The surveillance wall lit up in ghostly blue tones. Dozens of narrow security screens filled with flickers of chaos: Quirks clashing, smoke clouds bursting, and shadows moving too fast to follow. The hallway trembled under the shockwave of an unseen collision.
The man with the Number 9 sigil tattooed along his forearm leaned back into his broken leather chair, lit by the eerie buzz of overhead fluorescents. His smile was crooked, jagged where an old scar sliced through his lips. In the quiet gloom of the operations chamber, he sipped black tea from a chipped mug and watched as Kael Ishiro—or as the world once knew him, Equinox—tore through his men like a force of nature.
Behind him, dozens of unconscious or twitching bodies lay in medical cots or the floor, the aftermath of failed experiments or failed obedience.
On screen, Kael's tendrils lashed out from behind a collapsed barricade—DarkBind, deep blue and violent, snapping bones and dragging a shrieking villain through the air like a ragdoll. Moments later, the body dropped, limp and gasping, as a faint shimmer passed across Kael's eyes. Balancekeeper at work again.
Another screen showed Kael blasting forward with Flashstep, disappearing into smoke and reappearing behind a pair of enhanced twins—who dropped to the floor, spasming as their Quirks were ripped from their bodies.
The man sighed—not in disappointment, but in reverence.
"Beautiful," he murmured, placing his mug down. "Absolutely magnificent."
Then he turned his head.
Voidflare sat hunched, bloodied and barely conscious, tied to a reinforced chair in the corner of the room. His blindfold had long since soaked with blood at the edges. His costume was in tatters. One of his arms hung uselessly at his side. The room still smelled of ozone and burnt flesh—the aftermath of the last interrogation round.
The man stood, boots echoing on the cracked concrete floor as he approached. He leaned in, placing a gentle hand on Voidflare's shoulder.
"Looks like your little protégé made it after all," he said, amusement curling around every syllable. "Charging in like a proper hero. Very cinematic. But you know, it's quite poetic. All for One wants him dead, and yet he insists on allowing Equinox to take Quirks from the people he gave Quirks to. Strange, isn't it? Though I believe he just wants to turn him into a mindless Nomu that takes orders only from him. Probably wants him to wreak havoc on the world, take everyone's Quirks, report back to All for One, just for him to take those stolen Quirks for himself. That way he doesn't have to lift not one finger."
He crouched, lifting the edge of the blindfold just enough so Voidflare's bruised face turned slightly toward him.
"But who knows, yeah? If you'd been a better mentor," the villain whispered, voice tinged with menace, "you'd have taught him to pick his battles more wisely. And now he's going to die protecting his shitty teacher who couldn't even protect himself. If not even Stars and Stripes or the infamous Voidflare could beat me, what chance does some stupid, inexperienced kid have? Aw man, this is just too easy."
He stood again, turning back to the screens, watching as Kael overwhelmed another pair of guards. The hallway floor was now littered with bodies—some unconscious, some broken, a few already beyond saving. Blood smeared the walls. The lights above flickered.
"It's interesting though. I've seen Quirks stolen, traded, copied. Hell, even I was on the ropes at one point…" He traced a line across the glass where Kael moved like a blur. "But his ability to take Quirks differ from All for one's. He doesn't just steal them. He manages to use the Quirks in ways the original user never even thought of. Gotta admit, his Quirk utilization may even surpass the man upstairs himself. After his fight with All Might a few years ago, All for One became a complete brawler. He started stacking up physical enhancing Quirks instead of flashy ones that could do real damage. Your boy down there seems to be doing the exact opposite however."
Silence followed, broken only by the soft hum of the monitors and the crackling from one of the damaged electrical panels.
Then—faintly—Voidflare moved.
With every fiber of strength left in him, every breath of defiance burning in his lungs, he raised his head slightly and spoke.
"It sounds like… you're afraid..."
The villain turned slowly, eyes narrow.
"I'm sorry? Could you say that one more time?"
Voidflare's words were weak, cracked—but steady.
"You're afraid, bastard… Just know… just know that he won't stop. Not until you pay for what you've done to me… to my fellow companions… to his own… his own brother…"
"I must say,.." The man slowly started chuckling as he patted Voidflares head. "You've got some nerve to be talking shit right now in your condition. You think I'm scared? Afraid? Of what? Tell me. Because I have no clue what I'm supposed to be afraid of. Equinox. Kael Ishiro? Give me a break. When I'm done with that kid.."
He turned around and started walking away.
"I'll be sure to leave him so unrecognizable that even All for One would question his own Villainy."
…
The hallway stretched before Kael like a throat of steel and shadow, lined with shattered support lockers and scorched walls. His breath came shallow and slow, every step heavier than the last. Blood still clung to his knuckles—some of it his, most of it not. The air inside the decommissioned support facility was hot, metallic, and tinged with the sharp stench of ozone and coolant.
His left side ached where a blunt-force Quirk had slammed him earlier. His ribs were tender. Every muscle pulled tight with fatigue. He could feel Balancekeeper thrumming beneath his skin—alive, awake, craving more. The Quirks he had taken from the previous batch of villains simmered in his mind like distant echoes, each one whispering to be used.
But he had to ration them. He couldn't burn himself out. Not yet.
One foot in front of the other, he told himself. Just a little further.
He passed what used to be an operations station—long-abandoned terminals flickered with ghost-code as if the building itself were still trying to serve a purpose. The ceiling above was partially collapsed, wires dangling like nooses. He stepped around the rubble cautiously, every sense alert.
And then—
CRACK.
A wall beside him burst outward.
Kael twisted just in time, throwing himself back with Flashstep—his joints screaming from the strain. Out from the dust charged a woman with segmented armor growing from her arms like beetle plating. She roared, and her arms slammed into the floor, sending debris flying in a vicious wave.
Behind her came two more: one with vine-like tendrils slithering out of his shoulders, the other glowing faintly, body flickering in and out of visibility.
Three on one. Injured. Hallway's too narrow.
Kael didn't hesitate.
He used DarkBind, launching tendrils that wrapped around the beetle-arm woman's leg—jerking her off her balance. But she shout out a ball of purple fluid from her hand before falling, clipping Kaels shoulder hard, spinning him into the wall.
Pain burst through him.
"You're the freak who took Sorren's Quirk!" shouted the vine-shoulder man, eyes bloodshot with rage.
Kael groaned and pushed himself up.
"Tell Sorren I'm making good use of it," he muttered.
The flickering man vanished again—phasing straight through Kael's attack—but Kael had seen the pattern. He adjusted his angle, anticipated the attack using Darkbinds ability to detect change in air pressure and slammed his elbow into thin air just before the man reappeared.
Crunch.
The invisible one dropped to the ground, coughing up blood.
Before Kael could recover, the vines snapped around his wrist and yanked him into the air. The beetle-arm woman charged again, her arms now encased in thick, crystalline growths.
Kael's arms trembled. He shifted, summoning one of the new Quirks he'd absorbed from a one-eyed villain earlier: Shock Vein—a short-range electric burst.
ZZZT—!
The vine guy spasmed as the shock traveled up his connection to Kael. The grip loosened, and Kael dropped down, landing awkwardly on his side. He rolled—hard—before catching himself and shooting a SmokeScreen around them.
The hallway disappeared into thick gray.
Kael panted in the darkness, vision blurred. His shoulder burned. He could feel something warm trickling down his side—blood, again.
"I can't keep this up," he whispered, hand pressed to his ribs. "They're wearing me down…"
He heard a snarl just ahead—beetle-arms crashing through the smoke like a hammer.
He ducked. Twisted. Countered.
Kael unleashed a combo of Flashstep and Kinetic Forge, his fist catching the beetle-woman square in the ribs with a forceful crunch that sent her flying into a wall. The impact cracked the concrete.
The tendrils lashed at him again.
This time, he reached—grabbed them with DarkBind—and pulled.
The man stumbled forward, surprised. Kael surged in and touched him—Balancekeeper activated. A flicker of red, a shimmer of memory, and the man dropped to the floor convulsing.
Kael took his Quirk.
The vine control seeped into Kael's mind. Ugly. Rooted in emotional instability. Strong, though.
He turned to the final woman—beetle-arm—who rose slowly, bloodied but still moving. Her eyes narrowed.
"You're a monster," she spat.
"After what you people did to my teacher," Kael said quietly, "I don't think anyone of you have the right to call me that!"
He stepped forward.
They clashed one final time.
It wasn't clean. She landed two more heavy blows—one to his ribs, another glancing across his cheek—but Kael ended it with a jagged pulse of DarkBind, slicing through her armor, pinning her to the wall.
She slumped. Unconscious.
Kael stumbled forward, hand pressed against the wall. The facility was silent again—except for the faint alarm buzzing from somewhere deeper within.
He didn't know how long he had before the next wave.
But he knew this was only the beginning.
A broken mirror on the wall showed his reflection: bruised, bloodied, eyes dark with exhaustion—but alive.
Still standing.
Kael turned away from it and limped deeper into the shadows of the facility.
Somewhere up ahead… Voidflare was waiting.
…
The corridor narrowed ahead, concrete walls boxed in by half-collapsed piping and flickering red emergency lights. Kael's footsteps barely made a sound, Silent Sole active beneath his boots, but his breathing was heavier now — ragged. The bruises lining his ribs, the gash still healing along his thigh, the dull ache in his shoulder — all of it was catching up.
He rounded a corner, DarkBind twitching faintly behind him like a predator on a leash. The facility had become a maze of silent threats and forgotten screams, and still, Kael pressed forward. Smoke curled faintly from a scorched doorway up ahead. Kael slowed.
Someone was waiting for him.
'Give me a fuckin break..'
He stepped into the room.
It had once been a monitoring station. Broken monitors lined the walls, a sparking console still bled static in the corner. And standing near the center — calm, still, fists clenched — was a girl.
She couldn't have been more than a couple years older than him. Short black hair, lean and focused stance. No villainous monologue, no Quirk flaring just yet — just complete silence.
Kael didn't say anything either. He didn't ask who she was. He didn't demand her reason for being here. She was a threat, just like the others.
Then she moved.
Kael barely dodged in time — she moved fast, stronger than she looked. A punch aimed straight for his chest cracked the wall behind him when it missed. Her strength was enhanced, clearly.
"You're stronger than you look." Kael latched onto a pipe in the ceiling, swung around using Darkbind while charging up a Kinetic Punch. He whipped back around to her, releasing Darkbind and using Float at the same time.
He came at her like a torpedo, and she responded by covering her face, forming an X with her arms. Kaels' fist landed right in the center of her wrist, making her fly back into a wall, bouncing off of it and landing with a THUMP on the cold, hard ground.
"Damn.." Kael mumbled as she slowly got back up, dusting off her clothes and putting her dukes back up.
"A durability enhancing Quirk, huh. That's fun.."
Kael Flashstepped behind her, firing a Sound Spike from his palm.
She gritted her teeth as the frequency hit, stumbling into a frontflip then into a backflip. Her hands slammed down, sending a shockwave through the floor. Kael skidded back, nearly losing his footing.
She didn't give him anytime to catch his breath.
Another strike straight towards his heart.
He parried it with Darkbind, but it didn't hold long — her strength tore through the bindings faster than expected. With a battle cry, she punched through Darkbind and punched Kael through a few walls.
Coughing up blood as he slowly stood from the rubble, he wiped his face and spat out a tooth.
She wasn't just durable. She was brutal. Sharp. Focused.
'What sort of hell has she been through..'
Then it happened — she stopped completely.
Still. Calm. Centered.
Kael watched her carefully through the massive hole in the wall.
'Guess even she has a limit, huh. Good, I need to gather my thoughts and energy.
Ten seconds passed. And nothing happened. Or so he thought until he saw the blood on her body go back into its wound and close
He narrowed his eyes.
'You're kidding..'
That was a healing Quirk. But Kael noticed something. She was completely still during the process.
'A fly landed on her eye ball and she didn't flinch at all. Ten seconds, complete stillness. Guess those are the requirements, huh…'
The conditions to activate such a Quirk could be lethal in battle, but when you have other quirks that can hold off an opponent for the required duration, the conditions almost didn't matter at all.
She charged again, fists glowing faintly now — was it stored energy? No, just raw momentum. Kael activated Flexweave, ducked under the first punch, twisted with agility stolen from someone earlier in the raid, and landed a heavy blow with Kinetic Forge.
She tanked it, but she staggered.
Kael followed up — Flashstep to her flank, then DarkBind to pin her arm.
But she didn't scream. She didn't beg. She spun her other hand around and slammed it against the floor — triggering a barrier.
Kael was flung backwards, crashing against the wall.
'A Barrier Quirk?!'
She stood again, breathing hard. Blood trickled from her nose, but her hands were steady. Her stance didn't waver.
They clashed again. This time, Kael came in low, mixing Smokescreen into the fight, forcing her to rely on instinct. He ducked a swing, landed a palm on her back — just enough contact.
Balancekeeper activated.
She screamed — not from pain, but from the sudden ripping sensation of one Quirk tearing loose.
Kael staggered too, breath shallow. His hands trembled. Every stolen Quirk added more to the weight in his chest — but he pushed on. He had to.
The girl fell to one knee. Kael didn't wait to finish her off. He didn't have the time or effort to. When it came to multiple Quirks in a single individual, it takes even longer to extract every single one of them from a person. Though if the right conditions are met, Kael will take the Quirk he thinks he needs right in that moment.
Which is why..
He only took the healing Quirk.
He moved forward again into the dim hallway, smoke curling around him like a veil.
This place still had more waiting.
…