Tuesday morning in Winslow High was going exceptionally slowly, Tenko found.
He woke up and headed to school without issue, and even the specter was surprisingly quiet, compared to his usual constant buzzing.
When he got to Winslow, he was a spectator at a small sporting event, a swimming competition. The only name he recognized among the participants was Barnes, who placed third. But after that, the school day reverted to a normal schedule, and his day was taken up by mind-numbingly boring subjects such as Physics and Maths. It wasn't anything fun like Art or Computer Science, nor potentially useful like Biology or Chemistry, which just left Tenko to twiddle his thumbs staring at horrible abominations made up of letters and numbers. Eugh. His mind wandered in the meanwhile, away from his tedious prison and onto more important matters: the ABB.
Yew was an interesting figure to say the least, from his record and the short interactions he'd had with him he had a general profile: prideful, power-hungry and, to a certain extent, honorable. He ran his branch of the ABB pretty well, and he showed respect to those under him. He was panther-like if Tomura had to choose a single word. Furthermore, that twisted sense of honor combined with the determination he could see within his soul made him perfect for the Quirk he planned to permanently transfer to the freak.
His mind meanwhile drifted to the other members of the ABB, as he steadily totally dissociated from the class. Bakuda was… unreliable. They often butt heads, and that ego of hers made her quite the landmine, and yet she was smart, deadly smart. If Yew was like a young panther, then Bakuda was most similar to a Peacock, utterly prideful, yet capable of horrible acts of aggression. A thought crossed his mind, possibly at the nudging of the specter within his skull, how would Bakuda react to Bomber Cells?
He felt a cold shiver run down his spine, as he simply decided to move on from that thought.
Uber and Leet weren't even technically part of the ABB, merely help brought on deck temporarily, though the most permanent solutions were often intended to be temporary. They were like… Gophers. Yes, that was a good description of them. Easily frightened, small and pitiable things. Still, they had their uses, and much like Gophers, they had the potential to change the landscape around them.
Oni Lee was the enigma of their bunch, almost mannequin-like in some respects. His speech was stilted, and the only time he seemed to be alive was when he was in motion. Tomura had seen short clips and videos of Lee on the move, and he truly did look like a demon in those moments. Perhaps the best comparison, keeping up with their animal theming, was a Shark. Empty-headed in quite a few respects, yet still an Apex Predator.
Last but not least within the ABB, (excluding Kuraiuzu, of course), was Lung. Choosing an animal for him was as easy as taking candy from a baby; Lung was a Dragon, from his head to his toes. Mighty, yet in some ways Lethargic, content to sit on his pile of gold and let the nations of Men sleep easy. His thoughts on Lung were mixed, between scathing criticism and genuine approval in many ways. Keeping him on Deck somehow would be his preferred solution for the future, the question was how to deal with that ego of his, if such an ego could even be wrestled with in the first place.
The Kyodai he'd only had glancing interactions with, but from a mixture of research and his own intuition, he could tell quite a few of them probably had an axe to grind with Lung. He brought the Azn Bad Boys together through conquest and kept it together through fear, which wasn't very healthy in the long-term. He could side with the Kyodai in the all but certain power struggle, but then he'd have to somehow make sure their heads didn't grow to the size of UA. A bundle of arrogant pent-up noobs at the forefront of what was likely to be a superhuman gang war would be crippling, even if they all had the same freakish synergy with quirks that Yew did.
"Tenko, would you mind telling the class the answer to this equation?"
The voice sunk into his mind like a dagger might sink into an unsuspecting victim's back. Mr. Quinlan stood at the front of the class, a piece of chalk within his hands as he pointed towards an utterly anathematic equation. Tenko stared at it for a second, desperately trying to pull together what little he had remembered from the class before his dissociative episode. He racked his brain trying to think of an answer.
"Uhhhhh, 42?"
"Huh, that's… correct."
Praise be to the Random Number God.
-
Taylor Hebert managed to escape Winslow without incident, a rather rare occurrence in her book.
Perhaps it was because of the fact that Emma and her friends had all their attention hogged by the swimming competition, but she wasn't the type to look a gift horse in the mouth. Her dad already knew she'd be coming home from school a bit later, as she wanted to see exactly how Lisa was doing in the aftermath of the attack. Much like before, it wasn't exactly a lie, but it wasn't the full truth either.
Best not to think about it too much, in any case.
She entered the Undersiders hideout quietly, to find Rachel sat on the couch, hunched over with a hand on her chin. Her face was scrunched up, as if deep in thought, while a dog she recognized as Brutus was currently playing with a rather fresh-looking tennis ball at her feet. Maybe that was what Rachel spent all the money she made with the Undersiders on. Taylor approached steadily, giving her a small wave.
"Hey uh Bitch, whatcha doing?"
"Thinking."
That was rather obvious, to be fair.
"About what?" Taylor questioned.
A scowl descended across Rachel's face, her teeth baring slightly as her eyes moved to glare at Taylor.
"None of your damn business."
Well, that was rather rude.
Taylor simply threw her hands up, trying to dissuade her temper from rising any more than it already had.
"Hey, sorry. I was just wondering. Is Lisa around?"
Rachel rolled her eyes, cocking her head slightly in the direction of Lisa's room before fully returning to her thinking. Best to just leave her to it, Taylor decided. She walked past the couch, and headed over to Tattletale's room, creaking open the door carefully.
The first thing she noticed was that the place was still a mess. Yet the mess was substantially less than before, so kind of a win? Lisa herself was currently hunched over her desk, typing away at something on her laptop at a less frantic pace than Taylor would have expected. The sound of the door opening caught the blonde's attention, and she looked up at Taylor with tired eyes, but the bags underneath them were less pronounced. Taylor closed the door behind her, before taking a seat on the bed, keeping her eyes on Lisa all the while.
"Hey."
"Doing better?"
"Mm," An affirmation, but her heart wasn't fully in it.
"What've you been… up to?"
"Slept through almost the entirety of yesterday. Ate a bowl of ice cream. Watched a shitty soap opera. Fell asleep again watching it."
"Sounds fun."
"It was… fine."
"Mhm, and what're you doing now?" Taylor asked with a hint of worry in her voice.
"Research. Turns out I was right, like always," She weakly chuckled. "Guy called Geram Yew popped up on the news recently, throwing cars with his muscles bursting out of his skin. I cross-referenced, no events involving the guy that could've resulted in him getting powers naturally, but then again, I'm not the guy's shrink."
"So, he probably used a better version of Trigger?"
"Bingo. There's probably still enough time to strangle the snake in its cradle, I think, but it'll need to be a team effort. No doubt all the other groups in the Bay have heard whispers too. I plan on posting some of what I've assembled online anonymously, send some tips to the PRT without incriminating us too much before I go public with it at Somer's Rock."
"Are you sure you're… up for that? Presenting it at Somer's Rock, I mean."
"I… honestly don't know. But I've gotta be."
"Lisa, please just remember that the rest of us are here, y'know? If you need it."
Taylor wanted to punch herself as soon as the words left her mouth. She wasn't great at motivational speeches or just speeches in general. Still, she wanted to help her friend where she could, even if she didn't know the best way to do so. She stood swiftly, trying desperately to escape the aftermath of what she thought to be an utterly cringeworthy statement. But just as she headed for the door, Lisa's voice rang out.
"Thank you."
Taylor could only nod in response.
-
"So, what the hell've you got me in this grungy ass place for?"
Shigaraki looked up at Yew, the man currently standing just across from him, hands in his pockets, hunched over as he glanced around their current base of operations, his eyes dancing around multiple vials of Trigger labeled and unlabeled. Shigaraki sat lazily at a makeshift desk, legs upon the table, a rubix cube in his hands that he was using as a way to simply keep his hands occupied.
"You wanted to get stronger right? Sorry, but getting strong ain't always clean."
"Tch, whatever you say, handfreak."
Shigaraki let out a sigh, quite the attitude on this guy, wasn't there? Still, he didn't seem too likely to try and break anything out of boredom while Uber and Leet tinkered away slavishly at a separate project. In truth, he didn't even need them for what he planned to do, well, he wasn't sure if he needed them just yet. There was no telling if he'd need them to perform an on-the-spot lobotomy. That was dependent on how Yew answered his questions.
"How'd you join the ABB purple hair?"
Yew, rolled his eyes, leaning backwards.
"Lee beat me blue, and Lung turned my old boss into a stain on the ground, that what you wanted to hear?"
"You still got a grudge against Lung and Lee for that?"
"A grudge? Tch, what's the point? My old boss was weak, he died, the end. I want a rematch with Lee though, wasn't a fair fight the first time around, I had other guys backing me."
Oooh, how chivalrous. Shigaraki's eyes left the cube, focusing on Yew.
"How'd you feel about the power that Trigger gave you?"
Yew let out a growl, his patience with the questions clearly running rather thin. He walked over to the table, slamming his open palm against it.
"What the hell are all these questions for Handfreak? You're acting like this is American Idol or some shit. You promised me strength, I want it."
"Slow your roll big guy. I'm trying to decide if the power I have in mind for ya is fitting and if you're trustworthy enough to nab it. If you're really in such a hurry, I'll give ya the power to shit chipmunks and send ya on your way."
Yew snarled, before withdrawing, pulling away from Shigaraki and back to his original position in the center of the room.
"Fine, it was fun to use. Bit difficult to control though. If I get a choice, I'd prefer something simpler, if only so I could punch faces in better."
"See how much easier things are when you cooperate? Now then, final question, do you enjoy fighting?"
"Enjoy it? People like us, people like me, we live to fight, don't we? We wouldn't be in a fucking gang if we didn't."
"Alright then, I've made my decision. You're good enough."
Shigaraki placed the cub down on the desk, still only half-solved, before he hopped up from his seat and walked over to Yew. Each and every footstep rang out across the warehouse until he was only a single pace away from Yew, he gave the Kyodai a final once over, before shrugging, and throwing off his trench coat, revealing the thin black shirt beneath it. Best to get it out of the way before it was almost certainly soaked in sweat.
"This probably won't be the most comfortable experience. Hope you're ready."
With that word of warning, he put a hand to his chest and got about to recreating the Quirk factor that he had in mind for his little lab rat: Endurance. The problem with that quirk was that it was far more complex than one would assume, you turn vigor into strength, that's a pretty easy thing to do ain't it? The problem was that the quirk changed you from head to toe, and it wasn't a quirk you could build brick by brick like Warp Gate either. You just had to go through with it. He felt it, the searing hot pain endemic to reconstructing Quirks, and the main roadblock to doing so. It was like a thousand needles being shoved into every single pore in your skin at once, millions of drops of blood pouring out from the countless tiny wounds.
And yet, he pushed through.
Through the pain, through the suffering, until he finally had Endurance in his hands, so to say. Without so much as a second word, his hand wrapped around Yew's face, the smirk that had found itself there from watching Shigaraki's exertion falling away in an instant, as wisps of red energy burst out from his palm, inserting themselves into every hole in Yew's face. Through his nose, under his eyelids, into his ears, until finally, silence.
Yew fell backwards, landing on his behind, as he hacked and coughed as a result of the transfer. Tomura looked at him for a second, before turning his attention to Uber and Leet, staring over at the scene with mouths agape. He snapped his fingers in their direction, his voice coming out an exhausted rasp.
"You two didn't see anything."
"Yes sir," Leet replied, his voice barely above a whimper.
Tomura then turned his attention back to the now recovering Yew, crouching down to meet him face to face.
"Congratulations Ramsy, you're officially a cape. Hope you're ready for all the bullshit that comes with it."
AN: This was supposed to be out yesterday, but then I went to go watch Captain America: Brave New World (pretty alright film) and then I got a cold, so sorry for my tardiness. Yet more build-up to Somer's Rock, I just hope that it isn't too grating. Don't worry, not every day up until Friday will be elaborated on like this, and chapters will have less of a gap between them in general to hopefully make it flow better. As always, hope y'all enjoyed.
