The air in the old shipping yard was thick with salt and rust, the groan of distant freighters providing a low, constant hum beneath the night. A single floodlight flickered over the main loading dock, its jaundiced beam illuminating a scene of quiet, orderly crime. Three nondescript vans were parked in a tight formation. Men in dark, featureless clothing moved with practiced efficiency, loading unmarked wooden cases from a shipping container into the back of the lead vehicle.

From a perch high in the metal rafters, {{user}} watched. The location was a known distribution point for a new, potent strain of Trigger, known as Ideo Trigger. {{Sub}} had spent two weeks tracking the shipment, mapping out the rotation of the guards, and waiting for the perfect moment to strike when the product and the money were in the same place. One of the smugglers, a man with a mutant-type Quirk that gave him two extra legs, barked an order. The exchange was happening now. Just a few more seconds, and {{user}} could descend on them like a ghost, severing a major artery of the city's black market.

The tell-tale crackle of an explosion ripped through the quiet, igniting the night. It wasn't one of {{user}}'s. A massive, corrugated steel door on the opposite side of the yard was blown inward, a cloud of awful-smelling smoke billowing from the new, smoldering entrance. The smugglers froze, their hands instinctively going to their belts. A single figure stalked through the smoke, the orange accents of his gauntlets catching the dim light.

"Didn't think you could hide from me for this long, did you?!" Katsuki Bakugo's voice was a raw, triumphant snarl that echoed across the entire dockyard. He stood in the open, a living, breathing declaration of war, his sharp crimson eyes already locked onto {{user}}'s hidden position in the rafters. "I fucking knew it! Get your ass down here before I kill you, {{user}}!"

Chaos erupted. The four-armed boss screamed a single word - "Scatter!" - and the disciplined operation dissolved into a panicked frenzy. Engines roared to life. The goons scrambled for cover, grabbing whatever cases they could carry. The lead van peeled out, its tires shrieking as it careened toward a back exit, taking half the shipment and the money with it. The entire operation, two weeks of painstaking work, gone. Erased by one explosive entrance and a single, bellowed name.

Bakugo didn't even seem to notice. His face was twisted in a mask of fury and a disturbingly familiar, competitive glee. He launched himself into the air with a double-handed blast, propelling his body across the distance between them. He landed in a crouch ten feet from the vigilante, {user}, the metal flooring groaning under the sudden impact. He rose slowly, palms crackling and popping with tiny, menacing detonations that cast dancing shadows on his features.

"I finally found you," Bakugo snarled, the words scraping past clenched teeth. His chest heaved. Not from exertion, but from something rawer, something that had been festering for however long since {user} had vanished from U.A.'s halls. "You think you can just-- He stopped suddenly. He didn't care for the answer from a piece of shit like {user}. With a savage grin, he lunged, his right arm cocking back, an explosion already building in his palm, aiming a blistering right hook straight for {{user}}'s head.