American Hero Academia - (MHA American Settings) (Story Thread)

[Erien]

[Admit your issues]
[Help your partner]

Thanks to Armoury for the beta!

---

You are quiet for several moments, the scent of the kitchen wafting into the room and making the whole environment feel… homely. Both Nora and Kros are good friends of yours, damn good friends in fact. And they also seemingly realize something that you've attempted to keep hidden from Stephanie. Not that you think your fiance can't support you, but that she has enough to deal with at the moment without dealing with your bullcrap.

"More and more lately I've been feeling… worthless. I've always had imposter syndrome to hell and back, but lately, it has only been getting worse and worse."

You open your mouth to say more but are cut off as Kros slithers up next to you, half her body leaning over the couch as she moves to place her around your neck. She's cold, but the action is comforting. "And why do you feel so?"

You swallow, thinking about the question a moment before you start to answer. "I really wanted to be a doctor growing up, and I had the right quirk for it, but they didn't know what else I could be doing when I healed people and that made people wary." You turn your head to look Kros in the eyes, the snake-woman has a deep frown on her face, fangs poking out slightly from underneath her top lip.

"I didn't want to be a hero, there was a really flashy hero in my family already, and she was always flaunting her abilities and wealth. I… really didn't want to be that kind of person." Your hands ball into fists on your lap, and you shake your head from side to side slowly. "I only just found out that my quirk does have a side effect, but one of my own creation. People can become addicted to the painkillers I make their bodies release, I'm a walking agonist. I was terrified of it affecting my partner because frankly, just about everything goes wrong when it involves me."

Feathers tickle your cheek, and you turn your head to see Nora has taken up the hug from the other side, her eyes glinting in the morning light as she grins at you. "Well, things do explode around you. But do you think you do only things wrong?"

Kros picks up where she leaves off, her arms squeezing me a touch tighter. "You have side effect, big deal. You are a hero, you have helped many people. Or would you rather wallow in the self-pity and let those who need you die?"

"Stephanie said something remarkably similar." You say quietly.

"Of course she did," Nora replies. "She's a girl, it's our job to beat the male half of the race upside the head whenever they do something stupid."

You smile slightly at that. "I'm grateful I've had the chance to help people, but I can't help but feel I am a fraud though."

The hands around your neck shift, and you look up as Kros slithers around the couch to be 'standing' in front of you. She leans forward, pressing your head against her stomach as her hands move to run through your hair. "Nobody that you have ever helped would call you a fraud, you are a hero, and a damn good one at that." She lowers herself, planting your face directly into h-

Grk.

"It will be okay," Kros says quietly.

Your hands freeze as you find yourself pressed against the snake woman's bosom. You may or may not be pretending to be a tomato right now given how hot you can feel your face getting. Kros is… gifted in many ways, not the least of which being a rather strong point of interest amongst the male student body for her… assets. A soft hum escapes her, and she seems to be doing your best to comfo-

You find yourself wrenched away a moment later by a claw hooked into the back of your shirt, "he needs to breathe." Nora says, and your gaze darts to the bird-woman to see her grinning from ear to ear. "It ain't so bad until she rolls over at night when you're sharing a bed, then it's a fight for your life. Like a scaly snake version of the Poseidon Adventure, a multi-ton monstrosity is above you and you are fighting for air."

Kros lets out a hiss. "I do not!"

Nora turns her gaze from you to Kros, then shrugs. "Ya fair, you'd crush any bed you laid on anyway fatsnake."

You hear a distinctly Russian warcry from Kros, the snake woman launching herself at the bird who rapidly takes off into the air. The bird-woman sticks out her tongue at the snake then lets out a desperate yelp as Kros fully extends to be almost touching the ceiling. "What have you to say for yourself!"

"That Dylan is grinning!" Nora replies cheerfully.

Kros pauses her murder-in-progress, looking down to where you are, in fact, grinning like an idiot. You can't help it, their antics have always amused you, they are basically sisters. Though, admittedly, how they have gotten along so long without actually killing each other is a myste-

Nora was staring down at you as well, it's the only reason why she didn't have enough warning when Kros reached out to grasp her by the shoulders. Nora's eyes widen dramatically, arms flailing as she is dragged back down to the ground. But it is for her too late, as in the span of mere seconds she is laying back down on the couch with Kros's tail firmly wrapping her up to her midsection.

"Gauze! Help!" Nora cries out your hero name, her wings flapping wildly as she tries to free herself from Nora's death squeeze.

"I uh, I think you did that one to yourself actually."

The flapping only gets more desperate as the tails continue curling up to trap her arms, and Nora gives you one last salute before pretending to fall unconscious. Kros releases her a moment later, the harpy falling forward onto the couch and panting for breath. "Doctor I think I'm dying."

You smile, moving your hand to poke Nora in the forehead. "Hmm, no immediate sign of broken bones. Perhaps some form of… overdramatic disease?"

Nora's eyes cross to stare at your finger, then she flings herself back onto the couch cushion. As you watch she jabs one of her claws into a shirt pocket, it pulls back out with a ring around the talon that has a stylus attached. She produces her phone with her other claw, a ring attached to the top of it that she can hold as she taps on it with said stylus. "Gauze Girls." She says, her gaze turning towards me rather smugly.

[Minor Popularity]

… "Pardon?"

She flips the phone around and lays it on the couch, the first thing you notice is the bright red cross in the corner that is situated in a phrase that vaguely spells out 'G+uze Girlz'. Your gaze lowers, only for the first thing you see is a picture of you shirtless. Specifically what must have been a picture of you when you were wandering the beach with Stephanie a good week back. A towel is slung over your shoulder, and a good deal of water is running down your musculature.

You stare at it, then at the amount of hearts underneath the picture. "What's this?"

"It's your fansite," Nora replies as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

You stare at it, tilting your head. "I… have a fansite?"

"What, you mean you've never checked?" Nora asked, sounding rather dumbfounded.

"I… no? Should I have? Didn't really think I rated one."

Nora stares at me, she stares at me for a good long while, before, with a sigh, she drops her head into her wings. "There's no helping him."

… "Sorry?"

---



You stare after the retreating villainess, the sound of clattering pots and pans filling the air as she makes a break for it via the kitchen.

You are already moving towards your partner. Stephanie's fist slams into the ground, her face a rictus of pain as she howls in agony. You come to a sliding stop, your kneepads skidding along the carpet as you arrest your momentum and place your hands on your partner's back. You reach towards her legs.

*Focus*

Closed fracture. Tibia and Fibula of both legs have broken. Neither has comminuted thankfully, should be easy to fix but will require immediate attention and pain reli-

Your hand pauses, and you turn to look at your partner's face. "This will require pain relievers."

Stephanie's hand grasps at the carpet, and you can tell from the strain on her face that her teeth are bared behind her mask. "Ah won't get addicted, give me a bullet or give me morphine!"

You take a deep breath, then place your hands on her ankles. With a thought your partner immediately relaxes, her muscles deconstricting as you flood her body with relief. Then, once suitably numb you reach down to move her legs back into position, the limbs moving like a doll with loose joints in your hands. Once in the proper position, you fix the bones.

The process takes fifteen seconds, and by the sixteenth, she is standing up. "Where the hell did that bitch go?"

"The kitchen," you reply, standing up yourself. "But I've never seen a quirk like that."

Stephanie grunts. "Ah get it, but we don't have a choice. She stole those purses, and it's ah're job to stop her. Ya ready?"

"As ready as I can ever be." You place your hand on her back, and as your partner bursts forward her skin shifts and turns to fur, your buffing abilities increasing just about every gift she has. You chase after her and into the kitchen, shelves are knocked over, pans, skillets, and various other kitchen tools laying all around from where the cooks fell over onto them or the villain knocked over in her rush to leave.

Your partner is ignoring all of it, sprinting towards the back door on all fours. With a deafening slam she crashed directly into it, the sound of screeching metal filling the air. You are just a few seconds behind her, and by the time you catch up you see the cause of the noise coming to a stop against the far wall. A large dumpster on wheels, now partially crumpled on one side from where Stephanie barged into it.

You see your target beyond it, the villainess has turned back, a look of panic on her face. Whether that is from your partner's miraculous recovery or the fact that said partner has just sent a dumpster flying you have no idea. But Stephanie continues on, her claws and boots digging into the concrete of the alley as she moves along it. Beyond the villain is the open street, where at the end you can see a large white nondescript van. You'd expect that is her getaway vehicle, but instead of heading towards it she instead takes a sharp left to throw herself onto a fire escape. It's an old metal thing, running from a few feet above the alley to the roof of the buildings above.

Pumping your legs you increase your speed, one hand holding your revolver, the other is extended in front of you to deploy your shield at a moment's notice. You haven't seen any accomplices, but you would rather not take any chances. Your partner, for her part, kicks off the wall, launching herself sideways across the alley to slam into the villain.

The villainess screams, body bouncing off of the wall to land on the ground with Stephanie atop her. "Sit!"

The words come out as a desperate gasp more tha-

Your revolver clatters on the pavement as you sit down on your knees, a sense of calm overtaking you as you watch the villainess stand back up and run towards the ladders. Why aren't your legs moving? Why don't you care that your legs aren't moving? You watch the villain serenely as she makes it to the third flo-

You blink, the world coming back into clarity… mother-

"Fucker!" Stephanie cries out, your partner hauling ass towards the ladder.

You raise your arm, pointing it towards the roof and depressing a button on the side. With the burst of a rapidly recoiling spring, the grapple hook shoots upward, slamming into the brick edge of the building. With another button, your body hurtles upwards, and you reach out to grasp the lip of the building and haul yourself up onto it. It's a flat white surface, little more than a space to put an air conditioning unit. This building is taller than those around it, allowing no space to leap down from without breaking a rather fascinating amount of bones.

In other words, she's trapped.

You press your body against the AC unit, listening carefully as the sound of clattering feet on a metal fire escape fills the air. The villainess appears a few seconds later, panting with Stephanie hot on her heels a good two stories down… and making a helluva racket as well.

"Don't move!" you shout, stepping around the unit and pointing the revolver at her.

She freezes in her tracks, her eyes widening as she looks at you, then at the gun in your hands. Slowly she lifts her hands above her head, gulping as she realizes the situation she is in. "Don't open your mouth." You warn.

The grin you saw in the restaurant returns, and she opens her mouth to speak. Your revolver kicks off, the round sailing to hit her in the stomach. But not before she utters a single word. "Die."

You watch as she crumbles to the ground, groaning and clutching her stomach. The clattering of the fire escape fills the air, and you watch as your partner appears on the roof of the building raring for a fight. You only idly note this, you just feel… calm as you move your revolver to point it up underneath your chin.

Stephanie runs over to the villain, clamping a hand over the villain's mouth and looking up at you with a grin.

Your finger slips into the trigger well.

Why does Stephanie look so bothered?

With a click, the cylinder of the revolver starts to turn.

She's running at you now, eyes wide and a look of panic on her features. That's odd.

A deafening ringing sounds out as Stephanie tackles you, the round from the revolver narrowly missing your head. You slam back onto the roof, your partner holding you tightly around the midsection. Your vision blurs, only to return a moment later to see your partner sitting atop you, looking down with panic. Her mask is off, and her mouth is saying… something but you can't hear it beyond the ringing.

You slowly raise your hand to your head, counteracting the deafness. Only to hear your partner shouting a moment later. "Are ya okay?"

"I'm… fine," you reply carefully. "Cover her mouth."

Your partner gives you a wary look before she gets off of you, and as you watch she steps off of you to move over to the villain. The villainess in question is still groaning in pain, clutching her stomach and making no effort to either run away or talk. You situp with a groan as your partner places her hand over the villain's mouth. Your mind is still fuzzy but is clear enough as you place your fingers against the villain's forehead. Not painkillers, she can deal with the bruise. Instead, you carefully fill her body with a sense of numbing until…

[Numbing Touch]

With a soft 'clunk' the blond's head falls on the roof. "I think we got her. Though that's the second time that has happened with that revolver."

Stephanie looks up at you, "the hell are ya talkin' about."

You open your mouth to answer, but you are drowned out by the wailing sirens pulling up to the alley.

---

"Another hopeful for the League of Villains." The cop says with a grunt. The man is older, with a rather extensive belly at that. But going by the rings around his eyes you can tell his job makes him rather busy… and that the stomach is likely due to stress.

"How so?" you ask. Watching as they load the still unconscious woman into the back of a van. A piece of tape has been rather hastily put over her mouth, but that should be enough for now regardless.

"We have her on file, she's been hitting stores all over the area. The League put out a call lately for recruits, with two ways to get in supposedly."

"What would those be?" Stephanie asks, your partner sitting on the sidewalk with her mask unfastened.

"Either a large enough monetary… gift to the organization followed by a meeting, or to kill a hero. The little miss had been doing rather well for herself on the first part."

"She tried the second today," you say. "It didn't stick." You then turn towards the line of ambulances outside. There's a host of them, the street is filled with paramedics checking over her victims and loading them to be taken away to the nearby hospital. None seemed to be anything more than asleep… but there is no reason not to be careful.

Raising your energy drink to your lips you lean back against the motorcycle.

"Well, ah'm glad we got her then. Don't suppose ya'll need anythin' more from us?" Stephanie asks.

The cop shakes his head, "not from me, but they'll be wanting to talk to you." As he says this he points a finger down the street to where a cordon has been set up, behind which is a rather large host of people that have shown up to see what is going on, including a rather sizable amount of the press.

…

Oh dear.

---


[X] [Handle it together]

Thanks to Armoury for the beta!

---

"You like being Doomwulf, you handle the press." You say simply, pointedly looking away from the crowd of reporters.

"Do ya want to sleep on the couch tonight?" Stephanie asks, and you hear more than see her get up from her sitting position.

"Wouldn't be the first time, and it's a nice couch."

"Do ya not want to sleep with me again for the next week?"

"I did that this morning," you tilt your head slightly, staring rather intensely at a rather gaudy looking clothing shop across the way. "It was lovely, and should keep me satiated for some time."

"Do ya want me to be sad?"

You turn back on your heels. "Well, let's go talk to the press then, can't have that."

Stephanie laughs, arm moving to wrap around your shoulder as you both make your way down the street. Her other hand moves to clip the mask back over her face, and following her example you slap the helmet back down over your head, the straps hanging loose down by your neck.

"It's a nice part of town, wanna come here later for a date?" you ask. "Sans villain of course."

Stephanie lets out a hum, dropping the arm that was around your shoulder to instead stretch it above her head. "Dunno, we never much ate fancy in Atlanta, don't see why that should change in Sydney. 'sides, ah think the villain is the most excitement this place gets."

"With a quirk like the one we just dealt with I certainly hope not. That one was… nasty."

Stephanie grunts in agreement and turns her attention from you and towards the line of reports. Raising a hand her claws glint, sparks jumping between the metal blades. A neat little way to get attention, you have your own but you doubt the reporters will enjoy you firing your gun into the air.

It's your first time handling the press, and somehow that makes you more nervous than the villain fight. At least you can punch villains, punching the press usually ends careers.

"Doomwulf!" a female reporter cries out. "Can you tell us what happened?"

Stephanie jerks a finger behind her towards the restaurant. "Villain was in there, her quirk was some form of… mental suggestion. She put everyone in there to sleep and was robbin' 'em."

"Any deaths Gauze?" another reporter asks, male with an elephantine trunk for a nose.

"... None. The most that happened was one gentleman fell face-first into his soup and ruined his jacket." You answer, feeling rather uncomfortable with the question and the situation.

"Any issues taking down the villain?"

You glance over at your partner, and she simply shrugs her shoulders and speaks. "Not really, her quirk was all voice-based, she didn't have no enhanced strength or anythin' like that. So once we caught up to her we took 'er down rather quick."

"Do you think this has any connections to the previous attack on the mall you were involved with?"

You shake your head. "Nothing pointing to it, we're not investigators anyway."

"Are you having the wedding in Australia or are you heading back to the states."

You stare at the reporter like she just started speaking Chinese, is… now really the best time to for tha-

"Back in the states." Stephanie answers.

You turn your head towards your partner, disbelief written on your features. "I thought we hadn't decided yet?"

Your partner looks back, a challenging glint in her eyes. "What, ya want to pay to have our extended family fly out to Sydney?"

You blink, then turn back to the assembled mass of reporters. "So does anyone know any good chapels?"

That gets a laugh.

---

You pull the helmet off of your head and toss it onto the couch as you enter the house. It spins and rolls like a heavy frisbee, before bouncing off onto the carpeted floor with a dull thud. "That was just an entire thing."

"Ah think we handled the press pretty well," Stephanie replies, and you hear a familiar slump of her armor hitting the carpet. It's a tradition you've held since college, namely, get the hot sweaty stuff off now, clean it up later.

"We did, but I can't help but wonder how they'll spin it, we are new to this after all," you say, making your way over to the couch and plopping yourself onto it. It, like most things here, is a bright white. This is honestly a relief, as when All Might said you could have his summer home you were rather terrified of a more… let say colorful choice in the palette. "I'm slightly terrified of my aunt trying to spin it as well."

You close your eyes, letting out a deep breath as you feel the day ebb out of you. A nice dinner is in order, maybe that nearby burger joint you sa-

"Dylan?"

You open your eyes, only to find your fiance standing right in front of you. In the short amount of time it takes you to realize that she has her mask off, she has leaned forward and planted her lips against yours.

Her hands grab your coat and bunch it up, and you tilt your head as it deepens. A soft moan escapes your partner, and she pulls back a few seconds later with a faint blush on her face. She doesn't pull back far, her eyes are staring at your own from maybe two to three inches away as she doesn't let go of your coat. "What was that you were sayin' earlier after we took down the villain?"

What is sh…

Oh.

"I…"

Her finger pushes against your lips and she shakes her head. "Sorry, ya don't need to talk actually. Ya think ah don't know ya've been depressed? Ah'm a canine, we can smell that."

"... Really?"

"No," your partner snorts. "But ah know you. You have always had the self-worth of a particularly ugly kicked puppy. College stress didn't help none, moving to Australia didn't help none, and becomin' an adult all of a sudden didn't help none." At that last bit, Stephanie moves her hand to pat her stomach. "Ya think ah'm not a bundle of nerves? Ah can just fake it better."

You look down towards the floor, only to have your head wrenched up to look your partner in the face again.

"Ain't nothin' to be ashamed of, ah knew ya had been dealin' with it fer awhile, and that ain't the first joke ya've made about it neither. Kros messaged me earlier about your… talk with 'er."

You feel your heart plummet. "She did?"

Stephanie nods. "She said you were feelin' down and that she wanted a threesome." She then grins. "One or both of those things is true, but we messaged back and forth about it, and your happy little butt is goin' in for therapy. They got good staff fer it at the tower. Apparently bein' a hero is stressful work."

"Sorry." You say, and you feel a little guilty that is all you can say.

"Ain't nothin' to be sorry 'bout neither. Just don't hide things from me, we're a team now in every sense of the word, got it?"

You start to nod, only to be pulled forward into her lips.

Stephanie pulls back a few seconds later, an impish smile on her face. "Good boy, now figure out where we're going for dinner."

---

And we're caught up.

 

[Erien]

[X] [Check on Chloe]
[X] [Investigation] (Look into those gun smugglers)
[X] Don't spend any EXP.

Thanks to @Armoury for the beta!

---

The sound of soft jazz is the main thing that filters through your ears as you poke at your plate. That, and the sound of forks and knives clinking against the ceramic. A well-dressed waiter brushes past you, carrying a bottle of wine atop a silver platter with such practised ease you are quite certain it must be a quirk of some kind… and basically, you are rather uncomfortable with how fancy this place is. A 'date' between the two of you meant a burger and a movie more often than not, but you had the idea of taking her to a nice steakhouse.

This wasn't particularly difficult, you've already developed enough of a reputation that getting a table wasn't hard, and since you don't have to pay for a house the meal isn't a huge hit on the finances either… it still makes you feel rather out of place as you idly tug at the collar of your good suit.

"Oh quit fussin'," Stephanie drawls. "Ya look fine, 'sides, not like we'll make this an everyday thing anyhow."

"Easy for you to say, I think the man at the next table is drooling at you." You snap back, and it is only a slight exaggeration on your part. She's wearing a thin black dress that manages to hide every part of her but accentuate every curve she has. The fabric itself shimmers and shines in the faint golden light of the restaurant, causing her to glitter like a night sky with every faint movement. In short, she's gorgeous, but you knew that already didn't you?

"Ah can't help the fact that ah'm gorgeous. But ya can calm down, ain't like yer bad lookin' either."

You smirk at that, but your response is cut off by your own waiter arriving to set two heavy plates in front of you. Steak, mushrooms and a nice salad make up your half of the table. While a good half of a cow makes up Stephanie's. By the sheer look of delight on her face, she doesn't seem to disapprove of her decision, however, even if you may have to roll her out like an exercise ball later. Grabbing her fork and knife Stephanie gets to work, cutting off a piece and stuffing it into her mouth. She lets out a noise of contentment, one hand moving to her cheek as she savors the meat. Swallowing a moment later she grins at you. "Remember that steakhouse we went to in downtown Atlanta?"

You stick a fork in your own meat, idly cutting as you speak. "Bones? Yeah."

"This is soooo much better."

"This is also twice the price." You counter. "But beyond that, there is something I actually wanted to talk to you about this evening."

Your partner doesn't respond, still idly eating, though her eyes remain on you. "You said a chapel, I can work with that. When do you actually want to hold it? I'd like to make an honest woman out of you before you give birth."

A piece of steak stops halfway to your fiance's mouth. "Ya know, ya could have worded that even slightly romantically."

"Stephanie Clarkson, your radiance in that dress is only matched by the shimmering glint of your eyes, blue and orange like the endless ocean meeting the golden shores of Australia. If I were more a poet I would compose a piece that would make Solomon's own songs seem quaint and short. But alas I am not, so I simply ask… when you do want us to plan this so we can get our families over here?"

"Two to three months, probably. May need more than that honestly." Stephanie says, popping another piece of steak into her mouth in the process. "To be honest ah'm kinda… worried 'bout it."

You set down your fork, any enjoyment of the meal trumped by Stephanie being worried about something. "What's got you bothered?"

Stephanie's hands move down to her stomach, her own meal forgotten. "Ah'm happy to be with ya, and happy to have ah kid. But we're still so dang young and ah'll need to be spending time to take care of it, but what about my career? An' what if I get hurt or-"

You reach over to tap her on the shoulder. "You aren't allowed to sound like I do, I have copyright. You wouldn't be the first heroine to get pregnant, not by a longshot, and this is only the start of our career." You gesture towards the window and the city beyond. "Most hero's work for decades, so what if we need to start slow to take care of the kid? Not a problem. We aren't going to be some heroes that leave their kids to rot while we chase fame. I… want to make you happy Stephanie."

"An' how do ya know we'll be good parents?"

"Because we've known each other for four years, do either of us seem that kind of person?"

Stephanie's eyes dart down to her plate, her fork back in her hand as she idly pokes at the steak. She eventually lets out a sigh before cutting off another piece. "Ah suppose ah'm just scared."

You nod, starting to eat once more yourself. "That's normal, your hormones are going nuts right now."

"Ya don't know crap about my hormones."

"Well, by this point in the pregnancy your body will have started to produce more and mo-"

You are cut off as a piece of steak is shoved into your mouth, your partner glaring at you from across the table. "Ya don't know crap about ma' hormones."

…

Yes ma'am, whatever you say ma'am.

---

*Several days later*

---

You knock sharply on Chloe's door. You already texted her that you were coming, but it never hurts to be polite regardless. The laughter of children behind you rings, a tour guide showing a school class around the building.

"Come on in!" Chloe calls out, and before you can even reach for the sensor the door slides open on its own.

It reveals an interior… you didn't expect honestly. Its general layout is basically identical to the room you and Stephanie were in just a few weeks prior. But this one is far more decorated. Covering the walls are hanging rugs and climbing house plants, paintings hang all over of frankly gorgeous nature scenes, and with the colorful and intricately woven rugs on the floor, it seems Chloe is going for a more aboriginal aesthetic. The heavy sound of machinery is mixed in, and interspersed between the plants are various monitors and displays, some displaying what appears to be random websites, some playing videos on mute, and one large one near the window is showing the same crime/hero status board you saw in the display center.

Eucalyptus plants of course stand as well, decorating the space around the windows and the large sliding door that leads out of the balcony… and Chloe herself is in front of it. Her legs blur beneath her as she sets a punishing pace on a treadmill, the whir of its motors only trumped in volume by the rapid-fire thumps of her feet hitting it. She's wearing a black tank top and a pair of denim shorts, her large circular ears flapping behind her as she runs. "Morning chief, what can Chloe do for you?" she gives you a lazy wave as she says this, completely at odds with the dizzying speed she is jogging at.

"Just wanted to reintroduce myself," you reply. "I never really met you beyond that first time at the bank, and well… I fully expect to be working with just about everyone in the tower."

Chloe smiles, leaping off the treadmill and letting it run for a few seconds before she hits the stop button. "Fair enough, mate, needed someone to spot for me anyway."

"Spot?"

The koala-themed hero gestures off to the right, and you look in that direction to see a large weight set tucked against the wall. There's… a rather dizzying amount of weights, going from what you yourself lifted when you were still using the gym in college, to what you could modestly call a massive slab of metal with disks on the end of it that is holding the building to the Earth.

"The AI spotter's been on the fritz," Chloe explains as she slides onto the weight set. Her hands dip into the chalk on either side, and you take up a position behind her and gently lift the- oh sweet Jesus!

You swear you feel a bone crack as you lift the barbell off the mount and offer it to her, the koala taking it thankfully quickly and starting to push it up and down. She's grinning from ear to ear as well. "Sorry about not warning you mate, I use tungsten for my weights."

You idly flex your wrists. "I can tell, you nearly snapped my arms off with that."

Her grin, somehow, gets wider. "Oh good on ya, most people can't even lift it without a quirk. Should be happy ya managed to lift it at all."

You grunt but say nothing more as you watch her work out. A deep look of concentration is on her face as she sets a practiced and steady pace, sweat beading down her face and stomach as her rhythmic breathing becomes the only sound in the room beside the televisions. As you watch the muscles on her arms bulge, not from tension, they literally start to increase in size. Much like how you saw her in the bank, her eyes take on a faint reddish glow as the weight moves faster and faster.

"Fifty reps of this," Chloe bites out, voice deep and seeming to almost bellow. "Then I increase the weight for twenty-five more. Then decrease for another twenty-five."

"That's one hell of a set." You remark.

Chloe grunts, her arms moving faster still. "It's easiest to work out while going full koala, now get me more weights."

You nod, bodily lifting more over the weights and slotting them onto the end of the barbell. This continues, with you taking them on and off for a good ten minutes before with a ring of metal on metal you place the barbell back onto its mount. Chloe slides off underneath you, stretching her arms before she looks at you with a far simpler smile. "Now that felt good, the AI was always complaining about putting on the right weights."

As you watch she pulls a towel off the side of the machine to run over her face and hair, the glistening strands slicking back before she idly tosses it off to the side. "Ya wanna give it a try?"

You glance over at the machine. "Not… at the moment, but I might take you up on it later.

[New action unlocked - Strength Training]

"Suit yourself, mate," Chloe says with a shrug, not even bothering to look disappointed. Walking past you she makes her way over to the kitchen, pulling the fridge open and pulling out an egg tray. "What are you and your sheila doing today?"

"My… sheila?"

She cracks an egg on the counter and drops it into a blender. "Your girl, mate."

"Ah, we were planning on looking into the people that attacked the mall. They were well armed, and we wanted to look into where they were getting their weapons."

Chloe nods, dropping two more eggs into the blender before clicking it on. "I'm getting pulled all over so I haven't had the time to look into it myself. But I've had the command center looking into it, wanna hit one of their warehouses?"

You blink. "If you know the location of one of their warehouses then why haven't they been dealt with already?"

With a whir, the blender kicks on, and Chloe gives you a look like you just asked a rather stupid question. "They have several, hitting one will make the rest scatter. But we also don't need them to have a chance to make another attack."

The blender lets out a beep, and she pulls the egg drink off of it and lifts it to her lips, her other hand pulling her phone out of her pocket. She downs the entire mix without so much as a pause for breath, before slamming both the cup and her phone on the cupboard. She glances down at the phone before looking back up at you. "Tonight at eight, you in?"

…

You recall her being high as hell when you first met her, and you suspect that you are legitimately talking to a completely different person right now. You wonder which of her is the real one.

---

You let out a breath, the plates underneath your jacket shifting slightly as you adjust yourself against the shipping container. Your partner sits crouched just in front of you, mask clipped over her face and a black hood over your head. You are in much the same 'stealthy' ensemble, though for you that just meant ditching the white overcoat. You are both positioned on the outskirts of a warehouse, the shadow of a shipping container hiding you from view as you look over the complex in front of you. It's not a huge place, a simple lot outside of Sydney proper with a single large building in the center that has seen better days.

But it's busy.

Another van pulls up ahead, moving up to the loading dock of the warehouse, a group of men in rather ratty clothing step out, moving around to the back to start unloading boxes. While surrounding them are men spread out all over the dock, all carrying poorly concealed guns at best, and openly brandishing rifles at worst. It isn't the first van, it's the fourth since you first arrived here two hours ago. Another group of men are talking near the gate, looking rather laid back, all things considered, as they wave another vehicle in. This one is a far nicer black luxury car, and you watch as it slowly drives down the asphalt before coming to a stop near the front door.

Stephanie stiffens as the door opens, and you see why a moment later as the figure that was previously hidden by the night steps out into the light. It's a rather lanky figure, far more slender than the other men around him. He's dressed in an all-black ensemble, making his blue hair stick out all the more. Of course… that's not the only thing that sticks out about him. No, that would be the fact that he has a disembodied hand plastered over his face. It's covering the vast majority of his features beyond his eyes, and it isn't the only one present either. More are clinging onto his arms and neck, and he idly scratches around said neck-hand before making his way to the door, hands hanging at his side as he walks.

"Creepy fucker." Stephanie murmurs, and you grunt in agreement.

"Tomura Shigaraki," Wuchang's voice crackles in your ear. "One of the members of the League of Villains, he can disintegrate anything with a touch of all five fingers. Very dangerous, he killed Endeavor."

"What's he doing here?" you ask into your radio.

"No idea, he's never been spotted outside Japan. I'm looking into it."

… Well, balls.

"That guy killed the number one hero on the planet, what are you thinking?" you ask quietly.

Stephanie lets out a low hum and looks around. Chloe is off skulking in a container across the lot, while Density is… somewhere. Wuchang Gui is monitoring comms in her bunker back in the hidden van, making it so you only have four heroes present. Four good heroes mind, but there are quite a few hostiles and at least as many guns around, even discounting apparently one of the most dangerous hero-killers in existence.

"Far as ah see it we got two options," Stephanie says. "We can either jump em, take 'em out before they can get away, it's risky but we got a lot of firepower." She then gestures towards the roof, where in the middle of the slanted tin there is a large skylight with a series of hatches. "Or we use yer grapplin' hook an' try to sneak in. Not that that's a specialty of ours in any case."

"I distinctly recall our attempt at relieving the hostage situation in the federal reserve, that VR mission? I think the building was brought down on top of us after we assaulted the upper floors."

Stephanie grunts. "That's VR, and this is this. Waddya thinkin'?"

"We need backup, we're outnumbered before Shigaraki showed up, now it's even worse." You can attack the people in the cars, taking them out before they have a chance to escape then surround the building. Of course, there are quite a few guards around so that'll need to be rather rapid before things get out of control. And that's of course not counting the fact that you'll be waiting for backup to arrive.

Or… you can sneak in and see what you can find, avoiding combat altogether.

Or both, with one group being the distraction while the other breaks in.

Options.

---

Therapy will be after the villain fight.

 

[Erien]

Thanks to @Armoury for the beta!

[x] Retreat and establish an observation cordon. Report Tomura Shigaraki's presence in Australia.

---

This is… a very bad situation. You don't know why one of the top villains on the planet is here, all you do know is that you are in no way, shape, or form in a position to deal with him. You know of him, his quirk, disintegration; if he touches someone or something with all five figures they disintegrate. This would normally be a problem, it is doubly so in that you are the only member present that has a ranged option, and even then you don't trust your rubber bullets to take Shigaraki down before the worst comes to the worst.

You carefully and slowly raise your radio to your lips, eyes staying locked onto the door Shigaraki stepped through. "Density, what do you think about setting up a cordon? We need to report Shigaraki's presence I'd imagine, but I don't think we are in a position to take him on."

The smell of the warehouse hits you as you remove your hand from the transmit button, the whole place reeks of kerosene. How precisely you didn't notice before, you'd chalk up to the fact that you have been so stressed and so mono-focused that it didn't warrant your attention. It isn't alarming, but it is unpleasant, a large amount of this is unpleasant… and worrying.

"Agreed, Wuchang is sending out an alert, pull back."

---

You let out a breath as you adjust your position leaning against the tree. The bark rubs against your skin even through the heavy coat you are wearing, but you don't dare move from it too much. The sound of crunching grass to your left, barely audible, shows that your partner is about as comfortable as you are in this situation.

You are currently crouched on a small hill a good half-mile away from the warehouse now, watching over it from a far greater distance. The sun has well and truly set, allowing the moon to color everything a dark blue as nightly mist starts to settle in. More and more by the minute, the distant buildings are becoming harder to make out, the low clouds and the humidity from being this close to the Pacific making your job of standing watch rather difficult… and doing a rather good job of making you feel rather alone and vulnerable.

Your partner is with you, but that does little to assuage the fact that the nearest hero, Density, is a good half-mile to your northeast, while Chloe is even farther away than that. More heroes are coming, but they won't be here for another short while, which means, at least for the time being, your lines are rather thin.

"Ah don't like this," Stephanie mutters.

"I don't either, this feels… wrong." You agree, squinting off towards the buildings in an attempt to see something still. Beyond faint moving figures there is very little to see.

"Why the 'ell would a major villain be here?" Stephanie asks. "Ain't like he's goin' on tour or nothin'."

"I don't know that either," you reply. "All I know is I'm glad they agreed to backup, I don't need to be a face on the morning news."

Stephanie snickers. "What, 'local medic takes down crime ring, gains three new girlfriends'?"

You let out a snort, a smile finding its way onto your face despite the circumstances. "For starters, I'm not looking for new girlfriends, and a close second… no, there isn't enough snark for me to counter that. Congratulations, you have come up with a situation so silly I can't snark about it."

Stephanie laughs this time, though it is a quiet, controlled thing. "Well, how about that, figured out how to actually make ya behav-"

*BANG*

The gunfire that opened up wasn't a single shot, but a full cacophony of too many weapons opening up at once. Your head snaps back from where it was turning to look at Stephanie to instead focus on the warehouse, from here, you can see a swarm of people all running out of the warehouse towards the north, firing off into the woods towards Chloe's position. There's another, literal fire a second later, as flames erupt around the warehouse complex itself, the kerosene you smelled earlier going up like well… kerosene, illuminating the forest around it in brilliant hues of orange and white, and revealing the fact that Chloe is currently throwing a tree at a sizable group of gunmen.

You freeze, your mind going through what is occurring.

"They attempting a breakout? How the hell did they see us?" Stephanie asks, standing up and unsheathing her claws as she does so.

You open your mouth to respond… only to hear a laugh from behind you. It's a dry, rasping thing, and you feel a chill run down your spine from the sound. It is a forced, put upon, thing, like a bad actor laughing in a play.

You slowly turn your head… and feel your mouth dry up. Stepping out of a black, twisting portal onto the grassy hill behind you both is Shigaraki, the villain from before. His hand lightly scratches at the underside of his chin, a dry cricking sound coming from his finger as he does so as if every movement was knocking the bones out of their joints. A red baleful eye stares down at you from behind the cut-off hand that covers his face. Yet the most disturbing thing of all is the wide, cracked smile that is just faintly visible behind it.

"Dylan Evans." The man says with a heavily accented voice. He sounds… bored, disinterested in this situation. "How nice to see you, my objective decided to be a loner. Your lines are spread thin, bad play."

You slowly stand up, hand moving to your holster. "Do I want to know why you know who I am?"

Shigaraki laughs again. "All-for-one wants to… negotiate a deal with you, and since you were so kind to wait here defenseless for me… be good and come quietly."

"Ah'm standin' right here ya shriveled up dust-bunny!" Stephanie counters, stepping forward to get between you and Shigaraki.

"And you brought leverage." The man flits his gaze very briefly to Stephanie, the smile dropping a moment. His hands tense, fingers splayed wide and twitching. "So, what do you say?"