Nightall

I was in an alley with a good friend of mine, Harper Collins. He came to me earlier that morning because his parents kicked him out after finding out that he doesn’t want to be a hero. I always wear a mask though, so nobody, not even Harper, knows what my true identity is. He just calls me by my codename, Nightfall. I took him to the store to get him some clothes and food. I was only thirteen, but I looked well beyond my years due to scars and overall physical and mental maturity, so for the most part, nobody saw anything weird about two kids alone in a store.

After getting Harper some clothes, we bought some snacks and drinks for later. The cashier lady eyed us suspiciously, but didn’t say anything, since she was one of my former clients. We checked out and headed back to my alley, where we stayed the night. I set up a campfire and made a bed out of an old mattress and some blankets from the nearby dumpster. It wasn’t much, but it was home. Harper thanked me for the help and fell asleep quickly. I stayed up and kept watch for any heroes or maybe even villains that might find us. Life was, and still is, very, since I’m not on a specific side. I stayed up until Harper woke.

I handed him a granola bar and an apple for breakfast. We ate and I asked him about his quirk. He said that he could create a mist that makes people fall asleep. He seemed pretty ashamed that he didn't get a powerful quirk until I pointed out that a pro hero, Midnight, had that quirk. He lightened up a bit after that. We went on a walk through the park and talked a bit. He was telling me about how one of his friends went to the U.A. high school, when a nomu jumped out from the woods. It was a human-like figure with bulging muscles and a bird beak. It paused and looked at us as if to see whether or not we were worth the fight. I looked at Harper, who was frozen in fear, and I realized he had never fought a villain before.

I had been hoping to train him before his first battle, but the nomu seemed to have other plans.

It lunged at Harper.

Time seemed to slow down as the nomu reached out to grab Harper with its huge hands. With lightning-fast reflexes, I pushed him out of the way and shot a bolt of electricity at the nomu. It flew backwards and slammed into a wall. I cautiously walked over to the nomu with a purple fireball in my hand. It didn’t dare move and stared at me emotionlessly, as if the thing was being told what to do rather than having a mind of its own. I stopped about five feet away, far enough that the nomu couldn’t reach me without getting up. I didn’t know what to do. All I knew was that this creature tried hurting my friend and that was enough for my other quirk to awaken. My left eye turned purple and the nomu stopped breathing. It just layed there, motionless. Dead. My eye turned back to its usual ocean-blue color and I turned to look at Harper, who was staring at me, terrified “I had to do it”, I said. “It would've hurt you” Harper didn't respond and just stood there, pale as the moon.

I scanned the woods for any other threats. When I didn’t see anything else, I sat down on a bench next to Harper. He spoke up, his voice shaky. “W-were you going to tell me that you could do that?” I hesitated at first.. “Well….”, I said,”I didn’t want you to

be afraid of me” Harper seemed to understand, but he still looked upset. I took a deep breath and looked at him. There was something off about his expression. I couldn’t tell what though. That's when I heard it. The police sirens. “Harper. Come on” I grabbed his hand and we ran into the woods. I got into a position where I could see the park, but no one would be able to see me.

The pro heroes and police arrived. I watched as they handcuffed the nomu, still trying to figure out what happened. I heard one of them say that a passerby had reported two teenage kids fighting a nomu and killing it. One of them, which I recognized to be the pro hero, All Might, said that he would like to find and train whoever managed to kill the nomu. I looked at Harper to see if he heard that. From the look on his face, I think he did. He whispered, “Should we-?” I hesitated and then shrugged. He nodded and stood up, slowly walking toward the heroes. One of them spotted him. It was the pro hero Eraserhead. He had long, black hair and a gray scarf around his neck. One end of the scarf flew towards Harper. Time seemed to slow down as my reflexes kicked in. I jumped out of the bushes and pushed Harper out of the way. I then created a dome of ice around him as protection. Time resumed and I stood up. Some of the heroes looked shocked, but most of them just looked ready to fight. Eraserhead’s scarf was still levitating around him. He eyed me suspiciously as if trying to see what my next move would be. I flicked my wrist a little and the dome of ice around Harper melted. Some of the heroes got in a fighting stance, while others looked confused. On of the heroes, Midnight, grabbed Harper and handcuffed him. All Might stepped towards me.

“Stay back!”, I said. He raised his hands in surrender. “Look”, He said,”We don’t want to hurt you or your friend. We just want to talk” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that some of the heroes had started trying to circle around us. Crap, I thought, I didn’t want to fight them. I looked back at All Might. “Fine”, I said, ”But let Harper go. He did nothing wrong” All Might nodded and Midnight let Harper go. I was relieved that Harper could get away, but there was one other reason I wanted him to leave.

I looked at my hands.

No. I won’t use it on the heroes. All Might stepped towards me cautiously and I looked up at him. “I’m not a hero, but I didn’t have a choice. I was just protecting Harper”

To my surprise, he smiled. “I know”, he said, “That’s why I want to talk to you. I know you are a vigilante, but I believe with proper training, you could become a great hero. I saw the protectiveness in your eyes when you thought your friend was in danger. You reacted fast and with excellent strength” He sat down on a bench. “I’m giving you an opportunity most people couldn’t imagine. Could I train you to become a hero?”

I stared at the ground. I wasn’t sure what he was trying to do. It could’ve been a trap, but he sounded so sincere….

“”, I said it before I could even think. What am I doing? I need to get out of here! I looked around anxiously at the heroes surrounding me before looking back at All Might. “Do you…. Do you know who I am?”, I asked. He paused for a moment as if he was choosing his words very carefully. “Yes. I know your codename is Nightfall, but I also know your real name”

Maybe it’s a trick. Maybe he doesn’t really know….

“Elizabeth”

“How did you-?”

He sighed. “I have known you for longer than you realize, Lizzy”

I froze. Lizzy was a nickname that my family had for me. I stepped back.

Flashbacks of the incident came crashing through my mind like a hurricane.

My mother, lying in that hospital bed, burned so badly that she couldn't move.

And my father, holding a gun to his own head.

The worst part? It was all my fault.

Before I knew what I was doing, I was running.

Out of the park and away from the heroes. My cloak whipped around in the wind and I heard the heroes calling my name and chasing after me. I didn’t care though. I just kept running. They don’t know me. They don’t know what kind of things I have done.

I ran so fast that the heroes had trouble keeping up.

Of course, I’d been running my entire life, trying to escape the past. It never worked, but at least I had strong legs. I didn’t even know where I was running to. I just kept going. My muscles ached and my lungs burned, but I’d done this before. I didn’t know how long I had been running, but after a while, I slowed down. Thankfully, the heroes weren’t behind me anymore. I sat on a bench and took a minute to catch my breath. It was about noon, but there was almost nobody outside at the time. I had ended up in a suburban area with some cafés and bookshops. I wasn’t sure exactly where I was, but it almost looked like Hosu City. I realized I just left Harper alone with a ton of heroes. How could I leave him!? He can’t protect himself easily. I knew I had to go back, but I couldn’t run as fast as I did when I had gotten there. I adjusted my mask and took a deep breath. Come on. Run.

I bolted as fast as I could across town and all the way back to the park. I finally slowed down when I reached the woods near the park. There were still a bunch of heroes there. They were circled around someone who I couldn’t see at first. I craned my neck to get a closer look.

When I could finally see who it was, my heart skipped a beat.

Harper. He was holding a gun and had it aimed at Midnight. The other heroes were standing around him, trying to get him to put down the gun.

I didn’t understand what was happening. Why would he do this? Is he really a villain?

Then I heard Harper speak. “You heroes grow up being taught to drive a sword into the heart of anyone different from you, and we’re the villains!? You so-called ‘heroes’ will be the fall of this society, always saying that some people are too dangerous to be a hero just because of their quirks. You aren’t heroes!”

I realized he was talking about me.

I had been rejected from the U.A. because they said I would end up becoming a villain eventually because of my quirk. I’d always known that the system was corrupted, but Harper was taking this too far.

If I didn’t do something, he would kill Midnight.

I came out of the woods and crept up to Harper from behind and tapped his shoulder.

I spoke softly.

“Harper. Please put the gun down”

He spun around and there was a loud BANG!

I looked down to see that my shirt was soaked with blood.

Only then did the pain register. It felt like my insides were on fire.

The last thing I remember before blacking out was Eraserhead’s scarf flying out and catching me before I could hit the ground.

Then it all went black.

When I woke, it felt like my brain was clouded with thick fog, making it so I could barely think straight. I could still hear, but everything seemed so distant. I heard ambulance sirens. I heard shouts, but couldn’t make out any words.

I felt my body being lifted, probably onto a stretcher, and I heard someone shout. This time, I could tell what they were saying.

“It was an accident! I never meant to shoot her!”

I recognized the voice, but couldn’t connect the dots to figure out who it was.

I felt so tired. Like I hadn't slept in years.

I allowed myself to drift into unconsciousness.

Maybe then the pain would ease.

I was running through the forest of flames. The trees were all on fire and thick smoke clouded the air, making it hard to breathe. I pulled my shirt over my mouth to keep out the smoke and I kept running. This wasn’t a normal forest fire though. The flames were purple and they burned hotter than normal fire. I kept running, jumping over fallen branches and almost tripping a few times. When I finally got to a clearing,

my mother was there, lying in a hospital bed in the middle of the clearing.

“Why are you here?”, I shouted over the roaring flames.

“You did this to us, Elizabeth”, She spoke in an oddly deep voice that didn’t sound like it was hers. “You’re the reason your father killed himself. You’re the reason All Might isn’t as strong as he used to be. It’s all your fault. All of it”

The dream shifted.

I was standing at the park. There were still a bunch of heroes there. They were circled around someone who I couldn’t see at first. I craned my neck to get a closer look.

When I could finally see who it was, my heart skipped a beat.

Harper. He was holding a gun and had it aimed at Midnight. The other heroes were standing around him, trying to get him to put down the gun. Nobody seemed to see me though. Then, I saw another version of myself stepping out of the bushes. The other me crept up behind Harper, tapped him on the shoulder and said something to him. Harper whipped around and pulled the trigger. There was a loud BANG! And the clone fell to the ground. Eraserhead’s scarf flew out and caught the clone before she could hit the floor. He laid her on the ground and called an ambulance. Sirens filled the air. Police and paramedics arrived. They laid my clone on a stretcher and put her in the ambulance. The dream shifted.

I was in a clean, white, hospital room. My clone was laying in a hospital bed and Eraserhead was sitting in a chair next to the bed. The other pro heroes were right outside the door, waiting for my clone to wake up. My clone had a bandage wrapped around her abdomen that was damp with blood.

The dream shifted again.

I was at the police station. I saw Harper handcuffed, sitting in a police car while cops were speaking to Midnight.

“He pulled out the gun, but he never meant to shoot that girl. She scared him and he pulled the trigger. It was an accident”, she said to one of them. The officer nodded and spoke up. “Accident or not, if she dies from that bullet wound, he will be charged with murder”, he said,”If she doesn’t die, we might be able to minimize the punishment on the boy, but he will still be charged with assault”

I wanted to say something, but my mouth wouldn’t work. I just stood there, watching them talk about Harper like he was a villain.

Was he though? He had pulled a gun on Midnight and threatened to shoot her. My thoughts were interrupted when the floor beneath me opened up.

I fell into darkness.

I woke up in a hospital bed. Eraserhead was sitting in a chair next to the bed, reading.

Just like the dream

The other pro heroes were right outside the door.

Just like the dream.

I had a bandage wrapped around my abdomen.

Just like the dream.

I tried to piece together the details, but I was torn between reality and the nightmare. It was hard to tell what was real and what wasn’t.

I sat up.

“Where’s Harper?”, I asked. Eraserhead looked over at me, seemingly surprised that I was awake. “Your friend is at the police station”

I didn’t understand. “Why is he at the police station?”

He hesitated, looking like he was choosing his words very carefully.

“Nightfall…. What is the last thing you remember?”

I thought for a moment. All I remember is… “I was at the park and I saw Harper holding a gun. He had it aimed at Midnight.. But that was just part of my dream, wasn’t it?”

He shook his head.

“He shot you. He’s at the police station right now”

Something in my mind seemed to click and it all came back to me. The heroes. Harper. But I still had one question.

“I-is he a villain?”, I asked. - justice

Eraserhead nodded solemnly. “We got intel that Harper has actually been a villain for years now. His villain name is Reckless”

Before I could process this, I heard an oddly high-pitched voice behind me.

“You shouldn’t have trusted him, Elizabeth. He would’ve killed you,”

I turned around. There was a man with scraggly light blue hair. He had these weird hand-looking things all over him, clamped on his arms and legs. There was one on his face that covered everything but his left eye, which was bloodred. I knew exactly who this was. I stood up quickly.

“Why are you here!?”, I shouted. Eraserhead looked up at me, confused. “Who are you talking to?” I looked back at the man. He raised a finger to his lips and vanished.

“We need to go,” I said, “Now”

“What are you talking ab-” There was a loud explosion that shook the floor.

“We’re too late,” I said, “They found me”

“What are you talking about!? Who found you!?”, Eraserhead shouted over the alarms.

I put on my mask and jacket.

“The League of Villains has been trying to recruit me for years now. It was only a matter of time before they caught up. Now come on. I might not have a hero’s license, but I’m not letting those bastards hurt anyone here” I headed out of the room and towards the source of the explosion. The Pro Heroes followed, some wielding weapons. When we reached the main hall, I gasped. There was a huge crater in the floor and blue flames licked the sides. A portal appeared in the center.

The man that had appeared in the hospital room earlier stepped out of the portal, along with many other villains. There were about fifty of them, with even more coming out of the portal.

Only twenty heroes. The portal closed and we were now facing about sixty or seventy villains, all armed. I jumped up and sent a bolt of electricity at them. It shook the Earth and sent some villains flying back. They screamed in rage and charged at us, but I kept fighting. One of them ran towards me with a katana. I sent a blast of ice at him and took the katana. He just stood there, encased in ice. The other heroes had entered combat too. We were severely outnumbered, but these villains seemed very immature. Many of them barely knew how to fight and were taken down easily. I landed a hard kick to one of them and he flew against a wall. There was a sickening CRACK. The villain layed on the ground, defenseless and clearly in pain. I raised my hand and ice encased the villain. He didn’t even try to break free.

I heard a scream and I turned around.

A villain had cornered a woman and her child.

I ran faster than I’d ever run before.

The villain raised his sword.

Fifteen feet away. I’m too far. I won’t be able to make it in time, but maybe….

I shouted, hoping he could hear me. “ERASERHEAD! NOW!” turned and his scarf flew out, wrapping around the mother and child and pulling them away from the villain.

I ran over to them. “Are you two alright?” The child was crying, but the woman nodded to me and spoke softly to her child, trying to calm him down. Eraserhead led the civilians out of the hospital. They probably had a makeshift station for anyone who had been injured.

I didn’t have time to think about it though.

The villain ran at me. I couldn’t tell what his quirk was, but I wasn’t gonna stick around to find out. I waited for him to get close before jumping over him and kicking his back from behind. He stumbled and fell forward. I turned quickly midair, shooting ice at him.

The first shot missed and hit another villain. Oops.

The second shot of ice hit the villain and held his feet to the ground with a thick layer of ice. Still, we had a lot of villains left. And most of them seemed more dangerous than the one I had just faced. I hadn’t obtained any injuries yet, but I knew my luck wouldn’t last long. There was another loud BOOM and an explosion shook the ground. I grabbed onto a handrail to stay standing. The shockwave was way stronger than the first explosion. The windows shattered and alarms still blared.

I looked around. All of the civilians escaped safely. I thought. Good. I don’t want them to see this.

My shadow started to shift. It was a subtle change at first, and then it started to grow and morph. The shadow literally rose from the ground, seeming to inflate until it became a black cougar the size of an elephant. It had bright yellow eyes and otherwise appeared to be made out of pure darkness. The cougar sat down, looking at me with his bright yellow eyes. He seemed to be waiting for me to give the command.

“Thanks for coming, Onyx,” I said, “I need your help to take down these villains. Can you do that?”

Onyx stood up and growled at the villains. Some of them ran, while others prepared to fight. The cougar lunged at one of the villains that had run at him with a spear.

I watched as his claws raked against the man’s face. It wasn’t a pretty sight. The villain’s spear clattered to the ground and he grasped his bleeding face with his hands. Onyx swatted the man and sent him flying against the far back wall.

Nobody moved.

Nobody dared come forward.

The villains had stopped fighting the heroes mid-battle. They all stared at Onyx, some of them dropping their weapons on the floor in shock.

“If one more person comes within ten feet of me or Onyx, I will allow him to attack”, I said, looking directly at Shigaraki and his minions. “If you want to live, I strongly suggest you leave”

A villain came forward with a smug look on his face. Even though he tried to look tough, he stopped about fifteen feet away, obviously not wanting to provoke Onyx.

“Why do you think we would listen to a little girl?”, he said, “You might have a pet, but we could take you on easily”

I thought for a moment. He does have a point. The heroes are outnumbered, but they might not be outpowered.

“You might outnumber us”, I said, “But you villains don’t have much experience, do you? Most of you either don’t have a quirk, or can’t control it well. That puts you at an automatic disadvantage against the pro heroes” At this point, some of the villains had started to retreat. I was kind of disappointed since I had expected them to put up a fight, but I knew it wasn’t completely over. There were still about thirty villains left. I recognized some of them from when I was a kid. There was Dabi, a man with spiky, black hair and patched up skin from scars. Toga, a young highschool girl with a taste for blood. And there was Shigaraki, the man with blue hair and a weird, high-pitched voice. The thing was, I didn’t know any of the villain’s quirks since they hadn’t fought at all yet.

They just stood there.

Watching.

Waiting. But I didn’t know what they were waiting for.

Onyx stood in front of me, waiting for me to give him the signal.

He spoke in my mind, What do we do now, master? These are some of the most dangerous villains in Japan. I wasn’t new to his telepathic abilities, but I had to concentrate in order to respond. I don’t know, I said, Let’s just wait for them to make the first move for now. I don’t want to risk breaking my mask. We can’t let them find out. Onyx bobbed his head in agreement and growled at the villains, who still hadn’t tried anything.

One of the villains, who I recognized as twice, turned towards the other villains and said something I couldn’t hear. When they were done, they looked directly at me and exchanged glances. Dabi was smirking at me as if I had just told an inside joke