𝐖𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐡 || ᵇ.ᵏᵃᵗˢᵘᵏᶦ

LIX

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"Everyone ready?" Sir Nighteye questioned. They had gathered around the corner from the building Jinyoung and Aeri had scouted only a week before, not wanting to alert the Shie Hassaikai inside in case they tried to get away with Eri in tow. The police had only just arrived with the warrant and they looked positively terrified.

Everyone nodded and Sir Nighteye gave everyone a minute to check their gear. Aeri made sure all her daggers were secure and then jogged over to her dad, jumping into his arms. He caught her, already knowing it was coming.

"Don't do anything stupid." He told her and Aeri scoffed.

"I'm not the one you should be worried about," She replied, breaking away from the hug and inclining her head towards Midoriya. "He'd willingly break all four of his limbs if it meant saving that little girl."

Aizawa bit his lip, glancing over to Midoriya. "Watch out for him, don't let him do anything reckless."

Aeri nodded. "Love you, Dad."

"Love you too. Now go, Jinyoung is waiting."

Aeri ran back over to her brother and they both went to Sir Nighteye to get the order. They were going to be the first two in the building and the last two out, though their quirks made it easy for them to get out. The plan was to sneak through the shadows of the building, taking Mirio and Deku with them to find Eri. From there, they'd fight and arrest anyone in their path.

The only problem was, they didn't know how well-lit the building was. If the lights were too bright, they'd have to make their way through physically.

"We move now," Nighteye commanded and the group nodded. Aeri pulled the mask of her hero costume up over her mouth and nose and she and Jinyoung led to heroes around the corner, with Lemillion and Deku right behind them so the siblings could easily grab them in a moment.

Aeri sidled up to the front of the building, ducking to avoid being seen through the window. She grasped Mirio's forearm and pulled him to one side of the door, Jinyoung did the same with Midoriya and the four of them pressed their backs to the wall.

One of the policemen approached the door, raised a shaking fist and knocked, warrant in hand. All the heroes and policemen held their breaths. Ryukyu joined the policeman's side and prepared herself to shift into her dragon form.

The door inched open and Ryukyu didn't even let the policeman flash the warrant before she shifted and smashed the door inward, taking half of the wall with it. Aeri and Jinyoung took that as their cue and blended into the shadows of Ryukyu's hulking figure, slipping into the building with Mirio and Deku in tow.

They left the other heroes to deal with the Yakuza members that were gathered in the main room and slipped into the adjoining hallway which, luckily, was dimly lit for the most part.

Unfortunately, the hallway wasn't empty. A few of Overhaul's subordinates had come running after hearing the shouts and loud noises from Ryukyu's destruction so they couldn't scout out the secret passageway without getting caught. Aeri handed Mirio off to Jinyoung, knowing she couldn't hold more than one person in the shadows for him to take out the villains without them all flickering in and out of physicality, and slid up behind one of the Yakuza members, rendering him unconscious with a hard knock to the back of the head.

This alerted the others and they came running towards her with their guns out. Noticing the man she'd knocked out was wearing a bulletproof vest, she spun them both as the gun went off, using the villain as a human shield as she advanced towards the others.

Once she was close enough, she threw the unconscious man towards the other, causing him to topple over with a grunt, the gun falling to the floor a few metres away. She moved fast and sent a sharp kick to the side of his head, disabling him in an instant. She teleported behind the last one and took ahold of the back of his head, forcefully smashing his face into the brick wall beside them.

She grabbed the length of rope hanging from the Yakuza member's belt and dragged him over to the other two, swiftly wrapping the rope around the three of them and securing it with a tight knot. One of the lower-level heroes would find the three of them later and make the official arrest.

Aeri pinpointed Jinyoung's shadows instantly and teleported over to them. Jinyoung let go of Mirio so Aeri could grab him and they were off once more, checking all the doors until they finally found the secret passageway at the end of the hall.

"Deku, punch the wall," Jinyoung commanded, slipping out of the shadows just as Kirishima, Amajiki and Fatgum ran into the hall. Midoriya powered up, his green electricity flowing around him, and landed a sharp, skilful punch to the centre of the stone wall, revealing the stairs leading to the underground labyrinth.

"Eri should be down there somewhere, right?" Mirio asked, his voice echoing through the shadows. Jinyoung nodded and pulled Midoriya back into his grasp as they slipped down the dark stairwell, Fatgum's agency hot on their tail.

"Shit," Aeri swore once they reached the bottom. The halls and rooms were all lit with fluorescent LED ceiling lights, not a single spot of darkness in sight.

"New plan, we'll have to do this the normal way. Wraith you stick with Lemillion, as planned, and fight your way through. If you get separated, get Eri and get out and we'll all meet outside."

"Oh, you won't be getting Eri," A deep voice called from the end of the hall. One of Overhaul's 'Eight Bullets', Mimic. He laughed maniacally and began to shift the walls and ceilings around, so they couldn't tell which was which, creating a maze.

Jinyoung charged for the yakuza member and the other three followed. Fatgum and his apprentices had been shifted to another part of the labyrinth and they could hear the telltale signs of a battle coming from all directions. Mimic disappeared with yet another laugh, creating a path for himself just before Jinyoung could land a hit. Her brother growled in annoyance and motioned for them to follow him forward just as Nighteye rounded the corner behind them. He joined them silently as they began to kick down doors in search of the room where Eri was being kept.

They'd made it to the end of the hall before Mimic reappeared, Rock Lock on his tail. Mimic let out a war cry and the walls began to close in on them. Aeri could see that the villain was straining to keep using his quirk. Rock Lock ran to them and locked the walls in place around them, preventing them from being crushed. Aeri began looking around for anywhere they could go, any routes for them to escape through as Mimic dropped to his knees, panting after overexerting himself.

In a last-ditch effort to save himself, Mimic created an opening in the wall beside the heroes and two familiar villains appeared.

Toga gasped and brought her hands up to her face as she ran towards them. "Aeri! I've missed you so much! And Izuku is here too!" She squealed and blocked an attack from Rock Lock, only to turn and stab him with ease. The other villain behind her began to duplicate himself and Sir Nighteye charged forward to deal with him. Jinyoung snuck over to Mimic, who was trying to crawl away, and kicked him down, securing a pair of quirk cuffs around his wrists.

"How does she know you two?" Mirio called as he slammed his fist into one of the villain duplicates.

"Kamino ward! Bakugou was kidnapped by her colleagues!" Aeri yelled back, slicing through the ligaments in the back of one of the duplicates' knees.

"Oh, and it was so fun! If only your brother didn't go all psycho, we could've kept you!" Toga added and Aeri scowled beneath her mask. She didn't know how this young girl got tangled up with the villains, but she seemed just as batshit crazy as the rest of them.

The duplicates suddenly disappeared and Aeri almost lost her balance, having been amid a fistfight with one when the villain released his quirk. She looked up to see that Nighteye had dealt with the villain and he called for Toga to retreat.

Aeri grabbed Mirio's arm and yanked him forward, taking off in a sprint down the hall that had opened up again after Mimic was disabled. They slid around the corner, almost crashing into the wall with the speed they were running, and kicked open a door, skidding to a stop when they beheld the very man they were looking for.

Overhaul.

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