Mirko and Ren didn't run into anyone. Whenever Ren saw a camera in the city, he'd just turn it around the other way slightly so it wouldn't see them.

"So we're offline for now. I don't hear anyone else," Ren said.

"What do you want?" Rumi knew that tone.

"Oh, mi hermana, I just want to know how mi favorite sibling is handling herself in the LOV," Ren said.

"It sounds wrong when you say it like that."

"I hate to break it to you, chica, but it sounds wrong anyway," Ren said, "How've things been since that unfortunate incident? I mean you couldn't even go one day after seeing me before living through an attack on the Pros."

"Not my idea." Mirko rubbed her head. "But it's been fine."

"Fine? Really? Fine?"

"Yeah, the LOV isn't so bad," Rumi said.

Ren gave her a weird look. "Not so bad? The LOV?"

"I mean they're huge d---s." Rumi gestured widely. "But the life threatening part has been surprisingly at a minimum. Mostly, I just don't like their attitude, but you know, that's the least of my concerns."

"Huh, well, how unexpected," Ren said, "I mean, if they picked on you, I would end them if you asked, just saying."

"I can handle myself," Rumi said.

"Who's the most annoying though? Real question," Ren said.

Rumi thought. "It'd be close between Compress, Spinner, and Silk."

"What is it with naming themselves after what they can do... Well, Silk... No, even Silk," Ren said.

"I dunno," Rumi said. 

"Does Spinner spin?"

"No, I think it's an TMNT reference."

"Slightly more cool, but still... I thought you'd say Shigaraki, though. That guy seems a little creepy."

"It's mostly all talk," Rumi said slyly, "He's actually really easy to manipulate, at least for the others."

"Oh, no? Really?" Ren was laughing.

"Oh, heck yeah."

"Maybe I should be asking who's your favorite."

"You can't have a favorite villain, Ren."

"If you can have a least favorite, you can have a most favorite. That's just balance, logic," Ren said sagely.

"Well...Medea's not so bad." Rumi shrugged. "A brat, but not evil."

"I thought you didn't like kids."

"I don't, but I don't have a lot of options here."

"So where is the big boss on your list? I gotta admit, I thought he was kind of funny to mess with."

"Oh, definitely." Rumi ran a strand of hair through her hand deviously. "Though you should really be careful with that."

"Still fighting a lot?"

"Not a lot," Rumi said, "I've given up trying to get anywhere here."

"Que? Why? What were you hoping to get?"

"I don't even know. You'd think an experience like this would be...enlightening... I mean it's a rare chance for any hero. Maybe I went at it the wrong way. I don't think we know anything really, about the LOV. But they don't trust heroes."

"As they shouldn't. Most heroes would never be as fair as you," Ren said.

"I'm not fair," Rumi said, "I've been very biased. Not sure I even think that was the wrong response, but it doesn't make for the smoothest transactions. Even if I was fair, it wouldn't matter. That's the thing-- they really, really hate us."

"But what did you ever do to them?" Ren said, "I mean, if they wouldn't cross heroes, they would be left alone. They're the ones who started all this."

"That's true," Rumi said, "You know how it is, though. Once you start something, you're stuck."

"What...what are you getting at?" Ren lowered his voice.

Rumi pursed her lips. "Just a few things I've picked up here and there about some of the members."

"Oh, that sounds important," Ren said, "You know, you know their secrets now. You'd be able to give all this info to the police."

Silence.

"Rumi?" Ren said, "Are you...actually not going to do that?"

"And you're surprised? I thought you claimed to know me so well." Rumi was defensive.

"I know you'll do almost anything to win," Ren said, "short of killing someone or cheating. So, if you're not using this advantage, what does that mean? Do you see it as cheating?"

"I..." Rumi hesitated. "There's stuff about the LOV that...people still don't know... They might be a bunch of jackasses, but there are things worse than dying, you know."

"And you're worried about that?"

"Kind of. I'm not a monster..." Rumi suddenly shuddered and rubbed her throat.

"Are you okay?" Ren said.

"Just remembering something..." Rumi muttered.

"They...aren't threatening you to keep it quiet, are they?" Ren asked.

Though really, why would that be so shocking?

"No," Rumi said.

"No!" Ren was shocked indeed. "Not even once."

"No. If it happened, I've forgotten it since. That's not really what they do."

"If all villains were like this, I'm not sure they'd be called villains." Ren was surprised. "Do you mean to tell me they've been quite nice, in a way?"

"Nice enough, considering who we're talking about."

"I'm starting to think you're getting attached, Sis." Ren frowned at her. "You always did have a bigger heart than you liked to let on."

"Are you kidding? I don't care about that," Rumi said, looking away.

"Come now, Rumi, we can joke around, but we both know you're soft," Ren said, "There's more than one reason you're the only one who wanted to become a hero. I think, deep down, you prefer helping people, even if it's by beating other people up. That delinquent life never really was going to be enough for you, mi chica loca. I mean, you have to put on a big front about it, but still, you help the little guy, don't you? It sounds to me like you've begun to feel some amount of sympathy for these guys."

"That's preposterous," Rumi said, "Now you're mad as a March hare."

"My birthday is in May, not March, Sis. That's you," Ren said.

"I worry about you," he said more soberly, "I think you're going to get hurt one of these days. I don't just mean on the outside."

"Ren, I am the last person who would ever get 'attached,' as you say. Kind of famous for not letting that happen."

"Claro, because people always protect themselves the most from what they are the most afraid of," Ren said. ["Claro" means "of course," basically. Since that one is a little less common for non-spanish speakers to know.]

Rumi hesitated, then snorted. "Are you taking psychology classes now?"

"I actually did take a few. I was thinking of being a counselor. Hmm, maybe I should pursue a secondary career in that," Ren said.

"Oh, really? You?"

"Chica, I have 8 sisters. If that's not good for some kind of certification, I really don't know what it is," Ren said.

[Sidenote: People say it's sexist that boss female characters in movie always have to have older brothers or something like that, but sensitive male characters always have to have a lot of sisters or be close to their mom or gay. So isn't that also kind of sexist? Unless it's just true... In this case, it's meant to be a joke. Clearly his sisters are not that sensitive. But just saying, I think the complaints can be one sided...]

"Anyway," Ren went on, "it's just basic logic. People put the most armor over their most vulnerable place. We could go into why you are the way you are, but that would be kind of embarrassing and a long conversation, and I don't feel like getting strangled today."

"Oh, shut up," Rumi said, "You being serious is freaking me out. I feel like we're going to die if you're acting like this."

"Eh, it's more useful if we survive, so all this goes to some good," Ren said, "By the way, we haven't heard from anyone in a while. I really expected to be interrupted by now. Where are those kids?"

"Hm...you're right, it's been easily 10-15 minutes..." Mirko said, "and they're on our same line, so we should hear them."

"You can turn the speakers off, though. You just have to say it."

"Wait, did you turn them off before we started talking?"

"No..." Ren smiled kind of awkwardly. "Oops...but no one was listening, right? We'd have heard them exit the line."

"We'd better have, you doofus!" Rumi swung at him. He dodged.

"Still, priorities. Where are the kids?" Ren said.

* * *

"Boss?" Compress hissed, "Shouldn't we move out?"

Shigaraki jumped. "What?"

"Were you listening to the comlinks, sir? I turned mine off," Compress said.

"What? Why?"

"I couldn't think with all that jabbering," Compress said.

"Me neither," Spinner said, "I don't need heroes in my head."

"I was on the line with Endeavor," Silk spoke up, "They're moving in. I think we should too."

"Who were you on with?" Compress asked Shigaraki, "Was it Miss Likstar? What have they found?"

"Turn it back on, Compress."

"I actually...kind of don't know how. I just turned it off by saying I wish it would."

"So wish it back on," Spinner said.

Shigaraki rolled his eyes. Good, they were distracted.

"Line 1," he changed the line. No one should know he had caught the tail end of a different conversation.

"Hello?" Shine said.

* * *

Shine's group had followed their plan. Fuyumi had been portaled down to the part of the city with the resort.

Still no sign of regular tourists or holiday activity.

Fuyumi tried not to look as conspicuous as she felt, though, in her plain teacher-like attire, she didn't attract a lot of attention. Even if someone looked at her, they just assumed she was on some inane errand.

Once she got closer, she could see more people who looked like Metas, lolling around in costume. They seemed oddly relaxed, considering there was a war on.

A couple glanced at her but didn't seem to register anything unusual.

"You're doing great," Shine said to her encouragingly, "I just heard that the others are moving in too, so it'll get pretty busy on this line soon. But for now, just relax."

"I don't see any sign of anyone noticing her." Momo was looking through binoculars.

"This could end up being boring after all," Shinso said.

"I want boring if my sister is involved," Shoto said, "I can't believe we're letting her do this."

"We're letting you, Shoto, and your father wasn't too thrilled about that," Shine said, "I feel a little bad about it, to be honest, but there is a time when we just have to make our own choices."

"I didn't mind," Fuyumi said more quietly, "I wanted to do this, Shoto..."

Shine covered the link with one hand. "Shoto, I know, but it's not your mother, okay?"

Shoto started. "What? That's not..."

"Fuyumi's a lot tougher than she seems," Shine assured him, "She's put up with your crazy family for years without losing it, so I'd say we're good. If you can survive that, you can survive walking into a resort, I'd say. Not that it's the same thing at all..." She uncovered the link. "See any guards?"

Fuyumi slowed. "No...but there has to be some, right?"

Suddenly the line crackled.

"Yo..." Camie's voice hissed, "we're following some creepy dude, now. Our group split up, and the two grown ups aren't responding to our messages."

"How odd," Shine said, "Hang on. Line 3."

"Yes?" Ren's voice.

"Hey, why aren't you responding to the kids? And why did you separate?" Shine asked.

"To be less visible, and they are the ones not answering us," Ren said.

"They just told me you're not answering them," Shine said, suddenly worried, "so that seems off."

"Interference?" Ren said, "Something around here must be disrupting my signal. I'll have to recalibrate. I'll be offline. Rumi can stay on, though. Oh, sorry if this causes a loud ringing sound."

"What? Oh, heck no," Mirko said.

"That's not good," Shoto said.

"I don't know if it means anything too bad," Shine said, "There must be all sort of signals in these cities that could interfere with us."

* * *

Following Creepy Guy, as Camie had dubbed him, the kids were not feeling so hot about this plan now that they couldn't reach their teammates...but at least they reached the others.

"But, if the signal was disrupted, it should affect us being able to contact anyone, not just them," Monama said, "Seems more like it's completely blocked over here, not disrupted."

"How weird is that?" Camie said.

Creepy Guy reached the building in question then. It looked like an ordinary hospital. There were those weird things on either side of the door that usually scan to see if you have tags removed from items you purchased. But they beeped when they all went in, scanning the cards.

Creepy Guy went up to the desk. "Got someone having a panic attack, Leslie."

The woman at the desk, whose quirk seemed to make her skin orange but other than that was not visible, looked up. "Give her a sedative."

Medea was okay now. "Actually, I'm fine... Just...thought maybe I should get checked out, just in case."

"Well, for panic attacks, you really should consider seeing a psychiatrist," the orange lady said, "Luckily for you, we double as a mental hospital. Shall I send you to the right wing?"

"Uh, yes, that's what we want," Monama said hesitantly.

The Orange lady tilted her head. "Security," she said. Camie noticed now she had a slight British accent.

The doors of the hospital suddenly had a blockage spread over them. Bakugo looked back.

"I didn't think I recognized you." Leslie leaned forward. "But now I'm sure of it."

Right wing must have been some kind of code, Monama thought frantically.

"But they have ID," Creepy Guy said.

"You imbecile, that doesn't mean they're supposed to be here. They could have stolen it. Let's see." Leslie leaned over the counter, glaring at them.

Bakugo was going to explode, but Camie grabbed his wrist. "Sure," she said, flipping out her ID, "It's legit. Our bro here just didn't know you had a pass code for medical attention, lady."

Leslie eyed it, than scanned it with some kind of device. "Well...it seems real enough," she said warily, "How about you others?"

They all produced their fake IDs.

Leslie didn't seem satisfied. "Well, we'll hold off for now on any extreme measures, but you won't mind if I run these through the Police, will you?"

"Oh, sure." Camie somehow sounded nonchalant. "You do that, Sis, and we'll be chilling. Is there a snack bar here?"

"Even if she's for real, I think our hiring standards have sunk," Leslie said snootily to the Creepy Guy, "Get the other one examined. You can check for bugs while you're at it. I mean both kinds." She picked up a phone off the desk.

Medea turned red. "Why, that--" 

"And we're going." Monama shoved her away. 

Creepy Guy pointed them down the hall. "We're a little short staffed, but some nurses will probably be down there in the emergency room, and the upper level is the mental hospital."

Camie nodded at the others. "You wanna walk us there, chief? It'd be totes easy to get lost in this biga-- hospital."

The hospital was actually tiny, as hospitals go, but Creepy Guy shrugged. "Sure."

Camie motioned to the others to follow her.

Creepy Guy began leading them down one wing.

Camie waited until they were out of sight of the front desk before silently blowing a cloud of Glamour that blocked the whole hallway.

Then without further ado, she motioned Medea towards a closet, or it could have been an office.

She meant for her to melt the lock or something, but Medea just turned into a pillar of flame and passed right through the door. Camie and Bakugo both stared.

Monama was slightly less surprised-- but still surprised.

The door clicked open almost inaudibly, and Medea slowly swung it open. It was well oiled. It didn't make much of a noise, plus Camie's illusion was talking over it anyway, asking Creepy Guy inane questions about whether they'd have to get stuck with a needle.

All 4 of them crowded into the office...more like a scrub room, really.

Camie peeked out the door. Creepy Guy was still going, but then he turned. "Hey...aren't you coming?"

Camie held the door nearly shut, so she was just looking out a sliver, then she focused. The illusions turned, or looked like they did, and booked it down the end of the hall.

Changing depth perception had taken Camie months to master as an illusionist, but she had to admit, even she half believed she was having an out of body experience and watching herself run away with the other 3.

Bakugo was looking over her head...which was kind of distracting.

"What's going on?" Monama hissed.

"Shh," Medea shushed him.

"They're getting away!" Creepy Guy yelled, charging down the hall, "Did you see which way they went?"

"No, you bumbling fool." Leslie's voice sounded perturbed. "I wasn't looking. You can't even keep track of four blasted kids? Maybe they are spies."

"They'd never make it in here with those IDs," Creepy Guy protested, "What if they were secret inspectors or something?"

"4 kids? Please." Leslie's voice sounded like she was rolling her eyes. "I'm still waiting to here from HQ about them."

Camie perked up her ears. HQ? Hmm.

"Find them!" Leslie added.

"All right, I will." Creepy Guy raced off the opposite direction from where they were actually hiding.

"Is he gone?" Medea hissed.

"Yep," Bakugo said.

"Camie, you're a gosh-danged genius!" Medea said.

"Well, I try," Camie said humbly, "Now we got to sneak up on nurse lady and stop her from getting any news about us. But how?"

"Nothing so easy at that," Medea said. 

She reached up and knocked something over. There was a loud bang.

"Get back from the door," she whispered loudly.

They backed up.

Sure enough, Leslie got up. "What was that?"

She came towards the closet. "Not more rats...unless those little rats are actually hiding in here, but they wouldn't be that stupid, after all the trouble of sneaking away."

She opened the door. The kids had hid themselves behind the scrubs and door itself. Leslie didn't seem to see them. What was this woman's quirk?

Before she could shut the door, Medea passed through the wall and appeared behind her, shoving her into the room.

Leslie gave a yelp of surprise.

Camie kicked her feet out from under her while she was still off balance and then karate chopped the back of her neck. Leslie slumped forward.

They all dashed out of the closet.

Medea put her hand over the doorknob. "Come on, come on," she said, straining. Her flame flickered weakly.

"Get on with it!" Bakugo hissed.

"I can't get it to..." Medea seemed panicked.

"But you just used it majorly," Camie said.

"That was different!" Medea was shrill because she was freaking out. "I was trying to get away. That's easy."

"It's mental," Monama explained to the other two.

"We get it, moron," Bakugo said, "Well, she needs to get a grip."

"Saying that doesn't help, you know," Monama said, "Let me do it." He lightly brushed Medea's hand and then his own caught on fire.

He melted the lock.

Medea blinked.

"Wow, cool, so that's how your quirk works," Camie said, "That's kind of neat." 

"Oh, shut up," Monama said, "I don't need your snide comments."

"She was being serious, dude," Medea said.

Camie did look kind of hurt.

"Oh..." Monama said awkwardly.

"No big, uh, I guess," Camie shrugged it off, "Hey, let's get to her desk."

They raced over there.

"Someone could come in at any moment," Monama said.

"Relax, bro, I've got this." Camie blew a cloud of illusion to mask the desk and make it look like Leslie was still there.

"But we can't hack this." Medea was looking at the monitor on the computer. "It's a hospital, for crying out loud. I mean, it's just going to tell us people's medical issues."

"That could be useful," Monama said, "and who says we need to hack it? What line is that other guy on? Line 5."

"About dang time you called me," Intelli said, "Now, I want you to follow my exact instructions. You can do that, right, Copy Cat?"

Monama looked annoyed. "I suppose..."

"All right, put your hands on the keypad."

Monama rolled his eyes.

* * *

Fuyumi made it up to the door of the resort, still unhindered.

She walked in slowly.

The lady and man at the desk smiled plastic smiles at her.

"Hello, welcome to The Red Lotus," they said.

Fuyumi wasn't sure what to say. She smiled nervously.

"Do you have a reservation?" the lady said, with the same smile.

"It's a code," Shine said, on the line, "just like at the hospital... Hope that's going well. They switched lines...but anyway, you have to answer carefully."

"Intelli and Ren sent us a layout blueprint of the resort." Momo held up her phone. "We could just pick a room."

Fuyumi had been silent an awkward amount of time, but she swallowed. "Uh, sorry, I think I was too far away."

She came closer. "What did you say?"

"Do you have a reservation?" the lady repeated. Her quirk wasn't visible, but her expression was pretty cold and formidable even without one.

"Only two floors," Momo said quickly, "but we have no way of knowing..."

"Say you'd like to book room 207," Shine said quickly.

"Why 207?" Shoto asked.

"Rooms with an 0 in the middle are always important in movies," Shine said.

"That's your logic?" Shinso hissed.

But Fuyumi had already said it. "No. I'd like to book room 207."

The lady nodded and looked down at a schedule. "You're in luck. It's available. Will you be wanting it immediately?"

"Yes," Shine said.

"If that's possible," Fuyumi said aloud.

"We'll need to see your ID," the lady said.

Fuyumi held it out, holding her breath. The lady scanned it, then nodded. "All right, you're registered. Will there be anything else?"

"No, no, that's all, thanks," Fuyumi said.

The male receptionist nodded. "I can take you there."

Fuyumi felt her palms getting sweaty.

The receptionist got up and started to lead her away. He looked to have some kind of aquatic quirk... Made sense, so close to the beach. He had fins.

"You don't have any bags?"

"On their way," Fuyumi said.

"Relocation?" the receptionist guessed.

"Oh, yes," Fuyumi said, "My whole family." That was actually true.

"Tough. It's been happening a lot." The receptionist seemed genuinely sympathetic.

"Genuis move, Fuyumi," Shine said on the line, "And I think I just figured it out... Of course, they must have to move people all the time when the heroes get close to finding them. Places like this must work as a transitional spot for them to live. It's probably a real resort, then. I bet that Reservation thing is a test."

"A test for what?" Shoto said.

"Well, either it's a trick, because if it's a cover, having a reservation would be impossible. It wouldn't have a way to book the resort online," Shine said, "or having reservations is code for someone else informing them you were coming, but perhaps that's not a requirement because it can be risky. If you have the ID, they know you're in the army, so they ask no questions. Smart."

"All that from that short conversation?" Shinso said, "Do you train for this stuff?""

"No, never," Shine said, "I didn't used to make these connections, but you live through a couple conspiracies, and you start to spot patterns. Mind games, etc. Always look for the questions within the question, the one thing you have to assume to answer it a certain way. That's what they look for in these groups."

"That makes sense," Momo mused, "What a narrow escape, then."

"Fuyumi is doing great, and it helps that she doesn't look suspicious at all," Shine said, "Luckily she's also not been on TV."

"Yeah, I never knew Endeavor had a daughter till today," Shinso said.

Fuyumi reached room 207 with the receptionist right then. He pointed to the key card slot.

"Your ID will open it, as long as the room is in your name."

Clever.

"Thanks." Fuyumi slid the card in. The door flashed green light and clicked open.

"Feel free to call room service if you need anything," the receptionist said, winking. He walked away.

Fuyumi nervously opened the door.

She wasn't sure if she expected a trap or no, but inside she found an ordinary hotel room.

Decked out in very beach oriented decor.

She went in and looked around.

"It looks like an ordinary room," she said quietly.

"Could be tapped," Shine warned, "Don't say anything that makes it seem like you're not just talking to yourself."

That should be easy. Fuyumi talked to herself all the time.

[As a teacher, I can confirm we do that.]

Fuyumi went into the room, muttering asides "to herself".

When she opened the mini fridge she found her first sign of things being odd. There wasn't regular snacks in there. It was more like survival food. Stuff you could take with you, even.

In the bathroom she also found a first aid kit that was pretty extensive.

But the closet afforded the most interesting surprise. It had what appeared to be tools in it...or weapons. She wasn't sure which it was.

She kind of whispered that part.

"Wow..." Momo said.

"Why hide all this stuff in the resort?" Shinso wondered,. "Why not pick a less easy-to-raid location."

"Hide stuff in plain sight. Makes sense," Shine said, "Why else do they have these cities? None of this will help us much though. If we could figure out how they send people around... Maybe they send people to the big HQ."

"Seems like a long shot," Shinso said.

"We have people at the transport sites already," Shine said, "We have the perfect opportunities to cross some wires...hmm. Fuyumi, just hang in there for a bit. Look casual."

Fuyumi sat down on the bed. "Sure..."

"Line 5," Shine said, "Intelli? You read me?"

"No need to be so Technical, ma'am," Intelli replied, "I'm a little busy hacking a hospital right now, by proxy of course. What can I do you for?"

"While you're at it, could you hack a resort that may also be a relocation center?" Shine said.

"Easy," Intelli said, "but I need to be connected to the mainframe. I've already got myself in there. I just need their specific address."

"All I got out of that was to probably plug you in," Shine said.

"Well, you're doing better than the other kid," Intelli sniffed, "A phone charger with a port would do it. You have one?"

"I know a girl who can make one," Shine said.

Momo was already on it.

"But she'll need to get to the computer," Intelli said, "and keep whoever's guarding it off for at least...give me 10 minutes."

"To keep someone away from a desk?" Shine said, "At a resort?"

"I can only hack so fast, especially doing two places at once," Intelli said, "You want to come here and check for me? No? Then get me a window."

"There's a Window's 98 joke in there somewhere," Shine said, "but I won't bother trying to make it. I have an idea, Intelli. But to pull it off, we need the transport groups to either hold off or stall."

"You handle that."

"Right." Shine rolled her eyes. "Momo, you'll have to plug in one of our phones to the system. We have to get down there and distract them too. Intelli...now that Fuyumi's card is in this system, can you get the rest of us in there too?"

"That should be easy enough," Intelli said, "Takes a minute..."

"Perfect. In the meantime, we're going to zap ourselves down there. I hope this is smooth," Shine said.

[Hmm....let's hope.]