Shigaraki was questioned accordingly.

It was hard for him to talk about it, as Shine had thought. Even trying to describe what happened with AFO sent his mind spinning...but he was a bit more composed about Ender and what he'd seen and heard before the betrayal.

His description of what Paint had said of Ender's powers to "unmake" concerned the DJs, all three of them, and Mabui.

"It's like the opposite of healing," Mabui analyzed. "I have been giving it some thought. All Ender's powers we know of, and his associates', are like the dark sides to yours. You bring peace, they bring fear. You unite, and they divide. That was what that Kali girl did.... Even her quirk suggests it, Corruption. She corrupted."

"That's...a solid analysis." Shine was impressed. "I have felt all this, but I didn't string it together yet...so many people to take care of."

"This is why I am here," Mabui said calmly. "You have to focus on helping people improve now, that is your job. So I am doing what I am good at. No need to feel bad."

"I---Was it that obvious I did?" Shine said.

"You do kind of try to do it all..." Wally said.

"I have many interests," Shine said, defensively.

"Well, it's good to delegate at such a time," Dillon said. "Go on, little lady."

Mabui didn't care for being called that, but she went on. "If your main goal is to heal people and put them back together, into the right shape, then could Ender's similarly be to undo people, things...and could it be that his power becomes physical, just as yours does?"

"Sounds like it," Wally said. "Also, ugh." He shuddered.

"What would that do to a person?" Aizawa asked.

"Ain't it obvious?" Dillon said. "That poor feller that Shigaraki here saw, he's gone all to pieces..."

"That's funny," Wally said, "you know...because his quirk makes things go to pieces...but now he can't put them back together..." He laughed nervously. "Come on, guys..."

"Can we protect ourselves from this?" Midnight had her serious voice on.

"With having met him, we aren't sure," Shine said. "But at the very least, letting him touch you with that would be a terrible idea. The far reaching effects of it would still be bad but probably reversible...but I have feeling it would take him being defeated for us to get that far."

She tapped her chin. "For now...however he attacks, we have to assume he has the power as long as he's able to function. The devil is called the king of this world. Evil often gets the upper hand until there is Divine intervention. Crushing him is the only way we could hope to keep everyone safe."

"Do you mean you will have to kill him?" Aizawa asked.

Silence.

Dillon flipped his gun. "At times there ain't no other way. He's gonna be loony as a road lizard if he's into that dark, shadow walking.... At that point, it ain't clear if anyone can come back. We probably couldn't stop him any other way."

"But we don't kill," Wally said.

"That is why Dillon is here," Shine said.

"Are you...sure?" Miss Joke said.

"I had a feeling it was that as soon as he arrived," Shine said. "If we just needed power, God could grant us that, but...our code is not to kill. Different DJs have different feelings and callings...but Dillon's code doesn't forbid it."

"It's true," Dillon said. "I've had to shoot a man a few times who was attacking my boys." He shook his head. "I ain't killed one, but we was dealing with ordinary men then.... This Ender is no ordinary man...if he's even a man anymore. It just has to be.... I'm okay with that. I believe you have to protect the innocent."

"But...your religion?" Midnight said.

"Does not forbid it," Shine said. "That is Wally and my personal feeling on what we're supposed to do. But Dillon is not the same kind of DJ as us. He's stationary.... That means he has permanent residence in his world, at least for the foreseeable future.... As such, he doesn't affect world events as much, and he has more freedom."

"I'm there to train up people," Dillon said, "and to deal with crisis like this...backup. It's all right, ma'am, we knew it might come to this."

"We can't just let him go," Wally said. "He could just go somewhere else.... That's why we think it has to be this way. He finds a world that's not guarded by DJs who know about him...well...he could do anything."

No one argued further.

"We should rest up," Shine said. "My gut says we won't get a whole 'nother day of quiet.... He'll realize soon if he hasn't already that Shigaraki has not been killed or killed us."

Shigaraki was silent, but as they were getting up he asked, "Will you kill AFO also?"

Pause.

"Not planning to," Wally said finally. "He's a citizen of this world. It's not the same."

"They should take care of him themselves," Dillon agreed. "But if he is close to Ender...well, he may not make it anyway. Dark powers always take a great price out of those that use it, especially willingly."

"In the end, whatever we do may kill him," Shine said, "but it won't be on purpose.... It will be his own choice. We can hope he'll realize his mistake before then."

Shigaraki didn't say anymore. Truthfully, he didn't know if he wanted AFO dead or alive...

He never wanted to see him again, but...if he did live, that might happen. And if he died...well...what then? Life was just a blank.

* * *

He thought of this more later, as everyone else was turning in,and trying to be calm and have their time with each other.

Mirko and Ren talked also, aside, about things.

Shigaraki kind of realized how alone he was in the world compared to them all.... They all had family or friends or...whatever the couples thing was...and he no longer even had a League.

He'd never really been alone since being on the streets. He had Ujiko, Kurogiri, and AFO...

Granted...they were psychotic, as he was realizing now, but...was it better than nothing?

If he was somehow going to survive all this...what would he do? Go to jail? Or...just fade into the void again?

Neither was a pleasant thought.

Silk might have been thinking similar things, from how she was looking at everyone almost enviously but not joining in.

"You think you're going to join us?" Dabi broke into Shigaraki's thoughts by asking him. "When we face off.... After they fricked you up, I think you could sit it out."

"I doubt I'll get that option," Shigaraki said. "Once Ender realizes I am alive, he'll come for me and all of you."

"Well, you're like our bait, then," Dabi said. "Don't feel bad. One of us was bound to end up on his list...and Mabui will feel better not being the only one."

"Did you make up?" Shigaraki thought they were acting kind of non-hostile compared to before.

"Did we make--? Oh, you said up..." Dabi seemed nervous. "Yeah...we worked it out.... How did you know about it?"

"Mirko said something." 

"So she snitches on other people now..." Dabi said. "Well..." Then he got a mischievous gleam.

"So how are things with the two of you?" he said.

"In what way?"

"You know...you ready to just come out with it yet?" Dabi said. "You like her, don't you? I mean...we all can tell.... It's freaking weird, but its also funny, so I'm willing to approve. Not that you'd care."

"Like her.... I guess I like her as much as I like anything," Shigaraki said.

"You like video games," Dabi said. "Does she remind you of a video game?"

Shigaraki looked enlightened. "Yes, actually.... That could explain it."

"Well," Dabi surveyed Mirko, "violent...crazy...cartoony sense of humor and outfit...and bunny girl...yep, definitely a video game character. That tracks. You have a weird type."

Shigaraki didn't know enough about types to retort about Dabi's choice in women, so he just scowled.

"Still," Dabi said, "dang...I mean, I'm surprised you can do that well...as far as looks go...or do you not notice that?"

Shigaraki wondered what he was getting at.

"What do you mean, Dabi? Speak clearly for once."

"Not my style, Boss, but you know she's hot, right?" Dabi said. "I'm not really into the athletic types, but I know what the public opinion is. You don't notice that? Too dead inside maybe?"

"Hot means aesthetically pleasing, right?" Shigaraki had heard Medea use this word enough times to start to get context for it.

"Sure..." Dabi said, "in one way...can mean actions too..."

"What does it have to do with what you're talking about?"

"I just want to know if you'd tap that," Dabi said.

Then he seemed to recall that someone else could walk up to them at any moment and kill him, so he amended, "If you're into her."

"Into.... That doesn't make sense."

"Do I really have to explain this to you?" Dabi said...but he was secretly dying for a chance to do exactly that...in his own way.

"I wish you'd explain something." Shigaraki had no idea what he could unleash by saying that-- Dabi was just pissing him off by being vague.

"Well, to keep it PG," Dabi said, with a naughty look toward the DJs, "you might be thinking about her all the time, and wishing she was around when she's not, and getting excited when she is...and, uh, in most people's case, you might want to do some things physically...but you probably are above that, right?"

But a look at how guilty Shigaraki's expression was told him otherwise.

"Holy cow, am I actually on the mark? D---, you're not as dead as you look, huh?"

"How did you know all that?" Shigaraki was terrible at hiding things.

"Oh, wow..." Dabi was loving this. "This is too good.... You've actually fallen for that rabbit."

"Don't call her a rabbit, Dabi. That's disrespectful," Shigaraki said. 

"Oh, well, sorry," Dabi said insincerely. "Your waifu, then."

"What do you mean fallen for?" Shigaraki wondered if Dabi saw what happened earlier...then he realized it was probably just an expression.

"Like you...you know...are in love with her." Dabi still had a hard time saying that word.

Shigaraki stared at him blankly. "What does that mean?"

"Just what I was saying before.... I mean, maybe it's a little deeper than that.... I don't know. You tell me.... I'm new to it. I just figured it out myself."

"So what did you figure out?" Shigaraki demanded.

Dabi glanced toward Mabui, then he lowered his voice. "Well...I don't deserve it, but...I got used to her being around...and then, I kind of got to where I needed her.... I wasn't going to admit it, because I'm just that ungrateful and selfish...but then it looked like I was gonna lose her, and I couldn't stand it.... She's annoying like that.... I mean, she makes me so mad." He was smiling weirdly while he said that...like he wasn't really mad. "But I can't do without it.... Even if I could, I don't want to have to. It's crazy...I never got like that with anyone else.... I think I was too scared to.... Let me guess, you're not much different. One thing we always did have in common, not getting close to people."

Shigaraki didn't like how much Dabi has just summed up how he felt.

And he hadn't even known it till he heard it.

"And all that is the thing you're talking about?" he said.

"If not it's pretty d--- close," Dabi said. "Probably different for everyone, but...well, the way you've been looking at her, it seems like you feel that way." He coughed. "I hate sappy stuff, but...you know, a little free advice. Don't be like me and pretend you're not thinking it and feeling it...because if you let it slip out of your hands, it's gonna stick with you forever.... Anyway, living without love...as cheesy as it sounds, it's really just 'not dying'. I wasn't much better than dead all those years I lived off hate, and I knew it. I guess you do too, Boss. And we've not got much reason to work together after this, because I'm out of the League, like you said.... I didn't care that much about all of you, because I hated everyone...but these people are the ones who taught my stubborn a-- to be better than that and actually set some stock in affection. They'd probably teach you the same if you let them...and...it is worth it, I think." He looked down. "At least, I wouldn't go back to being the way I was before. I don't even like that guy. It was like a prison to live with myself.... Tou gotta have other people, and you gotta have something bigger than you to believe in, or you're just a worm really. 'But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people.' [Psalms 22:6] Just like David said."

Shigaraki for the first time began to think that people really did do 180s, because this sounded nothing like Dabi.

But also...in a weird way, this sounded more like Dabi...like he was for one actually saying what he really thought, not being salty and disagreeable. In fact, Shgiarkai wasn't sure he'd ever known Dabi at all. What he'd known might just have been a hollow husk of a person, and he was just too naive and inexperienced at the time to know the difference.

Or he himself was just as hollow, and we can't see depth in others if we lack it ourselves.

"You're different," he said aloud.

Dabi shrugged. "Yeah," he said, "learning to be...learning to accept it.... You're kind of different too, though. Day was, I remember, you'd have scoffed at what I'm saying without a second thought, but I get the impression you're actually thinking about it. Maybe they already got to you, huh?"

Shigaraki said nothing.

"You know...I'll just say this," Dabi said. "I thought I would never change.... I fought Shine hard on that before I left the League. And you know what she said to me?" He closed his eyes as he went back in his mind:

"'You know that we're all born in sin--that is, evil. You, me, all of us...we're all born villains...

"'Don't you think the things people are most ashamed of are what they cannot help?

"'It's all so tempting to say being a Villain is your chosen path...but what really keeps you up at night, afraid to look at yourself in the mirror, afraid of your own mind...is the horrible, terrible, paralyzing thought that maybe in reality, you really never could help it.

'It's only, that is all you've seen for so long, you forgot what it was like to be different'.

"'What would be left of me...if I didn't live this way?' Is what I said to her," he recalled.

"And she just laughed and said 'nothing, Touya...absolutely nothing...'"

[All this was in part 112. Funnily enough, Dabi used the metaphor of being a worm and doing a 180 in that part also. I didn't remember that, but I guess I just write him consistently on instinct now.]

"Nothing," Shigaraki repeated.

"Yeah, you get it, don't you?" Dabi said. "You're one guy who would get it. Maybe Twice would too, if he was here. That was what I wanted. It took her saying it, being that bluntly honest to me, for me to realize it. I didn't like what I was, but I figured my past would haunt me to my dying day, so I had to live it out...but when she said that there would be nothing left of me...that meant all of that too. The 'me' that I was then, it was just made of hate and bitterness, nothing real about it. I know that now. I'm...still bitter sometimes...but I guess I'm other things now."

"So did it work?" Shigaraki asked. "It went away?"

"It's nothing creepy like forgetting it all," Dabi said. "Look at Lethe and Medea. No one wants that. It just takes away your life. It's...like something goes into it, when you accept their God...and it goes back to everything and makes it seem different than it was.... This book called The Great Divorce, Shine makes us all ready it as part of her curriculum, and it talks about how Heaven and hell color our whole lives...and I knew it was true because the hell I went through as a kid colored my whole life for me...but with them, and with their God, there was a color stronger than that finally, and it colored over it, I guess. I still...don't like what happened, but it's not the strongest thing in my life anymore." He held up his hands. "I never thought a new life was possible, but here it is. I keep not believing it and almost ruining it again...but if I just believed it...it's there. Is that crazy or what?"

He sounded like Dabi now...

Shigaraki didn't understand...but he wished he did, for once. It sounded so out there...really too good to be true.

"Still...at least you hadn't done the unthinkable," he said.

"Well, Boss, technically I do have a higher body count than you," Dabi said. "I mean...you were heading there, but they kind of stopped you.... I'd take that if I were you. You aren't ever getting this again. They'll go home, even if we defeat Ender...and the rest of us are good, but they're better. They can help you faster than we can. I'd take it now if I were you."

He leaned on the back of a chair. "And if you do, I'd think about that rabbit woman, because she's definitely waiting for you to freaking get a clue."

Shigaraki was silent.

"I know that look," Dabi said dryly. "It all sounds better than poor schmucks like us can deserve, right? Well, that's true. We don't deserve it...but I've got this crazy idea since I talked to that weird cowboy.... What if the people who don't deserve it get it because that's just God's way of showing the irony of this whole thing? Like, Shine's right, we're all born villains, so we're all bad. And people are just as bad as each other.... I mean, you always said that people are all complacent and part of the problem, so there, you're right...but God has mercy on people who ask for it and gives them a good life, so that He can show what happens if even the rest of us are willing to own up to it and get help. We're the best examples.... Anyway, if my life can turn around, then you can't be that much more fricked up.... I was out to kill my family on purpose...and now we do lunch. Don't ask me how the h--- that happened. That has to be God. What else could explain that? It doesn't make any logical sense. I'm working for the man I hated the most in the world...and...it's not the worst thing ever...so...impossible things happen. Just give it some thought."

Shigaraki was guaranteed to do that after what he'd just said.

Dabi wandered off.

Shigaraki sat quiet for a long time.

* * *

Things had been still in Ender's camp for the last 48 hours also.

Preparations had been made, but all contact with the outside world had been limited.

Ender was restless. With no Akume spying on them, it had been much harder. None of his scouts had dared get close enough to them.

"I feel they are not dead," he told AFO and Ujiko, finally. "I think I could tell if they were. I didn't much expect that idiot to be able to kill DJs...but if he eliminated their students that would be enough."

"I have sent Toga to verify it," AFO said, "since none of your associates seem able to get that close."

"Toga won't be good for that much longer," Ender said.

"But she's back," Ujiko said.

Toga phased into the room.

"You guys were right. Endeavor's agency is so gross and ugly now." She waved her hands. "People said it was some wild quirk thing. It's closed. Endeavor is working mobile now."

"As expected," AFO said. "And did you verify if our targets were terminated?"

"Ah," Toga sighed, "I heard people talking and saying there weren't any casualties."

"What?" Ujiko said.

"None?" Ender's tone was horribly cold.

"None," Toga said. "A bunch of Heroes were around it, but they all got out. News didn't know how, but it sounds like that nasty, fast guy probably."

"And of Shigaraki? He perished?" AFO asked.

"I don't know," Toga said. "I heard that Endeavor was seen at Hawks' agency instead, so I took the train over there. I cut some people along the way."

"You were warned not to," Ujiko said.

"I couldn't help it." Toga laughed crazily. "Anyways, I saw people through the window.... I was in disguise of course. I took the blood of one of the interns."

"Did you let them go afterward?" AFO said. "Because if not, they will suspect you."

"It won't matter," Toga said.

"She's right. It won't matter," Ender said. "Hawks' agency...I don't know how they got out in time. He should have terminated all of them in mere minutes, and I made sure that fast running buffoon was not close enough to hear it."

"Well, who was around?" AFO asked.

"That boy you had, Lethe," Ender said. "An easy enough target still linked to me. And one we want dead or retrieved anyway. At least he is probably taken care of. I highly doubt they got him away in time."

[He'll be so disappointed when he finds out Lethe is alive.]

"I say let's kill them now," Toga said, grinning.

"It could be your bloodhound has a point," Ender said, with disdain toward Toga evident in his tone. "We can never continue my plans until they are gone..."

"You say that, and every time, they escape," AFO said. "Enact your plans, and kill them when they try to stop you. Set a trap."

"Do not command me," Ender warned, the shadows thickening around him.

AFO and Ujiko were silent. The very air felt heavy when he spoke like that.

"Still," Ender considered, "perhaps a two-pronged attack.... We can begin our procedures and take care of them....and this time, I will make it so that they have nowhere to run and hide. Ujiko, take whatever tools you have left, and Panniku will go with you. I want them all dead except the ones who's quirks may be useful, if you can bring them quietly. If not, kill them too. We don't need them now. It would be a mere bonus."

He smiled thinly. "I will teach them the errors of their ways. Their resistance is admirable in a way...but it will be crushed."

"I look forward to it." Ujiko smirked.

* * *

Hawks was asleep in his office when his feathers kind of prickled, and he sat up.

He thought he heard something, or sensed it...

His feathers shot out, scanning the area.

Nothing inside...

He got up and opened his window, then he flew outside, looking around.

It was dark, but plenty of lights were on along the street...not in the agency itself, as they thought it was best to appear closed.

He flew to the ground, and he thought he saw shadows running into the bushes in the front of the agency.

He flew after it, and a strange smell hit his nose.... Nothing he recognized, but it was unpleasant...kind of sickly...

The darkness seemed thicker around here than before...

At the same time, the light seemed dimmer suddenly.

Hawks looked up.... He didn't even see the moon, and it was a full moon that night...

No stars either...

And then...the lights on all the streets seemed to turn off all at one.

Hawks was blind except for his feathers, but he used them to navigate back inside...

He wasn't really afraid of the dark, but something about this was giving him the creeps--and then that feeling suddenly just got worse and worse, and it turned into sheer panic.

He barreled down the hallways, running into corners he didn't take the time to feel ahead for and finally ran into Dillon, who had a flashlight in his hand.

"What in blue blazes is after you, Hawks?" Dillon asked, as Hawks knocked him off his feet.

Hawks felt like his chest was getting tight. "Dark!" he asked. "It's so dark. The lights, they're all gone, and I saw something!... Ah..." He fell to the floor and hugged his sides.

"What's going on?" Midnight appeared in one doorway. The light in there was on.

"I don't rightly know." Dillon examined Hawks. "He's under some kind of attack, but he's not one for panic attacks, is he? He says something's off outside. I'mma have a looksee. Get Miz Likstar and West, will you?"

"Be careful," Midnight advised. "Hawks is not one to just panic.... What should I do with him?"

Hawks moaned.

"You know...I'd just put him to sleep if you can," Dillon said. "He'll hurt himself if he flies around like a bat of of hell again." He hurried down the hall.

Midnight pulled back her sleeve.... In a moment Hawks was unconscious.

Then she rushed to wake up the other two DJs.

They were up but not out of bed yet.

Wally was dressed in a moment and hurrying. Shine pulled on a t shirt over her pajamas and grabbed shoes before following.

Outside, Dillon saw all the lights out. So it wasn't just in Hawks' head.

"Well," he said, "this is one shadow play I don't like to see...and what a peculiar scent." He sniffed, then he pulled his kerchief over his face. "Better to have some insurance."

He looked around and noticed some thick shadows.

He shot at them.

There was a screech like someone had been caught off guard, and the darkness cleared a bit, but the moon didn't reappear.

And Dillon heard the snap of something heavy moving through the bushes.

Since he couldn't see much at all, he hurried back inside, shut the door, and locked it.

"What's going on?" Wally was there.

"Something's afoot out there." Dillon stood by the door, gun pointed up. "I didn't rightly see what it was, but it was shadowy, like you said before, and a scent...something chemical, maybe. I'd seal up any open windows."

"Are there any?" Shine asked.

"Well, the bird-winged feller didn't use this door to get out, so there might be one open," Dillon said.

"I'll find it." Wally dashed off.

"Miz Likstar," Dillon said, "you know more about these foes. What kind of thing is this?"

"This is new," Shine said. 

"I heard something big step out there," Dillon said. "Maybe it was a man, maybe not. I didn't care to fight in the dark. You can't see a blamed thing outside."

"Hmm," Shine mused. "That's new too.... I'm going to wake the kids, then. Midnight, help me."

* * *

Everyone was up. Some of them had also been awake already.

They gathered into the main room.

Kitsune sniffed. "Hey...I kind of smell something now...something bad." She wrinkled her nose. "It's sickly sweetish but sour too."

"That's what I smelled," Dillon said warily, "and that buzzard boy might have too."

"He's a hawk," Midnight said.

"Whatever he is, ma'am, he wasn't acting rational," Dillon said.

"I've...read this in a comic before." Shine tapped her forehead. "A chemical concoction that induced paranoia."

[Mr. Miracle was the comic.]

"He was plumb scared near to death," Dillon said.

"I have seen this too," Mabui said. "When I was captured, remember? I was subject to some kind of drug that induced fear." She shivered. Dabi put a hand on her shoulder.

"If that's in the air.... We can't go outside," Momo said.

"Then we're trapped in here," Aizawa said.

"Yes..." Shine said. "Trapped for what?"

The answer came a little sooner than anyone wanted.

Shadows seemed to spring to life out of the corners of the room which weren't well lit.

Some of the kids screamed, Eri included. She grabbed Miss Joke's leg.

Mirko jumped back.

Medea lit her hand on fire and illuminated it...

The shadow seemed solid...

Then they all saw why. They were not just shades, they were nomu...

But different nomu than before.... No brains were exposed...and they had no beaks. It was hard to say if they were part human or not.

The girls screamed again seeing that.... Kaminari did too.

The monsters lunged at them all, scattering them every direction as they tried to get away.

"Hey, keep your heads!" Shoto yelled, shooting fire at one as it clawed towards him. He used ice to slide out of its way.

"Go to hell!" Bakugo yelled at another, blasting off.

"Shine?" Wally said. "These things look weird to me.... Should we fight them?"

"We won't have a choice about that," Shine said. "No one get separated alone! Wally, you should keep Eri away from them, protect her. She can fight for herself like we can."

Wally nodded and rushed to grab Eri up. She was silent now, just terrified.

"This is Ujiko's doing," Shigaraki commented, rather unimpressed. He was the only one probably not moved by this.

"You don't freaking say?" Dabi lit his hand on fire and swatted at one.

More seemed to be coming.... Mabui counted 10, at least, chasing them around.

Another strange thing, the nomu didn't damage the floor at all. They didn't break any furniture...yet the force they were stomping at the kids with suggested they could easily do both those things.

"These aren't regular nomu," Aizawa said, leaping out of the way.

Shine's eyes flashed gold. "They're hybrids," she said. "They are partly solid, but they're partly shadow...like the Grimm.... Ujiko's work combined with Ender's."

But it got worse.

The nomu suddenly spoke, all at once. "We will eat you!" they said.

That was too much for some of the kids.

Jiro covered her ears.

"We'll swallow you up in darkness, and you'll go down into the pit," the nomu hissed.

"Ahh...make it stop," Eri wailed.

Shigaraki frowned.

Mirko suddenly covered her ears. "Why is that so loud?"

The nomu seemed to gain strength from their fear, but they attacked with renewed vigor...

The four main students were still fighting, but Camie really couldn't do much except distract them.

But the other students were freaking out, scared of this new threat.

Ibara maintained enough calm to at least shield herself and Iida, Jiro, Kaminari, Lethe, and Yin from the nomu. Lethe and Yin were freaking out, but they were being pretty quiet about it.

Shine had her sword out and was slicing at the nomu, but they were dodging it with more speed than she expected.

"Dang pesky varmints." Dillon shot at one, and it fell to the ground...and it dissolved back into the shadows on the floor.

Midnight tried to use her whip and found it had no effect, and now she was out of options.

One nomu chased her to the corner.

"Help!" she started yelling.

Wally threw some objects at some of them to distract them.

Dillon shot, and a doorway opened where the bullet went into the air. He leapt through backward, like a cowboy at a rodeo jumping off a horse, and came out in front of Midnight, firing at the nomu in question.

It fell down.

"Well, they go down easier than they sound," he said.

Midnight gasped. 

"Everyone!" Shine climbed onto a table to get a little more room. "Don't be afraid. That is what they want."

"We'll tear the flesh off your bones." One of them came toward her.

Shine held up her sword, and light flashed off the blade like the sun.

Then nomu recoiled.

"Don't speak to me again, you filth," Shine said. "I command you to be silent!"

The others began howling more words at her.

Shine winced. "Stop..."

Dillon fired a few rounds into the air, and the sharp noise cut the monsters off briefly. They stopped to look at him.

"Everyone better holler as loud as they can," he said. "These things' bark is worse than their bite!"

Bakugo suddenly started yelling what sounded like lyrics to a song.

Inspired...the others started to join him.

https://youtu.be/2SifchEJuKY

{Editor's note: Pretty sure Bakugo, when joining the group, would have forced everyone to agree that he was the only person who could pick the soundtrack if/when an apocalyptic situation should occur.}