Episode 26: The battle of the broken comes to an end

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The sounds of punching, repulsor blasts, ice and fire appearing... these sounds echoed in Tenya Iida's mind as he was on the ground, rendered helpless by the quirk of the man he had attempted to kill, Hero Killer: Stain. As the battle between Iron Man, Deku, Shoto as a team against the Hero Killer raged on, Iida thought about the day he first revealed to Takumi, Midoriya, and Uraraka that he was the brother of the Pro Hero Ingenium. He remembered how proud he was when he spoke about how great his brother was, a sentiment that was shared by his friends, especially Takumi. He thought about how he had declared himself to be Ingenium upon meeting Stain and how he had claimed that he would be the hero that would defeat the Hero Killer.
'Me? A hero? Having my friends protect me. Having them bleed for me.' Iida thought in anguish as Iron Man was tossed into a wall. The armored hero, however, was not phased and he immediately flew back into the battle, paying Stain back by unleashing a Plasma Shot at him.

'Save him first.' Stain's voice from before rung in Iida's ear as he regretfully remembered how he all but ignored the Pro Hero that Stain had attacked and had cared little for the man's wellbeing. If not for the quick thinking of Iron Man, that Pro Hero would still be in the alley now, likely still paralyzed by Stain's quirk.

'To remind him of his crime... I took on my brother's name. But nothing's changed since the entrance exam. I've been so short sighted... only seeing what mattered to me! Even after Sakai had warned me of the ugliness that the path of vengeance brings.' Iida thought

'In that moment, I became just like the Mandarin... I became a monster, uncaring about the effects my actions brought to the people around me. I almost lost my soul to the power of vengeance... and so I promised I would never become a monster again. That night I designed my first suit of armor that I would later build when I was in the support course... I would dream of the armor that I would become a knight in... a knight who never betrayed their moral code again. That knight, as you know now, evolved into Iron Man.'  Takumi's voice spoke in Iida's head as he remembered how Takumi had told him of how he had nearly made the biggest mistake of his life after the murder of his father... the very same mistake that Iida tried to make, despite his friend's story.

Then a memory flashed in Iida's head. It was the day he had told his brother, Tensei, of his own intentions of becoming a hero one day.
"You too, Tenya? A hero?" Tensei had asked after Tenya had told his brother about his goal.

"Yes." The, at the time, 10-year-old Tenya told his brother as he chopped the air.

"Like a robot?" Tensei asked.

"Brother. I wanna be like you. You're so cool." Tenya replied before he stopped chopping the air.

"Teach me how? For after I graduate!  I want to know why you're a hero." Tenya requested.

"To be popular." Tensei replied.

"HOW BASE!!" Tenya yelled, before Tensei laughed.

"I'm half joking." Tensei assured his younger brother.

"Only half?!" Tenya asked as they made his way to a locker that had Tensei's Ingenium costume inside.

"Hmm... well, with Grandpa and Mom and Dad being heroes... I've heard that everyone basically expected me to be one too. Hand me that helmet." Tensei started to explain, and his brother handed him his helmet like he had requested.

"But... it's really pretty simple..." Tensei continued as he was handed the helmet by Tenya.

"People who find a lost child and then take him to a lost child center... I've always thought those sorts of people were the coolest." Tensei revealed as he looked at a newspaper headline of Spider-Man helping a lost child and his parent reunite at one of these lost child centers while he was on vacation in Japan.

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