The rest of the group saw what happened to Mirko and Shigaraki, but they seemed to get away, so they didn't risk exposing themselves by acting.

The ninja didn't seem to notice them. They were all busy looking for the two who'd warped away.

"So they don't have quirk blockers in this dome, either," Shine mused.

"Why would they? No one in here has a quirk," Ren said, "That sh--'s expensive, you know."

"What?" Iida glanced at him oddly.

"I've looked into it," Ren shrugged, "but it's way too pricey for a regular person to be able to carry, or you'd probably see all these quirkless people running around with quirk blocking weapons. It's be like personalized pepper spray."

"Well, okay," Shine said oddly, "Say, can they find a way to detect who has a quirk?"

Ren thought.

"Quirks are so different, there's not a one-size-fits-all way to tell, unless maybe your quirk is being able to tell who has a quirk. That's not a very useful power, but I could see a police officer having it, maybe. If they had someone like that, it'd make sense, but if that was true, we'd all be dead already."

Shine nodded. "I see... If they have any elite fighters here who still have quirks, we could be in trouble, but against regular people? Wally would have no problem, but I might. I'm not fast like him. We have to try to get inside. I'm not sure if he will move, since we can't talk now." She tapped the comlink in annoyance.

"We can't just hide," Iida said, "Shiogazi-san could be in reach."

Shine tapped her forehead, trying to think.

"You know..." she said slowly, "the best way to find her might be to get captured. They'd have to take us to the same holding area or a similar one...right?"

Iida and Ren looked at her strangely.

"Of course they could knock us out or hurt us, so that's a very risky plan," Shine said, "It would depend on how well they can anticipate us also... Kayla is still in here somewhere though. If we could get her to capture us..."

"She didn't want to be involved anymore," Ren said.

"They know we're here. She's going to be involved," Shine said, "and if Shigaraki snaps and destroys half of this place, we're in more trouble. He's not very stable when he's upset."

"Why did you let him come?" Ren asked.

"I didn't," Shine said, "He just came."

"It's worth a shot," Ren said, "We have to make sure someone is left to rescue us though."

"The other team will do that. One of the three of us is a better prisoner--they hardly know anything about you two," Shine said, "By the time they find out, we could be out of here."

"I might be able to get these comlinks working again, with a little adjusting," Ren said, "but we couldn't risk talking into them. We'd just have to try to eavesdrop. I can adjust to eavesdrop on anyone I want though."

He smiled wryly. "I've been checking in on Rumi this whole time without her knowing it."

"That's creepy, Ren," Shine said bluntly.

"I know it's a little creepy," Ren said, "but have you ever tried to work with my neesan? she's not the easiest person to keep track of, or communicate with."

"Tell me about it," Shine said, "but still... Well, anyways, I guess we can use that. But which one of us...? I've been thrown into cells a lot, so I know what to look for."

Ren stared at her. "Are you okay, Miss Likstar? Do you need help?"

"I've gotten help, Ren, and believe me, there are worse things than being held captive," Shine said, "I'd take that over...nevermind. I don't want to scare you."

"See, just saying you don't want to scares me makes me more afraid," Ren said.

"They know about me," Shine said, "There's a good chance they won't take me to Ibara if I get captured...but I could keep them distracted. Subtlety is now out, so in for a penny, in for a pound, I guess. Either of you could get caught too, but you're useful on the outside, Ren. You could manipulate a lot of stuff around here."

"I could," Ren said. He looked around. "I might be able to rig something up with this equipment. I bet there's a communications shack here too. There's gotta be a PSA system."

As if to prove his point, a voice with a Canadian accent suddenly blared over the courtyard.

"Attention, initiates, we now have it confirmed there are two Accurseds loose in here. One is a Hero. One is suspected to be the head of the infamous LOV of Japan. While that seems unlikely, we advise all warriors not to let their guard down. If you see anyone who matches this description..."

The dome walls turned into a kind of projector, just like in the Hunger Games.

Pictures of Mirko and Shigaraki flashed, but Shigaraki had his hands on, so at least he would be a little harder to... No, with his washed out appearance, he was pretty easy to pick out among quirkless people. None of them had blue hair or skin like that.

Shine thought it was funny. In Japan, enough people had odd appearances because of the quirks, that Shigaraki would walk around undetected without his costume. Lots of others had blue hair or unnaturally colored skin... His wasn't even that unusual. But here, all these people just looked like regular, healthy humans, who wouldn't be washed out like that. He'd stand out like a light-bulb in a dark room.

Perhaps it was a mistake letting him come in this far, but what could they have done to stop him?

"Wow, that is so sweet..." Ren was in love with that holographic tech. "I want to get my hands on that."

"All right, plan adjustment," Shine said, "Ren, you get into wherever that is. Use the other team for help. Iida and I will try to get captured also. I hope this works. We're at that stage where we have to take risks."

"You're a brave woman, Likstar," Ren said, "and you have the hard part. It'd be a piece of cake for me to take over that thing. Adios." He slipped away to find the other group, fiddling with his comlink as he went.

"So what do we do?" Iida asked Shine.

"Attack someone," Shine said.

"Unprovoked?" Iida said.

Shine looked around, then picked up a gun off one of the firing tables. "If you have a problem with that, Iida, I don't think you should have come."

"Miss Likstar, you're not going to shoot someone," Iida said.

"Of course not, Iida, but my sword will give away my identity way faster than I want them to realize it," Shine said, "Don't worry, I'm a pretty good shot." She looked around. "I just have to find something that will get their attention."

Iida didn't like this side of her... It kind of seemed...a little too battle-ready. He always thought of Shine as a sort of rebel with a big mouth, and good intentions, one could hope, but indubitably, biting off more than she could chew.

She was acting like soldier right now, and it was...actually kind of scary to watch. He liked order. He liked people knowing what they were supposed to do. A  school supervisor was also playing commander? It messed with his idea of what was right...

He didn't have time to even think if that was kind of a ridiculous position to take right now. He had to act.

Shine was checking to make sure the gun was loaded, like she'd done this before, and carefully not pointing it at anyone. Then she moved across the field.

The barracks were all at the center of the dome. Shine didn't know which one Mirko and Shigaraki had gone into.

People were running around outside looking for them, trying to get organized. No one seemed to think they'd have gone inside. It would be madness to, wouldn't it?

Shine bit her lip. She had to make this look believable... She got behind a corner and aimed at the electrical box at the side of the building. She fired a few shots into it.

People came running all right.

"What are you doing?!" they yelled at her, "Trying to blow the breakers up?"

Shine pointed the gun at them. She didn't think she had a lot of shots left, and she didn't intend to use them on anyone, but it would look stupid to just drop it...

The ninja surrounded her. They had guns up too. Now to take the chance they wouldn't just kill her...

She put her hand up.

"Drop it," said one, who must have been higher ranking.

Shine dropped it. Didn't matter--her sword was still available once she needed it.

Iida, seeing all this, kicked through half a dozen ninja, sending them flying.

His quirk became visible now.

"What the--?" Some of them began to curse, rather lightly though. Canadians, she thought.

"There's more?" The ninja were puzzled.

They pinned Iida down. He didn't put up much of fight.

One walked up to Shine and put a knife in front of her throat. "Who are you?"

Shine didn't sass them. She just bit her lip.

"Don't want to talk, huh?" the higher ranking ninja said, "Fine. Let's put them away. I'm sure the district head will want to hear about this. What's wrong with this one? Doesn't she have a quirk?"

"Maybe she's a spy within our own ranks," suggested a different ninja.

"Well, we'll find out pretty quickly," the ninja sniffed, "Put a blocker in both of them."

Someone with a sort of injecting gun ran up and shot Shine in the arm with something.

She recognized it was the same thing Medea had had in her arm. Good, she could take it out later. It didn't bother her.

It bothered Iida more. He looked terrified.

"Whoever you are, you were pretty stupid to just walk in here," the leader said, "or maybe you think we are." She kicked Shine in the stomach. Shine went down. That really hurt...

"You think I don't know a distraction when I see it? You're with the other two, aren't you?" the leader said, leering at Shine, "Well, cute, but it won't work. Do you even understand me? Or are you one of those dirty Jap dogs."

[Note: racism is meant to be a negative trait in a literal villain here. No one give me hate. They're not supposed to be likable, guys. You're supposed to dislike them.]

Shine thought that last part was really crossing a line.

But, she thought, no one in the Originals knew she was American or could even speak English.

It was hard to do this on purpose--she had to picture herself talking to Iida instead--but she answered in Japanese, she hoped, "What are you saying?"

"That's what I thought," the leader said, "This is too easy. Take them inside."

She motioned.

Shine and Iida were dragged away.

Iida hissed to Shine, "Are you sure about this?"

"No talking!" One of the ninja shoved him. 

No one here spoke Japanese, obviously, or that would have been a dead giveaway. Shine would have been furious at Iida for such a risky slip up, but it helped her in this case. Her mind was really clear. Danger always did this to her.

They were taken inside the barracks--no number 6, however.

But the leader, who was called Lieutenant Macallister by the desk clerk inside, conferred with them.

"No one's answering you from barracks 2?" Macallister said, "And they would have heard the alert. Surround the place, but if those two quirked devils are still active, don't rush in. They need to be neutralized first."

"Our quirk blocking technology will be on, if they go into the actual cell area," the desk clerk said, "but if they stay on the top floor, they could do anything. If one of them is Shigaraki, I've heard he leveled half a city once."

"But our sources say he's weak," Macallister said, "Easily manipulated. As long as we have members of his team, he'll be forced to comply."

"You want to bet money on someone that insane being managed that way?" the clerk said.

"Remember your rank, Private," Macallister said warningly.

"Sorry, ma'am, I just meant...it's a gamble."

"One I'm willing to take, until we hear from the commander," Macallister said, "Did a message get through?"

"We've sent word. But..." the clerk pointed to their computer, "we do have a mid-level dignitary on base right now. Want to call her in? She's worked with the Japan chapters extensively. She'd probably be able to deal with them."

"Why is she here today?" Macallister was clearly not stupid.

"Just the usual--overseeing new transports..." The clerk scrolled over the files. "And...some of them were from Japan..."

Shine held her breath. There were two ways this could go now.

Macallister frowned. "Something tells me these people followed her here... If they could track a mid-level agent, they've probably got a pretty good hacker... That Meta incident was a little too convenient, wasn't it?"

"You think they discovered her, then?" the clerk said. 

"I intend to find out. Call her in here. We'll see if she recognizes the two. And any other suspicious characters, bring them in!" This to the other ninja.

Most of them left. Only a few stayed to hold Shine and Iida in place, but neither of them tried to put up a fight.

Iida was lost. He'd studied English plenty, but there was so much jargon involved in this conversation, and the accents of Canadians were a little different than what he'd been exposed to, that he was only catching one word in 10. He had no idea what they were talking about.

Shine understood perfectly. In fact, she kind of thought the ninja were overblown. The jargon was just to sound cool. They were ridiculous. Like this was really any kind of real army, hiding like this in the woods and kidnapping kids. Canada's real military would be insulted by the comparison.

"What's this?" One of the ninja suddenly spotted the ear piece. "Ma'am, they have comlinks."

"Not surprising. Why didn't you search them before?!" Macallister barked.

"Uh...we...were..." they sputtered.

* * *

It only took 5 minutes or so for Kayla to get there. She couldn't have been that far away.

To her credit, she didn't react at all when she saw them. She must have been told what was going on.

"Agent Baker, it looks as though you may have been followed," Macallister said.

"That doesn't seem likely," Kayla said stiffly, "but if it is, I hope we've got someone working on it. Do you think they hacked us?"

"That's looking likely. My guess is someone noticed you while you were doing reconnaissance with the Metas. Did you have any exposure to them at length?" Macallister asked, "Do you recognize either of them?"

Kayla shook her head. "I never saw either of them while I was on the boat."

Clever, that was technically not a lie.

"Are you sure they're heroes?" Kayla eyed Shine. "She doesn't look like a hero."

"She doesn't seem to speak English, so she must be," Macallister said, "Who else would be infiltrating us? Or she's a villain... They're so pretentious over there. Just say criminal, for the love of--Anyways," she changed the subject, "you don't recognize them."

"No. Are you sure they followed me?" Kayla said.

"No, but it's a little too convenient. You just flew in from Japan. We just got some transports from there."

"But didn't you get those over a week ago?" Kayla said, "If they were following me to get to them, that's a long time to wait. Their target could be dead by now."

"If it's who we think," Macallister said, "that's not true."

"And you think they could know that?" Kayla feigned a very convincing dubious expression. "That's very good hacking."

"They must have an insider link," Macallister said, "I would have thought it was you..." 

Shine's skin pricked.

"...But, as you say it's been over a week," Macallister said. Kayla somehow did not react. "So I'm guessing it's someone who came in around that time. Crawford?"

That must have been the clerk's name. She was staring at her computer. "Still nothing, Lieutenant. Possibly they hacked us from somewhere else."

"This had to be an inside job," Macallister declared.

Kayla tilted her head. "Should we really have them out here listening to us, then?"

"They don't speak English."

"Are you sure of that?" Kayla said, "Maybe they are trying to fool you." 

"Why would they have a reason to act like they don't understand me?" Macallister said, "We could swap information if we could communicate. What kind of spy would pass that up, Baker?"

Kayla shrugged. "Perhaps they are just trying to stall us here. I'd still suggest, respectfully, putting them in a holding cell...or, even better, why don't you see if they recognize one of the prisoners you brought in? That would answer your question, wouldn't it?"

Macallister looked up. "That's...not a bad idea, Baker... They probably can't resist that... All right..."

"I would be happy to move them personally." Kayla crossed her arms. "I can speak the language. If they say something to give it away, I'll know. But they don't know I can understand them. Do you?" She glanced at Shine.

Shine gave her a blank look.

"That's first rate thinking," Macallister agreed, "Surprised I didn't think of it first. Squad," she meant the ninjas, "help agent Baker take them to barracks 6. Watch them. They might have friends around here who'd try to help them."

Kayla saluted resolutely.

"All right, march," she said, gesturing.

She and Iida both marched. Shine tried to look like she was nervous.

Iida didn't really have to pretend. He had no idea still what was going on.

Shine could only thank God that Macallister had bought Kayla's innocence. That time difference had been a lifesaver... Was that why Kayla had chosen to wait that long? Smart woman.

The only downside right now was that they could not contact Ren. She hoped he'd heard some of that before they took their comlinks.

* * *

The march was short. Inside Barracks 6 it was just like the other barracks, but they were taken to an elevator that was like an armored car. Down 3 levels...

The underground part of these barracks was not like the false ones outside. Here there were guards and what looked like slits for gates and other traps in the walls. Very Indiana Jones.

Shine and Iida gaped.

Shine's stomach twisted. They'd gotten this far, but her idea was seeming less good now that they were down here...and she was being held in place by armed-to-the-teeth, cold blooded ninja.

All at once the walk was over. Kayla punched a number into a key pad and a door slid open. There was a hall of cells here...closed doors. Solid, but with widows in the top half, plexiglass, no doubt.

"Do these ones go for walks?" Kayla asked the guards.

"We just started some of them on it," the guard said, like he was talking about animals, "The one there picked it up fast." Pointing at one cell. "Probably is a hero student."

"Interesting," Kayla said.

Shine bit her lip.

Iida recognized the word "hero student" and strained.

"Make him stop!" the guards cried.

Kayla reached out and slapped Iida smartly across the face. He stopped, looking at her with hatred.

Shine realized he might not have understood that Kayla was helping them still... Uh oh... How could she warn him?

"Is she hostile?" Kayla asked the guards, "We want to run a little experiment. Can I let her out?"

"We've got her chipped, so she won't be using her quirk. Even if the blockers weren't in place down here," the guards said, "and there's not much fight left in her, I'd say. Go ahead, it'll be entertaining." He punched in a code on the cell door. It slid open.

"You, get out!" the guard snapped at the prisoner.

Shine knew who it was, but she was not prepared for what she saw.

Ibara came slowly out of the cell, and she was a total wreck... She wasn't in her hero costume. She had on black clothing like the ninja did, but without the weapons they had, it was just long sleeves and pants.

She had some cuts and bruises on her, but the real shock was her hair. It was cut as short as her shoulders, and it didn't look right. Shine had heard from the other students that her quirk required water and sunlight, and locked in this cell, clearly, she hadn't been getting enough of either. It was hanging limp, like wilted flower petals, making her look like she'd been trampled.

Probably accurate to how she felt.

But she didn't react at all when she saw them. Perhaps she was smarter than that. She just looked dead eyed.

Iida, however, did react.

"Miss Shiogazi!" he burst out, before Shine could stop him, "It's all right. We're here to rescue you! I mean, they capture us, but I'm sure we're going to find a way to get out, so no need to be alarmed."

Ibara looked at him blankly, like she didn't understand what he meant.

She must be in shock, Shine thought. No surprise...they could have drugged her too.

Kayla, if anyone had noticed, had kind of an unnerved expression briefly, before she controlled herself.

"It seems he does recognize her. I guess we have our answer," she said.

"So should we lock them up?" the guard said.

Kayla nodded. "I think you should lock up the boy, yeah...but the woman, I'm going to question her. If she's who I think she is, we need to be careful."

"Who do you think she is?" the guard said.

"I'm afraid that's above your pay-grade," Kayla said, "I'll need to confer with Macallister. Tell her the news."

The guard nodded and ran off.

Kayla seized Shine. "Why did no one cuff her?"

"We had her..." the ninjas said, "She just had the gun, nothing else."

"Idiots," Kayla said, "Get me some cuffs right now!"

The jumped and ran for it.

This left only 3 total.

Kayla held Shine's arms down but loosely. "If you're going to do something," she whispered in Japanese, "I'd do it now."

Shine bit her lip. "Get ready to play dead," she muttered.

Then her sword appeared in her hands, and she sliced it right through Kayla.

That caught Kayla off guard for real. She screamed--and then seemed to realize she wasn't hurt, but she fell down anyway.

Now, when someone whips a long sword out of thin air, most people don't check to see if someone it actually bleeding when it cuts them, so the guards didn't even think about making sure Kayla was actually killed. They all just backed up right off. With Shine's reach, they were at a disadvantage if they couldn't throw things in here without hitting someone else.

They pulled out knives.

Shine knocked them out of the hands of the nearest one, and slammed him into the wall, hard. He sank to the floor.

The other two ran for it, no doubt to call reinforcements.

"Iida, I have to stop them," Shine said, "Get Ibara and any other prisoners out of here and then join me!"

She took off after them. She'd never outrun them, but if they had to stop to make calls, there must be some kind of intercom though, and they would find it.

Shine might not have been super, but she had gotten faster running around with the kids in training and with Wally on the job, and she was tall, so she caught up to the ninja faster than they thought she would.

They were still ahead of her, opening the elevator.

Shine yelled "Hey," in English.

They stopped and looked at her.

"Morons," Shine went on, "get this: You get in that elevator, and I'm cutting it out of its shaft."

They stared at her.

Shine sliced her sword through the metal doorframe like it was butter.

"You get me?" she said.

They pulled out throwing stars.

"Oh, by all means," Shine traced a line in front of her, "use up all your ammo now. It'll save me so much trouble when I catch you."

The threw the stars. They bounced off an invisible barrier.

That did it. The ninja had seen enough to freak them out.

"Don't kill us!" they begged, now that they couldn't escape. 

"Oh, I won't," Shine said, "but I could use a little cooperation. Take off your weapons, now."

They did so.

"And, if you don't mind, your walkie-talkies," Shine said.

They took those off too.

Shine came up and crushed both of them. The ninja leaned away from her.

"Now blindfold yourselves," she said.

"What?" they said.

"Did I stutter?" Shine raised her eyebrows and her sword.

They pulled off their belts and tied them around their eyes, whimpering.

"Good, now march," Shine said, using her sword to direct them back the way they'd come.

* * *

Kayla got up once the guards were gone.

Iida had kicked the one who Shine hit into the wall extra hard to knock him out, and he was passed out now.

Kayla had raced to the cells. "I think I saw the key code he used..." She punched it in. It worked. The cells opened. She did that to each of them.

Iida took Ibara's arm. "Come on, we have to get out of here. Do you know how many others there are?"

Ibara drew her arm back. "I...think there're...7? What's happening?"

"We're rescuing you. I understand you're in shock," Iida said, "but it's all right. You'll be fine once we get outside, I'm sure... Your quirk is still working, right?"

"My quirk?" Ibara blinked at him, like she might start crying.

"What's wrong?" Iida said, "They didn't take it, did they?"

"The chips will block her from using it," Kayla said, "They lock in." She motioned the others to move out. They all seemed kind of dazed too.

"They may not have been feeding them," she said, "I'm not sure. They're all out of it. She's probably been drugged. Don't ask her any questions. We need one of those guns that insert the chips... I'm sure one of those guards had one. We can take it out. It uses a sort of magnet."

Shine came back in, pushing the two other guards ahead of her.

"They left their weapons at the elevator," she said, pushing them into a cell and slamming it shut.

"Wow...that is impressive..." Kayla said. 

"Let's get out of here," Shine said.

All the prisoners followed them. None of them had visible quirks either...at least, they didn't now. Most of them were teenagers too, a few slightly older, but no one was old.

They got them out. Kayla picked up the correct weapon from the pile.

"Macallister isn't down here yet," she said, "That's good. She's probably busy with your friends up there."

"I thought you were turning on us," Iida said to her.

"I'm a good actress," Kayla said, "but I never wanted to get this involved."

"You made a choice," Shine said, "Thank you."

"I didn't want all this to be for nothing," Kayla said, "but you should take me hostage. If you don't get out of this alive, I'd at least like to, if you know what I mean."

Shine sighed. "Fine. But let's take the chips out of them first. If they have a quirk, they might need it."

"They can't use them down here anyway. Let's get them out," Kayla said, "Use your portal, now's the best time."

"Yeah, we need to be fast. You're right." Shine motioned. A doorway appeared.