Chapter 7 results: 88% chose to move quietly
The following story will have themes such as blood, gore, situations that may cause anxiety and major character death. If you are sensitive to any of these, please do not proceed.
[Additional warning: needle mention]
Shouto peeked above his cover that he’d taken from a lab sink and observed the akuma before ducking down again. His heterochromatic eyes looked up at Bakugou and the others.
“We have to move quietly,” he whispered. “If we shoot them all down, that will only trigger a hoard. This isn’t a videogame, Bakugou.”
“Tch.” Bakugou clicked his tongue and peeked up to also see his surroundings. “Don’t you think I know that?”
Deku rested his chin on his fingers as he began to think of a route. His eyes lit up in success. “There are other wash stations in the lab that we can use for cover to catch our breath. We’ll have to be very careful. I’ll lead.”
Shouto nodded in which prompted the others to do the same. Deku peeked up once more to see if any akuma were around before proceeding. He lead the group down a path that seemed more clear towards the right of the room and everything was going well. It wasn’t long until they were in front of their teacher’s cage doors. A surge of confidence surged within the greenette.
“Almost there…!” He whispered.
Before he began creeping towards the cage again, there was a sudden slam coming from the group’s proximity. It alarmed them, but when Dabi hushed them, he peeked up from their cover to see what was going on. Guns suddenly began firing, immediately forcing Dabi back down. From the corner of her eye, Uraraka can see almost every akuma go down with no effort and adrenaline made her heart pump rapidly. When the firing ceased and the creatures stayed dead, the sound of rapid footsteps were soon to follow.
“Coast is clear,” a firm male’s voice spoke out, sounding as if he were wearing a mask.
The sound of heavy footsteps soon took over their eardrums. Each step echoed within the walls of the lab. It wasn’t hard to figure out that whoever made those footsteps was wearing heels. A feminine chuckle followed, and Aizawa grunting in distaste.
“Looks like you made a few friends while you two got comfortable,” the voice spoke, obviously to the two men who were stuck in cages. “How are you two holding up?”
“Is that supposed to be a trick question?” Aizawa grit his teeth. “Your taunting is annoying me. I’d rather be sleeping than listen to you any longer.”
“Oh, Shouta. That’ll soon be arranged but it’s best to not get too excited,” the woman chuckled. “You two have - or should I say, had - powerful quirks. Your transformations are something worth seeing.”
“Transformations…?” All Might coughed. Izuku winced at the sound as he kept listening to the conversation. “What are you planning to do with us? You know what, it doesn’t even matter. Just don’t hurt the students…”
“I’m touched. However, I can’t promise anything. I’m sure your students know how much you care. After all, they’re not very slick.”
The hand of one of Clearnox’s security grabbed at Bakugou’s shoulder and the stronger figure yanked him up, making the blonde stand. Deku shot up automatically in panic.
When the greenette turned his head, his eyes widened a bit. There stood before him was a woman with short wavy blonde hair and alluring tangerine eyes. She had a seemingly polite smile but the expression in her eyes contradicted any sign of kindness she might’ve shown. The woman was surrounded by four armoured soldiers, including the one having a hold on Bakugou. Three of them were masked. The only one who didn’t wear a mask was towards the woman’s right side, and he looked like the kind of villain you’d see in an action film. The soldier’s vests had Clearnox’s symbol embedded into it. Deku immediately recognized who she was from all the news he’s watched and realized his mother was right about having doubts.
“Yuna Hana…,” Deku muttered as he raised his gun at the woman. He wore an intense expression, his emerald eyes watching her every move. “Let him go.”
Yuna’s empty grin smiled as she walked towards the blonde, who was trying to fight his way out of the tight grip with an angry expression much more different than usual. She stopped in front of him and pulled up the touch screen pad she was carrying.
“Bakugou Katsuki,” she read from her screen. “Student of UA High School… Placed first in the sports festival? Impressive.”
“Let him go!” Deku shouted again but was completely ignored.
“Let’s see… Birthday: April 20th… Quirk: explosions? Interesting…” She continued to scroll on her touch screen before putting it away and reaching to grip his jaw. “Not that bad looking, either. He’d make a fine addition.”
Bakugou yanked his jaw from her grip and attempted to bite her hand. “Piss off, lady.”
Yuna had reacted in time, letting out an amused chuckle. “Your feisty attitude will come in handy, too. Take him to quarantine.”
“No!” Aizawa had shouted from his cage. Deku aimed his gun at the soldier walking away with Bakugou and almost pulled the trigger before another one landed a punch on his jaw with brutal force, knocking tbe greenette down. Dabi had gotten up from his cover and threw a butcher knife conveniently found next to him towards the soldier who had the blonde. The knife plunged into his arm and he screamed, letting go of Bakugou. The blonde used this to his advantage and began beating him up before shooting him with his shotgun. Shouto and Uraraka stayed down but it wasn’t like they weren’t doing anything. The firing gave a distraction while the two-toned haired boy was thinking of a plan.
Bakugou had rushed back to Deku’s side and aimed his shotgun towards the woman, the greenette doing the same.
“Let my teachers go,” Deku said firmly. “I’m not afraid to shoot you.”
The blonde woman chuckled. “A kid acting big and bad. That’s cute.”
“A fucking bullet in your face will be cute, too,” Bakugou snarled.
The woman’s eyes grew emotionless, her empty smile fading. A sigh escaped her lips before she simply turned towards the door she came in from. “Maybe,” she finally responded. “But your chance to shoot me hasn’t come just yet.”
“Wait, what is she doing…?” Uraraka muttered. She was following Shouto, who was creeping towards one of the soldier’s standing guard next to the cages. Shouto hushed the brunette as a response.
However, the two were stopped in their tracks when they saw Yuna holding up her watch that she wore on her wrist. She pressed something on it, they were too far to tell what it was, but a loud noise was heard from behind them. When Uraraka looked behind her, she could see that a hoard of akuma were headed their way.
“…! Shit…!” Shouto muttered.
The other boys soon noticed the hoard coming and fell back. “Fuck…!” Bakugou shouted.
Dabi didn’t waste any time. He began shooting the two other soldiers through their masks before they could react. He aimed his gun towards the woman, but she was unfortunately already walking through the door with the only unmasked soldier.
“Dammit…!” Shouto spat. “We have to get the teachers out of the cages before that hoard gets here!”
“Already on it!” Uraraka nodded and ran towards the metal bars. The lock was a heavy one, and she didn’t have enough time to look for a key so she found another way. “Stand back, you two!” She told the teachers. Aizawa and All Might stepped as far back as they could as Uraraka got her gun out and shot the locks. She hastened to open the cage doors and helped them out, however, All Might stumbled a little. Uraraka helped him up and the man smiled kindly towards her.
“Did you have an escape route planned?” Aizawa asked the group.
“We have to head back towards the elevator,” Uraraka answered while she had All Might’s skinny arm wrapped behind her neck to keep him up. “Yuna blocked the other way out.”
“Then let’s go!” Deku nodded.
The hoard of akuma was already charging at them and Bakugou shot some of them down to hold them off. Luckily the elevator wasn’t too far ahead, but before they could all enter, All Might stumbled again.
“A-All Might…!” Deku shot back and rushed towards him. “C'mon, we’re almost there!”
All Might wheezed. “Sorry… Looks like those soldiers landed some pretty rough blows on me.”
Deku looked down and noticed that the white shirt All Might was wearing was tainted red. He knew his teachers were in bad shape but it’s only now that he’s seeing just how bad the damage was. All Might was stabbed in the stomach twice and cut up pretty bad on his arms and cheeks, along with bruises to his face and neck. Deku was horrified.
“What did they do to you…?” He whispered.
The group had gone ahead and was holding the elevator door open. They were ready to go back to the first floor until they saw that Deku was with All Might. Shouto immediately ran towards them and took one of his arms.
“Come on, we have to go. I’ll help him up!” He told Midoriya.
“N-No…,” All Might answered. “I’m too badly injured. I’ll just slow you all down.”
“All Might, you gotta try! Come on!” Deku had taken his other arm to try and hold him up. When they began running again, the teacher had only stumbled again. The panic began clouding the greenette’s mind.
“No no no… Come on, we’re almost there…!” Shouto heaved and pushed on.
It took a huge effort, but both boys had managed to carry All Might into the elevator. Aizawa saw how close the hoard was getting so he closed the door before they could get to the group. Uraraka sighed in relief, and Shouto and Midoriya helped All Might sit down on the ground of the elevator and rested his back against the wall.
“He’s in awful condition…!” The brunette gasped. “Did they do that to him?!”
Aizawa grunted. He gripped his side and sat down. “They tried to torture us until our minds b-broke.”
“Why?” Dabi raised an eyebrow.
Aizawa looked up at Dabi, then raised his eyebrows at Deku and the others. No words were needed to see that their former homeroom teacher was confused why a villain was helping. Deku only nodded, and that was enough.
“All Might and I overheard the guards talking,” he began. “F-From what we heard, they were going to try and turn us into those freaks and Yuna was going to oversee the whole operation.”
“And why the hell would she do that?” Bakugou asked.
“All I’m thinking is that maybe it’s because of the kind of quirks we had. Otherwise why else would she take us?”
Shouto listened as he began thinking. His eyes lit up and he turned his gaze towards Midoriya. “Mutations…”
Midoriya blinked in confusion at first before realizing what he meant. Shock fell before him. “The quirks people used to have determine how mutated the experiment will become… That’s what happened to Shigaraki! The reason why he looked like that was because he had a strong quirk! If Yuna was trying to turn you into those things…”
“… Then she was trying to mutate us,” All Might wheezed out. “B… But why?”
Aizawa blinked. “And how did you even come to that conclusion, Midoriya? You went up against Shigaraki Tomura while we were gone?”
Midoriya nodded. “Dabi was helping us get better equipment that happened to be located at the League of Villain’s hideout. We found a very deformed akuma and fought it, but we soon found out that it was Shigaraki. He was fast, too. Looked like an insect…”
“Gave me the fucking creeps,” Bakugou shivered.
Aizawa blinked again and looked down. “That’s insane…”
The elevator binged to it’s stop and the doors opened to a familiar hallway. Bakugou helped All Might up while Midoriya lead. The group wasn’t too far behind.
“This way,” the greenette called out.
They reached the familiar set of stairs that lead back up to the trap door. Slowly they crept out and looked around to see if the coast was clear before continuing on their way. Shouto closed the trap door when everyone was out and let out a sigh.
“Alright, we should head back to the others and get All Might patched–”
His speech was interrupted by one of Clearnox’s soldiers gripping him and covering his mouth. The others immediately got defensive and got their guns out.
“Todoroki-kun!!” Uraraka shouted in worry as she began firing at the soldier holding onto him.
“Uraraka-san, be careful! You could hit Todoroki-kun!” Midoriya spoke out.
Shouto was wriggling in the soldier’s arms and trying to kick himself free, but the sound of a helicopter interrupted everyone’s thoughts. The helicopter landed just in front of the group as Yuna Hana appeared from the industry’s entrance.
“This is the one we need,” she spoke out to the soldier. “I took the liberty of researching information on this little group. He’s the son of Endeavor and Todoroki Rei. No doubt he had a strong quirk. Take him.”
“??!!” Shouto made an angry muffled noise and continued to fight the strong grip holding him. His constant wriggling opened a window and he bit the soldier’s hand hard. The masked individual winced and landed a hard punch to the dual-toned haired boy, making him cough out a little bit of blood.
“Icyhot!” Bakugou shouted and pointed his shotgun at the soldier, but Yuna Hana shook her head at him before he could even pull the trigger.
“I wouldn’t try that,” she told the blonde boy. “My men might use your friend as a shield.”
Bakugou grit his teeth before noticing the other soldiers pointing their guns at the rest of the group. Shouto was weakened from the punch but he still pressed on. He wriggled some more and grunted in frustration, and this only made Yuna sigh. She walked over to the captive boy and pulled out a syringe she had in the purse she carried.
“I didn’t want to use this, but you leave me no choice, young one.”
She gripped Todoroki’s hair and pulled it to the side to make his neck exposed before inserting the needle into it. The effects were quick and he began feeling drowsy, but even so, he fought to keep his eyes open.
“That should calm him down. Bring him in. We’ll go to the center of operations,” Yuna ordered.
Midoriya felt panic grip his bones. He began running towards the helicopter while gripping his weapons. Whatever that was in that syringe was strong. Shouto’s vision began getting cloudy as he tried to lift his head up to see his friend. All he could see was a blotchy figure with a green head.
“Mi… do… riya…,” He muttered quietly before becoming unconscious.
“No…,” The greenette whispered as he watched Shouto being put into the flying vehicle. The helicopter began flying up before taking off. “TODOROKI-KUN!!!!!!” He screamed.
He heard the clicking of the other soldier’s weapons and anger spilled into his veins. He screamed and began shooting at all of them, his eyes glowing with a rage that made Bakugou jump. But even so, it made the group join him. Midoriya showed no mercy as he shot every one of them down. They landed a few bullets into his arm and leg, but he didn’t feel the pain over the adrenaline talking over. When the last soldier was down, Midoriya didn’t even stop. He began kicking and stomping the body’s face into the ground until the face wasn’t even recognizable. The body’s blood was even getting on his pants. Uraraka rushed towards him and took ahold of his back, holding him close while closing her eyes painfully.
“D-Deku-kun, that’s enough…!” She spoke out.
Midoriya didn’t seem to come back to reality until Uraraka’s hold made him stop. He began shaking and tightened his fists. He knelt to to the ground and slammed his fists on the gravel, finally letting out a scream he held in. The group couldn’t tell if he was crying but they weren’t about to judge him. Bakugou walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder, gritting his teeth in anger while looking up towards the direction they took their friend. All Might slowly trudged towards Deku and gently petted his head to calm him down. Both Dabi and Aizawa looked towards the direction Bakugou was.
After a moment of silence to allow the greenette to calm down, Aizawa spoke up. “We have to patch up All Might. Let’s go to the others-”
“No,” Midoriya interrupted. “You all go ahead. I’m gonna go get Todoroki-kun back.”
The group shot up a look. “By yourself?! Are you crazy?!”
“Look, I’m going!” He stood up, making Uraraka let go of him. He began walking towards the helicopter’s route. “You’re either with me or you’re just in my way. I don’t care what you choose.”
Of all the irritating things he could say that would irritate Bakugou, this one seemed to take the cake. He stomped towards him and gripped his arm.
“Oh hell no, this isn’t the time to act like a reckless hero, shitty nerd!” He shouted. “We all wanna save Icyhot but we need to get All Might to safety first. Your ass is coming with us whether you like it or not!”
Deku shot back at him. “What, and stall time while they’re doing god-knows-what to Todoroki-kun?! No way! I’m not failing him like how I failed saving you before!”
Bakugou gripped his teeth and didn’t hesitate to sock his childhood friend right square in the jaw. It knocked him down, as to be expected from the force. The blonde knelt down and gripped Deku’s shirt to make him look at him.
“You’re irritating as fuck, Deku, but that crossed the damn line!” He shouted in his face. “How are you gonna save him if you can’t even save your own first?!”
“That’s why I said to go on ahead without me!” Deku shouted back, not caring to wipe his bloody lip.
“To hell with that! We’re in this together and I’m not about to let you die without me making it happen first!”
Deku tightened his lips. Bakugou looked at him angrily before letting out a frustrated sigh. He let go of Deku’s shirt before standing up. “You know what? Fine. Go. Go and play hero and get killed. But don’t you fucking dare think for one damn minute that I didn’t try and stop you.”
Bakugou began headed back towards the group but he stopped in his steps and looked back at Deku, who was still on the ground looking at him.
“You act like we’re just abandoning Icyhot. We’re not that fucking stupid,” he put his hands on his waist. “But we’re not that smart, either. That’s why if you want to actually save him and not get killed, we need time to think of a plan. You of all people should know this.”
Deku looked down and furrowed his eyebrows. Bakugou had a point. He can’t just swing in there recklessly. But still, the more time they waste, the more Shouto would be closer to being dead. Or worse: mutated. His train of thought was interrupted by the sight of Bakugou’s hand reaching out towards him.
“Look,” Bakugou started again. “We need to make sure our group is secure and we need time to think of a plan. But one thing’s for sure: we’re gonna shoot those damn doors down. We’re gonna shoot their fucking skulls in and we’re gonna save that half n’ half bastard. We’ll teach them not to fuck with us, but first, you need to use your damn brain. It’s the only thing you’re good for. So come on. Get your ass up.”
