The Station

"*There is also a* bomb *on this train... so don't try anything!*"

**The Station** (地 (ち) 下 (か) 鉄 (てつ) の救 (きゅう) 助 (じょ) 編 (へん)  *Chikatetsu no Kyūjo Hen)* is the fourth story event in Our Villain Organisation, the first story event in The Agency Arc, and the third canon event in the series.

The Organisation is instructed to disrupt the activities of a bank heist-turned hostage situation ordered by the corrupt actions of a villain-hiring hero, but plans turn awry when it is revealed that a bomb has been placed on the train, and that the corrupt hero's orders have been superseded by a mysterious third party.

## Summary

On a warm autumn evening at the Eternal Summer, the staff are preparing for the restaurant's evening opening hours (with the exception of Shino Kitamura and Kumokyo Ichishi, who are goofing off.) A news report on the restaurant's TV suddenly interrupts the normal broadcast, reporting that a bank robbery of almost a billion Japanese Yen (13 million NZD, 9 million USD) from a bank, and the suspected robbers are fleeing the scene on an appropriated subway train, holding hostages to guarantee their escape. Whilst exciting, the staff of the Eternal Summer have little reason to care.

Nocturne, however, soon steps down the stairwell of the restaurant in *full villain equipment* to address the staff (resulting in Kumokyo attempting to push Nocturne back up the stairs in a panic, fearing somebody will see him in his attire.) He orders everyone to meet him in his office, and tells them that the day staff will be taking over their shifts; as if on cue, Kagami Henemi, Moka Yugosora, and Keisuke Darashima walk into the restaurant in their uniforms. The group, now intrigued, finish what they were doing (Shino is in the process of being awakened after being slapped on the back of the head by Nocturne) and head up the stairs to Nocturne's office.

Inside Nocturne's office, he briefs the Organisation's members about the news report they undoubtedly caught on TV, but reveals additional news: while the Organisation would normally be totally apathetic to these current events, and would certainly have done something of this nature themselves if the circumstance called for it, this action goes directly against the Organisation's philosophy of *Quirk Superiority.* The revelation that the Organisation has a philosophy is revealed to be totally new to some of the Organisation members, which prompts a silent gesture of exasperation from Nocturne before he continues with his briefing.

Nocturne reveals that the train hijacking is, in actuality, a job ordered by a corrupt hero - this hero will later "save the day" by boarding the train and "defeating" the villains inside, thereby increasing his popularity and standing in the hero world. Nocturne tells the Organisation that in order to stop this, they will take over the train *first*, before this hero is able to do it himself. Nocturne also admits that even this would usually be below the Organisation's notice, but not in this specific case: the origin location of the hijacked train belongs to Shojirou Atsuki's home district, and it has been confirmed that members of his family are aboard the train, making this mission *personal*. Before Nocturne can continue, Slime-chan drips from the ceiling, referring to Nocturne as "*Nocturne-chaaaan!*" in an exaggerated rendition of a schoolgirl's voice, informing him of a sudden change of events as she procures a tablet from an unknown source on her body.

The tablet recording, though of mediocre quality, clearly displays the inside of a train: a strangely-dressed villain in a black jumpsuit and oddly-applied facial makeup asks if the recording is live, before a gloved hand displays a thumbs-up gesture from the side of the screen. The villain introduces himself to the recording, before proudly declaring that the train has been armed with a *bomb* - which will be immediately detonated if any suspicious activity is noticed by the villains aboard the train. The villain warns the Organisation against interfering, before the recording simply cuts off. In concern, Nocturne announces that he will no longer be joining the Organisation in their mission, but to continue as planned - but to take into caution the newly revealed bomb threat, as well as the fact that Shoji's family are aboard the train. Shoji angrily declares, with good reason, that if any of the Organisation's members voluntarily puts his family at risk, he will personally flay and cook them. Nocturne hands the group a map of the Japanese rainwater sewage system, and tells them that the quickest way to catch the train is by this system: it connects to the sewers just behind the restaurant, and the group can catch the train head-on.

The Organisation exit the restaurant and proceed down the sewers, prompting disgusted reactions from Kumokyo, Keiko Ketsueki, and Michiko Yuzuki. Shoji, however, is totally enamoured with what appears to be a *Byrum* species of moss blanketing the walls. He attempts to scrape some off the walls to cook later, but is stopped by his thoroughly grossed-out party. As they proceed down the hallway into the rainwater collection facility, Keiko hears a noise, which reveals itself to be a large, hulking golem-like figure made from solid ice. The golem immediately displays its aggressive behaviour by firing an icicle at force at a falling leaf, which had made an audible noise by landing in the rainwater aqueduct. Keiko immediately spots an additional golem to the west, while Shino is also able to see these two golems and a third golem to the east. The group attempts to head west, but Shino heads east.

As the main group attempts to sidle around a patrolling golem, Shino scrambles the surrounding lights, leaving him and the other group in total darkness but leaving the other golems perfectly visible, giving the Organisation the benefit of darkness. He then sneaks into the breaker room of the system, which he promptly short-circuits, plunging the *entire* system into darkness. The main group at this point have given up attempting to sneak past the west-most golem after Keiko spots an additional golem behind the patrol route of the first, making the path they are attempting likely entirely too dangerous to attempt. They backtrack and go by the route Shino previously took, with Keiko (being at this point the only member who can see in the dark) leading, and with each member being connected to the other via rope. As they attempt to access the breaker room, however, Shoji accidentally bangs into the push-bar of the open door, alerting a single ice golem patrolling that room, and causing a fight to break out. Aoki Gahara quickly materialises and throws a net over the golem, before exiting the room through the right; the rest of the group simply immediately backs out the door they just came through.

Aoki meets up with Shino, but a *second* golem detects them through the wall they were just hiding behind, via sound. Aoki throws *another* net over this golem, who stumbles backwards and falls over, buying both him and Shino time to escape. The other group, holding the map Nocturne gave them, run directly for the sewer exits. Both groups meet halfway and exit the sewers while being pursued by half a dozen angry ice golems.

The Organisation exit out into a maintenance section of the Japanese subway station, just in time to witness what they assume is the hijacked train in the distant tunnel. However, they quickly notice that the train has *eyes*, and the train reveals itself to be an incredibly odd combination of a ferret and a train. Shino and Keiko quickly jump aboard its head, whilst Kumokyo, Shoji, and Aoki have less luck and land aboard its tail. Michiko flips herself onto the ceiling of the tunnel and also lands squarely on its tail.

Kumokyo begins to make her way around to one of the doors on the side of the train, but notices a woman in a sweater holding a gun in the third compartment. The woman also has a very large tail, which ends in a mace-like shape. Kumokyo waves through the window, and is promptly shot, which shatters out the glass. Kumokyo immediately throws herself back onto the tail of the ferret train to prevent herself from dropping off, sustaining heavy injuries in the process. The woman, **Macetail**, informs the other villains on the train via walkie-talkie before exiting the train and boards the train's roof to confront the other Organisation members. She is quickly defeated when Michiko simply flips her vertically, resulting in her flying off the train. A second man with a squid-like mass replacing his hair climbs aboard the roof to back up Macetail, but stumbles over multiple traps left by Aoki, who collapses in two hits.

Shoji and Michiko enter the third compartment; another man, **Streamline**, enters the third compartment from the second, but is almost immediately subdued by Michiko after she bashes him so hard with her staff that her face almost splits in two. Shoji is *visibly disturbed* by the attack, and Michiko doesn't understand how she's achieved this attack either.

At the front of the train, Shino and Keiko have entered the first compartment, coming face-to-face with an extremely large-built and hulking figure of a man. This man, **Rumble**, immediately initiates combat towards them, but is reduced to a bleeding and shaking wreck by Keiko, who similarly incapacitates him in only two attacks. Shino, having not done anything in the resultant fight, opts to open what would usually be the conductor's cabin; coming face to face with a woman who appears to be meditating or concentrating very hard. Shino begins to threaten her, but then simply decides to knock her out. Upon doing so, the *entire train* screeches to a halt, as the ferret train begins to revert back to animal-like behaviour. Shino immediately regrets knocking her out and tries to wake her up by slapping her repeatedly across the face.

Keiko enters the second compartment and comes face-to-face with the villain from the earlier recording, as well as another figure who appears to be entirely made from glass. She also notices several odd symbols that have been seemingly drawn onto the walls and ceiling of the train compartment, as well as an extremely oddly-dressed man in a green suit and a hat with a question mark, who makes a shushing motion towards Keiko, indicating that for some reason the villains have no idea he's there. She suffers a blow from **Glass**, but defeats him in two attacks; in the resultant tumble, however, the villain touches Keiko on the arm, leaving one of the odd symbols etched into her skin. This totally disgusts Keiko, who proclaims that her skincare regimen is now ruined after realising that she cannot remove the symbol from her skin.

During this time, the rest of the Organisation members from the third compartment have entered the train, and the group all meets back up in the second compartment (including Kumokyo Ichishi, who at this point is miraculously no longer critically injured.) The villain, who reveals himself as Tick Tock, reveals that he is capable of blowing up the entire train with his quirk, which turns anything he touches into a bomb. He goes to touch his thumbs together, the trigger for his quirk, but is not able to because he is physically hiding his right thumb behind his palm - despite this, Tick Tock is incapable of understanding what has happened, opting to angrily question why his thumb has disappeared. Keiko immediately knocks the man out, and cuts off one of his thumbs to "disarm" the bomb. The symbols do not disappear, however.

The group then go to question The Great Persuader (who they have all forgotten from previous incidents, as a result of his quirk.) He claims that on his way home from shopping, the train was hijacked by villains; he immediately retaliates with his quirk, persuading the villains of both "I cannotte be noticedeth", and also "You wilt all be defeateth in but twoe blows!", but realising that because none of the villains realise he's there, he can't defeat them in two blows, as none of the villains even register any of the blows he deals to them. The Great Persuader thus settles to just wait on the train until someone else comes so he can help them defeat the villains. Keiko goes to simply kill Tick Tock to properly remove the symbols and resolve the bomb threat, but the Great Persuader warns against this, telling her that some quirks *activate upon death* - Keiko, visibly annoyed, instead slings Tick Tock over her shoulder.

The Great Persuader then tells the Organisation that he will secure the hostages, and pulls out his megaphone, persuading the *entire* train that "you remember nothing about these traumatic experiences", and that they can "go home now": the hostages aboard the train return to their normal selves and simply exit the ferret-train, stepping off and walking down the tunnel to the nearest proper subway stop. The Great Persuader exits the train with them and bids the Organisation farewell; Keiko and Shino have been *extremely* angry with this mysterious man for the entire duration they've seen him, but cannot explain why. Shoji, who had earlier been traumatised by Michiko's one-hit KO of Streamline, is affected by the Great Persuader's line telling him that he remembers nothing about traumatic experiences, which causes him to promptly forget about the entire evening. He is visibly disturbed about suddenly appearing in a half-ferret half-train, but calms down when the rest of the Organisation fill him in. Shino goes to recover Aoi Torimi from the conductor's cabin as their *own* hostage. The group rouse her from unconsciousness, and demand further information - when she is unwilling to comply, Kumokyo slips Nocturne's name, which visibly terrifies the woman. The woman is further unable to reveal anything, even when Kumokyo threatens her by exercising her quirk down the train tunnel (which then immediately knocks her out.) Aoi reveals the ferret-train is actually the result of a ferret with a quirk that lets it combine with other objects; Shino goes to recover the ferret, which Aoi has named Chuchu. The Organisation then settle to walk back along the tunnel to the Organisation, as there's no other inconspicuous way to return there.

Walking back through the rainwater collection system, they notice that none of the ice golems from previous are there, and that the lights have all been fixed. As they go to exit the system, a door from behind them opens, and freezes the damp portions of the Organisation's uniforms (which they had previously acquired from wading through one of the aqueducts) solid, fusing them to the floor. The door opens fully to reveal a man dressed in black diving gear and glowing cyan highlights, holding a strange ice-bladed knife to the throat of a little girl, whom Shoji is instantly able to identify as her youngest sister. An ice golem starts to form behind the Organisation, and the man demands the group surrender Tick Tock and the other girl to his custody, or the little girl dies. The man reveals himself to having been previously on the train, but had stealthily left it and returned back to the rainwater system with another hostage after the Organisation's admittedly extremely poor stealth attempts.

Shino inquires whether or not he has to give the ferret up; the man demands the return of the ferret as well. This causes Shino to simply hug the ferret tighter. Michiko, Kumokyo, and Aoki attempt to distract the man by playing the fool, but this only seems to anger him, as he tightens his grip on the girl's throat. Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, Shino slips a ball bearing from his pocket and fires it squarely into the man's face as hard is he can; the force of the impact completely shatters the man's diving helmet, revealing the right portion of his face, and some of his white hair. The impact causes the man to stumble, letting go of the girl in the process. Michiko smashes apart the ice holding her to the floor and immediately goes for her, while the rest of the Organisation immediately engage in combat.

The man proves to be a ferocious fighter, almost instantly incapacitating Shoji with a single attack, and summoning multiple of the previous ice golems from earlier. As the man attempts to continue combat, radio chatter erupts from his helmet, ordering him to cease and to return immediately without any of the other "hirelings". The man begrudgingly complies, telling the Organisation that they "got off lightly this time", and making to leave. Shoji asks the man for his name: he replies with "Rain" before he starts to reply into his helmet, referencing by name a villain called Reflecti, distressing Michiko.

## Story Impact

* The Agency is revealed as a faction, though not directly.
* Rain is introduced as a major antagonist.
	+ Reflecti is mentioned by name; Reflecti is the name of Michiko's (supposedly) dead mother.
* Tick Tock is introduced as a minor antagonist.
* The minor antagonists **Cuttle**, **Macetail**, **Glass**, **Streamline**, and **Rumble** are introduced, and retired.
* Aoi Torimi is introduced as a character, and is added to the roster of The Organisation.

## Battles

* The Organisation vs. the Ferret Train
* The Organisation vs. Rain (1st Battle)