I'm back. Things got pretty tense last time, no? Well, as much as I want to get back to the good stuff, we can't just yet. I counted up the messages people have been sending me about the recaps, and guess what? The majority vote was for recaps to become a recurring thing. So before we get back to the story, let's go for a recap!
Aw man. Shit got crazy last time. And here I was thinking it couldn't get any weirder than that time Tiffany accidentally flushed his favorite hand down the toilet. I mean, there were tears, cops got involved, and then…
Oh, right, the recap. Uh, give me a minute to read the script...AH, got it! Holy hell, things really were nuts. Where do I even start?
Well, let's see. Spider-Boi finally caught up to his pet lizard, which made him happy. Then, everything changed when the fire nation attacked.
Literally. Some flaming dude shot a fireball at Spider-boi's pet lizard and blasted him through a wall. Spider-boi swore revenge on the fire nation, on the man who tore him apart. Their battle would be legendary. The sky would crack, the Earth would shatter, and mountains would crumble.
But anyway, Spider-boi's lizard, Geoff, was actually fine. He asked Spider-boi for advice on how to ask out that hot chameleon who liked to hang out near his window, and that's when they were approached by...a cinnamon roll?
*Puts on glasses and checks script again*
Uh...yeah, that's what it says. A cinnamon roll walked up and said that Sanic the Hedgehog was in trouble. That's right, Sanic, Sonic's slower, less cool cousin.
Spider-boi knew Sanic didn't have much time, so he told Geoff that next time he saw the chameleon to just tell her she had big eyes, and then he left. It wasn't long before he caught up to the cinnamon roll and found…
OH MY GOD! IT WAS TIM!
Tim was kicking Sanic's ass when he arrived. Literally. Sanic was face down on the ground while Tim kicked him in the ass. Oh and Prince Zuko's sexier cousin was there, but that's not important. Well, it's kind of important. *Stares intensely at Todoroki* God I want his babies.
"What?"
"What? Wait, how are you even here? Get out, I'm supposed to be recapping."
Please excuse that interruption. Where was I? Ah yes. So anyway, it turns out that Tim was beating up Sanic because Sanic stole his girlfriend. Spider-boi had to admit, he was kind of rooting for Tim here, but he happened to owe Sanic money at the moment, so he helped him out.
It was around this point that Geoff showed up. He was happy because the hot chameleon agreed to go out with him, and she even wanted to meet Geoff's parents. Sadly, Prince Zuko was having none of it. He got angery (Yup, angery with an "e") and started trying to shank Tim. Spider-boi didn't like that, so he ran away with Tim and Geoff.
After that Tim told the story of how Tiffany unleashed the giant furbies on the city. It was a very short story, but it was still pretty exciting. So now, Spider-boi, Tim, and Geoff are facing off against Tiffany. The weirdest part of all of this is that there's a bunch of weird purple symbols hovering around and making whispering noises. Meh. It's probably not important.
Recap Over:
"Start. Talking." Spinner growled, still tightly gripping the hem of Shigaraki's shirt. "Why did you unleash those monsters?"
Shigaraki said nothing. He glared down at Spinner as if he were trying to set him on fire with his mind. Which, let's face it, he probably was.
"So, not that I'm against any of this," Dabi broke in. "But what exactly is happening here? Actually, don't answer that. Shigaraki's about to get his ass beat and I am so here for it." The scarred man chuckled, leaning back in his seat and kicking his feet up on the table.
"Kurogiri, would you please explain to me why exactly you're just standing there watching?" Shigaraki rasped, redirecting his glare at the bartender. Kurogiri said nothing, though he continued to closely watch the scene before him.
His job was to protect Shigaraki, but also to allow him to grow. This situation hadn't totally spiralled out of control just yet. There was still a chance he'd find a way to turn this around on his own.
Several tense seconds passed, all the bar's inhabitants staring each other down. Well...actually most of them were doing the exact opposite. Spinner and Shigaraki traded glares while Peter and Stain watched from the doorway. Dabi was just enjoying the show, Toga was a bit confused, so she stuck to side-hugging Peter, and Magne and Twice just didn't seem to care anymore and were having a conversation.
It was not the atmosphere you would expect during such a tense exchange.
Shigaraki opened his mouth to speak, only to stop when a rattling noise cut through the bar. Every head turned to the door, particularly it's rattling doorknob. The knob jiggled and shook, never turning all the way around. Eventually, whoever was on the other side gave up and started pounding on the door.
Peter exchanged a look with Stain, who looked more annoyed than anything. He drew one of his knives while Peter readied his web shooters. The two of them crept to the door, careful to not make any sudden movements that would give away their location.
"So, I don't want to scare you guys, but we kind of had to run from a bunch of heroes before we got here, and this may or may not be them, so if it turns into a fight, please don't kill anybody." Peter nervously requested, causing the bar's occupants to shoot out of their chairs. The only one who didn't move was Spinner, who kept a firm grip on Shigaraki.
Slowly, Peter reached for the doorknob. The pounding had grown even louder now, and some of the bottles on the countertop were shaking.
Firmly gripping the knob, Peter quietly counted to 3 and yanked the door open, pointing his free hand into the alley.
"FINALLY! I go to all this trouble to pick up food and what do I get in return? You make me stand out in the cold, pounding on the door. Unbelievable. What happened to this generation's manners?" Mr. Compress grumbled, carrying a huge stack of pizza boxes.
Peter was a bit confused to see the man, but his confusion was quickly forgotten when he noticed the stack of 8 pizza boxes piled in his arms.
Mr. Compress tried to limp into the bar, which was difficult thanks to the new pain in his foot due to his assault on the bar door, but he was stopped by Stain pointing a knife at him.
"Who the hell are you?"
"The only man in the room with pizza, which makes me the most important man in the room. Excuse me please." Compress coolly answered, seemingly unbothered by the knife being pointed at his face. He pushed right past Stain and set the pizza boxes down on one of the tables.
"He's with you? Why wasn't I told about this one?" Stain glowered at Toga, who tried and failed to send back an intimidating glare of her own. Have you ever seen a kitten try to mimic its parents' angry face? Picture that. The resemblance is uncanny.
"What do you mean? I told you about everybody. There's Dabi, and Spinner, and our magician frie...nd. Oh. I...may have forgotten to mention him." Toga guiltily looked down.
"Seriously!? This is the last time I do anything for you people!" Compress threw his arms up in exasperation.
Peter was a bit confused by this exchange, but his confusion couldn't begin to compare to the confusion he felt when he noticed Mr. Compress' outfit.
"Wait, where's your costume?"
Indeed, the usual magician's attire and Tobi mask were gone. Compress was decked out in black khakis, a brown vest, and a white undershirt, with a small fedora resting on his head.
"Why would I wear my costume? I can't very well walk into Leo's Pizzeria dressed like a well-known villain, can I?" Mr. Compress shook his head as though it were obvious.
"Hold up, why not?" Dabi rose from his seat, a stunned expression on his face. "Oh my god. Did you pay for those?" He pointed at the pizza's, his stunned expression replaced with one of disgust.
"...Maybe."
"Oh dear lord!" Dabi visibly recoiled. The information seemed to physically hurt him, so much so that he had to grab a table to support himself.
"Hey now, not everything has to be done through an elegant crime. Sometimes it's nice to simply enjoy a walk about town and pay like anybody else. Why bother stealing money if you never spend it?" Compress shrugged, opening one of the boxes and claiming a piece of pizza for himself.
Peter watched the exchange feeling strangely...prideful. It was nice to hear the magician-themed villain had done things the right way.
Still, he couldn't help but picture a villain sticking up a pizza shop and demanding free food. It wasn't very hard, considering that was pretty much a daily occurrence back home. And who could blame the guys? New York pizza was just so good, it was worth going to prison for.
"Aren't you all forgetting something?" Spinner shouted in anger, his eyes never leaving his prisoner.
Remembering the tense situation, the occupant's, except for Stain and Kurogiri, each grabbed some pizza and watched everything go down.
"Really?" Stain glanced at Peter, not even looking angry, just disappointed.
"Hey, I haven't eaten all day. I can't interrogate properly if I'm hungry." Peter defended himself, struggling to speak with his mouth full.
"Why would you do this? You always talk about how we're supposed to be changing society, how we're going to bring down the heroes. But this? What was the point of this? What message did we send? What good did we do?" Spinner continued to hiss at Shigaraki, clearly growing more furious after every word.
"Wait, what is happening here? Why are you two fighting?" Compress inquired, still not totally sure what was happening.
"Yeah, yeah, you still didn't tell us why Spinner is so angry. Did handjob blow up your favorite restaurant or something?" Magne asked.
Instead of explaining, Peter webbed the TV remote away from Kurogiri and clicked the TV on. After cycling through the channels for a moment, he found the news station, which was currently reporting on the devastation of Hosu.
The reporter on the scene tried to make himself heard, but it was impossible with all the noise going on around him. Buildings were still burning and exploding, people were screaming, and through it all, heroes could be seen fighting the Nomus.
"Wait, I thought Endeavour dealt with them? Did they escape?" Peter felt a pit in his stomach when he saw the Nomus once again causing huge amounts of damage.
Reactions to the chaos were mixed. Magne and Compress looked shocked, Dabi simply raised an eyebrow, Toga didn't appear to have much of a reaction, and Twice was wearing a mask, so who knew what he was thinking. Peter didn't want to continue watching, so he quickly turned the power off.
As soon as the TV went black, Magne got out of her chair, hefting the beam at her feet as she went. She crept over to Shigaraki and swung her beam at him, stopping just short of his face.
"What...the hell...did you do?" She hissed.
"What is wrong with you people? This should excite you, put you in a celebratory mood. How many heroes do you think are going to be injured today? How many deaths they'll be blamed for? How far their reputation will fall? No matter how you look at it, this is a victory, and you idiots should be celebrati- GAH!" Shigaraki's arrogant tone quickly shifted to a pained shout. Magne had used her quirk to pull him closer, causing the knife embedded in his hand to tear through more of his palm.
He wasn't quite free, but there was now far less of his palm for the knife to pin to the wall, evident by the large gash in his hand. The knife had originally been in the dead center of his hand, but now it was nearly to his thumb.
"That's it? God damn it Shigaraki, what were you thinking? This isn't just an attack on the heroes, this is an attack on everybody. You want to talk about how many heroes will die today? How many civilians will die today? How many homes will be destroyed? How many lives will be ruined? I've done some pretty fucked up things, but I did not sign up for your group so I could attach my name to...that." Magne angrily pointed at the TV as if it were still showing the news.
Shigaraki looked amused. He looked at Magne as though she were a stupid child and he was the all-knowing grown up. Despite his situation, he began to laugh. It was a loud, long, crazed laugh, the kind you would hear from a maniac in a horror movie.
"Oh Magne, you are such a hypocrite!" Shigaraki screamed when he recovered from his crazed fit of laughter. "Going on and on about how this was too far just because civilians were involved, but how are you any different? What about the USJ? You were perfectly fine with murdering children to draw out All Might. What's so wrong with this if that was fine."
Peter saw Magne's eyes widen behind her dark glasses. She lowered her beam, trying to form words in her defense.
"I, that was...we...it wasn't…" She went silent, giving up on finding a way to defend herself. Shigaraki was right and she knew it.
"And you Spinner, even if you haven't killed anyone, how many people have you injured simply because they didn't agree with the philosophy of your grand Stain? The stupid fool spits out whatever trash comes to his mind, he calls it wisdom, and you follow him as though he were God. You're no better than me."
Stain growled, reaching for one of his knives. Peter rested a hand on shoulder, shaking his head. Stain glared for just a moment before he scoffed, removing his hand from the knife's grip.
"Not a single one of you can claim you're better than me. Dabi, how many dozens have you incinerated for no good reason? Compress, how many people have you turned into marbles just so you could play a game? Toga, how many people have you drained of their blood to satisfy your disgusting urges?"
One by one, he listed off the villains' faults, and one by one, they reacted. Dabi didn't seem to care, but for a brief moment, Peter saw guilt flash in his eyes. Compress whistled innocently, a shameful expression on his face as he tried to fade into the background.
Toga was the worst.
First, she seemed outraged. Then embarrassed. Then sad. She almost looked like she was going to cry. Her face slightly turned red, which she must have felt, because she covered it with her hands almost immediately after. Peter wasn't sure what was wrong, and this wasn't the time to have a talk about it, so he just wrapped an arm around her shoulder, drawing her in closer. She wasn't quite crying yet, but she was clearly not in her best state of mind.
"You know I'm right, don't you? Just like me, you're all villains. Unlike me, none of you are visionaries. You look at Hosu and see a massacre, I see a message. I see a way to tell the world the heroes are not infallible. How long will the Nomus rampage before the heroes finally subdue them? By the time they are finally restrained, they'll have caused so much destruction there won't be any possible way for the heroes to avoid taking a hit in some way or another. This is a golden opportunity, and clearly I'm the only one capable of seeing it." Shigaraki finally finished his rant, taking a deep breath to recover.
It wasn't long before a devilish smile stretched across his face.
"Face it. You're just like me. Villains. Criminals. Every single one of you has done something terrible, something that more than earns you your title. Stop pretending you're better than me. You've all hurt innocents, you've all caused chaos." His smile grew.
"You murderers." The guilt once again flashed across Dabi's eyes.
"Sadists." Compress tried to sink into his chair.
"Anarchists." Magne covered her ears, not wanting to hear any more.
"Psychopaths." Toga gripped Peter tighter, pressing herself against his side as much as possible.
The only one spared from Shigaraki's verbal assault was Twice, probably because he just didn't know much about him. Still, his words had been enough. Even though he wasn't directly called out, Twice still seemed downcast. The only ones who remained unbothered were Kurogiri, who continued to calmly clean glasses, and Stain, who was growing more and more impatient.
Peter didn't like this. They had come here to interrogate Shigaraki, to find out why he unleashed monsters on the city. Instead, he was standing around doing nothing while the man continued to tear into them.
It had to stop.
"You're wrong." All eyes turned to Peter, who was staring at his feet.
"You're wrong Shigaraki. They're not like you. They have limits, lines they won't cross. I know for a fact none of them have ever killed children. I know they don't attack people just because they want to kill something. You, on the other hand, aren't the same. You enjoy causing pain. You enjoy doing bad things to people. Yes, they've done bad things in the past, but they'll never be like you, so don't compare yourself to them." Peter was staring directly at Shigaraki now. His eyes didn't reflect rage, or sadness, or anything. They were empty, totally void of emotion.
"They aren't the best people, but they can be better. Your mistakes in the past don't define who you are in the future. Maybe they don't want to change, and if that's the case...I'll do what I have to when the time comes. But until then, I'll go right on believing in them. It's the least I can do. They're people, not monsters, so I'll treat them like people. People who can be better, people who are more than the label they're given."
Peter exhaled, feeling breathless. He had plenty of experience ranting like this, but it was always exhausting. Each time, it felt like the weight of the world was on his shoulders, that if he said the wrong thing, everything would come crashing down.
Still, he did his job. He got his words out and hopefully he conveyed the message he wanted to. Peter took a quick, uneasy glance around the room, unnerved by the silence. Were his friends angry now?
Honestly, their emotions were hard to trace. None of them exactly appeared angry, but that wasn't saying much. Dabi appeared as stoic as ever. Magne had taken her hands away from her ears and had returned to her seat. Compress had put his mask back on at some point, so who knew what he or Twice were thinking. As for Toga, she wasn't saying anything, but she had slightly loosened her grip on Peter.
Shigaraki's smile dropped, a scowl now adorning his face.
"Oh? They can be better? Aren't you a comedian? Well, what about me then? I suppose I'm a true villain, that I deserve to be arrested, to rot in a hole for what I've done? How funny. What happened to being somebody who refuses to arrest us unless he knows what we've gone through? Let me down from here and get out. We both know you won't arrest me so just leave."
"...That's exactly what I'm gonna do." Peter stated quietly. He heard a shocked gasp, but he wasn't sure who it came from since his gaze had returned to his feet.
He had thought about this. He still didn't know the full details behind what the others had done in the past. Peter told himself that there was a story behind them, that they had to have done the things they did because of something in their pasts. But there was still a line.
As far as Peter knew, for whatever reason, the others had mostly curbed their criminal activity since he showed up. They no longer returned to the bar bragging about their latest heist or street brawl victory. For some reason, they had cut back on criminal activity. Shigaraki though…
Not only had he remained the same, but he had done this. He set monsters on a city for no good reason, caused so much pain and destruction just because he felt like it.
He wouldn't completely throw him away, but Peter couldn't just let him remain on the street.
"I'll get you help. I'll make sure there are people who help you, but...I can't just let you go around doing whatever you want. You're just too dangerous to be allowed to do whatever you want." Peter felt himself growing sadder. He definitely wasn't good friends with Shigaraki, but he had still been a somewhat trusted acquaintance. Shigaraki hadn't tried to kill him, which had to show some degree of trust. Unfortunately, that only made this feel more like a betrayal.
"I...I'm sorry. I swear I'll do my best to help you, but you can't stay where you are." Peter took a deep breath and cleared his throat, bringing his head up to face the man, Steeling himself, Peter gently removed Toga from himself and slowly walked across the bar. "Shigaraki...I'm so sorry, but...I'm taking you to prison."
Shigaraki snorted. The look in his eyes made it clear that he expected the others to be shocked, or to feel betrayed and to help him. He must have thought they were going to stop Peter, to attack him, to throw him out of the bar.
So when they did nothing at all, the smug look in his eyes morphed to disdain and...fear.
"You can't be serious. You're all okay with this? He swore to never-"
"God, will you please just shut the fuck up?!" Magne yelled, cutting off her leader. "After what you pulled today, I can't help but agree. You don't care about changing society, you just want to revel in destruction. He's right, you do belong in a cell."
Shigaraki took a desperate look around the room, trying to find support. Nobody met his gaze except for Stain, who looked strangely happy. Shigaraki couldn't do anything but growl. Everything about this situation was pissing him off. The damn kid…
"You'll regret this." Shigaraki silently fumed, utterly furious about this turn of events.
"I regret that we were unable to see eye to eye." Kurogiri finally spoke up, stopping Peter in his tracks. "But I cannot allow you to arrest him. I have orders to follow you see."
Before anybody could react, black mist surrounded Shigaraki, causing him to disappear from Spinner's grasp and reappear next to Kurogiri.
"We shall be taking our leave now. For what it's worth Peter, it was nice to know you. Sadly, I do believe we shall be enemies from this point." As Kurogiri spoke, more black mist surrounded both him and Shigaraki.
"NO! KUROGIRI, THE HAND! FATHER'S HAND!" Shigaraki screamed, sounding terrified.
"Ah yes, my mistake." More mist surrounded the hand laying on the ground. It too disappeared and was transported to the pair. Shigaraki greedily snatched at the hand, practically shoving it back onto his face. He breathed a deep sigh of relief when it once again covered his face.
Peter tried to stop them by firing his webs, but the material simply vanished in the mist cloud. Stain tried throwing his knives only to dive to the side when a new portal sent them right back at him.
Nobody could stop them. In mere seconds, the two founders of the League of Villains were gone without a trace.
Peter stared at the spot they had been standing, partially hoping they would come back. He knew they wouldn't, but it still felt odd when they didn't reappear.
Peter wasn't sure what to think. He was having trouble processing his emotions at the moment, so he just walked to the nearest wall and struck it with his fist.
"DAMN IT!" Peter screamed. He didn't know why he was so upset about all this. It wasn't the first time a criminal had escaped him, and it definitely wasn't the first time he had attempted to arrest somebody he knew personally. So why was it so difficult to process?
His fist had busted straight through the wall of the bar. He had taken his suit off before entering the bar, so he could feel the cold wind outside buffeting his exposed fist, yet he made no moves to pull it back. Peter had no better options for calming himself down, so he settled for taking deep, calming breaths, hoping for something to change within him.
Suddenly, something soft and warm was pressed onto his shoulder. Peter stiffened at the touch, nearly whirling around and striking whatever it was. He stopped himself, though, when he realised it was just a hand.
"It's not your fault Peter. You can't blame yourself for this." Spinner spoke softly. Soon after, another hand was placed on Peter's other shoulder.
"Handjob was never all there if you know what I mean. He just happened to snap when you were here." Magne joined in. A third hand was placed on Peter's shoulder, then another.
"Never liked that guy anyway. Good riddance if you ask me." Dabi snorted.
"Hands are scary when there's a lot of them. I'm glad he left." Twice audibly shivered when he was done speaking.
"It's much more pleasant to be here without listening to a man who has no sense of style." Compress happily put in his opinion.
Finally, one more voice joined in. There was no hand pressed on Peter's shoulder this time. Instead, the voice's owner slowly walked beside him, trying to appear as friendly as possible.
"You can't blame yourself Peter. Sometimes bad things happen. We're all proof of that, aren't we. I know you feel bad about this, but you shouldn't. You're a good person. You're there for us all the time, aren't you? You tell us stories, you make us feel comfortable, and...you tell us we matter. That's more than anybody else has done for us. Don't let this one thing make you sad. You'll make me sad too if you do." Toga spoke softly and gently. She wasn't the best at pep talks, but she had her moments. Well, she had this one moment, but it was pretty good for a first try if you asked her.
Peter felt himself calm down. Right. They were all right. Every time something went wrong, he always blamed himself. It was a bad habit he could never shake. But...maybe he should try harder. He had friends in this world, friends who cared about him a lot. If nothing else, Peter felt the need to try and be happier for their sake.
"This is all well and good, but I think you're all ignoring the obvious." Stain's harsh voice demolished the pleasant atmosphere. He removed the sword from his back and threw it aside before walking behind the bar counter and grabbing a bottle of whiskey from the shelf.
"And what would that be?" Magne asked, clearly annoyed.
"That this is his fault."
Every hand left Peter, their owners whipping around to glare at Stain. Peter slowly pulled his fist out of the wall, turning around as well.
"Based on what you've told me, I assume you've known that man-child for a while? You figured you would give him a chance to be better, did you? That's all well and good, but look what it led to." Stain slashed the cork off the bottle and took a deep swig. "Had you just arrested him back when you first met, none of this would have happened. The Nomus wouldn't have been unleashed, Hosu wouldn't have gone through...this, and there would be one less hole in this bar. Face it, this is your fault. You could have prevented all of this, but you didn't."
The other villains were so angry Peter could practically feel the rage coming off of them.
"You're blaming Peter for this?" Toga angrily took out one of her knives.
"Stain, sir, with all due respect, Peter is not-"
"No, he's right." Peter cut Spinner off. "He's...absolutely right. If I just arrested him right from the start, none of this would have happened."
"And what if it's not just him?" Peter thought, surveying each of the others in turn.
What if this happened again? What if another disaster occurred because Peter took too long to arrest one of them? They could change, sure, but what if they didn't?
Realizing what he was thinking, Peter aggressively shook his head to clear those thoughts away.
"I can't think like that. They aren't like him. They're different. They are." Peter berated himself, angry that he even considered the possibility of them being like Shigaraki.
Ignoring Stain, who was still chugging the whiskey bottle, Peter staggered over to the nearest bar table and crashed down into one of the chairs. Feeling that the conversation was over, the others sent one last glare at Stain before dispersing throughout the bar. Only Toga pulled up a chair next to Peter.
"Peter, are you...okay?" She asked worriedly.
Peter did his best to smile at Toga. He already felt bad enough. There was no reason to make her feel worried as well.
"Yeah Toga. I'm just really tired right now. It's been a pretty long night. I think I'm just gonna go to sleep right here. I'll be up in a few hours." Peter yawned and leaned back in the chair. The clock on the wall showed it was 4 in the morning. Through the fist-sized hole in the wall, he could see it was becoming brighter outside.
"I better get to sleep quick or I'll be too tired to wake up for school tomorrow." Peter thought to himself. Then he remembered he was supposed to be a hostage right now and he couldn't go to school. Well, whatever. That just meant he could sleep in.
Closing his eyes, Peter settled in and went to sleep. Toga watched, considering sliding her chair next to his, but decided against it. He probably had a lot to think about and didn't need her bothering him. Say what you wanted, but believe it or not, Himiko Toga did understand the concept of personal space. She just chose to ignore it most of the time.
Instead, she walked over to Peter, said a quick good night, and planted a kiss on his cheek. Afterwards, she walked into the back area of the bar, ready to go to sleep herself.
Peter wasn't the only one who had been through a long day.
Hope you all liked it. This chapter was pretty fun to write overall, which is kind of surprising considering it wasn't very exciting. I will say that I am very excited to be coming up with recaps regularly from now on. Both times, I've just made them up on the spot and come up with the details as I went, which I think makes it more random, so I'll probably keep doing that.
Thanks for reading and remember to leave a review.
Aren signing off.