Strings (BNHA x OC) [Rewrite]

19 || Regroup

—Elsewhere Near the Battlefield—
——

Once the escaped members of the League were a good distance away from the heroes, Shigaraki waved them to an abandoned warehouse.

Once they were all inside, Hawks, who had still been carrying Mr. Compress, placed the villainous magician back onto his own feet in the middle of the large one-room building.

As soon as the grip on the master thief was loosened, he wrenched himself out of the winged man's grasp, whirling around and slapping his hands away.

"How could you?!" he yelled.

All eyes in the room turned to the two men.

Hawks backed away from Mr. Compress, his hands raised in a placating manner. He knew that he would be mad about leaving Puppet, and he didn't know how far his rage would go. "Look, I'm sorry, Compress, sh—"

"YOU LEFT HER!" Mr. Compress snapped his fingers and a marble in his hand turned into a pistol. He pointed the barrel of the gun directly at Hawks. The winged man quickly put his hands up in the air. He could easily disarm him with a feather, but he didn't want to anger the man any further.

"Compress wait—!" Shigaraki tried to step in.

"No! He left Puppet behind!" Compress spat. His grip on the gun tightened, and his hand began to shake.

"That was her choice, not mine!" Hawks yelled defensively. "She told me to get the League out then she pushed me away so she could hold back the heroes! I couldn't have stopped her if I tried!"

The room fell silent; no one moved and Mr. Compress didn't respond, he only held his gun pointed at the winged man with a shaky hand.

Carefully, Hawks sent a feather over to the magician and guided his aim to the floor by lightly lowering his arm. He suddenly dropped his gun to the floor and fell to his knees. He pulled off his mask and placed it on the ground beside him. A quiet sob escaped his mouth and he wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand; he was crying.

Twice approached the magician. "Oh man, you okay, Compress? Look at him, he's obviously not okay!"

"I said I would protect her, look out for her..." he mumbled.

Hawks couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt. He knew that the magician cared deeply for Puppet.

Twice helped Mr. Compress to stand from the ground, walking him over to a box along the side of the room. He sat down on the box and rested his face in the palms of his hands, placing his elbows on his knees.

"You were supposed to warn us of any coming attack." Shigaraki stalked over to Hawks, and the latter's attention turned to him. "What the hell happened?"

"Yeah, what did happen?" Dabi added, walking up directly behind the winged man.

The room fell silent as the two villains waited for an answer.

"I don't know," the former hero breathed out, "They were supposed to tell me when they planned to attack... but they didn't."

"Well then here's the million dollar question..." Dabi started. He stepped up close to Hawks, one of his hands grazing the man's wings threateningly, making him tense. "Whose side are you on?"

Hawks let out a heavy breath and contemplated his answer.

The commission betrayed me; they said they'd tell me when they planned to attack, and they didn't. He frowned. They must've found out that I've been giving them faulty information over the past week. Even Endeavor had talked to me like I was a villain.

Hawks looked Dabi dead in the eye. "I'm on your side; the heroes betrayed me."

Shigaraki backed away from Hawks. "Fine. You'd better hope we don't find a reason to kill you."

Dabi also backed away and walked to the opposite side of the warehouse.

Unease set in Hawks. I'm on thin ice.

Shigaraki turned to Mr. Compress. "Compress, you have the others right?"

"Yes." The villainous magician, who had calmed, reached into his back pocket and pulling out several blue marbles. He threw them to the floor and snapped his fingers. The marbles turned into several members of the League: Magne, Kurogiri, and Toga. Both Magne and Kurogiri were unconscious while Toga was conscious and trying to stand. Twice rushed over to her and helped her stand up, she groaned in pain.

After another few hours, Magne had also woken up. The rest of the League had filled her in on the events that transpired after she had been knocked out.

"We need to get her back." Magne said.

Twice nodded. "Yeah! We need her."

"We can't do that without Kurogiri, and thanks to Edgeshot he's still out cold." Shigaraki said, gesturing to Kurogiri who was still lying motionless on the floor.

"She would've been taken to Tartarus,"Hawks interjected.

"How do we get her back then?" Toga inquired. "It's not like we can just waltz into Tartarus."

Magne looked at Toga — more specifically, her injury. "You're not waltzin' anywhere with an ankle like that."

Toga crossed her arms with a huff and pouted while she glared playfully at the other villain.

From the ground, Kurogiri let out a groan and began to stir awake, his familiar piercing yellow slit-like eyes opening. Magne went over to him and helped him sit upright.

Mr. Compress walked over to Kurogiri as well. "Good to see you're still alive, my friend."

"Of course he's still alive." Twice jumped in. "No one's that weak."

"What was the toll?" Kurogiri's deep voice asked.

"We lost the hideout," Shigaraki answered swiftly, leaving out the more important loss.

"What else?" the warp villain pressed, fully aware that the leader wasn't telling him everything.

"Puppet's gone," Dabi stated bluntly.

Kurogiri thought for a moment before his head perked up as he remembered something. "She may not be."

"The day Puppet went out on a mission around two weeks ago, I provided her with a small tracking device," he informed. "If she used it we'll be able to track her exact coordinates."

"With what exactly?" Hawks questioned aggressively. "Everything was back in the hideout."

"I do keep a few things out of your reach." A small warp gate opened next to Kurogiri and a small, rectangular electronic fell out, he caught it in his hand. "We can track her with this."

He turned on the electronic and a map appeared on the small screen. A small dot appeared with the label 'Puppet Master' above it.

"She used it," Kurogiri stated with satisfaction.

Shigaraki looked over the warp villain's shoulder at the map on the device. "Well, where is she?"

Kurogiri pressed a button on the device and the map zoomed out. There was a rectangular shape around the dot, and above it were the words 'Tartarus Prison.'

"They took her to Tartarus."

"Can we get her back?" Dabi asked.

"Yes, if there's any way to get her back we need to try," Mr. Compress agreed with the scar-faced villain.

"We'll wait for a few hours to see if she moves from her current location. If she doesn't, then I'll open a warp gate to her," Kurogiri responded.

"I guess now we wait then," Shigaraki stated.