This Thing A Quiet Madness Made

Chapter 16

The ten launched forward to meet their attackers head-on.

Mt. Lady recoiled as Naoko appeared in front of her in an instant. She quickly morphed to her towering height and grabbed at the girl who swiftly twisted away from her hand. Naoko dodged the enormous foot that came down at her before launching up from the ground, using the shattered chunks of concrete that erupted from the impact to propel herself upwards. She dodged another large hand as it swiped at her, swiftly pulling to the side and rising to eye level with Mt. Lady, a broken slab of road beneath her feet and her back turned to her.

The girl glanced over her shoulder, and their eyes locked.

Mt. Lady gasped as an enormous pressure smashed down onto her shoulders. The ground beneath split instantly underneath her weight and a sharp pain shot through her body. A cry escaped her and she instinctively squeezed her eyes shut, inadvertently defaulting back to human-size as an invisible force slammed her down onto the shattered concrete. Her eyes shot open as her back collided sharply with the cold ground, her jaw dropping open in a silent gasp.

The pressure disappeared as quickly as it came, and the alarming weight was instantly gone. Mt. Lady grit her teeth as her hands pressed against the shattered road, trying to push herself up, but a stabbing pain in her knees instantly sent her toppling over, an agonizing hiss falling from her lips.

Naoko's attention had long abandoned the pro-hero's struggling form, already halfway across the battlefield by the time a small gleam appeared in the corner of her eye. Her hand shot up, catching the pair of glossy blue marbles from midair. She didn't spare them a second glance before tossing them to Mr. Compress as he passed by her, the little orbs falling easily into his gloved palm. He gracefully tipped his hat to her before turning on his heels and heading straight into a swarm of police officers.

"Hey!" a shout reached her ears, just loud enough to be distinct from the calamitous noise.

She glanced over her shoulder to see Bakugo ducking past the falling debris and raging chaos as he ran straight towards her. Wordlessly, she turned around, her eyes flicking over a broken steel beam near her feet as she stepped onto it. The deformed slab of metal quickly rose from the ground, stabilizing as it lifted her high into the air.

The slight gust whistled past her ear as she wove evenly over the battlefield, his shouts growing distant behind her.

Naoko suddenly took notice of the loud whining of sirens as she saw a dozen or so policemen raise their weapons and take aim at something. She turned to see their muzzles were pointed at a group of Twices, who were currently preoccupied clashing back and forth with Best Jeanist. The hero had managed to restrain four of them back-to-back before jumping away in pursuit of the others who had run off, scattering in all different directions.

"Move in!" one of the officers shouted, signaling for his men to capture the copied villains.

The officers quickly approached in formation, fingers hovering taut over the triggers, a few of them reaching for their handcuffs as they neared the squirming Twices.

Suddenly, their weapons slammed to the ground as if an unseen hand had torn them from their grasp. Alarmed, they quickly scrambled for the fallen items, but before anyone could reach, another invisible force smashed down onto them, instantly twisting the weapons as the black metal deformed like clay. They snatched their hands away in shock, receding into a defensive stance as their heads frantically swiveled left and right.

Naoko landed next to the captured Twices as they looked up at her in relief.

"Nice one!" one of the copies grinned.