The process of getting to where you were was easy enough. If Dabi knew anything about kidnapping—he doesn't want to talk about it either I know—he'd go to a warehouse on a quieter side of town. Where on earth was it ever quiet in New York? Easy, anywhere but New York.

     That seemed to be a correct-enough thought while inside the-stolen-vehicle.

     He groans for the umpteenth time today, feeling himself get thrusted forward as Compress ends up kicking his chair again. "Quit it, Toga!"

     "NEVER!" He looks to the rear view mirror, originally grimacing and pissed off from the annoying disturbance before a shit-eating smirk settles on his features at Shigaraki's obvious look of displease. The look of anger and annoyance was enough for him to go right back to driving with a settled smile, a new-found sense of patience for each time he got thrusted forward and almost hit the wheel with his forehead.

     But a sense of dread settles as he notices tiny droplets of raining slowly hitting the glass and hood of the car, his grip on the steering wheel tightening. A flash of light brightens up the sky for a split second, a moment of clarity for Dabi at the fact that he was only driving because you weren't at your own home safe. He subconsciously presses on the gas, going just a little bit above the speed limit as the obvious change doesn't go unnoticed by Shigaraki. He had a brow raised, observing his comrade with a look of curiosity. If anyone ever told him about a month ago that he would have to be dealing with Dabi's bullshit over a girl, he would've shot whoever that person was for being stupid.

     But it seems that this fantasized person's death would've been in vain, seeing as they were somehow right. Who knew that someone of his kind was ever capable of change? He glances at the mirror again, confirming his suspicions at his expression; eyebrows furrowed, mouth in a tight frown. Same as any other look of disdain all those times before, but a different sense of motivation in his blue eyes as he cuts daggers on the road in front of them. He could almost feel some sort of sympathy and respect for Dabi, one for his determination to save than that of just wanting to get a job done as quickly as possible so he can go back to smoking under a random bridge. But that feeling loses itself just as quickly as he feels another knee-jerk reaction from the top hat-wearing man hitting him, just as quick to elbow back as Compress cries out.

     The rest of the ride was quiet enough, save for the occasional forced laughter followed by bickering as Toga doesn't stop tickling their most capable sniper. Shigaraki was back to being emo with his elbow rested on the window, staring out as rain pat and slid down the car. It was a nice calm to him, but who knew that the exact same sound could get such a different reaction from another party? To Dabi, each pat felt like a drum played right into his ears and straight down to his very core. He couldn't name the last time he'd ever felt this scared, much less acknowledge the possibility of it ever happening at all. It was a shitty feeling, to say the least, enough to break the laws of science as he could've sworn he felt a bead of sweat sliding down his face.

     Only when he saw the distance signs of the dock did he allow himself some sort of solace, not glad that you were here but glad that he was at least correct. They were on the outskirts of where an abandoned warehouse would lay, the guards stationed all over unlikely and out of place from the obvious unlivable conditions of the area. He stops the vehicle and parks a good distance away, using the broken streetlight as an advantage to not get seen. He quiets the engine, taking a deep breath as the other three sit up as well. "Just storm in and get her?" Compress breaks the ice, rolling down the windows slightly to get a clearer look for any signs of an opening.

     "I'd rather we just get her unnoticed and go," Shigaraki rolls his eyes, already opening his side of the door as he points out to the clear entrance, "I'm not in the mood for a fight."

     "Shocking." That got Toga a smack to the back of her head, yelping as she held onto it with a pouty scowl. "You deserved that." Their leader comments as he steps out, not minding the weather as it wet his clothes. She shrugs, "Yeah I did."

     Dabi soon follows after, tossing the keys to Compress. "You're our get-away driver." He wasn't quite expecting him to cheer loudly, nodding and saying something about not ruining his hat. The phoenix simply ignores him, climbing and pulling his hood up to cross the street, getting ready to climb up the chain-link fence. Shigaraki was right behind, before pausing midway through the street to glare at the blonde who held a look of disdain at the bad weather. "Do I have to?"

     "Either your clothes get wet or I turn your dust into my next vase," He threatens with a quick gesture to his hands, the clap of thunder behind him making the girl squeak and eventually follow the order. Gee, nothing like death threats to make people bend to your will, am I right?

     He shakes his head, glancing at the fence with a bored look. The guards were still a good distance away, but with how loud this was definitely going to be, he couldn't risk it. He raises a hand to stop them in their tracks, another grappling on one part of the relatively short divider.

     Silence passes as he waits for an unspoken cue, Shigaraki staring all with the interest of a highschool student struggling with chemistry. The sky lights up once again, glancing up quietly as to have something to watch while Dabi remains in his place. A beat passes, and just as soon as his patience dries off, he isn't given enough time to voice his complaints as thunder claps loudly. So loud in fact, that it completely masked the rattling of the rusting metal chain. As if it was all planned, Dabi was already on the other side of the fence with a quiet land, the fence settling as Toga stares in awe.

     "I—" Dabi glares at her to shut up, rolling her eyes with a whisper. "Why can't Shiggy just break the fence?" She gestures to his hand with a jab from her thumb, earning an exasperated, even more aggressive eye roll from the man in question. "It'd break all of the fence and will let 'em know we're here, ya leeching bitch."

     "Oh yeah let's make sure this argument gets louder and louder as time goes on," Dabi intercepts, whispering harshly as a vein pops on his throat trying to keep his voice low. As if it's a group thing, the two once again roll their eyes, having just about enough patience and timing to pull off the same stunt as lightning flashes in the near distance.

     The rest of the sneaking was smooth enough, with the occasional mishap of either Toga slipping on something or Shigaraki cursing like a sailor each time he gets met with an extra-persistent and annoying rock. It was a miracle they've ever actually managed to keep their business afloat in all honesty, their rowdy and downright incompetent group of four—three, in this manner—hardly being able to do a sneak mission let alone hold down an entire branch in a city as riddled with crimes as New York. Funny how fate works in a lot of shit ways, huh?

     The main building that was absolutely packed with guards was fairly large, some scaffolding and unfinished work displayed as a front as though it was in the process of renovation. Oddly enough, it was quite concealed, the whole ordeal probably not noticeable unless someone actually made the effort to look for it. And to a panicking Dabi barely keeping it together, it was as clear as day.

     They approached the side of the building, a window on top the only unguarded entrance available. It was a fair distance to scale, and right below were a pair who looked like they were barely hanging on a thread that was coffee. It should be fairly easy to take them out, what with said two already doing it for them, but they were falling asleep, they weren't actually quite there yet.

     He lowered Toga's hand that was already pulling out a knife, ignoring the girl's look of betrayal as he scanned the area with much hesitation. "If you're gonna suggest to wait until they pass out while we're out here in the freezing rain I am going to kill you and your girlfriend. . ." Shigaraki spoke in a hushed whisper, but even then he couldn't help the aggression from seeping in with each word. Dabi only met his glare with his own, but a big part of him knew that he was right. Time wasn't on their side here, and staying out in the bad weather at ten, eleven pm, mere days before December in the outskirts of Manhattan? Suicide.

     He ducks below the various metal with the other two as the patrolling guard comes back around in another circle, sighing deeply with a hand running down his already-damp face. They could take them out, but at the very high chance of them getting discovered they'd be dead. They had numbers and guns, that's just unfair!

     Sure, they weren't human, but they weren't exactly fucking immortal?!

     . . .

     Except Toga. Who even knows what that girl could and could not do at this point.

     "I'm taking them out," Shigaraki announces, already ripping off his gloves as Dabi sighs, not bothering to stop him. Toga was quietly whining about something along the lines of not being able to have some fun and being locked up like a child, managing to use the rain to her advantage to slip out of the phoenix's hold. Whether it was by accident, on purpose and by pure luck, either way she was out of his hold and joining their leader.

     Dabi gives it a few more moments, scouting the area for any clearer ways of escape that wouldn't need the timing and sound-sensitive point of entry they used. They'd be bringing one more person, and as much as he wasn't one to judge about it because of such different circumstances, you weren't exactly one to jump over a chain-link fence with a single jump and land gracefully without breaking a bone or two.

     "Frankenstein, hurry up," He postpones it, getting up with a slight stumble to follow.

     Shigaraki was standing next to a pile of dust slowly getting soaked and gummed up from the rain, while the other is passed out barely being held by Toga. The girl had red dripping down her chin, getting washed away so peacefully by the rain that it almost never occurred to Dabi the implications. She catches his unimpressed look, shrugging her shoulders as she finally gives up and let's the unconscious body drop with a wet and muffled splat to the floor. "What?"

     They ignored the girl, getting to work on scaling their way up the scaffolding before the patrolling guard came back around.

     The rain and overall slippery everything they had to touch posed quite a challenge in climbing, their grip hardly there as they make their way up. Toga was the fastest to the top, the clumsiness she exhibited earlier now long gone as her skills in athletics proved to be quite a helper. Flipping, sliding—it took everything in her not to laugh out maniacally with each successful land, hardly slipping with her shoes and socks long forgotten in the comforts of her sweater pockets.

     Shigaraki was cursing all the way up, the gloves a necessity but a pain to climbing. It kept slipping and he almost fell a lot, much to his pride's dismay, all the while he couldn't remove them because he might destroy the scaffolding and therefore pose an entirely new challenge. Dabi was. . . well, Dabi. The climb was the easier part, save for the thumping and panic striking at his chest every five seconds. The closer he got the window, the more he wanted to just break it open and run inside. But a part of him was scared, terrified, even, to see what lied behind it. He had no means of contact with you as of now, and he didn't exactly know what would remain of you if he ever manages to reach just in time.

     Toga was already inside, leaning on the sill with boredom as one hand held it wide open. It was a weird, circular window, having to be pushed up while held in the middle. Dabi was quick to slide right inside, being left to hold up the window against his will as the blonde takes it as an opportunity to slip away with a shit-eating grin. He glares at her, before unwillingly reaching out a hand to help their leader up.

     His hand soon reaches his, slippery and barely in his grip as he heaves him up.

     Shigaraki ends up hitting his forehead on the edge of the window, earning a wince and the strolling guard below to momentarily look up. But, by then the window had long since closed and showed no signs of an outside party.

     Inside on a barely-holding up platform were the trio, Dabi ducking below the window as the other gloved man cursed and held onto the forming bump on his forehead. If it weren't for the dire situation, the phoenix would have just about enough asshole tendencies to laugh at him. But, now wasn't the time, and they both knew that as they made their way to the obvious displacement of a wall.

     The divider reached even the platform they stood in, wherever it may continue now on the other side of the wood. "There's a door," Toga points out, four guards stationed right outside it. The sounds of rain was muffled here on the inside, but it was loud enough to cover whatever noise they might have made in quiet conversation. Shigaraki sighs, clicking his tongue as he looks around and paying close attention to the main entrance to this building.

     It was unguarded, presumably a shortage of staff as the remaining might've stayed to guard the outside. He notes the lack of any other entrance, whether that was a good or bad thing he couldn't decide yet, but it was enough for him to hatch a plan.

     It seems that there were only four guards here, guns at the ready but ultimately easy enough to fend off. The door could be barricaded, what with all the fallen pieces of wood everywhere. Just slide them in the handle and hope for the best, right?

     He looks at Dabi to issue it, but it seems he already got the gist of it as he nods. God, as much as he got on his nerves he couldn't deny how easy it was to work with him if he had his head screwed on correctly. "Cover me," He tells Toga, before taking off running as quietly as he could down the stairs. The girl follows suit, uncharacteristically quiet and analyzing the area.

     Dabi was. . . impressed, to say the least, watching as the two got down quietly before sharing a few words and getting to work.

     He watches from above as Toga throws a knife, embedding itself on the floor a few feet away from the four men. With this they jumped, getting their weapons ready as the girl smiles innocently at the far off side. Without so much as a blink they started shooting, the girl complaining about something along the lines of 'what ever happened to bantering?!' as she flips and runs in-between the terrain to dodge the barrage of silver. The guns were surprisingly muffled, no doubt made that way to avoid any on-lookers if they ever got to firing in public.

     But paired with the rain outside and the fact that the rest of their comrades were out, one now part of the concrete and the other presumably dead, it served as the perfect circumstance to cutting up their ranks without having to deal with getting out-numbered.

     Shigaraki had boarded up the door quite easily, now helping with distracting the four as they closed in on them with their guns still firing about.

     The door was now left right in the open, Dabi not hesitating to jump down from box to box with the concentration and grace of a trained athlete. He reaches it, slamming it with a shoulder in an attempt to unlock it.

     It seems one of the men noticed, quickly pointing his gun but getting stopped with a pained shriek. Shigaraki had stood behind him in his distraction, a dripping and un-gloved hand a heavy grip on the armed man's shoulder.

     Alongside his clothes the body crumbled to dust right below his fingertips, an amused grin etching onto his face the faster it spread to the rest of his victim. The clothes went first, before being followed by the rest of the body as it turned into dust that flew off with the New York wind. The other three had stopped to watch in horror, proving to be a big mistake as Toga took this as an opportunity to both solve her thirst and be able to dig her knife into something.

     "Go!" The gunshots continued as Dabi rams down the door, adrenaline giving him strength that surprised even himself.

     With a few more pain-inducing hits to his shoulder and the occasional kick, the door finally gave way as it flew open with a few splinters coming loose.

     The first thing he was was your face lighting up at the sight of him, before quickly being overshadowed as a pained cry escapes your throat. What looked to be black. . . strings? Wrapped around your body tightly, cutting through clothing and skin as blood seeped through.

     Oh God you were bleeding.

     He runs in and slams the door close behind him, snapping his head towards the one responsible. Taro stood there, eyes glowing green and face cracked like a porcelain doll. It spread to his hand, desperately holding onto the pieces that threatened to fall off just as easily as another clutched onto a syringe like a weapon.

     The tendrils seemed to have escaped from the cracks on his body, wiggling and tightening all the more around your beaten, bloodied up form. He sends a kick, not expecting the figure to just so easily fall onto the floor with a demonic yelp. The sound scratched at his ears as he cringes, watching as the needle rolls out of reach. Grabbing onto the strings, it stiffened against his foreign and tight grip. With all the strength he could muster, he uses both hands to snap it off.

     Another scream from the breaking Taro, sending a wave of more tendrils towards Dabi now. It barely grazed him, hissing at the surprisingly sharp piece of shit that managed to hit his cheek. The stinging sensation was enough to keep him awake, taking a deep breath as he spreads his grip far off the strings and leaving space in the middle for a hit. He raises his leg, before bringing it down with as much strength he could muster.

     The tendrils snap, another ear-piercing screech resounding as it retreated back into it's pathetic host.

     The rest of it seemed to have just vaporized, you gasping for a breath as the pain and pressure finally left your body. Dabi was quick enough to reach your side, throwing you over his shoulder as he winces at your cry of protest. "Sorry dollface, we gotta get out of here first," He takes your lack of response as an easy enough yes, running towards the door that was now swinging off of what remained of its hinges. The gunshots outside never ceased, the guards proving to be much more of a problem than they had originally anticipated.

     But it seems that 'Taro' was too.

     A sharp pain stabs Dabi's in the leg, watching with a quick and deep intake of breath as the black tendril shot straight through. He sends a glare to the shared enemy, biting off his gloves as he reaches out a hand. He takes a deep breath, feeling the heat rise and form as he wills it to burst into flames.

     . . .

     A pathetic gust of smoke was all that resulted, the rain proving to be a bitch in trying times like these. "Water, fire, not a good combination, moron," came Shigaraki's unimpressed and sarcastic announcement from behind, not having time to patch up whatever remained of his pride as he takes this as an opportunity to leave the rest of the problem to his 'boss'. He was quick enough to notice the tendril, gripping it tightly as the crumble spread all the way back to the host.

     The. . . thing was apparently smart enough to remove it from himself before the damage got to his body, glaring as the remaining pieces of it's disguise fell in dramatic heaps onto the ground.

     What remained was a vaguely humanoid form of just black, inky material, barely keeping shape as the clothes fell with a dead thud to the floor. Shigaraki scoffs, taking quick steps towards it before it got away.

     His hand seemingly phased through the form, the blob of ink hardly a human anymore as it formed holes wherever the scowling man's hand could reach out. "Fucking coward," He mumbles, before watching with a final swipe of his hand as the thing melts into a puddle.

     He watches as it slid away, parts getting caught up in debris before following soon after. It went towards a table, the black consuming what looked to be pieces of paper and stray equipment one would easily find in a lab. It disappeared into it, slipping through a hole in the crumbling building, scoffing as he looks around what remained of the area.

     A chair turned upside down, the tables with a bag and phone on it and. . . and syringe of pink.

     He raises a brow, walking towards it with his interests piqued. It bubbled and fizzed inside the small containment, leaning over to pick it up and examine it a little more closely. Maybe it—

     "SHIGGY," Came Toga's shrill voice from outside where the commotion had ceased, sighing in exasperation before shoving it in his pocket and moving to grab your belongings before trudging out of the room. Great, they got the girl, now there was the problem of getting her out.

note ; HI HELLO HERES A LONGER CHAPTER TO MAKE UP FOR MY TARDINESS LMAO—WiFi got cut off last night, so have this lmfao. HOPE YOU ENJOYED MUEHEHEKANABXB