Mei had been working the rest of the day away in the basement, with occasional visits and talks with both Brenna and Jezel equally. Although with Brenna it felt like his checkups were more reluctant, as if he was just there to make sure the pink haired teen hadn't been trying to fabricate a method of escape, or plausibly doing something dumb and dangerous to themselves as a whole. Jezel visited a lot more often, acting like the half-asleep older sibling half the time, the rest of the time she was usually there making sure the currently comatose victims were alright.
Hatsume made note of several small details about the two, her small interactions opening up a lot of insight about the siblings. The situation seemed like one mixed of grief and the feeling of owing a debt, Brenna acted like the world was going to end if his father died, that much was understandable to the 1-H student. She couldn't imagine being in that position, the heroes of the world needed arguably as much help as the civilians in it, a master at giving said help like Levono was the definition of a rare commodity these days. Jezel however, behaved like she owed a life debt to the dying man who had adopted her, as far as Mei could tell, there was no emotion involved in that view, which scared her oddly enough.
The entire situation though, was one Mei felt she couldn't even judge anymore. Sure, the fire, the bus crash, the kidnappings, all very wrong, but she did not feel as mad as she did prior. The 1-H student wondered if maybe she was becoming comfortable from the fact she was simply working again. Hatsume missed her workshop, even more now that she was being held against her will more or less. She missed Izuku even more though.
Just thinking about the green haired teen made the pinkette smile a wide grin, thinking about the last couple of weeks spent with her new boyfriend, recalling every moment of intimacy they had shared or exchanged thus far.
Mei suddenly dropped the tools she had been holding, they clattered onto the table, a sharp pain was ringing out from the side of her skull. She arched her back in her seat, grabbing the sides of her head.
"Hrk...Graaah!" Hatsume grit her teeth, hard, it felt like her head was being tore open from the inside, she gasped for breath. After another minute of sheer agony, she slammed both fists onto the table, shaking all the equipment and tools lying before the top support course member.
"Okay... head's still broken... great to know..." Mei panted, trying to calm down despite the heart racing head pounding agony that had begun to ease up thankfully, she had suffered from the lack of brain rest once again. The zoom quirk user had been simply hoping this entire time that Recovery Girl had healed her before she got taken from the hospital, Hatsume knew that was not the case entirely now after that experience.
"This isn't going to work." Hatsume tried to focus on her newest baby, the first one she had made since she got suspended from U.A., unless having conceptual ideas for inventions or support gear counted. The pinkette picked up one of the medical files that belonged to Levono once again, probably the fourth time at that.
From what the 1-H student could gather, it looked like Beja's quirk was a simple to a fault. His quirk allowed him to increase his bodies blood flow rate and pressure at will, it allowed him to think at a higher rate with a lot less rest needed if needed. The downside was Levono had used his quirk so much so often in his many years of working in the medical field, that it began to destroy and weaken many of the arteries in his body. The blood vessels became thinner and weaker, until they simply couldn't take anymore. Mei could tell these more recent medical documents made it out with full anticipation of his death in the upcoming months.
"Someone using their quirk so much it hurts them; boy why does that sound familiar...?" Mei rhetorically mumbled to herself, smiling while the head pain easing away as she was reminded of her boyfriend once again.
"Well, if I want this to work, it's going to have to be a lot more... 'invasive' than I usually make my stuff." Hatsume let out an exasperated sigh, leaning back in the chair she was at, looking to the ceiling and trying to comb through her many thoughts in a gentle brainstorming session. She just wondered what to do at this point, there were options but they seemed pretty inhumane in her cross-iris eyes.
"If he was able to do it for Jezel, then I should be able to do it for him." Mei muttered to herself, the plant quirk user having a similar issue with losing arteries and veins, the pinkette thought cross referencing the two could give her the solution she needed. Mei began to have an idea forming in her brain, and in an instant, she was starting to grab her tools back together and resuming work on the current invention.
After most of the day had been spent just traveling to the location, that had been a lot farther away in an entirely other prefecture, the sun lingered lower in the sky than before. Izuku Katsuki and Uraraka had arrived, they were amazed that there was a forest preserve in this area at all, it was deceptively larger than it led them to believe initially.
"This is where Mei is...?" Ochako swallowed hard, Bakugou not really saying anything as he kept walking through the brush, bashing or stomping the foliage that got in his way aside.
"It feels creepy out here, but I guess that's just how any forest feels at night." Midoriya murmured, trying to stay strong rational and calm during all of this, he had to be strong for Mei after all.
"Try and stay quiet, we don't know how many, or who we're dealing with, so any quirk is possible out here." Bakugou hushed them with an irritated glare, if this was a group of villains, they could be far more prepared than ever, walking in on their territory was a big mistake as is. Fighting in a place where enemies have the advantage due to familiarity of the environment was something Heroes had to be used to doing, it didn't make it any easier though.
As the group ventured through the forest, one thing did become readily apparent to them right away. The feeling of being lost, something that shouldn't remotely have been on any of their minds given they were more than well aware of how to get back out from where they came, nor would it be a problem given their individual quirks.
Before they knew it, 30 minutes had turned into 1 hour, then 2, it was then when the 3rd hour struck that they began to realize something quite abruptly at that.
"We... We can't be back here again; this is just some middle branching path...!" Ochako held her head, they had arrived to a familiar broken limbed tree. They had used that as a marker of sorts when they first had that feeling of being lost set in too deeply. To be safe, Bakugou had begun leaving scorch hand prints on some trees, not powerful enough to hurt them but enough to leave a mark for them to use as a guide. That didn't do anything for them either.
"I don't get it, what the hell is going on?!" Katsuki growled, looking ready to slam his head into the nearest tree in place of a scorch mark. They were getting nowhere, however, Izuku was quiet, looking around the terrain they were in.
"We've followed the signs we've left; we've ignored them, we've done both and tried to be unpredictable, but we still are in the same place we were an hour ago." Midoriya commented, that was when he took notice of something, it was near one of the trees behind them, it was short and he genuinely wanted to think he was going insane, however the green haired teenager swore he saw the ground shifting slightly.
"Kacchan, pull the pin on your gauntlet and on my signal, shoot at your 7-o-clock, Uraraka, once he does that, make as much of the foliage around us float as you can." Izuku suddenly ordered them, his fellow 1-A friends had no clue as to why. As much as Katsuki wanted to argue it, he was not in the mood to be his usual bitter self. If it was a plan to get them moving without being lost any longer, the explosive quirk user would gladly do as told.
Bakugou reached for the pin in his right arm gauntlet, his gear having been designed to stockpile his quirk in it more or less as an emergency use tool, it was not something used for non-lethal reasons to put it simply. Uravity put her fingertips together, staying confident, unsure what to expect in these ominous woods. Izuku took in a deep breath, letting his quirks energy activate as energy swelled into his legs and lower body.
"Now!" Deku launched into high into the air with one for all, the second he moved out of the way Bakugou raised his right arm up and fired the gauntlet, shooting out a massive explosive wave that tore apart several trees and decimated everything in its wake. Immediately Uraraka tapped as many of the fallen bushes trees and branches that she felt would be within her strength to move at once.
Not even two seconds after firing his special attack, they saw the smoke beginning to get pulled away, in a fashion that made it look like it was being sucked away by a vacuum. Suddenly through the smoke was a returned explosion that appeared to be half the power of the one Bakugou initially fired, the various forest parts that Ochako had made float were destroyed in the blast and were enough to guard them from the counter attack.
Izuku came rocketing back down, leg raised high with crackles of green electricity trailing behind him. "Smaaaaash!" He slammed his leg down, extremely hard, the second he did the smoke around got cleared away in an instant revealing a large plant bulb on a vine that was not crushed into a flat pulp by Midoriya's attack.
"Crap... How?!" They heard a more tired voice groan in pain, they saw a bald boy in a hooded coat and jeans, holding his wounded shoulder, having been hit by the explosion partially that had caught him off guard to begin with.
"Who is that?" Uraraka chirped, wondering if they had just attacked a civilian, that didn't explain the weird giant plant bulb that the grenette had crushed though.
"I felt like we were being watched for a while, I didn't have a way to confirm it until I noticed the ground moving beside us." Deku explained, looking angry with the similarly aged boy, the only reason someone would be out here around them, would be to stop them, the same one they could most likely pin as being the one causing them to be lost out here and getting turned around.
"That means we're in the right place then." Katsuki grinned eagerly, looking more than enthralled with the idea of having an opponent to brawl with. They saw the bald man place both hands on the forest floor, suddenly the parts in front of the area he was touching flipped like they were square trap doors, rotating on the opposite side and revealing two more of those giant plants. It seemed the bald teen had a semi-teleportation quirk of sorts, or something along those lines, they didn't know where the giant hostile fauna was coming from though.
"You two go on, I'll handle this chump! He should be easy enough." Kacchan insisted, someone had to keep them busy he presumed, otherwise they would be dealing with being lost in these woods once again.
"Thanks, Kacchan!" Izuku nodded, not even arguing a single word before taking off in a hurry now that they knew they had a chance to make progress.
"Stay safe, Katsuki!" Uraraka shouted, she wanted to help, but she knew it would be simple for him. Their stalker did not appear to be too powerful, the gravity girl was worried about what Midoriya might do to anyone else in this group when he found them.
"Hey, moron, tell me your name. The doctors are going to want to know it when I bring you to the hospital!" Katsuki stated, the bald teenager was getting angry just hearing this arrogant confidence.
"Lesk. I don't think that matters though, me and my sister's little helpers are going to deal with you myself." Lesk retorted, placing his hands on the ground again and causing the part he kneeled upon flip upside down and him vanish as well. Bakugou grinned, glaring down the two large plants before him as they vanished into the ground a second after as well.
"This is going to be easy."