Stain noted Shine's sword, which she had ready.

"Another Hero?" he said. "But you don't have a costume."

"I'm not a Hero." Shine's eyes flashed, not literally this time. "But you will back off. I'm quite willing to fight you."

"Not a Hero... Villain?" Stain said. "No, wait, I know you...Shine Likstar."

Mirko and Miss Joke almost gasped aloud.

Shine blinked. "You...know who I am?... Who broke you out of prison?"

"No time for that." Stain dropped the Pro Hero. "You're exactly who I was hoping to find out here. I specifically chose this spot because I was told you'd be around here with your friends."

"I'm sorry, who told you that?" Shine said.

But Stain didn't take any notice of her question.

"I see it worked. The instincts of a Hero, but not the title. A vigilante, in a way."

"That's my fiancé, actually." Shine was snarky as ever. "And if you're looking for me, you'd better have a darn good reason. It is you, then... They were right. I will give you once chance to disappear, Hero Killer. I can't promise the people coming after me will not kill you."

Backup? Good she was smart enough to do that first... Of course she was. 

"You consort with the LOV," Stain said. "A bunch of fools. That little weed Shigaraki has grown into quite the big man, I hear. But still lacking in conviction. I'm disappointed."

Mirko thought that at least Shigaraki wasn't trying to kill a random Hero in an alley just to get someone's attention. Psychopath.

"Shigaraki is twice the man you are," Shine said, "and he's not much more than a teenager, so take that how it was meant. I wanted to meet you once, but so much else is going on, I really don't feel like I have much to say to someone like you. A radical fanatic with a sword, that's what some people say I am." Her eyes glinted, this time literally. "But I save life and you take it. At least you don't call it God's will. I really would have to puke if you did that."

Wow, she was good at this. Mirko could feel the sting from that insult.

Stain himself didn't seem quite indifferent. "A small-minded way to look at my cause. I hoped for a more friendly greeting. I heard we were quite similar."

Shine looked sick then. "Who dared to insult me by telling you that?"

"Unimportant." Stain moved towards her. "But I intend to test you."

He sprang at her.

Shine was fast, but Stain was much faster and stronger.

She tried to move, but he caught her sword with one of his and locked it in place with one arm.

With the other, he slid yet another knife out and cut across her hand.

Shine winced and then she suddenly shoved forward with more strength. Stain held his position easily, still much stronger.

But Shine's sword lit up with blinding light and he hissed.

She jumped back out of his reach.

Stain didn't try to swing at her. Either he didn't want to, or he didn't trust it if he couldn't see.

Shine of course was not one to attack a man when he was down, but she hooked one of his feet out from under him and knocked him down.

Stain still managed to block her blade again. He didn't seem to care about being knocked flat.

"You don't have much skill with the sword," he said, "and you're slow compared to a Hero."

Shine blew hair out of her face. "So I've heard. Usually I take on opponents with more power and brains than speed, but my partner will be happy to kick your butt if you want."

"I never noticed you two have different spheres," Miss Joke commented. "That's cool... I hope he's on his way."

"As long as he was at the school it should be any second," Shine said calmly. "You might as well just surrender, Stain. Even if you got me, you'd never get him. You can go right back to prison."

"Then we don't know how he got out," Mirko grumbled. "Do your jedi mind trick thing on him."

"Rumi, I'd thank you not to tell me how to do my job," Shine said tersely, "since you rushed into this blindly and didn't even wait to discuss it with us first."

Ouch...

"She's typical of a Top Pro," Stain said. Suddenly he knocked Shine off her feet.

He had his knife with her blood ready...and it was too late now.

Shine glanced up at him. "Man, he sure is fast as taking blood... Ought to join the Red Cross."

Miss Joke laughed weakly in a "we're so screwed" kind of way.

Stain held his sword over Shine, pinning her to the ground. "Let's see just how much conviction you have."

Shine stared up at him. "For what?" she said, like this was a normal thing to have happen.

"Do you feel fear that your life is in my hands?" Stain asked.

"I don't know. Do you get off on that?" Shine asked.

Mirko choked on a laugh.

Stain gave Shine an odd look. "What?"

"Sorry, last guy who did this was a real creep," Shine said. "Most of the time it's the mad scientists, tyrants, witches, etc. They just hate me, you know. I can handle that, but that weird enjoyment of the situation is abhorrent to any woman--unless she has serious issues, so it depends on why you're doing this? You just want to test my resolve? I'm fine with it, then."

Shine was always the enigma to people who took themselves way too seriously, and Stain was no exception. Clearly no one has ever responded to him threatening them with such a cavalier attitude.

"I wanted to see if you had conviction, but you're treating this matter as a joke." He was mad. "Seems I'll have to teach you to take it seriously."

He stuck the blade slightly into her shoulder.

Shine winced. "Hey! Stop it!"

"You monster!" Mirko snapped.

"Not fair," Emi said. "She's a good person, Stain, and she's not even a Hero. Killing her is just wrong."

"Quiet, you!" Stain snapped. "What will you do, Likstar? Beg for mercy? Or ask me to spare your friends? I might trade them for you."

Shine stared up at him. "Yeah, well, I'm literally just waiting for someone else to show up and stop you, but, hey, if you want to play that game, sure. Spare them, you can threaten me instead. I surely would never forgive myself if I said to let me go and kill them."

"You still think I'm kidding?" Stain said.

Shine's eyes flashed suddenly, startling him. "Do you think I'm kidding?" Her voice got dead serious. "Get off me now and put your stupid sword away, little man, before I portal you right back into the hole you dug you pathetic convictions out of--No, wait, scratch that, I don't send people to hell."

Mirko grinned. That was bada-- as heck.

Stain was not ready for that kind of intensity from someone who'd been cavalier a second ago.

"What?" he said, puzzled.

"Off!" Shine said.

Stain...actually obeyed. 

He stepped back, looking uncertain of why he was doing it.

Then, to his greater shock, Shine sat up and put a hand to her shoulder. "Jerk!" She winced. "You pierced the skin... That hurt. Do you have serrated edges on that probably filthy blade of yours? I don't want hepatitis."

Miss Joke laughed.

"You're... Wait, even if you were type O, you shouldn't have been free in just a minute." Stain looked surprised.

"Oh, your quirk, you mean?" Shine held her sword out. "Yeah, it won't work on me. Our biologial makeup is probably too different. Oh, fun fact," she glanced at the heroes, "we probably can't accept blood donations from you or vice versa. So if we ever get that hurt, keep that in mind. I doubt we're compatible at all, thanks to that quirk business."

"Good to know," Emi said.

Mirko suddenly realized she could move slightly. It would not be long before she was totally free.

"This is not what I expected." Stain sounded disappointed. "I heard so much about you and your partner from my source. They said you've resisted Heroes and Villains alike, and I thought you  might have Conviction such as I do. But you're just flippant...or perhaps mad."

"Funny, that's what they say about you," Shine said.

"I seek only to bring about a better world," Stain said, holding out his sword again.

"Drop that," Shine warned. 

"I will have no choice but to eliminate you," Stain said. "Your actions must spring from pride or thrill seeking, and that has no place in my world."

"Your world?" Wally's voice suddenly cut in. He was leaning against the corner of the alley, smiling that Flash superhero smile he had sometimes. "Wow, it's your world? I had no idea. So we just live in it, huh?"

Shine smiled fondly. "Well, if it's his world, we can ask him why it's such a mess."

"Are you...mocking me?" Stain was baffled.

"Oh, he's good," Wally said. "I heard he was such a crackpot, I didn't think he'd get that."

"Perhaps he's only mad when it comes to Heroes and the rest of the time he's perceptive," Shine said.

"Stop talking about me!" Stain said. "If you refuse to take this seriously even now, I will--" He looked around. "I'll kill them first!"

He started to go for Mirko and Miss Joke.

Wally was there and grabbing his arm faster than the speed of a bullet.

"Whoa there, Nasty Man," he said. "Don't you think that's going a little too far? They didn't do nothing to you."

"How did you...? So you're fast," Stain said. "But that's fine." He tried to slice him backwards. Wally dodged it. "Come on, you'll have to do better than that, Chainsaw Massacre."

Shine laughed. "More like Wannabe Porcupine."

"No, I can do better than that... Walking Bey Blade," Wally said.

"Nah, that's more Spinner," Shine said.

Mirko suddenly jumped up and kicked Stain out of Wally's grasp and into the wall, hard enough to almost knock him out.

She pushed her hair back. "Nice distraction," she said. "Thanks."

"Any time, Bunny Girl." Wally waved nonchalantly.

She stomped on his foot. "Quit calling me that."

"Hey! Ow! I need that for running!" Wally said.

Stain looked up, then he launched himself at Mirko and Wally while they were thus distracted.

They both dodged, but Stain scraped a knife across Mirko's face just by a hair's width, then he was up against the other wall.

Mirko felt herself freeze again.

"Oh, s---..." She fell over.

"You guys!" Shine sounded like a fed up mother. "Tie him up before you start goofing around!"

"Sorry, Babe, I thought he was too slow," Wally said. "But I got him." He grabbed Stain's arm.

"You are the other one?" Stain hissed. "And you're just as big a fool as her? This is most disappointing."

"Other...what?"

"He seems to have heard of us," Shine said. "Something odd is going on here. Someone's still after us."

"What did we ever do to them except help our friends out?" Wally said.

"I don't know, Wally, but Stain is no match for us, so if this was an assassination attempt, it was a foolish one," Shine said, pointing her sword at Stain again. "Well, what is going on?"

Stain hissed. "Where's that intensity you had a moment ago? You're nothing like me."

His eyes blazed. "I will bring about a better world, however. I have to. With no All Might, there is no one I will allow to kill me!"

"Huh?" Wally said, before Stain somehow slipped out of his grasp and lunged at Shine again.

Wally grabbed after him, but Stain slashed his sword through him instead.

Wally was focused on Shine and didn't realize it in time to move out of the way. He gasped.

Shine screamed. "What have you done!?!"

What happened next was burned into Mirko and Miss Joke's memory for years.

Stain didn't expect it either, but suddenly Shine moved with the speed of a tiger and used her sword, not to block his, but to cut it in half.

Stain didn't see that coming.

Shine didn't stop there. She knocked his arm with the knife aside too and shoved him back into the wall with all the force of adrenaline.

"How dare you!" She was livid. "He did nothing to you but save someone's life! And he's a true hero. No money, nor glory, here anyway. And way better than your stupid All Might glorified version of Heroes. Did you think that hurting him was going to prove something? You arrogant, self centered, crazy, fanatical murderer!"

Stain grinned slowly. "Ah...there it is," he said.

"Shine!" Wally said. "It's okay." He winced. "I don't think he got me too deep."

Shine looked at him sideways. "I figured you'd be okay. It takes a lot more than that to stop The Flash...but the audacity of him doing it makes me angry. You sure it's not serious?"

"Uh...well I might need some stitches, but you know me--it'll be healed up in two days," Wally said. "That is, if it's bandaged up...'cause you know blood loss is still serious. Metabolism and all that."

"You want to deck this lunatic for me so I can get some First Aid supplies, then?" Shine said tightly.

"No problem." Wally cracked his knuckles.

"Wow..." Mirko muttered. "That was terrifying..."

"From anyone else, I would have thought you were going to kill him," Miss Joke said.

"Indeed." They all looked and saw Shigaraki, Compress, Silk, and Medea standing at the end of the alley... Well, Mirko couldn't really look. Miss Joke was starting to regain mobility.

"But Likstar doesn't do that," Shigaraki finished. "Her one weakness."

"I call it a strength," Shine said. "Of course I wouldn't kill him. Do any of you have First Aid supplies?"

"Actually, I do," Silk said. "Western, come, I help you."

"Can I punch Stain first?" Wally asked.

"Is better to wait till you not bleeding bad," Silk said.

"Fine," Wally said.

Stain, finding he was still not being taken seriously, lost it. He shoved Shine off with fury and sent her onto her backside.

Wally ran at him. Stain stuck out a foot and tripped him--still the move that never seemed to not work on Wally. He just couldn't stop in time.

Wally went stumbling into the wall and was a bit dazed.

Stain snatched out another sword and vaulted from the top of trash bin onto the roof of the building. "This is not the time or place for our reunion, Tomura Shigaraki," he called, "but be warned--I will not tolerate any obstacles in my way!"

"He's trying to escape," Compress warned. "Shall we stop him?"

"Yes," Shigaraki said, looking livid. "He'll only go back to whoever's helping him. We can't let them have that pawn. Stop him by whatever means necessary."

"Wait, you'll make him desperate," Silk said. "Fanatics do mad things when desperate."

Stain heard her. "Perhaps you need a reminder, then," he said, pulling out throwing knives, but he didn't aim them at them--he aimed it at Miss Joke and Mirko and the other Hero.

But that Hero finally moved enough to dodge.

Miss Joke managed to move slightly so that only one caught the edge of her leg.

Mirko couldn't move though.

"Crap!" Wally moved in the split second of time they had.

He managed to block the knives from Mirko and got them stuck in his arm instead.

"Ow! Ow, ow, oww!" He whistled in pain.

"I'll follow him." Medea turned into a pillar of flame. "His quirk is no good against me if he can't cut me, right? I'll be fine. Just catch up to me once you've got them out of danger." She took off after Stain, who was now running for it.

"I'll go after her!" Spinner called from around the corner.

"So he can ask for autograph!" Silk said sarcastically.

"Wally!" Shine knelt next to him, looking worried. "Are you okay?"

"D---it, West!" Mirko swore. 

"I'm...okay..." Wally said. "It's just a flesh wound... Sorry, I had to say it."

Shine smacked him but only in pretend. "Don't joke about this! You're not bulletproof!"

"But they were knives," Wally said.

She shoved his good arm. 

"Great bedside manner you have there," Compress said to her.

"Missed Joke will be okay." Silk was bandaging her.

"I was just about to use my quirk on him," Miss Joke said, "but with all of you around I wasn't sure if it was a good idea. Some people can resist it a bit and still move. And he had a lot of blades."

"Someone should have told him blades are for skating," Wally said nervously.

They rolled their eyes at him.

"Of course you were stupid enough to get caught." Silk tied up Mirko's shin with a jerk that made her wince. "Don't you ever learn? And look at your face! You want scar there? Those blades are probably filthy. You could get infection." She dabbed disinfectant on it.

"Ouch!" Mirko said. "Watch it, Silkworm."

Silk yanked her cords tighter. "I could make this into tourniquet if you want."

"I'll time out in just a few minutes, if you want to test my memory!" Mirko snapped.

"It's memory of a rabbit, right? I think I have good chance," Silk shot back.

"Can you two stop it?" Shigaraki said. "What did Stain want with you, Likstar? He didn't seem to be trying to kill you."

"I don't know. He kept going on about taking himself seriously," Shine said, "and he seemed to have a source of information, just like Hantai. Silk, what do you know about this?"

Silk looked up. "Believe it or not, nothing."

"Why should we believe it?" Wally said, a bit tersely.

Silk gestured helplessly. "I never heard anything about recruiting Stain... Did you know that Hantai was found dead when police took that base you all escaped from?"

"I...hadn't been watching the news," Shine said. "The kids and I were trying just to focus on recovering... So he's dead, huh?"

"Yeah, I'm real broken up about it." Mirko was sarcastic. "Served him right, the b-----d."

"Ah, but here's the odd part," Compress said. "They showed a picture of his corpse on the news at the late hours--you know, when kids aren't supposed to be watching, that kind of thing. It looked like it was the work of a quirk. And the coroner said his internal organs had...well...stopped working."

Wally and Shine looked at him strangely.

"Like he died," Wally said.

"Like they were not in the right shape or place anymore," Compress said. "To put it very simply...it was strange. Sounds a bit like Overhaul's quirk, but he wasn't taken apart at all--it was inside."

"That's horrible." Shine looked sick. "What a horrible way to kill someone... Could poison do that?"

"To that much of you? I doubt it," Compress said. "Seems more like the work of a quirk or some advanced weapon. The point is, none of us could have done it, though no doubt, we'd be suspected if they knew. Those ninja might report we were there."

"Penalty of snitches is death," Silk said. "I doubt they would."

"Okay, but what does that have to do with Mr. Blood, Sweat, and Tears?" Wally said.

"It's almost as if someone within the Originals is the one who offed Hantai," Compress said, "so could there be a secret faction within them that we don't know about? Or some higher ups who didn't like his failure, as Silk thinks."

"He could have talked too," Silk said, "or they bring interrogator with truth quirk in to question him. People like him aren't allowed to go free. Shigaraki's policy of not killing deserters is almost madness when the police force have so many ways to crack people."

Shigaraki shot her a dirty look.

"Don't worry, his plans change so often that any info they gave would be outdated anyway," Shine said. "But if you're saying that there's a faction or higher up involved here, do you think that Stain was busted out by them?"

"It seems likely, yes," Compress said. "And if that is so, there may be something more fearsome than Hantai behind this... Perhaps Medea should not have gone after him like that."

Shigaraki swore.

"Wait," Shine said. "He wants us. We can handle him. Without you guys to use as leverage, he can't threaten us. Just let Wally and I talk to him... From what he was saying, I'm not sure he's trying to kill us."

"He cut Western up pretty bad," Silk said.

"It's just West," Wally said, "and I recover at, like, 7 times the speed of normal people, so it's no big."

"I was barely scratched, and his quirk doesn't work on us," Shine said. "He lost a lot of blades already. We catch him now before he can restock, he'll be at his weakest. If you try to kill him, he'll just get what he wants." She looked at Shigaraki. "Even if you can kill him, you're none the wiser about who's helping him."

Shigaraki sniffed. "That may be true, but I want you to bring him back to us."

"I will not promise to do anything for you," Shine said tightly. "I'm merely telling you the smarter option. I don't work for you, Tomura. You had better remember that."

Her tone was icy.

Shigaraki knew better than to push her.

"Well, just don't let him get away," he backed off.

"No worries, we'll get him." Wally stood up. "Woah..." He swayed a little. "After I restock on calories, that is. Blood loss, you know..."

"We have to hurry though, Babe. I'm not fast enough to fight him. We have to go together."

"Sure, sure. Wow, it's been a while since we beat up someone together. This ought to be fun." Wally gave her a thumbs up. "I'll be right back with snacks." He zipped around the corner.

"Is he...really a part of a high level team of superheroes?" Compress asked dubiously.

"You and every other cocksure, self aggrandizing person all react that way," Shine said. "I could wish you'd be a bit more original at times. Wally is the best hero on that team. And the only one I feel at ease around, though Batman isn't so bad. You should be glad he's the way he is. If he took himself as seriously as all of you, he'd have destroyed your League ages ago, but he and I try to be humble. At times, you do make it hard not to look down on you though." She smiled a bit cockily. "After all, magic tricks are the kind of thing we squash on an almost daily basis. I'll see you guys in a bit." She followed Wally.

"I think I felt your pride just take a hit to the tires," Mirko said.

"Says the paralyzed woman," Compress said.

"I'll be fine in a few seconds," Mirko said. "He just caught me a little off guard, charging around like a madman."

"Do you realize you could have been killed?" Shigaraki began scolding her. "A Top Hero with a physical type quirk is a gift wrapped headline for Stain! Why didn't you wait for Likstar before charging in like that? This some death wish of yours?"

"Hey, pick on someone who didn't do anything to stop him!" Mirko snapped. "I was trying to save a life, jackass. Just in time too, and, hey, Joke and I still stalled him long enough for Shine to get here."

"Yes, that was clever," Miss Joke admitted. "I was shocked."

"Yeah--Hey!" Mirko frowned. 

"And Stain crippling another Top Pro is just the kind of momentum he needs to get right back in the public center," Shigaraki kept scolding. "Don't you think anything through?"

Mirko started to answer snarkily, then bit her lip.

Compress and Silk exchanged a look.

"All right, fine," Mirko said sullenly. "So maybe I should have at least brought Joke with me. I was trying to save that idiot over there."

She meant the other Pro, who was eyeing the LOV warily.

"Oh, yeah, her," Compress said. "We can't have her knowing about this, can we?"

"I handle this," Silk said.

She turned to woman. "Mirko and LOV both want Stain, you see. But now we have lost him. So I guess we have to take care of three of you Heroes."

"What?" Miss Joke said.

"Whoopsie!" Compress turned her into a marble.

The Hero woman blinked and tried to run for it.

Silk caught her with her thread and yanked her over. Compress turned her into a marble too.

"What are you doing?" Mirko said.

Compress decompressed Miss Joke, who looked mad.

"Here." He tossed the other marble at her. "You can just tell her we fought and you beat us or whatever, problem solved."

"We can't keep doing this," Miss Joke said. "Why can't you just formally become our allies already?" She sighed.

"Why can't you become vigilantes?" Silk said.

"You know at the rate I'm going, darling," Miss Joke poorly imitated her accent, "I just might end up one."

"Guys," Twice called, "someone's coming. No, they aren't. It looks like the police. No, it doesn't. We should run. We should hide!"

"We best hide evidence," Silk said, "or splashed all over news about Stain, and he get all attention." She started picking up the knives.

"Get Mirko out of here," Compress told Shigaraki and Twice. "We'll hide the evidence."

"Yes! No!" Twice yelled.

"I can help." Miss Joke took one of Mirko's arms. "She'll be mobile in a few moments anyway. But I can't carry her alone. She's too heavy."

"It's muscle," Mirko said.

"I'm sure," Miss Joke said. "But one of you fellows will have to help me. We gotta split."

Twice didn't volunteer--instead he said something about Toga and disappeared.

Shigaraki rolled his eyes and took Mirko's other arm. At least he was wearing gloves. "This is just a mess. Stain will know all our new members now."

"I thought you were all buddy buddy with him," Miss Joke said as they dashed down the other end of the alley. Shigaraki disintegrated the wall there so they could move.

"No, that's what everyone thinks!" Shigaraki snapped. "I thought he was annoying."

"Well, he's a real pain in the arm, sure," Miss Joke jibed, "or the shin...or anywhere, really."

Not amusing.

"But still, wouldn't he only boost your ratings, as it were?" Miss Joke said.

"Not if the Originals are using him... They are taking all the players for themselves..." Shigaraki said.

"Yeah, first Overhaul and Kurogiri and now Stain," Miss Joke said. "The question is, why didn't they just recruit you directly? They brainwashed everyone else. Instead they keep trying to eliminate you and us and recruit the DJs. I may not be a Villain, but I'd think even a Villain would start to rethink this after a while. What do you have that they're so afraid of?"

"Goals perhaps," Shigaraki said.

"Would that convince a mad man like Stain to join them?" Miss Joke said. "Just where did your goals differ in the past?"

"D----d if I know. He revered All Might. I hate All Might, but he didn't seem to care about that. He just thought I had no conviction. But I showed him," Shigaraki said.

Mirko laughed.

Miss Joke didn't really find it funny. "But what conviction do you have?" she said. "I don't really think destroying Heroes is a conviction. More like a petty goal."

"What's wrong with that?" Shigaraki said.

"Everything," Miss Joke said. "But you seem not as bad as that, lately, wanting to save Kurogiri... Sorry about that... I mean, it's worse for Aizawa, but I see he was a valued team member. It's not pleasant for either of our groups to lose him."

Silence.

"Look," Miss Joke said carefully, "as long as people are protected, I don't care who I work with. Taking out Stain is better for us all. But if we are going to help each other personally, it would be best to be upfront about what we want. Are you going to kill him?"

"I don't really care if Stain lives or dies, as long as he's away from the public," Shigaraki said coldly.

"So you'd kill him if it solved the problem, but if he gets arrested again, you'll live with it," Miss Joke said.

Silence. Apparently, that was assent.

"Good, all I needed to hear." Miss Joke smirked. "Likstar and West can apprehend him, if they can't arrest him. All we need to do is find them... Ready yet, Rumi?"

"I think so." Mirko tried and almost fell on her face. "Okay, still a little numb... Good thing I'm type O, huh? You were out way longer than me."

"But you were caught twice, so is that really anything to brag about?" Miss Joke said.

"At least I got a hit in before that. You just stood there."

"I saved your life. You know, you could be more grateful--I can't believe we're having this argument." Miss Joke started laughing. "You're so incorrigible, you remind me of Eraser in a way."

"Ew," Mirko sniffed.

Shigaraki tuned them out.