Blood that looked very much like red water engulfed the hidden room the guard and inmate stumbled upon.
"What the hell?" the severely weakened inmate managed to call out as the stranger's forearms practically self-destructed. He took this as a golden chance to escape the prison as he suddenly jumped to escape, but then he saw the water shift.
The red waves spiralled and twisted around, high into the air within the hidden room at least. Then, it came straight at him with blitzing speed.
When it hit him in the side, something sank into his shoulder.
Something painful and something that felt like teeth.
Pushed by the sea of blood, which Remko immediately released was just red water, the inmate was sent back as he bore witness to what had just clamped onto his shoulder.
Taking a peek at what just stabbed into him, he saw bones. White bones with a lot of sharp teeth. "A-..." another one bit into him, sending him down into the water, he had to shut his mouth despite the pain.
As soon as he was under the waves, the little bitters swam away.
He didn't know how many there were, but he got a good look at the fuckers that seemed to be IN that mystery figure's arms.
Small little bone skeleton fishes that resembled that of piranhas.
"Exploding forearms that release waves of red water, not blood. Some sort of glowing eye effect and now skeleton piranhas that can manipulate the current..." Shi thought, spying the sewer lurker and the changing spirals of water flying through the air thanks to those fish bones. "Seems to be unarmed, no-"
She stopped when she noticed that their length and reach had increased. Despite the destruction of their forearms, connecting their hands to the elbows, the parts that weren't blown off, was an oddly long and sturdy rope-like organ connecting the hand and elbow together.
When Shi had approached, Proto swung their arms and thanks to their connected rope-like organ things, their arms were now dangerous whips.
"What is happening?" she wondered as the Enigma approached, whips swinging. "Is this really all one quirk? If so, where do the eyes come into play?"
Remko who had taken quite a beating from multiple people in one day sank deeper and deeper into the waves. Droids, inmates, guards, mysterious people. He was starting to black out, his vision going dark from under the red dyed body of water.
As he sank, he was suddenly pulled out of the water by one of the clones of Bunri, taking him elsewhere from the ongoing fight.
Though Remko had lost consciousness at this point, the pain just kept catching up to him.
So, Remko Akko, was apprehended during his escape attempt
He failed.
Hauled away by one of the clones, this left the rest with Shi to deal with the entity that fought against them.
And the small handful of bone fish that now swam within the red liquid, twisting and manipulating it as they did.
But as the humanoid attacked, it's target was not the guards right now.
"Shi!" the clones jumped into the battlefield.
"Bunri!" the jackal tailed woman shouted out. "Grab the eggs!"
Some of the clones rushed to do just that. "What the hell are these doing here-" one of the clones was silenced, the piranha skeleton shot out and clamped around their neck.
The clone evaporated not long after its neck was bitten. It was an instant takedown.
But the real attention right now, was on the elephant bird sized eggs.
As the red waves hit the containers, they were whisked away from the shelves, but that wasn't all thanks to the mystery that was 'Proto' that came from the chamber pod.
Swinging their arm whips, the egg guardian quickly disposed of the eggs thanks to the occasional skeleton fish dying the red waters even redder.
Whatever was in the large eggs, nothing remained when the bone fish and Proto were done with them.
That's when Styx's Cerberus realised. "They're not just a guardian for these eggs! They're here to clean the crime scene. Erase all the evidence!"
The Cleaner continued.
So the guards jumped in the way. "We need to at least keep one of those eggs safe." was a shared thought from all the clones present as well as Shi Banken.
It was suspicious.
Therefore it's a lead in their investigation.
"Stand. Down." a final warning from the dog headed woman, tail slowly wagging as she braced herself for the incoming fight.
Silently, Cleaner lunged forward, continuing to whip those arms around while the skeleton fish swam around, creating another twisting pillar that shot at the guards.
Three other twisting spirals of water shot out of the red sea and the guards got into position.
Shi however, couldn't even get close to the Cleaner. They really protected themselves in that dome of whipping arms.
The dog couldn't get close.
A pain in her leg grew as one of those skeleton fish chomped down onto her leg. Quickly grasping the fish or whatever it was that resembled it, she kept her grip as she was suddenly whacked in the face.
A direct hit from the Cleaner had sent her tumbling to the ground, still holding onto that bone fish that tried its best to return to the sea.
"Hrgh," as she pulled herself up from the waves, she gritted her teeth. "Protect the eggs!" Her shout got all the clones to rush the shelves as the Cleaner started to dispose of more and more eggs, destroying whatever was inside to nothing.
The battle for the remaining eggs truly began as one of the clones snatched one of the large eggs from the fray.
Orange glowing eyes returned on Cleaner as they stared at the egg in the clones' hands. The egg changed from green to grey. As soon as their eyes returned to normal.
"Be careful! We don't know what their eyes do!" one of the clones shouted out as they jumped in the way of the drone, instantly getting torn in half with the intense dome of whips flailing around.
"These eggs...are clearly important!" Shi rushed with a squirming skeleton fish in hand, following after the bogey.
Multiple pillars of red liquid shot out, attacking multiple clones. Some clones were even pulled under the large amount of water, never to resurface. Yet, Cleaner struck yet again!
The clone holding that one egg was flung forward, a nasty hit to the back sent Bunri's clone flying.
A race between another clone to catch the now mid-air egg and Cleaner began. So Shi rushed forward, they needed at least one egg remaining seeing as some of the bone piranhas destroyed some of the other eggs.
So Shi took this opportunity, shouting whatever came to mind at the entity. Cleaner turned to see one of the skeleton fish that resided in their arms in the dog's hands. Cerberus chucked the bone fish like a damn baseball pitch. It flew through the air with sharp teeth bared. So Cleaner flung their arm.
As Cleaner's whipping arm slammed into the throw skeleton piranha, the little fish shattered.
Becoming nothing but a pile of broken bones.
"At least they're not unbreakable," the jackal huffed as a clone jumped into the fray. It was a start.
Thankfully for the guards, they managed to catch the egg.
"Eliminate. Evidence. Erase. Erase. Erase." the Eraser dash right at the new clone holding the egg. Sadly, because of their inability to punch thanks to their whip-like arms, they raised their whip-arm over the shoulder, only to be tackled by a dog mid swing at the clone that ran with the egg.
Shi had no words to share with the damn squatter before them. She had questions, but she doubted this person would even share. "Shi, watch out!" The clone was too late as another two piranha bones bit into her back, tearing at her flesh.
It didn't help that the Squatter started to knee her as well after headbutting failed due to being pinned down.
If there was one thing Shi prided herself on when it came to her combat abilities, it wasn't the enhanced attributes of her quirk but her own physical training to become more durable, no matter if certain inmates she fought against didn't go all out, which was a small few.
Somewhere a bomber sneezed while the Cleaner's knees started to pile up as the clones jumped in to help. Grabbing at the two fish and trying to apprehend the Squatter.
Squatter on the other hand, proved to be rather strong despite their lankier build compared to the muscular woman and the dozens of clones holding Squatter down. They began to stand despite everyone's best efforts.
A cold look was in their stoic expression, those dull eyes stared at them like they were nothing but flies and nuisances.
The clones on the other hand were picked off one by one by a third skeletal fish as it twisted the waves around, hitting streams of watery pillars into the clones, and eventually releasing the other two back into the current.
"Shit-" the one clone that uttered out was taken out by three different bending beams of watery current.
Poor clone. He was taken away by those three different beams, right into a wall too.
"Focus on those fish things!" one clone that didn't get hit shouted, "let Shi deal with whoever that is!"
"No, focus half of the attention onto this...person...and the rest onto the fish. I will require back up." Upon Shi's orders, the clones split their group in half.
It was then that 'Bunri' got an idea as he searched the now demolished egg shelf.
The egg room, or perhaps egg nursery, was in complete chaos.
But right now, as Shi intercepted the Cleaner, a fish shot out of the water like a bullet. Teeth sharp and ready to tear her limb from limb.
Shooting out towards the jackal, Bunri took this open chance after the quick search! Slamming two eggshells together, he managed to contain the out of water fish who put up quite the fight.
Suddenly he shouted. "I GOT ANOTHER EGG, SHI!" holding the cracked egg up. "It's a little cracked, but we can-"
And Cleaner, charged forth.
Cleaner didn't even register the smirk on the clone's face as the lurker's arm whipped around with great strength. Soon, the egg was lobbed into the air for roughly two seconds before the organ-connected fist connected with the cracked egg.
In the end, the egg broke even more. The destroyed eggshells now in smaller fragments fell to the ground as the bone piranha inside shattered into many tiny broken bits thanks to the incredible whipping from the Cleaner.
They had destroyed the second skeletal fish.
"Just two more left to destroy." huffed the clone as they tossed the bone shards aside.
Yet Cleaner's expression didn't budge an inch.
It did have one single thought. "Die."
There was no time to waste, Cleaner was already on the move. Leaving no time to relax or gather their thoughts. It caused everyone to scatter from the sudden powerful kick that cracked the wall in mere moments.
Shi took this short opening to attack!
But, it wasn't the only thing to jump into action.
Jumping from the water were two more bone piranhas and as quickly as they dived back into the Cleaner's non-blood water, the water began to spin. Growing faster and faster, around and around it went.
"Dodge." instantly, Cleaner's arms shot high into the sky, gripping a hold of the roof before shooting up there. Which left Shi and the clones to be spun around in a what was...
A red whirlpool!
"We need to get rid of this water!" one of the multiple Bunri's shouted.
Shi growled and snarled as she looked around the room. "How?"
And now, the last two fish shot out. All during the damn whirlpool. Shi was constantly grazed, having more and more cuts appear over her body and that wasn't even mentioning the clones.
They needed a way to get rid of the water and halt this whirlpool!
The question was how?
Maybe there was another solution?
"We either need a way to stop this whirlpool or...just have to survive." a grumpy thought from Shi was she glared daggers at the out of reach Cleaner.
It was only after a couple of fishy hit-and-runs on yet another endless lap of the whirlpool that Shi gained something akin to enlightenment.
She stared up at the hanging Cleaner and then to the crack in the wall before glancing at the basic looking skeletal piranhas. "Hm..." she glanced down to the whirlpool. It wasn't deep or anything, but it was definitely strong enough to spin them around. She was starting to feel gross. "We need either them in here to stop it or...use them to make a drain."
So she suddenly grabbed onto a passing Bunri. "You're a clone, right?"
"...yeah...why?"
Poor guy didn't even get an answer as he left the water. The clone had found themselves flying through the air, right at the hanging Cleaner.
So they closed their eyes.
Cleaner released a single arm in which to deal with the clone but...the second one that was suddenly chucked managed to gain a grip on the drone.
"Fall. That's your only option."
For safe measures, she grabbed hold of another clone, but thankfully after a while, Cleaner fell from the ceiling. It had let go to deal with the nuisances before them.
Crashing down into the whirlpool, the waves slowly but surely started to calm.
It still spun around, but there was less force than before. Sadly for the guards, their opponent stood tall.
The water soon stilled, almost as if from the stoic frown from the squatter.
"Charge! Now!" Shi's yell caused the clones to rush the lurker as the fish swam in circles around the feet of the Cleaner.
As soon as the whirlpool ceased, the waves started to twist and turn once more in order to stop the rush while Cleaner dealt with the closer clones that had gotten close.
Two pillars of water shot out towards the Bunri clones, chasing after them, but the closer they got, the clones suddenly dropped. As a result, the last two remaining skeletal piranhas smashed into each other, chomping their sharp fangs into each other.
The first impact had caused both of the skulls to crack immensely, shattering the poor fish and the added teeth sinking bites only helped crumble the skeletons not that much later.
Especially when a third clone had slammed them into the ground with their foot for extra measure.
The basic fish based skeletons were no more. It was just Cleaner and the sea left.
"Now there is only one," snarled Cerberus. Shi wasted no time going in for the non-lethal kill. There were so many questions. So, so many.
Sadly for her, Cleaner was the one to get the strike in this charge. A hit that turned into a combo!
It started with a slap from the flail of an arm on an organ-rope and now, the guard dog was being whipped for a good while. Multiple strikes to their torso sent the dog hurtling down.
And Cleaner, moved on to the others in this moment.
Squatter observed, it learnt to deal with those pesky flies. They grew. "Eliminate. Eliminate all targets. Remove the doubles."
Cleaner turned, only to get a leg swept from right under them by Bunri's clone. As they fell, another clone with a strong downward kick smashed the squatter into the red water. It was way too watery to be considered blood by any means.
A person of many names that no one knew about. Proto, Enigma, Bogey, Guardian, Entity, Lurker, Squatter and Cleaner. The question remained of: who the hell is this person?
Though with the way they acted, perhaps Cleaner was the more apt title to call this mysterious figure. Their actions made it clear for their role, after all. "They did target the evidence first when they realised we tried to take it." Banken sat up with a glare. "They really are a crime scene cleaner."
Shaking her head, she decided that this wasn't the time or place for useless thoughts.
She had to take out Cleaner.
By the time Shi got to her feet, so did Cleaner. Cleaner jumped incredibly high, though it seemed to be limited by the ceiling of this hidden room.
Turning their head slightly, they bounced off the ceiling right at the jackal who immediately punched back as hard as she could! It didn't help that the Cleaner started to spin in place.
But, at the very least.
Shi's punch connected despite the recoil of pain from the spinning Cleaner. "This...Cleaner...they're tough!" she hissed holding her fist as Cleaner flipped through the air after the punch.
"They're really skilled at using their quirk..." one clone muttered.
A second raised an eyebrow. "Are we sure we even know what their quirk is?" they asked, "it seems fucking varied if THIS is what they can do!"
"Probably a lucky strike with genetics being passed down," a third coughed. "The water, organ-rope and skeletal fish could all be seen as some time of mutant quirk if you think about it, the bursting could be passed down by the other parent and all others could just pile on into the family."
"...I don't buy that for a second."
"Shouldn't they have merged instead? We're dealing with multiple here, aren't we?"
"That or it's a case of a rare quirk combination," Shi uttered, keeping an eye on Cleaner who glared back. Their stoic glare seemed more...lively.
Now, when it comes to quirks. There's a whole lot that people discovered and are still discovering to this day! Quirks being passed down from generation to generation. A child having their mother's quirk, their father's quirk or a combination of the two. A mutation could grant a new quirk entirely...or, that mentioned combination could come out differently. To have the appearance of having more than one when in reality, it's just one.
Quirks.
What a magical thing.
"If that's a rare quirk combination, they must be super fucking lucky with their genetics to make it look like that many!"
"...Still don't buy it..."
Now wasn't the time for nonsense. "Discussion comes later," Shi huffed, wading through the much lower waves. She bared her fangs, taunting the Cleaner to come and attack already.
She had an idea. "I can only hope that they take the bait."
It was a good thing that the cleaner didn't hesitate in its actions, already lunging at the now kneeling, fang bared Shi.
It swung one of its rope-like arms, hoping to get a hit or a grab. Sadly for Cleaner, Shi also lunged, but at their arm! Biting down as hard as she could, ripping and pulling in the opposite direction!
And Cleaner's rope-like forearm...
Was sliced, no. Torn right off with her own fangs!
It didn't really do much, at least according to their facial expression. Then again, they did blow up their arms moments ago.
You see, this left the other arm still intact as it grabbed hold of the muscular woman and began to give her a personal tour of the room.
Shi was swung all over the room, hitting the floors, ceiling and walls. Spun in the air so many times and getting whacked into stuff just as much. Even other clones as she struggled to get the hand off her.
She got her wish when she was slammed hard into the ground, spitting out all that saliva from the pain as her vision blurred for a second.
For the first time since their reveal, the Cleaner uttered a grunt.
"Quick! Now!" Bunri's clone shouted, grabbing hold of the ripped off arm, spinning it around their head.
"Eradicate."
For Cleaner, it was too late to react.
The clone fired the arm as Cleaner went to react with their own arm, however as they connected, they became entangled and twisted with one another.
Cleaner's only method to attack was now restricted, well they still had their legs, but at least their ranged attack was cut off and their attention was shifted onto the clone.
As the Bunri clone got the upper hand on Cleaner, Shi followed up, holding her hands up in a way that resembled a claw grip. She panted, she was injured and she just wanted to end this.
So with the force of a bite, her two open grip claw hands slammed into Cleaner's chest, landing a powerful blow. It staggered them back for a bit, but soon they fell to the knees, showing signs of exhaustion themselves.
"Is it over?"
Shi had no idea. No idea at all. She fell to her knees too, huffing more and more as a clone went over to help her up, but now, she was just keeping an eye on the target. "Let's bring them in for questioning-"
Using their tangled arm up, with increased reach, Cleaner managed to take out a couple of clones, knocking them down. Not enough to outright destroy. Swinging their arm around, it suddenly stopped. Almost recognising the fact that their method of attack was now...inefficient.
"You're under arrest-" as soon as Shi was back on her feet, she stopped when something happened. Cleaner didn't say a word, not even a sound. But, the cleaner's mouth definitely moved a little.
On their knees, the cleaner looked up, eyes glowing bright orange once more. All it saw were all the guards dyed in crimson, but...
It's chest began to grow.
It was expanding at a rapid rate to a very concerning degree.
It took a slight reddish tone as Shi's nose picked up on something...burning.
Hold on. Burning? She jumped back with the clone shouting, "GET AWAY! NOW!" she called out. Clones or not, the instant reaction on her end caused everyone else to move as quickly as they possibly could.
They still had one more inmate to catch, unless one of the others took down that other runner. The clones moved into action, puting Shi's safety in front of theirs. They were clones after all.
The Cleaner's chest had expanded quite large and they didn't have much time to act as it suddenly burst wide open, much like its forearms earlier in the fight. The room was engulfed in a large explosion as the guards were able to get out of there with any untouched eggs instantly becoming ash from the explosion.
It shook the room as the parts of the hidden area started to fall and cave the room in, smashing any eggshells remaining as some of the clones were caught in the blast, instantly perishing in the blaze.
When it subsided, Shi and a few of the remaining guards found that Proto or whatever this person was called remained on their knees, much like they were defeated...but...
Only the legs remained.
Anything about their legs was blasted, engulfed in the blast as nothing but for those severely damaged legs.
The mysterious prison squatter was dead.
"Can't believe they blew themselves up like that!" one of Bunri's clones stepped forward, immediately being grabbed by Shi as she called out.
"Everyone! Search the area for anything! Also don't evaporate, we need to report this to the wardens!"
With a bunch of salutes, they all got to work.
She still couldn't believe that this person was more than willing to take their own life just to erase the eggs and also eliminate them. Truly, this person was definitely a cleaner for whatever the deal was with the eggs.
A shame they couldn't apprehend them for answers.
"Why so many eggs? Why hidden away? What kind of operation is this? Who were they? Did they really have one quirk? Multiple? What's going on here?" Shi Banken was usually a serious person who kept her mind on the job at hand, but right now she just couldn't shake the mystery that was laying out before her.
"What kind of crime is this?"
Stepping forward, the jackal looked around the now damaged egg room as the clones searched the room.
"Shi!" shouted one of the clones, rushing over holding something in their hands.
"Yes-" Shi's voice instantly froze as she stared down at what the clone handed to her. A clone that had managed to escape the nursery before things got rough.
Now in her hands was the sole remaining elephant bird sized egg that the drone tried to erase.
The first thing she uttered as she held it was, "we better get this to the wardens..."
It'll be over in a matter of minutes.
Something that was proclaimed by the forever sober drinker that was Dion Meade, a guard of Styx.
A sigh escaped his lips as he sat on some air conditioning unit, scrolling on his phone. "Bloody...ugh. Guess I gotta farm some more. The curse of a free-to-play player." he glanced up, spying multiple defeated Mares littered with a couple of knives, a destroyed vial with tiny purple droplets and the pro hero sidekick standing tall in the middle of the fallen Mares of Diomedes.
"It really was over in a matter of minutes, eh." he gave a laugh as the pro hero walked on by.
"We need to get over to Hokori right away." she mentioned, giving a look back to the outlaws that she took out. "I had a check in with the Hero Network. The Mares of Diomedes' main group is still at large. They will notice that their recon party is missing, we should move."
"Ah yes. The hero network. What a wonderful tool to have on hand." The guard going by the disguised name of Shuten Douji stood. "It must be nice having all that info on pro-heroes and villains alike."
All that information.
All the details on villains and heroes, quirks and all.
"Then let's get a move on," he smirked as the two left the knocked out Mares all alone.
"Don't worry about them, I sent the location to the police that took care of that Moray person that I knocked out."
Leaving the scene of the crime, or scene of the act of heroism, many of the Mares of Diomedes' recon group laid around knocked out as the police were soon on their way to their location. During the peace and quiet of the unconscious cowboy outlaws, a small little mouse peered out a crack in the wall.
Wiggling its cute little nose, it dashed out into the open, taking no notice of the fallen villains. As it checked out the alley and those within it, the little adorable mouse stopped at a small, tiny droplet of purple liquid.
Giving it a sniff, the little brown mouse licked the droplet and dashed away after sniffing the air. The little mouse ran fast, faster than before as it appeared to be slightly bigger than before, but not by much. Though, the little mouse could smell and run better than ever as it dived back into its little home right as the cops appeared in waves.
...
Meanwhile, at the same Dion and the hero followed after the Styx rookie after dealing with the rest of the Mares, Hokori followed Mariko's tracks. Hot on the heels in some sense.
He followed the strongest scent that belonged to 'Tomari'.
Chasing after it, he couldn't help but sweat. There was a lot riding on him right now, "please." he uttered out. "Gotta find her..."
He definitely saw a few grey hairs in his future, but swallowing that thought down, young Hokori kept running and turning.
As Hokori ran past a knocked over trash can, he entered the street. Running right across, turning left and right as he followed what he hoped was the escaped prisoners scent.
"She doesn't look to be the type to escape a prison though...is she really the famed prison escapist of Styx?" Hokori's mind focused on the rather melancholic look of the 'inmate' before he rushed past a knocked over trash can.
Rushing across the street and taking some turns, the young man slapped his face. "I don't really know her, but...she didn't seem like a bad person..." as he uttered that, he followed the scent as he passed by a knocked over trash can.
Wait a second. "Huh?"
Glancing down at the knocked over trash can, he ran forward out into the street. The same street that he crossed before. "Wait a second...have I..."
Following the scent once more, he kept his eyes peeled. Once more he found himself back in the same place with the knocked over trash can. "...I've been running in circles!"
Red from embarrassment, the young man knelt down. Nose sniffing the scent, trying to put the embarrassing feelings away before he became a tomato. "So if I've been running in circles, does that mean that Mariko's trial looped to keep me here?"
He'd been had. Foiled by his own nose!
Outplayed aside, he had a job to do. "I can't let Dion and the others down. I was on this operation because she wouldn't know me. I need to find her, maybe there's another trial I can follow? If she's hiding then..."
With a quick gulp, the young man shouted as he looked around, trying to find any sign of the silver haired mystery woman.
"Mariko! Tomari! Please wait! I just want to talk!" Hokori's distant voice called out, trying to find wherever the escaped prisoner was. "Please!"
Little did he know in his laps around town, trying to find a new trial to follow, the escaped convict had watched him for a little bit. Her hand, her fingertips, opened the portal of her pocket cell for a brief moment to survey the area and the confused look on the young man with fennec fox ears and bushy tail as he called out.
A pointless attempt on his part.
Mariko was long gone by the time he realised a new, different scent emerged under his nose.
...
As the black sheep of the Tsujihara family ran, throwing that untrustworthy fox off her heels, the former smuggler proved to be quite skilled in her getaways.
While she smuggled all sorts of things past security thanks to her quirk and the fact she could hide in her pocket cell for days on end given she had enough supplies to wait out any danger. Mariko had another skill.
That was getting away.
It was a very handy skill, no one needed to know where she opened her pocket cell.
As she put distance between herself and the fox who she barely heard shout, "Mariko? Please wait!"
He was going to catch up if she ever slowed down.
Yet, despite that, she couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. Hunted she'd understood, but not watched. Luckily for her, she managed to stop herself as a greyish prison bus drove by which made the sinking feeling in her gut grow.
"Mariko!" that fox was catching up! She didn't have enough time to throw him off a second time.
So she ran as her boots hitting the concrete of the city was all that she could hear.
"If I can get into a crowd, I should be able to lose them!"
Her plan was already in motion as she followed the advertisements and signs pointing towards the malls. If she got there, she'll be free! Able to hide in her pocket cell for a couple of hours and then...
Mariko would have escaped the grasp of Styx.
Seeing that prison bus earlier sent a chill down her spine. Either Styx was after her or that fox was a part of some bounty hunting group claiming her bounty. Trying to at least. Then there were those cowboy wannabes and their posse who had the same bounty in mind, but...
"The boss will want a word with you anyways."
What did they mean by that? Was it because she escaped a high profile prison like Styx?
"Stop thinking. Run." she told herself as she got closer and closer to her goal.
The feeling from before was still on her as she got closer. "I'll...be free. Again."
As she ran, a bunch of feathers dropped from the sky, brushing right past her face as she waved them away with a sudden yawn. With an outstretched arm, she began to open her pocket cell as her eyelids grew heavy.
Another yawn followed right after.
Her movement felt sluggish and she realised how hard it was to open her eyes when she blinked. Another yawn crawled out of her mouth after she managed to open her eyes as she made her way to her pocket cell as another wave of feathers floated past her suddenly.
She couldn't afford to waste time, she needed to open her cell right now. In her drowsiness, she struggled to get close to the pocket dimension.
In the brief moment she blinked. A blink that took a good few seconds, Mariko realised she had tripped somewhere down the line and her eyelids grew heavier by the second. It was growing harder to keep them open. The desire to sleep was strong.
Mariko spied the feathers touching the ground and so she turned her head as much as she could, following the feathers and the appearance of a shadow.
Looking up to where the feathers came from, blocked out by the sun, the figure of a short woman with wings for arms stood on top of a very tall light pole, looking down at her.
Mariko couldn't keep her eyes open any longer as she crawled her way to her pocket cell, right as it slowly started to close on her.
Arm outstretched once more, Mariko's eyes snapped shut.
By the time Mariko opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was her hands.
Cuffed.
The sudden sight of the handcuffs woke her up, immediately. Looking right up, she was face to face with familiar faces. The first was that fox-eared young man that just gave her a nod with an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, Tomari."
With the first words uttered was an apology, she saw some hero that she saw on occasion sitting up near the bus driver with a skull for a head and that familiar cheery face of Suimin.
"Good morning!" The harpy greeted her. "Finally awake, are ya Mari!" yep, that friendly tone was definitely Suimin. But...
"Who's that?"
The long red haired man with tinted shades sighed, pulling off the wig that revealed his true hair. "Man, you really made us work, Tsujihara. Try not to do that again yeah? Styx needs to run smoothly you know."
Now she recognised him. "Dion..."
Meanwhile, Hokori watched as Mariko sat uncomfortably in her seat, wanting to run away. When Suimin finally caught the runaway prisoner, everything became clear.
"Good work. You caught her Suimin." Dion had finally caught up with the prisoner as the hero beside him picked up the sleeping lithe woman. "That's definitely Mariko alright."
"So that's her..." The rookie mumbled right as Suimin landed on the ground quite elegantly. He couldn't shake the uncomfortable feeling. He had rushed over when he saw Suimin and now the notorious Mariko was fast asleep. Was this really the notorious prison escapist that he heard rumours about?
The hero turned back to look at the three with Mariko in her arms. "Come on, let's get her back to the bus and get out of here."
A quick shove from the older guard going by Shuten Douji, Hokori jolted and quickly followed the rest of the search party back to the prison bus. Operation Eurydice was a success. It was time to head back to Styx.
Hokori's attention was quickly brought back as his senior guard made his move. "Um-" the young fox's ears dropped as he was immediately silenced.
The drinker stood, walking over to her. So she remained cautious. Both eyeing each other very carefully.
"Now," Dion huffed, kneeling down to face the captured woman. "How did you get out?"
Mariko was silent, eerily so. She didn't even look him in the eye at this point and while Dion didn't really care, he noticed that she was able to grab hold of a similar outfit she had before she was thrown into those prison garbs that were nowhere in sight.
Now free of his red wig, the drinker also noticed that she did go through with a haircut. The long hair that she used to have was now a messy bob-cut. A shame. "Breaking out of Styx is no easy feat you know," he began as the bus was already on its way back to the prison. "You're practically a legend for breaking out of Styx. I'd say you'd deserve the title of Prison Break Magician more than anyone at this point."
Mariko kept her amber coloured eyes away, forever looking down.
Dion sighed as he sat on the floor of the moving vehicle instead. Sitting cross-legged, he leaned back. "Silent treatment, huh? Well, whatever." he exhaled out of his nose. "She probably has no idea how much she helped Styx in the end thanks to her break out. A real humbling experience for them."
Dion didn't pay too much attention to the prison's madness. He just did his jobs like he was ordered to do. As long as everything went on as normal, that was his job done.
Of course, that never lasts long.
If it wasn't Styx's inmates, it was their rival. Tartarus.
Dion didn't pay much attention to that either. There were many prisons in the same system as those two, but because these two were at the top of the list, something sparked a rivalry between the two. Whatever the reason, it happened. He didn't care. It wasn't his business.
His focus was more on the inmates and making sure that everything ran smoothly, which wasn't much. His red eyes behind the aviators stopped on the escapee for a moment.
Then Mariko Tsujihara just had to break out of prison, putting more work on his plate but also, making Styx more secure. Making Styx more humble than their rivals. A real learning from failure.
"Better get comfortable, Mari," the sober man huffed, "we'll be arriving at Styx soon...I hope..."
Mariko remained silent, ignoring the worried look Hokori gave her. It was different from the one where it looked like they were kidnapping her. "I should have followed my gut from the beginning."
Always on guard, always knew something was up with that persistent fox. "I should've put more effort into hiding from him when I had the chance...heh...is this my punishment?"
No matter what, she couldn't even force herself to pity laugh at the possibility of karma.
"How did you get out?"
The guard's question repeated in her head. It wasn't like she could keep it a secret forever. Her head dipped down further, making her choppy, silver hair more of a mess than before.
Months of preparation...ended in this...
...
When Mariko decided to break out of Styx, she was very careful. It took months of preparation to pull off what she did.
Not only did it take months of preparation, but it also took a lot of waiting for the perfect opening to enact her daring breakout attempt.
So when the chance revealed itself, she had to take it. She had to, before it all crumbled down around her.
Mariko tried her best to keep her expression the same as normal. She walked out of her cell, clad in the khaki coloured prison jumpsuit she had been given since her arrival, her long silver hair trailing right behind her.
Entering the main area of the ward, she kept her eyes out for any guards nearby. Watching them ever so diligently while making sure to avoid any inmate that had a bone or two to pick with her.
Steeling her nerves and flexing her fingers, she was ready. All she had to do was wait. When it was time to enter the workshop, the young woman walked in, tying her hair back as she let the guards on duty due their routine checks thanks to her quirk.
"Morning, Mariko. Have you used your quirk today?" the guard asked as she kept her eyes on the inmate. "We hope that your 'cell' is clean today as well."
"No," she replied, forcing herself to make eye contact. "I haven't entered it today...not yet. I was in one of the guard's, Kika's, line of sight all morning. I assure you my quirk is empty."
The guard stopped after hearing that, "not even from another inmate?"
The long haired amber-eyed woman shook her head, "there were no problems from other inmates today...yet..."
The guard sighed, it wasn't uncommon for someone connected to Mariko's past that was placed in Styx, few as they were, to try and establish something from threats, violence or even straight up murder.
She wasn't the only one of course, but as time rolled on with many injuries or even deaths, Mariko Tsujihara was turning into the single target of many of them. "You're good to enter the workshop."
"...thank you..."
It was simple woodwork, nothing too special but at least it was something. Amber eyes glanced around the workshop, looking at many tools on display as those within the workshop for today worked on whatever it was they were making. Ever so carefully, those pilfering fingers of Tsujihara swept up some tools. Tools that could have been put to better use inside her pocket cell as soon as all eyes were off her for a brief second thanks to a handy inmate getting frustrated at her project.
Mariko however knew that the hardest part came after the workshop hours. The inspection.
The black sheep of the Tsujihara family knew one thing: despite the fact that she was one of the prisoners that was able to gain some degree of trust with the guards, she was still subject to those inspections. Especially with her quirk.
Which required a different approach with stolen tools. And a bit of luck.
Leaving not long after, she retreated to her cell but not before having the guard on duty ask her about her quirk. "Open your pocket cell, Mariko." the guard asked and she obeyed, opening her cell as the guard walked in, looking around the grey, empty cell. As soon as he stepped out, he muttered, "you're good to go."
With a nod, the soon-to-be prison escapist walked out, back to her cell for the time being and right into her pocket cell. A bead of sweat rolled down her face as she pulled out the pilfered tools from her jumpsuit.
"That was lucky..."
Another good reason for that trust...and emphasis on using her quirk the way she did, even if it was unintentional at first.
"They really focused on it..." now, it only got harder. She needed more.
Even more when it came to her escape. She needed to be prepared for what she was about to do. As time went on, she stole more and more tools, in subtle ways of course. Tools however could only get her so far in her plan, she needed other reliable ways to help her escape. So one day, she struck a deal.
A woman with grey hair flowing in the wind like a fine mist stood across from her, pointing her thumb over her shoulder while a scar ran down across her nose and another down over her mouth.
"See that guard over there?" the inmate asked as she pointed to a tall guard watching over the inmates. "All you have to do is distract him. Talk to him about whatever."
"Then will you give me-"
The inmate sighed, her greyish hair following in the wind like smoke. "Yes, I'll give them to you so just distract him while I do my thing."
Mariko could only nod as the smokey hair woman grinned. "Perfect Mari, go get em!" with a not-so-helpful push, Mariko was already walking to the guard, repressing the feelings that came with the act she was about to do. To cloud whatever that smoke hair inmate was about to do.
What she was going to do wasn't her business. As long as she got what she was promised.
Getting closer to the guard, the long haired inmate got his attention as she got out a small book. "Excuse me? Am I allowed to put this book in my pocket cell while borrowing it?" she asked, holding a borrowed book from the co-ed library earlier in the day.
The guard's electric blue eyes gave her a look, barely glancing at the book in her hands as he gave an answer without hesitation. "Sure."
"...Huh?"
Wearing a military coat like a cape, the guard shrugged. "I don't see the harm in it. Routine inspection from the other guards aside, as long as it's nothing dangerous to yourself or other inmates, go ahead."
She must be dreaming. Right? She didn't think she'd get it'd be that easy. The thought of keeping the distraction up was the first thing that came to mind. "Are you sure? I don't want to cause problems..."
The tall, beige haired guard leaned back where she stood. "If it's about the other guards inspecting your quirk to see some books, I'll deal with it." a friendly smile popped onto the young man's face. "I'll give a heads up to the others that you're allowed to store books in your pocket cell."
She bowed her head slightly, avoiding his gaze. "Uh, thank you."
The guard waved his hand. "It's fine, it's just a book." he paused for a moment. "In fact, we might keep it to only books for now, less of a hassle for your rehabilitation in the long run, you see. Inspections will remain the same though and using it for self-defence again is perfectly fine!"
Mariko could only nod along. More than just books would probably cause more problems for her in the long run. It did give her some ideas though.
She looked back at the guard with silver sparks in his eyes to say something, anything to keep the distraction going. But the guard just continued for her.
"You must be wondering why I agreed so easily to this, right?" the guard roughly around her age looked back to her. "You see, I've read your file like everyone else but the real reason was the look in your eyes."
She gave him a confused look with said eyes.
A little chuckle, the guard took a seat on a bench. "It's not just the look, but your body language as well." he chuckled at her expression with his electric blue eyes.
"Am I that easily read?" Mariko thought to herself, looking down at the random book in her hands before realising she had also taken a seat with the guard somewhere along the line.
"You give off the same look as some other inmates here. You've also suffered some problems from some other inmates as well," the guard crossed his arms, smile faltering a little. "Do you feel trapped by all this? Feel like no matter how hard you try, you're stuck? You don't need to answer that, but I can see that motivation to change no matter how bleak you might feel about it. I want to help that."
"I don't have the entire story of what happened, but not all prisoners are bad people and they can do better, become better." he paused to huff, frowning for a second. "Not all prisoners here have an easy life in here as well, you included. So if letting you keep a book for a couple of days helps, then that's all there is to it."
Mariko spied the smokey haired woman from before walking out of wherever it was she came from, but Mariko on the other hand has to ask. "Why?"
"Why what?" the blue eyed guard blinked, before realising. "Oh. It's simple. I want to help you, all of you. Both inside and outside the prison. As I said, you and some others can become better people and...I'm rambling on, I shouldn't take up much more of our time."
As the young man stood, Mariko almost reached out. Almost.
She was curious about that mention about the outside. The beige haired guard stretched, giving her a final look. "I better get back to my patrol, so I'll say this. Please keep being on your best behaviour and you'll find that life in prison doesn't need to be what others make it out to be. I'll try to help any way I can. At the end of the day, I'm here to help."
The young, amber eyed woman didn't even realise how wide-eyed she was, listening to the guard, Alexios, go on as his electric blue eyes held strong determination and compassion as he soon walked away, leaving her on the bench alone with a book in her hands that she tossed into her pocket cell.
For the first time since Mariko started on her sudden plan to get out, she had the wavering thought of: "...Maybe I should stay?"
Mariko knew that she was one of the more trusted prisoners within Styx, inspections of her quirk aside. There was a chance that her sentence would be reduced thanks to good behaviour, or even better, she'll be able to get a parole!
...was it worth it though?
Styx was rough some days and while some of the guards (like Alexios) did make the stay in the prison better and more pleasant, that didn't really stop the people from her past from going out of their way to make her life hell.
Not to mention that she had already put in the effort to escape in the first place.
It was a battle of waiting it out for who knows how long to get a parole OR continue with the plan and get out of here before those few remaining prisoners that knew her too well decided to throw caution to the wind to take her out for good.
Just yesterday a person from the male ward had learnt that she was also in prison and ending up dying trying to kill her. She forgot just who that was, but all she heard was that they were burnt to a crisp in the end.
"Hey! Great work! You kept that guy busy for quite a while!" a slap on the back brought Mariko back to her senses as the smokey haired woman held out her hand. "As per our agreement, here they are!"
Small balls wrapped in paper were dropped into her hands. While it wasn't many, it definitely was more than what she was expecting. "I don't know what you plan to do with them, but make it interesting! See you around, Mariko!"
As quickly as she reappeared, the other inmate was gone. "...I'm sorry." she mentioned to no one.
Her mind was already set.
As the days turned to weeks, Mariko had entered her own workshop. It was a nice little thing, mostly crafted from various borrowed books that acted like a makeshift desk to work on with the stolen tools that she smuggled out of the workshop and back in to avoid suspicion.
She looked down at her hard work. In her hands was just one of many keys to her salvation. Literally...almost.
Thanks to her search in the wards, she had turned some useless objects into useful tools. In her hand was just one of many makeshift key moulds! A small one at that. "I hope this goes smoothly..."
Key moulds were one thing...getting a key on it was another deal entirely.
Back in the ward for another round on another day, returning some of her tools to boot, she approached a guard, unaware of her existence. She didn't get too close, but lingered around, eyeing the pockets of where a set of keys might be.
If there was one thing she still had pride in at this point, it was pickpocketing.
The guard yawned and Mariko went for it. It was a very good thing they were in the blindspot of the cameras. If they weren't, she'd wouldn't have done this in the first place, opting to wait for another time.
Taking the key ever so slightly and pressing it into the soft mould, she quickly backed away. Whenever a fight broke out, she took that opportunity to sneak away or get another key mould.
Guard after guard, she made sure she wasn't too overconfident with gently pressing the keys into the soft moulds. She wasn't sure how many keys would be needed in the future, but that didn't matter.
After she got what she felt was enough, she entered her pocket cell every evening in the comfort of her own cell, working hard with applying those moulds to good use and picking up other key ingredients needed to make the keys to her own freedom. Once more she was back, getting anything that could be used to make a fake key while also emptying out the rest of her pocket cell to avoid any warranted searches, like the borrowed books she was permitted to hold onto thanks to a very kind guard.
Of course, when it came to her pocket cell, she was the one that had to permit access. It made things very handy when she wasn't put on the line for a quirk inspection.
And following the guards by opening it got her a lot of trust in their eyes over the months.
That very day she melted down some handy material 'lying' around that she was sure no one would miss with how little she took along with a hint of worry with a stolen lighter she managed to swipe earlier in the day.
With a lot of hard work over the months, she popped out the now ready fake key that she hoped would help her break out of the prison. "I really hope this works..." she mumbled to herself, looking at the other ready moulds filled and ready to go.
She looked right next to it at some little makeshift orbs ready to be used later in her attempt. "I'm ready." as she uttered those words, it felt almost surreal to her now.
Now that everything was in place, she waited. It took a lot longer than she expected, but she waited patiently before the moment revealed itself. It took roughly another month before she could even make her move!
A big fight!
That was her time to hide away, making sure she was out of view of the cameras, she ducked into her pocket cell near the front entrance of the ward. The best part?
No one noticed.
Thankfully she had set methods up to keep track of time. Hours later she put her plan into action.
Mariko popped out of her pocket cell in the dead of night, immediately pulling out the many replica-made keys she had gotten her hands on. Rushing to the door, she knew she didn't have much time as sweat rolled down her face. The first key didn't work nor did the second.
She was lucky not to break any of them in her haste as the familiar tune rang in her ears, louder than before.
The alarm ringing in her ears, the amber eyed prisoner opened the door. The key worked! "Yes!" giving the key a look, she wondered if she should leave evidence behind or not, but the rushing sound of footsteps didn't give her much time to think, instinctively grabbing it and running.
Making sure to toss the key later, she pulled one of those small wrapped up balls she got in a nice little exchange. The guards started to get close now, so she threw the ball down as smoke exploded.
The smoke rolled in thick, clouding everything, even the cameras! She continued to run, turning a corner and disappearing from the world. Guards rushed past, shouting. "She wouldn't have gotten far! Find her!"
"If she's used her pocket cell, stay vigilant! Double check all areas!"
A third guard coughed. "Should we activate the droid?"
"Is it worth it?" another asked back, "many have attempted this you know and all failed. The droids have a more important purpose in that other ward."
"...still...we should probably have one of them on duty out here..."
By the time Mariko emerged, seconds later, she kept low to the ground. She gulped when she managed to catch the end of the conversation, robots weren't the best to run into right now.
With another smoke bomb and fake key in her hands, she got through more and more doors, disappearing into the smoke and into her pocket cell. The guards came and went, searching frantically as the elusive woman evaded their grasp.
Even sending the poor guards another way, following a tossed distraction of a smoke.
"I'm almost there…!" she kept fleeing and fleeing, occasionally popping into her pocket cell and staying out of the cameras as best as she could while hoping not to run into whatever droid that might decide to activate.
"Ah-" Mariko managed to silence herself as she flattened her body against the wall, a guard was right around the corner. Thankfully she wasn't caught. "That was close..." she thought to herself, quietly sneaking past before jumping into her cell when four guards rushed around another corner.
Despite all the narrow encounters, escapes and strategic use of smoke bombs. The in-progress escapist was down to her final keys on the door she remembered coming through on her first day.
Jamming the key into the door, she hoped that she had the right one. Again and again, if it all ended here... "Please work, please work." she chanted as a familiar click registered to her ears.
The rest was somewhat a blur to her.
She opened the last door and just ran and ran and ran, no matter how bad her legs hurt or burned. The alarms got louder, searchlights scanned the perimeter and the cameras no doubt got her opening the last door.
Out in open space with the only building close by (for now) was Styx, Mariko looked up to see the stars. Thousands upon thousands of stars lit up the skies as she ran. She didn't even bother to catch her breath. Not yet.
"I'm..." the surreal feeling that invaded her body was equally squashed by another. "I did it. I did it! I broke out of Styx!"
But this was only just the beginning.
Looking back, they were already coming out in waves to greet her. As running further away, she dived into her pocket cell, crashing down onto the cold concrete-like material.
All closed up in her little world, she couldn't help but stare at the ceiling. "I did it...I can start a new life now...right?" she bit her lip as she finally got a break from all the stress and running.
Sitting up, the long haired woman curled up a little. "Where can I even go?"
With everything that happened, all she had was: crime.
"Heh," a sad, pitiful chuckle. "I truly am stuck to this life."
The following days had her sneak further and further away from Styx, eventually evading the search parties and making it to the closest city or town. By the time she reached her destination, she immediately started her new life.
Having her prison jumpsuit positioned in a way that didn't show any mention of her being a prisoner, the white tank top wearing inmate's hand found themselves into a pocket. "Enough to buy a snack," Mariko mumbled to herself, looking at her 'hard' earned money.
"Need to ditch the uniform though," she thought, scoping out her next target. A clothing store.
The now free woman continued her life like how it used to be before joining that smuggling ring, but now with what felt like eyes watching her. She managed to get a set of clothes that resembled her old outfit when she was still free to roam the outside world and collected more and more essentials. Like food.
Now Mariko stood in her new outfit, holding back her long silver hair as she glanced down at the piles of prison jumpsuits in the corner of the pocket cell. They were khaki, though some were more khaki-green. She practically took everything that her prison cell had to offer, spare prison clothes included.
You'd never know.
Looking into the stolen mirror in her pocket cell, Mariko Tsujihara raised the scissors to her hair and after some cutting, watched her silver locks fall to the floor.
"..." looking into the mirror, a woman with the same face and eyes stared back at her, but now this mirror person had a bob cut. "Better than nothing..."
Mariko Tsujihara was ready.
Ready to continue her criminal life, discreetly robbing stores to get by. She couldn't shake the feeling that she was stuck, even now when she was free. Her amber eyes glared as best as they could into the stolen mirror.
"This is the life I'm stuck in, there's no escape. There's no other way to live. If I want to survive, I need to change, harden." She had no plans on going back to prison anytime soon.
The next day after her haircut when she walked down the streets, getting further away from Styx's general direction, she paused when she heard gossip.
"Did you hear that someone broke out of Styx?" a mother of two asked.
"I did. Mariko Tsujihara I believe. Now that's a first." a single father nodded. "Didn't think it was possible."
Mariko froze at the mention of her name. "No way," she thought. It had been many days since she escaped from Styx, continuing with her pilfering life, but now. Now the rumours were coming out in full force.
No matter how low she tried to stay, the rumours and gossip were always a hot topic that she hoped would just stop one day before realising, "I broke out of Styx, one of the greatest prisons in the world...it's going to be talked about for days! Weeks!"
"You hear? There's a big bounty for information! We should totally become bounty hunters!" a high school boy cheered. "Check it out!"
"Whoa! That much?" a high school girl did a double take at the bounty. "Screw becoming a hero."
Yet another conversation was going on, "what if, she's still in Styx? Never actually broke out?"
"...what? What are you talking about?"
The one who brought up the question shrugged. "I heard a rumour that she's still in the prison, like some sort of stunt?"
"Why would a prison do a publicity stunt? Stupid."
Another voice added, "maybe she escaped but is still in the prison itself? Hiding in the vents or something?"
As days went on, people with eyes full of the bounty appeared and the more the rumours grew. More and more she heard that she was still in Styx. "Perhaps they're covering it up?"
Mari kept her head down, free from the prison walls. Unbeknownst to the people speaking rumours about whether she was in Styx or out and about. The news of her escape was still large and the talk of the city.
The curse of breaking out of one of the world's best prisons was heavily on her back. "No point thinking about it now." she kept her eyes forward, continuing her way down the street, always on the move.
Unknown to Mariko herself, the inmates within Styx were told the following: "Tsujihara is being kept in solitary confinement due to her failure of an escape attempt."
Creating a new rumour all together.
Mariko achieved the impossible and now she only had one real objective: avoid being captured again. Constantly on the move, always going back to crimes to stay alive. Avoiding the police and heroes, unaware of the title she acquired from breaking out of Styx.
Mariko Tsujihara.
The Ghost Inmate of Styx.
...
Mariko had no clue when she closed her eyes on the bus ride that sent a shiver down her spine, but the sudden bumps in the road coupled with the tight sways and swerves from left to right really got her alert!
"What the-" Dion didn't have much time as he stood, only to slam into one of the seats.
At the front of the bus, the driver Zugai, did her best to snake her way down the road. Mariko would've had no clue what was going on if it weren't for the booms, shakes and dirt clouds appearing around them with the skull faced driver shouting, "WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"
The hand-bounded Mariko didn't know what to do, but her first reaction to the shout was to look behind them. Straight at the attackers.
Was this another opportunity? She bit her bottom lip at that.
She could open up a portal in the confusion and hop in, however...the current location was more open space making it hard to hide out for too long in her cell.
And that wasn't taking the swerves into account.
These guys would definitely hang around here and camp her out as well...
She was having enough trouble staying in place. Yet a glance up front to the driver immediately locked eyes with the bus driver. Well, she assumed they locked eyes seeing as the skull headed woman seemed to lack any visible eyes.
Of course. "I'm still being watched..." a quick swerve from the bus made the poor escapee slam into the window right as a cloud of dust emerged from the other side.
"Shit!" Dion cursed as he slammed into the wall before the small harpy slammed into him. "We need to chase them off!"
Pushing the smaller guard off him, he managed to gain his bearings, making his way to the middle of the prison bus. Gesturing to the winged-armed woman, he shouted in the midst of the attack, "Suimin! You're with me!"
"Gotcha!"
"I'll come too," the hero sidekick dropped her jacket on one of the seats which caused the fox to stand.
"Not you, rookie." Dion huffed. "We need at least one person to keep an eye on the inmate."
The young man with a pair of fennec fox ears drooped a bit at that. "I understand."
"...we're also dealing with a ranged threat for now, stay on guard." As soon as he was done, Dion immediately started to work on the hatch in the roof of the bus and it didn't take long before he gained access to the roof.
"Keep it steady, Zugai." he huffed, pulling out a bottle. "We'll take care of these ranged threats."
It wasn't long before he was accompanied by the hero and the small harpy guard.
From the top of the speeding bus, the trio were faced with their chasers and attackers. "Persistent lot, aren't they?" Dion asked, fiddling with a bottle in his hands.
The hero, jacketless in her hero outfit, had to sigh. "I'll give them credit for sticking to their guns."
Chasing them on a bunch of silverish grey motorhorses were the notorious outlaw motorhorse gang, the Mares of Diomedes.
"That's a lot more of them this time, seems they managed to find what happened to their recon group..." the drinker popped the bottle open. "It's hard to say if it's their main force, but it's a lot larger than that small little group."
The hero, now crouched on the bus, bite her finger. "...hm, so how do they know about us?"
The harpy was the next to join in, "maybe they also have an eye in the sky?" she offered, "or if they know about Mari, they could have reported it to their boss!"
"Tch, just our luck if that's the case...plus we don't even know all of their quirks. A recon group probably has an additional member that can communicate to the main group via quirk..." Dion had a good chug on the bottle as he walked to the back end of the bus.
Immediately letting a wave of large bubbles out of his mouth, he watched as the bubbles spread across the wide open space at the Mares.
"Hope they don't know about my quirk..." Dion didn't waste any time as he switched to a new bottle.
He heard the Mares make some noise right as the bubbles popped into large mists. "Suimin, get ready."
"Yep, yep! I'm ready!" the talon footed guard held her wings out to the side, ready for what was to come.
Looking back to the mist, it was nothing more than a distraction. A little added time to their clock.
"Someone take the wheel!" came the call from Zugai. The only one that could respond was the hero and even then, she was cautious of the sudden call, but...
She dropped back down to switch with the driver, hoping that she had some plan in mind. Now the skull headed bus driver worked her way up to the roof with the others.
"Zu? What are you doing-" Suimin couldn't even finish as the skull-headed woman dropped to her knees at the rear end of the bus.
With wide eyes, both guards instantly knew what was happening.
Zugai, now with her mouth wide open, got lower and lower. She even stuck her hand into her open maw. As if forcing something to appear and soon, it did!
Blue flames poured out of her mouth in waves, littering the ground as the bus sped off, coating the ground while the mist governed the air.
Vomfire: Zugai can produce blue flames out of her mouth! These flames are pretty intense and aren't easily put out! However, the method of producing the flames are quite similar to vomit, conjuring these flames is enough to make Zugai sick.
The Mares galloped out of the mist into the flames. "What the?"
While some members of the motorhorse gang rode through the sudden appearance of flames, despite their shock and whatnot, some others weren't really handling it well. Stopping before the flames, some tumbling into the flames, and so on.
Mares jumped off their horses, helping those that fell. Others who wanted to continue couldn't due to the flames messing with the robotic horses, a stroke of bad luck to these outlaws. Yet...
Wiping her mouth, the bus driver muttered, "that should slow them down a bit...a few of them, at least."
Some still rode on, charging the bus for one convict that didn't even share a connection outside of the prison itself. "Why the hell are they so persistent?" Dion huffed, watching some motorhorses with blue flames on the hooves charge at them.
Zugai had an idea though.
"I'll go again-"
"No need," the sober guard quickly grabbed the driver's shoulders. "We don't need you actually making yourself sick. Go back down, grab a snack and swap with our hero tagalong."
She gave him a look, he wasn't sure what kind of look with the whole skull thing going on. He prepared himself and gave Suimin a nod, ready to go, but it was then that the driver bent down again.
"I have one last go and that's it." she clenched her teeth. "Let me do my duty as a guard of Styx."
"Go get em," he opened his disguise coat as he dug around for something after being hit with an idea, allowing the driver to send another wave of flames down towards the Mares of Diomedes.
As she did that, Dion pulled out a silver thermos, taking off the lid-like cup and scooping up some of those flames. "Just don't think about it, Dion."
Now with blue flames in his mouth and feeling the heat, multiple bubbles of entrapped fire floated out towards the battlefield.
As soon as the blue flame bubbles floated through the air, Dion's first reaction was to spit and rinse his mouth with the thermos.
"Hmm," hummed the harpy girl, still on standby. "I still don't see any of the big names that's usually associated with the Mares."
"..." Dion narrowed his eyes at the scene before them. A wave of flames with the additional 'fireworks' of fire bursting bubbles made the group smaller and smaller. "You don't think we're dealing with a decoy group?"
Suimin shrugged, her wings high in the air. "Dunno!"
"At least we stopped those cannon-armed members of the group out." Zugai added, noting the fallen bandana mouth covering Mare with some sort of cannon-like arm on the ground, being pulled out of the flames.
"Might be the best not to act right now, Suimin." Dion noted. They didn't want to cause any deaths despite what the flames and the fighting might have shown. He couldn't let more mishaps like this happen. It was bad enough as it was. "As long as things run smoothly."
"I'm going back below and take over the driving." by the time it took Dion to turn to her, Zugai was gone.
It didn't take long for the kicking hero to appear on the roof with them. "So, I heard that the main culprits leading this group haven't appeared?" she looked over the various Mares that still chased them down. "This group is definitely bigger than that alleyway recon group, but at least we thinned the herd."
"Have you-"
"Yes. I contacted Furore and the emergency numbers about what was happening. We just need to hold them off until we return to Styx-"
Sudden shouts from the chasing Mares that remained caught their attention as the motorhorses got closer and closer, despite the flames that halted quite a few of them.
One of them barked orders, making the cluttered group spread out pretty widely.
Dion snapped his fingers. "You're up, Suimin."
"Yay! Finally! I was getting tired of holding my wings out like this!" Suimin Hatori flapped her wings, right as multiple feathers went flying right at the Mares. A shame they were too spread out.
"Huh? Wha...ooh..." the surprised Mare's expression quickly changed as the feathers whisked on by with the wind, some grazing or outright hitting her.
Then, she fell off her (robotic) horse.
One after another, outlaw after outlaw, the members of the Mares of Diomedes came to a halt or right to the ground.
Snoring!
Dodo: Suimin's quirk not only grants her the physical features of a harpy, but her feathers can put people to sleep!
As some snored and slept, others drowsily tried to continue on, the ones that weren't in that small range of feathers kept their distance as they tried to flank the bus.
"Shit. We're getting closer to Styx! We'll be there pretty soon..."
The hero sidekick sighed as she walked to the rear end of the bus. Narrowing her eyes, she spied the growing flashing lights in the distance getting ever so closer.
"It seems the cavalry has finally arrived." the hero stretched her arms to the sides. "This is where we'll part ways for now."
Suimin's eyes were wide open as her foot-talon grabbed hold of the hero's wrist. "You're jumping down there?"
At this point one of the closer Mares stood on the motorhorse, doing their best with a shaky aim to try and take out the roof standing guards and hero.
A sigh from Dion and the wave of his hand, he mumbled, "I can see the police lights, so stay safe."
"Be careful. We have no idea where the leaders of this group are." the sidekick said, ready to jump off the bus. "It was a pleasure working with you."
"Likewise!" cheered the short bird woman. "We should meet up and do this again!"
The hero laughed. "I'd love that."
"Pick up your coat later!" Suimin waved as the hero sidekick ran off the bus as she sailed through the air, slamming into the standing outlaw. "Get em good!"
As soon as she touched the ground with the criminal below her, she spun around, picking up the motorhorse with her other foot before it flew through the air at one of the further away outlaws.
As she darted around the field, taking out the cowboys, something or someone slammed into one of the crooks as they pulled out a gun. "ARGH!" they screamed as a man with a clear-see through riot looking shield slammed into them and their motorhorse.
The charging hero, Furore, was on the scene.
Flashing lights followed right behind the speedster. "Contain the Mares of Diomedes! Make sure none of them get away!" the pro-hero shouted, charging once more into the fray as the other hero jumped around, kicking many of the outlaws.
For now, the Mares of Diomedes had stopped following the prison bus.
"Mission accomplished," the sidekick gave a look to the now distant bus. "Better take these stragglers out!"
Meanwhile, back on the Styx prison bus, Dion and Suimin watched as the two heroes fought off this group of Mares of Diomedes with the police. "Hey, Dion! We're getting closer to Styx!"
Looking over his shoulder, they would be there in a matter of minutes now as relief washed over the both of them. The mission was a success!
Mariko had been returned to Styx.
Operation Eurydice: Mission Accomplished!