"How's she handling?"
"Like a dream".
Hidden behind the armoured cowl of his suit, Izuku Midoriya, known to the criminal scum and would-be villains of his city as the Yokohama Vigilante, grinned.
Project Hercules was a success in every way.
His little brainchild brought to life, and then evolved into something even he couldn't completely understand.
His original idea had simply been to, 'supe up', an old American muscle car, or possibly even a supercar, if he could find one that suited his needs, which he then intended to use in his nightly ventures. Since then, it had now grown up, moved out of his brain and taken on a life that was entirely its own.
His original idea had quickly evolved into what he had called, 'Project Hydra'. Instead of just a single car, he had begun working on designs for a series of different automobiles, each one capable of easy movement in urban settings, but after the basic model had been designed, each future version had been designed to specialise in a different possible aspect of his future vigilante lifestyle, be it for use in high-speed chases, criminal capture and transport, power manoeuvres or stealth operations. His idea had been to design and build a custom vehicle for each possible setting and then find a way to link each of them up to his, yet-to-be designed or built, vigilante armour, so that he could call upon them when the need arose.
He'd still been in the drafting stages for his first set, when his partner had taken a look at his work, and then declared that she was simply taking over the entire project.
And he hadn't protested, simply because she was Melissa Shield, and she was by far the smartest person he knew.
Not quite 171 centimetres tall, (or five feet, six inches tall, his American-educated mind supplied), she was blonde, beautiful and most importantly, had more brainpower than the next five people combined - no Quirk required.
She was also his business partner.
When she'd seen the series of cars he was designing, she laughed, shaken her head and then taken away all of his designs, returning them to him a few hours later with an additional design, one in which she'd combined the best parts of each one into a single design, to create a masterpiece of engineering.
Because as it turned out, he wasn't the first person to have had the idea to build such a car in the first place.
The original idea had actually been her father's.
Before his incarceration ten years ago, David Shield had been in the initial stages of designing a brand-new armoured car to replace the legendary Allmobile, which was the name he gave to the supercar that he used during his time as All Might's Sidekick, during the Young Age and Bronze Age periods of the Symbol of Peace's career.
The original Allmobile had eventually been destroyed during a villain attack, and before it could be replaced, All Might had decided to return to Japan, leaving his car and sidekick behind, when Mister Shield had been offered a research and development position on I-Island. When she'd been forced to leave her father's I-Island lab behind, Melissa had taken copies of all of his plans with her, and when she'd seen that he was playing around with a similar idea for a new Allmobile, Melissa had found herself inspired.
Using both of their works, his brain and hers, she had overhauled everything the two of them had come up with, merging his plans for a series of multi-purpose tools with the outlines of what would've most likely been yet another David Shield masterpiece, to create something far beyond either of them.
Project Hydra had been shelved and, taking its place like the hero of legend who conquered it, Project Hercules had been born.
A car like no other.
A four-seater urban vehicle, designed with two seats in the front and two in the rear, which could be separated and used to confine prisoners for transport, contained within a chassis that was made of reinforced steel, and covered by a carbon nanotube armour plating that was of Izuku's own design, more advanced than anything they could find anywhere else on the planet, and unable to be bought, as both Izuku and Melissa had refused to reveal its existence and put the material up for sale.
That same material had been used to make his custom wheels from, making them just as durable as the rest of the vehicle, while they were covered in tyres made from their own composite material, made up of synthetic fibres, which included Nomex threads and a Kevlar lining, helping the tyres to resist extreme temperatures, handle the friction and, in the event of someone taking a shot at the tyres and damaging them, they were also filled with a ballistic-resistant jelly, so that he wouldn't lose control of the car and would still be able to make a quick getaway without needing to abandon the car.
Powering all of that was a band new DEKU Enterprises hybrid power cell. A model far more advanced than anything he and Melissa had placed on the open market, capable of giving it 2,350 brake horsepower, a top speed of 465 miles per hour, (if he ever managed to get it to go flat out), and one that would allow it to make it go from nought to sixty miles per hour in just one-point-four-seven seconds.
She was a true masterpiece of engineering, far beyond what any other vehicle on the planet was capable of.
A stealth mode lever, when pulled, would activate a series of blockers and dampeners built into the machinery, killing all of the vehicle's lights and sounds, making him capable of sneaking up on his targets, or helping him to disappear from their sights.
"And the controls?"
He shook his head, despite the fact that she couldn't see him, "Better than I thought they'd be".
There was a tinkle of laughter, before her voice came through the car's communications systems, tinged with mock offence, "You doubted me?"
"Never. I just didn't think it would work this well".
"Ah, well in that case, I feel so much better".
"I'm the one driving without a proper steering wheel here", he pointed out, "or a windshield, for that matter".
"You have a windshield", she pointed out, "a very good windshield. An, as close to indestructible as either of us could make it, windshield. You just can't see out of it".
Again, he shook his head, "Ah, that makes me feel so much better".
There was another laugh, "Well, what's the point in having me build the world's greatest car and upgrade the heads-up display in your suit's mask, if you don't get anything out of it?"
She wasn't wrong.
Now that Project Hercules - 'The Bat-Car', Melissa's voice in his head teasingly corrected it to, having happily coined the term once Rody had given her complete access to, not only the finalised design of his new urban combat suit, but also the police report from the Yaoyorozu Abduction, including young Yojo's description of how he was saved by 'Mister Bat-Man' - was not only complete, but had also been discretely and carefully shipped over to Japan, Melissa had wasted no time integrating its technology into an upgraded version of his protective cowl.
Given that the cowl had already been connected to their supercomputer, Melissa had been quickly able to reconfigure its systems, so that Izuku was now getting real-time updates on everything from traffic patterns to the locations of speed cameras delivered directly in front of his eyes. A multitude of cameras built into the car directly gave him his sight while driving, while also allowing them to completely replace the standard glass windshield with one of solid black, quadrupled plexiglass, and while granting them access to other features, such as night vision, thermal imaging and instant replay.
The steering wheel had been replaced by a pair of cylindrical handheld controls. They made him think of something from a high-tech videogame, but when he'd used them for the first time, slotting his hands within and seeing the suit connect with the car directly, he'd known without even driving it, that it would be far superior to anything he could have ever built himself.
He'd also discovered that Melissa had designed it to function as more than a surface-level interface. Instead of simply controlling the car with his hands, it connected it with his suit entirely, feeding his vitals into the car's systems in real time, which helped it adjust to his reaction times and sleep levels, making the car even easier to control than it already was.
As he'd said, Melissa was a genius.
And she was a genius without peer.
"Hang on, we've got something".
He was broken from his musings on his new toy, when Melissa's voice came back on across the comms, her playful tone absent.
"What is it?"
"I'm seeing a potential break-in at Barris Jewellers. Seven blocks north of your position".
"Another one of Inspector Tsukauchi's vigilante tests? Waiting to see if I show up for his latest attempt at an ambush?"
"I don't think so. A silent alarm was tripped and then cut out. Nobody called anything in. KPPD have called in all their tests so far, and I doubt they'd actually break into a jewellers just to get your attention".
"They could have made an agreement with the owners beforehand".
"True, but it's still an hour earlier than all of their other tests. If it was them, they'd be keeping to their schedule".
"Agreed. I'm on it. ETA…", he grinned, "well, how about we find out".
"Have fun with that. I'll have a layout of the store sent to your on-board computer. Oracle out".
=== === === === ===
"She's here".
Rumie blushed, thankful for her fur that meant the heat never showed in her cheeks, as she realised that she had spoken at the same time as Mister Soul. Mister Soul - Rody - as he insisted on being called, was Mister Midoriya's own personal chauffer, pilot and assistant, and she hadn't meant to talk at the same time as him.
Oh, what if they thought she was trying to talk over them? Or worse, what if Mister Midoriya hadn't been expecting her to talk at all? They would probably think that she was going out of her way to be rude in their presence - and that just simply wasn't true!
DEKU Enterprises was becoming a leading company for lifestyle support and innovation. They were helping as many people as possible, without focusing their company resources on the Pro Hero industry, which meant that they were only focused on the normal, regular people. People like her! They were trying to find ways to help everyone, and they'd even been able to help her with their clothing and footwear lines, and they had divisions focused on medical aid and adapting vehicles with custom designs to suit people with Quirks that had mutant properties. Being an employee was great too, and not just because she received discounts on their products and services, they pay was excellent, and they operated an enforced 'Anti-Quirk Discrimination Policy', and-
"Wow, what do you know. We've been to how many countries, and we had to come all the way back to Japan to find someone who can mutter like you".
"Bite me".
"Kinky".
Embarrassed, she tried to cover her face with her hands, only to forget that she'd been holding the notes about the locations he wanted scouting for their new processing facility and smacked herself on the nose with them.
Great, now she'd humiliated herself in front of her boss, she'd scrunched up the notes he wanted, she'd smacked herself in the face like a bad dog, her nose was sore-
From his place stood beside her, Rody chuckled.
-and apparently, she was still muttering.
Furious with herself, she clenched her jaw together.
She took a few breaths through her nose to help calm herself, before she deliberately lowered the papers, and found Rody was grinning at her. For his part, Mister Midoriya was smiling, but it didn't look mean-spirited, so she stepped forwards and gently set the papers on the edge of his desk.
He picked them up, smoothing their edges out, before turning back to face her, his face now politely blank, "I believe you were trying to tell me something, Miss Aokino?"
She cleared her throat, incapable of stopping the embarrassed squeak in her voice as she spoke, "Yes, Mister Midoriya. The front desk has called up and asked me to let you know that the representative for the Yaoyorozu Investment Network had arrived, and once she'd gotten through security, they'd make sure that she was escorted straight up".
He smiled again, "Excellent. The cafeteria should have arranged some refreshments for us, could you have them sent up, and then see that we're not disturbed please".
"Of course, sir".
Taking his instructions as a polite dismissal, Rumie tried to not look too eager to leave her boss's office at a run, as she did her best to calmly return to her desk, mindful to ensure the door was closed behind her.
=== === === === ===
They waited until his secretary was safely out of the room and back at her desk, before Izuku slowly reached for the switch that was discretely placed between the flat of his desk and one of the legs, but Rody shook his head.
"I'm just here to tell you that Mel's here".
"Already?"
"Her flight just touched down. It'll take her a while to get through customs and the like, but she called to let us know she'd landed. Said once she was through and clear, she'd grab a cab".
He frowned, Melissa was not only an integral part of their company, but she was also one of his oldest and best friends. Her Japanese was nearly flawless, far better than any of the Soul's, but letting her take a cab, when they were only a half hour from the airport didn't feel right.
"Can you-"
Rody grinned, "Pick her up? I can, but technically I'm on your time now", he shrugged, still grinning, "thought I should get official permission and all, set a good example".
Izuku shook his head, thinking it was far too early to deal with his friend's antics, especially if he hadn't had his morning coffee yet, "You have it already. Go. You can take one of the company SUVs, if you'd like".
"Oh, I already signed one out. Security said they'd arrange for it to be brought around to the front of the building for me too. The guards you've hired are so helpful".
"Rody?"
"Yes?"
"Go pick Melissa up… and get the hell out of my office while you're at it".
=== === === === ===
With the press of a single button, Izuku switched the car into 'stealth mode', killing all of the car's additional features, including all of its lights, and also activating the sound dampeners that managed to nearly eliminate the sound made by the engine, before he pulled into the alleyway behind the jewellers.
Slowly gliding to a stop, he looked over the building with a critical eye, and found that nothing looked out of place. Even the door was still closed.
"Oracle?"
"Here".
"There's no sign of any forced entry. Has any other building been hit?"
"No alarms have been triggered".
"Not a no, but if not…"
"Problem?"
"It's odd. Why only hit the one store?"
"It's a jewellers, so easy money for small items. Could just be pragmatic".
"Criminals rarely are".
"How does the saying go, that there's an exception to every rule?"
"Hmph… alright, I'm going in for a closer look".
"Copy that".
The vehicle's door gently rotated upwards, opening up to the night air, and for the first time that night, the Yokohama Vigilante stepped out, into the cool night air.
With a quick snap, his wings burst out and he found himself on the neighbouring rooftop, looking down at the building. There were no signs of forced entry from either the front or the back. No damage to the doors; no smashed glass; and he checked to make sure that there was no skylight or rooftop entry. There was an air vent, but it too had no signs of damage, and unless whoever had supposedly broken in had a ridiculously robust elasticity Quirk, then they hadn't gotten in that way either.
However, he'd been reminded on more than one occasion recently, to remain cautious, even when he felt he was in the clear.
Reaching into one of the pouches of his utility belt, he withdrew a small circular device, around half the size of your average drink coaster, and set it down in front of the vent's exit, before pressing the red button in the centre.
"Motion sensor's online".
"Keep an eye on it", he instructed Oracle, before he returned to the building edge, and stepped off, gliding back down towards the floor, as he took up position beside the rear door.
Rolling his index finger and thumb together, he pushed out the two-pronged lockpick contained within his index finger and then moved to crouch down, in front of the lock, but one look told him that while the door was closed, and appeared undamaged, the lock wasn't activated.
It was electronic, which was incredibly common, but there were warning alarms and buzzers that were supposed to activate when the doors that they were connected to were left unlocked for any meaningful length of time. Given the lack of alarms blaring, either the building's owner had disabled their own security system, or someone had done it for them.
"Owners?"
His voice, silenced to the outside world through his mask, was still clearly audible to Melissa, and it only took her seconds to respond.
"One owner. Hideo Yamashiro. Aged seventy-three years old. Parents both passed. Not married. No relationship. No children. No business partners. He doesn't even seem to own a pet".
"Current location?"
"Let's see… his address is registered for an apartment block across the city. One of the really old ones. Guy must be a lifelong resident to be in there. His phone's pinging from the tower around there too".
He didn't bother responding to her, as he checked the door's hinges, glad to see that they appeared well cared for, before he slowly moved the door handle, and was pleased that it made no noise, as it opened, and he slipped inside.
=== === === === ===
"Did you design it to look like a bat on purpose?"
He blinked, "What?"
"The suit", Melissa turned back to face him, from where she had been examining the urban combat suit, he'd designed for himself, tracing the outline of one of his ears with her finger, "it looks like a giant bat".
"I noticed", he responded dryly.
She rolled her eyes, "I asked, did you design it to look like a bat on purpose?"
"Yes".
"Why?"
He shrugged, "Bats frighten me".
"Izuku, you seem to have forgotten that I met you when you were a teenager", her lips quirked upwards, "and just in case you've forgotten, trust me when I say that back then, your own shadow frightened you".
He scoffed, "I wasn't that bad".
At that, Rody and Pino both turned to look at him, the duo having raised an identical pair of eyebrows.
"What? I wasn't".
"Sure, you weren't".
"Whatever you say, boss… you're still paying me to say stuff like this, right?"
Melissa laughed, doing her best to hide it behind her hands, as she turned away from his suit, "So now that you're a full-fledged vigilante, and you've got your bat-themed suit, and your bat-themed nickname-"
"I don't have a nickname", he protested, "the police just call me the Yokohama Vigilante".
"Whatever you say, Mister Bat-Man", she rolled her eyes at him again, and he turned to glare at Rody, knowing full well that he was the only one who could've told her about young Yojo giving him that particular epithet. For his part, Rody just whistled innocently, while Pino smiled, offering him a thumbs up, thoroughly enjoying what was happening in front of him.
"So, you've got the suit, the symbol on the suit, the nickname and the underground lair that totally isn't exactly like a bat's cave, and then what? You don't want to run with it? I mean, it's not arrived yet, but I already made sure that the car was black. I say we stick a pair of giant, ornamental wings on the back and call it the Bat-Car".
Rody and Pino's eyes lit up at the same time, "Yes!"
Only to be immediately dashed by his friend's unamused tone, "No".
Melissa sighed, for all his best features, sometimes, especially when he was focused on his goals, Izuku could be a real buzzkill, "Well, I will say that based on what I've read, I already have a couple of ideas for suit upgrades, some of which you actually do need, if you want to be able to use Project Hercules when it gets here".
"And that would be?"
"It was shipped out on the first, hidden in with a couple dozen of our other containers on a ship and mixed in with a few hundred others. Our best estimate is another two weeks, weather depending", she shrugged, unconcerned, "could be earlier".
"Or later", he felt the need to point out.
"Maybe, but you haven't needed it so far, so it's not like you're missing out".
He found himself pinching the bridge of his nose, "That's not the point".
"Oh, stop whining", Rody's eyes flicked between them, enjoying his irritation, as Melissa slung her coat off from around her shoulders, casually tossing it over the back of the computer chair, "now let's see how badly you messed with my set-up".
"The computer's fine".
She scoffed, "I'll be the judge of that. You can go and put the coffee on. Milk, two sugars and just a dash of cinnamon, please".
"I remember how you take your coffee", Izuku grumbled, before he slinked away in the direction of the cave's kitchen area, looking for all the world, as if he wished he was suddenly anywhere else.
Rody leant forwards, letting Melissa swat his ass off of the console he'd been leaning against, as he lowered his voice, until only she could hear him, "Have I mentioned how much more fun it is when you're around?"
=== === === === ===
He kept a hand on the door to Barriss Jewellers as it closed, preventing it from making any more noise than was necessary, before he moved inside, sticking to the shadows.
The building's cameras had already been disabled, which added credence to Oracle's opinion that the store had been broken into, and as he moved towards the building's main space, he heard the sound of glass being smashed.
He wasn't alone.
The tiny corridor connecting to the emergency exit led directly into the employee break room. From a quick glance at the floorplans Oracle had provided him, he knew that the manager's office was next door, with the vault alongside it, all three of which ran adjacent to the main showroom.
A quick inspection told him that none of the appliances in the breakroom had been touched, so he moved on, quietly moving through the doorway, towards the manager's office, where he could hear someone moving from within.
The door had been broken open, and was still ajar, as he slipped up beside it.
"-come on already, where are they? I know the keys have to be around here somewhere…"
The vault keys, he assumed, and despite the crook's frantic search of the manager's office, Izuku was quite certain that a reasonable manager would've taken his keys home for the night.
Slowly, he inched his head around the door, mindful of his ears, to find that their back was to him. They were wearing a ski mask to cover their face, but that also had the added benefit of muffling their hearing slightly, and it wasn't until Izuku wrapped his arms around them, that they even realised he was there.
His right arm wrapped around their neck, instantly cutting off their air and the flow of their carotid arteries, as he used his left arm to help keep his grip, clamping his hand down over their mouth, cutting off their call for help.
Whatever sound did manage to escape, was thankfully covered by the sound of more glass being smashed.
They struggled against him, writhing and squirming, as they attempted to grab anything that might've proved useful in an attempt to escape his grip. In an act of desperation, they shifted their entire body around, trying to ram his back into the edge of the manager's desk, but he responded with a small jump, landing on it in a seated position, and allowing him to wrap his legs around the crook's waist, squeezing tightly.
Still, they continued to squirm for a few seconds longer, before the lack of oxygen and blood flow got to them, and he felt their body become dead weight. Gently, he lowered them down to the floor, slipped a pair of zip cuffs out of his belt and into his hand, and then cuffed their hands behind their back.
One down.
He didn't bother with checking the vault. They hadn't found the keys for it, so he didn't need to be worried about it, and instead, he moved towards the showroom, slipping back into the shadows.
He took cover at the corner besides the entrance, straining his ears to listen in.
"-most finished here".
"Please. We can still get that entire side of the building".
"But the cops-"
"Desi already took out the silent alarm, so just relax already. If the cops were going to show up, then they'd be here already. If you want to worry about something, worry about what you're going to spend all of your money on, or maybe a random hero will show up to stop us".
"In this city, yeah right".
The pair in the room laughed with each other, as they continued their goal of liberating the jewels from their protective display casings, as he slipped a pair of smoke bombs into his hands and moved fully into the room. As long as he remained crouched down, neither man had a direct line of sight on him, and he took advantage of that, rolling his bombs away, aimed directly for each man's feet.
In his head, he counted down from three, and then a thick cloud of smoke poured out of each one.
"GAH!"
"What the-"
He pounced.
He chose the smaller of the two men to begin with. Like their friend in the back rooms, neither man had any obvious mutant aspects that couldn't be hidden by their clothing, and he took advantage of that. Moving quickly, a quick blow rocked his jaw, before a pair of arms wrapped around his neck, even as he was tackled to the floor. He tried to roll and fight out, but all that did was strain his body more quickly, until he fell limp.
Leaving him where he was, Izuku rolled back to his feet, the lenses in his mask automatically switching over to thermal, lighting his world up a dark blue colour, with the exception of the bright red, orange and yellow hues that were the evening's criminals.
A solid punch to the third man's liver sent him reeling in pain, already on the verge of vomiting, before a solid kick to the back of his knees sent him to the floor, and a final blow from his right hand, left his dazed and confused, staring up at the ceiling, as the symbol of a bright green bat stood above him, shrouded in smoke, before his vision gave way to his pain, and it faded from view.
=== === === === ===
Once the smoke cleared, he made sure to restrain the hands of his other two opponents, cuffing them behind their backs. He also checked that they weren't having any difficulty breathing, before he reached up, pressing two fingers to the base of his right ear, "Oracle", he called out.
"Right here".
"Send an anonymous tip to the KPPD. There's been a break in at the jewellers. Three down and bound".
"Sending it now".
"Good work Oracle".
"Aww", she cooed in his ear, "well, thanks. You did too".
Ignoring her for the moment, he made his way back towards the building's rear exit, making a slight detour to the rooftop, in order to reclaim his motion sensor, as he made his way back to the car. Registering the presence of his suit, the car's security systems deactivated themselves, and pressing the green button that sat where the buckle to his utility belt should have been, he let his door began rotating upwards as he approached.
He slid his hands into the cars control columns, as he slid into the driver's seat, feeling the hum of the car, as all of its systems came online, including the inbuilt communications system between the car and the cave.
"KPPD?"
"En route. Should be there momentarily".
"And tonight's elusive owner?"
"An anonymous caller thought they heard something happen to their upstairs neighbour and there was no response. Police have dispatched a unit to carry out a welfare check on Mister Yamashiro. I let you know when there's an update".
"Thank you".
"No problem. Are you coming back to the cave?"
He sighed, "You're going to keep calling it that, aren't you?"
"You know me so well".
"I'll take the scenic route".
"Well, you have fun with that. Anything pops up, I'll let you know. Oracle out".
=== === === === ===
Barriss Jewellers was a nice building. Clean, well-cared for, along one of the nicer streets near the business district, and also nestled in an area that was surrounded by much taller buildings, which helped to give it a quaint, charming aura, which was perfect for the kind of romantics that enjoyed picking out jewellery in person.
It was also the kind of building that was very easy to get a vantage point on.
Finding the right group that was the right kind of greedy and the wrong kind of human being, wasn't too difficult a task. The itch to end their miserable existences was strong, but he resisted, intent on carrying out his sacred task for the evening.
Rumours had been abound now, for many weeks.
There was a new vigilante abound.
He'd waited, and listened, to see if this new vigilante would fall, or simply leave, unable to carry the burden of their lifestyle, as so many others had before them, but to his surprise, after four months, the rumours persisted.
The Yokohama Vigilante, the police called him, their voices filled with a mixture of irritation and disgust.
The Creature of Yokohama, the scum whispered, their voices filled with fear and hatred, the Monster, the Bat, the Man-Bat, the Bat-Man, the Ghost, the Wraith, Vengeance Incarnate; each name designed to be more terrifying than the last.
What he heard… was that this one had true potential.
Directing a group of criminal scum to the jewellers had been his test. Three men, each one a career criminal of the lowest sort; the ones who spent their lives stealing from others, without any care for the damage they caused, who would end up doing it again and again.
They'd broken in, one of them in possession of a Quirk that allowed him to disable any electronic device he touches, and one that would prevent the police from learning about their intentions, until several hours had already passed. He'd watched and waited, and like the creature for which he was so named, the Bat-Man of Yokohama was swooped in, the false information had not prevented him from arriving to help.
This man, whoever he was, had the heart of a true hero.
For a moment, he had approved.
Yet, in the minutes that followed, all he had proven, was that he lacked the conviction to do what was necessary.
Years ago, he had contented himself with answering only the basics of his cause, of killing those who wore the epithet of hero, without burdening themselves with the responsibility of a true calling. He had culled he lives of many fakes since then, and would no doubt take many more, before his sacred task was done.
Now? Now he knew that culling the fakes simply wasn't enough. If he wanted to see change, real change, that was, then he had to test those that remained, to see who was willing to do what was needed to ensure that their society would not fall the way it had, when All Might had died.
Killing was not a necessary part of the path, he knew. A hero who had nothing but the desire to kill, was no true hero, and was not a man that could be entrusted with society, but despite that, what he had seen, had shown him that the Yokohama Vigilante lacked resolve.
He should have disabled his foes, ensuring that they did not continue on, keeping their ability to cause pain and suffering towards those he had sworn to protect. This vigilante had the power. He had seen it in his movements, careful and controlled, knowing that too much force would kill and cripple, as opposed to the gentle manner with which he had taken them down, simply rendering them unconscious long enough for the police to arrive.
He'd watched his car as it pulled away, slinking off now that the police had finally arrived, and he lowered his binoculars from his face, returning them to his backpack.
"Did he get them?! Was it pretty?! Did he cover them in blood?! Oh…", behind him, his beloved protégé and partner squirmed in their place, "did he get covered in blood?"
"Calm yourself Carmine", he scolded them, thankful to see that they immediately calmed down, "and no, he defeated them without injury", he spat out in anger, "but he has failed to do what was necessary. He is yet another failure walking along the path".
"Aww…", they looked down, seemingly genuinely upset for a moment, before they looked back up, with a smile on their face, "but that means I can have him, right?"
He sighed, "Yes Toga, when the time comes, you can have him".
"Mister Stainy's the best! So… what now?"
He turned back to look towards the streets, where the Yokohama Vigilante had disappeared from, "Now Carmine? Now, we will set another test. A better test… and then, we will hunt".
=== === === === ===
Author's Notes:
Welcome everyone to Volume One, Part Two: The Hero Killer.
And we can now say that Melissa's finally here! Team Bat is now a go!
I told you she was here: some of you guessed at it, with mixed results, but it was a (clever) three-way announcement, and now, stepping into full view for the first time in this story please welcome Momo Yaoyorozu, Melissa Shield and Himiko Toga!
We've already seen Momo in short stints in Part One but be prepared to see more of her going forwards, both as a Pro Hero (Reservist) and an accomplished businesswoman working for her family company.
Melissa has now touched down in Japan: the Oracle to our Batman, as noted by her codename.
Keeping in line with what we see of Melissa in the 'Two Heroes' movie, her skills lend her to become a combination of Lucius Fox and Barbara Gordon, and before any of you think to ask, no, she won't be joining him in the field - she is strictly Oracle and not Batgirl.
While Melissa has taken some self-defence lessons, including some taught to her by Izuku himself, that's the sum total of the combat-related skills she ever had any interest in learning. While her true passion is in helping people, she much prefers to do it using the power of her mind.
Thanks to her mind, the Earth-5127 version of the Batmobile also makes its first appearance, and it was a lot of fun to design (in my head). Capabilities wise, we're looking at something beyond the standard Batmobiles seen in previous cartoons, films and video games, but largely and inspired by the versions appearing in 1989's Batman movie, 2015's Batman: Arkham Knight video game and 2022's The Batman movie. The controls described for driving are inspired by those used us 1999's Batman Beyond animated series, while it visually resembles, The Hercules, which first appeared in Chapter 309 of the My Hero Academia manga, and the project to create it was named for it, (as well as the mythological Roman hero and his battle against the legendary hydra).
We've also met our main villains for Part Two: Stain & Carmine.
Stain largely remains true to his canon counterpart, as a former vigilante turned villain, though he's been somewhat hardened by an additional decade of uninterrupted activity, while Himiko Toga has been upgraded from one of his admirers to having joined him as his bloodsucking protégé and partner. As Toga is yet to be given an official villain name in the manga, I've decided upon Carmine, for three distinct purposes:
1 - Carmine serves as a reference to her role as the leader of the Carmine Regiment of the Paranormal Liberation Front.
2 - Carmine is also shade of red, often applied to descriptions of blood when used by the police, because the colour of the raw pigment is supposed to be the same colour as dried blood, which I think we can agree is very fitting for Himiko.
3 - Finally, coming out of our Rebirth storyline, which was based on Batman: Year One, it also serves as a reference to Carmine Falcone, a notorious mob boss in the DC Universe, who features in the story.
The break-in of Barris Jewellers, the crime with which we kick off Part Two, is also a name with multiple meanings. Keeping with the naming convention of Star Wars, it is named for Barriss Offee, fallen Jedi Knight turned anti-Jedi and Republic terrorist. It is also named for George Barris, who was a custom car designer working in Hollywood, who designed and built several cars used in films and television across his career, including the Batmobile used in the 1966 Batman TV series.