Collector Hero: Synthesis Chapter 27 (Patreon)

Hey friends and fans! Kairomaru is bringing you another chapter of Collector Hero: Synthesis! As the Pros deal with the three Nomu attacking Hosu; Izuku and Todoroki are tracking Stain through the back alleys on the other side of town. Will they be able to prevent the Hero Killer from killing another Pro? Even if they succeed, what will come of them disobeying orders?

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So, without further delay, please enjoy.

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Chapter 27 – Hero Killer: Stain

In the sky over Hosu City, a battle was taking place. The Villain was a Nomu with wings, shrieking as it fought with two Heroes. The pair that were combating the Nomu were Pro Hero Ryukyu and her protégé Hadō Nejire. The fight in the sky was mirrored by the fighting going on below them as well. Two more Nomu, one with long limbs and four eyes in its exposed brain, and another a hulking form of muscle with pitch-black skin and the top of its head missing, were fighting Endeavor, Ingenium, and the combined Sidekicks of their Agencies.

“Nejire, strike!” Ryukyu batted the flying Nomu backwards with her Dragon Form’s talons. The shrieking bioweapon struggling to right itself as it flailed through the air from the blow.

“Full charge, output level fifteen: Nejire Wave!” Nejire’s golden energy spiraled around her arms before it blasted forward to slam into the Nomu. The winged-monster was sent hurtling towards the ground from the blast and shattered the concrete below when it impacted the ground. “I got it, Ryukyu!”

“Excellent work!” Ryukyu entered a sharp dive towards the downed bioweapon. The dust kicked up from its impact was blown away as Ryukyu slammed down on top of it with the weight of her Dragon Form.

“Greeeeeiiigghgh!” The winged-Nomu screeched through its respirator-like mask. It didn’t seem to be regenerating like the one with jet-black skin, but Ryukyu wouldn’t take any chances with this abomination.

“Stay down!” Ryukyu roared and her taloned right arm slammed down onto the Nomu’s head with all the force that she could put behind it. The concrete shattered and blood splattered as the bioweapon’s head was completely crushed. “Threat has been neutralized.” She spoke clearly as Nejire floated down to join her.

Nejire’s hero costume was a royal blue skin-tight bodysuit with a high black collar, pale mint green markings covered her torso from over her shoulders to between her legs, framed with turquoise, and there was a matching stripe of the same two colors around both of her upper arms. On her feet, she wore a pair of knee-high boots, a thinning flap buttoned on each thigh, with turquoise spirals around her ankles, matching the thicker ones above her yellow gauntlets and wrist-guards. She had a black strap around the top of each thigh, two small satchels attached, and two spiraling horns of her periwinkle-blue hair protruded from behind her ears straight upwards.

“Eww…” Nejire grimaced at the blood splatter. She knew it was necessary in this case, but it was still gross.

“I know, Nejire, but there is a blanket elimination order for these Nomu.” Ryukyu gave the best smile she could in her Dragon Form. The gray scales and reptilian features made that a bit harder than normal, of course. “You’ve gotten much better at controlling your power as well.” She vaguely motioned to the surrounding area and the lack of damage.

“I’ve been practicing as much as possible!” Nejire raised her fists in front of her with a smile. A golden spark emitted from both of her fists to wind around her forearms like bent lightning before disappearing. “I don’t have to charge up as much to get the same results anymore.”

“Ryukyu, we need some assistance with the long-limbed Nomu!” A few Sidekicks requested. “Several of our Emitter Quirks are being turned back against us by one of its Quirks!”

“Watch over this Nomu, we’ll handle it!” Ryukyu ordered, getting nods of acceptance from the Sidekicks.

“It’s an absorb and release mechanism, Ryukyu!” One of the Sidekicks informed the Dragoon Hero. “If you blast it with things like fire or electricity, it absorbs them, builds them up, and then releases all that at once in a blast.”

“Thank you for the information.” Ryukyu appreciated the heads up. “Nejire, stay here, we can’t risk this Nomu absorbing your energy and releasing an even bigger blast in such a crowded area.”

“Right, Ryukyu!” Nejire agreed with a quick salute. She knew how powerful her Quirk was. Letting a Villain get ahold of her energy would be bad!

Ryukyu quickly flapped her large wings to get airborne and glide over to where the fight with the four-eyed Nomu was still happening.

-Endeavor and Ingenium-

“Hah…hah…it regenerates from every bit of damage that we cause it.” Ingenium remarked while he caught his breath and watched the large headless Nomu recover rapidly from their last strikes against it.

“Attacking its body isn’t getting us anywhere.” Endeavor agreed, eyeing the exposed brain of the bioweapon. “All Regeneration Quirks are controlled by the brain…so I might have a way to deal with this thing permanently.”

“What do you need?” Ingenium’s Engine Quirk revved loudly as the large Nomu leapt at them with a gurgled bellow.

“Distract it long enough for me to get behind it.” Endeavor and Ingenium both dashed aside as the hulking monster slammed into their previous position. The concrete shattered into pebbles and sand from the force of the blow and the tremor could be felt through the ground.

“Got it!” Ingenium literally blurred as his engines roared and blue flames could be seen from the exhausts. “Recipro Burst!” Like that, Ingenium vanished from the sight of anyone that didn’t have the senses and cognitive perception to keep up with his ludicrous speed.

“Raaaarrr...ggaaaaakkkhhh!” The headless Nomu’s bellowing roar was cut off as it gurgled from the impact of Ingenium. The leg of the speedster was suddenly folding the beast nearly in half. The sheer speed that the Turbo Hero had built up had transferred into an insane amount of force when it met a solid object.

“Endeavor!” Ingenium used his still flaring Engine Quirk to vanish before the Nomu could attempt to recover and grab him with its insane strength.

“You can’t regenerate cells if they’re carbonized…” Endeavor’s large hands grabbed the Nomu’s head from behind.

An intense blast of flames went off and the Nomu shrieked a horrid sound as the Flame Hero literally cooked its brain. The orange flames near instantly went to orange-yellow. In mere seconds the heat skyrocketed as orange-yellow went to pure yellow, then to yellow-white, pure-white, and then blue. With a sound almost light a jet-engine’s afterburners the flailing Nomu’s arms went limp. The bioweapon made no more sound as Endeavor finished it off. The blue flames disappeared and Endeavor let go of the abomination’s head. It fell forward and the charcoal that its head had become shattered on the concrete.

“Threat eliminated.” Ingenium’s Recipro Burst had ended as he made the call-in to the rest of the Sidekicks. “You alright Endeavor?”

“I’m fine.” Endeavor waved the other Hero off as sweat ran down his face. He was able to produce that level of heat, but his body couldn’t disperse it at the same rate. His Hell Flame Quirk’s biggest drawback was that it produced more heat than even his fire-resistant body could technically handle. When he pushed it into the blue fire range of roughly 1,600 degrees C, even his body broke out into a heavy sweat from the intensity of the heat. “Are the other Nomu dealt with yet?”

“Ryukyu has already taken down the flying Nomu, and is currently assisting the elimination of the four-eyed Nomu.” Ingenium informed as he’d just been updated himself through the earpieces that they all had. “Civilians are being evacuated, but so far no one has been harmed and everything is proceeding according to plan.”

“Good, we still have the Hero Killer to deal with too.” Endeavor looked around the area, saw how torn up the square has been in such a short time, and wondered why these Nomu were here in the first place. “Aren’t these bioweapons supposed to be part of that League of Villains? Why are they in Hosu?”

“I’m not sure…it does seem odd though.” Ingenium stood over the dead Nomu with Endeavor beside him. “You don’t think they’ve made contact with the Hero Killer, do you?” He truly hoped that the serial killer hadn’t become part of a group that had already targeted students in the past. Even U.A. couldn’t protect all of their students if Stain decided to make ‘examples’ of them.

“If that happens, we’ll need to step up the manhunt for the League of Villains before anyone else gets targeted.” Endeavor narrowed his eyes at the thought, unknowingly thinking the same thing that Ingenium was.

-Back Alleys ~ Hosu City-

“Where did he go?” Todoroki whispered to Izuku. The two had been doing their best to tail Stain without the serial killer noticing them. They’d kept their distance, but that may have come back to bite them as they’d lost track of the man.

“I don’t have a Quirk that lets me search large areas to find people.” Izuku shook his head and made a mental note to see if he could copy such a Quirk sometime in the future.

“We can’t just go around looking for him either.” Todoroki shook his head. That would invite the possibility of stumbling upon the serial killer and being attacked when they least expected it.

“Gah!” A short, but loud, cry of shock and pain rang out from a distance.

“There!” Izuku and Todoroki both exclaimed as they tried to pinpoint where the distant sound had come from as they moved forward.

The duo of interns made their way quickly towards where they thought the cry had originated from. Several alleyways over, in a wide alley between two multistory buildings, the two teens caught sight of the Hero Killer again. Obviously, a short exchange had taken place in the time before they’d arrived. There were a few marks on the walls of the alleyway from some kind of struggle. But it had not ended in the Hero’s favor. Pro Hero Native was being held against the wall by his face and Stain stood before him with his ragged sword in hand.

“So flashy…what’s that idiot doing?” Stain wondered, facing towards the distant sounds of explosions and screaming of panicked civilians. “I’ll take care of him later…but for now…” He turned to face the immobile Native. “I’ll do what I came to do.”

“I can’t move…” Native let out a pained grunt. “You bastard…I’ll get you.”

“If you’re a Hero,” Stain drew back his sword. “Then choose your last words wisely.”

“Shut…up, you murderer.” Native glared as harshly as he could at Stain. “You’re nothing but a Villain.”

“And you’re not a Hero.” Stain replied with his own glare. “You started patrolling this area only after it was known that I was here in Hosu.”

“Of course…I did…if you weren’t here…then I’d have no reason to patrol this area.” Native ground out, trying to move his body against whatever Stain had done to him. “I’ll…take you…down. For all of…the Heroes that you’ve killed!”

“Save them first.” Stain motioned his head to the still audible screams from the incident going on in the city’s entertainment district. “Forget about yourself for a second and try saving others.” Stain narrowed his eyes at the Pro Hero that hadn’t gone towards the sounds of chaos and had instead continued to look for him specifically. “Don’t wield your power for your own sake. Getting wrapped up in your own fame and notoriety, acting out of pure self-interest…that makes you the furthest thing from a Hero.” Stain lowered the paralyzed Native to his knees as he readied his sword. “That’s why you have to die. Consider yourself a humble offering towards the betterment of society.”

“It doesn’t matter…what you say…” Native’s words were quieter now, lacking the sharpness of before. Perhaps realizing that he was about to die had cleared his head in some weird way. But in that state, he could admit that what Stain had said about him wasn’t wrong. He’d heard the commotion, should’ve gone to help the ones under threat, but he’d stayed in this area pursuing the Hero Killer instead. If he wasn’t about to die, maybe he could’ve really looked at his actions as a Pro Hero and changed himself for the better. Stopped himself from craving the attention and the limelight and really focus on helping the people he was supposed to be protecting from Villains.

Crack

The loud sound made Stain whip his head around to the street entrance of the alleyway. A massive wall of ice had blocked off the alleyway in seconds, but Stain didn’t see anyone facing him. He vaguely saw something green out of his peripheral vision and swung his sword at it. The blade bounced off the green thing, and Stain only had a fraction of a second to realize that he now surrounded in a semi-transparent green cube.

“Rescue successful.” Izuku called out to Todoroki, looking up to the top of the building on the left-hand side of the alleyway. Todoroki waved that he’d heard his fellow intern and placed his hand on top of the wall of ice he’d made to distract Stain. It would’ve also kept him trapped in the alley if anything had gone wrong with the rescue of Native and the capture of Stain. But now it wasn’t needed so he slid down it carefully, occasionally using his Quirk to create footholds to slow his descent. Once he reached the ground, he switched hands and placed his left hand on the ice. Steam rose up as the ice rapidly began to melt away from the heat of his left side.

“What? Children?” Stain looked confused by what had just happened. He kicked at the barrier containing him with his spiked boots, but his foot just bounced off the construct.

“Your Warp Gate is very useful, Midoriya.” Todoroki nodded to Izuku. He’d been transported through the swirling gate to the top of the building for their plan and it had made it much easier to execute. “How long can you keep him in there?”

“The longest that I’ve ever held my Barrier Quirk for was thirty minutes.” Izuku recalled even as Stain continued to try and break his way out. “It gets harder to maintain the longer I hold it, and splitting my focus can shorten that time.”

“Don’t ignore me.” Stain growled from within the cube. “This is no place for children.”

“I’ll check on Native then.” Todoroki had completely ignored the trapped Villain’s words. “You keep your focus on your barrier.” The dual-toned boy moved over to try and assess Native’s injuries.

“Yah!” Stain swung his worn sword at the barrier only to hear a snap as the blade broke against the cube holding him. His eyes widened behind his cloth mask as the top half of his blade fell to the bottom of the cube.

“You can’t break that barrier by force.” Izuku looked at the Hero Killer resolutely. “At least not any force that a regular human body could hope to generate.”

“Are you another fake playing Hero?” Stain questioned the teen.

“I’m an intern right now.” Izuku decided to keep the man talking to buy time.

“Native isn’t too injured, Midoriya, he should be fine with some treatment and rest.” Todoroki called out as he helped Native lean against the wall.

“Careful,” Native warned the teens. “Don’t let him out of there, one cut and he’ll paralyze you like me.” He was relieved that he’d been rescued, but now he realized that he really needed to revaluate himself and his actions. If two interns could make the right call in such a situation, what did that say about him?

“I wasn’t planning on it.” Izuku shook his head. As long as he kept Stain trapped inside his barrier, then he wasn’t a threat to anyone.

“Can you move the barrier once you’ve made it?” Todoroki wasn’t familiar with the working of most of Izuku’s Quirks.

“I can, but it’s slow, like less than walking speed.” Izuku had found that out after the USJ. He’d initially assumed that he couldn’t move his barriers at all once they were formed. But the reality was they could be moved very slowly if he focused on it.

“Two-on-one…at least you weren’t naïve about it.” Stain looked at the teens flatly. He’d had plenty come after him one-on-one looking to take down the Hero Killer for the fame and notoriety it would bring them. He’d purged all of them for sullying the Title of Hero. These two hadn’t come after him though. They’d seen what he was about to do and distracted him, then trapped him, all to rescue Native. “Why put yourselves at risk for that fake?” He gestured to the still down Pro Hero.

“Because it’s the right thing to do.” Izuku replied instantly. Todoroki nodding his agreement with Izuku’s words from his spot next to Native.

“You kids…make me realize, that I need to do better.” Native spoke with a heavy breath.

“It’s no use pretending.” Stain turned to glare death at Native. “A person’s true nature is not so easily changed.” He nearly pressed his face against the barrier to growl at the Pro. “You’re nothing but a fake who prioritized his own selfish desires! A cancer on this society warped by people that call themselves ‘Heroes’ and make a mockery of the Title! Someone needs to correct the system.”

“So, you’re a fundamentalist?” Todoroki knew that some people believed that Heroes shouldn’t be able to make the lucrative merchandising deals and side businesses that they currently were allowed to. But that was a pretty old way of thinking that only a few people held onto nowadays. “Get with the times. Who would even listen to your so-called reasoning?”

“No.” Native spoke from his position against the wall. “He’s right. I have no right to call myself a Hero. I should’ve gone towards the trouble, but I didn’t, I chose to keep looking for the Hero Killer.” He admitted with a heavy sigh. “I’ve been making choices in my career based on how much notoriety it would get me for way too long.”

“You’re hopeless.” Stain looked like he wanted to kill Native right this second.

“Enough,” Izuku spoke up, raising his voice to break the tension. “Regardless of how you see it or what you say, murder is murder, and you’re still a Villain. Let’s go.” He made the barrier move at the slow crawl that he could move it at as they headed for the street.

“As long as a person lives, they can still change.” Todoroki helped Native stand up, Stain’s Quirk seemed to have started wearing off. “You took that chance away from everyone that you killed, Hero Killer.” The dual-toned boy looked at the masked man strapped with blades. “How is that ‘betterment’ of any kind? You stopped them from being able to get better.” He was still going through his own change in attitude and looking to become the Hero that he wanted to be. Hound Dog’s sessions with him had made him realize that even his old man had been making changes over the last few years. Changes that he’d refused to see or acknowledge in his own anger and loathing of his father.

It took a few minutes to move the barrier containing Stain out onto the sidewalk. Once they were out in the open, Todoroki made the call in through his earpiece. Both teens were fairly certain that they were going to get some form of punishment for not following orders, but they’d saved a life tonight and that meant more than whatever punishment might come.

“This is Todoroki Shoto, we’ve got the Hero Killer: Stain restrained, we need Pro Heroes and police support at our location.” Todoroki spoke to all the coms linked to their earpieces.

“SHOTO!” Endeavor’s voice roared over the communicator a split-second later. Izuku actually took his earpiece out in surprise at the volume.

-Rooftop ~ Hosu City-

“What the hell?” Shigaraki looked through a pair of binoculars. “The Heroes actually killed all of my Nomu? Since when do those self-righteous bastards kill?” He turned his gaze to a different location when he saw a group emerge form an alley slightly closer to his current position. “Is that?” Making sure of what he saw, he was at war with himself. “Midoriya Izuku…and Stain?” He nearly ground his teeth at seeing that fucking cheat again! But a powerful urge to laugh loudly was warring with his rage. Stain was caged up like a damned animal! That was hilarious!

Kurogiri looked on, not saying a word. But the fog-like Villain knew already that things hadn’t gone as Tomura had expected them to. There was an almost guarantee that the young man would blow up about this shortly. If that happened, then he’d need to take Tomura back to their hideout so that Sensei could talk him down quickly.

“Why the hell did they instantly go for the kill against the Nomu? Why the hell is that brat here? So many questions, but no answers.” He started to scratch at his neck in aggravation. “Why…aren’t things going my way?”

-Street with Izuku-

It hadn’t taken long, a few minutes at best, before Endeavor had come barreling around the corner at speed. He was followed by multiple Sidekicks, some from the Ingenium Agency even, as he rushed towards his interns. But the second his eyes met Stain’s the Hero Killer went off like a bomb.

“ENDEAVOR!!!” Stain slammed his fists against the barrier with a howl. “You FAKE!!!” Spit flew from his mouth as he bellowed at the Number Two Pro Hero. Stain’s eyes were wide in a vicious, nearly psychotic, rage at seeing the Flame Hero. “I’ll purge you! You and all those other fakes that taint the Title of ‘Hero’!” The Villain almost seemed to be going into a fit as his rage overtook him entirely. There was almost a pressure in the air from the trapped Hero Killer. A bloodlust and determination so strong as to toe the line into outright insanity. “If I don’t fix it…” He slammed his fists against the cube again. “If someone isn’t…stained with blood…!” Another slam against the barrier even as a crack was heard from his fists. “If I don’t reclaim the Title of ‘Hero’…” He slammed his forehead against the semi-transparent wall, uncaring of the blood that started to flow from doing so. “Come…! Just try me, you fakes!” The pressure in the air continued to increase as he raged. “The only one allowed to kill me is…All Might, a True Hero!!!”

“What the hell?” Todoroki instinctively took a step backwards, as did several of the Sidekicks. Even Endeavor’s hackles rose in response to the sheer psychotic rage the Villain was giving off.

“Stop it…just stop already…” Izuku felt the minute tremors in his body as he stepped forward. Stain’s wrathful gaze didn’t leave Endeavor until Izuku was face-to-face with the man. ‘Amplification’ ‘Enhance Function’ ‘Efficiency’ ‘Paralyze Glare’ Izuku compiled the Quirks together and his eyes flashed bright green as he looked into Stain’s crazed gaze. The Villain collapsed like a sack of rocks to the bottom of the cube. The pressure in the air disappeared and most people wondered what Izuku had just done.

“Synthesis, explain.” Endeavor moved to stand at his intern’s side.

“I used one of my Quirks on him, Paralyze Glare.” Izuku looked at his internship mentor. “The last time I boosted it like I just did, the paralysis lasted ten minutes. All of his motor nerves are basically shut off, he can’t move anything more than closing his eyes.” He let the barrier fade and everyone saw that Stain hadn’t tried to lash out at anyone. The man just continued to lay on the ground unmoving.

“Good work, but you’re both still in for punishment for disobeying instructions.” Endeavor shot a look at both Izuku and his son. Police sirens were heard as two squad cars and a transport truck sped around the corner towards their location. “They’ve arrived, good, we’ll hand Stain over so that the police can place him under arrest and take him away.”

-Rooftop-

“Let’s head back.” Shigaraki scoffed as the binoculars in his hand disintegrated from his Quirk. He was still warring between rage and hysteric laughter at what had happened to Stain and it was confusing him.

“Did you achieve the results that you were hoping for, Shigaraki Tomura?” Kurogiri asked as the black-purple fog that made up his body swirled around next to him and formed a Warp Gate.

“Idiot.” Shigaraki sent one last glare at Hosu as he stepped back into the portal. “That all depends on everyone’s reactions tomorrow.” The Villain disappeared into the gate and Kurogiri followed after him. The fog swirled into itself and vanished as if it was never there a few seconds later.

-Izuku-

Izuku watched on as Endeavor stood with the police near Stain. The serial killer was being stripped of every weapon the police officers could find on his person. Dozens of knives of various sizes were collected from the temporarily paralyzed Villain. They removed his spiked boots, took of his vest, mask, and headband, found another small knife hidden in his left wristband, and then they held him up as a Suppression Jacket was put on him. Izuku had never seen one of the items in-person before. They wrapped around a person’s body to restrain them, making the use of one’s arms impossible. Even top tier Strength Quirks couldn’t force their way out of one of the specialized law enforcement restraints.

“It’s a thorough process.” Todoroki mentioned from beside Izuku as they both watched as the various blades were lined up on the ground, along with Stain’s spiked boots. A policeman placed a numbered marker next to each weapon, and once they were all numbered a different police officer began taking pictures of them one by one for evidence purposes.

“Yeah,” Izuku nodded as both teens came down from the realization of what they’d done tonight. “I see why law enforcement and Heroes are separate entities even better now.” The thought of having to try and go through this whole process for every Villain by himself made Izuku’s head spin. It was best to let the police handle arrests and evidence gathering like this. It made things far simpler for Pro Heroes that may resolve multiple incidents in a single day. “What kind of punishment do you think we’ll get?”

“Probably have to clean the entire training area at the Agency with hand brushes.” Todoroki replied while still watching the processing and arrest. “We might also have to write a report on what we did wrong and why we did it.”

“I’m sure Endeavor will understand our reasoning.” Izuku looked at the Flame Hero from where they stood.

“Don’t count on it.” Todoroki spoke flatly and Izuku was suddenly much less sure of his theory.

-End Chapter-

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The Heroes aren’t fucking around! You see a Nomu bioweapon, you are cleared for lethal force against it!

Izuku’s multitude of Quirks make Stain not much of threat. But even the crazed Villain recognizes that Izuku and Todoroki have merit as real Heroes.

Plus, since Stain wasn’t harmed in anyway by Izuku and Todoroki, the police don’t have to get involved. They just have to deal with whatever Endeavor is going to make them do for punishment.

Does this mean they might actually get some credit for bringing in the Hero Killer?

Shigaraki is still a whiny bitch. He’ll probably be even more pissed later when all the news outlets are talking about Stain’s capture instead of his Nomu.

What punishment awaits Izuku and Todoroki from Endeavor?

Keep reading to find out!

Until I get your reviews, later!