Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Vongrak.
Taylor POV.
I could see the three remaining villains staring at us with pure hatred in their eyes. Bakuda was looking at Armsmistress, while Sophia and Trickster were mainly looking at me.
I gripped Shusui firmly with my left hand and prepared to move. To say I was still in shock over Armsmistress's deception of both heroes and villains was an understatement, but I was pushing that shock onto my insects.
I could easily piece together the entire timeline; I still had a few minor parts to fill in, but everything had been executed with truly incredible precision. The most amazing thing is that they either already had the plan in place to be carried out the moment they captured Lung, or they devised it in just a few hours after she was captured. In either case, the plan had worked with resounding success.
If what Armsmistress had said was true, then the entire ABB was about to fall apart, with its lieutenants, Oni Lee and Bakuda, defeated and all its members imprisoned. Then they would no longer have any base to stand on, and that would be the end of the ABB in Brockton Bay.
The only real problem in this whole plan was the League of Villains. Sophia joining wasn't surprising; after all, the Travelers freeing her from where she was was already known news. But the fact that she had Moord Nag was truly worrying.
But as it was now, at half its normal size, Apex wouldn't be any problem, especially with all the heroes present here.
"Surrender." Armsmistress repeated as she gripped her halberd and took her stance, her entire body leaning forward as the halberd pointed at the villains. Dragon, whose body was clad in tight spandex, approached Armsmistress slowly, moving her hands slightly.
From the capsule where she had been imprisoned, what appeared to be a briefcase flew towards her. It began to unfold and struck Dragon's chest, transforming into armor that enveloped her body. A pair of daggers emerged from the end, and it confidently positioned itself behind Armsmistress.
"Sophia, we're leaving! Our target is no longer here!" Trickster shouted.
"No! I won't leave until I kill Hebert!" Sophia spat, glaring at me. Trickster growled.
"Escape! You want to escape! This is all your fault, you fucking Daughters of bitches! I would have continued with my plan to plant bombs on people's heads until they surrendered and gave Lung back!!" Bakuda roared furiously at the two of them. My eyes widened as a chill ran down my spine.
That crazy woman wanted to plant bombs in people's heads!?
"Stop Trickster and Bakuda, we'll take care of Sophia," Dragon said, sounding deadly serious. I didn't even hesitate. I let my swarm descend once more upon Trickster, blocking her line of sight, while half of my swarm began attacking Bakuda, biting and constantly harassing her.
"Apex!" Sophia shouted furiously, climbing atop the living shadow. Although it had less impact than before due to its reduced size, the living shadow launched itself at Armsmistress and Dragon, who barely flinched. Their weapons became coated in Haki and moved.
My eyes widened slightly as I watched Armsmistress and Dragon attack Apex and Sophia. I'd never seen either of them fight closely before, but they were both incredibly skilled, more than skilled. Their movements were so fluid and precise it was almost unbelievable.
Especially because they were so synchronized to a ridiculous level, they moved around each other without interrupting, without hindering each other's movements, and they did it with such confidence that they didn't mind leaving each other open half the time, they trusted that the other would be there without any doubt, and they were.
Their fighting style resembled a truly elegant dance. Apex began to be torn apart as if it were fighting a blender. Their swift movements sliced Apex through like child's play.
With great reluctance, I focused on my villains. I could see Antares, Triumph, and the other heroes watching Armsmistress and Dragon fight with almost hypnotized mastery, and I couldn't blame them. Even so, I drew everyone's attention by placing insects on their faces.
Everyone jumped in surprise, I didn't say anything, I just launched myself towards my swarm in the direction of Trickster.
Bakuda was too dangerous to approach directly; she still had several grenades around her body, so I led a swarm towards where the PRT soldiers were still evacuating people.
I approached Trickster and tried to hit her. I could see her pull a dagger and a pistol from her pockets. Even with her body trembling and slightly blind, she pointed her weapon in my direction and fired without hesitation.
I moved Shusui and intercepted all the bullets from her weapon, dodging the knife when she tried to attack me. Her body still bore the enormous aftereffects of Bakuda's pain bomb, so her movements were slow and clumsy. It was terribly easy to strike the knife hard enough to force her to drop it, then strike her aura in different directions before circling her body and kicking hard into her stomach.
Trickster flew off in the direction of Antares inside my swarm. She barely reacted, surrounded by so many insects. She reacted to the sight of Trickster heading towards her, grabbed her by the collar of her costume, and headbutted her hard, making Trickster groan.
Anteres lifted Trickster into the air with ridiculous ease, before slamming her into the ground with enough force to crack the floor beneath her. Then she lifted her again and threw her in my direction.
I moved Shusui in a horizontal attack to strike Trickster and stop her air momentum, pushing her back and sending her flying towards an approaching Antares. We both began attacking her while pushing her around each other like a sick game of ping-pong with a villain as the ball.
Finally, we got close enough to stand side by side. Shusui struck one last vertical blow across her back as Antares' fist slammed into her stomach. I could feel her aura finally shatter.
Thousands of insects swarmed over Trickster, and spiders began spinning webs over her eyes, encircling her head to create a makeshift bandage. Meanwhile, Bakuda was still trying to shake the insects off; she had thrown a couple of grenades to no avail, but against such a swarm, they were useless.
The other heroines, led by Triumph, had already broken the rest of her aura, so Bakuda could barely stand on her own.
Finally, my swarm arrived with a Containment Foam grenade that I had requested from a PRT soldier through my swarm. Upon seeing the grenade in the air and recognizing it, the heroes quickly moved away. I removed the safety pin and placed it at the feet of a very distracted Bakuda. The grenade exploded, and the Containment Foam enveloped her before solidifying around her, trapping her completely.
With the two villains subdued, I raised my swarm and refocused on Armsmistress and Dragon's fight. I could see Sophia was seriously battered as she tried to fight off both heroes. Apex had already lost a significant portion of its size; it was still several times larger than a person, but the intimidating size of a building was gone.
Sophia looked around, saw Bakuda trapped and Trickster beneath us and growled furiously, like a trapped animal.
"Damn it!" Sophia growled, launching herself towards Apex. She could no longer ride him comfortably; the skull that Apex possessed seemed to weigh heavily on the living shadow.
Even so, Sophia clung to Apex, somehow she grabbed onto the living shadow, they both became intangible and went under the ground, both Dragon and Armsmistress looked down, waiting for her to attack them from below.
But instead, Sophia and Apex emerged from beneath where the ABB gang members were tearing up the entire floor; my eyes widened as Apex began to kill and consume them.
"Sophia! Stop!!" Armsmistress screamed furiously, lunging at the former heroine to halt her rampage through the ABB, but Sophia did the same thing again and burrowed underground once more. Armsmistress stopped and glanced around quickly. Sophia reappeared behind her, killing another couple of gang members and the ground around her before submerging again.
I bristled with outrage at the carnage Sophia was causing.
"Damn you!" Antares growled in agreement. I grabbed Shusi tightly, placed insects on all the gang members, and pinned them to the ground. I could feel the vibrations around one of them and jumped without hesitation.
I arrived just in time to see Apex destroy the ground in front of me and emerge along with Sophia. I moved Shusui, covered in haki, and punched Sophia in her side. Sophia growled and glared at me with hatred before diving once again.
We all prepared once more. This time, I didn't feel any vibration, but Sophia emerged intangible from beneath Trickster. Antares was still there, but remained inside Apex as Sophia grabbed Trickster by the neck and dragged her into the air. Antares easily broke free from Apex and was flying in the direction of both villains.
"I'll be back." Sophia growled with hatred. Then putrid sludge erupted from both Sophia's and Trickster's mouths. I moved without hesitation, and I wasn't the only one. Armsmistress, Dragon, Antares, and other villains rushed toward them, but the sludge quickly surrounded them, and they both vanished.
I turned to look at Apex, Sophia's summoning began to fade away, the half-destroyed monster's skull falling dully to the ground as the summoning followed its owner wherever they went.
"They escaped! Damn it!" Antares shouted furiously. I just stared at the gang members; Sophia had killed at least a third of them, more than 20 people in a short time. Their bodies had even been consumed by Apex without a hint of hesitation.
"Triumph, go find Aegis and check on the civilians. Dragon, could you see how to put out the fires, please? The rest of you, check if the vehicles are in good condition. If not, round up the villains and wait for the PRT transport to arrive. Antares, go find Oni Lee from wherever you launched her." Armsmistress barked orders. I almost snorted when I saw that she only asked Dragon politely. Antares noticed too and chuckled slightly, but she did as she was told and began flying over the buildings. I used part of my swarm to form arrows and point them at Oni Lee.
"How's your shoulder?" Armsmistress asked as she approached me, her gaze fixed on the knife stuck in my shoulder. I winced.
"Okay, all things considered? I think? I think that thing is fused to my bones; I can feel everything moving incorrectly if I try to move my arm," I said honestly. Armsmistress nodded.
"Sophia's power can be used to introduce a projectile or other weapon into a target in order to penetrate various defenses; upon releasing her power, the weapon pushes the matter around it to make space and lodge itself between the bones."
"It only pushes the matter just enough for the weapon to fit inside and nothing more; that means it's simply 'well' placed and not fused at a molecular level like Flechette's attack."
"We'll take you to Panacea so they can remove it and heal you properly," Armsmistress explained gently, and I nodded.
"It's fine, it's just slightly annoying not being able to move my arm and it's not bleeding so... I can bear it for a while." I said, shrugging. Armsmistress nodded.
"Good," Armsmistress said, nodding, then looked at me intently. "Is there anything you know about the League of Villains?" Armsmistress asked directly, her question startling me.
"Madam?" I asked, confused. Armsmistress just looked at me.
"As you may have noticed, and you probably came to the same conclusion, Sophia is now undoubtedly linked to the League of Villains, especially now that she has control of Moord Nag's quirk. Quirk theft is not rare, but giving it to someone else is."
"And we only know of one villain capable of doing it," Armsmistress said seriously. "The League of Villains has already shown a rather deep interest in UA, whether it's because of All Might or some other reason. It's true that you've faced them on multiple occasions."
"The League of Villains is now undoubtedly operating in the United States, and especially in Brockton Bay. I need all available information," Armsmistress said firmly. I just sighed and shook my head.
"I'm sorry, but there hasn't been any news from the League of Villains since they escaped on Kamino," I said honestly. "How much... do you know about All For One?" I asked cautiously.
"I know about the League of Villains' plan to bring her back," Armsmistress said without hesitation. I grimaced. "Principal Nezu sent the announcement to all the leaders of the various hero organizations around the world. As leader of the Protectorate, I'm one of the few people in the United States with access to that information," she added. I just nodded. I see Principal Nezu has been busy.
"All For One was supposed to be inactive for several more months, so stealing quirks wasn't a concern, but it's clear someone was able to do it."
"And the only person I can think of is Garaki, the doctor who worked with All For One. He's the one who designed the Nomu creatures, monsters with multiple quirks, and he's in charge of transferring All For One's quirk to her new body. If Garaki is capable of doing something like that, transferring a quirk, it shouldn't be a problem for him." I said honestly, and Armsmistress nodded.
"That's what I suspected," Armsmistress said simply. "If they're able to steal quirks without All For One being present, then it's worrying at best, and alarming at worst."
"Trickster mentioned that her target wasn't here, referring to Lung. That means they were looking for Lung to invite her to the League of Villains, or-" Armsmistress stopped solemnly.
"Or they were trying to steal her quirk." I finished for her. Armsmistress simply nodded.
"You were at the Kamino incident, you saw firsthand what All for One was capable of, facing two National Ranks and an S Rank head-on without backing down. If she gets something like Lung's quirk, then it would be even more terrifying." Armsmistress said while gritting her teeth. I shuddered.
"That sounds awful." I said with a grimace, Armsmistress nodded.
"The League of Villains is recruiting, as demonstrated with Sophia, and they are amassing forces in the form of truly dangerous Quirks; Moord Nag and Lung are examples, but they definitely won't be the only ones."
"If they were able to conceal Moord Nag's disappearance long enough for no one to notice, especially considering Moord Nag commands a truly vast territory in Africa, then we have to assume they already have access to more quirks than I'm comfortable imagining." Armsmistress said with a grimace. I closed my eyes tightly.
"Yes, that sounds even more horrible," I said dryly. "Even so, excuse my frankness, but why are you telling me all this?" I asked Armsmistress; she just stared at me.
"Sophia and Trickster escaped, and both felt a disproportionate hatred towards you. I have no doubt that they will try to attack you again, or even your husband. The League of Villains already kidnapped him once; they may have a special fixation on him."
"I hope you'll be careful, Skitter. Sooner or later you'll face them again, and they might be more dangerous than they are now," Armsmistress said seriously. I frowned and nodded.
"Yes... I really doubt this will be the last time I see them." I sighed wearily. Armsmistress nodded.
"Yes, I hope that—" Armsmistress stopped mid-sentence. "This is Armsmistress." She answered immediately. I looked at her curiously; she seemed to be receiving an internal call all to herself. I could see her stiffen completely. "Please repeat this once more and confirm the information," Armsmistress ordered.
After a few seconds Armsmistress remained abnormally still for several long seconds, I just stared at her confused.
"Understood, send PRT soldiers or some nearby heroes to stand guard in front of the house," Armsmistress said without hesitation, finally ending the call. She looked at me intently and seemed almost hesitant to speak.
"Did something happen?" I asked cautiously. Armsmistress pressed her lips into a thin line.
"Emma Barnes just escaped from her home with the rest of the Travelers. She attacked a couple of heroes who saw them, and they were eventually seen being teleported away by the same mud-powered quirk as Sophia and Trickster. Emma Barnes has been declared a villain who joined the League of Villains," Armsmistress said solemnly. My eyes widened.
What did Emma do?