The day following the twins' disappearance, the UA students were working with Pro heroes to continue their internships.

Shine and Wally hung with Dabi when they were not with Eri and were keeping somewhat of a prayerful watch on their part, waiting for the axe to fall.

But when it did fall, it was not what they thought was going to happen at all.

Aizawa texted Shine at about 10 am to check the news. His tone was not good and the text ended with, "Your friends seem to have grown tired of playing nice."

Shine got a dreadful feeling in the pit of her stomach.

She turned on the TV in the living area (she was at the housing with Dabi at the time).

Dabi was just getting some late breakfast and came in just in time to drop it on the floor.

The news channels were all covering the same thing.

In one of the cities not too far from the school, but nearer to the coast, at least 6 Nomu had appeared out of nowhere, as always, and were tearing up everything in sight.

"How many...? You had 6?" Shine was aghast.

"I don't know how many we had." Dabi was staring. "Or how strong they were. I thought we didn't have that many left that were any good. It was hard to get chumps to... You know, because Kurogiri was gone... Shine, mark my words, that's not something Shigaraki would do right now. He can't risk that kind of exposure."

"Then they just got out? Don't they only follow a human command?" Shine asked, already filling her backpack.

"As far as I know-- but maybe not?!" Dabi was mad. "I swear, it's not Shigaraki."

"I believe you, Dabi. I'm not stupid. This can only be connected to yesterday, but do you want to find out what someone else will do with those things? I have to go see if I can stop them!"

"Are you crazy? If you can't do it they'll tear you into pieces!" Dabi grabbed her arm. "Even if you could do one, could you do 6?"

"I don't know... Wally will need to help."

"Even with his help, the most he could handle is two of those things, if they're as resilient as the rest," Dabi insisted, "You have to wear them down..."

Shine bit her lip. "What else can we do? No one else has a prayer of stopping them as quickly as us...and look, that's a heavily populated area, Dabi, so people have probably already died..."

"Well...at least let me come with you, then," Dabi sighed, "I could handle one, probably..."

Shine hesitated. "You're willing to risk it?"

"And my alternative is staying here waiting for...?"

"All right. All right...but we have to be careful. If you hurt yourself, it'll be useless to me, and I don't want to have to carry you around."

"Got it... Where's West?"

"I'll call him. He's probably already on his way." Shine whipped out her phone.

* * *

"Boss, there's something I think you need to see!" Spinner yelled in a ghostly voice.

Shigaraki came out of the back room to find all the LOV gathered around some stolen TV.

They watched the news coverage.

"Uh...that's about...4 kilometers from where we are," Compress said suddenly, staring at the screen.

At that moment they all heard a very loud crash that matched something one of the monsters threw on screen.

"Ahhh!" Silk screamed.

Toga screamed.

Twice screamed.

"All of you, calm down!" Compress didn't sound calm. "We have no way of proving they are heading for us."

"Oh, shall we just wait till they raze the whole city to determine that?" Shigaraki snapped, "What I don't understand is, I haven't even spoken to the doctor about the Nomu in a month...and he never said anything about them being ready. I need to get a hold of him."

"Let's get out of here and find a pay phone somewhere far, far from them," Compress urged.

"Yeah, we're not equipped for this," Spinner cried.

"Why would they attack us? They are supposed to be conditioned to my command," Shigaraki said.

"Did you command them to move?" Silk asked.

"Well...no..."

"Then I say we not push luck. Let's get out of here!"

The all grabbed their weapons and rushed out.

The whole city was panicking. People were caught in traffic, trying to get away from the carnage.

Heroes were swarming the streets, trying to help. None of them were moving to stop the nomu. They all knew they were outmatched.

Some people looked at the LOV funny, but no one tried to stop them. In fact, it would have been hard to do so.

Shigaraki warped everyone as far away as he could, but that was just a few more kilometres across the city. It wouldn't be much of an advantage.

And he couldn't keep warping all of them at that rate.

They found a pay phone though, and he dialed the doctor.

The doctor answered, surprisingly.

"What the h--- did you do?" Shigaraki yelled at him.

"All of them are gone." He sounded upset. "All of them! My equipment too, it's gone, everything that could have been carried out... I can't tell you what happened. I don't remember anything. But I saw the news! Someone stole my Nomu! Find whoever it was and kill them! All that work is down the drain!... And the other work I was doing too, this will set us back months!"

"All right, stop blabbering." Shigaraki didn't like the sound of this. "How many did you have? I know there were some failures. What about them?"

"All of them are gone. The failures...well, they won't be that strong, but they're gone too. They were mobile. Then there was about ten that could have been ready in another month or so."

"How ready?"

"The quirks were ready. The mental conditioning was almost complete. But...as they were, they will not be perfectly controlled. I don't know why anyone would steal them now unless they wanted to create pure chaos."

"How did someone find you that easily?" Shigaraki mused. "I didn't even know where you had all of them."

"Someone must have found the location you did know... The rest, I can't tell you. I don't remember...which is not a good sign. I fear I may have been drugged. I'm no fighter, you know... If I was caught completely off guard..."

"Wait a second..." Shigaraki suddenly understood. "No memory... Doc, get out of there. Go somewhere I don't know about, no one knows about, and stay there! And destroy any evidence, got it? We'll be in touch if we survive this."

"What? Just how bad do you think it is?"

"If it's what I think it is, I think I know what's going on. And the less we talk the better..." Shigaraki hung up.

"That sounded...bad..." Compress said.

Shigaraki told them in short what he'd just learned.

"What does all this mean?" Silk said.

"That someone stole his research-- which we were depending on for our next step-- stole the most powerful weapons we had, and is probably aware of where we are, thanks to that little traitor!" Shigaraki said, furious, "I remembered it once the doc said it. He went through my memories of the Nomu, the lab...all of it. I couldn't remember before. There must have been some kind of mental block."

"Then they know how to use all that?" Silk was horrified.

"Yes. But how did a couple of teens control those things?" Shigaraki was a little confused.

"Sir, I think it may be time to ask if we're just being a little too naive," Compress said, "Who would mostly likely have noticed Lethe's snooping around before now? Who was he spying on?"

Silence.

"And if it is them," Compress said, "then we have our answer. Their motive is the same as before. They want to make examples of us."

"They can't control the Nomu, though," Spinner said, "so how can they capture us?"

Silk shook her head. "I fear they gave up on that plan. They moved just to killing us."

A loud explosion distracted them.

"I'm pretty sure that's our cue to get out of here," Compress said, "May I suggest, we had better split up? We're easily recognized together. We'll slow each other down. We should just go off in twos and threes and get out of this city, as far away as possible."

"What happens to the city?" Silk looked down at it. "More people die? Caught between hero and villain."

"More like villain and villain this time," Compress said, "And what would we do about it? We're the ones they want. If we're lucky, some top pros will show up who can handle those beasts and put an end to this."

"Are you saying we should be hoping for the pros to stop this?" Spinner said.

"Yes, the pros will do something," Compress said. [Irony is off the charts📈.]

Shigaraki stiffened.

Silk looked at them. "I...understand why you wish to run... It's true, there's nothing we can do...maybe, but I can help people get away at least... I good at that...and they will not be looking for me...and I can't just walk 'way from this, or I'm no better than the very people I've sworn to take down. So, you all go on, but I will be helping."

"What?!" they all exclaimed.

Silk put a hand on Compress' arm. "Thank you all for everything. Das vedanya."

She rushed off down the street toward the nearest people who were trying frantically to get through.

"What is going on?" Spinner said.

"She's gone mad!" Compress said, "She can't hang around here. They'll mow this whole city into the ground! The stupid woman!"

"I'm not gonna die here." Toga shifted into a disguise. "I'm gone. Come on, Twicy."

"Yes, good idea! No, I don't want to!" Twice followed her as they ran the other way.

"Let's just go," Spinner said. 

Shigaraki nodded. They both ran too.

Compress hesitated... "Well...there's nothing I can do... I mean...probably..." He looked back. "It would be crazy to risk it....The wanton destruction alone..." He turned to run.

"Oh...h---..." he sighed.

He went back around the other way.

* * *

https://youtu.be/W44HrKFTPaE

[Back From the Dead--Skillet Always felt this was a Dabi song ever since I learned it, so I was stoked to finally use it. It's supposed to be the background song to the scene, but on phones you can't play it while reading--I recommend reading this chapter on a computer or tablet for full effect.]

Shine and Dabi and Wally all arrived on the scene to what looked like a set from an apocalypse movie.

"This is some Avengers level crap," Wally said.

"This is more death in one hour than the LOV has ever caused." Even Dabi was aghast. 

Shine shook her head. "Is it breaking the rules?"

"No, Shine, I think this is fine." Wally was not hearing it. "You don't just stand back and watch this. Anyway, the Nomu are your turf, right? Mine too. Even Fire Boy here could take a stab. I'll locate all of them, and then we'll pick them off, okay?"

"Yes, and, Wally, do not engage more than one alone," Shine warned, "Even you can't be fast enough for two of them."

"Gotcha, babe." Wally raced off.

"While he's doing that, let's see if we can save anyone else," Shine said. She ran to the nearest collapsed building. There were plenty.

Dabi followed.

Many pros were around, but they were clearly outnumbered. The Nomu were just too fast. From the sound of it, many were just mindlessly running through walls with no real plan.

Shine started cutting away some metal rebar and moving concrete carefully. Dabi helped.

Someone was stuck under it. The person had at least been smart enough to take cover. They were not too badly hurt, just shell shocked.

Shine pulled them out. "Move that way," she said, "Find a subway-type train station. Those monsters are just running loose. They probably will not go underground."

The person just nodded and walked off, looking dazed.

"I could never get as many people as the pros," Shine sighed, "but we have to do something."

Dabi glanced at an overturned truck. "If one of those things come this way again, I might have an idea."

Screams followed this remark.

Shine pointed. "I think you just got your wish."

A Nomu that was much smaller than any Dabi was used to and much more humanoid...was lurching towards them...

Shine almost looked sick. "That's...horrifying. Like the Hound." [She's referencing the RWBY fic there.]

The monster was tearing at whatever was in its path with long, retractable talons.

What was it with that doctor and birds? Dabi wondered.

He shot some fire to the truck, and it erupted into a wall of flames. The Nomu was caught in it and made some kind of hissing noise.

Shine looked away. "We're at the end of the city because I didn't know where else to go, but the real trouble is in the center... It looked like the strongest ones started from there. But they're running all over for some reason... How did they get released? I just don't get it."

"Shine, whatever the plan is, we're not going to like it, and it's not going to save us," Dabi said.

"You're right... Let's just wait for Wally and then move."

Wally was back a minute later.

"Okay...there's like 30 of them."

"30?!!!" Shine almost passed out.

"Yeah, that I could see...but a lot of them are smaller, kind of unfinished looking ones. They don't seem that strong," Wally said hastily, "I think maybe 10 of them I saw were like the ones we saw before. They're breaking up whole chunks of street and buildings. I got a bunch of people out, though. But there's way more than even I'm able to get out. The pros are on it, but there're not enough. We have to stop the monsters first...but get this, some of our kids are here."

"What?"

"I think the pros brought them. Endeavor's fighting one of the big ones, and he's got the boys with him. But I saw Peaches with hers too, and even some 1-B kids are here with their guys. Fat Gum too. Well, this is near where he lives anyways. The point is, I don't know what the pros are thinking bringing them, but that's a whole thing. Guess we don't need an excuse to interfere, then."

"No...but if they are here, we should team up," Shine said, "Then you and I won't be stretched so thin." 

"Yeah, I'm going to try to get those things to chase me," Wally said, "as many as I can, then we can pick them all off together. If we're fast enough. Move toward the center of the city. It's totaled anyway, so most people are already out. It's our best shot."

"Okay," Shine nodded.

"And I'm allowed to kill them, right?" Dabi said.

Wally and Shine sighed.

 "As far as we can tell, they are not able to recover...so putting them out of their misery is better," Shine agreed, "but I don't want to watch it."

Dabi shrugged. He couldn't blame her. It was gross.

"Yeah, I don't think I can kill them even if I wanted to," Wally said, "I get the feeling just hitting them won't do it. I don't have super strength after all."

"At least not as much of it as most supers with that ability do," Shine said, "but use your weapon."

"I'm so clumsy with it though."

"Wally, not the time to want to look good!"

"All right, you're right," Wally said, "Well, wish me luck. Meet you in the center." He kissed Shine then ran off again.

"If his plan works it will take at least 10 minutes, if not more. Let's join the kids and try to work our way in," Shine told Dabi.

"Whatever, I'll follow your lead," Dabi agreed.

* * *

Shoto and Bakugo got separated from Deku and Endeavor by wreckage falling and the Nomu getting in their way.

They seemed drawn to fire and explosions, any noise, really. They were like beasts attacking whatever moved.

"We need a plan," Shoto yelled at Bakugo, "This is hopeless if we don't have a strategy. There's too many of them. Most of the pros are focused on evacuation."

"I know that, moron!" Bakugo huffed, blasting one of the littler ones away, "But they won't go down! Why are they all so d---ed indestructible?!"

"Why would the LOV do this?" Shoto shook his head. "Even for them, this is... It's just...evil beyond any form of rationale."

"I don't think they did this," Bakugo said, "Remember what Likstar and West told us yesterday? Some of them defected. I bet they set this up. Went right to those danged freaks we fought at the camp."

"You think that could be it?" Shoto said, "Why would they want to level a city?"

"Do I look like a criminal psychologist? Idiot! Just focus!" Bakugo said.

They had to run then to get away from one.

This was hands down one of the scariest things Shoto had experienced. Even though he'd faced a lot of things, the villains had had a reason, a purpose. He could understand that, but the faceless, mindless zombies that would not stop, would not hesitate for a second, no matter what you said or did, and couldn't be intimidated. One false move, and he was dead!

Bakugo seemed to thrive off the action, but Shoto was finding it unsettling. And it was harder than he thought to keep up with them.

"We should be getting back to my dad..." he said.

"No use, those things are blocking us off," Bakugo said, "For things that can't think, they sure like to get in the way..."

They rounded a corner to a different set of streets, and Shoto saw something that made him feel about 10x worse.

Not too far away were some of his classmates: Momo, Jiro, Kaminari, and some more pros, and they were trying to hold off more of the smaller Nomu.

Jiro was vibrating the ground to get rid of it. Kaminari was trying to get it locked down to fire at.

Momo had a cannon, as usual, and was shooting at another one, but it was acting like nothing was hitting it.

"Why doesn't she use real cannon balls?" Bakugo swore.

"I think she is..." Shoto squinted. "It just doesn't care... Yaoyurozu!"

The Nomu had picked up one and just flung it back at her. Momo ducked barely in time to avoid getting killed by it, and the monster picked up another one.

"They...learn?" Shoto said.

"Disgusting..." Bakugo summed it up.

He charged toward the one Jiro and Kaminari were trying to hold off and blasted it aside.

Shoto cast a wall of ice in front of the other one to block it.

"Are you okay?" He dashed up to Momo and helped her up.

"Todoroki?" Momo was stunned. "Where did you come from?"

"My father had us helping, but we got separated from him... Why are you here?"

"Same reason..." Momo grabbed his arm. "But I don't think we can fight these things off...but they aren't as strong as the other ones we've encountered. If we just had more attack power...but nothing is working on them."

"Did you try...I don't know, a machine gun?"

"What?" Momo gave him a weird look.

"Maybe a bomb..." Shoto said.

"Oh, right, that could work," Momo said, "Cover me."

"Right." Shoto formed more ice. The Nomu was smashing through it pretty quickly though.

Momo formed some kind of bomb. "I've...never made one that was lethal before...but they aren't...uh...alive, right?"

"My father said not."

"Right...so it's okay..." Momo looked sick. "I don't know if I can do this..."

"It's fine. I got it." Shoto used his ice to shove the bomb toward the monster.

"The fuse just needs to be lit now," Momo said, "It was too dangerous to just set it, in case we were too close..."

Shoto was all set to shoot fire too, but one of the large ones the pros had been fighting up till now suddenly knocked their Pro aside, and charged toward Bakugo, who was causing a lot of noise trying to finish the other one off.

Kaminari shot electricity toward it finally, but it didn't slow it down at all.

Jiro screamed.

Shoto shot ice to block the monster, and it ran toward him and Momo, with its lifeless eyes zeroing in on them.

Then it brought its fist down on the ground and it broke into pieces. Shoto was tossed several feet. Momo slipped into the dent. The Nomu grabbed at her feet. She scrambled out of the way.

"Momo!" Shoto thought he was going to have a heart attack. He jumped back up and rushed that way, lighting his left side on fire. 

The Nomu reached out and just grabbed him off the ground like it was nothing. 

Shoto tried to freeze its hand...but it acted like it couldn't feel a thing...

Its hand was closing around his throat.

"No!" Momo screamed at it, forming a spear and jamming it into the Nomu, even as it was bringing down its other hand to crush her. She twisted at the last second to avoid it, and it made a huge dent in the street.

Momo wasn't sure what she was doing, but she remembered Shine's story about the Nomu of before, and what they'd talked about yesterday, with power...

"I release you!" she yelled at the Nomu, as it raised its hand again. 

The Nomu froze in midair...then it shuddered and slumped forward, pinning Momo under it, to her horror...but all the fight and life seemed to have gone out of it. It was like a huge mannequin.

Shoto was dropped too. He shook free.

"Momo? Momo? Are you okay?"

"I'm alive!" Momo tried to yell.

"Bakugo, help me get this off!" Shoto yelled.

"What the h--- just happened?" Bakugo yelled, but he was coming.

Then they both looked up and saw the smaller Nomu was coming back their way.

"Oh no..." Shoto held up his hands.

Blue fire shot out of nowhere they saw and lit the fuse of the bomb just as the monster was running over it.

A huge BOOM followed, and when they could see again, the monster was tossed several feet and twitching-- but not moving.

Then Shine was there, running her sword into it. "I release you..."

And...Dabi? He was panting... "Whew...that was gross..."

Shoto stared at him in astonishment.

"Don't just stand there, idiot," Bakugo yelled at Dabi, "Help us get this thing off of Ponytail."

"How many nicknames does Princess have anyway?" Dabi said, tugging at it, "This is just wrong. I hate these things."

"Didn't you use one?" Shoto said.

"Why bring that up now? You think I don't remember with all of them running around?" Dabi shot back.

Kaminari and Jiro came and helped, and they finally got the thing off of Momo, who gasped for air.

Shoto pulled her up. "Are you okay?" He didn't realize he was hugging her until a second later. Then he was embarrassed.

"I'm f-fine..." Momo sputtered.

Jiro and Kaminari were smirking.

"Ugh, this is gross," Bakugo said.

"Agreed," Dabi said.

Shine ran up. "What happened to the pros? Momo, are you okay? Do you need something?"

"I'm fine, Shine... Why are you here?"

"Saw the news, came as soon as we could... We have an idea... Could use your help if you're up for it."

"Of course," Momo said, then, "Did you see what I just did? It really worked. You were right."

"Hmm? It did?" Shine was confused.

"I think the pros might be dying over there." Dabi pointed.

Jiro looked.

"That thing messed them up... Look, Chargebolt and I will take care of them. Our quirks aren't affecting these things anyway, so we're better off evacuating. You guys go on."

"You sure you'll be okay?" Shine said.

"Yeah, it's cool. We'll find more pros and get out of here," Jiro said.

"Gee, I hope my mentor is okay..." Kaminari was worried.

"Then we need to hurry," Shine said, "We're driving as many as we can toward the center of the city. I'll explain more on the way. And Momo can tell us what she pulled off."

Momo nodded.

* * *

Lethe and Medea were watching all the destruction from a rooftop a safe distance away--hopefully.

The ninja were watching with them...and filming it.

"This is going perfectly," they said.

Even Lethe shot them a look of disgust. They didn't notice.

Medea was watching in horror.

"Do you really need us here anymore?" Lethe said flatly.

"Not really," the Head Ninja said, "but we thought you wouldn't want to miss the grand finale.... Hmm." They squinted through some binoculars they were using. "Oh...s---...them...."

They hissed in derision. "Change of plans. You two need to take care of one more little problem for us. This time we'll send a little back up with you."

"Huh?" Medea said.

"This'll be grand," said a different ninja, "I can hardly wait for the talk shows to get on this tomorrow."

"Psychopaths..." Medea muttered to herself.