Viridian: The Green Guide

Chapter 106: Attack

Nedzu observed the med-bots as they loaded young hagakure onto a stretcher. Recovery girl had already been made aware of the situation, as unprecedented as it was, and she and Hound Dog were both prepared to receive the girl and give her the best chance at recovery. Now all that was left to do was contact the girl's parents and find a way to keep Queen Bee in custody without her processing a host.

Despite her parasitic nature, Nedzu couldn't help but feel a certain kinship with the villain. They were both quirked animals, afterall, and if her experience with All for ONe had been anything like his time with his own captors, then she had undoubtedly suffered far too much at the hands of humans. Animals like them had to stick together, so he wasn't about to simply throw her to the wolves.

A chill went up his spine and Nedzu's fur stood on end as a portal whirle into existence just down the hall. Shigaraki stuck his head through the portal and grinned widely behind the hand on his face as they made eye contact.

So much for taking time to revel in their victory.

"I'm just gonna hack the cameras real quick." Izuku muttered. "I don't want to accidently put ingenium in danger by scaring him in the middle of a villain fight."

"Good practice, problem child." Eraser nodded approvingly. "But you're not going to have to hack into things anymore, you know. We can get you your own comm once you have your license."

Izuku blinked back a tear and tried to ignore the way his heart sank, focusing on getting visuals of ingenium, "Your brother's in Hosu right now, righ?"

"Yes, he is." Iida said. "Are you having trouble finding him?"

"No." Izuku said quickly. "It just always takes a minute to..."

He trailed off as he found Ingenium. At first glance, it seemed like a good time to interrupt, but something seemed off somehow. Ingenium was looking around like he was looking for something...or someone. Was he in the middle of a chase? He wasn't running, though. Was there something Izuku was missing?

Izuku frowned and scrolled through the cameras near where he'd found ingenium, looking for any bit of context, and he went cold with dread as he caught a glimpse of a bright red scarf disappearing into the alley that Ingenium was about to walk into.

He scrambled to connect to the comms, "Ingenium. This is viridian. I need you to stop right where you are."

Denki started giggling and Iida looked mildly concerned as Eraser sighed, "Did you have to be so dramatic, kid? I know this is a prank, but making him panic is illogical."

iUzku just gave a quick shake of his head to get them to be quiet as he turned his attention back to Ingenium, "Are you looking for the hero killer right now?"

Iida's eyes widened and Denki slammed a hand over his mouth to muffle a gasp. Eraserhead frowned and walked around so that he could look over Izuku's shoulder. On screen, Ingenium was shaking his head.

"I was actually looking for another guy." Ingenium chuckled nervously. "Why? Should I be worried?"

Izuku took a deep breath and let himself fall into his vigilante mode, "He's in the alley right beside you. I'm still working on getting a visual of the alley itself, but my guess is that he's lying in wait for either you or another hero. Don't go into the alley alone."

"Obviously." Ingenium gulped. "Ok, most of my team is off chasing the criminal we've been tracking, but I could probably spare one or two to help out here, assuming that Stain doesn't move. Maybe Crawler could..."

Izuku found a camera facing the alley that he could zoom in on and get at least a semi-decent view of the alley, "Ingenium! Look out!"

Stain had gotten impatient and Ingenium barely managed to dodge the Katana as it sliced through the air near his stomach, "Woah! Not cool. Uh, Viridian, I gotta..."