The Meetup
Keigo and Midoriya stood in the elevator of Bakugo and Uraraka's apartment anxiously. The pre-boss-fight-they-were-determined-to-win jitters were setting in, and fast. Midoriya looked over to Keigo for a moment as they descended, and bit his lip nervously for what he was about to say.
"Hey uh, Keigo?" He started. By no means was this an easy subject to bring up, but it was useful.
"Yeah, kid, what is it? Don't tell me you're getting cold feet already." Keigo joked, trying to lighten the mood.
"Listen, before we get down there, there's something you need to know about the labs. They're not creating children." Midoriya said sternly.
"What?" Keigo asked him. "In your report-"
"In my report, Tsu and I experienced some weird tests, but we weren't forced to do anything of that...nature." The green-haired man turned away from his boss shyly. Keigo rolled his eyes as the elevator descended past the assumed ground level. A panel they found after ripping through the elevator alerted them to 10 more floors accessible through the elevator. For some reason, this 10 floors went by a lot slower than it would've above ground, and the two heroes cuaght up in their spare time, mainly a chance for Keigo to calm Midoriya down.
"So? No one asked you to do that." Keigo replied. "Just relax a bit kid, no one was going to ask about your 'unspeakable acts' if it did resort to that,"
"That's not what I'm trying to say," Midoriya said firmly.
"Then what is it? You're saying a whole lot of nothing right now, need I remind you." Keigo said, a bit irritated. Midoriya peeped his boss being a bit antsy after that, and realized Keigo was trying to keep both of them calm.
"I know you miss her."
Keigo twitched for a second before turning to Midoriya. Now he wasn't just anxious, he was pissed. This wasn't about Uraraka, (it was), it was about maintaining the safety of his employees and the integrity of his agency. One fuck-up that resulted in the death of not one, but two top-10 heroes was on Keigo's list of things that ultimately be his downfall, and he already escaped several career-threatening scandals as it was. This shitty love-triangle was the least (most) of his worries.
"She's fine." Keigo said after a moment. It was clear he was deflecting, an action Midoriya didn't take lightly. His wings however hadn't lay flat on his back after puffing up, and Midoriya felt himself stepping over a boundary he didn't really have permission to cross, as he did so many times in high school. Call it a bad habit or being obsessively compassionate, no one could really tell.
"I know she is, it's just- well, I just mean, she's been gone awhile. I don't mean to insert myself, but you seem a little worried... about her." Midoriya tried, hoping to back himself out of this situation he ultimately created.
"Of course I'm worried about her. I'm worried about Bakugo too, they're part of my fucking agency." Keigo said.
"We all are worried Keigo I'm just saying-"
"What?! You think I care that she left me for him? You think I won't save him too? Do you think I'm so hung-up on Ochako fucking Uraraka that I'm pissing my pants right now to get to her?!"
Midoriya just stared at the older man.
"It's not like I'll swoop down there, kick some ass, and she'll come back, Izuku. It doesn't fucking work like that," Keigo stared down Midoriya. "I lost her, okay?! And I'm going to lose her again if we don't..." Keigo sighed, realizing his little rant had become a indirect venting session to a guy he actually couldn't give a shit about. Whatever Midoriya had been trying to tell him had been lost to them both, and Keigo's eyes softened to the younger hero, who looked too calm for his liking.
"Let's just get down there. We've all already been through enoug-"
The elevator cut Midoriya off as the dim light shut off, and their descent was stopped to a grinding halt.
"What the fuck-"
The elevator cut Keigo off as it creaked and jolted down a few feet, bringing both men to enter a state of focus. Mangled screams and heavy thuds were heard outside the elevator. The two men shared a look, then proceeded to pry open the elevator doors.
The chaos that was soon to meet Midoriya and Keigo had enveloped Bakugo and Uraraka, and the two found themselves struggling to keep hold of one another as all sorts of bodies maneuvered around them, fighting each other, trying to seek help. Bakugo was in the lead of course, dragging a hesitant Uraraka behind him by the arm. He was used to this kind of chaos, screams and barely visible paths to safety. Uraraka was too, to some degree, but she had always stopped the chaos, not run head-first into it. On the path to Bakugo's chaotic plan, they were on their way to find the Doctor and (hopefully) beat her to a fucking pulp. Uraraka honestly wanted to find a way out to get help, but Bakugo decided he was helpless for way too long, and the entirety of the situation lie in their barely sane hands.
"How.." Uraraka panted. "Are we...going to find...her?"
"Keep up, Cheeks." Bakugo demanded. "We'll just figure it out on the way."
"We're on the way right now!" She puffed.
"Yeah, so fucking figure it out," Bakugo demanded.
"Well, ugh, for starters," She palmed her chest and then his as they ran, sending them up to the ceiling and above the chaos. "We need a clear line of sight. I can't see a damn thing with all these...these..helpless souls running around." She shuddered in the air. Bakugo could've laughed at her if the situation weren't life or death.
"They're all freaks, okay? Let's just keep moving." He assured her.
Moving where was still ultimately the question for Uraraka, until she noticed a line of Nurses struggling to get all the patients together stemming from one room down the long concrete hall. She poked at Bakugo and motioned to where the line was coming from, and he blasted them off in that direction. They were sent hurdling down the hall by the propulsion of his blasts, and the echoes of his explosions sent the messed up patients into even more a frenzy, and they turned their frightened rage onto the Nurses trying to subdue them. Uraraka guided her eyes away from chaos below and behind them, focusing on the more pressing matter at hand.
They turned into what they assumed was a room that the Nurses were coming from, but were only met with another hallway, a line of doors on one side that supplied the Nurses. Bakugo cursed to himself, watching the white-clad beings scurry down to the ongoing fight they had just passed.
"What the...how big is this fucking place?!" He cursed.
"I don't know, but you wanted to find her," Uraraka said, mentioning the Doctor.
"Yeah, so I could fuck her up for what she did to you," Bakugo replied irritably. Uraraka of course, took it out of context, and huffed as they floated in the air.
"What so it's my fault I got tortured?!" She asked him.
"Are you fucking-" Bakugo paused to take a breath. "Are you kidding me right now? No, this isn't your stupid fault."
"I know it's not." Uraraka crossed her arms. Bakugo could have strangled her right then and there.
"Why are you doing this right now?!" He hissed.
"Because I didn't want to go through with this stupid plan of yours!" She argued.
"So you throw a bitch fit like a child, Ochako?"
Now she was upset.
Keigo and Midoriya clambered off the now-broken elevator to find themselves in the midst of what looked like a bio-engineered warzone, guerilla warfare and all provided by the many quirks of the loose patients.
Mainly because it was a bio-engineered warzone.
Keigo's massive wings gave him away instantly, and deformed, sickly patients in his vicinity began calling out to him, begging him to free them all from the depths of hell the Doctor created...or whatever they were going on about. Keigo's main priority was to not injure these people that could have been potential citizens, and he breezed past them, spewing his apologies and that he would clean all this up later, they just needed to trust him.
"I'll clean all this up guys, just..." Keigo looked down at what appeared to be a small child with no eyes. "Just trust me.." He muttered. He shied away from the girl, and beckoned Midoriya to follow him to what appeared to be the main hall Uraraka and Bakugo had just left from. Keigo took another step forward when a sharp tug on one of his wings jerked him back, and he winced in pain as he turned around. The SoothSayer looked up at him, his ugly copper hair shining dully in the already dim hallway. Keigo, who had only seen pictures of the man was not prepared for the sheer ugliness before him, and he cocked an eyebrow up before responding.
"You don't look so hot...buddy..." Keigo managed to get out. SoothSayer smiled up at him, exposing his crooked, yellow teeth, and cocked his head to the side.
"You won't either." The villain replied, unsheathing a needle and stabbing it into Keigo's back. Off to the side, Midoriya briefly thought,
For the fastest man alive, he sure did not see that coming.
Then the world went black for him as well, as he'd been injected nearly seconds before Keigo had, on the account of the chaos going on and the SoothSayer's ability to fit right in with all the freaks.
"Two more heroes, two more lovely samples," SoothSayer cooed, now equipped with scalpel and petri dish.
"How do you know we're going the right way?!" Uraraka shouted, running after Bakugo.
"Shut up and trust me, will ya?" He called back to her.
They had run down the hallway the Nurses came from, a lone doorway at the very end that produced no Nurses seeming to be their door of choice. After a brief argument, Uraraka had still insisted to go and get back up, but Bakugo assured her again that her gut feeling was only going to get their asses kicked.
If only he had listened.
They ran into the doorway, Bakugo pulling Uraraka immediately to the wall and shielding her with his back in case anything came at them. But nothing came, and they stood there in silence, taking advantage of the opportunity to catch their breath and collect their thoughts. Uraraka was trying to figure an alternate plan Bakugo would at least consider working with when she felt his chest heave against her squished face. His defensive grip on her softened, and a quiet sigh escaped his mouth.
"I don't know if we're going the right way." Bakugo said. He didn't bother looking at her, instead he just engrained the memory of feeling her in his arms in his head forever. He honestly thought his life was slowly blinking before his eyes, the impending feeling of death settling in on him, a feeling he had never been subjected to until this horribly botched mission. He didn't know what was going to happen, and as a man who methodically kicked ass everyday, this uncertainty had chipped away at his intense morale this entire time.
Normally, if it were just him, he'd push it into the reserves of his already stuffed brain and unpack it once he was finally safe and alone, but now Uraraka was involved, and he knew if he looked at her face now, he'd be unable to subject her to his impulsiveness, even if it was going to keep them alive.
"I don't know if we'll actually be okay, Cheeks." He muttered. Uraraka's heart tensed up hearing him sound so defeated. Bakugo pulled back for a second and took her by the shoulders, finally getting the courage to look her in the eye. "But I need you to know, whatever happens next, that none of this will be in vain."
Uraraka was now a little confused, and getting a bit upset. "What won't be in vain, Katsuki?" She asked him.
"My thoughts exactly, what won't be in vain, Katsuki?" Silvery hair found a way to glisten even in the darkness as the Doctor stepped forward. Bakugo tightened his grip on Uraraka, who had prepared herself to float a moment's notice. Luckily, they were still in their off-white versions of their costumes from the isolation experiment, so she knew their powers weren't totally at a loss, but Uraraka prepped any small loose object on their clothes to hurl at any second.
"What?" The Doctor cooed. "Don't stop on my account, I'm dying to know."