Hello crazy, beautiful world! After much writer's blockage and school assignments, I finally got this chapter finished! That being said...
Warning: This chapter contains themes of depression and trauma. You have been warned!
Borderlands is owned by Gearbox and 2KGames and My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Funimation. Please support the official release.
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"This means someone is talking."
'This means someone is thinking to themselves.'
This means it's a flashback.
*This means it's a sound effect!*
{This means I'm speaking in a different language!}
Angel in a Gilded Cage
Izuku took pride in himself for a reason few people rarely do, that he was one of, if not the biggest All-Might fanboy in the world. Since he was in kindergarten he would watch the video of his hero's grand debut, follow every news story, every interview and every incident he could! He'd like to think that he knew everything about his public appearances.
But this was the first time he had ever seen him in his hero form, not smiling. No laughter, no upturned corners of the mouth.
'All-Might… is angry!' He noted in disbelief as he watched his idol gratuitously rip off his striped tie!
"Finally…" Shigaraki muttered. "You finally decided to show up… hero trash."
"Holy shit!" Izuku heard one of the remaining minions exclaim, looking up at the hero from the bottom of the stairs. "I've seen him on tv but… my body won't stop shaking!"
"Get it together man! There's only one of him! We can take him!" Another one berated his comrade's cowardice.
Almost karmically, in the next instant All-Might flickered out of existence, immediately followed up with various grunts and gasps of pain as every single minion was struck almost simultaneously, the culprit reappearing just as fast over Aizawa's body!
"I'm sorry Aizawa…" He said, the minions collapsing one by one behind him! "To you and Thirteen… I should have been here." He continued with his voice filled with regret as he carefully picked up his fellow teacher. Setting the wounded man over his shoulder, he then turned to Izuku, his friends and the remaining villains.
The hero's blue eyes glinted.
Suddenly Izuku's stomach lurched as the world became a blur!
Next thing Izuku knew, he was freed from the Nomu's grip and standing across from the villains several feet away!
"Heh?" Mineta gaped beside him next to Asui. "Wha?! How'd we get here?!"
Izuku realized that in less than a second, All-Might had crossed the distance between them! Had he grabbed him, Asui, Mineta and Hodunk all in one move?!
"You three!" All-Might's voice startled him out of his shock! "Get out of here! Take Aizawa and Hodunk and get them to a doctor! Hurry!" He ordered, gently placing the two unconscious bodies on the ground. He straightened his back, giving off the slightest hint of a pained grimace, one that didn't avoid Izuku's notice.
'All-Might… is he reaching his time limit?!' He thought. If All-Might was running on fumes, he might actually lose to Nomu if he didn't know how strong it was!
"A-All-Might, we should run! The big guy took a punch from One fo-" He barely managed to catch himself! "I-I mean, he took one of my full power punches and he didn't budge! He regenerates too! Angel-chan blew a big hole in his chest and-and he grew it all back! We need to-"
"Young Midoriya." The man interrupted him. Then he turned and gave Izuku a two finger salute with his signature smile! "It'll be okay! You do your job, I'll do mine! I'm counting on you!"
Izuku opened his mouth to say something, but stopped and reluctantly nodded, gently hefting one of Aizawa's arms over his shoulder. In a couple seconds, he had him hanging off his left and Hodunk on his right, Mineta and Asui helped support them on either side as they started carrying them away to safety.
"CAROLINA… SMASH!" He heard All-Might roar accompanied by an earthshaking boom behind him! He was tempted to stop and look back, but the mission he was given took priority. Aizawa had been brutally maimed by Nomu and Hodunk was still shaking uncontrollably, he had no idea what damage overusing her quirk had done to her.
"Oh my gosh, Angel-chan!" A different voice made him and his two classmates jolt and look around, confused as to why they didn't see anyone!
"Kero?! Toru-chan?!" Asui croaked as she looked at something! Following her gaze, Izuku spied a familiar pair of shoes and floating gloves running over to them!
"Ahh! It's the invisible girl!" Mineta gaped.
"Where did you come from?" Izuku asked.
"Angel-chan and I came down from the landslide zone! We were watching everything behind the fountain until she ran in!" She explained. "Lemme help with that!" She carefully lifted Aizawa's legs so he wasn't dragging along the ground, him being the larger of the two bodies.
"Man…" She continued. "...that was crazy wasn't it?! I can't believe she just ran in there!"
"Yeah…" Asui agreed. "But at the same time, I'm glad that she did, kero. If she hadn't done that…" The frog girl shivered, the implication crossing all of their minds if that villain had managed to get his hands on her.
"But wow!" Toru continued. "That beam was something else! Who would have thought Angel-chan had it in her?!"
Indeed. The destructive power of that blast was on par with some of the strongest pro heroes Izuku could remember. Combined with Hodunk's control over technology and the power of flight, she had a quirk guaranteed for the top of the hero charts.
But at the same time, it left concerning questions in its wake. With how powerful her quirk was, why did Hodunk seem so fearful of using it? He hadn't missed how apprehensive she was during Aizawa's test, despite his own worries at the time. It was logical thinking that being born with a powerful quirk would lead to confidence in your own abilities if his former friend Katsuki was anyone to go off of.
Did it have anything to do with her social anxiety? Perhaps, yet he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something more. He hadn't thought much of it in the moment, but she seemed very distressed while she was holding Shigaraki at gunpoint, which he assumed at the time was just the weight of the situation, but now he felt it was only a contributing factor.
Speaking of, why did the villain's choice of words seem to affect her so much? Sure, his demeanour and calling her bluff was terrifying, but she seemed to have reacted specifically when he preached about the emotions of killing and subsequently made comparisons to the two of them. Izuku was sure that if he was in her position, he would be greatly unnerved as well, but...
'The look on her face… it was like she was in a completely different world.' He pondered, taking a glance at the girl on his shoulder. She had stopped shaking, her dark hair fell over her eyes as her face twitched here and there, as if she was grimacing in pain and possibly, guilt.
The more time he spent around the girl, the more pieces of a very confusing and foreboding puzzle would appear.
"Oi! Midoriya!"
He blinked at the sudden call, glancing over to Mineta on the other side of Aizawa.
"Keep moving dammit! Just because you get to hold onto Hodunk-san doesn't mean you can space out on us!" He growled as he fixed his grip on the grown man's arm.
"Sorry! Y-You're right!" Izuku admitted(About spacing out, not about holding a girl, he'd never think of a friend like that!), he should be focusing on helping his classmates carry the injured to safety. He will have plenty of time to dwell on this mystery later.
Just then, another shockwave!
All four of them glanced at the battle behind them as they kept moving, just in time to see All-Might suplex Nomu so hard the ground detonated like a mortar strike, shaking the ground and kicking up a cloud of dust meters high!
"Jeeze, All-Might is so awesome! Even his piledrivers are explosive! KICK HIM IN THE BALLS!" Mineta jeered!
"Only time I'll ever agree with you. Screw those guys!" Toru muttered angrily.
"Maybe we overestimated those guys. All-Might is just a complete league of his own." Asui remarked. Izuku would have agreed with her, if he didn't know what he knew.
Of All-Might's debilitating past injury, the gruesome scar on his abdomen.
Of the limited time he could spend fighting, only three hours per day.
Of all of the crime All-Might had fought this morning, reading about it on his phone on the train.
His classmates could all rest easy because they only knew the invincible paragon that All-Might made himself out to be.
None of them knew of the weary man, his strength leaving him bit by bit, every day. No one knew.
Except him.
"Toru-chan!"
"Eh? What?"
"Take my spot! Now!" He demanded!
"Umm..? Okay..? Why?" She asked as she took over carrying Aizawa and Hodunk at the same time.
"Just get them to safety! GO!" He yelled over his shoulder as he charged back to the fray, tears streaming from his eyes!
'All-Might! You can't die! Please!'
He had to save his hero!
'You still have so much to teach me!'
Angel's head hurt.
A lot.
She had never felt such pain! Not since-
'No… I don't want to… remember…' She told herself as she became more and more awake, her brain's synapses trying to spark back up like a beaten car engine. As the seconds passed her senses began to return.
'What happened..?' She wondered.
Then it all came flooding back! The plaza. The villains. Midoriya. The… blast.
Immediately, it felt like her heart was stabbed with knives, bleeding regret and disgust at herself.
That's right. She lost control again and just like before, someone died.
"-at the hell was Midoriya thinking?!" Someone said.
"At least it looks like Todoroki and Bakugo arrived too!" Another voice answered.
"Unngh…" Angel groaned as her eyes fluttered and she could finally see again, looking down at the ground.
"Hey! She's coming around!" A familiar voice blurted out from her left. "Angel-chan! Are you alright?!"
"Toru..?" Angel mumbled, trying to push past the screaming headache that made her skull feel like golf balls were continuously bouncing around inside.
"Thank god!" Her friend sighed with elation. "I didn't know if you were going to make it out of there when you ran in! Can you walk?!"
At the request, Angel tried, but her legs weren't responding, she couldn't even feel them!
"No… I-I can't. Toru… where are we? What's… going on?"
"It's a long story." Another voice answered, making her painfully look to the right and recognized a certain frog girl carrying her by her arm.
"Hey hey! I'm here too!" She looked back through Toru's body to see Mineta on the other side of an unconscious Aizawa.
"Short version;" Asui ignored him and continued. "Midoriya-kun got caught trying to save you after you from the villains, All-Might showed up just in time and got us all out of there and started fighting that Nomu thing."
"H-How?! Didn't I..! Didn't I… k-ki-!" Angel sputtered, but kept tripping over the last word.
"Turns out he had a regeneration quirk. He grew everything lost right back up."
Angel stared off in disbelief. There was the slightest bit of relief off her guilt ridden shoulders at that statement. It was quickly smothered though.
'It doesn't matter. I would have killed him if he didn't have that and Shigaraki would have died if he didn't get pushed away.'
"Wait…" She paused as she made a sudden realization. "Where's Midoriya?"
"That guy!" Mineta groused! "He was supposed to help us carry you guys to a doctor, but then he just turns around and runs back towards the fight!"
All of Angel's guilt was swallowed up with panic as she frantically tried to turn her head back, ignoring her body's protests as she struggled in her classmate's grasp!
"What?! He went back alone?! W-We have to go back! We have to save Midoriya, we-!"
"Calm down Angel-chan!" Asui snapped her out of her hysteria with a tight grip on her arm! "All-Might is there! So is Todoroki and Bakugo! At least that's my guess with the ice and explosions!"
"Todoroki-san?!" Angel stopped attempting to wrestle out of Asui and Toru's grasp.
"Yeah." The latter girl said. "Took his time coming down, could have used him back there."
Angel slumped in their arms. The fact that her friend would be backed up by the number one hero and two of the most powerful members of their class filled her with comfort.
*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!* They all stumbled at the sudden shockwaves emanating behind them!
"Holy crap! All-Might is fighting up a storm!" The grape headed boy yelped as they all turned halfway around and bore witness to a battle unlike anything they ever saw!
What could easily be mistaken for a hurricane was a flurry of rapid fire punches and jabs between All-Might and the purple monstrosity, both of their strikes impacting each other with so much force the plaza was buffeted with the resulting wind and sound! Their arms were a blur, moving so fast that Angel's eyes couldn't keep up!
Suddenly there was a burst of air and the two of them were sent rocketing away from each other only for a second as they leapt into the air to clash again! They traded strikes once again until All-Might managed to grab onto his opponent's arm and flip him into a throw back down to Earth, the resulting impact forming a meteoric crater!
"NOW DO YOU UNDERSTAND VILLAINS?! THE MEANING BEHIND OUR WORDS?!" All-Might yelled as he crashed down and reared back his fist!
"PLUS ULTRA!"
With a mighty thunderclap, he slammed into Nomu's chest, a punch so powerful it shook the Earth! A split second later, the monster shot like a missle to the ceiling, obliterating the steel barrier as if it was paper and flying out into the blue sky until he disappeared!
Angel had no words. It was one thing to watch the symbol of peace on the internet, but it just didn't do him justice, no pun intended.
'He really is… number one.'
"Holy… he sent that freak flying!" Toru breathed, completely exhilarated.
"That's All-Might for you! He's the best! YES!" Mineta cheered, tears flowing from his eyes.
"All-Might has this now. Let's get going." Asui said, prompting the other two carriers to turn back towards the stairs.
Angel looked over her shoulder and kept watching as best she could. There All-Might stood, bloody but proud as the clouds of dust continued to dissipate, standing across to the two remaining villains. Standing off nearby were the recognizable forms of Midoriya, Todoroki, Bakugo and Kirishima, all of which she missed as she watched the spectacle that was the last fight. They appeared to be walking back like her group, leaving the last of the villains to the pro hero.
Except Midoriya.
'What is he doing?' She thought before glancing back to the standoff between the lone hero and the villains. 'And what are they doing? They're just standing there.'
She didn't understand how she knew, maybe the way he was standing, staring endlessly towards his idol and the remaining bad guys.
It made her feel like he was about to do something foolish, like she had just done recently.
After what felt like an eternity the villains were the ones to break the stalemate, the man sprinting forward while the sentient cloud surged alongside him. Her logical mind told her not to worry, that All-Might would be fine.
Her gut on the other hand told her otherwise.
'Something... is wrong!'
"Turn me around!"
"Eh?" Her classmates collectively stopped and looked at her bewilderedly.
"What?" Toru asked.
"Turn me around...ugh…right now and give me your shoulder!" Angel groaned as she tried to steer them back, her eyes catching Midoriya's coiling ankles!
"Angel-chan, what are you-?"
She whirled around and gave them an expression of pure desperation! "JUST TRUST ME!"
If there was one thing that Shigaraki Tomura hated almost as much as heroes it was cheaters.
Real life was like a game. It had its players, its objectives and its rules. All three of those concepts combined created a scenario, one of which to someone who understood the parts in their entirety like him, could win every time.
But then there were THOSE people! Those assholes who would break the rules and steal his hard earned victory right out from under his nose!
Right now, All-Might was one of those people! He was supposed to be weaker! Nomu was supposed to be stronger!
BUT NO! The damn hero pulled some kind heroic spirit power card and sent Nomu to the moon! He had almost beaten the final boss and won the game only for the rug to be pulled out from under him! HE WAS SO CLOSE!
Now he was just standing there, with his stupid bright smile, gloating at him, judging him!
"You… cheater! You've gotta be kidding me!" He snarled as his hands etched red markings into his neck!
"Shigaraki-sama, please calm down." Kurogiri interjected next to him. "We might still have a chance. Nomu has succeeded in damaging him. If we work together, we might still prevail."
Tomura paused and considered his words.
"Yeah… you're right! Nomu has softened him up. This is a prime opportunity!" He lowered his arms and got ready!
"Let us take him!" Kurogiri shot towards the hero at Tomura's side as they charged!
Closer and closer! It was going to happen! He was going to win! He-!
"GET AWAY FROM ALL-MIGHT!"
He whirled around just in time to see the fanboy launch himself at them, shooting instantly from where he was standing with the other students to right in front of them!
In shock, all he could think of was how fast the boy had jumped!
'Just like-!'
Fortunately Kurogiri was ready this time, putting himself in between him and the incoming super powered fist!
"I won't fall for that again!" The mist roared!
Immediately catching onto Kurogiri's plan, Tomura plunged his hand into the darkness and it appeared right in front of the incoming boy, open wide in welcome! The annoying brat had nowhere to go, but into his destructive grasp!
He really should be focusing on killing All-Might right now. But Tomura couldn't help but laugh with glee!
*PAKOW!*
"GUWARGH!" He screamed as his hand erupted with a searing pain! Pulling it back through he beheld the smoking scorch mark on his skin!
The fanboy shot past them in the confusion as Kurogiri pulled him back protectively from whatever had hit him!
Tomura looked past the clouds of mist, his eyes catching on a familiar bright light, making his lips curl with hate!
"Damn you… you little cheating bitch!"
At the bottom of the stairs was the tattooed, blue eyed girl, staring defiantly all the way across the plaza, her markings still glowing from the bolt she fired.
Then his eyes caught something cresting the top of the stairs under the arch, a colourful and diverse crowd of people.
"Shit…" He swore. The heroes had arrived.
Game over.
The light faded from Angel's markings as the last of her strength left her body, having poured every last drop of energy she had into a small, measly bolt. It was all she needed though.
She shivered when she met Shigaraki's gaze one last time, right before he ducked under the mist villain trying to protect himself from a hail of gunfire!
"Ah!" Toru gasped in relief as she looked over her shoulder. "Iida-san! He brought the rest of the heroes!"
'So it was Iida who ran for help. Thank goodness.' Angel let her arm drop as the mist enveloped the hand wearing villain and disappeared.
The ordeal was finally over.
Her heart, heavy with self loathing was allowed the tiniest reprieve. She took solace that she at least did something right in the end. She had saved Midoriya again.
As she was carried up the stairs, she hung her head with a sad smile.
It would be her last gift to her first friend.
And her last deed as a hero in training.
In the shadows of the dim lit bar, a black mist materialized and immediately dumped Shigaraki onto the floor, his right hand burned and his body bleeding from multiple bullet wounds.
"Owww… owww…" He moaned. "Those bastards… it was a complete slaughter."
Behind him, Kurogiri coalesced and returned to his natural anthropomorphic state, fitting inside his bartender's suit and metal neck brace. "Truly regrettable." He sighed.
"We lost Nomu... and all of our minions were just cannon fodder… those kids were so strong..! And All-Might..! He wasn't weaker at all..! You were wrong Sensei!"
"No." He craned his neck and glared at the monitor on the counter, the screen empty except for the words Audio Only. "I'm not wrong. We merely jumped the gun." The male voice lamented. "It's a good thing we went under that cheap "League of Villains" moniker."
"Say…" Another male voice interjected. "What happened to the weapon the Master and I created? I don't see him anywhere."
"Unfortunately, Nomu was defeated and sent flying to who-knows where. Without knowledge of his location I wasn't able to find him in time and make our escape." Kurogiri reported.
"What?! After all our work to make him as strong as All-Might..?! Why I-!"
"Control yourself." Sensei's voice chastised the second. "What's done is done. Nomu's loss is regrettable, but we can always make more."
"Strong… like All-Might… that reminds me… there was a kid… a boy whose speed and power was similar to All-Might's!"
There was a momentary silence.
"Oh?" The first voice inquired.
"All-Might would've been ours...if it wasn't for that kid..! If it wasn't for him and that glowing, tattooed bitch..!" He snarled, digging grooves into the wooden floor with his nails!
"Did you say… glowing tattoos?"
"Yeah..." Shigaraki answered, feeling the sting of the burn on the back of his hand.
"Was this student… a girl?" Sensei asked, making Shigaraki tilt his head at the seemingly random question.
"Yeah..? She shot me... and almost killed me with a goddamn Hyper Beam! It blew a giant hole in Nomu's torso! Why do you ask..?"
His mentor didn't give him an answer, instead he sounded like he was lost in thought.
"A fourth one..? Could it be..?! After all this time..?!" He muttered, a peculiar tone in his voice. He sounded surprised and… excited? It was actually unnerving.
"Sensei..?"
"Rest easy young Tomura." He answered. "Even though you didn't succeed, you have delivered valuable information to us. We need to recover and plan. For now, let's get you stitched up. Then you will tell me more about this boy and girl."
Angel drifted through the rest of the day in a daze. She barely registered any attempts of conversation made by her friends, her teachers or the police, only nodding to answer any questions they had. That afternoon she was treated for her specific quirk burnout by Recovery Girl, the old woman giving her medicine to help with the severe head pain and bandages for the bruises around her neck and ankle.
If she only knew what she had done.
Soon after Moxxi arrived, pulling her into a tight hug and telling her that she was glad to know she was alright.
But Angel didn't care. It all felt hollow. The kind words, the loving embrace, the joyful smiles. It washed over her like vapour, the only feeling left in her was the crushing weight on her shoulders and the pit in her stomach.
If she only knew what she had done.
'You don't deserve any of this.' A voice echoed in her head.
And she believed it.
She was promptly discharged and taken home. When Moxxi asked if she wanted anything for dinner, she simply said no and closed the door to her room.
Here she laid on her bed, curled up on her side. A light breeze lifting the curtain covering her window before letting it drift back down, seemingly matching the sound of her breathing.
Her phone buzzed on her nightstand for what felt like the hundredth time that night, screen side down. It'd likely be her friends, asking for her, wanting to see if she was alright.
If they only knew what she had done.
She rolled over so she was facing the wall. This continued for hours, the darkness of the room and her body's fatigue beckoning her to sleep.
She didn't want to. She knew what waited for her there.
But fight as she might, her eyelids began to droop and close.
Then she did what she dreaded most.
She remembered.
Angel struggled to keep up with her father's pace as she held his hand, stepping out of the doctor's office. It was the day after the blue swirls appeared on her arm. They had spread overnight, curiously only appearing on the left side of her body, the only exception being the marking that appeared on her chest.
After her examination, the doctor had confirmed that she had developed a quirk, something Angel only understood as a thing that the colorfully dressed people on tv had! She didn't quite understand the whole concept, but she was excited to find out if she could do the cool things they did!
At the same time, her father seemed to only get more anxious.
"We're getting a second opinion!" He muttered as they pushed out the revolving doors and started making their way to the parking lot across the street.
"Honey, you have to let this go." Her mother told him.
"Let it go? Let it go?! Both of us are quirkless! That…quack, tells us that our daughter just so happens to magically get a quirk and you aren't concerned?!"
Angel silently worried at her father's words. She didn't understand what he was talking about or why he was so upset, but she had a feeling it had something to do with how he acted the night before.
Her mother responded by grabbing her father by the other hand, stopping him in front of their car. "Of course I am!" She said earnestly. "But this isn't about us or what happened with you and your parents! This is about Angel!"
"But-!"
"But nothing! I know that you can't forget what happened, but she isn't your parents and she isn't suddenly someone different! Sure, she has some blue lines on her and she might become able to lift a car, but she is still our daughter, our little girl." She squeezed his hand softly. "This'll be just like when she hits puberty, gets her first crush or goes to college. It's a change, a process. And yeah, it's something unfamiliar and it might get scary, but we will be there every step of the way. Because we love her."
Her father looked down at his daughter. Angel smiled a bit in an attempt to comfort him. He looked to the sky and let out a deep breath.
"You're right." He sighed, a smile returning to his face as he nodded and shrugged. "You're right! You're always right." He let go of his wife's hand and opened the back seat of the car. "Up we go!" He lifted Angel up into her booster seat.
"Daddy? Are you okay?" She asked.
He ruffled her hair. "Yeah, I'm just fine kiddo. Now lets get home for dinner. You hungry?"
"Yeah!" She answered excitedly as her mother climbed into the driver's seat. "Can I really lift a car?!"
"Maybe. Only if you're a good girl!" The woman laughed. "But if I catch you-!"
*CRASH!* Angel let out a high pitched screech as a large form slammed down onto a nearby car! The small family stood frozen in horror at the big, muscular man with four beefy arms, two of them grasping a big sack, green bills poking out of small holes in the fabric! His black leather jacket was torn and two, desperate, beady eyes shone from behind his ski mask!
"Shit, shit, shit! It wasn't supposed to be this way!" He hissed, stepping off the crushed vehicle. "Fucking heroes!"
Then he noticed that he wasn't alone, his eyes flicking from the man standing outside the car and the women sitting inside of it.
Then to the girl in the backseat.
The next moment he was running towards them!
Her father immediately dived into the backseat and slammed the door behind him!
"Drive! Get us out of her here!" He yelled, but his wife was already fumbling to stick the keys in the ignition! With a twist, the engine whined and the car pitched forward!
Only to immediately stop, the back tires losing purchase with the ground as the criminal lifted the car!
"Oh no you don't!" He bellowed, following up with smashing one of his free hands through the back window!
Angel screamed again as she was wrested from the car!
"NO! ANGEL!" Her father cried as the man let go of the car, slamming it back down and turned to pick up his bags of money!
"Mommy! Daddy!" She called desperately, swinging from the man's muscular fist! He lifted her up and held her so she was inches away from his face! Tears streamed down her cheeks as she choked on his hot breath!
"Hey there kid! Nice to meet ya! You're going to be my hostage for a while!" He chuckled as he turned to leave!
"GIVE ME BACK MY DAUGHTER, ASSHOLE!" He turned around just in time to catch a sucker punch from her father, a look of righteous desperation and fury on his face!
"Aw, think yourself a hero, handsome?" The man chuckled as he twisted the caught fist!
"AAAGH!" Her father howled, falling to his knees as he kept punching the arm holding him with his free hand but to no avail! The criminal reared back his leg and kicked him in the face, blood spraying from his broken nose as he was sent flying across the pavement!
"No! Daddy!"
"John!" Angel and her mother cried out!
Unnoticed by everyone involved, Angel's markings began to glow, the young child too scared to acknowledge the alien, burning sensation in her body!
"There we go! From now on, this tike is my ticket out of the country! You can have more kids, go make another one!"
Her father groaned and shook his head. "No! No, no no!" He protested weakly, blood dribbling down his chin as he struggled to get back to his feet! "Y-You can't do this! She's just a little girl! T-Take me instead!" He begged!
"No can do mate! She's more conveniently sized! Could fit 'er in a cat crate she's so small!" The man laughed at his own joke, shaking Angel by her booster seat!
"No!" She protested, fussing against the straps as the blue light shifted to white and something rose from within her stomach! "I wanna go home!"
"Shut up kid or I'll-huh?! What the-?!" He began to threaten before finally noticing his hostage's lightshow, her body enveloped in sparks!
"I! WANNA! GO! HOME!" She screeched!
The energy burst, the sparks rippling over the nearby cars!
They sparked once, twice as their gas tanks ignited!
Then Angel's world was engulfed in sound, fire and pain!
"Nngh?!" Angel jolted awake. Immediately, her head felt like it had split open!
Sirens echoed off in the distance. The air was hot, heavy and smelled like burning metal and… something else. Her vision was blurry, making the world an ocean of black and flickering orange.
"Mommy..? Daddy..?" She called, but nobody answered.
She tried to move, but something heavy was holding her down. Something that felt hot and flaky, like a roasted marshmallow.
Groaning from the pain and the weight, she slowly lifted whatever it was off of her back and wriggled out of her booster seat, then rolled out.
She let out a relieved breath and turned her head.
Only to be met with the face of the scary man!
She let out a yelp!
She backpedaled, scooting back until she was several feet away! All the while, the man kept staring at her, his eyes and mouth wide open in a silent scream!
He didn't move.
After a few moments of staring, Angel slowly pushed herself to her feet and began to take everything in.
The man's back was ripped apart and embedded with shards of metal! His arms had been on top of her, the back of them blackened and scorched to flakes!
The car behind him was similarly blackened and currently burning.
All of them were! She slowly turned in a circle! Smoke billowed out from the vehicles around her, all of them destroyed and on fire!
What happened? Where were her mother and father?
"Mommy..? Daddy..?" She nervously called again, stepping past the burning wrecks. She coughed on the smoke, the fumes making her already teary eyes red and puffy. She sniffled and wiped at her nose with the back of her arm, then she blinked and finally noticed the white glow coming from her formerly blue markings! She was glowing?! Was this her quirk?! Glowing?!
"Why…" A familiar voice cried out, making her jump! "WHY?!"
"Daddy?!" She gasped in elation, hearing him from beyond some of the wrecks! Her shoes clopped on the hot asphalt as she ran to the sound of his voice! Her father was alright! She will find him, then they'll find her mother and they will all go home!
She rounded the corner.
And stopped in her tracks.
Her parent's car was smoldering, the doors wide open. Kneeling in front of the ruins was her father facing away from her and hunched over something. He was making a sound she had never heard him make before.
He was crying.
She tentatively stepped closer, one shaking foot in front of the other. She stepped along his side.
Then she stopped again and her eyes went wide.
He was holding a body, laid down in front of him. It was a woman. Her leg was missing, a charred stump remained. Her normally fair skin was speckled with blood and soot. Her black hair was strewn on the ground like a shredded curtain.
It couldn't be…
"M-Mommy?" She whimpered.
"What did you do Angel..?!" Her father sobbed.
Then he turned his head and she choked at his face.
The left side of his face was seared red and mottled with angry blisters. A jagged piece of metal stuck out of his eye, blood mixing with his tears as he looked at her in horror.
"WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
...