Circus of Horrors Arc, Part 3 : Down the Depths of Hell.

Warning, Graphic Scenes ahead. Izuku is hard to kill.

Hitoshi wasn't one who got scared easily, he'd dealt with his share of bullies trying to scare him but learned quickly how to deal with them. They'd talk, he'd back mouth them, they'd get pissed and fall into his quirk and next thing they knew they'd be humping a wall or professing their love for bathing in all things belonging in a toilet.

He'd probably have gotten in trouble for the last one if the idiot hadn't been bragging before that he could break from Hitoshi's mind control, and didn't want to admit he couldn't.

That said, his natural tendency to find something to insult and act on it shorted out when the nurse leading them opened a door and in the middle of the room was an old woman with more wrinkles than a shar-pei and hair so thin it looked some someone had dropped a few spider webs on her head. She was dragging the corpse of one of the clinic workers onto a table and preparing to cut it open. That's when he saw the back of the woman's head open up to show a mess of sharp fangs, and Hitoshi felt his stomach fall.

The nurse tried to close the door but the hinge squeaked, resulting in the woman spinning around and seeing them. There was no mouth on the woman's face but he saw the skin around her eyes crinkle with excitement before she rushed at the nurse with a knife in hand. Tetsutetsu moved before he did, grabbing the nurse and turning his skin to metal. The knife scraped against his forearm as someone screamed 'Move!'. Hitoshi moved by throwing a fist out the woman's nose while Tetsutetsu grabbed her arm to keep her from attempting to slash anyone else. He felt her nose break and she started to scream, the back of her head opening up and her hair flying away from the voice.

As he pulled his hand back a staff came down on the woman's head and the old hag crumbled to the ground. Hitoshi took a step back and realized it hadn't been somebody, but his mind screaming at him to move after he'd frozen up. A quick turn of his head showed that it was Momo who'd formed and attacked with the staff, while Minoru's mouth was being covered by Tsubame. Roy and Osore were behind them with the nurse, who must have tripped while back up as it seemed she hit her head on the ground and was out cold.

Hitoshi took a deep breath, now the one person who knew the evacuation routes and exits wasn't able to help, and they didn't know what else was lurking. They needed a plan, a way to find Izuku, get out, and not die to whatever group of villains thought themselves good enough to attack a clinic of this size in broad daylight when All-Might had been spotted in town. Hitoshi looked in the room and saw there was no-one else, it looked like some sort of break room for the staff, complete with two televisions and a coffee machine.

"Tsubame, Tetsutetsu, move the bodies to the wall, respectfully, and see if there's anything to cover them. Osore, you said your quirk works with electronics, see if you can do anything using those televisions. Roy, Momo, see if you can't find any supplies we can use to defend ourselves, then see if anyone here brought a packed lunch, we'll have a better shot with full stomachs. Minoru, keep an eye out and let us know if anyone's coming this way while we're getting ourselves together." Hitoshi said, getting looks from everyone before they all nodded. He took the nurse over to the couch and set her down to rest and hopefully wake up before they had to do something stupid.

He then noticed Minoru stick the old hags arms behind her back by plucking the balls off his head. He kept note of that, they might need to trap the doors.

He might not know what to do, but that wouldn't stop him from trying, not with what was at stake.

Osore was a shy person, she was afraid of water after an incident as a child, and being unable to speak or call for help made scary situations all the worse because if she was alone no help would ever come. Momo had taken her being unable to talk in stride and helped her get the food she wanted when the three boys who couldn't manage a set seemed to focus on themselves, and Izuku didn't even seem to realize she hadn't said anything. Osore felt it had been a good day, only for everything to spiral downhill.

Then Momo took her hand and helped her when she started to slow down, she wasn't used to all this running. The nurse helped her stay calm even though her silence made it so she was the last person who they needed to worry about screaming. Now Hitoshi was taking control to try and figure something out since the nurse was unconscious. She looked at one of the televisions and dragged a table to it so she could reach it.

If what her mother had her read about electronics and wiring was true, it was possible this television would lead to a fuse box, which would lead to other televisions and screens. She could get to the security room and find a way out and find Izuku, all she had to do was push herself through the wires. She didn't know if she could do that, she'd never tried, her mother never let her try for fear she would get stuck. Fear had always ruled her life, if it was raining she stayed inside, if she didn't know what would happen she didn't act.

But now it was Izuku, her friend that was alone and was in danger. Izuku who just saw her as another person to smile with, to do makeup with even though Izuku didn't know how, who had lived with bullies yet still had her arms open for anyone to grab onto her. Osore put her hand into the television, a white ring of electricity forming as it always did when she entered or left a device, and she slipped in.

She might be afraid of what might happen, but that wouldn't stop her from trying, not with her friends at stake.

Gunhead was standing outside the clinic, police forces had already mobilized to solidify the perimeter around the clinic. That said more than most people thought, his agency trained in tactical and strategic heroics. Minimalize Risk, Maximize Results. As such they worked with the police more often than most realized, the police might not always have combat effective quirks but they were trained to take down threats. Each officer was trained in martial arts, each officer was trained in kendo, and each officer was trained with a handgun.

Each man and woman surrounding the clinic was fully capable of dropping a villain if the situation called for it, it was just less risky for a Hero to do it thanks to insurance policies and the higher percentage of combat-capable quirks to counter whatever quirks villains had. He'd take police backup over some agencies he worked with.

"What have we learned since I got the call from Emergency Response," Gunhead said as he walked up to one of the officers in the back of the perimeter. High collar ballistic vest with a tasset in the front and back, armbands, bracers, shin guards, and a helmet with a ballistic visor, same gear as each and every one of his coworkers with the only difference being a Sergeant on his back left shoulder in small print.

"From what we can get, this is a pretty big assault, when we called the security office no-one answered, so we can assume the entire building is compromised." The officer said, and Gunhead turned to Whisper, who nodded and went to call in additional help. He focused back on the officer. "The good news is that whoever they are, they aren't barricading the doors or trying to keep people out, the bad news is that means they want people to come in despite knowing they're there."

"They're confident enough to take on heroes, which means they either know who's coming or they have something they feel is strong enough not to need counter strategies. Not a lot of villains who can pull that solo, we're probably dealing with an organization" Gunhead said, getting a nod from the officer. "We called in more people to help in securing the perimeter, once they get here my team is going to breach and see about securing the main security room and the survivors. Who do you have with experience in hero support you can spare?"

The officer nodded and pulled his radio from his belt and started checking with various teams. As he did Gunhead took a look around to see if any heroes had already arrived, and was glad to note a few of them. Kamui Woods was using his quirk to help create barriers for the police to use as cover, while Mt. Lady and Air Jet were helping them get to areas they could use as sniper nests without having to climb flights of stairs. Death Arms and Fatgum were talking back and forth, possibly planning a breach of their own, he motioned for Hand of Harmony to make contact and see if they're willing to do a team up.

"Sir, when you're ready we have ten officers with experience joining heroes in situations of this nature who have volunteered to assist you, their squads are sending them over now."

"Good, keep up the good work," Gunhead said as Death Arms and Fatgum made their way over with Hand of Harmony. A defensive quirk, as well as a straight strength quirk, would make breaching a lot safer on everyone. "Alright, let's get to planning this out, Death Arms you go first, any ideas?"

Toshinori let out a deep breath as he sat in his couch with a glass of water in hand, still recovering from the beating Sorahiko dropped on him. He hadn't done any heroics yet today, he didn't want to push on the wounds and make things worse than they had to be. With that in mind, he knew he'd have to make an appearance. If the Symbol of Peace took days off villains might get cocky.

He winced a bit as his side complained about his lifting his arm to point the remote at the television and turn it on. Petty crime work would be simple but the time to find it might take its toll, so he decided to turn on the news and see if anything was happening, maybe a good police chase.

"-sment Clinic has been attacked by an unknown villain organization, who has made no demands but is effectively holding the clinic hostage. According to Law Enforcement, the villains seem to be using the hostages as bait in hopes of killing heroes!"

Well, damn, that was a bit bigger than a high-speed chase. The screen changed to an officer in full gear in front of a microphone and he grimaced, that meant it was a high-level threat.

"The villains do not seem to be guarding the building or preventing any teams from getting in, historically that means they want heroes to try and save the hostages so they can kill a few and make a name for themselves." The Officer on the screen said. "That this is also a Quirk Assessment Clinic means they're possibly after the quirks being tested, and plan to escape after those kills with the kids in tow."

Toshinori clenched the glass in his hand, situations like that are hard to fix successfully, even before his injuries he'd have to be careful. The screen moved back to the original reporter and he put his water down, part of him told him if he went to drink it, it'd be flying across the room.

"While we aren't able to get a list of the hostages, we do know that one of the children being examined has a monitor due to her unusual quirk, with said monitor preparing to lead the charge to rescue her and the other hostages. I for one expect these criminals will be brought in quickly with Pro-Hero Gunhead on the case."

Toshinori dropped his glass, monitored case, Gunhead... Izuku.

He stood up and ran out of his apartment, ignoring his wounds and getting to a nearby alley before unleashing One for All, turning into All-Might and jumping to the rooftops.

Kokku grabbed a barbell and one of the weights, using some of the rope Izuku had found in the drawers. She wondered why that had been in there one end had been tied into a knot so she figured to test blunt trauma. With a weight on her shoulder like a purse and a large metal rod in hand, she looked at Izuku, who was carrying a combat knife they'd found in the testing room. She was looking at her with a bit of fear of what was to come and readiness to follow her orders.

"Alright kid, listen up, we don't know how many people are in this Circus of Horrors but to get in and shut down security as hard as they did, we can assume enough to be very dangerous." She said, getting a nod from Izuku. She had to admit of all the students she was glad it was the little zombie, she was strong and as worried as she was for the girl, Gunhead had explained the girl was rather resilient. "Heroes are on their way which means we need to get somewhere safe or get ourselves out of here and I bet they've got people to ensure that doesn't happen."

Kokku put a hand on Izuku's head. "So, we're going to head to the secondary security room, I have the override to get us in despite the lockdown. We'll be able to use the cameras to lead anyone else who's still alive to safe zones and support the heroes when they break in."

Izuku opened her mouth to respond but Kokku shook her head. "No, I know you want to look for your friends, so do I but we're doing it safely, that means from the security room on the basement floor," Kokku said, not missing the irony of the fact that they were going into a basement to escape people trying to style themselves as old ghost stories. "Follow me, keep an eye out, and let's go."

Kokku grabbed Izukus arm and headed through the green door, there was thankfully no mess there, no-one had been in the room during the attack. She went over to the side door and opened it, revealing a stairway heading down.

Izuku followed after Kokku as she made her way down the stairs, her knife in hand. She was worried about Hitoshi, Tetsutetsu, Momo, Osore, and the other three examinees. She wanted to help them but Kokku was telling her the best way was to go to another room. What if they were in danger now, what if they needed help Now. Izuku contemplated running off but that would mean leaving Kokku alone too, and Katsuki had shown her enough horror movies when they were kids to know that's a bad idea.

She wasn't sure what to do, so she followed Kokku for now until she had a plan. First, she needed to understand the villains, once you know your obstacle you can plan against it. There was the nurse who lied about contacting her mother who seemed to have a quirk based around her mouth. She was out of commission as far as they knew but she mentioned a Bloody Mary and a Circus of Horrors. That they'd all been called freaks and belonged in a circus, so they would probably have quirks that affected their bodies in scary ways.

She didn't want to know what sort of mutation earned the name Bloody Mary.

Once they were at the bottom of the stairs Izuku saw the first sign of just how aggressive the people attacking them were. Propped up against the wall was a corpse with its chest torn open and its internal organs ripped apart. There was no face to make out, the front of the corpses head appeared to have been bitten off by a dog, with a cavity where the rest of the brain should be.

Izuku dropped the knife and leaned forward, releasing only a bit of stomach acid and spit as they hadn't had breakfast yet, and Kokku gave her a moment. Once Izuku had stopped Kokku grabbed her by the wrist once more and opened the door leading out of the stairway. "Kid, close your eyes." She said, Izuku could already seem the blood and did as Kokku said, letting the woman lead her by her wrist through the room, Izuku just having enough time to grab the knife again.

She heard a door open then the sound of something heavy flying through the air, Izuku opened her eyes to see the weight Kokku had grabbed from the gym flying towards a man covered in black fur, two curved horns sprouting above his ears, and a dog-like snout. The weight hit him but rather than topple him over he just flinched and bent forward, as if he'd merely been punched in the gut. There was a snarl and Izuku's feet moved before she could come up with a plan.

She heard Kokku shout and saw the weight rising up to strike the wolfman again, the villain instead slammed it out of the way and dropped to all fours. Her mind went to what Gunhead had told her about people with animal quirks after going over knife combat.

"Sometimes people have animalistic quirks, and they're bound to use them. When they do focus on the immediate threat, which will most likely be either their fangs or their claws."

She kept running forward as the wolfman leaped forward and brought his clawed hands to grab or slash her, she didn't know. She moved to the side and dropped the knife, grabbing the villains left arm instead then anchoring her feet to spin.

"Once you know what the immediate threat is, disable it, for example, if it's their fangs shove something in their mouth like a stick or rod. If it's their claws grab an arm."

She spun herself and took the villain with her, a surprised bark coming from his mouth as she used the momentum to move his arm over her shoulder. She shouted and continued moving, shoulder tossing the villain over her head and slamming him into the ground, a loud yipe of pain as his back bounced off the ground.

"Once you have the stick in their mouth or their arm in your hand, bring them to the ground hard and disorientate them so you can tie them up or knock them unconscious if you have no method to capture."

While the villain groaned Izuku turned and swung the villain before letting him go, sending the wolfman across the room through a number of tables and chairs. It crossed Izuku's mind they were probably in a cafeteria where they would have had breakfast following the first tests of the day. Realizing what sort of objects she might have she grabbed one of the chairs.

Before she could continue the weight Kokku was using flew in front of her and then towards her, pressing against her belly and pulling her back to Kokku, who pulled the chair from her hands. "Relax kid, he's down!" Kokku said, who wasn't quite sure what she'd just seen. Izuku breathed heavily, her mind still racing and telling her to make sure the villain was down. Kokku picked the girl up by wrapping her arms around her stomach. "You got him..."

Izuku found herself calming down, she didn't hear any noise from the villain and relaxed. Kokku put the Izuku down and looked over at the villain, first a woman with a slit open and then chewed off mouth, now a wolfman. Neither of them seemed to be any good, the first one was too focus on Izuku for some reason and the second had telegraphed himself enough that Izuku was able to counter him. As far as Gunhead had told her she was getting biweekly lessons from the man so she was hardly an expert, just clever.

Kokku decided to think on it another time. "Come on, we need to keep moving, you just made a lot of noise," Kokku said, joking softly to try and keep Izuku from stressing out too much or having a panic attack.

Izuku nodded and Kokku led her through the cafeteria.

Hitoshi felt a bit bad as he bit into a simple ham and cheese sandwich, the fridge in the breakroom had been rather full of lunch bags. That meant there was a lot of people but despite the nurse having led them here before she was taken out of commission, no-one else had arrived. They were most likely dead.

Minoru turned out to be more than just a pervert, which he was thankful for, he'd used his quirk to pop off multiple sticky spheres from his head and restrained the old hag of a villain with them. He was also rather quick to panic but seemed to be controlling himself better now than he had when everything started. Osore hadn't come out of the television, yet, but she had made a few words on the screen to state she was mapping out the wiring of the building. She explained it felt weird moving through wires, but she wasn't feeling any pain yet.

He took that as a plus, maybe she could let the heroes know where they were once the heroes made their way in.

Momo had used her quirk to make a metal board and jam it under the handle so it wouldn't open, then made each of them a simple knife just in case. She was smart and once a basic plan of hiding in the room until the heroes arrived formed she took control. She was good at it and Hitoshi let her without trying to start a fight.

Tetsutetsu was eating a Tupperware container full of rice, beans, and cubes of steak, getting as much iron in his system as he could. If someone broke through that door his quirk was best suited to stand at the front and he wanted as much as he could get. It wasn't warm, they hadn't bothered with the microwaves, but it was better than nothing and he was thankful.

He also worried about Izuku, according to Osore she hadn't seen her yet but she hadn't seen any corpses that looked like her yet either. Tetsutetsu knew she was strong but she was also just a teenager, they were all just teenagers but at least he wasn't alone. He clenched the fist around the plastic spoon he was using thinking about it.

Minoru was expecting a smooth simple set of exams when he arrived, wanting to prove to them his quirk was strong enough for the hero course just as he knew it was. He knew he'd gone a bit overboard on day one when the zombie girl asked the guy with purple hair, Hitoshi, to brainwash her. He knew what he wanted and he wasn't always the best at keeping it contained, he knew all of that. Roy and Tsubame weren't half bad, they spoke with him during dinner and didn't ignore him after his comment. Then came the first test of the day, an IQ test to see how they did after having time to wake up but no food, see if they would be able to handle being hungry in the events of an emergency only for there to be a Real Emergency.

He thought he'd be ignored, but instead when it came down to it when he had ideas they listened. Tetsutetsu had helped him put the woman who attacked them on the ceiling and Momo put him in charge of setting up traps in the room for them to fall back behind. She even rolling up her shirt right in front of him, showing him her beautiful stomach, to make a few of the things he needed like duct tape and an airsoft gun.

They even smiled at him when he came up with the idea of setting up a line of his balls just an inch beyond where the door swings so people would get stuck at the doorway and block off other villains from getting in. He'd even started to have a panic attack when Hitoshi took a moment to talk with him and help him calm down, despite the bad interaction at first.

Minoru clenched his fist then pointed at the ceiling. "Okay, Tsubame, help me get up there, Roy, grab the table, some of the rope Momo made, and a rod, we're making a pendulum trap!"

Gunhead and his team had a plan, Death Arms, Hand of Harmony, and Fatgum would do the initial breach with four of the officers covering them, Gunhead, Whisper, Calculator, and Hummingbird would come in with the other six officers. Once they secured the waiting room they'd split into two groups.

Hand of Harmony, Fatgum, Whisper, and Calculator would take four officers to the security room while he took Death Arms and Hummingbird to start working through the rooms trying to find survivors with the remaining officers. With that in mind, Gunhead readied his quirk and Death Arms ripped the front doors from their hinges.

Fatgum moved after him but blinked when no attacks came or traps were set off. The team moved further in and found the waiting room empty, Death Arms snorted. "Well, at least they're making it easy." He said, and Gunhead glared at the doors in front of them. He had a point, it shouldn't be this easy. Still, deviating from the plan now wouldn't be helpful.

"Team A, get to security and take control, I want to know how many we're dealing with and just what sort of aggression we're dealing with. Until we've gotten a read everyone is to open with non-lethal to warn, then lethal if aggression continues." Gunhead said, Hand of Harmony, Fatgum, Whisper, and Calculator nodding before they went through the main doors. Gunhead followed after them, separating and heading towards the gymnasium. Soon he felt Whispers quirk brush his mind.

"Link operational, everyone check in," Whisper said through his quirk, it was a form of telepathy, it allowed people to talk to Whisper and for Whisper to talk to them, making him a good alternative to radios. The only problem even if he connected to multiple people, you could only hear and talk to Whisper.

"Gunhead here." He said and heard Death Arms and Hummingbird voice their connection as well.

"All Links check out, Team A is making a beeline towards security, we'll let you know before we enter."

"Stay sharp," Gunhead said as Death Arms moved to the Gymnasium door. The man gave the door a tug and then opened it normally. Gunhead found himself getting annoyed and anxious, the facility shouldn't be this easy to enter, it should be on lockdown. That's when he heard footsteps, small ones. Death Arms got his arms up in a general boxing stance while Hummingbird started to bend his knees and lower his center of gravity.

They moved into the room and Gunhead felt the guns in his arms and hands tense, ready to let loose a hail of bullets. "Someone here?" Gunhead said, but there wasn't a verbal response, just more footsteps, then air rushing around something. 'Move' His mind screamed and he leaped to the left, rolling away as something hit the ground, he could hear Death Arms's kiai shout but not his fist hitting flesh. Gunhead righted himself and saw cracks on the ground in front of where he was before he'd moved.

"Anyone see what did that?" Gunhead said, only to hear wind whistling again. He spun and held a hand out to grab whatever it was. He made out black hair and a white dress before something hit his arm from underneath. He grit his teeth, whatever her quirk was she hit Hard. She kept bringing her arm up and with it exposing his shoulder, he saw her cock back her other fist to strike. She was training, she wanted his shoulder out of commission and then he'd be screwed.

Death Arms was on her before she could swing, and he watched her disengage from him and jump away from the man's punch. "Full body strength enhancement?" Death Arms said, and Hummingbird shook his head.

"No, more than that, where'd she-" Hummingbird said, only to be interrupted when the girl landed behind him. Gunhead saw her eyes for a moment before her hair fell back down and she planted a kidney shot on Hummingbird, throwing him across the gym in the process. She then curled as if to run before she disappeared and landed on top of him, grabbing his arm and twisting it behind him. He could hear the bones crack from across the room.

He aimed his fist at her and activated his quirk, keratin bullets flying. He noticed she started to move the moment he did and grimaced as pieces clicked in his head. The bullets flew but she was already moving, out of the four rounds fired from his hand only one found purchase, hitting her arm. He froze as she screamed, the sound echoing off the walls. Then the green door on the other side of the Gymnasium was flung open and he noticed a trail few drops of blood between Hummingbird and the door.

"Okay... the hell was that?" Death Arms said quietly as the officers moved to check on Hummingbird. Gunhead brought his arm up and looked at what she'd countered his initial attack, bruise already starting to form, possible fracture from the force of the blow.

"A very well trained blind girl who could hear me move my arm across the room, and possibly the muscles in my arm preparing to fire," Gunhead said, clenching his hand a couple times. The pain was ignorable but he'd need to be careful not to let it get hit like or his left radial would probably snap. "Hits like a truck too, either by body enhancement or some sort of shockwave quirk."

"Damn, you alright?"

"Not yet, I will be when we've got the kids out of here," Gunhead said as Hummingbird stood back up and walked over to them, Gunhead had to give him credit, Kidney shot across the room and arm twisted until the bones snapped and the pain doesn't stop him from moving yet. "Hummingbird, head outside and let the officers know what sort of power we're dealing with, then call the agency and tell them to bring in the heavyweights."

"Dropping the formalities?" Death Arms said as Hummingbird thumped his chest with his good arm and headed out.

"Something like that," Gunhead said as the team headed to the green door to follow after the villain. 'Don't worry Izuku, I'm on my way.'

"My my, such beautiful men come to our circus dear, they don't seem to like your act though."

'Oh great, we're dealing with one of those villains. Couldn't these types just go work for the local theater or something?' Gunhead thought to himself as a woman in a white, Victorian dress looked at the wound his quirk left on the girl. He felt bad for a moment, he didn't like hurting young villains, that said it was hardly the first time he'd ever done it. Her skin was glossy as if she'd put on a heavy amount of make-up, her entire face shined like porcelain. Her hair shined as well, and he wondered how long it took to get her outfit together plus makeup and hair products to get that shiny. "I take it you're in charge then."

The woman spun towards him, her face serene as if she didn't care she was facing off against two pro-heroes and six officers armed to the teeth. She took a few steps back onto a shard of glass, no, a mirror shard. "Such handsome men, no wonder you could not handle them alone, you're just a girl... I will join you in this dance Hikisaku."
Gunhead brought his right arm up to fire his quirk, only for the woman to fall into the mirror shard and Hikisaku to lunge forward with one arm forward to guard her face, the other cocked back to strike. Death Arms got in her way, grabbing her and throwing her into the air, as Gunheads eyes followed her he noticed something else. There were mirror shards all over the room, some hung up on strings, caught in the curtains, seemingly glued to the walls and ceiling. A set of arms caught Hikisaku and dragged her into one of the mirror shards, then she reappeared through a shard directly in front of them, nearly catching Death Arms with a palm strike to the nose if the man hadn't caught the small hand in his own and thrown her away from them.

A slice by a gurgle and shouts of anger. Gunhead turned and saw the woman in the dress in the middle of the officers, a mirror shard in her hand as she pulled it from an officers neck. She disappeared into the shard in her hand and it fell to the ground. He growled and put his back against Death Arms. "So, super strength and a warp quirk... thoughts?" Death Arms said, and Gunhead scowled under his mask

"Watch your everything, counter where you can, hope for the best," Gunhead said as the police moved to the entrance of the room so they could keep an eye on every shard.

'Hold on Izuku...'

The girl jumped out of a shard towards him, and he moved to catch her arm.

Osore navigated the wires as she felt herself pulled through them and was slowly getting a feel for it. It felt weird, like she was all over, bent and turned and spun in a corkscrew, as if she was every single wire all at once, she felt where the wires were faulty but they didn't hurt. She'd found a second security room and, from there, saw Izuku and Kokku were okay. She wanted to go to them but the security cameras were too small. The wiring in the building gave her enough room to move but to leave the wires she needed to leave into an object with enough room for her.

It frustrated her but at least they were safe, she continued to scout the building, eventually finding a screen to look through. She was in the main security room and saw corpses all over, torn apart and strangled. She also saw heroes looking over the room with one looking at a screen, they weren't looking up though and a villain was making their way towards one from the ceiling. She only saw him because the screens were tilted up.

She moved to the screen the hero was looking at and started forming letters in the pixels.

Hand of Harmony was confused, every hallway on the upper floor was empty, as far as he could tell the security room had been massacred and they moved on. The screens showed a fight in the medical room, Gunhead and Death Arms were in trouble, he prepared to move in to assist when the screen went black save for two words of white pixels.

ABOVE YOU!

He didn't question it, he just moved and thanked whatever program was in the computers as a villain crashed down from above him. The man seemed annoyed as he'd moved as Fatgum lunged over the computers to strike the man. He spun and he watched as hooks dug into Fatgums fist and the man slammed him into the computers.

"You're not supposed to Move, you're supposed to be still and let me help you!" The man said as he lifted his other arm, Hand of Harmony moved to stop him, grabbing his arm and letting his quirk activate. He saw the man on the going to slash at his face, the computer was behind him with the words CLOSER on it. The man headbutted him and his quirk showed him another scene, the screen said NOW and he was about to slam his palm into the man's chest, but he seemed to have his left eye closed. "I'll dress you all in the finest cloaks of red!"

He released his quirk from showing him further visions and stepped back as Fatgum freed himself from the man's hook-like fingers. The man spun on him, breathing heavily as Calculator sat at a computer, trying to enter the system and start locking down rooms the villains were in, divide them before they could harm whoever might be left. Whisper stayed on the opposite side of the room, keeping his quirk active in the event he had to let Gunhead know they'd failed.

Hand of Harmony dodged to his right as the man took a swing at him, putting the villain between himself and the computer before countering by kicking at his legs. The villain jumped back and the words showed up, CLOSER. He looked back at his opponent and moved to guard against the mans strike, he was a moment slow though and the mans claws dug into his face, the vision in his left eye went black and he lashed out with his palm, planting it in the mans chest as the word NOW showed up on the screen.

The word was suddenly replaced with a white circle and two blue arms, a child's arms, burst from the screen and grabbed the man. They pulled back into the screen and dragged the mad backward in the process, combined with his strike the man lost his balance. The back of his head hit the screen and Fatgum took the chance to punch the villain in the gut, the villain vomiting from the force of the hit. Hand of Harmony grabbed the villains head as Fatgum pulled his fist back and then swung his head into the opposite desk. The villain went limp at that point and Hand of Harmony pulled a set of cuffs from his aikidogi, snapping them over the man's wrists.

Fatgum pulled a set of bandages from his jacket and started to wrap his hand. He looked at the screen which stayed black, no arms sticking out of it. Then the arms showed up and grabbed the desk along with the white ring on the screen. Fatgum prepared to strike whatever came out when a girl of fifteen pulled herself out, blue skin, black hair to her elbows and a set of white gym clothes. She looked scared but hopeful, and so he held his hand out, pulling her out from the screen. "Well, hello, are you one of the examinees?" He said, the girl nodded and he reached back into his belt, pulling out a package of animal crackers. She took them gently and nodded her thanks. "Do you know where the others are?"

She nodded again and ran through the room before tapping a screen. Hand of Harmony walked over to her and looked at the screen, it said 'Breakroom, Basement level' and showed the examinees with an unconscious nurse, seemingly preparing for a fight with traps, spheres on the ground, and weapons he wasn't sure they would have known where to get. "Looks like most of the examinees are at the breakroom in the basement, not sure why but they have an unconscious nurse." He said, and Whisper nodded, already repeating the information. "What about Izuku?"

Osore looked at the hero and then shrugged, then mimed taking a picture with a camera, then pointed at her eyes before holding up her left arm and making her right index and middle fingers run across it. "You saw her using the cameras running around?" Hand of Harmony said, and Osore nodded. Whisper repeated this as well, and Osore pointed at herself, then the screen showing the basement breakroom. "Yes, go let your friends know we're coming, Whisper is relaying this information to the heroes outside, they'll be coming to assist us soon."

She grinned and climbed onto the desk, then moved into the computer and navigated the wires until she was back in the breakroom. Hitoshi spun as Osore stepped out of the television and onto the table. She looked happy and he walked up to her. "Osore, what's happening." He said, and she started flexing, then punching the air, then started pointing down excitedly. A fight, fighting, and happiness. "The heroes are on their way here?"

She grinned and started jumping, and he grinned as the other examinees cheered. "We're going to be saved, we're going to be saved!" He heard Minoru cheering, his voice sounded wet, he was crying. Hitoshi checked his cheeks and found he as crying too.

"Wait, what about Izuku!?" Tetsutetsu said. "Did you see her too!?"

Kokku pushed herself to her knees, then back onto her feet just in time to watch the man between them and the hallway to the security room threw Izuku across the bloody and corpse ridden dojo. Izuku hit the wall and dropped to the ground, groaning in pain and the man started to move towards her. He had red skin, stood a good eight feet tall, and was built like a tank, his hands easily large enough to wrap around her arm.

Said arm was currently crushed, hanging limply at her side. Despite this, she raised the barbell weight with her quirk and flung it at the man to get him Away from Izuku. They'd been stuck trying to get past the ogre of a man since they left the cafeteria and entered into this room and nothing was working. When it started she'd launched the weight but he just hit it away with the metal club in his hands, the same club he'd discarded after he found he could just throw the weight back at her in her current condition. The weight struck the mans arms and he rubbed it, then looked at her and grinned, moving towards her as she got on her feet and prepared to meet him.

She looked at Izuku who was starting to get up and hoped she would run, then back at the villain and grabbed the barbell rod and swung it as best she could. The ogre grabbed the rod and pulled it from her, then slammed it across her face, her world spun and she tasted a sudden rush of blood and bone in her mouth. Her jaw was in agony and she felt it hang loose, blood and teeth falling out of her open mouth and onto the floor. She turned her head up at the ogre and glared while he just grinned down at her and held the rod up to impale her.

Then she looked in horror as Izuku jumped onto the ogres back and Bit into his neck, ripping flesh from his and coating her face and the man's shoulder in blood. The villain howled and reached over, pulling Izuku off his back and holding her by her neck, his fingers around her shoulders, chin, and mouth. She took advantage and kept biting, tearing into him as he tilted her sideways and grabbed her legs. She tried to stand up and strike him only to slip on her own blood, his fingers tightened around her legs and she watched him trying to pull her in half, she could hear bones dislocating and Izuku screaming into the man's hand, forearms flailing in attempts to strike him. Kokku's finally got herself up and onto her feet when she heard flesh tearing, looking up just in time to see the poor girl ripped in half, blood spraying onto Kokku's face as her intestines dropped to the ground.

He squeezed the two halves, blood squirted from Izuku's torn stomach, hips, and mouth, soaking Kokku before the villain finally dropped her crushed and torn body. and Kokku saw red, screaming as she felt her quirk pick up something new to lift in her rage. She latched onto it and flung it at the ogre not caring what it was. Her head felt like it was going to explode with the amount of pressure on the top of her head along with her ruined jaw and the ogres metal club flew from its place against the wall and slammed into the ogres head, flinging him off of his feet. The pressure just kept getting worse but she lifted the club into the air and brought it down again, and again, and again until the club came back up red.

Suddenly she fell, her vision darkening as she watched Izuku's body seemingly inflate back to a normal shape as muscles slithered across the ground and back to her legs, pulling her back together. She tried to smile as Izuku's body was put back together, and then closed her eyes.

Izuku blinked as vision returned to her, and lifted herself up to a sitting position, then back onto her feet to fight the ogre again, to keep him off of Kokku. Once she was on her feet she saw the ogre groaning, preparing to get back up as Kokku laid her a pool of blood, her jaw nearly torn from her face. Her clothes were torn and soaked in blood, and Izuku went to her, trying to put her jaw back in place. She saw water drop onto the woman's cheek and wash away a bit of the blood, she brought a hand up and felt tears. Then she felt anger, rage, and took off her workout shirt, using a clean spot to wipe the blood off of Kokku's face. She stood up and looked around, finding the ogres club.

"It hurrrrts… Mary, it hurts..." He said as Izuku put both hands on the club, she felt her arms straining to lift it but she was able to lift it, and she wasn't tired. "Maaaarrry."
Izuku let the club hit the ground and turned around before lifting it over her head and swinging it down on the ogre's chest. He coughed and she dragged it off his chest before spinning herself to swing the club around, back over her head, and down, this time she hit his stomach and a mix of blood and flesh shot out from the ogre's mouth, spraying both of them. Izuku screamed and did it again, repeating the action as she screamed until her lungs were empty, her mouth forming wordless screams with no air to speak them with. She brought the club down over and over again. She wasn't sure when the ogre stopped moving, or when she starting bringing pieces of bone, flesh, and internal organs with her when she dragged the club off of the ogre. Eventually, the muscles in her arm were so torn from the repeated motions that she couldn't lift the club anymore, and she fell to her knees. She pulled herself over the Kokku and held her corpse, crying in the dead woman's shoulder.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

Gunhead grit his teeth as the girl appeared in front of him and buried a fist into his gut. The Police officers had gotten the idea of shooting the fragments on the ceiling and walls, limit the movement of the woman and the child. It helped predict where the two were going to come from and it was making the woman angry. Hikisaku didn't seem to notice but the constant gunfire must be filling her senses as she was getting sloppy in her attempts to defend herself.

He grabbed her arm before she could pull her arm back and retreat to a mirror shard. "Sorry about this kid." He said before making a fist with his free hand and driving it into her jaw, the force snapped her head to the side and she went limp, unconscious from the blow. Death Arms moved around him and grabbed her, grabbing her other arm as Gunhead let go of her, tossing her across the room so the officers could cuff her without risk of the mirror woman, who had eventually given her alias up as Bloody Mary. She left a mirror in an attempt to catch the girl but Gunhead brought his right arm up and fired, putting four keratin bullets into the woman's side, who screamed and missed her chance to grab the girl, instead of diving into a different fragment.

An officer caught the girl and put on a pair of quirk nullifying cuffs on her wrist. Gunhead straightened his posture a bit and put his left hand beside his mouth. "It's just you now, Bloody Mary, come out and surrender yourself and we'll get you medical attention, there's no doubt in my mind those rounds hit vital organs." Gunhead said, and heard a pain filled scream of rage echo from the mirror shards. He saw the police raise their guns and Death Arms reach over to him as the screams stopped coming from the mirrors but from behind him. He ducked to give the officers a clear shot and they opened fire.

"Damn it, she went into another shard." Death Arms said. They waited for her to reappear but she didn't, and after a bit they started to use their feet to sweep the shards on the floor into one area. "Alright, you guys keep an eye on those shards, we're heading into the basement to find the kids."
The officers nodded, forming a perimeter around the shards with one of them watching their backs in case the missed a piece. Gunhead and Death Arms looked over their wounds as they walked, both of them were littered with cuts and bruises, and Gunhead as fairly certain he'd accidentally broken his own left arm when he punched Hikisaku.

"Alright, according to Whisper most of the kids are in the break room, once we get downstairs you take a left to get to that part of the building, I go right to head to the secondary security room, Calculator found some files stating that's the room they arere to take examinees in the event of an attack," Gunhead said, and Death Arms nodded.
They descended the stairs and Death Arms nearly puked at the sight of the main hall in the basement, it was set up like some sort of cannibal marketplace. Whisper said there was a lot of criminals but Calculator had locked them up by setting the rooms they were in to lockdown. They also said that the camera to the dojo, the room between the security room and the cafeteria off the main hall was broken. 'I'm coming Izuku, I'm on my way... Inko must be going insane out there waiting for someone to bring her child out'

The cafeteria was pretty torn up, and he saw a werewolf with horns starting to pick himself up. He grabbed a nearby chair and smashed it over the villains head, he'd met that staff before he left, that wasn't one of them. His presence also meant Izuku had probably fought, and he quickly cuffed the man before heading to the next room.
In the middle of a room filled with half-eaten corpses and the pulped remains of what he imagined was the villain who'd attacked them, was Izuku. She was covered head to toe in stitches and blood, her shirt missing revealing a once dark green sports bra was holding the corpse of the woman who he'd watched put the examinees through their paces on the first day, crying into her shoulder. He bit back the need to vomit, he'd break down later, Izuku needed a rock to latch onto and cry on, she needed help first.

She looked up at him, face stained with blood and crisscrossed with stitches and he went over to her. "Let me, we'll get her out of here." Gunhead said as he scooped up the woman's body and cradled her as if she was still alive, he then kneeled down and Izuku climbed onto his back, her arms around his neck. "Come on, it's time to go home."

He carried her to the main hall and to the stairway, where he caught up with Death Arms and the other kids. Three of them cried out Izuku's name and nearly ran down the stairs but Gunhead shook his head. "Not here, let's get out of this mess first." He said, and the kids all nodded.

Hitoshi felt his stomach turn to lead when he saw Izuku, bathed in blood, on Gunheads back. She had clear marks on her face where her tears had cleaned away the blood, her hair was matted down with it and she seemed to just be staring into space. With Kokku in Gunheads arms he figured out what had happened, they had been alone and instead of acting like the heroes they wanted to be they hid away and waited for heroes to save them. He'd find a way to apologize, the first step to that would be getting into UA along with her, he wouldn't hide in the shadows again.

Tetsutetsu wanted to scream once he saw Izuku's face, soaked in blood and stitches. He should have gone looking for her but instead he'd just hid away and waited to be saved. His jaw clenched and his knuckles popped with how tightly he held his fists, she had been all alone, her and the gym coach and because they were alone one of them didn't make it. 'What kind of hero am I supposed to be if I let down a friend.' He thought to himself, and then punched the wall next to him. He would be a hero, he'd make up for this somehow, he'd never let something like this happen again.

Momo held a hand under her shirt, using what little she had left to spar to form a cleaning cloth. She pulled it out and slowed her stride to walk next to Gunhead. He saw what she wanted to do and leaned slightly towards her, and Momo began to wipe the blood from Izuku's face. There was a wetness on her cheeks as well, then she hiccuped, and then the dam broke and she started sobbing. Izuku looked so dead, her eyes staring at nothing, her face littered with stitches, her hair soaked in blood. Why didn't they go looking for her, Osore had said she saw them, they could have gone after her and taken them to the room they were hiding in but they didn't. She didn't think to do it, why didn't she think to go Save Her Friend... she was afraid, she was so afraid for herself she forgot about her friend. She wiped her eyes to prevent herself from tripping as they walked. She promised herself she would not be afraid again, next time her friends wouldn't be left alone because she couldn't act.

Minoru wanted to be a hero because he thought it was cool, that he'd get to save lives and get lots of beautiful girls at the same time. Then the villains attacked and he panicked, he had to be led to safety and once he was there he sat down and waited to be saved. All he did was plant a few traps that never got used and gave reasons to stay put and wait to be saved rather than look for other survivors and make sure they were safe too. He looked over at the zombie girl, no, Izuku, and the pretty coach who died because they'd run into danger they could have led them away from, and he didn't feel very cool.

Osore silently cried as they made their way out of the clinic and the Police came in around them to get into the clinic and further secure the building. There was also camera flashes. She looked over at Izuku and felt her heart shatter, she'd found her friend, she knew where she was and instead of doing something to point her to safety she just assumed they'd be safe and kept exploring her powers. Yes, she'd helped the heroes but that was After she'd found Izuku, she could have let her know where the others were, she should have. She heard the others talk about UA, she wasn't sure she belonged there but they said it's where heroes were trained... she never wanted to fail her friends again, she wanted to save them so this never happened again. She wanted to be a hero.

Toshinori stood across the street from the clinic, staring as Izuku and the others were brought out, along with a corpse of one of the staff. He'd failed to make it in time to stop her from getting hurt, again. He heard as the girl's mother screamed and managed to force her way past the police and run to her daughter, who was riding on Gunheads back. This couldn't keep happening, he couldn't just let One for All be wasted on him anymore. He needed a successor, now.

He pulled out his phone and dialed Sir Nighteye, he couldn't ask her to succeed him after he hurt her, and then failed to protect her.

Bloody Mary walked out into the street, dress in a set of dark grey sweatpants and a black hoodie. Her plan had failed, cost her everyone. She joined the crowd of onlookers and watched as they brought out a girl covered in stitches and soaked in blood looking blankly ahead, emotionally exhausted, next to her stood a blue skinned girl with beautiful black hair and a wonderfully sad look on her face. She smiled and broke from the crowd, she needed to find a working television, listen to the news.

Put a pair of names on those pretty dolls just begging to be put to use.