The intense, unnatural fog drew in the heroes, and therefore the crowds and the media, like flies to honey.
The villains were just meant to cause some relentless (though, essentially harmless) havoc and then disappear again. They were just meant to be the main distraction for the media and the heroes to keep them away from the actual main event of the day so that the actual plan can go unhindered.
Too bad nothing ever goes according to plan.
It had to be Deku.
Fuck. It had to be Deku.
It was supposed to be his day off, but of course he was covering for Shouto who actually needed the day off to partake in the actual main event that was taking place off the record. Go fucking figure.
Deku was a scary dude.
He was scary when he crash-landed through the metro tunnel ceiling, pure power literally crackling off of his skin, unable to be contained. He was scary when he caught up with the villains and civilians in that same metro tunnel, though it was kind of funny looking back on it when the villains rushed to explain that they weren't hurting anyone and it wasn't their fault at the same time the civilians rushed to explain that they were agreeable to the villains' help at the same time that Deku rushed to explain that he knew of the situation and he was sent by Phantom Thief and Razor to assist. Everyone rushing to explain and diffuse without anyone trying to escalate and nothing needed to be diffused in the first place for once.
But, standing there now, against them instead of with them, across the street, power crackling, as Razor, Haze, and Full Throttle found themselves in an impromptu hostage situation, they were reminded of how capable and threatening Deku could be.
This was very bad.
And hell, it wasn't even their idea for the hostage shit in the first place! That crazy old man and his granddaughter with the wacky healing quirk from the metro tunnel collapse noticed that something was off and decided that they wanted to stick themselves in where they definitely don't belong! What were they thinking?! Just because they helped them out once doesn't mean that they aren't still villains! It doesn't mean that they aren't dangerous!
To be fair to the old man, though, it was the little girl who rushed in first, so he probably didn't feel as if he had any choice but to rush in after her. But, hell, for someone who had a healing quirk connected to emotions, she was one hell of an actor.
Razor thought she was actually scared and wondered why the hell she'd rushed in, then, eyes already tearing, pleading for the lives of everyone around as she grabbed at his hands before he even had the sense of mind to withdraw his quirk. And when she grabbed onto him, he then realized what exactly she was doing. Because in that moment, every scrape he had gotten since the beginning, every strained muscle, every fatigue had just melted away.
Either she had suddenly gained an insane amount of control over her quirk that could surpass Phantom Thief's, or she was a great actor and her tears and fears on her face weren't real.
And, well, what drew a bigger crowd than a hostage negotiation? If everything went well, then the HPSC would hold up their end of the deal and they'd all be pardoned for everything anyway. They wouldn't be too thrilled about a fucking hostage situation, but Razor was pretty sure it could be overlooked if it was all staged and consensual.
Until Deku got involved and he might end up, you know, dying.
The HPSC can pardon him and pull him out of the deepest cell of Tartarus, but the HPSC can't pull him from the River Styx.
"Deku!" the little girl called, tears streaming down her face as she fake-struggled in Razor's grasp. Razor could tell that it was fake and there was no effort behind it, but he could also tell that it looked very real from where Deku stood, the little traitor. "You've come to save me!"
He gave her a light shake, "tone it down. You trying to get me killed?" he hissed at her. And he'd be damned if she didn't smirk up at him, the little shit.
Fucking hell. What was up with kids these days, anyway? When he was a kid, he would have been trembling in his boots if he was taken hostage by a damn villain. Now look at this little pipsqueak with a fucking healing quirk of all things! She should be terrified that a villain will whisk her away, never to be seen again! Healing quirks were rare and valuable among villains! Did she know nothing?! Deku better fucking save her. Someone fucking had to.
"Please!" the old man, the girl's grandfather cried out from beside them where Haze had a light grasp on the man's arm to keep up the display of the hostage situation. The old man jerked forward, not to escape but to tug on Razor's arm in a dramatic display of pleading for their lives. "Please don't hurt us!"
"Not helping! For fuck's sake!" Razor hissed.
"Language!" the old man hissed back. "She's eleven!"
At that moment, with Razor's grip loose and his attention on her grandfather, the little girl ripped her arm out of Razor's grasp and ran straight for Deku.
"Shit—!"
A harshly whispered, "language!"
"Get back here!"
Razor doesn't know why he took off after her. Maybe because it wasn't a real hostage negotiation and because he had been on friendly terms with Deku before. This time, it was like running headfirst toward his own destruction, but it still didn't quite feel like it.
She took a running leap into Deku's arms, Deku caught her, and then they just both collapsed. Razor knew the girl wasn't heavy—that's not a weird, unexpected side effect of her quirk or anything, so he didn't know why Deku would just fall over like that.
"Oh! Oh, no! Deku! This is all my fault!" She wailed. "I'm so sorry!"
Oh, Razor realized. This was her quirk, but not her weight. It was her quirk backfiring, ricocheting off of her emotions. Something had gone wrong.
Razor continued his forward momentum only to drop down at Deku's side, pressing soft fingertips to his neck to check for a pulse and breathed out a sigh of relief when he found one. The murmuring of the crowd grew louder now that the hostage count grew from two to three and one of the hostages included a knocked out rising star Pro Hero. It probably didn't help that the one with fingers to his neck to check his pulse could so easily activate his quirk, direct it to his fingers, and turn his fingers into knives, slicing into the delicate skin there and allow their precious Deku to bleed out right there on the asphalt and there wasn't anything anyone could do to stop him.
Razor felt a rush of power, swiveled in his crouched position to be behind Deku and hauled him backwards into his lap, placing a sharpened hand at his throat where he had just checked for his pulse.
"Three hostages," he announced to the anxious, buzzing crowd. "Not a bad turnout. Any other volunteers?"
"You just wait until he wakes up!" someone from the crowd shouted, much to the rest of the crowd's displeasure as they hissed at him to shut up. "He'll take you all down!"
"Good point!" Razor commended. "Maybe I should just take him out now, then." He moved his hand, sharp fingers caressing the dampened skin at Deku's neck, but not pressing in enough to draw blood. Just enough to make the crowd scream their protests, some moving a hesitant step forward and some fleeing the scene completely, not being mentally prepared to witness the murder of a beloved hero.
"Wait!" a sharp, commanding voice called out. "Let's not make any decisions we'll regret!" Ingenium called out, hands held out in a placating manner.
He wasn't alone. Uravity, Grape Juice, Creati, and Earphone Jack arrived on the scene, immediately moving to crowd control, getting the civilians out of the area, lest the villains get their hands on even more hostages, or the situation escalates into a fight that the civilians would be caught up in should they stick around.
They work on widening the perimeter and Haze and Full Throttle make their move before they could be separated. Better to be cornered together than divided, so they rush forward, dragging the old man with them, sliding onto the ground, and forming a triangle formation with their backs all touching each other so that no one can sneak up on them. Full Throttle got a grip back on the little girl as he went, and so each villain had their backs together, facing outwards, each with a hostage in their grasp.
This was fine. Great, actually. They just had to wait this out as long as possible, make some crazy impossible demands, and hope that when they were taken in, the heroes weren't too rough with them.
-.-.-
"I'm in position," Hitoshi announced from his place on top of the vantage point, pressing the button on the headset situated conveniently at his temple for the transmission to go through.
"Do you have eyes on our target?" Neito's voice came through, clinical as ever, even though this was completely an inside job that they were taking the lead on.
The hell with that, Hitoshi thought.
Hitoshi pushed the button, hearing the satisfying click and pausing a second to make sure the beginning of his message wouldn't be cut off before responding, "let me see…" he teased, pausing, even when his eyes were already locked on his soulmate down below.
The soulmate in question along with Bakugou, who were maneuvering Shigaraki into a more comfortable position in the empty field chosen specifically for this moment, glanced up in his direction, eyes scanning the horizon from his own position until they pinpointed Hitoshi's location. Hitoshi could see the shake of his soulmate's shoulders from his laughter from there. Bakugou was probably already rolling his eyes. He wondered how many more times he could get away with it before they got stuck in the back of his head. He wondered what he said to make his soulmate laugh so hard that it was visible from there.
"I see a handsome guy laughing his ass off. Oh, wait! He has a dead body! Sound the alarm!" Hitoshi yelled.
Hitoshi saw Denki reach for his own headset to comment, but Neito's voice rang through before he got the chance. "Keep talking like that and I might be a little jealous, Toshi."
"Of the dead body?" Denki asked, voice coming through clearly.
Hitoshi could just imagine the look on Neito's face and wished he was there to see it, but he was needed as backup to oversee things at the main event, so to speak. He wouldn't be much help against All For One if All For One wasn't conscious to respond to his call.
Present Mic and Tsukauchi guffawed behind Hitoshi as they listened in through their own headsets. The HPSC agents, Nato and Takaga, looked torn between nervousness at the discussion of one of their heroes being so laissez faire about a dead body and the actual humor being used to navigate such a delicate situation. Shouto stood next to Hitoshi, waiting for his moment to skate down the incline using his ice and join in the actual fight itself if it came to that. Who knew? Maybe it wouldn't come to that.
"Not of a dead body!" Neito snapped, though Denki and Hitoshi (and probably everyone else now that everyone else was getting used to all three interacting together) knew that it was all in good fun. "What does it take to be called handsome by your soulmate around here? I just want a piece of the action, too! Here I am, multitasking my ass off, and I only have Eraserhead and Toga to witness it!"
"And what an ass it is," Hitoshi said. "I'm sure it's very difficult for them to keep their eyes on such an ugly sight with a masterpiece within viewing distance, just off in their peripherals."
Dead silence on the airwaves for a solid minute.
Hitoshi wasn't bored, though. He got to watch Denki turn in surprise, looking at him with a shocked face that was so dramatic he could tell the emotion from the distance. Then he got to watch as Denki fell backwards into the tall grass, kicking his feet as he laughed in delight. He wished he was close enough to hear.
Bakugou just looked up at Hitoshi from the distance, probably in vague disgust. Hitoshi also wished he was close enough to see that in more detail. He'd ask Denki to describe that later if they all made it out in one piece.
When Denki caught his breath, he sat up, pointed at Hitoshi, and made a 'call me' gesture with his hand before Bakugou hurriedly shoved his hand back down to his side in the hopes that he could stop the non-verbal flirting in its tracks before Hitoshi could see.
Fat chance of that. Hitoshi made a heart with his hands in return.
Denki reached out as if to grab the heart and made a show of putting it into his pocket, patting it for good measure. Then, as if having second thoughts, he took it back out, and decided to mime eating it instead, swallowing it whole.
Hitoshi could definitely imagine the incredulous look that must be on Bakugou's face as he stood there, motionless, arms limp at his sides and head tilted down as if it was too much energy to both understand what the hell Denki was trying to communicate and keep his head tilted up at the same time as he looked down on Denki who still sat in the tall grass next to the motionless Shigaraki.
"You're lucky Toga knows us so well," Neito said, then, tone entirely unimpressed, but Hitoshi just knew that his face was flushed and that he was secretly pleased. "She was already in place to take over Erasure for me, knowing that something like this would happen. Am I going to have to turn off my coms?"
"That would be a bad idea," Hitoshi declared, bouncing on his feet to release some pent-up anxiety, "because the warp gate just opened up. Everybody ready?!"
Down below, he saw Denki lazily roll himself onto his feet as Dabi came roaring through the portal, already covered in blue flames. Overall, not a good sign.
Fuck, he hopes that everything goes according to plan. Everything has to go according to plan.