Medea and Lethe were sent to the center of the city with a little help from the last kind of person they expected: Kurogiri.

The Originals told all of them very simple instructions. Kurogiri was to divide the hero forces to ruin their united front they were trying to maintain, and Lethe and Medea were to keep Likstar from interfering.

"From all you told us about her," The Head said, "her power of doorways relies on memory. Not really sure why that is if it's no quirk, but it's like it's been handed to us on a silver platter. Stop her from using it."

"She is resistant," Lethe argued.

"Resistant does not equal immune," the Head said, "If you drug her or something beforehand, she will not be able to stop you. Surely, the two of you can manage that. Or perhaps you'd like to be next."

Kicking Medea as he said this.

Medea fell on her hands, but her eyes were blazing with anger.

Lethe swallowed.

"So take this." One of the lackeys handed him a dart gun. "And take care of it. We'll be watching."

The twins were dropped by Kurogiri very near their target.

Medea looked back up towards the ninja, and she spat in disgust. "This is wrong."

"We have to go through with it, or they'll kill you--and me too," Lethe said.

Medea turned to him with the angriest look in her eye he'd seen in a very long time. "What did they make you do to those nomu...? Why have they been attacking only the LOV once they see them? I saw it. I saw everything."

Lethe was silent. Then, "It doesn't matter what I did."

"I'd like to know." Medea crossed her arms stubbornly.

Lethe didn't have time for this. "Fine...they told me to access their memories of Shigaraki so they'd think he was their target... It was hard, but they walked me through it. I'd swear they knew exactly how to do it.... And anyone with Shigaraki too. I'm not sure how that was connected to the heroes also. They did something else-- I don't know how they did it. They wouldn't let me watch."

Medea stared at him. Then she gestured widely to the city, which was on fire and had alarms going off all over the place.

"And this?"

"They...just attack whatever's in sight that stops them from their goal..." Lethe said slowly.

"Lethe...Yuma, I think...thousands of people have probably died," Medea said in a much smaller voice, "because of us... I never wanted to be this kind of villain... Small time, that's what you always said... Look what they made us do. This is never going to stop. I'm fed up with it. Since they found us, it's been one awful thing after another they want from us. What's next? Killing someone ourselves? Kids are out there-- and families... Sure, the LOV are a bunch of creeps, but they never did anything to us to deserve us stabbing them in the back. Don't you even feel bad?"

Lethe's cool demeanor almost cracked. "If I felt bad for it, where would it end? It's not like I wanted this. I'm being forced. It's not my choice."

"So you don't choose to do it-- they're hypnotizing you?" Medea said savagely, "Is that it? You might just as well be one of those brain dead zombies if you're going to do whatever they say."

"I'm doing this for you!" Lethe cried, "I have to make sure you're okay. That's my job!"

"Your job? Who died and made you my babysitter?" Medea snapped.

Lethe flinched. "How can you say that? You know exactly who died... Why are you so callous about it?"

Medea frowned. "Don't talk about that. It gives me a headache..." She winced. "Anyway...you know, just because Mom and Dad are gone doesn't make me helpless... If you'd listened to me ages ago, maybe we'd be out of this mess. Now look what happened."

"If we don't move soon they'll come down and move us," Lethe said, "I'm sure Kurogiri has separated everyone by now. This bickering will get us nowhere."

"Bickering!?" Medea's eyes flamed up and part of her body too. "Is that what you think this is? You always think I'm so childish, don't you! You think I'm not part of the decisions... You know, there's no 'I' in team, Lethe. Maybe if you listened to someone other than yourself, we wouldn't be in this position. Maybe if you listened to me now, it'd be a good thing."

"Medea, stop it." Lethe reached a hand toward her. "I don't want to have to put my foot down--"

Medea backed up suddenly, a new look in her eye...fear?

"What are you doing?" she said.

Lethe froze. "What do you mean?"

"Were you going to...use your quirk on me?!" Medea fumed, "Just to end this argument."

"This is a petty argument to be having. I was trying to keep us on task!" Lethe forgot his caution.

"Oh, so I just don't get an opinion, then. You can just shut it down by wiping my memory of arguing!" Medea yelled, "Why don't you just wipe my memory of the whole thing!? I could forget why I have this d----d tracking chip in my arm!"

"Shhh, have you gone crazy?!" Lethe said.

"Yeah, maybe I have!" Half Medea's body was in flame now. "Why would you ever use your quirk on me?"

"It's not like it's the first time I had to--" Lethe let that slip without meaning too...but he didn't freak out. He would just have to erase that too... He just needed to get close enough. He could fix all this, undo the mistake.

But Medea's temper snapped its last thread. "What?!!!"

It was not the first time he'd let that slip over the years, but always he was able to suppress it in the end. He tried to get closer. "I didn't mean it like that."

"I don't give a d--- how you meant that. Are you telling the truth??"

 Medea's whole body was fire now. When she was total fire, she couldn't be touched. Lethe couldn't use his power on her then. Whether it was some kind of family immunity trick or not, he wasn't sure. He didn't have to make contact with someone to use it, but her fire somehow kept him from connecting anyway. It was like her thoughts also became purely erratic, nothing to access.

He started to draw back.

Medea lunged at him and punched him right in the jaw, knocking him into some rubble, hard. She had no special strength normally, but when her fire got going it was like steroids to her. She had this crazy adrenaline rush power.

"Get away from me!" she yelled at him, so loud someone nearby would probably hear them, "Don't touch me!" 

Then she shot off the other way, literally burning through the pavement.

"Medea!" Lethe cried, "Aya! Come back! No, don't go off alone! They'll find you!"

But she wasn't coming back. Lethe had a terrible feeling about this.

* * *

Shine's idea to get Midnight there had worked out really well.

Midnight used her quirk on the section of the city they had the most nomu in, and it worked. The monsters actually fell asleep...but took a lot, though. And without a contained space, it didn't work very fast.

Midnight was very tired by the time they actually dropped off.

When Wally came back, he said Shine was a genius.

The only issue was not all the nomu were asleep. Those who were closer enough and stupid enough to keep coming at them while it was in the air were, but some had run other ways.

They counted at least 6 more down. 

Hawks had stopped by also to tell them more people were coming and get a status report. Then he'd flown off to get more help.

The remaining nomu were tearing out of the barriers they'd put up-- the fires were out of fuel.

But it looked like, with the pros help, they could easily finish them off. Shine released the 6 they had captured, and they stopped breathing.

But there were still big ones at large, no pun intended, as Wally pointed out.

Momo had made masks for them all to not fall asleep, but beyond that hadn't done much, so she said she was ready to fight.

Bakugo let them know that he and Camie were on their way back, and Shine didn't need to portal them because they were leading one of the monsters to them.

"So it's going okay," Shine told Wally.

"I really hate to admit it," Midnight said, "but you're a lifesaver, Likstar. This plan was brilliant."

"Wally came up with part of it. I just thought of you," Shine said, "And we're very lucky that worked. Your quirk is terrifying."

Midnight chose to take that as a compliment.

"But can you please fix your costume now?" Shine said.

Wally was very carefully avoiding looking at Midnight.

So were Shoto and Dabi.

Midnight made a "tch" sound of annoyance but started to adjust it.

"Endeavor will be here once he takes down a straggler or two," Wally said.

"And that'll be my cue to leave," Dabi said, "You won't need me anymore then, right?"

"No, you can go," Shine said.

"You're afraid?" Shoto said, not very nicely.

"Oh, and how well do you think that would go, Snowflake?" Dabi said, "I'm sure he wouldn't recognize me without the scars or anything like that."

Shoto sighed.

"I am pretty sure Endeavor knows who you are already," Shine shocked them by commenting, "But he won't acknowledge it till he's sure. He'd have to be pretty dense not to suspect it-- the fire, the rage...the eyes, I mean, come on. If I can put it together after a month, he can."

"You underestimate how dense the men in this family are," Dabi said, "But maybe you're right... I don't really care."

"I would care if he didn't mention it," Shoto said.

"Shoto, your father will never mention that to you on a whim," Shine said, "If he knew for sure, maybe he would...but why drag up something so painful if it's just a guess?"

Shoto looked down.

It was right at this moment that black smoke had appeared out of literally nowhere and surrounded all of them with no warning at all.

"Kurogiri?" Shine almost choked.

"What the---?" Wally tried to run out of it, but that wasn't really how the power worked. He just ran into it instead.

All of them felt disoriented, and they then were flung across the city-- them, and all the pros who were gathering to help them head off the nomu. Giving the monster free rein again.

Momo and Midnight were taken one way too.

Shine was left in that spot, but she felt her powers being clouded by the darkness...but she ought to have a pretty good tolerance built up by now... She thought she could get them working again in a few minutes.

She had her sword up. "You don't scare me, Kurogiri...but you are a miserable traitor... What have you done?"

"I'm afraid whether or not I scare you is inconsequential, Miss Likstar," Kurogiri's deep, chillingly cold tone replied from somewhere in the smoke, "I am not here to stop you. I wonder if your little team will be able to work together without any leader and scattered all over the area...where they can get picked off one by one."

Shine gasped. "You... Why would you do that? What does this have to do with you? It makes no sense. I thought you only took orders from AFO and Shigaraki, and you just abandoned them for this."

"What could you understand about it? I'm not one of your pet projects to be analyzed. Why don't you focus on your own problems?"

So saying, he vanished out of her sight, and she saw, indeed, that none of her people were around anymore.

"Oh no..." She shook her head.

* * *

Wally found himself warped not in fact to the nomu, but off a skyscraper... It was close to the area, so apparently in range of Kurogiri's quirk-- high enough for a guy who couldn't fly to be in real trouble.

No water around to use to propel himself like a helicopter either.

In fact, this looked really bad. 

"Oh, crap..." Wally yelled as he plummeted. If there was ever a time he needed to be able to portal too, now was it. He could do it. He'd learned how to over time with coaching from Shine, but he never had her control or precision. He was just too used to using speed and not needing a doorway through space time to go anywhere.

And it turned out the shock of falling to your death wasn't a great way to stimulate concentration on skills you were not that great at.

Still, as a professional, he had to do this kind of thing a lot.. Nearly to the ground...

A doorway did open...but he didn't line it up perfectly with his fall, so he flailed wildly to try to get into it...but it wasn't going to work. He was going to miss it.

A small red feather suddenly pushed him into the door.

The portal just let him out on the ground. That was as far as he'd gotten in planning.

"Hawks?" He looked around.

Hawks waved. He was flying up. "Hey... Wow, not who I expected to see falling to their death."

"Thanks?" Wally said, "I owe you one-- a big bucket of KFC or something."

"I'll take you up on that, but why are you here? And what's going on? I came back and it was utter chaos...but I did bring some people with a plan." Hawks pointed back where he'd come. "You're really lucky I looked around in time to see you... Nice costume, by the way."

Wally had modified his original hero outfit a little, but the bright red was not going anywhere. He wasn't wearing a mask though. It just didn't seem right in this world.

"Well, you know, a classic," he said.

"Yeah, it does look like it's from 50 years ago," Hawks didn't really make him feel better by saying, "Golden era. Anyway, what's going on?"

"That smoke guy is back. I think he's trying to kill us all," Wally said, "Just a guess since he dropped me off a building... I've gotta get back to them."

"Well, hold on." Hawks grabbed him before he ran off. "If you do that, he'll just drop you off another one, and I might not be close enough this time. Let's not just rush into this."

"Right, right." Wally stopped. "You said someone had a plan."

"Yeah, them." Hawks pointed. 

Wally now saw the last people he expected: the LOV...and Mirko, but that was less of a surprise. She looked annoyed. 

"What's going on now, West? You can't even save yourself from falling to your death?" she said.

"Hey, some of us can't fly or jump higher than a building," Wally shot back, "Can you save yourself from a bullet faster than the speed of sound?"

Mirko made a "tch" sound like she really wanted to say yes but couldn't.

"What's this buffoon doing here without his partner?" Shigaraki asked rudely.

"Hey, Shiggy, your old buddy is back," Wally replied, "Smokey the Bear...or I should say, 'Villain'?"

"What?" Shigaraki said, "Where?"

"Kurogiri is here! Great, we should kill him in person for what he's done!" Spinner yelled.

"I'm confused. Why would he be here?" Compress said.

"It cannot be good." Silk was grave.

"I just like how they all knew who you meant by Smokey the Bear," Hawks said to Wally, "Is that an American thing?"

"It is, but, dude, not the time for quips, even if it was funny. What's the plan?" Wally demanded.

"Says the guy who made the quip." Mirko rolled her eyes. "The plan is stupid."

"It's not stupid. It will work!" Silk insisted.

"Just tell me." Wally wanted to face palm so bad right then, but Shigaraki kind of made it hard to do that seriously.

* * *

Some of the heroes who'd gathered to help were more UA students and pros they were with.

"Monoma," Kendo said, when the smoke had left them, "I know that smoke...from the USJ footage...and the camp... That was one of the LOV."

"Yes, I'm not really surprised. Kendo, who do you think released nomu into the city?" Monoma was in no mood for for her bossiness.

"I'm just saying this could be really bad. Maybe we should retreat," Kendo said.

"It might be good idea." Monoma didn't like to say it, but his quirk wasn't going to be much use separated from most of the group.

Then they saw a small nomu right in front of them.

"I thought most of these were gone..." Kendo said.

"Then we got really lucky!" Monoma was a little panicky. "What do we do?"

"Maybe it won't attack us. A lot of them weren't really attacking people directly, just the city," Kendo said.

But all hope of that flew out the window. The monster saw them and began to charge.

"And we're dead!" Monoma yelped as they ran for it.

"You don't have any quirk stored up to help with getting away, do you?" Kendo yelled at him.

"No! I was focusing on attacking!"

"So was I... Maybe if I grabbed something..." She reached for a building and used her hand to latch on and yank herself up, dragging Monama after her.

"Well...that worked better than I thought it would," he admitted.

"Don't celebrate yet," Kendo said. The nomu was jumping toward them.

"So it can jump... Its quirk or just its enhancements?" Kendo wondered.

"I don't think it matters if it kills us! Why is it after us?!" Monoma said.

"I don't know!" Kendo yelled back. 

They swung to another roof. The thing was just gaining on them faster now.

"I can't outrun it." Kendo had never been this panicked in Monoma's memory. He was really close to just losing it himself. He was never that stable or brave, really, unless it was against things he could manipulate. How did you manipulate a monster?

Then the beast lunged at Kendo and sent her sprawling before she could dodge.

Monoma evaded just barely, thanks to his reflexes, but the nomu clawed at Kendo. She kicked at it frantically and hit it with her hands, but it didn't fall over. It just grabbed them and pushed back...

"I think it's matching my strength!" Kendo cried, "Monoma, just get out of here!"

Monoma was a prick, but he wasn't that much of a prick. "I'm not just going to leave you here!"

"This is no time to be a hero!" Kendo yelled at him, "You can't do jack against it. Go get help!"

"Hello, there is no help!" Monoma said. He looked around. Anything he could use as a weapon... He didn't see anything... Maybe that pipe sticking out of the ground. He started to tug at it.

Kendo was straining, being forced back, forced into a kneeling position. 

The monster's claws came out and dug into her hands. She screamed.

Monoma yanked frantically at the pipe. It wasn't coming out.

Just when it looked utterly hopeless, the last thing either of them expected happened. 

A wall of purple flame just slammed into the nomu and set it on fire.

The nomu started to writhe and howl and claw at something behind it. But it didn't make contact.

Kendo fell back and then fell over, as the shock seemed to sink in from what just happened.

Monoma gave up on the pipe and just gaped.

The nomu kind of turned into a charred husk...which was disgusting.

Then the fire dissipated into... It was that intruder!

"Suck on that!" she yelled at the monster, getting off of it, "Ugh, that was disgusting."

She looked over that them. "Well, I guess--Wait, I know you." Her eyes widened. "The annoying chick and the cute guy from UA!?"

"You!" Monoma pointed at her accusingly. "You were a spy!"

"Spy is not really the right word, but...this is actually perfect," the girl said. She ran up to Monoma.

"Hey, get back!" he said, "Likstar warned me not to get close."

"Likstar? You know her? Perfect!" The girl grinned unsettlingly. "I don't have much time. Come on, let's get to cover..." She glanced at Kendo. "Eh, she'll be fine. None of those other monsters are this close."

"I don't have any intention of going anywhere with you."

"I didn't really say it was your choice." She grabbed his arm before he could stop her and started dragging him toward a building that was still standing...a coffee shop.

Some people were actually hiding in it.

"Hey, beat it," Medea yelled at them, "Get out of the city, idiots! Those things aren't looking for you."

They were apparently scared of someone with flaming purple eyes. They ran out of the shop.

"That's not what we're supposed to do. What's wrong with you!!?" Monoma yelled, "And let go of me."

"Why don't you make me?" She shoved him into a chair. "Now shut up and pay attention. You were right-- my brother and I are intruders. Actually, we were working for the LOV, but now we're not. There's this bad group of people. They like to dress like ninjas, which is really lame, but I don't have time for that, and they're trying to kill the LOV, but they want to pin the whole city-thing on them, but it's not actually them. It was us. Well, it was really my brother. I can't actually control those things, but I just let it happen."

"Do you really think I'm going to buy this?" Monoma interrupted.

"Oh, you don't want to buy it?!" Medea's hair lit partially on fire.

He leaned away.

She held up her forearm and pointed to what he could just barely make out as some kind of tracking chip imbedded in her skin. "This is from them. Somehow it blocks my quirk when they turn on a little switch they have... It hasn't yet. I don't think they realized I ran off on my own, but they will. They're always watching. That's why I don't have a lot of time. They forced us, okay? We're not good people, but my brother and I are not the mass murder type. That's just wrong...and that's why I'm not standing by and watching it anymore. There're things worse than losing your quirk...I think... I don't know. I'm on a real high right now, not sure I'm thinking clearly, and then I'm not sure I even remember what really happened. I don't know if I do."

"You're not making any sense. How do I know this is true?" Monoma sputtered.

"Fine, don't believe me," Medea shot back, "I'm sure you'll figure out on your own how to stop all this."

Monoma swallowed. "Okay, let's say, for the sake of the argument, I think you're telling the truth. What's going to happen?"

"They split everybody up so they can pick them off, but they know if Likstar uses her portals, that might not work." Medea lowered her voice like she thought someone might be spying. "So they are... Well...my brother, he can suppress memory... I never knew exactly how it worked all this time, but I think I've kind of got it since yesterday... He takes it and makes it hard to access, I guess. They won't even know he did it...and if he does that to Likstar, she can't portal, and she'll be helpless... Also they were planning to drug her to make that happen."

"What?" Monama was horrified. "That's not fair."

"They aren't fair, idiot! What part of genocidal maniac bad guys do you not understand!" Medea insisted, "The point is, someone she'll listen to has to go find her. She won't believe me, and even if I did tell her, my brother...he'll stop me... He won't listen to me. He never does. But maybe you could catch him off guard... It's worth a shot. He doesn't know about you-- I never mentioned it. And Likstar knows you saw me, right? So she'll know it's legit. You've got to get over to her now! And stop this." She pointed out the door.

Monoma couldn't process this. "And if I don't do that...they'll raze the whole city?"

"And they'll say it was the LOV," Medea insisted, "That's what they want. But it wasn't them, got it? They didn't do this. They wouldn't do this. They always have a reason for stuff. This is just...I don't know. I don't know what's wrong with these people..."

"Even if I could stop this, I can't fight the nomu," Monoma said, getting up and looking out the window for any sign of more, "I can't copy their quirks."

"Are you really this useless? Don't you have a gun or something?" Medea said.

"We don't carry guns."

"Oh, no?" Medea snorted, "Stupid heroes. Everyone should carry a gun." She pulled one out. "I stole this off one of the ninja while they weren't paying attention. I don't need it myself, really. I can just phase through everything."

"I can't shoot it even if I wanted to," Monoma said.

"Well, then the only thing for it is to go together." Medea lost no time. "I might as well. I'm dead anyway..."

"Wait, what about Kendo?"

"Just put her in here. They won't bother with her. She's not part of the group," Medea said.

"Group?"

"The inner group, the ones they want dead or maimed or captured," Medea said, going back outside and looking around, "I don't see them, but they can find me anywhere... I just hope that means they won't bother running after me..."

"It sounds like you're not the best escort to have," Monoma said, dragging Kendo into the building. She was still out cold.

"I'm the only one you've got, Copy Cat. Let's go," she waved at him, "By the way the code name is Medea. Don't call me Aya. That was just a cover."

"I knew that!"

"Yeah, whatever you're so smart," she said sarcastically, "Let's just go."

They took off.

Monoma didn't know why he was trusting her, other than he really had no choice.

But Medea wasn't bad. She had all the skills of someone used to running from trouble. She ducked around corners and objects swiftly and just phased right through obstacles.

On the way she let Monoma copy her power and then explained how to use it that way. "How long can you hold a quirk?"

"Up to 10 minutes, if it's the right kind," Monoma said.

"Good, that should be long enough. Any fight you can't win in under 5 minutes is probably a waste of time," Medea mused. 

"I'm not sure I really want to know, but what happens to you if all this this true and they find out you turned on them?" Monoma asked.

"I...don't know..." Medea said slowly, "I guess...maybe they get rid of me."

"And...aren't you scared of that?" Monoma would have been terrified.

"I guess so," Medea said oddly, "I didn't give it a lot of thought... I dunno, maybe people think too much about what will happen to them. That's always Lethe's way. 'If we don't do this, then this.' I can't stand it. I'd think the guy who'd piss off Bakugo would kind of be more of a risk taker. Are you actually a pansy?"

"I'm not! I just don't see why you're turning on them."

"Because they're Psychos!" Medea said, "I don't mind the thieving and the intel gathering and the violence here and there, if it's for a reason, but this is just...it's overwhelmingly horrible. Stop asking me about it. You're a real piece of work, you know that? Aren't you supposed to be a hero?"

"I didn't mean it as criticism exactly. I'm just confused," Monoma said.

"Well, get unconfused." Medea stopped. "There...that's it. That's where I left him."

She was clearly nervous now. The nomu didn't scare her-- her brother did.

"All right, from here it's on you," she said, "Don't let Lethe get within half a meter of you. That's how close he has to be. If you can control it, though, my quirk at full power, he can't connect with it. Hopefully he won't have found Likstar yet at all, but you never know. Just tell her to get the frick away from there."

"Uh...where are you gonna go?" Monoma asked.

"Nowhere," Medea said.

She leaned on the wall. "Hey, if I'm still here when all this is over, give me a call. I don't know where I'd go."

"I'm sure if the police knew you helped, you won't get arrested," Monoma said.

"Huh, the police aren't any protection. Now you're wasting time, Hot Stuff. Go." Medea kicked him towards the street.

Monoma ran forward.

[Who did not see this one coming? Wonder if he'll get there in time.]