BOING!
BOING!
Mineta bounded through the smoky corridors one last time, his eyes scanning every hollow corner, under collapsed vending machines, and through every open storefront. Satisfied that no one else was trapped inside, he executed a sharp wall-rebound and shot out through the main entrance, landing smoothly on the hot pavement outside.
The scene in the plaza was near its climax. Mt. Lady had already crushed the turtle villain's shell into the asphalt, leaving him thoroughly concussed, and was currently using her giant fists to press the offensive against the remaining chaos.
Over by the perimeter, Himiko, Toru, and Nejire were doing an incredible job guiding evacuated civilians toward safe zones, using gentle words to calm terrified children and panicked adults.
Meanwhile, Mei was standing on a overturned dumpster, cackling like an absolute supervillain as her thumbs flew across the controller. High above, Megatron hovered, peppering the remaining thieves with light laser bursts and smoke canisters.
Mineta sweatdropped at Mei's maniacal laughter. 'She's enjoying this way too much... If I don't keep an eye on her, she's going to build a Death Star before third year.'
Refocusing his attention on the battle, Mineta quickly analyzed the field. Out of the original ten villains, only three remained standing.
One was a fire-type user keeping Mt. Lady at bay with sweeping torrents of flame. The second possessed a high-intensity light production Quirk, flashing blinding strobes into Mt. Lady's eyes every time she tried to advance. The final one was a brute with a super-strength Quirk, ripping doors off parked cars and chucking heavy debris at her giant frame.
Mineta sprinted straight over to Mei, leaning up to whisper his plan into her ear. Mei's crosshair eyes instantly flashed with devious excitement.
"Fuhahaha! Executing Protocol: Brawn-Buster!" Mei shouted, slamming a toggle switch down on her remote.
Megatron reconfigured in mid-air with a heavy mechanical CLANG-CLINK-CHUNK! The jet thrusters shifted back into legs, the nosecone split to reveal its arms, and the machine dropped onto the pavement right behind the super-strength villain.
Before the villain could toss a bumper at Mt. Lady, Megatron's metal hands clamped tightly around his ankles. With a high-speed whine of gears, Megatron's upper torso began rotating like a top—spinning the screaming villain around and around in dizzying circles until the man was spewing vomit into the air. With a brutal toss, Megatron slammed him headfirst into the street, instantly knocking him cold.
"Target locked! Countering thermal output!" Mei called out.
Megatron spun around, its chest-mounted Mini-Arc core flaring bright crimson. It fired a sustained beam of clean energy directly into the fire villain's oncoming wave of flames, completely neutralizing the heat wave in a dense burst of steam.
Taking full advantage of the opening, Mt. Lady stepped through the mist, her giant leg sweeping forward in a lightning-fast kick.
CRUNCH!
Her boot caught the fire villain dead in the chest, launching him straight into the side of a concrete building. He slumped into the rubble, his ribs almost certainly fractured.
"Ugh, finally! That guy was getting on my last nerve!" Mt. Lady huffed, wiping sweat from her forehead.
She turned her attention to the final villain—the light producer—who was now hyperventilating in sheer terror. Realizing he was the last man standing, he turned on his heel and tried to sprint away.
"Oh no you don't!" Mt. Lady reached down, her massive hand closing around him like a bird in a cage.
Panicking, the villain unleashed his Quirk at maximum output, turning his entire body into a blinding, strobe-flashing disco ball. Mt. Lady simply squeezed her eyes shut, tightened her grip, and squeezed just enough to cut off his airway until his lights flickered out and he went limp.
The surrounding crowd of rescued civilians erupted into deafening cheers, clapping and shouting words of gratitude for the giant blonde hero.
Mineta cheered right along with the crowd, but as he turned to high-five the girls, something caught the corner of his eye.
A bright flash from the villain's light Quirk had cast a strange shadow across Toru. For a split second, the outline of a face became visible—soft features, delicate lips, and a pair of eyes that looked deeply, profoundly sad. Her sleaves were shaking rapidly in the air, mimicking her usual energetic gesture to show she was happy, but the expression on her visible face completely contradicted it.
Before anyone else could notice, the refraction faded, rendering her completely invisible once more.
'Wait... Toru was visible for a second?' Mineta thought, his mind racing. 'Her Quirk bends light, so intense atmospheric light must have thrown off her passivity like it had when Ayoyama used his quirk against her in the anime... But why did she look so heartbroken? And why is she hiding it behind her usual cheerful routine?'
He made a silent mental note to address it later. Right now wasn't the time.
Down on the street, Megatron shot four heavy alloy chains straight from its shoulder pods. The chains wrapped tightly around the unconscious villains, reeling them in into a tight, secure pile. Megatron clanked over to Mei, standing behind her like a imposing bodyguard.
Mei patted one of its fridge-door legs fondly. "Good job, my sweet little baby!"
Only then did the distant wail of police sirens finally reach the scene. A fleet of squad cars pulled up to the perimeter. The officers piled out, immediately raising their hands in a respectful salute to Mt. Lady—who was shrinking back down to her civilian height—before moving in to handcuff the pile of villains Megatron had secured.
"You kids did an incredible job keeping those civilians calm and clearing the evacuation routes," Yu said, walking over to Mineta, Himiko, Nejire, Toru, and Mei with a proud smile.
The crowd behind the police tape cheered loudly for the teenagers, causing Himiko, Nejire, and Mei to blush slightly at the sudden praise. Mineta just shrugged casually, though his eyes kept drifting back to Toru. She was waving her empty sleeves in the air with loud, exaggerated giggles, but Mineta now knew the truth hidden beneath that invisible facade.
"Should you really be congratulating civilians who used their Quirks in public without a license, Mt. Lady?"
A sharp, grating voice cut through the applause like a rusted blade.
Everyone turned to see a tall, heavily armored man stepping past the police lines. He wore a gaudy, iron-plated costume complete with a massive spiked mace strapped to his back, walking with an insufferable, nose-in-the-air swagger.
"It's the Number 112 Hero... Iron Mace," one of the junior police officers muttered under his breath.
Mineta crossed his arms, his eyes deadpanning as he evaluated the newcomer. 'Now who in the hell is this clown?'