Strings (BNHA x OC) [Rewrite]

51 || Rest

Mr. Compress ran up to the door of the League's hideout and turned the handle, quickly pushing the door open. He rushed into the building, uncaring of who he disturbed in his haste.

"Hey! Hey! What gives?!" Twice called, turning in his seat at the table in the room to look at the magician.

He wasn't given an answer.

"Atsuhiro?" Toga questioned at the magician's silence, concern woven in her tone.

Mr. Compress shuffled through his pocket and pulled out the marble that he had compressed Puppet into. He snapped his fingers, decompressing the back-and-white villain into his arms. She wasn't moving much, and that worried him.

He walked over to the couch. Dabi, who was sitting on the piece of furniture, quickly got up to make room. He had respect for Puppet; had it been someone else, he wouldn't have moved his overly-entitled behind.

Gently, Puppet was laid down.

Mr. Compress used his gloved fingers to carefully pry one of her closed eyes open, just enough to be able to see the iris of her eye. It wasn't moving at all; she was in her own body and unresponsive.

"She's out cold," he muttered. He sat down on the floor, back leaned against the couch. He was finally aware of how heavily he was breathing; he had run a good distance as fast as he could to get both himself and Puppet to safety, unknowing of who might have given chase.

As the magician fell into thought, the other villains in the room had gathered around the couch. Dabi was there, along with Toga, Twice, and even Shigaraki. Kurogiri wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"Her clothes are singed," Shigaraki pointed out. He looked over to Dabi.

"Don't look at me. I didn't do this—hell, I've been here all day." Dabi defended, looking down at the sleeve and tail of Puppets longline sweater. "But those are flame burns."

"Who do you think she ran into?" Toga asked, looking at Mr. Compress. "Atsuhiro, do you know?"

He looked up at her from his place sitting on the floor, shaking his head. "When I found her she demanded that I take her and run — said we didn't have any time. She had some souls around and used them I think to try and buy me time. It exhausted her, and now we're here." He gestured to Puppet's unconscious form. "Whoever it was, they were strong enough to overpower her."

"Clearly she put up one hell of a fight," Shigaraki commented.

Kurogiri walked into the room, a few medical supplies in hand. "I saw Puppet and figured we'd need this."

"Well, don't just stand there," Twice snapped. "Help her!"

Kurogiri walked over, placing the supplies in his arms into a heap on the floor next to the couch that Puppet was lying on.

The sleeves of Puppet's sweater were rolled up to right above her elbows, showing off her slightly burned left arm and noticeably burned right arm. Toga took notice.

"There are burns on her arms. They don't look too bad, but they might be painful when she wakes up," she said.

Kurogiri picked up the aloe and a roll of bandages from the medical equipment he brought. "Aloe should help, but we don't know how much pain she's in."

Toga decided to help, taking the aloe from Kurogiri's hand. She carefully picked up Puppet's badly burned arm. She opened the aloe and began to spread some over the charred skin. Even in her unconscious state, Puppet cringed at the pain.

When Toga finished covering the burns on Puppet's arms with aloe, Kurogiri wrapped the bandages he had around them, finishing the job. He rolled her sleeves back down.

"Hey, where's Hawks?" Twice asked. "Yeah, where is that bastard?"

With everyone having been so focused on Puppet, no one had paid enough attention to notice the absence of the winged man.

Kurogiri stood up. "I believe that they left together, now only one of them is back."

"That's not good," Shigaraki said. "He could compromise us if he was captured."

"He wouldn't," Dabi spoke up. "He knows what the consequences would be if he does."

"We can figure that out later," Mr. Compress interjected, "right now we should focus on Puppet and stay on high alert just in case."

"I agree." Kurogiri nodded. "Our first priority is to protect our own. The Hawks situation can be dealt with at a later time. In the meantime, I'll take Puppet upstairs to recuperate."

Just like he said he would, the warp villain carefully picked Puppet into his arms with one hand behind her back and his other beneath her legs.

He carried her up to her room, laying her on her bed. He put a blanket over her, making sure she was at least somewhat comfortable in her unconscious state.

Once he was done, he simply left, closing the door and descending back down the stairs to join back with the rest of the League.