Chapter 19: Painkiller
Toshi's head hurt as he came to, he tried to remember what had happened and it slowly came to him. They were on a school field trip, but there was an explosion. He grabbed Riva and Midori and then the floor gave out and he fell. Rubbing the back of his head Toshi looked around until he noticed the weight on his chest. Taking a look in the darkness he noted a head of messy blue hair.
"Mhm," Midori mumbled as she stirred, looking up she locked eyes with Toshi, and rubbed her face in his chest, "While this is nice Toshinori, shouldn't you take me to dinner first?"
"I'm afraid I don't follow Awata-san," Toshi replied, his face completely straight.
"Oh my gosh," Riva groaned, she sat nearby with a look of pure disgust on her face, "Get a room."
"Oh you're no fun," Midori huffed pushing off of Toshi, brushing herself off she squinted, peering through the darkness, "Geeze, where are we."
"In the basement of the building," Toshi informed as he stood up himself, he gestured to the pinprick of light above the trio, "We must be around two or three floors underground."
Midori whistled as she stared up, "That's crazy. Any idea what happened?"
"Are you dense?" Riva huffed from her place leaning against the wall, "Didn't you hear Dog Breath? He said he smelled gasoline, it's obviously an explosive, we were attacked."
"Attacked by who?" Midori questioned, thoughtfully holding her chin, "Surely no is dumb enough to attack right?"
"Don't look at me for answers!" Riva spat angrily, stepping closer to Midori, her arms wide as she got ready to throw down, "I'm just in the dark about it as you!"
"Calm down," Toshi intervened, putting himself between the two girls before a fight started, "We need to keep our wits about us, we can't be fighting, what if we get attacked?"
"Huh," Riva huffed, narrowing her eyes at the brunette as she crossed her arms again, "When'd you get so worried about stuff like this?"
"Let's just say I've had experience with this," Toshi somberly replied, his hand unknowingly rising to his collarbone, "Either way we need to stick together and get out of here safely."
"What do you propose Mr. Safety?" Midori questioned with a teasing tone to her voice, "You expect us to just up and jump our way out of here?"
"That was the idea," Toshi agreed as he nodded, "But I don't think I could carry the both of you up that far, I doubt I could even make it to the next floor."
"So what then?" Midori asked, looking around the rubble littered hallway they had fallen into, "We just wander around until we find our way out of here?"
"Basically," Toshi shrugged, his plan wasn't the best, but they didn't have much choice, it was either that or wait around to possibly get ambushed.
The trio set out, with the three of them being hero course students and all of them well built it was an easy task. Despite his reputation as a rather simple hero, Tentacole's agency had some of the most complex and nonsensical hallways the trio had ever traversed. It was trying to navigate a bowl of spaghetti, so many hallways that ended in dead ends or led them back to where they had been before it felt like they had been down there for far too long when the teacher's announcement came over the PA.
"Poor Mr. Kaminari," Midori said, her orange eyes lingering on the speaker mounted in the ceiling, turning to her side she noted Toshi and Riva both taking off their jackets, "Ooh, getting ready to have some fun?"
"Buzz off Blue Brain," Riva shouted quickly, giving the middle finger to her, Riva turned back to the task at hand and kicked off her shoes and sat down to take her socks off as well.
"Shinso-sensei told us we could use our quirks," Toshi informed as he tossed his jacket to the side, "Excess clothing makes it harder for us to fight."
"Oh that makes sense," Midori acknowledged, she started to unbutton her jacket as well, "Might as well do the same." With all of them now dressed only in the bare essentials and their leftover clothes piled up in the middle of the floor, Toshi took the first step forward and then stopped. Something was amiss, he could sense another presence, but it was hard to locate, had it been a false alarm.
"He, he, he," A haunting feminine voice echoed through the darkness, Toshi looked around, but he couldn't see anything in the darkness, "Looks like our arrival was spoiled, what a pity."
"Who's there?" Midori demanded turning to where she thought the voice had originated, activating her quirk she shot a vibrational blast towards the sound. A wall shattered throwing up a cloud of dust.
"Nope, missed me by a long shot," The voice echoed again, the gloating covering it in layers quite apparent, "Seriously you're supposed to be hero course students? I thought you were the cream of the crop."
"Who're you?" Toshi requested as he activated his quirk, his signature lightning started around his legs and quickly wrapped up around his body, covering his whole form. The lightning around him lit up the area, but the shadows deeper in the hallways only seemed to grow darker.
"Like I'd tell a bunch of entitled brats like you," The voice cackled from the darkness, "But you can call me Painkiller, because that's what you'll be asking for when I'm done with you."
"There!" Midori pointed towards another adjacent hallway, she quickly fired another vibro-blast, but it again resulted in another cloud of dust and no face.
"Tell me," The voice asked from the darkness, "How many of you are children of heroes? 18? Twenty? Maybe all two classes?"
"How do you know that?" Toshi said looking forward, thinking he had pinpointed her location, "That's restricted to teachers of UA."
"Let's say I have my ways," The voice chuckled, a slight stretching sound following.
"Gotcha," Toshi flicked, a compressed bullet of air flying away from him towards the assailant. The bullet struck her in the side and knocked into the wall. Riva sprinted forward, hard steel grey plates growing from her skin. As she charged closer the villain turned towards her and extended a pale hand, in something akin to a lovecraftian horror her arm turned into a mass of tentacles and shot forward. The tentacles wrapped around Riva and lifted her into the air, slamming the rabbit girl against the opposite wall.
"Dang you," The girl spat out a bloody loogie, her face coming into the light Tohsi's quirk was giving off, "Dang you Toshinori," Her black sclera, red eyes and black hair that stood on end as if it were fire.
"Zaigotsu?" Toshi asked slightly dumbfounded, he didn't consider the girl his friend in the slightest. In fact she was probably the person he interacted with the most that he liked the least, even more than Riva, but he didn't think she had it in her to be a villain, the way she acted all the time was very pure and unadulterated, could it all have been an act?
"Yeah," She grunted as she used her one free arm to push herself up, her other arm still a writhing tangle of white and black flesh with Riva buried beneath it, "You figured it out, took you actually seeing my face though, but to be honest you were always the most entitled of them all. You thought you were so much better than me that you didn't even talk to me. What would you expect from the Number One Hero's kid?"
"Toshinori you know this witch?" Midori asked as she prepared to activate her quirk, she could see that Riva was struggling to get out of the tentacles, and if she didn't get out she'd die.
"She sat with me at lunch," Toshi informed, his eyes narrowing as he cautiously prepared his next move, "Just invited herself over and acted nice, guess it was all a lie."
"Wow," Painkiller mocked, her voice layered with sarcasm, "Is that actual regret I hear? That's surprising coming from you."
"I just didn't think you'd do this," Toshi replied, his eyes overshadowed, the white lightning of his quirk casting dramatic shadows around himself and Midori, "To think you'd be so shallow."
"What'd you say?" Painkiller growled, her eyes narrowing, "You arrogant punk!"
Toshi shot forward, the tell tale lightning of his quirk streaking behind him. Swinging his leg around Toshi aimed for Painkiller's side. Suddenly Painkiller's free arm twisted and morphed into a large armored arm. His foot struck the armor, pushing the villainess back.
"What in the world?" Toshi gasped, her quirk wasn't as he expected, "Your quirk? It's not tentacle arms?"
"No," Painkiller's other arm returned to normal, dropping Riva to the ground, her arm changed again this time becoming a sharpened blade, "It's changing my arms."
Painkiller
Quirk: Transforming Arms
The user of this quirk can transform their arms into any shape they desire.
"Get that witch!" Riva growled, her voice hoarse, bloody spittle dribbling from the corner of her mouth, "She just defiled my insides!"
"You don't have to tell me twice," Midori smirked, her quirk activating, a small bubble appearing between her hands and floated towards Painkiller, "Get out of the way Toshinori!"
"Gotcha," Toshi kicked off Painkiller's armored arm, landing deftly next to Midori.
"What's this? A bubble?" Painkiller poked the bubble with her sharpened appendage, it's sharpened point penetrating the fragile exterior of the bubble. A deafening boom rocking her as the vibrations contained escaped.
"I got this," Riva sneered, her raspy voice making the phrase all the more frightening. The gunsteel plates growing out of her skin once again, as her whole body was covered in a suit of armor. The stunned Painkiller looked up just in time for Riva to slam an armored fist into her face. The metal faceguard Painkiller was wearing was crushed, and her face was now bloodied. Another first from Riva crashed into the side of her head, bones crunching under her fist.
"Get off me!" Painkiller shouted, her blade arm turning into a hulking armored arm, bringing the two of them in the front of her, the hardened plates absorbing the blows. Riva pulled back, she spat out a loogie, blood filling her mouth.
"You're a fighter," Riva chuckled, her sharpened teeth peering out from underneath her armored helmet.
"No thanks to you," Painkiller spat out, reaching behind her back as her arm turned normal, she produced a needle syringe, "But it's all about to change."
"What's that?" Toshi asked out loud before it was too late, she slammed the syringe into her leg, the trio watched as her veins swelled, her eyes went wide as a rush of adrenaline surged through her body, "Trigger."
"You got that right bucko," The Trigger fueled woman bellowed as she activated her quirk again, her massive armored arms sprouted spikes as the muscles spread to her upper body, "And this is just the beginning."
She charged forward swinging her gorilla arms towards them, Toshi grabbed Midori around the waist and sprung to the side, narrowly avoiding the arm in the process. Riva rushed to the other side, her armor weighing her down. Toshi set Midori down and charged in, aiming between the spikes he landed his foot on her plate, his quirk powered kick doing nothing against the powerful armor and mass of muscle hidden beneath.
"Puny Midoriya," Painkiller snarled, she reached around grabbing Toshi in one of her massive hands, his quirk did little to protect him as she squeezed down on him, he surged his quirk, pushing towards the upper limit his body could take and pushed back. He struggled against her great strength, but it was more than his quirk allowed in such a small space.
"Oi," Riva shouted, charging in slamming her fist into Painkillers back, throwing her off balance enough for Toshi to push his way out of her hand, "If anyone gets to trash Brawn for Brains, it's gonna be me!"
"Perfect, a clear shot," Midori smirked as she held up her arms, "Get out of the way!" Toshi and Riva bounced out of the way as Midori charged up one of her stronger blasts, "I'm still weak from my mini coma, but this should be more than enough." Vibrational waves blasted out of her hands and into Painkiller.
Painkiller held her ground, but the waves got to her. They rocked through her body, shaking every organ and bone in such a way that she felt like she was going to explode. On the other side of the room, Midori wasn't doing much better. Her aftershocks produced similar results on her body, but she was used to it. Painkiller fell to the ground reeling in pain, her arms returned to normal as she grasped at her face, blood pouring from her eyes, ears, mouth and nose. Her eyes glowed a furious red, that rage disappeared and she fell, motionless.
"Gotcha," Midori chuckled, rubbing a small trickle of blood flowing out of her nose, "Oh, that can't be good." Her eyes grew heavy, and she wobbled.
"Good job, you got her," Toshi made his way to her side and steaded her, "I think it's over."
A/N: Well, well, well. I did it. Another chapter done. Well here's the discord.
Discord: /m3QDYA