Chapter 7: Knuckleduster

Words: 2167

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"Damn you, bastard!" One of the thugs growled as he swung the knife in a perpendicular motion, slashing only thin air as Akira ducked his head, narrowly dodging the attack.

Moments prior he had seen the three thugs try to rob a poor bystander, which naturally led him to his current situation.

Despite the prospect of death looming so close to him, Akira remained unfazed as his years of experience allowed him to stay calm. He had faced much scarier experiences than this. His biggest worry was making a mistake, not because of his opponents power, but because Akira struggled to take them seriously.

He jumped back, creating distance between himself and the thugs as he muttered beneath his breath, that breath transforming into an overwhelming burst of energy that brought life into his body.

With a wave of his hand all of the serrated sharp steel broke beneath his control, the blades separating into fractions and then into grounded dust which effortlessly fell onto the floor.

"Wha–"

Akira appeared in front of the thugs, his body twisting in flexible motions as thrust his foot out. Before the thug could even drop to the floor, Akira had already appeared in. front of the other thug, effortlessly dispatching him as he did the previous one.

He looked at the unconscious bodies of the two thugs, 'Wait, wasn't there supposed to be a third one?'

The shadow that enveloped the wall behind him was uncovered, revealing the third thug, holding his knife as half as his body clung and begged to be released from the shadow.

Akira remained still, tilting his body to dodge the expected attack, but it never came.

A loud impact reverberated through the air, causing Akira to swerve his body around, still on guard.

The man was big and burly, with a look similar to a gorilla. He was dressed in a simple t-shirt and a basic pair of jeans with occasional patches of blood and holes located in them. The top of his face was blocked out by a sharp black headband, illuminating his eyes which were narrow slits. The bottom of his face was thick and fierce with stubble, and he had 2 gauntleted fists, stained red. He smelled of sweat and iron.

It took only a moment for Akira to recognise who this man was. It was clear as day, this man was Knuckleduster.

Considering how much of a fan Akira was of My Hero Academia, it was only expected that he had read the spin off: My Hero Academia Vigilantes. In this manga Knuckleduster played a huge role, and was an essential character to the series.

Like Akira, Knuckleduster had a strong sense of justice and wasn't afraid to fight crime without a hero licence. He loved to fight, and although he may have come off as impulsive and scary, his heart was in the right place.

Akira eased the tension in his body, relaxing at the sight of him.

"Your Knuckleduster."

"And your Invincible, nice to meet a fellow Vigilante," He replied in a gruff voice, "I've been meaning to meet you for a while kid, but never got round to it. But after hearing that you defeated Moonfish, I knew I had to come and see you."

Akira shrugged, "Am I really that popular?"

"You are," He confirmed, his voice gruff and deep, "Among the underground at least, you've been careful enough to avoid any public attention, but the underground community, both the hero and the villain community know who you are by now. Words spread quickly down here, especially after defeating someone even experienced pro heroes can't take down. With that weird quirk of yours, it's only greater…"

Akira remained still, his emotion visibly hidden behind the cold exterior of his mask, but he cursed himself in his mind. He didn't expect to become so famous, even if it was only underground.

'I admit, I may have overstepped my boundaries.'

The idea of becoming a hero was slowly getting smaller and smaller the longer he was a Vigilante. He was too far deep now, he couldn't go back.  Just even using his powers in the entrance exam would be enough for anyone to connect the dots.

He snapped himself out of his thoughts, "So, is there anything you need?"

"As a matter of a fact, yes…" He paused for a short moment, "There's recently been a group of criminals who have popped up. For whatever reason, the police won't go near them with a foot-long stick, so it's up to people like us to take care of these criminals. After you defeated Moonfish, I figured you would be a good addition to the team despite your age. If you accept, I'll tell you all you need to know about the operation. I understand if you don't want to, we just met and I wouldn't trust a random guy wh–"

"I'm in." Akira interrupted him, his words creating a shocked look on Knuckledusters face.

"You are?"

Akira nodded, "I trust you. We fellow Vigilantes need to trust each other right? We're much different to pro heroes, and sometimes we have to do stuff and go to lengths pro heroes aren't allowed to do. We protect the world from the shadows."

Knuckleduster chuckled, "Couldn't have said it better myself kid," He took out a small slip of paper from his pocket, flicking it towards Akira, "There's the location. We will meet in 2 days. 12am sharp."

Akira nodded again, "I'll see you there."

"Alright kid," Knuckleduster began walking away, waving his hand, "See you then."

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2 days later, Akira arrived at the location, dressed in his usual Vigilante fit. He found himself standing in front of a large metal door which was bolted shut, and he had to double check whether this was the correct address.

'It is…so do I just knock?' He wondered.

He decided against that, instead giving himself the super hearing <Order>. He felt the cold shimmer of metal brush against his ear as it rested against the door, trying to listen to any possible words being said, both out of caution and curiosity.

"Is he here yet, are you even sure he will show?" An unfamiliar, slightly high pitched voice said.

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"I'm sure he is coming. He most likely just had trouble with finding the place, it is quite hard to find."

Another voice chuckled, "You, you sure made sure of that. I tried to arrive an hour early but I spent 30 minutes trying to find the damn thing."

"An hour? Why would you try to arrive an hour early?"

"Well you know the saying, 'the early bird gets the worm', I was doing that." The deep voice replied.

"But how the fuck would even apply to this situation? What would you be getting?"

"Hey man, it's a figure of spee–"

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

Akira choose that time to knock on the door, saving himself from internally cringing at the conversation.

"See? I told you he would come." Knuckleduster said.

The high pitched voice chuckled, "Yeah, you were pretty adamant about that."

He deactivated his super hearing, putting on another two <Orders> which would help him in case of a sudden ambush. After the situation with Moonfish, Akira made sure he always had super speed and an <Order> similar to spidey sense.

The thick metal door opened with a creak, revealing the man Akira had met 2 days prior. Despite this, Akira could barely recognise him. Instead of the gruff beard and pungent smell that he wore on his basic clothes,he was clean shaven and dressed in proper combat gear, sporting multiple knives and weapons. One of those weapons were his signature knuckle dusters, which seemed to have an upgrade on them with tasers attached to the end of them.

Knuckleduster took one look up and down at Akira and nodded to himself, "Come," Was all he said.

Akira followed, making sure to close the room behind them as they walked through the hallway, opening another door shortly after.

The next room they entered was full of both familiar and fresh faces.

The first man he spotted was unfamiliar. He was a large man, with a build similar to Knuckledusters, but with larger and puffier muscles. His clothing was the exact opposite, instead of the dark and grey combat gear, this man wore a bright blue and red outfit with a white eagle on his chest. Scanning the man further, he also saw that he had a strange chrome coloured helmet on, and he looked American.

The next one sat on one of the chairs, rapidly typing away on the keyboard, not even paying the slightest of attention to him. He wore basic casual clothing, and his face was covered by an Anonymous mask.

The final man was someone Akira knew all too well, and when he made eye contact with the man he wouldn't lie and say he tensed up a bit. It was Hero Killer Stain. What was it with him meeting canon characters? And why was it only evil people?

Knuckleduster patted him on the shoulder, "Don't worry about Stain there. He's scary, but once you get to know him he's not all that bad."

Stain huffed, deciding not to speak and instead sharpen his blade.

"That over there is Anonymous," He pointed towards the short man typing away, "He's our tech guy. He won't be there in person for the operation, but his hacking skills will help us."

"And this…" He gestured towards the large man dressed in American colours, "Is Peacemaker. As you've already guessed, he is American. Think of him as an expert in all things guns and weapons."

Akira nodded, "So this is our team? Looks very…"

"Dysfunctional?" Knuckleduster chuckled. "Don't worry. We may not like each other, but we know when to be professional and work well as a team."

"Ok…" Akira tried to get away from the subject and got onto more pressing matters. "So, wanna tell me why I'm here exactly?"

"Ah that's right, I still haven't told you. I did recruit you on pretty short notice…to be honest, you were more of a last minute type of thing. Anonymous noticed some holes in our team, and said we needed another member to balance it out."

Akira could see Anonymous' point. They had Knuckleduster, a man who could punch, Stain who could slash, and Peacemaker who could shoot. Aside from the killing department, everything else was lacking.

"Take a seat kid, it's a long story." Knuckleduster walked over to a nearby fridge, snatching out a can of beer. He opened it with a loud pop and sipped on it, savouring the taste with a visible sigh. He sunk into the couch, directly facing Akira.

And so he told the story of how a couple of months ago while roughing up some thugs he managed to stumble on a conspiracy much larger than himself. It originally started with rumours and sightings told to him by those he forced, but those rumours were proved true when he found the location of the shipping container, filled with beaten and starved children on their way to somewhere. Knuckleduster was already invested in tracking these people down at this point, but he became even more so invested once he learnt all of the kids were quirkless.

That's when he got into contact with Anonymous, and with his help they managed to find out that they were dealing with a much larger operation than they believed they were. It wasn't long before they found the main location to where these children were going. That's when Knuckleduster contacted Stain and Peacemaker to help along with the operation.

As Knuckleduster finished explaining the story with a melancholic look, Akira whistled. "Phew, if you've gathered a team like this, then you must think they have some serious firepower. Especially this guy…I didn't think you worked with criminals."

Akira glared at Stain, a slight look of annoyance on his face. Stain growled back in response, slightly drawing his sword.

"Stains an…old acquaintance." Knuckleduster said, trying to defuse the situation. "Although he is technically a criminal, his skill speaks for itself."

"Hn." Akira was still annoyed, but he was willing to throw aside the issue…for now. Although in his previous life, many keyboard warriors somehow found it in themselves to agree with Stain, Akira was actually smart, so he realised Stain's ideology was a pile of dog crap.

Killing and injuring hero's, even if they are 'fake' is just counterproductive. Although the hero Stain killed may be in it for money or fame, at least they are saving people while doing it. He even permanently injured Tensei Iida, someone who was considered a true hero just because he got in his way.

"Alright then, before we start fighting each other, let's go ahead with the plan right now." Knuckleduster said.

Peacemaker looked up from his gun. "Right now?" He looked excited, "Yeah! Let's do this!"

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