Shine got the call about 20 minutes after leaving...

"Oh no..." she said.

"What?" Wally said.

"They waited till we left to attack...how do they time this so perfect? We have to go back before they get all of them," Shine said.

"Right. On it," Wally picked her up and ran.

* * *

"We're coming--" Shine was saying on the phone when a ninja knocked it out of Mirko's hand.

Then they crushed it with their pole.

"No calling in back up," they spoke for the first time. "Just you and us, huh 5?"

The two villains didn't count, apparently...well they were useless.

"That's the way l like it," Mirko refused to show fear...though she didn't feel as confident as normal.

She could take them, but they just kept coming.

Now they had them in a dead end...this was what came of not knowing the area you were in.

More were on the roofs on both sides in case she tried to jump.

Maybe she could still make it, but those two losers wouldn't be able to.

"Why didn't you stop my quirk?" she asked, trying to bluff, maybe Hawks would come over and be helpful for once.

"Oh, do you not get it?" the ninja said. "How cute...you're kind of stupid for a pro."

"You like to talk a lot for a ninja," Mirko kicked them into a wall.

Dabi snickered. That was kind of funny.

"Heard you were strong enough to take on nomu single handedly," another ninja taunted Mirko from overhead. "But even you can't fight a whole army."

"Give me the chance," Mirko rubbed her arm. "Hard to believe so many quirkless freaks exist around here."

"She's really mean," Dabi said to Shigaraki in a low voice. "Even for a pro. How did you even work with her?"

"I've been asking myself that since I started," Shigaraki replied dryly. "But for once, this could work for our advantage...they're awfully chatty. Don't ruin it."

"I'm not complaining," Dabi muttered.

"You look down on us so much," one ninja landed in front of her. Staff in hand. A smallish woman, it looked like. "But what makes it so much better to have a quirk? You're so desperate to keep it you'd help bloodthirsty killers? People who never should have been born."

The ninja looked at the two villains.

"All kinds of rumors go around...Devil child."

That didn't make any sense to Mirko, but Dabi saw Shigaraki flinch like he knew what that meant.

Dabi had been called worse since leaving home, but he knew Devil Child was a common thing to call kids with bad quirks. 

"We're doing them a service, really," the ninja said. "It's a pity you can't see it, hero. You're the problem, you're the ones who encourage people to 'make the most of their quirks' whatever it is you say. When do you ever remember there are people out there without quirks? We're less than nothing in this world...Even villains make a name for themselves with their quirks, but what can we do? Yet, we're the only true humans out of all of you...you're all devils, really. Just some are worse than others. You can't bear to give it up, can you? You're sick."

"Really seeing why Overhaul got along with this crowd." Dabi said.

The ninja smiled. "Overhaul will be happy to hear of your death, Dabi..."

"Overhaul is dead, hate to break it to you," Dabi said.

The ninja cocked her head. "Is he?"

That didn't really sound like a question.

Mirko had had enough. "No more chit chat." She kicked the pole out of the ninja's hand.

With more speed than expected, the ninja lunged back at her and did some kind of scissor kick to slam her into the ground.

Mirko wasn't much hurt by it, but the real objective was clearly to distract her.

The others hopped down from the roof to slam the two villains against the wall.

Dabi pushed back at the staff and pulled a knife out of his coat. It wasn't much of a weapon against such long range ones, but...

The ninja in front of him saw it and kicked it aside than slammed the end of their staff into his side, which probably broke a rib. Dabi fell down.

Shigaraki wasn't able to break free at all.

Mirko was trying to kick the ninja off of her when something hit her in the arm...one of those throwing knives...it cut more than she thought it would.

Another one grazed her ear.

Dang it, where was the backup?

The ninja who'd just been on her flipped out a knife and pressed Mirko down with her foot.

Mirko grabbed her leg and shoved it off her, bringing the girl down next to her, then she used her arm to slam her again. Getting up she kicked the knife away.

The sound of a gun being cocked froze her. Looking up, she saw one of the ninja on the roof had one out. Pointing it at her vital areas.

"Not a lot of room to run, rabbit," he said. "I wouldn't try it."

"We're dead..." Dabi muttered.

Mirko debated if kicking through the wall would get her out fast enough. Her maybe, but not them...and that was what they wanted. If she ran off they wouldn't bother to chase her...probably.

But it might be her only choice to try that idea. She started to move.

A shot hit the ground right in front of her.

"I said not to move," the ninja said. "Next time I'll hit your feet."

"Or you could shoot her ears off," a different ninja said. "Purify her, you know."

"That's an idea..."

The way he said that made Mirko's blood run cold.

Then something slammed into all of the ninja so fast no one could see it, they were just all suddenly without their weapons.

The two against the wall suddenly were knocked aside by Shine with her sword.

They whirled toward her and swung their staffs--instead of deflecting, Shine just cut through both of them with ease.

The ninja stared at her.

"Those were steel..." one said.

Shine held up her sword and pointed it at them.  "I'll give you three seconds to run."

Since they now had no weapons--at least ones long enough to fight a sword with--they backed up and ran for it.

Shine then turned and tossed her sword like a knife, pinning the ninja who'd been smacked by Mirko to the wall as she was turning to get up and run for it.

"And-- captured," Shine said, like it was a game to her.

"Rumi...you're bleeding..."

Mirko looked at her arm. "Just a scratch, I'm fine. Great timing btw, they were just about to kill us."

"Any time it's before that is a great time," Shine held out her hand to Dabi. "Are you okay? You don't look so good."

Dabi tried to swat her hand away and missed...like he was seeing double.

Shigaraki brushed himself off. "That was a lot of trouble just to capture one."

Wally came back. "I knocked most of them out," he rubbed his hand. "A few ran off, but I thought no point getting separated. I'll find the rest of the league."

"We'll just get out of here then," Shine said. "Come along Israelites, let's go," she gestured away.

Mirko grabbed the ninja woman they'd pinned.

The sword vanished then and reappeared in Shine's hand. Scaring the ninja at least if no one else.

"What did you just call us?" Shigaraki asked Shine as they raced out of the alley and away from the area itself.

"My people," Shine said. "Israelites. I was making a little joke because all the staffs and stuff reminded me of Moses, and we're running from the Egyptians, type of thing."

That didn't enlighten him at all.

Dabi tripped again and fell on his face.

"Dabi?" Shine said with concern.

He gripped his side. "D---ninja...broke a rib I think."

Shine bent down. "May I see?"

"What?" Dabi said.

Shine looked anyway..."Oh..." she shuddered. There was already an ugly bruise.

Mirko was more weirded out to see his scar tissue ran over half his torso. Did this guy just take a blowtorch to himself one day?

[Anyone else ever notice Dabi's scars sort of match where Endeavor has his fire when he's in costume?]

"This is not good," Shine said.

"It's fine," Dabi pushed himself up but twisted wrong and fell back over.

"Great..." Mirko said.

"Poor baby," Shine said.

Her saying that about Dabi weirded out Shigaraki as well as Mirko, they both made almost identical faces.

Dabi gave Shine a startled look. Then "Piss off, Likstar."

Shine didn't take any notice of this. "Let me try, okay? You know I might be able to do it."

"Ah, like Compress," Shigaraki said.

"Like...what?" Mirko said.

"You didn't notice his arm?" Shigaraki said with undisguised contempt.

Mirko thought then looked shocked. "Didn't he only have one...what the heck?!"

Shine looked up. "Oh...wow, huh, that's true isn't it? Good for him."

"Likstar...what are you?" Mirko said, for the first time a bit awed.

"Just a person," Shine said. 

She held her sword over Dabi.

"Don't," Dabi grabbed her wrist. "I don't want it from you. Enough is enough."

Shine bit her lip.

"Shigaraki, what do you say?" She asked.

"I don't know why he's being such an imbecile. If you can help, then do something, we're wasting time," Shigaraki looked back nervously. No ninjas were chasing them yet though.

"Yeah do it," Mirko wanted to see this.

Shine nodded, then she said a few words that just seemed to be telling the injury to heal.

Nothing very remarkable about it.

And they thought nothing happened, but then Dabi sat up and frowned. "You...did it anyway, you b---h!"

"Not the usual reaction." Shine said, standing. And she looked upset. "But yes."

"I didn't ask for this!"

"Luckily for you Dabi, your friends apparently do give a crap about you, and that's enough too," Shine said. "Blame him if you want," she nodded at Shigaraki.

"Maybe I will," Dabi glared at him.

"Are you...off in the head?" Shigaraki said.

"Yeah, I am,"  Dabi said.

"That's what I thought," Shigaraki said. "This is stupid. If we're done here, let's go."

"That was one of the weirdest things I've ever seen" Mirko said. "You just...talked...I've never seen a healing quirk like that."

"Not a quirk." Shine said.

"You know what I mean...how did you do it?"

"Authority...Come on," Shine motioned to move.

Dabi very reluctantly trudged behind the rest of them.

He stared at his hands.

"Poor baby..."

Why did that sound so familiar...something his mom would say back when he used to hurt himself and they still thought it was just a temporary thing...yeah...that was it.

[Credit for this idea goes to my sister, yay for teamwork]

"Could it work on mine?" Mirko was asking.

"Want me to try?" Shine asked.

"I dunno...it's a little weird." Mirko said.

"It won't give you voodoo or anything, Rumi, ours doesn't come at a price, that's how we're different from cults. It's a gift."

"I don't understand what that means." Mirko said.

"God heals people out of love," Shine said. "Sinners and saints alike...sometimes sinners more than saints. I've known more of his own followers to not get healing than their atheist friends.."

"Well, that's backwards. Not great advertising is it." Mirko clearly was skeptical.

"God expects us to be close to him and not need proof of His love like that, it's not that we are not still healed, we are...but if we aren't, we can bear it well enough." Shine said. "But to someone who doesn't know him, why shouldn't He show Himself? It makes sense. Anyway, there's no predicting God. Sometimes it's not instantaneous, but heals better and faster than it should have. Sometimes cancer disappears, I hear that one a lot, actually."

"Just healing people who don't do anything to deserve it seems a bit irresponsible," Mirko said.

"How like a hero to say," Shine said. "And like any other human, actually. That's how we think, Rumi. God sends rain on the just and the unjust. He told his followers "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy'...I told the same things to my students actually. Does it matter what we do? Can we earn God's favor? What does He need from us? Pardon me for saying it, but you're just as useless to him as any crazy criminal...or just as useful. God is not like us. He uses people who don't make sense."

"You're right, that makes no sense," Mirko said. "You're kind of pissing me off."

"Why should now be any different?" Shine replied drolly, to Shigaraki's amusement.

"The only thing I like about you Likstar is how you refuse to kiss up to Pros."

"Thank you, I like that about myself too," Shine said.

Mirko's face right then was classic...but then she laughed, to their surprise.

"Fine, I give up." She put her hands up. "You're not going to back down, huh."

"I won't, it's true," Shine said.

"Fine," Mirko shrugged. "But I don't know if your audience is really appreciating it."

She meant Dabi, who was still scowling.

"Why don't you drop dead," he said to her.

"Dabi!" Shine was shocked. She turned to look at him. "Don't say such things. What if it happened?"

"That'd be great, one less pro to worry about," Dabi spat.

"That's gratitude for you," Mirko crossed her arms. "He's even more of jackass than you are," nodding at Shigaraki.

Who had no words, he was half expecting Shine to just knock Dabi over on his a--.

Shine's eyes looked suspiciously watery. 

"If you're going to be that way, I wish you would just direct it at me," she said. "She didn't do anything wrong."

"Shows what you know. And frick you!" Dabi said. "Frick all of you."

"Me?" Shigaraki was stunned...for some reason.

Dabi glared at all of them, then he flinched. "Stop staring at me like that!" He laughed kind of hollowly. "Why do you look so shocked? Stop!" he backed up and then turned to run the other way.

They all stared.

"Should I go after him?" Mirko asked.

"I'm afraid he'd try to kill you," Shine said. "I'll go."

"He'll try to kill you too!" Shigaraki said.

"No, he won't," Shine said. "Tell Wally what happened for me, will you? This could take a while, but he'll be picked off if he's alone...if we don't come back, assume they caught us, okay? I'll do my best to protect him." She raced off after Dabi.

"She's a gosh darned saint," Mirko stated. "And a moron."

"What was that?" Shigaraki was too puzzled to care he was talking to a pro just then. "I've never seen Dabi act like that."

"Off hand? I'd say he's slipping," Mirko said. "But I have no idea why...weird question, did they have some kind of falling out? I thought they were friends before. He seemed weirdly loyal on the rescue."

"Yes...well she said he told her to leave him alone..." Shigaraki reflected. "But why would that make him act so stupidly..."

"Maybe it's like the portals..." Mirko mused.

"He was acting weird before that," Shigaraki dismissed that idea.

"Well, I don't know then!" Mirko snapped, but more at the situation than him. "Or why I apparently care! Other than she's going to get caught probably...that moron deserves it after this, but that's no reason to drag someone else down with him."

"Don't talk about Dabi that way." Shigaraki growled.

"Why not? You do."

"I earned it!"

"I doubt that."

"You're the most annoying person I have ever met! Next to All Might anyway!" Shigaraki turned to glare at her.

"Wow, second place to All Might." Mirko said dryly.

"It's the only time you ever will be, believe me," Shigaraki said.

Mirko made a fist. "That was just uncalled for...eh I'll let you off because we don't have time for this." She put her hand on her arm...and realized it was still bleeding. Kind of badly too.

"How did I not notice that...?" She muttered.

Shigaraki sniffed. "You'll pass out soon if you don't fix that."

"What do you care?" Mirko grumbled.

Hawks flew over head. "Rumi?" he swooped down.

"My quirk is working again, I think they ran off. That West is amazing, I've never seen anyone so fast....what happened to your arm?"

"What's it to you?" Mirko said venomously.

"Not the time for theatrics, Rumi," Hawks said. "We need to fix that before you bleed out."

"It's not that big of a gash," Mirko said.

It was almost a foot long, though thin.

"Are you...blind?" Hawks said. He pulled a first aid kit out of his pocket. "Hold still."

Mirko made sure to look as annoyed as possible while he took care of the wound.

When he was done, the rest of the LOV was regrouping.

Except Wally hadn't found Compress or Silk.

"I think they hid or something," He said. "I'm gonna keep looking for them. The rest of you should get Shine to send you back...where is she?"

"Went off chasing Dabi," Mirko said.

"She did what?" Hawks said.

"Why did Dabi run?" Wally wasn't even surprised that Shine chased him.

"He threw a fit because she healed him, bit our heads off, then he booked it" Mirko said. " I think he's losing his mind."

"Dabi's already lost his mind," Spinner said. [Great vote of confidence there, Spinner]

"More then." She said.

"He's acting unusual," Shigaraki allowed. "Likstar said she'd bring him back."

Wally nodded. "I think the ninja will regroup...but I'll look for her too...just uh...find somewhere to take cover."

"He's in charge now?" Spinner said.

"Oh, shut up Spinner, that's just obvious," Shigaraki rubbed his eyes. He was getting a headache from all this.

* * *

Compress and Silk had managed to stay together when everyone was scattered, but lost the twins and Spinner.

The ninja were right on their heels though, and Silk's screen got yanked aside.

"Ach! Blast my destructible quirk!" She said.

"Oh, contraire, madame," Compress pulled out a marble and tossed a huge road block (literally) in the ninja's path. "You're quirk has been most useful. But we must hurry."

Silk wove another cover for them.

Two more ninja came over the roofs and then scampered down at them. One threw a few throwing stars at them.

"Duck!" Compress shoved Silk aside, as she was much smaller than him, he could do that... he didn't quite move in time himself though.

One pierced his leg.

"Ah..." he fell over.

"Compress?" Silk's accent got really strong on that, she sounded concerned.

"I'm afraid they out maneuvered me there," Compress attempted to sound like he was playing it off with humor...but that had really hurt.

He pulled the star out.

The ninja surrounded them.

"This is easier than we thought," one said snidely.

Silk glared at them.

"You're poor sports," she said. "Four of you to two of us."

"Six, darling," two more came up and one spoke sardonically to her.

"She spins silk like a spider, how revolting," another said.

Silk hated that word.

She stood up, glaring at them. "Revolting, huh?"

She shot silk streams out of her arms and hooked their staffs, then smacked them together.

Unwinding the silk, she proceeded to catch two more of them and yanked them off their feet before they even had time to move.

The other two jumped at her, knives out.

Compress snapped open a tool box under their feet and one of them tripped.

Silk kicked him off balance, then used her cloths to catch the other and slam them into the ground.

All the ninja moaned in pain.

Silk's eyes blazed. "Am I still revolting?"

"Madame, perhaps we should run..." Compress suggested, trying to stand.

Silk tied them all up before they could get up, and then helped Compress hobble away as fast as they could.

They found a bar that was open.

The owner had slow business...and took one look at them, and ran for it, along with all the customers.

"What a bad audience..." Compress said weakly.

"Sit down," Silk brought him to one of the stools. "You're hurt...I can bandage that for you."

"I'm quite capable myself," Compress said.

[Silk image design by Onerose]

"Not on yourself," Silk said. "That is bad idea...I mean, a bad idea..." she bit her lip like her slip up embarrassed her. "I can do it, I know a lot of First Aid. My mother was a nurse."

"Oh...well, if you're professional, I suppose," Compress didn't much care for gore himself.

Silk grabbed a bottle of alcohol from behind the bar and formed some silk out of her hand.

"So...uh, how do you do that?"

"I'm...like a spider," Silk said. "Or a worm...I spin it...I have little spinets too small to see, but...and I can make it any color I like...they said it was a weak quirk, but they just think too small..." she sounded very Russian on that last part.

Compress thought it was kind of sexy...then he caught himself, what was that thought?

"It does seem to have a thousand uses...that was impressive back there."

[It's a real thing, by the way, using silk to fight. It's an ancient Chinese martial art called SABAI that uses silk scarves, as well as whips, ropes, fishing nets, etc. There is also a form of Kungfu called Spider that uses ropes to fight, capture, entangle etc. See link for more info https://pahuyuth.com/en/sabai/   And here I thought that movies were exaggerating that. Y'all learn so much reading my story, don't you?]

She started binding up the wound. "This is bad for such a small object. They make sharp--it sharp."

"Why do you keep doing that?" Compress said.

"Doing what?"

"Correcting, no one cares if you make mistakes...Japanese is not your first language?"

Pause.

"My mother spoke Russian mostly at home," Silk said slowly. "I learned more of it first, I suppose. Than I live in Russia for a short time with family, spoke it only. Sometimes Japanese is too hard...it gets stuck...but I know it, I just have to think about it more."

She shrugged. "When I'm stressed, I slip."

"Don't worry, people love a good accent on stage."

"Not in conversation," Silk said.

"What's so wrong with having a bit of an exotic flare? I think you're lucky." Compress said.

"Makes it easier to identify me," Silk was not going to be moved on this. "Being different is dangerous, in the underground. But we endure."

"Well, if your accent is the most odd thing about you in the LOV, I'd say you're pretty normal for us." Compress said dryly.

Silk sat back. "Thank you for the rescue back there... I apologize for the injury."

"I'd say you more than made up for it...the looks on their faces...One minute they thought they had the little Russian Girl cornered, and the next it was "oh we gravely miscalculated.'" Compress relished the memory.

"Question:" Silk raised her hand. "Why do you wear the mask?"

"Oh this? Anonymity...I don't want to be too recognizable. Someone has to go out and do the shopping you know. No one knows what I look like." Compress said.

"Ah," Silk said. "You like theater also?"

"I used to be in it, guess old habits die hard."

"Mmm...Truthfully, you're the only one in this League I think I can talk to normally," Silk admitted. "I...don't know if I'm the same kind of villain."

"Well, no two of us are quite alike, I daresay...Mind if I ask why you're a villain?"

Silk's expression clouded over.

"Oh...it's that bad...my apologies."

"I don't care if you know," Silk said flatly. "My parents were killed by villains."

"So you...became one..." Compress didn't follow.

"That was not reason." Silk stared at the wall. "The reason was they were killed in a fight between villain and hero."

"I still don't understand, forgive me."

"After it was over, I watch news...I was in...shock, as they say it. The reporter interviewed the Pro." Silk closed her eyes. "And the Pro Hero...smiled at camera and said. 'Well it's regrettable, there were some casualties, but at least this dangerous criminal is behind bars. So in the end, it was a victory.'"

Compress was not much for sentiment, but even he grimaced. "That's...vile."

"People told me it was just them keeping up a brave face." Silk balled some of her screen cloth into a tight wad. "And I know, it was true...and that disgusted me. I decided not to support a society where that was normal...My parents dying was not a victory... I never thought I join LOV, though. I just didn't want to be part of the hero world...and only way to do that is to be villain."

"I admire your conviction there," Compress said honestly. "I get the feeling we may have similar stories in that way."

He took off his mask.

"Heroes really are sick, huh?"

Silk nodded.

"If you tell us who it was, we could probably get revenge for you."

"I prefer do it myself...but thank you for offering," Silk said. "Not too many people care about reason, in the crime world."

"Well, the LOV is a little unique there, I think."

Compress might have been a little too generous with some of the members there.

But in any case, Silk interested him. It was refreshing to have a non-psychotic villain who still hated heroes in the league.

Very intriguing.