Spinaraki Week 2020 Day 4: Crime Time + Late Nights

Spinaraki Week 2020 Day 4: Crime Time + Late Nights

I Don't See No Red Lights (Just A Wild Ride)

Also known as the story behind how the League of Villains got their “Get Wrecked Overhaul” van, and why Spinner is the getaway driver.

~~~

If someone with a time-traveling quirk had gone back to just before Stain appeared on television and told Spinner that within a few months he would be driving backwards down a highway, in a stolen van, police in hot pursuit, at 1am on a Tuesday, while his passenger was having the time of his life, he would refuse to believe them once he heard about the passenger. A person actively enjoying themselves with him in close proximity? Impossible. But that was exactly what was happening, along with the highway chase of course.

~

This was not what he’d expected the late night trip to the convenience store to lead to. It was his turn to make the run for snacks and Shigaraki had just followed him without any explanation. Just before he could enter the store, Shigaraki grabbed his arm and practically dragged him into the nearby parking lot, causing him to let out a slightly embarrassing yelp.

“Whoa wait, where are we going? The store’s that way!”

“And we’ll get there eventually, but we gotta do something important first.” Spinner looked at Shigaraki’s face and noticed his expression –a devious grin and playful glint in his eyes– was one that hinted of upcoming mischief and scheming.

“We have a hoard of starving, homicidal maniacs to appease,” Spinner said semi-sarcastically, since he was technically right, “What could possibly be more important?”

“It’s a little multi-faceted. We’ll be obtaining an extra mode of transportation that doesn’t rely on Kurogiri, acquiring a game piece I need for my upcoming match against Overhaul, and as a bonus, you get to be taught an important lesson that all city-dwelling criminals learn pretty early on. Ah, that’ll work!” Shigaraki exclaimed, pointing towards one of the parked vehicles, which Spinner realized was a van.

“I’m confused, what does this van have to do with anything?”

“You’ll see. I’m gonna run in and grab the snacks and a few other things. While I’m gone, I want you to break the antennae off of that old rust-bucket next to the van.” At that, Shigaraki quickly made his way back to the entrance much to Spinner’s confusion.

“Huh? Wait where are you going? I’m still-” “C’mon, you’ve got this,” Shigaraki shouted. “Those muscles aren’t just for show, right?” And with that, he was gone, leaving Spinner baffled and blushing. He eventually did break the antennae off, quite easily, after he got over the initial shock of the compliment –was it a compliment?– and a minute later Shigaraki was rushing back over with the snacks under one arm and brandishing… something in his other hand.

“Okay, just do as I say and then we can go. Here, shove this wedge into the top of the van’s window.” “A wedge? What do we need– oh never mind,” Spinner cut himself off as he followed the instructions.

“By the way, are you feeling okay Shigaraki? You seem a little out of breathe.”

“Yeah I’m fine,” Shigaraki panted, “Now take the antennae and poke it into the space you just created between the window and the frame– yeah like that! Okay, aim for that little button by the door handle. No the one with the lock symbol on it.”

As mortifying as it was to look back on, the reality of Shigaraki’s “lesson” clicked into Spinner’s mind simultaneously with the click of the now unlocked van that he had just broken into. His mental stewing over not figuring out what he was just taught until the end was interrupted by Shigaraki as he hopped in and tossed the snacks into the back, turning towards him right after with a sarcastic smile saying, “You gonna get in or what?”

After sitting down, Spinner became horrified at the sight of a steering wheel in front of him. “Shigaraki, why am I in the driver’s seat?”

“Because,” Shigaraki said, as if the answer was obvious, “we have to take the van for a test drive to make sure it runs smoothly enough, and since I don’t have any driving experience, you’re gonna drive.”

“I don’t have any experience either!” Spinner yelled, throwing his arms up in anger. “What the hell qualifies me to drive but not you?”

“I’ve seen you play Grand Theft Auto at least seven times since you’ve joined the group, and I know driving is one of the main mechanics. I prefer RPGs, so I don’t usually play games like that, so you have more experience with it. Just drive like you do in the game, I’m sure you’ll do fine.”

Spinner wasn’t usually the type to scream, or have outbursts in general. A lifetime of getting treated like garbage for doing literally anything that brought more attention to himself than his appearance already did does that to a person. But at that moment, either due to the level of anger or the trust he had in his apparent passenger to not retaliate, Spinner blew up.

He couldn’t remember much of his rage-hazed rant, but he did remember going slightly hoarse from the screeching about how no driving in real life is not “basically the same as in video games you moron”, and waving his arms to the point of nearly smacking Shigaraki upside the head. The only reason he didn’t keep it going for the next hour was because Shigaraki grabbed his face and forcibly shut his mouth so he could interrupt.

“Okay, you can yell at me all you want back at the hideout, but you may wanna start driving now. I didn’t exactly pay for the snacks and it looks like the manager called the cops.”

Spinner looked out the window and, yep, there were red and blue lights reflecting off the buildings, getting brighter and brighter, and the unmistakable sound of sirens. The threat of dooming himself and his leader to a life behind bars so soon was enough for Spinner to grab the keys, likely a spare set left on the console by a seemingly stupid owner, shove them into the ignition start the car, and proceed to fly like a bat out of hell from the parking lot and out into the street, now easily seen and targeted by the police.

In his panic, he lost himself in the act of evading capture and ordered Shigaraki to pull up a route to the nearest highway on his phone while attempting to throw off the cops through quick swerves into one way streets and through red lights. Once he heard the words “got it”, he snatched the phone, not paying attention to the slight enthusiasm in his passenger’s voice, and swerved through traffic to reach the highway.

By the time Spinner got on, one of the police cruisers had nearly caught up, and rammed into the van’s side to spiral it out of control. Somehow, he was able to switch gears fast enough to accommodate and quickly found himself driving backwards down the highway, with at least ten cop cars in hot pursuit, and it was at this point that he realized Shigaraki was screaming. A glance towards his face showed that he was splitting his chapped lips with how large his smile was, his expression much like the ones of thrill-seekers on a roller coaster, and it strangely calmed Spinner down somewhat, because at least he wasn’t screaming in terror.

Now that he knew that Tomura was okay and not panicking like he was, Spinner’s attention drew back to the matter of how to shake the police off their trail. It took him a minute, all the while trying his hardest not to hit any of the other cars on the highway, but he finally came up with a plan. An incredibly stupid and dangerous one, but a plan nonetheless.

“Tomura, do me a solid and lookout for anything that might slow down the cops.” He heard the rustle of clothes so he kept his focus on the occasional car he had to avoid, and within a few minutes Tomura responded with great news.

“We just drove past a warning about this highway. It looks like a bridge section up ahead under construction, so they’re diverting traffic off the exits on either side. Explains why there aren’t as many cars out here.”

“Is the bridge over another road?”

“Looks like it according to my phone.”

“How long until we get there?”

“About a mile or so. Why?”

Tomura turned to Spinner, and in response Spinner let a shit-eating grin spread across his face as he threw Tomura’s words back at him.

“Because, we have to make sure the van runs smoothly for during this test drive, and what a better way to do so then to see how well it drives given a wide range of scenarios. Like with sudden gear shifts, and how it holds up when landing from jumps.”

Spinner could imagine the dumbstruck look on Tomura’s face once he realized what Spinner was about to do, but as much as he wanted to peak and see it, he had a van to drive.

Paying no attention to the increased honking of the police cars trying to warn him of the unfinished bridge, nor the traffic cones set up to block it, and not even how Tomura was reacting to any of this, Spinner span the steering wheel in the last few seconds, causing him to drift sideways in the last few meters before the road ran out. To what was probably the horror of the cops who had been chasing it, the van flew sideways off the bridge.

Inside the van, Spinner took the precious seconds he was airborne to switch the gearshift from Reverse to Drive, and let his foot rest after using the gas pedal for so long. When the van landed on the highway, which happened to intersect perpendicularly below the incomplete one, Spinner went pedal to the metal and sped off, leaving the persistent police behind.

~

Spinner continued to block out everything but the road ahead until he was able to find an abandoned parking lot, made of cracked cement and a weed-ridden pavement, and finally stop the van and turn off the ignition.

He then had about thirty seconds to breathe before turning back in to hear Tomura whooping and hollering about how much fun the chase was, following after him as he almost threw himself out of the van in his adrenaline high state to jump to the top of the van. While Tomura got the rest of his excitement out of his system, finally slumping backwards as he caught his breath, Spinner took his time climbing up the side and getting comfortable on the roof, just in time for all of his anxiety to come back in full force.

“I can’t believe we just did that!”

It the first coherent thought either of them could put into words, but while Tomura spoke it elatedly, Spinner’s tone was far more panicky. Spinner quickly barreled on before Tomura could get another word in.

“What even happened just now? One minute we’re grabbing food, the next we’re stealing a van, and the minute after that I’m speeding down the highway trying not to die or get captured! All of that for a getaway vehicle and– I mean– what do we even need a van for Tomura?!”

“I told you,” Tomura replied eagerly, “It’s for Overhaul. See, I’m almost certain that Toga and Twice are gonna mess things up for the yakuza assholes so badly that most of them are gonna get caught, and if Overhaul happens to be arrested he’ll have to be transported to Tartarus or a hospital depending on how badly he gets his ass handed to him. That’s where we come in: we intercept him on route with the van, take his arms as payback for Magne and Compress’s arm, then we drive off past the horizon and go out for food, or Kurogiri bakes us a cake when he comes back from his solo-mission.”

Spinner paused, taking in the plan. “Okay,” he exhaled, trying his best to cool down, “okay, that– that actually sounds good, makes sense, maybe a bit flashy, but doable. Yeah.”

Tomura grinned. “Good to know someone doesn’t think this plan is trash. Personally, I can’t wait to ride on top! I bet it’ll be even more fun without seatbelts!”

Nevermind, Spinner was panicky again. “ON TOP! You wanna ride on top of the van after that shit-show of a scene I pulled back there?!”

“What shitshow?” Tomura whirled around, facing Spinner with a look of utter disbelief, as if he’d just told Tomura that his villain outfit wasn’t inspired by Stain. “That was some great maneuvering, unless you somehow missed the part where you were driving backwards without crashing!”

“Wha– Did you miss the part where we drove off a bridge? Shit, did the fall concuss you?” Spinner exclaimed, already reaching for Tomura’s head to examine it.

Tomura froze for a moment, his face looking puzzled for a moment before seemingly figuring something out, then he carefully took Spinner’s hands –pinkies raised– and guided them away from his face.

“I’m completely fine, I swear,” he said as gently as he could with his scratchy voice, as if he was –or was he intentionally– trying to calm Spinner down, “And that fall doesn’t count, it was intentional. Besides we both got out of there in one piece.”

Shigaraki paused for a second, seemingly contemplating whether or not to say more, then he looked up from Spinner’s hands to his eyes and gave him a smile before continuing. “It was all thanks to you! Well, and the awesome driving skills you apparently learned from Grand Theft Auto.”

Spinner had seen him smile before, all twisty and at least slightly deranged, but the smile Tomura was giving him right now had none of that madness. It was a fully genuine smile, and if that wasn’t enough to have him blushing, then said blush got even worse when Spinner realized that the smile meant that Tomura wasn’t joking, it was honest praise. Tomura had just given Spinner the first sincere compliment he had heard since forever ago, over his inexperienced and insane driving of all things!

~

The rest of that night was blur for Spinner, with only a few memories of blasting the new van’s –his van’s– radio and practically destroying the snack supply together with Tomura managing to stick in his brain after the night was over. Luckily for Spinner, the lecture Mr. Compress hit them over the head with when they finally got home around 4am was not one of them. What stuck was the strange start, the thrilling chase, and the warm feeling of genuine admiration from their adventure that Tuesday morning.

And if Dabi happened to complain about his driving a week or so later, while barreling down the highway yet again, well, Spinner knew better.

Tomura, trying to look presentable for a PLF meeting: “Hey, does this suit make me look ugly?”

Dabi, not even bothering to look at him: “No no no, your face does.”

There, now his cosplay is perfect!

I don’t know if anyone noticed it first, and if not then this is so very late, but in the second movie, Shigaraki has that red coat, right? It’s what he asked for when ReDestro offered to buy him and his League anything they wanted.

And at first I was like, bold style! Shigaraki has a flashy side (which we all knew). Then when I saw the movie with friends, my friends pointed out that Shigaraki looked a lot like Dante from the video game Devil May Cry. And–

He was cosplaying. He asked for the red coat because he wanted a fucking cosplay.

We all give Spinner shit for cosplaying Stain, but Shigaraki “I’m gonna use the army I just conquered’s funds to make myself look like this video game character” Tomura is right there too. This absolute fucking nerd.

I got the chance to play with watercolors and I painted a sunrise on the horizon. Here’s the final product.

Just kidding! I added Shigaraki because I had to!

Perfect!

Spinaraki Week 2020 Day 2: Touch

To Soothe This Aching Body

When Shigaraki can’t get into the stasis tank on his own, Ujiko sends someone in to help him get there. Or, Spinner is worried and Shigaraki tries (and fails) to tell him that everything’s fine.

~~~

When Doctor Ujiko said he would be going through “four months of pure hell”, he didn’t really think too much about how realistic the description was gonna be. After all, he had already walked through hell and back at least eleven times by this stage of his life. But as the initial surgery drew to a close, and Ujiko ordered him to stand up while he began preparing the stasis tank for the next part of the ordeal, Tomura found that he couldn’t move.

Technically he could wobble his body back and forth in spite of the extreme pain, but his legs weren’t doing jack. He found this out by trying to leave the surgical table, only to fall off the damn thing and land with his limbs sprawling about like a rag doll. Perfect. Now what?

He couldn’t get up by himself, and Ujiko certainly wasn’t gonna help him stand since the old man’s weight was far more fat than muscle. He was considering trying to crawl his way over until he saw the doctor fiddling with Johnny. Looks like someone else was gonna have to scrape his body off the floor and dump him in the tank. He wondered who the lucky helper was gonna be.

When Ujiko left the room and the black storm of goo cleared up, the helper was revealed to be Spinner. Good, someone who gave a damn about him for being something other than a lab rat. He should say hi, it’s been a long month –or was it two?– and he was happy to see one of his loyal friends for the first time in forever, especially Spinner.

Well “hi” was apparently the wrong greeting because Spinner was freaking out over him as if he was already dead, a freshly murdered corpse just waiting to be discovered. To be fair, he certainly felt like a corpse.

“How did you get on the floor like that? I thought you were supposed to become god-like or something after the surgery! Why are you bleeding out on the floor?!” As the scaled swordsman shouted at him, he was simultaneously hauling ass over towards him, quickly scooping him up in those thick, muscular arms of his.

Judging by the reaction, lightening the mood would probably be good for Spinner’s mental state, so he decided to try that.

“That’s because this is just the first part of the surgery, I gotta wait until everything comes together at the end. This first part also practically tore me limb from limb, rearranged my intestines, and mostly just did an absolute number on my body. So, my legs decided not to work, and now I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up.”

Huh, it looked like Spinner was choosing to ignore him in favor of placing him back on the table and cleaning his wounds. Attempting to at least, since he knew there wasn’t much anyone could do at this stage.

Well, if humor didn’t work, he could try explaining how everything was gonna be fine after this was all over. So, he started talking about exactly that: how this was nothing, the pain was worth it, he was gonna get all the power he needed to make sure he could give Spinner and the rest of the league anything and everything, whatever they needed to live as they saw fit. He even added how once he was done, Spinner would never have to suffer again, not if he could help it, and that all of this was for Spinner and the league, all for them.

It was the look of bewilderment in those pretty pink eyes that finally helped him realize that Spinner most likely had no idea what he was saying, and that he probably looked like a babbling lunatic to him. Wow, he really was out of it. Nonetheless, Spinner remained steadfast by his side regardless of his inane rambling, carefully wiping the blood away with gentle hands, touching him with a sort of reverence he’d never experienced before.

Later, Ujiko reentered the room, telling them that everything was ready with an impatient tone. Spinner picked him up and followed the doctor to a room covered in tubes and wires, with the stasis tank standing dead center. The swordsman carried him over, taking great care to mind his wounds. Please, as if he couldn’t handle a little more discomfort. They reached the tank, and Spinner switched from holding him bridal style to safely cradling him in one arm, using his quirk to climb up the glass. Once they reached the top opening, Ujiko gave out the last instructions. 

“Alright, just go ahead and drop him in, then I’ll lower the oxygen mask down and he’ll be all set.”

He braced himself for the drop, knowing he could probably take it even with all the bruising and bleeding, yet the drop never came. Instead, Spinner climbed down into the tank the same way he had climbed up it before. The oxygen mask was subsequently dropped down, and at this point Tomura tried to make a grab for it before having his hands coaxed back down. Having had enough with this coddling, he decided to call Spinner out.

“It’s fine,” he unintentionally whispered, voice hoarse from the month of screaming and the previous babbling. He took the opportunity to look straight at Spinner, despite the headache that came with moving his head, “I got it. I’ve had worse.”

And it once again looked like the wrong thing to say, as Spinner sharply turned towards him with a frustrated expression and shouted, “That doesn’t mean you need to put up with it!”

Oh, Spinner heard him this time. And now his friend was sighing, so he did his best to perk up to let him know he was listening right back.

“Knowing you can handle the pain doesn’t mean you automatically have to,” Spinner softly spoke, returning to the task of adjusting his oxygen mask. “I don’t even know if you’re all there, if you can even think right with everything going on. Shiga– Tomura, y-you keep rambling about how you’re gonna make sure we don’t suffer anymore, but it’s like you can’t see how much you’re suffering right now. Just… you’re doing so much for us, for me, so let me do something for you. Let me ease your suffering, even if it’s probably not by much.”

Oh.

Tomura actually felt a bit warmer after hearing that, a bit less tense and more relaxed. It felt like it was –no wait yes it really was– genuinely nullifying all that bodily pain. He tried to remember the scientific explanation behind what was happening, something about dopamine maybe, but he was too far gone to think about much of anything at this point. Either way, he already concluded that Spinner really was amazing, able to alleviate aches with some heartfelt words and soothing touches.

His train of thoughts halted as he felt Ujiko’s magical mystery solution rise up the tank, soon enough surrounding both him and Spinner, though not enough to prevent the scaled man from coming up for air. Even as the solution filled most of the tank, Spinner refused to let him go, choosing to hold him close as they floated in the solution and he began to go into stasis.

He could feel his heartbeat start to slow down, and he knew that it would only be another minute or so before it would cease to beat altogether. The whole time he was losing his consciousness, he continued to feel clawed fingers tenderly running across his scalp, tangling through his unruly hair. He could also feel the other hand rubbing his back to relax him even further, and the brush of a scaled beak nuzzling into his cheek and the crook of his neck.

As his heartbeat finally came to a stop, he felt a light pressure on his temple. He had just enough time to realize that it was a kiss before falling into the void.

Here’s my idea of what I think could happen:

Shigaraki hears the news, and at some point gets a hold of Twice’s body. He uses the AFO quirk to take Double and takes all new measurements of himself. Shigaraki then does his own homage to “Sad Man’s Parade” and creates a *%#$ ton of Shigaraki clones that spread out far and wide, all of which have both Decay and Double.

Hawks killed Twice due to the perceived threat of a clone army, using “the ends justify the means” to rationalize his actions. But that line of thinking goes out the window if the means don’t lead to the ends that are desired. Trying to prevent an army of Twices, only to give rise to an army of all-powerful Shigarakis, would mean that Hawks’s actions directly lead to even more casualties than if he just left Twice alone. His means lead to the worst possible ends.

If that isn’t “a taste of his own medicine made a million times worse”, I don’t know what is.

listen, Shigaraki's policy of revenge is clearly "give them a taste of their own medicine and then make it a million times worse".

Stain disrespects him? Shigaraki disrespects him harder, then gets him into jail. Overhaul disrespects him, kills a comrade and destroys another one's arm? Shigaraki kills one of theirs, destroys both of his arms, metaphorically spits on his quirk-less body and takes his quirk-erasing bullets (work of a lifetime), then leaves him to the heroes. Redestro chops off his broker's right fingers and threatens to disrespectfully terminate his villain organization? Shigaraki mocks him, then levels his city, makes him chop off his own legs, almost terminates his villain organization except that he is appointed leader by RD himself.

Now, I could go on, but the unexpected point of all this is: how much was Twice worth? How could you possibly repay the death of a man who could multiply himself endlessly and then make. it. worse?

Eh, dunno, you answer that.