Marooned: Lost Heroes
"We're dead. N-No, that's not it, we died and now we're in some sort of... purgatory. Yeah, that's it." Mineta mumbled to himself, sitting down on the beach as he nervously nibbled on his fingernail. The boy was on the verge of a complete breakdown, and he wasn't alone. Some time after they had looked up to see three moons hanging in the sky, the six current survivors of Class 1-A were currently trying to wrap their heads around their new situation. Wherever they were, the six high-schoolers were certainly not on Earth, as the three moons above could tell them. As the afternoon on the island started to turn to evening, the sun began setting and the moons became clearer in the darkening sky.
Izuku silently stared up towards the three celestial bodies, studying them. Thanks to the sun dimming and there being no clouds other than the distant storm, he was able to see them with greater detail. Two of the smaller moons were similar to that of Earth's; gray, lifeless orbs covered in craters. The third and closest to the planet, which was large enough to cover a good chunk of the skies above, was a distinct reddish-brown color, covered in clouds with small purple-blue seas scattered around the surface.
It was completely alien, a sign that they were indeed no longer on their home world. He really wished he still had his journal.
Izuku didn't know what to make of it. There was no explanation that he could think of as to how or even why they had crashed here on some strange alien world, and he regarded himself as a very intelligent boy, but even he couldn't think of a logical answer. The only two explanations he could get off the top of his head was that either this was some massive elaborate set up created by the faculty of U.A. in order to test their students (which he seriously doubted), or this was all completely real, from the island to the crash and even that massive shark in the water surrounding them, and not under the effects of some sort of reality-shifting quirk.
The green-haired boy scooped up some white-gold sand from where he sat and watched as he let it slowly spill out between his fingers. It reminded him of the beach where he cleaned up all that junk from All-Might's training regime, and it felt so far away.
There was no doubt about it; they were no longer on Earth.
Now the only question was where did the six of them go from here.
"H-How could this happen?" He turned his head to hear Hagakure sputter out a general question. Even if she was invisible, he could tell that she was on the edge of losing her mind. She stood against the plane wreckage next to Uraraka, who was gently rubbing the invisible girl's shoulder. "I mean, t-this doesn't make any sense! Why are we on another planet?! How did we even get here?!"
"Do you think it might have been someone's quirk that caused this?" Ochako wondered, hoping to ease her friend's mood.
"I doubt it," Tsuyu popped up from where she sat on a boulder, her usual blank slate on her face as she stared at the other two girls, "There's never been any report of a quirk powerful enough to send us to an exoplanet such as this. And even if there was, we were thousands of feet in the air, and above the ocean no less. We were practically all alone up in the sky."
"Tsu's right. There's no way that it could have been a villain that caused this, and I doubt that this is part of some elaborate training exercise," Izuku reasoned. Already his calculating mind was drawing up possible answers. "So if us being here isn't the result of a quirk, then it had to be something else that caused this."
"Y-You guys mean like that storm we flew through?"
"It's one possibility, Mineta. As insane as it sounds, that could be the best explanation." Izuku began to theorize. "When we flew into the lightning storm, it must have opened up some sort of wormhole, and we flew right into it when the plane started to fall."
"So that's it? You're saying we got stranded here because of some sort of freak accident? Is that what you're saying, Midoryia?" Hagakure incredulously said, not believing a word what she was hearing from Izuku. The invisible girl began to pace back and forth where she stood. "T-That's... that's absolutely ridiculous! There's no way! You think this is some sort of comic book movie?! Thunderstorms don't hurl planes across space!"
"It's the only explanation!" Izuku argued.
"It's a stupid one, Izuku!"
"Hagakure, calm down!" Ochako urgently said, but she wasn't listening.
"No, Ochako! It's... this is all bullshit!" Everyone's eyes went wide after hearing Hagakure of all people swear so loudly, Ochako going as far as to take a step back from the emotional girl. Izuku even heard both Mineta and Tsu gasp under their breath, but she was far from done. "We're all alone out here on some godforsaken planet, and on an island no less! We literally have no way of getting back home! Don't you get it?! We're stranded!"
"That's not true, Hagakure! If there's a way in, there must be a way back out! We can find a way back to Earth!" Izuku reasoned, hoping that it would shed some light for her.
"Oh really, and how do you expect we do that, Deku? You have another plane hidden somewhere on the island that isn't all smashed up, mister smarty pants?" She hissed at him, and he raised his hands up to defend himself. She continued on, still raging, "Let's face it! We're stuck here forever! And there's only six of us! SIX! As far as we know, everyone else is already dead, and right now I got the feeling that they're the lucky ones!"
"HAGAKURE! THAT'S ENOUGH!"
The roaring, thundering voice of Shoji stopped her rant cold, and everyone fell silent after the taller boy had spoken. Nobody had ever heard Shoji sound like that, and the beach suddenly became very quiet. Hagakure's anger fizzled out as quickly as it came, and in its place was hollow guilt. She knew she said plenty of painful things, things she never meant and never will, but in that moment she had let her fear take control of her mind and mouth. It didn't help that everyone was looking at her with worried eyes. She slumped to her rear, wrapping her arms around her legs as she began to weep. Ochako and Tsuyu made their way over to her, kneeling down next to their distressed friend once she started to let the waterworks loose.
Izuku, Shoji and Mineta knew that she must have been stressed out of her mind. Hagakure was always an emotional member of Class 1-A and wore her feelings on a sleeve, so this whole situation had to be too much for her to bear. Izuku could sympathize with her, as he'd felt the same when he woken up not too long beforehand.
"I-I'm sorry," Hagakure whimpered, her voice thick with emotion, "I'm just... I'm scared. God, I-I'm so scared. We don't where the hell we are and everyone else is just gone. It's not fair! They didn't deserve it! We didn't deserve this! I didn't want this to happen! It was supposed just be a... a vacation! Have some fun with my friends on the beach, b-but now... I... I-I'm so sorry, everyone. I didn't mean it..."
The young student let out a choked sob as she freed her emotions again, and both of the other girls silently consoled her as stray tears fell out of her unseen eyes. For a moment the only sound on the beach was that of Toru sobbing against her knees and the gentle waves brushing against the shores. When it came to dealing with such crushing facts, Toru couldn't help it. It was just too much for her to handle. She let some more tears flow until she heard someone approach her, and stopped once she felt a pair of large, soft hands rest on her shoulders. It was Shoji, the taller lad kneeling before her.
"We'll find our way back home Hagakure," Shoji softly said, letting her see his gentle eyes, "I swear, I promise you that we'll get back to Earth."
"We promise you." Ochako added on, her voice filled with strong determination. "It doesn't matter if we're stuck on some island on another planet, we're Class 1-A! And we're not going to give up no matter what! Because we're PLUS ULTRA!"
"Yeah!" Mineta nodded, now suddenly feeling elated after hearing Ochako. Maybe there was a light at the end of the tunnel for him. "This stinkin' island ain't gonna stop us! We're heroes! We've survived worse than this!"
"Exactly! And as long as we stick together, we can get through this! I know we can!" Izuku said, his eyes shining bright as he clenched both of his hands. What Uraraka had said was just what they all needed to have, a sense of hope in these trying times for all of them. Even if they might be the last living members of Class 1-A, Izuku knew that he and his five friends around him would carry on their legacy.
"That was quite inspiration of you guys. I'm starting to feel a little more hopeful as well." Tsuyu said in her normal monotone, and Ochako couldn't help but rub the back of her head while she blushed at the compliment, same as Izuku. Mineta simply took the praise in stride while Shoji nodded. The taller boy stood up and held a hand out for Hagakure, and the invisible girl eagerly took it.
"Thanks you guys, that means a lot right now." She softly said, rubbing her face clean of tears. They could tell that she still felt a little guilty about losing her cool, but they didn't want to push her any more.
The distant sound of rumbling thunder got their attention as they all turned their heads to the storm, which was slowly approaching the island, and in turn them. Some bright flashes hidden in the clouds indicated how heavy it was getting. The wind was picking up as well, forming what had once been a gentle breeze turning into a strong gust. There was no doubt that it would hit them, and they needed time to get ready for when it came.
"That storm's getting closer," Mineta nervously said, "And we don't have any shelter! How are we gonna get through the night?"
Izuku felt his lips crease into a thin line, turning around to face his friends, and then the plane.
"There's gotta be something in there! Let's get searching!"
"Right!"
...
Sure enough, with still some time left to spare, the six current survivors of Class 1-A had gone and made their shelter. Turns out after some more digging through the wreckage, Mineta had found something quite useful. Some smart soul had packed a large dome tent in the cargo hold for their Hawaiian vacation, which had miraculously survived the crash without so much as a single scratch. Thanking the good luck they've had so far for providing them with adequate shelter, the six high schoolers had set it up next to the downed wreckage and had resumed scavenging for any useful things still buried in the downed aircraft before the storm hit. Right as the sun finally set, however, the storm had arrived.
And with it came a torrential downpour that blanketed the beach in a drenching fury. It was windy and thunderous as well, crashing above while they settled themselves in for the night. Shoji had managed to clamber his way inside the tent as quickly as he could, clutching his found items right as he felt the first droplets of rain pelt his spine. He zipped up the entrance tightly as to not let any water in before he sat down.
The group sitting inside had managed to also find sleeping bags as well, along with some blankets and pillows that hadn't been damaged or lost to the sea. Mineta and Tsuyu had brought with them some meals they had managed to find from the destroyed catering services, plus some sugary snacks too. Ochako had found an electric lantern and some flashlights, giving them all light in the rainy darkness surrounding them, which she had placed in the middle of their tent.
"What'd you find, Shoji?" Izuku asked.
"First aid kits," the six-armed boy responded as he lay down on his sleeping bag, dropping what he had found in the center of the tent, "We'll need them in case any one of us gets hurt. That, and water. Lots of water."
"Ooh, gimme!" Mineta eagerly grabbed one of the water bottles and sucked down some of the precious liquid down. After a long day on the beach, it was just what he needed. Shoji passed around more bottles to each of his friends before he too popped open the cap to his own and gently drank, using one of his dupli-mouths.
"So we've got some food, water, light and first aid. That's not a bad start." Ochako said.
"Yeah, but this will only last us a week at most. We'll need to start managing our supplies and potentially start looking into the forest to find more food and water." Tsuyu spoke up, a finger hovering in front of her lips, a bad habit of hers whenever she got anxious. It wasn't hard to imagine why.
"Oh, you mean the alien forest behind us that's probably filled to the brim with all sorts of monsters? No thank you!"
"Mineta, we haven't even been in the forest yet."
"Yeah, and I don't want to. You all saw that freaky shark thing out there in the water! Who knows what the heck might be in those woods." Mineta said, and saw that everyone was visually thinking the same idea for the next thing come morning. "Oh, you can't be serious. You're not actually thinking of going in there! Back me up here, Hagakure! You were out there with Shoji when that shark nearly chomped on you! There could be even worse things hidden in the forest!"
The invisible girl had been totally silent up until now. They could all see that, despite not being able to see her body other than the clothes she wore, that she was deep in thought. Suddenly, as if she had come up with something, she answered him.
"I can't believe I'd ever say something like this, but Mineta's got a point."
"Thank you!"
"B-But Hagakure-!" Izuku sputtered out, before he was interrupted by the invisible girl.
"Hold on, I'm not finished yet. Which is why I'm suggesting that we take turns exploring the island rather than all of us go at once and get lost, that way we can have some of us watch over home base and look for more stuff while others go searching for a way off the island. Based on what Tsu's saying about our supplies, there's a possibility that we're gonna have to look deeper into the island, or even leave it entirely." Hagakure finished with her reasoning, reaching over to grab a bag of chips and ripped it open. It was some sound logic, but there there was another question that remained.
"If we have to leave," Ochako wondered, "Where would we go?"
"I think that's something we should find out in the morning. We're not able to do much of anything at the moment with the storm outside. Let's try to get some shuteye before we overthink ourselves." Shoji said, beginning to feel a little lethargic. Everyone else looked like they could use some sleep.
"Yeah, good idea." Izuku readily agreed with the taller boy. Seeing as though there was nothing else to do for the night, he let loose a yawn before he turned over into his sleeping bag and pulled the covers over his head. Everyone else tucked themselves away for the night, with Ochako being the one to turn off the electric lamp, shrouding the six high school kids in darkness. As they all dozed off into slumber, the only one who was still up was Mineta, who was struggling to catch some z's with the storm raging outside the tent.
"This rain is gonna keep me up all night." The purple-haired boy whined, and he had a reason to. The rain outside was seemingly picking up, whittling on the tent like a drenching drumroll. The constant flashes of lightning and booming thunder weren't helping as well. Oh how he wished that he was back in the dorms, in his bed, listening to some music to calm his nerves.
"Here." He heard Tsuyu's surprisingly soft voice behind him before he felt her arm drape over his sleeping bag, and Mineta couldn't help himself but let out a soft gasp. The frog girl was practically spooning him! "I used to do this with my little sister. She had the same problem whenever there was a thunderstorm. Is it... working?" She asked, with a faint blush forming on her cheeks. She'd never been this close to a boy before, and this was Mineta, the class's perverted deviant. She felt like she was taking a risk here. However, instead of being his normally lecherous self, Mineta simply snuggled deeper into his covers, brushing up against Tsuyu. He could feel her body through her sleeping bag, and the pleasing smell of her hair as well. It might as well have been a little slice of heaven for him, enough to keep his tired mind off of the storm.
"Yeah. Thank you, Tsu." He quietly replied, enjoying the sensation of Asui's arm over his smaller body before he yawned again. "Goodnight."
"Night," she said to him, glad that her idea had worked before the both of them closed their eyes and drifted off to sleep.
...
Morning came, and the storm had passed. The air around them was cool as the sun slowly climbed up the horizon, just barely peeking over the ocean blue right as Izuku woke up. At first the green-haired lad was confused as to why he was in a tent with five of his friends, but his memory then kicked in and he remembered what had happened. He rubbed his eyes, wishing that it was all some sort of dream he had, but alas he was still stranded here on some alien planet.
Seeing no reason to stay in his sleeping bag, Izuku peeled off his covers and carefully made his way over to the front of the tent, minding where he stepped to not wake up any of his friends. Right now, he was the only one awake.
The moment he pulled the zipper down and left the tent, he was greeted with the alien sunrise. There were sparse amounts of cloud above him, allowing the sun to peer through. The wet sand crunched underneath his feet. Izuku checked his watch to see the time, only to realize that it was useless. Different planet, different time tables. Either way, it was morning.
BRAWWK-AWK-AWK!
A sudden, braying cry caught his attention, and he saw perched on top of the plane wreckage was some sort of alien bird. It looked similar to a seagull, only slightly larger with bright white feathers all over its body and dark blue feet tipped with long black talons. A tuft of yellow feathers slicked back dangled at the back of its head. The creature's beak, however, was curved downwards like an eagle, and colored a metallic cobalt. The strange seabird was looking right at him with its dark black eyes, as if it were deducing if he were a meal. After a couple moments it spread its large wings and took off to the ocean, where Izuku saw even more of them crowding the wreckage in the waters.
The bird was not the only guest that had taken interest in the island's visitors. Izuku heard the sounds of chittering to his left, and nearly leaped back in shock when he saw a large, eurypterid-like creature, which was nibbling on the carcass of a small, gnarled oyster-thing, laying in the sand. It must have been a staggering four feet long, colored a rich golden-green mix with eight large legs covered in hairs, several paddle-like limbs along the preabdomen, and a pair of crushing pincers held its meal in its grasp to feed on. Unlike the bird, the eurypterid didn't even bother to notice the human boy, instead entirely focused on eating.
Speaking of food, Izuku's stomach rumbled with desire underneath his t-shirt. The green-haired boy let out a sigh before he turned back into the tent where he saw everyone else beginning to wake up. From the way they slowly rose from their slumber, it seemed that they all looked like they had better nights.
"Ugh," Hagakure groaned, "And here I thought I was gonna wake up in a hotel room in Hawaii. Guess it was just a dream."
"Yeah, and we're living in a nightmare." Mineta said, rubbing his eyes as he woke. Thankfully nobody had noticed that Asui and him had slept kind of close together last night. He spied Midoryia peering from the tent opening. "Hey, look who's already up."
"Morning everyone." Izuku poked his head in and waved. "How'd you all sleep?"
"I want my bed back," Ochako whined as she twisted her spine with soft pops coming out, "Sleeping on sand isn't as fun as you'd think."
"Tell me about it." Hagakure said as well. The invisible girl stood up from her sleeping bag and made way towards the food pile. "Okay everyone, breakfast time!"
"Oh goody, what do we got?" Mineta sarcastically wondered, and was greeted with a granola bar thrown at his face. "Rude."
"Eat up, grape juice."
Breakfast was eaten quietly among the six of them, with everyone having their morning fill of cold cuts, dry cereal and some leftover fruit. It wasn't what they were used to, but then again they were stuck on an island in the middle of a faraway world, so they had to make do with what they had. They knew they couldn't eat all of their food, so rationing and settling for smaller amounts became their priority when it came to food. Once breakfast was finished, Izuku gulped down some water and wiped his mouth before he spoke up.
"Alright, here's what we know," the young student began to say, "We have no way of communicating or traveling back to Earth. Also we're currently residing on an island on another planet, most likely very far away from our own, and at the moment there's only six of us out of twenty. We'll need a solid plan if we're going to survive this."
"Wasn't it Hagakure's idea to leave? Perhaps we could start working on that." Tsuyu piped up.
"Yeah, but how? The closest other island is miles away! We sure as heck can't swim all the way there." Mineta argued as he swallowed the last of his granola.
The students took a moment and began to think of how they could really get off the island. Mineta had a good point. Finding a way off was easier said than done. The waters surrounding the island were expansive, and possibly very deep and dangerous. The six of them were hard-pressed for an answer. But before they could give up, Hagakure suddenly had an idea pop into her head.
"Guys, I've got it!" She excitedly said, and all eyes fell on her. "If we're going to leave, why don't we build something to get us off the island!"
"You mean... like a boat?" Uraraka asked.
"Yeah! Exactly! Like one of those survival game shows that Kirishima watched all the time! We can use parts from the plane to build a boat! Think about it, guys! Not only will it give us something to do while we're stuck here, once we've built it we can use it to cross the sea onto the other islands, and maybe help us find everyone else!" She replied as her enthusiasm began to skyrocket. And sure enough, everyone else was on board as well.
"That's not a bad idea." Shoji said. "Being able to travel is very important."
"A boat would be perfect! Plus if everybody did make it, we can use the boat to look for them! What a great idea, Hagakure!" Izuku was already beaming with what he and his friends were planning.
"Um, I hate to be the bearer of bad news," Mineta piped up, raising his hand as he spoke, "But just how exactly are we gonna build the boat?"
"He's right. We don't have any tools on us at the moment," Tsuyu added on, "But then again, we haven't checked the entirety of the plane. Perhaps there could be something useful still hidden in the wreckage. And since we've all eaten, we should use this time to explore the island while we have the chance. Mineta and I will go first." Tsuyu also said, and the grape-haired boy almost choked on his own spit after hearing her.
"Huh?! Why me?!" He shrieked. His mind immediately began to think of things that could go wrong, and there was plenty of them.
"Well, mainly because you're small. You can fit into tighter spaces than anyone else here. That, and we've already had our chance to scavenge. I could use a change in scenery. Let's go, Mineta." Tsuyu responded. Mineta at least tried to come up with a counter argument, but found none. Sighing in resignation, the smaller boy gave up on trying to save himself and followed Asui out of the tent straight to the extraterrestrial woods, grumbling the whole way.
"Yet another time my character design works against me."
"You should be thankful. I don't think you're cut out for any heavy lifting."
"I won't be cut out for anything if an alien eats me."
The four other survivors also left the tent, but they headed for the plane wreckage instead. For them, they had a different goal. Not only were they looking for parts to build what could be their ticket off this island, they also needed to look for more supplies. Izuku stopped to take a quick look around the shoreline, noticing that the sun was still hanging in front of them. They must have woken up at least half an hour ago, so it was odd seeing the sun still in its "sunrise" position. A stray thought came to his mind, and the boy knelt down, grabbed a nearby stick, and began to scrawl on the sand a good distance away from the water.
"What are you doing, Deku?" Ochako turned around and saw that her friend was drawing something.
"Notice how the sun hasn't risen that far up?" Izuku said, pointing towards the bright orange-pink horizon. "There's no doubt that time works differently here. I'm gonna see if I can figure out the day-night cycle this planet has. So far, it seems that it has a slower rotation than Earth's, so it could be helpful to try and pin down a working clock."
"Ooh, good idea!"
"Gah! Stupid birds! Go away!" The two of them turned their heads to see Hagakure trying to shoo the alien seagulls, which were surrounding the poor girl in an angry mob of feathers and beaks. She was using a rolled-up magazine to try and hit them, but it only seemed to make them more mad as they furiously squawked around her.
"Hold on, Hagakure! Shoji, let's get those birds away from her." Ochako said, making her way to help the invisible girl along with Shoji.
Izuku stood up to follow his friend, but a sudden act in the water caught his attention. It was the large black find that belonged to that massive shark-thing sailing across the sea's surface, swiftly darting through the water. He was just able to catch a glimpse before it submerged into the depths. It may have been only a passing glance, but it only made Izuku feel nothing but worry.
...
The forest, as Mineta and Tsuyu were finding out, was about as strange as it could get for an otherworldly place. The woods were absolutely teeming with life, filled to the brim with all sorts of strange alien creatures. Most of them were small, and shied away once the pair of humans got too close. The further the two of them traveled in, the more bizarre the forest seemed to get. The trees became larger, more twisting and gnarled as they rose to the heavens in their massive brown-black trunks, and the morning sun became harder to find with the dense foliage above blocking out the light. Even the ground became more uneven as they traveled with large roots, rocky outcrops and other plant life slowly making their journey ever more perilous.
Minoru had his eyes wander for just a moment before he felt something hit his head, which turned out to be some sort of glowing, fluttering jellyfish-like animal, which had been hovering there with its clear dangling tendrils pointed at the ground. And there were dozens of the little critters, each about the size of a softball. The one that Mineta had accidentally bumped into let out a chirp as it flapped its bulbous body and rose upwards, fleeing from the intruding boy.
"Pretty." Mineta softly said, eyeing the gentle yellow glow of the creature.
"Do keep your eyes forward, please. I'd rather not have to carry you the whole way." Tsuyu said, who was still marching forward. She didn't have to look behind her to know that Mineta was getting distracted.
"Carry me where? It's not like we're actually going anywhere, we're just exploring for the moment. Aren't we?" Mineta said back, hopping up on a root to catch up with the frog girl. When she didn't reply, he started to get curious. "You got an idea of where you're going, Tsu?"
"Higher ground." She answered plainly, and Mineta stopped for a moment.
"Higher what-now?"
"Higher ground, Mineta. So we can have a better view of the island and our surroundings." Tsuyu responded, repeating herself and still as plain as could be. Her plan was simple; find a cliff or a hill nearby and see the environment of the entire island. It wasn't too shabby of a plan. Anything that may be of interest would definitely be seen better without all of the trees in the way. Soon enough, after some walking, she'd found what she was looking for. The land started to get higher, and there was a large moss-covered hill standing above the canopy at least a hundred feet high. The two of them readily approached the cliff. Upon closer inspection, there were green vines dangling from the rock face that seemed to reach all the way to the top.
It wasn't long before Asui came up with an idea. The frog girl walked over and gave a tug on one of the vines, and found it to be quite sturdy.
"Looks like it can hold us. Hop on my back, Mineta," she said as she grabbed hold, "Let's see if we can find anything at the top."
"At least I'm not the one doing the climbing this time." Mineta said mostly to himself, remembering how he had to scale the tower back on I-Island. Once he managed to secure himself on her spine, gripping her shoulders like a lifeline, Tsuyu began to pull both her and Mineta up the rocky slope.
What the two of them hadn't noticed however, were the pair of bright yellow eyes watching them from the darkness of the forest. They were similar to that of a bird's, but with the slit pupils of a lizard, gazing upon the pair of humans climbing up the cliff with a sense of hunger...