Mastermind: Strategist For Hire

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Ashido slammed the doors open and ran into the common room.

"Ashido!" Iida jumped up from his place on the couch, "Please be respectful of school property."

"Have you seen the news?" She leaned down with her hands on her knees as she caught her breath.

"Does it fucking look like we're watching the news, Pinky?" Bakugo rolled his eyes.

"Turn it on! Channel 5!"

Kirishima ignored Iida's protests that they should be doing homework instead of watching TV as he grabbed the remote and switched channel.

"...won't be...how did you put it? Ah, that's right, coming home anytime soon. In fact, I don't intend to come home at all." A chill went through the room and even Iida shut up as they watched Todoroki stare down Endeavor, a member of the league of villains by his side. "I go by Freezerburn now."

"He can't be implying..." Yaoyorozu glanced toward the others, who were all staring at the TV with horrified disbelief. A short scream from Ururaka drew her gaze back to the TV, where Todoroki and Dabi had released fire on Endeavor.

"No!" Kirishima shook his head. "It's gotta be a body double or...or they're threatening him or something. Todoroki wouldn't turn villain, he just wouldn't!"

"How do you know, ribbit?" Asui said. "None of us were very close to him and he never really showed a lot of emotion, so he could have been considering this for months and we wouldn't have known."

"As much as I hate to agree," Shinso drawled, "Tsu's right. None of us know him well enough to know if this is real or not."

"Well," Ururaka frowned and clenched her fists at her sides, "shouldn't we be giving him the benefit of the doubt? I choose to believe he's being forced and this is all just an act! As soon as the other heroes show up, they'll save him!"

"Come on, Ururaka!" Kaminari gestured wildly to the TV, where high walls of flame were keeping the reporters in place. "He's holding people hostage! What kind of a hero does that?"

"...as a hero? Or my future as your masterpiece? Either way it's no great loss..."

"Apparently a hero who doesn't see himself as one." Shinso said.

The class listened as Todoroki described the abuse he'd suffered and they felt their hearts sink. It did sound like a realistic motivation if Todoroki really had decided to become a villain.

"That can't be true." Kirishima said. "He's gotta be lying. I know Endeavor isn't the nicest guy, but child abuse just isn't manly."

They all waited for Endeavor to deny that he had beat Todoroki and the mood in the room crumpled when he didn't even bother. Ururaka burst into tears while Asui and Yaoyorozu hugged her. Bakugo's hands started popping with tiny explosions as he yelled at the television set and Kaminari accidentally shorted himself out.

"The other heroes should be showing up soon, right?" Jiro asked hesitantly.

"Well, yeah." Sato said. "But will they be able to do anything? They've taken over a hundred hostages."

"Is that why Endeavor isn't fighting back?" Sero asked. "Normally he'd have barbequed Dabi by now."

"He probably doesn't want to hurt Todoroki."

"Doesn't sound like that's stopped him in the past." Shinso grumbled.

Todoroki ran at Endeavor, trying to catch him in ice, while Dabi came in with a sneak attack from behind.

"He's..." Ashido couldn't tear her eyes away from the TV.

"Acting like a villain." Bakugo finished.