Camie kicked at the nomu frantically, but it was nothing at all to the beast. Was she going to get eaten or just torn apart?

Funny, she kind of wished she'd gotten to talk to Bakugo one more time if this was the end...and told her parents she loved them...and maybe done a whole host of other things. She was too young to die like this!

"Ahhh!" she yelled as it yanked her off the concrete and slammed her into the ground.

Her vision went fuzzy. She heard a loud noise and something rammed into the monster.

Camie blinked, trying to breathe...

Someone yanked her up. Bakugo?!!

She must be seeing things.

"I guess you really do see people you know right before you die..." she said dazedly.

"You're not dying, you moron. It's really me!" Bakugo said, "Snap out of it."

Camie blinked harder. "Baku? Really? No way."

Bakugo looked up. The nomu was getting back up. "Don't just stand there. Run for it."

He shoved her toward the concrete slab.

"What about you?" Camie asked.

"I'll be right behind you-- after I kill this thing!"

"Baku, that's not an ordinary nomu. Moto did something to it, and now it's even more psycho than it was before."

As if to prove this, the nomu first smacked itself into the pavement, and then picked the pavement up like it was going to hurl it at them.

"Great..." Bakugo swore. He blasted the nomu back with an AP shot.

Camie scrambled over the concrete. Bakugo ran after her. They both slipped over the other side.

"How did you know I was here?" she asked him.

"Likstar has a 6th sense about it," Bakugo said, "Don't know why."

"She has that? Wow...like the other stuff she knows?"

"I guess.... What the h-- were you doing alone?"

"I wasn't alone at first, but Idk where everyone went," Camie said, "Maybe they went the wrong way."

The monster clawed at the concrete.

"I think it's locked on us now..." Camie said.

Bakugo grabbed her arm. "Come on, hurry up." 

They hurried, but it was gaining on them already.

Then Camie spotted something.

"Oh, look, motorcycle," she said.

"What? So?" Bakugo said.

"Bro, it's still in working condition." Camie ran up and got on it. "Come on."

"What? Can you drive that thing?"

"Dude, of course I can... Didn't my outfit tip you off?" Camie tipped her hat. "Come on. Do you want to grab a helmet first or can we just go?"

Bakugo got on behind her. "You better actually know what you're doing."

"Aw, are you scared?" Camie said, revving the engine.

The nomu lurched toward them.

"Well, this better work," Camie said. They took off.

"So where's everyone else?"

"The center of the city. We have a plan. Let's just lead this thing there, then we can kill it,"  Bakugo said.

"Sure thing, bro... Remind me to thank you later too," Camie said.

"Forget about it."

"Oh, that's sweet, but I'm serious." Camie leaned forward. "But you might want to hang on."

Bakugo wasn't going to, but the speed she was getting to made him do it anyway.

* * *

"How did warping to you lead us farther into the city?!" Shigaraki yelled at Compress.

"And why is she here?!" Spinner pointed at Silk.

Silk looked guilty.

"I...uh...well..." Compress said.

"I thought you were the person most sure to have gotten away." Shigaraki was livid. "We should have been far, far out of the city by now, and instead you're right in the middle of it."

"What did you do, decide to play hero?" Spinner said.

Silence.

"It wasn't quite like that..." Compress tried.

"Oh, what? That and a make-out session afterward?" Spinner spat.

Silk blushed.

"Don't be crass," Compress said.

"I don't understand what you're talking about," Shigaraki said.

"You wouldn't, boss, but it's nothing you want to know," Spinner said.

"We can still escape," Compress said, "We gave those monsters the slip. They can't track us, can they?"

"It seems they can, somehow," Spinner said.

As if on cue, they heard howling.

Silk clutched her stomach. "They're back!" she cried.

"Run!" Spinner yelped, running for it.

They all ran. Shigaraki began to lag behind though. He was not at all used to this much running.

"Boss, come on!" Spinner yelled.

"Perhaps we could find a car or something that's in good condition," Compress said.

"There." Silk pointed. "There's some, but we have no keys."

"I can hot wire it, no worries. I just need a few minutes. Can you all stall it?" Compress raced toward the car.

"Oh, sure, a few minutes is nothing." Spinner was sarcastic.

The nomu appeared...all 5 of them, and two of them were big ones.

"A few minutes is looking like 2 minutes more than we'd even hope to survive," Shigaraki said.

"Can't you just dissolve them?" Spinner said.

"Oh sure, it will only take me at least 30 seconds to fully do that, and the others will just wait there and watch while I do," Shigaraki said bitingly, "Any other bright ideas?" [This was before his quirk evolved obviously.]

"I'm not the idea guy!" Spinner cried.

Silk frantically made a screen. "We must try to keep them going around us..." she panted.

"This is your fault," Spinner growled at her, "If we did survive this, I'd kill you myself for your stupidity."

"I would be very scared of you if that was a threat made not cowering in fear," Silk shot back.

"Not the time," Compress yelled at them. He was trying to get wires attached the right way.

Shigaraki tried collapsing the building nearest them, but it didn't really do much to block the nomu.

Spinner swung at one. It grabbed his sword and yanked at it.

"Why...is...it...not...as...stupid?!" He tried to tug it free.

"They aren't fully processed yet? Maybe they retain some amount of thought..." Shigaraki said.

"Look!" Silk pointed suddenly. 

A few civilians were cowering inside a shop that was still standing, staring at the nomu.

"So?" Shigaraki said.

"We're just making them suffer on our account," Silk said, "This is wrong... We must run the other way."

"That's insanity!" Shigaraki said, "They might provide a distraction."

"You are going to be fine with that?" Silk said.

"Oh, get off your high horse," Shigaraki said.

"There's children in there," Silk protested, "This is not right."

Shigaraki saw she was right, but why should it bother him?

The nomu lurched around the cement rubble and spotted both them and the group of people in the shop (possibly it was a family).

One of the monsters seemed to see it all as one big target. It smashed the window of the shop, and then threw glass at Shigaraki and Silk.

Silk blocked it with her screen, barely. At least glass was not that heavy.

The family backed up.

One kid touched the glass, and it grew into a sort of crystalline web.... Maybe that was his quirk...glass manipulation...

It didn't do much. The nomu just smashed it again and then reached for them.

Silk threw her cloth around it and tried to yank it back. Of course, she was nowhere near strong enough.

The other nomu acted like they'd been waiting for her to get distracted. They all charged in unison.

Shigaraki wasn't sure what else to do except run toward Silk and try to disintegrate the nomu in question as it turned around.

What good would it do though?

The monster flung Silk at the other nomu, and they closed in on her.

Shigaraki was frightfully sure they were going to tear her into pieces...and he was just going to watch, unable to stop it, and Compress and Spinner were not going to be able to stop it. Spinner wasn't even free of the one he was fighting.

The family were screaming too, making him feel dizzy.

The nomu he was near turned into ash as he dissolved it, but it was too late--

The other nomu turned toward him. They seemed to lock on him.

In that moment, several things happened.

One...Shigaraki suddenly got a very clear picture of what it was like for everyone else when the nomu closed in on them. How many people had died today with this being the last thing they saw? And it was like some really cruel irony that he was going to be killed like a trapped rat by his own tools... AFO would have been so disappointed...

Two, Compress was yelling something indiscernible because Silk was now officially caught.

And three, Spinner was yelling a string of cuss words.

All that was really too much to take in as the nomu reached for him to grab him too, and he was too shocked to bother tying to stop it this time.

[Design by Onerose, original template by original creator]

Then something hit it like a white and tan blur...

Impossible!

But it was Mirko. She slammed the nomu into the ground so hard it cracked--both the ground and the nomu.

She didn't lose any time. She jumped off the one and drop kicked the ones surrounding Silk just as they were going to tear into her--They dropped the smaller woman in their surprise to be hit by a flying rabbit.

Mirko smacked into all of them, and they went flying.

She wiped her forehead. "That was close... You okay?"

Silk was gasping for breath. "I was...this close to... I..."

"Yeah, yeah." Mirko yanked her up. "Get out of here... You..." She locked on Shigaraki. "I ought to kill you for this!"

"For...what?" Shigaraki was honestly just too overwhelmed to process what just happened.

"This!" Mirko pointed at the nomu. "Is this your idea of some sick joke?"

"Silk?" Compress came up and grabbed her. "Did they hurt you?"

"Nyet..." Silk said, "I mean, da... I mean... I don't know...did they? Am I still alive?"

"This wasn't us!" Shigaraki yelled at Mirko.

"I know it wasn't you, dumba--. Like you'd be chased by your own creepy zombie toys if it was," Mirko snapped, "I mean just standing there. What, you want to die? Sh--, where's the other two?"

"They're not here... Did you just save us?" Spinner panted.

"Not really," Mirko said. The nomu were already back up. "I'm just getting started. The whole city is crawling with these things. But Hawks told me to move them to the center. I guess our genius friends have some kind of plan."

"Likstar? We heard." Shigaraki managed to formulate that thought.

"Eh, well, she better. I'm not sure even I can take this." Mirko eyed the nomu. "Maybe two...but there's a crap ton more... Why are they after you?"

"To make a long story short, one of our guys has double crossed us," Compress said.

He grabbed one nomu and compressed it into a marble.

"Miss Hero, I believe if we combine our talents, we can make short work of these nomu."

"Good idea," Mirko said, "Not crazy about the teaming up option, but I'm in a hurry, so I'll let it slide this once."

She slammed into them all.

"She's like a furry angel," Spinner said in awe, "A very violent angel, but still... That was impeccable timing. Boss, I take back everything I said about trusting her being a bad idea."

"Don't be so easily swayed," Shigaraki snapped at him, "It's pathetic."

"But you have to admit that was cool..." Spinner said.

Shigaraki hated how easily fan boy type villains got new idols. Really, first Stain, now Mirko.... Well, it was pretty fun to watch, he had to admit.

https://youtu.be/83eTbLzmZzo

[This song because Mirko should have a boss fight animated to this song.]

Of course the bigger nomu didn't go down as easily-- that almost ruined it. Mirko was kicking the crap out of the other ones easily, but it moved much faster and grabbed her and started to try to crush her. It probably could have succeeded. But Spinner sliced into its arm, and it let her go to turn to him. Unlike the finished nomu, it seemed able to be distracted from its goal.

Compress reached out once it had turned and compressed it. Mirko was back up and immediately kicked off the smaller ones trying to close in on them again.

Compress waited until Mirko had thoroughly pummeled them all before he compressed them.

It took about 5 minutes to finish this.

Mirko was actually kind of tired by then, but she inflicted way more damage than anyone else had managed to. Except Shigaraki.

The family in the shop came out.

"Did...a pro just save us...with the help of the LOV?" the father said.

"It looked that way," the mother said.

The kids wanted Mirko's autograph.

"Not really the time for this," she said, characteristically not very good at PR.

"Turning away fans!" Spinner cried, "What kind of a pro are you?"

"I thought you hated the hype seeking types?" Mirko said.

"But they're right here. You'll crush them!" Spinner seemed to have some kind of grudge about this.

Mirko rolled her eyes. "Fine..."

She signed something for the kids. "Happy?"

"Uh...can you escort us out of here?" The father asked the real questions.

"Not really," Mirko said, "but just keep walking. Most of the monsters are not in this part of the city now. I'm going to make sure any more of them don't get this far." She cracked her knuckles.

They nodded.

"Okay, let's go," the mom said shakily.

"That was incredible..." they were talking as they walked away, "Scary, but..."

Compress let them have the hot-wired car. He could just hot wire another one.

"Idiots," Shigaraki muttered, "Don't they realize they almost died? Being saved by a flashy pro just makes their brains turn off."

"You know," Mirko said to him, "maybe if there's something good in the whole thing for them, they won't be as afraid of it. Isn't that for the best? It's not like they're just going to forget they were attacked. You're a bit simple minded about this, aren't you?"

"It's his pet peeve," Compress said, "But we should go... Uh...thank you...I suppose. This is really awkward."

Silence.

"Yeah, it is," Mirko finally said, "Very, very awkward. Let's all agree never to speak of this again, hmm?"

"That would be fantastic," Compress agreed.

"I'm off," Mirko said, "Gott--"

"If you say that phrase again, I swear I'm going to kill someone," Shigaraki said.

"Wow, someone's in a mood," Mirko retorted.

"Hey," Silk spoke up, "Maybe you need help, huh? Perhaps if we worked together, it'd be safer."

"I think I can handle this. I don't need help," Mirko said.

"These things will decompress in several hours," Compress said, "They are not dead..."

"Toss them into the ocean or something. It's not that far away."

"That might work... if we could get here."

"I just think perhaps you are overconfident," Silk tried again, "You got lucky Compress could stop them, but if they just keep getting back up...you can't handle them any better... Top heroes have almost died before fighting them."

"Uh...don't take this the wrong way," Mirko tilted her head, "but you're not exactly what I'd call back up...or hero material, there, what's your name-- Silk? I don't think a few paintings are going to stop them."

"Silk Screens...and I know...but still..." Silk said.

"Likstar can stop them," Shigaraki said, "I've seen her do it before."

"So many?" Spinner said.

"No...but they want us, so..."

"So we bait!" Silk said, "If we go to center, the nomu will turn around and leave people alone.... Is perfect...as long as we no die on the way."

"Don't die," Spinner corrected.

"Shut up," Compress told him.

"Hmm, that could work," Mirko agreed, "That's a gutsy move, if you're willing to do it...but villains are usually cowards. Are you sure you're a villain?"

Silk snorted. "Not all of us are cowards."

Silence.

"Well, if you're coming, let's go before it's too late," Mirko said, "Last I heard the death rate was in the thousands... I'm not standing around waiting for that number to go up."

Shigaraki eyed the destroyed buildings. It's not like all this was his fault...

He never should have let that Lethe kid in the League.

"Rumi!" Hawks suddenly swooped down from nowhere. "There you are... Wow...no monsters?"

"They're all here." Compress held them up. "And one turned into dust."

"I beat the others up first." Mirko just had to flex. "How many did you get?"

"I got a 2 little ones, but most are moving toward the center of the city now," Hawks said, "I really hope they are ready for that... Uh...surprised you're all still here."

"It was an accident," Spinner said, "and mostly Compress's fault."

Compress shot him a dirty look.

"The point is they need us there, so if you're done socializing, let's go," Hawks said.

"Right," Mirko said, "but that one wants to come." She pointed at Silk. "She thinks she can be bait."

"Really?" Hawks said, "Wow...you're not so bad, huh? Weren't you that one they got from the camp? Dabi sure can pick 'em... You know what's really weird? I stopped in to check on Likstar, and I heard her say Dabi was there, but I didn't see him. Why isn't he with all of you?"

"Dabi lef--" began Mirko.

"Shut up!" Shigaraki hissed.

She stopped. "Well, he doesn't want me to say it, but he left earlier," she lied smoothly, "Maybe he would rather help out his new friends... I dunno."

"I didn't take him for the heroic type," Hawks said.

The LOV all glared at the ground.

"There was a lot of fire though. Anyway, maybe he'd be bait enough too, then," Hawks said, "We could put 'em together."

"If Dabi's there, I want to come," Shigaraki surprised them by saying.

"What? Why?" Mirko said.

"I intend to get an explanation one way or another, and if this is what it takes, then so be it," Shigaraki declared.

"That's...stupid..." Spinner said, "They want you most of all."

"And that should only help the plan, right?" Shigaraki said.

"You want to help the plan?" Hawks said.

"If it foils those stupid cult members, then I don't care how it happens," Shigaraki said, "and it's better than running around hoping to get away and failing, probably."

Mirko snorted. "Well, finally, something I can agree with. I say we just take 'em, Hawks. It'll help us if it works."

"I don't care, really," Hawks said, "If that's what you all want."

"I don't want," Spinner said.

"Stay here, then," Shigaraki snapped.

"If you all go, I have to," Spinner said, "I can't survive on my own!"

"I suppose I could say the same," Compress sighed, "Anyway, I might as well be useful if I'm going to get chased around by these monsters."

"Right on," Mirko grinned, "So you all do have a spine, huh? I'd almost be impressed, if this wasn't probably your fault to begin with."

"You're very mean for a hero," Spinner told her stiffly, "and uncouth...but good at beating up bad guys, so we'll not kill you."

"Wow, thanks," she said sarcastically, "And I cared about your opinion since?...Oh, right, never."

"Shall I just fly us there, or do you want to fight first?" Hawks said wearily.

"It's faster, so sure." Mirko crossed her arms.

* * *

On the flight, Shigaraki and Compress explained in brief what had led up to this.

"So this kid Lethe can mess with people's heads and memories." Mirko was trying to wrap her mind around it. "And he now knows all your secrets, and he used that to release the nomu?"

"The little s--- will pay for it if we ever get a hold of him!" Spinner said.

"But how the h--- did he pull that off alone?" Mirko said.

"We suspect the Originals may have put him up to it and aided and abetted him," Compress said.

"Still, to cause this...something is very wrong in that boy's head," Silk said.

"Are you really a bad guy?" Hawks was not getting how Silk was in the LOV.

"You know, Hawks," Compress said stiffly, "it's just insulting, coming from you especially, to think that villains are always completely without principle. It's not as if it furthers our cause to level a city like this, or we enjoy the deaths of thousands of innocent people just because we're not above killing for our cause. It's just a waste for this to happen."

"Stain would never have liked it," Spinner agreed.

Shigaraki was silent.

Hawks frowned. "Just because I got asked to spy doesn't make me heartless. I hate this with a passion, and I don't get the feeling you really care that much what happens to the people as long as you get out alive. So yeah, I'm not really inclined to call that principle. At least this lady here is expressing remorse."

Silk bit her lip. "I have personal reason. It may not be as noble as you think. More like stubborn."

Mirko rolled her eyes. "Does it really matter? Hawks, stop lecturing the LOV. It's ridiculous coming from you... It's more important to focus on stopping this now."

Hawks frowned. "I know no one would ever forgive what I've done, and I don't expect it, but I did want to protect people. I can't stand it when anyone really just doesn't care. Hero or villain."

Pointedly.

Mirko didn't seem as offended by that as she really should have been. She just smirked. "Cheeky as ever."

Pros were weird, Shigaraki decided. They never could make up their mind what they thought was important.

They were at the center in less than 5 minutes, but clearly something had transpired after Hawks had swung by, because what they found was pure chaos.