The small group of heroes and Shine were making their way to the center of the city and taking out any nomu they found along the way.

They only found smaller ones, but they got through 5 more. That made 8 total they knew of. And 2 larger ones, if Endeavor finished his off.

Momo checked the news constantly along the way to see if any more were confirmed dead, but all the other monsters appeared to be at large. Mt. Lady and Kamui Woods were now on the edge of the city helping evacuate but not finding any more monsters.

The nomu, the news was saying, had no pattern. They were just moving toward the south side of the city.

"So this is literally going south," Wally said when he checked in, "I've herded a bunch of them more central, but they do keep trying to go... You know, it's like they're trying to go that way for a reason. I don't think the news has it right."

"Babe, when does the news ever have it right? But what could they be looking for? If they are just destroying everything in sight?" Shine asked.

They all had stopped to catch their breath, but they needed to move again.

"There's too many to just portal away," Wally said, "You need to save that for a quick rescue if we need it...so that leaves the old fashioned beating them into submission. Kids, you ready?"

"Please don't call us that when we're on the job," Shoto said.

"Your hero name is just your name," Wally said.

"Let's just call him IcyHot," Bakugo said.

"You do know that is just his name, right?" Dabi said, "It was stupid at the time, it's stupid now."

"And yours is so much more clever, Cremation Guy?" Bakugo shot back.

Dabi shrugged. "Never said it was supposed to be clever."

"We need more help than this." Shine shook her head. "I really don't think the 6 of us are enough. We're counting 13, possibly, of the little ones left, which, according to what you kids said, means they are smarter. I can only assume they were not brain washed as much because they are not finished. So they have some ability to fight on their own...so awful...and then 8 more fully formed ones...any one of which could be at the level of a Pro... 6 to 21? I don't like those odds."

"That's 3 for each of us," Bakugo said, "and 3 extra... I dunno, even I might not have that."

"If Bakugo was just humble, we are screwed," Shoto said dryly.

"Shut up!" Bakugo said.

"We'll just have to find more Pros," Wally said, "Team up with them. Endeavor would be best, right? I can look for him. How about you guys make a fire wall to keep them back in this area?" He pointed down he streets. "Fire, ice, whatever. Just make them stay put long enough for us to fight them."

Shine nodded. "What should I do?"

"Stand by. You're better at coming in for a quick save then running around herding bad guys. Try to find some weaknesses, and Peaches--I mean, Creati, you see if you can get in touch with some back up. Maybe a signal flare? Something. Neither of you are suited to the whole blockade thing, so that's just better. Ground Zero, you just keep any stragglers off of them."

He dashed away.

"Wow...I never knew he was a type to plan," Shoto said.

"When he has to be," Shine said, "and that's a sign this is bad. But don't you worry, I think we've got this if we do not get separated. That's crucial. We're stronger together. Bakugo, I am looking at you. Now do what he said."

Shoto and Dabi went opposite ways and began lighting fires to block the streets. Dabi used some fuel to do so that he found dripping out of some cars.

Momo started to help by dumping gasoline along the road also. She tried to dial for back up too, but the line was jammed with all the people making similar calls around.

Shine used her phone to try too. She had a bit more luck because she had a top notch hero level phone, thanks to Endeavor. And she had a specific person in mind.

"Hey, Midnight," she said, "Where are you?"

* * *

Aizawa and most of the UA staff who could be were trying to provide back up to the evacuators. Aizawa was also looking for his students.

As luck would have it, however, he ran into someone else first.

Spinner and Shigaraki were still making their getaway from the city and trying to dissolve their way through the crush of cars and objects that were obscuring them-- not killing anyone, though. They really saw no point.

Actually they ended up inadvertently helping some other people get through by removing obstacles, but no one seemed to notice or care who they were. If they thought Shigaraki's quirk seemed familiar, they didn't wish to question it.

Shigaraki would have been disgusted with this, if he'd had the time.

But it was no good. The nomu, from all reports, were moving toward them, rapidly. In only 10 minutes they were gaining on them to the point where they'd be in sight soon.

"We checked for tracking devices. How in the blue blazes are they finding us?" Spinner couldn't understand.

"It does not make sense," Shigaraki said, "But how do the ninja always find us? Some unholy mix of the two problems, no doubt."

It was around this time they ran into Aizawa, who was going the opposite way, trying to help.

They all stopped short.

"You!" Aizawa's eyes were red. He jumped and had Shigaraki tied up in 1.5 seconds flat.

Spinner had his swords out, but Aizawa just yanked them out of his hands. "I cannot believe we ever had the shortsighted idiocy to believe for a second that you would play by any sort of rules. Was it frigging worth it to you [he probably did not use the euphemism]?! You b------s!"

Shigaraki couldn't breathe, let alone reply that this was not his fault.

"It wasn't us!" Spinner tried, before Aizawa yanked him off his feet too. "Shut up!"

There was a terrible howling, growling noise from down the street.

The civilians cried. One of the half dead monsters had appeared, coming their way.

And it was unmistakably coming for Shigaraki and Spinner. It was looking right at them.

Shigaraki could not have ever imagined the sheer terror seeing one of the "toys" turned on him with that kind of totality would invoke, but it was paralyzing.

Spinner was squirming frantically. "Let us go before it reaches us!"

The thing was loping along as fast as a jaguar now. It was clearly built for speed.

Aizawa tried to erase its quirk, but it wasn't the right kind to erase...or it had more than one and he only got one.

He held up his scarf, but there was no time to until the villains.

Then a wall of red feathers slammed into the nomu and it went down.

Hawks circled overhead and landed.

"Sorry I'm late. Traffic was terrible," he said.

"Hawks!" Spinner spat.

"Just in time," Aizawa said.

"Yeah, a few more people are with me." Hawks' feathers came after him, carrying several pros.

Most were just lower level ones from this city or his sidekicks, but one was familiar.

"Oh, hey, Eraser!" It was Miss Joke.

"What are you doing here?" Aizawa said.

"Actually, not looking for you," Miss Joke said, "I know someone who could help. I convinced Hawks to give me a ride... I can't get a hold of her. She must be here already, I figured."

"You mean...Likstar? What is she going to do against these monstrosities?" Aizawa said.

"Eraser, I know stuff. She tells me a lot. Trust me, she can help," Miss Joke said, "And West is fast enough to take them down... We have to find them. Where are they?"

"If they were dumb enough to come here...probably with the kids," Aizawa said.

He checked his phone. He did have a message from Yaoyurozu. It must have taken a long time to get through, it said she'd sent it several minutes ago.

"Creati is telling us that if we have anyone who can fight these things or is fast. They should come to the center of the city. West has a plan." He looked up.

"The center, huh?" Hawks said, "I'll get another look... Why do you have those guys, by the way?"

"They're behind this... Shigaraki, you'd better call off these things," Aizawa said, "and it's possible I won't break every bone of your body before the cops arrive."

"I can't call them off!" Shigaraki finally spoke, "I didn't start it!"

"Likely story." Aizawa tightened his scarf.

"Just let him go," Hawks said, "He's telling the truth."

"What?" Aizawa said.

"I'm pretty familiar with the LOV's psychology by now," Hawks said, "and if they did this, this guy would be off watching from a safe distance where he wouldn't get hurt. Not running for it. And did you see that thing? It was running at them or you, but why would it run at you specifically? Maybe this is a Frankenstein's monster turned on its master thing. Anyway, he could escape anyway if he wanted by dissolving your scarf and he's still here, so that seems like he's trying to tell you something."

"I thought you were an idiot," Spinner said. "If you could read people like that, why did we fool you so easily?"

"I actually figured this out from Watching Likstar interact with you," Hawks shrugged, helping Spinner out of the scarf. "I normally wouldn't really care whether you were trying to escape or not."

Aizawa reluctantly let Shigaraki up. "If this is true, what happened?"

"To put it very shortly, one of our members has defected and gone to our enemies and is stabbing us in the back," Shigaraki spat.

"How fitting" Aizawa was not sorry for him at all. "And so that thing," the nomu was struggling to get up "is after you? Well...we could just not stand in its way."

"Eraser," Miss Joke scolded. "That's no way to talk for a hero."

"Or we could let them go and see if they lead it away from here," Aizawa said. "We don't have the resources to babysit villains. You might as well just go on."

Shigaraki and Spinner didn't get the feeling they should be flattered by this.

"Unless maybe we worked together." Miss Joke said.

All the sidekicks and Pros who were listening to that looked aghast. "What? We can't just let them go! and we can't work with them!"

"Hey," Hawks said, flying up and getting everyone's attention. "I'm the no#2 hero, and I think that we do not have time to chase around these guys if they aren't doing anything. So far they aren't. The nomu are the big problem we can worry about the league later. If anyone here has a problem with that, take it up with the families of the people who are trying to get out of here who you could have helped, does anyone still want to protest?

Silence.

"Good, let's spread out, anyone with the attack power go to the center of the city and look for a group of heroes trying to contain these monsters. Everyone else just get civilians out of here."

The heroes all did as he said.

"I'll scout for where they're all going," Hawks said. "Joke, Eraser, you're not too helpful against nomu, are you? Can you use your quirk on them, Joke?"

"I don't think I can on the big ones, Mis joke said. "They have to be able to talk, or emote, to laugh, you know...but they don't all look the same, do they? Who knows. I'm still going to look for my friends and see if they have a plan."

"And I intend to find my students; who, if I know them, will have headed to the thick of the danger, like idiots," Aizawa said. "And I'm not wasting any more time." He took off.

Miss Joke followed him.

"I'll flank you, and keep looking," Hawks took to the air.

Left to themselves, the villains started running.

"You know, Likstar could get us out of this," Spinner said. "We should have called her."

"Don't have her number." Shigaraki cursed himself for not taking Mirko's advice and getting it, but he hadn't got the chance anyway.

"Should we try to find her?"

"Let's just go toward the things that want to murder us!" Shigaraki said.

"Can I ask...is it weird to have your own tools chasing you?" Spinner asked.

"Spinner, do you really think I'm thinking about the weirdness level of the situation?" Shigaraki snapped.

"I guess not...I dunno, I'm coping here," Spinner grumbled.

"Let's just hope the others were fast enough to get out already," Shigaraki mused. He really wished he could call AFO for help right about now.

* * *

Silk didn't have to wait long for nomu to come her way...there seemed to be an awful lot of them in her area, actually.

The smaller ones...but when she saw one rip a lamp post off its stand and start swinging it, she knew it was bad.

The group of high school kids who she was trying to get through a badly destroyed part of the intersection were panicking.

"I just want my mom..." one kid was wailing.

"Where's my sister!" another was screaming.

Silk used her binding clothes to trip up a few monsters as they were coming their way, but they tore through them with ease. She and the kids just kept running---

One of the monsters took a tow truck and flung it in front of them, nearly knocked over two of the kids at the front.

The truck hit the street, blocking half of it, then exploded, the kids fell back.

Silk felt heat sear her skin, but it wasn't enough to burn her.

The kids were all screaming in terror now as the monsters were closing in on them.

This is how I chose to die... Silk thought, her mind both clear and paralyzed at the same time, Saving a bunch of random kids because of a crazy wish not to be a hypocrite...and this is where it gets you...I suppose it's better than dying for nothing...

She spun a sort of net, but knew it wasn't going to do anything, they would only tear through it even if she made an illusion.

"Don't any of you have a combat type quirk!" she yelled at the kids.

"We're not heroes!" was their annoying response.

"Who cares? Nincompoops!" she shouted.

At least one or two of them got the point, some threw something at the nomu that looked like little tacks or nails, not much of a quirk, but maybe useful.

But the monster didn't slow down-- they didn't seem to pierce its skin.

The distance was less than 40 meters now...

The other kids shot some kind of goo at the ground that the monster did run through...it slowed down just barely, but it wasn't strong enough to stop it either, it just yanked its foot out of it.

And more were coming now.

"Valiant effort." Silk could think of nothing else to say. "At least we did not go down without trying..."

They kept screaming.

But then a huge piece of grating fell in between them and the monster.

Silk looked up. "Compress?!"

Compress it was.

He landed near the monster and reached out as it was tearing into the grate, he turned it into a marble.

"That was the scariest thing I've ever done," he shuddered.

Silk gaped.

"Isn't that Compress?" One of the high school kids was stunned. "From the LOV?"

"Did we just get saved by a villain?"

"Dude, that's so cool."

"Stupid kids. Why aren't you running?" Compress yelled at them.

They jumped, then ran for it.

The other nomu didn't go after them, surprisingly. Instead they ran right for Silk and Compress.

Silk tossed a screen in front of them with little copies of them on it.

The monster tore into it like it was a deer they were hunting.

Compress grabbed Silk and yanked her away using his odd levitating trick that involved some kind of flotation device.

"What were you thinking?" he was scolding her. "You're crazy! Out of your mind!"

"Why did you come back?!" Silk yelled back, "I thought all you were running for it."

"I was going to..." Compress trailed off, "I don't know... It didn't seem like a good exit."

They landed on the ground. The monsters were searching for them.

Silk blocked the alleyway they were in front of with a screen. "Let's hurry before they realize where we went."

They ran off down the street.

"You came back just to help me?" Silk was panting.

"Don't be ridiculous. That sounds like something a hero would do," Compress scoffed.

"So?"

"So...don't tell Shigaraki about this, okay...? Or Spinner...or Twice... Toga wouldn't care..."

"I don't think the others would care either... The LOV take care of each other, right?" Silk said, "But they are all running... Not that I blame them..."

"It's your fault, you know." Compress finally slowed to catch his breath. "You had to run off and try to be all brave and noble and upstage everyone."

He took off his mask. "It's just so selfish, grabbing the spotlight at a time like this."

Silk raised an eyebrow. Then she grabbed Compress, to his astonishment, and kissed him squarely on the mouth.

He was stunned.

[Art by Julianna Gardner.]

Silk pulled back. "That was for the save earlier. Now let's get out of here, before this becomes our final act."

She started to run again.

Compress blinked. What was he supposed to do again...?

"Come on!" Silk yelled at him.

Right, running from nomu.

[Wink, wink... I ship it.]

* * *

Hawks managed to tell a bunch more pros to head toward the center of the city...but most of them ended up blocked by wreckage or had to stop to engage the nomu where they were.

The bulk off the monsters were still hedged in, thanks to Wally, and the Todoroki brothers making a fire wall. At least they were staying put, sort of. They tried to get around it by just ploughing through buildings.

Shine had more luck stopping them. She drew barriers in the ground, and they were blocked from crossing.

"You just eat," she told Momo, "When we do enter the danger zone, you'll need all the energy you can get."

Momo did as she said. That she could eat at all was the result of training this way. She was a ball of nerves.

Dabi came up. "If I burn anymore, I'll just set the city on fire more than it already is. I hope this works. Where's West?"

"I don't know. He hasn't texted me. He's too busy, I'm sure..." Shine was white as a sheet.

"Are you okay?" Dabi said.

"Um...let's just say zombie apocalypse is not a scenario I've really faced before...in person..."

"You're kidding. You always say you've done it all. This you haven't done? It's just funny to see you off your game for once," Dabi said.

"You find it funny?" Momo said, a little annoyed, "It would be nice if any of us were prepared for this. Don't you think?"

"I guess, but there's not much else to enjoy about the situation," Dabi said.

"Idiot," Bakugo said.

Shine shook her head. "I hope I can do this."

"Do what?" Momo asked. 

"What Wally wants... He's expecting me to be able to keep up with him... I'll... I mean, if... It's just not a good time to have a confidence issue." Shine seemed to be trying to talk herself out of exactly that.

Momo laughed nervously. "Coming from you? I mean, I would say that, but you?"

"We're screwed if you lose it now." Bakugo gave Shine a shake. "Keep it together, Likstar! This is no different than any other situation. We're being attacked by a lot of freakazzoids. Just another weekend for us. So get a goshdanged grip!"

"Right...I know..." Shine said, "It's just...so many people...and I...we...can't help them... It's hard to listen to the sound of things...and the screaming... I'm sorry."

"Block it out!" Bakugo insisted, "Focus!"

"It's getting to me too, Shine, believe me," Momo said, "but we have to think of who's in front of us. Isn't that what you always say?"

"I know, I know... It's easier to give advice than to follow it..." Shine went silent suddenly, and her eyes flickered gold.

"Someone we know is in trouble," she said.

"Huh?" they all said.

"There are times...I just know," Shine said, "You know how people can get a terrible sense sometimes when bad things happen?... But I don't feel like it's Wally... Everyone else is here, aren't they? It's not Jiro or Kaminari either... I almost think... I'm getting this blurry image of...Camie?"

"But Camie is nowhere near here," Momo said.

"I dunno about that," Dabi said, "If the UA brats are here because of their internships, the stupid Shiketsu kids probably are too."

Shine rubbed her head. "I'm sure it's her...and I'd only be getting that impression if it meant no one else was going to be able to do something. One of us has to go."

"I'll go," Bakugo said at once, "Everyone else here has a job, so I'll go."

"Alone?" Momo said.

"I just need to get in and out," Bakugo said, "We don't have time for this. I'll go."

"Okay," Shine said, "Be careful... No telling what's behind this."

* * *

The reason Camie was in danger was a bit complicated. It went back to just a few minutes before.

She and a few classmates had all been interning in a city next to this one, and their pro had brought them here to help evacuate.

Some of the nomu had found them.

Camie, Shishikura, Yoarshi, and Moto had all been together but separated from the pros.

Shishikura said they shouldn't try to engage the monsters.

Camie's quirk was able to help them all get away.

Shiskikura said they should just head back towards the edge of the city and not go towards the danger.

"Dude with no license is worried about getting in trouble?" Moto jeered at him rather meanly.

"That's not very nice," Yoarshi said.

"Whatever. He is legally not supposed to act with us," she said.

"Yo, that's so whacked how we're all more leveled up than you, bro," Camie said. 

She didn't really mean this observation to be a jab, but Shishikura, who'd ignored Moto's words, glared at her.

"The fact that you have a license and I don't will forever be a cruel irony of the universe, Utsushimi. Remember I failed on purpose. How you ever passed is beyond me."

"Not the time to fight, is it?" Yoarshi said, "I think I will just help people escape. I can do that. The rest of you can go on."

"Bro, you shouldn't go in alone," Camie said, "What about the pros? It'd make more sense to just find them, right?"

"I don't think we can wait for that," Yoarshi said.

"I say we follow him," Moto said, cracking her ever present gum, "It'd be dull to just leave the scene, don't you think, Utsushimi?"

"Uh...I guess..." Camie wasn't really sure about this.

"You're all fools," Shishikura said.

That kind of sealed it.

"Okay, let's go," Camie said, "It'd be lame to sit this one out."

"If you say so," Moto said.

The three of them ran in. Shishikura hung back. "You'll get caught! Mark my words! Idiots! I'll tell the pros you went off!"

"Thanks, bro. That'd be real cash money of you!" Camie called back cheerfully.

"He means that in a bad way, hon," Moto said flatly.

"Nah, he's just trying to help." Camie feigned stupidity. 

"His passion for it is admirable," Yoarshi said.

They were able to help a lot of civilians over some blocked road and out of a collapsed building that the pros hadn't even found yet. Camie was great at calming people down...sort of... She distracted them with memes and visuals.

"Camie, hadn't you better start escorting them out of here, not just standing around goofing off?" Moto said flatly.

"Uh...sure." Camie felt a little put out. "Yo, follow me. Just call me Camie-Senpai."

They gave her weird looks.

"Super Camie Guru?" she tried.

One person must have watched dbza. They laughed.

"Coolio, let's go," Camie said.

About 7 people followed her while Yoarshi was still getting out the rest more carefully. He had learned from the exam, after all.

Moto looked around.

"I'm going to help Camie. I'll take this group." She only had 3 people, but Yoarshi didn't argue.

"Follow me," Moto said carelessly.

As she took the people towards the safer area, a nomu lurched into their path, making some kind of growling noise.

The people screamed.

"Calm down. Step back," Momo told them coolly. They backed up.

Moto walked toward the monster. It eyed her like it wasn't sure if she was its target or not.

"You lost, puppy?" Moto said mockingly to it, "Not what you were looking for? Huh? That's okay. I can fix that."

She blew out a dark cloud of spores toward the nomu.

As it inhaled it, the beast began to contort...to change...

The effect of her Corruption Quirk on a nomu was truly grotesque.

Moto never reacted at all, but the people screamed in horror.

"Oh, calm down," she said over her shoulder, "This is just how it works. It'll stop this monster for sure."

But instead of dropping to the ground, the nomu went berserk. It began to claw everywhere, and then it charged randomly at nothing.

The people scattered.

"Oops..." Moto watched it go. "Huh...unexpected... Guess only thing to do now is to run..."

She took off after one of her people and pulled out her phone. "Hey, Camie, had a little mishap over here. Could use a little help escaping."

* * *

Camie had rushed back that way like any good classmate, only to find the nomu still running rampant, even more than before, and still twisted into some horror it was really better not to describe.

[Not being a fan of horror, I preferred not to try. Please do not attempt it in the comments, for my sake, people. You can imagine it all you want.]

Camie almost threw up, but she forced it down with the power of will.

"Yo, Kali." She used Moto's first name. "Did you get your civilian peeps out?"

"Actually, just this one." Moto was dragging one older man with her. "Two of them went the other way. I can't get to them. I'm pretty sure it's going to kill me after what I did... Geez, it's a bad mistake though, but how was I supposed to know it wouldn't kill the dang thing?"

"Yeah, it's a big oof," Camie said, "Not gucci at all how these things work, but I'll just poof myself over there and get the last casuals. Where'd they go?"

"I think they're hiding over in the collapsed building. Good luck," Moto said.

Camie made an illusion to distract the nomu and managed to slip around toward the collapsed building in question. 

The monster tore into the illusion, then looked around for her.

Camie found one of the people, a woman about 40 maybe, hiding and whimpering. "All right, calm down, ma'am. I got this." She made another illusion. "Just walk around. I'll keep the big zombie busy."

"I...I can't. I'm too scared," the woman whimpered, "I can't do it..."

"Yo, it's fine," Camie said, "Look, little secret, heroes need regular people like you at a time like this. It's symbiotic, like they say. So you gotta do me a solid here and walk, so I can do my job, ya get me?"

The woman didn't look convinced. 

"You single?" Camie asked.

"Yes," the woman said.

"You want to die that way?" Camie asked.

"No," the woman said. 

"Then you'd better get moving, sis. What if your soulmate was waiting at the other end of this?" Camie said, yanking her out of the wreckage, "Go! Don't let your dreams be dreams!"

"What?" The woman was flabbergasted.

But the shock of actually being out of hiding made her rally herself enough to run for it. The nomu came ploughing towards the new illusion, but Camie managed to spring out of the way.

The last person was a man about the same age. He was actually wounded.

"I don't suppose you're single too?" Camie said, narrowly watching the nomu as it thwarted around with it's corrupted form.

"Yeah, so?" the man said. 

"Yo, there's a really nice looking lady who's single who just went that way," Camie pointed, "And you know, there's this thing called the Suspension Bridge Effect, and I think you have a real shot there."

"What?" the man said, "We could be about to die."

"Well, YOLO, bro," Camie said, "You'd better run for it!"

"Are you really a pro?" the man said.

"Wow, is this really the time for lip?" Camie retorted in an incredulous voice.

The man got up. "And you'll keep that thing busy?"

"Sure, sure, just go. Don't throw away your shot, man!" Camie said.

"Does this really work?" the man grumbled, "What are you-- the matchmaking hero?"

"Cool idea, but not sure it'd suit my aesthetic," Camie mused.

The man ran for it, and Camie thought she was home free--

But weirdly, the nomu turned right toward her once the man was out of range, as if it had known she was there the whole time.

"Uh oh..." Camie said.

The nomu charged for her, and she ran for it, heart pounding. Where was Moto? Hadn't she hung back to wait for her? Didn't she have some kind of back up plan?

But her classmate was nowhere in sight. Neither was Yoarshi.

Camie tried to climb up a dislodged piece of concrete, and it crumbled under her feet.

She tried to make an illusion and just started coughing.

The nomu leered closer, reaching for her with one dreadful looking claw.