Warning: this chapter may be a bit too graphic for sensitive readers as it contains blood. Please, tread with caution.

~*~*~*~

It was probably too much wishful thinking that everything would be calm when Kaito and I walked on top of the rooftop. Things were in absolute chaos when we stepped outside, but they weren't as bad as I thought they would've been.

On one side, I noticed Sakura using her Quirk to wrap it around Nightshade while her other vine whipped around to distract Goro at the best of her abilities. Even though I couldn't see her face, I could tell she was struggling as her muscles shook and heard her sneezing every few seconds.

While she Sakura was trying to pull both of them away, I noticed Raiden yanking as much goo off of my little brother as hard as he could. There was just one problem. Even though Goro had a vine wrapped around his ankle, pulling him away from Raiden and Ollie, he was still controlling it to roll back on top of Ollie. Raiden had to use his Quirk, causing his muscles to expand twice as big as usual, just to keep Ollie from submerging under the goo.

"I'll take care of Pinkie over there," Kaito said. "You go to your brother."

Before I could warn him how bad of an idea that was as his Light Quirk would've been perfect to melt the goo off, Kaito had already sprung up to his feet and ran towards Sakura. I watched as he talked to her and shot beams of light out of his hands at Goro, forcing him to slow down when using his Quirk on Ollie.

There was nothing I could do. My right arm throbbed, while I could feel my left arm burn. I was cut in both arms, and feeling the cool wind blowing around, I started to realize how much in pain I was. It would've been easy to just break down right there, but I forced those tears in. Not because I wanted to, but because I had to. I had to for Ollie.

When I looked over at my little brother, I could see how worried he was. Raiden was too concentrated on pulling the goo off of him to even notice. It didn't matter how much my arms were burning, I sprinted over to them, kneeling down beside Ollie. His eyes squeezed shut as he bit his bottom lip. It must've all been too painful for him.

"Ollie, Ollie, look over here," I told him as I placed threaded my fingers through his chestnut colored hair. He turned his head towards me, but he kept his eyes closed, letting the tears run down his face. I took my hand from his head and pressed it under his eyes, wiping the tears away. "Hey, can you remind me of all the heroes you like?"

Raiden snapped his head at me, his jaw dropping for a moment. I took a second to tear my gaze away from my brother and gave Raiden a look that he shouldn't stop what he was doing. That was all it took for him to snap his head back and go back to ripping off chunks of goo, tossing it back to Goro.

With him concentrated on what he needed to do, I looked back at my little brother. I drew in a deep breath, hoping this would work. Usually, the last thing I needed when I went into a frenzy was someone to distract me, but that wasn't the case for Ollie. He needed something else to think about, so he wasn't so focused on the pain. The only thing I could think about was how much he loved talking about heroes. If I could get him distracted by talking to him about all his favorite heroes, then he might not be in so much pain.

"Power Girl," he cried. "I-I like that she seems nice."

"She is pretty nice, isn't she?" I agreed as I dropped my hands to my legs. "You know, she's actually the hero who saved me. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have been back home earlier."

"You did? What was she like? Is she really strong and as tall as she looks on t.v.?" my brother asked.

Without looking over, I could feel Raiden's eyes staring at me, almost curious what I would have to say about his sister. I didn't pay him any attention as I saw his hands ripping off pieces of goo. Ollie would wince, but at least he wasn't in as much pain as he was before. He couldn't have as his eyes widened with excitement the moment I told him about Power Girl.

I nodded my head, confirming everything. "Oh yes. She's an amazing hero. Okay, who else do you like?"

"Mr. Elastic. You—you still owe me his autograph," Ollie whimpered before growling in protest as Raiden yanked off a piece of goo.

"Looks like we'll have to get on that," Raiden muttered.

My eyes widened for a moment, shocked that Raiden would say that. When I looked at him, Raiden shot me a look, jerking his head towards my brother. Distracting my brother must've helped him a little bit. I just didn't remember the goo being so painful when Goro used it on me.

Then again, the first time I was covered in it, he was also fighting off a swarm of heroes. He probably didn't care how much of it stayed on me as long as he could distract the heroes and slow us down.

"Okay, I promise to get you his autograph the second I see him," I promised. "Just keep talking to me. Who's another one of your favorite heroes?"

Ollie opened his chocolate-colored eyes, nodding his head as he did. He was now almost completely free from the goo, only having pieces of it stuck on his legs and arms. At least I could see his legs and arms. Before, he looked like a meatball.

I could tell he was going to tell me more, but his eyes darted down to my arms. His mouth gaped open as he saw the fresh cuts adorning them. He gasped the moment his eyes caught the deep cut with the blood still slowly oozing out of it on my right wrist.

"Tami! What happened? You're hurt," Ollie noticed.

I shook my head, pressing my lips together for a moment. "Don't worry about me. I'm fine. That can be fixed. Besides, heroes get hurt all the time," I told him.

"But I don't want you to get hurt," Ollie said as tears welled up in his eyes once more. "I don't want to lose you."

Raiden ripped off the last piece of goo, and when he did, Ollie threw his arms around me. His head dug into my shoulder as he started to wail. Tears quickly started to pile up on my shoulder as we sat there. I froze for a moment, letting out a long breath. If this was how Ollie felt now when I was a student, I couldn't imagine what he would've felt like if I became a hero and got injured.

He would've been traumatized.

Slowly, I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him closer to me. I looked back, seeing Goro passed out on the ground, allowing Sakura to unwrap her vine around him and keep her eyes on Nightshade. Kaito stood beside Goro, keeping his hands flexed in front of his chest in case the man would regain consciousness and start attacking once again.

It would've been a lie that I wasn't worried about the same thing. If something happened to my friends when they became heroes, I'd be terrified. Dying on the field was common, but it wasn't something people thought about when they said they wanted to become a hero or was on the path of one. It was almost as if everyone thought they could avoid it.

A hand grasped my shoulder. I looked up, seeing Raiden sitting there. Sweat poured down the sides of his face as he deactivated his Quirk. His muscles shrank to their regular size, causing him to relax a bit. Looking at him, I realized how much his Hero Costume really suited him as there were two leather straps crossing over the brown thick tank he wore, matching it with a pair of baggy pants and combat boots. He looked like a fighter in it, especially since I saw two large sticks poking out from his back. Whether they were used for fighting or decoration, I wasn't sure. I wasn't going to ask him. All I knew was that his Hero costume looked nice on him.

"He's a tough one," Raiden said. "Keep a close eye on him."

I nodded my head just as I saw something in the corner of my eye. We all turned our heads, seeing a massive group of heroes landing on the rooftop. There had to have been about ten of them, and most of them I wasn't familiar with. The only three I knew were Mr. Elastic, Power Girl, and Ape-X, but the rest were ones I couldn't recognize. Maybe they were heroes that worked in their agency. Maybe they weren't. Either way, I wasn't going to question it.

Instead, I just pushed Ollie out of the hug and pointed towards them. My brother turned his head and gasped, probably starstruck that he was seeing his favorite hero there.

"Sorry we're late," Mr. Elastic said as he walked towards us. He was no longer wearing a suit and tie, but rather, his signature black and white unitard that stretched from the ends of his fingers to the tops of his feet. There was a thick white belt around his waist, and a black mask covering his face. None of the pieces to his costume looked very clean, and to confirm it, he explained why he was so late. "There were some other minor crimes we had to deal with on the way here, but at least we can wrap things up."

My teacher squatted down to look Ollie in the eyes. When he did, a smile crossed Ollie's face.

"You're Mr. Elastic!" my brother gasped. "You're my favorite hero of all time!"

Hearing those words come out of Ollie's mouth caused the hero to giggle. "Is that so? Tell you what, once I wrap things up, we can talk. I'd love to get to know more about my biggest fan."

My brother couldn't have been any more excited to hear those words. It was almost as if he had forgotten all of the things that had happened as he was grinning ear to ear. Mr. Elastic didn't wait for a response as he stood up. He still looked at us when he did, but he was more focused on me than he was on my brother.

"Where is he?" Mr. Elastic asked me. "I would like to make sure we end this fight for good."

"Downstairs," Raiden answered for me, making me realize he was still sitting next to me. I turned to look at him, seeing that his hands were on the ground beside him, no longer on my shoulder. "He dragged Tami down there not too long ago, so he shouldn't be far."

"Just follow the trail down there," I told Mr. Elastic. "It should take you to the floor we left him on."

I never disclosed what kind of trail it was for my brother's sake, but Mr. Elastic seemed to know exactly what I was alluding to. He nodded his head as he started running.

A breath of relief escaped my lips as Raiden helped me to my feet while Ollie clung beside me. It wasn't long that Sakura and Kaito joined us, making sure that we were all okay. In the end, we just stood there, watching as the heroes wrapped things up, throwing the villains in handcuffs to make sure they would never try to attempt to do another villainous act ever again.

~*~*~*~

As promised, when the police cars drove the villains away from the abandoned building we were at, Mr. Elastic took a few pictures with Ollie. I watched as he took some serious ones, standing there with smiles at the camera, but most of them were silly as my teacher would stretch out of the picture or would wrap his body around Ollie. Every time he did something like that, I'd hear the laughter escape my brother's mouth.

For the most part, he seemed to be doing okay.

"I'm sorry to say you're not going to be using your right hand for a while," the medic said as she let go of my hand that was wrapped in gauze and dropped it on my lap.

I looked up at her, seeing her pink hair being held in loops. Since I was the only one that seemed to have any injuries, the medic took her time, letting me sit inside the ambulance as she did her work. No one else was allowed to be inside, but I was still able to watch my brother and Mr. Elastic from here.

"Is it broken?" I asked, fearing the worst case scenario.

"Afraid so," she said. "You're gonna need to get to the hospital first thing in the morning to make sure, and don't try to get out of it. You were pretty wounded from whatever happened out there."

I nodded my head. At least it was just one broken wrist. The cut on my left arm was just that. There was nothing to really worry about that, except for maybe the fact that my Hero Costume was torn. I could see Sakura being pretty upset once she realized it. Maybe not right away, but when things would settle down a bit, she would probably be livid about it all.

"For now, just keep this ice pack on it to help with the swelling," the nurse said as she laid a small blue pouch on my right wrist. "The doctors will determine the rest, but I assure you that you won't be doing any hero-like activities in your classes for the next few weeks."

"No worries. I'm—I'm actually thinking about not becoming a hero?" I told her, feeling my voice waver a bit.

Unlike any response I've seen before, the nurse just smiled. "Probably for the best you leave that sort of thing to the pros."

The woman didn't say a word as she helped me back onto my feet and outside the back of the ambulance. We were welcomed by the dark sky, only to be lit by the few street lamps that illuminated the place. I looked around, noticing most of the heroes were gone, including Power Girl, who must've taken her younger brother with her as Raiden was nowhere to be seen. I frowned realizing that. He helped Ollie out by ripping off the goo. Without that, I was almost positive that he would've been a human meatball for a longer. Not to mention, terrified out of his minds as he'd have to watch everything happen with no one to save him. I wanted to thank him for all his help.

That didn't mean I was alone. Leaning against one of the street lamps, I saw Kaito and Sakura talking to one another in hushed voices. A smile crossed my face as I saw them. They all came in the knick of time. If it wasn't for them coming when they did, the whole world may have probably forgotten all about their Quirks in the matter of months.

My left hand tightened around the ice pack as I thought about it. Guilt washed up inside. If only I had distracted them a little bit more, things wouldn't have gotten so. Things might have been a lot better if I had just thought things through a bit more.

I just didn't know how to be a hero.

"Tami-tan! You're okay!"

I looked up, seeing Sakura and Kaito rushing towards me. They looked relieved, even if Sakura looked like she was battling a terrible cold with how pale her face was.

"I'm just so happy you're okay," she said, looking down at my right hand. "I was worried, you know."

"Yeah, I'll just have to go to the hospital again," I told her. "My wrist is probably broken."

"Don't worry about it," Kaito said. "I'm sure my dad could fix it up. He's a doctor, you know."

"Uh, yeah actually, I-uh-met him," I told them, looking down at my wrist. Part of me wanted to question it. I was about ready to, but then I looked up to realize everyone was gone. While the medic had me in the back of the ambulance, everyone seemed to have already gone home. It didn't matter, but I started having a funny feeling building up in my stomach. "Did they—did they catch them this time? Kannon, Nightshade, and Goro that is?"

Sakura and Kaito didn't answer for a moment. When I looked up at them, I noticed Kaito scratching the back of his neck as he gave Sakura a side glance. My best friend just looked down at the ground, biting her bottom lip. Their silence was enough for me.

I should have known those three were too good for the Pro Heroes. They escaped from them the first time they went into U.A., and even then, it was only two of them. Maybe I shouldn't have put so much hope into those heroes in catching these villains for once.

If only I had distracted them a bit longer, if only there was more that I could've done, I would've. As soon as the heroes came, my friends took my brother and me off the building, where the police cars and ambulance were waiting. I never saw what happened up there.

"Pinkie and Goo-man are currently headed to jail," Kaito told me. "After all that has happened, I wouldn't be surprised if they stayed behind bars for good."

"So, they're all going to be behind bars?" I asked, looking at Sakura.

My friend shook her head. "No. I'm sorry, Tami. From what Mr. Elastic told us, your—"

"Ah! There you three are," Mr Elastic's voice came from behind.

I turned around, seeing him handing my little brother his phone as the two walked towards us. Ollie didn't look like the same scared little boy he was on the rooftop. Instead, it was almost impossible to tell what had even happened to him as there was a spark in his eyes, skipping happily over towards us. Once he stood beside me, I saw him opening his photos on his phone and started to show me all the pictures he and Mr. Elastic took together.

While I should've looked at them, I looked up at Mr. Elastic. He didn't seem disappointed as to what had happened. Instead, he had a smile on his face as he looked at my brother, probably amused by all his fanboying. Honestly, it was the sweetest thing he could've done for him, and I was happy that he took the time to do so. I really was. I just wished this wasn't the way they would have met.

My brother didn't deserve going through the horrors that he did.

Seeing my face, Mr. Elastic's smile dropped slightly. "Smith, mind if I talked to you for a moment?"

Ollie looked up at me, confused as to why I had to go, but I nodded my head. I looked back at Sakura and Kaito, who smiled before Sakura started asking my brother about the pictures he had gotten. That was all it took for him to be distracted.

With him giving Sakura his full attention, I walked a few paces away with Mr. Elastic until we were a few feet away from them. When we stopped, I looked back at them, relieved that Ollie was doing alright. It just made me wonder how long it would last.

"What you did out there tonight was by far the bravest thing I have ever seen anyone do," Mr. Elastic told me.

Hearing him say that, I winced. I knew what was coming next, especially since I had to deal with Kaito before coming here.

"I-I'm sorry to disappoint," I whispered, "but—"

"You still don't want to become a Pro Hero. That's why it was so brave. Most people who know they're not cut out for hero work would run away from danger, but you kept going and helped everyone out there tonight," Mr. Elastic said. "I'm just sorry I couldn't hold up my end of the bargain and come when I should have. Things might have ended a bit differently if I did."

"He got away, didn't he?" I asked as my left hand grabbed my right and pulled it closer to my chest. "He's going to-to come back for me and—and he-he-he's go-going to take Ollie and—"

"Breathe," Mr. Elastic said. "It's nothing like that. I thought you'd rather hear it from me than on the news tomorrow, though I'll keep everything classified like your relations to him. See, when I found him, he had given up, but before I could get to him, he did the only thing he thought he could to get away. You won't have to worry about him anymore, but we won't be getting any answers from him."

Everything stopped at that moment as I tried to process what Mr. Elastic was trying to say. He wasn't being straightforward. The Pro Hero was being cautious with what he had said. My eyes peeled open, realizing I was bracing myself for the worst of news.

"He—he's dead?" I asked.

I looked up at Mr. Elastic. His yellow colored eyes closed before he slowly nodded his head. It was no wonder why he was being careful. He wasn't sure how I'd take it that my father had taken his own life just so he could avoid everything else.

There was just one problem. That man, he was no father to me. I could care less what happened to him. He was gone. From here on out, I would no longer have to worry about him. All the fear I had of him coming for Ollie and me, for erasing everyone's memory, or doing some other horrible deed, it washed away. In its place, I could feel relief.

Feeling that relief, I felt dirty.

Instead of saying anything about it, I just nodded my head. There wasn't much I could say. My lips pressed together as I felt a tiny bit of disappointment. While I wouldn't have to worry about him, he could no longer own up to his crimes. I knew his motives from what he told me. It would be enough to help the Pro Heroes bring justice, but it wasn't enough for him to give back people's memories. It wasn't enough to undo the damage he had already done.

Even if he was still here, would he be willing to give them up so easily? Would he be willing to erase all the work he had already done?

"Trust me when I say I did everything I could to stop him from making that choice," Mr. Elastic tried to tell me. "He was just too quick."

I shook my head. "There was nothing you could've done," I muttered. "He—he's gone. It's probably for the better, so this won't ha-happen again." I looked up at Mr. Elastic, before taking a deep breath. "You know I never knew him until now. I'm...I'm just glad Ollie's okay. Th-thank you for that."

Mr. Elastic nodded his head. "It was the least I could do. Now, would you mind staying for just a few minutes. I have some questions to ask you and the others to file in the report. Once we're done, you won't ever have to worry about what happened again."

I nodded my head, but I knew he was lying. At least, he might have believed his own words, but I'd never stop worrying. Even though this was all over, and I may never have to worry about what these villains would do, I would always have the memories of what happened etched in my brain.

Author's Note:

...yes, this update is up much sooner than planned, but within reason. This is the end of the arc. There's only three chapters left, which is insane the more I think about. All three chapters are complete, so I was thinking next week, we'd have a double update, and finish the book a tad earlier than planned so that I can concentrate on some stories I plan on releasing on Wattpad. Next update will probably be on Monday.

In the meantime, we got to see Ollie meet his favorite hero. So, for this week's question, if you had the chance to get an autograph from anyone (doesn't matter if they're from the BNHA universe or a real person), who would it be and why?

Character Spotlight: Tami Smith
Quirk: Biochange
Likes: Dino Nuggets

Special shoutout to weebumpkin who found this picture and shared it with me. I have to say, she could definitely pass as Tami, especially with her short blonde hair and packed lunch. Bet you five bucks there'd be dino-nuggets in that bag. Thank you again for sharing!

Song: Timeless War-A Fate Orchestration