Rule #16a: It's not about the size of the dog in the fight, it's about the size of the fight in the dog
A pretty stereotypical nondescript security room lay beyond the heavyset door. A bulging bin was stuffed beneath the desk & was overflowing with various waste including sticky food wrappers & scrunched up balls of paper. Tucked in next to the door lay a faded vending machine or two whilst the opposite wall held an array on monitors mounted one atop each other. A sad little analog clock tick-tocked away above it all, with a wobbly office chair (plus some extra dismantled wheels) sat before them. Off to the right, behind a pair of glass doors sat the CPU room which appeared to couple as some kind of storage room as there weren't many processors in there. But if the whole roomed had to be summed up in one word? Grey.
Toru felt an odd sense of coldness as she balanced precariously in the wobbly office chair and scrambled her way through the mess of video files and the like, with the aid of Ritsu. The hair on the back of her neck stood to attention as the various bytes of miscellaneous files (really anything she thought might be useful) was downloaded onto two separate USB sticks—one of them being the corrupted All Might stick from the League. There was a sense of uneasiness in the air too, mostly because she was doing something she knew would get her in trouble—not the info dump (that was well sanctioned), but the Shiro-led virus that she was sure inhabited the stick. Toru may not have been able to read and understand code that well, but this programme looked like a virus—not a computer virus, a virus virus. The uneasiness may have also had something to do with the two moaning desk jockeys that she'd knocked out upon entry and left them tied up together with a loose cable she'd found, gagging each with crunchy balls of paper,
The monitors showed the various labyrinth of hallways and rooms, including the ones where their allies currently found themselves. One held a view of the street where the Ryukyu agency were easily taking care of the muscular villain that had ripped down the gate for them. Nejire looked like a fairy and Tsu a comet as Ochako flung her through the air. Another monitor showed Tamaki slowly shuffling down the hallways in his attempt to regroup with the main force. It was slow-going and he had to use the wall as a crutch more often than not. The last third year was pictured clinging tight to a young girl who was swaddled in his cape—presumably Eri—whilst Overhaul stood menacingly over the pair. It didn't look good.
Then there was a comatose Kirishima passed out and bandaged on a bed with Fatgum standing worriedly at his bedside with their chosen villains captured by the door. They appeared to be in some kind of infirmary or storage room—it was cramped, whatever it was. A monitor showed Midoriya mercilessly raining kicks on the remnants of Irinaka's Quirk as he bulldozed out a path for the others to follow. Behind him Aizawa carried Rock Lock who had been bandaged with strips of his capture weapon and looking for all-the-world like a petulant child. On the other hand, there lay Sir Nighteye looking very much like a panicked parent, worrying about their lost child as he stood over the unconscious form of a villain and the police with him ran around like headless chickens. Further along, Kage appeared to be doing her best to haul herself from out beneath a collapsed piece of rubble and Toru could only hope that the detective was okay.
"Oof! This has been a day and a half!" Toru huffed a sigh as she slumped back in the chair, "Ooh! Is that Mr Boss Man? Huh" Clicking on the security feed in question, the teen quickly discovered the current Yakuza head swaddled in top notch hospital machinery as he lay bedridden in some nondescript room. It was just as bare and nondescript as the security room, save for a struggling power outlet and a single flowering vase on the window sill. Even from the grainy footage she was able to tell that the room was kept spotless.
"Well, that's familiar…" Toru's gaze slid over to a second set of screens where the cross-section of feeds showed a laboratory set up hidden somewhere within the base. Pressing at random keys, Toru was eventually able to bring up the screen she wanted on the main screen where Ritsu was still buffering away. An array of specimens sat lined up in cages stack upon each other like building blocks. A few of the larger ones were divided by moth-bitten sheets whilst others looked like a stiff breeze could blow them over. Toru was unable to see what was inside the cages from the angle of the cameras. Instead, she was granted with a view of the surgical table and various equipment strewn about the tabletops.
Determination made her teeth clench together as she was reminded of the smaller laboratory that she had been deposited in during her kidnapping only weeks before. It didn't take long for her to start hitting keys again in an effort to free the people caged inside. It took a while, but eventually the doors swung open with a silent click and out crawled something that made her blood run cold.
"Nomu" Toru whispered, eyes wide as she watched a hulking mass of navy blue flesh and exposed brains moved out cautiously into the room. When no punishment was received the others soon followed and then anarchy ensued. The video showed more Nomus than she had ever seen before; they scrambled over each other and fell about in a writhing mass of indistinguishable limbs. Instead of trying to lock the creatures into the small room as she probably should've done (even if she knew how to do that, she knew that the beasts could easily bust out anyway), Toru just sheepishly closed out of the security feed with the hopes that they'd stay in that area.
"Well, lookie here! This sticky beak's a magnet for trouble!" A voice sang form behind her, catching her by surprise and made her spin around in fright. Illuminated by the light of the doorway stood a gaggle of masked thugs, each baring a bird or face mask of some kind. But it was the leering gaze of Oishii who stood in front of the pack that garnered her attention. If she'd been taut with fright before, this was nothing in comparison. Which is why she held no guilt for instinctively slinging a blunt pencil that had been languishing nearby towards the closest person.
The pencil, thrown with far too much force, connected with the chest of one of the thugs, sending her to the ground with a pained groan. Blood spilt from beneath her fingers and the scent of burning flesh & smoking wood permeated. "Ah! You shot me! That bitch shot me!" She wailed, collapsing to the floor with her hands clasped tight to the injury.
"Calm down, Seju" Oishii rolled his eyes. "It's just a pencil"
"Leech! I need an ambulance! I don't wanna lose my boob!" Seju whined dramatically.
"I can't do that"
"What? Why not?"
"Because we still have to catch the bitch who stabbed you!" Oishii pointed harshly at Toru who was trying to sneak away. "Have fun explaining that to the Boss"
"No! Now who's gonna motorboat these, Leech?"
Seriously? Toru quirked an eyebrow at the cry. I know she looks like a horny cheerleader, but come on!
"How you like it? Lemme know!" Hummed the teddy bear next to her as he demonstrated his techniques. "You wanna 'em quick? Or you wanna 'em long? You wanna a little spit on it?"
"Thanks Koga, that's so nice of you!" Seju smiled through her tears but made no effort to move. "Unlike some people—Leech—"
"—Alright, I get it!" Oishii cut her off with another roll of his eyes.
With the strange group occupied, Toru took her chance to escape. Clenching her hand around the USB stick she had somehow managed to eject without being noticed, before grabbing a nearby protractor (the only viable weapon still in the place) she shot up and used the monitors behind her as a spring board to fly over their heads. Cracks appeared beneath her feet as she launched herself forward and she just hoped that there was enough of a working computer for Ritsu (who was still uploaded into the system) to work."What the hell?!"
"Get 'er!"
"Toru! Get back here so I can beat your ass!"
"Get 'er! Get that bitch!"
"Who's gonna wanna suck on my nipples? No one!"
"Toru! Stop running!"
"C'me 'ere lil' birdie! Yeah! C'me on!"
"We just wanna talk! We just wanna talk!"
Despite the sudden and explosive flight, Toru's landing was less graceful or planned as she crashed into the wall of the hallway opposite the door, not far from the tunnel she had plopped out from. But she paid this no mind as she quite literally clawed her way back up with violet hands. Below her she could hear the taunts and jeers from Oishii and his gang that set her nerves on edge. Where she had been enraged upon seeing Setsuno so soon after her ordeal, upon seeing Oishii again had filled her with unbridled fear. Here was someone who had earned her trust before ripping it to smithereens, and this time, he wasn't alone.
Coming to a stop atop a plateau, Toru found herself scrambling for what to do. Should she flee? Fight? Surrender? Her heart thundered in her chest, pulse racing as she tried to think of anything that would help. She was stuck inside close quarters so long range was out and with the Hassaikai thugs down below, there was really only one way out. Before she could spiral inside her head as she was oft to do, she felt hands grabbing at her, slamming her to the ground. She struggled in his fuzzy grip, bucking and bowing in an attempt to break free but Koga's hands stayed firmly on her shoulders, pinning her to the ground. "Gotcha!" Koga grinned, casting an odd image as a homicidal teddy bear in a surgical mask."Hey guys! I gotta 'er!"
"Bring 'er down!" Oishii called up, his voice sounding faint and a little amused. Toru wasn't sure what he had to be amused about in this situation and she fell still for a beat.
"Right!" Koga nodded, releasing his hold on her shoulders so that he could manoeuvre her back down the tunnel.
In that brief window, her body moved before her brain and the protractor she had been palming in her hand was slammed down hard through the neck of her pursuer. Blood sprayed everywhere, coating her face like face paint as she heaved him off of her and pushed him over the edge. Koga landed with a wet and heavy thump at the feet of his peers. "Oh no…" Toru breathed, as she stared at the blood coating her hands and dripping into her eyes. Cautiously peeking out over the edge of the plateau, she saw Koga sprawled out in a pool of his own blood and his limbs bent at an odd angle.
"Shit…!" Oishii breathed, staring down at the body of his colleague. "Right in the jugular!
"What are you waiting for, Leech?" Screeched the last standing thug beside him. Her beret was pulled low enough that Toru couldn't see her eyes, but she could still feel the heated glare pointed at her. "Get 'er!"
"I got it, Fleur!" Oishii snapped as he bounded up the tunnel after Toru. "I'm gonna kill you with my bare hands!"
"Eep!" Toru squeaked as she quickly backpedalled and renewed her efforts in hauling her ass back up the way she had come.
"Run Toru! I'm coming for ya! I'm gonna get ya! There's no way out!" Oishii's taunts hounded at her from behind as she scrambled her way through the dirt.
Thankfully an opening soon appeared (Toru suspected that this tunnel had been subjected to one of Midoriya's kicks) and she wasted no time in unfurling the lasso from her waist and wrapping one end around an exposed pipe hanging from the ceiling not too far away. She spared a wide-eyed glance over her shoulder just in time to see and equally dusty pinkette appear before she leapt for the swinging rope, hands outstretched. With her gloves ripped to shreds, her hands had no protection as they slid down the leathery rope and stung with rope burn until she was able to stop her descent. What she hadn't counted on however, was one of Oishii's tongues whipping out to latch onto the top of the lasso in an attempt to untie in and reel her in.
"Hey Toru!" Oishii sang with a manic grin, "How's it hanging?"
"N-no" Toru whimpered, her head shaking at the action. "Please, no!"
"C'me 'ere!" He grunted, muscles bulging as he pulled on the rope.
"You're gonna kill me Please Oishii! It's okay! You can lemme go!" Toru tried pleading with him, but it did nothing. She spared a quick glance over her shoulder to see how far she was from the ground. It would hurt, jumping from this height, but she'd be okay. One glance at the predatory tongue stretched out to her and Toru's decision was made; letting go of the lasso Toru fell the few feet to the ground where she lay wheezing for breath & momentarily regretting her decision.
"Ooh!" Oishii winced at the impact. "Deep breaths, buddy!"
And then she was stumbling to her feet and racing through the topsy turvy hallways that still held the remnants from Irinaka's attacks. The heroes who had been there before were long gone by now, leaving Toru all on her lonesome with Oishii hot on her heels, although it was easy enough to lose him in the maze of tunnels. Fleur, on the other hand, was a different story. Whilst Toru had been preoccupied with Koga & Oishii, Fleur had circled back around and it was only by the light glinting off of her knife and the psychopathic giggle the bounced around the halls that Toru knew she was there. Panicking slightly, Toru fumbled for a moment before she dove into a nearby air duct that was spacious enough to comfortably move around in. Scrambling passed the rat traps littered about, she soon found a corner close to an air conditioning fan that she thought was dark enough to hide in, even with the blood covering her.
Much like she had done when coming across Toga & Twice, Toru slapped a hand over her mouth as she completely disappeared from view, her blood-splattered costume falling into the shadows of the vent as Fleur stalked by. She could see the shadow of her legs move pass the open air duct and prayed that the masked girl didn't spot the bloody fingerprints littering the edge of the opening. Every noise sounded like thunder, every creak like a sharp whip and her blood pounded in her ears like a roaring tide.
"Is this where you are?" Fleur giggled as she bent to peer into the dark of the duct.
Fuck! Toru cursed as she tried not to ignite in violet when she locked eyes with the girl. Please! Please don't see me!
"Little birdie~come out! Come out, come out & play!" She sang as she crawled inside, one hand gripped tight to her knife which she used to intermittently stab at random spaces between them. Toru held her breath as the knife came within inches of her toes, slicing through the surface of the air duct that was bending under both of their weights. But it was a large spider that would soon cause far more trouble for her as it crawled closer to her corner like it could smell the blood. Toru knew that if the arachnid climbed atop her, then it was all over. A spider floating in the air without a web was a dead giveaway.
"Ooh! Good girl!" Fleur cooed, reaching out to pet the inhumanely large spider that brushed up against the invisible girl's fingers. The two were so close now that Toru could feel Fleur's breath on her face, could see the knife glinting in the dark and she slammed her eyes shut in an effort to not spook like a startled horse. "Beautiful girl! Ah! So soft! So pretty!"
"Toru!" Out in the hallway, Oishii's voice could be faintly heard as he searched for their target. Toru hysterically wondered if it was better to be in the vents with the spider-loving, knife-wielding girl or out there with the nullification-grinning, traitorous boy. "Where are you?"
"Ugh!" Fleur rolled her eyes at the boy's insistent calls.
"FLEUR! GET YOUR BREADSTICKS & HELP ME FIND THIS LITTLE FUCK!"
"I'M COMING!" Fleur yelled back as she turned and retreated out of the vent doing her best not to set off any of the traps that were in her way. Fleur was almost to the vent's threshold when Toru was finally able to flick the spider off of her fingers, cringing at the feel of it against her skin and doing her best not to cry out.
SNAP!
The rat trap closest to her snapped shut when the spider landed inside and the sound reverberated throughout the air duct, halting Fleur in her tracks. In fact the Frenchwoman swung around to face the corner where Toru lay, making her blood run cold. "Heh! Hi, Toru!" Fleur giggled as she renewed her efforts in finding the invisible girl.
"Fuck!" Toru hissed in panic as she ignited one of her shaky fists and aimed it at her opponent. This was nothing like Koro-sensei's assassination or Stain's death. Toru could boast killing big shots all she wanted, but the former had been a mercy kill where she had been an accessory, not the wielder of the blade. And the latter had been done out of self-defence after stupidly throwing herself between the villain and her classmates. But this? This was terrifyingly worse than anything she had ever done.
"How long do you think it'll take the heroes to find you in here? An hour? Two days from now? Even later?" Fleur monologued as she crept closer with knife poised. "Probably when body starts to reek like cheese! Ahahaha! Or we could just burn your body, Toru! It'd be so beautiful!"
"FUCK OFF!" Toru squeaked out as she fired haphazardly at the Frenchwoman in front of her.
"Ah!" Fleur ducked out of the way from the bolt of purple which landed with a sizzle behind her. "Ha! You missed!"
With panic coursing through her, Toru shot forward in an attempt to flee. She couldn't go back because of the air conditioning fan at her back, which really only left one way out. So, kicking the older woman aside with burning legs, she scrambled for the opening that led to the hallway as Fleur's screaming insults flew followed her. "AH! MY NAILS!" It appeared that her hands had fallen prey to a couple of the rat traps. "TORU! YOU BITCH! I'M GONNA HURT YOU BEFORE YOU DIE! I'M GONNA BREAK ALL YOUR BONES! EVERY SINGLE ONE! C'ME 'ERE, TORU! MAYBE I'LL TURN YOU INTO THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE?! YEAH!"
Hitting her head on the way out, Toru fell from the air duct and quickly set to work placing a makeshift door from a piece of sheet metal over the opening, even going so far as to weld down the edges and leaving Fleur trapped inside. There was just enough of a gap for her to fire another bolt of UV into the vents; one that was far more powerful that it needed to be and coupled with the air conditioning fan inside, was enough to turn the metal tubes into an oven. Even with the air ducts sealed tight, the explosive blast was large enough to send Toru flying across the hallway where she slammed across the opposing wall as the scent of burning flesh permeated.
"Did you just blow up Fleur?" Oishii's feet appeared in her vision as Toru lay wheezing on the ground, trying to regain her breath. At his sudden appearance—announced by his slow & appreciative clapping—she scrambled to her feet.
"…No?" Toru sent a side-eye glance to the melted cover as she replied. The sheet metal which had been covering it only moments before was now peeling off in strips, and allowed a singled charred & manicured hand to flop out to greet them.
"I mean, I'm not even mad, I'm a little impressed & definitely surprised" Oishii admitted. "What did that?"
"…UV?" Toru shifted nervously on her feet as she eyed the pinkette before her, unsure as to how she would beat him. She'd been lucky so far—just pure dumb luck—but that had to run out eventually.
"UV?! Holy shit! Damn! Good for you, kid! That is awesome! So" He clapped, "You wanna head start?"
"C'me on!" Toru whined, "You're a third year!"
"Life's not fair, chickadee"
"You guys suck!"
"You just blew up Fleur!"
"Eh…" Toru acquiesced before she took off running down the hallway.
"You know you can't outrun me, Toru!" Oishii taunted as he took off after her. Emotionally exhausted as she was, the thundering of her footsteps in her ears and the feeling of Oishii breathing down her neck spurred her on. Rounding a corner, she suddenly dropped to the ground—"Wait until they've almost got you, drop like a bag of rocks and kick 'em in the dick!"—as her brother's words came to mind. Just as he had said, Oishii flew over her, not expecting the sudden stop and Toru happily took advantage of his form sprawled out on the ground. She took a running start, pulled back her leg and kick him hard.
Unfortunately it wasn't enough to keep him down and Toru felt her hopes dashed as Oishii flipped back up onto his feet with ease, as if the kick hadn't even hurt him. "You missed my dick!" Oishii laughed as Toru shuffled backwards.
"…No, I didn't" Toru whimpered, hands clenching and unclenching at her sides.
"Pretty sure you did and I got a big dick!"
"…No, you don't"
"Well now, that's just hurtful!" Oishii made to lunge across the empty hallway, but paused when the squeaking sounds of sneakers against linoleum approached.
"RUN! THEY'RE LOOSE! THE NOMUS ARE LOOSE!" A doctor, identified only by his lab coat, screeched down the corridor with a look of utmost panic in his eyes as he wailed hysterically.
"Oh shit!" Oishii cursed as the first of the muscular monstrosities rounded the corner, leading an army behind it. He tried to run, hoping to outpace them alongside the doctor but didn't get very far. It seemed that these Nomu—the ones she had let out—weren't able to differentiate between friend or foe, making them all the more dangerous.
Toru jumped atop a piece of fallen rubble and watched as the Nomus tore into Oishii and the doctor like they were nothing more than chew toys—fleshy, crying chew toys. A small part of her cheered vindictively at the scene, whilst the rest cowered in disgust at the bits that were flying about and painting the hallway. But this wasn't time to rest, there were still more Nomus coming and she wasn't safe here, so flicking her hands out towards the horde she manifested one of the newer techniques she had been working on.
Violet bubbles appeared floating in the air all along the hallway, looking for-all-the-world like little fireflies; much like the ones that appeared whenever she sneezed. "Firefly!" Toru decreed as she waved her hands about like a conductor, sending the little bubbles this way and that. They pierced through flesh like bullets, downing Nomus left, right and center but for every one that she took down two more took its place.
"Fuck!" Toru cursed as she soon became overwhelmed by the sheer number of the hulking creatures. Although they appeared like zombies with their brains exposed and limbs hanging loosely, they were anything but. Movements were sharp & precise, Quirks powerful & deadly and no sense of morality to hold them back. Toru envied them a little for that. She knew that as a hero, she should be trying to save people (that was kinda the whole point of being a hero), but as the Nomus closed in she found herself thinking of the promise she had made back at the beginning of the year, in the aftermath of Stain's death. One where she had promised not to do something like again because it wasn't something that heroes did. "…But it seems like I'm gonna have to break that promise" Toru apologised aloud, as if her teachers could hear her. "Please, forgive me, Sensei!"
With that her hands ignited once more and she proceeded to swing upwards, impaling the closest creature on the outstretched limb before kicking it away. From there it felt more like a dance. Brain, jugular, spleen, liver; anything that she could get her hands on fell prey to violet hands. Blood sprayed, outlining her invisible figure in a ghastly combination of red and purple as she moved and this, she found, was much more dependable in dispatching the Nomu. Yes, she exerted far more energy and power than was needed for this kind of situation, but if they weren't stopped here, then they were going to run rampant on an already chaotic situation.
Bruised, bloodied and bitten, Toru launched herself at a Nomu opposite her with enough force to burst through the wall behind it. One arm was buried up to the elbow in brains as the pair flew and she barely registered the shocked gasps at her entrance into the new space. She knew she had landed on someone when a pained grunt sounded from beneath her and she was quickly kicked across the room with much more force than was necessary. Toru slid across the ground, her illuminated hands burning the ground and anything it came into contact with.
But as she climbed to her feet, a moan of relief fell from her lips as she felt the midday sun beat down on her back, revitalising her. There were only a sparse few patches of light, now that she looked, likely from whichever attack had gone wide enough to pierce the high ceiling above. Absently she noted the multicoloured costumes of her peers, letting her know that she'd finally caught up with them and the bird mask she recognised as Overhaul. Did he always have extra arms?
But as she bathed in the stream of sunlight, she wasn't aware of the foreboding image she painted. Blood-stained, dead Nomu corpse smoking at her feet and violet flames licking at her body (due to a combination of her Quirk & the sun rays funnelling down through the cracks in the ceiling). Her smile was small but her moan of relief echoed loudly in the cavernous room as the sunlight licked at her body. It was almost angelic, in a way, like those stained windows found in churches. It was Kage, in the end, who broke the tense silence.
"About time you showed up!"
