Mastermind: Strategist For Hire

Legacies of Our Fathers

Izuku scowled at his reflection as he untied the tie for the tenth time that night. They were going to be late if he kept this up.

"Here, Izuku." Shouto grabbed his hands and placed them at his sides, "Let me do it. If there was anything that bastard did right, he at least made sure I knew how to tie a tie."

Izuku huffed, "Yeah, well, I guess that proves there are multiple breeds of dead-beat dads, huh? The overbearing abusive assholes and the ones that fuck off into the sunset the moment the doctor says quirkless ."

"There." Shouto smiled at him and Izuku rolled his eyes when he looked down to find a perfect triangle knot. How come Shouto had to be so good at everything?

"Re-Destro said he was sending a car, right?" Izuku grabbed his bag, filled with probably too many notebooks and knives, but hey, it paid to be prepared, right?

Shouto nodded, "Dabi texted and said they already got picked up, so they should be here any minute." There was a knock on the door. "And there they are now."

Izuku straightened his tie one last time before opening the door with a smile. A chauffeur led them down to the waiting limo that looked amazingly out of place in the bad neighborhood Izuku's base was in. Izuku almost laughed as he imagined the shiny black covered in graffiti like the walls behind it. Inside the car, Dabi was laughing as Shigaraki tried to disintegrate his tie and Compress scolded him. Compress was pretty much the only one who didn't look vaguely uncomfortable in his evening wear, but the Meta Liberation Army had insisted that they pull out all the stops when they met the infamous Mastermind.

It didn't take them long to reach Re-Destro's mansion. The limousine pulled up and a butler opened the doors and took their coats while another led them up an elevator to where the surviving members of the MLA leadership were waiting around the already set dinner table. Re-Destro himself smiled amiably and stood when they entered.

"Hello Mastermind. I must say it's a pleasure to finally meet you." He gestured for them all to sit. "You've acquired quite a fearsome reputation."

Izuku chuckled, "A fact I'm proud of, Re-Destro. Your own reputation, however, leaves something to be desired. Perhaps you'd care to enlighten me on what your group hopes to accomplish, because for now it seems your only great accomplishment is staying in the shadows."

Re-Destro's knuckles turned white as he clenched his fist around his chopsticks, but he smiled. Izuku's eyes narrowed. So he was easily stressed, but gave a great effort to hide it, why?

"Our group is called the Meta Liberation Army." Izuku recognized the speaker as Koku Hanabata, the leader of the Hearts and Mind party, and the one Shouto called Trumpet. The man had quite a bit of political power, something that could be very useful in the future if they were to work together.

Izuku turned to him, "Yes, Shouto told me as much, but what is your vision? I assume you're taking cues from the original movement?"

"The original Destro was my father," Re-Destro replied, "a little known fact that even the man himself was unaware of."

Izuku laughed, "Well, I can understand the perils of absent fathers, but normally you'd expect a kid like that to avoid anything to do with their father, not follow in his footsteps."

Re-Destro grit his teeth, but hid it with a smile, "Yes, well, my father may not have been there physically, but he made sure to provide for me well in terms of ideology. He taught us that the power is everything, a fact that has only become more obvious in our age of quirks, and that it is, quite frankly, idiotic to pretend otherwise. People should be allowed to use their quirks freely and let their power determine their place in society."