Wally actually drove them to the new place.

Shigaraki was still really sore about the whole thing, but no one was paying him much mind.

Mirko noted how far out the house was but not too far from the city. It didn't much matter to her anyway. She was pretty fast.

Though one drawback to being out in the woods was also if something found them, who would know about it?

Wally seemed to anticipate that.

"Shine and I will check in on you a lot," he said.

"Why do you do that?" Spinner had snagged the front seat for once...mostly so he could grab the wheel if Wally went on the wrong side of the road. "Why do you both try to take care of us so much. You do know we're evil right?"

"So?" Wally said, "Evil people need the most taking care of."

Spinner gave him a weird look.

Compress sighed in a melancholy way.

"Holy mother of mansions!" Medea suddenly leaned towards the van window. They were pulling up to the house now.

Mirko looked up. "D---, Ren," she muttered, "I guess you never do disappoint."

It was an old looking house but in good condition. A lot of rooms.

"Wow..." Wally said, "That's nothing to the Wayne mansion, but it's like 4x the size of my apartment and Shine's..."

"You guys have separate apartments?" Medea said.

"Uh, yeah, kid, we're Christian." Wally said.

"Oh." Medea said. "You just seem so...close."

"What does that have to do with it?"

"Nothing I guess." Medea opened the van door. "I'm calling dibs on the first room I like."

"And we're sure no one is going to use this place." Compress said.

"Apparently the family who owned it died on one of the many Meta attacks on the public." Mirko said. "It's back on the market for renting, Ren booked it easily enough."

"Isn't that...kind of creepy?" Compress said.

"Ah don't tell me your superstitious?" Mirko said. "Newflash, any old house has probably had dead people in or connected to it, who the heck cares?" She got out.

"Still, the whole family, it's kid of a shame." Compress said. "Must have been new money, those older rich families would never put their property back on the market."

"Who cares?" Spinner said.

"Wow..." Toga walked up. "This house is huge."

Medea was already inside, she opened one window and waved. "Guys there's more room in here than in any of the lairs. Hot dang! And it's not infested with rats."

"Did that make anyone else sad?" Wally winced. "This poor kid. She's a real trooper."

"Yeah well, at least she's not a little b---." Mirko said.

"Wait is that...pedantic pride I hear?" Wally teased her. "Have you finally gone soft."

Mriko punched him into one of the bushes.

"OW!" He said. "Oh, you shouldn't have did that."

He ran into a tight circle aorund her and kicked up enough dust to cover her head to toe.

Mirko started coughing. "D-- you, West!"

"Hey, don't be so violent." Wally waved his hands. "I didn't even have to make contact to do more damage overall huh? If course I have to be careful, I almost suffocated a girl doing this once....she was a real psycho though."

"Suffocate?" Shigaraki looked up. "So your power can be lethal."

"I think any power can be," Wally said. "I hit someone hard enough I could almost literally knock them into next week...and kill them..."

"I hope you're never brainwashed," Mirko brushed dust off herself vainly.

"I was mind controlled a few times," Wally recalled, "but the worst I did was steal some stuff and fight my best friend... So yeah, that was bad, but he just punched me."

"And you just...bounced back?" Mirko said.

"I mean, it's not like it was the first time that happened to one of us," Wally said, "My buddy Supes almost wiped out the plant once under mind control."

"And you...still..." Mirko said weirdly.

"Wow, he'd never get out of prison," Compress said.

"He never went to prison full on," Wally said.

"But...why?" Mirko said.

"We don't punish people for doing things they didn't mean to do," Wally shrugged, "A lot of people hated him for it, but in the end they knew he wouldn't have done it unless he was being puppeted around. He's done his best to make up for it."

"But with that kind of power," Compress was still incredulous, "why would he ever be allowed to use it? Unless you were exaggerating."

"I mean, it's not like it's his fault he's that powerful," Wally said, "and why does it matter? The right mad man could blow up the world too. It's not like it's safe out there, but it's safer if we good guys work together and watch each other's backs, and that's why Supes started the Justice League. So he wouldn't be alone in his burden anymore. And all of us agreed. So even after a mistake like that, he still got back up again, and he kept going, and he started the group that's saved the world a bunch of times."

"First you tell us about a woman who betrays the whole planet and changes her mind and gets accepted back," Mirko noted, "and now you're telling us your other friend also did this, and he got forgiven and starts this league of justice that you have...and your people are just okay with that?"

"If they aren't, why would we let that stop us from doing the right thing?" Wally said, "You don't save the world to be thanked for it, you do it because it's your home."

"But you, Mr. West, of all people, ought to feel like it's not your home," Spinner said, "If I were like you, I'd leave this world and never come back."

"You might not have it so good anywhere else," Wally shrugged, "I'm okay with my world. It might be a crazy place to live, but I get to see some really great people there, ones I look up to, and I respect, and I can work with and know they'll be fighting just as hard as me to do the right thing every time. If they stumble, they get back up, and I can do the same thing. I'm just not about this whole 'I hate the world I live in' thing. The world's not perfect, but you eat the food here, and it gives you a place to live, and despite how much a lot of people suck, you can still meet some Real Ones, and that's worth it. There're a lot of nice things here, and the way we see it, that's all from God, so it's ungrateful to just spurn it all and be like 'there's nothing here worth saving.'"

"What if there is nothing worth saving?" Shigaraki was very bitter.

"Dude, did you ever try to find that out?" Wally said, "Do you look for any good in the world or the people around you? Or do you look for all the bad stuff, 'cause, man, what you want to see is what you're gonna see."

"Even if there is some good," Compress said, "overall, this world is just irredeemable the way it is, and I see no reason to pretend any different. You would waste your time defending it when it won't thank you, Mr. West, but the rest of us don't see anything to accomplish by that."

"I guess not." Wally, unlike Shine, seemed neither mad nor the least bit concerned by what Compress said. Shine usually didn't act worried, but about now, Mirko thought she'd be giving them one of her set-downs. Wally was definitely the cool water to her fiery personality. "I guess people like you, who admit to being bad guys, haven't any reason to see much good in the world. It would challenge you too much. But it's like Shine says about Jesus--if the Son of God would die for this world, then who are we to say it's not worth it? I'm not one to argue with the Big Guy. Waste of time."

"What do you mean by that?" Spinner said, "Who's Jesus? God doesn't have a son."

"Uh, not the Hindu or Buddhist God...or whatever you believe in," Wally said.

"I don't believe in god, but if I did, I wouldn't think he or she could have a son," Spinner said, "They'd be a spirit."

"Well...there's this really long theological answer that Shine would give you," Wally said, "but I'm not really one for that, makes my head hurt, so I'm just gonna go with, I think God can do pretty much anything He wants, don't you?"

Spinner shrugged. "I guess."

"Why would the son of a god die for the world?" Compress said, "Gods are removed from human affairs for the most part in all the stories."

"All your stories," Wally corrected, "The Bible God ain't removed from nothing. He's really involved. In fact, He's here right now."

The LOV actually looked for someone, bless them.

Mirko almost did too...but then she shook herself. "I don't really get your view on it, but I have to admit you guys can do things I can't explain any other way," she said, more calmly than Spinner or Compress, "You must be in tune."

"It's nothing you couldn't do to, if you believed," Wally said, "I don't really think it's a big deal. Then again, I've seen plenty of amazing things already. I think being on the right side just makes miraculous things happen. How else do superheroes beat the odds all the time?"

"That's offensive," Compress said, "Sounds like what you stuck up heroes say."

"Well, dude, I'm not saying it's 'cause heroes are just better than everyone else. I'm saying that being on the the side of Good itself just makes you stronger," Wally said, "even if you're a jerk the rest of the time."

"That's not fair," Spinner said, "A hero can't be on the side of good and be a jerk. That's what's wrong with this society."

"Okay, Spinner, buddy," Wally held up his hands, "here's the thing. If you're just gonna say a jerk can't ever do a good thing, you're just saying that goodness is dependent on people, and it's not its own standard. And you see how then, anyone can have their own standard of what's good to begin with, and that just comes right back around to heroes being justified no matter what they're really like. It's just your opinion against theirs. But if you say that good is good, and people can do good without being good, then you have a reason to criticize people who are hypocrites. I'm just helping your case here."

Spinner's brain must have almost fried from that much critical thinking.

Mirko laughed. "Served. You tell him, West. I almost forgive you for ruining this outfit."

"Oh, just wash it. It'll be fine," Wally said, "You don't even want to know what I've gotten on my suits--alien bug juice ,for one thing."

"You're right, I didn't want to know." Mirko made a face. "Also--alien? Again?"

"I'm an alien, Bunny Girl."

"Wait...we know an alien?" Spinner's nerd side was coming out. "That's so cool!"

"Oh, stop," Compress sighed, "It's been months and you didn't think of it."

"They don't look like aliens."

"Isn't that kind of quirk-ist?" Wally said, "You do look like an alien to me. I have a green friend from Mars, and I didn't call you out."

"What? Mars?" Spinner said.

"But Mars is uninhabitable," Compress said.

"Not in my universe," Wally shrugged.

"Guys, are you gonna come inside?" Medea called, "Why are you just standing out there like a bunch of pissants?"

"Did you let her watch DBZA?" Wally asked.

"It's required viewing," Mirko said.

"Awesome," Wally said.

* * *

The house was big enough for everyone to get their own room.

Mirko found a surprise inside: Ren had somehow had a lot of stuff from her old house dropped off there, or perhaps Wally had brought it unnoticed by her.  Mostly more clothes and tools and a few games.

"I guess it feels good to be gangsta," she muttered.

She could just see Ren's smug face about it too.

"I think we all could use a brother like Ren," Compress couldn't resist saying. Though it pissed Shigaraki off.

"My family never gave two s---s about me," Spinner said, "let alone got me a house illegally. Lucky rabbit."

"Perhaps it's comes with being a rabbit, then," Compress said slyly, "You know, lucky rabbit's foot?"

"Why is the foot of a rabbit lucky?" Spinner said, "If you think about it, any rabbit with its foot cut off wasn't that lucky."

"You can't apply logic to it, Spinner. That's not the point," Compress said.

"Figures the magician would be superstitious," Spinner said.

"Well, it figures the lizard would be uncouth," Compress said.

"Dudes," Wally said, "don't cut each other down like that. It'll mess with your teamwork."

Medea was flopped on the couch in the living room. "This is the life," she said.

"There's a lot of room to train, too," Mirko said.

"Are you some kind of workout-aholic?" Medea groaned.

"Did you go to UA?" Wally asked Mirko, "Because you really seem like a product of Aizawa's teaching methods."

"None of your d--- business," Mirko said.

"Well, I unloaded all your stuff," Wally said to all of them, "and if you need anything else, let us know. It's really great to finally see you all in a decent place. I hope Ren's got plenty of these lined up... Not sure I like the lying part, but as long as you're paying for it, I guess a code name is fine."

"Paying for it? Who's paying for it?" Spinner said.

Mirko made sure she was in the other room.

"Isn't Mirko?" Wally said, blankly, "That's what I heard."

The LOV exchanged looks.

"I don't think she would do that," Compress said.

"She's just paying for a place to live," Medea spoke, "and sharing it, that's all. Don't read into it, Compress. She'll kill you."

"I think I can read into things if I want!" Compress said.

"And that explains your love life," Spinner said.

He shouldn't have said that.

Compress turned him into a marble and tossed him into the trashcan. "Where you belong, you d--- lizard!"

"Dude!" Medea cried, diving after the marble, "What if you suffocate him?"

Compress stalked out of the room.

"He's not okay," Wally said, "Man, I know how it feels. When Shine bailed on me it was the worst day ever. It's not easy to get over."

"You're a real one, Mr. West." Medea fished out the marble finally. "Gross... At least there wasn't really trash in here yet..."

"Real friends dig you out of the trash," Wally joked, "Well, I should get back to the school. Before I forget, Dabi sends his regards. Not the words he used, but I don't think I should use the words he used, so yeah. Bye."

He was gone.

"I think I see why people like nice houses." Medea looked out the window. "I already feel safer."

Shigaraki huffily walked out of the room.

He didn't like this house. It was too normal looking. Brought back some unpleasant memories.

* * *

With this new location, the LOV relaxed slightly, despite the sting on some of their parts about relying on Ren--okay, really just Shigaraki. Everyone else thought Ren was basically a godsend.

Mirko felt it was safer...and she decided to go out of country for the first time in ages (legally) on a mission.

It was good to change things up. She'd kind of missed the buzz of traveling. It also took her across Japan to handle some bigger missions.

She moved fast and was only gone for three days total, with the flight time, but it was still a notable gap in a group that was now so small.

Medea missed her sorely as the only person she could really talk to, and she didn't like being with all guys, and Toga was no comfort.

Toga never seemed to care who she was around, but she was bored. And not having any victims around was part of it. Medea wondered how long someone with her literal blood lust was going to hold herself back. She locked her door at night.

Compress continued to mope and, in fact, the new location only seemed to heighten his depression.

Spinner, on the other hand, loved it. Maybe it was his natural habitat, but he was more suited to the forest and open air and less people around.

Shigaraki remained indifferent, seemingly. But notably, he did ask where Mirko was every single day because he forgot every time that she'd left the country and assumed she just wasn't coming in from work.

"It wouldn't surprise me if she doesn't come here as often anyway," Medea mused, "I mean, she could get lodging in the city while she's on the job, and that's her real life. Not this. This was probably more for us than her."

"Before you said it was the opposite," Shigaraki said.

"I was trying to make you all act less like jerks about it," Medea said, "since you're allergic to people doing anything nice for you. Mirko is cool, I think. Maybe she's being nicer because things have died down. You ever think a lot of her anger is just stress? 'Cause I know mine is."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"I dunno, is it weird to wonder if people would be nicer if they felt less pressure?" Medea said, "Like Monama can be really nice when he doesn't feel like he has to be measuring up to 1-A. Maybe it's just the therapy talking, though."

Mirko finally returned late that night, totally bushed from the flight, but otherwise in a good mood.

"I made instant ramen," Medea said.

"Better than nothing," Mirko said.

"Gee, you're welcome," Medea said.

"I meant thank you," Mirko said dryly.

"So how was the trip?" Medea asked.

"It wasn't as exciting as Canada, but it was a nice change of pace," Mirko said, "Though one place is the same as another after a while. Busted some bad guys running a drug cartel."

"Cool," Medea said.

"Yeah, that's just a taste of what you'd be doing if you were a hero," Mirko said.

"I'm not really that interested in that," Medea said, "I think I'd like it better rescuing people. But look, I learned to do this while you were gone."

She lit only one part of her arm on fire and passed it through a countertop, then back out. "Before I could only phase with my whole body on fire, but I figured out how to focus it. I guess the training payed off."

"That's fantastic!" Mirko was way proud...and trying to hide it. "Now you can really start on the hard stuff."

"Thanks..." Medea was deflated.

"But I guess as a reward for getting that far, I'll cut you some slack for today," Mirko said.

"You're kind of tired anyway, aren't you?" Medea said, "You should just take a few days off."

"I see what you're doing there," Mirko said, "Nice try, kid."

"Worth a shot," Medea shrugged.

"Oh, hi, Mirko." Spinner walked by.

"Wow...he was laid back..." Mirko said.

"Oh, yeah, he's been so chill since we got here," Medea said, "I think it's the sunlight, maybe. I hear it helps cure depression."

"Then Compress should finally be better."

"I'm afraid it doesn't cure a broken heart... I just don't get it. We all knew she was shady. Why does he care so much?" Medea said.

"It's stupid," Mirko said, "but I guess we can't be insensitive and say so."

"Hello! Goodbye!" Twice looked in and looked right back out, still talking to himself.

"Where's the King of Gloom anyway?" Mirko said.

"If you mean Boss Man, I dunno, he barely comes out of his room, and he picked the darkest one, too," Medea said, "I get the weirdest feeling he doesn't like big houses."

"Go figure," Mirko said.

"Want to watch a movie?" Medea offered, "This place has Getflix. I think Ren hooked it up."

"This is starting to feel like some kind of power trip for him," Mirko said, "a weird flex."

"Well, if I were that mermaid lady, and he did all that for my crib, I think I'd date," Medea shrugged, "She's playing it too close."

"Wait, how did you know about that?" Mirko said.

"It's not hard to see... Just because you're totally oblivious doesn't mean all us girls are," Medea snorted.

"I wish I was oblivious," Mirko said, "Then I wouldn't notice crazy stans."

"Oh, poor you," Medea mocked her, grabbing the remote, "I found this great old movie called 10 Things I hate about you. I really related to the title."

"That sounds okay..." Mirko admitted.

[Great movie, by the way. Heath Ledger makes the whole thing.]

Shigaraki wandered in half way through the film to maybe get food, if he ever did eat.

"So you're back," was his acknowledgment.

"Sure, loser," Mirko said, "Miss me?"

It was obvious sarcasm. Shigaraki didn't reply.

"You know, I kind of think mayb--" began Medea before she caught his look and shut up. 

"Maybe what?" Mirko said.

"Maybe Spinner did," Medea finished, "You know, he's such a simp."

"Ugh, don't remind me," Mirko said, "Now this guy," she pointed to the screen, "he's actually funny."

"Patrick? Yeah, he's hot," Medea said, "Then again, I just have a thing for that bad boy who doesn't give a crap type."

"And yet you're dating that weirdo kid from UA."

"I also like weirdos," Medea said, "Would you date Patrick though?"

"No," Mirko scoffed, "but he's not annoying to watch. Now that other scrawny puke Cameron, he's so annoying."

"Aw, he's cute," Medea argued, "He's so innocent. You're just being judgy. The real tool is Joey."

"I'd kill him."

"I hate Bianca though," Medea said, "Kat's cool. She's got attitude."

"This movie looks repulsive," Shigaraki said.

"Go away, you cynic!" Medea said, "If it's not bloody and dark you never like anything anyway, like those stupid video game. Blowing s--- up isn't really that interesting compared to drama. Men are so dumb."

"Said the 16 year old." Mirko was amused.

"The 16 year old who's had one more boyfriend than you, Top Pro."

"Oh, shut up and watch the movie." Mirko hit her with a pillow.

[Honestly they're so cute...if kind of cray cray.]

* * *

Shigaraki was having a crisis of identity.

Not over his personality, but over the League's lack of action.

Maybe not being in a lair just made it more clear, but what were they really doing?

He went from the top back to the bottom of the totem pole pretty quickly.

And while that bothered him less than it would have a year ago, he was feeling restless. AFO would not be happy if they kept wasting their time like this.

Maybe it was time to get back in the game... Could they wait forever for the Originals to make a move?

Doctor Ujiko only echoed that thought when he got in touch that week.

"Now is the time. The Originals are currently distracted with something else," he said.

"What do you know?" Shigaraki hadn't any idea of that.

"Oh, you haven't heard? Not checking in with your sources, are you?" Ujiko was real smug. "Well, it's been quite the private scandal. The police aren't making it public yet, but a lot of the Metas who were captured have been mysteriously eliminated in the last month. Rather like those prisoners from before."

"They were what?"

"That's not all. All over the country, little pockets of Metas who remain have been getting raided, picked off, stamped out." Ujiko sounded gleeful about it. "The Pro heroes are all stumped by how it happens, because there's never much sign of quirk usage in the fights. Our mole at UA and Tartaros informed me of all this. You should really be in touch."

Shigaraki was stunned. "And the media is not covering it?"

"Perhaps they are in small doses, but it's being hushed up. The government won't want to start a panic. It looks like our most unpleasant friends the Originals are using the opportunity afforded them by the Metas' communication being down to weed them out. I always suspected they were rivals."

Shigaraki was mad.

He stalked into the living room. Medea was not around this time. Mirko was half asleep on the couch while trying to go over some paperwork.

"Did you know about this?" Shigaraki didn't even bother to make sure she was awake.

Mirko jumped. "What? Know about what? Don't do that."

"The Metas being picked off," Shigaraki said.

"What?" Mirko said.

"Don't act so innocent. Surely they would have told a Top Pro about it," Shigaraki said.

"Don't be such a jackass. I don't know what the he-- you're talking about," Mirko said, "What do you mean picked off??"

Shigaraki repeated what Ujiko had told him.

"What? No way, I would have been told," Mirko said.

"So you really didn't know," Shigaraki said.

"Wouldn't I have said if there was something going on?" Mirko said, "Kind of relevant information isn't it?"

"I suppose..."

"This is bad." Mirko grabbed her ears. "This is just like before... Not that the Metas didn't have it coming, but...it's not a fair fight. Those miserable cowards!"

"They just maximize their opportunities. A group of quirkless weaklings could not really hope to defeat the Metas unless they had an edge," Shigaraki said, "At least it's not the LOV."

"Oh, that is so typical for a villain," Mirko said, "'They're killing people like sheep, but at least it's not us.' That's how you sound."

Her impression of him was not good at all.

"Am I supposed to pity the Metas?" Shigaraki said, "Did you forget about that unpleasant, little incident?"

"Of course not...but maybe not all of them are that insane." Mirko took a very unusual tact for her. "Anyway, it's just wrong. They always do this!" She tossed aside her papers. "That's ruined my whole night now. I'm just going to have to find out why I didn't know about this." She got up.

"Perhaps it was on purpose," Shigaraki said, a little calmer now, "Perhaps someone didn't want you to know."

"Then they've infiltrated more than I thought," Mirko said, "I'm going to find out if Hawks knows about this, and if he does, I'm going to kick his a--."

She stormed out.

"She's always so angry." Shigaraki saw no irony in saying that.

"What's going on?" Compress said.

"I think we all need to have a little meeting," Shigaraki said.

* * *

"I can't believe it," Spinner said.

Medea bit her nails. "It's...horrible. Why do they always do such horrible things?"

"We're just animals to them," Compress said dully, "or worse...abominations of nature. Why would they care how many they kill? We were foolish to think they'd slow down just because we were at a lull ourselves. We'll be next once they kill each other off."

Twice and Toga had no opinion on it.

"Not all of the Metas were awful..." Medea remembered the couple in the hospital. "I mean, brainwashed and crappy, but maybe they weren't totally evil. I feel like we just left them wide open."

"Well, it's not our fault if the Originals took advantage of it. How would we have known?" Spinner said, "Though it's a shame. Some of them were all right while we worked with them, and even if we split, I didn't really blame them so much for that. Things just didn't pan out."

Shigaraki scratched irritably. "Things never seem to pan out."

[I note that the biggest difference between my canon's trajectory and the manga/show's is that I put the characters through a lot more losses and downhill, instead of constantly growing more powerful.

All anime tend to follow the model that people get more powerful overtime, but in real life, it's not usually how it works. We tend to realize our own frailty more over time and either become insecure or humble.

I always write to mirror real life more, and while I enjoy anime, that aspect of it feels unreal to me, and I've never been able to imitate it in writing.

I assume if you got this far, you're here for that. But maybe you think I could have done something more interesting with powering up the characters like the show does.

To that, I'd say it's just not interesting to read that, really. It only works in shonen because you get to see the action, and even then it always becomes bloated at some point if a show goes on for too long. The only real way to keep a long story fun is to make the characters take heavy hits and get weaker and stronger by turns.

So here it is.

Shigaraki's losses in this story were necessary to do anything really fun with his character. If I just power him up, he'd just keep winning...and then what? Where does it stop?

It's a lot less payoff then a more interwoven story that requires all the characters to learn and grow and change for it to work, at least for my money, so I write that way.

And yeah, this arc is setting up the last big plot twists of this story. It's all gonna start snowballing very soon. This chill section has been giving us all a break.]