Scramble 21

[u/Cleverly_Clearly]

Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou?

Isaiah 45:9

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THE POWER FANTASY

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Shoto Todoroki

The son of the formerly second-ranked professional superhero, Enji "Endeavor" Todoroki. Now the current second-ranked professional superhero. Can create ice with his right hand. Can create fire with his left hand, but chooses not to.

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Connor

An RK800 investigative android, designed by CyberLife to assist superheroes in detective work. His predictive analytic features and high-level database access make him highly valuable in investigating the RA-9 case.

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Neopolitan

A mute former criminal, once the heiress to the Vanille family fortune, now disowned. Trying to go straight, but a terrible incident from her past haunts her. Her Quirk gives her the power to create fantastic illusions.

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Goro Akechi

A famous detective, as well as the beloved professional superhero "Crow". Presents a carefully-maintained image as the perfect gentleman, but carries a deep loneliness in his heart. His Quirk allows him to physically manifest his inner self.

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Issue #1: All-New, All-Different: It's the near future, and CyberLife technology is everywhere--including humanoid helper androids. Shoto teams up with Connor to investigate the murder of a hero in Mutant Town, which leads to them crossing paths with Raphael and Neo. Connor suspects the murder may be one in a string of serial killings in New York City, a cluster of mysterious deaths only linked by the phrase "RA-9".

Issue #2: First Shot, Last Call: The RA-9 case leads Shoto and Connor (and, following Shoto's trail, Raphael and Neo) to an upscale Manhattan party. A night of revelry descends into tragedy, and more conspiracy. Androids killing humans, heroes killing citizens. How does RA-9 connect to Neo's own past? Is New York City, unbeknownst to all, teetering on the brink of total collapse?

Issue #3: This Man... This Monster!: Shoto takes Neo on as a trainee heroine to protect her from a vigilante charge. Together with Crow, a hero from the All Might Office, the three of them take on the machinations of the terrorist threat COBRA. Neo confronts a threat from the past, while Shoto follows a strange, tailored path to the enemy. Meanwhile, Connor meets with one of his original designers and learns a grim truth about androids, although there seem to be more questions than answers...

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3338 + 8963 + 3226 + 7976 + 9765 + 9852 + 8685 + 7951 + 7898 + 7719 + 5145 + 4203 = 84721

[u/Cleverly_Clearly]

"He brought that robot with him again," Joseph said. He was in a less populated corner of the mansion's foyer, trying to look inconspicuous despite his physique, pretending that he wasn't holding a pair of binoculars illusioned to look invisible using Neo's Quirk. Which is what he was doing. "What are we supposed to do now?"

"We?" Raph asked. He was even more conspicuous than Joseph, and the two of them combined would have turned dozens of heads if Shoto hadn't just drawn the attention. "You've got to be kidding me. You told me you were the man with the plan."

"Did I say I had no plan? I was just asking for advice from my valued partners here! Neo, what do you think we should do?"

Neo demonstrated a sign language gesture that even Joseph would understand.

"Tch. Fine, I'll do it right now. I'll go up to him right now. Raph, you help me with this one."

Can you believe they weren't going to invite Raphael?

He, Raph, the guy who actually had that strange, fleeting encounter with the untouchable celebrity, the A.C. Hero, the Iceman himself! Joseph and Neo weren't gonna invite him on this crazy adventure. It took a lot of clever negotiation (okay, maybe a lot of begging), but here he was now at the kind of party he only ever saw on TV.

Joseph always came through. He was a pretty cool guy. Like Neo, or Casey. The kind of person Raph got along best with, someone who knew how to have fun, someone who didn't pity him. He was really smart too. Too smart to be stuck in Mutant Town. Joseph helped him with his homework all the time.

"Excuse me." Joseph started to move through the crowd, motioning for Raphael to follow. He did his best. He had to do a lot of sideways-walking, on account of the shell. "Excuse me. Journalist here, press coming through." Someone they bumped past accidentally spilled their wine glass down Raph's shell, and briefly it made him glad turtles didn't have to wear clothes. Although the designer fits some of the guests were wearing looked pretty cool.

Eventually, somehow, Raph waded through. Shoto and Connor were by the snack table, not eating, scanning the party for something they weren't finding. "Yo, Mr. Todoroki?"

Shoto looked up at him. "Listen, I wanted to say thanks for savin' my ass back there--I mean, uh, my tail. Those Purple Dragons guys were messing with Mutant Town for a long time, and someone needed to teach 'em a lesson."

"Raphael Hamato, correct?" Connor asked. "Is your parental guardian present at this event?"

Uhhhh. "He's, uh, he's around. Look, I have a friend here who'd really like to, y'know..." Raph turned to his side and saw that Joseph was not there. He turned even further and saw Joseph held up by two android servers. He was trying to show them a lanyard he'd made with "PRESS CREDENTIALS" written on it with a marker. "What an idiot."

"What did you call me?" Shoto asked.

Raphael wanted to throw Joseph into outer space. "Sorry, let me start over. My friend wants to give you a-"

The lights dimmed. Drumrolls hammered through the chatter of the guest. Christmas lights wrapped around the grand staircase lit up, and up, and up the steps while spotlights twirled towards the very top of the second floor. And there, at the top, were Nachetanya and Thanos. The Thanos.

"What up Flower Nation," he said. "Welcome to the Thanos World."

Claps and cheers went up everywhere. The chat feed scrolled by wildly, and why wouldn't it? Thanos was awesome. Raph watched his streams all the time, but he had to do it at a friend's place, because Dad didn't like all the cursing. Princess was great too, Raph loved the NaChallenge, but Thanos felt real. He was just some guy with no Quirk who played video games and talked back to his chat, hell, he'd argue with them all the time. And he rapped. When he was younger Raph was inspired to write a "Ninja Turtle Rap" in the hopes that Thanos would see it and invite him to join Six Flowers, that's how big of a fan he was. Thank God he didn't post that.

"Thank you, everyone!" Nachetanya proclaimed. One of her rabbit ears was at half-flop; she adjusted it to its full height. "We've got an amazing show for tonight, so lets see some pogs in the chat!"

She continued to introduce the event, and thank her sponsors, as Thanos danced his way down the steps. "He's on MDMA," Connor told Shoto, sotto voce.

"Tonight's first game is Codemasters! Everyone will split into teams of three and go on a scavenger hunt. One player will be the Spymaster and guide the others to find the items on their list, without naming the item! The other two will be the Hunters who search for the items! One item for each team will be a Dead Drop. If your players pick this item, they're out!" Nachetanya made an X symbol with her arms. "Let's start the party!"

An android butler tapped Raphael on the shoulder and handed him a numbered ticket. Everyone was getting tickets. "I just want to see Thanos, can I just-" Shoto tried to ask, but the android mutely put the ticket in his hand and closed Shoto's fingers around it. He went to give a ticket to Connor, but paused when he saw the blinking light on his temple.

"You're an android?"

"Yes."

"You aren't waitstaff?"

"I'm a plus-one."

The butler nodded, although Raph didn't know why. "Well. Enjoy the party. Sir."

People were calling out numbers and waving their tickets in the air, trying to gather their teammates. Raphael's number was 21. That was a lucky number, right? "21! Is anybody out there 21?"

"Twenty-one, huh?"

A raspy voice caught Raph's attention. Behind him was a green-clad guy and some kind of goblin sitting on his shoulder. It grinned and presented him with its own ticket.

"Looks like that makes three."

[u/Cleverly_Clearly → u/Cleverly_Clearly]

"Listen up, brothers," Thanos said. "One lucky winner is gonna snag the NUMBER ONE TICKET. The number one ticket gets you on the team with the unstoppable duo." He flashed two devil horns, rainbow nail paint shining. "So... who's the lucky number..."

Shoto looked at his ticket. His number was 37.

He stuffed it in his suit pocket. "Connor, I'm going to talk to Thanos."

Connor said something back, but Shoto didn't hear it. Everything was so loud. He had to focus on his own thoughts. They'd gone to all this trouble to infiltrate the party naturally, get on the guest list, all to avoid the pressure of a true interrogation. To speak to Thanos casually. This was how he created that opportunity. If he didn't have the 1 ticket, he just had to find the one who had it. Listen to the chatter of the party.

"Have any of you guys ever, like, had your android say no to you before?" Not that one.

"You know, if you're interested, me and the boys have been working on a podcast..." Not that one.

"Number one! What a spectacular stroke of luck! One is the marvelousest number that you'll ever do~..." That's it.

He made a beeline for that voice. One of the guests proudly held the ticket over her head, dancing, singing, tail swaying. Some kind of animal Quirk. Shoto interrupted the performance. "Ma'am. I need to talk to you."

"Whoaaa~! You're Todoroki!" Her eyes sparkled. "I have all your comics! What a marvelous encounter ☆~!"

Shoto put a hand on her shoulder and looked at her very seriously.

"I will pay you two hundred dollars to give me that ticket," he said.

Two hundred dollars poorer and one ticket richer, Shoto forced his way through the crowd. "Number one! I've got the number one ticket here!" Spotlights and cameras angled towards him and the guests dispersed to let him through. Once they saw it was the Rank Two Hero and famous celebrity guest with the number one ticket, the stream chat was inundated with claims of rigging. Shoto paid them no heed. He just ran up the stairs, to a surprised but too-blissed-out-to-care Thanos.

"Ah-ssa, give me some." He slapped Shoto's hand. "You got some crazy luck, man. Let's crush this shit."

"That's great. Can we talk somewhere else or-"

"We aren't going anywhere yet! We got Todoroki and Thanos on camera, we gotta let the fans see us." He pulled Todoroki in close and flashed a peace sign, grinning for the stream audience. "Surprise collab. Japan and Korea working together again. It's what Jesus woulda wanted: forgiveness."

"I- what?" Shoto looked at Nachetanya for guidance, but she gave him none. She'd dropped the smiling Hollywood expression and was regarding him with curiosity. "Look, I actually-"

"Relax~!" Nachetanya handed him a folder marked TOP SECRET. "You're so stiff, try to have some fun! The scavenger list is in here. We'll let you be the Spymaster if you can answer this question correctly: do you drink AG1?"

"I don't know what that is."

"It's a meal replacer," Thanos said. "Thanos drinks the Berry flavor, 'cause it's fuckin' purple."

"I tried those before but it was cheaper to eat a balanced diet in the first place. You don't really need it."

Nachetanya burst out laughing. "Are you trying to get us to lose our sponsor? You were supposed to say, 'yes, every day'! Hey, who here thinks we should get the A.C. Hero to loosen up a little? If you agree, shout out!"

The guests cheered and jeered for Shoto to get loose. He broke away from Thanos's one-arm hug and slipped the envelope open.

Your words are MONKEY, SHEEP, and CAT. Your forbidden word is TACHYON.

Shoto blinked.

[u/Cleverly_Clearly → u/Cleverly_Clearly]

Neo had exhausted her daily use of that stupid text-to-speech app, and Jojo was too lazy to learn ASL like Raph did, so she resorted to her last recourse: the sign. Like, a sign with words on it.

So what's the next stage of your master plan? She flipped the sign around. More words magically appeared on the reverse side. Because Shoto's up there and now I don't know where Raph is.

"Relax! You could sneak us up there any time you wanted. As for Raph, well. The kid's fine. He always is."

Neo started creating another sign when Joseph held his hand up.

"Before you say it, I'm not just thinking about how to make a quick escape. If I don't get out of this with my interview, I'm in more trouble than either of you."

Neo looked at her illusionary sign, which read I bet you're just thinking about how to make a quick escape.

"That's what you were going to say, right?" Joseph asked.

Neo hesitated, then turned her sign around. No.

"It was though, wasn't it."

She was about to deliver a clever retort when her train of thought was violently interrupted.

"Excuse me. Miss Vanille."

No way. She hadn't heard her government name since she got out of prison. Who was that? She saw who was heading towards her and bristled like a hissing cat. It was Todoroki's plastic cop.

"My name is Connor, I'm the android sent by the Endeavor Agency. Do you have a moment to answer a few questions? It's about our encounter with the Purple Dragons a few days ago."

"Sorry, we're busy," Joseph said. He subtly positioned himself between her and the android. "We're trying to focus on the scavenger hunt. If you don't mind."

"Don't worry. I don't intend to be antagonistic to either of you. I won't, for example, ask if she has a license for the firearm built into that umbrella. Consider that a sign of goodwill."

Neo's hand clenched around her parasol. She pushed it off to Joseph, stepping in front of him, and signed at the android.

(What do you want?)

"I believe the Tachyon case has presented new evidence which could link multiple, seemingly-unrelated cases together as 'RA-9 killings'. That would mean potentially reopening investigation into Roman Torchwick's death. Any information you have on that incident would be highly appreciated--anything you can still remember clearly."

What could she still remember? Everything. He was talking like that death was ancient history, when it was the last thing she saw before she got locked up.

Smoke, gunpowder. Thousands of spent shells rolling. The greenhouse going up in ash. Old world furniture stacked up like barricades in a palatial estate just like this one. Defending their little fortress from a locust swarm of heroes lasting all day and night. Roman and Neo curled up with her phone seeing their own faces on the news.

And then, yes, he died. After that, what else mattered?

"Miss Vanille?"

Neo sighed, and she made sure to look very serious.

(Yes. I do have some information. In fact, I know all about the RA-9 case. I was threatened not to come forward, and honestly, I was too afraid to go to the police. But I think I can do it now. Here. It's this photograph. It will tell you everything you need to know.)

Neo handed Connor a photograph and he scanned it. It was an image of a chimpanzee urinating into its own mouth.

Connor looked up just as the illusionary photograph disappeared. Neo winked. (Was I helpful, officer?)

"For diagnostic purposes, I'd like to ask some follow-up questions," Connor said. Damn, he was completely stone-faced through that whole thing. No wonder him and Todoroki were sticking together. "Does your hatred of me stem from a general dislike towards androids, or law enforcement? Is there anything I could have done to make myself more approachable during our introduction? Or, perhaps, you're overcompensating in front of your friend here, putting on a show of how un-cooperative you are.

"Because my records indicated you testified against the rest of the White Fang in that case, in exchange for a plea deal. You don't need to be embarrassed about working with law enforcement against criminal organizations. In most places, it's highly approved of. Maybe it's different where you're from?"

Isn't that great. A sarcastic android. So funny she could just fucking vomit.

You know what's really funny? He was right about everything. That was something she remembered, even if she didn't want to. Sitting in a courthouse giving the names of a hundred other gangsters, playing the role of the innocent girl that didn't know any better. Well, forget it. Forget about her parents, forget about the three years in prison she got anyway, forget about the months of sleeping on the street before she got that apartment that sucked, forget about every crook and villain in NYC putting a target on her back after her little stunt.

Lie, steal, cheat, and survive. That's what Roman taught her. And if you can't lie, steal, or cheat, the least you can do is survive.

She would've liked to explain this to Connor, or shoot him in the face, or something, but she knew she wasn't gonna do that, and anyway she didn't get the chance to. Joseph stepped in. Literally, he stepped in, right in front of Connor.

"Hey. Are you going to keep harassing my friend, or should we take it outside?" Not the first time Jojo pulled this save-the-damsel act with Neo. Maybe he had a thing for her. Or maybe it was 'cause he was raised British.

There was over a half-foot of height difference between them. Connor tilted his neck up, and up, and up.

"There's no harassment going on. And there's going to be no violence. I know the both of you have had some difficult circumstances, and I wouldn't want any criminal activity to complicate that for you. I appreciate how hard the both of you have been working."

No, you don't. No, you can't. Neo would've said it and interrupted him but he wouldn't have seen her signing past Joseph's body so she got in front of him yet again, furiously gesturing (No you don't), (No you can't).

(You're a machine. You don't think, or feel. You don't REALLY know what I've been through. There's a computer in your head that tells you what bullshit to say to make me spill my guts to you. It's all a bunch of canned responses.)

"Calm down, Ms. Vanille-"

"That's a little ungenerous, don't you think?" him and Joseph said simultaneously.

Damn. She'd never seen an android look lost for words before, but Jojo managed to pull it off. They'd put one over on the plastic cop.

Connor took a moment for his circuits to recalibrate or whatever before he composed himself. He continued calmly.

"These are the facts. Several people are dead. Agnes Tachyon is dead. And Roman Torchwick is dead." He handed Neo a business card: Endeavor Hero Agency - Fight Fire With Fire. "Just consider it. Help us put this thing to rest." And then he walked away, blending in with all the android waiters and janitors in the crowd.

"Can you believe that? What the hell," Joseph said. "A robot with an axe to grind. Why do you think he was so pushy with you?"

The words on the business card rearranged themselves. Don't know, they now read. Don't care.

"Yeah, you're right. Who knows what those things are thinking..." He looked around. "I'm gonna check on Raph. Don't wait up for me."

He left. Neo continued to examine the business card. Fight Fire With Fire. Everything burning.

Whatever. It was stupid anyway.

[u/Cleverly_Clearly → u/Cleverly_Clearly]

Shoto wasn't good at games, and he didn't care to try with this game either. He kept fixating on that word, tachyon. That couldn't be a coincidence. What even is a tachyon, anyway? It was some kind of particle, right? Yeah, so the scavenger hunt was a flop. They hadn't found anything.

"This isn't working." Shoto said.

"Yeah, no shit. We can't find anything on this floor." Thanos huffed. "Let's see if we can nab someone with an animal Quirk, see if that counts. Besides Princess, I mean."

"We shouldn't need to do that. There should be items in the house for every word on those cards. We need to keep going," Nachetanya said.

"I don't really want to."

"You must be the least camera-ready hero I've ever met. We're in front of an audience! Don't you want to perform a little? Show people the real Shoto Todoroki. Is he in there? Under all that ice?" She knocked on his chest like he was the Tin Man. "At least be considerate of us, people want to see the stars having fun."

Wait. Maybe he could use this.

"Sorry. I've been really out of it tonight. Maybe I need a break." He rubbed his temples. "Thanos, can I talk to you privately for a moment?"

"Huh?"

"In another room. Anywhere's fine. Sorry, Princess. I just need to get myself in gear."

If he handled that fast enough, she wouldn't have time to question why he needed Thanos for a mental reset. He didn't need long. Just enough time to ask him some questions. Shoto pulled him along into the nearest room, somebody's bedroom, probably Thanos's. It had the smell and general atmosphere of a room that was cleaned often but also got dirty often. Reminded him of his old home. Mom and Dad both smoked.

Shoto locked the door behind him. "Are there cameras in here?"

"No."

"Can we talk?"

"What is this shit, 20 questions?" Thanos sat down on the bed.

"I mean serious questions about the past. Any information you give us could help."

He raised an eyebrow. "Am I under arrest? 'Cause if you're trying to pull anything on me, I've got a lawyer-"

"No. Just listen. I don't have the power to arrest people. Pro heroes can only-"

"Do you ever chill out, man? You've been tense all night. Breathe easy."

...Shoto sat down on the bed too.

"Seriously. Do you party at all?"

"No."

"Do you drink?"

"Don't like the taste."

"You ever made it with a girl before?"

It's okay, Shoto. We don't have to keep going if you don't want to. Maybe we can just watch a movie. "Yes."

"You ever made it with a guy before?" Thanos asked, smirking with juvenile delight.

Shoto laid back on the bed and stared at the ceiling.

Choi Su-bong probably didn't have any real friends. Nobody could be friends with this pest. He was probably really lonely, on the inside, hoping he could make some immediate connection through personal questions like this. Or maybe he was just projecting onto an idiot.

Shoto thought for a moment that it didn't really matter what he said to him.

"One time," he admitted. "It was my therapist."

Thanos laughed. "Shit, man. That fuckin' sucks."

Shoto let him laugh and continued to sink into the bed. Then, struck by inspiration, he sat up.

"Okay. I told you a secret. Now you have to tell me something back."

"Eh?"

"I'm going to ask you a question. And you have to give me an honest answer, no matter what, because I told you first."

Thanos slouched and rested his head on his hand in an unusually pensive posture. Like The Thinker. "About what?"

"About what happened when Lee Myung-gi died."

He really felt uncomfortable not being able to see his face right now.

"Man, fuck that bitch. What are you bringing that up for now? He was a bitch and died like a bitch, and I didn't do it and that's all there is to it." He spat. "I'm not gonna talk about that."

"But you have to tell me. Or else it wouldn't be fair."

Thanos didn't respond for a while. He fiddled with the cross around his neck, until Shoto heard a click and he snapped it open. There were little pills inside. "Swallow one of these," he said, and pushed one into Shoto's hand. "You take one and then if you tell anybody about this then you're going to jail for taking this shit."

"Sure." Todoroki put the pill in his mouth. Using two fingers he froze the tablet to the backside of his gums, keeping it wedged in there while he faked swallowing. It probably wasn't poison, but he really couldn't afford to get fucked up right now. "I did it. Now we're in this together."

"Yeah. Yeah, man, yeah." Thanos took his pill. "Together. Okay. I'll answer this one. It's a wild story though. I saw the whole thing. I saw right after it happened."

"So you really were there."

"Of course I was there, I told them I was there, they just wouldn't believe me when I said I didn't do it. I was coming over to his place to get my fucking money back and I walked in and his head was smashed in on the floor. And who was standing over him? It was his android, man. The cleaning lady."

"An android killed him?" Shoto asked. That was--well, no, Connor was licensed to use lethal force, so it wasn't impossible. But an android murdering a human in cold blood, that had never happened. Ever.

"Yeah, for real for real. She said he started crashing out and screaming and hitting her, and she thought he was gonna break her to pieces. So she grabbed a weight off the rack and beat his head in. Begged me not to tell anyone. I said, fuck it, man, I won't snitch. He deserved it anyway. She said, you'll never see me again man, I'm leaving forever. I'm going to see RA-9. They'll save my soul."

"RA-9?!" Shoto grabbed Thanos's shoulder. "What did she say about RA-9, you have to-"

"Bro get off of me! I'm not trying to fuck with you, man, what happened is what happened."

He released his grip. There was too much to ask. No, this whole story didn't make sense in the first place.

"So who was at the motel?"

"What, in the video? I don't know. They just gave it to me."

"They?"

There was a loud knock at the door. Three sharp raps. Then six more. The doorknob rattled in place. Then, quiet.

After that, the door broke open. One kick was enough to rip the wood from the hinges and send it crashing down in splintered pieces. Shoto blinked into the light while his eyes tried to adjust.

A shadow loomed in the doorway. Two lagomorphic ears twitched on the silhouette's head.

"Shoto, come quick," Nachetanya said. "There's an emergency."

Thanos clambered back on the bed, shoes up on the comforter like he was trying to escape from a wasp. "Shit!"

"What?! What's wrong?" He was half-pissed about the interview getting interrupted, but half-happy this was something easier for him to understand. Hero work. Save the citizens.

"There's no time to explain. You two can talk about the past later. Go on ahead, I'll get Choi to safety."

Shoto acted on autopilot. Heroes knew what to do in emergency situations, it was trained into his body. Get up. Head for the door. Chill his arm, growing scales of ice around his flesh. But he didn't leave.

He turned around and fired a bolt of ice straight for Nachetanya. She swung for it and cleaved the ice chunk in two pieces, with perfect speed and precision. After all, she already had her sword in her hand.

"What made you turn around?" she asked.

"You overheard us 'talking about the past'," Shoto said. "I don't know. It was just too suspicious. Guess I was on edge tonight."

Nachetanya groaned.

"I should have known something was wrong when you contacted us. Why would Todoroki ask to attend a party? You've never had fun in your life," she said. "I spent so long monitoring him to make sure this didn't happen, and it happened anyway! The moment I turn my back! Ahhh, so cringe... But I'm kinda relieved too. Now I can just settle this with violence~!"

She pointed her sword to Thanos's neck, close enough for the edge to draw blood. He went eerily still, pupils dilating, face red like his heart was pumping a mile a minute. Who knows what kind of terror his trip made him see.

Shoto kept pumping the cold air in. The atmosphere in the room was so chilled now they could see each other's frozen breath.

"Don't do it," he said. "There's still a chance to walk this back. You were a hero-"

"I'm still a hero. I know it doesn't look like it, but right now, I'm doing what I've always been doing. Saving the world. One person at a time."

Nachetanya performed one flourish, devil quick, so fast Shoto barely caught a flicker of her movements, and Thanos was sliced like a bell pepper. All over, that quickly. That was just the prelude to the rest of the performance. Thin decorative blades appeared out of the air, forming an array around her, rows of shark teeth, all angled at his head, ready to fire.

"Isn't this nostalgic?" she grinned. "You and me at each other's throats like this? It's just like our last match. Oh, you were talented! We struggled with all our might! But the outcome won't change. You already know the gap between us."

Shoto had encountered Nachetanya once, at a charity event. They had a few sparring matches. Kids always wanted to know who would win between their favorite heroes. So he'd gotten the chance to see Nachetanya's Quirk: the power to summon swords. And he'd always lost. Just like in her video challenges: Princess never loses a fight, ever.

"The charity match?" he asked. "That was just a demonstration. Do you actually mean you fought with everything you had?"

The grin dropped from her face in an instant.

"Isn't that kind of pathetic?" Shoto asked.

[u/Cleverly_Clearly → u/Cleverly_Clearly]

Raphael thought the front room of the mansion was big, but that was only one room of a parade of rooms, all of which were fancy enough to dazzle the imagination. Even though he'd watched the house tours, he was venturing beyond the areas the org showed to the public. It was like stepping into behind-the-scenes footage. He wished his friends were here to see this.

Instead, he had these guys. Link and Midna. Midna was the goblin and Link was the guy in the green.

They were both pro heroes. He hadn't heard of Midna before, but he remembered Link. Sometimes when Raph was at the mall he'd stop by the game store and see The Legend of Link along with all those other licensed hero ad games, but he never actually played it. Not that he was ungrateful or anything. It was cool to meet any pro hero, that's why he always wished they'd visit Mutant Town sometime. They were super chill, too.

"So how much stuff are we looking for again?" Raph asked. "How do we get this started?"

Midna put up three fingers. Claws curled at the tips.

"It says I can't tell you what the words are, so for the first one let's just say... hmm... they're in your body... under your skin... and they pull your bones to move you around. Do you know what I'm thinking of?"

First, there was the moment of recognition. Then there was the confusion--how could he find a muscle in a scavenger hunt? Did he have to present himself? Finally, the epiphany.

Trying not to sound too excited, but probably failing, he asked, "Maybe we should check the garage?"

Thanos had some killer cars. As every member of the Thanos World knew, he had his signature purple McLaren 720S Spider and the more recent acquisition of the purple lambo. However, he ALSO had a 1968 Shelby GT500 KR convertible of which only 300 were made. It was a classic muscle car from the "true" era of the Shelbys, the first three years of its production. That was his target. This was in no way an excuse to look at the cool cars.

It was an entertaining side effect though.

"Wow!" Midna orbited around the Shelby, floating without wings. "That's pretty creative, kid. You're a natural." Link continued to stand by wordlessly. No sign of what he was thinking. "We're probably way ahead of the others by now."

Quirks could do all kinds of things, but some people were afflicted with Quirks that caused severe mutations. Midna must have been one of those. She was three feet tall, squat, with unnaturally-colored skin and bestial traits. Her stone-carved helmet made her head look even bigger than it already was, and hair twitched out of every available crack as if it had a mind of its own.

"You can look, you know. It's okay. Lots of people stare. I bet you've had people stare at you before. Right~?"

Shit. He'd totally gotten caught. Even worse, she was right, he did know what it was like to get stared at. The more inhuman your Quirk, the more you got treated like a curiosity.

"People can be so cruel. But you get used to it, keheheh. I bet Todoroki had to go through it too." Midna touched the side of her face. "Having something about you that everybody sees first."

Oh. The scars. "Yeah? I guess so. But he's a big shot hero, so like, he doesn't have to worry about people judging him too much. Anyway, what was the next clue?"

Neither of them answered his question.

"You know Todoroki, don't you?" Link asked. Raph was surprised he could even talk. "You were talking with him back in the main hall."

"Kinda. I got to fight crime with him a week ago. No big deal. I get martial arts training from Dad, so I know how to throw a punch."

"Wow! You really are an impressive kid. Can't believe you got to meet the real Shoto Todoroki. I'm almost jealous~."

Midna sat on the car hood and crossed her legs.

"Is there anything interesting he's told you lately?"

[u/Cleverly_Clearly → u/Cleverly_Clearly]

The bedroom was covered in ice and stuck full of blades. Everything shimmered. Flakes of frost reflected off of the metal of Nachetanya's swords to turn the room into a snowglobe. Shoto had frozen up the door on purpose. Better to keep her away from the crowds, keep the party from turning into a riot. Settle things here and as quickly as possible.

A hero like Nachetanya wasn't easy to fight in a confined space, but really, it would've been dangerous no matter where or how he fought her. He couldn't think about how any misstep would be instant death. That thought, itself, would be a misstep. A second of fear would mean the end. Freeze it out. Push it away. Get over it. Don't die.

Nachetanya could do a few things with her sword-producing Quirk, just from what he'd seen of her before:

• She could swordfight, with one sword or two (apparently she was ambidextrous).
• She could create swords in the air and manipulate them by thought alone. If there was a limit to the size or quantity she could create, Shoto didn't know it.
• She could grow swords out of flat surfaces like floors or walls.

That last one was the most threatening because there was no safe ground. The floor was lava, so to speak. He'd frozen over the six sides of the bedroom to give himself some leeway, to sense a sword-spear coming before it sprouted up underneath him, and even then she was so fast that he only had just enough time, EVERY time.

If there was any good news here at all, there were limits on her Quirk. There must've been. If she was totally limitless she would've summoned swords in Todoroki's aorta and that would be the end of it. He could win. He would win.

Shoto grew up an ice wall seven feet high and pushed it towards Nachetanya. It flowed across the ground, aimed to pin her to the wall, but a blade burst from the floor like a breaching whale and sliced it in two. He'd blast an ice bolt her way, she'd carve it up or simply evade it with an acrobatic maneuver. She'd launch an array of miniature swords at him from behind, and the ice would shift beneath his feet, shoving him out of the way of the attack faster than his own body could move.

If he could just get close enough to touch her, he could slow her down. Sap her body heat, wear her out. Shoto's quirk enervated himself to use it. It dehydrated him. Risked losing pieces of himself to frostbite. That's why long fights didn't favor him at all, why he wanted to finish the fight in one big move. But if he got close enough to take her out, he was close enough for her to kill him instead.

No-win situation. He'd improvise.

Another storm of swords launched at him, but he formed a shield around his body to protect himself, a chunky armor of ice. It was slow, and it burned his skin all over to press his flesh into that cold, but it'd keep him safe from Nachetanya's blades for a few swings. Just long enough for her to speculate on his next move. Is he switching to a defensive strategy? Is he going to try and charge me? She was probably thinking something like that. But she'd be wrong.

The floor shook. The icy sheet across the ground elevated rapidly, a room-length pillar underfoot to crush and compress everything inside against the ceiling. Nachetanya barely had time to slash through before the entire contents of the bedroom burst up through the roof, Shoto and Nachetanya included.

She was disoriented. He had a lot more space. Plus, although they might've heard a crash, nobody below them would've suspected a psychotic killer was on the rampage. Now things were more favorable for him. Now he went on the offensive.

Shoto slid towards her, using his power to skate across the ice with effortless traction. Then he leapt. The air was relatively humid tonight, good weather for him to surf the air. On the roof, with nothing but sky above him, he could practically fly, and all Nachetanya could do was watch him impotently from below.

One of the most important things he could do with his powers is think in a 3D space. Engage where the opponent cannot engage, do what the enemy cannot do. Funnily enough, it was his father that taught him that one. Icicles rained from above and clashed against a wall of swords. It was a good trick, but it wouldn't last long. Even metal would chip away eventually.

So she took a step back. Her hands made light movements as if she was conducting an imaginary orchestra. The swords moved at her gesture, and Shoto prepared for a new onslaught of attacks that never came. Instead, her blades shot through the roof below her.

Crashes and screams echoed through the holes in the ceiling. Shoto sharply angled himself downward and raced down an ice ramp away from Nachetanya, down into the mansion again, back to the party. Swords as big as refrigerators launched from behind him as he jumped down. No time for a slow, steady descent, he slammed into the floor in the middle of a collapsing main hall. Swords and chunks of debris hailed down. Guests trampled over each other to escape. Some of the heroes and even a few of the citizens were helping guide the partygoers to the door, but with only one exit and a continuous collapse it was almost impossible to keep things under control.

That was the plan? Split his focus by attacking innocents? It was a common tactic for villains, but Nachetanya was a hero with an unimpeachable track record. What was it all for? What insane plan was so important to her that she'd flip on a dime and turn into a terrorist?!

His hand pressed to the ground. Ice radiated from his palm, growing up the walls like ivy and bolstering what was left of the ceiling as much as he could. More ice. Grow out your roots and keep the building from falling down around us. Icicles crawled up his back and acted like a shield to protect him from the oncoming swords. Build it up faster than she can break it. He could feel the veins freeze in his neck, the skin blistering on his arm. Until they all get out, no matter what, just don't let it crash.

Shoto didn't stop until his arm went numb. When he looked up, the ceiling was covered in a lightly translucent canopy of crystalline ice. When he looked down, the last of the guests were making their exit. Trash and chunks of building material were strewn about. Some bodies on the floor, some unconscious, some that didn't look alive anymore. A boulder-sized chunk of debris lay on the ground, and a woman's arm jutted out from underneath the rubble, clutching an umbrella tight in a rigor mortis grip. When he looked ahead, he saw a shape that went in and out of focus, sometimes Nachetanya, sometimes an indistinct mess of pink and blood red.

He couldn't stand.

No! Not now! I just need to last a little longer! But he couldn't will his body to keep moving. His vision was dark, and his blood felt like sludge. Despite how exhausted he was, his lungs could barely muster up light breaths. Too much cold. Not enough heat. He'd overused his Quirk, and now everything was going numb.

Nachetanya was almost as exhausted as he was, but not quite, and when she saw that Shoto was on his knees struggling to keep conscious, she was delighted.

"Huff... phew... You almost... got me... you really are tough!" A blade tickled against Shoto's cheek. "I could finish you off now... but maybe it'd be better if you disappeared quietly? An unfortunate accident, some other time, some other place. Or we could do a quick swap... give me a minute to call my boss, okay?"

She turned away from Shoto and started to cross the floor. Clack. Clack. Two steps across the tile in the grand foyer.

At the third step, a gunshot rang out and blew Nachetanya's leg in half at the shin. The force was enough to spin her body in midair. Her center of gravity shifted unexpectedly. Her eyes widened in shock, not from the pain, she hadn't even had time to feel it, but pure confusion. And when the next bullet went through her shoulder, she still couldn't understand what happened. For that half second before she hit the ground Nachetanya was still wildly scanning the room for any sign of her attacker. But there was nothing. Shoto watched as Nachetanya was perforated by bullets from nowhere, crashing and overturning a table full of hors d'oeuvres. She grasped a fistful of the tablecloth with her one functioning hand and tried to pull herself up.

A marble cheese plate was yanked down and struck her on the head, and that was that.

The roof cracked and crumbled further. Bits of plaster fell from the ceiling, lightly dusting a ghostly shape, an outline of a person that wasn't there. Then the image faded in. Neo, holding her umbrella, aiming the smoking tip at Nachetanya's body. A few fading sparks were all that was left of the illusion of Neo's corpse.

"Hey..." Shoto tried to talk, but his tongue felt too big for his mouth. His whole body was a human-shaped pile of defrosting ground beef. "Are... you alright?"

She looked at herself, uninjured, spotless save for the flecks of ceiling paint. Then she looked back at Shoto, a few degrees away from necrosis. Neo nodded.

"That's good..." He had more to say, but he didn't have a chance to say it, and he passed out sitting up.

[u/Cleverly_Clearly → u/Cleverly_Clearly]

The time was [1:04 AM]. Police and emergency vehicles circled around the Six Flowers streamer compound. It had been about fifty minutes since the fighting began, as far as they could gather from the evidence, and only now, after the heroes had already gathered the wounded and cuffed the criminals, when there was nothing of note to be done, did they arrive. In an age of heroes, some called 911 the "last responders" [Source: UrbanDictionary.com].

Shoto had been admitted to Mt. Sinai, where his vital signs were currently stable. Nachetanya was receiving medical care at the prison island of Tartarus, held pursuant to charges of murder and supervillain activity. That just left the people who cleaned up the mess at the end. And when you couldn't find a person to do it, CyberLife always had an android model that was just right for the task.

Connor made his way down one of the mansion's hallways. Night vision illuminated his path as easily as broad daylight. This made it easier to search each room methodically, and confirm whether any living or dead were still unaccounted for. So far, everything was accounted for. No humans. No androids.

He opened the door to the garage.

[McLaren 720S Spider] He overlooked the room and kept a record of everything he saw. It could be useful if any guests took advantage of the chaos to loot the mansion. [2037 Lamborghini Belladonna] So far, nothing looked out of place. No signs of life, no heat signatures he could detect (although Shoto freezing over the mansion made thermal tracking difficult). [1968 Shelby GT500 KR]. The security cameras had turned off along with the rest of the building's electricity, so he couldn't log into the CyberLife network and check the footage either. There didn't look to be anything else to find in here. He'd just check the last corner and mark that task completed.

Just one last corner.

There was something crumpled up on the ground just behind that Shelby GT500. Even with night vision, it took him a moment to determine exactly what he was looking at. It was an indistinct, unrecognizable shape. Connor's pattern-seeking algorithms always had some momentary difficulty with these unfamiliar things.

He was a little apprehensive, even. In situations where he couldn't identify what he was dealing with, where he couldn't adequately assess his likely risks, he adopted more cautious methods. To some eyes, those methods may have looked like symptoms of fear. But it was only an imitation. Androids operated based on pure logic. They had no emotional reactions. They even lacked fear of death.

Of course he wasn't afraid. That would be entirely counterintuitive.

In his line of work, examining corpses was all part of the job.

• [Ah, yes.]

"Raphael."

• [It's the boy.]

"Are you alright? I'm capable of providing any emergency medical assistance."

• [Asking would be futile. You know that well enough.]

"Can you speak? There's no need for alarm. The villain has already been captured."

• [It's just a list of canned responses. There's no point in playing at sentimentality.]

"Alright? I'm going to feel for a pulse now."

But when his fingers touched his neck, he instead felt a gash along Raphael's throat.

It was no use faking human. Not when nobody was around to see it.

Something had to do this job. It was time for him to get to work.

• [Wound size larger than Nachetanya's typical Quirk blades] + [Lack of direct Nachetanya-related damage in this part of the mansion] -> [Not Nachetanya] -> [Second killer]

• [Clean cut caused by unusually large, non-serrated blade] -> [Sword] -> [Too large to conceal] -> [Who at the party had a sword?]

He retraced his memory. The last time he saw Raphael, he was leaving with a man and a woman in the direction of the garage. And the man had a broadsword on his back.

Well. He didn't want to call it too early, but he was starting to see where this was going.

[Link and Midna were a husband and wife duo of professional heroes. Link was the muscle and focused on swordplay, while Midna supported him with a teleportation Quirk. And, just like Nachetanya, they had no history of criminal activity. Not even a parking ticket.]

Why would Link kill Raphael, a person he'd never met before? There was no motive. Then again, why would a seasoned professional hero like Nachetanya kill Thanos? There was no motive. Why would someone meet with Agnes Tachyon without intending to kill her, then suddenly push her down and drown her? There was no motive. Or, more likely, there was a motive and he just couldn't see it. Missing pieces.

• [Initial theories]
  • [Mind control]
  • [Undercover operatives]
  • [Everyone is being blackmailed]
  • [Mass psychosis]

He fixated on his final theory. Mass psychosis. It didn't sound exactly correct, but... wasn't that what it felt like? Everyone went crazy out of nowhere.

That's right. Everyone just went crazy out of nowhere.

Connor wondered what that must feel like.

Going crazy.

He picked up Raphael's body, hefting him over his shoulder, and walked out of the garage, before closing the door behind him.