Rule #73: Never meet your heroes

NEWS NOON: MR SMILEY STRIKES AGAIN!

"…I'm here, LIVE on location where the artistic vigilante known as Mr Smiley, has struck again. Behind me is the latest piece in his vandalistic gallery: a portrait of himself as he paints the number one hero, Endeavour, as a pussycat…Many are wondering how the number one will respond…knowing his temper, it is not likely to be pretty…"

"…There have already been over fifty reported incidents in the last year alone…and yet no one has been able to capture him…According to our sources, anyone who so much as glances his way instantly convulses into uncontrollable & agonising laughter…Not unlike Ms Joke's own quirk (but there are no known connections between the two)"

"But it is from Mr Smiley's own portfolio website [.jp/free/MrSmiley/SmileyGallery/AboutMe] where we can read Mr Smiley's manifesto…and learn from the man, himself, about his true objectives…"

WELCOME TO MR SMILEY'S SMILEY GALLERY!
HELLO! WELCOME TO THE SMILEY GALLERY!

ABOUT ME!

NAME: Shinjiro Hohoemi

TAG: Mr Smiley

Age: 28yrs

OCCUPATION: Wandering Artist

"Hello, my name is Mr Smiley and I am a wandering artist; a genius wandering artist, some might argue who pushes the boundaries of society and marks the way for other trendsetters, such as myself…For that is what I am, an aloof genius with a paintbrush"

"…But how did I come to be here, you might ask? Well, the unfortunate truth is that the art world is full of art hacks who don't even TRY to recognise true talent when they see it. So, in order to show the world my art—TRUE art—I create it day & night, using the cityscape as my gallery and the streets as my canvas…"

"No one cane keep me from creating my art!"

"No one. Not the police, not the critics, no one"

"Not even you"

Dagger flopped over the back of the couch like someone had dumped a bag of rice on the floor. They'd claimed a PLF conference room once more—though to call it a conference room was a bit generous seeing as it had slowly been converted into a games room. "…What's on TV? Anything good?"

"Eh" Toru shrugged as she idly flipped through the channels. Today was a slow day, although Skeptic had mentioned something about an undercover operation involving the dummy hero agency known as "The Carmine Agency" (named for the intelligence-gathering regiment within the Paranormal Liberation Front that the two teens had been assigned to) that was coming up. Though, he hadn't said much else. "Just some vigilante artist who makes people giggle"

"That's the big story of the day?" The hound scoffed, derisively as they eyed up the primly-dressed reporter on the television.

Toru shrugged again, "Must be a slow news day"

"I guess…" They sighed, before collapsing fully onto the couch. "Ugh, I'm so bored! I wanna do something!"

"We could play…Hunter or Hunted?" Toru offered.

"Nah…I don't feel like running around" Dagger denied, "Besides, Spinner's shedding again and I do not want to walk in on that again"

"Yeah, that was pretty gross"

"Hey" Dagger propped then propped themselves up as best they could without sliding off of the couch or hitting the coffee table in front.

"Mm?" Toru hummed.

"What's going on with Twinkle Toes? He's been on that phone for hours"

Toru spared a glance over her shoulder at the blonde in the corner of the room. He was dressed up in his hero costume, like she was, but his entire focus had been on some burner phone which he had been shouting at in a combination of French & Japanese for most of the morning. "Hell, if I know"

"…Bonjour? This is the living room of the renowned professional hero, Yoroi Musha, elegant upper east side townhouse, on a sunny Tuesday morning in February" Aoyama continued, pleasantly in the background, twirling on his feet as he talked. Yoroi Musha the Equipped Hero was one of the PLF heroes that the blonde was also "interning" with; some hero who had quickly grown disillusioned with the system despite being number nine on the hero charts. "Whom may I say is calling?"

"Think he might be fielding international relations?" Toru suggested as the two friends turned to watch at the blonde; taking particular interest in the way his face dropped at the caller's answer. Whatever they had said, he looked like he had stepped in something foul or like that time Mineta had eaten his mail-order cheese.

"Well, you don't get that face from a booty call!" Dagger cackled.

"Not if it went well" Toru tacked on.

Aoyama turned his back to the nosy two and hissed into the phone, in a manner that Toru had rarely seen from him. "Listen here, you broken down old queen! I was drunk! I am magnifique! You got lucky! Don't ever call here again!" And he slammed his finger against the end call button with far more force than was necessary.

Unable to help herself, Toru called over as her curiosity was piqued. "Who was that?"

Aoyama's demeanour immediately switched back to the bright & bubbly personality that she had come to know. "Wrong number~!"

Clearly not believing his lies, Dagger turned to Toru with a shit-eating grin."That was totally a booty call"

"Yeah" Toru nodded. "But who was it? Now that is the question of the hour"

Before Dagger could reply, in slid Slidin' Go and Yoroi Musha alongside several of the other members of their dummy agencies; including Skeptic who was toting his iconic laptop under his arm and an all-knowing smirk upon his lips. "Alright kids, listen up!" Yoroi declared, easily commanding the room. "Big news—!"

"Oh, please tell us you're not picking another baby!" Dagger groaned as they twisted to face the armoured hero. Their ire was understandable though, given that they already had so many names in this fake agency to remember.

"No, we are not picking another baby" Yoroi shook his head, "And I can ensure you, we will not be making that announcement ever again"

"Yeah, this agency is big enough" Toga chuckled as she trotted in behind with one of the many, many Yoshiwara children, hot on her heels, "You completely clear on that, Daddy?"

"Hey!" Wicca, the gothic hero exclaimed, "Why're you pointing your finger at me? Making babies is a team effort!"

"Whaddya mean?" Yuu asked, head tilted cutely as the eight year old remained glued to the blonde's side, much to her chagrin. He'd taken quite the liking to her and Toru had teased the vampiric villain about the boy's obvious crush.

As one, the entire room seemed to turn their gaze to the eldest in the room. Predictably, Yoroi quickly began to sweat under all of the expectant (and shit-eating) gazes. "Uh…er…Well, I mean—"

Toru, ever the little sister, felt that is was her duty to stir the pot if ever given half the chance. Like right not. "—This should be good" She purred, grin splitting her cheeks.

"Uh…y'know what…" Yoroi floundered, before completely bypassing it entirely. "G-getting back to that big announcement: we're going on a mission!"

"Woo!" Wicca waved little flags in the background. "And it's our first one with the Light Bright twins—!"

In the background, Aoyama spared a confused look with Toru. "Is she talking to us?"

"I think so?" Toru shrugged in confusion.

"—And Dagger!" Dagger retorted, annoyed at being left out of the conversation.

Toga turned to the hound as puzzlement coloured her features, "What're you talking about? You've been on lots of missions!"

Dagger threw the blonde with the driest of deadpans. "Okay, lubing up Spinner after his monthly shed is not a mission"

"Gross"

"Tell me about it"

"Okaaay, so this time, we're going on a real mission" Wicca tried to push the conversation back on track. "To a Trigger facility, in Kaflin"

"If it's a Trigger facility, then isn't it one of ours?" Dagger puzzled. "Why're we investigating it?"

"There are rumours that the engineers there, are taking far more of their own liberties with the drug, than was previously agreed upon. So—"

"—So, we're being sent there to "take care of it" so to speak?"

"Exactly"

"Oh, and here's an interesting little tidbit" Yoroi continued, "We're teaming up with another agency—"

"—And it's a new team, called The Lurkers" Wicca interjected. "It's really, very exciting"

"Wicca, you just interrupted me!"

"Well, I was just trying to get to the point, Yoroi! You know your stories go on forever"

"And the camaraderie continues!" Dagger sassed, gleefully.

"The Lurkers…?" Toru hummed in Aoyama's direction, "Isn't that the one our classmates are interning with?"

"Oui" The blonde nodded, "They were most excited about it"

"You know" Slidin Go' (not one to be outdone) commented, "When we first heard about the facility, we weren't even planning on doing it"

"—The mission" Wicca jumped in, a slight flush on her cheeks at the other implications that could've been drawn from that sentence.

"But then we had a chat with the higher ups" Slidin' Go continued, unbothered by the interruption. "And they said that it was a perfect chance for us to do it"

"—Investigate" Wicca corrected again.

Yuu tilted his head cutely. "Why do you keep saying it like that?"

Wicca then turned to Yoroi, a puzzled and slightly disappointed look on her features. "Haven't you had The Talk with him yet?"

"I haven't had The Talk with Twinkling Star, yet!" Yoroi retorted.

Aoyama waved off the comment with a bright smile and mischievous eyes, "No need to worry, sir, I'm good!"

"I told you it was a booty call!" Dagger hissed in Toru's ear.

"Soooooooo" Toru drawled as she tried to ignore that particular image, "We're really teaming up with the heroes? To go undercover at a Trigger facility?"

Dagger nudged the albino in a somewhat joking manner. "This'll be run. We'll really get to put your acting skills to the test!"

"Great" Toru chirped, pasting a fake smile on her lips. Just great.

In the end, it took them two straight days of flying—with a rather tiresome stopover in Los Angeles—before The Carmine Agency was even able to arrive in the rainforests of the Amazon. Not to mention a small rest day in between, because jet lag was a thing and it sucked. As for The Lurkers, they had arrived at the mission site a few days before and had already settled into the Brazilian nature as best they could; Carmine could not boast the same. Still, they had a deadline to meet and a mission to complete; their comfort was the least of their worries.

The rainforest itself was huge, but the particular sector that the Trigger facility was said to be in, was in the sector that overlapped the country of Kaflin. Kaflin was a small country, though surrounded by lush mountains on all sides and a deep valley in which the facility was said to be. Aside from that, the rest of the landscape was rather quaint in comparison with their little cottages embedded into the forestry like they were something out of a fairytale. Actually, it kind of reminded Toru of a combination of the mountaintops of Okutama and The Beast's Forest from that training camp with the Wild Wild Pussycats. Except, you know, bigger.

Although Hawks had wanted to come on the trip (likely afraid about what would happen should he leave his ward alone with a bunch of villains, or recalling their little excursion to Okutama), but he could not rightly justify his presence amongst their "agency" when he was supposed to be working with Tokoyami. It had been fine during their excursion to Okutama because very few had known them there, and it had been easier enough to slip in & out without much hassle. But for this, they would be teaming up with another hero agency, making that task just a wee bit harder. At the very least, he could feel safe in the knowledge that Toru wouldn't be entirely alone with the villains; there'd be other heroes there too. Even if some of them were PLF traitors or completely oblivious to what was going on behind the scenes.

"Ah! Carmine!" Mount Lady greeted them, arms wide as they arrived at their meeting place in the valley. "Thanks for coming all the way out here!"

"If the facility in question is involved with Trigger, then we can't let them continue" Yoroi replied, greeting the younger heroine with a nod. "I'm happy if we can be assistance to you and your crew. Shall we begin?"

Just then, the sidekicks—or, in this case, the work studies students—popped out from behind the heroine. "Man, he's intense!" Zhao, the diamond-encrusted girl from the Provisional Licensing Exams, whistled.

"Yeah, tell me about it!" Makabe agreed, coming up alongside the Seiai girl. "Guess you don't become the number nine, for nothing"

"Oh, hey Zhao!" Toru chirped as she stepped up alongside the samurai.

The diamond girl bounced forward and quickly swept the invisible girl up into a bone-crushing hug. "Prism! It's so good to see you!"

"You got your licence, then?" Toru's limbs flailed a little in the hold.

"Course! Couldn't leave you to have all the fun!" She giggled.

"Man! I wanted to do that…" Mineta grumbled as he perversely eyed up the two girls.

"You two know each other?" Sero puzzled.

"Yeah, when did that happen?" Kaminari popped up, arm slung around the tape hero's shoulders.

Zhao turned to the three UA boys as she carefully set Toru back on her feet, but remained close.

"We fought each other at the Provisional Licensing Exam"

"Yeah" Toru agreed, shifting a little under the arm on her shoulder. "I chopped her arm off"

"You—you chopped her arm off?!" He spluttered, choking on his own spit. The others weren't much better, though Toru could hear Toga (disguised as some Shiketsu girl) chuckling in the background.

"It grew back!" The invisible girl retorted in her defence. Admittedly, it was a pretty poor one, but at least Mineta looked like he was second guessing whatever gross thing that he had been thinking.

"Alright, putting that aside—" Kamui clapped his hands, interjecting on the conversation before it could go any further than that. "—As fun as this reunion has been, we need you kids down on the field"

And that was that.

HERO PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION STATUS REPORT
PARANORMAL LIBERATION FRONT INFILTRATION

HERO: PRISM

PLF PLAYERS

Grand Commander: Shigaraki Tomura
Second-in-Command: Re-Destro

Violet Regiment: Guerilla Warfare, Commanders Dabi & Iceman
Black Regiment: Tactics, Commander Twice
Carmine Regiment: Intelligence, Commanders Toga Himiko & Skeptic
Brown Regiment: Support, Commanders Spinner & Mr Compress

Shigaraki Tomura [Identity: Shimura Tenko, Status: Alive, Quirk: Decay]
Re-Destro [Identity: Unknown, Status: Alive, Quirk: Stress]
Dabi [Identity: Todoroki Unknown, Status: Alive, Quirk: Blue Flame]
Iceman [Identity: Geten, Status: Alive, Quirk: Ice Manipulation]
Twice [Identity: Bubaigawara, Status: Alive, Quirk: Double]
Toga Himiko [Identity: Toga Himiko, Status: Alive, Quirk:Transform]
Skeptic [Identity: Unknown, Status: Alive, Quirk: Anthromorph]
Spinner [Identity: Unknown, Status: Alive, Quirk: Gecko]
Mr Compress[Identity: Unknown, Status: Alive, Quirk: Compress]

More to follow