Chapter 4 Recon the Tags
(Past)
White winter snow fell on the city laying a nice blanket over the dirty and rotten city but it made the blood all the more noticable. Sarah stared down at a giant red spot of snow, near her apartment, a body once laid there. If most people would have seen this they would have freaked out or panic but to the people of this city it was something that occurred often. Sarah watched as several people walked passed, taking a small glance at the blood stain before continuing on their way. Even Sarah felt nothing for this, she was numb to it. As one of the people who grew up here her whole life, she had seen this several times, even witnessing the crime happening.
'It shouldn't be like this,' she thought. 'People in other parts of the country don't live like this, we shouldn't be working to the bone just to live in this shit hole.' She then imagined what this place would look like if it was normal like everywhere else.
"Oh, did they finally clean up the body?" Sarah looked and saw the trash pit's boy wonder, Izuku Midoriya. He was currently wearing a weird dress shirt. "Hey Sarah."
"Hey Izuku, what are you wearing?"
Izuku looked at his shirt. "I was just helping out a client with his indoor tennis club."
"Translation: your boss is about to make quite a bit of money." said Sarah not knowing that he and his boss were one in the same. "You get a nice cut of the cash right?"
"A bit, yeah." said Izuku a bit quietly.
Sarah looked at Izuku noticing his eyes how dead they were inside, which was normal around here. She remembered when they first met and how it had some life in them but this city takes all of that away. Now he's as cold as everyone else here, now he was working a shady job to earn enough money to scrap by. "Hey Izuku, I have a question for you."
Izuku raised an eyebrow. "Okay."
Sarah looked at Izuku directly. "Do you think money is the key to happiness?"
"No, money doesn't mean shit" he said without any hesitation. "I know we all need money but money really does mean shit if you think about it. Money is just a necessary evil for society to function." After Izuku was done he saw Sarah's face surprised and confused. "I'm serious, after my dad left he took every penny me and my mom had on top of leaving us with his massive debt. We had to spend a week on the street before we found a new place to live which was the size of a closet, it was hard but we lived. Even though we need money I don't think we need it to be happy. It was just something that we had to deal with." For a moment Izuku was lost in memory as he went back to the days when he was hungry but his mom kept him distracted with All Might on her phone. "Sorry I kind of got lost in thought for a moment."
Sarah kept her eyes on Izuku before turning and began walking away. "I wish I could believe that."
~o~
(Present)
Sarah stared for a moment at the red tag on her arm. 'I guess this is what I get.' She quickly covered the tag as she heard her sister behind her. She turned to see her sister ready to go to school for the day. "Morning."
Hanah eyed her sister, "Morning." she replied they both silently got ready before leaving their apartment. "Sarah," she said, stopping her sister. "Look I know last night you were just looking out for me but I'm not going to whore myself out, I'll find myself a way out on my own without using anyone and so will you."
Sarah blinked for a moment. "What do you mean?"
"Please, if you were suggesting me to do something stupid then that means you thought about doing it for yourself first. I admit Izuku's a good guy but I don't want you dating him just so you can get us out of the trash pit." said Hanah as she began to walk down the stairs. "Things maybe hard but we'll get through this."
Sarah smiled at her sister's optimism. 'I really wish that was the case.' "Okay" Before either of them could say anything else a green blur dashed past them. "Whoa?"
"HEY!" called out Hanah
They both look to see Izuku standing wide eyed. "Hanah, Sarah?! What time is it?"
Sarah looked at her phone, "It's 7:15 right now."
Izuku actually looked surprised. "Oh I was able to get five hours of sleep. Okay cool. Cool cool cool." He said the last three cools quickly.
Hanah raised an eyebrow at Izuku. "You okay?"
"Yes, perfect, got a lot to do. I need to find Benta." Sarah was about to say something but Izuku cut her off. "Don't worry about, you two just stay safe and don't do anything stupid. Stay home today." As he began to walk off towards the ramen shop. "You guys have a good day."
Both Sarah and Hanah stood there confused at what they just witnessed. "What the fuck was that?"
Sarah slowly shook her head. "I have no idea? Drugs?"
"Doesn't fit Izuku," said Hanah "You think he got laid?"
"That also doesn't sound like him."
"Well it has to be something, he looks livelier than usual."
"Yeah he does." said Hanah, realizing her sister was right. "Maybe it was the college thing?"
"Maybe?"
~o~
Izuku went through the door of the ramen shop. "Izuku," said his mother behind the counter. "Oh thank goodness I didn't think you would wake up on time for school."
"Yeah hey mom have you seen Kenta around here?" asked Izuku.
"He's over there." She then pointed to a table where Kenta was eating with Genta and a tall skinny guy with glasses.
"Benta," said Izuku, getting the glasses guy's attention as he made his way to the table.
Kenta turned to Izuku. "Hey Izuku."
"Sup man." said Genta
"How are you, Izuku?" asked Benta.
"Great, perfect, just need your help real quick," as Izuku pulled out his phone and showed Benta a lot of code, "You can understand russian, yeah?"
"Uh yes," said Benta as he looked at the phone and activated his quirk. Text Understanding. Benta has the ability to understand other languages with ease; this includes code as well, as long as it's in some text format he can understand it to a degree. This doesn't include certain things like math, he can read but can't solve it, he needs to do that on his own. Though it did help him become a well known freelance hacker around town. "And done, fixed the code and translated the russian to japanese….why do you have code from the Bratva?"
"No reason," said Izuku as he grabbed the phone. 'Now I can hack those computers with this program.' Izuku checked it off his list. "Alright I might need you guys later but until then take care."
Inko saw her son about to leave. "Wait Izuku aren't you going to school, you can't miss a whole week of school."
Izuku looked back at his mom while he was leaving. "Uh, just tell them it's college stuff, I need to get to the zoo."
"The zoo?" repeated Inko, greatly confused as she saw her son leave. Part of her wanted to go after him but another part of her told her that this was something he was going to do whether or not she tried to stop him. "Okay the second something happens you three wombats are going to tell me immediately, understood."
The three looked at each other. "Yes Ma'am." said Kenta.
~o~
Izuku quickly grabbed his bag and made his way to the zoo where he found himself back in the hall of insects once again. Though this time it was empty with no one around and this time he had a specific target. 'I can't do this head on, Taskmaster showed me just how much of a difference there is between me and everyone else. The best way is if I do this indirectly, that way my own plans won't be too affected.' As he was exploring the halls, the curator noticed him. "Excuse me, young man."
Izuku looked around for a moment. "Me?"
"Yes you, shouldn't you be in school right now, young man."
"Ah well I'm actually going to college currently and I'm actually doing a paper on insects."
"Oh really?"
"Yes, specifically quirked insects," said Izuku. "See how some of them have changed due to the arrival of quirks. I was just looking at some of the unique ants you have here. Can you tell me about them?"
The curator eyed Izuku for a moment but decided to explain the new exhibit. "Well as far as quirked insects go, the main ones that have gotten quirks would be the bees, ants and to my ultimate horror, spiders."
"Not a fan of arachnids?"
"Heavens no," as they moved to one of the cases. "Here we have a very interesting variety of ants that have appeared, the Blue quirk ants, or aquatic ants. This ant colony has developed the ability to breathe underwater and swim."
"Very interesting," said Izuku as he moved on. "How about these guys?"
"These yellow ants are descendants of Paratrechina Longicornis, crazy ants. We simply call them electric ants. They have the ability to conduct electricity, marvelous little creatures."
"Okay," Izuku walked to the next case. "Let me guess, fire ants."
"Ah yes, the red quirked ants, and yes we do call them fire ants. Though unlike normal fire ants these ones aren't as aggressive. Though they are immune to extensive heat and on rare occasions they can even heat themselves up enough to combust to deter attackers. Though if they do find themselves in a fight they have pincers that are quite strong."
"Sweet," said Izuku, impressed. "I only came here for the crazy electric ants but the other two could be quite useful."
The curator raised an eyebrow and turned to Izuku. 'What do you-" He then looked around and noticed he was the only one in the hall. "Young Man? Where did you go" The curator then began to look for Izuku.
While Izuku went inside the fire ant case and stood before the ants he was summoning. "Greeting gentleman, I am in need of your services." The ants gathered around but none of them said a word. "I don't know why I expected a response."
~o~
"Okay, if I do this all correctly, I'll have successfully gotten the info to some of the good heroes without anyone knowing who did and without me getting caught. I just have to stick to the plan and not screw up." Izuku finished setting up his new ant farms that were tailored to their specific needs. He then turned his attention to his computer monitor as he used his brand new hacking program into work, it wasn't hard for Izuku to track down the traffickers as they used several hostess clubs as bases, using the program he was able to narrow it down to five different clubs that all used the same network, which proved they were organized and big. 'I can't take them head on. Luckily I don't need to.' Izuku stepped away and put on his suit. "Alright guys let's go and shine a light on the trash pit." As he shrunk down, hopped on his new winged ant and flew out with his army of ants.
~o~
The area he lived in had several dozen shady places that the traffickers could use, though Izuku was able to slim it down to four different buildings thanks to the Bravta hacking program he was able to get his hands on. The program allowed him to quickly hack into a few computers in the area to find what he was looking for and the local informate, Turk, had the info he needed.
(Building One)
On the outside it looked like a hostess club with a bunny theme, but after infiltrating through the vents, Izuku found a huge drug dealing operation in the back.
(Building Two)
This hostess club had a classy feel to it with girls wearing fancy looking kimonos, for a moment Izuku couldn't tell if he was in the right place, though he was then horrified as he found several industrial size freezers in the back holding various human organs that he overheard several men talking about selling. He would have to do something about that.
(Building Three)
Now this building was as broken down as the rest of the neighborhood, the outside made it look like a shitty bar, inside Izuku hit the jackpot as he found several dorm like bedrooms in the basement filled with the missing girls all of them with red ribbons tied around their necks. He could tell they were there against their will and that the upstairs rooms above the club was where the brothel was.
(Building Four)
It was by far the most secure hostess club, he had to use the aquatic ants to sneak in through the water pipes and inside the basement, Izuku found the biggest cache of weapons he had ever seen. It was as if they were preparing for the next world war. He decided to leave a few ants around so that when the time came to deal with this one, he would have the advantage.
~o~
Soon night fell over the city as the night life began to start. Sarah looked out her window as she put her goodbye letter down on her desk, she slowly left her room taking one last look back inside before she closed the door. She then made her way to the kitchen/living room. It was dark and she didn't want to turn on the lights. She then placed a small briefcase on the kitchen table, it was filled with the money she made trying to clear her debt. The lights then suddenly turned on. She whipped her head around to see her sister next to the light switch. "Hanah?" She also noticed her sister was wearing her PJ pants and a tank top. "Shouldn't you be in bed?"
Hanah glared at Sarah, "Okay...What...The Fuck is going on?" She waited for a response but got none. "For the past week you have been acting strange and I mean really strange. You're hiding something and you're going to tell me right now."
Sarah was silent as she stared at her sister, she sighed and slowly rolled up her sleeve revealing the red tag.
Hanah's eyes went wide in horror. "No, no, no, no, no. You can't be serious. Sarah-ah" Hanah felt something hit her in the back causing her to fall.
"Hanah!" yelled Sarah as she caught her sister. She then looked where her sister was standing and saw the shadow of a man on the wall. "Who are you?"
A man wearing pure black walked out of the shadow holding a taser in his hand. "I'm the guy that makes sure you don't run away. " Sarah checked her sister. "Don't worry it was a low volt, she'll be up in an hour. Now it's time to go."
Sarah wordlessly grabbed her sister and put her on the couch. "Good bye sis, take care of mom."
Hanah's eyes slowly opened as she barely kept herself awake. She tried to call out to her sister as she saw her walk out the door. "No...don't…...go.'' She then fell off the couch and willed herself onto her feet. Using anything in sight as a hand hold, pushing all the pain to the back, her mind became a single thought of her sister. 'I have to go after her.'
Izuku was walking back to his apartment, 'I got so much evidence today, I'll be able to shut those guys out by tomorrow.' He then saw Sarah walking towards a white van. "Sarah." Izuku froze in shock. 'No, I was too late.'
"SARAH!" Izuku looked and saw Hanah calling from the second floor balcony. Sarah looked back before the man shoved her into the van. The moment the doors closed on the van, it drove off. "SARAH!" screamed Hanah with tears pouring down her face, as she ran down the stairs tripping on the second to last step falling to the ground. Izuku broke out of his shock and ran to Hanah, kneeling in front of her. "SARAH, THEY TOOK SARAH!"
Izuku looked at the girl crying in front of him. 'This wasn't supposed to happen like this. I got the evidence today so I could report it to the proper heroes without going in directly. If I show the evidence now will there be enough time to save Sarah before they do anything to her.' Izuku's mind then went crazy as he thought of leaving Sarah in the hands of the traffickers.
Hanah finally looked up at Izuku with tears falling from her face and snot coming from her nose. "Izuku," she said his name quietly but enough to get his attention. She then grabbed his arm. "Izuku, please, you know that guy, please call him, please I don't want to lose my sister. PLEASE."
Izuku saw Hanah's face and knew what he had to do. He slammed his head to the ground bowing to Hanah. "I'm sorry," Hanah was now shocked as she saw Izuku look up with blood on his face. "I didn't think I was ready and I didn't want to screw up my chances so I tried to do things the easy way," He stood up and smiled at Hanah. "Don't worry, your sister will be fine, she'll be home by morning."
Hanah saw him turn and leave, "Izuku!?" She saw for the first time in her life a hero.
As Izuku ran he began to formulate a plan in his head. 'Experience or no experience, power or no power, I'm not going to let those assholes hurt anyone else. I don't care if I'm seen or not, I'm going to rescue Sarah.'
Chapter 5 Message
Sarah was brought to the back of a hostess club, she was soon pushed through several doors until they stopped at a nice looking room that reminded her of the dressing rooms she would see in movies. Soon a man in a white suit with shades on came flanked by two guards, the man walked with clear authority and was clear he was the boss here. "So you must be the new girl, right?"
Sarah decided to bow while slightly lifting her skirt. "Yes sire, pleased to make your acquaintance."
The man whistled. "A broad with manners," He reached and put his hand below her chin and rubbed her cheek. Sarah did the best she could to hide her fear and disgust. "I think you'll fit right in here," he said before bringing his hand back. "Before we go any further what's your quirk, sweetie?"
Sarah tilted her hair and ran her hand through it as it changed several colors. "I can change the color of my hair at will."
"Ooh, that's a new one," as he looked at her hair lowering his shades revealing his pure white eyes. "Say, does the hair on the rest of your body change color as well."
She then saw that he was looking towards her legs. She blushed as her hair turned red with a mix of anger and embarrassment. "Yes, it also changes."
The man pushed his shades back on with a smile. "Well I would very much like to see that."
Sarah gulped as she knew what he was insinuating. "Excuse me um-" Sarah didn't finish as the man suddenly raised his hand to slap her, she shut her eyes waiting for the pain but none came.
"Sorry about that," said the man putting his hands on her shoulders. "You just got here and haven't been taught the rules yet. First rule I'm gonna teach you now is speak only when you're told to, understood."
"Yes sir," said Sarah, now scared. "I just had a question sir?"
"And that would be?"
"What do I call you, sir?"
The man went silent for a moment before laughing. "Sorry about that, I guess I haven't introduced myself, have I. My name is Shiriori, but you can just call me boss, I'm your new owner and you don't want to make your new owner angry do you?" Sarah was afraid to answer and shook her head. "Good now-" he stopped as he took out his phone and saw a new message. "Excuse me, it looks like your introduction will have to wait for a moment, I have to go talk to a few friends of mine. Don't worry though," As he pointed to the doorway where two women in nightgowns wearing red ribbons around their necks were standing, one girl had small horns on her head and the other had cat ears. "These two will show you around your new home."
The two women stepped forward. "Hello," said the horn girl.
"Hi" said the cat girl, forcing a smile trying to be cheerful.
Sarah nervously said "Hello" back.
The boss smiled. "Good, now take good care of her. I'll be right back for the new girl shortly." The man was about to leave but stopped suddenly. "Cat ears."
The girl with the cat ears stiffened. "Yes sir," she said, scared.
"Come with me." As he walked out with the girl with the cat ears in tow.
Sarah watched them leave. "Is she going to be okay?"
The horn girl chuckled. "No, she'll be raped." Sarah just stared at her. "What were you expecting me to say, something nice or something that will give you a bit of hope. This is the trash pit, nothing like that exists here."
Sarah chuckled slightly, "Yeah I guess you're right, there are no heroes here." As a small bug flew inside the room.
~o~
Izuku was standing on top of the building across the street. He was looking at his phone that was connected to his camera ants, they weren't quirked ants but they did have cameras on them. "Found ya," As he located Sarah, he then quickly scrolled through the other cameras. "Okay the girls are being kept in the basement, in between me and them are several guards, some of them look like real monsters." As he kept looking at the footage, the more daunting the task seemed, Izuku wouldn't lie he was scared but he was tired of seeing crime continue in these streets and he wanted to save Sarah. Izuku took a deep breath, "Okay time for Ant-man to do some work." He focused, "Alright guys, time to kill their eyes and ears."
~o~
"Oh man you should have seen it," said one of the guards near the basement. "The guy was crying like a bitch the second they threatened to cut his finger off."
The other guards chuckled, one of them was smoking, "Man I wish I was there," as he tossed his cigarette away. "So what do you think of some of the new girls?"
"Oh save it man, you know the boss, he won't let anyone get a turn until he's had his time
with them."
"Have any of you seen him give anyone a turn?"
"No, only paying clients."
"That the point, you got to pay to- FIRE!"
"Huh?" All the guards looked to see the trashcan was on fire. "Oh Shit"
The guards then panicked for a moment as they watched the trash can burn. Soon a man with red hair and a clock face tattoo on his cheek came down. "What the hell is going on?"
"This moron lit the trash can on fire."
"No, I didn't."
"It was your cigarette."
The red headed man rubbed his temples. "Either get some water or grab the fire extinguisher you idiots." After he said that two of the guards ran for the extinguisher. The man was about to leave when his phone rang. "Hello."
"Timebomb, what the hell is going on down there?"
"Oh hey boss, some idiot didn't put his cigarette out right and it caused the can to catch fire."
The boss sighed in annoyance. "Have those idiots clean up the mess and tell them to be quiet."
"You got it." said Timebomb as he hung up. He then saw one of the guards come back with the extinguisher. "Hey where's the other one?"
"Huh? He was right behind me? Hey where did everyone else go?" asked the guard.
Timebomb spun around to see that they were the only two people in the hallway, "Where the hell did they go?" If Timebomb could see them, he would see that other guards were now the size of a penny and knocked out below him. "Give me that," as he grabbed the extinguisher from the guard, when he did a digital number 5 appeared on it, before it started counting down. He then tossed it in the direction of the burning trash can.
The extinguisher exploded covering the hall in foam. Timebomb waited for something to happen, he was ready for someone to jump at him from somewhere but what he wasn't ready for was a giant ant suddenly appearing before combusting into flame. "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!" Yelled the guard. Timebomb grabbed the guard pushing him at the ant, the guard barely had time to realize he was dead. "NOOOO!"
BOOOOOM
Timebomb backed away to see the guard and the ant were gone. He quickly grabbed his phone and tried to call the boss, but his phone wasn't working anymore. If he looked closely he would have noticed a yellow ant on the back of it. "Shit!"
More guards came down to the lower level, "Timebomb sir, what happened?"
"We're under attack, you idiots." As he pushed past them. "Our communications are down. Go and secure the perimeter, I'm going to alert the boss."
"Yes sir," said one guard. "Wait sir what about the girls?"
"There should still be some guards watching them, so don't worry about them, besides if they get killed in the crossfire so be it, we can always get more."
"Wait, who's attacking us?" asked another guard. "Heroes?"
Timebomb looked at the idiot. "Please, this is the trash pit, no heroes come here that aren't bought out. This is clearly the act of a rival gang and we're not about to let them have our territory, now get moving."
"Yes sir." As they all went upstairs.
After they all left, several guards appeared on the ground handcuffed and out cold. Izuku then grew along with a giant fire ant that was covered in blood. "Holy shit, these guys are serious, he didn't hesitate for a second to use that guy as a bomb." He then looked at his ant who was now covered in blood, "Sorry I wasn't expecting that, now come on let's shrink down, we ain't down yet."
~o~
Before they heard the explosions, Sarah was taken downstairs to the girls' so called dorm rooms, several rooms in the back of the basement used to house the girls who looked like they were in between her age and mid 20s. Even though the horn woman was talking to her she was barely paying attention. The horn woman seemed to notice and repeated herself. "Don't do anything stupid, they're guards on station in the hallway 24/7, if you do good enough they may let you be one of the girls in the hostess club instead of spending your time in the brothel."
Sarah looked around and saw the several other girls around her, noticing the red ribbon around all of their necks, "Do they allow any other clothing, cause it looks like everyone is wearing underwear."
The horn girl shook her head. "Fraid not, the most we get are sweaters for the winter, get used to being in your birthday suit a lot."
Sarah was about to ask more questions when suddenly the room shook as they heard an explosion. She noticed the surprised look on everyone who was somewhat surprised but not really. "Does that happen often?"
"Not really," said the woman. "That was most likely an explosion from Timebomb, one of the higher members around here. He's able to turn anything he touches into a bomb with a timer. It's rare but every now and then he has to get rid of some of the guards that go too out of line."
"So was that blast him killing someone?"
Before she could respond the guards yelled. "Stay in your rooms, don't come out."
Sarah looked to see confused looks from the other girls. 'Okay I'm going to assume this is not normal around here.' Before she could ask a question a guard was thrown through the door causing several girls to scream. Sarah looked through the doorway. She saw several guards shooting randomly before getting hit by something. Sarah's mind couldn't understand what she was seeing, the guards were being hit by something before a random large coin suddenly hit another. Sarah looked down and saw random rocks and a very large shoe on the ground next to a pair of sunglasses the size of a chair.
Soon there were only two guards left. "What the hell is going on?" said One in a panic.
"I don't know, someone with an invisibility quirk?" replied the other.
Izuku grew to full size between the two. "Not even close." Before re shrinking at the perfect moment for one guard to hit the other in the face. Izuku then jumped and kicked the guard in his shrunken form hitting him like a bullet. Izuku then used the momentum to jump above the other guard, growing to full size, kicking him in the jaw bringing him down. Izuku stopped taking note of his work. "Not bad, not bad. Getting better with the kicks."
"Who the fuck are you?" asked the horn woman, getting his attention.
"I'm Ant-Man." said Izuku with confidence. Though it did earn several looks of disbelief.
"Are you a hero?" asked another girl.
"Not exactly but I'm still taking these guys out so I suggest you guys get out of here." said Izuku as he pointed to the door. "I've taken everyone out from here to the back door."
"We can't leave," said the horn woman. She pointed to her neck where the ribbon was. "This ribbon is keeping us here, I don't know the exact quirk used to make these work, but they work like trackers and can be used to choke us out if necessary. Trust me I've seen it and they don't come off." Izuku walked towards the woman. "Girls have tried to cut, burn and rip them off to no success. The only one who has a chance is the new girl so if you want to take-" She stopped as Izuku put his hand on the ribbon around her neck. The ribbon then suddenly expanded around the horn girl becoming a scarf that fell to the ground. The woman put her hands on her neck as she felt the weight of the ribbon disappear from her neck. She looked at the ribbon on the ground, the sight of it brought tears to her eyes. "That's been around my neck for four years."
'Looks like those ribbons aren't immune to growing, lucky me.' thought Izuku as he smiled under his helmet. "Now about we all get out of here." As he focused and told his ants to connect growth disks to each of the girls ribbons around their necks. 'So glad I went overkill on making those disks.' he thought as he watched the ribbons drop from the girls' necks. Soon Izuku was able to gather all the women, about fifty of them into the hallway. "Okay just stay a bit of the way back and when I give the all clear move towards the exit."
They all nodded as Sarah looked at Ant-man. She couldn't help but feel that he was somewhat familiar, but she shoved the feeling away as she remembered something, "Wait," she yelled loud enough to get his attention, "There was another girl that was taken by the boss."
"Don't worry, I ain't leaving until me and this boss have a little chat, you just focus on getting out of here." said Izuku as he made his way towards the entrance of the basement. He saw three guards now stationed on top of the stairs, "Hey dumbasses, catch!" As he threw a fist sized rock up the stairs, though attached to the rock was a growth disk, Izuku modified some of the disk to have a slight delay, so in mid air the rock grew to the size of a small car crashing into the three guards knocking them down and breaking on impact. Afterwards Izuku shrunk down and went up the stairs and confirmed all three men were alive but they were not going to be moving anytime. "Alright, this might be easier than I thought. Now the basement is the tail of a T so we need to go left to get to the back entrance."
"Intruder over there," Izuku looked right to see several men with machine guns.
"Kill this asshole," Izuku then saw men coming from the other side.
Izuku shrunk down as the bullets began to fly, Izuku waited a few seconds until the gun fire stopped before he went back to full size. Izuku looked left to see all the guys down on the ground filled with bullet holes, he then looked right to see all but one who was on his knees with three bullets in his gut. "Kaaa….You'll pay… for killing...u..ussss"
"I didn't do anything, you guys shot each other."
"Oh my god you killed them all." Izuku turned to see the women coming up the stairs, all of them staring at him and the ground of dead guards.
"No," said Izuku quickly. "They did this themselves. I just shrunk myself."
"Holy shit, you are badass."
"Thanks but I didn't really do uh"
"BEHIND YOU!" Yelled Sarah.
Izuku spun around as an arm came out of the shadow holding a gun at Izuku. "Don't you dare move or shrink, you do. I'll start killing the women. Who are you, who sent you?"
Izuku faced the shadow man, "I'm Ant-man."
"Ant-man," he said, holding back a chuckle. 'Seriously?"
"Oh you won't be forgetting me anytime soon." as Izuku's ants began to move.
"I think I will." as he pulled the trigger, but when he did nothing happened, he tried again but nothing. "What the?" He then saw ants holding back the pistol's hamer. "ANTS?!"
"Yep but not all of them are normal." as Izuku pointed to the ants running along his arm to the wall.
Soon the shadow man started to hear some static as some of the ants looked like they were forming a chain, he followed the chain to a power outlet on the wall. The ants then connect to power, shocking the shadow man out of the wall with enough voltage to fry him a little. "AAAAHHHHHHH" he screamed as the electricity coursed through him before he fell to the ground twitching.
Izuku and the girls stared at the shadow man who was now lying on the ground. "How?" asked one of the girls.
"Crazy ants can conduct electricity but these ants are super versions of that so they can also increase the voltage that runs through them." Explained Izuku. "Now come on, we're almost home free."
"You….Bastard," They all turned to see the shadow guy trying to get up. He looked up and eyed Ant-man. "I hope the money was worth it...cause you're a deadman."
The girls stopped and looked at Ant-Man who stood silent for a moment before laughing. "Money doesn't mean shit to me." Sarah then stared at Ant-man. "I know it's hard to imagine someone doing something around here for free. You should think it over with this next jolt." Izuku pointed as more ants covered the man making a bigger chain to the outlet, which resulted in a bigger shock than before putting the man into a deep slumber. "That should keep him down, come on, let's get out of here." As Izuku continued to guide them, one of them kept her eyes on him.
~o~
"Boss" yelled Timebomb slamming the door open.
"Hey," Yelled the boss as he quickly pulled up his pants. "Can you see I have something on my desk?"
Timebomb did see the girl with the cat ears on the desk who tried to cover herself. "Yeah and we have someone attacking our guys right now."
"What?"
"We are under attack," repeated Timebomb. "And our coms are dead."
The boss looked at him in disbelief. "Are you kidding me?" Timebomb doesn't joke around. "Who the fuck would be crazy enough to take us on? We are connected with several crime organizations, Yakuza, even well known villains around town."
"That's why we need to move, the chance of this being some crazy vigilante is slim, chances are this guy works for one of our competitors." said Timebomb.
The boss agreed with the logic and went over to wall and sliding a painting away revealing several guns, "Well then we'll make these guys our bitches and forced them to tell us what the fuck is going on." He then threw a shotgun at Timebomb. "Lock and load."
"Relax," the boss stopped and looked at Timebomb. "I don't think it's that bad, I already had the guys secure the perimeter, and I even sent two squads to the basement to secure the goods."
The boss took his shades off and eyed Timebomb. "You sure?"
Timebomb was going to try and play down the situation when it got worse. "BOSS," yelled a man running in. "The squads in the basement are dead and the creepy shadow guy is down."
Timebomb and the boss looked at the man in shock. "Oh fuck." said the girl with cat ears in the corner.
The boss was now furious and was looking at the girl who tried to be as invisible as possible. "You shut the fuck up and stay here." The boss then marched out of the room followed by his men.
The girl let out a breath of relief, "Asshole, I hope he gets his small dick ripped off."
"Now there's an idea," said Izuku right next to her. His sudden appearance scared the girl who would have screamed if Izuku didn't put his hand over her mouth. "Shhh….I'm not here to hurt you." he then put his other hand on the ribbon on her neck, causing it to grow off the girl. "How about we get you out of here."
The girl looked at Izuku speechless. "Are you a hero?"
Izuku was silent for a moment. "I'm Ant-man. That's all you need to know right now."
"I'll take it." as she happily followed Izuku to a window where a giant flying ant was waiting.
~o~
Sarah and the other girls ran as far as they could, each going in their own direction, most finally tasting freedom for the first time in years. Sarah looked back at the building that was now far down the street, she then saw one of the girls run past and realized if Ant-Man didn't come and save them, that could have been her. She then heard something strange above her and saw a giant ant flying above her. She watched the ant land nearby with the cat girl she saw earlier on it. She got off of the ant and thanked it, even somewhat petting it, before it jumped back into the sky.
"Hey," yelled Sarah, getting the girl's attention.
She turned to Sarah. "Oh hey you were the new girl."
"Yeah, where's Ant-Man?"
"Don't know, he said he had something else to do before putting me on that giant ant." she said before she started to walk away. "I don't know who he is but if he wants a good time I'll be more than happy to give it to him."
"Where are you going?"
"I have an old friend who might want to help me out, hopeful she'll listen to me now that I'm never gambling again." she vowed. "I suggest you find someone who will hold you up for the night."
Sarah decided to take her advice and made her way home, when suddenly a car pulled. "Hey Sarah," She looked and saw Kenta sticking his head out of the passenger window. "Need a lift?"
"Kenta?" She walked up to the car and saw the driver. "Genta? What are you two doing here?"
"Izuku called us and said you needed a ride." said Kenta as Sarah hopped into the back seat.
"What the hell is going on here," asked Genta as he saw more girls running. "A stripper parade?"
"No, there were all the girls that were red tagged."
"Say what now?"
"Yeah it's one heck of a story. Wait but where's Izuku?"
Kenta shook his head. "No idea, he just called us and told us to pick you up while Benta makes a few phone calls to some of the motels around town."
"Motels, what the hell is that about?" asked Genta.
"I don't know."
"It's for the girls," said Sarah as the pieces came together. "It's so that the girls that have no place to go have somewhere to stay. This is all Izuku's doing."
"Well shit," said Genta as he drove off. "It looks like he put his big brain to work."
~o~
The boss was not happy as he saw the empty rooms in the basement, he then stomped his way up the stairs to the several dead bodies on the ground and to the remainder of his men standing around. "I want you to find this asshole and kill him, kill his boss, kill his family and make him wish he was never born."
Timebomb stepped forward. "Boss, I think we should focus on grabbing and getting the girls back. We need to keep things running then worry about some wannabe hero."
"Oh come on, think Timebomb, THINK. You think this was the work of some hero, do you think a goodie two shoes hero did this," he gestured to the bodies. "This was the work of a rival, the girls are probably being stuffed into a van by now and taken cross country. There's no way this was a hero. Heroes only worry about people in good parts of town, no hero-no one cares what happens here, no one gives two shits about anyone here. This is the trash pit, no one cares about anyone or anything here."
"I do," the boss turned in time to see a fist come flying towards his face. Izuku shrunk down, jumped over the man grabbing, and then while regrowing throwing him into his men.
Timebomb quickly threw loose change at Ant-Man, which exploded causing the hallway to fill with smoke. "Did I get him?"
"Not even close."
Timebomb turned to see he was now small and standing on his shoulder. "Shit he's on
me, he's on me." yelled the man in a panic as he ripped his shirt off.
Shirori got up and pointed his gun. "Shoot, dammit, Shoot." Timebomb ducked as they all started shooting the discarded shirt and the surrounding floor. Soon the whole floor was covered in bullet holes.
Though Izuku wasn't down there at the moment, he was actually above them, sitting on a flying ant, trying not to laugh. "Oh screwing with these numb nuts is fun. Though I think it's time I end this." he signaled his ants.
Soon all the men in all began to yelp in panic as ants started biting their hands causing them to drop their weapons. When they tried to reach down to their dropped weapons they disappeared as Izuku shrunk them down to the point it was impossible to see with the naked eye. "Oh SHIT my guns are gone." "SO's my shotgun." "Does anyone have a good quirk here, cause all I got are thunder pits." "That's your fucking quirk, seriously?"
"ALL OF YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP!" yelled the boss as he was now panicked.
Timebomb looked around. "Boss, I think it's time to make a tactical retreat."
The boss eyed his right hand man. "Are you fucking serious, if I had my gun I'd shoot you. I am NOT running from this fucker, no I'm going to find him and rip him limb from fucking limb."
"Oh good," said Izuku, growing to full size down the hall. "I really didn't want to have to chase you down."
"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" yelled the boss as he charged at Izuku in anger. Izuku didn't move as an ant grew in between the two, scaring the shit out of the boss. "WHAT THE FUCK!"
"AAAAHHHHH" came a scream as more giant ants appeared down the hall trapping the criminals.
"Good," As Ant-man climbed on top of his giant ant. "Now that I have your attention, I have something to say. A quick message if you would."
"Huh?"
"You're going to stop kidnapping people, you're going to quit all of the drug dealing and other criminal bullshit you're up to. It ends now." The criminals just stared at him.
"What?" as the boss stood up. "You're a hero? You've got to be shitting me. You think you can just come in here and tell us what to do-"
"Oh no no no. That message wasn't for you." said Ant-man as he jumped down and walked right into the boss's face. "I want you to run and tell that to every single scumbag in the trash pit, cause this shit ends now. You've lost and now all you can do is run and hide." Izuku then turned to walk away. "I can't arrest you, there ain't a good cop within miles of here, but if you ever try to go after anyone else, I'll be there to stop you and anyone else who tries it."
The boss then began to laugh, "You think you can stop every single criminal here. That's impossible, you're just some delusional kid trying to play hero. You're going to die playing this game."
Izuku then laughed. "You maybe right about that but what's even sadder is that you think you can still win, cause I've already won. This game ended before we even met." Izuku then shrunk out of view. "Enjoy your freedom while you can because it will be taken by the end of the week." With that Izuku left the criminals with a very furious boss.
~o~
Hanah sat outside and waited, she had stayed there since Izuku left, he said that he would bring her sister back by morning so she decided to wait till morning if she had to. "Hanah." She looked up to see her sister step out of a car.
"SARAH!" yelled Hanah rushing to her sister, they hugged as tears rushed down their faces. "I thought I would never see you again. What were you thinking?"
"I'm sorry," cried Sarah. "I'm so sorry. It was the only thing I could think of after I lost my job."
Hanah punched her shoulder. "You idiot, neither me nor mom care if we're hungry or poor. Never do that again."
Sarah nodded. "Okay."
Genta smiled at the sight before he heard Kenta sniffing. "Are you crying?'
"Oh come man this is beautiful." said Kenta whipping his eyes.
"HEY," They all turned to see Benta running towards them. "Did I miss anything? Where's Izuku?"
"You missed Kenta crying." said Genta, earning a slight elbow jab from Kenta.
"We saved Sarah." said Kenta pointing to Sarah who gave him a look of disbelief.
"You didn't save me, Ant-man saved me."
"Ant-Man?" Hanah was confused. "Who's Ant-Man, did Izuku ask a hero to save you?"
Sarah shook her head. "No I don't think it was one of the heroes, I think it was...well, I'm not sure, but I think I know who it was."
Kenta, Genta and Benta all exchanged looks. "Well don't leave us hanging, who is it?"
Sarah was about to say when she saw someone walking towards them in a hoodie. "IZUKU!"
Izuku was smiling from ear to ear. "Sup guys how's it going?"
Sarah looked at him as if trying to read his mind. "Izuku, was that you back there? Are you Ant-Man?"
Izuku opened his mouth to say something but then closed it as he thought of something. "Fuck it. Yeah, that was me," he admitted. "I'm Ant-Man."
This surprised everyone, especially Sarah. "You….how I thought you had an intelligence quirk not one that allows you to shrink and grow."
Izuku goaned. "I don't, for the last time guys I don't have a quirk." He then took his hoodie off and put on his helmet. "Here I'll show you." He then grinned before shrinking down right in front of them. Shocking everyone as they turned their heads trying to find Izuku.
"How'd you do that bro?" asked Kenta as he looked around.
"Look at your shoulder." said Izuku's voice.
Kenta whipped his head to see a tiny man standing on his shoulder. "Holy shit bro, you tiny," He pointed to his shoulder. "He tiny, how are you tiny?"
"That's what I want to know?" Asked Genta
"Is it Gypsies?" asked Benta, earning looks from everyone.
Hanah gave him a look. "Gypsies? Really?"
"No it's not gypsies." said Izuku as he hopped down and grew himself. "It's this suit, it allows me to shrink down and grow big, I used it to save Sarah and the other girls."
Sarah then hugged Izuku along with Hanah. "Thank you so much for saving me."
"Thank you for saving my sister, you crazy bastard." said Hanah.
"Hanah."
"He just raided a gangster hideout," said Hanah, breaking the hug. "He's got some massive balls but he's crazy."
"What a minute," said Kenta. "Did you know about that this morning? Is that why you asked us to do all that stuff?"
"Uh not exactly," said Izuku. "Before I continue, let me ask you, how much crime do you think is committed around here in a day?"
"A lot."
"A shit ton." said Genta.
Benta nodded. "Enough to fill a prison."
"Yeah," agreed Kenta. "Assault"
"Murder."
"Grand theft Auto,"
"Stealing,"
"Rape,"
"Jaywalking."
"Exactly which is why I am going to need help," said Izuku.
"Wait do you mean like help hiding a body or help hiding you?" asked Kenta. "Cause I know a few good places, one even has a smoothie machine."
"No but not gonna lie, a smoothie sounds good right now." admitted Izuku. "What I need help with is the aftermath."
"Aftermath" repeated Sarah. "Wait is this why you're telling us all this cause this seems like something you're supposed to keep a secret."
"Yeah that was the original plan but after tonight I realized I'm going to need some help for what comes next." said Izuku, earning more confused looks. "I've kind of sentenced this place to death." as he smirked.
~o~
She saw her boss grumble while he massaged his temples. "Is everything okay Sir Night Eye." asked Bubble girl as she placed a cup of tea on his desk.
"Apologizes, just had another nightmare is all." said Night Eye taking the cup of tea, but stopped before taking a sip. "Bubble Girl, who was in my office last night?" as he held up a flash drive confusing the girl.
"WHO'S FLASHDRIVE IS THIS?" Yelled Endeavor as he held up the drive to his sidekicks. "I found this on my desk, who was in my office?"
The sidekicks looked around. "Uh none of us sir," said Kido. "You were the last one here last night."
"Whatcha looking at?" asked Midnight as she watched the principal plug in a flash drive into his personal computer.
"I don't know," said Nezu as he clicked on the files. "According to Aizawa, several flash drives were sitting on all of the teachers desks. Including yours." A video began to play on the screen. "Oh dear."
"Hey what's wrong Naomasa?" asked Sansa.
"I need to call All Might right now," as he quickly gathered his things. "Call the chief, we might have something here."
"Don't bother," said detective Tanuma. "I just got off the phone. Apparently around twenty hero agencies received flash drives with similar videos on them. The chief is already sending a team to investigate."
"Are you serious," asked Naomasa but Tanuma's face said it all. He quickly pulled his phone out and dialed in a number. "All Might we gonna need you soon, something big is about to happen."
Chapter 6 Hero's Welcome
A woman raced through the alley trying to escape from her chasers, she made a wrong turn down the wrong way running into a dead end. "Nowhere to run now, girl." Said the leader of three men. "Now you're going to come back like a good girl, maybe spread your legs a litt-" he did finish as he was suddenly uppercutted.
The woman felt a wave of relief. "ANT-MAN!"
"Oh shit, it's the ant," Yelled the one in the back. "He's real."
"He's dead," said the second one before turning his hands into metal claws. He tried to swipe at Ant-man who shrunk down, jumped, regrew, kicking the man in the face.
Izuku turned to see the third one trying to run away. "Oh no you don't." He then used his new wrist mounted disk launchers, shooting a disk past the running man, enlarging one of his ants.
"AAAAAHHHHH," screamed the criminal. "No, no, don't eat me!."
Izuku quickly cuffed the three men, tying them up. "That should do it, are you alright, miss?"
"Yes thank you, thank you so much." she said as she bowed.
"Hey it's all good."
"No," she said, getting close. "I was heading home after seeing my friend that you saved last week, she was staying at one of the safe motels Ghost set up. You two are like the only heroes this town has ever had."
Izuku smiled under his helmet. 'They're actually both me.' He thought before shrinking his Ant down. "Thanks, I mean it. Got to go. Take care." As he shrunk down and flew away on an ant.
~o~
Izuku returned to his room at his apartment, taking his gear off. 'It's still early, I should go over to the ramen shop and get something to eat.' As he began to head over to Mr. Ramens. 'I can't believe it's only been a week since I stopped those traffickers. Now several heroes from out of town are coming in and the whole district is being turned upside down. There have been more busts in the past few days, than some cities have had for over a year. The old police station has been shut down as it was clear that it was corrupted to its core and almost every hero agency in the area has been closed, with a lot of those so-called heroes either in jail or on the run.' Thought Izuku, feeling prideful that he was actually making a genuine difference.
Izuku entered the ramen shop and was shocked at what he saw. "Whoa this place is packed."
It was true the whole shop was packed with customers taking every table. "Oh hey, Izuku." He turned to see Hanah wearing work clothes and an apron.
"Hey Hanah," Izuku returned the greeting. After everything that happened a week ago, Izuku helped Hanah and Sarah find a job with his mom at the Ramen shop. "It's packed tonight."
"Yeah even Mr Ramen is surprised with the amount of people, him and your mom are in the back cooking."
"Izuku," he turned to Sarah, holding a tray full of dirty dishes. "The wombats are in the corner, you want your usual right?"
"Yes, please." as he let the girls get back to the grind as he walked over to his friends. As he got closer, he saw that the three looked exhausted. "Hey you guys alright?"
They all turned to him. "Dude, do you have any idea how crazy it's been around here?" said Genta with a slight tone.
"Yeah," repsoned Izuku, sitting down. "I've kind of been out dealing with all of it, what in the world have you guys been doing?"
"Doing what you asked us to do."
Izuku raised an eyebrow. "All I asked was that you guys use the blackmail I had to let the girls I freed stay at the motels for free for a few nights. Did something else happen?"
Benta and Genta gave each other a look. "Then why do we have to help clean and maintain the motels?"
"What?" Izuku was confused before slowly turning to Kenta who had been eating quietly. "Kenta. Did you offer to get the guys to work at the motels so you can hit on the girls."
Kenta looked at his friends, "No," he said unconvincingly. "I wouldn't hit on a bunch of girls that just got freed from slavery." They were all still looking at him. "The cute receptionist on the other hand…." Genta and Benta glared at Kenta. "I'll make you guys waffles."
"I think you're also getting us dessert," said Benta.
"That's fair."
"And you're letting me borrow your ride for my date." said Genta
"Just a night."
"A week."
"Three days."
"Deal." as they shook.
Izuku couldn't help but laugh at his friend's antics. "So that aside, any problems at all with the motel managers?"
"Nah, they all caved pretty quickly," said Genta, "After what Ant-man did, they kept their mouths shut. Not to mention this is good PR for them."
"Speaking of Ant-man," said Kenta, getting Izuku's attention. "Any word about my favor?"
Izuku gave him a confused look for a moment. "Oh right, you want to be shrunk down so you can turn your TV into a big screen."
"Yes please."
Genta gave a look of disbelief. "That's what you want to do. Turn your tv into a big screen by shrinking."
"Yeah what would you do?"
"Hotwheels." said Genta receiving looks of disbelief from the others. "I want to set up one of my old hot wheels sets and actually try driving in one. Do you have any idea how awesome it would be to go through those loop de loops." All the others thought about it for a moment and agreed it would be awesome. "How about you, Benta?"
Benta looked at the others for a moment. "I just want to shrink down, so I can give my hamster a hug."
The others were silent for a moment as they imagined hugging a giant fluffy hamster, Genta then coughed. "Benta wins."
Kenta whipped some tears from his eyes. "That's a beautiful man, can I give him a hug as well?"
"Of course. Does this make the list Izuku?" Asked Benta.
Izuku was already writing it down. "Oh yeah, that one is definitely going to the top of the list."
"What in the world are you guys talking about?" All of them turned to see Sarah holding a bowl. "You all look like you were just crying." As she placed the bowl in front of Izuku, who thanked her.
"Benta came up with a great idea, he wants to shri-" Kenta didn't finish as three legs kicked him. "AH hey! What was that for?"
Genta gave Kenta a look. "Boy, don't you know anything about keeping things quiet?"
"But she knows." as he pointed at Sarah.
Hanah then came up to the table. "Yeah we know but you talk loud."
Kenta looked around the restaurant for a moment, before whispering. "Sorry."
"But what are you guys talking about?"
"Ideas for Izuku's new project," said Benta.
"Oooh, I got one," as Hanah came close. "Sarah, remember that old toy set we had as kids, the one with the water slides?"
"The miniature water park set, with functioning water slides." It was one of the few expensive toys they ever had. "But wasn't that for those water proof dolls?"
"I'm sure we can work out the kinks," she said before turning back to the group. "Can you imagine a whole water park in your own apartment?"
Izuku put down his chopsticks for a moment. "You know I've thought about that, but with all the equipment in my room, it's making things a little tight. I need to find a place with more room."
Kenta then began shaking like a child about to go to the toy store," Izuku, Izuku, I think I have an idea."
"Okay, what do you ha-"
"Girls," Hanah and Sarah went stiff for a moment. "You're both still on the clock," said Inko. "And there are still tables that need service."
"Yes Ma'am." they both said simultaneously before getting back to work.
Inko then smiled seeing the girls working hard. "You're done with your bowl, Izuku?"
"Yes mom," as he handed the bowl over. "Thank you for the food." As he was about to open his wallet.
"Don't worry about it," as Inko gestures for him to put his wallet away. "Mr. Ramen said this one is free. He says thanks for finding him more help, especially now that things are getting busy around town."
"Sweet," said Izuku, but stopped as he realized something when he spoke, the rest of the restaurant went quiet. "Huh?"
Everyone in the shop was looking at the door, where three people in costumes were standing. Izuku recognized them, they were heroes from the better parts of the city. Kamui Woods, Death Arms, and Mt Lady. "Uh Hi, citizens," said Kamui Woods, he was clearly off put by the silence of the people in the restaurant. "We're just here looking for a late dinner." The stares just made it worse for him. "Uh maybe we should find another place."
"Oh relax," As Mt Lady struck a pose and winked, "I'm sure these people are just blown away having heroes around."
Everyone was still silent. Genta then whispered. "That broad is hot, but stupid." receiving nods from those nearby.
Inko handed the bowl over to Hanah before walking up to the heroes giving them a neutral look and tone. "What can I get for you?"
"...uh food." Mt Lady as she looked around and saw the menu above the counter. "I'll take the 1,200 yen noodles, uh is that amount before or after the hero discount?"
"Before."
"How much is it with the discount?"
"10,000 yen."
"WHAT!," yelled Mt Lady as Kamui's eye popped out of his helmet. "That's not a discount. What type of business are you trying to run here? Is this anyway to treat a hero?"
"Well it's clear you guys aren't from around here?" as Izuku got up and walked towards the heroes. 'I have to stop these morons before they make it worse,' he thought. "I hate to tell you this but this is the treatment you're going to find around here, a lot of heroes around here, try to get 100 percent off, but not here at Mr. Ramens. He hasn't bowed to a single hero ever and I doubt he will now."
"Bow?"
Death Arms, looked around. 'No one is fazed by this, it makes sense with all the shit I've seen around here.' he thought before he grabbed the back of Kamui's and Mt. Lady's heads and forced them down in a bow. "I apologize for the commotion, we will pay for three meals of that price and if you could be so kind we will take it to go."
"Alright three noodle bowls coming up, Hanah ring them up for 30,000 yen." said Inko as she went back to give the order to Mr. Ramen.
~o~
"Just stop will yeah," as Death Arms ate his meal in the front seat of his car.
"No I won't," Yelled Mt Lady as she too was eating. "We paid way too much for this, why the hell did you accept such a crappy deal?" After the long ass day we had to deal with this is the last thing I wanted and to top it off we couldn't even eat inside, we have to eat in a parking lot."
Kamui Woods sat back inside the car, "We had to."
"What do you mean we had to?"
"Have seen how people look at us. I may not have been a hero for a long time but I have never seen regular people look at me with fear and disgust before." said Kamui Woods. "It isn't right."
"No it isn't," Gruffed Death Arms. "This entire area has had nothing but fake heroes, heroes that were really criminals in disguise. This is your guys first day here but the other day when I first came by and stopped a small gang, a little boy was watching us. The kid looked at me as if I was a damn alien. I went over to make sure he was okay, and he asked me if I was going to rent his mom for the night."
The other two were silent for a moment, "You're kidding?"
"This place is broken and I just hope we're not too late to fix it." said Death Arms. "So until we make some headway, we all should do our best to keep things civil between us and the citizens here."
The three agreed before Kamui's phone went off. "It seems all of the heroes called to help out around the district are gathering together at the temporary police station."
Death Arms started the car. "Let's go, we got a lot of work to do."
~o~
"Oh right before I leave," Izuku turned to Kenta. "So what was that thing you were going to say before the heroes showed up?"
Kenta looked up. "Oh yeah, I kno-"
RUMBLEEEEEE!
Izuku looked out the window and saw smoke in the distance. "Uh hold that thought, one more time." As Izuku ran out of the ramen shop.
Kenta watched Izuku run out before turning to Benta and Genta. "We seriously just going to sit here?"
Genta stood up. "Hell no." As they ran out.
"Wait for me." Yelled Benta as he shoved the last of his dessert into his mouth before running out after them.
"Hey wait," yelled Hanah holding up the receipt. "You haven't paid for the dessert yet."
Sarah looked out to see they were already gone. "So do we run after them or…."
"Oh don't worry about them," As Inko took the plates from an empty table. "We'll just put it on their tabs."
Sarah raised an eyebrow. "The wombats have tabs?"
"They are regulars and so far they haven't missed a payment yet. Anyway it's closing time, I can handle the dishes if you two can clean the front."
"Okay." they both said simultaneously as they started to clean up the store. For a while they both cleaned in silence, before Hanah broke the silence. "So, you've stopped gambling huh?"
"Yep," replied Sarah as she started whipping down a table. "No more gambling, I'm sticking to the money plan Izuku came up with."
"I still can't believe he was able to fix our debts on top of everything else that's been happening around here."
"He truly is a man of miracles."
"I wouldn't say miracles," as Hanah started swiping the floor. "We've all known for years he was going places. He's still planning on going to college here shortly, skipping all of highschool. Do you think he can do it?"
"Of course, he can. He's done the impossible, he made a plan and he's following through with it, so going through college shouldn't be much of an issue for him."
"What are you planning on doing?" asked Hanah. Sarah didn't respond but stopped cleaning the tables. "After everything that's happened it's made me think about the future a lot, it's made me wonder what are you going to do and what I should do."
"I don't want to be weak." Hanah stopped swiping and looked at her sister. "When I was tagged I imagined what my life would be like, and then when I saw all the other girls who had been there for years, I saw myself in their shoes, I saw myself being raped daily, being forced to do acts against my will, powerless to do anything. Then Izuku saved me. I don't want to be powerless like that again, I want to be strong enough so I can stand up for myself, so I can stand beside him, but I don't know if I can." Sarah then felt her sister's arms around her. "Hanah?"
"Don't worry, I don't want to be powerless either. I hated having to wait to see if you were coming back, I want to be strong enough so I can save you myself. I too want to stand by him as well."
Sarah hugged her sister back. "We'll get so strong Izuku will have a bitch of a time getting rid of us."
"As if he would get rid of girls as hot as us." Hanah laughed before getting a bit serious. "We have a goal, now we need a plan."
"I think we should first finish our work so we don't get fired."
"Right." as they went back to cleaning.
~o~
Izuku was on top of a building looking down at the scene in his Ant-man suit. "Holy shit the street is on fire." The street below him was on fire and a few cars that were nearby were destroyed. "What the hell happened here?" Soon a large man with an elephant head walked out of a nearby building holding several bags. "Oh this piece of shit, Flame Elephant."
The commotion attracted several onlookers, "Ah great it's now a show." including several police cars. "Those cars are too clean, they're definitely from out of town."
The police stepped out of their vehicles with one officer stepping forward. "Flame Elephant, your hero license has been revoked and you have a warrant out for your arrest please come quietly."
"Oh wow, a real police officer actually trying to arrest someone like normal." said Izuku genuinely surprised. "I haven't seen that around here before."
Flame Elephant held up one bag. "This is the money made from the gang of drug dealers, I'll give you half, if you walk away."
"Bribing an officer is against the law, drop the bags and surrender now. If you don't we have been authorized to use lethal force." said the officer.
"Either he's by the book or a dumbass." said Izuku as he shrunk down. "Time to go to work."
Flame Elephant was turning pure red from anger, he dropped the bags before shooting a torrent of flame from his trunk. "You pigs will buuuuuurrrrrrn!" The officers all ran for cover. "You all will pay for your treachery." he said before picking up a car and tossing it at the group of officers.
One of the officers froze as he saw it coming, at the last moment he ducked in fear. Missing the part when it shrunk to the size of a pebble landing in front of him. "Uh you okay buddy?"
The officer opened his eyes, "You're that vigilante."
"Yeah I'm-"
"ANT-MAAAAAAAAAN!" Roared Flame Elephant, "YOU! It's because of you I'm having to run away like a damn coward. I lived like a king before you showed up. I had fame, fortune, and everything."
"Uhh, you're an asshole, con-man, murderer, and so much other evil shit. I could go on forever but you get the picture."
"I'm going to kill you and rip you limb from limb." Flame Elephant then roared before charging at Izuku.
Izuku pushed the officer out of the way before shrinking. The mad elephant ran right past them crashing into a building. In the crowd Kenta and the others arrived. "Holly shit! Is Ant-man okay?"
"I'm doing just fine, Kenta."
Kenta jumped slightly before he followed the voice to his shoulder, "Dude please don't do that."
"Sorry," said Izuku from Kenta's shoulder. A crash got both of their attention as Flame Elephant smashed something inside the building. "Hey, would you guys mind getting the civilians out of here, while I take care of dumbo."
"You got it bro," as Kenta gave Izuku. "Hey everyone get back. Ant-man's got work to do."
Genta ran towards the building. "Hey, you bitches, get you dumbasses out of there before you all get crushed to death."
"Dude," said Benta, giving him a 'Really' look.
"What else should I say to get them the fuck out?"
Benta walked forward and cleared his throat. "Please give the hero some room to do his work." As he tried a nicer approach.
Izuku flew inside of the building to see Flame Elephant lashing out wildly, "Come out you shitting coward and fight me like a real man."
"Hey asshole, Right here." As Izuku turned big right in front of him, he then jumped up trying to crush Izuku, who shrunk down and dodge the slam. "You miss." The elephant trunk then swung trying to hit him. "Miss again." another swat from his trunk. "Man are you even trying?" He then tried a fireball. "You really suck at this, here let me make it easy for you."
Izuku then jumped and landed right in between Flame Elephant's eyes. "DIE BUG!" As he tried to punch the tiny Ant-man, who at the last moment dodged, causing the elephant man to punch himself in the face.
The man had to backpedal a bit before falling on his ass, causing Izuku to laugh hysterically. "Holy shit, I can't believe that actually worked."
Flame Elephant stood up. "Are you making fun of me?"
Izuku gasped. "Oh my god, he figured it out, he really can think, it's a miracle."
"I'LL KILL YOU!" as he charged at Izuku once more, missing again before crashing outside where they first started. The flame villain looked around. "Where'd you go?" he waited for a response before feeling a massive pain from inside his ear. "Ahhh, what is this?"
"You know what is a big issue with having such huge ears?"
"What? Where are you?"
"I'm in your ear, genius," explained the shrunken Ant-man. "Now back to my question,"
"Get out of my ear!" as he tried to hit his ear to get Izuku out.
"Why when it gives me a huge opening to beat you."
"I'll just burn you out." as he began to raise his temperature.
"Oh wow, that is the best move you could make at this moment." admitted Izuku. "It would definitely work on me, but it won't do anything to my fire ants."
"Fire ants?" The man's eyes widened as he felt several ants start crawling into his ear. "AAAAAHHHHHHH-blegh" The elephant man then threw up over and over again before his vision became fuzzy and ground rapidly began to close in. "...ants" was the last thing the Elephant said for the rest of the night.
Izuku regrew to full size, "Looks like this ant beat the elephant."
"Whoa, that was awesome," said Kenta, amazed. "How'd you do that?"
"I just ordered my ants to attack the inner ear," he explained. "It caused him to lose his equilibrium and when it became too much it forced his body to shut down."
"WOOHOO," yelled Benta while clapping. "Let's hear it for Ant-man."
Genta began cheering as well. "Yeah, the real hero of the trash pit."
It didn't take long for the crowd of onlookers to start cheering as well. Izuku couldn't help but feel happy, if they could see behind his helmet, they would see the tears in his eyes. "Thank you sonny," Izuku turned to see a very old man with a cane behind him. "It's good to finally see a real hero around these parts." The man then turned to the unconscious villain and began to whack him with his cane. "Unlike you, you are a waste of space, this is for my car you asshole." the old man stopped after he spit on the elephant.
"HOLD IT," everyone went silent as they turned to the group of police officers. "We have to take Flame Elephant in." as several officers went to secure Flame Elephant with specialized cuffs. "Ant-Man, we also have to place you under arrest, for vigilantism."
The old man with the cane walked in front of the officer. "Young man, I suggest you take that pathetic pile of garbage and go. If you want Ant-man, you're going to need to go through all of us." The officer looked around and noticed that everyone was giving him a stink eye and some looked ready for a fight. "We have suffered too long under heroes like this one, we are not going to let you take the one that finally gave a shit about us."
The officer looked around nervously, not sure what to do. "Just let him go."
Everyone looked up to see someone descending from the sky. "Hawks!"
"Sup, tic tac." as the winged hero landed. "Let him go, officers, I'll take the heat for it."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, he'll pay me back somehow, won't cha tic tac?"
Izuku eyed Hawks from behind his helmet. "Yeah, sure," he said, a bit skeptical. "Thanks."
Hawks smiled back, "Don't worry about it. You'll pay me back later."
'There it is, he wants something.' thought Izuku. "Thanks and thank you everyone, I'll see you around," as Izuku shrunk down and used an ant to fly away. 'I should probably keep an eye on him.'
'He doesn't trust me at all,' Thought Hawks. 'Makes sense, especially if he grew up around here. This place doesn't seem like a good place to build trust or at least trust with outsiders.' As he saw the police load the criminal into a prison transport. "You guys got this, right? I kind of got a meeting to go to."
"Don't worry Hawks, this prison transport was designed with strength and fire in mind, he won't be getting out." explained the officer.
"Sweet, keep up the good work." as he flew off.
~o~
Mt Lady looked at the building in front of her. "Uh I thought you said this was the temporary police station."
"It is." said Death Arms as he walked up the steps.
"But this is a police station." Pointed out Mt Lady, as they walked to the door.
Kamui Woods examined the walls, "While this does say police station, it's riddled with bullet holes, was there a fight here?"
"Oh yeah," The three heroes turned around to see Hawks landing behind them. "A week ago, when the police came to question the station here about the videos and claims, the crooked cops opened fire on the good cops, turning it into a shoot out. Luckily All Might showed up and ended it before anyone died, but they put up quite the fight. I'm just surprised we're still using this place."
Death Arms opened the door for the others. "According to the chief, he wants to turn this back into a proper precinct."
The four heroes walked into the police station to see several police officers running around working on something or another. One officer while running around pointed them to a meeting room, as they walked through the halls they could clearly see that the building wasn't properly maintained and remnants of the former occupants could still be seen.
"Is that what I think it is?" asked Mt Lady as they walked past a room with several poles in the center and chairs around the room.
"Unfortunately it is," said a man approaching the heroes, "I'm detective Tsukauchi. Thank you all for coming, follow me." as they entered the meeting room. Inside were several heroes from all over the country and police officers including the chief of police himself. "This should be everyone sir."
Kenji Tsuragame, the chief of police, nodded. "Thank you, but let's skip the formalities. We've been in this area for a week and it's been a disaster. From what we've discovered and seen is that there hasn't been any form of law here in years, causing this to be the worst place in all of Japan. The police were all fake, sold out to every gang in this city, breaking as many laws as they did, the same goes for the heroes. They acted more like gangsters than anything else, until further notice all heroes that had agency in this area have had their hero licenses revoked and warrants out for their arrests."
The Shield Hero Crust raised his hand. "How many of these criminals are still at large?" Many heroes were not surprised by the question but by the pure rage that was evident in each word.
The chief pressed a button and the screen behind him changed to every hero that was stationed in the area. "Too many. While we were able to arrest the ones posing as police, we weren't fast enough to arrest them. Everyone you see here is still at large and still needs to be brought to justice."
The dragon hero Ryukyu raised her hand. "How in the world did it get this bad? How come none of us heard this until now? How were these people ever given a license?" It was clear Crust wasn't the only hero frustrated.
The chief sighed. "They had help. From what we've gathered from interrogating the ones we've captured, they had other officers in the neighboring districts covering for them. The heroes on the other hand, either turned bad on their own and then recruited more crooked heroes through their agencies or got licenses through forgers who did such a good job that when they went to go get their license renewed, it was pushed through, turning them from fakes to legit heroes in the computer system which was authorized by more crooked heroes and other. They all clearly had help from the criminal underworld, not only to help make sure no one knew about this but also gave them support. We've already confirmed that several criminal organizations operate out of this area, but we've had very little progress in that area."
"Why is that?" asked Best Jeanist. "With so many heroes here, shouldn't we have something on the ones responsible covering this up?"
"No ones talking," said Death Arms, getting everyone's attention. "The people around here don't trust heroes at all. The only interactions with heroes they've had are the ones that have been around here, so I doubt they will be forthcoming with information to us."
Edgeshot nodded. "He's right, I've never felt so many cold shoulders before in my entire career. They don't trust any of us."
"That's not entirely true." Said Hawks. "They do trust one hero...Ant-Man."
The room went silent, they all heard of the man, they all got a message from the guy. "You do realize Ant-Man is a vigilante, right?" pointed out Rock Lock. "He's no better than the other people on that list."
"There is a whole town out there that would disagree."
"I agree with Hawks." Everyone turned to see who spoke and for a moment they all needed a reminder they were still awake and this wasn't a dream. Night eye turned to the other heroes. "At this moment that man and to a lesser extent a man called Ghost are the only heroes those people think they have. The only ones they trust. Right now we should focus on stopping the criminals and winning the trust of the people, we can deal with any vigilantes later."
"He's right," said the Chief. "For right now, I want you all to leave the Ant-Man be, I'll pass word to the other officers as well. In the meantime we must take care of the garbage in this side of town and find out how they've managed to cover everything up for so long. We must capture this criminal at all costs."
~o~
Timebomb was frozen in fear as he watched his boss being lifted into the air by several tendrils made of red tags, wrapped around his throat. Timebomb followed the tendrils to the one controlling them, 'I always knew we were working with someone big, the red tags had to come from somewhere but I never thought it was the head of the biggest underworld supplier.' The woman in front of him was wearing a red business suit with a red pencil skirt and red heels. She looked like an everyday business woman, with the exception that her hair looked like it was made of several red tags that she was currently controlling to squeeze the life out of Shiriori.
"Ple..se...La….dy…..Aka," squeaked the man.
The woman spoke with an icy voice. "Why should I?" The woman sat down in her very expensive comfy chair and crossed her legs. "You've manage to fuck up so badly, the entire area is about to be turned over, the heroes are here now."
"Na….na...not," The woman used one of her tendrils to wrap around the man's chest before losing the ones around his neck. Shiriori took several breaths before collecting himself. "It wasn't my fault, Ant-Man was the one that brought the heroes here."
The woman's glare somehow got even colder. "I know that already, do you have a screw loose?"
The man made an audible gulp. "No Ma'am, I just…"
"Think I don't know the situation. I have made a living by trading what my clients need, this ranges from weapons to animals. I left you in charge of my cattle and you lost them. I gave you one week to get them back and you have nothing." The man opened his mouth to speak. "How do you plan on getting my cattle back now that heroes are running around our end of town."
Shiriori was panicking. "I...i…..uhh"
"That was your job, the one I gave you, the one you failed." as several tendrils began closing in on his head. "You must have a screw loose, here let me fix that." The tendrils wrapped around his head and twisted it a full 360 degrees. "Better?" Shiriori coughed up blood before getting dropped, dead before he hit the floor. "Now are you going to fail me?"
Timebomb knew she was talking to him. He quickly got down in a kneeling position. "No Lady Aka, I will not fail you. I will return you, your cattle."
Lady Aka smiled. "I like the enthusiasm, but I don't want you to return them, I'm leaving that to someone else." As she retracted her hair, turning it back into regular red hair.
'So that's why no one could find out where the tags came from, it really is just her hair. That's one hell of a terrifying quirk.' Thought Timebomb. "Then what are your orders for me?"
"Ant-Man of course," replied Lady Aka as she held up what appeared to be a large red scarf. "His quirk is fascinating. If he didn't ruin everything I would have asked you to bring him here alive." Even though Timebomb's face remained unchanged she could tell he was confused. "This is one of my tags, it was originally wrapped around one of the sluts. He grew them off. My tags should be impossible to remove and yet he did, and the way he did so turned my quirk off."
"Turned your quirk off?"
"Yes, I should be able to track any of my tags, no matter where they are in the world but I can't feel this one anymore, nor can I move it." A small part of her hair reverted back into a few tendrils of tags and grabbed the big one. "I can't even remerge it with the others. Part of me wishes to know exactly what that man did, so I can make sure it doesn't happen again, but he's too much of a problem, a problem I want you to take care of."
"You want me to kill him."
"Not by yourself." as she used her tendrils to pass over a tablet. "Every single organization that was working out of the trash pit wants a piece of him. They've all pinched in for a bounty and then some. I want you to use that some and hire some of those wannabe hero rejects to do some pest control."
"To kill Ant-Man."
"And anyone else that might get in the way."