December 28 - Day 16
The aircraft trip eventually reached its end, the landing smooth and without any hitches. The beachside mansion crew are, needless to say, thrilled that their boss has finally returned. And as for the two massive invisible cargo jets (their VTOL flight systems strangely not kicking up too much dust the same way a helicopter near ground would), they had no other choice but to land on an area further down the airstrip to accommodate their enormous sizes, all while keeping their invisibility cloak active.
Afterwards, the unloading process shortly began. And very much like the entire landing, it's also just a smooth and swift process. With a whole battalion of bulky four-armed variants of the B1 Droids, assisted by some human crew along the way, all the Cloning Tanks and Biofuel canisters are quickly and neatly carried down into the beachside mansion's underground compartment.
And after just a few short minutes of reading and signing papers, the entire thing is over. The cargo jets soon took off and flew out of sight. And everything is back to normal again.
"Alright crew, listen up!" Tomoyasu said out loud, managing to get the attention of every single person there within the general vicinity of the mansion airstrip - with some help from his crew, of course. His voice isn't that loud and is actually dampened further by the ocean waves crashing upon the rocky shore nearby.
In the resulting group, he then immediately caught some of the front-most people eyeing up the Valkyrie beside him. But whether they're just curious about it, or just feasting their eyes on the bioweapon's innate attractive appearance, he couldn't care less. At the end of the day, there's a much bigger issue to contend with. "So I'm sure you people here already know of our sudden Hawks issue, yes?" he asked, his voice now amplified in volume via a nearby Liberation troop knowingly using his Quirk on him to help out. "Mr. Top 3 suddenly appearing at Gunga?"
He's quickly answered with a whole bunch of nodding and all kinds of audible agreement. It's clear that the news has already spread.
"While at first glance you all might call this a roadblock, a roadblock full of red feathers even, but upon examining the situation, I found that the entire thing could be easily twisted enough to result to our further advantage." Tomoyasu said, his lips turning into a menacing grin towards the end of his sentence, and his fingers trailing along the sides of the duffle bag he's carrying. The crew members, on the other hand, responded with their own, as if their worries have been lifted off of them now that their leader has finally (and quickly) devised a solution to their current conundrum. "This plan, if highly successful, will change a lot for the better. If not, then the initial plan will just proceed as normal. We'll just deal with Hawks in other ways." Tomoyasu paused a bit as he cleared his throat and adjusted his clothes. "Although said new plan still requires some finalizing from me to really confirm whether it's really a viable new path we could take… Give me a few days…" Tomoyasu's voice trailed off as he raised a hand. But before he could dismiss everyone, he remembered something.
"I need my Command Truck delivered to this mansion, pronto," he ordered. Almost immediately a few people broke off from the large group and headed straight into the mansion, as if they already knew they're the ones needed for the task. It was swift, orderly, and didn't need any manual order. Good. "Also since I did a whole lot of illegal shopping and of course I want to hold onto my new wares, I want this place all protected even more so than usual."
And once again just like his first order, another group of people automatically detached themselves from the main group and left.
"I could also use some anti-radar defense. Protection against tracking. Counter-Quirks. I want this temporary base all heavily protected and defended from intruders, understand? If anything, this base could potentially turn into our main base of operations once the new plan's gained enough solid foothold! So naturally I want it completely unseen at all costs!" Tomoyasu loudly ordered as he straightened himself. Once more his orders caused a group of people, this time a far bigger group, to split off and head elsewhere.
The end result is just a small crowd left standing in front of him. "Alright. Remaining crew, you're all in charge of housekeeping. Any questions?" he asked.
"Is that a real Valkyrie?" came a question from a crocodilian-looking person at the front of the group, accompanied with a pointed gesture to the 'beautiful scantily-clad young woman' standing motionless beside their leader, and looking at her intently.
"Irkalla definitely has it all. This a high-tier Valkyrie in case you're wondering," Tomoyasu took a step to one side and gestured towards his human-like bioweapon, minding the duffle bag he's carrying. "This thing will become a competent team player/living artillery in a few weeks' time."
"That's a pretty Valkyrie you got there, Skeptic. You sure do have an eye for fine-looking ladies." There's another comment, this time from another person farther back in the crowd. A series of chuckles soon erupted from the various people remaining in the group.
Tomoyasu merely raised an eyebrow in it. While yes what his crew member technically said to him could be counted as praise, but still, he just couldn't understand why would someone even bother to praise such a bioweapon that are all designed to be as attractive as possible. It's literally just like praising water for being wet. "I do appreciate the compliment, but please, can we just stay on-track?" Tomoyasu shook his head. "And by on-track I mean I need another group to go back and raid one of Curious's nearest properties for her clothes. This thing beside me here obviously can't just wear this stupid skimpy outfit all the time, right?"
"You want us to raid everything? All her remaining clothes there? Including her-"
"Yes. Whether it's meant to be worn outside or under, just get it all. Get the entire drawer if you have to!" Tomoyasu paused a bit to clear his throat. "I'd rather just recycle things than get new ones, for my Valkyrie at least. Alright, get going, no more excuses-" he suddenly paused as if an idea suddenly popped into his head. "You know what? Just raid everything and sell the property afterwards, we could use some more extra cash. Start going by her nearest properties one by one."
And with that, yet another group left.
"Alright, all remaining people here get to do housekeeping." Tomoyasu raised a hand and waved them off. But before he could truly leave, one crew member suddenly asked something out loud.
"What's that thing over there?" she asked, gesturing towards the Desolator Dreadnought standing motionless just beside the mansion's back entrance.
"Paragon Mini-Dreadnought-"
"A DREAD-"
"Silence, lady…" Tomoyasu immediately spoke out, interrupting the shocked woman, as well as the rest of the people still there who are all about to act out in complete and utter surprise that their boss managed to acquire an actual Dreadnought. "And yes, it's a Dreadnought. A rather cheap one so don't get your hopes too high. Now if may all excuse me, I still have some planning to do," he added shortly afterwards before walking off with his Valkyrie, leaving the stunned crew members alone to process everything that just happened.
…
"Alright, Glitch, stay with me…" Tomoyasu muttered under his breath as he entered the beachside mansion. Thankfully, contrary to what the Zorcon Valkyrie instructions manual said about pre-attachment-stage name-recognition abilities, the woman-like bioweapon understood her name on the first try, which somewhat impressed Tomoyasu despite his low overall opinion on it. "Look like the 3 million dollars used to get you out of your tank isn't a waste after all-"
He didn't even get to finish when the Valkyrie once more tried to reach over to touch his face, in which he just smacked it off. "But well to be fair I called you Glitch for a reason… good thing you reminded me why I gave you that name…" he muttered in a heavily sarcastic tone as he made his way across the massive and luxurious living room, just occasionally checking to see if his Valkyrie is still following him, which she is.
But as he was about to enter one of the secret passages behind a huge painting (that's now-unlocked ever since the Irkalla crew went down to deliver the packages), he noticed two huge bags of keychains just haphazardly placed on a table.
They're Garaki's keychain bags.
Tomoyasu couldn't help but raise an eyebrow on them, remembering what the doctor told him earlier about personally giving out keychain souvenirs to the crew. But apparently that's not the case anymore. All the old man did is just leave the bags out with some handwritten note (a rather unintelligible one like all doctor handwriting) taped on them, saying something about how crew members should only take one item from the pile.
Tomoyasu merely rolled his eyes on it all. Ever since he told the old man the new plan, Garaki just suddenly started acting all shifty and nervous. He couldn't understand it. The plan is perfect (mostly). This time he made sure to account to every possible thing! What's not to like? It's a genius plan!
'I'll just go deal with that later…' Tomoyasu thought to himself as he walked off and dismissed the entire thing. He felt not the need to think about such useless junk anymore.
Proceeding towards the secret entrance behind the painting, Tomoyasu then started the long descent down the stairs. It's quite a tiring trek. "What the hell's Re-Destro's problem with elevators…?" he muttered to himself in annoyance, fully knowing how every single secret underground compartment his mansions have (except Gunga's) are not equipped with elevators. If one wants to get down there, then down the stairs they should proceed, unless they have Quirks to 'bypass' it of course.
For a while, Tomoyasu thought about creating Anthropomorph Golems to just carry him down, alongside with his Valkyrie, but ultimately decided against it. He's almost down there anyways.
In a few more moments, he and his bioweapon eventually reached the underground hall. And as usual with the typical MLA underground hall, it's a simple wide-open design, with a few scattered pillars around, and a raised stage on one side. It's not as big as the other underground halls like in many other of Re-Destro's properties, but this'll do for now.
Scanning his eyes about, he saw the Cloning Tanks all stashed in one corner, and the Biofuel at another one. And right at the middle of the hall itself are three people: Garaki, Zero, and Turtleneck, with the former two just having a chat about some newspaper Zero's holding, and the remaining one just standing silently beside them.
Tomoyasu went in even closer to them, at the same time slightly wondering how come not a single one of them even noticed him approach-
His eyes immediately caught sight of Turtleneck once again just being all quiet and staring a little too intently at Zero as he's just having a conversation with Garaki beside him. He found it very inappropriate. He doesn't care that whether maybe the woman just found their take-home prize very interesting, whatever she's is doing will not be tolerated. Such things should be quickly dealt with…
Tomoyasu continued silently walking in (while still unnoticed) until he's near enough to Turtleneck. And now within range, he then reached out his right hand close to her ear before snapping his fingers as loud as he can, absolutely startling the tall pink-haired woman and making her let out an uncharacteristic shriek. "Turtleneck. It's rude to stare," he told her afterwards.
"Apologies, Skeptic…" came the woman's quick reply accompanied with multiple embarrassed bows.
"Next time try not to stare too much on Mr. Zero over here, understand?" Tomoyasu then turned his head towards the equally-tall white-haired man beside him, at the same time ordering his Valkyrie to stay close to him. "You there, Zero, you do feel uncomfortable when being stared at by Miss Turtleneck here, right?"
Zero merely replied with a shrug.
"A shrug?" Tomoyasu raised an eyebrow. The response he got from Zero is not the one he's expecting. But anyways, "nah whatever if you want to be stared at by this woman then fine. I swear people these days…" Tomoyasu shook his head in annoyance as he nonchalantly took the newspaper Zero's holding in preparation of giving him an order. But before he could speak, he noticed the headline.
"Everyone deserves a second chance – Lady Nagant's inspiring speech awed thousands- WHAT?!" Tomoyasu raised his voice in heightened annoyance as he saw that, once again, just like yesterday's, the headline of the newspaper is once again about Nagant's Christmas 'speech'. "What the hell?! When will people ever get tired of this garbage?! It's been days already!"
"May I kindly asked who is that 'Nagant' person…?" came a meek question from Zero, in full English.
"A nationwide celebrity who only appears once in a blue moon. Don't think about her too much." Garaki replied to him in his crooked English, his voice still sounding a bit shifty and nervous. "People just tend of overexaggerate everything she does like it's the greatest thing ever."
"Yeah… like that stupid 'stretched-out' pajamas calendar photo…" Tomoyasu also spoke in English as he rolled his eyes. He could fully remember what he's talking about. If ever cringe has a physical form, then that would be it.
Zero raised an eyebrow on Tomoyasu's words. "That 'Nagant' lady managed to be a calendar cover woman in just her sleepwear?"
"Not just any sleepwear. Just plain ol' pajamas. She even looks half-asleep from the damn photo…" Tomoyasu grumbled as he checked the newspaper again. He doesn't know why exactly he's checking the newspaper, but since he's already there and getting annoyed with some random lady hero then might as well-
"What? Overhaul escaped prison…?" Tomoyasu narrowed his eyes on a particular section of the newspaper. "Well that's… not something I'm expecting today... But anyways let's get back to the point." He then hastily folded the newspaper down and recomposed himself as he turned to Zero. "Zero, our most trusted lab rat, are you sure you're not going to suddenly cease to exist within the next two weeks? I have a lot of things piled onto me right now and my hands are completely full in the meantime."
Zero merely responded with a slow nod, as if he doesn't want to say anything about his own mortality.
"Good. In the meantime…" Tomoyasu raised his right hand and snapped his fingers loudly again, instantly setting Turtleneck's attention to him (from once again staring too much at Zero). "Turtleneck, get this man a temporary room. And by that I mean give him a vacant room… and not have him share yours," he narrowed his eyes at her.
The tall woman quickly nodded, light embarrassment evident on her, before escorting Zero out of the underground hall.
…
"Skeptic I don't think this plan will go as smoothly as you might expect…" instantly came Garaki's nervous comment literally within seconds of both Turtleneck and Zero going out of sight. "You can't just keep jumping the shark and expect everything to come out smoothly. I already warned you about this just this morning, yes?"
Tomoyasu simply responded with a confident nod as he adjusted his duffle bag and crossed his arms. "You did warn me, yes. This time I took everything into account and I have to say, that this time will be much more different. I assure you this."
"You can't plan that fast!"
"You severely underestimate my cognitive abilities, Doc. I have a PhD in Planning in case you don't know."
"Says the person who literally just hopped into a whole hornet's nest with Humarise just a few hours ago…" Garaki then rolled his eyes, but still his expression remained nervous. "What makes you think that the plan is solid this time and not just another one of your random made-up plans you cobbled up within seconds?"
Tomoyasu chuckled to himself, in a manner heavily emphasizing his confidence on the situation. "Are you seriously doubting my genius?" He chuckled again, this time even further emphasizing how sure he is on the new plan. "You know, Doc. I only made a few mishaps the first time because Humarise is originally your plan and not mine. This time the Humarise-related thing I'm going to do now is MY plan, which means the chances of it failing is ridiculously low."
Garaki was silent for a moment, seemingly not understanding a single thing of what Tomoyasu said. "Are you spinning things again to remove your fault from the initial situation?"
"No." came a quick and stern reply. "I was not at fault from the very beginning. My track record still remains crystal clear with not a single failure within a hundred million kilometers. That should be proof enough alone why you should go over with this new plan. I mean what's the worse that could happen?"
"Humarise detects us and then it's all over."
"Relax, Doc. Those morons can't even get past 7 online defensive layers. That's not even close to half! Re-contacting them again should be as safe and harmless as a nice day on the beach. Besides if you don't want to do it, you can always just have your Cloning Nomu to do things for you." Tomoyasu shrugged. He could feel his Valkyrie once again staring at him from behind, but he chose to just not pay any attention to it whatsoever.
"Well yes you do make a point but-"
"Doc, I already commanded my crew to bring in my Command Truck. It should be here by dawn the next day. We're initiating the New and Improved Humarise contact plan tomorrow morning. No more buts. No more delays. This time I'm a hundred percent sure it's going to work." Tomoyasu nodded but kept his arms crossed. "But in the meantime, we need to get in some of my crew first. Get the teleport ready. You do still remember about the Hawks issue, correct?"
Garaki slowly nodded. He then took out a strange extendable remote-like device from the pocket of his lab coat and began tweaking with the color-coded rods on its tips. "Are you really sure you're just going to proceed with yet another Humarise contact? Just like that? After just what happened earlier?"
"Yes. I have made up my mind about it. Stop asking any more questions. We're proceeding with this temporary new plan and see where it'll takes us." Tomoyasu nodded again. "But as for the current moment, can you just get your teleport systems any faster? Is that really how fast you can go?"
"Just so you know, setting up these one-way teleports with Johnny is not easy as just setting up your computers. Give me a break!"
Whatever Doc, just make sure to uh…" Tomoyasu's voice trailed off as he happened to glance towards the Cloning Tanks and Biofuel canisters just stashed at the corners. "Where's my purple D1 Droid? Didn't I order it to go with you and Zero down here earlier? Where is it then?"
"About that. When the Irkalla crew stashed up the Cloning Tanks right over there, one of them told me he reconfigured one of them to act as the 'garage' of the droid, so to speak. If the droid supposedly doesn't have any commands, or just idling, it'll automatically go back there. Effective for up to a kilometer. It can path-find its way back." Garaki spoke as he kept on tweaking the colored rods on top of his remote-like device. "The droid should just be parked right behind some of the tanks. No big deal."
"Reconfigure? What do you mean by that? What about the tank?"
"Do not worry any more on that. It has no effect on the usability of the Cloning Tank itself. And by the way if you want to 'detach' the droid away from its 'parking lot' and into another, you simply tell it. Apparently a droid with a 'garage' target now has the ability to be parked anywhere I guess?" Garaki then cleared his throat and then continued adjusting his remote's pins. After a few moments, a particular button at the center dimly lit up a faint shade of red. "Alright. Connection established. I suggest we stand back." The old man then took a few steps back, lightly shoving Tomoyasu along the with him, and making way for black goop to manifest in front of them and turn into a full working portal.
"You should really switch up your Teleport Nomu's warp Quirk to a much more 'practical' one. One that's actually not a one-way trip and doesn't need any more ridiculous teleport mediums and pinpoint coordinates?"
"Gloop Warp is the only teleport Quirk that a low-tier Nomu's severely reduced brain capacity could handle."
"Then why don't you make a Kurogiri 2.0?"
"I have my reasons." Garaki shrugged as he nonchalantly stashed the remote back into his lab coat. "I got lucky with Kurogiri one time. The next time I manged to create another 'full-functioning' Nomu, it made a lot of mess. Remember the Naruhata lockdown? The main cause of that is a project of mine that went haywire. A 'Nomu' with a fully functioning brain, so much that it eventually decided it doesn't want to be allied to me anymore." The old man then stepped into the portal. "Remember the shattered Cloning Tank on the right side of the main Shigaraki stasis vat? It's made from there. I just keep that there in remembrance to never make a Nomu as smart as that fella ever again," he added, his voice still audible from the other side of the black gloop.
"Naruhata Lockdown eh? Yeah I remember that." Tomoyasu stepped into the portal, guiding his Valkyrie into it as well. "But still, with the new Cloning Tanks and biofuel, could you maybe take a gander at it again? Who knows maybe this time a new breakthrough will come forth from it? You already have a live human lab rat you could use." He added, trying to control himself enough as to not suddenly sneeze at the dark dusty dungeon that is Garaki's laboratory at the other side of the portal. He also noticed around this time that the 'Cupcake' Nomu is once again the one used as a teleport medium, but he didn't really paid it any more attention as it stood motionless (which is somehow what happens to it every time it's used as a teleport medium).
"I'm not really that sure on that one. I'll try to run some experiments on Zero, and maybe create something that's infinitely much better than my current Nomus. But making another full-brained abomination? Not a chance."
"Whatever Doc, just make sure to make something useful out of it… unlike that worthless balloon Nomu…" Tomoyasu rolled his eyes, but made sure to quickly keep them glued down on the floor and aware of any large metal cables that might trip him. At the same time he also made sure to instruct his Valkyrie to keep her weapons down at all costs. He's not sure whether he even needed to specifically tell his Valkyrie to do that, but he just wants to really confirm it won't just spontaneously deploy its hidden weapons and open fire. "Also now that I think of it, do you even have any space here for the new Cloning Tanks?" he couldn't help but ask upon once more seeing the cramped spaces already full of glass tanks.
"Skeptic… Just like you and the Liberation Army, I too have multiple hideouts located across the country. Not all of them are full yet. Unless you have something else in mind?"
"I'm sure the beachside mansion underground hall is big enough both as another Nomu lab and an temporary staging area for my crew. And in case my crew doesn't like seeing genetic experiments, I'll just have a curtain installed in it. Or maybe I'll just have another mansion constructed nearby… whatever works… I'll just go sort some things out later on."
"Splendid!" Garaki spoke out, immediately then crouching down to greet, pet, and eventually pick up the small teleporter Nomu that went ahead towards him. "How many of your crew's going to be extracted in one go?"
"Not much. But I prefer the teleport end-destination be spacious enough. Dabi's also going to be here and I'd rather prepare for that bastard."
"I wouldn't be surprised if the Hawks issue is tied to him. He's always been extremely stubborn and never follows any rules." Garaki then gestured for Tomoyasu to follow him towards a spacious area within the Nomu laboratory. Along the way, another small Nomu, Mocha, appeared from the shadows and immediately started following the old man like an excited dog. "You know how Elementalists are, yes?"
"Exactly, that's why I want the area as wide and free as possible…" Tomoyasu's voice trailed off towards the end, now feeling some odd annoyance upon realizing the fact that what Garaki said about Dabi being tied towards the Hawks issue has an extremely high chance to be true. By all means his crew are trustworthy enough, so that automatically takes them out of the equation of who brought in the hero in the first place. And the rest of the MLA are all obedient spineless morons who'll obviously not do anything unless ordered by their new 'Lord and Savior' Shigaraki. The remaining League members themselves are easily controllable as well. That leaves only one person left. "Of course…" he couldn't help but mutter through gritted teeth as he continued to follow Garaki. "It's got to be Dabi…"
"Although we can't be sure until he himself tells you so. He wants to speak with you, correct? Let's see what he has to say."
"..."
Before long, the five of them, including the Valkyrie and the two small Nomus, eventually reached a rather spacious area within the barely-lit laboratory. While yes it's still littered with metal cables all over and there's a bunch of other miscellaneous mad scientist-related things scattered about, but as for Tomoyasu, the location is good enough. "This'll do," he said as he scanned the area some more. "Let me contact the crew… hold on…" He then zipped open the duffle bag he's carrying and pulled out his laptop, in which he then just carefully balanced on one hand while using his other free hand to manage it.
He was about to open up the program he'll use to contact his crew when, once more, he heard a very familiar set of low growls from behind him. He didn't even need to look behind him to confirm what it is, for he knew that it's just the 'Cupcake' Nomu once more. And as usual, based on the faint shadows it's casting in front of him, it's once again trying to to 'taunt' him into attacking it. "Looks like Mr. Teleport Medium is already behind me… good to know…" he said in a heavy sarcastic tone and then quickly muttering another set of instructions to his Valkyrie to really make sure it just won't spontaneously deploy her weapons and annihilate it and everything else in the lab.
"Skeptic, his name's Cupcake. Have you forgotten?"
Tomoyasu just merely rolled his eyes upon the correction and just kept on readying up his program. Before long he managed to make contact with Frost, who immediately gave him the confirmation that the crew that are first to be extracted from Gunga Mountain Villa are now at the location he originally requested them to be. "Good…" Tomoyasu nodded to himself in acknowledgement of a job well done of Frost. But as he's about to instruct Garaki to fully prepare the teleport sequence, he turned back to his laptop and typed in further, 'Is Dabi there?'
'He's at Gunga C-15. It seems he wants to enter last.'
'Does Geten want to join in the extraction?' Tomoyasu typed in, hoping the young Elementalist would want to join his regiment in their temporary base.
'Negative.'
'Fine by me. I'll just talk to the kid later. Tell the crew to get ready, I'll be starting the full teleport sequence within the next few seconds.'
'Copy that, Skeptic.'
Tomoyasu turned his attention to Garaki, who's apparently now talking to the Nomu (the one he named Cupcake) and once again just treating it like it's nothing but a (giant) toy dog. "Hey Doc, stop fooling around, I have my crew ready to go. Prepare the warp." He then took a few steps closer to the old man (not minding at all the hulking humanoid abomination taunting him), and faced his laptop's screen to him, which is now displaying a bunch of numbers. "Here are the coordinates."
"You know, Mr. Skeptic…" Garaki spoke as he gently picked up his small wire-attached teleporter Nomu and started tweaking the pins connected to its glass-encased brain. "I have to ask, why don't you just get an actual phone? Why hold up the laptop like that?"
"Can I bash morons with my phone the same way I can do with my laptop?" Tomoyasu immediately replied with a sure tone, heavily emphasizing the word bash morons alongside a quick head gesture towards the general location of Shigaraki's stasis chamber.
"Hmmm… fair enough…" The old doctor shrugged as he kept on tweaking the pins. "So is this really your chosen spot? Won't your crew be tripped from the cables?"
"Is there any place in here without any cables?"
"… Point taken…"
Before long, the normal-sized Nomu (Cupcake by its name), stopped its taunts and began drooling out black gloop, which then eventually manifested into a portal. After the three of them moved a good distance away from it all, Tomoyasu then marked something out on a currently-open program on his laptop to remind himself that the people who are about to come out of it are the ones situated at Gunga C-9. "Gunga C-9, go right in," he typed in at the chatbox of the program to signal his crew that it's time to get into the portal.
A few seconds later, in came a person from the other side. "Skeptic," he immediately made a bow of respect upon seeing his boss standing there.
"Go stand over there please. Make way for your fellow crewmates." Tomoyasu instructed him to stand on a nearby area. He caught the man staring a bit on his Valkyrie, but that the tall lanky computer geek didn't mind it much and just repeated his initial instructions. "Weapons down. We are not in imminent danger," he added just to make sure his crewmate wouldn't suddenly do anything rash considering the overall look of the place.
…
Soon, more people came forth, up to a grand total of six, before Tomoyasu received an announcement from Frost that the six people currently nearby are all that's in Gunga C-9. "Doc, ready up Gunga C-12…" He instructed Garaki to prepare the next portal, once more turning his laptop's screen to him so the old doctor could see the coordinates, before facing his crew - who are all bundled up on the area he told them to stand. "Alright crew, how are things back at Gunga?"
It took a while before any of them answered. It only makes sense considering this is the first time any one of his crew has ever been within Garaki's Jaku hospital underground Nomu laboratory and they're still not done taking in the strange sights. "It's uh…" eventually came an answer from the heteromorph in the small group, "Hawks is still doing what he's doing."
"Still harmless huh? To what extent?"
"Last time we heard he wants Re-Destro to give him missions to prove his loyalty to the army."
"Well that's definitely suspicious-"
"Hi there Skeptic's crew!" in came Garaki's sudden awkward words of introduction as he continued tweaking the pins on the teleporter Nomu's brain to prepare the next portal. "It's me, your new doctor crewmate-!"
"Doc, stop fooling around. Get the Gunga C-12 portal ready." Tomoyasu immediately stopped Garaki from making a fool out of himself. "I have a big issue on my hands right now and I want to get it remedied as soon as possible." He then raised a hand on the general direction of his crew members. "Crew, I'd prefer if you could stay silent for the next few minutes."
He didn't get any more responses from that. Good.
…
The current gloop portal eventually dissipated, only now revealing to the crew members that it's actually A Nomu who the portal came from in the first place. Needless to say, they're startled to know that, even more so when the abomination is now seemingly trying to attack their boss right afterwards. But after just a bit of Tomoyasu's reassurance that it's just harmless, they all quickly calmed down. "Stand down, no one uses their Quirk, understand? This big guy just tends to do weird things," he spoke as he once more turned his attention back to the old doctor beside him, who's already readying the next portal.
After a few more moments of the old doctor tweaking the pins off of his Teleporter-Nomu, Cupcake (or so the name of the teleport medium Nomu) suddenly began drooling black sludge again, which then eventually turned once more into another portal.
And just like the first one, the entire group that entered consisted just a total of six individuals, in which Tomoyasu once more told to group up with the first batch.
"Alright. For our third portal, we're going Gunga C-19 first. I'd rather get Dabi in last."
Garaki shrugged as he's presented the coordinates and just kept following orders.
…
The third portal appeared. This time it only had 5 people come in. And just like the earlier portals, Tomoyasu told the small group again to join the already-existing group and just stay silent.
…
"Final portal. Gunga C-15…" Tomoyasu muttered to himself, bracing himself for extreme levels of irritation that's about to arrive, IF ever Dabi is the root cause of the whole Hawks issue. "Ready the portal Doc. And if ever I get the confirmation that Dabi is the one who brought the top 3 hero in, stand back. I'll deal with him."
"You're not going to command your Valkyrie to open fire right here, right?" Garaki asked, his tone sounding worried, as he tweaked the brain-pins on his teleporter Nomu.
"I'm fully aware we're under a hospital." Tomoyasu then tapped the shoulder of the blank-faced Valkyrie beside him. "Plus this thing hasn't learned how to use her silencer cannons yet. Now get going, I need to have an urgent chat with the delusional pyromaniac."
After a few moments, 'Cupcake' vomited out the final portal. In immediately came in three people, who Tomoyasu quickly told to stand by with the others. And then after a few minutes more, Dabi finally arrived, alongside a message from Frost that he's just standing outside the portal doing nothing the whole time. But whatever the reason why the annoying Elementalist chose to appear a few minutes late, Tomoyasu didn't care about that any longer.
"Frost, is that the first batch?" he typed into his contact program as he watched Dabi slowly walk a few steps outward from the portal, hands shoved on the lower pockets of his torn-up jacket.
"The first batch indeed. Do we need to add more?"
"No it's fine. But be sure by tomorrow morning the second batch is ready. Same locations as this time. Now if you may excuse me, I have a potential pest to deal with..." Tomoyasu paused a bit before closing the program, and his laptop as well, before gesturing towards Garaki to finally dissipate the portal. "Well well well… if it isn't Dabi… How's your stay within the VIP room while I went out for Irkalla? Did you have any fun?" he spoke out to Dabi in a heavily sarcastic tone. "I hope you did."
"Way better than that…" Dabi did a mocking shrug, as if he's the leader of the entire group, and no one else is higher in position as he is. "The party went better than expected after you left. I can barely tolerate your presence."
Tomoyasu involuntarily slouched forward, his grip on his laptop tightening in annoyance. Here comes Dabi again thinking he's the boss of him. Who does he think he is?! But before he would metaphorically blow up, he asked (through gritted teeth, but making sure Dabi won't find anything strange about his tone), "Enough with these stupid greetings. So I heard you want to speak to me, yes? What is it that you want to tell me?"
Dabi scoffed as he placed his hands on his hips and smugly shook his now-lowered head. At the same time, Garaki slowly backed off, carrying his two small Nomus with him and somehow getting 'Cupcake' to follow him as well. "You know Hawks?" the arrogant Elementalist spoke out.
Almost immediately a surge of irritation overloaded Tomoyasu. "Oh so you're really the one who brought in Hawks to the Gunga Mountain villa, huh?" He asked, his voice indirectly going louder as he returned his laptop into his duffle bag with shaking arms, before zipping it back up.
Dabi raised a hand, his haughty expression not changing at all as he stood right in the middle of the open space he's teleported in. "First off, watch your tone. I'm not deaf, you crazy bastard. And second, yes, I am the one who brought Hawks in. You got a problem with that?"
Tomoyasu's fists automatically clenched hard upon receiving the verbal confirmation that, yes, Dabi is the one who brought Hawks in. He then took one step forward, but making sure to raise a hand to signal his crew members to NOT do any drastic action. "You brought Hawks in? Seriously? Dabi, I had Curious killed off for a REASON – to STOP recruitment. I want an easy excuse for a massive chunk of the MLA to JUST be holed at some mountain villa AWAY from heroes and civilization, with no idea on anything going on outside, all in order to MAXIMIZE the effectiveness of my plan. I want them to have TOTAL disconnection from the outside world… and now you're here suddenly coming in and casually admitting that you brought in the literal Number Three?! Are you mad?! We talked about this not so long ago!" he said through gritted teeth, his voice barely being contained. "You out here potentially ruining my 20-year old plan for what, exactly-?"
"Are you done blathering yet?" came an interrupting quote from Dabi, who seemed as if he didn't even hear a single word that's uttered to him.
Still on the verge of metaphorically exploding, but managing to calm himself down at the very last moment, Tomoyasu replied, "why yes. I am done." He tried to calm himself down further. By all means he wants Dabi to ally himself naturally to him, and to treat him with respect as his superior, in the same manner as with the rest of his regiment. Having a second elementalist would greatly prove very useful in the grand scheme of things. And to do that he just have to try to be neutral to him and hopefully eventually gain Dabi's trust naturally over time. But now, not only Dabi is just being as smug and stubborn as ever, possibly even more so, but he also literally just went against the main overall plan and made an extremely risky decision that could potentially destroy any hope of the original plan ever working at all. While yes Tomoyasu had, sort of, now formulated a secondary back-up plan, but still, the feeling of ALL his first 20 years of effort potentially going down the drain is really sending him into insurmountable levels of irritation, despite him now being as calm as ever on the outside.
Something has to be done.
"Tell me, why did you bring in Hawks anyway?" Tomoyasu eventually asked, having felt he's calmed down his voice enough.
"What, you have a problem with that?" Dabi asked back, his tone reeking of mockery and sarcasm. "I have my own plans with Hawks."
"Your own plan? How come you haven't told any of us here sooner? Why not last week? Why not a few days ago? HELL why not just this morning? You literally have ALL the time in the world to tell me about whatever plan you're cooking up. Why only NOW when the damage has been done? What the hell?" Tomoyasu's shaking right hand involuntarily slowly zipped open the duffle bag he's currently carrying. "If you only told me earlier then I could've had time to adjust things to make it less potentially damaging! In fact you could've just made it less damaging if you didn't just lead him straight to the villa!"
Dabi shrugged, once again his mannerism like he didn't even hear anything at all. After a few moments he just shook his head and slowly started walking away towards the general direction of the secondary exit of the underground Nomu laboratory. "Whatever you just blabbered about, it's not my problem anymore. I have my own plans with Hawks, period."
"So you literally just brought in Hawks just for your plans which you won't even tell?" Tomoyasu slowly asked as Dabi passed by. "That's it? You just revealed our entire location?"
"That's your problem now."
Almost immediately Tomoyasu's rage went through the metaphorical roof, but still he managed to not blow up. There is still a chance for Dabi to ally himself. He must not screw this up, even after the absolute disrespect he received-
"Stubborn elementalist…"
Tomoyasu stopped as he heard Garaki's also-seemingly annoyed comment stealthily directed at the leaving form of Dabi - who's just casually walking away like he really did nothing wrong.
"That guy is hopeless…" Tomoyasu agreed.
"You should just kill that guy and I'll just go bring him back with another Rewind test like I did to Miss Kizuki in the first place…." Garaki said in a sarcastic tone as he rolled his eyes. "Who knows? Maybe it'll influence him and maybe change his mind figuratively and literally-
"You know what, Doc? YOU'RE RIGHT!" Tomoyasu immediately spoke up in response, his eyes wide open and his mouth all twisted up in an incomprehensible grin. "Glitch, you stay here, I have some business to attend do with that moronic Elementalist…" he instructed his Valkyrie and slowly began catching up to Dabi, his right hand now shoved into the now-zipped-open duffle bag he's carrying.
"Hey Dabi, I forgot to congratulate you for bringing Hawks here!"
Dabi, seemingly annoyed by Tomoyasu's tone, ignited his hand, engulfing it in blue fire. But as he's about to swing it back in a threatening manner, a bullet went straight through his skull. And then another one. And another one.
Tomoyasu didn't even hold back. If anything Dabi dropping dead only made him pull the trigger harder and empty the entire magazine of his newly-bought silenced fully-automatic Irkalla pistol, until Dabi's head is nothing but red sludge on the cold concrete floor. "Next time, make sure to give the boss some more respect, unless you want another thirty rounds going right into your moronic head… Dumbass…" Tomoyasu said with a few menacing chuckles at the same time hearing the small footsteps of Dr. Garaki, who's still carrying the teleporter Nomu and dragging its long attached cable with it. "Don't worry Doc, I made sure not to hit anything important. I anything I just shoved in 30 pistol rounds on Dabi's head. You can thank me later."
"Skeptic… I was just joking about the whole 'killing' thing."
"Joking or not, you have proven that you can bring people fully back from the dead so it's fine. Although Curious came in a whole lot younger but I'm sure you can get this thing right-"
"Me sort of managing to reverse-engineer Rewind into something that can fully bring people back from the grave doesn't mean you'll now go around killing anyone who disagrees with you, right?" Garaki asked with a nervous chuckle. "Because uh-"
"Of course not. That would just needlessly bring down morale. Low morale is a terrible thing in the grand scheme of things," Tomoyasu replied truthfully. "Okay. Now bring Dabi back, make sure he comes out normal and not suddenly younger, and let's see if this time he'll finally fix his attitude… and also of course don't forget the next stage of the new plan tomorrow morning." He then turned to his crew, who all have looks on their faces as if they enjoyed seeing Dabi get pumped full of lead in the head. "Crew, follow me. We got a little change in plans and I feel like you all need some sort of a heads-up."