"Hello there students from Beacon Academy! It is a pleasure to meet you all: my name is Ju Mittsu, and I'll be Mountain Glenn's resident Hunter overseeing your exercise today." That very friendly person, Izuku'd just learnt, was Ju Mittsu. While he hadn't heard 'too' much about her from his time in Mountain Glenn, that was more a result of her own lack of really 'huge' famous ordeals rather than a lack of effort on his part. After all, just about every Huntsman and Huntress in Mountain Glenn was one he knew about, except for those who had just started fresh or were 'really' obscure. Ju, for her part, was more well known in Mountain Glenn than not simply because of her Semblance: a form of control over gravity which, to the naked eye, seemed to allow her to produce 'black holes'. Of course, the extent to that power depended entirely on a source of Gravity Dust that she had to keep on person, which contributed to a slightly bulky suit she'd taken to wearing. Having too much Gravity Dust on one's person at any given time was quite difficult, especially in the amount needed to synergize with a Semblance like Ju's. A bracing suit, with multiple points for containing some amount of Gravity Dust so it wasn't concentrated in one spot, seemed to be her answer.
At any rate, the woman's incredibly friendly attitude seemed to put a lot of the group Izuku was in at ease as, having approached the gigantic set of doors that were built into the very ground itself, seemed to put everyone on edge, especially as they started to slide open. "Now then, I regret to inform you all that due to some... business that Mr. Yagi had to take care of earlier today, that he will not be available to oversee your exercises. This isn't a cause for alarm; Mr. Aizawa and myself are more than capable of overseeing this exercise. So please, just try and do your best!" The genuinely warm reception that had been given seemed to pretty much numb everyone, especially as Aizawa just nodded in easy agreement as they all approached the ground gates.
After a moment of sliding metal, the metal gates on the ground in front of them all slid open, exposing a set of well carved out stairs that had been wide enough for everyone to stand shoulder to shoulder with each other and still be able to make it down. Of course, no one actually did that as the various teams filed in with each other lightly grouped and fell in behind Professor Aizawa and Ju. The stairs went down a ways, with a solid few areas where the stairs leveled out into a plateau before continuing their descent. All the while, they all heard the doors slowly close behind them. It hadn't formed a huge problem as, even while the doors were open, a great number of lights lit the pathway down magnificently. He was initially quite surprised when his Scroll didn't suddenly rang out, signaling that it had lost a connection to the CCT.
Izuku supposed it wasn't exactly that much of a surprise, though, all things considered; if something happened in the Tunnels or in the Training Grounds that people 'absolutely' had to know about, it'd be a pretty bad design choice if no signal could get out from either location back up to the surface. There must've been some built in hub or connection to the CCT or a signaling device down here, somewhere. Finally, after a few flights of stairs, they all came to another door which, after a code punched in by Ju had been submitted, slowly crawled open themselves. They all walked on in and, again, the doors closed in behind them all soon after the last of them crossed the border.
The Underground Training Facility looked pretty much exactly like the picture shown to Izuku by Professor Goodwitch earlier in the week; it had varied, artificial terrain, mostly made out of stone or concrete, that spanned a wide, 'wide' area of the space in front of them. If Izuku absolutely had to guess, he'd assume that the training grounds immediately in front of them, alone, was 320 Feet Wide by 900 Feet Long. The one most immediately in front of them also seemed to be more focused on flat terrain with some rolling ground here and there meant to upset it, something like hills or rocky ground in the natural world. While Izuku and his friends marveled at that and, indeed, the entire facility... it didn't take long to notice that Professor Aizawa and Ju Mittsu seemed... very, very 'very' uneasy.
"Something's not right... where is everyone else?" Aizawa whispered to Ju, who just narrowed her brow slightly.
"I'm... not sure. Sure, some of them should be back in The Tunnels getting the Grimm ready but... there should've been some here to greet us and help divide the students among the training fields for their exercises. Slowly but surely, the silence of the training grounds drew in everyone else's attention... and when they found Professor Aizawa and Ju seeming tense and worried, the feeling slowly spread among everyone gathered. You couldn't help but feel a pit form in your stomach."
That pit seemed to bottom out when Nora spoke up, though.
"Hey... what's that thing over there?"
All at once, everyone attention was drawn to an area pointed out by the bubbly bomber... and truth be told, Izuku wasn't sure at what they were looking at either. For all intents and purposes, what Nora had pointed out was just a... black spot. Not on the ground or on a wall, but just hanging right in the middle of the air. What started as merely odd and a bit unnerving soon, however, became a 'huge' cause for concern as that spot, that dot, that orb... it grew. It grew and grew and grew until it was a wall of pure 'black'. In Izuku's entire life he'd seen none, none more black than the space that... whatever it was occupied. It was like looking into pure darkness, as if he could sink into it himself if you attempted to go through... or that any number of unspeakable horrors could pass through.
And then they did.
The collection of people pouring out from that wall of darkness was eclectic to say the very least. From what Izuku could tell at the distance he was standing, there were a good number of Faunus mixed in of various traits, a man who took the traits of a long-horned ram most notably standing out. There were other, more normal humans stepping forward too, people just in masks to hide their identity or in armor to protect themselves... from what? Izuku'd been afraid to consider that thought at the moment. However, of everyone and everything that had crossed that dark voice, three things had stood out in his vision.
The first was that hulking... 'thing'. It looked like a man; it had two arms and two legs and it stood up straight... but that had been about where the similarities ended. Its skin was almost pure black, with only deep, crimson stripes having interrupted its skin patterning up until its head. It's head had been an entirely different issue; a bone-white beak contained sharp fingers, serrated and perfectly lined up with each other. A slightly yellow tint had contrasted them against the beak, but that only made Izuku wonder what exactly it was that had stained them. Then there was the real kicker; an exposed brain, with two eyes planted firmly on the sides of the head in the brain matter. Even from the distance he stood, the eyes looked 'red'. For a moment, the thought crossed Izuku's mind that that thing, that... person? Looked more like a Grimm than a man.
The second was considerably more normal, a guy who didn't look that terribly much taller than Izuku was. His hair was silver, sure, and he wore all black, but aside from that he seemed perfectly normal... besides the hands that covered him from head to toe. A thought crossed Izuku's mind that those hands might not have just been mere decoration... and he sincerely hoped that his mind was just getting ahead of itself.
The last of the three that stood out came out of the tunnel... in a matter of speaking. After everything and everyone else that had seemed to be waiting on the other side of that darkness came through, two bright glowing points of light formed on the top of the darkness. Slowly but surely, the darkness collapsed in on itself... until only a 'vague' shape, a shadow of a thing, stood behind all the other Faunus, humans and... the thing that had stepped through.
"All of you, stay together and stay back. Juu, protect the students." A voice more alive than any that Professor Aizawa had spoken with previously suddenly snapped them all out of their state of shock, all of them having turned to face the man, the Hunter, who now slid those eye coverings of his up over his eyes. "Whatever happened to the staff that was supposed to be here... I'd wager they're the ones who'd know."
Professor Aizawa's words sent a chill through just about every single last student gathered there, Izuku included. Not just because of what he overtly implied, but because of what had been unsaid. They'd all come here with the expectations that, while they would be under threat from Grimm, that the threat was going to be managed.
And that now, they all were in 'real' danger.
It isn't even a question, there wasn't even a moment's hesitation as Izuku immediately slid his Scroll out and, with his thumb, tapped in the combination of commands he'd practically 'memorized' over the past few days. It was an emergency situation; his friends, his professor and who knows how many innocent people were in danger because the Underground Training Facility was under attack. If that didn't qualify as worth the use of his emergency function on the Scroll, he didn't know 'what' did. Izuku slammed on the last button, biting his lip as he closed his eyes, waiting for the seconds to pass. 'Please, please, please...'
Izuku could 'feel' the jubilation in his chest as, seconds after that last button press, he heard it. All of a sudden, Aizawa's and Ju's Scrolls went off the hook, a rapid ringing, bell-like signal being given off from both. For a moment, Izuku saw a look of surprise on both of their faces, though the look of surprise ebbed on Aizawa's as he turned to look in Izuku's direction. Before he could speak however, the signal suddenly died out. The sound ceased, with only a bit of static before the end of it signaling that something was going wrong. Aizawa bit his lip... but there was the faintest sign of a grin at the corner of his lips.
"Well if that doesn't get someone's attention..." He muttered to himself, pride welling up in Izuku's chest as he turned back to the host of ne'er do wells in front of them. "Alright: Ju, get them out of here. With that signal having been sent, it shouldn't be long before 'some' measure of help arrives. The rest of you... just stay safe and let the Hunters handle this."
"Wait!" Izuku called out, hesitation clear in his voice as Aizawa steps forward. "Professor Aizawa... you can't mean that you're going to try to take them all on yourself. Your Semblance can erase theirs but... your power, it's only really effective in stealth or one-on-one situations. Your fighting style... it isn't going to help with a group." He was not exactly keen to watch one of his Professors run into a situation like that, especially with help on the way... but with these evil doers bearing down on them all...
"You can't be a Huntsman if you only have one trick."
Izuku'd seen Toshinori pull out 'some' of his power in a lot of situations, doing at most what he needed to do in order to handle a situation and no more, lest he accidentally hurt or break something. So, for the first time in his life, he watched with a little bit of awe as a Hunter on the level of Shota Aizawa did his work. Fearlessly, the experienced Huntsman just leapt into the fray... and with a combination of his bandages and his punches and kicks, took out a whole host of goons within the first few seconds of the fight. It seemed like their Auras weren't even stacking up to the power he brought, as he skillfully weaved, dodged and, most importantly, lashed out at the group of would be villains.
It was enough of a sight that it actually left him momentarily breathless.
"Izuku, let's go! You can analyze this all later!"
Before Pyrrha snapped him back to reality.
'Oh right; running away!' Izuku immediately turned on his heels as they all ran after Ju, the Huntress busy reciting the code number in her head as they all made a mad break for the doorway. As Izuku tried to suggest to the various teams to consider grouping up and staying together or, even more distantly, the idea that Kacchan should blow down the door with his Semblance to save them all some valuable time... something stopped them.
A black vortex opened up on the ground in front of them, and that inky blackness spilled out in a thick, impenetrable mist.
"There is no escape for you..."
Again, the mist took that same shape, that same vague shadowy form, as its two, glowing yellow eyes greeted them. Vaguely in the distance, Izuku heard Shota Aizawa attempting to run back... though by the sounds of combat, he gathered that he had his hands full... which just left all of the students and Ju to deal with the thing.
"Greetings, a pleasure to meet all of you. I believe introductions are called for: we are the Monochrome League. Now, I know it must seem so impolite, but we simply 'had' to invite ourselves into this Home of Hope to say hello. I mean, after all: what better Tomb in what better Graveyard could serve as Toshinori Yagi's, The Symbol of Peace, final resting place." It was a grave threat, a threat that seemed... impossible to Izuku. Or, might have little under a year ago. The idea that someone might attempt to 'kill' Toshinori, The Symbol of Peace, in a place like Mountain Glenn.
Knowing what he knew now... well, while he couldn't speak for everyone, the threat threw him off his footing.
"Now... I do believe he was supposed to be here today... and yet he seems strangely absent. There must have been a change in plans we could not have foreseen." With that, the shape opened up what he could 'vaguely' call its arms as it seemed to spread out. "Ah well. I suppose it doesn't matter; in the end, I still have a role to play." Izuku watched as a few subtle actions were taken by Ju; a quick button pressed on the palm of her hand and, from one of the points containing Gravity Dust on her person, a solid chunk of the stuff was dispersed and caught. They watched as she brought her fist up, clenching hard around the Dust, seemingly ready to crush it in the palm of her hand...
At least, up until Yang and Kacchan immediately jumped into the mist's face, fists reared back as they both let out a battle cry.
Izuku momentarily averted his eyes as a huge cloud of smoke and heat ended up enveloping all of them, his emerald eyes burning slightly under the combination as you raise his arms up to protect your face.
"Hey thanks for the monologue there, if you hadn't just stood around yappin' I might've... Mist-ed."
"... You know what Yang, just this once, I'll let you have that, ribbit ribbit." As Izuku opened his eyes, he saw Yang shooting an overconfident grin back to Tsuyu as the smoke slowly cleared. He flinched as he saw the darkness still there, and especially when he saw it's yellow eyes pierce through the veil of smoke.
"Hmmm... your school's reputation for combat is held up I see... if not its word play." Before Izuku could even take in Yang's insulted shout, he noticed something off; in the mist, there seemed to be an actual, solid shape; a fine set of clothes, some kind of sweater vest with a dress shirt and tie underneath. Above it, yet below the mist's glowing yellow eyes, were several metal braces. Before he could commit that all to memory, the mist swallowed it all back up again. "Still, children your age should be more careful... otherwise someone might get 'hurt'." The glowing yellow eyes narrowed and, again, he couldn't help the chill that ran up his spine.
"You two, get out of the way right now!" Ju shouted at both Yang and Kacchan... but it proved to be too little, too late. As the mist suddenly began to widen and disperse around the entire group, practically swallowing them all whole as it spun and spun and spun around!
"Now then... allow me to scatter you all throughout this Tomb, so you may meet your deaths!" The voice of the mist echoed all around them all and, suddenly, Izuku found himself being pulled in various directions.
Izuku could practically feel himself being lost to the void. Being sucked up into the darkness itself.
'It's…'
'cold…'
Izuku screamed as the void pulled at him, a significant chill pulling at his body as he felt himself being lifted off his feet and into the mist itself. The darkness threatened to completely cloud his vision until he could see nothing, the mist brushing against his skin until it was all he could feel... but for a brief moment, he was given a reprieve. He felt a slender arm grab onto him, wrapping around his waist, and he could hear the sounds of metal swishing through the air accompanied by a few grunts of exertion. For a glorious second in time, a flash of light occupied his vision and he thought that, perhaps, the Void will not be the last thing he'd have seen, that he wouldn't have to worry about the darkness taking him. However, that feeling of ease, that sigh of relief, ended up caught in his throat as that flash of light immediately shattered, the Darkness swallowing it whole.
For a moment, there was nothing.
Nothing but the darkness...
And then, all at once, Izuku could see again.
Large, blaring lights filled his vision as he felt himself free fall from the Void, screaming at the top of his lungs as he, now, finally felt as if he was no longer being suffocated. A second scream, a definitely familiar scream, soon joined his as he and whoever had accompanied him end up dropping for some distance until they hit some solid ground with a decided 'thud'. A groan escaped Izuku's lips as he took a moment to look up and around to take in their surroundings.
Lights that he'd have mistaken for Stadium Lights were periodically patterned across the smoothly cut stone ceiling above him, their hum being a constant sound in his ear. The light ended up greatly illuminating the area around him, making it quite easy to make out the various facilities that he saw. The smooth, stone floor beneath them seemed to be of the same color as the stone that made up the walls of the Underground Training Facility, as are the walls and ceilings of the very large room. They were still underground... if they ever left, discounting the void. The thing that caught his notice next was a loud thrumming sound, which drew his eyes over to one of the walls on the room. Seemingly jutting out from the very walls themselves, a large machine roared with life as Izuku saw various lights and sparks of electricity dancing within it. A gyro seemed to be spinning some substance around at a rapid pace, arcs of electricity being formed against a metal rod placed right in the middle of it. Aside from that, a large workstation that surrounded the machine also dominated the room, with a handful of monitors that seemed to be measuring various outputs of the great machine in front of him still on screen.
Furthermore, while several small, far more roughly-hued exits were available in this room, Izuku noticed that standing out among these exits are three smooth tunnels, more in line with the overall quality of the 'construction' of the wall, ceiling and floor of the room, that disappear off into lit hallways in various directions of the room. Finally, on the machine and on the walls of the room itself, a great '16' was emblazoned.
"Oww... jeez, this just... this just really isn't my day..." The voice Izuku recognized as 'definitely' belonging to Weiss ended up drawing his attention over to her, watching as the Heiress just rubbed at her back slightly as she forced herself up into a sitting position. While the fall he too had taken definitely hadn't been bad enough for either of them to be seriously hurt by it, especially with their Auras, it had definitely been awkward falling out a void and just onto some hard, stone ground. Izuku himself felt just the slightest bit sore over the entire thing. He winced as he slowly forced himself up onto his feet and extended a hand down to Weiss.
"I think that's safe to say for everyone... thanks for trying to help Weiss, I appreciate it." Weiss took his hand readily as she pulled herself up to her feet, the young woman having winced as she rubbed her back again.
"For all the good it did... I was 'hoping' we'd be able to stay near the entrance so we could actually do something or get everyone to safety... just ended up getting pulled here regardless." Weiss clearly sounded disappointed, though more in an annoyed way than in a self-deprecating way, as Izuku just did his best to smile through the situation. After all, it was like Toshinori said, being a Hero in situations like that, Izuku just needed to smile and reassure people.
"Well now, I wouldn't be too upset little miss, if you didn't get sucked through then you wouldn't have gotten to meet us!"
...
Izuku and Weiss both stiffened as they both turned on their heels and faced the source of the voice. Unnoticed by Izuku initially, having been slightly dazed by his fall, near Generator 16 were an odd collection of people, similar to those they saw warped into the Underground Training Facility with those three weirdoes. A collection of Faunus and Humans, six of the former and four of the latter, they all grinned at the pair as most of them brandished some combination of baseball bat, club or other blunt instrument. Izuku saw, somewhere behind them, a handful of people tied up, some of them bleeding from the head. Two in particular, one of the Faunus and one of the humans, were carrying guns; simple pistols sure, but guns nonetheless. The Faunus in particular seemed to take 'keen' interest in his arrival, as some elbowed each other in the ribs.
"Hey, Red, doesn't that little piece of crumpet look just like..."
"Weiss Schnee? Yeah, I think she does." The Faunus with a pair of red, drooping hound-dog ears confirmed for his friend, casually slapping his club against the palm of his hand as he did so. "Well boy howdy, little psycho didn't say anything about someone as high up in the food chain as a 'Schnee' poking her head around here." Some of the humans chuckled a bit as the Faunus seemed to get riled up, Weiss having just narrowed her gaze into a glare as they spoke.
"Oh, would you look at that, she's gettin' angry. Probably never had someone refer to her as a piece of crumpet before. Wonder how she'd take being called a tart." Oof, even Izuku felt the absolute 'chill' that was coming off Weiss' glare. "Hah! Well, looks like the Schnees are every bit as stuck up and up their own asses as we've heard boys." The pistol-wielding Faunus declared as he cocked his gun. "How about we take a break from setting this up to fix that?" A general nod of agreement seemed to be reached among the ten goons in front of them as they, variously, started to make their ways toward them.
"Suppose it would've been too much to ask that we don't have to deal with this kind of trash after having what we've already had to go through..." Weiss muttered as she pulled Myrtenaster out, the Dust Chambers of the Rapier spinning in place. "But it seems that today is just bound and determined to test my patience..." Weiss said coldly as Izuku nodded, readying Emerald Gust. "Izuku... I guess we're getting a more live-fire test of your abilities as a leader than we thought we were today. What's the plan?"
"Alright, here's what I'm thinking." His emerald eyes immediately glanced around the room as he took in the entire situation. "Given that there's hostages nearby 'and' the generator that supplies Mountain Glenn most of its power in the room, we really can't afford for them to get back to either of those nor can we really afford to damage either, so we'll need to hold back a bit as it concerns what we can do." Weiss nodded in ready agreement as Izuku stretched his fingers a bit. "I bet we can move faster than them, even while keeping an eye on them, so the initial plan would be for us to slowly walk back and draw them deeper into the chamber. Once they're a good distance away, you make an Ice Wall between the hostages and the generator and these bad guys. From there, I'll try to pick off the two guys with ranged weapons with my shotguns. From there... well, you hang back and support me, wait for me to actually whittle these guys down a bit and then you come in to help clean up. I'll put some punishment on them in the meantime." Izuku slammed his fists together slightly as, already, Izuku and Weiss were slowly backing away from the group who seemed all too happy to pursue them all as if it were a game of cat and mouse.
"Sounds like a plan to me." With that, Weiss seemed to be drawing some focus into herself as she reached a hand down to touch Myrtenaster's blade. The whole lot of them, he and Weiss plus the ten goons in front of them, continued that little dance of slowly retreating while the mob slowly lumbered forward, ready to lay a tremendous beat down and, perhaps, collect a chance to revenge themselves on a Schnee. As some distance crossed that seemed to catch Weiss' attention, without much warning to the enemies, she ran her fingers down the blade of Myrtenaster, a cloud of Ice Dust following them. With a practiced flourish, the cloud of Dust was launched from the tip of Myrtenaster's blade and soared behind the group of enemies, a large wall of Ice having formed right behind them, surprising the whole lot of them.
It was in said surprise that Izuku immediately cocked both shotguns of Emerald Gust and 'swung'. His two fists punched right at the two pistol users, both of whom seem quite distracted with the wall. His shotgun blasts blared out nice and loud as the crackling Lightning Rounds soared through the air. The two failed to notice in time and they were both 'chunked' by the rounds. Izuku watched as a bright flash of white shined momentarily and the sound of shattering glass reached his ears as the very color seemed to drain from the two goon's faces, their Auras completely shattered. Needless to say, they were both downed in an instant, their muscles spasming from both their utterly broken Auras and from the electricity charging through them.
Even the Faunus members of the group seem to suddenly switch focus from Weiss over to him after that quick disposal of their comrades, the various members of the group grinding their teeth in frustration as, all of a sudden, they all charged. Their various weapons, all crude and blunt, were raised above their heads as they tried to bring them down on his skull; in the end, a good number of them got in the other's ways, causing them to swing wildly off course. The others however, were far more on point... but then again, so was Izuku. With a deep breath he immediately started ducking and slapping his hands around, sending their weapons flying away from him or dodging around them himself. There was one blow so close to clipping him about the shoulder but, with a burst of Aura, he managed to push himself past it by mere inches.
Izuku immediately tried to turn that into his own advantage as, with a deep breath, he drew upon 5% of One For All to help try and connect with a few judo throws. He reached out and, though one of the more impressive goons avoided him for a moment, managed to latch onto another and toss him. However, the hope for stun didn't seem to connect and the goons he threw him into, while a good sized group, end up not being too bothered by the entire affair. In the end Izuku and Weiss just ended up withdrawing a bit, not looking to stick around to be encircled... though how long he could keep that up was uncertain.
It seemed as though, however, that Weiss had a similar idea as he watched a dark purple Glyph form above the various goons in front of him. The goons seem to gasp or otherwise stumble in confusion as their weapons glowed a dark purple, it having become abundantly clear that Weiss had very much increased the weight of their gear. With a smile, Weiss finished flourishing Myrtenaster as she kept to a short distance behind Izuku.
There was a moment where the goons tried to decide between trying to fight Izuku barehanded and keeping their weapons and, in the end, it seemed like they were more prepared to fight with what they had on hand than with their bare hands as they charged Izuku. From there, however, the fight devolved into a brawl. Goons tried to hit Izuku with their newly weighted weapons while he lashed out and tried to hit them back. It was a back and forth for a little bit, as they failed to hit Izuku and, while yes he did hurt the big guys pretty sorely, it wasn't quite the pace he was looking for... especially as one of them got a lucky hit in across his side, causing Izuku to groan in some pain. He was hesitant to use a smash; sure, the 5% Smash wasn't anything that would likely seriously cripple someone on its own, not by a long shot... at least if he didn't aim at its head. Still, the idea of throwing it around, throwing 'One For All' around, Izuku hesitated at the idea.
As that lucky blow landed, however, Izuku realized he really didn't have much time to hesitate at all. So, with a long drawn out breath, he turned on one of the big guys he hadn't struck yet, not wanting to completely break through one of the more injured fellows, as he pulled 5% of One For All into his fist.
"Imagine the egg in the microwave... it won't break!" Izuku felt the heat in his fist as he charged One For All into it and the guy, stunned by his sudden change of pace, couldn't avoid it.
"Beacon... SMASH!" The grunt did his best to get out of the way, but the blow still solidly landed in his side. The boom of energy that followed through ends up knocking him a few yards away and onto the ground, as the force of the blow just too much for him to overcome. Still, while he'd taken most of the hit damage wise... he hadn't been the one sent flying furthest away.
No, a scrawny little guy just behind him had been the one who got stuck with that honor. With no time to adjust for the shock wave, the guy ended up taking it right to the center of his chest, which had ended up flinging him bodily away, skittering across the ground still he came grinding to a halt over a dozen yards away.
'That' seemed to get everyone's attention. There was a very noticeable change in the air as the various lesser goons glanced over at Izuku. With some of their betters still getting up and charging at him, a good number still followed in... but a noticeable chunk seemed to just stand and wait to see how the next few seconds panned out. Even Weiss who had momentarily joined the fray to help him start to whittle down the last of them seemed to pause, holding Myrtenaster at the ready. Those seconds didn't pan out any better as Izuku took notice of the two more battered goons who had ran up to him. With a serious expression Izuku brought both fists back and, to their shock, drove them both into their torsos. Within seconds of his shotguns going off, the goons Auras shattered and they end up stunned on the ground, jerking around just like the other pistol users.
"Ah... you bastards! Don't you look down on us! We're going to break you both, isn't that right fellas?"
...
The sounds of various weapons hitting the ground drew the last big goon's attention behind him, as his remaining back up dropped their gear and immediately raised their hands in the air, spooked expressions on their faces as they took Izuku's little group in.
"... Are you shits fucking serious? You're 'actually' giving up? Sons of bitches, they're two friggin' kids!"
"Yeah, two kids who've been kicking our asses. You really want to take one of those punches?"
...
The last remaining bruiser among them just let out an aggravated shout as he dropped his weapon. It seemed he wasn't fool enough to try to fight Izuku while he was, effectively, outnumbered and the two had proven to be nuisances. Thus, between those goons who were stunned and seemed fit to stay that way for a while, and those whom had thrown in the towel, Izuku and Weiss found themselves having overcome the little gaggle of grunts.
The next few minutes were filled with a sporadic dance of motions as Izuku and Weiss both sought to keep the Goon Squad he'd so recently put under wraps down. Weiss shook her head at his offer of her taking some time to reload; Myrtenaster's current canisters still had far more Dust for her to go through before she had to think of reloading the thing. Thus Weiss kept the tip of her rapier pointed at the various goons while Izuku reloaded Emerald Gust's Gauntlets, seeking to empty out the Lightning Dust rounds. Once completed, Izuku made a show of cocking both Gauntlets as he handed his various supplies over to Weiss and gave her instructions on how to approach the various hostages and Hunters. With a firm nod, he'd left to them to their own devices for a moment as he kept his eyes locked on all ten Goons. Thankfully, having nearly half of them utterly wiped and unable to summon forth even the barest hint of an Aura, it seemed to leave them all in a mood to just sit back and 'not' get beaten up.
About a minute later Izuku heard footsteps approaching him, heavy boots by the sound of it, and for a moment he glanced off to the side, worried that he might've been having someone try to sneak up on him. A great deal of relief filled Izuku as he saw the Huntsman that he had previously tagged as uninjured approach, a tall and lanky man wearing an attire that seemed more at home in the forest; various dark greens and browns meant to help camouflage him in.
"Well hello there gentlemen. Not so fun when you're the one having unexpected company dropped on your head, is it?" The man coughed into his fist, a slightly raspy, smoky sounding hack as he looked over at the Beacon students. "Keep your eyes open there young man, your friend's filled me in on your idea there." Izuku nodded as he watched the Huntsman approach one of the previously pistol wielding grunts. With a grab the man was picked up by his collar and bodily dragged away from the group, about five feet away, before the Hunter produced some rope.
It was a bit of a show to watch as the Hunter seemed to practically work the rope in his hands like magic. In a matter of seconds Izuku watched as the goon went from relatively unsecured and still a potential threat to just utterly hog-tied, the rope done up in such a way that any stress that the goon would put on it would only end up with him hurting himself trying to get out.
"Fuckin' humans... you practice hog-tying Faunus a lot, you bastards?"
"Not really but hey, it's always nice to try new things." The Faunus seemed more annoyed by the gravel-y's Huntsman's glib attitude than anything as he went about repeating the process with the other goons. "So, I'm to take it you're part of Beacon's First Year Class right? The group that was supposed to have the Training Facility all to yourselves?" Izuku flinched a bit as the man suddenly spoke up in the middle of his task.
"Uh, yes sir." The man nodded as he shoot they huntsman in training an appreciative look.
"Well I gotta thank you for... well, I suppose you couldn't help getting dropped in here, but I'm grateful nonetheless." The man finished tying up another goon as he moved on. "These crooks here just dropped right out of the ceiling on top of my associates over there, pretty much caught them completely off guard. Didn't even have time to raise their Auras before they got wailed on and when they finally did... well, blows to the head can be nasty to defend against, even for Aura. Round about the time I was ready to do something, the two swinging around those pistols like they knew how to use them threatened the civilian workers that we were watching over and... well, ain't proud to admit it, but I didn't quite think I could handle nine guys and keep them from running around me to 'take care' of the others." Izuku winced slightly at that as he looked over past the ice wall where Weiss had, presumably, been doing her work of freeing a couple civilians.
"Are you guys going to need help? Is it-"
"They'll probably have themselves some concussions and bruised ribs, but they should be fine. We have some supplies stored away around here somewhere that we can use... but they probably aren't going to be good for a fight for a while. Good thing you kids showed up when you did."
"Please don't refer to us as kids, we're Hunters-in-Training after all." Weiss rejoined the group, giving him a firm nod as he took his queue to walk up and help tie up the remaining goons.
Despite not being that particularly well-versed in tying knots, he actually managed to do so rather passably, or at least to the degree where the Hunter next to him didn't immediately redo them once he was done.
"Weiss, the others, how are they holding up? Any idea what these guys were setting up?" Weiss gave a nod on both counts as she kept her rapier pointed at the remaining goons.
"None of the civilians were doctors or anything of the sort, so I had to handle checking over the other Hunters myself. They're out cold and it didn't seem like they'd be snapping out of it anytime soon... but their injuries don't look severe, at least. There was a first aid kit that the civilians pointed out that I was able to use to patch them up a little bit, but I can't say how much that's going to help us right now."
"Probably isn't but hey, you work with what you've got." The older Hunter said as he finished tying up the last sucker among the goons.
"And the device?" Izuku asked as Weiss frowned.
"That some of them were ready to identify; it was definitely a bomb but it seems like our arrival ended up cutting their preparations short; they didn't have time to properly set it up." Weiss crossed her arms. "It isn't too fancy, a timed detonator set for an hour that was made up of some... very fine Fire Dust." Weiss frowned as that as she looked down at the grunts on the floor.
"You guys... tell us what you were up to and... well, we won't have to come to any more blows!" Izuku did his best to try to sound rough and authoritative... but the effort completely fell flat as far more of the goons seemed ready to laugh.
"Come on kid. You might've looked like a lion in the middle of a fight, but you look more ready to cry over the prospect of trying to actually 'interrogate' us than anything. Run on home squirt."
"Hey, that 'squirt' just beat most of you to an Aura-shattered pulp! I suggest you all straighten up and tell us what you're doing and where you've gotten this Dust from!" Weiss stomped her heel onto the stone floor, a show of petulance that just seemed to cause more laughter than anything else.
The laughter immediately stopped when the Hunter grabbed a part of one of the ropes tying a particular goon down and pulled on it, causing him to howl in pain as the ropes all around his body tightened and pulled at him in various directions.
"Now now, it isn't polite to just laugh off the people who've been kind enough to let you surrender without taking a beating. I'd suggest you show a little more grace and answer these two's questions." With that, the grunts seemed to bend to the honed edge of an experienced Hunter as they all glared but, after some time, relented.
"Look, we honestly don't know that much. The psycho with the hands, Shigaraki he's called, he just paid a whole bunch of us to do some work here in Mountain Glenn, said we'd be doing our part to help knock that self-satisfied prick Toshinori Yagi down." One of the goons spoke up, causing Izuku to narrow his gaze. "We were supposed to just be dropped in here, set up that bomb, and then have Kurogiri get us out when everything was said and done. At the end of the hour, boom, bombs go off and then that's a big old fiasco for Toshinori and Mountain Glenn... presumin' the former isn't already dead by that point."
"And the Dust? Where did low lives like you all get such good Dust?" Weiss demanded as one of the goons just sneered at her.
"Oh wouldn't you like to know prince-aaAAAH!" Another tug on another rope caused the grunt in question to scream in pain as he shook a bit. "Fuck, look, I don't know alright! Kurogiri and Shigaraki gave us the stuff, we have no idea where it came from, now just let go of the fuckin' rope you asshole!" After waiting for a moment and seeing that the grunt in question wasn't changing his story despite the continued pressure, the Hunter did, indeed, let go.
"So much for that..." The Hunter dusted off his hands as he turned to the two. "What about you two? I presume you want to get back to the entrance?" Izuku frowned for a moment as he looked to the side, but shook his head.
"Back at the entrance, this guy... I think he might've been the Kurogiri this guy referred to, surrounded a lot of my friends and teammates. They're probably scattered about here to. I want to be able to find them all and make sure they're okay before heading back." Weiss nodded in agreement as they both looked up to the Hunter in question... who just nodded.
"Brave of you. Maybe not smart all things considered, but brave." The Hunter pointed over to the civilians. "None of us can give you a good layout of all the Tunnels, I'm afraid. When my associates and I 'are' shuffled into Tunnel duty, we're assigned to this Chamber in specific, and same goes for these civilians. Now, we 'can' give you an idea of what our commute looks like on the way here to give you some idea but... well, after that, you're kind of on your own." Nodding in appreciation, Izuku and Weiss listened as the Hunter described to them all, in some detail so they all could remember it, the path he and these other Hunters and Civilians take to get from the Entrance to Chamber 16.
With about all the information they'd wanted to gather in his hands, he and Weiss quickly packed up and make ready for their continued journey. It might take a little time, but their current goal couldn't be stalled; they needed to get back with their friends, to make sure they were safe. As he thought about his options going forward, Izuku's mind couldn't help but wonder how everyone else was doing...
With a grunt, Shoto Todoroki lifted himself up off the floor, shaking his head slightly as he recovered from the vertigo of his sudden... teleportation and fall, was perhaps the best way to put it. He took an opportunity to look around and frowned at what he saw; a handful of Hunters and Civilians, unconscious and just laying out on the floor in an otherwise mostly empty chamber. Before Shoto Todoroki could ponder much of anything about his current predicament... a sound reached his ears. With a slight turn, the half-and-half young man faced down one of the many tunnels that led out of the chamber he was in, a deep, dark tunnel that seemed vaguely lit. Black shadows moved amongst the lights... and soon enough, red eyes shined through the darkness.
A sigh escaped Shoto's lips as he pulled out a chunk of Ice Dust. He supposed the entire affair 'was' meant to help test his skills against the Grimm. Still, it would've been better if he had his entire team with him, especially the wily instincts of his leader...
"NOW TSU!"
Ruby Rose gave a mighty cry as she swung Crescent Rose violently through the air, the blade of her scythe having practically sung as it sliced straight through the neck of one Beowolf that had dared to challenge the silver eyed Huntress. As the rest of its little group sought to immediately take advantage of Ruby's open position, a pink, fleshy limb stretched out, wrapped around the young girl's waist and 'immediately' pulled her out of harm's way. As Ruby was being pulled, she quickly grabbed onto a few little round objects that the tongue had slipped onto its end and tossed them out into the fray of the Grimm, a few clouds of light explosives being left in her wake as she was pulled away. With a bit of a roll Ruby hit the ground and soon jumped back onto her feet, Tsuyu Asui having pulled her tongue back into her mouth as she pulled her machete out of the head of some would be attacking Grimm.
"Well they're tenacious, I'll give them that, ribbit ribbit." Ruby nodded in agreement as the pair of slowly growing friends readied themselves again as the Beowolves proved to be unbowed by their initial show of force. Ruby couldn't believe it; another exercise, another time she was separated from the people she wanted and needed to be beside. Not that she hated being with Tsuyu, far from it, the Frog Faunus had proven a great trainer and a growing friend in Ruby's eyes... but these Grimm... they were supposed to be fought under safer conditions, when criminals weren't threatening to kill so many innocent people, like the group of civilians she and Tsuyu were doing their best to keep said Grimm distracted from.
More than that, she was supposed to be taking care of them with her Team. Ruby gave a sigh as she rapidly switched Crescent Rose into its sniper form, looking to quickly pick off a Beowolf Alpha in the group. Even if her mind was set on her team, her heart had stretched out to family. To her sister...
"Don't worry, everything's going to be okay..."
Huddled up with a group of people, hurt and scared, using his Semblance to hide them from the Grimm... boy, if that didn't bring back memories. Lie Ren took a deep breath, using up his Aura to keep his Semblance active so that the civilians and injured Hunters wouldn't need worry about the small herd of Grimm that had stormed into the Chamber, a mix of Boarbatusks and Ursa. Ren himself was keeping calm under the situation for two reasons; his Semblance first and foremost and, secondly, the 'very' powerful young woman who was currently diving into that group of Grimm and beating them all senseless.
Perhaps not the young woman he was used to having protect him, but Lie Ren would gladly take Yang Xiao Long's combat prowess as she successfully punched an Ursa's head clean off as he would have taken Nora's. Still, Ren sighed at the thought. He hoped Nora was doing okay or that, at the very least, she wasn't 'too' worried about him...
"WHAT THE FUCK IS EVEN HAPPENING RIGHT NOW?!"
"HEE-HAAAAAAAW!" The clang of heavy metal slamming against a flesh and blood torso as a goon was sent flying across the room caused many jaws to drop as a variety of humans and Faunus watched the scene play out before them. "GO MY TRUSTY STEED GO, BANDITS HAVE TAKEN TO ASSAULTING YOUR QUEEN'S GROUNDS, WE CANNOT LET THIS OFFENSE GO UNPUNISHED! NOW GO!"
"MISS VALKYRIE, I WILL SAY THAT THIS IS 'VERY' INAPPROPRIATE... AND KICKING MY RIBS DOES NOTHING THROUGH MY ARMOR!"
"GALLANT STEEDS DON'T TALK, NOW KEEP MOVING!"
The sight of one Nora Valkyrie riding on top of Tenya Iida's shoulders, occasionally kicking the armored knight's ribs as she swung Magnhild around and knocked about the various goons and grunts as if they were balls in a polo match was a very... interesting sight indeed. However, as 'interesting' as it was, the goons were more preoccupied with not getting beaten into next week by Magnhild as the weird combination Nora and Tenya had brought to the field, while bizarre, was effective; between Tenya's speed and Nora's strength, none of the goons would make it out of the experience without broken ribs.
Despite its effectiveness, Tenya could only sigh and wonder how his own partner was doing. Surely she wouldn't have put him through such an embarrassing display...
"DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!"
Blake winced as the loud battle cry erupted some odd feet away from her again. Despite the energy and gusto that Bakugou seemed to give that shout of his with, from what she could see, the explosive fighter wasn't putting too much power into his blows; rather than huge explosions like she'd seen him unleash against Ruby or Izuku, these seemed the more controlled explosions that could just be forced out with no pressure on his part. It seemed even he recognized that these low level goons were not worth the effort of seriously pressing themselves or wasting their energy on.
"You looked away you filthy human bitch, big mistake!" For a moment, Blake hadn't even entertained that the insult had been meant for her, before she remembered, right, she was disguised. As she was about to just disappear away under the cover of her Semblance, a round, metal shield 'slammed' into the face of the Faunus who had tried to sneak up on her, bouncing away and back into the waiting hand of one Pyrrha Nikos, who skillfully turned around and slammed the face of the shield into another goon as he tried to take advantage...
Yeah, Pyrrha Nikos was every bit the fighter that people said, Blake could attest to that personally now. Blake sighed as, with another swing of Gambol Shroud, she managed to catch another criminal by his ankle and send him falling to the ground, at which point Bakugou practically jumped on top of him and started viciously beating him into unconsciousness.
Yeah, she could've been stuck with worse people as far as fighters go... though she did wish she was still with her team...
"DIIIIIIIE!"
... Or at least Izuku. The guy knew how to keep quiet during a fight, at the very least.
E/N: Yo Gorilla you got anything to say about this whole dungeon thing? - Shovern
a/n: So in my style of running a Quest I tend to have two different modes of handing out conflict; player driven and structured. Things like the spars or the exercises you've seen so far were structured, though very lightly, as just kind of practice challenges to prepare everyone for thinking around certain problems. Other things like the Socials, Cardin, etc. I mostly left up to the players in the thread to decide how they wanted to handle it or if they even wanted to handle it at all.
Dungeons, however, are the epitome of the structured challenges, the things I spent a lot of time tinkering on. They're usually the big high stakes trouble that I force on the players (or at the very least heavily incentive them to take part in as they tend to be pretty important). They usually have some gimmick or the other and are pretty plot centered; unless the players go out exploring and find trouble, Dungeons are pretty much the big set piece moments.
This technically wasn't even the first dungeon, fun fact; the first one was actually The Entrance Exam and the Emerald Forest. But the Tunnels were definitely a big second one that, thankfully, people seemed to really dig.
Also, sorry for this one being late, end of class stuff has me super busy. Will upload next chapter on May 8th, as it normally would've been uploaded.
