September 13th, Tokyo, Streets of Shinjuku, 1430.
By now the small crowd had dwindled to just some ten or so onlookers around the site where White Rider and Vine had apprehended a quartet of thugs that were now being handed to the police. The three criminals had tried to make a run after stealing an ATM from the ground floor of what looked like an office building by collapsing the floor under the machine with some type of burrowing Quirk.
They were caught within two hundred and thirty seconds of the alarm going off; their escape vehicle, a tow truck much less troublesome than the armored van from a couple days ago, had just made it out of the garage underneath the crime scene when White Rider drop kicked trough the windshield and into the driver as green vines wrapped around the three men by the truck bed.
It had been a slow day thus far, so the pros decided to let their interns handle that case.
And they had done so with little to no problem.
"Good job, both of you." Edgeshot gave a short nod before motioning for the group to continue their patrol.
"All in a day's work, Sir."
"You humble me greatly."
"It was a pretty strong debut; zero collateral and you got three of those guys before they could even react. Guess my choice of intern was right." Kamui Woods gave Shiozaki the credit she deserved.
"I am very grateful for the opportunity." Vine bowed her head as she responded.
"You decided to breach the windshield to reach for the hand brake, didn't you?" Kamui Woods asked, now turning towards the other intern of the group.
"Affirmative. Vine is much better at handling multiple hostile at once than I am, so when we were told to act on our own I took to stopping the escape vehicle before it reached the street." White Rider responded.
"Senpai is right when he says you are a resourceful kid, took me a moment to understand what you were planning when you jumped towards the truck. Give a weapon like yours to an amateur an he or she would've tried to take the driver out from afar and risk having the vehicle speeding towards the main street." Kamui Woods admitted.
"Suppose I had my share of troublesome car chases for the time being." White Rider allowed himself to chuckle.
Patrol had been surprisingly calm lately, which by no means was a bad thing.
But that never lasted for long.
-.
September 13th, Tokyo, Edgeshot Hero Agency, 1950.
Nothing like the familiar feeling of being tossed around into the ground. Normally hand-to-hand practice would take place at the gym underneath the agency, but this training session required some more privacy.
No weapons, no Quirks, not even costumes… just a good old beatdown. Oddly homely.
They had been at this for almost two hours now.
If Machibuse hadn't been quick to dig his Chelicerae into the dirt he likely would've been sent rolling straight into the garden's pond.
The pond's edge however wasn't the only line he was tried not to cross.
"You do understand that there is no need for you to hold back against me, right kid? I am the number five in the country after all." Kamihara half scolded his intern as he approached, his footsteps inaudible even as he treaded over the first leaves that signaled the incoming fall season. The pristine state of his deep blue shinobi shozoku attesting to how one-sided the spar had been so far.
"So this is the reason why you and the teachers decided to discuss about my internship without having me in the room…" Machibuse grunted as he pushed himself off the ground and on his feet. The teen wore just the black pants of his costume and the dog tags around his neck, mostly because he hadn't brought other clothes suited to this kind of activity.
"Amongst other things, yes. Now, make yourself serious." Kamihara responded with a dismissive sigh, before reassuming his combat stance.
Truth be told, Machibuse was taken by surprise when Kamihara called him for a spar instead of leaving for night patrol. Kamui Woods and Vine had left a while ago, the two were due to meet Mt. Lady midway through their patrol and once the three came back then the interns would be sent back to U.A. so the pros could discuss business.
Machibuse dashed towards his opponent, feet almost as silent as those of the man in front of him.
The jump was quick, the flying axe kick that followed even quicker.
Kamihara easily sidestepped the attack and countered with a lightning fast elbow to Machibuse's side.
The teen rolled to the side in order to absorb the blow and was quickly back on the offense.
In an instant he was already closing in with a sharp left hook.
Evaded.
Kamihara countered.
Machibuse ducked the palm strike before jumping backwards.
The teen returned, weaving his torso to pick up momentum and following it up with a quick right uppercut.
Kamihara effortlessly guided the incoming fist to the side but found out that Machibuse was already expecting that reaction.
Machibuse followed the momentum of his deflected attack and spun counter clockwise on his right foot and prepared to follow with a spin kick that would force Kamihara to block or sidestep once again.
The ninja was already prepared, he had chosen to sidestep.
But Machibuse still had the advantage, instead of extending his left leg to follow with the expected kick he continued the spin and quickly pushed his right leg of the ground and kick with it instead. A cheap trick that turned a relatively slow strike into a quick trip attempt.
Kamihara immediately adapted, jumping over the low kick.
Machibuse's momentum continued unimpeded, so he took the chance to twist his torso and turn the free fall into another strike. Both palms reached for the dirt that quickly approached Machibuse's face, and with a lightning fast adjustment he pushed back against the ground, springing with both feet at Kamihara.
A less skilled fighter would've fallen for the trip, and even experienced martial artists would have a hard time avoiding such a sequence.
But Machibuse once again failed to connect, even if for a hair's width, Kamihara managed to somehow roll mid-air and over the attack.
The spar came to a halt for a moment, both fighters studying each other.
"So this is what happens when you let go… It is certainly a dangerous tool." Kamihara commented as he called down the match.
It was only then Machibuse realized that he had all of his Chelicerae out to strike, he must've deployed them without even realizing during his last attack.
The teen feel silent as he tried to keep it together.
"It is dangerous for both your opponent and for you." Kamihara added, now throwing something for his student to catch.
The dog tags.
Machibuse just got even more confused, when did that happened?
"This combat mindset of yours makes you sloppy. I imagine that the surprise factor it brings has carried you this far but thinking only about how to defeat your opponent will get you killed out there. Or will get you to kill someone." Kamihara spoke the harsh truth.
"So I am really broken, aren't I?" Machibuse asked as he fell to a sitting position, a weak laugh following the question as he searched for a way to cope.
"Broken doesn't mean lost, kid." Kamihara offered, now sitting beside his student.
"Kintsugi philosophy, really?" Machibuse quirked an eyebrow and allowed himself to forgo protocol for a moment.
"I know it's cliché, but it has its merits… This technique of yours is a gift that will help you greatly if groomed correctly, but the means for that growth are not here. I'm not going to pretend I can relate to what you are going through or to understand how you feel about constantly being at risk of losing control." Kamihara admitted with a short sigh.
Machibuse just remained silent for a moment as he rested his back against the grass, not exactly sure about what to say next. He rose his hand towards the night sky, the dark blue and the few visible stars acting as a backdrop for the dog tags loosely tangled around his fingers.
"This is a part of who you are, you shouldn't close the door on it. Don't lose sight of your objective." Kamihara suggested, now getting back on his feet.
"I don't think I should be knocking on the door to invite it to come out and play." Machibuse responded, now finally pushing his back off the ground and putting the dog tags around his neck again.
"But you should be prepared for when it knocks. And that is something I can help you with… with one condition." Kamihara turned towards the teen.
"Huh?" Machibuse stared back confusedly.
The ninja offered his hand to his student.
"On our first meeting you told me that you made a promise to someone, about not giving up on being a hero. I want you to make the same promise to me."
-.
September 13th, Tokyo, In Transit Towards U.A. Highschool, 2045.
Machibuse and Shiozaki would soon arrive at the Musutafu train station. The trip had been actually a very quiet one, given that the former was still busy thinking about what Edgeshot had told him earlier that night and the later had just gone through a surprisingly dense night of patrolling. Gang-related crimes were on the rise, and that resulted in a large number of small-scale scuffles breaking out as criminals fought for space on the street.
The lights of the tunnel quickly passed by the window of the train.
"Something clouds your mind." Shiozaki spoke, her voice pulling Machibuse out of his trance.
He did not respond immediately, just staring back for an instant.
"Even if you are not usually very vocal, it's not like you to be absent-minded." Shiozaki observed.
"It is just…" Machibuse began his explanation but caught himself mid-sentence.
He took a deep sigh.
"Permission to break protocol?"
"Go ahead." Shiozaki nodded.
"I've been putting some things to the side, been trying to just go around them instead of actually dealing with the issue proper… guess that everything just caught up to me at once today." Machibuse admitted, now throwing his head backwards to stare at the ceiling.
"The problem has to do with why my classmates needed to speak with you in private back when you cooked for us." Shiozaki guessed.
"Suppose it does… I mean, pretty much everything stems from that. But the problem now are the promises that arose from my situation." Machibuse responded.
"Promises?" Shiozaki quirked an eyebrow.
"We should get up; next stop is ours… You see, I got a few words I need to back up. One of those is on the riskier side of things as well, so I really shouldn't back away." Machibuse explained, doing his best to vent out without needing to explain about his relationship with Stain.
"But that is not all of it, right?" Shiozaki pushed, now both students on their feet as the train slowed down to a halt.
"Yeah, there is another promise, but that one was made to me… and it is one being fulfilled with a lot of care." Machibuse gave another sigh as he tossed the briefcase with his costume over his shoulder.
"Yaoyorozu-san. You and she have been set apart since what happened during the summer camp." Shiozaki concluded.
Machibuse just gave the girl by his side a mildly surprised look.
"We girls have our own group chat." Shiozaki confessed, a tinge of color coming to her cheeks. That group chat wasn't exactly the purest place in her social media, it had both Ashido and Tokage in there after all.
"I suppose I should not ask questions about it." Machibuse offered, now falling back to his usual protocol speech as they continued to walk towards the shuttle that would take them from the station to the U.A. campus. If anything that talk got him felling a little better about everything, helped him to take a step back and see things with other eyes.
"Please don't." Shiozaki took a short sigh.
The ride uphill towards U.A. was a short one. In matter of minutes both students had crossed the U.A. barrier and were in seeing distance from their respective dorms.
Not even ten minutes later both had arrived at the entrance to Class 1-B's dorms, Machibuse too polite to not walk a girl to her doorstep even if they were literally neighbors.
"Have a good night, Shiozaki-san. We meet at Edgeshot's agency tomorrow… and thank you for listening to my little rambling." Machibuse bowed lightly as the two parted ways.
"It is the least I can do. Please feel free to come to me if you need to confess anything." Shiozaki responded in her usual calm tone.
Machibuse now could return to his own residence within the campus, but just as he turned his back Shiozaki's voice called him once again.
"You should speak to her." she suggested with a short-lived smile before turning around and vanishing from view behind the hedge.
Machibuse just stood still for a moment.
Fall would come soon.
And that was not the only event on his calendar for the 23th of September.
-.
-.
September 17th, Tokyo, Nighteye Hero Agency, 0945.
"Are you sure we need the kids? I'm going to say this only once… We're wondering if this Chisaki bastard is turning his daughter's body into bullets and selling them."
Tension inside the conference room was absolutely crushing after those words.
"N-no way…" Kirishima, Asui and Uraraka were left astonished as they tried to wrap their heads around such a heinous idea.
"We don't know if he is actually selling the bullets. At their current stage, their efficacy still seems to be too uncertain. However, if they are at the test stage, and he is using them as samples to bring more people and funds to his cause… even if we have no hard proof, you all can imagine what a completed drug that destroys Quirks will do to our society." Nighteye explained the urgency of the investigation.
"Just thinkin' it makes my blood boil! Let's go find him right now!" Fat Gum angrily voiced his opinion on the matter.
One of the pros was about to speak something, but a timid, shaky hand called for attention.
Amajiki Tamaki almost broke when he realized that all eyes in the room were upon him.
"We… may actually have… found our proof…" the timid teenager spoke with difficulty.
"Tamaki, what are you talking about!?" Fat Gum turned sharply towards his intern, surprise visible in his face.
"Ki-Kirishima-kun… after we returned from Kansai that night…" Amajiki gave the hint, hoping that Kirishima would pick up and explain everything in his place.
Kirishima stared at his senior for a second as he still processed everything that happened in that meeting.
Suddenly he got up to his feet and rushed to find his cellphone.
He was one call away from either confirming or denying all the tension regarding this girl named Eri.
-.
September 17th, Saitama Prefecture, Saitama City, Nishi Ward, 0950.
Today was the big day. The investigation led by Detective Tanuma had led the heroes to a riverside complex in the neighboring prefecture and now they were on their way to meet with the members of the police force in order to begin the operation.
The last few days at Edgeshot's agency were partially taken by intense training. Nothing about pushing further into Machibuse's assassination technique; Kamihara decided that it wasn't his place to push the student forward in that area, but instead he choose to make sure that every other aspect of Machibuse's arsenal was on par with his real hand-to-hand fighting ability. Stealth, mobility, fighting fundamentals and, most importantly, self-restraint. Kamihara would make sure to, at every possible moment, to force Machibuse to be on the edge of his control.
One minor thing had gotten on White Rider's way however.
"Maybe something nice and shiny? Or maybe a nice dress… no, scratch the dress idea. Weather is turning cold soon, so get something for she would wear during winter?" Mt. Lady was unstoppable.
White Rider had been innocent enough to ask for suggestions for Momo's birthday gift.
That was about ten minutes ago, and since then Mt. Lady had been just bombarding him with ideas, even taking the time to point out where he could buy what.
"You really shouldn't take her advice on relationships…" Kamui Woods commented, sounding mildly tired about the noise as he continued to drive. Both he and Mt. Lady were at the front seats while White Rider and Vine were at the back seats. Edgeshot decided to sit in the trunk of the SUV, and somehow was tuning out everything with meditation as he faced the rear window of the vehicle.
"Come on, any girl would be happy with any of my suggestions." Mt. Lady defended herself.
"But all of those are things she could create with her Quirk." White Rider pointed out, now regretting ever asking for suggestions in the first place.
"Wait… she can just will a diamond into existence? How come she isn't a millionaire with a Quirk like that?" Mt. Lady snapped her head back, a clear glint of envy in her eyes.
"She already is. Using her Creation to make money would be redundant." White Rider clarified.
"Thankfully such a power has been bestowed upon someone that understands her responsibilities." Vine added, thankful that the conversation was heading to a close.
"So you are stuck trying to find a gift for someone who by default has everything she could possibly want." Mt. Lady concluded, doing her best to push past the injustices of Quirk society where one was born with the power to have everything and the other was just capable of getting very big.
"Give her something that goes beyond material value." Kamui Woods gave his honest opinion on the matter.
"Well, aren't you cheesy?" Mt. Lady teased with a grin.
Fortunately something came up to finally bury the topic.
Tsugaru music, coming from White Rider's pocket.
"Emergency call?" the intern asked confusedly as he fished the device from his pocket, a quick read of the message Kirishima had just sent signaled that things were not well.
People in the car became silent for a moment.
"Kirishima-san, something happened?" Machibuse asked as he took the call.
"Machibuse! The drug that was shot on Amajiki! What was it made of!?" Kirishima quickly fired off the question.
"The police's examination is already done, correct?" Machibuse assumed. By the sound of Kirishima's voice the results were either as good as his diagnosis or the picture was just clear enough to make the possibility come up.
"Its… human blood." Kirishima responded bitterly.
Machibuse was silent for a moment.
"It's a young girl's. Less than eight years old, given the low hormonal load… The sample also had absurd levels of cortisol, so she certainly has been under high levels of stress, both physical and mental, for quite a while." he gave the full diagnosis.
"Shit, shit… you sure about that?" Kirishima asked for confirmation.
"My diagnosis is still a technique in development, so there is still an overall error margin of one point four per cent." Machibuse informed, mildly inconvenienced by the difficulty of perfecting that aspect of his Quirk.
"Right, thank you…" Kirishima thanked before hanging up. His voice was troubled, very much so. Machibuse never had heard him like this.
The four other people in the car were still silent, the unspoken question hanging in the air.
"One of my classmates is interning under BMI Hero: Fat Gum. A couple of days ago he asked for my help when one of our upperclassmen ended up being hit with an unknown drug, and now he wanted my confirmation about what the police found out. Turns out that the drug had traces of human blood." White Rider explained, keeping the likely confidential details for now.
"From a child?" Edgeshot asked, now turning his head around.
"It was the result of my analysis. But I am afraid that I know little beyond that." the intern responded with a very subtle nod that he knew Kamihara would pick up on.
Edgeshot just turned his attention towards the window he had been facing since leaving the agency.
"We should arrive in a few minutes; the river is just two or three blocks away." Kamui Woods informed, prompting White Rider to begin reviewing his gear. This likely would be the last big mission before he turned in his bow to Hatsume for the upgrades she had mentioned.
Took the group a hundred and fifty seconds to reach their destination.
The target building was in plain view on the other side of the river, and stationed inside a store that seemed inconspicuous enough, just a few meters from the bridge the group would need to cross, was a detachment of about thirty people from the police department alongside a duo of local pros.
"Good to see you guys. It is going to be a busy morning…" Detective Tanuma greeted the main force behind today's operation.
"What is the situation, Detective?" Edgeshot asked.
"Not a very good, I'd say. Those guys apparently got spooked by something lately, so they are going around the place with a lot of firepower. The compound they are holed in used to be a small textile manufacturer, filed for bankruptcy about sixteen months ago. The building itself and the machines in there are tangled up in some legal mumbo jumbo, so people from the area never suspected about the guys coming in and out every two or three weeks to check on things. Turns out that our guys had been posing as agents from the prefecture employed to maintain the building while the case is open… they likely went through a lot of trouble to set up this bankruptcy situation, there were a lot of co-owners to that place, some even attesting to live abroad, and that meant that there were a bunch of contradictory testimonies and random accusations meant to drag the case for as long as possible." the detective explained, taking a small break in his speech to roll open the plant to the compound.
"Why would criminals file for bankruptcy like this?" Vine asked as she took a closer look at the map presented to her.
"People would start talking if they never saw any signs of activity inside a manufacturer that size and is not uncommon for both heroes and police to check up on abandoned buildings, and they wouldn't be able to turn on the lights without drawing attention. By using legal means to close the building and then posing as people related to the case to get in and out they managed to avoid both scenarios. Quite an ingenious little trick if you ask me." Detective Tanuma explained.
"And how our suspects were found out?" White Rider now was the one asking, eyes also going over the map.
The main building was large, about the size of a football pitch, and was divided into three floors interconnected by an industrial sized elevator and one set of stairs on each of the wider sides of the building. Ground level was mostly open in order to fit the larger machines, with the level above being comprised mostly by a catwalk that led to a large office that oversaw the machines below. The remaining floor was segmented into various rooms, that on paper seemed like they would be used for storage, but with criminals residing in that place it was easy to imagine that those were repurposed to be used as rooms for two to four people.
The property also had a small parking lot, with one truck and three civilian cars marked on the map, and a small sentry box by the main gate.
"Those two were on patrol duty two days ago when they spotted the truck going in, wasn't long before armed people began moving things inside the building." Detective Tanuma explained, now motioning towards the duo of local heroes.
"We actually live not too far from here, and that night was the first time I had ever seen a truck going in there. The fact that it was almost midnight made things suspicious, so we stood the night to keep an eye out for trouble." one of the heroes explained.
"Those guys even went through the extra effort of closing out the nearby storm drains with steel fences for some reason last night. But they don't seem to leave the building during the day." another added.
"They are shutting themselves in for some reason." Kamui Woods concluded.
"Makes our job easier if they can't escape through the sewers." Mt. Lady pointed out the benefits.
"Very well. We'll leave the lockdown under your care then, cut the most likely escape routes in case someone gets out into the street. It is not the most glamorous position, but it is a task I can only trust to you." Edgeshot began laying the strategy as he addressed the duo.
"Right!" the duo responded in unison.
"I will breach the building from above and clear the rooms; Kamui Woods and Vine will assist about ten of you to reach the roof of the building, so you can come with me. After that they will join Mt. Lady and breach the ground level alongside the remainder of the police force. Take control of this side of the building first, this way we can prevent the criminals from reaching the parking lot." he added, now turning his attention towards the police detachment and all but one of the members of his team.
The response from the larger group was also a positive, a mix of "yessirs" and "rogers" that soon was followed by a group of volunteers from the police force accepting the task of breaching through the top floor.
"Rider, the second floor will provide you with a vantage point to assist on taking control of the ground floor. Think you can clear the main office and secure the floor by yourself? We need the catwalks under control before the main force can push through, and the control room for the cameras is most likely located there as well." Edgeshot finally concluded his plan, his focus now on his intern.
"Yes, Sir!" White Rider responded firmly.
"Good. We will breach both the top and ground floors at once the moment you give us the signal." Edgeshot cleared the last small detail.
There was a small pause, the last few moments before the storm.
"Let's do it then. Kid, you're up." Edgeshot set the operation in motion.
White Rider gave a short nod and quickly headed out towards the bridge.
"You sure place a lot of trust on that one." Detective Tanuma commented as the door closed.
"He may not be the fastest or the strongest around, but it is hard to find someone as skilled as him when it comes down to covert operations. He will likely come to surpass my stealth in a few of years, and not only because he is more ingenious than me." Edgeshot explained, his only visible eye following the hooded teenager across the bridge.
White Rider continued walk casually across the bridge between home base and the target. Running wasn't a good idea given that if there were people behind the windows of the compound they would come to suspect something if they spotted a hero running.
Once he reached the other side of the river, the teen calmly crossed the street and moved away from the target. As soon as he was out of sight he jumped down into the riverbank and now hurried towards his destination.
A tall concrete wall stood between the hero in training and the compound.
Two steps back.
One deep breath.
White Rider ran towards the barrier and soon was about to reach the top edge. He slowed down, now pressing both his hands against the concrete just under the point of no return.
Slowly he peeked over the edge. The parking lot was devoid of people but there were as pair of security cameras perched on the opposing wall. The criminals were being careful about something, so neutralizing a camera would risk the operation as someone could come to check on a missing feed. He dropped from the wall, it was a bad angle of attack so he would need to circle the compound to find a better entry point.
Two more times he went trough the same motions in order to find a weakness, and third time was the charm: There were still security cameras, but one of them was clearly out of order as indicated by the bird's nest resting on it.
"I've just cleared the outer wall. No signs of movement on the external areas, but there are two cameras on the wall facing towards the river. One of the cameras on the north side of the building is down and there are no windows that face the entry point." White Rider informed over the com as he jumped down and quickly pressed his back against the wall.
There was an access ladder on the outside of the building, but it was clearly rusted and poorly maintained. He would be better off climbing.
Soon enough the hero in training reached the edge of the roof. As usual he peeked before heading in.
Not that he needed to do it this time, as he could hear people mumbling. Two men, not carrying any visible weapons. Both were slumped against the metallic structure of the unused machinery vents on the roof.
Four bottles of cheap beer were tossed around near them.
Morale in the enemy camp was very low apparently.
White Rider slowly crossed over the railing on the edge of the roof. It was time to kick them while they were down.
One arrow loaded.
One arrow released.
"Hey, slug-breath!"
Both targets quickly jumped to their feet.
Unaware, both were quickly tagged from behind by the Chelicerae and were paralyzed on the floor less than five seconds later.
White Rider took his time to retrieve his Speaker Arrow before knocking both out and then dragging their unconscious forms behind vents.
"I am inside the building; the roof access is unlocked. I left two hostiles behind the vents, tied them both with their belts and they will be out for a while." he informed over the com once more.
"Good job, continue straight for your objective. We are already moving towards the compound from the north side." Edgeshot responded.
"Roger."
Each step was made with care. White Rider had the luck to run into a single hostile heading towards his smoke break. Quickly disarmed of his lighter and cigarette box and sent into slumber... Biggest issue had been actually carrying that one back towards where the other two were sleeping.
There were a few more voices on the third floor, so the invader took the opportunity to eavesdrop. Free intel should never be ignored.
"So, what'as the body count again? Ten?" one of the criminals asked, this one clearly drunk.
"Twelve, the two guys that managed to escaped died in the hospital." Another voice responded tiredly.
There was a groan as a something moved around the corner.
"Keep an eye on him, I gotta take a leak and I really don't want to deal with this guy breaking anything just because he is hammered." a third voice approached, this one sounded big.
White Rider quickly snapped his head back, the bathroom door behind him.
Target incoming.
The massive man turned the corner, partially unzipping his jeans as he made it towards the toilet.
Nothing but an empty hallway.
Not empty actually, someone had dropped a crumpled one-thousand-yen bill on the floor.
Lucky find.
The man continued on his quest for relief, unaware of the hooded figure clinging to the ceiling above and just barely out of view from his eyes, focused on the money down below.
Close call.
White Rider dropped down quietly once the bathroom door was finally closed. Onwards to the objective.
"Update: There is a third criminal sleeping on the rooftop now. Enemy morale is very low, they apparently lost twelve people recently. I have found one drunk in the top floor and there are empty bottles scattered around the area, so maybe there are more heavy drinkers in here." White Rider whispered over the com.
He had reached the catwalks, people were scattered around the ground floor, about twenty hostiles. Most were engaged in chit-chat, some were playing cards, all had weapons within arm's length.
"So this is why they were on a hurry to move. Someone must've kicked them out of their territory." Kamui Woods theorized.
"Aaanyway, how is your journey coming along? We are waiting by the wall already." Mt. Lady asked, a little impatient to get into action.
"I am crossing the catwalk now. We should be clear to move into the next phase as soon as I get inside the office." White Rider responded, crouched low to the ground as he inched closer to his destination.
"Kamui Woods and Vine, get our people in position." Edgeshot gave the order.
"So, how exactly do you plan on getting in there?" Mt. Lady asked, her com picking up some extra noise as action began.
White Rider took a minute or two to respond, he had been trying to figure out how many people were inside that office by pressing his ear against the door. Three different voices in total, but there surely were more people in there.
In the meantime he began loading his Explosive Arrow with a knock-out drug.
"I have learned a few secret techniques from Edgeshot." he responded, his voice mildly amused.
"What?" multiple people inquired.
The trainee cleared his throat and knocked on the door.
"Oi, the guys are thinking about ordering pizza, from that Pizza-La store that opened downtown. Y'all gonna want some?" White Rider spoke loudly as he knocked the arrow on his bow. His voice even cracked during the stunt.
"…I can't tell if I'm feeling proud or disappointed." Edgeshot admitted after a short silence in their frequency.
Kamui Woods did his best to not laugh.
"Is this some inside joke I'm not into?" Mt. Lady asked, puzzled about that unexpected sequence.
"I'm afraid we both are… The police force is already in position." Vine informed, her tone still serious, even if a little confused.
The door to the office opened.
The arrow immediately flew in.
"Phase one completed." White Rider informed as he watched the criminals recoiling from the sudden impact, including the one guy sitting at the security station where the camera feeds were being displayed.
"On the count of five!" Edgeshot gave the order.
White Rider quickly kicked the man that had opened the door backwards and rushed inside.
A total of six people were inside the office. Four of them would be hitting the ground within the next twenty seconds, three who clearly got struck by the blast and the unfortunate doorman, who was still recovering.
"Four!"
The one closer to the security terminal rushed back to ring the alarm.
"Three!"
The hero in training vaulted over the fallen doorman, using his opponent's shoulders to springboard forward.
"Two!"
One of the criminals who managed to escape the blast pointed a finger at the hooded figure that attack them, a faint red glow building up at the end of the digit.
"One!"
White Rider twisted in the air as a thin beam of red light whizzed over his head and impacted the wooden wall, leaving a small burn mark. Quickly adjusting his momentum, the invader rolled forward and kicked, successfully tripping the man that tried to reach for the alarm.
"Go!"
There was a thundering sound outside the office as Mt. Lady kicked the gate to the ground floor open.
Gunfire filled the air for an instant as vines and branches reached out for the criminals.
The last criminal in the office, the one standing the furthest from the door, threw himself behind a desk after picking something up from a box near the wall.
White Rider quickly rolled to his feet as he continued to evade the red laser. Each shot took about a second to charge up, so it was just a matter of leading the enemy aim away. Luckily being hard to predict was something that the intern had on his skillset.
One weave to the left.
One feint to the right.
In an instant he was already in close range and with a swift kick to the wrist he gained the definitive upper hand.
Before the laser Quirk user managed to pull his aim back down, the attacker took hold of his arm with one hand, Chelicerae springing into action, as the other gripped the criminal by the collar of his shirt.
The man's back was impacting the floor before he even knew, air forcefully being knocked out of his lungs. By the time he managed to get back to his feet the drug would've kicked in.
One hostile remained.
White Rider turned his attention towards the desk.
His eyes shoot wide open as he realized that the desk was being hurled in his direction.
He threw himself onto the floor, reaching for his back when he realized what was about to happen.
The man that had begun the fight by hiding away now had a vial of Trigger stuck to the side of his bulging neck. By now he was a mass of purplish muscle ready to charge forward.
The teen reacted by tossing a handful of caltrops between himself and his opponent.
The drug-boosted enemy charged forward, to high to even feel the metal spikes puncturing the soles of his shoes as he ran. That was if the caltrops managed to pierce his skin through the footwear.
The teen barely had time to roll away as his opponent crashed violently into the wall, leaving a hole to the outside world.
"What is happening up there?" Mt. Lady asked alarmed.
"One of the hostiles is on Trigger. My chemicals should be able to put him down once his system returns to normal, but I need to stall for time." White Rider responded, now back on his feet and his bow at ready.
"We got two of those here in the top floor, shouldn't take long to deal with them…" Edgeshot informed, but someone interrupted him with an immediate solution.
"Send this sinner my way." Vine rose to the challenge.
"I might just take you up on that offer, ma'am. Eyes up!" White Rider agreed, now making a run for the window that oversaw the ground floor.
The crazed enemy pried himself from the wall and prepared to charge again.
An arrow flew through the glass and into the ceiling above, and soon after the villain bursted through the office wall and into the empty space between the catwalks.
Vaulting over was White Rider, one of his Wire Arrows now firmly anchoring him to the floor above. He reached for the satchel on his lower back and picked up as many caltrops as his hand could hold.
"Vine!" he shouted, now throwing the metallic spikes down before jumping away.
Vine was quick to pick up on the plan, her hair now wrapping around the falling enemy whilst also picking up the caltrops coated in White Rider's knock-out drug. The struggling villain would be left with no choice between standing still and being restrained or trying to fight his way out and fall prey to the caltrops.
"Nachash." she proclaimed after a moment to think.
The man trapped into the vines soon ran out of juice.
"The serpent from the Garden of Eden. Really?" White Rider asked tiredly as he swung lazily upside down, the cable wrapped around his leg. The fight now over.
"It was a deceitful and venomous attack, Horse of Plague. Certainly has fitting name now." Vine explained her choice.
The only response she received was a deep sigh, as apparently now Machibuse had a combination super move.
The entire phase two of the operation was over in just one hundred and fifty seconds. A total of thirty-two people were arrested and two-hundred and fourteen vials of Trigger apprehended. Now it was a matter of having the police interrogating the criminals in order to find out what happened and where their Tokyo warehouse was.
"Need any help getting down from there, Rider?" Edgeshot asked as he made his way onto the catwalks.
"Permission to break protocol, Sir?" White Rider asked.
"Granted."
"I can get down just fine, but if someone would be kind enough to help I wouldn't be against it. One of these guys has my lunch money and I want it back."
-.
September 17th, Tokyo, Location Unknown, 2305.
A stream of blue flames filled the dinky alleyway.
Dabi gritted his teeth as he watched the thing that had shown up to mess with his business clawing it's way up into a wall. The jerky and erratic motions made it seem a lot less dangerous than it was.
"The hell is wrong with this thing?" the villain asked out loud despite the fact that he was the only one in that alley.
The only one alive that is. Dabi's usual job of prospecting members for the League of Villains had led him to a few people that night when the seemingly defective Nomu jumped out from the gutter and began tearing the small bunch of criminals gathered in the shadows.
Dabi surely would've turned them into burning corpses, so it wasn't really a big loss for him.
It was just that the damn thing wanted to rip him to shreds as well.
Nomu always looked weird, but that one was just off. Lanky and emaciated, it stood at around two and a half meters tall, but the hunchback posture lightly crooked to the right made it hard to say for sure. It's oily jet-black skin was riddled with small holes, almost like someone had hammered a dozen of climbing pitons all over it. It also had about a dozen more spikes embedded into it's flesh, light brown colored spikes of various sizes, some clearly going through vital parts of the human anatomy such as through the exposed brain and into the back of the head. The holes surely had been caused by those. The back of it's right calf apparently had been bitten off by a shark or something else with a wide mouth filled with sharp teeth, bleached bone clearly visible through the deep wound.
All in all it looked like it had gone through a few rounds inside the world's angriest blender.
The Nomu had very long arms with two elbows each, so long in fact that it had to drag it's hands across the floor when it walked only on its legs, and each hand was gifted with a set of five claws, each about as long as a man's forearm.
It's mouth was a gaping maw with rows of mismatched, jagged teeth and a single dimly lit lump at the tip of its tongue, almost like an anglerfish. Now stained with blood from the unfortunate criminals it had attacked.
And most importantly, the thing stank to high hell. It had a pungent smell of brine mixed with ammonia and fish, and the fact that the creature had been dwelling in the sewers didn't help either.
The Nomu leashed out, claws swinging wildly and leaving deep gouges into the brick walls of the alleyway.
Dabi countered with a wall of fire to halt the advance.
In the distance the familiar sounds of heroes and police arriving caused the villain to make a hasty escape after one final attack that had more to do with burning up the corpses and possible evidence than killing the rogue Nomu.
The last thing Dabi managed to see through the flames was the Nomu spearing one of the less burnt corpses with one of its hands before diving back inside the sewers with the fruits of its work.
The villain hastily moved to a secure location and before long had managed to find a phone booth far enough away from that alley.
Dabi quickly punched the numbers into the dial.
"Oi Spinner, ask the boss if he wouldn't happen to know about a crazy Nomu living in the sewer, yeah?"
…
..
.
AN: So here we go, this might be the last chapter of the year. I may be able to squeeze another one after Christmas, but if that isn't the case I hope you all have a merry whatever it is that you celebrate.
Never really expected to see something I began writing on a whim making it from January through December. I will try to get some more art to celebrate, I'm thinking about the shitty Nomu and Hakame.
See you all next chapter.