With my staff in hand, I swung wide for Tobias's head, hoping to get him out of commission. If anyone deserved to have serious brain damage, it was him. Who, in their right mind, finds joy in locking up defenseless animals into small cages and watching them fight? Not only that, but further abuse them before then?

No wonder America had dog fights banned.

The man with the dinosaur Quirk leapt out of the way, growling. He lowered his head and started to charge towards me, but he never got a chance as something wrapped around his leg and pulled him upward. The man screamed as he flew across the barn.

It was then Sicarius landed right in front of me, offering a wide smile. "Sorry we didn't come sooner. Something's blocking all sound and is interfering with our transmitters. Once we figure out what's going on, we'll be able to go through with the rest of our plans," she explained.

I nodded my head. That must've been why I couldn't hear them with my earpiece earlier. However, there was one thing that concerned me.

"Do we have enough evidence?" I asked.

Sicarius shrugged before saying, "behind you."

I swung around to find a giant metal fist rushing towards me. My hands gripped the staff I was and swung it just in time. Without even having to think about it, I activated my Quirk, allowing my strength through my body and into the staff. The second it made contact, I overpowered the villain who was trying to sneak up on me, throwing him into a group of men that had already been tied up by Sicarius' Quirk.

There were three types of responses that happened from the people who came for the dog fight. Either they tried running out of the barn as fast as they could, fought whomever they could, or they'd release their ferocious beasts to fight for them. There weren't just dogs being forced to fight in these things. Some were unrecognizable animals, taking on traits from various species, such as crocodiles, gorillas, lions, beavers, and anything that made them look like they walked out of a nightmare.

While I fought whichever villains decided to gang up on me, my eyes scanned for one villain in particular. Even if he didn't seem to remember who I was, I would never forget a face like that. Not when he tried everything in his power to hurt Tami when we were in the airport. There was no way I was going to let him get away, not after all he has done.

That was when I found him. Despite acting like a coward, the man with the winged Quirk was helping people out of the building and releasing whatever animal he could find from its confined cages. It was all used as a distraction as I noticed multiple heroes divert their attention from him to prevent the animals from getting away.

Even though I didn't have wings, I knew how I would get up there. I slammed my stick down to the ground, launching myself into the air.

He was going to get what he deserved, I silently promised. First, for causing chaos at the airport, nearly hurting Tami, and now, participating in a sick dog fighting event. This man was going to be behind bars for a long time.

I didn't get a chance to swing my stick at the man when he turned around. His brown eyes widened when he saw me, but he didn't waste a second to duck underneath my stick, grabbing it in the process. The momentum I had gained to leap into the air sizzled away. The only thing preventing me from crashing into the crowd of villains and wild animals below was my grasp on the staff.

This whole thing could've been planned better, but I didn't want this man to get away again.

"Dude, what is your problem?" the villain asked as he twirled in the air. My muscles tightened only to hold onto my staff for dear life.

"You know what you did," I growled.

There wasn't more I wanted to say, so I pushed myself up onto my staff, wrapping my arms and legs around it. My plan was to scoot closer to him and knock him to the ground, but the winged villain let go of my staff at that very moment. My back slammed into the wall before I slid to the ground. Everyone that was on the ground around me fled away. A sharp pain jolted up my back as I stood back up, but I couldn't let that stop me.

I needed to get that villain to stay inside the building and pay for everything. Not just him, but all the villains that had taken part in this illegal activity. Before I could even run towards him, sharp teeth sunk into my leg. I tried swinging my staff towards the strange beast that looked like a combination of a shark and a small bunny. It was strange to think someone could create an animal out of the two, but seeing the rows of teeth that came out of the hare's mouth, all while having pitch black eyes, I knew it had to have some shark in it.

What other kinds of illegal activities were these people participating in? I wondered, but not for long. There was only so much a person could think about when their leg felt as if it was going to be ripped off at any given moment.

The second I could think about it, I wedged my staff into the beast's mouth to pry its jaws open until my leg was free. It snapped down, trying to break my staff, but I quickly swung the animal away until it hit a group of villains trying to get away. Seeing new meat, the thing changed its mind and tried chasing them down instead.

Blood seeped through my pant leg. The wound ached and screamed in pain, but I had dealt with this sort of stuff in my training. It was nothing. It had to be nothing when so much was going on around us.

Besides, I could fix that later. Right now, I needed to get back to that winged villain. He and everyone else here needed to be stopped.

"Valiente!" a voice yelled.

I turned my head to find Sicarius swinging from the ceiling wall. It wasn't out of the ordinary. From the time she swooped in to tie up Tobias to seeing her multiple times in my peripheral vision, she seemed to have enjoyed herself all too much whenever she swung from place to place.

Unfortunately, I couldn't say I felt the same way as her sticky string wrapped around my waist and pulled me up towards her. I couldn't let go, flying out the window with her not far behind.

We both ended up falling into the rugged corn field that surrounded the barn. The stalks snapped around my leg, burning against the blood and skin that the beast from before tore into. While I did well hiding my pain before, I couldn't help hissing out in pain as I laid there in the grass.

"Okay Lento, now!" Sicarius yelled.

I tore my gaze away from my injury and looked towards the dark haired woman who crouched beside me. Her long fingers were somewhat hidden under her small afro.

Seeing her like that made me realize why she tore me out of that building before I even had the chance to reach that winged villain. They had found whatever was blocking all communications from before. It'd explain the reason why my earpiece didn't work the moment I walked into the barn, but it also prevented Bravura's Agency from doing things the easy way of walking into the building and stopping it.

All I knew was that it had to do something with Lento Lure's Quirk. I turned my head, finding my boss standing beside me, breathing heavily as he looked up to the sky.

"What exactly does Lento Lure's Quirk do?" I asked, realizing everyone seemed to have left that detail out when they were filling me in on everything. All I knew was that when they walked into the building, I needed to book it out of there.

Why, I wasn't sure.

"Lullaby," Bravura explained, turning his head down to look at me. "If you hear them sing, you fall fast asleep for hours."

No wonder why they wanted me out of there, I thought.

"What about all the people who made it out of there? Shouldn't we be going after them?" I asked.

Bravura let out a short laugh as he knelt beside me. He rested one arm on his knee as he motioned to my leg with the other. "And let you fight in that condition? No way. I get that you want to fight, but we have to be smart on how we do things."

"But there were dangerous villains in there!" I protested. "And it's not like my leg is broken, let me—"

"No," Sicarius' voice denied, taking me off guard. I turned to look at her, finding the woman staring at the barn as if the second she tore her gaze from it, the building would explode. "We've got all we need. Besides, the police will be coming soon. While they're taking up all those men out of there, we need to be figuring out what to do with all those poor dogs."

I felt my body sink into the ground as I pulled my bad leg into my chest, covering the sticky blood with my hands. As much as I hated to admit it, Sicarius was right. Our job as heroes didn't just stop at fighting criminals. If it did, nothing would truly get done, not when there were other people who were always involved in this sort of thing.

All I could do was hope that winged villain was found inside. The sooner he was behind bars, the safer this place would be.

The safer Tami would be.

✧ ▬▭▬ ▬▭▬ ✦✧✦ ▬▭▬ ▬▭▬ ✧

When I finally walked back into the barn, it was free from men eager to watch such a horrifying event for their mere enjoyment. Bravura wouldn't let me near any of the criminals after Lento Lure walked out of the building to give us the all clear. While he sent Sicarius inside to bind the villains together, he tasked me with other things, such as looking into the parked vehicles to find any sort of animals or cages that needed to be brought to the animal hospitals and animal shelters in the area or rounding up the animals that were on the loose. It made sense why he tasked me with those things. After all, I could carry many more animals and not be bothered by their gnashing teeth and jerking movements, especially after a paramedic used her Healing Quirk to patch up my leg.

Still, I wished I could've been one of the people to help Sicarius bind the villains and see that they all made it to jail where they belonged. It didn't seem like it was that long of a fight, but I still wanted to see who they all were.

More importantly, to see if the villain with the winged Quirk was there.

There was nothing I could do. Nothing, that was, except to find the animals who were supposed to be forced into a deadly event. It was a sickening thought, and I could see why the responses I got from the animals had either been them attempting to run away or growling and trying to snap my head off.

"Looks like everything is cleared here," Lento Lure said from behind before they gave out a loud yawn.

I looked around, finding tables and chairs scattered around the place. Some were broken, with pieces scattered around, while others were surprisingly intact, as if nothing happened. In the middle of the room was the ring these villains expected for the dog fight to take place.

"Thank goodness," Sicarius said as she walked up beside me and propped her arm on my shoulder. I glanced over at her, almost expecting her to have some sort of smirk on her face, like she was enjoying the fact that she was using me to rest. She wasn't that much shorter than me, so it worked. It just felt weird.

Yet, when I saw her face illuminated by the lights hanging above us, I noticed it was anything but joyful. Her eyes were closed while the ends of her mouth sunk into a frown. Seeing her up close, I noticed she had bags under her eyes. It was strange to see because if anyone were to have that feature, I figured it would be Lento Lure.

It was then I remembered what she said to me earlier. She was the one in charge of this case. That was how Bravura's Agency worked. Everyone had their own mission they took the lead on, but had help from everyone and anyone that worked there to get it completed in the best way possible.

Seeing how she looked about as tired as Lento Lure always did, I figured she had probably been working on this case for a while. How long, I would never know. It was best to leave her be.

"At least all the animals will be safe now," she said. "The local animal clinics are going to be busy the next few days, but give them some time, and I'm certain they'll be given to some good homes. At least, I hope so."

I was about to respond when I heard a strange noise in the distance. I wasn't the only one to notice it as the three of us swapped glances. Sicarius moved her arm from my shoulder to bring a finger to her finger up to her lips. Lento Lure nodded their head before the three of us quietly crept towards the far corner of the barn. We were careful not to step onto any of the debris that was around.

The closer we got to it, the louder the noise got. It didn't sound like growling or a person snoring, but rather a small whimper followed by nails scratching a metal surface. Sicarius winced every time the nails scratched too hard.

We ended up walking towards a pile of rubble. During the process of getting the villains out, someone probably pushed some of the broken wooden pieces and other scraps into one corner, the one where we heard the noise.

I broke away from the duo and started to tear the pieces away from the noise. It got louder and louder until they started sounding more like excited barks.

Sicarius gasped when I pulled out what was hiding from beneath everything. With how big the cage was, I was surprised no one even noticed.

Somehow, someone missed a rather active puppy that was trapped inside a crate.

"Least it looks like it's not injured," Lento Lure commented as I lowered the cage to the ground.

Our other coworker bent down beside the cage, opening it to pull the pup out. It was rather fluffy compared to most dogs I had seen run around the place. While small, the thing had some large, boxy features.

"He doesn't seem to have a tag on him," Sicarius noted before glancing back up towards Lento Lure. "And all the animal shelters will be too busy with all the dogs and other creatures we found."

"What do you expect me to do about it," Lento Lure protested as they raised their hands in the air. "Java's not going to get along with a dog of all things."

Sicarius seemed to have noticed my confused look as she quickly explained, "Java's their cat," she said before sighing. "Come on, just this once? You know I'd take him in myself, but my landlord has a no pet policy. He wouldn't even approve my ESA last month."

"That's because your 'ESA' was a giant tarantula you found on the way home from work. It went into your neighbor's sink, nearly scaring the old lady to death," Lento Lure pointed out. "Besides, you didn't even have a letter for it. Had you talked to your doctor, maybe things would've ended out better, but do you ever listen to my advice? No."

Their words went over my head as I had no idea what they meant by ESA or how a tarantula could even be considered a pet. Seeing how Sicarius blinked all four of her eyes when she looked at Lento Lure, I shoved any thought of questioning her reasoning behind me.

All I knew was that this large pup needed a place to stay the night. If we left it here, then there was a good chance one of those criminals would come back to claim it for themselves. The last thing we wanted was for the dog to be used in a future dog fight, whether it would be used as bait or in the fight itself. From what I had just heard, Lento Lure and Sicarius couldn't take it in. We could have asked Bravura, but he looked busy with the amount of people who decided to take part in this dog fight. As much as I had wanted to help, he told the three of us to just do one more lap before calling it a night.

I doubted he was going to call it a night for himself the way things seemed to be going.

The pup's tail thumped onto the ground as he let Sicarius pet him. Not once did he try snapping at her or growling because she was near. Part of me wanted to guess that he wasn't a dog that would've been used in a fight, but what did I know when it came to these things?

Yet, a few words spilled out of my mouth, taking both Sicarius and Lento Lure off guard. I didn't even realize it myself until they started talking about how perfect the idea was going to be even if it was only for one night.

Just one night, I told myself.

Wow...that was a long break between this chapter and the last. Things have just been hectic on my end, and when I got to writing this chapter, I needed some extra help. So shout out to FoxyPuff for her help. Without her, this chapter would've been very choppy and awkward! There is just one more chapter to this arc. Luckily, it won't be as long as a wait, I promise! If all goes well, it should be released by the end of the month.

Until then, I'll leave you on a chapter question: if you could have any type of pet, whether it be a tarantula (like Elle wanted), dog, or anything you can imagine, what would you want and why?

Character Spotlight: Raiden Yamamoto
Quirk: Ultra Strength
Likes: Cross Training

Song: Madan no Ou to Vanadis - Saint Groel