Capítulo 32: The Meta Liberation Army
Keigo stood at Hero Commission headquarters, looking up at Yokumiru Mera, who was practically falling asleep behind his oversized, elevated desk. Keigo rustled his wings nervously as he debated what he was going to say.
"The league has invited me on a mission." He said finally.
Mera raised his eyebrows, "That's a good thing, Hawks. It means you're finally making progress and gaining their trust."
"I know, but…" Keigo hesitated, "People are probably going to die on this mission. The league might even ask me to kill someone as proof of my loyalty. If that happens, what are my orders? As the number one hero, I can't in good conscience let people die, not when I have the ability to save them, much less actually kill them myself. Do I have your permission to pull out?"
Mera's gaze hardened, "If you do that, you'll have wasted months of time and effort. For right now, consider the league's orders as if they were coming from the Hero Commission itself. Stopping Mastermind and the league is worth a few lives."
Keigo swallowed, but nodded, turning around and leaving as soon as he was dismissed.
"Yo Dabi!" Keigo faked a smile as Dabi and Freezerburn climbed up onto the roof.
"Hey Hawks" Dabi nodded at him. "This is my little brother, Shouto, but you already knew that."
Keigo nodded, "Kinda hard to miss, considering your debut. Nice to meet you!"
Freezerburn looked at him skeptically, "You know, I kinda get how people are starting to call the number one spot the cursed throne now. Two number ones get murdered and the next gets assigned to infiltrate the league. Kinda bad luck if you ask me."
Keigo sputtered for a minute, "I'm not assigned to infiltrate the league . I have reasons to be here, same as you."
Freezerburn rolled his eyes, "Yeah, sure. And if the Hero Commision just happens to get inside information, you had nothing to do with it."
Dabi cuffed Freezerburn over the head, "Ignore him, birdie, Shouto's just a little too fond of conspiracy theories. That being said, we may have invited you on this mission, but don't think that means we trust you yet."
Keigo nodded, "So what's the plan, boys?"
Dabi and Freezerburn both smirked and Keigo felt his stomach drop. That couldn't be good.
"Just some good old fashioned arson." Dabi said. "There's a rival group that we were going to partner with, but they made the mistake of pissing off Shouto's boyfriend, so we're taking them out instead."
Keigo looked at them curiously, "Boyfriend?" He hadn't been told Freezerburn was dating anyone, that could be valuable information.
Freezerburn rolled his eyes, "He's referring to Mastermind."
"Oh?" Keigo blinked a few times before smiling. Now that was valuable information. "Should I be saying congratulations or is this one of those sibling teasing things I never got to experience? Because I was an only child, you know."
Freezerburn laughed, "We're still pretty new, so yeah, you can say congratulations if you want. It's not like the league doesn't know, but it's hard to have a more open relationship when he has a secret identity and I don't. Makes going out a little more difficult, if you know what I mean."
Keigo nodded, "Yeah, I can understand that. Can't just go to the movies in full villain attire, right?"
Dabi laughed, "Please try it, Shouto! That would be hilarious!"
Freezerburn smiled, "We'd have to go to the All Might memorial documentary. Iz...Mastermind would love that, if only to see people's faces!"
Keigo schooled his expression. It wasn't much, but a few letters of a name could be valuable in the right hands, "Um, so if it's arson today, then why am I here?" He ruffled his feathers. "I really hope barbecue wings aren't on the menu."
"You're actually here to be a hero, Hawks." Dabi said. "Part of the league's power comes from the ideology we inherited from Stain in that we go after false heroes and corruption. Killing a lot of innocents could potentially damage that reputation."
Keigo raised an eyebrow, "You two didn't seem to care about that during Freezerburn's debut."
"That was different." Freezerburn said. "We targeted the media to send a message about who put that bastard in the number one spot, so they weren't innocents in the traditional sense of the word."
Dabi nodded, "But today, Shouto and I'll be setting fire to Detnerat headquarters, and it's really only the higher-ups that are involved."
"Detnerat?" Keigo's eyes widened. "The support company?"
Dabi laughed, "Yeah, turns out the CEO's running a cult called the Meta Liberation Army. Don't worry about it too much, it'll be all over the news tomorrow. Your job is to just happen to fly by at the right time to save the people working inside. These people however," he handed Keigo a paper with around twenty photos, "you just weren't fast enough to save. Understand?"
Keigo swallowed thickly as he looked at the faces of the people he was supposed to let die. He was a hero, it was his responsibility to save people, right? He couldn't just let them die! But...the hero commission said that his mission was worth a few lives...he supposed it was easy for them to say, since he didn't have to be the one to kill them.
He gave the paper back to Dabi and nodded, "I understand."
Dabi smirked, "So let's go, birdie. The building's just a few blocks away, we can get there through the alleys so we're not seen."
Keigo nodded and followed Dabi and Freezerburn down the fire escape. The alleys were narrow, but he was able to get through them no problem as long as he folded his wings just right. The Todoroki brothers were both thin enough that they didn't even seem to notice how small the alleys were. Keigo wondered if that was a genetic thing or if it was a result of the training Endeavor had put them through when they were younger.
"So…" Keigo said when they finally stopped in the alley beside Deternaut headquarters. "What was it like growing up with Endeavor." They glared at him and he panicked slightly. "I mean, I know it sucked, but you didn't really go into detail and Endeavor used to be one of my favorite heroes when I was kid, so I was just curious about what it was that made the both of you go villain, you know?"
Freezerburn blinked at him a few times, then scoffed, "Yeah, I get it. I'd probably be curious too if I hadn't lived it. Like you said, it sucked. Neither of us was really given a choice on if we wanted to be heroes, you know? We just had the bad luck to be born with strong quirks."
Keigo nodded, thinking about how the Hero Commission had only picked him up after his quirk got their attention as a kid. He shook his head. No, he wasn't like the Todoroki brothers. The Hero Commission had saved him, he'd still probably be living in poverty if it wasn't for them.
"Yeah, he told us that it was our responsibility to be great masterpieces." Dabi scowled, " You wouldn't even be alive if it wasn't for me! I'm the one who puts a roof over your head, you would all be on the streets if it wasn't for me! Do you want to starve?"
Freezerburn laughed, "Yep. And if he wasn't guilting us, he was hitting us. If we ever tried to say no to training, we'd be dragged to the training room anyway and forced to train until we threw up, then the bastard would call us weak because he was pushing us too hard. Fun times."
The Hero Commission hadn't ever forced him to train even when he didn't want to, had they? Keigo could remember saying no a few times, and he'd been allowed to stay in his room, but...he'd always gone back to training within a few days. He hadn't been able to stand the disappointed looks and no one would talk to him if he wasn't training. Had that been...a punishment? Had they known how social Keigo was and used that to get him to do what they wanted?
"It was even worse when he threatened to hurt Mom, though." Dabi said seriously. "Like it was our fault she was hurting, rather than his."
Keigo nodded numbly, trying not to think of all the similarities. Sure, he hadn't really had parents that cared about him, but the commission was always talking about all the people who would get hurt if he didn't train hard enough to save them...
No! He was not like the Todoroki brothers!
A beep sounded from Freezerburn's pocket and pulled out his phone, "Mastermind gave the go ahead." He smiled widely. "Let's light 'em up!"
Himiko put her phone back in her pocket and drank a swallowful of blood straight from her victim, knowing that each of her clones were doing the same thing. Each of her clones had one of Twice's clones with them to guard the person Toga was imitating, but they would stay out of sight unless something went south. Himiko grinned as the reporter they'd kidnapped stared up at their own face in shock and she laughed as she skipped away and into the broadcasting building.
"You're late!" A person Toga assumed was the stage manager yelled at her and Toga gave her best contrite expression.
"I'm sorry, traffic was horrendous."
The stage manager huffed and rolled his eyes, "Whatever, I don't care." He waved a few assistants over. "Get her a mic! We go on in five!"
Himiko's eyes lit up in excitement as she was prepped to go on the air. These networks didn't know how lucky they were, she was handing them the story of a lifetime!
"Alright! Quiet on set!" The stage manager yelled. He used his finger to count down from five and pointed to Himiko, who followed the teleprompter for a few minutes before going off.
"Oh, and for our next story, multiple broadcasting stations have actually been hijacked, including this one, and their news anchors have been kidnapped so that I could impersonate them!" She smiled, enjoying the gasps from the crew as her personality shone through. "Now, on to the real story, the Meta Liberation Army. Did you know that they were trying to make a comeback? They tried to challenge the league of villains, but," She flipped the newcaster's ponytail off her shoulder, "we won, obviously. It wasn't really even a contest! So, now we're going to out their leadership to the world! Not that you'd have had to worry about them after today anyway, considering they'll be dead."
La Brava had hacked into the news feed and was showing photos of the MLA executives, "Let's start with Rikiya Yotsubashi, the CEO of Detnerat! He calls himself Re-Destro and claims to be the son of the original Destro." She giggled. "Hopefully there's enough of him left at the end of this to confirm those claims. They've been flooding the black market with illegal support items for the past few months. You know, those ones that self-destruct as soon as the villain's caught? Yep, that's them! Next, Feel Good Incorporated!" She pointed to the picture of Skeptic. "Tomoyatsu Chikazoku, besides being guilty of horrendously bad hygiene, has been using his company's satellites to spy on all of you! Isn't that amazing? Then, of course, there's Koku Hanabata, leader of the Hearts and Minds party. Just remember during the next election that he's one of the leaders of a movement designed to completely destroy the Japanese government!" The image changed and Himiko grinned wider. "And then there are these heroes, all of whom are on the payroll of the Meta Liberation Army and have been working to hide their existence from both the Hero Commission and the world! Memorize those faces, ladies and gentlemen, these are the heroes who are supposed to protect you from villains , not villains from you !"
There was a commotion behind the cameras and Miruko and a handful of police officers scowled as they ran onto the stage. Himiko let her transformation melt away before pulling out a knife and stabbing herself in the gut, "This is Toga Himiko from the league of villains, signing off!"
By the time Miruko reached her, Himiko had already dissolved into goop.
"We have a problem." Skeptic entered the boardroom at Detnerat headquarters, where the other MLA executives were already waiting.
Re-Destro glared at him, "What's wrong."
"Someone hacked us." Skeptic put his laptop down on the table and began to type. "They drained our assets and put spyware in our satellite feeds. I'll be able to reverse it if given enough time, but I knew you'd want to be informed."
Re-Destro nodded, "Good. Get to work on fixing it and find out what weakling thought that was a good idea. We don't need any problems, our partnership with the league of villains is tenuous as it is."
"Actually, at this point I'd say it's non-existent." Shigaraki effortlessly disintegrated the wall they were hiding behind and grinned. Izuku smiled behind his mask as he took in the shocked faces of the executives. Serves 'em right. Quirkist bastards.
"Hello there!" Compress waved cheekily, then ran at Trumpet, compressing a large chunk out of his abdomen. "It's a shame to kill a fellow showman like yourself, but you know what they say, the show must go on!"
"You…" Skeptic tried to do something on his laptop, no doubt trying to turn the security system against them, but Izuku knew La Brava wouldn't give up control of that easily. Not that it mattered much, since the fire alarm chose that moment to go off. Good, Dabi and Shouto must not have run into any complications.
Izuku ran forward and slit Skeptic's throat while he was distracted, leaving only Re-Destro who was hulking with the power of his stress. Izuku went to lean against the wall next to Compress so they wouldn't get in Shigaraki's way. This would be good practice for fighting Gigantomachia, at least.
It was like watching a high stakes version of Whack-a-Mole. Re-Destro would smash his fist where Shigaraki was standing, but he would either dodge or just disintegrate the floor beneath him, then pop up and land a hit on him. Re-Destro might have been stronger than Shigaraki was, but his bulk slowed him down and made the fight a very poor match up for him. Before long, the various patches of disintegration had grown together, making his arms practically useless and Izuku could tell that Re-Destro wouldn't last much longer. Shigaraki could tell too, because all of a sudden, he switched from defense to offense, slipping past Re-Destro's literally crumbling defense and shoving both his hands in his face. Re-Destro barely had time to scream before his head and neck blew away in the breeze and what was left of his body crumpled to the ground.
"Well," Shigaraki dusted his hands off and made his way over to Izuku and Compress, "that boss was slightly disappointing. I was expecting a higher HP at least."
Izuku laughed, "Your agility stats were higher than his, which was what let you bring his health down to zero while avoiding damage yourself. Good game, Shigaraki."
Shigaraki grinned, "Yeah!"
"I must say that was quite the show." Compress said. "And I hate to be the one to yell fire in a crowded theater, but perhaps it's time we bow out."
Izuku nodded and sent a text, "I guess we get to see how loyal Dabi's new recruit really is. I hope this works, cause I really hate Johnny's warp quirk."
"Hey birdie." Dabi's rough voice echoed unpleasantly through his earpiece. "We need you to pick up a few people from the top floor. Don't worry about who, you'll know 'em when you see 'em."
Keigo frowned slightly, he'd hoped Dabi wouldn't ask him to do anything else after he'd saved everyone he was allowed to from the fires, but flew up toward the penthouse anyway. There was a hole in one of the walls that looked like a giant fist had been rammed through it and Keigo used that as his entry point, perching on what was left of the wall as he looked around.
Most of the floor had either been punched through or disintegrated away, and what little furniture there was left was overturned. Keigo's stomach turned as he took in the sight of multiple bodies, all of which seemed to have died very painful deaths, but he dragged his eyes away toward the people who were still alive. Dabi was right, Keigo didn't need any introduction to know who he was supposed to pick up.
"Hello Hawks." Shigaraki grinned. "Glad you could make it."
Keigo nodded quickly and grabbed all three villains. He wished he could just take them straight to the Hero Commission, but he knew he'd get in trouble if he did that, considering that Mastermind's hostage situation was still going strong. He quickly flew them a few blocks away to where Dabi and Freezerburn were waiting, being careful to avoid any media cameras that would question why he was saving the villains.
"Shouto!" Keigo watched as Mastermind, the guy who had threatened and killed more heroes than almost anyone else, practically bounced as he ran over to hug his boyfriend. Wait, Freezerburn was a teenager, did that mean Mastermind was as well? Just who was Mastermind?
"Well, um…" Keigo started awkwardly, "I'm sure people are probably wondering where I am after all that so…"
Mastermind nodded and put his hand on Keigo's shoulder, "Thank you, Hawks. You saved a lot of lives today." Then his voice dropped to a mutter so even Keigo had to strain to hear him. "Just so you know, you shouldn't have to be held captive by the hero commission just because they happened to find you as a child. No one has the right to force you into a role you never asked for, even if that's how they raised you. Remember, I helped save Shouto, I can help save you too." Keigo looked at Mastermind in shock, but quickly schooled his expression to something more relaxed and controlled. Did Mastermind have a mind reading quirk?
Mastermind laughed and spoke again at a normal volume, "Just food for thought Hawks. You should get going."
Keigo nodded and flew off. That mission hadn't been at all like what he'd expected.
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