Sushi! Sushi! Sushi!

“Wowwwwwwwwwwwww...” Sonata Dusk leaned forward on the heels of her boots, stars sparkling in her eyes. “Neeeeeato keeeeeano!” She spun and gestured at the half-repaired horse statue looming before the entrance to Canterlot High School under the dark blanket of night. “So you mean to tell us that the portal can actually take us somewhere besides Equestria?!?”

“Multiple 'somewheres', actually,” Adagio Dazzle stated. She leaned against the side of the trio's van from where it was parked across the street. “Regardless of the original intent behind the construction of the portal, its nexus is caught up in the criss-crossing branches of some enormously complex system: a Multi-Verse, as t'were. And it so happens that our current contact can offer us a ticket to a place far more fortuitous than this world.”

“Sounds like a load of bullshit to me,” Aria Blaze grunted into her half-burnt cigarette.

“Aria!” Sonata blanched at her. “Don't you get it?! We're powerless in this stinkin' place—but suddenly we might have a chance to start all over again!”

“Oh yeah...?” Aria plucked the cancer stick from her lips and flicked it against a nearby lamppost. “Sounds too fuckin' good to be true.” She exhaled a cloud of smoke and glared into the asphalt beneath their van. “If you ask me, this 'Sarumaru' fellow is just tugging at our strings. If we're not careful, we'll become his puppets. I mean—just think back to Equestria.” She glared at the other two. “It wouldn't be the first time we've been baited to certain doom.”

“But this isn't the same, though!” Sonata pouted. “I mean...!” She threw puppy dogs at Adagio. “Whatshername made a contract with Sarumaru before us, right?! Can't she vouch for this dude?”

“To be frank, I don't blame Aria for being so skeptical,” Adagio droned.

Sonata bit her lip. “You d-don't?”

“It's no coincidence that this creature has approached us—and a few other individuals whom the bleeding hearts of this world might label as... as...” Adagio blew out the side of her mouth, arms folded. “...'Unsavory.'”

“It just means he's got good taste~!” Sonata beamed.

“What's with you and riding the dicks of strangers?” Aria groaned.

Sonata barked: “It's worth it if it means we get our powers back!”

“No. No.” Adagio wagged a finger. “He's promising 'quirks'—not powers.”

“Meh...” Sonata shrugged with a blank expression. “So what's the big difference?”

“It's not our powers, dipshit.” Aria clenched her teeth. “It's just random bullcrap.”

This time, Dagi wagged her finger at Aria. “Don't downplay what he's offering either. Legitimate or not—it's what his entire world revolves around. I doubt he's blowing hot air when he says his Master is able and willing to grant us multiple of these all-important quirks.”

Aria's brow furrowed. “If he works for someone who can dish out all of these powers—”

“'Quirks.'”

“Whatever.” Aria planted her hands against her hips and scowled. “What use would he have for a bunch of extra-dimensional chumps like us? Doesn't he have enough power on his lonesome?”

“Maybe they have too many of these 'quirk-thingies' to handle in so few numbers?” Sonata scratched her head hard, squeezing the words out. “Mmmmmm—and... like... they gotta form an army made of soldiers with untraceable paths!”

“Still seems too good to be true...” Aria muttered. She looked at Adagio. “You realize there's gotta be a catch, right? If he gives us all that we want—there must be something he wants even more.”

“I'm quite aware of that. But...” Adagio stared straight back at Aria as she gestured. “...if they're going this far out of their own dimension to hire subordinates, then wouldn't that suggest a great weakness?”

Aria winced. “You're already planning for us to exploit these fuck nuggets?”

“We don't have to exploit anyone.” Adagio smirked. “There's more than one way to win power... true power.”

“Yeah—but if they're grabbing people from other dimensions... like us...” Sonata scratched her head again. “Doesn't mean that we're crazy exponential?”

“'Expendable,'” Adagio corrected.

“...isn't that what I said?”

Sighing, Adagio turned back towards Aria. “Yes... everything about this is risky. A trap? Most definitely.”

“So why are you so fukkin' gung-ho about it?” Aria's eyes narrowed. “Why are you itching for us to be so gung-ho about it?”

“Because... so far this Lord Sarumaru has us greatly underestimated,” Adagio explained. “To him—we're just three teenaged girls with an attitude, hopelessly starving for the magic that's been drained from us.”

“You really think he has no clue how old we are?” Aria blinked. “That we've been up and down this damned road before?”

“It wouldn't be our first rodeo...!” Sonata Dusk exclaimed. “We may no longer have our voices—but we're still pretty charming and sexy.” A beat. She smirked drunkenly and rested a hand over her chest. “I'm pretty charming and sexy~~”

“Yeah. Whatever.” Aria looked from her to Adagio again. “So—what? We hop over to his neighborhood, take his gifts, and then...?” She shrugged. “Just what kind of dirty work will be doing?”

“As if anything would phase us anymore, Aria,” Adagio droned. “You, especially—”

“Let me be the judge of that shit.” Aria Blaze folded her arms in a huff. “What's wrong with what we've got going on here? In this place?”

“'In this place'?!?” Sonata balked, waving her hands dramatically. “You mean you like living in a stinkin' van? Driving from trash-heap-town to burning-dumpster-neighborhood, performing for uneducated yokels with an awful voice modulator and going to bed each night wishing we could really put people under our spell like we used to???”

Aria opened her mouth—but for once she didn't have a rebuttal to Sonata's statement. She hung her head with a frustrated frown.

Adagio's eyes darted between her two sisters. “It's been over a year, girls,” she stated. “Our powers didn't just go away. They vanished. Perhaps those 'Rainboom' cretins from the school stole them. Perhaps they got absorbed into the portal to Equestria—or one of the many branching wells beyond the mirror. All we know is that they're gone and nothing that we're doing or plan on doing is making any progress in retrieving them.”

“So now the 'new plan' is to follow a freakish stranger through a detour in the world-hopper and bargain for a whole bunch of new abilities...?” Aria's teeth showed. “None of which are actually ours??”

“I don't know about you...” Adagio's jaw clenched. “...but I'm tired of floundering around in the shadow of what once made us great. I feel lazy, discombobulated, and worn-out...” She gestured once again towards the portal. “I can't be the only one here who wants to be at work again—hmmm? Seeing some action? Earning something every day to be proud of?” She waved at both Sonata and Aria as a whole. “Wouldn't it be great to feed once again? On something we deserve?”

“... … …” Aria Blaze blew heavily out her nostrils, gazing across the street at the campus and its statue.

Sonata swallowed a lump down her throat. “Look... maybe I can speak for the three of us when I say... I'm friggin' bored.” Her fists clenched. “This place—whether it's real or not—sounds like a real blast.”

“According to this Sarumaru guy, it's just Japan,” Aria droned.

“More like Space Japan!!!” Sonata's voice briefly echoed across the city block. She beamed wide, gesturing. “Criminal organizations? Advanced technology?? Droves of people with powers???”

“Quirks,” Adagio repeated.

Sonata ignored her: “And most importantly!” Her eyes sparkled. “Sushi! Like... hot diggedy demoness! It'll be just like the old days!”

“Do not compare this to the seas of Equestria—” Aria began.

“All the fish meat we could sink our teeth into!!!”

“Eungh...” Aria face-palmed.

Sonata took a breath, her enthusiasm draining slightly and giving way to a sincere expression—which she softly aimed at Adagio. “I really... really don't care if it really is a 'trap.' Anything's gotta be better...” She stared woefully down towards the ground and kicked at the curb with a lazy boot. “Anything has to be better than this.”

“I agree with you, Sonata.” Adagio looked over at Aria. “Do we really want to continue where we are? The way we've been?” Her eyes were slightly misty as she added: “Even back when we could sing, there was something that motivated us... enthralled us. We lost far more back at the Battle of the Bands. I think it's time we won it back.”

“Yes, but... do you think...?” Aria looked up, shuddering slightly. “...do you think—after all these quirks we force ourselves to juggle for those fuckers—we might actually be gifted back what we've lost?”

Dagi placed opposite hands on Aria's and Sonata's shoulders. “Where do you think I have my eyes set on?” She smiled wickedly. “There's a big picture here, girls. When all is said and done... and after these poor fools beyond the portal have come to depend on us... then will we make our move...”

“Move towards what??” Sonata blinked.

Adagio Dazzle's teeth showed through an icy grin. “To seize even more power... and become the strongest entities in the place Sarumaru calls home. No matter how long it takes.” She leaned back. “Now... what do you think about that...?”

Aria huffed through a frown... a frown that slowly melted as she gazed forlornly at the portal across the street... resting beneath a missing, obliterated horse statue...

One rose-tinted eye opened. Then another. Aria Blaze blinked rapidly, then squinted skyward.

Sonata Dusk's face loomed overhead, blotting out an overcast sky that hung over the abandoned island.

“Wakey-wakey, sexy-betchy~~”

Aria Blaze lay on her back. Her brow furrowed in foggy contemplation.

Sonata smiled. “How ya feeling, sleepy-head?”

“... … …” Aria's muscles tightened. With a blur of her arm, she raised a hand up and gripped Sonata's mouth tightly.

“Derp?” Sonata squeaked into her sister's muffling grip.

Aria squeezed and unsqueezed her fingers. Nothing of note happened. Aria's lips parted: “Your face hasn't imploded like a pulpy melon...”

“Mrmmfff...” Sonata squirmed from where she squatted awkwardly in Aria's grip. “...n-no?”

Aria sneered: “Then where the fuck is my 'Super Strength Quirk?'”

“Jee...” Sonata frowned into Aria's palm. “...glad my skull means so much to you—EEP!” She fell aside...

...for Aria had just shoved her before sitting up. “Where is that apetitted bastard—HEY!” She barked at the first sight of Sarumaru, who was standing beside his henchmen, in close conversation with Adagio Dazzle. “Yo! Monkey cuck!! I thought you granted me with the ability to—” In attempting to step up, Aria discovered her body was still tingling with residual numbness, and she fell flat on her permanent-resting-bitch-face. “Mrmmmf!!! Fuck me!!!”

“Aria, I know you're mad...” Sonata scrambled to sit her upright. “...but please don't cuss at the all-powerful-quirk-dispensing-monkey boss—!”

“You gorilla-dick'd banana-huffing ass mongrel!!!” Aria Blaze kicked and hissed in Sonata's grip, falling over once again. “Is this your idea of a fucking joke?! Didn't we do your lame-ass job at the risk of our fucking necks or what?!?”

The two henchmen glared at Aria with exasperation. They didn't even bother reaching for their weapons.

Sarumaru sighed. One of his many floating paws rubbed his aching temple as he kept his focus on Adagio. “Surely, by now, she will catch onto why I've gifted her last these past visits...?”

“It'll come to her eventually, I'm sure.” Adagio fought the urge to groan herself as she half-curtsied. “So sorry for the fuss she's making. Your good patience is appreciated.”

“I only endure her prattle because I know you must be enduring it at all times.” The faintest hint of a smirk crossed his simian features. “And seeing how well you've served us—all three in equal capacity—I think it's a small price to pay—”

“—'for an orderly universe that was born from pure chaos.'” Adagio folded her arms and tilted her chin up, sporting a proud smile. “Is it too forward of me to declare that your Master is far closer to that goal after having recruited us?”

“... … ...” Sarumaru stood still as his orbiting monkey-hands straightened his vest and jacket. “It is ever and always an uphill battle. And you are far from our only loyal servants, Madam Dazzle.”

“I would hope, at least...” Adagio gestured delicately. “....we provide a certain degree of exceptionalism.”

“You're dependable,” Sarumaru admitted, two of his paws pointing. “That is why we're still having this conversation.”

“And before it ends...” Adagio paced slowly across the decrepit island alongside Sarumaru and his henchmen. Aria's outbursts dwindled in the distance. “...could we be fortunate enough to know our next assignment?”

“Do you truly have to be so precocious with each word you say...?” Sarumaru muttered, using errant hands to push back tall grass and weeds stretching up from the sides of the broken concrete roads. “So daring and assertive?”

“Ambition comes with its wayward colors.”

“And again you forget that I'm color blind.” The simian fellow spun towards her, dress shoes scuffling on the hard earth. “I will say this one last time, Madame Dazzle, and a servant of your growing reputation will do well to remember it.” His eyes narrowed icily. “My Master has a certain way of doing things... a method that does not bend—despite whatever hot air you may or may not toss at it.”

Aria's eyelashes fluttered. “What if I just blow harder?”

Sarumaru rested two floating hands into his vest's pockets. “Disseminating tasks—as well as executing them—requires the utilization of our entire network. My Master likes to keep things subtle and homogenized.”

“Splendid~!” Adagio waved her arms with a proud grin. “So where can we begin?”

“You can begin...” Sarumaru pointed with two fingers that flanked her face. “...with learning some degree of subtlety. My Master appreciates a job that's efficiently done—but there's a lot that can be said about stealth.”

“You don't think he'd be pleased with the fools we made out of the Police Force in Tokyo...?”

“Oh, undoubtedly. But if all organizations like ours wanted to do was give the majority of civilization a black eye, we'd all be retired generations ago. No—Madame Dazzle—our goal is far loftier. At the end of the day, we owe as much to this world as we take from it... just like you and your sisters owe to my master.” Sarumaru nodded behind Adagio. “Look around. What do you see?”

“Mmmmm...” Adagio turned around, squinting at Sonata struggling to restrain an still-pissed Aria. “My sisters... wrestling to the death...”

“Beyond them, fair outworlder.”

Adagio let out a long sigh, eventually muttering: “Ikeshima Island. Apartments, coal refineries, restaurants and shops—all completely abandoned.”

“Not entirely,” Sarumaru declared. “A few waifs still cling to the decrepit hovels of this long-forsaken sanctuary. I bet you did not know that when Ms. Dusk designated this a convenient hideout with her quirk.”

Adagio squirmed slightly. “The thought did occur to me that we were never quite alone...”

“I don't care too much for this part of the country,” Sarumaru said. “And can I be blamed? Just who are these mad people who have chosen to live on a dried-up old rock? Introverts? Lone hermits? Maybe back in the universe you're from, the people living here would be well-intentioned individuals seeking peace, solitude, even enlightenment. But here?”

A few of his many floating hands stroked at sun-faded graffiti against the concrete, denoting forgotten symbols of Destro, Stain, and the League of Villains.

“Here we have a drain... an escape for the filth and squalor that the rest of this nation constantly pushes away. Shamed for their perception of morality, or for the ghastly nature of their quirks, people like you and me are segregated to the fringes of the so-called paradise that civilization fetishizes. Straightlaced citizens think what what they have is order in a sea of uncertainty—but they've only made islands of a newfound chaos in their worshipped cities. Those metropolises becomes new seas unto their own, demarcated by tempests of fear and disillusionment—and the fresh islands that form are only smaller, deadlier, more potent in their toxicity.”

Adagio watched as their contact turned to face her, slowly pacing with somber poise.

“There is an imbalance, Madame Dazzle. Society has put 'goodness' upon an impossibly high pedestal and have tasked 'superheroes' with polishing such a lofty trophy—daily, zealously, religiously and without fail... without sparing consideration for how they're only making an infinitesimal hell that will implode in on itself forever and ever until all that's free and honorable is drowned out of everyone and everything.”

Several of his fingers pointed at Adagio from all angles.

“That” is the greatest crime of this era... to fashion a new chaos—an artificial and self-perpetuating tumor—after all the lengths mankind has gone to evolve beyond the sheeplike sway of misery that once defined us. All of us. Hell, it's a vomitous thing to go so backwards... like crawling once more into the sea and praying for the gills that we no longer deserve.”

Sarumaru shook his head.

“We are not really criminals, Madame Dazzle. We are liberators. And like all good soldiers, we must exercise a certain degree of restraint. That's what differentiates my Master's growing army from the bloodthirsty psycopaths out there... the ones that—I'm not ashamed to admit—you and your sisters unfortunately resembled while fulfilling your latest contract.”

Adagio Dazzle bit her lip.

“That being said, you three are nevertheless exemplary paragons of evolution...” One by one, Sarumaru's floating paws retracted into their proper resting places under his wide silk cloak. “That's why my Master is willing to overlook some the mistakes that you made while bringing in Shinji Kazan.” With the last paw retrieved, he shrugged his arm-less shoulders and stood neatly within the cocoon of his cape, looking proper regal. “And it's why—to maintain his favor—you will endeavor to accomplish your future missions with greater delicacy.”

With a slight clearing of her throat, Dagi bowed. “Yes... Lord Sarumaru.”

His eyes hardened like kunai blades. “And you will retrieve your next assignment through our field contact—like all the missions previous.”

“Yes, Lord Sarumaru.”

“Very well...” Sarumaru tilted his hairy chin back with a satisfied expression. “I do believe our current business has culminated. Return to your places of hiding. Stay low. Enjoy life. Then—when the time has arrived—you will be called upon to improve it... for us all.” He turned with a twirl of his cape, joining his henchmen in a swift march towards the portal. “It is forever and always an uphill climb.”

“And what if one day we scale the last one in your Master's name?” Adagio asked.

“My good Madame...” Sarumaru's head tilted back towards her as he and his accomplices vanished through the bright anomaly. “Should such a glorious day come, we will start building new summits...!”

FLASH!

Adagio stood in the windblown dust of the contact's absence. A necklace dangled to a stop beneath her neck. She looked down to observe the monkey paw totem—its metal was dull, dark, and inert. As if it could use some polish.

“Well...???” Aria's growling voice floated in the desolate wind towards her. “Did Cuck Kong tell you just what the Hell is up with my quirk?”

Dagi exhaled sharply. She clinched a fist around her totem. “Same as always, Aria.” She swiveled around and marched back towards her two sisters. “We'll have to figure how it works as we carry along.”

“Plblbllbbb...” Aria blew out the side of her mouth, folding her arms in a huff where she sat. “Shitty deal is shitty.”

“Grow some nipples on your bosom~” Adagio stabbed, shuffling to a stop before the other two. “Lord Sarumaru hasn't turned us down with his gifted superpowers yet. Either your newfound meta-strength hasn't kicked in yet or there's some... quirk to the quirk. Just be patient.”

“Heh...” Aria arched an eyebrow. “Suddenly you're so respectable of the foppish lemur.”

“He was talking an awful lot to you just now,” Sonata Dusk remarked, squinting. “Just what was he going on about?”

“Oh... Sarumaru?” Adagio's eyes scanned the desolate buildings scaling above them. “He was just... … ...” Her words trailed off.

The shadow of a random human vanished from where they had previously been peering through a third story apartment window above. In other windows, clothes were hanging to dry. There was even a potted plant or two. Specks of life against so much decay. Remote, forgotten, forsaken.

“Dagi...?” Sonata blinked. “Pussy got your tongue?”

“What's going on in that fuzzy head of yours?” Aria murmured in a sober tone.

Adagio's chest let loose a melancholic breath. “We're all living in the drains...”

“Huh?”

Dagi cleared her throat. “Forget it. Y'know shady people like Sarumaru.” Adagio let her totem dangle freely as she smirked down at the other two. “They like to monologue a goddess-forsaken storm.”

Sonata smiled. “With a cape and vest that fabulous, it'd be a shame not to.”

“We used to do villainous monologues, y'know,” Aria said in a dry tone. When she received a curious look from Adagio, Aria re-emphasized: “Well... you did.”

“Mmmmm... quite...” Adagio brushed a hand behind her head, feeling her bangs having grown even longer. “Used to sing them too.”

“We all know how that ended up,” Sonata muttered, hanging her head. Aria soon followed suit.

Adagio's teeth tightened. She clenched her fists as she leaned over her sisters. “Well, let's work hard so that—one day—we will be villainous and powerful enough to do long and windy monologues again!”

Sonata beamed. “Hoorayyyy!” She hopped up and pumped a fist multiple times into the air. “I wanna do my monologue on top of a burning helicopter!”

“I want to do mine naked and in a retirement home,” Aria said, smirking. “With a megaphone so I'll be heard above all the screams.”

“Yes... well...” Adagio pointed. “One delicious travesty at a time.”

“Uh oh...” Sonata winced as her stomach let out an audible growl. “Speaking of travesties...” She rubbed her belly. “If I don't fill myself up, I might imploded into an unsexy black hole.”

“Gawd...” Aria scoffed at her. “You really are like a vacuum ever since you got your Quirk Number One!”

Sonata stomped her foot, pouting. “Well—it's different when I'm eating for me and not for a mission!”

“Fret not, ladies.” Adagio gestured. “I do believe a night on the town is in order.”

“You mean we're not signing online and dropping onto Rocky Reels?” Sonata stated.

“Friggin' Fortnite won't fill your gullet, ya dumb cunt,” Aria belched.

“Well, just what are we gonna tip any cook with?!?” Sonata barked. “We worked all day only to be paid with monkey molestation!”

“Uh uh uh...” Adagio reached deep into her lycra suit and whipped out a netted mini-bag full of diamonds and jewels. “Somebody might have held onto just a smidge.”

“Hah!” Aria smirked crookedly. “No shit!”

“Just a quick trip to black market...” Dagi gestured vaguely northeast. “Then downtown for food and drinks.” A wink. “Consider it my treat, ladies.”

“Woooooooooo!!” Sonata cheered again.

“Heh...” Aria stood up, cracking her joints. “I'm all on board the 'drinks' part.”

“Sushi sushi sushi!” Sonata danced.

“Heheh...” Adagio motioned towards the nearest apartment entrance. “Come, Sonata. Form a portal. I'm thinking... Shinjuku?”

“Yeah no shit, Shinjuku!” Aria said.

“Sushi sushi sushi!!!”

“Yeah, we get it! Gawd...”