"There has to be something we can do."

Akira shook his head. "We were too thorough with our cameras…" He waved his arms as he and Denki followed behind the group of officers. "We're passing through the only blindspot. If he doesn't see us or you on them, the Lieutenant is as good as dead."

"So, Ingenium and Bigshot won't be able to surprise the guy either," muttered Denki.

The officer looked over his shoulder. "I…" Then, he shook his head. "I don't know…"

Denki looked up, observing the wires and the camera on the distant corner of the building. "How did you power all of them?"

"What're you getting at?" asked Akira, turning and stopping.

"What if I knock out the power?" Denki offered. "He loses his eyes and then they'll have a shot at surprising them."

Akira shook his head vehemently. "You'll get Yuuki killed with that, and how would the Heroes even know if the cameras are down?"

"I…" Denki's eyes widened before digging in his jacket's pocket. "I have Bigshot's number in my phone! He gave it to me in case I got locked out of the agency."

"And he looks like he has his phone on him," countered Akira, oozing sarcasm.

Denki's eyes rolled, "Come on!" He let out an involuntary laugh. "You just said you weren't okay with leaving him."

Akira's finger jabbed his chest. "And I told you, kid, that doing anything could get him killed."

"So, could doing nothing!" he cried. "I…" His teeth grounded together before shaking his head. "I can't just walk away. Not when I can do something! Anything! We're the only other people here!" He looked Akira in the eyes. "I mean… Are you seriously okay with not even trying?"

Something in Akira's eyes cracked before he sucked at his teeth. "Tch…" His hand raked over his head. "Gah… fuck…" He shook his head before looking Denki up and down. "Take off the coat, gauntlet, and hat, quickly." Denki blinked before doing so. Akira then cried out to the goat-eyed blonde. "Amaya, don't! You're still in the blindspot – get over here." As she walked back over to them, he then pointed at two officers behind her. "You two! Act like you're about to watch Denki sprint back into the building, but don't come over here just yet."

"What's the plan?" asked Denki.

"He'll be looking for you on those feeds. If you're not walking, he'll smell something fierce." explained Akira as Denki pulled off his coat. "Amaya, get those on. Keep your hair tucked in that cap."

Amaya hesitated, looking between them. "Are we actually doing this?"

Akira's jaw tightened before saying, "Chargebolt's right…" Denki looked at him and he just nodded. "If the Lieutenant dies because I did nothing, I wouldn't be able to live with myself. I have to try."

Amaya's face contorted for a moment before taking the coat. "We have to."

Once the coat was on, the gauntlet locked, and the cap fitted over Amaya's scalp, Akira stepped back. "You two, grab Amaya and drag her away." Two officers rushed over and took up Amaya by her arms, pulling her away. She kicked and struggled, but careful enough to avoid knocking the cap from her head.

Denki nodded, "Like I tried and failed."

"It should trick him for a bit," said Akira. "You see where the building ends and the fence begins?"

"Yeah?" said Denki as he followed Akira.

They stopped just below the camera above them. "This is the back of the building and where the city's powerline hooks into it. We connected directly to that and hooked up our own generator in case power got knocked out."

Denki nodded, "Okay…"

Akira started to climb the chain-link fence. "Keep your head low." The man turned his body horizontal as he reached the top before rolling off the metal bar and landing in a crouch. "Come on." Denki started over the fence, mimicking Akira's movements and landing on the other side. "I'll disconnect the auxiliary generator and get you access to the main powerline."

Denki fished out his phone. "I'll call Bigshot…"

"Here's hoping he can improvise if the ringer goes off…"

-XXX-

As instructed, Tensei stepped over to the burnt barrel around the center of the ground floor. He then took it up by its rim, lifting the shell and revealing its false bottom. He crouched and moved the burnt metal circle atop of the device. "A bomb…" He took a deep breath before pressing on his earpiece. "I found it."

[Good! Good,] replied the villain. [Now, it should be stable enough to handle being picked up and our dear radio waves, but… I would proceed with caution.]

Slowly, hesitantly, Tensei's hands neared the sides of the bomb. He felt heat sear across his bones and bubbling static between that and his skin. A cooling moisture pooled in between his fingers and the cloth of his gloves. His breath grew shaky as his fingers drew closer and closer.

[MOVING AROUND AT THE SPEED OF–] His heart nearly launched out of his throat as he heard the specific ringtone of Hashida's phone.

Tensei's head snapped towards his partner. "HASHIDA!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize…" He fished out a phone from his… pocket? "It's the kid…"

"Answer it."

"Kid?" Hashida's eyes widened. "You're what?"

"What is it?"

"Chargebolt's near the power lines for the building. He's saying he can absorb the electricity and cut the power to the villain's feed."

Tensei stood up. "He's out of danger…" He tapped his chin. "We could get the drop on the villain and save the Lieutenant…" He put his hands on his hips. "The window would be small…"

[Hello~, dear Hero~?]

Bigshot tossed his phone to Ingenium as he answered, "Our earpieces are push-to-talk. You can have him hold the bomb, but you can't talk to him at the same time."

"You were in the building. Do you know the condition of the circuit breaker?" he asked.

[Uh…]

He could hear the phone being passed off and the voice answering was Akira. [Crummy, the building's breaker was on the fritz, so we had to run the cable directly from the powerline to the room with our own 'breaker'.]

"Can it be overwhelmed?"

[Yes, it can't take that much.]

"Is your breaker in the room?"

[Yes, it's near the… East-facing window? We had to hide the cables under a gutter.]

"Okay, good, thank you," said Tensei. "Please pass me back to Chargebolt."

[Yeah?]

"I don't want you to absorb electricity from those cables. I want you to charge them."

[What? Why? Does that make a difference?]

Tensei explained, "If you absorb it, it'll look like the police shut off power to that room. That could cause him to harm Lt. Yuuki. If you force electricity into the breaker, it'll shut off automatically and he'll hear it. He'll think it's a malfunction and not the police. If only for a split second, it'll widen our window."

[Okay, I can do that.]

As Tensei took the phone from his ear, he finally focused on his earpiece. [Did you hear me, Ingenium? I want you on the rooftop with my bomb.]

Tensei straightened, turning to Hashida who said, "He heard you." He turned away, adding, "I get a chance to say goodbye, alright?"

[If he's not up there in one minute without that helmet of his, I'll detonate that bomb and kill your Lt.] He repeated, [One minute.]

"This bastard has a hell of a chip on his shoulder."

"He certainly does." He held out Hashida's phone. "Here."

"You're not–"

"I am." Tensei nodded, "If I'm on the roof with the bomb, it'll widen our window to save Yuuki that much more." His head teetered, "And your window to save me, if that'll help you focus."

Hashida gritted his teeth, shaking his head. "Dammit, Iida…" He frowned, "Fine."

Before Hashida could claim his phone, Tensei pulled it back. "Hang on…" He told, "Chargebolt, you're gonna be on with Bigshot. He'll signal for you to let loose, okay?"

[Right.]

"Now, I need to speak to Officer Akira."

[Sir.]

"Okay, listen carefully…"

-XXX-

As the Sun began to set, Atsuhiro Sako sighed, "I do wish it never came to this." Lt. Yuuki's gray skin was turning pale as the man's head and face drooped. "You were all in the wrong place at the wrong time." He wobbled on his feet, leaning against the table holding the camera feed. "We all were, I suppose." Sako's eyes drifted to the pooling of blood that came from his armpit and the knife embedded there. "You're dying…" He turned, taking the chair that the boy sat in and setting it closer. "Take a seat."

Lt. Yuuki almost swung his arm, but Sako easily caught it. "Don't." He turned the officer around and plopped him in the chair. "You'll only die quicker." He patted the man's shoulders. "And no one wants that."

"My Quirk – my marbles… Anything within them, they're in a sort of… stasis." His hand patted the man's shoulder before a marble took his place, bouncing off the chair and clattering against the ground. "You'll live, Lieutenant…"

Sako plucked the marble up, turning back to the screens. "The police did a very good job hiding the inside of this room from sight… Even when Ingenium stands on that roof, he wouldn't be able to see me…"

He checked his wristwatch. "One minute…" He picked up the receiver. "Mr. Ingenium, I don't see you on that roof."

[He's being careful up the staircase,] spat Bigshot. [He'll be popping his head up soon.]

Sako stared at one of the screens and indeed, saw the helmetless head of Ingenium. "Chizome… The Hero Killer…" He stepped through the propped open roof-access door. "What is your obsession with this man?" He held his arms out in front of him with the bomb in his hands. "Ingenium is not guilty of any particular sin like Native… At least, that I'm aware of…" He looked at the burner phone in his hand. "Still, the Hero Killer is one of the few people willing to do what needs to be done… If Ingenium is the one outlier, then…"

"I see you, Ingenium," said Sako into the receiver. "Thank you for your cooperation." He nodded, "I know you can only hear me and not respond, so…" He looked at the phone in his hand, meddling with it. "I respect your willingness to trade your life for another."

As came to the call screen, he paused. It was a high-pitch whine with an accompanying buzz. It infected the root of his teeth as he tried to look for a source. Then came a snap before all the light in the room died. The only source became the light that peeked through the cracks of the covered windows.

He cursed, "That noise…" He looked underneath the table where the sound came from. "A breaker…?" He shook his head. "No matter–" Then, a sound he could only describe as a boom echoed from outside the building's walls, shaking its foundations. What came next happened so fast he could barely understand it.

The drywall and concrete cracked and fractured; glass and wood splintered and shattered. Bigshot tore through the walls of the apartment like they were nothing, and any shard or shrapnel that came his own way bounced off his skin like gunfire. A shockwave roared from his arrival, throwing Sako through the air. He barely had time to curl into a ball as sharpened wood and pieces of glass dashed and slashed across his limbs and back.

When he thudded onto the floor, he heard Bigshot crash through the ceiling and into the floor above. Sako felt blood seep into the disguise he wore as he uncurled and tried to push himself onto his feet. He winced and his breath stuttered with every movement. "The breaker… was on purpose…?" He wobbled before looking to the ground below him. "The phone…"

As he was about to reach down to grab it, he heard the stomping of footfalls. Before he could even raise his head, an officer's shoulder slammed into his stomach, tackling him to the ground.

"You're under arrest!" shouted the officer as Sako was turned onto his stomach. The man grabbed Sako's arms, pulling them behind his back. As the officer tried to grip his forearm, Sako's own blood made it slippery enough for him to rip his arm free. With another grunt of effort, he grabbed the officer's shirt and then, his fingers enclosed around a marble.

He shook his head as he panted, rolling his shoulders. As he began to put his feet underneath him, Bigshot's boots crunched against the ground upon landing. "Where's Officer Akira!?"

As his large hand reached out, Sako raised his own to meet his. He winced as he felt the kinetic heat burn into his skin, but before the Hero's power could throw him through the wall behind him, the man was turned into a marble, catching it.

Sako breathed a sigh of relief as his head teetered. His head slowly turned to the hole that was created by Bigshot. "Ingenium…!" The Hero was handing the bomb off to Overwatch. Sako turned, finding his burner phone, before throwing himself at it. Once his fingers curled around it, his thumb slammed into the call button.

It rang once, then twice, before an explosion roared through the air.

After a breath and another, he let out a sigh, almost relaxing where he laid. At least, until two boots thudded against the ground. Sako's head shifted, unveiling the standing Ingenium. "Where are they?" he questioned.

As Ingenium took a step forward, Sako braced himself on one arm before holding up his other. "Right here," he said, showing the three marbles balanced between his fingers. "Lieutenant Yuuki wasn't quite conscious anymore when he was last in the open…" It caused the Hero to pause as Sako stood up. With the flick of his hand, two disappeared and one came to be balanced atop the tip of his finger. "He might die outside of one of these." His finger braced as he aimed his thumb at the back of the marble. "And I truly would hate for him to die…"

"Don't–" Before Ingenium could finish his sentence, Sako flicked the marble and released the pale body of Lieutenant Yuuki into the Hero's arms.

Sako watched as Ingenium managed to avoid the knife still embedded in the officer's arm. "With that gift, I bid thee, adieu!" With the tip of a nonexistent hat, he departed, sprinting out of the room and down the stairs.

-XXX-

[Overwatch, I need a disposal!]

Wind pumped from the ports on her back and into the turbines attached to her harness. With a torrent of wind, she soared into the sky, shooting over the buildings and towards the QCC. She cut off her wind pressure, descending to Ingenium's side.

"Amateur bomb," said Ingenium.

Kanade nodded, taking it from her boss. "I have the package." Then, immediately, she ascended skyward. Then, she heard it beep once.

Her turbines died, spun to aim skyward, and then a roar of wind from her back instantly stopped her upward force. With her loose grip, the bomb in her fingers floated beyond her. Her feet followed that momentum and as her whole body spun, her turbines followed. Wind shot her downward as those same torrents sent the bomb higher and higher before it erupted in fiery fury.

[Overwatch! I need to evacuate Lieutenant Yuuki! The villain is escaping the building on foot!] cried Ingenium.

Overwatch nodded to herself. "Pursuing." She descended upon the building before slowing to a hover. "Villain escaping on foot - four known exits…" She circled the building below. "Main entrance exits onto main street - covered by police - unlikely… Remaining: loading dock, back exit, side entrance…"

She landed on the roof, shutting off her turbines. She closed her eyes and listened… Then… she heard a door swing open. "Light door – glass – side entrance…" Her turbines roared as she ascended once more.

She flew off the edge and looked below to see a bloodied man running down the sidewalk. "Villain, cease activity!" She descended towards the villain, using uneven bursts of wind to throw her body into a spin. Her wings folded onto her back, launching a kick at the man. He then threw himself into a roll to avoid her.

Her momentum was set to throw her at a wall, but she braced against the brick wall with her feet before kicking off into a leap. Her wings burst free before she soared at the villain's back. With a flick of her wrists, her gauntlets extended to cover her hands with talons. Then, she snatched the villain via the back of his jacket, ascending.

"CEASE ACTIVITY," she commanded.

A zip was a response and the villain fell to the ground, leaving him in a vest and her holding a bloodied policeman's windbreaker. She tossed it aside before re-engaging her pursuit. She noticed something blue fly over the man's shoulder, and then, it suddenly became an industrial dumpster. It crashed in front of her before she quickly ascended over it. Then, more objects became sudden obstacles in her path from: pieces of random debris to even cars. Adjusting the wind from her ports and the angle of her turbines, she spun, ascended over, and dropped below them.

After leaping over a totaled car, she suddenly saw Officer Akira flailing through the air between a truck and a motorcycle. Her turbines roared as she threw herself at him, taking him into her arms as her wings folded. With her turbines angled, wind roared from them, throwing the motorcycle off and sending it crashing against the asphalt. When the truck below them slammed down, they were sent into a spin.

Her wings extended and her turbines sang them into a hover, letting Akira land on wobbly feet. "I-I'm good! Go get 'em! I'm good!"

Kanade raised her head, spotting the villain leap into an alleyway. "Bothersome…" She flew into the air and above the buildings he had slipped between. She saw him sprint for the other side and quickly descended at the mouth before he could reach it. Landing with a clunk and thud, Overwatch stood before the alleyway. The man tried to skid to a stop, almost running into her arms. "Something is off…" She braced, but as she caught one of his wrists, she felt his other hand clasp upon her shoulder.

A wave of nausea washed over her as she stumbled. In her mis-footing, her metal-clad boot slipped off the edge of a metal table and sent her crashing against the carpeted floor. She sucked air through her lungs, pushing herself onto her feet and taking in her surroundings. She heard the crashing of tables and chairs as her wings knocked them over.

"Where…?" Her eyes slowly took in the familiar walls and the supportive posters on them. "The… agency…?" Her hand braced against her head as she stumbled towards the door. "This is… one of our conference rooms…?" She pushed out into the hallway, looking around.

"Overwatch?" asked Sharkbite before rushing over to her. "You're okay!"

She took her friend's shoulder. "Where is Ingenium? Bigshot?"

Sharkbite blinked, "They're… uh… in the lobby… with the kid." Kanade swiftly broke into a sprint, ignoring the voice behind her crying out, "W-Wait, Kitagawa!"

She vaulted a railing before opening her wings to slow her fall as she descended into the lobby. "Ingenium! Bigshot!"

She spun and turned before two hands clasped her shoulders. "Hey, kid!" Bigshot assured, "Whoa, hey, hey…" Another wave of nausea hit as he said, "I know, breathe." She slowed breath, steadying it. "It was that bastard's Quirk. Those marbles he has… they must've had a time limit… Trapped us, but left us at a police station."

"What happened?" she asked.

Bigshot nodded, explaining, "After you went… the villain slipped away." His head teetered, "Iida—Ingenium was able to get Lieutenant Yuuki to a hospital. They had enough blood, but… They weren't sure about his arm making it… Everyone else is… fine. There's some media, but…"

"Where is Ingenium?" she asked, noticing the night sky beyond their lobby's windows.

"He's…" He sighed, "He's taking Kaminari up to Musutafu." He shook his head. "The kid's classmates got attacked – all of them and a Hero are in the hospital. It didn't sound good…"

"How bad…?" she trailed off.

He sighed, "One was…" He trailed off before scratching his chin and shaking his head.

"They were Dead on Arrival."

-\ XXX /-

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Update Window: November 20th - 31st

Intended Due Date: November 20th - 25th