The truck ride was just the first part of the journey... They ended up crossing a bridge and getting on a small boat.

Silk and Monama had a harder time sneaking onto that, but Wally helped them. They had to hide below deck.

Monama tripped and dropped some of the marbles in the hold. Since it was pretty empty, he was able to find all of them using his phone...but he had no clue what order they were in anymore... He tried to identify them by sight, but it wasn't so easy at that size.

"It won't matter," Silk declared. At least she still had Compress'.

"Uh, mind if I ask...is there something going on with you and that Magician?" Monama said.

Silk cut her eyes at him. "If there is, do you have problem?"

"Uh, no..." Monama just thought it was weird. Villains dated?

"I just didn't think that members of the LOV would...you know...have...interest in that."

"How does saying go? We're villains, not dead," Silk said.

"And I didn't really want to know." Monama shook himself in disgust.

"Well, is none of you business anyway," Silk sniffed, "Aren't you Medea's crush or something? Who's one to talk?"

"That joke is entirely one-sided!" Monama exclaimed, turning beet red, not that she could tell.

"Joke?" Silk said.

"Yes, and it's not even funny. She just does it to annoy me."

"I didn't think it was joke," Silk said, "I mean, I guess I'm not expert...but still... Ah, with Medea is hard to tell when serious or not, but I think she is mostly 50% serious at all times."

"50%?" Monama said, because that was both 50% less than was normal, and 50% more serious than any girl would have ever been about being interested in him.

[Ouch...true though, unless they're a crazy stan, maybe.]

"With margin for error," Silk added.

"Russian Lady, you are not very helpful," Monama said.

"Eh, I don't really think love is a simple matter." Silk gestured. "Can't say I was really trying to help. I just think you're fun to mess with."

"Hey!"

"See? Hilarious." Silk smothered a laugh.

"All you villains are the same, you know," Monama whined, "either psychotic or bullies."

"All heroes are either airheads or arrogant pricks," Silk retorted.

The argument might have gone on longer if the boat hadn't stopped just then, making both of them lurch.

"That was a short ride..." Monama said. It had only been about 20 minutes.

"Well, darling, I think we must be at one of those small islands..." Silk said. She snapped her fingers. "I think I know which one, too. Compress tell me about this."

Unfortunately right then someone flung the hatch open.

"I thought I heard something in here." A crew member peered down at Monama, who did not get behind the silk screen in time. The lurch had thrown him out of it.

"Oh, for shizzle..." he muttered.

"I think I found a stowaway!" the member yelled, reaching down to yank Monama up before he could react.

The screen became caught on his watch and came with it, exposing Silk where she was trying to hide behind a crate.

"What the--? Two stowaways!" The crew member used a fishing hook that shot out of his...hat? Hair, maybe? He reeled Silk up too.

"Unhand me, you idiot!" Silk tried to kick the guy off and whip out her binding clothes.

But the fisher-hat guy pinned her arms down before she could, using the hook and line.

"Feisty one, aren't you?"

More Metas came to surrounded them... These ones were in costume, so clearly they were far off from any police.

"I think we'd better take these two to the boss," said one meta, "He'll want to see before we off them."

"You know, none of your bosses are ever women," Silk said, "and, personally, I find that kind of sexist."

Pause.

"Good point," said a female Meta, "but we do have women bosses--"

"Shut up," said the other, "This little witch is just trying to pump you for information. She's a spy! Probably for the LOV. I mean, listen to her accent. There's no way she's a hero."

"And that's racist." Silk was mad now. "There're Russian heroes! I'm only half Russian anyway, you jerkwad!" She began using Russian insults that Monama was glad he couldn't understand.

He realized at this juncture that he'd lost his marbles... Literally, they'd fallen out again when he was jerked up.

But none of the Metas had noticed, or else they didn't care. The little orbs looked ordinary enough.

He might still have one or two, but he couldn't reach them. They had his arms pinned too.... Couldn't really copy a quirk either-- he didn't know any of them.

"For the record, I didn't mean because you were Russian, Sweetheart," the Meta with the fishing line said amicably, "I meant because you're way too obviously not from around here. Kind of makes you a s----y spy, doesn't it? So yeah, it is because you're Russian, but it's not personal, you see."

"I don't think that's any better," Silk spat.

"And I don't care," the fishing-hook guy said, "Let's take 'em away. And someone, see if there's any more hiding in there."

"Right." The woman Meta jumped down.

But all she found were marbles.

"Huh? Did these fall out of a crate?" she said. She looked at one with a knot hole in it. "Aw, there we go." She shoved the marbles back in there.

[If you're thinking the Metas are kind of dumb...that's what I thought watching the show too. Maybe brainwashing people with a mantra about quirks being the most special thing about you isn't the best preparation for critical thinking. Le gasp!]

Then she shut the hatch.

* * *

It took about 15 minutes for the marbles to un-pop. They'd reached their time limit. 

Luckily, the first one was Spinner, as Compress hadn't been serious about keeping him (he couldn't do that if they were both marbles), and he hit the crate. It exploded.

"Ow...ow...ow..." Spinner rubbed his back and arms. "What the h--- was I doing in there? What was that moron kid thinking? Where is everyone else?"

A few seconds later, the rest of them exploded out of what was left of the crate...which was just boards.

It was awkward that most of them were on top of each other.

"Hey, get your freaking self off of me, Icyhot!" Bakugo kicked Shoto.

"I wasn't trying to--ow!" Shoto said, as he went skidding.

"I'm so sorry," Momo was apologizing to Mirko and Ren and Shinso.

"No big," Shinso said, "If this geek would just get off me now."

"I was pinned. I'm not liking this situation either," Ren said, "Ow, I think I just got a splinter."

"Get off me!" Shigaraki snapped at Mirko.

"Believe me, this was not my idea," she grumbled, accidentally poking him in the eye in her rush to get unpinned, "Ren, get your fat self off of me!"

"I'm not fat!" Ren said. He wasn't.

He brushed himself off. "Where are we?"

"This doesn't look like a truck," Shinso said.

"Duh..." Shigaraki sat up. "And what's with the wood...?"

"Oh, that was just the crate," Spinner said, "At least it wasn't a metal box, am I right? We'd probably be dead, then..."

"Who transports weapons in a wooden box?" Mirko muttered.

"Oh, well, actually, it's because of the sawdust," Momo said, "And I don't see weapons. In fact..."

She picked up what was in the box with them. "I think these are...like...some cases ammunition, maybe? Seems odd to put that in a crate too."

"Looks like it was all to not look suspicious," Bakugo said, "A big, weird, metal case would kind of scream hero or villains equipment..."

"Bro, why do I always pop out of that thing on top of you?" Camie said.

"Get off," Bakugo said.

"I can't. Spinner's standing on me," Camie said.

Spinner moved his foot. "I didn't realize I was on your collar."

"Yeah, bro, if I thought it was on purpose, you'd be a dead lizard," Camie said.

She got up. "So, it kind of feels like we're on a ship."

"That's right." Mirko had her ears cocked. "And from the sound of it...I'd say we're by an island."

"How would you know that?" Hawks rubbed his head.

[Yeah, he was there the whole time, just didn't talk.]

"Other than we're on a gosh-danged boat? It's too quiet. I don't hear the normal sounds of a dock on the mainland," Mirko said, "or other ship noises, so there's that."

"I hate islands," Bakugo said.

"Why?" Camie said.

"Memories..." Momo sighed.

"I remember villains attacked us on an island once," Shoto said, "I don't think the DJs weren't even around yet when that happened... Did we ever tell them that story?"

"It wasn't worth telling," Bakugo said.

[My opinion about most of that movie...Bakugo being the only thing in it worth watching.]

"It would be so cray cray if it was the same island," Camie said.

"I don't think that could be possible," Shoto said, "That island didn't even have heroes on it. That's why we were there."

All of them looked at him.

"Are you really that dumb?" Dabi said.

"Huh?" Shoto said.

"It doesn't occur to you that no heroes being there might be the exact reason the metas would be?" Spinner said.

[And the show only didn't do it because the Meta plotline was as poorly thought out as most of the side-plots in anime... Sorry, but it's always felt like it came out of nowhere to me.]

"I...guess..." Shoto said.

"But we don't know we're at the same island," Momo said, "One of us should look."

"Oh, sure, we'll just step out on the the deck with the enemy soldiers on it," Hawks shrugged, "That couldn't go wrong at all."

"Well, I meant to find another way to look," Momo said.

"I could destroy the boat," Shigaraki offered, probably sarcastically...probably.

[Insert Piccolo quote about being serious or not here.]

"Wait, what's the sound?" Mirko said.

The engines of the boat had just started up again.

"Are we moving? Why are we moving?" Camie squeaked.

"Where's Medea?" Spinner suddenly noticed, "Where's Silk? And Compress?"

"And Monama," Shinso added.

"I don't think we're moving," Hawks said, "I mean, it probably just got here."

The boat lurched with such force all of them were flung into the wall and each other again.

"OW..." Shigaraki and Spinner both whimpered.

"Double ow," Camie said, "Bakugo, I like you and all, but can you not ram your chin into my back?"

"I didn't have a choice!" Bakugo peeled himself off her and the wall by pushing away a crate.

"I didn't want to get this close to my family again." Dabi shoved Shoto away from him.

"Boy does it pay to have wings." Hawks was just hovering in the air like nothing had happened.

He got dirty looks from everyone.

"Frick off," Mirko grumbled.

"Stop hitting me," Ren said to her, "and the crazy man. I mean seriously, Sis."

"I didn't plan that, and where the h--- are we going?!" Mirko demanded, kicking away a crate.

"Hey, Mirko, maybe not making a lot of noise right now would be a good idea," Hawks said.

Someone opened the hatch again.

"Or we could just improvise..." Hawks said.

"Hawks?" It was the female Meta from before, though none of them knew that. "And...a lot... Oh, s---, the marbles... Oh, wow, I fricked up."

Hawk's feathers yanked her into the hole with them before she could even scream. He covered her mouth. "Look, sweetheart, I wouldn't make a lot of noise right now if I were you. I mean, most of us are good guys, but you probably recognize a few less reputable people here."

Spinner waved.

The Meta made a choking sound of terror, probably.

"I don't know if we should be threatening her--" began Momo, before Ren shot her a dirty look.

"Kayla? Everyone okay?" a different voice called.

Hawks twisted her arm. "Answer him," he said, "but do it carefully."

He let her talk.

"Uh...yeah, I just slipped..." Kayla answered, not very confidently, but it was probably hard for the other to tell.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'll be right up," Kayla said.

She glanced at them. "They'll know if you kill me..."

"Not if we turn you to dust," Shigaraki said.

Kayla's eyes widened.

"Hey, she's not even that much older than us," Shoto said, "I don't think killing her would be right. You can't kill her."

"She'd kill you without a second thought," Shigaraki said in disgust, "Heroes are idiots."

"Well, we can't use her if she's dead," Mirko said tersely. 

"How did all of you even get on this boat?" Kayla said in a low voice, honestly puzzled, "I mean, there were just two of you before... Were you all marbles? Who did you pay off to smuggle you on?"

"Don't answer that," Shinso warned them.

"Oh, thanks, braindrain, we're total morons," Bakugo said sarcastically.

"Well, Bakugo, if you're just going to come out and say it yourself..." Shinso said.

"Why, you--" began Bakugo.

"Pipe down, kid," Mirko said, yanking him back, "Beat the s--- out of this guy later. Right now we need to be quiet."

Bakugo snorted. "Whatever."

"Where's Shine and Wally?" Camie wondered.

"Not in front of the hostage," Hawks said, "Come on, not very professional, guys."

"Kayla, was it?" Ren said, looking her up and down, "Not a very usual name. Are you an American?"

"I'm Canadian actually, you dumba---" Kayla seemed to have a sore point on this subject.

"And you're a Meta?" Ren said.

"So?"

"I thought Canadians were too nice to be killers."

"Between you and Fisher," Kayla sniffed, "I really think there's too much bias on this ship... Can I go now? I'm sure the others would love to beat you all up once you show your faces."

"See, we could do that, or we could fly out," Hawks said, " and let Shigaraki destroy the boat, and you could all die."

"We're not that far from shore," Kayla said, "so go ahead. I can swim."

Pause.

"Okay, she's got a little more moxie than I expected," Ren said, "Maybe not all of them are complete wimps without their leader... Well, now what?"

"Killing her is always a good option," Spinner said.

"Or the guy who can climb walls could, I don't know, climb along the side of the ship," Mirko said.

"And do what?" Spinner said.

"Sneak up on them. I don't know! I'm not into stealth ops." Mirko crossed her arms. "I'd rather just kick a hole in this tub."

"Okay, Sis, first of all, you sound like Shigaraki," Ren said, much to both of their offenses, "and second, I'm sure we can settle this diplomatically. For example," he tapped the wall of the hull, "I just took over the control of this ship."

Silence.

"That's a bluff..."  Kayla said.

"Is it? Is it really?" Ren said, "I mean, yeah, the whole ship is a little big for me, but I only need to control the control room, and it turns out, we're right next to it. Lucky us, right? I can reach it.... Now, I could start trying to spin this baby around and see where I land us...or you can march up there, and act like we're not here. But we'll be watching. So if you get the bright idea to alert anyone that we're here, just picture yourself sailing a one way trip to the abyss. Or maybe just back to the mainland. We'll see what mood I'm in. Any sharks around here? Reefs? Icebergs."

"We live in Japan, not Iceland," Mirko said.

"Actually, Rumi, Iceland is a lot greener than most people realize--" began Ren.

"No one cares!" at least three people said.

"Oh, like Titanic." Camie only just then got Ren's joke.

"No one sing the song," Bakugo warned.

"How do you even know it?" Dabi asked.

"Better question, how do you know what it is?" Bakugo said.

"Uh, shouldn't we give Kayla here more instructions than just walking out onto the deck?" Hawks said.

"Hmm? Oh, yes," Ren said, "I would like a picture of the island we're by. You can manage that, right?"

Kayla raised an eyebrow. "That's it?"

"That's all I need, honey," Ren said, smirking evilly.

Kayla made a face. "Fine...and you won't sink the ship?"

"The relation-ships or the real one?" Camie said.

"Huh?" Kayla didn't get it.

"I won't sink the ship," Ren said, "as long as nothing goes wrong."

"How do I know you're not bluffing?" Kayla frowned.

A weapon flew out of her belt and coiled itself in Ren's hand.

"Satisfied?"

Kayla very sulkily slunk back onto the deck.

"That's the most cooperative Meta I've ever met," Spinner commented.

"She must be new." Shigaraki was unintentionally ironic about that statement.

"Still doesn't tell us where the rest of our team is..." Shinso said.

"Likstar?" Hawks was tapping his comlink. "West?"

"Took you long enough," Shine answered. 

"Yeah, s'up?" Wally asked.

"We only just unpoppe--Okay, we need a better way to say that." Hawks made a weird face. "But anyway, we're missing a few people."

"Oh...yes... Silk and Monama got captured," Shine said, "We saw the whole thing."

"What?" Spinner snapped.

"And you didn't stop it?" Shigaraki was mad.

"No, we're not stupid," Shine said, not bothered at all, "They'll take them to the higher ups. We're following them right now... By the way, we're on an island... We weren't sure if you guys were with Monama still... I take it you're not. You're still on the ship?"

"Yes," Hawks said, "How did you escape?"

"Well, I can run on water," Wally said, "so it was easy to follow the ship...and then we were on the dock... A lot of people are here, so no one thought anything of it, but we saw the two of them get dragged out of the hull... That's right, isn't it? Hull?"

"Yes, Babe, though I think it was more of a hatch..." Shine said, "Anyway, did you escape them?"

"No. Working on it," Hawks said, "I mean, it'd be easy to fly out of here, but if they shot us down before we reached land.."

"Oh...well, you're not that far from land," Shine said, "We can still see you. We're up right on the shore, but there's only, like, three boats on the dock anyway... By the way, I've seen no heroes on this island so far. I mean, not even one patrol. It's not that big. Does that seem weird to you? Must be a Meta Encampment or something."

Eveyone looked at the UA kids.

They shrugged.

"Want us to come back for you?" Wally asked.

"Oh, nah, we can manage this," Hawks said, "And the plus side about being on an island, there's only so many people who could be hiding here, right? So it's all right if I show myself."

"What is that logic?" Spinner said.

"By the time reinforcements arrive, it won't matter," Hawks shrugged, "Plus...this one kind of already knows I'm here..."

"You're an idiot, Hawks," Shine said, "but, please, don't die. All of you."

"We're missing Medea also, fahm," Camie said. 

"And Compress..." Spinner said.

"Silk put Compress in her pocket," Wally said, "I mean, not that he's not already in her pocket."

"What do you mean by that?" Dabi said.

"I think that's an American saying, Hon," Shine said, "But, yeah, she has him... Maybe Monama still had Medea's, then? But I don't see her... She should have de-compressed by now, right?"

"The time limit can be different for different-sized objects or just different people in general..." Spinner mused, "Maybe she's just a longer one. She's kind of scrawny compared to the hero kids, after all."

"That makes us sound fat," Camie said huffily.

"Just meet us on shore as soon as you can." Shine sounded exasperated. "We headed to the center of the island, it looks like. So come that way. Don't fight yet if you can help it... By the way...Ibara is missing."

"Missing? From...the other site?" Ren said.

"Yes...she went off-line all of the sudden. Didn't sound like Endeavor had her close enough to help...so if you see or hear anything about her..." Shine said.

"Poor kid," Wally said, "I feel like we shouldn't have let her stay with him after all. I mean, he's not the most responsible mentor..."

"I don't know if we can blame him. Seems like none of the pros there were," Shine said saltily.

"He's not coming in on the line still," Shoto said, worried now.

"Oh, no," Dabi said, "I wonder if something happened to him." His voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"Dude..." Hawks said.

At that moment, Kayla returned holding up her phone with a photo. "There," she said, frowning.

"Thanks." Ren eyed it.

"Wait...this really is the same island," Momo said, amazed.

"Who could have foreseen that?" Shinso said dryly.

"Right," Ren said, "and this is all I needed to know. Hawks, think you can aim us all for that?"

"Oh, sure," Hawks said.

"Right." Ren made some kind of clenching motion, and the boat suddenly swung wildly.

This time everyone braced themselves a little, but Shoto still stopped Momo from hitting the wall again.

"Hey!" Kayla began before Spinner gagged her with one of his masks.

"All right, Hawks, do your thing," Ren said.

Hawks flew out of the hatch and sent feathers everywhere, knocking people into the water.

"Sis, if you wouldn't mind telling me which way the shore is?" Ren said.

Mirko tilted her ears, then pointed one way.

The boat swerved toward it.

"All of you can get off this boat once Hawks clears more of it," Ren said, "Watch out for anyone with water quirks. I'm going to take this around the island."

"Alone?" Shinso said.

"Why not? Kayla here will be with me," Ren said, diabolically, "Just in case, you know. And we have to have an escape plan, don't we? Or do you think Hawks should just fly everyone off this island? If Likstar and West are too tired, we'll be stuck here if we don't have a boat. I'm just thinking ahead. Also, I'm not a fighter, so from this point on, I'm not that helpful. You all need to move fast."

"It still seems dangerous..." Shoto said.

"I've got this," Ren said nonchalantly, "If any trouble happens, I'll just call you."

"Well, then we'd better get going." Mirko lost no time leaping out of the hatch.

The rest of them rushed out after her.

Hawks had pretty much all the Metas on the boat off. There hadn't been too many anyway-- most had gone ashore. The only one giving him trouble was one that was a kind of Octopus. He or she was holding on to the side and shielding themselves with their tentacles also.

Mirko kicked them over the edge.

"Now what?" Spinner said.

"Now the fun part," Hawks said. His feathers picked everyone up and they shot to the shore. It wasn't that far away, just as Ren said.

A few people on the island recognized the kids when they arrived.

"Look, it's Creati," said one person.

Momo waved nervously.

"Do they not know?" Shoto wondered.

"I'd say not," Dabi said, "or they're sympathetic and this is a trick. I'd watch it."

"We could just ask them," Shinso said dryly, "Hey," he addressed the lady who'd spoken, "are you a Meta?"

"Am I a what?" she said nervously, "Why are you...?"

She seemed to notice the cleared boat behind them and the LOV.

"Oh..." She backed up.

"We've got get out of plain sight," Hawks said.

"Too late for that, dumba--," Bakugo said, "Now we do it my way! They already know we're here, so we've gotta be faster. Let's catch up to Likstar and West and blast these guys all to hell."

"Very heroic," Spinner said.

"And you got a better idea, Lizard Brain?" Bakugo snapped.

"Oh, no, I like the idea. It's just not heroic," Spinner said.

"It's less heroic to just stand here doing nothing," Mirko said, "so let's go, before those guys in the water catch up to us. I hate swimming." She bounded away.

"Uh, is she going to wait for us?" Camie said.

"She just did," Hawks said, "Well, I can carry you all or you can run, but let's get going."

They all started to run.

The LOV didn't enjoy this part very much, though they had gotten pretty used to running away.

"You know," Spinner said to Shigaraki, "it's almost too bad that the Giant is not here... I kind of think he'd have been useful here."

"No." Shigaraki didn't want to relive that.

"Well, let's just hope Compress is okay," Spinner said, "and they didn't drop him somewhere."

Most of the islanders they passed seemed to be regular citizens, but there could have been Metas hidden among them. In fact, there had to have been. A few started to give chase when they realized heroes were just running right by them.

It had to be the dumbest way the UA kids had ever began a fight, they thought, just running in blindly... Though for Shoto that was hardly unusual.

Dabi was getting winded the fastest though.

"Just how big is this island?" he panted.

"Don't worry, it's really tiny," Momo said, dodging a car, "We operated out of the central station before... There's a big fortress higher up in the mountain though, and if I had to guess, I'd say the Meta liberation army would use that. A lot of the citizens might not even realize they're there. Hardly any heroes ever come to this island anyway."

"Why didn't we set up a base here?" Spinner asked Shigaraki.

"Because Nine destroyed it," Shigaraki said.

"I thought you killed him," Spinner said.

"For real, boss," Dabi panted, "you spend more time killing other villains than you do heroes."

"So do you, Dabi!" Shigaraki shot back.

Dabi thought. "Huh...yeah, you're right... Wow...we're idiots."

"Eh, Nine was dead anyway," Spinner said, "probably...and he was kind of a creep. I mean, he was gonna take that one kid, right?"

"Why do we keep running into guys like that?" Dabi said.

"Bad luck?" Spinner suggested.

"We killed a bunch of Metas too," Dabi mused, "but isn't that just helping the heroes? I mean, when was the last time we even actually fought heroes outside of trying to eliminate Likstar?"

"There's no we, Dabi. You quit," Shigaraki said.

"Are you still salty about that?" Dabi said. 

The answer to that was yes.

[I suppose I'd better specify, since my sister keeps telling me to:

So in this timeline, the Meta fight from season 5 didn't end the way it did on the show. I didn't really like how uncreatively the whole thing played out, so I decided to change it and make certain plot points only happen later on in this story.

Also, I thought certain power-ups on the LOV's part make no sense within the rules of the show so far. I kind of think, since Deku's new quirks were introduced, they've been breaking their own rules a lot, and I hate it when shows do that. The rules of the world are what make it compelling at all to have conflict. If you throw them out, then it's not the same story anymore. Just look at Naruto and how its theme changed from beginning to end.

Since it's fanfiction, it's fair game making some people less or more powerful than they are in story. Y'all will thank me later when it gets more epic because of that.

To be honest, I've never liked anime power-ups that are so completely unrealistic and over the top they remove all stakes, so I tend to power down the characters in my story to have weaknesses and limits still. It makes the writing much more intense, and if you don't like it...well...watch the show instead.

I have a feeling no one is really going to care, because the rewards of making fights more high stakes are so epic in story, so I don't think I'll mention it again.]