Alloy: Is he really helping or is he robbing citizens?

Hero name: Alloy
Quirk: Metal contortion

Most have heard of Alloy, the metal hero. He's most known for his tendency to repair all damages he does, unlike majority of heroes who the best they offer up is some money to help with the costs. His company, Alloy Construction, has flourished in the past several years, being called in to help build structures that aren't from Alloy's hero damages too. The company is a single man business that's often acknowledged as honorable and truly heroic, but what if that wasn't the truth?

If one were to ask anyone what they thought of Alloy, they'd likely get a response that stated they think he is a hero. A hero he is, but only because that happens to be the title of his job. The very same job he uses to make money from. It's no secret that his company is a second income but what would surprise most is that said company makes more a year than Alloy's hero work has ever made by almost triple.

Heroes are generally well payed, especially heroes sitting in the top hundred like Alloy. If Alloy is making more money than the average business owner from his main job than how is his job as a builder giving him triple the salary?

The truth is Alloy construction has been scamming its customers. Alloy's prices are nearly double normal costs for reconstruction, wrongly so. One could blame those who are paying for the construction, accusing them of walking into the high prices blind sighted and now they're paying the price**. It would be a fair point but given the chance, most people wouldn't reject a hero. Besides, the prices seem reasonable at first glance. There'd of course be extra cost for the fact that Alloy is a hero, branding comes at a price. No doubt time is a factor as well. He can rebuilt in half the time most companies can, a plus side of his quirk. Surely with the shortened time the clients would save money from not having to put any activities going on in the structure off for as long during reconstruction.

That's the mistake people make. Heroes are depicted as idols, why would someone bother to fact check what a hero says? Heroes are supposed to be trust worthy, why would they scam anyone other than a villain?  The problem is not all heroes live up to their title and Alloy is one of those heroes.

His prices are assuredly not reasonable. Rebuilding costs him nothing but the price of materials and his own labor. By calculating the costs of his most recent builds, he is asking clients to pay for roughly thirty people working full time hours for three days at double minimum wage. For the work he gets done in four days it seems acceptable but remembering that he is a one man company that spends most of his time doing hero work and only an hour or two a day constructing rebuilds, it doesn't seem as fair.

Not only that but he is falsely pricing his materials. People pay full price for two thirds of the normal amount of materials. Alloys quirk allows him to manipulate metal which is helpful for construction. He can use less metals than normal, bending them in ways that support the structure the same way as the normal amount of materials. Or at least they would support structures if he used the proper amount of metal. 34% of the buildings Alloy has made have collapsed. The cause? Failure in structure stability likely do to lack of proper materials. What does Alloy do about this? He rebuilds the first failures again using the same scam just with more caution.

This in itself is an injustice but the fact that majority of these said materials he uses are stolen is what makes it more inexcusable. These pipes and beams are not taken from junkyards which could be considered beneficial to the environment with their reuse but instead from other buildings. It's no secret that Alloy uses metal from surrounding structures during his hero fights but it's always thought that he returns the materials he uses. For the most part, he does but some of it is escorted to his nearest job site and used in the next reconstruction.

He's robbing suppliers of their chance to sell product, he's robbing buildings of their stability by taking away some of its metals, and he's robbing citizens of their money, charging money that isn't spent on materials but instead goes straight to his bank account.

What's worse is he destroys the original structures purposefully. Alloy is known for causing nearly as much, if not more, damage as Endeavor during hero work. The shocker is that this is not a cause from lack of quirk control or simply going up against tougher villains but because the more damage done, the more he profits. More damage is more things to rebuild, more work for his company and therefore more money gravitating towards him. He is not alone in this.

Endeavor is famed for his flashy fights. He holds the record for the most collateral damage and overall destruction. Alloy and Endeavor pair up regularly. This is often brushed aside by the idea that their quirks are an excellent match up, hiding the true underlying connection between them. Alloy himself stated that though Endeavor will accept no pay, he does help with his schemes. He agreed to let Alloy handle all of his destruction and the reconstruction processes. It's unconfirmed if the number two hero was aware of all Alloy's concealed motives but he has willingly made an effort to cause more damage on occasion to benefit Alloy. Does this mean there is more about Endeavor that is unknown?

One thing is for certain, Alloy is a licensed villain. For years he has gone uncharged on account of robbery, fraud, and destruction of property. He fools those who put their trust in him and benefits from it. Alloy is only one of many that uses his title of hero to get away with what he wants.

The worst thing about power is the greediest, most cunning and manipulative people are attracted to it and sadly, being a hero is a position of power, one people always look over. Alloy is not alone. We blindly trust them so I give you this advice, remember your idol might very well be one of the villains they say they protect you from.

-Revite

-:-

Hawks has always prided himself on keeping up with what was going on in the world despite having his own problems to deal with. Lately he's finding one of those things in the world was Revite. If you even mentioned his name in public those around you launched into a debate about him, about heroes, the commission, anything to do with their society. He can't say he agrees with everything Revite says and does but he can admit that he has a point. As someone who's grown up with the commission he knows their flaws but he wouldn't go as far to say they're corrupt.

He'd read the latest article, he read all of Revite's articles. He wasn't too happy with the blow to Endeavor, he doubted the flame hero knew much about Alloy's schemes. Still, he can hardly believe any of this was going on and right under his nose. Part of him wonders how the commission didn't catch it before Revite.

It was weird, he felt oddly off his game lately. It was since running into the dude with all the scars on his face. He refuses to believe that man was a villain, he's definitely a vigilante. It had came as a surprise to see him on the roof just over three days ago. It wasn't often he caught people lingering on rooftops. His company usually is limited to the pigeons and whatever plane happens to fly by when he's on patrol.

Truthfully, he doesn't know what to think of the man. It was rude of him to burn his feather, that stung a little, literally, but Hawks had to say he was a little intrigued. He wishes he could have gathered more from him. How he'd gotten those purple scars that stretched across his skin like some sort of tapestry, something you'd find in a museum rather than on a person. He wanted to know why he seemed so keen on watching the fight. It had itched at the back of his mind for the past few days, throwing him off.

Maybe that's why when the commission called him that Sunday morning he'd been so startled he'd spilled his coffee on himself, hot liquid burning into his skin. Now he was flying to the commission office in a new shirt and pair of pants.

The entire way there his brain racked for ideas as to why he'd possibly be called in. He was sure he'd ran through all his paperwork correctly and it wasn't like the commission to constantly hound him. They'd spoken to him just a few days ago. Normally they waited at least a week for another check in. Logically he knew it probably had something to do with the contacts they were trying to set him up with. There'd been news of an underground organization gathering followers lately and the commission wanted an inside ear. Lucky for them, he was good at hiding his appearance and getting the word of the street. He also happened to have to do what they asked but that doesn't matter.

When he arrived through the office window on the top floor he was greeted with the tight lipped expressions of some of the workers at the commission. He always did hate walking (or flying is more accurate) into this room, it seemed like he was being sent a dozen judging and disappointed stares every time.

"Hawks," President Damaso said as he touched down on the floor, walking over to her. Her narrowed blue eyes were wrinkled with old age, blonde hair slicked back as usual and frown resting on her lips. She had an aura to her that Hawks never liked. Being around her felt like he was a kid again having to be taught by the mean sub, hairs on his arms always standing up. Even now, after years of weekly meets with her he still couldn't help but feel his guard go up even more than usual.

He dipped his head politely. "President, how are you today?"

"We don't have time for formalities today. I'd like to get straight to business," she said, dropping a file on the table separating them. Hawks internally winced. Someone pissed her off.

"Okay... so what's the deal?" He asked, leaning against the table and reaching for the file. Before he even had a chance to read the title she answered him.

"You probably have heard of Revite." Heard of would be an understatement. It's impossible to avoid the topic of him now days. His articles are all over the news, especially his new one. He'd read it but he hadn't looked too much into it's aftermath yet, though he has no doubt it has just as big of an impact as the dozen of other articles before if not more.

Hawks' eyes scanned over the file. The words Revite were written in bold letters across the front. He noticed it was a rather thin file and when he opened it up he found most of the papers were simply Revite's articles. Some of them were written on in ink, pointing out any clues that could lead to some pattern between who he targets for his articles, any link that could tell who he is.

Humming to himself as he flipped through the contents of the article he noted that the commission seemed to have a lack of leads. "What about him?"

"Flip to the last page," she instructed and he complied. It was the newest article, the one about Alloy that came out yesterday. Below it there was a little blurb written by someone clearly from the commission pointing out all the ways Revite could have obtained this information and what it meant for other heroes. President Damaso picked up a remote of the table, turning to face the TV in the corner of the room. "Revite's new article has made a bigger impact than expected. This morning, a hundred and twenty two of his clients called him to court to be sued. He'll undoubtedly end up bankrupt by the end of it all, even if he does win some of the battles. The commission has been forced to suspend his hero license until further notice, much like many other heroes targeted by Revite.

"This is not something we should be happy about. Alloy was a valuable hero despite his apparent flaws. The loss of such a high ranking hero as himself will not be taken well. Already there have been fights starting to break out in more secluded areas. Luckily we've been able to keep the media from finding out about them but I fear they will only grow the more Revite exposes heroes. He needs to be stopped."

Nodding, he stroked his chin with the hand that wasn't holding the file. All fair points but where is she going with this. He's not exactly a specialist in taking down people operating from online. "So what do you suggest? We just straight up take him down and arrest him?"

"That's exactly what I'm proposing," she replied, still not facing him. "That is where you come in Hawks."

No. That is not where he comes in. Despite what some people think he's not an idiot and knows going after Revite is the worst thing that could happen to him right now. The guy's a mastermind when it comes to finding information on heroes and taking them down. He has no uncertainty that if he wanted to he'd could dig around deep enough, pull enough strings that would place Hawks as a licensed villain. That'd be the end of his career, his life practically. No one wants that.

In the back of his brain he wondered if President Damaso was on crack. She had to know that putting him in a position that placed him as one of Revite's targets would surely ruin a lot more than what Alloy's article has. Alloy is fifty-second in rankings. Hawks is third. He can only imagine the blow the hero society on a whole would take if Revite managed to prove him a wrong-doer. He's not sure what he' find on him that would make him capable of being a wrong-doer but he's sure Revite would figure something out.

"We need someone we trust to watch him. Someone who's capable of getting close to him and learning his motives, his secrets; how he gathers information." Damaso shifted the remote between her hands. "You'll be our eye's on the inside."

Oh fun. Just toss me into Tartarus already since that's where I'll end up after Revite fucking decides to target me. He sighed and put down the file. There's no use in arguing his way out of this. He knows once the commission has made up their mind it's set in stone. "And how am I going to do that? No offense but from the looks of it you don't have a single lead on how to find this guy."

"I was getting to that. This morning Alloy attended an interview with one of the local hero journalists. He gave a clue to how we can get in contact with Revite." She clicked on the remote and the screen lit up with an image.

The footage was clearly from the very same interview she referred to. Alloy sat rigid in a brown leather chair, the dark colored eye-bags on his face poorly covered by make up. Across from him a dark haired woman held a clipboard on her lap, jotting down notes as she asked him questions. Hawks almost sympathized for the guy. He always has hated interviews. It feels like the whole world is hanging off your every word, no margin for error. Lucky for him, he's always been able to hide that feeling and usually can deal quite well with people. Alloy on the other hand could not if the sweat on his forehead and wide eyes like that of a deer caught in headlights were anything to go by.

"Can you tell us how exactly Revite obtained all this information?" The woman asked.

"Not that any of it's exactly true but um, well probably the internet," Alloy answered, visibly tensing. "That and, sorry um, a-and the other night I had a man claiming to work for Revite break into my apartment and torture me for information."

She wrote something down on her clipboard, nodding along. "Right and do you mind describing this man? Did you recognize him from anywhere?"

He shook his head. "I didn't recognize him at all but I don't think I can forget his face. He was horribly ugly. There were these gross purple scars across majority of his skin. They were held in place by staples like some sick version of Frankenstein. His quirk was some sort of fire one. He tried to burn my face off!"

Fire quirk... scars...? Hawks' mind wandered back to the man who'd burned his feather a few days ago. They couldn't be the same person... right?

"And you said he broke in? Does this mean Revite isn't just someone who writes articles but rather a vigilante too?"

"No way this guy was Revite and besides, vigilantes are people who break the law to do good. Revite does no good," Alloy countered, crossing his arms.

"Yes, but-"

The footage cut off as President Damaso clicked the off button on the remote before setting it back down on the table. She slid a second file over to him. "In there you will find all we could dig up on the man with scars. A few photographs here and there, some of his minor crimes mostly arson and petty theft. I want you to follow him around for a bit, get close enough to him so he can lead you to Revite."

Hawks gingerly took the new file, flipping it open. He froze at the sight of the first photo. He knew the person staring back up at him, recognized those blue eyes and the black hair the spiked up in all different directions.

With hesitance, he picked up the photo and studied it closer. There was no way it was anyone else. Skin grafts aren't exactly normal, especially ones like these. He won't agree with the way Allot put it (because in his opinion the scars make him look almost hot) but he has to admit this man does not have a face you can forget. It was the same man from a few days ago.

His eyes flicked to the name at the top of the first sheet in the file. Dabi...

President Damaso had walked over to him, resting a hand on his shoulder as she looked at the photo as well. He didn't have to look to know the expression filled with expectations that she was surely wearing. He found himself dreading the words that came tumbling from her lips. It was always like this. The same line, the same meaning, the same feeling of a heavy weight on his chest, suffocating him and his will to do anything but comply to what they ask of him.

"The commission depends on this job. We depend on you, Keigo."

He'd never escape those words but for once he isn't sure what to think of them, not with the scarred face staring blankly up at him. A face he'll soon be very, very familiar with.

[A/N: Why doesn't the commission lady have a name?? She's just referred to as president. I gave her a name the name Damaso. It's a Greek origin name (traditionally male but Japan uses last names for everything so it doesn't really matter) that is used in many languages including Spanish and it means 'to tame' or 'suppress'. Fitting right. It also closely resembles the Japanese word for deceiving which is Damasu.]