When the smoke cleared, everyone was disoriented, some of them were still underground, Kaminari, Jiro, Aizawa, Hawks, and Miss Joke.

Momo, Shoto, the two villains, Mirko, and Eri were all spat out onto the outisde roof.

Well , Mirko was more of tossed off of it to the ground below, which didn't break her bones, surprisingly.

Eri was actually not anywhere in sight to the rest of them.

And they were all on different parts of the camp, that they were on the roof only seemed to be because it was easier than separate rooms would have been for Kurogiri's smoke.

It seemed to Momo that her being there was an accident, because she heard cursing coming from the smoke. "d---- it, I wasn't trying to bring those four, something seems to have made my quirk more unstable...maybe it was the other warp user interfering."

Momo sat up, her head ringing. Certainly that hadn't felt like before when Kurogiri tossed her into part of the USJ's training facility. That hadn't felt like anything really.

This had been rough and left her kind of woozy in the head.

But even dazed, Momo had an impeccable memory and focus, and she remembered Shine talking about how dangerous it was for her portal to interact with warp gates. That must be it! The powers must have clashed and caused a malfunction...and maybe a rougher ride too.

She shakily stood up. At least, one good thing about it...she could use her quirk out here.

The smoke seemed to curl toward her like Kurogiri was going to correct his mistake, but Momo knew if she was put back inside, she'd never be able to help anyone in time, and she raced across the roof-- not the safest thing at night-- and swung off it and to the ground, using a pole at the last second to propel herself and not break something.

Satisfied she was out of the villian's reach for now, she took stock of where the others were.

She saw Shoto using his ice to get away the same way she just had at the far side of the camp, so he'd be a minute before he caught up to them.

Mirko, she didn't see at all (didn't even know she was out there until later).

Eri, she also couldn't see, the smoke might be hiding it, but she could hear her crying for Mr. Aizawa, Shine, or anyone.

The first person she fully located close to her was Dabi, who was climbing shakily to his feet and rubbing his head like he also felt the foggy feeling she did.

Out of the smoke around him--and on other spots on the roof she could only see because of the outline against the starry sky, she saw shadowy figures. People in black clothing.

Carrying weapons.

Dabi didn't see any of them though, he was staring toward the source of the smoke.

"Kurogiri? What are you doing? Why are you helping this guy?"

Momo didn't know much about Kurogiri, but she had a feeling it might be past the time to ask that question. Dabi just couldn't get why he'd be helping the gang.

Dabi didn't even see her, she was hidden in the shadows on the ground.

"I have an obligation," Kurogiri's deeper voice replied. Kind of scary in how cold it was. "I should more be asking you what you are doing here with a pack of heroes. Who should feel more betrayed?"

"We came here to get you, moron," Dabi said. "You know how the boss is about that, and we're not with heroes...we have an ally...look, that's not the point, you know the gang screwed us over, why the h--- would you help them with this little pet project? Do you even know what it is--"

Suddenly he felt like someone was behind him, he turned just in time to see a black clad figure putting a gun to his face.

Dabi was too surprised to even react.

Something hit the figure in the side and exploded like a bomb, Dabi was tossed back from the impact, but to someone with his fire resistance the heat was nothing at all. And he saw both the attacker, and someone else behind them go flying off the roof and to the ground below.

He turned to see the source of the bomb. It was the ponytailed chick. She waved at him to get down and keep quiet. Then she pulled something out of her arm. Another bomb maybe?

Dabi made a mental note never to fight her, and stumbled to his feet, racing away from Kurogiri, who seemed to not really understand what just happened. "Who did that...? Stop him!"

Dabi made it to the end of the roof, and swung down, the buildings were so low, all one story, and he was so much taller than the average person, that the jump didn't really hurt him. The dirt was dry and soft anyway.

Momo followed him, staying in the shadows, and no one on the roof saw her. But she couldn't see everything either, and apparently there were more people waiting on the ground who saw her move.

Another figure in black came out of the shadows with some kind of machete. Slashing at her.

Momo's reflexes allowed her to dodge just in time, but she tripped over the loose rocks in the dirt and landed on her hands. She bounded back up quickly, but the person grabbed her by the hair. always a cheap shot.

Before she could make anything to help, though, blue fire curled out of the darkness and the person yelped and dropped to the dirt to try to put it out as it spread over their clothes.

Momo stumbled away as fast as she could and Dabi yanked her around the corner.

"Fair is fair," he said by way of explaining helping at all. "Now we're even, don't expect any more favors."

"Perhaps we could call a temporary alliance until we get away from these people?" Momo suggested. "My thought is your quirk is too visible in the dark to just use at will, but perhaps if we combined our talents, we could get back to the others. I saw Todoroki a moment ago."

"And you think I want to get back to him? Why do you think I left home?" Dabi spat.

Momo didn't know why all the Todorokis enjoyed saying things like that in the middle of battle when there was really more important things to think about--like not dying.

"Is this really the moment for a grudge?" She barely controlled her tone. "I know it's not ideal, but we didn't just get to pick who we're here with, did we?"

Dabi hesitated, then very sourly. "All right, for now we can cooperate. Do you have a plan, you're supposed to be smart or something right?"

Momo glanced around. "Let's keep moving first." Not too soon, the person had put out the fire and was coming to look for them.

They dashed around, staying out of the open starlight and next to the buildings.

They ran into a few more people like that, where had they all come from?

***

Actually, some one else had already gotten the answer to that question.

Mirko, when she picked herself up, had found herself surrounded by a bunch of the black robed fighters.

Should have been easy work for her to take care of them all, but then they all had guns.

This was kind of weird.

"What? No quirks to make it more fun?" She stalled. Not really sure what to do, even she could dodge that many bullets if she was surrounded by them. She didn't feel like being the subject of a rabbit hunt today either.

"We don't have quirks." One of the indistinguishable figures spoke in a rough voice.

Mirko blinked. "Why that SOB, he did have more drugs!"

"Foolish hero, they always think that everything has to be coerced," muttered a different figure, but for the life of her, she saw no difference except in height. This was a woman's voice though.

"We never had quirks," the first person said smugly. "You think you need a quirk to kill heroes? You're gravely mistaken."

Pun intended? She wondered.

Also, what the frick?!

Quirkless people? What were they...

Even Mirko wasn't totally without some idea of strategy...a terrible thought occurred to her right then.

"Wait...did you come here on purpose? Because you want Overhaul to make everyone like you or something?" She said.

They laughed at her.

"Might as well tell her," one said. "She'll find out soon enough anwyay."

"Should we restrain her though?" someone else said.

"Nah, if she moves we'll just shoot her, we should await further orders." The first said.

Mirko wasn't going anywhere without a distraction, so she decided stalling was the best bet. "Yeah, tell me what's the deal with that miserable monster anyway?" She said.

Goading people usually worked.

It didn't fail her, they kind of hissed distastefully.

"Well without going into too much detail about our history with Overhaul," the first spoke. "I think I can sum it up...we're all quirkless, born that way. And it's more natual, isn't it? Quirks are just a curse on this world. We've been working for years, some of us to make people understand that, but heroes have really put to death groups like ours. But we didn't give up...Overhaul has just finally provided us with a means to our end. You could say our goals coincided from the beginning. You understand now?"

"Only too well," Mirko couldn't resist saying. "But what's with the location? You couldn't pick a less...ominous place to hang out?"

"We thought the location was quite appropriately themed," said the woman's voice dryly. "People will need to be taught to accept a quirkless world again? What better irony than using someone that suppressed the common person in the past to bring about that change?"

"This sounds like one of those forced indoctrination things" Mirko said.

"As a pro, are you really one to talk about that?" The first voice said, amused. "You can be one of our first projects, along with those other fools who walked right into our camp like they were really going to be able to take us on."

"Uh huh..." Mirko said. Definitely crazy town. "So, why didn't you uh, appear before? Where've you been?"

"We were hiding in the barracks, waiting for a chance to pick you off," they answered quite readily. It was a little weird how forthright they were...Oh...they didn't think she was going to live long enough to use the info against them...

Mirko wondered if she could jump higher than they could shoot...but even if she could, could she land faster than that and get away? Ergh, if they'd only been in a semi circle she could have managed to get behind them, but a full circle was different.

"The barracks are where we stay to learn how to be normal citizens" Someone else said helpfully. "Overhaul's gang, too, they're going to join our little resistance. You should too. Either that, or you'll just die."

"Those are my options?" Mirko said, still stalling. "I'm going to have to think about that hard. You know, weigh it carefully in my mind. Are there any more of you?"

"Oh, all around the world there's people like us," they babbled on. "You'll see, our time is coming."

"Yeah...well..." Mirko wasn't not the best at distracting a crowd by talking, she preferred fighting. "That's interesting...so you're pretty confident I guess."

"Why wouldn't we be? It's only right, it's time to turn back the clock, get things back on track, none of the insanity of the last several decades..." They went on.

"And you think you can take on all of hero society with a bunch of quirkless people" Mirko said.

"People underestimate us. Heroes are just muscle bound, quirk obessed morons." They got mad at that. "All you really need to win are the right weapons and the right strategy, the old fashioned way, before powers made it all a contest of brute strength."

Mirko had been told several times she relied on brute force as some kind of stupid joke because animal quirk=brute, ha ha , so clever. So this didn't impress her all that much.

"I mean, you have to give some credit, brute force looks a lot cooler," She said.

"That's what I'd expect an animal quirk type freak to say," they said, with complete disgust that was a little frightening, even to her.

"You're all monsters, not natural," another said.

"You should either be cured, or culled," they said.

Now she was seeing where Overhaul fit in with this crowd...and she barely knew the guy.

Just then, ice shot up over the gunmen's heads and they literally froze in place, not all of them though. A few yelped and turned to shoot, Mirko did a round house kick and knocked three of them over, then jumped up and shoved down the remaining two before they could shoot then she flipepd up over the ice and Shoto Todoroki grabbed her arm and yanked her on behind him.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, never better," she said. That wasn't quite true, that had been one freaking weird experience. "But don't get comfortable, there's a bunch more of these jackasses lurking aorund, some are over in those barracks," she pointed. "Can you seal it off so they can't get out?"

"I might, but it'll be hard for me to do that if they all have guns. I can't block at the same time, and my fire will be useless on it."

"Don't worry about it, I'll draw their fire, you just sit tight till I've got them distracted," Mirko said.

Not that she liked relying on someone else, but she didn't really have a seal-off-trap-people kind of power.

"By the way, they're quirkless," she added. "So don't watch for that, just watch for weapons."

"Quirkless? All of those people were quirkless?" Shoto was astounded. "I didn't think there were even that many quirkless people left."

"No, they say it's 1 in 5...at least when I was a little younger it was, maybe it's less now," Mirko said. "They just...don't get out a lot, I guess. I've never fought them before."

"But that's foolishness, why would a quirkless person even try to fight heroes?" Shoto said.

"One word: Guns." Mirko said. "Now look sharp kid and don't die, I'm going to play marco polo with these idiots," she jumped off the ice and dashed across the ground. The gunmen were getting back up. She waved at them.

"You think you can take me on? Morons?! Catch me if you can!"

"Stupid pros always have to show off!" they griped, opening fire.

This was dangerous in more ways than one, Mirko thought as she jumped as fast as she could to say ahead of their line of fire. What if someone on their side was out here? Well if they were dumb enough to run out in front of guns that was their fault...but she better stay away from the buildings just to make sure she didn't lead them back that way.

That meant isolating herself though, oh well, that was the way she liked it.

[Yeah this won't backfire (haha) on her at all...]

***

Bakugo blinked and opened his eyes to find himself still surrounded by smoke.

He could see Eri, he was the only one who actually could, she was huddled it the middle of it all, hugging her knees to her chest and looking terrfied.

He didn't see any of his classmates, teachers, pros, villains...or Likstar.

But he could hear Kurogiri talking, to himself? Or someone else? It sounded like Chisaki, actually, now that he was paying attention.

"What do you mean stuck?" Chisaki snapped. "How can someone be stuck partway in your smoke?"

"It's not impossible! And she's fighting me, I can't get her to let go!" Kurogiri sounded peeved. "And thanks to that, I've accidentally dragged in the wrong people instead. Now some of them are out there taking on your quirkless pets."

"Hey, show some respect for them, they're brave enough to confront Pros without having flashy powers to bail them out," Overhaul said.

"Right," Kurogiri didn't sound convinced at all. "What about my old colleagues?"

"Look, if they attack us, we attack back, capture them and I'll consider sparing their lives." Overhaul said. "But this was not part of the deal. How do I know they didn't find this place because you tipped them off? I'd hate to have to get rough..."

Kurogiri even was afraid of him. "I understand...but it was not I, I would not have told them to come help me on such a trivial matter. It must have been someone else."

"Sure," Chisaki didn't sound convinced. "Well, prove it. Keep them from interfering further. I'll take care of the girl and that broad who's giving you so much trouble. Where is she exactly?"

"Still part way between here and the interior of the compound, sir."

Bakugo knew he meant Shine...so she was resisting his pull? Made sense...but what would that do to her?

He got the answer before he really wanted to, Chisaki seemed to reach into the smoke...for the first time Bakugo acutally saw him, and Eri did too, she shot back, trying to get way, but only reached the edge of the roof.

Chisaki made some motion and there was a scream, Shine came jerking out of the smoke kicking wildy like a child.

"Put me down you devil!" She yelled probably the worst insult Bakugo had heard her use.

"Devil? Isn't that a bit strong?" Chisaki held her up by the back of her neck. "You're the devil if anyone is, Likstar. Giving me so much trouble. Because of you I'll have to hurt Eri far worse to break her spirit after this, you've given her too much false hope."

Eri looked over at him. Then she did the last thing Bakugo thought she'd do. She ran at him.

"Let Miss Likstar go!" she yelled.

"Eri?" Shine gasped, not expecting this.

Overhaul was actually just too stunned by this direct act of defiance that Eri would never have done in the past to react.

Eri reached out and touched his leg, her horn growing and her eyes flashing in desperation.

Chisaki dropped Shine and jumped back, Bakugo saw the fear in his eyes.

Like all mad scientists, he was truly the most afraid of his own creations, if they should ever actually turn against him.

Eri's affect on him didn't seem to be very much, since he dodged so fast. The only thing that happened was his quirk undid itself part way, but that let Shine move further away from him, grabbing Eri and yanking her after her.

"Sweetie, that was the bravest thing I've ever seen," she hugged her. "But don't come any closer to him, okay? I've got this."

Eri nodded and whimpered.

Shine saw Bakugo watching.

"Bakugo?"

Bakugo wondered why he hadn't done something right then, but then, he hadn't had the chance, the smoke was kind of still blocking him and he was too far away to have made it in time.

"Likstar? Are you okay?" he asked.

Shine walked toward him, leading Eri after her. Overhaul was turning back toward them.

"I'll hold him off," Shine said. "Get Eri out of here, if you can. Stay away from the smoke."

Bakugo took Eri's arm as Shine pushed her toward him. "But what about you? Did that smoke thing hurt you?"

"Like fire went through every fibre of my body..." Shine said, the shadow of pain in her expression. "But it's fading...anyway, I can still fight... I must. You don't stand a chance against Overhaul, I can at least stall him."

"Can you now?" Overhaul heard that. The roof began to shake and break into pieces "I wonder if you really think your little drone there can get away with my property."

"She dosen't belong to you dumba---!" Bakugo snapped.

Eri grabbed his hand tighter than he expected, she was scared. "I won't go back with him!" She said in a small voice. "I won't! I won't!"

Bakugo saw he was going to have to run for it whether he liked it or not or Overhaul would catch both of them, he picked Eri up and blasted off--but Overhaul was a little faster than he thought.

As Bakugo was rocketing over the edge, the edge moved up like a barrier and smacked him back, then the whole compound began to move and shake. And shoot upwards... towards the moon, just barely visible...

Eri screamed, and Shine fell to her knees, but at least she wasn't thrown off.

Bakugo heard yelling from other directions and realized some of his friends must have been close enough to be caught up in all this.

He grabbed the nearest solid part of the the roof and held on to Eri with his other arm so they wouldn't be thrown off wildly and fall to their deaths.

***

From below Shoto was shaken and thrown aside by the ground moving.

But he wasn't caught up in it, he could hear yelling though amidst the sound of chunks of things moving.

The gunmen slowed and turned to look at it, he took the chance to freeze more of them in place. He'd blocked off most of the barracks by now, Mirko was still keeping ahead of them, but now even she stopped to stare--and then to avoid moving rocks as she was yanked towards Overhaul, the whole ground was...

Shoto only was exempt because Overhaul must have left the barracks out on purpose. The whole landscape within 100 meters of him was part of the movement. [100 meters is going to be around 325 feet or more for you Americans like me, meaning the full area he's covering has a diameter of over 650 feet or more. Long enough to be a street. Imagine seeing that much ground moving.]

***

Dabi and Momo were close enough to get caught up in all the debris rising up. A piece of concrete almost went into Momo's side, but she managed to shove it away with her pole. They slid over the dirt and stuff, towards the ground again.

Dabi was swearing like crazy. "This is going to crush us!"

"I think I have an idea, but it's going to hurt," Momo said.

"And getting crushed isn't?! Just do it!"

Momo used the bomb she'd had earlier but hadn't set off, to blow them out of the debris, they went flying. Momo didn't think this landing was going to be good--

But then Mirko yanked them out of the air in mid-jump and landed several meters away.

"That was close," she said.

"I've never been so glad to see a pro...also I want to be sick now," Dabi was miffed.

"Do it away from me," Mirko didn't care. "Who's up there? I hear yelling."

"Is it Todoroki?" Momo asked.

"No, he's still over there," Mirko pointed, they couldn't really see because of the debris.

"If that's Likstar, and the kid up there, if we don't get up there now, they're dead," Dabi said, peering upward.

"What's it doing anyway?" Mirko wondered. "It looks like a big ugly hand coming out of the ground."

Momo swallowed. "Maybe you just answered your own question, Mirko."

The dirt stopped moving, it was now a tower formed of the compound's buildings, chunks of dirt and rock, and metal...going up high enough to be an office building.

"I call bs, Overhaul was not powerful enough to make something like that," Dabi said

"Drugs?" Mirko suggested.

"Even with drugs, that's nuts!" Dabi said. "I mean, maybe he could, but...after all the use he already did today? He shouldn't have been able to withstand that. If he's not dying up there, he will be when we get him down."

"Because you'll kill him or because of the drug?" Mirko asked.

"Whichever comes first," Dabi said. "Where's everyone else? We're missing 6 people."

"Kurogiri didn't mean to bring us out here," Momo said. "I heard him say so. Pulling Shine through this warp gate messed it up. But what if it hurt her too? I heard her scream before...but I have a feeling, that only people who Overhaul intended to capture or kill were brought out here on purpose...so only Shine probably, and Eri. The rest of us must have been an accident because we could have not used our quirk while we were inside if he wanted to kill us easily."

"That's true," Mirko said. "But I could, so maybe I was supposed to be out here, those snipers seemed ready for me."

"Snipers?" Dabi said.

Mirko very quickly explained what she'd learned.

"So this place is for a creepy cult?" Dabi said. "Like the Metas, but reversed? Well there's always one of those around at any given time but this could have been gift wrapped for Overhaul. His stupid gang dosen't want him anymore so he runs to the lunatic fringe instead? Suits him."

"How awful," Momo said. "I mean...there's nothing wrong with being quirkless, but to force it on others..."

"That's Overhaul's goal too," Dabi said.

"I guess I forgot about it, since I was so focused on Eri," Momo admitted. "But...what will they do to Miss Joke?"

"Recondition her, probably, if they know about it," Mirko said. "But not to worry, they won't get the chance, we'll get out of here."

"Don't make promises like that," Dabi said. "That's just the kind of false optimism that Pros spread around, and we hate it. You don't know for sure any of us will get away."

"In Likstar's words, it's called Faith, dumba--" Mirko said. "She has her religion, I have my confidence that heroes always find a way to pull through and if you don't have something better than that to offer, maybe you should shut up."

Dabi didn't know what to say to that.

"Let's not start fighting again, please," Momo begged. "We have to help them."

"Make a plane then." Dabi said.

"I can't make anything that big," Momo said.

"It was sarcasm, Princess...but seriously, can't you idiots call in back up or something?"

Momo got a strange look.

"Wait...that's an idea..." she pulled out her phone. "It's still working...I guess they have internet out here...give me a minute." She took a step away. "Yes?... Momo Yaoyerozu here...oh no, it's all right you didn't recognize me, I'm sure you've had a long day..."

"What is she doing?" Dabi asked Mirko.

"If she's from the Yaoyerozu family, I can only imagine she just remembered she's mad liquid if Daddy is okay with her using his credit card." Mirko shrugged.

"She just thought of that now..." Dabi said.

"Well, typically, using family money is considered a taboo for pros," Mirko said. "Not that it's a problem for me...but I won't sell her out for it if it works. This hasn't been a normal mission."

"Someone just shoot me now," Dabi said.

"Sure," a voice said. They turned to see another gun men had a AK-47 type gun pointed at them.

"Are those even that accurate" Dabi asked.

"Won't matter if we can't dodge..." Mirko's ears went back.

"Hey, girl, drop the phone," the gun men said.

Momo turned, surprised. She hadn't heard him before.

She dropped the phone.

The man shot it. Momo jumped back.

Mirko flinched at the noise. "I hate those things..."

"Now, nobody move," the gunman said. Pulling out some kind of walkie talkie. "Where the he--- are the rest of you? I've got three of 'em on the south side of this new freaking tower---"

Suddenly he stopped. Then he jumped. His gun turned into dust.

Shigaraki had come up behind him.

"Imbecile," he said disdainfully.

The guy must have known who he was, because he just booked it.

Mirko jumped on him and slammed him into the ground, breaking a few ribs probably, he cried out in pain.

"That's for shooting a gun around me," she said.

"Nice one, boss," Dabi said.

"Don't waste your flattery on me," Shigaraki dismissed it. He brushed himself off. "What the h--- is with that tower? I barely got out of it in time."

"I didn't even know you were out here," Dabi said. "Kurogiri really messed this one up."

"Where is he? I'm going to rend him limb from limb!" Shigaraki said. "And then I'm going to make him tell us why he's helping the gang."

"Might want to reverse the order of that," Mirko said, stepping off the gun man. "Now...Ponytail girl, I forgot your name alread--"

"Creati," Momo said.

"Whatever, did you get through?"

"Well...fortunately, I did tell them our location before I was interrupted, but not how many of us there were," Momo said. "So...I only hope they still send help."

"What is she talking about?" Shigaraki asked Dabi.

"Turns out being rich has its perks," Dabi shrugged.

That didn't help.

"So Likstar's up there," Dabi pointed at the tower. "So's the kid...and probably Kurogiri based on all that smoke I see. What's our plan."

"I can't jump that thing," Mirko said. "We need Hawks to get up there, and that idiot's still inside."

"I wasn't really asking you," Dabi said.

She looked miffed.

"I don't know," Shgiaraki admitted. "Without...wait a second," he shook his head. "my quirk's working again, I'm not this stupid!"

"Wha--oh..." Dabi got it.

"What?" Mirko said oddly.

"Wait," Momo knew. "You have to take us too. I can't help up there, I swear. We might need rope or something."

"She makes a valid point," Dabi said. "And as much as I hate to say it, Bunny Girl here might also be useful. She makes good canon fodder at least."

"Hey!" Mirko said. "You can't just say that and expect to get away with it!"

"Fine," Shigaraki ignored her. "Let's just get this over with."

Black goo shot out around all of them.