Young Writers Society

Landon tore his distracted gaze over from where Kane and Loki had disappeared behind the door- which, apparently, did open- and over to Magic. His brow knit underneath his mask, and he reached an arm out to steady them from falling back again.

"Hey, are you okay, M- er, Sam?" he asked quietly, dropping his hand when he was sure they were steady. He hadn't missed them murmuring to themself, but wasn't too concerned about that aspect. They just seemed very uncomfortable.

Without letting them answer, he turned to glance around at the others gathered and addressed them.

"Maybe the rest of us should split up and explore? Or something like that- I'll take looking around in here with Sam." as much as he tried to make this come off as casual, he couldn't keep the frantic 'I call dibs' tone from entering his voice. He grabbed Magic's arm and gently tugged them off into a corner of the warehouse.

Really, he was just concerned and wanted to make sure that they were okay-somewhere more private, that us. They hadn't gotten the chance to talk much before they had realized that Loki was with them, but now that he was outside, he hoped that they would be able to drop the act a bit.

Alex was starting to get bored and when she heard Landon's suggestion the boredom went away. "Sure, why not! So... who wants to go with who?"

"I'll stick with the idiot," Zogin said. Part of Magic hoped that Zogin wouldn't offer to take Alex with them - they didn't know if they could handle a conversation with Landon right now. But, at the same time, they really did need to talk, and Loki was currently out of the picture. They could (thankfully) be themselves for once.

"Do you want to come with us?" Soul asked, turning to Alex.

Well, looks like you're going to have to face the music.

Magic resisted the urge to groan.

Knowing that resistance was futile, they let Landon drag them off away from the other three in the warehouse.

...I'm not ready.

You never are.

...Oh, shut it.


"This is going to be awesome," Loki said, a grin still stretching across his face. Kane knew that Loki had a tendency to be cheerful, but he hadn't expected that grin to last so long. A smile briefly danced across his lips underneath his mask, only to fade when he realized that Loki was convinced that the man he saw right now was the man Kane really was.

He knew he should tell the truth, but he couldn't bring himself to it.

He had never really seen how Loki acted around people like him, but he could make his guesses. And those guesses made him feel absolutely miserable - the cheerful mood would be dashed in an instant if Loki knew the full story.

Loki's grin faltered.

"...We need to hide the truth from Landon and Sam," he said. "They might try to harm you, even though we both know you're a human just like me."

There was a hesitation there, but Kane never wanted to dwell on it. Loki was great at lying, but Kane was great at picking up on the little signals - he was trying to hide something.

...It worried him that he didn't know what.

"So what are you going to tell them?" he asked.

"You're my childhood best friend who went emo and forgot to tell me?"

"...Why?"

"The emo part?" Loki asked. "It just fits the outfit-"

"No, the first part," he corrected.

Loki hesitated again, but it was a different kind of hesitation. "It just feels...right," he said, giving him a small smile. "We are best friends still, aren't we?"

Kane opened his mouth to give an answer, but he never got a chance to say it.

There was the sound of glass shattering as a body went tumbling out of a nearby building. Kane immediately jerked Loki back after tightly grabbing onto his arm, pulling Loki right into his arms to prevent any shrapnel from touching him. Another body - this one far larger and muscular than the figure staggering to their feet - came catapulting out of the window, landing on the ground with a loud yet cushioned thud.

The moon's sliver rolled out from behind the clouds.

The first body was a man in his twenties, his hair short and black and his eyes brown. He was dressed like a superhero like the other people he had encountered were, but he didn't recognize the black and red superhero suit. Neither did he recognize the monster of a man a few feet away, his muscles far too large to be natural.

The second man swung at the first. The hero - whoever he was supposed to be - dodged the blow, but was suddenly struck with a hard kick and sent flying into the warehouse walls. The impact was so hard that the bricks became dislodged, and the man was sent entirely through the wall.

Then the muscular man turned to them.

He narrowed his eyes.

"He tricked me," he said. There was an angry tone to his voice. "The brat tricked me!"

"I'm not a brat," came the weak reply from the warehouse.

The muscular man growled and took a step forward.

"I'm going to take care of you like I've taken care of him," he said.

Loki and Kane exchanged a look.

"...I think we might have gotten outside the realm of cosplay," Loki said.

"...Agreed," Kane quietly said, not even remotely sure how they were going to get out of this one.

Meanwhile, in another part of the city...

"Whatever you do, don't scream."

Everything around him felt wrong. Damp clothing, a cold floor, and something strange on his face - all of these things gave him an uneasy feeling. He tried to recall what he had been doing last, but everything was a blur. He couldn't even come up with a good idea on where he was now; it all felt too unfamiliar.

His eyes flickered open.

The corridor (?) was dark, but he could just barely make out a figure standing in the shadows a short distance away. It was hard to see any identifying features; they had made sure to hide themself as far from the light as they possibly could.

He let out a groan as he sat up.

Why did everything feel so wrong and why did this place stink so much-

The figure moved.

His lips curled up into their signature smirk - was that darkness he saw coming off of them? It had only been for a second, but he had been able to make out the outline of their form. Things were getting interesting, and it wasn't just because he had realized that they were in a sewer.

He got to his feet.

"Why exactly would I be screaming?" he asked. "You don't look all that terrifying, cowering away in the corner."

"I'm not cowering," was the indignant response. "I was sparing my ears from your screams - you'll start any moment now."

"Is that so?"

"Well," the stranger responded rather nonchalantly, "that's assuming you don't always look that ugly. Which you might - I'm not one to judge. You do seem pretty comfortable with all of those burn marks on you."

His breath caught in his throat. "...What?"

"Those burn marks," they said. "You have some under your eyes, around your neck, near your ankles - you even have some nice stitches going on, too-"

There was a pause.

"...Are you supposed to be Dabi?"

The name took a moment to register, but then understanding dawned on him. He strode forward, grabbing onto the figure's wrist and pulling them out into the dim lighting of the sewers. Pristine suit, shadowy form, weird metal thing around the neck - if it wasn't for the realistic darkness and yellow eyes, he would have guessed he was looking at a cosplayer.

"Kurogiri," he said. It wasn't a question - there was no denying it. The personality was all wrong, so it must have just been part of the job again - even though he did like said job, he hated when it did weird things like this. "So do you usually look that ugly, or is it just the getup you have right now?"

"I have better looks than you do, Dabi," the villain said, yellow eyes narrowing. "Your looks without the scars would be average at best."

They held each other's gazes for a moment.

"Bickering aside," he said, conjuring a small blue flame in his hand to dry off his clothing - it wasn't the usual color, but it seemed like the abilities of the villains had transferred over to them. He could work with that minute change. "It looks like we've both been brought here for a reason, and I'm sure there's a good reason behind the changes in our appearance. I work with things like this for a living - just another day on a hunt."

"Funny," the other said, "I'm used to things like this, too."

He finished drying himself off.

"I have a proposition," he continued. "We work together to figure this out. Neither one of us can got out wherever we are, looking like this - whether we're in an anime or in our own reality. You can provide fire if things get nasty, and I can use the Warp Gate quirk to help us make speedy exits. Deal?"

Kurogiri held out his hand.

He looked down at it.

"Mother said never to trust strangers," he said, "but I never liked Mother much."

He shook the extended hand.