Chapter Text
Aizawa was on patrol early today. Usually, he scours the city from late into the night to the early hours in the morning, but tonight, he only had a three-hour patrol from six to nine in the evening.
Despite the early schedule, the patrol went just as usual, running across rooftops and tying up villains. Now, he's down to the last few minutes of his shift, the darkness of the night finally blanketing the city.
Aizawa dropped down from the roof, into the alley, landing on the villain and in the process knocking her unconscious.
After a quick look to make sure she was out, he looked up at the disheveled man in front of him. He was slumped against the wall, clothes askew and his jacket falling off his arms. At a closer look, you would notice right away that he was trembling and breathing heavily from his encounter with danger.
“Are you alright?“ Aizawa asked, scanning his form for injuries.
The man flinched at his voice but quickly recovered, shakily righting his clothes. “I'm fine. Thank you very much for saving me, sir!”
“Just doing my job.” Aizawa finally looked away after confirming that the man in front of him was as unhurt as he claimed.
The man bowed to him and thanked him again as he quickly left the alley. All he wanted to do at that moment was to just finally go home.
The hero wrapped the still unconscious villain with his capturing weapon and picked up the bundle to carry over his shoulder. He lept back onto the rooftops, running toward the closest police station. This time, his destination was the Ground Zero Agency.
The agency wasn't a police station. Generally, a hero agency consists of daylight heroes, with analysts and private detectives in place of police officers, so they operate separate from the police force, the two only working together on big cases or if the heroes are in need of backup. It was completely different from underground heroes who work closely with the police instead of forming their own agencies. But the Ground Zero Agency was different. Aside from the daylight heroes, they also have a separate branch for the underground heroes, and to add to that, they have their own information network in contact with other informants and the police. It was the most well-rounded agency to exist, the first of its kind. Aizawa thought it was very logical to incorporate all of those in a single agency, that's why he loved it. It wasn't also because it was run by half of his hell class. No, definitely not.
Spotting the green and orange building in front of him, Aizawa descended from the rooftops and entered the establishment. Right as he stepped inside, the secretary on duty immediately recognized him.
“Eraserhead-san! Another catch tonight, I see.” Nishikawa, the secretary, brought out a set of paperwork to file for the police to document. In truth, this was already the third time that night that Aizawa came, dragging a villain with him. You’d think that villains would avoid hero hotspots when they commit crimes, but there will always be stupid ones. Unfortunately, it was the smart and dangerous ones that are the hardest to catch.
After Aizawa released the villain to the sidekicks to be led to her temporary prison, he came to the desk and started filling out the forms. As he finally put his pen down, he heard familiar footsteps nearby. He looked to the side and spotted two of his former students, Pro Hero Anima, aka Koda Koji, and the agency head himself, Pro Hero Dynamite, aka Bakugo Katsuki.
Both of them were in their civilian clothes, looking to be about to leave as their shift as daylight heroes should be over. They were talking in hushed tones, faces grave and focused. They seemed to be having a serious conversation and were about to back head in when they spotted their former teacher. “Old man, when does your patrol end?”
Aizawa raised his brow in surprise. When a hero is on duty, especially those in the underground, other heroes don't normally chat with them outside of a nod or word of acknowledgment, there were people to save after all, and a few seconds’ difference can determine between life and death. His class follows this too, breaking this unwritten rule would mean that something was important enough to disregard it. He looked at the clock to check the time. “I have only ten minutes left.”
Bakugo nodded. “Come back when you're done.” Then he turned to leave. But just then, all three of their E.A.T.s beeped. Code Blue. Fatgum Agency.
Each hero was required to carry on them a personal Emergency Alert Tracker, more commonly known as E.A.T., which as the name suggests, alerts them of emergencies and keeps track of them. Code Blue is used for emergency meetings to be conducted right at that moment, overriding any hero work, unless it is physically impossible or dangerous, like being in the middle of a fight.
Aizawa returned the device to his sleeve after reading the message. “Fatgum?”
Koda repeatedly nodded his head while Bakugo just grunted in confirmation and jerked his head to the side signaling Aizawa to follow him.
They headed upstairs toward the meeting rooms passing by the secretary on the 5th floor who told them that they have an upcoming call from the Fatgum Agency in a few minutes.
The three heroes arrived in the main meeting room to see four other heroes already seated inside.
“Aizawa sensei! It's been so long!” Uraraka said, jumping from her seat.
“You saw him two days ago.” Todoroki deadpanned.
“Oh! You guys were also called by Fatgum?” Kaminari asked. “Do you know what's going on?”
Questioning the same thing, Sero added, “Yeah man, you have any idea what this is about?”
Koda and Bakugo shared a glance. “Probably,” Bakugo replied as he took a seat at the center of the table.
Hearing the positive answer Kaminari exclaimed, “Dude! What are you waiting for? Tell us!”
Bakugo opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, a group of heroes entered.
Shinso, blocking the doorway, lazily looked around before asking, “Fatgum?”
After a series of nods and “yeah"s, he strolled in and took a seat. The other heroes behind him, Hagakure, Tokoyami, and Shoji, doing the same. Looking at the eleven people seated, it seemed that all former class 3-A heroes in the agency were called, even including Hagakure, Tokoyami, and Shinso who went underground.
Once everyone settled in their seat, the screen in the front of the room burst to life, showcasing all persons called for the meeting. Tsukauchi Naomasa, Nedzu, All Might, Sir Nighteye, Lemillion, all of the former class 3-A, and of course the one who called for the meeting, Fatgum and two of his heroes, Pro Hero Suneater, Tamaki Amajiki, and Pro Hero Red Riot, Kirishima Eijiro.
“I see everyone is here.” Fatgum started. “I won’t waste more time, so let me get straight to the point. The league is back.”
The faces of everyone present turned grave. No one needed clarification on who the league is, there was only one that would be cause for an emergency meeting, the League of Villains.
Aizawa glanced to his side and noticed both Bakugo and Koda looking unsurprised. Their guess must have been correct. He thought. but how did they know?
“I have called you here because everyone in this room was involved in taking down the league years ago when All For One was still their leader.” Fatgum continued. “Unfortunately, we have no means of contacting Argos at the moment, but Tsukauchi-san has volunteered to relay the content of our meeting today when they make contact.”
That’s right, Argos should be here. He would be an invaluable asset. Aizawa mused.
Argos: informant and possible vigilante. He often helps the police with their urgent cases or solves cold cases. Some nights, he also directs heroes to stop ongoing crimes through the coms. And in the whole eleven years he has been active, they have no information on him. No name, no quirk, and no description. Years ago, Argos was the main contributor to defeating All For One. He helped in Eri’s rescue and got ahold of the last of the quirk erasing bullets. With those bullets, they were able to erase All For One’s quirks for a moment, giving them a chance to strike and consequently killed him healing quirks could not save him and his longevity quirk started losing its effects.
“No need.” Bakugo spoke up from his seat. “We can make contact with him through our network. It will be faster.”
Aizawa was surprised, as was everybody outside the agency. The Ground Zero Agency having an information network was old news but they never expected its reach to be so big that they could contact the informant that easily.
After getting over their surprise, Tsukauchi and Fatgum acquiesced.
“Onto today’s events, an hour ago, the three of us were on patrol when we heard screams nearby. On the scene, Kurogiri and Shigaraki, the two members of the league that were not captured, were seen on the rooftops supervising the villains on the ground wrecking havoc. According to witnesses, the villains were warped to the area by Kurogiri, so we can assume that they have started recruiting.” Fatgum reported.
The meeting continued as the heroes discussed the current situation including the patterns in recent villain activity that suggested the league’s involvement. Plans to investigate and take them down were also made.
When everything was finalized for the time being, the call was ended and they all went back to their own tasks.
In the meeting room of the Ground Zero Agency, Bakugo stood up and started heading out. “Let’s go.”
The other heroes followed him, some of them looking excited.
Todoroki looked at Bakugo. “Midoriya told you already.” He said with certainty.
Bakugo didn’t answer him, but he didn’t need to.
“Do you think Mido found them already?” Sero asked the rest.
Aizawa couldn’t understand their conversation and unable to stand his curiosity, he asked, “Where are we going? And who is Midoriya?”
Kaminari looked at him in surprise. “You haven't met Midoriya yet?” Then his face slowly turned into one of realization. “Ah! You did! But you didn’t meet Mido as Mido yet.”
Seeing his former teacher become more confused, Kaminari patted his arm and said, “You’ll see when you meet him.”
They entered an elevator and Bakugo swiped his ID to have a button appear leading to the underground floors.
Aizawa raised his brow. “Why the secrecy?”
Bakugo pressed the button and the elevator started descending.
“The nerd’s a trouble magnet.” Bakugo grumbled. “Without locking him up he’d be kidnapped or dead.”
Shinso grinned at his mentor. “We’re going to the underground base. You’ll like it.”
Oh? Their underground base? Aizawa might have known about the underground sector of the agency but in the many times he has visited, he has never stepped foot inside the underground wing or even known what it looked like. He has always been curious about it so he was looking forward to this impromptu trip.
Ding
The doors opened to reveal rows of desks piled with paperwork. He could see police officers filing out some forms and heroes, detectives, and officers alike who seem to be figuring out a case or planning a raid, in rooms lining the sides of the room.
It was classic underground work honestly. It’s what you would see in a precinct.
But aside from that, he was glad to see additional facilities for the heroes. On the side there was a path to the hero-specified gym, training room, break room, basically all of the standard resources given to daylight heroes that undergrounds normally don't get by being in the precinct.
They continued walking, taking a long spiral staircase to go deeper underground.
At the bottom of the staircase, there was another bulletproof and quickproof door that only allows specific members in. After having their biometrics scanned it finally opened.
Inside was a circular room, its wall lined with screens from top to bottom. Some of them were displaying CCTV recordings, others a real-time transmission of hero fights, and some tailing a specific individual as they move through the streets. There was also a section that displayed a map of the city with dots indicating the location of their heroes as well as active heroes in other agencies.
This is the information room. Aizawa realized with awe.
In the middle of the room were rings of desks topped with case files and notes, their personnel updating and finalizing them. And right in the center of it all was a small man with green curls tied in a low ponytail typing away on the five computers around him, the whole setup elevated with a platform.
Bakugou made a beeline to the man with the group following close behind him, careful not to disturb the busy workers and their files.
“Deku,” the blonde called out as they approached the center.
“Kacchan,” the man (Deku?) replied without sparing them a glance, his eyes locked on the screen in front of him. “They already left Musutafu. We're scanning through cameras all over Japan at the moment. Assuming Kurogiri's quirk did not strengthen over the years, they should still be in the country. We have thirty-six people on the hunt searching across the whole country, so we should be able to find their headquarters soon.”
Finally looking away from the screen, the man picked up a folder and gave it to Bakugou. “This is all we have so far. I'll update you when we find out more.”
Turning in his seat, the green-haired man saw a glimpse of the UA teacher.
“Eraserhead-san!” The man grinned at him and stood up to bow. “It's nice to finally meet you formally! It was long overdue. My name is Midoriya Izuku, co-head of the Ground Zero Agency and head of the information department, but you would know me as Argos.”
Aizawa looked at the young man in front of him in shock. This was the man who helped take down All For One? The man who saved Eri? How old was he when that happened? Did he send a kid to danger all those years ago?!
But regardless of his age in the past, he accomplished many things since his debut and he is no longer a child at present.
Aizawa saw his former class looking at him from the corner of his eye. They were all unsurprised and grinning at him, excited for his reaction. Well, except Bakugou who was following their conversation looking smug. He made a mental note to get back at them for this.
“Aizawa Shouta, but you know that already.”
The informant just grinned innocently at him but seeing the glint in his eye confirmed his previous statement.
“Mido,” Kaminari jumped in slinging an arm around the other's shoulders. “When do you think you'll get their location?”
Midoriya paused to look at his subordinates surfing through security camera feeds. “If we don't find them in the next ten minutes, then it will take a while. Maybe days, maybe weeks, possibly longer.”
Kaminari frowned as Sero pulled him from Midoriya. “Then let's leave them to it so we can find them in ten minutes. Keep us updated Mido!” Sero said, waving goodbye as he started to leave.
Everyone else also bid their goodbyes and well wishes and settled toward the side, taking care to get out of the way from the busybodies in the room.
“Sensei it’s cool right?” Uraraka grinned at him.
“It’s impressive.” Aizawa ceded. And truly, the information network they run in this agency was beyond the mental picture he drew up when told about it.
“Speaking of, Argos?” Aizawa stared at them with the intensity befitting of a teacher of hundreds of heroes. The stare that still made fear run down any hero's spine.
They all grimaced and looked away.
“We thought you already met him.” Hagakure sheepishly admitted.
“Midoriya has been a friend for so long. It slipped my mind that it was not common knowledge.” Tokoyami added and the others nodded in agreement.
Surprised, Aizawa asked, “When did you meet him?”
“Tch. Was my best friend since we were in diapers.” Bakugou replied.
“He put my father in prison.” Todoroki immediately followed.
“He recruited us to go underground.” Shinso drawled, speaking for all the underground heroes present.
“I met Mido-kun when I joined!” Uraraka piped up. “It was kinda scary ‘cause he knew so much about me, but he’s just an adorable bean!”
Sero opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by a shout.
“Sir!”
They looked to find the source of the call.
It was a young woman with her hair in a bun, standing in front of her computer. “We have a lead in Fukuoka. This camera was on loop during the time of the league's escape.” She continued.
“On the screen.”
In the next second, the recording on the woman’s screen was projected on the huge screens on the wall.
“Is the camera still on loop?” Midoriya called out, typing on his computer.
“Yes sir! It stopped looping a little after the escape, but it went back on loop a few minutes ago.”
Midoriya expertly hacked into the camera to get the real-time feed played on the screen. “Got it!”
Everyone waited in suspense as there was no difference between the looped video and what was truly happening.
But after a second, a door opened, and out came Shigaraki.
The tension in the room broke as noise erupted in the room from the workers continuing on to make sure they don’t lose track of them without being noticed.
“Tail them on the screen and record their every move! I’ll make a report to the heroes.” Midoriya leaned back, tension slipping away from his shoulders.
Then he turned around to look at Bakugou, and with a blinding smile, he gently thrust his fist out in victory.