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It takes you a bit of squinting to make out what Endeavor is doing to the camera, as his appendages appear only as large blobs to you. A moment later, a new flash bursts from between where his hands might be, prompting you to look away. No need to risk losing your sight a second time, especially since your nose instantly confirms your suspicions: the smell of acrid smoke, burning plastic, metal and some other things you are fairly sure wouldn't reach ignition in a natural fire. A clear sign that the camera is being turned to ash before you in seconds.
You wait on edge for the other shoe to drop and for Endeavor to start chewing Shoto out for sneaking information from his sidekick’s terminal. But it never comes. Maybe Burnin never got around to it or it just wasn’t noticed?
Instead, the hero merely wipes his blob-hands of the camera’s ashes, meaningfully clapping them at the same time. You can't help but be a bit impressed as you don’t sense any solid components bouncing against the padded floor.
As you ponder how hot a battery must burn to just cease existing, the dummies you saw before start moving, their arms lazily spinning as some of them approach your side of the room. Judging by the number of different blurry silhouettes you can currently make out, there seem to be a lot more of them than you originally had thought.
>"These dummy mooks are simple yet well built robots. They mostly move as a crowd, shuffling along and spinning their arms. Like the public." Endeavor explains. “Your task, to start, is locate and track the one with the handkerchief as you stand in the center of them.”
“Sounds simp-” You try to stop yourself. You’ve already learned it’s hardly ever a good idea to make such remarks in front of Endeavor. But it’s already too late, it seems.
>“Yes it does, doesn’t it Walker? And since you have been so eager to get started, you will be taking the lead.” The hero clarifies with evident self-satisfaction.
Your reward for running your big mouth, you suppose.
You slowly move to the center of the room. Stumbling without apparent cause at this point, you think, would just undermine your prior moment of boldness. Fortunately, the dummies seem just as keen to get out of your way.
Once you reach what you guess was the center, you turn about and face the hero. With your vision finally returning to normal as well as adapting to the darkness, you can now see more details than just Endeavor’s glowing face and costume <span class="mu-i">towering above the dummies</span>, like the concern etched on the illuminated half of Shoto’s face as he stands by, yet far from, his father. Beyond that, the walls around you remain shrouded in shadow.
