OPERATION: YOUTHFUL DISOBEDIENCE

[stresstokens]

WHO: Members of the grand curfew-breaking plan!
WHEN: During the Moorecroft event.
WHERE: Various Moorecroft locales.
WHAT: A bunch of youths have gotten together to break curfew in tandem to get to the bottom of the mystery at heart of this place -- but what they find leads to more questions than answers.
NOTES\WARNINGS: Probable violence, death, emotional trauma, cursing. All the fun stuff! I'll be putting the log headers for pre/during/post-curfew breaking logs in the comments, so just hang tight while I do that, though all members are of course more than welcome to post their own logs if that suits their tagging style better.

Comments

[wannasmash]

The fireworks are the furthest thing from the specific issue. As for explosives, that's more Yaoyorozu's department. (Yes, Bakugo handles them as well, but his body can make his own; he has no need to study the inner workings of wires and chemicals and fuses.)

And then there is the matter of Krouse's training. There's no denying he's had some and did not mention it. Midoriya is less concerned about the lie and more about how knowing this could have better ensured their safety. He would prefer to address the lie another day, preferably when their lives aren't in danger.

Midoriya swings them with Blackwhip into the shadow of the community center. Having broken line of sight, he sends out a full blast of Smokescreen from the whole of his body, obliterating vision across the whole street. Behind this tall wall of harmless smoke, he touches down in the park with the trees as cover.

"I didn't even get to see where those robot kids came from. Did you find out anything while I was gone?"

Yes he's still brimming with disapproval, but he would like to keep conversation low and quiet and mostly related to the mission.

[equivo]

Krouse shifts from being carried to lightly rocking to his feet without missing a beat, scanning the environment for the instant before Midoriya pulses out smoke. It reminds him of someone, although the effects aren't nearly as intense.

Grab bag, he notes, glancing at Midoriya. It's an interesting power suite. Even now, Krouse takes hold of the idea, rotating it in the back of his mind.

If Midoriya is part of a cluster, it must be a fuck of a cluster. It'd explain a lot.

"Not really," Krouse says, rolling back his shoulders and shaking his head, "There's something trying to come out of the cracks. Shadow emanation power, I'm thinking, or a minion implanted in shadows. Hasn't fully manifested yet, if it's trying to."

He can appreciate Midoriya hanging onto the lecture for later. It helps keep Krouse focused on the mission instead of having to get defensive.

"What's the next move?" He asks, straightening his hoodie, pivoting on his heels to watch the trees.

[wannasmash]

Whatever Krouse is describing sounds like some people Izuku has experienced before. But something?

"Sounds like a few Quirks I know, but I have no idea what that could mean here. Knowing they have backup they can call, and given how much noise we've made," the grumbling admonishment is barely being contained at this rate, "I don't want to lead them to the rest of the group."

He's not going to hide his powerset when it comes to his hero work. One For All must stay secret, but he can't let that get in the way of saving others. As for Krouse... why does he hide his strengths?

"Let's see... We take the robots out. My smoke will clear, and that's when we ambush. The trees are good cover. We should defend them as our position."

He starts stepping deliberately among the trees, frowning and leaning as he examines lines of sight. "It takes too long to hit them individually. We should break their formation, try to get them in a line. I'd like to defeat them in one blow."

[equivo]

Yeah. Krouse is picking up the barely contained grousing. But as long as it stays contained, well, that's a Midoriya problem. Or so the optimistic line of thinking goes. Krouse tends to get more optimistic the closer he is to things being fucked. It's perverse, but it gets things done.

Not always the best things, but still.

"Got it," Krouse says, flicking out his wrists and ticking his head from one side to the other, a gesture as much suited to sitting down in front of a keyboard for a gaming session as it is for this. "I can do positioning. You sure you want to take them out, though? Our instructions were to not cause too much damage. So are you talking take them out, or put them down for a minute?"

[wannasmash]

Midoriya tends to get more decisive the closer he is to things being fucked, which unfortunately leads to him disregarding his own safety. Bakugo thrives in adversity with incandescent joy bordering on madness, but at least he looks out for himself.

Izuku taps his chin then shrugs. "Depends on the durability of the robots. I don't consider self-defense against the robots property damage, even if it... technically is, I guess... Let's just try not to wreck the park too much."

Sorry, robots.

"I'm counting on you," he says, closing his fingers in a fist. "I'll bait them to give you time. Stay well clear of the final blow."

[equivo]

I'm counting on you, Midoriya says, with all the grit and determination of a hero on a kid's cartoon special, and fuck if some part of Krouse doesn't reluctantly resonate with that. His back straightens slightly as he steps into the woods, Midoriya's smoke starting to clear, revealing a mass of shiny metal bodies assembling in a search.

"Got it, cap," Krouse says, the title tripping off his tongue sardonically, but he still says it, doesn't he? "I'll stay clear of the AOE. Let's play some robo-dominos. Think you can handle me using you to set up the shuffle again?"

He points at a spot midway between them and the robots. The exact coordinates aren't that important. Just somewhere Krouse can start breaking the formation with swaps.

[wannasmash]

He feels rather like a Q-ball, but he's signed up for worse before. (That's not an excuse.)

"No problem. But no explosives this time, we can't set the park on fire."

He jumps into the air towards where Krouse has indicated so the teleporter can start building his line of dominoes. Charging up Fa Jin during his jump so he can release it later along with a large output of his super strength is no problem. The backlash from a mid-air kick is what's going to be the most delicate part of the procedure for him...