forum We Were Born For This | BNHA RP!! | (4/4) CLOSED

Started March 20, 2021 by Deleted user

tune

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Aika shook her head. "Not from me." She glanced at her new teammates with a smile. "I've got a good feeling about this."

Kichi shook his head and took some time to remember his new teammates' names. Void, Inkmeister and Finger Guns? He was sure he'd heard of them all at least once.

"Nothing from me, either," Takao agreed, relaxing his grip on his shirt and devoting his full attention to Specter, who nodded in approval at the group as a whole.

"Perfect. If any of you had voiced concerns, you would've been removed from the mission faster than you could say 'Plus Ultra'," he commented dryly, making direct eye contact with Finger Guns and Cobra, specifically, as Takao made a muffled complaint about him being partial towards the renowned school. It wasn't Takao's fault he couldn't destroy a bunch of robots with his quirk as a measly fourteen-year-old, leading to him to attend Shiketsu, instead.

Specter continued without missing a beat. "I'm sure you've all heard about the League of Villains?" he prompted, turning his back to the heroes as he wandered over to the shelf Void had been examining earlier.

Inkmeister suppressed a shudder at the notorious title, covering by pulling one of his legs up to join him on the table. "Of course," he responded. "They were all over the news a few years back. They're the ones who attacked USJ and got mixed up with the hero killer, among other things… But they were defeated, weren't they?"

The older hero spared him a glance and nodded. "That's correct. Their influence, however, can still be seen all over Japan. For the most part this hasn't been much of an issue, as the few pop-up groups we've seen are incredibly disorganized and, quite frankly, poorly put-together… Until now." Specter paused for emphasis, then carried on. "This one, as you might have gathered, is different. They've been playing it safe, sticking to the shadows and focusing on strengthening their organization before exposing themselves. In fact, the only reason we know about them at all is thanks to the underground hero Skulk, who suffered serious injuries in her effort to bring this issue to light."

Takao frowned, glancing at the others to gauge their reactions as Specter added in a graver tone, "They call themselves 'The Syndicate'."

Kato had lifted a brow at Specter's dry remark, but did not say anything. Was that… supposed to be a dig at UA? Or not, based on Takao's reaction? Meh. No big deal, he thought. Besides, this wasn't the time to be focused on probably insignificant remarks.

He was a little surprised when the director mentioned the League of Villains and the groups that had been 'inspired' by them. Most of them were small and disorganized enough that they could barely be considered a threat, let alone the next League. Kato had helped deal with one or two in the past. The fact that this one was actually something to be concerned about piqued his interest, and his expression darkened a bit upon hearing of Skulk's injuries. Not that he personally knew her or anything, but underground heroes didn't exactly have a tendency to mess around. If she was hurt that badly, this group was a capable one.

Kato nodded grimly at the group's name. Sure, it sounded like an edgy middle-schooler's idea of a cool name, but then again, so had the League of Villains. "Sounds like they could be the real deal," he commented. "What was Skulk able to find out?"

"Not much," the director responded grimly. "As you may or may not know, Skulk specializes in infiltration and information-gathering. Unfortunately, The Syndicate caught wind of her arrival before she'd even showed up. All we were able to gather for certain was a rough estimate of their numbers and a couple of quirks."

Inkmeister grimaced at the news. "And what about Skulk? Will she be alright?" he questioned, thoughts drifting to the one time he'd interacted with the hero. She was brash and confident, all tied together with that mysterious atmosphere most underground pros carried with them. It was hard to imagine her as badly injured as Asahi had implied.

"She'll survive. She suffered numerous fractured bones and severe internal bleeding, but fortunately, another hero with a speed quirk was nearby at the time she escaped," Specter informed, clasping his hands behind his back. "As for The Syndicate, we've gathered that they're still quite low on numbers. Skulk reported two that had direct contact with her, but she assumes there to be no more than ten in total despite all the time they've had to grow. We imagine this is due to an effort to avoid drawing our attention. Of course, now that we're aware, it's incredibly likely they'll be speeding up their plans."

"…You mentioned you know some of their quirks?" Takao prompted, ignoring the flutter of relief in his chest at learning Skulk would be alright.

Specter nodded again. "We know for certain one of them has some kind of voice binding quirk. When he makes contact with a person's neck, a seal appears and the target becomes unable to speak specific keywords or phrases that the user decides on. Alternatively, he can silence them completely. Skulk was inflicted with this very quirk, hence the limited information we've been able to receive. What we have learned was largely thanks to the hero Mind Leech, who was able to glean information from Skulk's memories. We were able to identify the villain Skulk later fought with as Gushiken Iwa, quirk: Bone Density. She can alter the density of her bones at will depending on the amount of calcium she ingests, according to her most recent record, which just so happens to be junior high. She went missing several years back, only now appearing again after all this time."

Takao was quiet for a moment, waiting for Specter to continue only to realize he wasn't going to. "That's it?" he wondered aloud, disbelief creeping into his tone. "I know you said there wasn't much, but… One identified villain out of a possible ten and Commission decided four random pros who have never worked together are enough to take them down?"

The director fixed him with a glare that seemed to evaporate at the sigh that followed. "You're jumping to conclusions again, Takao. I never said it was your job to take them down. At this stage, we're still pressed for information. We have no idea where their main quarters lie, what the majority of their quirks are, or what their goals are. Your job," he emphasized, scanning all four heroes. "Is to finish what Shulk started."

Kichi had opened and closed his mouth to talk twice during Spectre's speech but had decided against it both times. Not now.

"Waiwaiwait- information gathering? With a team of mainly non-information gatherers?" He said, struggling to wrap his head around what the high ranking hero had said and hoping he'd just misheard him.

(Hi!)
"I'm in!" Aika said, her eyes lighting up as she grinned. "It sounds interesting. Besides, it's a good chance to learn about villains we may have to face eventually." She thought for a moment. "Will we have to go by different names so they can't recognize us? And what about our costumes? Won't we have to change those, too?"

(Thank you all <3 )

Specter gestured towards Cobra. "Exactly right, I'm afraid."

Takao's forehead creased as he stared incredulously at the director, ignoring Void's apparent enthusiasm. "Why us? Why not a team of underground heroes? They're the ones with connections in shady places; the ones who are used to this line of work!" he protested, crossing his arms to emphasize his point.

Asahi sighed again, turning fully to face the others and nodding to acknowledge Miyazaki. "This will be undercover work, so yes. As for you, Takao, those very 'shady connections', as you so put it, are the exact reason we can't rely on underground heroes for this. I don't mean to imply there's a traitor," he hastily clarified, seeing the glare the ink manipulator shot him, "but there's someone in The Syndicate that's able to track their movements. That much has been confirmed already by Skulk, hence why you four were called."

Takao took a breath and relented his annoyance, uncrossing his arms and leaning back on his hands. "So how exactly is this going to work?" he asked somewhat skeptically.

"As I mentioned already, it's very likely that The Syndicate will be accelerating their plans due to their recent discovery. For that to work, they'll be on the hunt for new members as quickly as possible, and due to their reliance on the voice-binding quirk, they won't need to be as thorough as before," Specter explained.

"Do they really need to be? If we're hit with voice-binding, then all this is for nothing. We'd be stuck," Takao pointed out.

Specter's lips twitched into a smile, the first sign of good news since he materialized into the room. "That's where you come in. The seal I mentioned before? It's ink. Not completely, of course, but enough that you should be able to nullify it with your quirk."

Inkmeister was silent for a few seconds. "…Should?" he repeated, unimpressed.

"Well, why don't we test it?" Specter mused, tapping something on his phone before pocketing it and asking, "Any other questions while we wait for Skulk to arrive?"

Aika shook her head. "I'm all good." If she had to be honest, she was excited. This was her first undercover mission, and judging from the information they'd received, it was going to be risky. But isn't that what makes it fun?
(My girl's probably gonna do something stupidly risky…actually, probably multiple things.)

Takao looked like he wanted to say something, but the sound of a door slamming open interrupted him. His eyes flickered over to the underground pro, Skulk, eyes widening at the numerous bandages wound around her limbs and the crutch supporting her weight.

"Jeez, what happened to you…?" he trailed off questioningly, only to grunt as she rolled her eyes and promptly jabbed him in the side with her crutch. "Yeah, fine, I guess that was kinda insensitive," he mumbled, rubbing the spot on his ribs and glancing between the hero's bandaged neck and Specter. "So where's this seal I'm supposed to get rid of?"

Specter gestured at Skulk, who nodded and began to loosen the cloth around her neck, revealing an intricate black kanji just over her carotid artery. Upon further inspection, it appeared to read 'submerge' or 'hide'.

"So you can't say anything at all with this thing on you?" Takao asked, slipping off the table and leaning in to examine the marking.

The director answered for her. "Not at present. From what we can gather, how much the target is able to speak depends on the will of the user. As Skulk here managed to escape, it's only natural that said user wouldn't want her able to speak at all," he explained.

The ink manipulator hummed, motioning towards the seal on her neck as if to ask if he could touch it. With another nod, Inkmeister gently pressed against the marking and focused, his expression shifting into something much more subdued. For several seconds it looked like nothing would happen, and then, slowly, the shape began to deteriorate, withdrawing into Takao's splayed fingers.

As soon as the supposed ink transferred to his skin, he flinched. "That's…odd," he murmured, drawing his hand back and glancing at Skulk contemplatively. "Can you speak now?"

Another moment of silence, and then, "I certainly hope so." As soon as the words left her mouth, her eyes brightened. "Oh thank God it worked."

"Or you know, you could thank me," Takao piped up, only to be ignored as Specter clapped.

"Now that that's settled, Skulk, do you have any other information you'd like to share?"

The underground pro shook her head, suddenly solemn. "Unfortunately they anticipated my arrival, meaning I only had contact with the two with quirks you've already heard about. The only bit of knowledge I can add is that the voice binding quirk holder was referred to as Kioshi. The harder you resist his quirk, the more of an effect the seal has. They'll want you to struggle," she informed, her voice a little unsteady from disuse.

_{(Just realized that I can wrap up the informative part real quick with another response. After everyone's reactions to this we can timeskip to right before the actual point of infiltration!)}

Takao hummed, staring at his open palm and trying to ignore his unease as Specter nodded.

"It can't be helped. Thank you, Skulk," the director added, turning to address the team of four. "As you can tell, you four are our best bet, currently. This won't be a long-term assignment, as I'm aware you can't be away from your jobs for too long. Your objectives and the location and time of infiltration will be given to each of you before you leave. I'll ask this one last time: Any questions?"

Aika looked at Skulk for a moment, suddenly realizing just how dangerous this was going to be. "Not from me." She said, her enthusiasm fading slightly. "We've just gotta be careful about this." (Uh-huh, just you wait, Aika. We'll see.)

Kichi took another glance around his teammates, "Why us four specifically?" He asked. He couldn't think of any similarities that the four of them shared.