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Chapter 1: Prologue

Chapter Text

"You're so cool, Eraserhead," Shigaraki said, in his raspy voice as his hand clenched around my face. I frantically batted Shigaraki's hand away, and raised my own hands in preparation for Shigaraki's next move. "Still, it's not going to matter. Crush his skull to a pulp Nomu!"

The monstrous man screeched and raised his fist to comply. Nomu's fist came down but was suddenly stopped in the air. Nomu's fist had gone through a hole in the air. There was a moment of shocked disbelief as everyone stood still. The hole expanded creating a powerful wind as it sucked up everything and everyone. Not even the ground was spared, as the solid rock was torn to pieces as it was sucked into the expanding hole.

"Midoriya," Tsuyu yelled, her tongue lashing out to wrap around my ankle.

"Thanks Asui," I yelled as I was pulled into the air along with Tsuyu and Mineta. "Quick Mineta, stick us together so we won't get separated." With a scream the purple haired child obeyed and we were sucked through the portal.

As we flew, a spray of salty water blinded me as they flew into a furious storm. I frantically blinked my eyes to clear them, in time to see a massive monster ahead of us, it had four eyes, one on one side and three on the other. It held a struggling Nomu in one claw as its long tail whipped about, shattering steel blades that rose from the earth to impale it.

"SMASH!" I screamed, punching out at the monster and wincing as my arm broke from the recoil of using One for All. The monster was launched backwards, flying into the apartment building behind it. The backlash of the blow halted our flight, letting us fall to the ground while a steady stream of debris and water launched overhead from the portal into the monster.

An armoured man flanked by two giant women strode forward. He said something but I was too focused on my broken arm to listen.

"That was English, I think," Tsuyu said. "Do you speak Japanese?" she asked in heavily accented English. Before the man could reply, the monster emerged from the ruined building, a hunk of rubble in hand. It hurled the rock at the armoured man, only for one of the blonde giants to step forward and catch the blow on her shield.

Crack!

My breath came out in a cloud of vapor as the monster was suddenly engulfed in a glacier of ice. Shoto and Katsuki landed smoothly while Eijiro crashed to the ground beside them.

"Where are we, Deku? And what was that thing?" Ka-chan snarled, mini explosions popping in his hands.

"I think we're in the States," I replied, my eyes focused on the villain, "and that seems to be some sort of villain. I can't figure out what their Quirk is."

"The wormhole that we were sucked through seems to be descending," Shoto said, looking up.

"More people are coming through too," Tsuyu said, as the low level villains started being launched out of the portal. Most of them began scrambling away, while others were hurt on the landing. "Our friends might come out soon too. We should secure the portal."

"Good idea. We-" I began before the glacier shattered. A wave of water and ice flowed towards us, as did the monster from before. The blades from the man in armor were shattered by the fast moving ice, which swirled around with malicious intent, smashing the various villains into a pulp. The twin giantesses moved, one grabbed the man in armor, pulling him out of the water, while the other met the charge of the beast, thrusting her spear into its flesh. The beast lashed out in a flurry of blows, tearing into the giantess who fought back as best as she could, but was quickly torn to pieces. The other giantess retreated, crying loudly, as the monster pursued her. Metal pillars rose up to block its way, but the water echo of the monster shot forward, making the giantess stumble. The monster bounced off the metal pillars, shooting straight towards them, the ice filled water following after it like a billowing cloak.

"Die!" Bakugo roared, his fists spitting explosions to no effect. He snarled angrily, and launched himself into the air, far above the monster. Todoroki froze the monster in another glacier, but this time it shattered in a few seconds, the shards of ice being guided by water to impale the people around them.

"Todoroki! You have to stop using ice!" I shouted, shielding himself with his broken limb. Some kind of water control. The villain was utilizing Todoroki's ice as a weapon. I tensed, preparing to punch the monster again with my other arm when a car sized wolf made of metal blades came down from the sky, hitting the beast with a shriek of grinding metal. At the same time, dozens of lasers came down from the sky, vaporizing the largest chunks of ice. Other heroes began to arrive as a large group of our classmates came out of the portal alongside Thirteen. I saw Aoyama try and control his fall with the laser and end up separated. Alarms began to blare on the armbands on the various heroes around them. Numerous flying heroes descended from the sky and picked up ground bound people while others started erecting various barriers and energy shields. I saw Todoroki get picked up by some man in a cowl as I ran over to Thirteen. Giving Ochako a quick smile, I maneuvered my good arm underneath Thirteen and helped raise the professional hero to her feet.

"What's going on?" Thirteen asked, her voice pained. Lasers came down from the sky, bombarding the monster, even as it flung the metal wolf into a building. I started to explain when a wave of water pushed through the streets. "Get behind me, quick! Ultimate Move; Black Hole Wall!" Thirteen yelled, stepping forward, the tips of all of her fingers falling open. She spread her fingers out as wide as they could go and raised her arms so they were level with her body. Immediately the crushing wave of water began to get sucked in and obliterated. Still the water was beginning to flow around Thirteen and it showed no signs of stopping. Aoyama swept past us, desperately firing his laser again and again to try and get some altitude.

"Aoyama!" Ashido screamed as our flashy classmate disappeared behind a building. She went to jump in after him only to be grabbed by Kirishima.

"We need to get elevated as fast as possible, too late to run, flying heroes already to busy to help. But if we were up there they could grab us. How? Ochako floats us. Sero provides tape so we can be secured and don't fly to high," I mutter to myself, my mind racing.

"Ochako float as many people as you can, Sero, wrap and throw them up to the flyers!" I shouted as the water began lapping over my feet. "Hurry, we don't have a lot of time!"

"Right!" Ochako said, slapping my back and levitating me. I opened my mouth to protest that I should go last, but before I could speak, I was wrapped together with several other students and launched up into the air, where a flying hero grabbed a hold of the tape and brought us to the roof of a building.

Within moments most of my class joined me and the final group of Ochako, Sero, and Thirteen were beginning to float up when the monster reappeared. It leaped over Thirteen's vortexes and flicked its tail downwards. I gasped in horror as Thirteen suddenly went limp, her body floating like a morbid balloon. Sero shouted something and threw Ochako back. She flew through the air, pushed by the renewed waves and her lack of mass. Miliseconds later, the water crashed over Sero, and he disappeared from sight.

"Sero!" I shouted, helplessly, many of my classmates echoing. I waited with bated breath for gravity to reassert itself, feeling sick with worry for Ochako and filled with a desperate hope that somehow Sero was okay. Thankfully we remained floating as the monster dove into the water, creating a fierce vortex around the portal, burrowing in the earth. The buildings they were on trembled before collapsing entirely, leaving us floating in midair again. The area around the portal had quickly become a large murky lake. I heard the heroes around him cursing in English, but couldn't quite understand what they were saying. There were some robotic voices coming from the armbands they all wore and soon enough I found myself being placed on the ground, next to the lake. Almost as soon as they touched the ground, I felt gravity reassert itself, and I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing Ochako had to be okay. Right?

"It was either that, or an insanely perfect coincidence. I know her power doesn't work if she's unconscious, so she could have passed out. Or-, but the timing is too perfect. The moment we are all safe, her power is canceled. The had to be deliberate. Thus she's safe," I muttered.

"Thank you, can you-" I began only to be cut off when the hero helping me flew off. I looked around and headed over to where the other students were gathering. "Is everyone alright?" I asked.

"Dude, you saw what we did didn't you? How can anyone be alright after that?" Eijiro sputtered. "They're gone! Just like that! And we-"

"Could do nothing but watch," Ka-chan snarled. "While that thing tore them apart like they were nobodies."

"That doesn't matter," I said, shaking his head, and desperately repressing my memory of the even.

"Of course it fucking matters!" Ka-chan yelled, glaring at me.

"We need to figure out what we can do to help! What we can do to stop that thing. We can't afford to fall apart yet," I shot back, my eyes full of tears.

"Do you speak English?" a girl in stilted Japanese said. The group turned to see a thin figure in dark armor walking towards them. Her arm was clearly broken and she was limping as she moved. Her face was completely covered in a mask with tinted yellow lenses while her brown hair hung wetly around her head.

"Yeah. What do you want?" Ka-chan asked in English, rudely. Of course Ka-chan spoke English, he had the top grades in the subject in school, and when we were young, we practiced together because we knew All Might studied in America, and we wanted to do the same.

"Who can fight?" the girl asked, simply. Ka-chan stepped up immediately, because of course he did. I hesitated, my stomach clenching at the idea of fighting that monster again, but I gulped nervously and stepped forward as well. A glance around at my classmates didn't show any others following them. That was okay. I couldn't blame them. After losing Thirteen, Aoyama, and Sero, all I wanted to do was sit and cry. But there was one important person missing.

"Where is Todoroki?" I asked. "The last I saw some cowled hero had taken him." The girl looked at me, her expression hidden perfectly behind her mask, before glancing at Ka-chan.

"The icy bastard," Ka-chan grunted. The girl nodded.

"He's with Eidolon. They are freezing the ocean," she said. Wait what? The entire ocean? "Come with me. I'll take you to Leviathan." She stiffened suddenly, and began walking quickly. "We must hurry. He's broken into a shelter."

"Wait, wait, what is Leviathan? What's his quirk? What shelter? Where are we? What about Ochako?" I babbled as we walked.

"An Endbringer. He has macro-hydrokinisis. And he's currently in a shelter designed to ensure civilians don't get slaughtered en mass when they attack," the girl reported, barely paying attention. "Who's Ochako?"

"Brown haired girl, skin tight black suit," Bakugo said, bluntly. "Who are you? What can you do?"

"Didn't see her. Don't worry, others are on search and rescue," the girl said. "I'm Skitter. I can control bugs."

"And what do you expect to do to that monster with just bugs?," Bakugo sneered. Skitter ignored him and they trudged on through the rain. Suddenly an armband on Skitter's arm began to chime.

-Armsmaster dead. Velocity dead. Gallant dead. Rime down. Vista down. Shadow Stalker dead. Fletcher dead. Hookwolf down. Chevalier down. Battery down. Challenger dead. Glory Girl down.-

"That's..." I trailed off, horrified. So many dead in just a few seconds. And we were on our way to fight the monster that did it. I wasn't prepared for this. But I pictured All Might, and clenched my good fist. He'd charge in with a smile on his face and as his successor I wouldn't let him down.

"They saved a couple hundred people with their sacrifice," Skitter said, grimly. "And they hurt Leviathan. That's about as good as it gets. Now are either of you scared of bugs? Because I'm going to cover us in a swarm. Hopefully that'll buy us some time to get close. Armsmaster had some sort of weapon that carved through Leviathan. I'm going to go retrieve it. Try and draw him the way we came, the civilians are running the opposite direction."

"Bring it," Bakugo growled. I gulped, but nodded. Seconds latter, they were covered in cockroachs, dragonflies and other bugs. I fought the instinct to flail around and could barely make out Bakugo clenching his fists. I took a shaky breath, trying to ignore the bugs crawling through my hair.

-Lady Photon dead. Laserdream down. Brandish down. Flashbang down.-

"Three, two, one," Skitter said, barely audible over the buzzing of her bugs. At zero Leviathan reappeared. One of his arms was missing, there were several large gashes down his torso, and he was visibly limping. They moved towards him, the swarm splitting into six groups, some going wide, others heading straight for Leviathan. I was in one of the swarms going around the monster when it lashed out with a claw, striking multiple times. The first strike sent a blast of water that just scattered a swarm of bugs but the second was intercepted by an explosion from Bakugo.

"Flashbang!" he shouted, his hands emitting a blinding light. He launched himself in the air with further explosions. "Now take this, Continual Barrage!" Bakugo sent blast after blast into Leviathan's head. The monster's tail flicked up but Bakugo sent himself spiraling away with a blast. He landed on the side of Leviathan missing an arm. "Now DIE!" he roared, bring both his hands together in a gigantic explosion. The monster stumbled, and seeing my chance, I darted forward.

"Smash!" I yelled, slamming my fist into Leviathan's damaged leg. Leviathan fell, face first into the cement. I immediately backed up, biting my lip from the pain in my arms and just barely managed to dodge a swipe of Leviathan's tail. Leviathan got his arm underneath him and began to rise back up, only to be hit by another barrage of explosions from Bakugo.

"No you don't, you bastard! Just die!" he screamed in fury, hitting Leviathan again and again, slowing his rise. Out of a cloud of bugs came Skitter, awkwardly swinging a long metal pole with a gray glowing blade on its end. To my surprise, the blade cut into Leviathan's head with a plume of dust. Skitter frantically drew the blade back and hacked away at Leviathan's face, taking out an eye, before Leviathan's tail sent her and Bakugo flying. My heart leapt into my throat, my mind immediately jumping to what happened to Thirteen. The beast began to rise again, only to be intercepted by the giant lady from before throwing a metal girder like a javelin. Other heroes began to arrive, laying down a barrage of ranged attacks, but the beast still rose to his feet.

"Time for the BFG," a voice near me said. I looked away from Leviathan to see an overweight man in a red tank top and wearing a blond wig. He was carrying an oversized metal gun with the help of another hero, who was dressed the same way. They fired, and I blinked frantically, the bright green attack coming from the gun blinding and deafening me. When my vision cleared, Leviathan still stood, encircled by heroes, but a meter wide hole had been punched through the monster's stomach, and they were covered in green plasma. I was about to tell them to shoot it again, when I noticed the gun had been reduced to a slag of molten metal.

"Only one shot? Experimental weapon maybe, or the ammo is too powerful for the gun to handle? I-ha," I mumbled, the pain in my arms cutting me off as I winced.

Leviathan suddenly shot forwards, much faster than before, heading straight for one of the buildings. Some heroes got in the way, only to be cut to pieces by Leviathan's wake. The monster bounced off the wall, and escaped down the street.

-We've got confirmation, Leviathan is headed out of town. He's retreating!- Someone's armband chimed. I let out a massive sigh of relief and collapsed to the ground. The pain from I broken arms went from 'ow ow, I really should learn to control One for all' to 'stop doing anything, but feeling pain and breathing. In fact, breathing is optional. Just really appreciate how badly you've broken your arms again, and how you need to stop doing that!'

"Hey kid, did you see that? We fucking roasted him! No one is going to make fun of Uber and Leet again, not after we beat back Leviathan!" the overweight man cheered.

"I think his arms are broken Leet," the other guy said. "Come on kid, lets get you patched up."

"I should, I should find my friends," I mumbled, allowing the man to raise me to my feet. I desperately tried to think. Who did I need to rescue? Ka-chan? Ochako? Everything seemed so blurry.

"Don't worry about that," the man said. "Everyone will be headed to the first aid tents anyways. Your friends, will be there too. Just relax for now, and we'll get your arms looked at." I nodded at whatever the man was saying, and walked along in a daze. I remembered being brought in a tent. Someone asking me what my hero name was and giving me a mask. I remembered giving permission to be healed, before lying down on a cot. Then everything went black.

Chapter 2: Adapt

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

I woke to an absence of pain. It was bizarre. The last month it seemed like I was always in some level of low grade pain. From my injuries fighting Bakuda, to the injuries fighting Armsmaster and the heroes, to the... I've been getting into too many fights, I decided, opening my eyes.

"Ā! Anata ga me o samashite imasu," a young man said. I blinked at him, and realized I didn't have my glasses. I thought about what he said, trying to remember the Japanese I picked up in school and from eavesdropping on ABB members. He said something about being awake?

"Hai. Eigo o hanasemasu ka?" I asked, awkwardly. My face itched. I wanted my mask, or at least some bugs, but I assumed we were in some sort of field hospital, and a swam of bugs would cause a panic.

"Ah, Noaught weally," the boy said, awkwardly. "Sugu modotte kuru," he said, getting up and leaving. I immediately raised my hand and rubbed my eyes, feeling the unfamiliar mask across my face. I reached out for my bugs, getting an idea of the space that surrounded me. Hundreds of cots, most of them filled with bodies. Some dead, most living. My stomach coiled with dread. I took a deep breath, and then another. I had just survived Leviathan, but now I was seconds away from a panic attack. I was filled with this urge to do something, and if I couldn't I-

"Hello again!" a cheerful voice said. I looked over, seeing the distinctive green hair and blue uniform that was one of the young Japanese heroes who had fought Leviathan with me. His arms were still wrapped in bandages, and he noticed me glancing at them. "They said since I wasn't in critical condition, I would have to wait."

"I see," I said. "And everyone else?" I asked, awkwardly. I was mentally kicking myself the moment I said anything. I knew they would've lost some people. It was inevitable with an Endbringer fight. There was no reason to blatantly poke at the wound.

"Well we found Ochako! And Ka-chan is up and kicking. Your Panacea is so amazing! She almost instantly healed him, it was incredible to watch. She looked a little confused though, or maybe distracted? It didn't stop her from doing her job, she patched you up as well, without even thinking about it." He visibly drooped and tears sprung to his eyes. "But, um Sensei didn't make it. Neither did Thirteen or Sero. And so many of my classmates are missing."

"With any luck they are still on the other side of the portal and are safe at home," I said. It might even be true. They'd have no way of knowing until and if they got back home to their dimension.

"Yeah," he nodded, brightening noticeably. "But where is here? I mentioned we were from Japan and were students at UA but no one seemed to know what I was talking about. They didn't even recognize All Might's name."

"No one explained it to you yet?" I asked, sighing. "It seems that portal pulled you from your home dimension into ours. In our dimension Leviathan destroyed Japan. A hero named All Might never existed here."

"That's...how is that possible? How do you know?" he asked.

"You're Japanese and you didn't recognize Leviathan. Either you were living under a rock your whole life, had amnesia, or came from another dimension," I said, flatly. "And believe it or not, this isn't the first time this has happened."

"What? Really?" he asked.

"A villain named Haywire opened a portal to an alternative Earth, and the Simurgh opened a portal to a different dimension another time. There are probably hundreds of thousands of alternative dimensions as far as we know," I shrugged.

"So it won't be too hard to go home?" the boy asked, hopefully. I shrugged again.

"I have no idea. There's no casual interdimensional travel at least. But maybe there is some travel done at the higher levels of government," I said. I wasn't even lying. Yeah, there were treaties forbidding travel between Earth Bet and Earth Alph, but that made sense. Else there would be a constant stream of refugees, and no planet would be able to handle that many people. But for the rich and powerful? Yeah, I could see the possibility of some people setting up secret boltholes in case Earth Bet finally collapsed.

Or maybe not. It was Tinker tech after all. Perhaps Haywire was the only one to figure it out, and it had never been duplicated. That was also very possible. In which case the boy and his classmates would be stuck here for the rest of their lives. In either case though there was really only one good option for them.

"Listen- um," I blanked, realizing he had never actually told me who he was.

"Izuku Midoryia," the boy said.

"Izuku. You should probably go to the Protectorate. If anyone can help you get home, and get you established here, it's them," I said.

"Is the Protectorate the local hero team?" Izuku guessed.

"They are the organization that runs most of the hero teams in the US," I replied. "They have the most parahumans in the world, and work pretty closely with other international groups like the Guild. Come on, lets go see if we can find any of them. We should make a deal with them before they decide you need to be quarantined or something like that." I got up, and pushed aside the curtain as Izuku followed me. Several of his classmates were waiting outside my cot, including the explosion kid. I paused for a second, using my bugs to locate the heroes. It was hard to tell who was who, but I recognized the Director of the PRT from our attack on their fundraiser.

"This way," I said, walking down the lane. I could almost hear them arguing. My bugs were getting better at hearing, but why? Did Pancea do something, or was it the fight with Leviathan? We got to their location, the Director and the two heroes separated from us by a thin curtain. I cleared my throat nosily. "Um, Director? Could I speak to you for a moment?" I asked, loudly.

"I am in the middle of a meeting, whatever you want can wait," the woman snarled, pulling across the curtain to glare at me. She paused. "You aren't one of my Wards or New Wave. Who are you and why should I care?"

"These kids all have powers and they want to help," I said, bluntly, too focused on who the Director had been arguing with. Miss Militia and Legend himself. The hero moved forward, grinning warmly.

"That's good to hear. We would of course welcome them into our Wards program," Legend said, hiding whatever tension he had from arguing with the Director.

"It isn't that simple," the Director said, frowning. "You just told me that Brockton Bay would likely be quarantined because of the presence of these...guests of ours."

"An overreaction from the government's part," Legend said, sighing. "Leviathan isn't the Simurgh, his devastation is upfront and clear. I'm confident they'll see reason in time."

"Perhaps," the Director said, her voice carefully bland. "But as is, they will be stuck in Brockton Bay. And with the local Protectorate is depleted with us not receiving any reinforcements," the Director said bitingly.

"The situation will be temporary. You just need to hold on until the quarantine is lifted," Legend said, reassuringly.

"It will still be months, maybe even years before that happens. And in the meantime I'm understaffed and in no place to be taking in dozens of kids," the Director snapped.

"On the contrary, you can't afford to turn them away," a familiar voice said cheerfully. I turned around, to see Tattletale and the other Undersiders walking up to me. She winked, and stood by my side while the others halted behind me.

"Tattletale," the Director growled. She turned her attention back to me. "And that must make you Skitter. Why should I listen to a gang of villains when I've got a city to take care of?" Izuku and his friends gasped. I clenched my jaw. I could hardly claim I was working with Armsmaster to betray the Undersiders now. Not only had I changed my mind about that, but the man died fighting Leviathan. As far as everyone was concerned, I was a villain and always had been.

"You make it sound so melodramatic, calling us villains. Like we committed any major crimes beyond stealing," Tattletale said, with a laugh. I glanced at her. What was she playing at?

"And the assault on our fundraiser?" the Director asked, glaring.

"Hey, you attacked us. We just showed up to claim our fair share of the credit. After all, we were the ones who beat Lung. Twice. Not to mention Oni-Lee and countless ABB grunts," Tattletale said, smirking. The Director's glare upgraded to a full on glower. "But the point is, we're here to help."

"That seems unlikely. A bunch of villains just spontaneously changing their ways?" Miss Militia said, stepping up.

"Leviathan attacking changes things," Tattletale said, shrugging. "We're thieves and thrill seekers. But there isn't really anything to steal, and we aren't exactly going to be having fun in a ruined city. And before you bring it up, we can't exactly leave with that upcoming quarantine. Plus you heroes are between a rock and a hard place, so you can't exactly afford to turn us away."

"What do you mean?" Legend said, his voice still pleasant. I glanced at him, an eyebrow raised. Was he just being polite, or did the man just not have a hostile bone in his body?

"The local Protectorate got slaughtered and you just had an influx of several hundred villains. You need whatever capes you can get your hands on. We'll help keep the peace, and teach these newbies the ropes," Tattletale said, confidently. I felt a jolt of hope. We're they turning on Coil? Could we actually be heroes together?

"So you would join our Wards?" Miss Militia asked.

"Oh hell no," Regent said as Bitch snorted dismissively.

"What they said. We are joining up to stand around and look pretty or to be bossed around by bureaucrats. We're joining up so Brockton Bay doesn't get condemned as another ruined city," Tattletale said.

"And you would just do this out of the goodness of your hearts?" Director asked, sarcastically.

"Of course not. We'd want amnesty for starters," Tattletale said.

"Money," Regent butted in.

"Authority," I added. The Undersiders would never last taking orders from the Director or even Miss Militia. Alec would constantly rebel in little ways, Rachel would walk away, and Tattletale would constantly undercut anyone she thought was stupid. Only Brian and I would actually listen to orders, and if I was ordered to let some villain escape, I would disobey in a heartbeat.

"Authority?" Miss Milita asked, frowning.

"Yes. Like Tattletale said, we aren't going to stand for being bossed around by bureaucrats. Give us the authority to go after villains. We will work directly with the Director, obey her orders, but we will do so how we want," I said, trying to inject confidence in my voice.

"And why should I bother with a bunch of teenage villains?" the Director asked, with a snort. She glared at Tattletale when she opened her mouth, which immediately shut with a snap.

"Because we're veterans. We took down Lung twice, took out Oni-Lee, survived being ambushed by Bakuda, beat your Wards and your Protectorate and went toe to toe with Purity and her allies," I said, staring directly at the Director. "There isn't a cape in this city we haven't fought against or with and I'm confident in our chances against any of them."

"Barring all the new capes of course," the Director said, her posture stiff, and her face like stone. I refused to look away, even as my mind raced. Did I push too far? Or not far enough? She didn't like Tattletale talking, which made sense. I wish Brian would step up and join the conversation. Wasn't he supposed to be our leader? At least in public anyways.

"True," I nodded, thinking fast. "Still, we specialize in scouting and escape. We've got the firepower to handle most things, and the agility to avoid everything else."

"Hn," the Director grunted, not letting even the slightest bit of emotion show on her face. "I'll think about it. In the meantime, what's your name child?"

"I-Izuku Midoryia, Ma'am," Izuku stammered, standing up straight.

"No hero name?" the Director asked, as Tattletale tugged on my sleeve. I let myself be led away, where the rest of the Undersiders were gathered. I heard the Director begin talking to other kids, Miss Milita translating her words into Japanese.

"Okay Tattletale, what the fuck was that?" Grue demanded, as soon as we were isolated enough. "When you asked us to trust you, I was expecting you to pull Skitter's butt out of the fire, not volunteer us to be heroes!"

A wave of disappointment filled me. I looked at the others. Grue was angry, that cold outrage he had, rather than any sort of screaming rage. Regent was lounging against a tent pole, looking both smug and curious. Bitch was watching us carefully as guarded as ever. She nodded to me when she saw me looking, so I nodded back. Tattletale had her normal vulpine grin as she met Grue's gaze.

"An opportunity, that's what," she said, smugly. At Grue's glare she held up her hands appeasingly. "Here me out, you'll understand what I'm getting at. The majority of casualties were on the local heroes and the city's government was slaughtered in the shelter. Before the day is over, Director Piggot is going to declare martial law."

"Get to the point Tats," Regrent said, bored.

"The point is; Coil isn't doing jack shit for us anymore," Tattletale hissed, leaning forward and lowering her voice slightly. "Grue, no one cares who is taking care of your sister right now. Social Services won't even be allowed in the city for who knows how long, and by the time they are, you'll either be an adult or a respected hero. Bitch only wants to be left alone. Getting the heroes off her back will do more for her than Coil has ever done. Plus now she'll be able to go after dog fighting rings officially. Regent, you only want petty stuff like good food and video games. A heroes budget will pay for that, and they'll provide back up if your family comes poking around. And Skitter won't have to choose between betraying us and rescuing Dinah."

I flinched. Had Tattletale known all along about me intending to turn them in? Or was this a recent discovery? In which case, shouldn't she know I changed my mind?

"Betraying us? Skitter were you going to betray us?" Grue asked. I met his gaze, seeing the accusation in his eyes, my mouth dry. I opened my mouth but Tattletale jumped in.

"She has an overdeveloped sense of responsibility and blames herself for Dinah's kidnapping," Tattletale said, dryly. "I'm sure she was trying to think of some way to rescue Dinah without fighting us...but." I let out a mental sigh of relief, I was still safe. Maybe.

"I don't want to fight any of you," I added, my gut clenching. "But I can't leave her there, suffering abuse from that...bastard."

"Hn," Grue grunted, crossing his arms across his chest. I looked from him to Bitch and Regent, Regent just sorta shrugged and gave me a half smile, while Bitch was frowning and biting her lip. She met my eyes briefly and looked away, to my shock. If she was angry, she would've been glaring at me, I knew that. Her looking away was almost encouraging. I wonder what she was thinking, was she concerned about my potential betrayal? Or was she focused on what Tattletale had told her about working with the heroes?

"And what do you get out of this?" Regent asked, his half smile turning to a cruel smirk.

"A way out, maybe," Tattletale said, tapping a finger against her arm. "These kids came from another dimension. And they are going to try and get home. If we help them, hopefully we can catch a ride."

"Why would you want that?" I asked, without thinking.

"It's a world without Endbringers. A world that isn't trapped in a slow decline to oblivion," Tattletale said, seriously. I immediately felt like an idiot. Of course anyone would want that. I was tempted myself, but I couldn't leave my father behind. And he's spent his entire life trying to help Brockton Bay. I couldn't see him just giving up and moving someplace else, even if that someplace else wasn't a doomed world.

"Yeah, but it's a long shot that they'll ever get home. There's no way the Protectorate would ever just allow them to open a portal to some strange world. Especially after Haywire," Grue said. "So what else do you get out of this?"

"Fucking over Coil," Tattletale responded. "That bastard screwed us over royally with that whole 'lets reveal the secret identities of all the E88 members,' and he's not doing anything for us anymore. So I get revenge, we get to be free and clear of the authorities if we end up staying on this planet, we have hope to move to a better planet, and we get Skitter back."

"He knows our secret identities though," Grue pointed out, frowning.

"Big whoop," Regent rolled his eyes. "That sucks for you and Skitz, but Bitch, Tats, and I have got nothing to lose in that regard."

"Besides, we won't have to give him the chance. We've got nearly twenty heroes to crush Coil with, all with unknown powers and guaranteed to be free and clear of any sort of blackmail or dirt Coil might have," Tattletale said, smiling viciously. I smiled as well, feeling almost gleeful as I realized how effective these newcomers would be. Sure, most of them were likely just kids. But that explosion kid seemed skilled and vicious enough to tear through Coil's mercs and the the green haired kid, Izuku, was certainly idealistic enough to join in.

"Well I'm in," Regrent said, shrugging.

"Really?" Grue said, turning around and looking at Regrent, surprised.

"Yeah man. I know a sinking ship when I see one. Between Skits, Tats, and whatever support they manage to dredge up from the heroes, Coil is going down. And I've got no interest in being dragged down with him," Regrent said, lazily.

"That's...probably true," Grue said, hesitantly. "But I'm not comfortable betraying him. He's been good to us."

"The man's a scumbag," I said, flatly, feeling a little disappointed in Brian. "He abducted and drugged a little girl for his own benefit. He doesn't deserve any sort of credit for being 'good to us'," I air quoted his words, "that just means getting our help was easy enough, or we weren't important enough, that he didn't need to do anything bad to get it. I've got no doubt that if he really needed any of our help and we refused to give it he wouldn't hesitate to put a gun to our heads and force us to help him." Tattletale glanced at me and nodded.

"Besides, I got a look at what Coil was paying Faultline's Crew during the whole ABB mess. He was ripping us off big time," Tattletale added.

"How bad?" Regrent asked, curiously.

"They pulled six figures off of that 'job' easy. While we got pennies in comparison for our bank job and attacking the heroes," Tattletale replied. Grue sighed.

"Alright alright, I get it," he said. "You sure the Director will go for it?"

"Of course," Tattletale said, nodding. "Like I said, she doesn't have much choice."

"Bitch, are you okay with this?" I asked, glancing at her. She simply grunted and nodded once.

"Then I guess it's official. The Undersiders are going to be heroes," Tattletale said, smirking.

Notes:

So the timeline is obviously and immediately messed up massively. Most of the Protectorate is dead leaving only Miss Militia, Assault, and Battery left standing. Along with some of the Wards. And all the minor villains from the USJ attack along with Nomu, Shigaraki, and Kurogiri. So yeah, things are going to warp fast and in true Worm fashion I intend for there to be as little downtime as possible between crises.

Unlike Worm, I will be switching the character's point of view each chapter.

Chapter 3: Adapt

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

"My hero name is Deku," I said, fidgeting nervously as I talked to the Director.

"I take it that means something in Japanese?" The Director said. I nodded, and opened his mouth to explain, but she cut me off. "Don't bother explaining it to me. I don't care. What's important is that you are heroes in your own world."

"Well, heroes in training," I said, looking at my feet.

"Close enough. And you want to help?"

"I mean, yeah. But what we really want is to go home," I said. "Skitter said that our best bet was to work for you guys."

"That's true enough," the male hero said. "But we won't be able to promise anything. Interdimensional travel is illegal for a reason. Getting an exception made is a...delicate process, and not something I can guarantee."

"And even that small chance is contingent on Brockton Bay not being quarantined," the Director added, getting stern looks from the heroes beside her.

"So what needs to happen to ensure the quarantine doesn't happen?" I asked, focusing on the problem in front of me.

"The quarantine itself is inevitable," the man said, reluctantly. "But I'll fight to get it lifted as soon as possible."

"Legend's efforts aside, what will help most is stabilizing the city. Keep the gangs under control, make sure the villains that came through the portal with you are captured, or at least stopped, and that people can go about their lives. Do that and the government won't be willing to simply write this city off, and wall it off so nothing can get in or out again," The Director said, coolly.

"They wouldn't really do that, would they?" I gasped, looking at the hero, Legend.

"Probably not," Legend said, glaring at the Director before sighing, "but they have done that before," he admitted, reluctantly.

"Then we'll do whatever it takes to make sure that doesn't happen!" I exclaimed.

"Good to hear. Now since we're cut off from all of our normal support, we won't be able to treat you like normal Wards. We simply don't have enough heroes to escort you around. We'll get the details worked out as soon as possible, but in all likelihood, you and your friends will be split into groups and under the command of either one of our Wards or the Undersiders," the Director said.

"You can't be serious!" the woman hero said, finally speaking up. "That's little more than making them child soldiers!"

"I'm entirely serious Miss Militia. We'll work out the exact details of how to do this, but the fact of the matter is we are only going to have three heroes left in the city; you, Assault, and Battery," the Director said, grimly. "If we don't want to turn over the city to the villains our Wards and these children will need to step up and act as full on heroes."

"I can probably at least give you Dragon," Legend said, grimacing. "Her remote suits should be fine, and thus there's no reason for her to worry about the quarantine."

"Umm, can I ask why there's going to be a quarantine in the first place?" I asked.

"Officially to ensure that there are no diseases spread from the portal opening," the Director said. "Unofficially it is because the Simurgh opened a portal to another dimension in her last attack, unleashing a horde of monsters upon the city, and this is similar enough that the government is overreaccting."

"Who is the Simurgh?" I asked.

"Another Endbringer," Legend said. "There's three of them. Behemoth, Leviathan, and the Simurgh."

"There's three of them!" I screeched, mind filling with horror at the thought of the battle we had fought being something that happened all the time.

"We don't call them Endbringers to be poetic," the Director said, dryly. "Now then, Miss Militia can you take our new 'recruits' to some temporary quarters? Then get Assault and Battery. We should get started on planning how we're going to maintain some sort of order."

"Yes Director," Miss Militia said, tightly. "Come on, lets go get your friends," she said to me, forcing a smile. I followed along, and got my classmates to follow me. Soon enough we were all brought to a large tent full of cots. "I'd ask that you stay here tonight, or if you must explore, at least do not leave the camp. I'll bring dinner around in a couple of hours time." With that Miss Militia stood there awkwardly for a few seconds before leaving. Immediately after she left my classmates swarmed around me.

"So Midoryia, what's going on? How can we get home?" was the common question asked. I stuttered and panicked, my words coming out in a jumble as I explained what I had learned. Seeing that I was trying to speak, my classmates calmed down enough so that I could try again. This time I explained our situation.

"So that's basically it," I finished.

"They really expect us to work with villains?" Ka-chan grunted. I shrugged and he rolled his eyes. "Should've known that bug bitch was a villain as soon as I saw her costume," he muttered.

"I don't like our situation," Todoroki said, grimly.

"Neither do I," I admitted. "But I don't really see what other choice we have."

"Uhh, how about doing nothing? They aren't going to force us to fight are they? So why don't we wait for the quarantine to lift and just let the heroes handle it?" Mineta asked.

"Weren't you listening? If they condemn the city, they'll never lift the quarantine and we'll be trapped in this city!" Mina shouted, flailing her arms.

"Still he has a point. We're just students. Would we even have a chance against full on villains?" Shoji asked.

"Ha! Maybe you extras will have some problems, but this will be a piece of cake for a hero like me!" Ka-chan said, sneering as his hand popped with mini explosions.

"I don't care who stands in my way, I will get home to my family!" Uraraka said, fiercely, clenching a fist. "I'll beat up every villain in this city myself if that's what it takes!"

"Yeah!" Mina said, standing up. "We can do this everyone! We'll kick butts, take names, and be the best damn heroes this town has ever seen!" I cheered alongside my classmates at her words, feeling much better about our situation.

"So what now?" Uraraka asked, looking towards me.

"Err, what? Why are you asking me?" I asked, feeling panic shoot through me at everyone's expectant stares.

"Come on Midoriya, you're pretty much our leader," Hagakure said, brightly.

"The hell he is!" Ka-chan roared, glaring at the class, who rolled their eyes or shook their heads.

"Sorry Bakugo, but you're not exactly public relations material you know?" Kirishima said, apologetically.

"Besides, Midoriya did win the original vote to be class president," Uraraka said, cheerfully.

"Err, I suppose," I said, looking away from Uraraka's bright smile. "But what about Iida and Yaoyorozu? Has anyone seen them?"

"Iida wasn't in the building when the portal formed. He had already escaped to go find help. I think Yaoyorozu was sucked into the black mist guy. I don't know where she ended up," Uraraka explained.

"Really? Um, we've got some other people missing too. Were they also brought into Kurogiri?" I asked, hopefully.

"Well let's see. Jiro, Yaoyorozu, Ojiro, and Aoyama are all missing," Uraraka said, counting each off on her fingers. "Does anyone remember being with them before being sucked through the portal?" The class muttered and talked to each other as we discussed the attack by the League of Villains.

"Okay, so Asui, Mineta, and I were one group. Ka-chan and Kirishima were another. Todoroki was with Hagakure, and Koda was with Tokoyami. Kaminari you were by yourself you said?" I summarized.

"Yeah, that's right," Kaminari said, coarsely.

"And Mina, you're positive you saw Aoyama come through the portal with us?" I asked, desperately hoping she'd say no.

"I am," Mina said, confidently. "I lost track of him once Leviathan started attacking us, but his cape smacked me in the face as we came through. I know it."

"Oh no. That means he's missing. He could be hurt or worse, and and he doesn't speak English, and he doesn't know where we are and-"

"And he could be dead," Ka-chan said, bluntly, cutting me off. "Stop worrying about it, you damn nerd. If he's alive, we'll save him. If he's dead, it's too late."

"Right right, sorry Ka-chan," I said, running my fingers through my hair. "Well hopefully Ojiro, Jiro, and Yaoyorozu are didn't come through the portal at all and are safe at home. Now other than Ka-Chan who else speaks English?" I asked. Todoroki raised his hand as did Shoji and Hagakure. "Okay, then we've got to make sure that if we end up getting split up, that one of us is in each group. That way we've always got someone who can understand what people are saying. What's next?"

"Should we come up with groups now?" Uraraka asked, stepping closer to me.

"It couldn't hurt. Hmm, I guess we should make them off how compatible our quirks are and what sort of combination attacks we could make. Oh, but what group size should we go with? There are fourteen of us. That's just short of five groups of three."

"Better we stick together as best we can," Mina chimed in. "That way we can watch each other's backs."

"So two groups of five with one group of four? I like it. That way, we can also have multiple people who can speak English in most groups," I said. "How about we split up into groups, and then talk about why we should be in that group?" I suggested. Before I even finished talking people began moving towards each other. Uraraka quickly moved to join me, as did Asui. Koda was watching us from a distance so I waved him over.

"That's four," Asui said. "We should grab Shoji."

"Too late. Looks like Ka-chan already has him as part of his group," I said, looking over at my friend, who sneered back. I had Uraraka, Koda, and Asui. Todoroki had Hagakure, Mineta, Tokoyami, and Sato. And that meant Ka-Chan had Kirishima, Mina, Shoji, and Kaminari. We stood in our groups for a few moments staring silently as each other.

"So now what?" Mina asked, clearing her throat.

"Right. Okay, so let's discuss our groups. So my group has Koda to scout with his animals and provide support from a distance. Asui is mobile and with Uraraka's help she can provide that mobility to everyone else in the team. And I can smash any opponent," I said,awkwardly.

"Yeah, once," Kaminari muttered, getting a glare from Uraraka and Asui.

"Well I chose to be on Deku's team because I know I can trust him. He's my friend and a great hero to boot," Uraraka said, loyally.

"Ditto, ribbit. Izuku is very smart and keeps calm under pressure. When the villains attacked us in the USJ he came up with a plan to get Mineta and I out safely even with the backlash from his Quirk," Asui said, plainly. Koda muttered something, tapping his fingers together.

"What was that Koda?"I asked, kindly.

"You're nice," he whispered. "Bakugo and Todoroki..." Koda trailed off, visibly struggling to find the right word.

"Are a little intense?" I offered. Koda paused and shrugged before finally nodding.

"Whatever," Ka-chan sneered. "I'll take out whatever villains we end up fighting. Shitty Hair acts as our shield. Arms finds any hiding villains. Sparks handles crowds. Racoon Eyes just sorta tagged along."

"Hey! Someone's got to make sure you don't go too far!" Mina said, offended. Ka-chan just rolled his eyes as she glared at him. "Also I want to keep an eye on Kirishima," she added, after a few seconds.

"Well I joined Bakugo because we worked well together when those villains attacked," Kirishima said, slapping a fist into the palm of his hand.

"Indeed. Say what you like about his personality, but his skill and power cannot be ignored. I'm confident I'll do the most good in Bakugo's team," Shoji said, seriously.

"He can handle himself," Kaminari muttered.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"Exactly that. If I...if any of us messes up, he can handle it," Kaminari said, a little louder. He shrugged, "I just find that comforting, that's all."

"Hn," Todoroki grunted. "I took Hagakure for a scout who speaks English and Tokoyami for scouting and extra firepower. Sato and Mineta joined us."

"I figured you guys needed some muscle on the team. Your quirks are all really powerful, but none of you are very bulky. So my role will be to get in close when staying back isn't an option," Sato said, with a sort of gentle confidence. "Well, for the times when Todoroki doesn't just one-shot the villain anyways," he added, sheepishly scratching the back of his head. There were a few chuckles and I switched my attention to Mineta.

"I don't want to fucking die," he said, sullenly. Immediately the relaxed atmosphere we had was gone, and I could help but glare at Mineta for bringing up what we were all desperately trying to ignore. "What? You all saw what happened to Sero. Thirteen and Aizawa are dead too. Just gone, just like that," Mineta snapped his fingers. "Well it's not happening to me! I'm going to survive, and I'm sticking with Todoroki because he's the most powerful person here."

"Jeeze, do you have to be so blunt about it?" Hagakure said, putting her hands on her hips.

"No, he has a point," Todoroki said, bluntly. "The stakes are much higher then we are prepared for. We shouldn't ignore this or brush it aside with platitudes."

"It doesn't matter though," I argued. "Unless we are willing to live in this city for the rest of our lives, we need to step up and be heroes. I don't care how risky it is, I'm going to make it home to my mom."

"Ready or not, we're heroes now with all that entails. Being a hero is inherently risky, so while we might not be as prepared as we would like, this will eventually be our lives ribbit," Asui said, standing beside me. Uraraka nodded, and joined us.

"I was born to be a hero. I'm going to wipe the floor with whatever lousy villains this shitstain of a city has, and I'm going to use this experience to be the next number one hero!" Ka-chan declared, loudly.

"Yeah, that's what UA is all about right? Going Plus Ultra? I don't think anyone expected this, but the same concept still applies!" Mina said, holding a fist up.

"Damn right! It wouldn't be very manly to just give up," Kirishima said. We cheered, but even so I kept an eye out. As I expected, Mineta didn't join in. He simply grumbled to himself, and sat on a cot. Surprisingly Kaminari didn't join in either. He raised a fist up with everyone else, but he was pretty subdued as well. Was he scared? Or was it something else? I mean, I didn't know him that well, but he seemed to be a pretty happy-go-lucky kind of guy from what I had seen. But he had been quiet and hadn't smiled or made a single joke since we got in this tent. Was this just how he reacted to stress? Or was there something else bothering him? I was the, temporary, class rep. Wasn't it my responsibility to keep an eye on everyone?

"So what now?" Uraraka asked, quietly, giving me a gentle nudge.

"Oh right. Thanks Uraraka," I said, giving her a quick smile before raising my voice. "Okay everyone! Dinner should be pretty soon, so I'd ask that you don't go too far if you want to explore. Also please stick in your groups as much as possible. The camp should be safe, but there's a bunch of villains around. One of the local heroes is going to be coming around soon, so I'm going to wait for them to ask them questions. Sounds good?"

"Yeah!" my class cheered. Almost immediately Ka-chan and his group left to go exploring, while Todoroki's group dispersed, with Todoroki finding an empty cot and going to sleep, while Mineta brooded and the others talked among themselves.

"Alright, do you guys want to go anywhere?" I asked.

"Not really," Koda replied.

"Okay. Well, while we wait, why don't we try and figure out some tactics we can use?" I suggested. Uraraka beamed and along with Asui we started strategizing and trying to figure out possible scenarios we might face with Koda occasionally offering an opinion as we talked. I took care to encourage him every time he spoke. He knew his own quirk best after all. I was pretty surprised to learn that he was afraid of bugs, and gave him a quick heads up about Skitter, her control over insects and her tendency to cover herself and others with them.

"I can't believe they are making us work with villains," Uraraka said.

"They must be really desperate, ribbit," Asui croaked.

"I'm surprised Skitter is a villain at all," I said, brow furrowed as I thought back to my encounters with her.

"What do you mean by that?" Uraraka asked, surprised.

"She, how do I put this? She acted like a hero I guess. She marched up against that monster with no hesitation. She had a plan, put her life on the line, and actually managed to hurt Leviathan. And when we asked her for advice, she was honest and pointed us towards the heroes. So I don't get it. Shouldn't a villain act more...I don't know, villainous?"

"Ribbit, maybe a different villain is blackmailing her?" Asui suggested, holding a finger to her lips.

"Yeah! Or maybe she's an undercover hero, learning the villain's secrets until she can arrest the whole group!" Uraraka said.

"Or maybe she's got a grudge against society," Miss Milita said, entering the tent. "Sorry, for interrupting but I heard you speaking and thought it was a good time to interrupt."

"No problem at all ma'am!" I said, shooting to my feet and smiling. "But what do you mean by grudge?"

"Whatever trigger event gave her her powers. If a corrupt cop or government official was involved that may have made her reluctant to become a hero. As much as I love this country, I'll admit it has a horrible problem with corruption. So it is pretty easy for an otherwise good person to become a villain," Miss Militia said.

"Is that what you think happened with Skitter?" I asked.

"I don't know," Miss Militia said, shrugging. "Since becoming a villain, Skitter has proven herself to be a formidable and vicious individual and most of the Undersiders recent victories can be attributed to her presence."

"The Undersiders are her gang right? Can you tell me a bit about them?" I asked. Miss Militia nodded.

"They are thieves for the most part, specializing in smash and grab operations. Hellhound creates those monster dogs, giving them mobility and punch to hit their target. Grue disorientates whoever is around. Tattletale tears through whatever security the facility has. Regrent disrupts anyone who resists."

"And Skitter?" I asked.

"She shuts down anyone below a certain level of power. If you don't have some way to resist or clear away hordes of insects, you simply lose right away. If you can, then she targets you and all of the Undersiders take you down. As a group they move fast, hit hard, and retreat early. It makes them one of the hardest gangs to deal with, well that and how concentrated they are," Miss Militia said.

"Concentrated? What do you mean by that?" Asui asked, cocking her head to the side.

"Their 'gang' is just five villains working together. They don't have any minions or any territory. Their crimes are primarily assaults and thefts. And with Tattletale and Skitter, catching them in a trap is almost impossible since they just retreat if it looks like it'd be too much trouble. If they weren't so reckless, it would be completely impossible," Miss Militia explained. I was surprised at how patient she was being. She hadn't even gotten into why she was here, but she was still answering all of our questions. Oh well, best to take advantage of this while we could. I wanted to know everything I could about the Undersiders. Why would they join the heroes if they were villains? Why would the Director even allow it? Wasn't that against the law anyways?

"In most circumstance it would be," Miss Militia told me. I blushed, realizing I had been speaking aloud the whole time. She smiled at me. "Mind you, we would likely still try and recruit them even in ideal situations. But it would be a much more favorable agreement, and they would be under a strict probation. However-"

"Wait wait wait wait!" Uraraka said, holding up her hands in a pause gesture. "Sorry for interrupting, but you'd recruit them no matter what? But they're villains!"

"The simple fact of the matter is that we are too outnumbered by villains to turn away potential heroes. The Undersiders are powerful, but have limited themselves to being small time crooks. And, despite a few notable exceptions, have mostly focused their crimes on the other gangs in the city."

"You're outnumbered by the villains?" I asked, horrified.

"By about a two to three ratio," Miss Milita said. "I take it that isn't the case in your world?"

"No! Everyone dreams to be a hero!" I yelled.

"That's unusual. Often the trauma from a trigger event...tarnishes such dreams," Miss Militia said, cautiously.

"That's the second time you've mentioned trigger events, ribbit. Can you tell us what those are?" Asui asked.

"You don't have them? I see. That's explains a lot, I suppose," Miss Militia said, tightly, frowning. She took a deep breath in and then let it out slowly. "I shouldn't blame you for that."

"Blame? What?" Uraraka asked, startled.

"Trigger events are intensely personal and horrible experiences that grant us our powers. The idea that someone gets to just...skip having one is almost infuriating," Miss Militia said, slowly. "But that's not even fair. Second generation capes often have relatively mild trigger events, so you not having a trigger event at all shouldn't bother me. No, it won't bother me. I won't let it."

I coughed awkwardly, not really knowing how to respond. I glanced at Uraraka and Asui who gave me supportive smiles. Koda was hiding behind us at this point.

"And everyone goes through this?" I finally asked.

"Everyone? No, only people with powers," Miss Militia said, confused.

"Only those with powers? That implies that most people don't have powers. Which means...are most people Quirkless?!" I asked, loudly.

"Quirkless? I take it that is your word for ordinary people," Miss Militia paused, and I nodded. "Then yes, over ninety-nine percent of our population would be 'Quirkless'."

"Oooh, I've got to talk to Ka-chan about that," I muttered, biting a finger nervously.

"Bakugo? Is he Quirkest?" Uraraka asked, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.

"Quirkest?" Miss Militia asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Someone who judges the value of another person by the power of their Quirk," Asui explained. "Typically they consider Quirkless individuals to be worthless."

"Ka-chan isn't Quirkest. He's just...um...got an attitude problem," I said, defensively.

"I'll say," Uraraka snorted.

"But underneath that, he's got a good heart. Nobody wants to be a hero more than him," I said, firmly, ignoring Uraraka's comment. "Honestly, working with the Undersiders is likely going to be more of a problem than civilians not having Quirks."

"We are well used to managing difficult personalities," Miss Militia said, dryly. "That said, unfortunately, you are going to end up working with the Undersiders quite a bit."

"Why is that, ribbit?" Asui asked.

"Because of Tattletale. She claims her power is mind reading, and maybe that's true. But regardless of what it actually is, she certainly possesses the ability to ferret out secrets with ease. And while we hope that the Undersiders will become heroes permanently, in all likelihood once things are back to normal they'll return to being villains. So the Director doesn't want Tattletale learning any of our secrets while she's working for us. But we can't just let them do whatever they want unsupervised either. So your class will be our go-to agents when interacting with the Undersiders in general, and Tattletale in particular," Miss Militia said.

"So she gets to learn all our secrets instead," Uraraka said, with a huff. Oh crap. All our secrets. That meant she was going to learn about One for All. And how I don't actually have a Quirk and how All Might is dying, and-

"Unfortunately yes. But she won't be able to do anything with them since you are all from another world. And if she tries, tell us, and we'll throw her in the Birdcage," Miss Militia said, interrupting my panic. She was right. Tattletale learning that All Might was injured or that he had given me his Quirk didn't matter. The only people who would care would be my classmates. And yeah, that would be an awful mess, but all that would get is Tattletale a ticket to this Birdcage.

"What's the Birdcage?" I asked, as soon as I thought it.

"An inescapable prison that we sentence our worst villains to. Going there is practically a death sentence for someone like Tattletale," Miss Militia explained.

"Oh, like Tartarus!" I said, brightly. "So are all of us going to be working with the Undersiders at once or did you have something else in mind?"

"It will vary from day to day. Sometimes yes, you'll all be working with the Undersiders. But as much as possible, we'll want at least one group of your classmates working directly with the Protectorate so we can watch over you and teach you how to be proper heroes in our world," Miss Militia said.

"Great! Um, is that when we'll be covering all of the other differences between our worlds? Because there's been a lot just in this conversation," Uraraka asked.

"Don't worry, we'll give you all a packet filled with what you need to know. It's usually meant for Case Fifty-threes, but it'll work for you as well," Miss Militia said.

"Case Fifty-threes?" I asked.

"That'll be covered in the docket. Now Director Piggot is eager to put you to work, but there's still far too much to do before she can officially send you out into the streets. So you've got the next three days to learn the docket and explore the city. There's a map of the city in the docket, and we'll be asking the Undersiders to give you a tour. Which should also serve as a bit of a test run on if your class can get along with them. But don't worry, we'll give you phones so if things do go badly, you can call for help at a moment's notice," Miss Militia explained.

"Okay, I think we can handle that. I'll go over everything you told me when everyone gets back for dinner," I said, confidently.

"Good to hear. I'll make sure you get the dockets alongside your meal," Miss Militia said. "Now, unless you have any other questions, I'd better get back to work. I've got a lot to get done tonight."

"Thank you for your time," I said, bowing. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Asui and Uraraka join me. "We look forward to working with you."

"Likewise," Miss Militia gave me a polite smile, and left. I talked a little longer with Uraraka, Asui, and Koda, but soon our dinner arrived alongside the packets of information about this new world we found ourselves in and we spent the rest of the night studying.

Notes:

Author's Notes: So who wants a bunch of exposition for Christmas!

TL DR: Kami is being sus, Class 1-A is desperately trying to not thing about who died. Several classmates are missing, and they've split into three general groups.

As for recruiting the Undersiders, here's yet another blurb of exposition for that. No way around it I'm afraid. Last time the Undersiders made their case to the heroes, and now the heroes have to explain to Class 1-A why they are doing that. Along with a bunch of background information. And a bit of fanon.

Miss Militia also has a bit of a 'jerk' moment with her reaction to learning that no one in Class 1-A had trigger events. Which I feel is fair enough. It's just a sharp burst of 'that's not fair!' She's smart enough to realize how silly of a reaction that is and get over it.

Next chapter is Bakugo's! Enjoy!

Chapter 4: Adapt

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

I shoved the crappy scrambled eggs in my mouth, swallowing them down with a gulp of bottled water. The food sucked, prepackaged crap they called military rations. Whatever. It was fuel, and I wasn't going to let something stupid like a bad taste leave me tired and hungry later. Speaking of:

"Eat up," I growled at Sparks who was just pushing his food around on his tray. "You'll slow us down otherwise."

"It's pretty bad. Like, what are these eggs made out of; cardboard?" Raccoon Eyes complained, dramatically.

"I don't care. Shove it down your throat if you have to," I said, bluntly.

"Besides it's not like there's any other food," Shitty Hair said. "Really, we should be glad that we get all the food we want, rather than have to go under the ration rules the rest of the camp has."

"Shame I don't want any," Racoon Eyes grumbled, as she ate. A burst of laughter caught my attention, Round Cheeks was laughing at something Deku said. I glared at them, but they ignored me. Bunch of losers and liars. Sticking with Deku, choosing his team? Because he was 'nice'? That would only get them killed. That, or deluding themselves that this place played by the rules. The others were too stupid or naive to understand it, even after watching our teachers die, but Brockton Bay was like the bad old days, the Dark Age of Quirks. The government was overwhelmed, and corrupt besides that. Villains ran rampant, and the so called heroes were more dogs of the government than the proper heroes they had back home. No, this world never had All Might to show them a better way, to create a society where the heroes were triumphant and villains fled in fear.

"Or at least, they haven't had him yet," I muttered to myself, smirking.

"Hm, what was that?" Shitty Hair asked, lifting his head from his meal.

"Just thinking of all the villains we're going to crush while we're here. This is a world without All Might. And the villains have gotten cocky as a result. I'll teach them their place," I said, grinning fiercely.

"Hell yeah we will! That's the manly spirit I signed up for," Shitty Hair exclaimed, flexing his arm muscles.

"I'm all for cleaning up the streets, but lets not bite off more than we can chew okay?" Racoon Eyes said. I sneered at her and she glared back, "even All Might was an adult before he became the Symbol of Peace. I'm not letting us get hurt by doing something reckless, not unless we need to."

"Of course we'll need to," I scoffed. "We won't be stupid about it or anything, but there's no way I'm running away from any villain."

"Well what do you think about it Kaminari?" Racoon Eyes asked.

"I dunno," Sparks said, dully. He took another bite of the shitty breakfast. "I'm just going to follow Bakugo's lead." I stared at him and his lack luster response and he refused to meet my eyes. Was he like the Balls Pervert? A man who was just sticking with who he thought was strong in order to survive? Or was he just pathetic? Did the deaths of our teachers and classmates destroy his will to be a hero? Either way, he wasn't any use to me. If anything he'd just get in the way.

Some laughter caught my attention. Round Cheeks was laughing at something that shitty nerd Deku said, Frogger and Rock Face standing by him, smiling softly. I fought down a sneer. Those idiots, pretending that we were still in our old world playing by the same old rules. That yesterday was an exception and that everything would be alright.

"Todoroki, Mineta keeps staring at me," the invisible extra said.

"You're invisible Hagakure," Icy Hot said, blandly

"Then why does he keep looking at my butt?" she asked.

"Hey, I can't help it if I'm short," the pervert whined.

"Bunch of idiots," I grumbled. Though I had to admit, Icy Hot wasn't an idiot. And yet he was keeping those other fools around. Did he think that keeping them around would make him a stronger hero? Or that he'd be able to make use of them anyways? Even All Might had sidekicks afterall. Perhaps I should be thinking of how to get the most use out of these extras rather than just dismissing them as not worth the effort.

"Oye, you done eating yet?" I asked my extras.

"Pretty much, what's up?" Shitty Hair asked.

"I want to find some place we can get some training in. And see if that healer chick is available so we can do some full contact sparring," I said.

"Sounds good bro. I'll show you how tough I am," Shitty Hair said, turning his fists to stone and slamming them together. I smirked. That was more like it. My sidekicks should have a little more attitude and confidence, rather than being whimpering losers like Deku. Or the soft fools he had surrounded himself with. We got up, but before we could leave, the villains, the Undersiders, entered.

"Good morning Class 1-A!" the blond bitch of a villain said in passable Japanese. I hated the way she was smiling at us. As if she knew something we didn't and that made her better than us. I felt my lips curl up in a snarl as she continued. "We're to give you a lovely tour of the hellhole known as Brockton Bay!" The other villains sighed and one of them, some black guy in a skull mask, punched her shoulder.

"Come on Tats, where are your manners? You haven't even introduced us yet," said the flamboyant freak, laughing. "I'm the one and only Regrent," he added, giving a mock bow.

"Grue," said the skull guy.

"Skitter," said the bug bitch.

The bitch in a dog mask just grunted. The blond bitch rolled her eyes. "I'm Tattletale and she's Bitch."

The dog bitch stood...mother fucker! That fucking villain ruined it! I'll fucking kill her! Fucking...Fine! The blonde was now Smirk, flamboyant asshole was Fruitcake, skull guy was Smoky, and the bug villain was Bugs.

"Anyways, we're here to give you guys a tour of the city, so put your shoes on and lets get moving. You need to know where everything is and the fastest was to get around if you want to be any good as heroes," the blonde bi- Smirk said. The extras took a few minutes to get their shit together, while my team was already ready to go. We followed the villains out, and they lead us into the city.

"So this area is known as Captain's Hill. We're pretty far out from the city proper, which is why it wasn't hit too bad in Leviathan's attack. It's also a pretty underdeveloped area. Parks, acreages, and the like. Which also makes for a pretty decent refugee camp," Smirk explained as they walked. "Now before we get into the city proper I want to lay down some ground rules. First off, don't go wandering off. Second, follow our orders. Third, don't bother arresting any normal criminals. The jails are already full, so just stop them from committing crimes, and move on. Except for Capes of course. The PRT has special jail cells for them. Fourth, don't go after Capes in their civilian identities. Fifth, and most importantly, lethal force is off the table unless you're about to die."

"What about-" Deku began.

"Or to save someone else's life. Though in that case, you can usually just drive the villain away," Smirk said.

"Like hell I would. Any villain I face is going down," I said, crossing my arms and glaring at the villain. "I'm not some weakling who'll run away from a fight."

"No, you're just someone who routinely bullied and tormented a childhood friend because he didn't have a power," Smirk shot back. My blood ran cold. How could she know that? Deku wouldn't have had a chance to talk about it to anyone, and it looks like he's just as surprised as I am to hear her bring that up.

"A villain has no right to talk to me like that," I snarled, not backing down.

"Why not? You are just a pathetic weakling who thinks just because he was hot shit in junior high, that he's the baddest bitch around," the blond said, smirking. "But let me tell you something small fry. You may have been a big fish in the past, but you're in the ocean now, and you aren't anything special anymore."

"Shut up!" I yelled, my hands popping.

"Ha! You know it's true. Out of your classmates, you're what? Third strongest? If that?" she laughed, even as the tall bug villain stepped forward. "Ice boy can block tsunamis, and broccli boy over there and throw Leviathan around. Annnnd he beat you the last time you fought."

"I am not weaker than fucking Deku! That cheating shit is nothing but a dirty liar!" I yelled, my mind racing. How on Earth did she know that? Did someone tell her? Did Deku? No, wait. Her name is Tattletale. That must be a reference to her Quirk, but what is it doing?

"I can read minds," Smirk answered, smirking. "That's how I know what an utter piece of shit you are. How you bullied and abused your childhood friend for not having a power, how you think a person's worth is determined by their power, how everyone at your school sucked up to you and treated you like a celebrity. I even know how little 'Deku' over there got his power."

"What?" Deku yelped, sounding scared.

"Wait, so he really was Quirkless? Ugh," the pervert said, with disgust.

"Even without a Quirk he'd still be a braver hero than you, ribbit," Frogger said, glaring at the pervert.

"None of us were born with powers either. Doesn't mean we won't kick you ass ten ways to Sunday if you look at us wrong," Fruitcake said, casually spinning his scepter in his hands, looking vaguely amused.

"Exactly. Children with parents who have powers gain them easier. Everyone else? Well, to put it lightly, they have to earn them," Smirk said.

"How did they do that?" Icy Hot asked, coolly but politely.

"They went through something horrible. Abuse, trauma, psychological torture, even bullying if it gets bad enough, or goes on long enough," Smirk said, meaningfully.

"What, are you implying that I'm responsible for Deku's power?" I snarled.

"Implying nothing, I'm flat out saying it. Oh, maybe you weren't the straw that broke the camel's back, so to say. But your constant abuse? Your constant bullying, of treating him like garbage, of pushing him down, mocking his dreams, and outright assaulting him? It pushed him to the edge. And then there was just one more little thing that pushed him over. It wouldn't have taken much. But whatever it was, it caused him to Trigger, and gain a power of his very own," she said, lightly, as if she was talking about the weather.

"Bullshit! If that's how things worked there wouldn't be any Quirkless at all!" I said. What she said didn't make sense. Someone would've brought it up. Hell Deku would've brought it up. That shitty nerd did a ton of research on Quirks and if there was any way for someone to gain a Quirk.

"I-is that what happens with false negatives?" Deku asked, hesitantly.

"What?" I asked, spinning to glare at the nerd.

"Umm, it's basically what it sounds like. There are people who are diagnosed as Quirkless, but later in life they suddenly gain a Quirk. It's really rare and not often talked about," Deku stammered out, devolving into incoherent mumbles.

"And why didn't you say so earlier?!" I asked, my eyes narrowing. How convenient for him. Suddenly there are Quirkless who later gain a Quirk? And he never mentioned it before, or brought it up, or tried to defend himself with that fact?

"And why would he? Would it really make a difference? Or would you mock his hope, call him worthless, blow him up with your Quirk, and then say something like 'even if you get a Quirk, you'll still be nothing but a worthless little Deku,'" Smirk said, mockingly imitating my voice. I turned my glare back to her, but she wasn't even looking at me. She had a satisfied smirk on her face as she watched my classmates. The extras were all talking to each other, as they always were, but I cautiously began to pay attention to what they were saying.

"Oh my gosh Deku, I'm so sorry that happened to you! Oh no! Does it bother you when I call you Deku? I can stop!" Round Cheeks was saying.

"No no, it's alright. I kinda like how you've changed its meaning," Deku reassured her.

"Still, you shouldn't have had to put up with that sort of behavior, ribbit. Does he really think he can be a hero acting like that?" Frogger said.

"A dark and cruel past to be sure. But will he rise above it, or be consumed by darkness?" Birdbrain muttered.

"Dude, that isn't manly at all," Shitty Hair said, looking disappointed.

"Yeah, no kidding. I always had a bad feeling about Bakugo. I think we should join up with Todoroki or Midoriya instead," Raccoon Eyes said. I sneered at their comments. So what if I bullied Deku? He deserved it for thinking he could keep up with me! And if I was responsible for him gaining a power, then he should be fucking thanking me for it! As for the rest of them, who cares what a bunch of extras think? I'm the future number one hero and they'll learn their place soon enough. And I'll show them with a reminder of what a hero does to villains!

"And since you think strength is all that matters, let us enlighten you on where you stand. Skitter?" Smirk said, as the bug girl walked forward.

"UnDeRsToOd," Bugs 'spoke', her swarm clicking and buzzing to enhance her words as the flooded the streets. I heard several of my classmates shriek as the bugs advanced.

"Don't worry! We're just going to have a little spar with our explosion bully here. We'll fight to either surrender or incapacitation. Sounds fair?" Smirk said, quickly.

"Fine. Now die!" I yelled, charging forward, hand raised up high. As I charged, the villain's swarm engulfed herself and her friends, rushing towards me like a wave. I blew it up, but more bugs had already filled the area. A quick glance revealed that the swarm was encroaching on all sides. A series of quick explosions pushed them back, but it was a losing battle. The swarm had already covered the entire gang of villains in a mass of roiling bugs, completely concealing them. And I could see the edges of it closing around me and cutting me off from my classmates.

I had to go on the offense. I could blast bugs all day, but that wouldn't matter one bit if I never hit the villain controlling them. And while the cowardly scum might be content with a draw, I wouldn't be. I would dominate her, show everyone exactly who the strongest hero in Class 1-A was! I launched myself forward with a small blast from my hands. I saw several masses in the swarm, but I knew they were just bait. Did she think that trick she pulled on Leviathan would work on me? Still, it didn't tell me where she was hiding in her swarm.

"Then I'll just have to hit all of it!" I roared, keeping my palms flat as I launched explosion after explosion. The blasts were a lot weaker, but they were wider as a result, and regardless of the decrease in strength, they were more than up to the task of slaughtering bugs en mass. I cleared out several meters of bugs, but couldn't see the villain anywhere. Where had she gone? I cleared out the sides pretty well but there was no sign of her. Maybe she had retreated further back?

"From above!" I yelled, shooting the strongest explosion I could straight above me as the swarm tried to enclose me. "Shit!" I said, cursing the cowardly villain, as I spun, launching explosion after explosion to keep the swarm back. My attack had failed, and now I was completely surrounded by bugs. Each blast blew reaped hundreds of bugs, but thousands replaced them. I spun and spun, desperately keeping the swarm back, even as my hands began to ache and my lungs burned with the exertion of this fight. Fucking coward. If she had fought me straight on, this would be easy. But instead she was just going to wear me down? If I could just get a hold of her for a second I would destroy her!

"I WiN," the swarm crackled, suddenly going still.

"What the fuck are you talking about? I can still fight!" I snarled, glaring into the swarm. This could be my chance. She was surely watching from somewhere close, and- a sharp sting to my inner thigh cut off my thought. Looking down, I couldn't help but gulp at what I saw. A black spider with a distinctive crimson hourglass was perched on my chest. And now that I wasn't distracted, I could feel more bugs moving under my clothes. How had she done that? How was this possible?

"NoW dO yOu SeE?" The swarm said, parting to reveal the villain hiding in its midst. She had circled around me, no I had spun around? I couldn't tell. Being in the swarm was disorientating, and I had lost track of which direction I had been facing when I spun. I fought to keep my mouth in a defiant snarl rather than letting it turn into a triumphant grin. I could finally see her. I just needed to get these bugs off me, and then she was mine!

"How the hell did you get these bugs on me?" I demanded, buying time.

"If YoU CaN't FiGuRe It OuT YoUrSeLf, ThEn ThAt'S yOuR pRoBleM," Bugs said.

"You cheating bitch," I snarled, tensing up and subtly pointing the palm of my hand towards myself.

"If YoU aRe FiGhTiNg FaIr, YoU aRe FiGhTiNg LiKe A fOoL," she said. The moment she finished speaking I made my move. I blew myself up, the explosion from the palm of my hand igniting the sweat along my body and amplifying the explosion. It hurt like hell, but there's no way any bugs could've survived. Then before the smoke could clear, I had already launched myself forward through the air. The bugs found me through the smoke, covering me as I flew. I endured their crawling and their stings. I needed every bit of momentum or else I'd fall short as the villain retreated.

"Die!" I yelled, landing with another explosion, clearing the bugs off of me. I blinked, expecting to see Bugs on the ground, or staggering back at least. Instead I received a brutal jab to the small of my back. I stumbled forward, before correcting myself with a small boom from my hands and spun around, raising my hand to bring down in a mighty blast. But before I could ignite my hand, I took another jab to my gut, driving the air out of me.

My body bent over reflexively, as I clutched at my stomach. I saw Bugs swing once more before her police baton slammed into my jaw, sending me to the ground, where I was immediately engulfed in biting and stinging bugs. I opened my mouth to yell, and my mouth was filled with bugs. Bug's boot thudded into my ribs as I placed the palms of my hands against the ground. I blew myself upright, only to drive my back straight into the point of the police baton. I gagged, the bugs in my mouth choking me, and was brought back down to the ground by a brutal strike to my head.

"That's enough of that,"she muttered, flipping me over with the toe of her boot. I tried to explode, but nothing happened. I couldn't see, my eyes were gummed up with bugs. I could barely hear, with my ears full of bugs. And their constant bites were driving me crazy. And then they stopped. The swarm cleared. I spat out a few bugs to see the villain crouched down, a knife drawn and lightly resting against my neck, while my body was still covered in bugs. I tried to blow her off me, but my sweat wouldn't ignite. No, I wasn't sweating somehow? What was going on?

"What the fuck did you do to me?" I asked, spitting out dead bugs, clumsily moving my swollen tongue.

"You don't create explosions, you create explosive sweat. So my bugs are eating it off of you as you sweat," she said, her voice and posture radiating disdain. I tried to rise, but the bite of her knife made me stay still. "You cannot use your power, I have a knife at your throat, and even if you somehow escaped, you still have to fight my swarm. You've lost. Surrender."

"Ka-chan lost?" Deku said, shocked.

"It doesn't even look like he landed a blow on Skitter," the Half and Half bastard said, dryly.

"Dude, are you okay?" Shitty Hair asked, taking a step forward. I glared at him, and he stopped.

"You shitty fucking villain. You got lucky," I cursed, wiggling a little and freezing as the blade tightened on my throat.

"Lucky? I beat you three times over," Bugs said, coldly.

"What?"

"In a real fight, the first sign you'd have gotten of me sneaking bugs onto you is when they'd start biting you. By the time you pulled your blowing yourself up stunt, you would've received a dozen black widow bites. When I filled your mouth with bugs, they did not need to stop in your mouth. I could've had them crawl down into your lungs and there is nothing you could do to stop me. And now, well," she scraped my throat with the knife, "this should be self-explanatory."

"If I hit you with my first attack-" I began.

"You missed because I dodged you. Because I know where my bugs are, and I know where you were moving," Bugs interrupted. "And your explosions are nothing compared to Bakuda's, so even if you had hit me, I wouldn't have been out of the fight."

"Who the fuck is Bakuda?" I snarled.

"The villain who built the bomb that tore a wormhole to your dimension in the first place," Smirk said, speaking loud enough so the whole class could hear her. "She had a grudge against us, so after she turned people into living bombs, Skitter cut off her toe and drove her off."

"Living bombs? What was her Quirk?" Deku asked.

"She could build any kind of bomb imaginable. A bomb that implodes rather than explodes, a bomb that stops time. A bomb that turns anything it touches to glass. A bomb that triggers every pain receptor in your body. All of that and more," Smirk said, harshly, a twisted smile on her face.

"She had the habit of planting her bombs in people's heads, and then forcing them to grab their friends, family, whoever, to undergo the same treatment," Bugs said, coldly, her hands staying perfectly steady, even as her bugs buzzed and swarmed above us. The extras all gasped and murmured in horror after Deku translated for them.

I kept my face still even as my stomach twisted. I- hadn't been expecting that. Still, it explained a lot. I needed to adjust more than I thought. I knew that this place was vicious, that it never had someone like All Might to bring peace, but I hadn't realized what that meant. That death and mayhem was common. That every villain has gone through hell, and it would take a lot more to intimidate them.

"What happened to her?" Half and Half asked.

"We beat her, and she was eventually arrested and sent to the Birdcage," Bugs said.

"That is why it is so important you listen to what we tell you," Smokey said, wisps of darkness rising from his clothes. "This is a dangerous city and we've got the experience needed to keep you safe."

"So what? Just shut up and listen?" I snarled.

"To be blunt, yes," Smokey said. "If you fought like that with Hookwolf or Alabaster, you'd be dead."

"Fuck that!" I yelled. Bugs sighed, standing up and releasing me. I instinctively tried to ignite my hands, but her bugs were still covering me.

"This is a waste of time. He's not going to listen, and we don't have the time to babysit him," she said.

"Right," Smirk said. "You and you," she added, pointing to Crag Face and the pervert. "Please accompany him back to camp." Crag Face whimpered and looked to Deku who gave him a reassuring nod while the pervert gave a sigh of relief as he walked over.

"Come on Bakugo, lets get away from these villains," he said. I didn't bother to reply, and just glared at the villains. Were they really going to leave me behind? Yes apparently, as the villains walked away without another look, my classmates following behind them like a flock of ducklings. I bared his teeth at those useless extras. I may have lost today, but I wouldn't let that stop me. I'm going to be the number one hero, and I'll make all of those loser villains regret looking down on me for even a second!

Notes:

This chapter was so hard to write. Getting into pre-character development Bakugo was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I mean, arrogant bully right? But also intelligent. An asshole, but also observant. Cocky, but powerful. Arrogant, but determined.

Still, I do think Skitter would kick his ass, outside of an arena anyways.

Chapter 5: Adapt

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

I wasn't really listening to the Undersiders talk as the described what was around us. Nor was I keeping a close eye on where we were going through the destroyed city. I couldn't. If I did I'd start thinking about what happened. About allowing myself to float above the city and hoping someone would spot me. About forcing myself to ignore my nausea so I wouldn't release us too early and send us into the water. About the fear I felt when I realized I that no one had noticed me, that I had to release my power and fall to the ground. And the sudden biting pain I felt when I heard the sound of my bones breaking. About lying in agony as I prayed for someone to come save me.

"Mom, Dad, I will see you again. I will get home, and we'll go on a vacation to Hawaii. I promise," I whispered to myself, clenching my fists, keeping my pinky out to prevent my power from going off. Tsuyu glanced over to me from where she was standing by Deku's, I mean Midoriya's side.

"You okay, ribbit?" she asked, softly.

"Yeah," I said, nodding. "Just, uh, thinking about my family."

"I miss my family too," Asuisaid, sympathetically. "But I'm sure Izuku will get us home."

"How do you have so much faith in him?" I asked, cocking my head and staring at Asui. "I mean, don't get me wrong. Deku, I mean Izuku,I mean Midoriya, is great! He's already an awesome hero. But this city is crazy. Even Thirteen," I stopped, my throat clenching so hard I couldn't continue talking.

"You didn't see him during the USJ attack. We were trapped on a boat, surrounded by villains, and Mineta was panicking. And he immediately came up with a plan that not only saved all of us, but utilized all of our Quirks to ensure that he wouldn't need to use too much of his Quirk and cripple himself. Then from that he saved Aizawa Sensei from those villains and while we were being sucked into the portal he came up with a plan to keep us together, and didn't panic when we were attacked by Leviathan. He came up with the plan to save us from the tidal wave, he identified that Leviathan was using Todoroki's ice as a weapon. And then, with a broken arm, he went with Skitter and Bakugo to fight Leviathan again. He's beyond amazing and if anyone can get us through this, it's him," Asui said, a hint of passion filling her voice by the end.

I looked over to Deku, and smiled. Somewhere, somehow, he had gotten a hold of a notebook and was furiously scribbling in it as he listened intently to Tattletale's words. I snuck up behind him and looked over his shoulder at what he was working on. I was amazed at what I saw. Not only was he faithfully recording every word our guides were saying, but he was sketching a map of the city and writing notes about Skitter's power and how she could have beaten Bakugo.

"You're right," I whispered to Asui. "He is amazing. So we'll just have to keep up!" I added, clenching my fists.

"Ribbit?" Asui croaked in confusion.

"Well we can't be holding him back, can we?" I said. "If he's going to be amazing, than we'll just have to be amazing too! We're his partners after all, so if we want to stand beside him, we're going to have to give it our best!"

"Hmm," Asui hummed, before giving me an admiring look. "You are quite amazing your own self," she said. I felt myself blush.

"I-I'm not that amazing!" I stammered.

"You are. You did save us all from the tsunami and-,"

I abruptly looked away. I knew Asui was still talking, but I couldn't hear her over the roaring in my mind, as I remembered Sero shouting something as I floated up in the air. I hated myself for it, but I couldn't remember what he said. His last words, and nothing. I was too focused on watching Thirteen and the monster killing her. I felt so guilty about that, and I felt so guilty about watching Thirteen die. I knew that was silly. Thirteen was a hero and our teacher. It was her job and duty to protect us from that monster and she did. I should be grateful to her, and not allow this horrible guilt to twist me up inside.

"Uraraka? Are you okay?" Deku asked, his voice snapping me out of my fit.

"Umm, y-yeah, I'm okay, Deku," I said, shakily giving him a thumbs up. "I don't want to distract you."

"It's okay. Really," he said. I blinked and looked around. Aside from Asui, we were alone and there was a pool of darkness ahead of us, blanketing the street. "Grue decided to give a demonstration of his power," he explained. "We stayed behind to take care of you."

"You didn't have to do that," I said, automatically.

"Of course we did. You are our friend. We'd never leave you behind," Deku said, warmly, giving me a smile. I couldn't help it. I burst into tears and threw myself at him, wrapping my arms around him.

"Why are you so good at this?" I sobbed as he blushed and babbled incoherently. After a few moments, I felt Asui wrap her arms around us both. She gave us a squeeze and began murmuring in our ears. It felt like hours, but must have only been minutes until I stopped crying and pulled myself together. I pulled away, shooting Asui a thankful smile before turning to look at Deku's blushing face. I took a deep breath, but he interrupted me.

"I'm not that good!" he said, quickly.

"Of course you are. You and Asui both! You are both so composed and I'm a complete wreck!" I said. "I think about what happened and I just...freeze up! I can't save anyone like this! How do the two of you stay calm?"

"I don't know," Deku said. He bit his thumb, mumbling something unintelligible. "I think it's because of All Might. He told me once that he's always afraid, but he keeps smiling anyways. To reassure everyone else that things are going to be fine. And I feel like I have to live up to that."

"Why?" Asui asked, tilting her head in puzzlement. "Trying to live up to All Might's abilities is a bit much, isn't it?"

"Oh, you know, he's my favorite hero and all, so I just kinda, yeah?" Deku babbled.

"How do you do it though?" I asked, interrupting his babbling. "How do you push through your feelings to do what All Might would do? I mean, Deku, you break your bones every time you use your Quirk. Aren't you afraid of the pain?"

"I-I don't really know, sorry. When someone's in trouble my body just moves, and I'm too busy thinking about what to do next to panic. As for the pain, I'm used to it, and flinching away never prevented pain before so..." Deku said. My tears returned, and I wrapped in another hug.

"Sorry, I forgot. First off Deku, you're amazing. That doesn't really help with my problem, but I wanted you to know that. Secondly, don't ignore your pain. Being used to it...well that's very bad, okay? I don't care if it helps you use your Quirk. Third, Asui do you have any advice? You seem to be keeping very composed," I said, squeezing him tightly. Deku didn't answer me, and when I released him his face was completely crimson from his blushing.

"Hmm, well I did cry last night. That made me feel better," Asui said, humming and tapping her finger against her chin. "But I wouldn't say I'm doing that well and neither is anyone else."

"But you are so composed! And nobody else has had a panic attack," I protested.

"Kaminari is barely functional. Hagakure has been very quiet. And I think Mineta has completely given up on being a hero," Asui said, counting off each with her fingers. "And those are just the ones I've noticed."

"That's..." I paused, thinking over what Asui was telling me. Was everyone else putting on a mask as well? Pretending they were okay when they were barely holding on? "What do we do then?"

"I don't know," Tsuyu said. "I'm putting my faith in Izuku but I don't know if that's the right decision or not."

"What? But I'm nothing special, I'm just a, I mean, I can barely use my Quirk. I'm just a-"

"A hero who saved both of us," I said, firmly, cutting off Deku's stuttering. "And if you can be a absolutely adorable stuttering mess and still be our hero than I think it's okay for me to be having some problems right now," I blushed and continued, "Because I want to be someone you can count on. Both of you," I added turning to look at Asui as well.

"I told you that you are amazing," Asui said, smiling. "And look, it looks like they are wrapping up," she added, pointing behind me. I turned to see the cloud of darkness dissipating. Tattletale glanced over us, her eyes meeting mine. She smiled encouragingly, and began to speak.

"Alright! So now that you've got an idea on what it's like to be in Grue's darkness, let's get back to the tour!"

/*/
Now that I was paying attention my mind was reeling with what we were facing. A man who could turn into a wolf made of metal? Someone who cause blades to rise from any metal surface? Someone who turned into a cloud of acidic fog? And that was just one gang! The most dangerous one according to Tattletale but still!

"So a single flick should be enough to disperse Fog," Deku said. I smiled, not that any of this bothered Deku.

"Right, than we just need to disable Night. Asui would you be able to catch any flash bangs she throws?" I asked.

"Call me Tsuyu," she said, nodding. "And yes, I could." I smiled back at her.

"Great. Without that, she can't activate her Quirk. Deku and I should be able to disable her then. Who should we cover next?" I ask, looking to Deku.

"Moving on to the next gang we've got Coil and the Travelers! Now Coil is an unknown. His power apparently lets him 'choose' a future, but I've got no idea on what the specifics are. Trickster can swap two similar objects around and primarily uses it to mess with your positioning during a fight. Ballistic can launch any object at near supersonic speeds. Sundancer can create a miniature sun. Genesis can transform into nearly any sort of monster, but it takes her time to change forms." Lisa announced. "Worst of all, Coil kidnapped a young girl by the name of Dinah Alcott, a powerful Thinker who can predict the likelihood of any particular future. He's currently got her addicted to drugs to ensure she can't escape and to force her to act as his private oracle. "

"How do you know that this girl was kidnapped by Coil? And what he's doing to her?" Todoroki asked. I blinked. How did they know that? I had been too focused on the Traveler's powers to realize that.

"Because the Undersiders used to work for him of course," Tattletale said, lightly.

"Than why didn't you stop him?" Deku asked, his eyes fixated on Skitter. She didn't reply, but I saw her clench her hands into a fist. Tattletale immediately moved over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"That's a little complex to get into and it isn't nearly as important as what I've got to say next. Coil, more than any other villain in this city, has agents inside the PRT that work for him. However due to the chaos of your arrival and the fallout from Leviathan's attack, it is likely that he doesn't know about the Undersiders joining the heroes. So we've got an opportunity to rescue Dinah, with your help," she said.

"Uh oh," I said, softly. I didn't like where this was going. The Traveler's powers were ridiculous and we didn't even know what Coil's power was. Plus they had an oracle! How could we catch them by surprise when they could know about any attack by simply asking 'will we be attacked today?'

"Don't worry about Dinah's ability," Tattletale said, looking me straight in the eyes. "She's likely burned out right now. Coil almost certainly pushed her ability to the max during Leviathan's attack to ensure that the Traveler's could do as much damage as possible to that monster while also keeping them safe." I let out a sigh of relief. That made sense. But that meant they'd have to move fast.

"So where is she?" I asked, as boldly as I could. "Lets cut to the chase. You clearly intend for us to go rescue her. And I bet you brought us out on this 'tour' of yours to make sure none of his agents would see us coming. So lets get it over with and go rescue Dinah."

"Hold on a moment," Grue said, stepping forward. "You're right about our plans, but we aren't going to force you into this either. This is volunteer only. Anyone who doesn't want to participate can wait here, or if you just want a safer role, well we need people to watch all the exits of the base to make sure Coil doesn't escape."

"I'm in," Deku said, stepping forward with zero hesitation. I gulped and stepped up beside him, and saw Tsuyu join me out of the corner of my eye.

"I will assist," Todoroki said. Soon the whole class was split up, with the majority of us being ready to fight. Hagakure, Tokoyami, Shoji, and Kaminari would remain on guard outside while the rest of us would enter the base with the Undersiders.

"We will split into two teams. The first team will be lead by Grue, who will be accompanied by Tattletale and Regent. They've got the most important job of actually rescuing Dinah," Skitter said, in Japanese with a thick American accent. "Bitch and I will take another team to confront Coil. Hopefully if we capture him we will be able to get everyone else to stand down. But remember, the goal here is to rescue a traumatized and abused child. Not to take out the Travelers, or to capture Coil. So once we secure Dinah we'll retreat," she continued, as the rest of the Undersiders split us into two groups.

"Why am I on your team?" Deku asked Skitter, his voice tight with tension and his fists clenched.

"Because if you need to retreat after using your power we will be closer to the exits. And won't have to climb up a ladder with a broken arm," Skitter replied. She looked at him silently for a few seconds. "We might not be the ones to carry her out of the room she's being held captive in, but we are still doing our part to rescue her," she said, suddenly.

"Wha? I mean-" Deku stammered.

"I get it. You want to be the one to rescue her. I want to save her as well. But we can't place our personal satisfaction above her safety or the safety of our friends. So we'll do our jobs, take down Coil and whoever he has guarding him. And if that means we never even see Dinah, so be it," Skitter said, firmly.

"Why? I mean, why do you want to save her?" I asked, thinking about our conversation about Skitter last night. I could see what Deku meant now. A villain wouldn't give a speech like that. So why was Skitter a villain?

"Long story short, it's my fault Coil was able to kidnap her in the first place," Skitter said, evenly. "So it's my responsibility to make sure she's saved."

"What? How did that happen?" I asked, shocked.

"You heard Tattletale, the Undersiders used to work for Coil," Skitter said, sighing. "We were sent on a mission to rob a bank in order to distract the heroes. Not that we knew that at the time. Or that Coil was our mysterious boss for that matter. Regardless, while we were robbing the bank, he had Dinah kidnapped."

"So why did it take you so long to try and rescue her?" Deku asked.

"Like I said, we didn't know Coil was our boss. We knew Dinah had been kidnapped sure, but we had no idea it had anything to do with us. It wasn't until right before Leviathan's attack that I learned about Coil and that he had Dinah," Skitter explained. "Since than I've been planning to rescue her, but until you arrived I couldn't come up with anything worth trying."

"So what did you come up with?" I asked.

"My bugs will take care of most of his goons. I can't get close to Sundancer and Genesis can take a form that's immune to my bugs. If I sneak up on Ballistic or Trickster, I can eliminate them easily, but if they spot me, I'm finished. Coil himself is a complete unknown. His power could be useless or it could guarantee my failure," she said, ticking the points off her fingers.

"And now that you have our help? How does that change things?" Deku asked.

"I can focus on blinding Ballistic and Trickster so someone else can get in close and take them down. With this wide of a variety of powers, Genesis can't counter us all. And honestly, the best way to beat a Thinker is with overwhelming force," Skittter said.

"What about Sundancer? How can we overcome someone who can create a minature sun?" I asked, thinking hard.

"I'm honestly not sure," Skitter said, her voice remarkable steady. "But she's not invincible and she can't be everywhere at once. Keep an eye out for opportunities to take her down, and if we can't find one, we'll go around her instead."

"Right, got it," I said, nodding. I looked over the rest of our team. Besides Deku and Tsuyu, we also had Ashido, leaving the other team with Todoroki, Sato, Kirishima, and the villains; Grue, Tattletale, and Regent. I looked over at the villain named Bitch. She was silent, and her plastic dog mask may have been cheap, but it did a good job of hiding her expressions away. Skitter said something to her, and she nodded, the dogs at her side suddenly expanding in size.

"Wow! Some sort of gigantification Quirk? No, their shapes are also changing. A Quirk that changes their shape? And maybe-" Deku said, excitedly.

"Her power creates sort of biological suits around dogs. The dog itself is perfectly safe inside the suit, even if the suit itself is badly damaged. If a suit is killed and Bitch isn't able to deactivate her power, we'll expect you to cut the dog out of the flesh," Skitter said, rejoining them. "The dogs are just that, dogs. Bitch has trained them well, but they are still dogs. Don't expect too much from them. Anyways, we've got a few more moments until Bitch has finished powering up her dogs. Any final questions?"

"Umm, yeah, what exactly do you want me doing?" Mina asked.

"You'll melt open any locked doors we run into," Skitter said.

"But won't the other team need to do that? And is the more important team since they are actually rescuing Dinah?" Mina asked.

"That's why they have Tattletale. She's an expert at breaking through any kind of security," Skitter said. With that we waited a bit in silence as Bitch's dogs grew bigger and bigger. I licked my lips and clenched my fists, trying to calm down. Until finally the heavy set girl stood up from her monstrous dogs.

"Done," she said.

"That took longer than before. Why?" Skitter asked, matter of factly.

"Trying something new," Bitch said.

"Oh? Did it work?" Skitter asked. Bitch just grunted, which must have meant something to the bug villain, because she nodded and with that a swarm of insects flooded into Coil's lair. A moment or two later she gestured for us to get moving. We entered the building at a walk, making our way towards the entrance to Coil's lair. I took deep breaths as Skitter's bugs swarmed around us. It was freaky and weird, but Deku had warned us that she was going to do this, and that it would help prevent Coil's minions from shooting us. As creepy as it was to feel flies and other bugs crawl into my hair, I kept my hands strictly by my side, refusing to give into my instinct to swat the bugs. So we made our way into the facility, the bugs moving away from my every step, Deku at my side, Tsuyu somewhere ahead of us, and Mina was complaining bitterly about the bugs surrounding us.

"Tch, looks like they were more prepared than I thought," Skitter said, coming to a halt. "We've got flamethrowers ahead. They are clearing out my swarms."

"I'll handle them," Tsuyu said, confidently.

"Me too," I said, my mouth dry as I joined Tsuyu. Skitter just glanced at us and nodded. I breathed in and tried not to cough as the smell of smoke and fuel filled the air.

"I'm-" Deku began, only to be cut off by Skitter putting a hand on his chest.

"Not yet. If they can't handle the flamethrowers then we'll bring you in, but until then we're keeping you in reserve. Bitch, can your dogs handle fire?" Skitter said.

"Yeah. They can't feel the fire through my power," Bitch grunted.

"Okay girls, Bitch's dogs will knock down the mercenaries with flamerthrowers. That's your chance to disable them. When Bitch says go, that's your signal. Got it?" Skitter ordered. We nodded and moved on. The corridor began to heat up and we could finally start seeing flickers of flame through Skitter's dense swarm when Bitch pointed down the hallway. Three mercenaries in silvery proximity suits were spraying flames to form a wall of fire in front of them.

"Attack," she said, loudly and clearly. Her monstrous dogs immediately leaped forward, plunging into the fire without hesitation before suddenly collapsing on the ground. "What?! No!" Bitch yelled, running forward herself. I gasped, unsure about what I should do, but Tsuyu didn't hesitated. She crouched low to the ground, and lashing out with her tongue, she wrapped it around the leg of one of the mercenaries and pulled him off his feet. I looked around frantically for something to throw at them, before my eyes rested on the dogs. I grabbed one by its whip like tail and activated my Quirk before tossing the entire dog at the mercenaries.

"And release," I touched my fingers together, dropping the massive dog on the frantically dodging mercenaries. The were buried under an avalanche of flesh, and Skitter's bugs soon started pushing down the corridor again. There was a sound of static from the walls and Bitch's dogs soon got up, one of them giving itself a shake.

"What did he do to my dogs?" Bitch demanded, as Skitter caught up.

"Some sort of tinker tech sound he's broadcasting with the PA system," Skitter explained. "It is too high of pitch for us to hear it, but my bugs can feel the vibrations it is making. On that note, it looks like the rest of the mercenaries up until Coil himself are all covered in similar suits. He's been preparing to fight us," she said.

"The seer," Deku muttered. "She must have seen your attack coming and was forced to warn Coil."

"Regardless of how, this means Bitch is out of the fight. There's no point bringing her dogs along if they are just going to get disabled. Go wait at the entrance for the others to retrieve Dinah," Skitter said. Bitch scowled, but headed back down the corridor. "As for us, I'll use my bugs to keep them blinded, but I can't bring them down. I did gum up their guns, so we should be safe in that regard, but they've got combat knives and batons aplenty. We'll have to take them down in hand to hand," she said, pulling out her own baton and a knife.

"Right, we can do that," Deku said, eagerly stepping up. "I don't need my power to fight," he said, defensively, when Skitter glanced at him. She simply nodded.

"As a reminder, just because I think I got all their guns, doesn't mean I did get all of them. So watch out for any surprises," she said.

"Got it," I said. My heart was pumping, my mouth was dry, and I could barely think. I saw Tsuyu running down the corridor and I raced to keep up. We shot like a bullet down the corridor, Skitter's bugs guiding us past the various doors along the way. We hit a metal door, and Mina melted the sides of it, letting Deku kick it open. On the other side waited a full squad of mercenaries, covered in bee suits or proximity suits. I rushed towards them, just slightly behind Deku. One of the guards brought his baton down in a strike at Deku's head, who went to grab his arm. The solider immediately tried to pull back and jab Deku instead, but Deku just grabbed onto his bulky suit instead and flipped him over his head, slamming him into the ground.

A man in a bee suit came at me with a knife. He thrust and I tried to mimic Deku's grab, but was too hesitant, and only got a cut on the back of my hand for my troubles. He moved forward and I retreated desperately, accidentally slipping to the ground. He went to stab me when a swarm of moths suddenly shot forward and batted harmlessly against his mask. He swiped them away and started to come after me again, but Skitter intercepted him. She batted away his knife with her baton and then cut a hole in his mask without even looking. Bugs immediately flooded into his suit and he fell to the ground screaming. Skitter didn't hesitate and kept moving forward. She took down her next opponent with similar ease before three mercenaries came at her at once.

I lunged forward, grabbing a hold of the mercenary who attacked me with a knife, and activated my Quirk. I flung him at one of the mercenaries attacking Skitter, who dodged out of the way. I charged the man and desperately dove to dodge his baton lashing out at me. He went to stomp on my head, but I caught his foot with my hands, and took away his gravity. I pushed up, forcing him to flip repeatedly. He tried to catch himself with his hands, but I kicked him in the gut and sent him flying down the hallway. I turned to see Skitter pinned underneath of of the mercenaries, who was screaming in pain and fury as he stabbed at her with his knife. Eyes wide, I touched his back, and Skitter pushed him off of her with a knee to the gut. He floated up to the roof, writhing in pain, his suit torn in multiple places and full of bugs.

"Skitter, are you alright?" I shouted.

"i'M fInE, mY sUiT pRoTeCtEd Me," she said, her bugs speaking with her and sending a shiver down my spine. "LoOkS lIkE wE'rE fInIsHeD hErE," she added. I looked around to see she was right. Deku was panting and trying to get his breath back, but looked to be unharmed. Tsuyu was untouched, and was barely sweating. Mina had a split lip, but was smiling widely anyways.

"Uraraka! Are you okay?" Deku shouted, running up to me. He gently took a hold of my hand and stared at the gash on the back of it.

"One second," Skitter said, speaking normally. She went over to a room and quickly returned with a first aid kit. "It looks like you'll have a scar," she said, matter of factly, as she sprayed my cut with antiseptic mist.

"That's okay," I said, wincing in pain and trying to keep my hand still. Deku took over wrapping my hand with bandages. "Thanks," I said to the villain. She stared at me for a second, her mask hiding all expressions, before giving me a nod. Deku quickly finished wrapping my hand, taking care to leave my fingers free. "Okay! I'm ready to go!" I said, standing up.

"Good," Skitter paused, before rising to her feet. "It looks like Coil has pulled his remaining mercenaries back to defend him personally. Along with Genesis. I don't know what she's become, but she's cleared out all the bugs in the room, so they might be able to fix their guns by the time we arrive."

"None of us have any defenses against bullets," Tsuyu said, frowning. I gulped, looking at my bandaged hand.

"My suit should be bullet proof, but I don't want to put it to the test," Skitter said. She looked over to Deku. "I think it is time for you to use your power. What is the weakest blow you can use?" she asked.

"Umm, if I flick my fingers it can create a powerful windstorm," Deku said.

"Perfect. That will throw them off balance. Ochako, I need you to remove the gravity from the door and use it as a shield so we can close the distance to them. Ashido you, myself, and Ochako will focus on taking down the mercenaries. Izuku, you and Tsuyu need to deal with whatever Genesis has become." Skitter ordered. I clenched my jaw, not liking a villain calling me by my first name, but not willing to say anything about it.

"Hey, don't call me Ashido," Mina said, her swollen lip exaggerating her pout.

"Ah," Skitter paused. "My apologies, we never did get your hero names did we? What should I call you?"

"Oh, umm," Mina said, pausing and thinking furiously.

"Froppy," Tsuyu said.

"Umm, call me Uravity," I said, quickly.

"Um um um, Alien Queen!" Mina said. Skitter nodded and looked over at Deku.

"Ummm, I don't know, I didn't really think of a hero name yet," he said, looking down and fidgeting.

"In that case, I'll call you Green. Still, does anyone have a problem with my plan?" Skitter asked. We shook our heads and with that we moved on. We reached the door that Skitter said lead to Coil's lair, and Mina began melting it off of its hinges.

"Okay, okay," Deku said, closing his eyes and taking a few deep breaths. "Now! SMASH!" he yelled, springing into the door way as the door feel with a loud clang. He flicked his fingers and a mighty windstorm filled the room. I quickly tapped the fallen door as I heard men yelling in panic. We charged into the room, Skitter's swarm leading the way. Almost immediately they were sucked upwards by hundreds of tongues that shot out in a pink blur, dragging hundreds of bugs up per tongue per second. There were seven people in front of us, six mercenaries and a man in a skin tight bodysuit who must have been Coil. I looked up as we charged them, and saw what looked like an anteater crossed with Cuthulu. It had a giant mouth, from which its tongues emerged, and a giant brown body with shaggy fur. It clung to the roof with six massive claws that dug into the metal and held it in place.

"Ribbit, get off me, ribbit!" Tsuyu croaked in distress. I wanted to help her, but I had no time. I was already coming up to my first guard who had almost gotten to his feet. I swung my door at him, and he caught it with one hand.

"Release!" I restored the gravity of the door, and it immediately slammed down on the man's foot. I shoved him, knocking him over, and reactivated my power on the door. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a mercenary raising his gun to aim at me. I tried to bring my door around to shield me, but I knew I was going to be too slow. Before the man could fire, a glob of acid landed on the gun, melting it in his hands.

"I've got ya girl!" Mina shouted, skating by on a trail of acidic slime. She threw some more globs at other mercenaries and one of them managed to get a quick shot off, a purple laser flashing out, and burning Mina across her shoulder. "Ahh," she cried, in pain, quickly spraying injury with some more slime. I threw my door at the man, releasing it at the last second and crushing him underneath it. The mercenary at my feet grabbed my legs and pulled me down. I activated my power on him and tried to kick him away, but he grabbed onto me and pulled himself until he was fully on top of me. He tried to headbutt me, but his bug net softened the blow.

"Get off, get off, get off, get off!" I screamed, flailing wildly. I huffed as he slammed his fist in my gut. I went limp in shock, and the mercenary got his hands around my throat. I tried to pull his hands off, but he was just too strong. There was a loud band, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Skitter collapse to the ground. My ears were ringing, but I saw Mina fall beside me, her eyes glossy. Tilting my head up, I could see Deku and Tsuyu tangled up in Genesis' tongues. My strength was fading fast, and my vision was going blurry.

"SMASH!" Deku yelled. There was a blast of air, as a brown blurry object shot over head.

"Get off of her!" Tsuyu yelled, roundhouse kicking the man on top of me. I gasped for air as he lost his grip and went flying across the room. Skitter suddenly rose to her feet, her knife flashing as she slashed the last mercenary standing. He collapsed and suddenly there was only Coil left.

"R-release," I said, weakly, sitting up with Tsuyu's help. I glanced over at Deku whose entire hand looked red and swollen. Mina was still lying on the ground, but she was groaning, so I knew she was alive at least. Skitter was holding her bloody knife, while Coil had his handgun pointed at her.

"Surrender," Skitter said, coldly. Your guards are down, you've got no help coming, and we've got you surrounded. Whatever your power is, you are no match for five parahumans." Coil stood perfectly still, barely even breathing, his gun pointed steadily at Skitter. We didn't dare move, afraid that breaking the stalemate would cause things to end badly.

"...And give you the satisfaction of a clean and tidy ending? No, no, I don't think so," he said, suddenly. His gun barked twice as he shot Skitter once more, who grasped her chest and staggered backwards. Coil dove for his fallen desk, but Mina sprayed acid over it, making it impossible to touch. "Damn you," he snarled. He looked wildly between us, as Skitter got back to her feet. "I won't let you take me," he yelled, pointing the gun at his own head and pulling the trigger.

Notes:

So Uraraka does some fighting and gets her butt mostly whooped! Even with her power almost giving her an autowin if she can just touch them, being a relatively untrained high schooler means an adult mercenary is going to give her a hard time.

Deku on the other hand is way above human strength even without using his Quirk. Well, way above is an exagerration, but a lot of that trash he cleaned was too big for a single person to move and he did it anyways. So he is much better off. While Froppy and Mina are just better equipped to fight in general. Particularly for Mina in the first fight since once she melted holes in their suits, Skitter would just eliminate them.

If you are curious how Deku vs Genesis went down it was basically this: Deku and Froppy are entangled by the tongues. Deku sees things start to go bad. He uses his power to yank Genesis down, and then grabbing onto her, throws her full force at another mercenary. If Genesis didn't start to fade away, he would've done more damage and might've actually killed someone.

Chapter 6: Adapt

Chapter Text

I knew I was grinning like a loon, and Brian was probably giving me a weird look, but I couldn't help it. It was all I could do to keep myself from giggling manically. It was finally happening, we were taking down Coil, and I only wish I was on the other team to witness his defeat in person. Still, I could always make sure to taunt him in prison. I turned back to look back at our new minions.

Direct eye contact. Instinctively defiant. Problems with authority. Expects to be harassed over power. Believes lie about mind reading, holding back his full power. Point of pride to not use full power.

I licked my lips, the kid with a burn scar over his eye had potential. Hopefully whatever he was holding back wouldn't matter. I didn't exactly have time to work on him. I glanced at the next wannabee hero.

Eyes focused on the base, eyes watery. Highly empathetic, likely imagining Dinah's circumstances. Clenching fists. Performance anxiety. Worried power won't be strong enough. Worried he'll freeze under pressure.

"This is going to go great!" I said, enthusiastically. "There's no way Coil can be expecting an attack by the Undersiders, let alone six additional parahumans. This will be a cakewalk." I wasn't even lying! I figured there was a fifty-fifty chance that the Travelers wouldn't fight, and even if they did our team alone had them outnumbered. With pretty powerful abilities too. Mass ice generation, durability, and super strength. I glanced at the final member of our group.

Refusal to meet your eyes. Faint blush. Was checking out your posterior earlier. Unattractive and knows it. Doubts that anyone will ever desire him. Alleviates guilt for checking you out by convincing self that nothing will come of it.

I resisted rolling my eyes. Yes, I'm hot, but that's all useless information. Is he ready to fight?

Hands held loosely near bags on belt. Power requires item in bags to activate. Power has limited usage or drawback. Hands loose. Not tense. Confident in his own power, confident in his allies power. Hasn't understood a thing you've said so far.

Well that was inconvenient. Yeah, he was from Japan but if he couldn't understand me at all I was a lot less happy about having him on my team. Sure, I still thought we were going to win, or else I wouldn't be doing this, but there is always complications when it comes to cape fights. And the Travelers were extremely powerful. But oh well! We were doing this regardless so it was better he was a little too confident then full of false bravado. And speaking of bravado it was a shame that I had to get rid of the explosion kid. Cocky enough to go after Leviathan, and skilled enough to not instantly die. Brave too. He didn't panic at all at being covered by Taylor's bugs.

But no. The kid was too aggressive, too headstrong, and too independent. He would have seen through our little scheme to recruit these kids to attack Coil, and sure, some of the other kids did anyways. But he would have called us out on it, and tried to hijack our plan. Or would have attacked on his own, dragging as many of his friends away from us as possible. So it was better to provoke him early and have Taylor smack him down. It got him out of the way, asserted our authority, and let Taylor get a little catharsis in taking down a bully. And if Boom Boy lost some respect from his classmates, then good. He'd find it more difficult to convince his classmates to disobey our orders in the future.

Of course, we still needed to win. I shook my head, focusing on the present. The first door was easy, but an important test. If Coil knew we were coming, he would have changed the code. As is, my code opened the door easily, opening the hatch and revealing a ladder to climb down. An alarm blared as we climbed down.

"Alright Rock Man, you're up," I said, slapping the red head on the back. "Just armor up and we'll cover you. If we're lucky, no one will be at this door yet. If not, Ice Boy here will freeze them after they shoot at you."

""I-I'm not su-"

"You'll be fine. We aren't coming in through the main entrance, and most of the guards should be rushing to stop Skitter and her team. And even if there are guards outside that door, their bullets shouldn't penetrate your power," I said, crossing my fingers mentally. The door open and shots were immediately fired. Luckily my prediction was correct. The bullets bounced off the red head's rock hard skin, and with him acting as a shield we were able to swiftly take down the mercenary guarding the door.

"What are you doing?" I asked, as the Ice Boy knelt beside the frozen guard, holding out a hand over the guard.

"Thawing him so he doesn't get hypothermia. Why?" He asked.

Ice melting unnaturally fast. Hand is emitting heat, note of resignation in voice. Expecting you to comment on power usage, expecting criticism on not using heat earlier. Heat can be emitted as fire,at the same power or greater than ice creation.

"Those mercenaries are pretty badass. I'd rather he lose a few toes to frostbite then shoot us in the back because we were too gentle with him," I said.

"Is that so?" he said, doubtfully.

"It is. Plus we don't have time to reheat every guard you take down. Every second we linger is a second for Coil's guards or the Traveler's to realize we're here and attack us," I said, firmly. He hesitated again, but nodded.

Thinks its villainous to leave the man to suffer. Remembered that you are a villain. Recognizes that you are correct. Doesn't know what the correct option is. Knows that hesitating is the wrong option. Will follow your lead for now.

Good enough. I couldn't expect them to agree with everything I said one hundred percent anyways. Next up was the barracks proper. It shouldn't be too full, and thankfully we wouldn't have to actually go in there. A quick word to Ice Boy, and the door to the barracks was sealed behind a couple of feet of ice.

"Okay, next up is a security check point. There should be at least one Traveler on guard here. If we are unlucky, all of them will be here. More likely than not, there will be one or two, but the others will be on their way soon. And that means you're up Grue," I said.

"Right," he said, pitching his voice low to speak in an intimidating rumble.

Talking in a low rumble out of habit. Unsure about new allies, instinctively playing into persona as Grue to compensate.

I already knew that! Stupid Power wasting valuable brainpower on Grue's issues! And unlike my stupid power, Grue's power simply worked, spewing darkness on command. I pushed down the jealously and glanced meaningfully at the Ice Boy. He nodded and stepped forward, freezing the room ahead of us.

"Get back!" Grue suddenly shouted, grabbing Ice Boy by the back of his shirt and shoving him to the side. Almost immediately after they took cover, Coil's mercenaries began firing, bullets shooting out of the darkness and bouncing off the walls around them.

Blind firing in a pattern. Grue's darkness disorientates, multiple bullets are deflecting off of walls. Most force is lost upon initial deflection, odds of effective damage negligible. After reloading, mercenaries will resort to a grenade instead.

"We've got Sundancer in there! Her heat is melting the ice faster than it can form," Grue shouted, glancing into the room.

"Sundancer..." I bit my lip, thinking fast. "Rock boy, you're up! You can handle the bullets just fine, so get in there and take them out so we can advance!"

"Whoa, hold on a minute lady! First off, the name's Red Riot. Secondly, Sundancer is the chick who can create an actual sun right? Having tough skin won't do anything against that!" he protested.

"Sundancer hates fighting and hurting people. If you charge at her, she'll instinctively turn her power off," I quickly explain. "If you don't hurry those mercs are going to switch from bullets to grenades," I said when I saw him hesitate. He frowned, but armored up before charging into the darkness, bullets bouncing off his skin. Grue canceled his darkness and Sundancer yelped in surprise, her sun vanishing as Red Riot crushed the barrel of a gun beneath his hand. He yanked on the gun, pulling the mercenary closer as the gun was strapped to his chest. Without hesitation, Red Riot clobbered the mercenary before spinning and throwing him into the other mercenary. But before he could hit Sundancer she disappeared, a new mercenary in her place, who immediately hit Red Riot with a taser, sending him to the floor, his limbs flailing as the electricity bypassed his rocky skin.

"Shit Trickster is here! Grue! Muscles! Get in there, quick!" I shouted, my mind racing. Grue began spewing darkness, as the fat lipped kid beside me ate a sugar cube? Suddenly his muscles bulged and he shot forward like a rocket, taking out the mercenary with one punch. Grabbing Red Riot, Muscles quickly retreated back to the group.

Hyper strength granted by consumption of item. Greater amounts of glucose, greater the power boost. Only consumed sugar when needed. Sugar cubes common, easily stored, and cheap. Delay not due to limited number of usable goods. Likely secondary drawback to power. Sugar relates to sugar crash. Usage of power may lead to mental and physical exhaustion after power wears off.

I winced as a headache began in the middle of my forehead. That was good information to know, but I hated how limited my power was.

"Ice Boy, quick! Freeze everything! Sundancer needs a little time to form another sun," Grue barked. Ice Boy didn't hesitate, running forward and absolutely filling the hallway ahead of us with ice, completely encasing Sundancer in ice and half covering Trickster and a group of five mercenaries, one of which was still getting to his feet when he was basically covered in ice.

Focused on Sundancer over mercenaries. Mercenaries are still capable of fighting. Trickster-

My power was cut off as Trickster acted, swapping Sundancer with Ice Boy, leaving him in the middle of armed mercenaries who quickly put their guns to his head. But before he could swap Sundancer back, Grue's darkness finally engulfed the rest of us, and there was a second of silence as everyone caught their breath. I heard Grue secured Sundancer, roughly pulling the frozen women in front of himself, and I caught his wrist.

"Grue, can you get me a grenade?" I asked, barely able to hear myself speak. But I knew he could. And sure enough within a few moments, a rough cylinder shape was pressed into my hands. I took a deep breath, thinking back on everything I knew about Trickster and braced myself for the headache I knew was coming.

Trickster's swaps targets of similar mass if he can see both objects. He needs to see the majority of the object in order to swap it. He is reckless, desperate, and willing to kill. He is the most ruthless of the Travelers, and would sacrifice any of them for his goal. Rest of the Travelers would betray him if he sacrificed them. He is aware of this. Will only sacrifice a Traveler if it will guarantee his goal's success. Won't allow any mercenaries to shoot out of fear of hitting Sundancer.

I closed my eyes as my head felt like it was splitting open, and after a few moments the sharp pain subsided to a dull throb. I took a deep breath, and moved forward slightly, just enough for my head to emerge from Grue's darkness.

"It looks like we've got a bit of a standoff here," I said, plastering my trademarked smirk on my face. Regent poked his head out as well, his usual expression of vague amusement on his face.

"Not really Tattletale. You've got Sundancer, sure. But don't even pretend that you are going to hurt her. The Undersiders don't have it in them to harm a prisoner," he said, his own smirk on his face.

"Uhh, excuse me? Do you remember what Skitter did to Lung?" Regent asked, mock disbelief in his voice.

"That was her. And she's not here," Trickster replied.

"You know what Trickster? You're right. I don't have it in me to hurt Sundancer. She's just someone who's in too deep and has poor choice of friends. But I'm fully willing to do this," I said, pulling the pin from the grenade. I immediately shoved my finger in place, preventing it from counting down.

"Are you an idiot? If you try and throw that, I'll just teleport it straight back to you!" Trickster shouted.

Real panic in voice. Is trying to come up with a solution. Twitches in leg muscles indicate attempted retreat. Has no plan, and is trying to buy time. Thought reminded him that reinforcements should be on the way. Planning to delay until he can change positions with a newcomer and save himself that way.

"No you won't. You can only exchange things you can see. So if you want to replace this grenade with one of your allies' go right ahead," I said, triumphantly.

"You wouldn't dare. You aren't going to kill your friend here," Trickster said, his eyes narrowing.

"He'll be fine. He can encase himself in ice in a millisecond if I throw it," I said.

"Then they'll shoot-" a blast of sound interrupted Trickster as one of the mercenaries switched to shoot at me instead. Luckily for me, Regent was on the ball, his power causing the man's arm to spasm, bullets bouncing wildly around the narrow hallway between us and Trickster's group. I instinctively fell back into Grue's darkness, starting to hyperventilate. It took me a moment to gather myself, but I pushed past my fear, poking my head out of the darkness again.

"-I don't care if your fucking girlfriend gets killed, I care about making it out alive!" the mercenary argued with Trickster.

"Well good fucking job! Now we've lost our hostage, and we're sitting ducks!" Trickster yelled back, gesturing to a frozen pillar in the middle of them.

Sudden gunfire distracted other mercenaries. Training kept them from shooting by accident. Ice Boy noticed distraction, took advantage, and froze himself as suggested. Ice is thick and compact. He can't breath. He is freezing. He cannot hear or see. Will free himself soon. Will hold on as long as possible.

I grinned. Good job Ice Boy. Now to finish this up.

"Alright you fuckers. Now I'm going to give you one last chance. Drop your weapons, put your hands on your head and surrender! I don't want to kill you, but make another move and I won't think twice!" I called, not bothering to hide the triumph in my voice.

"How about you take a breath, calm down, and stop before doing something you'll regret?" a deep male voice said, as the figure walked into sight. It was Ballistic. Fuck. The villain calmly rested a hand against Ice Boy's frozen cocoon. "Now I'm sure I don't have to explain what would happen to your friend if I activated my power right now?" he asked, calmly.

Power Manton limited. Cocoon would be propelled only. Would drag person inside along with it. Sudden acceleration and deceleration would be lethal, no matter which direction cocoon is launched in.

"And if you throw that grenade, well. All Trickster has to do is pop it into my hand," Ballistic said, chuckling as he grabbed a grenade from a mercenary, "and I'll send it flying down the hallway behind us." I quickly pulled my hand back, hiding it in Grue's darkness. I didn't need to give up our advantage that easily.

"If you try that, Regent will make you drop it before you can use your power on it," I said, Regent giving the Traveler's a smug little wave.

"I guess it'll come down to whose reflexes are faster," Ballistic said, idly tapping on the ice cocoon.

"Or we can be smart about this and talk this out," I said.

"Oh yes, because talking with a Thinker is such a good idea," Trickster said, sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"Because murdering each other pointlessly is so much better," I shot back.

"Ooooh," Regent added. Thanks Regent. Glad to have you here.

"So what are suggesting?" Ballistic asked.

"That you back off, we collect Dinah, and we leave this base to you," I said, glancing at the icy cocoon. I didn't have much time, but I couldn't rush either. If they thought they had the edge then there was no chance they'd take the deal.

"Not a chance in hell. We've got a contract with Coil and we aren't going back on it just because things are a little dicey," a mercenary said.

Doesn't care about Coil. Reputation important for career. Failure can be excused. Treachery cannot.

"Like Trickster said, Skitter isn't here. Where do you think she is?" I asked, rhetorically. "And she's got the kid who threw Leviathan half way across the city with a single punch. And he's got what, Genesis, backing him up? They'll have him dead or in custody in no time."

"Then we'll rescue him. We've made a deal, and we intend to uphold it," Trickster said, his voice tight.

Tense. Desperate. Coil promised him a solution to problem. Willing to do anything to succeed. Thinks Coil is his last chance at success. Ballistic isn't reacting, has already given up on Trickster's goal. Knows what it is, wants Trickster to succeed, doesn't expect he will.

"Why? Coil won't uphold his side of the bargain you know," I said. "Even if he could help you with whatever you're trying to do, he'd never actually do it and give up all of his leverage."

"You don't know that!" Trickster snarled.

"Phh, of course I do. I've been working for Coil longer than all of you," I said, dismissively. "And I've got proof to boot. Grue wanted something that was easy to do, and Coil certainly had the resources to get it done. And he didn't, despite Grue and the rest of the Undersiders being pretty successful."

"Wait, what?! What the fuck are you talking about Tattletale?" Grue demanded, suddenly revealing himself from the darkness. Everyone tensed up and I had to resist slapping him in exasperation. The absolute idiot is wasting time and putting himself, and all of us, at risk.

Mercenaries contemplating shooting Grue to remove darkness. Trickster contemplating trading Grue for a mercenary. Ballistic worried violence is imminent, doubts Sundancer will survive if anything happens. Cares deeply about Sundancer, close friends. Will kill everyone here if she dies.

"Calm down," I said, loudly. I looked over at Grue, "dude are you really that surprised? Coil has a private army, a gigantic villain lair, and literally kidnapped the mayor's niece without consequence. He could have bribed people to rubberstamp the approval within days. And before you get upset about me not telling you, I wasn't exactly eager to end up as Dinah's roommate if you get my meaning."

"Hn," Grue grunted, crossing his arms and allowing the shadows to billow up around him once more.

"Besides why do you even need Coil anyways?" I asked.

"That's none of you business," Trickster said, scowling.

Secretive about goal. If goal was known, Travelers would be targeted. Minimal guilt or fear on Ballistic's face. Goal itself isn't negative, but involves something dangerous and a threat to the public.

I ignored my power, pushing through my building headache. "Ballistic? I'd rather this didn't end in tears and bloodshed, so work with me please," I said, looking away from Trickster.

"Mm," Ballistic hummed, and after glancing at Trickster, began to speak, "well there is the obvious in providing us with money, housing, and the like. Then he is providing help with a certain project of ours. Stuff that he can only get access to due to his connections. And finally safety from anyone who might be holding a grudge from any of our past...trips."

Travelers have frequently caused damage. Unofficial bounty-

I cut my power off. It was already hurting too much, and I didn't care about their past. I just needed them to stand down.

"What I'm hearing is that you don't need him anymore. Let me finish," I added, when Trickster opened his mouth. "The money, the base, all of Coil's resources? You can keep those. We are only after the girl. Safety? Again, you've got the base. You've got his money. Keep hiring the mercenaries if you need more protection. And finally Coil's connections aren't worth squat now that Brockton Bay is in quarantine."

"And what of after the quarantine lifts? Then we'll need his connections, and we won't have any way to get them," Trickster asked, angrily.

"Then you'll have to build your own and will be better off for doing so because A; Coil was never going to help you, not to the point of fixing your mystery problem anyways, and B; We've already got Coil. Or will soon. We've stalemated your strongest members, and meanwhile our strongest members have only had to deal with Genesis. Who will be quickly overwhelmed because whatever form she takes won't be a match for all of them. And even if you managed to beat one of our teams, we still have reinforcements waiting outside and we've already sent a team back to the PRT HQ in case we fail despite all of that," I said, meeting Trickster's glare and seeing his eyes waver.

Knows you are right. Desperate to achieve goal. Trace amounts of guilt on Ballistic's face. Goal is related the Travelers. Goal is helping a Traveler. Goal is a secret. Goal does not involve a public member of the Travelers. Secret member of Travelers is sick/hurt. Either highly infectious or otherwise dangerous. Trickster's desperation implies strong feelings towards secret member. Trickster has looked at you and other females. Trickster is heterosexual. Secret member is Trickster's girlfriend.

I gritted my teeth, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in my head. "All you are going to accomplish here is maybe getting yourself and a bunch of other people killed. And is that what she would want?"

"And how would you know what she wants?" Trickster snarled. Ballistic raised a hand between Trickster and I.

"Either Coil told her or her power did. Either way, she's right. And don't forget, she's got Sundancer hostage. Noelle would be pissed if she heard that one of us got hurt trying to help her," Ballistic said. Trickster spun and glared at him. "Oh don't give me that look," Ballistic said, impatiently. "You know I'm right, and fuck Coil anyways. It isn't like we have a particular reason to be loyal to him besides what he can offer us. And if he can't offer us anything, than I'd rather ditch the man who is willing to drug a little girl and use her like-" Ballistic was interrupted by the icy pillar suddenly thawing and Ice Boy taking a deep breath, as he shivered uncontrollably.

"This changes nothing," I said, quickly, seeing a flash of triumphant cross Trickster's face.

"Right. So how do you want to do this?" Ballistic asked.

"You let Ice Boy over there come over here and he'll freeze the grenade shut. Then we'll walk Sundancer over to you, and she can thaw out the ice. Then we walk down the hall together, you split off into your rooms and we'll carry on to Dinah's room," I said. And to my surprise that's exactly what happened. Oh, there was a moment of tension where the mercenaries clearly considered breaking the deal and attacking us, but Ballistic made it clear that he'd side with us, and deciding that they didn't like the idea of fighting over half a dozen of capes in close range, they peacefully retreated. From there it was only a quick walk over to Dinah's cell where I punched in the key code that I saw Coil use last.

"Access Denied," the machine chirped back. "You have ten seconds to input the correct code."

"Shit!" I cursed. I looked at the code panel.

Freshly cleaned, erasing all evidence that Tattletale could use. Coil prepared for possible treachery from Undersiders. Front door access worked. Coil is paranoid about losing Dinah. Door is reinforced steel. Undersiders could not break through door. Temporarily locked, time locked exceeds an hour.

"Fuck!" I cursed, staggering as the migraine overwhelmed me. Brian caught me, and I was vaguely aware of him talking to the others, but I was too distracted by my failure, and what would happen next. Taylor wouldn't accept failing to save Dinah, and the Traveler's would get antsy if we tried to bring Coil down here to interrogate him. Not that I'd be in good enough condition to do so at this point. He knew how my powers worked, and he'd be able to stonewall me long enough-

CLANG!

A loud ringing noise snapped me out of my thoughts, and made my headache that much worse. The fat lipped muscle boy had stepped up and had slammed his fist into the door denting it. He looked at the size of the dent for a second.

"Sōdesu, korenara dekimasu," he said to himself, clenching his fist and eating another sugar cube. He took a deep breath and exhaled, steam coming out of his nostrils. Eyes widening, I quickly clamped my hands over my ears, seeing what was about to happen.

CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG! SCREEEEEEEECH!

Sure enough the muscly man punched the door again and again, denting it more and more until finally his fist punched straight through. Gripping the hole in the door with both hands he tore the entire thing from the wall, flinging it down the way we came where it landed with one final clang.

"Alright, good job!" I cheered. We proceeded into Dinah's cell which was very...sterile. Blank white walls, that were padded. A toilet, a simple white floor. A one person bed, with a single blanket on it. And that was it. No toys, no pictures, not even a book to read. It was the equivalent to a closet. Someplace secure to put a tool, and retrieve it when needed. I couldn't help but shudder as I looked around. It was all too easy to imagine living in a place like this, slowly going mad with boredom, and slowly beginning to look forward to Coil's visits, just for the chance to do something.

"Who are you people? Are you here to rescue me?" Dinah asked, glancing between us all, her eyes alert. I breathed a small sigh of relief. I had been worried that we'd be dragging a girl drugged to the gills out of here. It wouldn't have been a problem, but Dinah being able to walk made this so much easier.

"The Undersiders, and some foreign heroes. Now come on, lets get going before more trouble shows up," Grue said, gruffly.

"Ninety-seven point eight percent chance that you give me to the PRT," Dinah said, quietly. She immediately relaxed. "Thank goodness. Thank you," she added, looking at each of us gratefully. Icy Boy looked at the girl with a puzzled expression on his face and I had to reign my power in. I'm sure whatever conflict he was having was fascinating, but I wasn't going to worsen my migraine by pushing things further. We left the base and returned outside to see Bitch waiting for us.

"Bitch? What are you doing here? Did something go wrong?" Grue asked, stepping forward.

"Some sort of sonic shit, messed with my dogs through my power," Bitch spat. "Skitter sent me outside."

"Shit. We better get in there and help her," Grue said.

"Hey Dinah! What are the odds that Skitter needs our help?" Regent asked, suddenly.

"Um, eighteen point two percent chance," Dinah replied, automatically.

"What are the odds she returns in the next five, no better make that ten minutes?" I ask, catching on to what Regent was thinking.

"Seventy-six point seven percent. Ugh, not so many questions please," Dinah said, swaying a little. I looked at her carefully noticing how pale she had gotten after only a few questions. Well, there was no way of knowing how many questions Coil had made her answer today.

"Okay, well it looks like Skitter is already done, and we're just waiting on her to get back. Hopefully no one will mess with her on the way out. Let's just wait for her," I suggested. No one disagreed and we idly waited, with Red Riot petting some of Bitch's dogs as she kept a careful eye on him. As we waited I noticed Dinah getting progressively more nervous.

"Ugh, I really didn't want to do this," I muttered to myself. I took a deep breath, and gently rubbed my temples as I prepared for the massive headache that awaited me. "What's up Dinah? You're looking a little pale there," I said, casually, moving towards the kid, my power fully in gear.

"Um, yeah. I'm...not feeling that good," Dinah said, clutching her arm.

Knows she will be going into withdrawal. Her power lets her see the future. Can see herself in withdrawal, and feels the effects in the present.

Oof, that was a rough combo. It wasn't worth this headache though, and I'm sure there was more to learn.

"Yeah, well, once Skitter gets here we'll get you back to base and the Protectorate will take good care of you," I said. Her face went paler and she swayed as I said Taylor's name. "Okay, spill. I can see you using your power. What's going on?"

"Seventy-seven point nine percent chance that you'll stop me from talking to Taylor," Dinah blurted out, looking mortified. She groaned softly and rubbed her head. I'd feel sympathetic for her pain, but her words had sent my own mind spiraling as my power raced.

Involuntary response to question. Trained into her by Coil. Natural urge caused by power. Subject Taylor Hebert is a priority for Lisa Wilbourn. Taylor Hebert currently has no motive to abandon Lisa Wilbourn. Taylor Hebert currently has no enemies targeting her. Taylor Hebert currently has no goal to sacrifice herself for. Taylor Hebert is currently as safe as she will be. Therefore Lisa Wilbourn should have no reason to prevent Dinah from communicating with Taylor Hebert. High percent chance of Lisa Wilbourn's interference declares otherwise. Expression on Dinah's face implies guilt. Feels guilty for perceived negative result for Taylor Hebert. Taylor Hebert still has a self sacrificial attitude. Likely telling Taylor to sacrifice herself for a better future.

I gritted my teeth as my headache overwhelmed me. My vision went fuzzy and I every sound was a stab of agony in my skull. Which didn't help that people suddenly were shouting as nausea joined my pain, causing me to vomit all over the ground. I felt like a mess. A disgusting slug whose only existence was to suffer and writhe on the ground as someone poured salt on it. And I that was when I must have passed out. When I came to I was surrounded in Grue's darkness and in a classic recovery position. There was a fresh bottle of water sitting in front of me. Carefully I sit up and sip at the water, swishing it around in my mouth and spitting it on the ground. The darkness gradually faded as Grue slowly pulled his power back. I winced as the sunlight hit my eyes, and reeled as my brain protested the stimulation from the sunlight.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Taylor asked, speaking so quietly I could barely hear her. Now that I was free from Grue's smoke, I saw her sitting cross legged in front of me, ignoring the cold and hard asphalt beneath her, as she focused on me with the pure intensity that only she could display.

"Not great," I croaked. I tried not to look directly at Taylor. I wouldn't be able to resist checking with my power to see if Dinah talked to her, and if I did that I'm pretty sure I'd pass out entirely. "Can you take me home? To the loft?" I asked, clarifying myself quickly.

"Of course," Taylor said, without hesitation. She glanced back at Grue who nodded once.

"Take one of Bitch's dogs. We'll be by later," Grue said, gruffly.

Too focused on maintaining tough guy persona to show he cares.

I frowned, that hadn't hurt at all. Had I pushed myself so far I simply couldn't hurt myself anymore? I mean, things still suck, but it would be useful to know that I can't actually kill myself, or at least, knock myself unconscious, by overusing my power. I glance at Taylor and almost vomit as pain overwhelms me again. No, I guess I'm not that lucky. What was that before then?

"It's going to be okay," Taylor whispers to me as she carries me over to one of Bitch's dogs. Wait, when did she pick me up? I can't focus, I can't even open my eyes. I can feel myself fading fast as Taylor ties me to Bitch's dog and wraps her arms around me to hold me tight.

Taylor Hebert considers you a friend. Taylor Hebert will do anything for her friends.

There it is again. Why isn't that hurting me? And why isn't it telling me anything new? Oh. I'm such an idiot. That isn't my power. Those are simply memories of my power telling me things. I was disappointed, but glad to have solved the mystery. Satisfied, I sank into unconsciousness, confident that Taylor would bring me home safely.

Chapter 7: Adapt 1 Interlude

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

I rubbed my eyes as I tried to focus on the papers in front of me. My chest ached from the heart burn I've been ignoring all day. And the black sludge my coworkers dared to call coffee wasn't helping. But it was keeping me awake, so I drank it anyways. I had been awake for nearly thirty six hours at this point, and hadn't had an opportunity to go home for the last week.

That bitch Piggot had demanded that everyone stay on duty during Leviathan's attack and now that it was finished she was busting our balls in making sure that everything was set up for the upcoming quarantine and her declaration of martial law. Normally that could be passed onto the normal government, but apparently most the bureaucrats were in that shelter that Leviathan broke into, so the government was gutted and the work was passed onto us. And the mayor and other high level government workers had evacuated from the city entirely and wouldn't be coming back until the quarantine was lifted. Not to mention finding accommodation for nearly twenty new Wards, and wanting in depth reports on something like one hundred new villains that were dropped through that portal.

And what really pissed me off was the fact that she was in a meeting right now deciding the fate of my city and I wouldn't know anything about it until the orders rolled out to the entire office. Never mind the fact that I should be in the meeting as well, and that it was a deliberate snub to keep me out. Or that with the fact that the government was butchered that we were dramatically overworked, no Piggot needed to rub it in that she had direct authority over me.

"Hey Tom, can you take a look at this?" a coworker asked, passing me a sheet of paper. I grabbed the sheet from his hand, giving it a quick read. It looked to be reorganizing the roster of heroes after Leviathan had killed most of them. Of the Protectorate we only had three heroes left, Miss Militia, Assault, and Battery. The Wards took some casualties as well, and we were left with Vista, Clockblocker, Aegis, and Kid Win.

"So Miss Militia is now in charge, Assault is in charge of the Wards, and Battery will be the new liaison for the new kids," I said, reading the report. I shot the man a look of utter contempt. "You're an idiot," I told the office peon, too tired to play office politics with someone whose name I couldn't even be bothered to remember. "We don't need a team leader for the Protectorate right now and Assault and Battery work better together. Just put Miss Militia in charge of all of the kids. The normal Wards will be stuck on base or paired with Assault and Battery. They don't need a hero dedicated full time to dealing with them."

"Right. Thanks Tom," the idiot said, hurrying off to go change his report. I sighed, closing my eyes for a few moments, before looking back at the paper in front of me. I desperately wanted to get out of here. I had things to do but I was stuck spinning my wheels here at the PRT. I watched as some fool rushed into the meeting room Piggot was holding her meeting in. Unless there was a major emergency, that man had just thrown his career in the trash bin. And with Piggot set to rule the entire streets, I was expecting he'd be on the streets as cannon fodder to keep the gangs under control.

"They did what?" The bitch's voice roared. The doors burst open, and an absolutely livid Piggot stalked out. Despite her obesity and her inability to move with any speed, she still had more presence than all of the simpering bureaucrats in the building combined. Some would call it force of will or charisma. Me? I called it a very obvious desire to kill everyone she worked with and confidence to do so. Still it was telling that I barely noticed Miss Militia at her side as I sprung up from my desk to follow them. She glared at me, but didn't say anything. If she wanted to keep this private, she would've stayed in the meeting room. I'm sure she'd make me deal with the most unpleasant part of whatever problem had arisen, but it was worth it to be on top of whatever was going on.

"Dinah Alcott has been rescued by the Undersiders and Class 1-A. Apparently she was kidnapped by Coil the whole time and the Undersiders knew. They launched an attack on his base, rescued her, and killed Coil," the man who rushed in said. "Ms. Alcott is currently in Medical, and I've sent a message to Panacea." I reeled, falling behind slightly as we walked along.

"Is anyone else hurt?" Miss Militia asked.

"There are a few minor injuries, but no one is in critical condition. Um, Skitter and Tattletale did not return to base, and Skitter was shot multiple times. But she seemed to be in good condition. Better than Tattletale anyways who collapsed after a conversation with Dinah," the man reported.

"And what is Ms. Alcott's power anyways?" Piggot asked.

"She is a pre-cog who can give detailed percentages to possible futures. Simply ask if something is going to happen and she will have an answer on how likely it is," the man said.

"Excellent. And with Coil dead, that's one one less villain to cause chaos in the city," Piggot said, as they marched along. "Miss Militia, who is the leader among the 1-A Wards again?"

"They have split themselves into three squads Ma'am. The squad leaders are Midoriya, Todoroki, and Bakugo," she answered. Piggot grunted and nodded.

"Good. I'll have those three give me a full report later. But for now we need to talk to Ms. Alcott before we go ahead with our announcement," Piggot said as they walked to Medical. Inside they were almost immediately intercepted by Midoriya, but Piggot just glanced at Miss Militia, who intercepted the kid. I didn't hear what they said to each other. My eyes were focused on the girl lying in bed. It was Dinah Alcott alright. How the hell had the Undersiders rescued her from Coil's base? Even with the help of Class 1-A, there was nearly a whole army of mercenaries. They shouldn't have been able to overwhelm them without taking any casualties.

"Can I help you?" Dinah asked, weakly.

"Are you up to it?" Piggot asked, bluntly. "I'll be plain with you. I intend to use your power as much as possible. It will be up to you to tell my men and I when you can't handle it anymore."

"I understand," Dinah said, grimacing. "If you want to talk to me, I can do that. Or I can answer one question. I don't think I could do both. Because people tend to slip little questions into conversation without thinking about it, and even invalid or obvious questions still take a little bit out of me."

"I see. Well then I'll be brief so you can rest. Your parent are alive, but are trapped on the other side of the quarantine. I will be asking about the odds of the quarantine ending, and what we can do to improve those odds. In addition I will be asking about the plans of the various villainous organizations in the city and use your answers to form counter measures. I would ask if you are okay with this, but to be frank I am not intending to give you much choice in the matter," Piggot said.

"So nothing really changed for me. I'm still being used by others for my power," Dinah said, bitterly.

"Yes," Piggot said, simply. "Until and unless you have the ability to protect yourself than you will be used for your power. That will be true for your entire life, even if some people will be more subtle about it. That being said, I will ensure you are paid generously for your time, and will take steps to make the experience comfortable for you. On the other hand, the city is not safe, and your power has already made you a target. So I'm going to restrict your movements to our base."

"I see," Dinah said, closing her eyes. "Could I talk to the people who rescued me? I want to thank them."

"I'm not that restrictive. So long as you stay on base and stay out of restricted areas you can talk to whoever you like. However I'll insist that you let Panacea look you over first. In the meantime get some rest. You'll have a busy day tomorrow," Piggot said. She didn't bother to say good-bye, simply turning on her heel and leaving. Well used to her leadership style, I followed her smoothly while the rest of the bottom feeders hesitated.

"Ma'am," I said, bile in my throat as I forced myself to sound respectful. My mind raced as I tried to figure out how to word this. Piggot was smart in her own way but too straightforward. It wasn't that hard to manipulate her.

"Hn," she grunted, not bothering to hide her dislike for me.

"I think it's important that we keep the Undersiders away from Dinah," I said, ignoring her bad manners.

"Why?" She said, sweat on her brow. Even the simple climb down to Medical was taking its toll on her. It was disgusting. She could get Panacea to heal her in seconds. But no. She'd rather be a fat piece of shit out of sheer stubborn spite. Just to prove to absolutely no one that she didn't need parahumans.

"Because of that whole display back there. You basically just told her that she was our prisoner. And the Undersiders broke her out of the last prison she was in," I said, speaking quickly. I wanted this conversation to be over before Miss Militia finished apologizing on Piggot's behalf. "She might get it in her head to ask them to 'rescue' her again. And even if the Undersiders refuse to do so immediately, Tattletale could certainly convince her into joining them when they return to being villains."

"Hn," she grunted again. But I recognized that grunt. That was her 'I know you have a good point, but I'd be damned if I admit it to your face,' grunt. Piggot was practical enough that I knew she'd follow my advice. And it certainly helped that she hated parahumans more than she hated me. Particularly a bunch of brats who had just gone behind her back to launch an attack on a heavily guarded base. And Tattletale's smug attitude made it worse. "Fine. Find some busy work for the Undersiders to do. Have them scout out these new villains or the Empire or something. Put their evasiveness to good use. In the meantime Calvert, I want you to make arrangements to get whatever New Wave wants. After my meeting with Brandish they'll be moving in as well."

"Fine," I said, biting my tongue. More fucking grunt work. But this worked out. I could 'oversee' this personally to get out of HQ and to find out what the Hell happened back at base. My double was obviously dead, but the lack of a rampaging Echidna meant the Travelers more or less allowed the Undersider's attack to happen. Losing my body double was quite the set back, and Piggot taking full control of the city made things difficult. But I could make this work. I'd need to usurp Piggot before the quarantine was lifted. I'd need to prove myself so I would be her obvious replacement. And I'd need to do so without access to my little pet.

I was going to kill Tattletale for this.

Notes:

Tadah!

Yes, all of you who predicted that Coil was still alive were 100% correct. Currently things are in such chaos that Calvert couldn't get away from the PRT, to the point where he doesn't even have a split running in his base.

For the record his splits are currently being used for 'stress relief'. Namely lashing out at people for being stupid. And the occasional time saving errand. But mostly stress relief.

Chapter 8:

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

I awoke stiff and sore. I sat up, rolling my shoulder and hearing it crack. I coughed, wincing as my pain shot through my bruised ribs. I put on my glasses, as my bugs began to scour the loft. Things were a disaster. Admittedly we were lucky the building was still standing at all, but the windows had shattered, and the resulting rain and sea water had basically soaked everything. The couch, despite being located in the middle of the loft, was soggy and already molding. Lisa's room was basically untouched, with not having any windows in the first place. But the stuff I left behind was trashed. Alec's TV and game system was soaked, and I didn't dare turn it on. Not that there was any power for it to run. Which of course meant that everything in the fridge was rotting. Thankfully there wasn't much in there in the first place. I coughed again, my mouth and throat dry.

Feeling smooth plastic beneath the legs of one of my bugs, I wandered over, finding that someone, probably Brian, had thought to buy a twenty-four pack of bottled water. I twisted the cap open and took a much needed drink of water. I looked over at my suit that I had thrown on the table. It was filthy after going through Leviathan and then fighting Coil's mercenaries, but I didn't really have a way to clean it, or any other clothes for that matter. I was currently wearing a tanktop and tights that I worse under my suit. I hated the idea of putting it on again, but I didn't really have a choice did I?

I paused. Actually, that wasn't exactly true was it? Feeder shrimp were famous for cleaning teeth and scales of fish. And I remember feeling them clean beneath my fingernails at the aquarium when I was young. I could do the same with other bugs. With a thought a swarm of cockroaches, ants, flies, mites, and pretty much anything that seemed remotely attracted to humans started crawling over my suit. Dirt was relatively easy to pick off, but it was harder to identify the sweat and slime that was soaked into the fibers of my suit. I had to focus on the bizarre sensations of the bugs own senses. But it was an interesting exercise and the overwhelming alien senses that flooded my mind were a welcome distraction from the ache of my bruises.

It helped that I had a place to start. Some places would obviously be more soaked in sweat than others. And I could use my body as a reference point too. Identifying my sweat in the weird kaleidoscope of senses was interesting, particularly as different bugs sensed it differently. But it wasn't too hard to do. I simply went one species at a time, taking care to identify what I smelled like, brought them back to parts of my suit that I knew were dirty, and have them begin cleaning it out of the fibers of the suit. Which was interesting as well. Having the bugs pick the fibers up, or having other bugs pull them up, and having the bugs eat the stained bits was surprisingly effective. I was doing damage to my suit, but as wave of spiders laid down fresh silk, replacing the lost fibers as they were eaten. In no time at all, my suit was completely clean, every last bit of salt, sweat, dirt, and grime having been removed by an army of my little helpers.

I gave myself a sniff, and made a face. Now I was the filthy one. But it was an easy solution wasn't it? After all I was no stranger to being covered in bugs. And so I repeated the process on myself. It tickled a little, but the bugs were gentle enough that even my bruises didn't sting as the swarm cleaned me. I even had them clean and comb my hair, the strong mandibles of some beetles taking care of knots as the clear limbs of spiders used to weaving elaborate webs now carefully put eat strand of hair into place.

"Taylor, what are you doing?" Lisa asked, standing in the doorway to her room. Unlike me, she was still in costume. By the time I got her home she was completely passed out, and I had ended up carrying her to bed.

"Cleaning myself," I replied. I didn't really know what to say, so I just stared at her, my bugs finishing up and hiding themselves once again. Lisa stared back before wincing. I took a step forward, but she raised a hand to stall me.

"Ahaha, of course you'd find a way to use bugs as a sort of crude shower," Lisa said, giggling a little and shooting me a fond smile. "It looks like it works pretty well too," she added.

"You shouldn't waste your power on things like that," I scolded her. Nonetheless, I was pleased that my idea had worked well enough that Lisa's power had given me a pass.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist," Lisa said, shamelessly. I gave her a stern stare for a second, but I couldn't keep it up.

"Want me to do the same for you?" I offered.

"No thanks. I know you use clean bugs and stuff but..." Lisa said, trailing off. I blinked, not understanding what she was thinking. I mean, I got it. Bugs were creepy. I wasn't going to get offended if she didn't want thousands of bugs crawling all over her. "Anyways, I do need a shower and a coffee," she finished.

"Well we can't really get either of those here," I said, not bothering to look around. "I guess we could head to the PRT Headquarters. They'll surely have both."

"Yeah, bad idea," Lisa said, quickly. "I'm sure Piggot understands why we did what we did, and she might even agree we made the right call! But I guarantee you that she's still pissed off that we just went and attacked Coil without asking permission."

"If she wants to yell at us for rescuing Dinah, then she can scream at me all day if it makes her feel better. I don't care," I said, a little bit of anger in my voice. I wasn't lying. I'd put up with it, but it was frustrating to be yelled at for doing the right thing.

"Right, it wouldn't bother you at all," Lisa said, giving me a doubtful look. I shrugged. She evidently saw right through me, either by using her power or just knowing me that well. "That attitude would drive her crazy. Piggot isn't dumb, she would know how you felt, and know that she doesn't really have anything she could punish you with. And she would hate that," she added, smiling at me.

"That sounds like her problem. Honestly if she is getting pissed at me for saving Dinah that fuck her," I said.

"Sure, and normally I'd all be for tweaking her nose. But she's about to declare martial law. She seems like she's professional enough to not abuse her power to get petty revenge, but I'd rather not test that," Lisa said. "Besides the solution is so easy. Give it a day or two and Piggot will be too busy juggling a dozen problems to chew you out for not asking permission to save someone. And I'm sure the thousands of annoyances she has to deal with as the boss of the city will make her forget about any lingering anger she has towards us."

"I guess," I said, reluctantly. I let a deep breath out of my nose. Ugh, I kinda wanted to upset the Director, didn't I? The idea of someone being upset at me rescuing Dinah bothered me more than I wanted to admit. I pushed the emotion out to my bugs, letting them work out my frustration by fighting each other. "Okay, fine. But then what are you going to do for your shower and coffee?" I asked, moving on.

"I was thinking we'd just go to a refugee camp. It'd be crappy coffee and a communal shower, but that'll be fine," Lisa said.

"Will you be okay with that? The communal shower I mean," I asked, remembering when she told me about how her power would constantly bombard her with disgusting facts about the people around her. I can't imagine some slap dash cheap shower being used by hundreds of refugees wouldn't be anything other than disgusting.

"Honestly no. But the PRT showers won't be much better anyways, and I really need a shower," Lisa said, shuddering. "Besides I overused my power yesterday, so it should be easier to keep it subdued. But I do have a favor to ask you."

"What do you need?" I asked, immediately. I mentally winced. I hoped I didn't sound too eager there. I focused on my bugs, pushing away my embarrassment. It was normal to want to help Lisa, I reassured myself. After all, she was pretty much my closest friend, and it was normal for friends to want to help each other.

"Can you stand guard at the shower?" she asked, giving me puppy eyes. "I really don't want to use my power while I'm in there, but I'm a little paranoid about someone trying something. You don't need to shower with me or anything, but just stand guard outside the door."

"Sure, that shouldn't be a problem," I said. It seemed reasonable enough to me. Simple too. And then we could get breakfast together. "Shall we get going?" I asked.

"Sure!" Lisa said, shooting me another brilliant smile. We started heading towards the nearest refugee camp, my bugs scouting the neighboring blocks to make sure we were safe. As we walked we just...chatted. I told her where my bug shower idea came from, and started talking about my memories of going to an aquarium. Lisa responded by telling me a story about learning to horseback ride. The loft was in a pretty deserted part of the city, but as we moved towards the camp I noticed more and more people in the buildings around us. Most of them were scavenging, picking through the various stuff that Leviathan's tsunamis had tossed around, looking for something valuable. There were a small number working on fixing something or another, but not to any rhyme or reason I could see.

"So have you talked to your dad yet?" Lisa asked, surprising me. I felt my adrenaline spike, my calm surveying of our surroundings abandoned to focus entirely on Lisa.

"What do you mean?" I asked, defensively.

"I mean have you told him that you survived Leviathan," Lisa said, casually glancing at me out of the corner of her eye.

"I-" I began, hesitating. I didn't know what to say. Should I lie? Did I want to lie? Tell her to mind her own business? Ask her why she brought it up?

"Look Taylor," Lisa said, stopping in the middle of the street. I stopped besides her and she looked up, meeting my gaze directly. Her green eyes were dead serious as she stared in my eyes. "I just want to know what's going on. Are you avoiding him deliberately? Or is this some unconscious desire to just not deal with it? Cause if it's the latter, I'm pretty sure you'll regret it later."

"I don't see why I should tell you," I said, stubbornly. I hated how petulant my voice sounded as Lisa rolled her eyes.

"Because I think I see him over there," Lisa said, pointing over my shoulder. I spun around, and sure enough there was a group of workers walking down the street. I had seen them with my bugs, but had written them off as just another work crew.

"Shit!" I turned to flee, but Lisa grabbed my hand.

"Why are you running?" she asked, calmly.

"Because I'm-"

"You are a superhero who just saved the Mayor's niece. He has no power to force you to do anything. You love him, and he loves you. You have nothing to be afraid of, and nothing to be ashamed of," Lisa said, staring at me intently. She blinked, and winced. I winced as well. She was clearly using her power for my benefit, and it was clearly hurting her. I turned to face the incoming group of workers, clenching my fist.

"I can do this," I said.

"Of course you can. And I've got your back," Lisa said. "That being said, I'd appreciate my hand back. You are squeezing really hard."

"Oh sorry!" I said, releasing her hand as fast as possible.

"It's okay, it was just getting a little tingly," Lisa said, giving me a crooked smile as she stretched her hand out. I took a deep breath and turned to face the approaching workers. Sure enough, there was my dad, who was busy talking to and explaining what each man would be working on. Sooner than I wanted though, he glanced my way.

"Taylor?" I heard him ask. My lips twitched, trying to smile.

"Hey Da-" I began.

"Oh thank God you're okay!" He shouted, darting forward. There was still a bit of distance between us, but I was still unable to react. I can't remember Dad reacting like that. And I didn't know what to do about it. But before I could make a decision, he had wrapped his arms around me, hugging me as tightly as possible. Now my Dad may work behind a desk most days, but he helped out from day to day, so he had a surprising amount of strength in his scrawny arms. That and I was pretty bruised up from yesterday.

"Ow! Not so tight Dad!" I yelped. To his credit, Dad immediately released me.

"Are you okay? What's wrong?" he asked, looking me over. He frowned as he saw the traces of bruises on my arms. I mentally cursed, wishing I had something to wear other than the tank top I worse underneath my suit. Next time I'd be prepared. I would get some cheap shirts to wear, and if that wasn't possible, than I'd weave my own. Anything to avoid feeling this exposed again.

"We got into a bit of a scuffle at our shelter, that's all," Lisa said, jumping in. I smiled at her, hoping she could tell how grateful I was and she gave me a mischievous smile which immediately turned that gratitude to ice. "You should have seen her. Some punk thought he could push his weight around and demand something I wasn't willing to give him. And she stepped right up and just, pow!" She punched the air dramatically as I blushed incandescently.

"And that was the end of it?" Dad asked, doubtfully.

"Eheh, no, there was a bit of a scuffle. But they were no match for Taylor, and some fellows interested in keeping the peace jumped in and helped us out," Lisa said. I glanced at her, where was she going with this?

"Are you okay Taylor?" Dad asked, looking at me directly.

"I'm-" I paused, clearing my throat. "I'm fine. These bruises barely hurt, and it was worth it," I said, firmly.

"Still if things are so risky that you're getting attacked at whatever shelter you were at, than maybe it would be best if you-" Dad began.

"No," I interrupted him, my voice cold. "The situation has been dealt with, and if anything I'm safer where I am than...actually where are you staying?"

"At home," Dad said, obviously disappointed.

"The house survived than? That's good to hear," I said, pleased.

"Yes," Dad said, nodding. "Power is out, and there is some broken windows and water damage, but all things considered we got off lightly."

"Hey Boss, we've got to get working. Why don't you talk with your daughter at lunch?" one of the workers interjected. Dad frowned, scratching the back of his head.

"Al's right," Dad said, reluctantly. "I'll meet you in the camp for lunch. Please?" he added when I hesitated. My stomach twisted, but I nodded. Lisa beamed at me.

"See you later Mr. Hebert!" Lisa said, cheerfully. We walked away and continued heading towards the camp. I kept my bugs near the work crew, and soon they set to work, fixing some broken water main or something that involved pipes anyways. I chewed my lower lip, glancing at Lisa. "You might as well just ask whatever is bothering you," Lisa said, calmly.

"Did you know my father was going to be here?" I asked, bluntly. There was no point beating around the bush if she already knew.

"No," Lisa said, immediately. I glanced at her doubtfully and she sighed. "I mean it Taylor."

"Really? Because you didn't seem surprised that we ran into him, and you brought him up beforehand with those questions. Before I could even spot him with my bugs too," I said, keeping my voice in a steady monotone.

"I wasn't surprised because where else would he be?" Lisa asked, shrugging. "We are headed to the refugee camp closest to your house, and your dad worked as a labor leader. Of course he'd get called up to direct work crews or whatever he was doing back there."

"So why didn't you warn me?" I asked, trying to keep the frustration out of my voice.

"Because I didn't think I needed to," Lisa said, shrugging again. She glanced at me, her eyes weary. "Look, the odds were against running into him, and I thought you'd spot him first anyways. But whatever, what's done is done. And look at it this way, that went pretty well!"

"Yeah, but now we've got lunch to get through," I grumbled.

"A lunch with a concerned father, oh how horrible," Lisa said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Look, at worst, it'll be a bit of an awkward conversation. You literally got shot yesterday. There's no comparison."

"But..." I trailed off. When Lisa put it that way, it was a little ridiculous wasn't it? I had fought my way through an army of mercenaries and watched a man kill himself in front of me. And I was worried about a little conversation with my dad? It's not like he could ground me. Really the worst thing he could do is be disappointed in me. My stomach clenched at the thought. "But I could still hurt him," I said, quietly.

"Oh Taylor," Lisa said, softly placing a hand on my arm. "You've got nothing to be ashamed of," she said. I let out an incredulous snort at the idea.

"I was a super-villain just last week. I've attacked heroes multiple times, maimed people, held others hostage and robbed a bank," I said, pulling away from her.

"You defeated Lung twice, defeated Bakuda, saved who knows how many people the ABB press-ganged into being soldiers, stood up to Leviathan, stood up for Dinah when none of us would, and defeated a super-villain who the heroes barely knew existed, saving Dinah from a lifetime of being Coil's drugged up magic eight-ball," Lisa countered, her voice growing fierce. "You're awesome and only Alec gets to say otherwise."

"Why Alec?" I asked, amused at the sudden non-sequitur and allowing it to distract me. Her words sounded nice, but they just didn't ring true to me.

"Because he's a clown, and clown's get to say whatever they want because no one takes them seriously," Lisa said. I smiled, and she gave me a small grin back. She started talking about clothing and what we could replace our lost stuff with. I mentioned that the camp likely has some donated clothing she could use, and she theatrically sighed at the idea of picking her way through other people's hand-me-downs. I noticed the showers with my bugs, and guided Lisa over to them. There were some dingy towels and I saw Lisa shudder and force herself to pick one up. I looked at her closer and noticed how pale she had gotten.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked, softly, leaning into her.

"No," She said. "And I'm starting to think your bug showers have to be better than this. Just, lets get this over with ASAP," she said, moving into the changing room. The showers were attached directly to the shower. My bug's senses still weren't giving me a full idea of what things were like, but the shower looked to a simple drain, a shower head like you'd find at a pool, and a simple concrete floor. Lisa began showering and I stood guard in the changing room. It was the middle of the day, but I did see some shady looking people walking around. But they weren't coming anywhere close to the showers.

I glanced down at the towel causing Lisa so much distress and winced. It was clearly stained and smelled like it had been washed with salt water. And was currently full of lice. Now that was easy enough to fix, but the rest...well why not? Lisa had suggested that my bug shower was a better idea, and it isn't like she'd mind me cleaning her towel. The changing room wasn't completely enclosed, so I'd have to keep an eye out for anyone coming by to take a shower, but I was doing that already wasn't I? I dropped the towel to the floor, and began swarming it with my bugs, repeating the process from this morning.

I moved to the door of the changing room, patiently waiting for Lisa to finish her shower as I kept careful watch on everyone coming near the public showers. I caught an occasional curious glance from passersby, though the women had an understanding look to their gazes. I didn't care. While I waited I practised trying to hear through my bugs. My progress was slow, and giving me a horrible headache to boot. But I persisted, pushing the pain to my bugs as I tried to brute force my ability to hear. I didn't have much success, beyond hearing Lisa complain bitterly about having to press the button for water every thirty seconds. Which might've been my own ears.

"Hey Taylor! I've finished my shower and are coming out," Lisa called from the shower.

"Got it," I replied. "The changing room is all yours," I said, quickly walking out. Shortly afterwards Lisa joined me, hair still damp from her shower and back in her clothes from this morning. She immediately gave me a hug, and I stiffened up in surprise.

"Thanks," she murmured. "For cleaning up that towel, I mean," she added, releasing me. I relaxed and Lisa gave me a smile. "Come on, lets go see what we can find you for clothing." I let her drag me off, and soon we were sorting through sacks of old clothing. I saw Lisa make the occasional grimace, but I couldn't tell if it was because of a headache or from the selection of clothing on display. I was quite happy with what I was finding though. I grabbed a couple of hoodies, some solid jeans, and as many

socks as I was allowed to take. I stuffed it in a cheap plastic bag and then Lisa and I headed to lunch.

"Taylor!" My dad yelled, waving us over. My smile faded as I composed my self. I took a deep breath, letting it out of my nostrils as I prepared to talk to my dad.

"Relax Taylor," Lisa whispered, grabbing a hand and rubbing it softly. I flinched and looked over at her, my composure broken. "This isn't a fight or a confrontation." I nodded, closing my eyes and relaxing.

"Hey Dad, how was work?" I asked, sitting down beside him, Lisa sitting across from us.

"Good good, we managed to get a water main repaired. A couple more and we should have water restored to this whole neighbourhood," Dad said, proudly. I smiled. It had been so long since Dad had spoken with so much passion and pride. It was a good look for him, and it made me feel glad that we had run into him. "What have you girls been up to?"

"Cleaning out our loft mostly, seeing what's salvageable and what's ruined," I replied. "Most of my clothing was a complete write off, and I'm not sure what we can do about the couch."

"I can see that. I guess your loft got hit hard by Leviathan?" Dad asked.

"Honestly it handled it better than I thought it would. The fact that it's still standing at all is a miracle," Lisa said, sighing. "I suppose I should be thankful it's just a bunch of water damage. We've got a roof over our heads and that's enough for now."

"Hn," Dad hummed, taking a bite of food. I took my own bite. The premade meals were over salted and not very satisfying, but I was hungry enough to ignore that. "So what are you and Taylor going to do moving forward?" he asked.

"We haven't really decided on anything yet," Lisa said, glancing at me. Dad followed her gaze and I swallowed my food. I swigged some water, trying to buy time.

"Lisa's old boss didn't make it through Leviathan," I offered as an explanation. I saw a bit of sorrow enter my Dad's face and had to push away a grimace. Coil didn't deserve sympathy of any kind, even if my Dad thought he was some ordinary businessman.

"I'm sorry to hear that. So you're between jobs then? Because if you need work I'm sure I can find something for you to do," Dad said, sympathetically.

"That's really sweet of you, but we should be fine," Lisa said, throwing an arm over my shoulder.

"Yes. Thank you Dad, but we can take care of ourselves," I said, firmly. Dad hesitated, looking at us carefully. He opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by a commotion coming from a table behind us. I turned to look even as I started gathering bugs, but once I heard a women scream, I shot out of my seat, taking in the scene before me.

"Watashi ga fuzakete iru to omoimasu ka? Shinken ni kangaero,-sa mo naito kono meinu no atama o kami chigiru zo!"A man with the head of a great white shark yelled something in Japanese, his beefy arms holding a woman tight to his chest, his mouth dangerously close to her head. Shit. A hostage situation. I wasn't sure what to do about this, particularly since I couldn't exactly talk the man down with the small amount of Japanese I knew. I saw a different Japanese man start talking to Shark Face, and I began planning. Ideally Shark Face would let go of his hostage and then I'd swarm him. I'd need to wait for my opportunity.

"There's no way anyone would agree to that," Lisa whispered, moving up to my side.

"What's he saying?" I asked.

"I'm not a hundred percentage sure," Lisa said, "but from what I'm getting, he's basically demanding to be made boss of this camp. He thinks he can push everyone in camp around because he has a power and they don't."

"Is he an idiot? Or is his power more dangerous than it looks? Because the heroes won't stand for this, and he doesn't look like he could take on a squad of PRT troopers let alone anyone from the Protectorate," I asked.

"He has a minor Brute power to go with the obvious," Lisa murmured, staring intently at the shark man. "But nothing major. He could probably walk away from being hit with a car, but it'd still hurt."

"We can handle this then," I said, calmly.

"What are you girls talking about? We need to stay calm and wait for the heroes to get here," Dad said. I flinched, having completely forgotten about him behind us.

"He didn't hear much," Lisa said, reassuring me. I looked her over, assessing her. Her gaze was already starting to go dull from a headache, but she was hiding it the best she could. But despite her determination to help I knew she was rapidly reaching her limit. She had pushed herself too hard yesterday and hadn't had enough rest. She wouldn't last until the PRT got here. So if we were going to act, we needed to do it now.

"Come on, lets just get out of here," Dad said, grabbing my wrist and pulling me away. I let him and Lisa followed me. Getting out of sight would help, but then I made the mistake of looking back at the women being held hostage. She was terrified, tears streaming down her face as she silently begged for help. Help that wouldn't be here for hours while this...scum terrorized everyone weaker than him, just because he could. I froze, digging my heels in. Dad tugged on my arm, but I didn't move. Lisa glanced at my face and gave me a wry smile.

"So what's the plan?" she asked, standing beside me.

"We need to get that women free first. Then I'll be able to overwhelm him pretty quickly," I said, bringing bugs to swarm around myself.

"Taylor?" Dad asked, shocked. I ignored him as he sat down, looking at me awe.

"How will he react to a spider on his hand?" I asked Lisa. She stared at the shark-headed man.

"He'll flinch," she said, confidently. "He won't drop her, but-"

"But he'll loosen his grip. Enough for us to get her free," I said, bugs flowing to my hair and my swarm began gathering behind tents and buildings.

"I don't have a disguise available," Lisa reminded me. I buzzed a fly around her head and she sighed, "fine. Just this once. But you owe me for this." With her permission given, my bugs started crawling all over her as well. She shuddered and moved closer to me, her hand reaching out. I grabbed it and gave her a reassuring squeeze.

"On three," I said. She nodded and I began the countdown as we moved closer, "one, two, three!" I said. The villain yelped as a black widow crawled onto the top of his hand. He let go of the women with one hand, reaching over to slap the spider. We lunged as I had the spider bite him. Lisa and I shot forward and grabbed the women's arms. We yanked back as hard as we could, tearing her free from the shark-headed man's grasp.

"Nani?" the shark-headed man managed before my swarm rose up and engulfed him. People screamed and began to run away.

"DoN't PaNiC!" I yelled through my bugs. The villan shot out of my swarm, his jaws clacking as he took a massive bite of the swarm to no effect. "FoLlOw My BuGs To SaFeTy," I ordered, my harmless bugs forming arrows to direct people away from the fight while all of my stinging bugs went nuts on the villain. He screamed in pain and turned to run away. I threw myself at him in a tackle, grabbing both of his legs and bringing him down to the ground hard.

"Yamate!" the shark-headed man yelled, flailing. He managed to get one leg free, kicking me in the face. I ducked my head, and kept up the assault with my bugs.

"SuRrEnDeR," I demanded through my bugs.

"Yaah!" Lisa yelled, bringing a cheap folding chair down on the villain's head. She repeatedly slammed it on his head while my bugs bit and stung him. Finally he gave up and stopped fighting. I pulled my bugs away and looked at him. He couldn't cry, but his skin was bloody and swelling from all of the bug bites, even with me holding back on the nastier poisons. Lisa had knocked a tooth out but as I watched it started to grow back. But he still seemed strong. He may have given up, but he still might try and run away.

"StAy StIlL," I said, as thousands of spiders covered his legs, spinning a web around him. He stared up at my swarm in fear, but didn't move. I saw some people begin to approach me. Lisa moved up to me, merging our bugs into one large pillar. She stumbled into me, and I grabbed her, holding her close.

"This is so disgusting," she whispered to me, barely audible over the buzz of my bugs' wings.

"What do you want?" One of the refugees asked, after taking a few moments to gather his courage. He was a middle-aged man, with muscular arms, and tattoos of bones covering his arms. They weren't of any gang I recognized, so I relaxed.

"NoThInG," I replied.

"Tell him we're working for the PRT now," Lisa said, with her eyes tightly closed and squeezing my arm tightly.

"We ArE NoW wOrKiNg WiTh ThE PRT To HeLp MaInTaIn PeAcE AnD oRdEr In BrOcKtOn BaY," I said.

"I don't believe you. A villain can't just switch sides like that" the man said, bluntly. There was a murmur of agreement from the crowd. My jaw tightened and I turned and started walking away, gently guiding Lisa with me.

"It DoEsN't MaTtEr WhAt YoU bElIeVe. I'lL pRoTeCt YoU rEgArDlEsS aNd YoU cAn'T dO AnYtHiNg To StOp Me," I declared, moving through my bugs while the swarm stayed in a thick pillar where we were. Meanwhile the swarm slowly spread out, flying above people's head. Most of them flinched, and Lisa and I were able to join the crowd smoothly.

"There, it's over, you can open your eyes again," I said, awkwardly patting Lisa on the back.

"Dammit Taylor, that was awful," she said, looking up at me. "Come on, lets get back to the loft and you can pay me back."

"I guess," I said, shrugging. "Do you have anything in mind?"

"I'll think of something," she groaned. "Before we go do you want to talk to your dad?"

"No," I said, firmly. Through my bugs I could still see him sitting still, completely shell-shocked. "I don't think he's up for it and neither am I. Lets just get out of here."

"Alright," Lisa said, gently. She gave me a small smile. "Lets go home."