An eerie, dimly lit hallway stretched before Inko. Racks of boxes and crates followed along the walls, and a few odd doors interjected their length. The walkway ended in an open doorway, beyond which sat a brightly lit room and whose light spilled across the tile, casting shadowy gaps between the stacked supplies. While no one stood directly in the doorway it struck Inko that her daughter must have gone somewhere through there.

Inko closed the door behind her with care, almost jumping when the click of it engaging sounded in the near silence.

Her heart thudded in panic. Her ears strained and eyes flew.

But the place was still. Nothing jumped out at her. No one appeared to accuse her. No one had heard.

But now she heard them. Voices were conversing at the end of the hall, in the well lit room.

Inko forced herself to take a deep breath and listen instead, creeping forward and crouching behind a rack to overhear their conversation without being seen.

"I'm so, so, so, so, sorry that I'm late!" Her daughter, frantic and apologetic. What was she late for? Why had it necessitated this kind of rush? "I made a mistake with my alarm and then there were a ton of people, and-"

"Don't worry about it Chisaki. It's ok." Another voice said calmly, their tone level and reassuring. Who were they? What did they want with her daughter? "Right now you just need to focus on getting ready. You only have a few minutes before launch time, so why don't you take your clothes and get changed?"
"Yes! Th-thank you! I'll be ready in just a second."

There were hurried footsteps approaching and Inko realized with a start that her daughter was coming her way.

She couldn't stay here. She'd be seen. The little nook she'd squeezed into wouldn't conceal her enough. Somewhere to hide. Anywhere.

A door.

There was a door in the wall beside her, and without thinking she wrenched it open and ducked inside.

It was a cramped space and the air here smelled heavily of antiseptic; the stench was so strong that Inko had to fight off the urge to gag when she pulled the door closed behind her. But apparently she hadn't pulled it closed hard enough, because a sliver of the hallway was visibly around the door and light snaked in, vaguely illuminating the space.

But she didn't have time to close it. The footsteps had come closer and not a second later Inko heard another door open and hurried movement in the room adjacent to her's. After a few frantic seconds, that same door opened again and her daughter's voice drifted back through the space, slightly muffled by the partially closed door between Inko and the hallway.

"I'm ready to go!" She called as she ran, her voice shrinking back to a whisper with the sound of her receding footsteps.
"Good. Here's your bag, your mask, and your comms unit. Just remember to stay calm out there. I know this is your first, but try not to be too nervous."
Her daughter gave a little laugh, her tone curiously humorous and relaxed in a way that Inko hadn't known that she missed until it made it her heart ache.

"Right, well I think that it's a little late to start getting nervous— Regardless, thank you. I really appreciate it."

The other speaker seemed to find her response amusing, because he gave a light chuckle in return.

"Yes, well, you should be going." There was an odd sound, something akin to rushing wind or crackling leaves. "You're barely on time as it is."

"Got it. See you later Kurogiri."
"Goodbye Chisaki."

Another anxious couple of beats passed, then the unfamiliar sound stopped, and the speaker gave a sigh.

"Now, we wait… "

Inko pursed her lips anxiously.

Wait indeed.

Whatever the situation, Inko was determined to stay put. Her daughter had certainly involved herself in something strange and Inko had every intention of questioning her the moment that she returned.

She wasn't angry. Not really. Just confused. Confused, and worried, and feeling guilty. Whatever her daughter was doing here, Inko couldn't help but wonder if it was her fault. If, because she hadn't been at home much, her daughter had ventured out to entertain herself elsewhere… and Inko didn't know what she'd do with herself if her actions had prompted her daughter to involve herself with something dangerous.

She sucked in a hiss of air, suddenly painfully aware of the long shafts and rounded bulky edges that dug into her skin and how cramped her left foot felt. She squinted her shot eyes through the dim light. It was a small room; cramped and a little dusty with strange appendages that looked eerily alien in the low light. It took her a minute to discern it all, but she quickly came to a demoralizing realization. These things that poked her in the side and dug into the back of her neck were, in fact, a variety of mops and brooms. The rounded edges that dug into her legs were containers of cleaning supplies that crowded around her ankles. And her foot? She'd somehow had the genius dexterity to stick it into a bucket.

Inko Midoriya, in all of her level headed wisdom, had stuck herself in a janitors closet.

Internally she cursed herself. This was possibly the dumbest decision she had ever made. Her daughter was in possible danger and she was stuck squatting here in this closet, with a foot in a bucket and her back screaming in agony. But she didn't dare move, for fear that she'd make some deafening noise and that that person at the end of the hall would hear it—

There was now a vague creaking of a door opening in the distance, then a series of heavy footfalls and the scrape of a chair down the hall.

Someone had entered that room at the end of the hallway.

There was a click and a huff.

The same voice from before came back in disapproval. "Giran. What have I said about smoking without an ashtray?"

"I know. I know." A new voice grumbled dismissively. "I just forgot mine at home. You can put up with me for now, right?" His tone turned heavy, "I'm just so stressed over the Kiddo's test… I just really need this right now."

Inko's heart thudded faster. Not only were there two of them now, but they seemed to be talking about her daughter. Just who were these people? Where had her daughter gone? What was this about a test? Was there reason to be worried for her daughter? Was she safe?

"Well, you should have come to see her off then. She was handling herself just fine." The first voice returned, their tone level and vaguely reproachful.
The second voice gave a groan, and when he spoke his speech was punctuated by frustrated pauses, which Inko assumed were to take a drag of the aforementioned cigarette. "Sure. I know… I just- I don't…" The man gave a groan in defeat. "Do you think she's ready? Even though she's been working for weeks, she just doesn't seem like she's fit for the field— personality wise I mean. She's a good kid. She's not the rough kind that we usually get. I just don't know if she'll be able to make those tough calls?"

"Chisaki has a good head on her shoulders. I'm sure she'll figure things out. And if not… well the boss is watching. I'm sure that he's got something planned for if things go awry." There was a clink of glass on a hard surface. "Now, I'm going to go grab you an ashtray. You've taken all of the ones that I had stashed at the bar."
Oh this didn't sound good.
"I'm sorry about that, I'll bring them back I promise." The other voice drawled.

"Yes, well just be sure to keep your word. I'm this close to pulling the cost for a new set from your paycheck."

The first voice was coming closer. Inko's blood ran cold. If they kept walking, they'd see the door. Should she close it? No. They'd probably notice the movement.

Was she completely out of options?

No. No. Don't panic. She thought reassuringly. You'll be fine. Just as long as he doesn't come into the closet, you'll be fine. It's not like anyone puts spare ashtrays in a… janitor's closet…

Her heart plummeted.

There, on a ledge a whole inch from her face, was a precariously placed box with a little image of an oblong tray on the side.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!

There was a distinct sound of cardboard flaps being opened and closed from just outside.

"Giran, did you happen to take our spare ashtrays too? I always keep an extra box back here."
"I definitely haven't stolen your secret stash of ashtrays. You said yourself that I have too many already… Hey. Maybe Shigaraki moved them. You know how he's always touching shit."

A figure blocked her little crack of light in the barely open door and stopped. Now the first voice sounded alarmingly hesitant as suspicion snuck into his voice.

"Yeah… Maybe… "

He'd seen the door! It was over. Whoever this was would wrench open that barrier, they'd find her, they'd-

She had to protect herself.

Her eyes settled back on the box of ashtrays. It was just small enough that she could grab it with one hand, but it should be heavy enough that if she swung at their head it'd stun whoever came at her.

The figure in the crack shifted.

She slowly inched her hand towards the box.

They stepped closer.

Her heartbeat quickened.

The doorknob gave a subtle turn as weight was put on the other side.

She tightened her grip on her weapon.

The door swung open and light spilled in.

The night was quickly turning chilly and clouds had begun to gather above the building across the street, blocking out the rising moon and casting a dark shadow over the alley that she currently peaked out from. —Well, if this wasn't an ominous sign, Chisaki didn't know what was, and she suddenly couldn't fight the shudder that rolled down her spine.

The night had been off to a horrible start with her whole alarm clock mishap, and if things continued in the same manner this plan was likely to derail itself before she even set it into motion.

The worry of mistakes and consequences gnawed at her mind for a moment longer, before she shook her head resolutely and shoved those thoughts aside.

Tonight was happening whether she liked it or not; she certainly couldn't afford to get caught up in her nerves if she wanted to pull this off.

It was better to stay calm and focus on her objectives.

Right. Objectives.

Tonight there were three.

The first was their primary target: the boss, an American foreigner who was known for shipping illicit drugs inland from overseas. He was the leader of the gang named The Lost Boys, after some westernized fairytale that he'd supposedly fallen in love with. This towering building across the street was their base and its first floor housed a club named Neverland, as was so abrasively detailed in the blaring neon sign that marred the street facing side of the building. Chisaki assumed that the club worked not only as a source of revenue but also as a stable vehicle for moving money and drugs through the streets. She'd never been a fan of the drug scene, since it was so heavily linked with the villain syndicates and outbursts of crime, but it had never been a pressing concern since her life was so far removed from its influence.

The second objective she had was to locate Shigaraki's team, discover their plan for the night, and trip them up before they got too far in their execution. The hope here was to slow down their progress in finding the boss and attempt to save as many people as possible before Shigaraki managed to massacre them all.

But before she could move on to either of those, she had to first address the third objective. While it was obviously the least important when considering the big picture, sequentially speaking it was the most pressing. That was the evacuation of the innocent bystanders, who were bound to get caught up in the conflict if Chisaki didn't do something about them first.

She had her plan. She had her team.

What she didn't have was time.

Shigaraki and his team had been deployed at exactly the same moment as her's, meaning that they had almost a minute and a half on her and her team.

She needed to get them all moving soon, but first she made one final survey of her first obstacle.

Across the street, just below the gaudy, flashing, neon purple sign was the main entrance; a set of large double doors, inlaid with the outline of a winged pair of women. The guard for it was light, only two well built bouncers with what appeared to be small pistols strapped to their belts. They were ill equipped for defending against any aggressive attackers, and from just their attire alone it was visible that their biggest worry for the night was subduing whatever member of the impatient clientele happened to work up the nerve to insist on special access; to which it looked like they'd have to deny rather forcefully. Judging by their stance in front of the well sealed doors and the snaking line of people outside, the club's early crowd had already packed it to capacity for the night.

Great. Chisaki thought, gnawing her lower lip nervously. It's not like I needed even more civilians to contend with.

And yet, there were at least two dozen more of these flashily dressed men and women corralled at the base of the building behind a long velvetine rope, all shifting impatiently.

Well, she'd just have to work around them.

"Okay." She said cooly, her voice distorted to something rather chilling through her mask, as she turned to regard her team. "Everything is accounted for. Medusa and Shotgun, you're on for point A."

The two proceeded to give her affirmation in varying states.

Medusa, a woman in a dark, skintight bodysuit with living violet hair, peered at her anxiously and crossed her arms before giving a brief nodd. She seemed to be a cautious person with deeply weary eyes that watched the world in silent accusation. When she'd introduced herself she'd been a markedly stuttery type with poor confidence and after doing her duty she'd never spared more than a few words.

Shotgun, a man aptly named after his choice in firearm, stood from his spot against the wall and gave her a husky, "Gotcha.", in response. His dark trench coat shifted around him as he straightened to his towering height, surprisingly fluid despite the small arsenal of shotguns and ammunition he had claimed it to conceal. The man was covered head to toe in black, with gloves and tall socks to cover his skin; even his face was obscured by a deep shadow, cast by a wide, circular, brimmed, hat that sat snuggly upon his head. Chisaki had judged him to be a cool headed man who could be trusted to think on the spot, hence his assignment to a separate objective. It was a hasty impression, she knew, but it wasn't like she had much to go off of for any of her team members, and he'd had some valuable input when she'd revealed her plans and their individual roles.

She then turned to the remaining two members.

"You two will come with me to point B." Chisaki's distorted voice related blatantly.

"Fuck yeah!" The younger one of them exclaimed, a wide grin plastered across her face as she kicked her feet jovially from her perch on the lid of a dumpster. Her blond buns wagged through the air as she bobbed her head. "I'm sooo excited… Like do you think that I'll get to stab someone- Oh wait, how about cutting off an arm or a leg? That would be so much fun. Just think of all the blood!" She devolved into an unnerving, giggly, fit.

"No." Chisaki said stiffly, fighting to keep the revulsion from her voice. "For the last time. You won't be cutting anyone tonight, not unless I've given you explicit instruction to do so."

The girl's smile dissolved as her and she puckered her lips in a childish frown.

"Come ooon. Just one cut!"

"You heard me: No." Chisaki bit out, now turning to address the rest of the team. "Remember our terms. No killing. We still fail if our victims bleed out while we're not around. So keep your violence to a minimum. Intimidate, scare, and threaten if you have to, but avoid critical injuries." She set her eyes back on the girl from before, her tone sharp. "Understood?"

"Fiiiine." She drawled reluctantly, her face setting into a pout as she rolled her eyes and leaned back carelessly.

This blond, disarmingly childlike, noticeably bloodthirsty, highschool girl was Himeko Toga. At first glance she didn't appear all that threatening, dressed in a mundane highschool uniform and sporting a rather bubbly smile. But her sweet exterior was quickly undermined the second that she opened her mouth to profess her love of blood and knives; a few of the latter of which Chisaki had glimpsed strapped to the girl's thighs and in the folds of her clothes.

Given this Toga girl's obvious penchant for gore and violence, Chisaki felt an immense unease at the idea of leaving her unsupervised, lest she murder someone in her wanton bloodthirst and win Chisaki an immediate loss on her bet with Shigaraki.

"Ahem, excuse me." Their final member said, clearing his throat and pushing up his crooked glasses nervously, barely hiding an excitable grin of his own. "I have one question… If we are put in danger or threatened, is it permissible for us to gravely harm our attackers?" Beedy, eager, eyes peered back at her from behind his smudged frames and the greasy hair that fell over his face. This disheveled man was Cricket. A highly critical salaryman who was, evidently, slightly off his rocker. Chisaki had immediately marked him for his rather unique quirk and its ability to warp sound within a short radius.

"Oh goooood idea!" Toga exclaimed, eyes boring into Chisaki inquisitively. "So…?"

Internally Chisaki groaned, if they were already looking for loopholes this was definitely going to be a rough night.

Externally however she kept her tone curt and businesslike.

"As I said before, do only what's necessary. Call me if you are in a bind. I'll come help you out... speaking of which. All of you were given com's devices, correct? Let's get them all on the same frequency."

They did so, and not a minute later the motley crew spilled out across the street.

It was evident from the eyes that followed them that they were quite a sight; with their mishmash of street wear and costume clothes. Not that it mattered much. In fact, the more negative the impression they made the better.

However, the sight of the waiting crowd up close struck something in Chisaki. There were just so many people. So many innocent people. All standing right in the crossfires.

Her heart twisted.

They hit the curb now and were just moving to split ways, when Chisaki paused and turned to Shotgun and Medusa, her heart set.

"I have one more thing to add before you go."

"Yeah?" Shotgun said, turning to face her. Medusa followed suit beside him.

"Do your best to get rid of these people. They'll make a mess of things if they stay where they are." She said, eyes landing on the clueless pedestrians.

Shotgun's eyes flickered between Chisaki and the crowd.

"Got it, I'll see what we can do. See you in a few Malice."

Chisaki resisted the urge to cringe at the fresh name and gave a resolute nodd. It still sounded ill fitting and edgy, but she couldn't do much about it now that she'd delivered it.

The hollow regret continued to gnaw at her as they turned their separate ways.

The pair strode past the waiting club-goers and towards the main doors, while Chisaki and the two others moved in the exact opposite direction, setting course for a small gap between the club and the building next door.

A dimly lit alleyway stretched before them; grungy and cluttered with junk. At the end was a door and a broad boned man who stood beside it, his eyes were focused on the floor and a hand curled at his ear while he listened intently to something from his earpiece. When he saw them approach his hand dropped and he scowled.

"What are you punks doing here?" He regarded them callously and crossed his arms. "Get lost. This isn't an access open to the public. Go get in line like everyone else."

Chisaki settled in for a performance, ready to channel all of the threatening pomp she could muster. She smiled, almost friendly.

"Yes. About that. We'd like to request an exception. Just for the night."

The man rolled his eyes and tried to wave them off. "Fuck off you insolent shits. I'm too busy to deal with you and I don't make 'exceptions'."

"Ah, well that's a pity… " She tilted her head and Toga appeared beside her, a knife in hand and an eager smile on her lips. "This would have been so much easier if you'd just agreed to our request."

Immediately the guard's eyes went wide in alarm and his hand jumped for the gun at his belt.

"What the fuck are you-"

The blonde girl was gone in a flash and, before he could react, Toga had her knife held up at his throat, the blade glinting dangerously in the light. The guard stiffened, his hands jerking to a stop at his side.

"Whoa. Whoa. There's no need to get violent, now." His voice hitched nervously and his eyes never strayed from the blade at his neck. "Let's be reasonable about this. Just tell me what you want."

"Why thank you. How kind of you to offer." Chisaki said with a grin, stepping forwards. "Now. I have just one question for you- Oh and I do hope that you answer it truthfully, because if not, well…" She let her eyes wander to the blade at his throat and the eager girl who held it there.

The man swallowed thickly.

"Sure. Whatever you need… " He relented with a shaky smile.

"Good. So tell me… Where is your boss?"
"M-my boss? Jerry? Inside- He normally slips in with the customers-"
—Jerry?

The man that they were after was definitely not a Jerry.

Right. Well of course he didn't know where the big boss was. That would have been too easy. And nothing was ever easy.—

"Anyone think he's lying?" Chisaki ventured with a frown.

"Hmmm… nah." Toga said with a pensive tilt of her head, her greedy eyes never leaving the man's nape, where the knife had barely nicked the skin and a dot of blood had begun to pool.

"Cricket?"

"No. Unfortunately his voice was consistent. He did not lie."

Chisaki gave a flippant sigh of disappointment. "I should have known as much. Well then, Toga if you will…"
"Oh, gladly!"

"Wait! No! I answered truthfully! I—"
With a "wham", the pummel of Toga's knife slammed into the back of the man's neck and he crumpled to the ground with a weighty thud.

The girl stood over his limp form with a frown.

"You know, I was kind of hoping for a little more blood here. Sure, you said to just threaten him, but can I actually cut the next one. Please-"
"No. Remember what I said earlier." Chisaki said, eyeing the unconscious man gravely. The deadly excitement she'd been pushing earlier fell away to leave her cold. She couldn't help the bitter twist in her gut at the sight of this man's limp form. They'd done that to him. They'd done that at her word. She tore her gaze away. "Let's leave him here for now."

"Do you want me to search him for keys?" Cricket offered, crouching down next to the man, hands stretched across him and at the ready.

"No." Chisaki said, turning to look at the door their victim had been guarding. "I'll handle that."

It was equipped with what looked like both a keypad and a typical series of deadbolt locks. Fortunately for her, this door, as most often did, had a blessed little gap at the bottom. It was perfect for a gaseous being to squeeze through.

She activated Ghost, slipped under, checked to make sure that she was alone on the other side and re-apperated. Two seconds later she'd undone the various locks and was swinging the door open for her teammates.

"See. No need to accost the poor unconscious man. I'm sure that we've already given him years of therapy as it is… " She cracked bitterly.

"Right." Cricket eyed her for a moment, before shrugging and standing to dust himself off. "Whatever you say boss."

"That was so cool!" Toga exclaimed leaping forwards and through the door, with a bright smile on her face and clearly enthused about something. "What are you? Some sort of smoke monster?"

Chisaki stiffened. That was definitely an odd way of putting it.

"Sure."

Cricket stepped in after her, his skittish eyes scanning the hall at her back.

"So… Next there was something about an electricity panel, right?"

"Yes." Chisaki said, pursing her lips as she secured the door behind them. "According to the schematics there should be a box down this hallway."

In her peripheral she watched Toga wander a little further in while she surveyed the space.

The hallway was dimly lit and windowless. There were a few doors on the walls, one of which she recognized from the schematics as a bathroom, but otherwise it was deserted and devoid of entrances. If anyone happened upon them Chisaki planned on incapacitating them using a similar method that they had on the guard and stashing them there.

At the possibility of people crossing their paths, Chisaki found her fingers curling anxiously over the hilt of one of the knives at her waist. Kurogiri had found her a belt and fashioned a series of holsters on it to hold her knives. She only had six tonight, and a gnawing part of her worried that they'd be too few, or that they'd wind up lodged in some poor soul's chest by the time this whole mess was over.

Caught too deep in her own disquieting thoughts, she practically jumped when Toga suddenly stopped at a junction and exclaimed to them rather cheerily.

"Found it!" She was pointing to a metal rectangle that protruded from the wall intersecting theirs.

"Great." Chisaki sighed, letting her fingers relax from the blades and followed the other girl wearily. By the time that she and Cricket had gotten over there, Toga had already pried open the panel with a knife and they were now looking at a variety of switches and dials. Nothing too complicated but at the same time completely foreign to Chisaki.

Shit. Even after spending hours studying the schematics of the building, she'd never seen this thing before. Nothing was labeled and she hadn't the faintest idea of what did what.

"Fuck." She grumbled aloud, eyes still roaming across the panel. Then they landed on the base, where a thick cord flowed into the wall. That was the only connection in and out of the electrical box. "Ok. Toga, I'm going to need you to stay here." She turned around and hauled off the backpack that Kurogiri had given her. —Yes. She had taken it. It had been clunky and not very 'villain like', but she had no other way to carry its contents.— After a second of rummaging around, she produced a pair of rather normal, high tension wire cutters. She held them out to Toga with a somber look. "When I give the signal, I'm going to need you to use these to cut this base cord, right here. That'll cut off all electricity in the building. Three seconds later, a backup generator will go into affect and the lights will come back on. All you have to do until that happens is wait here and not get caught. If someone finds you do not cut them up; incapacitate them only. Can you do that?"

The blond girl gave a wide grin and nodded emphatically.

–While Chisaki didn't entirely like the idea of leaving Toga here unsupervised, she didn't have much of a choice. Hopefully her warning would suffice to keep her from murdering some poor sod.—

"Ok." Chisaki said, taking a deep breath and turning to her remaining teammate. "Cricket, you and I are moving onto phase two, as planned." He nodded. She tapped her com's unit as they turned back towards the hall they'd come from, past the door they'd entered with, and towards a growing wave of noise. "Team B is proceeding with phase two. Team A check in."
"We're in position." Shotgun's voice rasped back. "Everything's set on our end."
"Great… How'd you do with the extra baggage?"

"Just fine. Medusa and I took a pair of hostages and the rest scampered off. It turns out that people don't like it when you point guns at them." He said with a chuckle.

"Right… " Chisaki said slowly. She and Cricket pulled up to a pair of swinging doors, flashing multicolored light leaked from around its edges and music boomed in a barely muffled beat around them. "Begin the countdown. Team A, you have forty seconds. Toga, you have half that."
"Understood." Rang out from both sides.

Cricket nodded her way and Chisaki reciprocated his signal, together they pushed the doors open.