Our intrepid trio is out on the town, enjoying a nice moment to themselves! Surely nothing could possibly go wrong...right?

Izuku was having a great day, honestly. They now had a provisional hero license, Aizawa had told them they were all scheduled for a training camp over the summer and everyone was super excited for it, and they got to advance their relationship with their partners! Nothing too far, but well…shirts had come off, and there were wandering hands, and nope! They shook their head, not wanting to get too far into memory right now.

Not that Himiko or Ochako noticed. Himiko was skipping along, her hand in Ochako's, casually telling Ochako about something she'd recently read. Izuku was on Ochako's other side, her other hand firmly grasped, just casually enjoying the walk outside of UA's walls.

It had taken a bit of time, but they finally got permission to go off campus. Luckily, the news had moved on from their moments in Hosu and at their internships, and while they were still being recognized as they walked, no one was really bothering them (save a few little kids wanting to pet the kitty people, and none of them had the heart to say no). Granted, they had to have panic buttons on themselves, since according to Aizawa they were trouble magnets and needed it, but still…they were out and having fun and wow.

Having a relationship wasn't something Izuku ever really expected to have, much less with two gorgeous women (and they were allowed to think that now!). And now they did, and had a super powerful Quirk (Quirks?), and were on their way to actually becoming a real hero. They had friends, real honest friends, not…whatever Kacchan was. It was hard for Izuku to really think that way, but talks with Danjuro and Ryo had been focused a lot on recognizing the inherent unhealthy nature of their relationship with Kacchan.

Maybe someday, far in the future, they could actually sit down and talk to him, maybe he'd be better, but as it stood, Izuku finally understood that they had no room for Kacchan's attitude and behavior in their life. They had real friends now. People who actually gave a damn about them and were willing to enjoy their company. Everything in their life was going well, and…well, the pessimistic part of their mind kept expecting the other shoe to drop, but even that was partly quiet because of the help the counselors had given.

Like Danjuro had told them just the other day; they chose a career in heroism, which meant they were intending on interfering with the worst of the worst, of getting involved in situations that were, by their very nature, already bad. And sometimes things would not go great during that. But…that didn't mean they were cursed, or at fault, or anything of the sort. All it meant was the world was imperfect, and that was okay.

Izuku's ears perked up as they heard an odd noise. Himiko stopped talking mid sentence, her head tilting to the side, as Ochako blinked, stopping in place. Something had caught their attention, but it was strange. It wasn't just a noise. It was…Danger Sense? But not like normal. Instead of a painful throbbing in their heads, that their body would instinctively turn to, it was more of a sense of…impending danger, but not active danger?

"That makes sense," Himiko murmured, clueing Izuku into the fact they'd been muttering aloud once more. "It's never felt like that before."

"Yeah…and I heard somethin' too, did you two?" Ochako asked, turning her head back and forth as she narrowed her eyes.

Izuku nodded absently, as they scanned around like Ochako was. Their nose wrinkled as a weird scent crossed it…while the enhanced hearing had been pretty much from day one, it felt like the longer time went on the more their other senses got enhanced. The sense of smell was a new one though, only noticeable in the past week or so, but right now it was very noticeable. They'd gotten pretty good at filtering the smell of the city out, and luckily their sensitive nose was more in line with animals who weren't bothered by scents most people would find displeasing, but this…this wasn't displeasing so much as just noticeable. "What is that?" Izuku muttered quietly, confused.

Himiko's eyes snapped open, narrowing into slits a moment later. Her shoulders tensed, the fur on her tail standing straight up, ears laying flat on her head. Her voice dropped to a low, dangerous growl as she said quietly "Blood. That's the smell of blood."

Izuku focused their senses, blocking out as much of the outside world as possible, which was very difficult considering how loud Musutafu was on a daily basis. But it was enough, with Danger Sense telling them where to look and focus, to notice the sound was coming from an alleyway up ahead.

They didn't have to share a look with their partners, already in motion towards the alley. One hand patted Izuku's pocket, where their Provisional License and the panic button were sitting, double checking they were there. The trio approached the alleyway, the sound now clearly the noise of soft feet slapping against concrete, like they were running…and the omnipresent scent of dried, old blood.

Izuku's reflexes were more than enough to catch the small child as she came fleeing out of the alleyway, eyes wide with fright, white hair streaming behind her as she looked behind. She nearly ran into Izuku's legs, but Izuku was already in place to prevent her from falling over, one hand gently catching her as she jerked in fright.

She took one terrified look up at Izuku's face, seeing the comforting smile on their face, before launching herself into Izuku's arms and sobbing, gripping onto Izuku tightly. Ochako knelt beside Izuku, one hand gently brushing the young girl's hair, her clear terror already making the trio worried as to what had happened, especially as they now could tell the dried blood smell was coming from the dirty bandages.

"Hey little one, what's wrong?" Ochako asked softly, keeping her movements slow and non-threatening.

The little girl whispered something, so quietly even the trio had trouble making out what she'd said. Izuku cleared their throat. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

"...monsters," she whispered. As if in response to her words, they all felt it. A sudden, painful shock of pain through their skulls, all three wincing simultaneously, but given no time to react as the alleyway the girl had stumbled out of exploded, fire and ash and shrapnel erupting towards the trio with no warning.

Himiko's hands quickly grabbed onto Izuku and Ochako, her tail wrapping about the little girl's waist just in case as she Blinked away, dragging them all back as far as she could. It wasn't quite enough, the shards of glass and concrete still slicing into their bodies before Ochako managed to get her hands up and crash! The shrapnel slammed into the wall she'd created, smashing into the ground as gravity twisted to form a barrier before her, blocking the painful shrapnel that had already partly cut through them.

Izuku had curled around the little girl, blocking her from getting struck by any of it, but it left them the only one on the ground as the screams began, various civilians now running away from the exploding alleyway. Not that they had much chance to do so, as another explosion erupted nearby, and then another, and a fourth, and Izuku lost count as they tried to ignore the pain in their ears from the extremely loud noises surrounding them.

They had trained for quick reactions though, and with one hand they'd already reached into their pocket to press the panic button. They glanced up, seeing Ochako and Himiko had already taken a defensive position around the two of them, and without waiting any further, they quickly leapt to their feet, still holding the little girl to their chest as they scanned around for the source of the explosions.

Danger Sense was a godsend, making their head turn without meaning to, Ochako and Himiko's gaze following, as they could see it…a hulking, black-skinned monstrosity, it's body covered in spikes leaking a dripping substance that as it hit the ground began to burn.

Izuku let out an annoyed huff of air. Maybe it was wrong for them to be more annoyed than afraid, but…for fucks sake! The sensation of sheer aggravation and frustration across the bond keyed Izuku into the fact their girlfriends felt the same way, as Ochako groaned aloud and Himiko muttered under her breath.

Not that they had much time to consider, as a second, a third, more and more of the Nomu were appearing. In the middle of the day. In the middle of Downtown Musutafu. Could this bastard Doctor be any more asinine!?

"Doubt it," Ochako muttered, making Izuku realize they'd been muttering aloud again.

"Dammit. Okay, Izu, what's the play?" Himiko asked, her eyes darting about as she tried to determine the biggest threats.

Izuku took a deep breath, focusing their mind. Himiko was right. They had to forget the why and focus on what to do. "'Chako, are they in your range?"

Ochako shook her head no. "Only about half of them are in range."

"Shit," Izuku swore. "Was hoping we could stall for time for the heroes to arrive, but that won't help. Okay. forget that. Priority is civilian rescue. I hit the button, so we should have backup soon."

"Yeah but we won't have Toshi since he's at that stupid meeting in Tokyo," Himiko reminded.

"I know, but still. We need to focus on getting people to safety, especially this little one," Izuku idly pointed their tail at the quivering child in their arms. They thought over it quickly, trying to come up with the best plan with the limited information they had. "Okay. 'Chako, if you see any Nomu without wings or visible ranged abilities, send them up into the air to disable. Also focus on lifting the rubble. Himi, focus on taking people out of the danger zone, and scout what our best targets are. I'll run interference and carry everyone I can out."

"That still leaves the Nomu rampaging mostly," Himiko pointed out.

Izuku nodded with a grim expression. "Yeah, but with only three of us, we're limited. Soon as people are safe…kick the Nomu's asses, Himi."

Her lips quirked into a savage grin, eyes alight as the golden-red strands of Sanguine Cloak surrounded her. "Got it."

Ochako nodded at Izuku, her eyes glowing as Galactic Shroud roared to life, singing in her veins. The pulse of strength from Sanguine Cloak was in tune with her, making her feel more balanced, more ready for anything. She could feel it when Izuku activated Full Cowling, the little girl in their arms somehow not shrinking in terror, her eyes wide and in awe as she gazed at the three glowing teenagers…and then they moved.

"Changeling!" a voice shouted, dragging Himiko's attention off the Nomu she'd been slamming into the pavement. She'd spent the past several minutes basically playing tag with the Nomu, quickly realizing they were either lacking orders or were like magpies, attracted to shiny things, because every single Nomu that saw her started chasing her to the exclusion of every other person. Which she was more than okay with. Not only did it give Izuku more time to evacuate, but Ochako was dashing about, throwing pieces of rubble and whipping a broken cable around, sending every Nomu she could up into the air where they were flailing wildly, unable to do anything.

She made a final, brutal stab into the creature's skull, wincing at the awful scent of tainted blood as she glanced up, seeing her Sensei skidding to a stop beside her. Beyond him, she could see, to her great relief, other heroes arriving…recognizing Ryukyu, Fat Gum, and Sir Nighteye, as well as the Big Three, and she felt like she could finally breathe. She'd been terrified this entire time, every scream of pain or fear echoing in her far too sensitive ears, but finally, finally, they had backup.

"What's the situation?!" He commanded, dragging her attention to him. As he stopped beside her, he tossed her an earpiece, her hands almost fumbling it as she had to quickly sheathe one of her knives to grab it. She shoved it into her ear, hissing in an annoyed fashion as she tried to get it to clip onto her ear since it was clearly not designed for her cat ears, but she managed to get it in place well enough for what she needed. The hero course were vaguely familiar with these earpieces, knowing they were standard issue during emergencies…but she also had no real idea how to operate it!

Aizawa rolled his eyes, reaching over and tapping on the side of it, the sudden noise in her ear making her wince as she could hear a half-dozen overlapping voices go off. Thankfully, she relaxed slightly once she heard the sound of Izuku's voice over the comms, quickly informing everyone of what they'd witnessed. Himiko grinned back at her teacher unrepentantly.

"Well, you heard Izu-uh, Trinity. That's what's going on!" She kept her smile on as she felt the Nomu beneath her stirring, stomping down on it with enough force to crack the concrete. Her teacher just gave her a deadpan stare.

"...right. I am having you three tested for a Villain Attracting Quirk once this is done. Anyway, we'll take it from here, get back to-" He didn't have time to finish speaking, as a sudden shout across the comms made both of them wince. He reached up and switched on his microphone. "Quiet! Report!" he commanded, trying to calm down what Himiko now realized was Izuku speaking way too rapidly.

"They got her! They took her somehow!"

"Took who, Trinity?!"

"The little girl I was bringing to safety! Some sort of black sludge erupted from her and she vanished from my arms!"

"What little girl?" Ryukyu asked over the comms, her voice muffled as they could clearly hear her slamming into something.

"Was a little girl that ran up to us fer help!" Ochako interjected, her accent slipping slightly. "We didn' get her name, but she told us monsters were chasin' her, then the Nomu showed up!"

"So something took her out of your arms? How does that even happen?" Fat Gum asked.

"I don't know!" Izuku cried out, clearly on edge. Himiko was struggling not to react to their sudden panic and guilt across the bond, but from the way Shouta was eyeing her she didn't think she was hiding it well.

"The how is unimportant. Fine. I was going to send you three back but for now, your priority is finding the girl and rescuing her. Only fight if absolutely necessary. Otherwise, stick to the shadows and find her." Aizawa ordered, locking eyes with Himiko as he did so.

"Lemillion, Nejire-chan, Suneater. Back them up. Do what you can to clear the way and keep the remaining civilians safe," Nighteye added.

Himiko took in a deep breath, nodding as she felt the agreement across the bond. She made sure to clearly state her agreement over the comms (that had been drilled into her head by Aizawa), waiting for the confirmation from Izuku and Ochako too. As soon as they had audibly confirmed, she ramped up Sanguine Cloak to her maximum and bolted in the direction Izuku was headed, able to sense Ochako on the way to intercept as well. Izuku had a vague idea of where she was, and that was more than what she or Ochako had. They had a little girl to save…and some Nomu to kill.

"Stupid fuckin' Nomu bastards!" Ochako swore as she flew, eyes focused on the ground for some hint of where the child had gone. Himiko was parkouring across the rooftops to the south, her fly speed not as quick as Ochako's, and Izuku was running across the ground in case Ochako missed something from her vantage point. They were marking Nomu as they went, for their upperclassman to swoop in and take out, focusing solely on rescue efforts. A lot of times they had to pause for a brief second to pull a civilian out of the way, lift some rubble, disable a Nomu long enough for one of the Big Three to come finish it off, but they remained focused on finding the girl.

The problem was it had already been a couple minutes, and with how terrified Izuku was across the bond, Ochako was nearly hyperventilating herself from their shared fear. She hated it, really…they'd been so happy earlier, and now Izuku was consumed with guilt and worry for something completely outside of their control. Who the hell could predict some black goop teleporting Quirk?! Even that portal one from the USJ was very obvious and it didn't just automatically take people! No one could have predicted it, much less what do you do when they can be yanked from your arms?

That was why she was also keeping an eye out for any more indicators of that Quirk. If it was a Nomu using it, they'd need to take it out. If it wasn't, well…they couldn't be as aggressive with whoever was doing it, but they were all uniquely suited to disabling people now that they had a sort of handle on Nemuri's power. It worked. Not as effectively or swiftly as hers did, but then again, none of the trio were as 'showy' as their teacher, and she had explained that it worked better on people who were attracted to her.

It worked really well on each other though, which apparently Nemuri found so funny that she'd told the class one day. Which meant Mina and Toru had been teasing them something fierce. Ochako shook her head. Now was not the time to focus on that. She needed to find the child.

It was like they were a single, well-oiled machine, the way their ears perked up as they heard the cry from near where Himiko was. Ochako was already turning to follow, Izuku's green sparks trailing as Himiko began blinking forward, trying to reach the area they'd heard it faster. They could see it up ahead…an entire residential district in flames; broken, shattered streets, pipes spewing water everywhere, a massive hole in the ground where the sounds of battle were audible.

The scene was confusing on the surface though…the Nomu were fighting heroes, but there were also a bunch of people fighting some of the heroes there. She didn't recognize them, but they all wore bird masks for some reason, and there! She could see the hint of silver hair in the arms of another, a taller man with a hood, carrying what looked like the girl as he ran away from the fighting. He was paced by another man, in a green jacket with a weird purple feathery collar. The man in the green jacket was almost…casual, in his movement, looking for all the world like he was unbothered by the fighting around him.

Unfortunately, Ochako found out why a moment later, when what looked like a hero came rushing towards the two men, his fist cocked for a strike…only for the man in green to brush one finger on the heroes arm and it explode into a shower of blood, the hero's eyes going wide in shock and pain as he fell to the ground.

Ochako nearly threw up at the sight, stopping midair with a start. She…what? What was that? It was so…so visceral, so wrong! She knew she'd see bad things as a hero, but that was just so…abrupt! And he had the little girl with him! She was in danger!

She could feel Himiko and Izuku's worry for her streaming across the bond. From their vantage point, she didn't think they saw what she did, but god it was so awful she was still having trouble keeping it together. She quickly tapped on her earpiece, already having set it to match just to Izuku, Himiko, and their Big Three mentors so as not to interfere with the other heroes.

"...a man in white with a hood, and a man in a green jacket have the girl. The man in green has some sort of touch Quirk, it…it blew up some guy's arm with one touch. Don't let him get you."

"That's Overhaul! Trinity, Uravity, Changeling, forget the rest of the mission, stay away from him!" Mirio ordered, panic in his voice.

"But what about-" Izuku began, before they were cut off.

"No! Sir has been investigating him for months! He's a Yakuza leader, his Quirk is Overhaul, it lets him disassemble and reassemble matter at the molecular level with a single touch. It's far too dangerous to get close!"

"...I don't need to touch him to win," Ochako pointed out.

"Me either," Izuku muttered, their voice low and steady.

"Plus we can all use Erasure!" Himiko chimed in. "That's Emitter, not Mutation, right? So we can stop it!"

"No, we can't allow you to just go in on that! It's far too dangerous!" Mirio insisted.

Ochako noticed Izuku quickly scaling the side of the building Himiko was on, and decided to drop down next to her partners, all three of them peering down the street at the free for all brawl before them. Ochako shared a single glance with Izuku and Himiko, already knowing how they felt before she reached up to her ear and pulled the earpiece out. Himiko clicked hers off, dropping it into her pocket as Ochako mirrored her. Izuku let out a deep sigh, tapping the microphone one last time.

"Sorry, Togata," was all they said, flipping the power off and pulling it out before Mirio could reply.

"The plan, Izu?" Ochako asked softly, her eyes staring at the slowly walking away man, an entire army of Nomu between the trio and him.

"...save the girl and kick his ass?" Izuku replied, their voice lowered to a growl.

Ochako would be surprised by their behavior, if it wasn't at least partly her fault. The horror she felt from seeing what Overhaul had done had twisted and festered into anger…especially as she saw him do it again, passing by a hero and just…Well, that was enough for her.

As one, the trio bolted forward. Rushing past the fighting Nomu and heroes, they flickered on Erasure as they went, making the Nomu stumble briefly at the sudden loss of whatever Quirk they were trying to use. Izuku let tendrils of Blackwhip flicker out to trip and knock away the Nomu, as Ochako tossed pieces of rubble to either send them flying or smash them into the ground as they passed by. Himiko didn't bother…her control over Blackwhip and Zero Gravity was worse than the other two, instead choosing to focus on clearing the direct path to their target.

They were maybe a dozen meters away at most, when Overhaul noticed them. His head turned, eyes wide at the sight of the three glowing figures coming towards him at inhuman speeds. Ochako smirked internally…no way he could react in time, not with how fast they were mov-

They were blindsided, Danger Sense rearing up just in time to let Ochako bring up her Gravity Well barrier, barely able to hold off the sudden explosive impact against it, sending her careening into Himiko and Izuku. Izuku's Blackwhip stabilized them, Himiko blinking out and back in next to Izuku, as Ochako skidded to a stop next to them, all three of their eyes now locked on the Nomu that had come out of nowhere. It looked…different, from the others, two glowing yellow eyes, lanky, stretched out arms, and a strange hood of skin covering its skull.

As the trio readied themselves to kick that Nomu out of their way, its jaw cracked wide open, and it spoke. "Are…are you…s-strong?"