Chapter 3: More Questions Than Answers

Mandalay had arrived at the construction site, now in her hero outfit, and was interviewing the owners along with the workers. The company was own by a couple from Mie Prefecture. They were in the city for work building a new apartment complex in Musutafu. In all her interviewing and talks with the police on the seen she could only find out that the thieves had stolen some of the steel beams oddly enough. While in line with the what this group targeted it still seems weird to her that they'd go for something like steel beams. As she was talking to the main owner she got a call over her headset.

"Hang on a second Mr. Uraraka I need to take this." She stated.

"Understood," He replied.

The gentlemen stepped back a bit while Mandalay put her hand to her ear to reply

"Pixie-Bob what is it?" She asked.

"Mandalay… I've got good news and bad news." She replied, sounding out of breath. "The good news is we managed to catch another group of thieves a side from the ones The Captain caught."

"Okay… and the bad news?" Mandalay inquired.

"As we were loading them into the police vehicles we got word that two more robberies of a similar nature occured." Pixie-Bob explained.

"WHAT?!" She exclaimed. "You sure they match the pattern?!"

"I'm sure we're on our way to help with the interrogations, some other pros are handling the other crime scenes." Pixie-Bob replied.

"Alright I'll met up with you there, cya then." Mandalay stated.

"Roger that," Pixie-Bob returned before hanging up.

With that Mandalay let out an annoyed sigh.

"This just keeps becoming more and more of a headache." She moaned. "Anyways I need to be going now, sorry about what happened again."

"Please don't worry about it's not your fault. I just hope you can bring these criminals to justice soon." The owner stated.

"Don't worry sir, we're already making progress on that front." She assured him. "Hopefully we'll have a major break through soon."

With a wave goodbye she went back to her car and made her way to the police station. Upon arriving at the police station she sees her team waiting outside of the interrogation room, with the exception of the Captain who was at another police station. She walks up to them.

"How's the interrogation proceeding?" She asks.

"Not good, these guys are silent we can't seem to get through to them." Ragdoll explained.

"Great… hopefully Steve's having better luck on his end." Mandalay expressed.

Meanwhile…

Steve was waiting patiently outside of the interrogation room. His patients was, however, wearing thin as the interrogation continued to drag on. Sheesh… you'd think the Japs would have more intense methods of getting information out of people. I know this is a different world, but I remember hearing some pretty bad stories of Japanese POW Camps. Then again that was war time and they were only stories. I never served over in the pacific so everything I heard was second hand at best. As he was thinking the door opened to reveal a irritated police officer.

"No luck I take it?" He asked.

The officer only shook his head. Rogers lets out a frustrated sigh.

"Let me take a crack at it maybe I can get some answers." Rogers stated.

"Fine, do whatever you want." The officer replied.

"I'm gonna hold you to that." Steve returned.

Suddenly the police officer got nervous as Rogers entered the room. Just what is he planning to do? He mentally asked himself. His worry only increased when he heard the door lock and a chair being shuffled.

At the Pussycat's Hero Agency…

All the Pussycat's were gathered around waiting for Rogers to report back. While they doubted that he had any more luck than they did, they still hoped that he managed to get some new information. Not long after they had returned Mandalay got a call from Rogers.

"Captain any luck on your end?" She asked.

"Yep…" He answered.

"Really how?! We weren't able to get anything out of the guys we talked to." She replied.

"Just took a little… persuasion… to get him to talk." He answered.

There was a brief awkward silence.

"Anyways their group is known as Icarus. The boss is someone named El Cráneo. They're working on some sort of project but the grunt told me he had no idea what it was." Steve continued.

"Good to know, anything else you found?" She questioned.

"Unfortunately no," He replied. "The guy's only interacted with middle men. He says he's got no idea what they look like or their names, something about a perception altering quirk prevents him from knowing what they look like, sorry."

"That's fine it's at least a start. Come back and meet up at the agency we'll plan our next move from their." Mandalay ordered.

"Yeaahhhh… about that I have some… stuff to take care of at the police station so I might be awhile." The Captain stated.

"Okay… try and make it back soon." She relayed.

"Will do." Steve stated before hanging up.

With that, Mandalay was left very, very confused. I'm scared to ask what he did to get that information.

In a warehouse somewhere in Tokyo…

A man stared down at the hundreds of men working tirelessly building weapons, transporting materials, and moving equipment. The walls on the inside of the warehouse we're made to prevent any sound from escaping the facility. The man had dark skin and his face was covered with an ornate red skull mask. The masks design was reminiscent of the Mexican Día del Muerte (Day of the Dead) masks. His gray hair was spiky and pulled back slightly. He also wore a tight black sleeveless leather vest, a pair of black leather pants, blood red military boots on his feet, and a blood red belt wrapped around his waist. This man was the villain El Cráneo.

As he looked out from the room above the warehouse, one of his subordinates walk up to him to give him today's report.

"S-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-ir I-I-I-I-I-I-I have t-t-t-t-t-today's r-r-r-r-r-report." He expressed with a deep fear.

"Hmm… you seem worried Hiraki why would that be?" El Cráneo asked in a calm deep yet sinister voice.

"W-w-w-w-w-well y-y-y-you see. S-s-s-some of our m-m-m-men we're… we're…" The lackey began.

"We're what?" The leader growled.

El Cráneo's eyes neared as though he was piercing through his subordinate was his gaze.

"We're… captured… sir." The man squicked.

"Oh is that it, I thought it might actually have been something important." El Cráneo stated calmly, his gaze softening.

"What… wait… y-y-y-y-you… aren't you mad sir?" The subordinate asked.

"Of course not why would I be?" He replied.

"Well… some of our men we're captured by the heroes. That's yet to happen till now so I thought you'd be more… you know upset." The subordinate pointed out.

"Geez Hiraki why did you think I had so many of them strike at once. This was the expected result." El Cráneo pointed out. "So what if we lose one team it's not like HiJinks team was all that important anyways."

"Wait how did you know HiJinks was one of the teams affected?" Hiraki asked.

"Like I said this was… wait one of the teams?" El Cráneo questioned.

Suddenly Hiraki felt his heart sink as the room around him grew colder than the coldest winter. He could feel his bosses rage. It was a burning fire, contrasting the cold he now felt in the room. His bosses eyes pierced through him like daggers. He wanted to run, hide, do something but all he could do was stand there too afraid to even breathe.

"Who was the other team captured… Hiraki." El Cráneo spoke, as though he were the devil himself.

"R-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-rubber s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-sir." Hiraki whispered quietly.

El Cráneo's rage increased further. Rubber was a fantastic team how did this happen, their simplest job yet does them in. No… more like who do the heroes have that could do this. He thought to himself.

"Hiraki get me the name of the hero who did them in… I need to know who my newest target is." He growled.

"YES SIR!" Hiraki shouted as fast as he could before dashing off.

El Cráneo only stood their letting his anger slowly burn out as to not break anything of value.

"I'll find you mister hero and rip the bones out from your body!" He declared.

Later that night...

Shino, Mandalay, plopped down on her sofa with a long sigh of relief. It had been a long day and the young heroine was glad to finally be able to relax. It had gotten late and Steve still hadn't returned to the agency. As such, it was decided that they would go home and reconvene tomorrow. Due to that she was now home wearing a simple white tank top and pink shorts relaxing on the coach. She turned on the T.V to enjoy some late night comedy. After about a half hour the door to her apartment opened.

"I'm home!" Steve called out as he entered.

"Welcome back, you sure took your sweet time." She pointed out.

"Yeah sorry 'bout that, had some… things to take care of at the station." He explained.

"Yeah yeah whatever, just remember we're meeting up tomorrow to discuss what we should have tonight." She replied at bit annoyed.

"Don't worry I know, I got your message." He replied as he walked to his room to get changed.

Despite all that happened today, especially with Steve forcing her to push the team meeting back to tomorrow, Shino couldn't help but smile. While it had been weird for both of them at first, especially Steve in particular given the time period he's from, she found herself enjoying the dimension hopper's company. She was actually kind of sad at the idea of him moving out eventually but figured it was for the best since they weren't in a relationship or anything. Wait why would I be sad if he moved out shouldn't I be happy for him. I mean it's another step forward in this new world of his. Unless… NO… no no no… I do not like him that way… just as friends right... friends… who happen to live in the same apartment. Yeah that's it… beside it was because he was from another world and had nowhere else to go. I mean no one else could have really taken him in. As she thought about this her face turned a bright red.

As this was happening Steve walked back into the room. He was dressed in a grey t-shirt and black gym shorts. As he walked in he noticed Shino's red face.

"Hey Shino are you feeling alright your face is all red?" He asked.

"HUH! WHAT!? I mean… it's nothing yeah I'm fine just a really embarrassing text from Ryuko." She assured him.

"Uh huh," he replied unconvinced as he went to take a set on the recliner.

While he wanted to press further as to what was bothering his roommate he figured if it was important she'd tell him. With that their night slowly came to a close as they sat and laugh at the night show before heading to bed.