Serena hit the ground hard, her body covered in cloth bindings. She tried to absorb the impact of the fall but was unable to do so. She could distinctly feel the absence of her quirk as the pain from the fall jolted through her. She felt a surge of panic as she realized she was tied up, but forced it down, she was growing used to these bindings and their owner, so her usual panic attacks caused by being tied up were becoming easier to suppress. Still, it was about half a minute before she was in a mental state where Eraserhead felt it appropriate to speak to her.
"You're still sloppy" Eraserhead said as he stared down at Serena, his eyes glowing red as his quirk suppressed hers, the cloth bindings were his special support item, moving almost as if telekinetically controlled. Serena had asked him how they worked, but he'd said it was a trade secret.
"I can't help it, you're a master of stealth, and I don't have an easy way to tell once my quirk's been erased" Serena grumbled "beating you in these little practice bouts probably isn't going to happen."
It was two days into the internship with Eraserhead, and Serena was growing frustrated with him. He'd insisted on using sparring matches in one of the school's urban recreation zones to practice her stealth tactics against a master. The goal was simply to get the drop on him and land one blow, but while her stealth capabilities had improved immensely, she was nowhere close to overtaking him. After each loss he'd go over what she did wrong and refine her technique, but it still felt like she wasn't learning much.
"The goal isn't for you to win, its for you to lose less" Eraserhead sighed, "even if you can't land a blow on me, if you could at least hide from me and avoid me I'd feel a lot better about taking you into the field."
"If I were in the field with my newest model of support equipment, I could hide much better" Serena said. "My armor is designed for the kind of work I want to do. It's not just for show, there's noise dampeners, camouflage cloaking, batteries to charge up my quirk in a pinch, thermal dampening to hide from infrared sensors, and more."
"Support items are just that, support." Eraserhead said "if you can't function without them, you have room to improve. What if you're in a situation where you either don't have them, or they're broken, and you still need to tail a villain? Are you just going to throw up your hands and give up because you don't have your gadgets to shore up your lack of skill?"
Serena grit her teeth, it was difficult to argue with this man. He operated almost entirely on cold hard logic and facts. And he made good points, she couldn't let herself become dependent on support items. She needed to be able to function on her own without them as well.
"Even so, there's only so much I can learn from losing to you over and over." Serena argued "evolving conditions in a live scenario would make for much better training. Besides this scenario is unrealistic, it's illogical to think it'd be just me and one opponent in an empty city. I can show off my stealth skills better in a real city with crowds and stuff."
Eraserhead undid the bindings on Serena, letting the girl get back to her feet. "You make a fair point, live training would be faster, and this setup isn't entirely realistic. However you've yet to show you have experience blending in with crowds and the like. As a teacher and mentor, I can't risk you getting in over your head with real villains."
"Trust me, experience being stealthy is the one thing I have no shortage of" Serena said bluntly. She felt the back of her hands absent-mindedly, drawing Eraserhead's gaze to her gloved hands.
"I see, your file did mention you have a bit of a checkered past" Eraserhead said, looking back up to meet Serena's eyes. "I trust this is why you're so confident you'll be fine in the field then."
Serena nodded "getting caught wasn't exactly an option then. Believe me if there's one thing I know how to do, it's run and hide. If things get hairy, and it looks like we can't handle it, escaping will be easy for me."
Eraserhead nodded slowly "show me then, traverse this training city from one end to the other as quickly as you can, I'll chase you, holding back a bit and not using my cloths so as to be more on par with an average criminal or villain. Get to the other side without me tagging you, and I'll accept that you're ready for patrols after all"
Serena nodded, and the two of them went to one end of the city to begin her run. The moment the timer started she ran towards a stack of boxes in an alleyway, using them as steps to spring up to a fire escape ladder, the using that to get to the roof of the building Eraserhead followed behind using his cloths to move around and observe her. He gave her a bit of a head start and didn't pursue her seriously for the time being. He just wanted to see what she'd do.
Serena moved with grace obtainable only through endless repetition as she ran to the edge of the roof and jumped between rooftops. She got through a couple of blocks before that strategy became ineffective due to the size difference of the buildings. If she'd wanted she could've used her quirk to make the jump anyway, but the point was to show her skills, not her quirk. She jumped down into the alley below her, using window ledges and balconies to hop down like steps, bouncing between the two buildings on either side of her. She grabbed the corner of a building as she descended and whipped around into another alleyway, landing smoothly and breaking into a sprint with no lag time at all.
Serena wasn't just sprinting randomly though, she'd been through these city blocks enough times in her matches with Eraserhead to know where certain things were, she darted past a discarded metal rod and snatched it off the top of a crate without breaking her stride, then jammed it into another stack of crates she was running past, using it as a lever to make the stack collapse, blocking Eraserhead's path as he ran behind her. Serena ran onward, unhindered by her actions. If one wasn't looking closely at what she'd done, they might conclude the stack had collapsed on its own, for all the effect knocking it over had on her momentum.
Eraserhead had to acknowledge the cleverness of leading him to this specific alley, since he wasn't using his cloths to maneuver, this was actually a half decent obstruction. In a real scenario, she'd probably make it to a crowded street and slip into the crowds, making it much harder to pursue her. Of course, if she was wearing a hero outfit as striking as hers was meant to be, then picking her out of a crowd would be much easier. Still, pushing past all the other civilians would be difficult, and she was undoubtably good as slipping through them if she'd lived on the streets.
This wasn't a real situation though, so he wasn't letting her off. He climbed over the obstruction and set after her. It took a while for him to catch up, needing to listen for her footsteps as she ran to figure out where she'd gone, but he soon found her on a main road, jumping between awnings and cars.
The chase continued for several minutes before Serena found another way to obstruct her pursuer. She found a large wooden pole, grabbing it and using it to vault onto one of the smaller buildings, then pulling it up after her so it couldn't be used to pursue her. From there she made it onto another fire escape and got onto a larger building.
"Not bad… by the time I find a way back to the rooftops she could go anywhere and find a hiding spot." Eraserhead as he slowed his pace to a stop "if I were an average villain, she'd have lost me… so then, how will she fare if I'm not?"
Now the chase was on for real, Eraserhead latched onto the fire escape with his cloths, pulling himself onto the building. He closed the gap between himself and Serena quickly using them after that, as she'd lessened her pace, thinking herself safe for the moment and using the opportunity to catch her breath.
"Oh come on you said you wouldn't use them you cheater" Serena grumbled as she jumped over the edge of a building and escaped his line of sight. The moment she was out of sight she kicked off the wall behind her and used her quirk to shoot herself up into the sky, soaring over the next building at high speed like a human rocket. Even if he erased her quirk while she was flying, her momentum would remain. "If you're going to use those things, I'm not holding my quirk back either." She shouted back at him.
Serena timed her fall to land behind a billboard, absorbing the impact of her fall safely, then using it to spring forward. Now that she had a proper angle for her spring, she shot forward and covered a lot more distance, giving her enough of a gap between herself and her pursuer to duck behind a power box on a building. There was electricity flowing through the wires, and that's just what she needed now. Grabbing a wire, Serena absorbed her fill of energy before Eraserhead could get her back in his line of sight.
"Let's see you catch me now" Serena said as she jumped down into the alleyway, expending her remaining kinetic energy to land quickly, and absorbing the fall to land smoothly. Then she broke into a run, the electricity flowing through her body enhancing her speed greatly. She hadn't had a lot of time to experiment with her newfound electricity absorption yet, but she knew that the more energy she had running through her, the faster she moved, and the harder she could hit. It supercharged her muscles and reaction times. It was far more efficient than directly enhancing her speed with bursts of kinetic energy, allowing her to have sustained high speed movement and save her energy for attacking. In this case, she was saving it for making sharp turns around corners as she sprinted at top speed.
Eraserhead soon found himself falling further and further behind, even going at top speed across the rooftops he couldn't easily get his eyes on Serena long enough to erase her quirk. She might have been far worse at their stealth battles than he was, but he had to admit, she was definitely faster.
The chase ended not long after Serena got her energy charged up, the two of them racing through the city area at high speeds with ease. Serena was out of breath as she made it to the other side, but Eraserhead was still several seconds behind her. He hadn't even broken a sweat yet, but there was no denying she'd outrun him.
"Fine then, go get your hero outfit on, we're going to do field training next" Eraserhead said "but there's going to be some ground rules. You're going to do exactly as I say without question, and if things go south, you are to run away and leave it to me unless I say otherwise."
Serena nodded, she rather doubted things would go wrong regardless, so agreeing to those terms was easy enough. She bolted off to the changing room to go get her outfit on, it was time for some real action. She'd been itching for the chance to beat up some criminals ever since the incident with Darwin. Her frustration over what happened had been mostly dispelled by Ayane and the others, but not all of it. She was sure she'd feel much better after laying down some well-deserved beatdowns on a few lowlifes.
- Downtown slums -
"I'm sure you're aware of this, but places like this are the best place to find villains hanging around causing trouble." Eraserhead said as he and Serena looked down into a dimly lit alleyway "right now we've got a tip that a drug deal is about to go down. Psychedelic stuff, mostly harmless, but highly addictive, seems this drug is getting popular with small time dealers who use it to hook young teens and ease them onto the harder stuff."
"Sounds about par for the course for these kinds of areas" Serena sighed "so we planning on busting the deal?"
"Depends on who shows, if the supplier doesn't send one of their own guys then yes." Eraserhead said "if one does show though, we let it go through and tail him back to his base."
Serena nodded, then frowned "if we do that though the buyer will get away with his purchase and use it to hook innocents. Even if taking out the source is more important we can't ignore that."
"You're thinking is correct" Eraserhead said "naturally as heroes it is our duty to ensure innocents are protected. Logically speaking, we can protect more by shutting down the whole operation, but we would be remiss to not do anything at all about the immediate issue. That's why you're going to use this."
Eraserhead tossed Serena a tracking device and a hand crossbow "you're an archer, right? Nail the buyer with that when he tries to leave. The police will follow that signal and catch him before he gets far."
Serena loaded her shot into the provided weapon and nodded. Typically, she used a longbow, but she was a decent shot with a crossbow too, and her face mask had plenty of sensors to give her better visibility and help her make the shot easier than Eraserhead could.
It wasn't long before their marks came onto the scene, two groups of men met in the center of the alley and handed off a briefcase to each other. They were all dressed in black suits with red ties, and the briefcases were both silver, with no noticeable exterior features.
"They're smart, using identical cases to make it hard to tell who's the dealer and the buyer if they're being watched." Eraserhead commented "same for their outfits, these guys have been in the business a while."
"I'm on it" Serena said, activating sensors in her mask and scanning the cases. They were shielded against X-rays and other means of looking inside the case, rendering her efforts mostly futile. Infrared vision detected a larger heat signature coming from one of them however.
"Does the drug need to be temperature controlled at all?" Serena asked
Eraserhead nodded "to maintain quality, it's best to keep it heated slightly above room temperature."
"The guys on the left are the dealers then" Serena said "the case they brought is radiating more heat. I can't confirm the contents since its shielded against other forms of scanning, but that's all we have to go on.
"You can read their body language too, the ones on the right are much more tense, it's easy to tell who the top dogs in this relationship are" Eraserhead said "the way they walk, the way they stand, you need to learn to read those things as well."
Serena nodded, observing the signs pointed out to her. On closer inspection, she could practically see them sweating through their suits, hands twitching nervously towards their weapons or displaying the beginning signs of their quirk activating. Eraserhead had noticed this immediately, but she hadn't seen it at all until it was pointed out to her. She supposed that was the difference between a pro and a student.
"We're following the dealer, shoot the tracer" Eraserhead said.
Serena lifted the crossbow and aimed, she needed to hit somewhere the bug could stick to without alerting the target. If she hit him in the wrong spot the impact would alert him, but she also had to be careful it wouldn't accidentally get crushed. She aimed carefully, then fired the bug. It shot through the air silently, then latched onto the man's pant leg on a fold of cloth, the loose fabric's movement as it latched on not drawing any attention.
"Good work, the police will take care of that group." Eraserhead said, motioning for Serena to follow him "now come on, we've got a dealer to track."
The two of them followed the group of dealers as they wound their way through a maze of alleys and shortcuts, staying well out of sight. The dealers were careful to check their surroundings and make sure they weren't being followed, but with Eraserhead's signals to Serena they both evaded detection. He knew exactly when to move and when to hide, he might as well have been invisible to them.
Eventually the dealers ducked into an abandoned warehouse, and two of them stood outside to stand guard at the door. Eraserhead signaled for Serena to stop, and led her back from the ledge.
"What are we waiting for? We've got them now! Let's go bust some heads!" Serena said, slamming her fist into her palm and cracking her knuckles.
"We need to go in with a plan, think about it rationally, we know far too little to go in recklessly." Eraserhead sighed "we don't know the layout of the building, how many enemies there are, what quirks they have, or what weapons they're packing."
Serena pouted behind her mask, she was raring to go and ready to fight, but she grudgingly admitted that charging in blindly was probably a bad idea. "I suppose they might have a secret escape route too…" she muttered "if we set off the alarms the head honchos might sneak off."
Eraserhead nodded "correct, so first we take out those guards by the door and 'ask' them to fill us in on the situation. You have nonlethal arrows I presume?"
Serena nodded and pulled out her bow and a stun arrow, it packed enough electric charge to drop even the most sturdy of mutant types, with adjustable voltage so she didn't kill less sturdy targets.
"Take the one on the right, fire the moment I snare the other one." Eraserhead said, "and not a moment sooner, got it?"
Serena nodded, and Eraserhead moved into position, erasing the quirk of his target and sending out his cloths to capture the man. The other's arms turned into blades on reflex to try and cut his buddy free before he was pulled away, but Serena fired her arrow and hit him in the back, knocking him unconscious in an instant.
"Good, now while I interrogate this one, go hide that one's body and make sure nobody else comes out without being knocked out immediately" Eraserhead said.
Serena dropped down from the building and ran over to the unconscious guard to drag him away, absorbing the impact of the fall in order to land completely silently. It occurred to her that in a situation like this, absorbing the impact for each footstep would enable her to move about quietly even going at full speed. It was a strategy she'd need to practice later.
She went over to the guard and reached down to pick him up, but as her hand touched his shoulder he lunged for her, grabbing her by the throat and trying to pull her into a punch.
On closer inspection Serena could see an odd discoloration in the man's skin. Evidently, he was a mutant made of some material that resisted electrical shocks, he'd simply faked being brought down in hopes of catching his assailant off guard. He'd succeeded in doing so, but as his fist collided with Serena's facemask it stopped harmlessly, her quirk shutting down his plan entirely.
Serena countered the man's attack with a punch of her own, slamming her fist into his gut with enough force to wind him and prevent him from trying to call out for help. Then while he was immobilized and trying to catch his breath she spun him into a chokehold and squeezed. A few moments later and he was unconscious for real this time, allowing her to drag his body off to a nearby dumpster. She checked his body for any sort of communicators, he hadn't moved from when she'd dropped him, but that didn't mean he hadn't sent a distress signal. On closer inspection, it seemed he did have a device on him for that purpose, but the current passing through him had fried its circuits. Even if he'd tried to raise the alarm, it would've been useless.
With a grunt Serena chucked the man into the dumpster and closed the lid, then found a discarded metal bar to wedge into it and lock the container shut. They could retrieve him later even if he woke up, judging by the strength of his punch he wasn't going to be able to break out of there unaided. With that done she reported back to Eraserhead.
"That was sloppy of you, getting caught off-guard like that, if he'd had a more advantageous quirk to use he'd have gotten you." Eraserhead said as she arrived.
"But he also would've been knocked out without the quirk he had" Serena countered.
"Touché, you handled him well however, your technique has certainly improved since what I observed in the entrance exams." Eraserhead conceded "where is he now?"
"Locked in a dumpster, he might wake up later but he can't hit hard enough to break out. We'll collect him later, his communicator was shot thanks to the arrow, so he didn't signal for help." Serena said, looking at the now thoroughly beat up guard Eraserhead had 'questioned.' "What are we going to do with him?" she asked.
"I administered a knock out drug/painkiller after I got my intel" Eraserhead said as he undid his cloth bindings and tied the man up properly "he'll be out for a good long while, and too numb to get down from here on his own for a few hours after that."
"Roger that, and the base? What're we looking at?" Serena questioned, turning her attention to the unguarded door
"It's a temporary staging area, so not much in the way of defensive structures, they don't set up in one place long enough to warrant the expense" Eraserhead said "in total, there's about 50 guys in the operation, 20 are out on business of some form or another. Main escape route is from the roof, their boss's room has a ladder leading right to the top floor."
"So if we can lock down the roof it'll just be a matter of going in and taking each of them out one by one." Serena said, her facemask setting changing to display a creepy smile. "I'll go lock the door and set up some booby-traps."
"It isn't going to be easy, we're pretty badly outnumbered here. This is a larger operation than I planned on." Eraserhead said "if we get caught indoors there won't be an easy escape for us."
"If you're worried about me, don't be sir." Serena said "We can take it slow and do our best to not get caught, and if push comes to shove and we need to run, this suit isn't just for show. In a worst-case scenario, I've got enough energy available in the form of heating coils and batteries to blow the ceiling and give us a way back to the main floor. Property damage isn't ideal, but this building is abandoned anyway, so it's nothing your hero's insurance can't cover."
"You just don't want me to tell you to stand guard outside don't you?" Eraserhead said, giving Serena a deadpan stare
Serena rubbed the back of her head awkwardly "well… yeah… but it's not like I'm wrong, now am I?"
Eraserhead sighed "you really are a difficult one, fine, but the rule about doing just as I say applies double now."
With that agreement reached Serena got to work setting up her traps on the roof. First she locked the door from the outside, then welded it shut for good measure using the flames from one of her incendiary arrows and a special gel. After that if someone did break through they'd run into a tripwire with a stun grenade and a knockout gas canister. Finally there was a sticky goo placed around the area that would trap the feet of most people once it had been exposed to the air for a bit. Now confident nobody would be getting out through the roof with any degree of ease, she rejoined Eraserhead at the entrance.
"Come to think of it, if we entered through the roof couldn't we use that ladder route to get to their boss directly?" Serena questioned as they pushed the door open
"In theory, but usually there's some form of countermeasures taken to prevent using such tactics, even in hastily formed bases like this." Eraserhead said as he led the way inside.
The two moved slowly, but thoroughly, making their way through the first floor of the building and to the basement entrance, there were a few guards on the main floor, but they were relaxed and lazy, easy to get the drop on and subdue. All together there were about 5 on the floor, leaving 25 targets spread over two basement levels.
Once they got into the basement things became tenser, there was one man in the room they entered, taking inventory of various crates, he tried to turn and fight them, but his quirk was shut down by Eraserhead, and Serena choked him out before he could realize why his quirk wasn't working. The difficult part was ahead, the basement's central room was the manufacturing area, with a walkway around a large open area spanning both floors. At any time, there was liable to be a dozen or more criminals in that room, and there was no way to get to the next floor without going through that room.
They made their way to the door leading to the troublesome room, and Serena checked the hinges. "Rusty, they'll creak for sure, probably intentional on their part." Serena mused as she pondered how best to open the door quietly.
Eraserhead pulled out a small can and oiled the hinges to solve the issue, then put it away in his utility belt. "You're not the only one with items to help with sneaking around" he said "now it's your turn, you've got the active camouflage here. Use that and make sure there's no guards on the walkway to worry about, if we stay near the wall and low to the ground we shouldn't be visible as we make our way through.
Serena nodded and pressed a button on her wrist, it took a few seconds, but soon the color of her armor blurred and melded with her surroundings, leaving her almost completely invisible to the naked eye. Eraserhead could tell she was there because he'd been looking at her before and knew what to look for, but to the average observer not specifically looking for her she'd be nearly undetectable.
Serena made her way through the door and moved slowly along the walkway. She had to be slow and meticulous while her camouflage was active, or the suit wouldn't be able to adjust fast enough. She dampened her footsteps with her quirk, then scouted around. There were about 15 workers on the floor below them, and two bored gunmen on the opposite end of the walkway, leaning against the wall and chatting. They'd be easy to sneak past, but their proximity to the exit door posed a problem, they'd be spotted the moment they tried to move on.
Serena reported her findings back to Eraserhead, but he seemed unconcerned. Producing a bottle and two cloths.
"You just need to knock them out silently, the noise from downstairs should drown them out, sneak up to them and place these over their mouths. Your cloaking should be enough for that if they're not actually looking for you." He explained as he soaked the cloths in chloroform
Serena sighed "you make it sound so easy, but fine, here goes nothing."
Cloths in hand, Serena snuck back out onto the walkway and over to the guards. The closer she got, the more nervous she became. She knew her costume was good at hiding her, and she was being totally silent, but the cloths she was holding had a strong smell not entirely drowned out by the smell of the manufactured drugs permeating the room. She was about 3 steps away from them now, they had to be able to smell it from this distance, but they seemed unaware.
Serena took another careful step forward, two steps away now. Still no reaction from the guards. She stiffened as one of them burst out laughing at something the other said, thinking she'd been discovered, but the two carried on talking as normal.
Another step, she was in range to lunge forward and get them both now, but would they notice her? And if she lunged for it she might miss, and their cover would be blown. She waited tensely, looking for another moment to take her final step, for this last one she wanted both guards to be looking away from her before she moved, as at this range movement would cause subtle distortions as her suit tried to keep up with adjusting the colors hiding her.
It felt like an eternity, waiting for the right moment to move. Serena was sweating so much she was certain it would drip through her suit and give her away, or that her breathing would alert them, or that they'd suddenly move and crash into her. Then, time seemed to slow for her as the moment came, one guard was looking to the right, and the other turned his head towards the left as they made a token visual sweep of the area to do their jobs. The movement of the head seemed so slow to her, but the moment his eye turned far enough away to not detect her she took her final step forward and stood up.
Serena's heart was pounding, she produced the two cloths and reached out her arms, grabbing both men and covering their faces with them. They both let out grunts of surprise and inhaled the chloroform, then fell limp and slid to the ground, guided by Serena as she made sure to not let their impacts make enough noise to give her away.
"It's done, come on" Serena whispered into the radio, then she and Eraserhead made their way into the next room.
The moment the door closed behind them Serena let out a sigh of relief. "I was sure they were going to spot me" she said, removing her mask momentarily to wipe the sweat from her face, then quickly replacing it.
"Such fear is normal, but you mustn't let it stop you. You've done well so far." Eraserhead said.
The two made their way onwards, taking out several rooms of relaxing criminals. They were in the residential part of the base now, and nobody was expecting them. A few were even high on the very drugs they were producing, making them quite easy to subdue. They descended to the bottom floor, with only 15 enemies remaining.
"We're going to have to start a real fight soon sir" Serena said, "there's no way through that production room undetected."
"I'm aware, so I want you to head up to the walkway with your bow, the moment I make my entrance start taking down the ones closest to the door." Eraserhead instructed, "we're going to hit them fast and hard. Then make a beeline through the rest of the floor before their boss can make his escape."
Serena nodded in acknowledgement and went to get into position. It would be several minutes before Eraserhead made his grand entrance, wrapping up two enemies and smashing them together as he charged into the room. Serena shot two arrows quickly as well, taking out two guards standing by the exit door, presumably to keep the rank and file from getting too close to the boss. One went down easily, but the other snatched her arrow out of the air and snapped it in his hands. Then turned and bolted through the door.
"Eraserhead! One's got a speed quirk! He's escaping!" Serena called down.
"Get after him! I'll handle things in here!" Eraserhead yelled back as he erased a quirk and kicked a man in the stomach to knock him over, then bound another and hurled him into a pile of glass equipment, shattering the equipment and dousing the man in nasty chemicals.
Serena wasted no time jumping down from her perch and bolting through the door, one criminal tried to intercept her, but she batted him aside easily, enhancing her speed with electricity from a battery in her suit. She sprinted through a short hallway, rounding the corner in pursuit of the man, and was greeted by a wave of fire from a guard using his quirk. The man was shooting fire from his hands, and another guard was generating wind to fan the flames and intensify them.
"Geez, if this were someone else that'd have killed them." Serena muttered as she absorbed the flames as they touched her and sprinted forward towards her assailants. She was absorbing a lot of kinetic energy very quickly in this situation, enough to put her well above her limit at the start of the school year, but after all the training she'd gone through she was able to handle it with relative ease. She burst through the wall of flames and slammed a fist into the flamethrower man's face, unleashing enough energy to ensure he went down.
The other guard tried to knock Serena away with a powerful gust of wind, but she had more than enough stored energy to power through his efforts and land another blow to take him down as well. She looked at the two unconscious guards, neither of them was the one she'd been chasing. She muttered a curse under her breath and sprinted onwards, if the man had passed these guards and had them set up a defensive line to slow her down, it was safe to assume he'd had time to alert any remaining criminals in the building and start the process of evacuating their boss. Her preparations on the roof would buy her time, but she couldn't afford to wait for Eraserhead anymore.
Serena rounded another corner and came across a heavy metal door that was firmly shut. She wasted no time launching herself into a flying kick and unleashing a blast of kinetic energy to bust it down, making her way into a larger room with a king size bed, tables with various drugs and money scattered across them, and a emergency escape ladder in the back.
"Damn, they're already making a break for it." Serena cursed, then she heard a beeping noise and looked down towards the source, a small rectangular package with a flashing red light was beeping at her feet, the beeping was joined by others around the room. Beeping in unison with the box at her feet, they lit up in rapid succession, about 10 in total spread across the room evenly. The beeping sped up as Serena's eyes widened, then turned into one single continuous tone.
"Oh fuc…" Serena managed to get out before the bombs detonated.
Serena's body was hurled around the room like a ragdoll, carried around by waves of force and fire as the shockwaves of the explosions buffeted her from all sides. At the moment of the blast she blew out all of her stored energy as an omnidirectional shockwave to both temporarily shield her from the blasts, and empty out her stores so she could absorb as much of the remainder as she could manage. She prioritized absorbing the physical impacts of the shockwaves and her impacts with various furniture and walls, counting on her armor to handle the fire and shrapnel. She hadn't had the armor designed to be particularly resilient to fire since normally she would absorb it all herself, but she was confident it would hold up at least briefly in this situation.
Eventually Serena landed on the ground somewhere in the room. Her vision was spinning and she could feel that she likely had more than a few bone fractures from impacts she hadn't been able to fully nullify. Her facemask had fallen off and she wasn't sure where her bow or quiver had gone. She was nauseous from the disorientation being tossed around so violently had caused, and despite her armor she had several nasty burns, and a piece of shrapnel had buried itself in her left shoulder. The armor had stopped it from piercing too deeply, but the piece of debris had still drawn blood and hurt like hell.
Eraserhead rushed into the room shortly after the explosions faded. "Karma, what happened? Are you alright?" he asked quickly, rushing over to Serena
"Remote detonated bombs, I'm fine, quirk handled the brunt of it" Serena grunted "don't worry about me, they're escaping!"
Eraserhead looked over Serena assessing her condition, after confirming she was indeed in no immediate danger he set off after the fleeing criminals, leaving her to tend to her injures on her own for the time being.
Serena leaned back against a scorched wall and grimaced as she grabbed hold of the piece of shrapnel in her shoulder. First thing she needed to do was get that out and disinfect the wound. She grit her teeth and yanked the metal shard out of her shoulder, tossing the bloody scrap away as she got out a disinfectant spray from her belt. Squeezing her eyes shut as tight as she could she sprayed the bottle onto the wound. "Nnnnngh!" she grunted, barely suppressing a scream of pain as the spray entered the wound and stung, compounding the pain of the injury itself with the pain of disinfecting it.
With that task done she patched up her shoulder and relaxed. Ideally, she would've liked to go after Eraserhead to back him up, but she could feel fractures in both legs. She'd need a healing quirk before she was ready to go anywhere in a hurry. The best thing she could do for now was take short rests to deal with the pain and do rudimentary first aid on the injuries she could while waiting for proper help.
"Note to self, next model of the suit needs flame resistance for emergencies" Serena grunted as she got to treating her next injury. She was in for a long night now, all she could hope for was that it would be worth it.
- hours later, UA infirmary -
"Well certainly didn't expect to end up back here again so soon" Serena sighed as she laid in bed and weakly stared at the ceiling. With Recovery Girl's help she'd made a full recovery from her injuries, but the process had left her utterly exhausted.
"That's what happens when you charge blindly into the boss's room without considering he might have set traps" Eraserhead scolded from his seat near the bed
"I didn't have time, their boss had been alerted to the situation and was bound to make an escape attempt, I had to catch up quickly." Serena grumbled
"That's what the roof traps were for, to buy time if that happened, you panicked and made a hasty decision, and now you'll be spending the night healing in bed" Eraserhead retorted.
"But I…" Serena began
"No buts." Eraserhead interjected "you made a mistake, own up to that, or you won't learn anything."
Serena fell quiet, partially to pout, but partially because she knew he was right. She'd rushed in headlong and walked right into a trap that, had she had any other quirk, would've certainly killed her. In hindsight, getting caught by those two guards with their flamethrower combination was a mistake as well. If it had been an ice attack or some kind of poison gas she'd have been in trouble. She rushed around the corner and got nailed and had simply lucked out with it being a fire attack she could absorb.
"That being said, your performance overall was acceptable. And your contributions were what enabled me to capture all of the criminals without issue." Eraserhead said as he got to his feet. "You're a talented young hero, but inexperienced. You have the foundations you need to go pro, so learn from these defeats and build on that."
Serena nodded "right… thanks sir…" she said quietly, her voice barely over a whisper as she felt exhaustion overtaking her.
"Rest now, we will continue your training tomorrow afternoon after you've fully recovered. Don't think you're off the hook because of a few injuries" Eraserhead said
Serena nodded and closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep almost immediately.
Eraserhead left the room and met up with Shin standing outside. "I suppose your presence means you've learned something from the interrogation?" he asked.
Shin nodded "a few somethings actually… For one, as we suspected the dealers were in contact with a mysterious benefactor. The benefactor met their boss in private and left without ever showing their true appearance, and ever since that point they changed tactics and accepted orders and resources from various untraceable sources."
"The M.O. of the Succubus" Eraserhead said "I'd had my doubts about her existence before, but the report from the Darwin incident let us know there was definitely a villain going around using that title. Now this, there's still no hard evidence though."
"I think there might be. The group you just took down recently had a change in leadership you see." Shin said "they weren't happy with the new direction their former boss was leading them after that secret meeting, so they ousted him and refused further contact with the benefactor. This was under a week ago, and then suddenly we got tipped off to their dealings from an anonymous source."
"Could be a coincidence," Eraserhead said "it's not like these things don't happen on their own."
"The timing feels odd though, and in conjunction with the other evidence, I think its safe to assume there might be some truth to the urban legends" Shin said, "the question is, are we in a position to do anything about it?"
"Whether or not there is a villain out there secretly controlling a web of criminal operations from the shadows, we don't have definitive proof she exists, and even if we assume she does based on recent events, we have no leads for trying to pursue her." Eraserhead said
"We can pass on our intel to other pros and have them watch out for further leads, but that's about all."
Shin sighed "I figured you'd say that, I don't like it though, something about this makes me feel uneasy. I can't quite put my finger on why. This villain has been a legend and a myth for years now, never leaving the slightest bit of evidence behind, and here we have two incidents in the span of a month pointing towards her existence?"
"Even the best villains make mistakes, it's entirely possible this was a fluke." Eraserhead suggested
"Or she's undertaking some larger project and doesn't have the time to properly cover her tracks right now" Shin said "I think that's what worries me. If she's becoming more visible because she has something big in the works, we may be in for a hell of a disaster when she's ready to execute her plans."
"You're worried about another mastermind, that's a first. I don't think I've ever seen you unsure if you could best someone in a battle of wits" Eraserhead said, raising an eyebrow in surprise
"If it were that simple I wouldn't be worried, but something is different now. Intelligence leaks within my school, infiltrators, a potential traitor among the teachers, and above all All Might's condition" Shin said, walking over to a window and gazing out at the empty campus with his hands folded behind his back. The atmosphere was dark around him, a projection of his concern and unease.
Eraserhead had never seen this atmosphere from the man before, it was different from when he was angry or sad. The darkness he generated when feeling those emotions was more concrete, obvious, and deliberate. This was different, a subtle darkening, making everything look just a bit off, inspiring feelings of discomfort and unease to an outside observer. It was a testament to the strength of the man's psychic powers that merely being in his presence was enough for him to subtly shift the emotions of others around him without even intending to do so. It was also a testament to how nervous the current times were making him. For all the years he'd known Shin, he'd never seen the man be anything but in total control of any situation he found himself in.
"The timing is too spot on." Shin said "the rapidly approaching expiration date on the current symbol of peace, the rise of the league of villains, the security breaches in my supposedly impenetrable school, the sudden activity of the Succubus. Even the hero killer factors into this somewhere. We're approaching a breaking point Mr. Aizawa, with my intellect I can see all the pieces lining up, but it's like climbing a mountain."
"A mountain?" Eraserhead questioned, thrown off by the sudden metaphor
"When you climb it, you can see your next handholds and footholds, you can see the peak after a while, you can see where the path leads, but you can't see the other side of the mountain and the valley beneath it." Shin said "this situation is climbing a mountain of tension and fragile situations that are going to peak soon, and no matter how sharp your eyes are, you can't see what's on the other side until you reach the peak. It's what's on the other side that worries me. I can't see it, and I can't plan for it, which worries me more."
Shin's body began to fade, slowly becoming transparent as he began to make his exit. "Train your students well, I have a strong suspicion we will very much require their strength in the near future" he said as he disappeared, leaving behind an empty hallway, and lingering uncertainties and fears of the future that hung over them like black clouds, ready to burst.