(bigger chapter, but a good amount of it canon dialogue for setup)
Underground Corridors - Overhaul's Compound
Chisaki moved through the lower corridors with Kurono a step behind, the sounds of the various fights above filtering down through the concrete as a continuous low rumble that he was doing his best not to find irritating.
"So much noise," he said. "Those fools had better be doing their jobs."
"I hate to say it," Kurono said while holding Eri, "but I think this is the end for the Hassaikai."
Chisaki didn't slow his stride. "As long as the boss and I live, the Hassaikai will, too. Most of the men remain loyal to him but don't understand my way of thinking, even though I respect the boss's will more than any of them do."
"As long as we have the finished product and the serum, I can bring us back from the brink of extinction, and seeing our strength and helping us firsthand, Crane will finance and support us I have no doubt with his interest in the bullets and our work so much so that he's helping us right now".
He continued "We've developed a drug that the world will be afraid of with the power to change it, it's exactly the sort of thing he's after"
He turned at a junction in the corridor.
Shigaraki was there, with Toga and Twice behind him.
"Walk with me," Overhaul said, without breaking stride. "You're already late."
Office - Overhaul's Compound - A Few Minutes Earlier
The security monitors showed the compound in pieces, each feed cycling through a different section of the building, the story of the raid in fragments across the screens.
Suguro sat in his chair watching all of it while studying everything and assessing everyone he saw on both sides. Ivy stood behind him, gas mask on now, stretching in the way she did when she'd been stationary too long, vines trailing idly across the floor around her.
"Look another fights about to start" she pointed up at a screen seeing a fat hero and a student? Ready to fight some more of Overhauls subordinates.
Overhaul Compound Lower Level - Same Time
The big one went straight for Kirishima.
Kirishima Hardened on instinct and caught the first punch on his forearms and felt it travel all the way up to his shoulders.
"Go ahead," he said, because this was the thing you said when you were Red Riot and you were going to hold the line. "Punch me, I'll smash your fist to pieces."
The second punch landed before he finished saying it.
Fat Gum positioned himself and launched forward.
A barrier appeared between them and Rappa, clean and invisible until the moment of impact, solid as concrete. He hit it and felt his hands report back something that had the quality of an iron wall.
The other one, Tengai, looked at them before speaking. "So, we have Fat Gum and a boy with a hardening Quirk. They're both better suited for defense, disappointing, isn't it, Rappa?"
"We are a spear and a shield," Tengai said. "Whereas you are simply two shields."
"Wait, hold on," Rappa said. "Who'd wanna fight with two shields? Sounds lame."
"To be fair, I don't know whether that boy even qualifies as one."
Kirishima looked at his arms. The Hardening had cracked. Not badly, but it had cracked, and he thought to himself.
(it hurts, another barrage like that and I'm done)
"Damn it, I'm still weak."
"Remember," Fat Gum said, behind him. "You're unbreakable."
Kirishima looked at him.
"If you let them break your spirit, that means you've lost. When you're up against villains, the key is making them lose their will to fight first. You can't lose your drive before they do. Now let's take those two fatheads down and get out of here. The others are waiting for us."
"They believe they can defeat us," Tengai said to Rappa, with the mild interest of someone noting an unexpected weather development.
"I like the way that fat guy thinks!" Rappa said, and the pleasure in his voice was entirely genuine. "All right. This is starting to get good, get rid of this damn thing, Tengai. I don't need a stupid bubble to keep me safe."
"Rise above your own desires, remember what Master Overhaul said he paired us for a reason. Our skills complement each other, ensuring victory."
"Overhaul didn't ask if I wanted to team up with you."
"'Master Overhaul.' Show some respect."
"Who cares? All I want is a good deathmatch."
A long pause.
"Very well," Tengai said. "If you think you can take them yourself, by all means."
"That's more like it! You're not so bad after all!"
The fight continued while Kirishima stayed back in his memories
But Fat Gum managed to hold the villains off at a growing cost however.
He'd been absorbing every punch Rappa landed and the fat that should had been protecting him was burning away with every impact.
"The boy won't be a problem," Tengai said, watching him from behind his barrier. "He's already finished. You can see it in his eyes."
Kirishima looked at Fat Gum.
Fat Gum looked back at him.
"Your name's Rappa, right?" Fat Gum said, turning to face him fully for the first time since the fight began, with the particular quality of someone who has finished calculating and arrived at the only option left. "It's been a while since I've been hit that hard and I've done a decent amount of fighting over the years, too. In the end, it's all gonna come down to what happens first: either your arms get tired, or my body gives out. Which is stronger? Spear or shield? I guess we're about to find out."
"All right! You totally get me, Fatso!" Rappa's voice had the warmth of genuine appreciation. "Tengai. Remember."
"No barriers."
"Yeah! This is gonna be awesome!"
Kirishima watched Rappa wind up the next punch and understood exactly what Fat Gum was doing and he finally stopped thinking of the past and moved into action.
"I won't regret anything, now or ever again!"
He went straight for Tengai, hardening everything he had left.
Rappa hit Fat Gum.
Tengai threw up the barrier on pure instinct, the shield going up between Rappa and Kirishima hit it at the same moment.
"A shield, now?" Rappa said, watching.
"Of course. Don't be a fool. Nothing can overcome the strength of my defense. The boy's attack was in vain."
"It wasn't in vain!"
Fat Gum came through the barrier.
He'd stored everything, every punch Rappa had landed over the course of the whole fight, every impact he'd absorbed while his fat burned away and his defense thinned all of it had been going somewhere, and now Kirishima's attack had bought him the seconds he needed to cross the distance and release it.
Tengai's barrier shattered.
"Thank you, Red," Fat Gum said, breathing hard, his coat destroyed, his silhouette half its usual width from everything he'd spent. "You bought me the time I needed."
He looked at Rappa and Tengai.
"The two of you are going to lose, do you want to know why? You made a mistake and so did I. We underestimated the hero named Red Riot, and his chivalrous spirit."
He hit them finishing the fight.
"The victory is ours."
Office - Overhaul's Compound - A Few Minutes Later
The door opened.
Overhaul entered with Kurono behind him, and Shigaraki came through after them with Toga and Twice, the room then filled with the tension of multiple parties who needed each other and resented that fact simultaneously.
Shigaraki then became irritated when laying eyes on that foreign pair again.
"They're still here?"
Toga looked at Suguro immediately, then at Ivy.
"Who's this?" she asked Shigaraki, in Japanese, looking at Suguro.
Overhaul sighed and switched to English, the language that allowed both parties to conduct the meeting with something approaching precision.
Suguro was looking at the monitors not really paying attention to them as he was keeping track of the hero's progress and how they were getting closer.
Overhaul than sat down at his desk while Shigaraki took a seat on the couch with his members standing behind him twice watching the cameras as well while Toga glanced at the girl in Overhauls subordinates arms
Overhaul then looked at the group, " I'm glad you brought Toga, and Bubaigawara but I also wanted Kurogiri."
"Those are useful players and I brought two here for now. You can't have them all."
"Then how do we build trust? Right now there's ill will between us. Still, I told you almost everything about my plan, you have to offer something valuable in return. Your members are important to you, aren't they?"
Shigaraki looked at Overhaul, then at Crane, who was sitting in his chair watching the monitors again.
"If you want to build trust," Shigaraki said to Overhaul, switching to English, "then tell me who that is."
He pointed at Suguro.
"Since we are now working together I suppose you can know, This is Crane," he said. "He operates out of Gotham City. He came here to purchase my bullets and to establish a distribution arrangement for selling my bullets and drugs in America." A pause, "He is one of the more significant criminal figures in his city, though he's told me that he has kept himself in the shadows but not for much longer."
The three league members then looked at him, only Shigaraki suspecting he was a foreigner.
Suguro was checking his phone and saw Silver's message.
We have the "package" and have rendezvous with Roman and are ready to leave when you get here
He sent her a quick answer after looking up at the cameras again telling her it won't be much longer.
Kurono was in the corner of his field of vision, holding the small girl. Suguro looked at them for a moment then spoke to the two Japanese in front of him.
"Time to move," he said.
The irritation in the room from both Overhaul and Shigaraki was immediate and palpable. Neither of them was happy about this man telling them what to do.
Toga then took a knife out licking it then looked at Crane "you think you can order us around because your some Gotham bigshot"
(Im pretty sure i read that she knows english too so im going with that)
Suguro gestured at the monitors without elaborating it showed the heroes advance getting closer not that he was worried though.
Shigaraki looked at Suguro. "Why aren't you doing anything? Send those armed men out"
"I don't want to waste any more ammunition," Suguro said simply.
He looked at Overhaul. "This raid was a surprise to me, we came here to do business, not to be caught in a raid crisis." He kept his voice level.
Shigaraki then interrupted him "then why don't you go out and get your hands dirty"
Suguru then looked at his hands ready to make fear toxin, "If you want to send some my way but I can't do everything for you"
He then looked at Overhaul and Shiagraki "so far these heroes have broken through your defenses after I called off my people" Kuruno got angry at his grip squeezing Eri.
But it didn't seem to hurt her…
"I'm going back to Gotham-"
He stood.
"Contact me when you can," he said to Overhaul.
Overhaul held his gaze for a moment.
Suguro and Ivy left.
Underground Corridor - Camera Dead Zone
After around sixty seconds of walking, he stopped.
His hands came up and the gas began coming off his skin in a rapidly growing concentrated cloud, the more he made the darker and thicker it became keeping it close to him, building around both of them not dispersing it yet.
Ivy watched the toxin clouds build around them glad she had her mask on with so much around her.
An eyeball formed out of the wall then a mouth, it was mimic ready to direct heroes and police to him if needed before focusing elsewhere just before the toxin reached him.
Overhaul's Office - After Suguro and Ivy Leave
Shigaraki after a while then left as well.
Then he looked at Toga and Twice who were ready to burst.
Toga's head tilted. "Why are we working with them again? I want to—"
"I know." His voice had the quality it got when he was being precise rather than emotional. "They want to keep the League manageable and this Gotham element has given Overhaul even more arrogance thinking he's untouchable and he thinks that this will lure you in to join. I want you to let them think it's working." He looked at both of them. "Flatter them, make yourselves useful but don't forget what they are."
Twice was quiet for a moment. "What are they?"
"Beneath us," Shigaraki said.
"I believe in you both, that's why I'm asking."
Twice straightened. "I don't know every detail but you said you believe in us, that's enough. I'll do this because I am my own man."
Toga smiled, the particular smile she had that didn't always mean what smiles usually meant. "Fine but when this is over I want to cut someone."
"Wait until after," Shigaraki said and behind him warping in was Kurugiri silent waiting for his young master before taking him back to their hideout.
Overhaul's Office - A Few Minutes Later
Overhaul looked at the monitors one final time.
The heroes had control of most of the base by now and most of his organization was defeated or losing a fight, even his elite.
He picked up the last case of Quirk erasure bullets from the desk and held it under his arm as long as he had the knowledge to make these and Eri his plan could still happen.
Kurono stood near the door, still holding the small girl. "Time, sir?"
"Yes, let's go," Overhaul looked around the office a final time then opened the door.
Toga and Twice were in the corridor, waiting, since Shigaraki left.
"Now for you two," Overhaul said, looking at the two League members without breaking stride, "it's time for the temps to prove their worth."
Twice's voice had the quality of someone who had committed to a task with mixed feelings and was leaning into the commitment anyway. "You can leave it to us, Overhaul."
They moved deeper into the compound, the group of them in a loose formation, away from the sounds of the fight above.
Ground Floor - Hero-Controlled Section
Bubble Girl stood in front of the three captured yakuza members sitting against the wall with their hands secured. The sounds of continued fighting came from deeper in the building, but this section was controlled, the immediate engagement over.
One of them was talking after she asked why they attacked.
"Fighting you was the only sane option," he said. He wasn't trying to escape, wasn't performing reluctance. He just seemed to need someone to hear it. "If we sat it out, Overhaul would've killed us without a thought."
"Overhaul," Bubble Girl said. "You mean Chisaki?"
"What he started calling himself after the boss got sick and he came to power, the boss valued the old ways. He wanted us to stay as we were even in these times, the Hassaikai have integrity. He didn't want us seen as just another group of thugs." The thing underneath his voice might have been grief that had calcified into something harder. "The young head gave himself a villain's name, allowing scum to join us. Makes every decision alone, doesn't care what the rest of us want. The boss can't even talk anymore and we know who to blame."
"Watch it," one of the others muttered.
Bubble Girl kept her voice careful. "You seem pretty sure we're not going to catch him."
A different one answered, voice flat and certain. "You don't stand a chance a man like him, who doesn't care about consequences or his own future? Those are the ones you have to watch out for. That's what makes them dangerous."
Centipeder was crouched to her left. He let a moment pass, then asked, "Im more interested in that armed group from earlier with the gas masks and the foreign sounding woman." He paused. "Who were they?"
The three men exchanged a look.
The oldest one looked at the floor.
"We don't know," he said.
Centipeder pressed forward gesturing out the front door to the massacre that had started to be cleaned up with countless bodies being bagged and a few lucky survivors being rushed into ambulances, his tone rising in a rare show of anger. "A lot of people died today, officers, heroes, friends… What do you know!"
A silence filled the air for what felt like an eternity.
One of the younger members spoke, not the oldest. "Word through the organization this morning was that they were some powerful foreign organization. Here to purchase our products and set up future business with the boss. That's all we were told." He shifted against the wall, unable to get comfortable with his hands secured. "Guys like us don't get details about arrangements like that, told us we're too insignificant"
Bubble Girl looked at Centipeder.
Neither of them said it out loud yet, but the same thought was forming.
Whatever they thought Shie Hassaikai was and who they had involved themselves with, it went considerably further than a domestic yakuza operation and the LOV.
Hero Position - Compound Tunnels - Simultaneous
Irinaka had decided to stop being patient.
The tunnels started moving again, violent and chaotic now, the ceiling was coming down and walls were closing in.
"He's trying to crush us," Aizawa said, with the flat clarity of someone stating a diagnosis. "We'll be flattened like damn pancakes."
"Rock Lock!"
"Yeah, yeah, I heard you." Rock Lock's hands went to the nearest section of wall and floor. "Deadbolt."
The concrete locked in place, the particular solidity of something that had been told it was not allowed to move and had accepted that instruction completely.
"Once I lock something down, it ain't going anywhere. Come on, let's go this stretch won't shift around anymore, it's narrow, but deal with it. My Security Max Deadbolt is strong, but it can only hold so many spots and I'm already hitting my limits."
Irinaka's response was to work around the locked sections, finding the gaps, driving himself through the concrete in one direction and emerging in another. He was fast when he committed. The detective stumbled when the floor lurched under him.
"He burrows through the wall, then concentrates on one spot and attacks," the detective said, getting back to his feet. "It's like fighting a rabid mole."
Midoriya hit the wall section that had just moved with a Full Cowling kick before it could fully close, the impact cracking the concrete and buying them another few feet. Then another. Then another. The building kept trying to fold itself around them and he kept kicking it back.
"Shame we lost Fat's team," someone said. "This'd be a lot easier with them here."
"Obviously," Aizawa said.
"He's pinpointing our location. But where is he watching from? Inside the wall?"
"We're not making any progress. He just keeps cornering us."
Irinaka, in the concrete somewhere, felt the boost that Overhaul had given him pushing against its own limits. He could feel it thinning. Not long now. He needed to make it count before it wore off.
Can't let them through. Won't let them through.
Midoriya hit the wall again.
"This kid's persistent," Irinaka thought, somewhere in the concrete, feeling each impact as a vibration through the material he was occupying. He adjusted, tried a different angle, tried to get ahead of the pattern.
He got the message from Overhaul that he can direct them to Crane if needed…
"I'm not getting anywhere."
Midoriya stood in the cramped shifting corridor and looked at the walls and thought about everything that had been spent to get them this far. Ryukyu's team on the surface, the police, the minor heroes managing the front, Kirishima, who'd gone ahead with Fat Gum and hadn't come back, Amajiki, who'd told them to keep moving and stayed behind alone.
And everyone who has died so far…
A child in trouble, that's what's important here.
"Smash."
The wall gave.
The section ahead opened up, the concrete fragmenting and the path beyond it suddenly visible, and then the floor lurched sideways and Midoriya went with it and Aizawa caught his arm and they both found their footing on the other side.
"Thanks for the save."
"Don't worry about it. Why would they bother separating us now, though?"
The group had split across a gap Irinaka had opened on the floor. Midoriya and Aizawa on one side, Rock Lock and the police officers on the other.
"You guys okay on that side?"
"We're good, Rock Lock. At least we can hear each other."
"Guess they couldn't flatten us, so now they're splitting us up."
"I suspect something nefarious is at play here," Nighteye said, which was the most measured way to describe what Aizawa was already thinking. "They have a plan, stay alert and prepare for anything."
"Yeah, yeah. We heard ya."
A figure appeared from the wall near Rock Lock's side, moving fast, with a knife already in motion. Rock Lock's Lockdown activated on reflex, freezing the nearest wall section, and the figure adjusted around it and managed to stab him.
"Rock Lock!"
"Hey," he said, voice tight. "This imposter clone just appeared out of nowhere and attacked me. Be careful, I bet there are more nearby."
Aizawa processed the word imposter.
"He was stabbed? A knife wound and an imposter."
He turned the information over against everything Nighteye had said at the conference. We don't think the Hassaikai and the League of Villains would form a partnership, Their first meeting ended in bloodshed. Shigaraki doesn't seem like the kind of person who'd submit to anyone,
And the group at the start… Perhaps the Hassaiki were better connected than anyone thought.
The figure on Rock Lock's side stepped out of the shadows and into the light from the corridor's emergency strips, and Aizawa looked at the face and felt something cold settle into place.
"We were wrong."
Toga Himiko looked back at him. "That's me! Your darling, in the flesh. You remembered me! You have no idea how happy I am to see you again! Come here, let's get closer, Izuku."
"This is as far as you go," Aizawa said.
Then the wall behind him moved, and he understood that Irinaka had been waiting for exactly this, for Aizawa's attention to move, and his eyes to go to Toga.
"A coordinated attack," he said, getting clear of the wall section that had tried to take him. "The League and the yakuza are working together. That's why they separated us, it was the League's turn to step in."
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, focus on helping Rock Lock and get the other knife, I've heard that Toga's Quirk uses blood somehow."
"Yes, sir!"
"I'm so glad I came," Toga yelled, moving through the corridor with increasing speed.
"I didn't think the infamous League of Villains would stoop to joining forces with mere yakuza."
"We're working so hard to help these gangsters," Twice said. "But they're kind of useless, huh?"
From across the room in the walls, Irinaka watched them with the expression of ready to kill all in his path.
"Now I understand why the yakuza is dying out," Twice yelled while standing alongside Toga. "They really are hopeless losers! Because your real leader's a bedridden old man I can't imagine anyone more worthless than that!"
Mimics Scream erupted through the nearest wall at this. Twice yelped and jumped back.
"Ha! Big Bro Irinaka sure gets mad easily! The wimpiest guys always have the worst tempers!"
"That yell," Aizawa said. "You heard it?"
"The voice must belong to Irinaka," Midoriya said. "As soon as I heard it, everything started to move, where is he?"
The echo made it impossible to pinpoint. The walls were closing and the ceiling was dropping and the detective stumbled and someone caught him.
"I get it," Toga said, from somewhere to the left, her voice carrying the particular patience of someone explaining something obvious. "You want to hide how weak you are from the rest of the world, you look down on other people because you think it makes you look stronger. So lame but that's the yakuza for you."
Irinaka's response was another surge of movement, earth and concrete flowing like crazy causing the heroes and police to panic.
while at the same time as a backup plan opening another path to the area
"If I can't kill you all, He will!"
Aizawa while dodging the dirt and concrete thought he must be talking about Overhaul.
Midoriya scanned the chaotic zone before realizing where Irinka was hiding and he hit the approaching wall with Full Cowling before it could close.
"Smash."
"What? My Quirk!"
The erasure had found him — Aizawa, somewhere in the chaos, had gotten eyes on whatever small part of Irinaka had emerged to monitor the fight, and the Quirk suppression had landed. Irinaka's control over the concrete dropped.
"Sorry, yakuza!" Twice's voice, bright and cheerful. "I think we'll do what we want after all."
"Later!" Toga said.
Their footsteps retreated, sneaking away as Irinaka shouted after them. The heroes and police regrouped on ground that had finally stopped moving.
"The League betrayed them?"
"Seems so and they used us to aid in their scheming, though at least we're on solid ground now."
Overhaul Base Tunnels - Same Time
Crane and Ivy had been walking before the tunnels began to rapidly shift and become chaotic, they heard what sounded like Mimic screaming in rage before their path stopped and a new one opened up.
Crane sighed looking at the large dense cloud of toxin around the two and Ivy smiled and told him.
"Looks like they took you up on that offer"
As the two began walking down the tunnel they heard what sounded like
That girl from earlier…