(everyone tensed even more. First a cliffhanger on an attack on Mirio and now they're watching Viridian maybe get killed by Endeavor?!)

And with that, he let the marble fly, hitting Endeavor squarely on the back of the head. Time seemed to slow down as Endeavor slowly turned, his teal eyes burning almost as bright as his flames as the pure rage of a Berserker shone through them.

Izuku tried to keep his voice from cracking but wasn't entirely successful as he yelled, "I heard you were looking for me! Good luck!"

Inko and Mitsuki: Izuku!

Bakugo and Uraraka: Deku!

Aizawa: Problem child!

Izuku turned on his heel as Endeavor roared behind him. He winced at the heat as he pulled himself up onto the nearest fire escape and started running across the rooftops, avoiding any buildings that were too burned out to support his weight. He weaved as much as he could while still keeping to the evacuated areas, his goal being to keep just out of Endeavor's reach as he led the hero away. The heroes he'd been fighting helped slow him down significantly, which Izuku was grateful for, but it still seemed like no time at all by the time they'd reached the warehouse district.

He needed a building that would retain the heat. Wood would burn too quickly, so that was obviously out, but... there! Izuku saw a vacant warehouse that looked like it was mostly concrete and had a metal roof that should theoretically reflect the heat back down onto Endeavor once he was inside. He smiled cheekily back at Endeavor and made sure the hero saw him run inside, then took a deep breath. He had probably a minute and a half until Endeavor got here, maybe a little more if the heroes could distract him.

There were a few industrial grade fans on the floor and Izuku rushed to turn them on. They would cool the building down slightly, but the increased airflow would make Endeavor's flames burn hotter and help him overheat a lot faster. As soon as all the fans were on, his next priority was sabotaging the fire suppression system. It would ruin his plan if the sprinklers went off in the middle of the fight.

Mei: Well you'd better do it quickly!

He found the offices and looked around, finding the fire suppression system right as Endeavor burst down the door. Izuku panicked and grabbed his knife, cutting whatever wires he thought linked the fire system to the control board and hoped it would be enough. Thankfully, no alarms went off and Endeavor was undoubtedly already burning hot enough to activate them if he was going to, so they were in the clear... for now.

"Where... brat?"

(everyone tensed)

Todoroki(somehow both deadpan and worried at the same time): Somehow he doesn't sound all that different than he normally is.

Izuku held his breath as Endeavor growled out threats. He... well, his plan was going as planned so far, but this was about as far as he had gotten thought out.

"What are you thinking?"

Midoriya: How to take him down and keep all of my promises!

Izuku flinched and grabbed his pipes as he heard a harsh whisper behind him. He spun around and cringed as he saw Present Mic looking at him in exasperation, "I know Shou said you were suicidal, but seriously kid?! I thought he told you to stay away from this!"

"Shou?" Izuku shook his head, that wasn't important, "I didn't have a choice! He was gonna keep going after civilians until he found me."

Vlad: I wish he was wrong...

"Ugh... " Present mic scowled. "I really wish I could deny that, kid. We were trying to convince him you weren't there, but... he wasn't buying it, obviously."

"Yeah, Berserkers can be single minded." Izuku nodded.

"Did you even have a plan besides self sacrifice?" Present Mic sighed.

Shinso: This time yes at least.

"Yes!" Izuku blurted out. "Well, kinda. Endeavor's main weakness is overheating and the villain factory has made his quirk exponentially more powerful, which makes his weakness more powerful as well. He hasn't been missing long enough for the villain factory to be able to adequately reinforce his body against the increased heat, so..."

"So we get him to produce flames until he passes out?" Present Mic confirmed. "How do we keep ourselves from passing out before he does?"

Izuku grimaced, "I hadn't gotten that far yet?"

Everyone: Viridian!

"We can use the doors."

Iida: Tensei!

Izuku jumped again at another voice, "How do you people keep finding me?! I've been getting better at stealth!"

"You're soaked, kid." Ingenium sounded like he was grinning under his helmet. "You're dripping water everywhere. It's literally a trail leading to you."

Midoriya: Oh.

"Which means Endeavor hasn't noticed, because he doesn't care about situational awareness." Izuku sighed in relief. "Good. So doors?"

"If we enter and exit quickly enough, we can avoid getting burned and use the cool air outside to recover and protect ourselves, all while confusing Endeavor and hotboxing him inside." Ingenium said calmly. "That was your plan, right?"

"Pretty much..." Izuku said, suddenly a lot more insecure now that his plan had to involve other people.

Uraraka: You can do it, Deku.

Reiko: You all can.

"Ingenium! Endeavor's getting bored searching for the vigilante..." One of Endeavor's sidekicks slid into the room and froze when he saw Izuku. "Oh, there he is! Hey!"

"Thanks Crawler." Ingenium shook his arms out. "Well, if we're gonna do this, let's do it."

Izuku nodded and was about to run out when Present Mic held him back, "Wait until everyone's in position, then you go."

Mirko: Yeah team effort, Viridian.

"Wait!" Izuku dug into his tool belt and grabbed as many marbles as he could and shoved them into Crawler's hands. "Give those to as many heroes as you can. We can toss them around to confuse him, since he won't be able to pinpoint when it's actually me throwing them versus the heroes."

Kaminari: Good idea.

Crawler gave a crooked grin and looked at Ingenium, "Smart kid."

Izuku blushed as the heroes sped away, leaving him alone with Present Mic. So that was the Crawler, the hero that Eraser had said went legit after starting as a vigilante. It would be cool, but... Crawler had a quirk. There wasn't any point in thinking about something that was impossible anyway, especially when he needed to be focused on staying alive.

Tsukauchi(sighing): I really hate how quirkist the world is sometimes.

Compress: 'Sometimes'?

"Everyone that's here is in position." Present Mic whispered. "You know you don't have to do this, right kid? You can leave now and we can handle this fight."

"If this wasn't the most effective way, you would've already dragged me out." Izuku pointed out. "As long as he knows I'm here, he'll stay right where we want him. Even without the Berserker modifications, it would be almost impossible to take him down, but with them? We need every advantage we can get."

"And here I was thinking you just had Eraser wrapped around your finger..." Present Mic muttered. "But no, you have to be all logical like he is. No wonder the man likes you."

(despite the situation everyone snorted)

Izuku's eyes widened, but he didn't have a chance to think of a response before Mic was nodding to him, "Go!"

Izuku nodded in determination and took a deep breath, then ran out into the main warehouse, "Hey! You're really bad at hide and seek!"

Everyone: Seriously?!

Inko: Izuku!

"Boy... " Endeavor growled and started stalking toward him. "Ruined... me...!"

"Um..." Izuku looked behind him. "Me? I don't really think I'm really capable of that..."

Dabi: Oh you definitely are but run you idiot!

He noticed the shift in Endeavor's stance a split second before flames came shooting from his hands. He dodged into a roll and took the brief moment to duck out of view behind one of the fans. He looked to his side and noticed that all of the doors had been opened and there were a variety of heroes waiting at each one. From his hiding place, Izuku watched as Crawler gave him a cocky grin and lobbed one of the marbles Izuku had given him at Endeavor before taking off running. He moved pretty fast, so he couldn't be sure, but from the way Endeavor stumbled, Crawler had also taken a few shots of his own with some kind of air bullet attack.

Aizawa: More like pressure bullet.

He had to forcibly remind himself a few times that he wasn't there to fanboy as he watched each of the heroes and sidekicks present take their turns taking shots at Endeavor. Everytime that Izuku noticed that Endeavor was starting to get restless and think that Viridian had left, he gave a thumbs up to the nearest hero and ran as fast as he could. He had to be careful to keep his distance and watch his feet, because unlike most of Ingenium's sidekicks, he didn't have a speed quirk and unlike the other heroes that were helping out, he didn't have a quirk that could block Endeavor's fire, but he mostly managed to not get burned. Whenever he burst through one of the doors after running past, he was greeted with smiles and pats on the back to let him know he'd survived and done a good job. Izuku couldn't keep a proud smile off his own face and honestly, if it hadn't been such a life or death situation, he would almost say he was having fun.

Aizawa: Problem child!

He had just finished one of his bait runs when he heard someone behind him yell his vigilante name unnaturally loud. He slowly turned to see Amplifier, who looked extremely pissed off and more than a little worried. Izuku gave her a guilty smile, "Um... hi Amplifier!"

"Eraser specifically told you to run in the opposite direction." Amplifier sounded so done. "He told you to run in the opposite direction and what did you do?"

"It's not like that!" Izuku insisted, "I have backup this time!"

Joke: Yeah he actually does.

"Uh-huh." Amplifier looked skeptical, but she stopped when Present Mic came up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Come on, Amplifier." Mic said. "Lay off the kid for a minute, he actually had a pretty good plan."

"Just because he's smart doesn't mean he's not an idiot." Amplifier argued. "But Eraser's on his way. He was chasing a lead in another city, but he should be back here."

Thirteen: No!

Recovery Girl: Not the time for erasing quirks!

"No!" Izuku yelled, making Amplifier jump. "Um, sorry, it's just that, um, we're actually using his quirk as a weapon? If Eraserhead erases his quirk, it might actually set us back, oddly enough."

"It's actually pretty brilliant." Present Mic added. "And it's working. See for yourself."

When they peeked in the door, Endeavor was already starting to show the effects of the fight. It was blisteringly hot inside the warehouse and was painful to be inside just for the time it took to run through to one of the other doors, but the heroes were getting a rest to cool down between each attack. Endeavor wasn't. His face was red and parts of his skin were starting to grow orange and crack in a way that looked like alog in a fireplace and his flames were burning so hot that parts of his uniform, which had more than enough heat resistant to withstand his natural quirk, had burned off. At some point, Endeavor seemed to have realized that they were toying with him, but because he was already overheating, he couldn't move quickly enough to chase him out of the building before the next attacker came. His eyes were also starting to defocus and have problems telling which of his attackers was actually his target, but Izuku didn't know whether that was from the heat or whether the experiments were still causing brain damage.

(everyone stared. This was the first good look they'd seen of him since the berserker modifications and well... it was very unsettling)

"We're, uh..." Izuku shrugged awkwardly. "We're kinda just waiting for him to pass out."

Amplifier raised an eyebrow at him, "Seriously? That's your big plan? Wait for him to pass out?"

Mitsuki: It's working!

"Every quirk has a weakness." Izuku said. "If you can exploit that weakness, you stand a chance at winning."

"Sorry to interrupt what seems to be a wonderfully heartfelt conversation," Ingenium ran up to them, "but Endeavor's caught on that Viridian hasn't shown up in a while and he's trying to leave, which means you're up, kid!"

Bakugo: Don't you dare die on me you #@!*($ nerd.

Jana: Language.

Izuku nodded in determination and gave a small wave, "Be back soon!"

He grabbed his slingshot and the few marbles he still had left and ran into the burning warehouse, "Hey Endeavor! Did you miss me?"

Endeavor gave a sort of guttural scream and Izuku couldn't help but notice he'd become less and less... well, coherent over the course of the fight. That thought was pushed from his mind though as Endeavor's flames turned blue and he started running toward Izuku with more speed than he'd thought the man was capable of at his current temperature.

Everyone(freezing): Viridian run!

Izuku's eyes widened and he scrambled to regain his footing as he quickly changed directions, "No, no, no, no, no!'

He could feel the blistering heat behind him and realized that at some point during the fight, he'd completely dried from the soaking that Backdraft had given him earlier which meant that even that meager protection was long gone.

Inko: No!

"Kill..." The words coming out of Endeavor's mouth were barely intelligible at this point, but they were enough to send a chill down his spine despite the heat. "Rev...enge..."

Todoroki: Midoriya!

Uraraka: Deku!

Suddenly Izuku was swept forcibly off his feet.

"I got ya kid." Crawler flung Izuku onto his back and pinballed around the room as Endeavor finished giving chase. "So I guess those blogs guessing you've got a speed quirk are wrong, huh?"

Midnight: Oh thank goodness.

Izuku didn't answer, simply clinging tighter to Crawler's hero costume as Endeavor went beyond what was left of his limits in a final attempt to kill Izuku. Maybe... maybe he should have left his fight to the real heroes. It would have been a lot more difficult and dangerous, but maybe...

He shook his head against Crawler's back. No, he had to be here, but he had worked with the heroes and relied on them to help keep everyone safe. He hadn't gone off on his own.

Hawks: Better than nothing I guess...

"It shouldn't be too much longer." Izuku said out loud. "He's already looking worse than the other berserkers were before they were caught."

It was true. The weird veins of fire that had appeared on Endeavor's face earlier had now spread across every visible patch of skin. It almost looked like he was a piece of pottery that was about to explode in the kiln, though Izuku knew that probably wasn't the best metaphor to use. He must be in a lot of pain, so Izuku was honestly in awe at how he was still not only on his feet, but still actively fighting.

Dabi: Rage is a good motivator.

He and the Crawler both winced as the heat cranked up another notch and Izuku knew he was probably sweating through his hoodie at this point, which was embarrassing. He hoped Crawler didn't mind too much, "Um, maybe we should get out of here?"

"Yeah." Crawler's voice sounded dry, but they were low enough to the ground still that they thankfully avoided the worst of the smoke, which was starting to get thick. There hadn't been too much that was flammable in the warehouse, but Endeavor's final desperate attacks were enough to find anything that could conceivably burn and set it on fire. "Hold on tight, kid, I don't think he's gonna let us get through the doors."

Mic: Then use a window!

Izuku raised his head to glance around and, sure enough, every door had been blocked by a wall of Endeavor's flames as he used every bit of power he had left to keep Izuku from getting away again, "But... these walls are concrete. We can't just break through!"

To his surprise, the Crawler laughed, "Kid, haven't you ever heard the phrase when one door closes, open a window?"

Izuku's eyes widened and he frantically locked his legs in place as best he could and used his slingshot to shatter one of the windows that lined the upper border of the warehouse. It shattered with a crash and Izuku shifted so he was clutching tightly to Crawler's back again, "Will you be able to reach that?"

Aizawa: Oh he definitely can.

Midnight(teasingly): Still mad about the time he actually escaped you and all the other pro heroes after him?

Kaminari: Wait he did that?

Tsunotori: Cool.

Aizawa: I hate vigilante problem children.

"Who do you think I am?" Crawler laughed, then launched himself in the air.

Izuku had been expecting him to slide to the wall and then use his quirk to slide up, but to his surprise, Crawler actually stepped through the air and then started clinging to the wall. They got a few scrapes as they squeezed through the window, but Izuku honestly thought that they had perfect timing, considering that they weren't even completely down the other side of the wall when blue flames erupted from every opening of the building, blowing out the remaining windows and forcing all the heroes surround the doors to dodge for cover to avoid getting burned. As quickly as the flames had erupted, however they disappeared. The building itself was still burning, of course, but it seemed like Endeavor had finally passed out.

(everyone breathed a sigh of relief)

They landed safely on the ground and Crawler straightened, which Izuku figured was probably his cue to let go if his fingers would just cooperate. Despite the fact that the danger had passed, Izuku's muscles were still performing a death grip on Crawler, who chuckled softly as he realized the problem.

"It's alright kid, you survived." Crawler helped pry Izuku's arms off him. "You did good. You're giving vigilantes everywhere a good name."

Mina: Ah but he's not technically a vigilante.

Izuku swallowed shakily, not really processing the compliment as he focused on making his legs support his weight. That had... that had honestest been every bit as terrifying as the first time he met Endeavor. He really hoped they weren't going to make a habit of it.

Endeavor: Considering I might just be dead by now it you shouldn't be.

His problems weren't over, however. Izuku felt a chill down his spine and he looked over to see Eraserhead glaring at him, "You realize that you're the reason I'm going grey, right?"

(everyone laughed as Midoriya froze)

Midoriya: I'm so dead...

Izuku chuckled awkwardly, "Oh, Eraserhead! When did you get here?"

"I literally showed up in time to see you fly out of a building seconds before it exploded." Eraserhead deadpanned. "So excuse me if I'm a little pissed. You promised you'd run in the opposite direction, problem child!"

(everyone snorted)

"I, uh, gotta live up to the nickname somehow, right?" Izuku said nervously, "But, umm... I do still intend to keep that promise I made to you?"

Izuku focused on keeping his body language as natural as possible as Eraser eyed him suspiciously, "Oh really? And how's that?"

Midoriya: Should I apologize in advance or-

Mic(looking at a very angry Aizawa): Yes.

"Well," Izuku pointed back at the burning warehouse, waiting for Eraser to turn to look before making his move, "that's where Endeavor is."

Izuku then booked it in the opposite