I deeply apologize to anyone that wasn't initially able to see Chapter 26 last week! I didn't realize that something was wrong until last night! I hope that you were all able to see the chapter later on! Also, just to clarify, timeline-wise this is happening much earlier than in canon! Here, these events are happening before the first year final exams! Anyway, enjoy the drama!
Joi knew something was wrong the moment the explosion sounded at 1:39am.
Granted, an explosion was a fairly obvious indicator that something was wrong, but it was fairly mild all things considered, and since their informant at the police station hadn't given any indication that the police and heroes were yet aware of their movements, they weren't exactly anticipating an attack. Had law enforcement discovered their mole? Was some upstart rival gang trying to claim their territory? Was someone else trying to claim their asset and Master Overhaul's research?
Or had some idiot teenagers with a death wish just set off a firecracker in yakuza territory? He would destroy anyone that would dare to disgrace the yakuza in such a way. He didn't care if they wore five or a hundred and five; they were dead.
When his phone rang, he swiped up to answer without even glancing at the caller, announcing briskly, "I'm already on my way to the security room. I should arrive in less than two minutes."
"Do you have any idea what's happening?" Master Overhaul's voice murmured over the speaker.
"Not yet, just that there was an explosion somewhere on or near the grounds and a number of the expendable soldiers have moved towards the source of the disturbance to defend the facility if necessary."
"Understood. Have you reached the security room?"
"Yes sir, just now," Joi confirmed, reaching out of his puppet body to grab the handle and shove the door open. As nice as it was for people to underestimate him so utterly when he was in a puppet body, it was damned inconvenient in moments like this.
"Well?"
"It looks like about two dozen men have invaded the estate, or perhaps a few more than that," Joi explained, his eyes flickering from one screen to another. "Most of them appear to be grunts, but there are two standing at the back, likely the leaders. I can't make out many details, but it seems that the expendables are perfectly capable of taking care of-"
A blur of movement and a flash of light burst across one of the screens, forcing Joi to squint his eyes to the point that he couldn't see clearly, leaving him struggling to determine what had… just…
"Shit," he snarled.
"Mimic? What happened?" Overhaul's voice questioned sharply.
"One of the men in the back," he explained, snapping back to attention. "His quirk allows him to make constructs of some kind. It happened too quickly to see exactly what he did, but he's already killed all of the expendables that went out to try to stop them and he and the rest of his group have begun advancing towards the compound."
A low curse was hissed over the phone as Joi heard Overhaul beginning to shift. "I'm alerting the Eight Bullets to begin the evacuation protocol. Sound the alarm for the rest of the expendables to hold back the unknowns as long as possible and get down to the lab floor. Use whatever means necessary to keep them away from Eri and the research, understood?"
"Yes sir," Joi replied, hitting the general alarm as he hung up, glancing towards the camera focused on Eri's room just in case this was some kind of diversion before he headed towards the door.
For a moment he paused, a little bit bewildered by what he saw there. Dabi, Eri's new caretaker, was still in the room with her in spite of the late hour. Actually, it looked like he had fallen asleep there, sitting with his back against the headboard with the girl curled up in his lap, arms wrapped loosely around her in a way that could only really be described as… familial. Even stranger, the girl appeared to be willingly cuddling close to him, tucking her face into his chest as she slept. It had only been two-three?-weeks since the boy was assigned to look after her, and they were this close? That had never happened before, even over several months.
Damn brat. Assuming I make it back to Master Overhaul's side, I may need to recommend that we find a new caretaker for our asset. Someone so protective of the girl can only prove to be a problem in the long run.
But this wasn't the time for such thoughts, as Joi was starkly reminded by another explosion that sounded from within the building. The puppet scrambled to slip back out of the security room, racing back to the little alcove leading down into the basement level. He could hear shouting, more explosions, and screams of pain closer to the front entrance, but that was not his concern for the moment.
They had no idea how much these invaders might know, no idea what exactly their target was, but it was obvious that they had no qualms about killing, so they likely weren't connected to any kind of law enforcement agency. In some ways, that was actually a good thing. As long as they could get the asset and Master Overhaul's research safely out of the estate, then they would be able to start fresh elsewhere. It was unfortunate that they hadn't had the time to fully set up a counter offensive, but that just meant he would have to work even harder to protect their investment, which he would do.
He refused to let Master Overhaul down.
"You two. Guard the entryway," Mimic ordered coldly as he stepped off the stairs. The two expendables grumbled their acquiescence and headed up the stairs with weapons in hand, ready to attack at a moment's notice if necessary.
In the meantime, the puppet hurried towards his station over the room where Setsuno, Tabe, and Hojo should be setting up for their part. There, he finally abandoned his current skin, pulling his secret weapon from the torn scraps left on the floor. He could already hear another series of explosions from the direction of the stairs, shortly followed by a crash, a series of shouts and a couple of screams.
Whoever these people were, they knew about the underground portion of the facility, and that meant he had to act quickly.
Mimic grimaced as the needle punctured his neck, shuddering at the rush of heat that accompanied the drug being injected into his body and gasping against the sudden pain. Just for a moment, he collapsed to his knees, adjusting to the power flooding his veins. Then, with a cold grin, he allowed his body, his very will, to merge with walls themselves. He couldn't control the entire building, but his range had been exponentially increased. He took a moment to peek in the room below and ensure that the trash had taken their positions. Then all he had to do was lie in wait and watch for his moment to strike.
When the enemy first stepped into view, Mimic could only blink in confusion. The three men in front were completely identical: tall, slouched, sporting with ridiculously close-cropped, curly hair, big lips, and blank eyes. And actually, there were more than just three of them: there were over twenty. No one had such an unnaturally blank expression; these were puppets, probably the result of some quirk, maybe even a quirk similar to his own that allowed a person to control other objects. And there, in the middle of the crowd of gorilla-esque thugs, stood the two ringleaders he'd seen before: woman-her navy jumpsuit left none of her curves to the imagination-and a man.
Now viewed under the artificial lights of the hallway instead of through the grainy footage of the security feeds, he could make out more details of their appearances. The woman had pale blue skin and lavender hair tied into a ponytail, with dark, intelligent eyes flicking around the hallway and heeled boots clicking crisply across the cement floor while she played with a bracelet on her right wrist. The man-it was probably a man, although admittedly his heavy parka and raised hood make it difficult to tell-walked beside her with glowing eyes and heavy winter boots, his posture arrogantly relaxed for someone that had just invaded another organization's headquarters.
Dressing for the cold… Had those constructs outside been made of ice? Was the man an ice user and the winter getup was some sort of costume, or was the woman the ice user and the parka was meant to protect him from her quirk? What had caused the explosions? Did the man have some sort of explosive hidden in the folds of his bulky clothes? And the puppets, where had they come from? Either way, one of the two intruders was controlling the puppets; if they were separated from their toys, the things would be as good as worthless.
Time to step in.
"Dammit!" the man in the parka snarled as the floor opened up underneath them. The woman let out a startled, inarticulate shout a moment before the concrete snapped shut once more and Mimic allowed himself a small smirk as he watched the puppets freeze, obviously lost without their mast-
Wait.
What the hell?!
The puppets were still moving. Apparently completely nonplussed by their controller's departure, all twenty-or-so of them broke into a run, obviously trying to clear the area of the trap. Growling out a low curse, Mimic did his best to chase after them, causing the entire halfway to ripple and lurch, closing in around the group. They continued on stoically, stumbling over the convulsing floor but otherwise relatively unaffected by the vertigo-inducing surges.
Right, Mimic snarled to himself, these aren't people inside a puppet's body as with my quirk. These are apparently autonomous beings in the shape of humans. But they're still just grunts. If I can't slow them down like this, then I'll just have to trap them!
The puppets didn't even blink as a series of barriers dropped around them, keeping them from moving deeper into the complex. After taking another moment to ensure the puppets didn't have some other special ability up their sleeves, Mimic hurried back to the room where Hojo, Tabe, and Setsuno had been assigned to set up a counter-offensive. He was not at all prepared for what he saw there.
The walls were destroyed. That was the first thing that he noticed, considering that he was literally moving through them. The next was that it was oddly quiet inside the chamber for what was supposed to be a battleground.
Third was the color red.
Setsuno lay slumped on the ground, his right hand red and blistered and spikes of ice protruding from his stomach, chest, and throat, his eyes blank and glazed over, his blood spilling from his lips and spreading across the floor. Tabe lay on the ground near the purple-haired woman, his clothes, including his mask, torn to shreds, revealing pink and blistered skin underneath, his entire body giving off some sort of steam, his eyes dull and empty. At least it looked like he had taken down the woman with him; she was limp, slumped to the ground while the ground was flooded with the blood that had spilled from the frozen stump that used to be her left hand, staining her jumpsuit red. Hojo was still upright, but only because of the ice spikes running through his upper arms, legs, and torso-all of the spots where he couldn't produce crystals. There were more chunks of ice scattered around them, some of them shattered, others splattered with even more red.
"You… b-bastards," the yakuza gasped, coughing up blood.
"You made a mistake thinking you could fight us," the man with the ice quirk smirked. "My quirk is stronger than any of yours. That makes me superior to you. Superior even to your fool of a leader."
"Shut up, you bastard!" Mimic roared, incensed by the implication that anyone could be superior to Master Overhaul. The entire room lurched and swayed, sending the bodies of Tabe and the blue bitch crashing together and shattering the ice that had mortally wounded Hojo even as it was driven even deeper into his body. The crystal-maker cried out in pain, collapsing to his knees, but if the trash was too weak to handle this guy, then there was no point in keeping him alive anyway.
Fortunately the ice man was no puppet; he staggered as the room lost any and all sense of equilibrium as any other person would, his hood falling back to reveal pale hair and an expression set in a snarl as his pale eyes snapped around the room. His hand swept outward and all of the ice in the room crackled and shattered, increasing the rate at which Hojo was bleeding out as the spikes were withdrawn from his stomach and began reforming into pillars to stabilize the room and a floating platform on which the bastard could stand without being affected by the wild bucking of the cement. Mimic snarled in frustration and switched tactics. His power boost wasn't permanent; it was one of the Asian varieties of Trigger; at a maximum his quirk boost would only last thirty minutes and it had already been around ten. So while he still had an edge, the yakuza turned the room into a living weapon.
With a ferocious roar, Mimic sent pillars of cement shooting out of the walls from all directions, desperate to corner him, growing increasingly frustrated as the gnat swooped out of the way with every strike, using his ice like some kind of hoverboard and even managing to grab that damn woman before Joi could crush her.
"Is this honestly the best you can do?" the man laughed coldly. "Your power truly is weak!"
"SHUT UP!" Mimic shrieked, losing any sense of coherency as his quirk lashed out without any sense of rhyme of reason, streams of earth and cement filling the room in a rush in his determination to bury these invaders, alive or dead.
"The weakest ones always make the most noise, trying and failing to make up for what they lack," came the low sigh, just barely hovering in Joi's conscious recognition. "Especially weaklings like you that rely on cheap drugs to gain power. Truly elevating one's ability is the only way life has value! Beyond that sheer strength, it's meaningless!"
Cold bit through the yakuza's bout of savage fury, slowly numbing the rage like frostbite creeping through his body. Mimic could only seeth in horror as the ice man's power filled the room, covering every surface, every wayward pillar, and shattering them in a manner of seconds, piercing Irinaka's confident rage with a cold certainty.
He… He couldn't beat this guy. His quirk, his sickness, had so utterly consumed him that even with Trigger, even with all the power at his command, this man could beat him so effortlessly. He didn't even have a quirk-erasing drug to even the odds; Master Overhaul had taken all of the incomplete samples with him so that they would be able to start their research anew.
He couldn't let Master Overhaul down.
If he couldn't beat this quirk-obsessed monster, this disease-infested beast, then he could at least slow him down.
As much as he hated to do so, Mimic withdrew, travelling through the walls, taking note of his own ragged breathing for the first time. How much longer did he have with this amount of power? Ten minutes? Five? Where was the young master? Had he made it to the exit yet? Did he have time to check?
Mimic pulled up short as he stared at the cement cage where he had left that group of puppets. There were no puppets to be seen, just a hole in the wall and a pair of abandoned jackhammers lying on the floor. When the hell had they managed to get a hold of those?!
The yakuza suddenly gasped as a pulse of white-hot pain flashed across his chest.
It would seem that he wouldn't have time to check on Master Overhaul after all.
He didn't think he had time to track down all the puppets, either.
Some were wandering the research hall. He brought down more walls to box them in. Others were dropped into pits in the floor. Every attack… more tired… His eyes… blurred.
Crashing. There was crashing, somewhere. Metal on concrete, flying papers. There was something sweet… Or maybe it was bitter…? Gasoline?
Fire!
Mimic rushed to the main lab. There were two of them. Five? No, three! Destroying everything, computers smashed, equipment dismantled. Stop them, he had to stop them, Master Overhaul's research-
Hot.
Cold?
Save it-
Red. Yellow.
Burning, freezing, biting, biting-
Invaders, disease, intruders, plague, everywhere, everyone attacking, grabbing-what is that noise what is happening to me Master Overhaul it's killing me get it out get it out GET IT OUT-trapped, crushing him, all sides, all directions couldn't breathe, being crushed, crush-
LET ME OUT!
The pounding in Joi's head pulled him back to reality. In his whole body, actually. He was honestly surprised to discover that he was still alive, all things considered. He'd been so sure he was dying, trapped in an inescapable prison of some kind.
He was on the floor. When did that happen? When did he escape? Where was…? How…?
He… He felt… cold. Was that normal, after coming down from a Trigger high?
"Good, you're awake."
The yakuza blinked blearily up at a pale face, at lips curled into a thin smile. "Y-You," Mimic rasped.
"You recognize me." The man dropped into a crouch, bringing his cruel, widening smirk into sharper focus. "Even better. I want you to die knowing how insignificant you are."
"You," Mimic growled. Why can't I move?!
"You're weak," the man continued, bringing his hand into view.
So cold…
"That means you do not deserve to live."
Master Overhaul.
"Goodbye, gnat."
I'm sorry.
Outtake:
There was a full moon illuminating Koudatsu Tsukihime's path as she strode through one seedy alleyway after another, stoically ignoring the occasional catcall and suggestive comment from men too drunk to notice her purposeful stride, nor for that matter the mask covering the upper half of her face.
Just once, a particularly wasted lecher tried to grab her ass.
She crushed his fingers and snapped his wrist like a toothpick without even glancing at him.
Tsukihime reached the old warehouse at exactly 1:15am, the soft soles of her new boots-she was still kind of pissed that the vampire brat slashed her old ones, but at least she'd had enough residual energy to heal the limb relatively quickly-making no noise against the cement floor as she slipped through the tear in the rear wall. From there, she slid soundlessly past a series of cracked and dusty pillars until she caught sight of a pair of figures slouched comfortably in the wide open area at the center of the facility.
"Figures you'd be the first ones here," she called softly, stepping into a thin patch of moonlight, lips curling into a smirk as she slid easily into her vigilante persona.
"Ah, Yuki-onna-san," Gentle Criminal grinned, straightening up next to a suspicious-eyed La Brava (Yuki-onna resisted the urge to roll her eyes; she wouldn't approach their weird dynamic with a ten-meter pole). "Naturally we've already arrived! Punctuality is the peak of politeness, you know!"
"And alliteration is the attitude of arrogance," Yuki-onna snorted without any heat.
Gentle Criminal chuckled in turn, then his eyes lifted towards the ceiling of the warehouse. "Of course, I do not believe we were actually the first to arrive, although she has yet to say anything."
"Mm?" Yuki-onna hummed questioningly, glancing skyward, only to hear the gentle clicking of heavy boots on a metal catwalk. Before long, a familiar, weathered face stepped into the moonlight as well, a small smile creasing her lips and a golf bag slung over her shoulder. She was an older woman, likely in her late fifties, although Yuki-onna had never asked her directly. Her hair was a consistent silver throughout, chopped in a pixie cut to keep it out of her face, the area around her eyes creased with as many worry lines as smile lines. She was short, not even a centimeter taller than Yuki-onna herself, but she was fit and healthy, her muscles well-defined under her gray-and-black jumpsuit and the dark green balaclava currently pulled down around her neck.
"Hallo, Yuki-onna," the woman smiled, bowing deeply to the younger woman.
"Jīngwèi nǐ hǎo," she murmured respectfully in turn, imitating the gesture.
Jingwei gave her a stern once-over, then declared with mock seriousness and exasperation, "Nǐ biàn shòule! Xūyào chī duō yīdiǎn a!"
"Nǎinai, wǒmen yǐjīngguò zhègele! Wǒ bìxū bǎochí shēncái!" Yuki-onna protested, blushing slightly in spite of the teasing tone.
Her mentor chuckled, her voice a warm, gentle hum. "Very good," she smiled kindly. "Your accent has improved greatly."
"Xièxiè," Yuki-onna grinned, the heat in her face fading.
"Oh hey, you guys are already- Woah!"
Clang!
"Oof!"
"Easy there, klutz!" a young male voice laughed.
"Aw, I knew you carried, Shou!"
"Yeesh, you guys are gross," another male voice groaned, shortly followed by another round of clattering as an aluminum can was kicked across the room.
"Oi, oi!"
"And don't forget it's codenames only here!"
"Right, sorry!"
Yuki-onna winced at the sudden influx of noise as she turned to glare towards the group of children that had entered the warehouse. "Must you come prancing in like a herd of cats?" she grumbled peevishly.
"I believe the correct term would be 'clowder'," the portly one-the last of the three to speak-snickered. He was of average height, with over-long brown hair and a well-kept beard and mustache that made him look much older than he likely actually was. At a guess, Yuki-onna would put him in his mid-twenties, around her same age. He didn't look like he had a lot of field experience as a rule.
"Nah, a group of cats is called a 'pounce'," the other boy countered. He was tall, gangly, all poky bones and sharp angles under a homemade costume with a cheerful tone behind an almost-cartoonish, steampunk-style mask, complete with a bronze feather on one side. Even the pair of escrima sticks he had tucked into his belt were spray-painted bronze. Obviously a teenager, and obviously fairly new at all of this.
"I'm pretty sure both work, Atium," the girl's voice hummed. She was dressed in a bold, orange jumpsuit that complimented her ears, tail, and mischievous smile, and was armed with little more than a self-defense baton and a mobile phone. The famed Clover, no doubt.
"Does that make me your wrangler?" a wearily amused voice sighed as Knuckleduster came into view, signature teal jacket worn over his black jumpsuit and a dark satchel worn across his chest.
"Your team isn't with you tonight, Knuckleduster-san?" La Brava asked curiously as the man bowed respectfully in Jingwei, exchanging formal greetings as two of the founding members of the Vigilante Network.
"Not tonight; Wraith was pretty adamant about 'em not being needed, and you know he's always got things planned down to the letter. An' anyway, there was an operation in Naruhata that they wanted t'keep an eye on."
Normally Yuki-onna would be disappointed by that fact-Crawler was too much fun to tease-but tonight, her attention was taken by someone else. "Hello, Shadow Dancer," she grinned, stepping close enough to the darkly-clothed young woman sticking by Knuckleduster's side to obviously be addressing her, but far enough away that she wouldn't be caught up in her aura.
"Yuki-onna!" the girl grinned, some of the tension leaving her shoulders. "I wasn't certain you'd be here yet."
"Hold up; you're Shadow Dancer?" the portly young man asked eagerly, spinning on the spot. "'Eyyy, welcome to the family!" he grinned, opening his arms, obviously looking for a hug. Shadow Dancer seemed a little bemused by his reaction, but cautiously accepted the embrace all the same.
"Good to finally meet you," Clover offered a sharp-toothed grin.
"Same! I uh… don't know everyone's names?"
"Oh! I'm Clover."
"Archie," the portly young man grinned.
"Atium," the other teen offered a cocky, two-fingered salute.
"Jingwei."
"The esteemed Gentle Criminal and my wonderful assistant La Brava!"
"And you know me and the old-timer already," Yuki-onna offered, sending a red-lipped smirk in the aforementioned 'old-timer's' direction. He simply rolled his eyes-after dealing with Pop⭐Step for so long, he was probably used to overboard personas. "Anyway, you look tired. Don't tell me my aura's getting to you already?"
"Oh, nonono; nothing like that!" Shadow Dancer quickly denied, arms waving in front of her. "It's just I had an errand to run with Knuckleduster and then we came straight here!"
"You've already jumped once tonight?" Yuki-onna frowned, silver eyes sweeping over her friend.
"W-Well yeah, but it should be fine. I can usually handle three a day, and that was my first jump for awhile!"
"…I suppose I'll have to trust you on that. So what was this 'errand'?"
"Ah- Actually I'm not quite sure…?"
Knuckleduster burst into snickers at the uncomfortable expression twisting the girl's face, reaching into the satchel slung across his shoulders. "From Ice with love," he winked, lifting a carefully-wrapped, two kilogram brick of a pure white substance into view.
"What the hell is that for?" Yuki-onna almost choked while Atium and Shadow Dancer simply looked on in confusion.
Those poor, naive children.
"It's to deal with Tabe," Knuckleduster explained, returning the substance to its pouch. "Consider it a fast-acting paralytic."
"I'm pretty sure that much LSD would kill a man, not paralyze him."
The entire group whirled around at the sound of a low, unfamiliar voice, but before anyone could get a word there came a shout of, "Aw come on, I wanted t'do that! Excellent dramatic entrance, my friend!"
"Who the hell are you?" Knuckleduster reacted first, sliding his brass knuckles into place with a flick of his wrists and stepping protectively to the fore of the group. Yuki-onna adopted a fighting stance as well, eyes narrowed towards the strangers, a tall man in a black trench coat and an equally black fedora and another man in a black and gray jumpsuit standing in an overly dramatic pose.
"No one of significance. Just a couple of cranes passing in the night," the man in black replied, offering a mocking bow that didn't quite hide his faint smirk.
"Shouldn't it be ships in the night?" Knuckleduster frowned, eyes narrowed and calculating.
"Only if your name is Henry Longfellow."
"Nah idiot, it's Arthur Foote! Only if you need to stay undercover though," the gray-clad man mused, hopping from crassly pointing with both his middle fingers to thoughtfully stroking his chin in a matter of seconds.
"Come come, there's no need to be vulgar. And you probably shouldn't reveal that to the whole world," the black-clad man sighed, rolling his eyes in mock exasperation.
"…Well if that ain't DoubleTrouble64, no one is," Archie finally snorted.
"Thaaaat's me! I would prefer that you refer to me as Twice, good sir."
"And who are you?" Knuckleduster asked somewhat more calmly now that the code phrase had been correctly offered.
"Shadowbringer."
Shadowbringer? Yuki-onna frowned. Where have I-?
"Oh my God, the Shadowbringer?" Clover suddenly squealed, her entire face lighting up.
"You've heard of me," the man smiled, tipping his fedora at her.
"Oh my God, I have so many questions for you; like, is it true that you're immortal, or is Shadowbringer just a title that's passed down? Where are you from? Do you really have a vendetta against a particular villain? I mean, it's not been confirmed, but most sightings of you have involved similar sightings of a-"
"Sach, babe, you know I love your conspiracy rants, but time and place, remember?" Atium interrupted her gently, resting a hand on her shoulder.
"Right, right, sorry! But can we talk late? I don't have to post it on my blog, I just-"
"So what is all this about?" Yuki-onna cut in, bringing them back on topic.
"Wraith sent me and Twice to fetch you all," Shadowbringer shrugged carelessly, heading towards the entrance in an obvious command to follow. "It would seem there's been an unexpected change of circumstances."
I haven't figured out a work around for FF, but the Discord Server link is posted on AO3 if y'all wanna join the chaos!
I tried to write Mimic's experience with Trigger based on research into what a meth high feels like. First the initial 'rush' occurs, then the 'high'. I kind of skipped over the 'binge' phase since here he didn't really have time to access more of the drug. After that is the 'tweaking' where the user can experience delusions that may lead to self-harm. Finally, there's a 'crash' and eventually a 'withdrawal' period. In the case of crystal meth, each of these phases can last several days to a couple of weeks. Here, that time frame is considerably shortened. I hope the transitions aren't too abrupt?
Anyway, meet more of the VN, guys! Also, meet the first of the OCs the Discord Server helped me develop as part of the Halloween Special: Shadowbringer! Kudos to Jathagarth for his development; he's a fascinating character study! I have a number of other characters that the members of the Discord have helped me develop that I'll be bringing in bit by bit; I'm really excited for y'all to meet them! (And speaking of OCs, I apologize for my poor Chinese skills for anyone that wants to translate that…)
Also. Since I won't be able to go into this in any of the other chapters, I will give you guys a brief rundown of what happened when Curious and Iceman got dropped into the lower chamber. Short version, when Curious increases the size of her bracelet, it's obviously marked as a weapon, so Setsuno steals it with Larceny, little knowing that Curious has already turned it into a mine. It explodes in his hand, badly injuring him and distracting the three yakuza long enough for Geten to destroy the water mains (hence the broken walls) and utilize it to create ice spikes that kill Setsuno while he's down. Hojo and Tabe are understandably furious and attack, Hojo defending himself with his crystals while Tabe chomps through the ice, determined to eat Geten, but Curious gets between them and while Tabe does bite her hand off, she still manages to touch him and turn him into a mine. So, Tabe dies by explosion and Curious passes out from the shock and pain of losing her hand. Geten meanwhile is able to overwhelm Hojo with the sheer volume of his ice and by targeting those areas of his body that don't appear to produce crystals (info supplied by Deku), which is how Mimic finds them. Violent, I know, but recall that neither of these groups have any qualms about killing each other.
Additionally! I've been annoyed by the lack of details on Skeptic's quirk Anthropomorph. We don't know how many he puppets can create/control, we don't know how precise their commands need to be (can they be given a general 'program' and act accordingly or if they have to be led every step of the way?), we don't know if they can revert back to whatever objects they were beforehand or do they just melt into sludge, how he keeps track of them (does he need a camera system to see where they are/what they're doing or is there some kind of mental link that allows him to see through their eyes?) or anything else that would be important for a fanfic writer to know, so I just utilized some of my headcanons, namely that he's limited to twenty-six puppets (seeing as he organizes them by the letters of the alphabet) and that they can be transformed back into their original forms at the touch of a button on his precious computer, hence his puppets' ability to access jackhammers. :)
Anyway, next chapter will finish off Eri's rescue at the hands of the Vigilante Network, narrated courtesy of a most gentle criminal. ;)