I felt the weight of the collapsing building all around me, increasingly heavy thuds and noises as the collapsing pieces hit the tungsten. My thoughts were racing.

Tokage - please get them all out on time -

Mifune, please be ok -

I hope this doesn't lead to any deaths, even the villains-

Or mine. Please hold, please hold pleasehold...

At last, after what felt like forever, the thudding crashing sounds stopped. I could hear the metal straining a bit. My body felt sore even though nothing had fallen on me. But I'd made it through. I felt a strong wave of relief, followed by fear - what was going to happen to the others?

And how was I going to get out of here? There might be pretty heavy debris on top of me. I couldn't just tunnel through. I hadn't thought this through all that well. It wasn't like me to do something this reckless, this destructive - I'd never thought I could do something like that. I'd just blown up a building, possibly killed three villains, and potentially put my team in danger. What kind of pro does something like that? Panic, that's what I'd done.

Great job, Momo.

No time for recriminations. I needed to figure out how to get out of there. The Tungsten had held up, but how was I going to undo it? Get out from under it.

Bzz, bzz...

My cell phone! I opened it and saw that Tokage was calling me.

"Lizardy?"

"Yaoyorozu!" Her voice buzzed in and out. "I mean - Creaty! Oh, thank goodness - she's alive, she's ok!" I heard her calling. The receptio nwasn't great, but at least she could hear me.

"Is everyone ok?" I asked.

"Yeah, we made it just before the building exploded. They're taking Mifune and Majestic to the hospital. Where are you? How'd you survive?"

"I'm underneath a tungsten shield. I'm not sure how to get out, or how long it'll hold up. Please, can you send someone in - come in yourself - and try to find me?"

"Sure thing. It might take a bit, but try and text us every few minutes, let us know you're ok - we'll try and follow the signal."

"Got it. I'm sorry, Tokage-"

"What'dyou mean,sorry?For what? Saving all our butts?"

"I suppose - for the building, and - and the villains may have..."

"Not gonna be shedding tears if they are. Youheardwhat kinda crap they were planning."

"Still..."

It was a very long wait, texting them updates, listening for any shifting sounds in the debris. At last, I heard something like a great crashing noise - and heard a banging on the shield.

"Yaoyorozu, you in here?" Tokage. "Yes!" I called, and slowly pressed the release on the shield that allowed it to open up. I emerged into the light. Tokage's mouth and eye were floating above me, a fist tapping on the tungsten, other pieces helping the sidekicks clear away the debris.

"Man, you're a mess," she grinned at me. She sounded relieved.

"Any word on Mifune?"

"Not yet. We were busy saving you."

...

The villains' bodies weren't found in the wreck, despite all the searching. They seemed to have escaped, which was both good news -I hadn't killed them - and bad news - they were free to continue their work. I tried not to shiver thinking about what Dr. Soken had said about my quirk.

Mifune was on bedrest and leave for a while. Majestic had woken up free of the influence of the quirk that had caused him to hurt others. We all met up at the agency the next morning, Majestic looking quite somber.

"Kokoro's quirk, it seems, allows her to control a person by weaponizing, what one could call - their trauma. When she slaps someone, she discovers the words that will 'trigger' them, in a sense - a key phrase, buried in the subconscious mind, which causes the person so much pain that they will lose control of themselves. She can then control them like a puppet; whatever she commands them to do next, they have to do. But they can still witness what they are doing, even if they lose control."

Majestic's voice was tense as he spoke, as if he was trying very hard to be detached about what had happened to him. I wanted to give him a hug, even though that felt inappropriate.

"So it wasn't your fault," said Tokage firmly. "Mind control, basically."

"Yes." He sounded like he was trying to convince himself. "A particularly dangerous quirk. Dr. Soken's identity, we still don't know; we do know she has created some kind of artificial human, in the vein of the League of Villains' Nomu-"

I tried not to shudder, remembering those things.

"And that villain can control water. Normally, water control isn't too dangerous, especially in moderation. But on the level this - girl - can do it, it appears to be very dangerous."

"And they're still at large," I sighed. "I must apologize, sir. I can't help bu feel it was my fault we didn't catch them."

"What are you talking about?" said Majestic. "You carried this mission, Creaty. You knocked out the villain with water powers, you prevented Kokoro from controlling me to - to do worse, and you acted in time to save Mifune. You students carried the whole mission, while us pros..." he sighed. "Simply were in the way."

I was prepared to protest, to proclaim my own uselessness again, but I stopped myself. That was a habit I needed to break if I wanted to be a hero who brought reassurance.

"Thank you, sir. And I promise in the future, we are going to find those villains and prevent them from doing more harm."

They all smiled slowly; it felt like for a moment, we all believed that.