Fire Drake, Endeavor's Number One Sidekick, stared down at the deceased Noumu at his feet, eyeing it closely in case it possessed regeneration like the Black-skinned one from a short time ago. The Dead Noumu was a bizarre monstrosity; pale bluish green skin, long and thin limbs and four eyes attached to an exposed brain; it was disgusting and it's powers had been equally so. It had been able to absorb the flames produced by the Diablo Twins fighting alongside Drake, and then release them back at the heroes, though not without taking some damage. It also had been able to shoot out its tongue in a way that caused it to expand a mutate like a fleshy spider web. The Twins had no idea how to deal with that, but Drake had jumped in and killed the beast.

Fire Drake, real name: Gin Arashi, possessed the powerful "Drake Evolution" Quirk, on account of being the Bastard Son of the last Head of the Kintaro family and one of his household maids. He took his mother's last name (as the Kintaros never acknowledged bastards) and grew to despise both his parents, his father for refusing to acknowledge him and his mother for still loving the man that reviled them. He chose to become a Hero and took the name Fire Drake, refusing to use his real name for anything he didn't have to. Drake Evolution was a slightly weaker version of his older half-brother's "Dragon Evolution" and allowed Fire Drake to breath fire, cover his body in thick black scales, grow deadly claws and a long, powerful tail. When fighting the Noumu, he had easily used his strong tail to launch himself at the tongue web, slashing through it with his claws, before using his fire breath to launch him back at the Noumu's body, where he ripped out it's heart with his mighty claws.

It was kind of vindictive, Drake realised, but he knew about these Noumus and the League that made them, and felt nothing but hatred for them. He may not be acknowledged by the Kintaro Elders, and his half-brothers; Haru and Hisashi, might not even know of his existence, but Drake still considered them to be blood, and Izuka was also of their bloodline. It had been Drake that convinced Endeavor to join the rescue operation against All for One, since he wasn't strong enough to join himself. Izuka didn't know that though, and didn't know of her relation to Drake, since the man never revealed his true name or the full name of his Quirk.

Drake was snapped from his thoughts by Diablo Red, "Yo Boss, you still with us?" he asked, noticing Drake's distraction.

"I'm still here. Just thinking. These Noumu really are monsters." Drake said, idly shifting the dead one's head with his foot.

"Tell me about it!" Diablo Green chimed in, "That big black one was even weirder! I hope that kid is okay..."

They were referring to the Petting Hero: Anima, Miruko's Intern. The boy had run around their battle earlier, carrying the injured hero, Native, then ran back after taking Native to the Ambulances. The Kid had used his quirk to take control of the Noumu and ran off with it, shouting that he would be alright.

Drake hummed; "I'm sure he's fine. He had that Noumu eating out of the palm of his hand. Plus, I'm guessing the White Blur that ran in his direction a minute ago was Ingenium. Now that we're done here, let's go see for ourselves." he said, secretly hoping to check on his Niece.

[SARDONYX'S TEAM]

Sardonyx, Embright and Blade Jester were having a much harder time with their own opponents, and they had been pushed into a corner. They weren't injured, but were growing tired as their attacks did nothing against the pair of Noumus they faced.

The first was the bizarre Skeleton Noumu. It had immediately breathed out a black smog that cover it like a cloak. The Black Smog allowed the Noumu to slip through solid objects like a Ghost, and the Noumu had perfect control over it, allowing it to keep the smog on it's body when defending or moving, while pushing it away when it wanted to attack with it's bony claws. The Skeletal Noumu also possessed a second Quirk, allowing it to turn it's finger bones red and then extend and sharpen them at will, turning each finger into a sharp spike that could extend up to 100 feet. The damn monster was like a Grim Reaper!

The second Noumu was a Tiger with a Monkey face, resembling the old Japanese Legend of the Nue. The creature had three quirks; the first allowing it to produce thick, cotton-like clouds that it could stand on and shoot lightning from, the second allowing it to breath a poisonous wind from its mouth and the third that allowed it to turn it's tiger-like tail into a snake with a venomous bite.

Blade Jester was at a complete disadvantage against these two monsters, as neither could laugh or cry, so his quirk couldn't activate, leaving him instead trying to slash at the two. His knives slipped through the Reaper's mist covered body and the Nue would just call up its clouds to defend itself. Embright did a bit better; her flaming hair could ignite the Reaper's black mist, which burned quickly and forced it to leave it's fog and create more, and it also caused the Nue's cloud shields to hiss and splatter to the ground like water, but again, the beast made more too quickly. Sardonyx was having more luck, but only a little. Her main tactic of combat was to spit on the opponent, then turn the saliva into crystal with her quirk, before having a fire wielding companion strike the crystallized spit and make it grow to encase the enemy. While Sardonyx was able to land a single spit attack on the Nue (she called the move: Gem Spit) and crystallize it with her quirk, Embright wasn't able to reach it to hit it with fire, and Sardonyx hadn't been able to land the move on either Noumu again. She had to use her back-up attack; Gem Bullet (a move where she crystallises her spit in mid-air to hit the enemy with a fast and hard bullet-like gem) but now her mouth was getting dry, and she was forced to rely on her sweat, which she usually only utilised for defence or melee strikes.

"This isn't going well!" Embright cried as she used her hair to grab a window ledge and pull herself above a lightning strike from Nue.

"I'm sorry, I am useless here!" Jester said sadly, leaping over one of Reaper's bone spikes.

"Don't worry about that for now, just focus on staying alive!" Sardonyx shouted, before muffling a cry as another of Reaper's bone spikes sliced into her forearm. It was the first injury they'd suffered and it wasn't serious, but it did show that they were going down hill. "Damn it! Well at least I have blood for my quirk now..."

Embright suddenly grinned; "I have an idea! Jester, keeping attacking the Reaper one! Make sure it doesn't have a second to become physical!"

"Understood!" Jester shouted, leaping at Reaper with a battle cry and beginning a mad dance of swinging blades and kicks, following Reaper's every move and making it so the Noumu couldn't attack without being hit as well. Nue growled and shifted it's focus to Jester, and that was all Embright needed.

"Sardonyx, make a gem mace on the end of my hair!" Embright ordered, stopping the fire on her braid and directing it over to the older hero. Sardonyx, realising the plan, smirked and began using her blood to create a sphere on the end of Embright's braid, then added spikes to it. A little known fact about Sardonyx' quirk was that the gems it created, when exposed to heat, would grow while retaining their shape, unless it met something that blocked it's growth, in which case it would grow around the object, which was why it was used to trap villains, but since Embright's hair didn't block its growth, it could grow as large as it wanted.

"Okay, here goes!" Embright declared, spinning her braid with it's new mace around her head to get used to the weight and the build momentum, before swinging down on Nue. Mid-Swing, Embright ignited her hair and since the Gem Mace was made with blood, it could grow to huge sizes, so it immediately jumped from the size of a bowling ball to the size of a small building. It smashed right through the Nue's cloud defence and crushed the Noumu, shattering it's head completely and killing the mindless creature.

With Nue dead, all three Heroes attacked Reaper viciously, not giving it an instant to counter attack since it couldn't attack while intangible and couldn't become tangible without taking a hit. Once it became clear that the Noumu could do nothing, Embright ignited her hair and set the black fog alight. It burned quickly and the Noumu couldn't escape without being killed by Sardonyx or Jester, so it just shrieked and burned. The flames engulfed it and melted away it's transparent skin and brain, leaving the Noumu as nothing but charred, dead bones.

"Ha! Victory to the Heroes!" Embright cheered as she looked at the two dead Noumus.

"Winning is good, but the power of these things makes me worry..." Jester said, a bit disheartened that he hadn't been able to fight his way.

"The League is becoming more dangerous. If they can create creatures like this, with varied quirks and no emotions, they may become a serious threat to the entire world. We need to crush them sooner rather than later." Sardonyx muttered. She quickly checked her phone and noticed that Drake's Group had successfully killed their opponent and were heading to support Ingenium and Miruko's Intern. However, Endeavor hadn't reported his own victory yet, which meant he was still fighting. With a frown, Sardonyx led the team to find and support Endeavor.

[ENDEAVOR'S TEAM]

The Centre of Hosu had become a Maelstrom of fire, ice and water as the two Todoroki Heroes battled against the two Noumus that had appeared there. The Snake-faced Noumu was big, muscular and regenerated quickly, while the flying Gargoyle-like Noumu just dived bombed them and occasionally flapped its wings hard to kick up gale-force winds. Strictly speaking, the Gargoyle Noumu was fairly ineffectual, as Celsius and Endeavor had to do little more that slap it down whenever it tried to attack them, and both were strong enough to avoid being blown over by the wind it created.

It was the Snake Noumu that was the problem.

Aside from having strength that rivalled Endeavor's and the ability to regenerate, it had three other powers which proved more worrisome. The first was some kind of Water Generation Quirk that allowed the beast to shoot torrents of water from a hole on its tongue. The water pressure could cut through rock and steel at the highest level (though thankfully the Noumu didn't seem able to use this version for long) but even its lower level of power was enough to knock Celsius over, and send Endeavor skidding back. The second Quirk played in with the first; it could grow perfect copies of its own head on any patch of skin on its body. These additional heads could also shoot water and had brains of their own, so even when Endeavor managed to destroy the main head with a well aimed Fire Spear, the Noumu kept fighting and eventually regrew it's original head. The additional heads could also be varying sizes, both bigger and smaller than the original. The third and final quirk this monster had was a kind of transformation quirk that effected its neck, allowing it to extend its neck and manipulate it like a snake. This unfortunately included the additional heads too.

"This thing is a nuisance." Endeavor scowled as he lazily evaporated a feeble water blast from one of the Noumu's smaller heads.

"It's like a damned Hydra! It's forced us into a Stalemate." Celsius scowled. He was right too; Hydra could regenerate, so the only way to kill it was to destroy the brain or the entire body, but because its quirk let it grow seemingly unlimited heads, it was impossible to destroy the brain, and the moment Endeavor and Celsius tried to incinerate it with a massive burst of fire, the Hydra would produce huge torrents of water from every head to counter the flame. Celsius had tried to freeze the beast solid, but the only result had been the creature breaking out with it's strength and regenerating any lost parts. The battle was beginning to drag on too, as Celsius had already needed to adjust his internal temperature a lot to deal with overusing his ice or fire, and he'd had to cool Endeavor too, as the man got close to overheating.

As Endeavor punched away a snake head that had shot towards him, he called out to his son; "Celsius, have we had any more word from Seraphim?"

Shoto frowned and focused on the link Izuka had opened, but she was still fighting Stain, so the girl didn't seem to notice his attempts at contact; "She's still facing the Hero Killer with Blue Zephyr. I think they're holding their own, but she won't be coming to help us."

Endeavor scowled and slammed his fist into Hydra's abdomen, narrowly avoiding a bite from a snake head (he had taken a few minor bites, though thankfully the fangs weren't venomous). "We don't need her to come help us! I was worried if we needed to help her!" the man shot back, his temper getting away from him a bit due to the annoyance of the Noumu he fought.

Celsius leapt over a small head that had shot towards him and then slammed down on it, creating an ice spike on his heel to stab into the thing's brain. Hydra hissed menacingly and ripped off the dead head at the neck and regenerated a new one. Celsius was forced to dodge a flurry of blows from several snake heads, as their necks extended towards him and began swinging to and fro like whips with teeth. One managed to bite into his forearm and hold him in place for a second, leaving him open to the others, but Celsius growled and ignited his left side, incinerating the snakes the moment they touched him. Endeavor called out to him, but his voice was drowned out when the Pro Hero was hit in the face by a powerful torrent of water from the main head of Hydra. Thankfully, it wasn't the kind of blast that had the pressure needed to cut him, but Endeavor was hit in the face with enough force that it bowled him over, making him spin wildly into a nearby building. It caused little more to Endeavor than bruising to his back and redness to the skin on his face (he was a tough man after all), but Celsius was able to discern something from the observation.

"Father!" he shouted as Endeavor pulled himself out of the man-shaped crater he'd made.

"What is it!?"

"I think I've spotted a weakness! When producing his water attacks, he can't move! All his snakes stop moving completely whenever he uses it!" the Young Hero shouted.

Endeavor frowned and nodded; "It's likely a limitation left over from the original owner of that Quirk... he has to stay still when using it. We'll have some forewarning if he uses his water jets again, but that isn't enough to take him out!"

"I have an idea, but I'll need- AHHH!" Shoto's words were suddenly cut off, as in the moment of distraction, Gargoyle swept down and grabbed him from behind, lifting him into the sky and flying off with him. "Shit! Dad!" Shoto screamed as the Noumu's clawed feet squeezed him.

"SHOTO! Hold on!" Endeavor roared, forming a spear of flame and tossing it at Gargoyle with lethal aim. The Noumu tried to dodge, but it wasn't fast enough to avoid the spear, being his squarely in the eye by the flames. It's dodge had spared its life at least and it was able to keep flying, still with Shoto in its grasp. Endeavor growled and prepared another attack only to be blind-sided by Hydra. The Man couldn't pursue Gargoyle with Hydra attacking him; the damned Noumu would take his son!

"I won't let you!" he roared, "PROMINENCE BURN!"

Endeavor's body burned brightly and released a beam of highly pressurized flames directly at Gargoyle. Hydra was burned and forced to back off, and the attack took the corners of an entire skyscraper off, but Gargoyle was prepared and managed to avoid it. Just as it looked like hope was lost and Shoto would be taken, Endeavor spotted a figure leaping from rooftop to rooftop, before leaping high above Gargoyle and slamming into its back with a large foot. The flying Noumu released Shoto as it staggered in the air, and the attacker chose to save Shoto as opposed to pursuing the Noumu, who escaped into the sky. Shoto and his rescuer landed back in the city centre with a loud thump, where upon Endeavor saw who saved his son.

The Rabbit Hero: Miruko!

Setting the slightly stunned Shoto onto his feet, Miruko smiled widely at Endeavor; "Hi! I got a report from the police about what was happening, so I hopped right over! My adorable little Intern Anima is off helping elsewhere. Do you think you guys could use some help?" she asked giddily.

Endeavor wanted to snap that he didn't need help, but he wasn't about to be rude to the woman that saved his son, so he merely nodded; "Help would be useful. You chased off the flying one, and it's hurt so I doubt it'll come back. This one is a problem though." he said, before giving Miruko a quick rundown of Hydra's abilities.

"Sounds tough! It survives your fire with its water, right? And it can't use water while moving? Then I'll go and kick it a bunch so it has to move, then you guys blast it!" Miruko grinned.

Endeavor nodded; "I think that was what my son intended, correct?" he asked, looking to Shoto.

"It is. Miruko, Dad, if you two can keep it occupied while I prepare something, I can take it out in one move. Just open its mouth when I say." Celsius declared.

The Adult Heroes nodded; neither willing to argue rank when a deadly threat was around. Endeavor and Miruko leapt into the fray, fighting brutally and efficiently, Miruko used a flurry of powerful kicks to knock the Noumu around like a rag doll, and the moment she need to rest a second, Endeavor would leap in and carry on where Miruko left off, using his flames to match the force of Miruko's legs. As they did so, Shoto activated Plus Ultra Mode and began pumping out all the flames he could and compressing it into a ball in the palm of his hand. As he did so, his mind drifted back to a conversation that occurred last week...

[FLASHBACK]

As the boys changed back into the school uniforms after the Support Trial, Shoto discretely got Bakugou's attention, gesturing for the Explosive Boy to meet him after class. Bakugou scoffed but nodded, and when Shoto went to the area behind the gym where he and Bakugou had confronted each other before, he found the Explosive Boy leaning against the wall, lazily chomping on an apple.

As Shoto got closer, he had to double take when he realised it wasn't an apple, but a red bell pepper. "Bakugou, what are you eating?" Shoto asked blankly.

"A pepper. Want one?" the boy offered, showing he had another in his pocket. Bewildered, Shoto declined, falling silent until Katsuki got angry; "Well what do you want then? I've got shit to do today you know and you're cutting into my Izuka time!"

Shoto frowned, "Well, it's to do with those atomic moves you used. I wanted to learn more about them, and your explosions in general. My quirk lets me produce and sort of control Ice and Fire, but my control over fire is nothing like Izuka's, and I can't do some of the things you can with it either. I was hoping you could give me a tip on how to use explosions with my flames."

Katsuki raised an eyebrow; "You must be pretty desperate if you're coming to me. Why do you need to know this stuff?"

The scarred boy looked down in shame; "My previous pledge to never use my flames means I have only a couple of weeks of experience with it. Izuka helped a lot, but she doesn't like using her fire to attack aggressively, preferring to use it to a lesser extent while her strength does the main damage. I don't have that luxury, and I need to catch up and be able to use my flames properly if I'm going to be a hero. Besides, I thought if you helped me, I'd be stronger and then I'd be more of a match for you in our inevitable rematch." Shoto said, adding the last part to poke at Katsuki's pride.

The Explosive boy saw right through this, but smirked regardless; "Okay then, I'll help you. Meet me here every night at 9pm. I'll give you three lessons over three nights. If you can use your fire to produce a half-decent explosion in that time, I'll teach you how to concentrate your flames into a proper atomic attack!"

Shoto agreed immediately.

[END FLASHBACK]

Katsuki had kept his end of the bargain and taught Shoto vigorously, and sure enough, Shoto was able to almost mimic some of Katsuki's explosions (though the process was difficult and required strict control, since his flames weren't based on a naturally explosive compound like Katsuki's Nitroglycerin) and as such he'd been taught how to perform the simplest of Katsuki's Atomic Moves: the Atomic Grenade. This would be the key to defeating Hydra!

Finally, after pumping out every bit of flame he could muster and compressing it into a brightly burning sphere, no bigger than tennis ball, Shoto shouted to his Father; "Now! Open his mouth!"

Endeavor immediately leapt onto the Noumu's back and grabbed it's upper jaw, pulling back with all his strength while Miruko grabbed the lower jaw and pulled it down. With the creature's mouth wide open, Shoto ran up and slammed the fire ball down the monster's gullet, manipulating it carefully so it maintained it's shape until it reached the centre of the Noumu's body. With the flame in place, Shoto leapt back and Endeavor smashed the Noumu into the ground, where Miruko used a powerful heel drop to force the Noumu's overly large fangs into the ground. With its fangs embedded into the dirt, the Hydra Noumu tried to use it's additional heads to attack, but it was too late. The flame that Shoto had created exploded.

"1,000,000 DEGREES CELSIUS SCORCH!" Shoto cried as his flame sphere rapidly expanded and exploded within the Noumu. Since he couldn't create explosions in the same way as Katsuki, he had been taught instead to compress his flames so tightly, that when he released the compression, they'd expand so violently it created an explosion. With all the flames he could manage compressed within the Noumu, they exploded so violently, the Noumu's body was incinerated from the inside, leaving behind nothing but some ash and a few charred bones. Thankfully, the Noumu was tough enough that the flames were almost all consumed, so there was little collateral damage, though the area it had been lying on was reduced to molten rock and metal.

"Whoa, you killed it. Your Intern is pretty amazing, Endeavor." Miruko commented, amazed as she used a broken piece of rebar to poke at the ash and bone of the Noumu.

"Of course he is! He's my son!" Endeavor laughed, clapping Shoto on the back. Unfortunately, Shoto had used his Plus Ultra so much that he passed out, forcing the man to quickly catch him. "Huh, must have taken a lot out of him." the Hero muttered, before checking his phone. According to the reports from Drake, Sardonyx and a message from Ingenium, a total of four Noumu (Reaper, Nue, Slender and Hydra) had been killed, with one escaping (Gargoyle) and another being under the control of Anima, a classmate of his own interns. Not only that, but Seraphim, Ingenium, Ingenium's brother and Anima had succeeded in defeating and capturing the Hero Killer Stain!

"Holy shit!" Endeavor cursed, "Miruko, our Interns took down the Hero Killer!"

"No way!" the Rabbit Hero shot back, "Where are they, we need to hop over there!"

[A FEW MOMENTS BEFORE, WITH SERAPHIM'S TEAM]

Izuka, Tenya, Tensei and Koda were slowly making their way to the Police Checkpoint, with Stain being dragged behind by the Noumu that remained in Koda's control. Izuka thought it was odd that the creature still obeyed Koda and didn't immediately go on a rampage when the boy's orders were completed back in the battle, but she theorised it was because Koda's quick had somehow overpowered the command quirk that forced the Noumu to obey the League.

As they rounded the corner, the group was suddenly found by the Sidekicks from Endeavor's Agency. Sardonyx, the Diablo Twins, Blade Jester, Embright and Flare Drake all ran towards them. "Seraphim! Thank goodness you're alright! Ah, I see you met up with Miruko's Intern too." Drake said, already messaging Endeavor that Izuka was safe.

"Yeah, I got lucky and ran into the Hero Killer before he could kill Zephyr or Native. It took Anima and Ingenium helping too, as well as this Noumu, but we managed to catch him!" Izuka chirped happily, pointing to the bound Hero Killer. The Sidekicks all looked shocked, examining the Hero Killer closely.

"Amazing! You took down Stain! Geez, this new generation of Heroes is going to make us look bad" Diablo Green jokingly whined.

"He isn't too banged up either, and neither are you kids. What happened?" Embright asked.

Izuka and Tenya filled them in on how their battle had gone, including how Izuka had healed them all afterwards. Stain had originally had several broken bones and some internal bleeding, but Izuka had healed that up, only leaving his bruises and burns unhealed. From there, Drake and Sardonyx reported how their own fights with the Noumus had gone and by the time they were done, they had received a report that Endeavor and Celsius had beaten their own opponent and were now heading towards them.

The Battle at Hosu was coming to an end, but the Heroes had been wrong about one thing; there hadn't been Six Noumus... there had been Seven.

Suddenly, the entire group began to gasp and fall to their knees, struggling to breath as all the air was sucked away from them. They gasped and choked, trying to run to where there was air, but a powerful vacuum kept them in place, and without oxygen, they couldn't even call for help. As they all tried desperately to breath, Izuka recognised the feeling and managed to turn to see the source; a Chameleon-like Noumu; the Anti-Phoenix Noumu from the USJ!

As soon as Izuka noticed it, the creature leapt and opened it's mouth wide, its tongue shooting out and wrapping around Izuka before pulling her in, swallowing her whole. Since the USJ, the Noumu had been further adapted to include small spines in its stomach that could deliver a powerful sedative, so the moment Izuka was swallowed whole, she was knocked out.

With Izuka now trapped within the Noumu's body, it leapt away, ending the vacuum so the shocked Heroes could breathe. They breathed in hungrily, before fully realising what had happened and began chasing after the fleeing Noumu.

"GET DOWN!" Diablo Red suddenly screamed, as the Gargoyle Noumu swooped down and grabbed the Anti-Phoenix Noumu, taking off with it and the girl trapped inside, the blood from the wound it received from Endeavor splattering the heroes as it went.

"SERAPHIM!" Drake roared, breathing out as much flame as he could. The other Heroes tried to attack too, but the Gargoyle was already flying too fast and too high for them to reach.

"NO! IT'LL TAKE IZUKA TO THE LEAGUE!" Tenya cried, trying to run after the Noumu but not having the strength left to catch up.

Drake screamed furiously, trying desperately to make his flames reach the enemy, when he suddenly felt a wet tongue slide across his cheek.

Stain, having regained consciousness and cut himself free with a knife hidden in his wristband, lapped up the Noumu's blood from Drake's face and forced the Gargoyle to freeze and begin falling to the ground. The Heroes looked on in shock and fear as Stain charged forward and leapt onto the falling Noumu, stabbing it in the brain and killing it just as it hit the ground.

"Fake Heroes, and the Foul Criminals they fight are all cancers on the face of society... and I will purge it all! The power of the Phoenix is too great a weapon for either you Heroes, or the League of Villains. I must destroy it! This girl is mine until then!" Stain declared, gripping the squirming Lizard Noumu by the throat and carving it open like a frog being dissected. He pulled Izuka's unconscious form from within the beast's stomach, wiping some of the creature's blood and slime from the girl's face.

That was the moment that Endeavor, Miruko and Shoto (still unconscious on his father's back) arrived, running at Stain with fury on their faces, "Release the Girl! We won't hesitate to incinerate you if you don't!"

"Not going to happen!" declared a voice from a megaphone. The group suddenly looked up to see a Helicopter flying above them, with three men standing in the open side and wielding bazookas. The man in the middle was the masked lieutenant of the Eight Precepts; Chronostasis, "Stain, good work. We'll get you and the girl out of here." he said, signalling for his allies. The other men on the helicopter began bombarding the city with their weapons, kicking up clouds of dust and debris to distract the heroes. In the chaos, a rope ladder was dropped from the Helicopter and Stain grabbed it.

The Heroes were forced to watch helplessly as the Eight Precepts and Stain fled, with Izuka still in their possession. Tenya dropped to his knees, Izuka had been captured, and it was all his fault.