly. "I became friends with Izuku as he liked my gadgets, despite the challenge in them. The stories he told of you... make you perfect for tests once I'm not restricted to hobby grade resources."
The bomber grunted as he mulled it over. His childhood acquaintance had a point with being on good terms with connections, especially when it involved gear and medicine. "Again, why do you two need me? Last I checked restomod is going underground and I'm going daylight, so what's the deal?"
Zaiku took out his phone map and screen magnifier. "This alleyway has an open area and acts like an island for hero patrols. We plan to turn it into a training area because of that and also because its a nexus between our homes. I want you to join us personally as I don't have the money for bombs." Katsuki chuffed at that, noticing they were right at the alleyway. The open space was actually good enough to be an arena, placing his bag next to a moped he stood next to a stone pot in the center of the alleyway.
Zaiku cleared his throat. "Okay everyone, welcome to Hazard Training. Here we will do a mix of combat and mobility exercises, as well as read up on hero related laws for our respective careers. I for example wish to avoid a similar fate as the support company in Lakewood, California while Bakugo from Midoriya's tales wishes to learn about the basics of all hero protocols in case UA doesn't bother to teach him. Any questions?" Bakugo did have a few, but they'll probably answer themselves after a few sessions. "None at all? Okay, save for Bakugo we have made as many possible precautions so I believe nothing will go wrong."
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*Whoosh-Bang!!!*
"This is Mt. Lady, sidekick of the Baku agency responding to what looks like a large firework with a colored smoke trail. Possibly a makeshift flare from a civilian, requesting backup." She spoke while running to the scene.
"Bubble girl, on the way!"
"Ingenium, rolling in!"
Officer Tamakawa, I see Bubble Girl and I'm giving her a lift!"
"His Purple Highness, technically retired but I'm across the street from the flare."
"Sleepyhead hero, Baku inbound. ETA two minutes. Mt. Lady, listen to Purple and go giant to flank or block the villains, but only if the civilians can escape."
"Understood!" She yelled as she reached a street corner, seeing a slim man with lengthy hair standing in front of an alley. Turning to face her, he nodded and jogged in. 'That had to be Purple, I better run to another entrance.' She thought as she saw one seconds later. "I'm in position and ready to use my quirk to corner the villains. How are the hostages His Purple Highness?"
"...In all my years of heroism, I don't think I've ever seen hostages retaliating against villains, winning, and causing pants-wetting terror." The man said in awe and worry.
"What/What?!"
"...Officer Sansa, Baku, Ingenium, is there a protocol for this possible situation? Because I don't wish to have the four boys mistake me for a villain."
Mt. Lady actually knew that one. "We wait for an opening and make sure they see us first. If we can't do that, we quickly capture and move the villains away while we're still in their line of sight."
"Okay, I'm moving in. Mt. Lady, do your thing!" Quickly growing to 20 meters, she moved and shifted her feet to cover the entries, while checking for a forth she saw a police car parking as well as her boss on his motorized sofa.
Smiling at that, she shifted into a bear crawl and readied a hand to grab any wounded or capture. What she wasn't ready for however, was seeing Ingenium already there holding a blubbering villain in a bridal carry while a four armed villain was unconscious and smoking. "Did these guys try to dose the kids with Trigger as a diversion?" She asked in disbelief, idly grabbing a third villain with arm cleavers as he tried crawling away. (Tesla, Steel Bulwark, and Axer, she read in the later reports). She sniffed, "And why does it smell like someone blew up a donut shop?"
The only blonde boy raised his hand. "That's my doing. I used my quirk to burn the stuff in the stone pot when the villains attacked us, it's what made the flare." Lifting her villain in a pinch grip, she moved him to a waiting cat-headed policeman, shrinking down once he handcuffed him and the other villains.
"Now that those three are detained, we'd like for you all to answer some questions, preferably after you call your parents or guardians." Baku said, offering a container of snacks and drinks to settle their nerves. Nodding, they gave their numbers for the hero to call.
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8 minutes later...
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"I'm sorry for scaring you, granny Kusa." The elderly woman chortled while patting Doro's head. Bakugo got a scolding and a hug from his parents. Inko and Zaiku's uncle, Ageru Shikake, simply sat and held their children's hands.
Sansa coughed as he readied a notebook. "Now that everyone is here we can begin. On Wednesday, September 5th at 4:35, a makeshift flare was set off by Bakugo Katsuki with his quirk, Explosion, in order to alert nearby heroes when three villains attacked him and the group he was with. Now, would you four, in your own words, explain why you chose to be here before the attack?"
"It's best I start from the beginning, officer." Izuku took a sip of his vanilla milk as the heroes nodded encouragingly. "It all started when I went to Rodia Shōtengai to buy a rain canopy for my bike, after I found and purchased it from the register a worker from Mizugumo Scooters offered to install it, who turned out to be the maker of the bike."
"After I installed the canopy, we talked of our interests in the hero industry." Zaiku picked up. "I wished to make gear for underground heroes, and working in my uncle's shop gave me enough experience to make mock versions to sell to hobbyists. Eventually, the two of us decided to work together to get into UA, I would make gear that can be hidden and he would test them by provoking local bullies and the odd thug."
"Oh-ho-ho man, those chases were the craziest things I ever seen, especially that one time he let himself get cornered while the extras threatened him while Snipe was behind them. I learned how to use my quirk to make popcorn because of tha-ha-ha-hat." The explosive teen broke into laughter at the memory.
Ingenium stepped forward. "May we see the support gear, the ones in the fight at least?" Nodding, Izuku handed him a meter long staff with a large hook on one end. "Hmm... a pole arm with a blunt hook at the end. I also see a few dents in the metal," He swung it a few times until the head flew off by a chain and hooked onto his left exhaust pipe. "Gah?! It's a flail too, apparently."
"A chigiriki to be exact." His Purple Highness untangled the turbo hero and held it. "My old intern Eraserhead got his binding cloth from similar weapons as inspiration, but this spectacular item seems to also..." he twisted the middle part of the cane, releasing the chain. "Become a Kusari-Fundo, the weights being a tanbō staff and a Jitte made to hook limbs rather than onto a villain's clothing, or lack thereof in some cases." He reset the cane and returned it. "Any other stylish wonders, young Shikake?"
"He's wearing compression cloth that reduces muscle soreness and acts like a cloth armor. On his feet are attachable spring boots. That's it aside from the bike. All of them are made using bicycle, rc car, and electric scooter parts." Sansa raised an eyebrow at his uncle, receiving a nod he jotted down the details before asking them to continue the story.
"We both realized around July that the data I collected wasn't enough, because I can't focus on their performance during my tests, and he spends most of his time fixing them, despite teaching me maintenance." He chuckled sheepishly at his mother's flat stare. "So we started searching for possible places, with Doro joining us when I took him shopping there. The criteria was a place far enough from public eye but close enough for heroes to respond in case something happened. Imagine our surprise at a place between all our homes."
"That explains why you chose this place instead of a forest. It's got plenty of room and will be quite dry from rain and runoff, not to mention there's five patrol routes used by dozens of different hero agencies just steps away." Bubble Girl observed, looking around and glancing at her gps.
Sansa scribbled the streets and addresses, and plans to call the closest heroes for why these three were overlooked. He'd also check traffic cameras for similar areas the boy described, no way there weren't hero hopefuls with similar ideas. "So you found this place and turned into a personal training area, presumably after cleaning it up, and made the flare among other things just in case." The man summarized.
"It was pretty dirty and had a few weeds, but it only took a week to fix everything. A few days was spent buttering up the residents so we could stay, but what cinched it was me lining the walls with dirt to muffle any noise. Izuku ran up a wall a few times and we didn't get yelled at. So with everything set up we were finally ready for the real training, with Bakugo joining in after some coaxing. Today was supposed to be the first official session." Doro spoke up, having finished his turkey sandwich.
"Which brings us to the crux of the matter." Baku let out a snort from his trunk. "Why the villains chose to attack you, especially when going here would corner them." A bundle of cloth was revealed from a crumbling part of the dirt wall, which he opened with his tiger claws, spilling some jewelry and money. "A cache containing stolen money and valuables, they must have stored it here after the dirt wall was made. That means the attack was simply bad luck or coincidence." He placed the stolen goods into his bag. "I'll bring these to the precinct, Mt. Lady, want a lift?" Shaking her head the mythical mutant hero walked to his sofa, gave a respectful nod to the officer, and drove off.
"Is he allowed to do that?" Katsuki asked the officer, who smirked at the question.
"Baku is possibly the only Pro Hero who graduated from both a hero course and a police academy with flying colors. Combine that with his specialty at transporting criminals, and he's the best man for the job. Now, I hate to do this, but I'm required to ask for your names and quirks despite the fact this was clearly self-defense." His growing headache at the slightly prejudiced law was obvious, with Izuku offering an unopened drink that he gratefully took and downed in one gulp.
"Zaiku Shikake, Revsystem. I can generate power by walking or other forms of movement and store it. I can then use that power to enhance my body, power any gadgets on me, or change that power by turning the keys on the dorsals of my hands. My modes are kinetic, electric, and magnetic."
"Doro Umeru, Mudball. I can absorb dirt, water and plant matter, then release and shape it into what I want. I can only manipulate soil I absorbed and only outside my body again if I mix it with more released soil. My limit is about 200 square feet, so a walk in closet's worth of dirt, and I can't absorb hard stuff like rocks." The parents and heroes glanced at the walls at that.
"Katsuki Bakugo, Explosion. My sweat's similar to nitroglycerin, and I mean similar because it only explodes when there's heat, not from shock or impacts, and I can only ignite my sweat with my hands. I can heat up other things but not enough to cause a big fire. My strongest explosions are a little below fireworks." They all looked at the still smoking villain in the police car.
"Mine's a weird one," Izuku mumbled. "I have a condition called Latent Quirk Inversion Syndrome where my body adapts to a dormant or nonexistent quirk. My case is most likely nonexistent, adapting to a fire and telekinetic quirk that isn't there. My doctor says there's a chance but I'm not going to just wait around doing nothing." Sansa thanked them and drove off as the heroes waved goodbye and left.
"Well said boy! That attitude will get you places. In fact, I think your too good for that quirk, so slap it for me if it does come out." He chuckled embarrassment at the extravagant hero's praise as he hobbled away.
"Well since this place probably won't work for you guy's anymore... How's about you four come to the Baku Agency for training instead, it's the corner building, street near Dagobah Beach, Neon sign, can't miss it!" She waved as she went back to her patrol, snickering as she heard a chorus of 'thank you' and a slap from the blonde kid swearing at a lady. "So greenie's the one my clinic's been gossiping about, small world." She snorted at the pun she made. "Well as important as they said those breakthroughs in quirk surgeries are, they can't be that important for heroes since we keep ourselves in decent enough shape. Eh, what's the worst that could happen?"
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Unknown location...
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"Good evening, Doctor, how is the your newest project coming along?" A voice asked from a blank tv.
"Quite well actually, many young patients have had tracking chips planted for various reasons. Some in fear of a quirkist hate crime, others if they get lost, even some wealthier ones in case of a kidnapping or ransom. I must thank your new allies for spreading those rumors."
"Indeed, thanks to those microchips and other implants, we no longer fear the risk of a spy betraying us, we simply need them to go to our target and they'll transfer the daemon to the mainframe." The voice chuckled before coughing.
"Not to mention if it's the incorrect place or All Might isn't hiding there, we can remotely erase it and it'll create a back door before destroying itself. Thought it's a shame we don't know who to thank for this, I'm simply too busy with the plans and your... I'd say bedridden, but..." he trailed off.
The voice gave a raspy chuckle. "Oh come now dear doctor, your among my most trusted associates! I've heard far more mocking words from heroes, and besides." The screen turned on, revealing a scarred, grinning face. "While whoever gave us this boon has our thanks, we are still an unknown and as such, perhaps we return the favor simply by hiding this project under a red herring."