Mission Start
Breaking into a Commission hospital to steal Eri was big. Like never been done before, everything on the line, do or fucking die, life in prison if they were caught B I G.
Not only that, but they were on a time limit. Izuku insisted they had to do it before the next full moon. Who knew what another moon would do to Izuku's mental state, and Izuku refused to be sidelined or make Eri wait that long.
That meant they had fourteen days max. Fourteen days to somehow make a workable plan, memorize schematics and codes, gather the equipment and supplies they needed, and - hardest of all - learn how to work with Tobita and Aiba.
For seven days, they trained and studied non-stop, sleeping an average of only five hours a night. And slowly… Very slowly… They began to pull together.
…
Izuku slammed Tobita face first onto the mat, the man's arm cranked up between his shoulder blades. They were both in sweats and stretched out t-shirts, their feet bare. Next to them Hitoshi and Shouto were trying to take Kacchan down, but they weren't having any luck if the pained grunts and the loud smack of Hitoshi's body hitting the mat were any indication.
"Are you sure you're not using your quirk?" Tobita asked, voice muffled with half his face buried in the mat.
"I'm sure," Izuku assured him, letting the man go.
"Tsuki."
Izuku looked up to see his brother in the doorway of the dojo.
Grim crooked his finger. "Bring your classmates."
Izuku got to his feet and looked over his shoulder to see Kacchan land a kick to Shouto's chest that sent the teen flying back. Kacchan then grabbed Hitoshi by the arm, flipping him over and slamming him down on his back once again. A helpless smile curled Izuku's lips. Kacchan's strength was breathtaking.
"Kacchan," he called, a faint blush on his cheeks. "Grim has something to show us. Shouto, Hitoshi, you too."
Sweat gleamed on Kacchan's brow and the hollow of his throat. He snagged a towel on his way over and rubbed his face with it. He gave Grim an annoyed glare, but Izuku saw that Grim wasn't bothered by it. In fact, he graced Kacchan with a small smile. Izuku beamed up at his brother, glad he liked his boyfriend.
"What's up?" Kacchan asked, suspicious.
"You'll see," Grim answered without turning around.
He led the four of them to the first floor and into the large meeting room where they'd met Tobita and Aiba for the first time. He had the curtains pulled shut on the window, casting the room in darkness cut only by the glow of the laptop on the table.
"Have a seat facing the tv," Grim instructed, moving to the laptop. The thin white lines running up and down and across his face, and the one diagonal line that cut from left temple to the end of his right jaw stood out sharply in the light from the screen.
Kacchan was the last to sit, still glaring suspiciously.
Grim met Izuku's eyes and tilted his head to the tv.
Izuku obediently turned to watch.
Denki's face appeared, gold eyes as bright as his smile. He was in his dorm room at his desk, recording himself from his laptop. Izuku's breath caught with a surprisingly strong feeling of homesickness. He reached for Kacchan's hand on one side and Hitoshi's on the other, squeezing as tears instantly filled his eyes.
"I'm gonna pull a Present Mic!" Denki said with the irrepressible cheer that was so unique to him. "To all my listeners out there! Don't forget you have heroes on your side! 1-A is with you!"
Denki was replaced by the view of a camera panning over a darkened and crowded gym, and with a soft inhalation, Izuku realized it was the gym they'd reserved for the culture festival! He'd totally forgotten all about that! All the hours of practice came roaring back. The hours spent laughing and encouraging each other. God, it felt like it was lifetimes ago! A lifetime where he'd been young and happy, and maybe not weightless but hopeful.
Glow-sticks lit up the darkness of the gym. There were cheers and the mutter of hundreds of conversations. Then the view switched to a camera closer to the stage. Tears rolled down Izuku's cheeks, finally escaping his eyes, as he realized they'd put the cameras there for them.
Kacchan's voice yelled out loud and clear from the large speakers set up on the stage. "Let's do this shit! We're gonna murder UA with our sound!"
Izuku choked out a laugh.
A huge, red firework went off and the band began. Kacchan's drum line was played through the speaker, setting down a driving beat.
"Thanks for coming out today!" Kyoka yelled into the mic as the music built. Then she began to sing. "What am I to be?… What is my calling?… I gave up giving up, I'm ready to go… The future's left unseen… It all depends on me…" Kyoka lifted her hand and pointed right at the camera. "Put it on the line to follow my dream. YEAH!"
The video switched to a different camera. This one was at the front of the stage and moved across it, letting them see the dancers up close. Everyone looked so amazing in the yellow costumes! Their faces were so bright and hopeful and happy as they moved in sync! Even Tenya!
"Tried all my life! I tried to find… something that makes me hold on and never let go! Ohhhhhh!"
The view switched to the stationary camera that showed the whole stage. The dancers leapt into the air as the chorus started. Kyoka looked so natural, owning the stage, her voice ringing passionately over the crowd.
"Hero too! I am a hero too!… My heart is set!… And I won't back down!"
Ochaco and Tsu broke away from the dance line. Ochaco high-fived Yuga. Tsu wrapped her tongue around his waist, flinging him up in the air. She retracting her tongue in such a way that it not only halted Yuga's momentum so that he hung in place near the ceiling but also spun like a top. Short-burst lasers shot from his stomach, filling the air with flashing light. A huge scream rose from the crowd below, everyone's hands reaching upward.
"Hero too! Strength doesn't make a hero!… True heroes… stand up for what they believe! So wait and see!… So wait and see!"
The view switched to a camera looking down at the band as the song transitioned into the second verse. Denki and Fumikage had had difficulty with this part of the guitar line, but they looked up at the camera now with smiles as they hit it perfectly! Momo was working the keyboard with dexterous hands, sweat gleamed on her skin from the hot lights, but she looked so happy. Kyoka killed the bass, her fingers working as she sang into the mic.
"What do they think of me?… What do they think I'll be?… I could not care less! I don't wanna know!… Am I doing right?… Am I satisfied?… I wanna live my life like it's meant to be. YEAH!"
The camera switched again, this time back to the front of the stage where the dancers, Mina with Tenya and Ojiro with Toru, hit the more challenging choreography. Tsu and Ochaco were missing, so was Yuga.
"Tried all my life!… I tried to find… something that makes me hold on and never let go! Ohhhhhh!"
The view switched to a camera up in the rafters five feet below the ceiling of the gym. The class had created a framework so that the special effects team could run zigzag over the audience below. Mezo had huge blocks of ice in each hand and tossed them one at a time to Eijiro who ran up and down sawing at it with his hardened arm. Sato ran up and down lighting small fireworks, sparklers, and confetti canons. Koji released dozens and dozens of butterflies that fluttered down above the crowd, the lights catching beautifully on their wings.
"Hero too! I am a hero too!… My heart is set!… And I won't back down!… Hero too! Strength doesn't make a hero!… True heroes… stand up for what they believe! So wait and see!"
Ochaco and Yuga flung themselves weightless over the crowd, Hanta's tape around their waist and attached to the ceiling. Tsu ran about, controlling their swinging motions with her tongue. Yuga shot off his lasers, the light catching in the falling ice shards so beautifully while Ochaco clapped a few hands from the audience, letting others float in the air.
"People will judge for no reason at all!… Yeah, they might try… to say your dream's dumb… Don't listen!… They may look down on me, count me out!… I'm going my own way!… They may look down on me, count me out!… I'm a hero! I've got music!"
The view switched to the still camera at the front of the stage. The music stilled for a minute, Kyoka's sweet voice ringing out. "Hero too! I am a hero too!… My heart is set!… And I won't back down!… Hero too!… Strength doesn't make a hero!… True heroes… stand up for what they believe!"
The music started up with a vengeance. "YEA I'll BE! A HERO TOO! I AM A HERO TOO! MY HEART IS SET! AND I WON'T BACK DOWN! HERO TOO! STRENGTH DOESN'T MAKE A HERO! TRUE HEROES STAND UP FOR WHAT THEY BELIEVE! SO WAIT AND SEE!"
Mina, Tenya, Ojiro, and Toru had been dancing like crazy, flinging each other around, flipping, gyrating, but suddenly, in perfect time with Kyoka, they turned and faced the back of the stage. The dancers knelt and lifted an arm as if presenting the screen. Kyoka pointed up at it. The solid, slowly flashing background turned into a video. Kyoko's voice rang out over the hushed music into a verse Izuku hadn't heard before. She must have written it after they'd left.
"I have met so many heroes in my life!"
It was Izuku on the huge screen! He was matching Ochaco's footwork as they practiced the dance choreography. He tripped over her foot and they collapsed on top of each other laughing like loons. Hitoshi was next. His expression was intense with concentration as he flipped Tsu around his arm, tossed her up, and caught her on his shoulder. Tsu had her hands in the air, grinning ear to ear. Hitoshi looked up at her and smiled, his expression carefree and unguarded for a heart-stopping moment.
"Gave me the strength and courage to survive!"
Then Kacchan! He was topless and sweaty, banging away at the drums. Denki had timed it perfectly with the drumbeat still playing through the speakers on the stage. His face was stretched in a wild grin. Last was footage of Shouto making arches of ice across the gym to see if it would work. Frost covered half his face as he smiled at Hanta. They gave each other a high-five.
"Gave me the power to smile every day!"
Kyoka spun around. She looked directly into the camera and pointed into it again as the dancers raced to the front of the stage and also pointed toward the camera but from an angle to either side of Kyoka.
"Now it's our turn!" Izuku could see the tears in her eyes, the passion. "To be the ones… To make you smile!"
Izuku let go of Kacchan and Hitoshi. His hands lifting to his mouth as he half-laughed, half-cried.
The music picked up again. The dancers grabbed each other and the girls were tossed into the air. The crowd was dancing, dozens of people floating and swimming through the air. The ice still rained down, as did the confetti and lasers. Butterflies fluttered and a flock of birds exploded over the crowd.
Kyoka got a beat or two of a bass solo before Kacchan's drums beat out the finale, the instruments holding the last note. The view switched to the camera the looked over the entire gym. 1-A was waving from the stage and up in the rafters. The roar of approval was massive!
Denki filled the screen, back in his dorm in front of his laptop. "Hope you enjoyed the show!" There was a noise off camera and he looked to the side.
"Is it done?" Aizawa's voice, monotone as always.
Denki turned his laptop so it caught the man leaning in the doorway. He was in all black, his combat scarf draped over his shoulders. His long black hair had been pulled back in a messy bun instead of left hanging around his face.
"Almost!" Denki answered. "Just the conclusion left. Any words for the listeners out there?"
Aizawa looked at the laptop. He thought about it, then said softly, "Be safe out there." He looked back to Denki. "Let me know when you're done." He disappeared from the doorway and Denki turned the laptop back to face him.
The blond leaned close, still smiling. "You heard him. Be safe!" he said lightly, but his golden eyes were serious. Then he grinned once more. "This is Chargebolt signing off!" He winked and reached forward. The screen turned to black as the video ended.
"That was amazing!" Still crying, Izuku hooked his arm around Kacchan's shoulders and pulled him in. He did the same to Hitoshi on his other side. Their faces scrunched next to his and he laughed, tears shimmering in his eyes. "I'm so glad they're doing okay. I miss them so much."
"They did alright," Kacchan said with a roll of his eyes, but he was grinning, too.
Izuku released Kacchan and Hitoshi from the impulsive hug and got up. He moved around the table. Heart overflowing, he wrapped his arms around Grim's shoulders and slid onto his lap, hugging him. "Thank you," he said softly, tears wetting Grim's shoulder where he rested his head. "For showing me. Thank you."
"I'm sorry you can't be at school with your friends, Tsuki," Grim said gently, carding his hand through Izuku's hair.
Izuku pulled back to smile at him. "Can we watch it again?"
Grim gave him an indulgent smile, his dark eyes soft. "Of course."
Izuku gave him one last squeeze and got up. Kacchan was glaring daggers at Grim, but he relaxed when Izuku returned to his seat and leaned into him. Kacchan's arms wound around Izuku possessively, making Izuku smile.
"I'm gonna pull a Present Mic!" Denki's voice filled the room as the video started over. "To all my listeners out there! Don't forget you have heroes on your side! 1-A is with you!"
…
The video made them all the more determined to succeed. For Izuku, it was a reminder of everything he wanted to give Eri. She deserved to have a life full of friends and happiness and freedom! For Katsuki, it reminded him what was at stake. If they messed up, there would be no returning to UA for any of them, and he wouldn't allow that to happen. For Hitoshi and Shouto, it reminded them that Izuku and Katsuki were the ones to open the door to friendship, to true belonging, and both Hitoshi and Shouto were determined not to let them down when the two needed them most.
Over the next seven days, all four of them threw themselves into training, working harder than ever before.
…
— Katsuki snarled as he bounced off an elastic circle of air the clown had put in his path. He went tumbling a few feet down the mountain. Dirt, twigs, and leaves got everywhere - in his clothes, hair, mouth. Izuku had rabbit-jumped right over the invisible elastic barrier and continued to chase the target.
(He and Hitoshi did the best against the clown, their memory scary-accurate. At least until the pipsqueak used her fucking quirk and powered up the idiot like a demon on steroids. Then only Izuku and Katsuki could go hand-to-hand with the bastard.)
With a feral grin, Katsuki got his feet and knees under him, slid another foot, and exploded upward. —
— All six of them were sitting in the bar of the inn, steaming bowls of vegetable beef stew before them.
"How many seconds before camera five rotates around?" Katsuki quizzed.
"Thirteen," Shouto answered promptly.
"Aiba estimates she can give us an additional four to twelve seconds by hacking into the video feed," Hitoshi added.
Katsuki turned his eyes to the idiot who was smiling brainlessly, eyes squinted, happily eating the stew. "Clown, which way after the first check point?"
(The mustached idiot didn't protest Katsuki's name for him. It had been days and Katsuki straight up refused to call him anything else. Even the pipsqueak had stopped protesting at this point.)
"Left?" the silver-haired man asked.
Katsuki gave him a sharp smile as he stared him dead in the eye. "You sure?"
The man visibly sweated. His eyes darted to his partner next to him, but Katsuki snapped his fingers, a warning growl in his voice as he barked, "Eyes on me!"
The clown squirmed in his seat. "Right?"
Katsuki glared murder. "Left. Don't second guess yourself. You got to know this by heart! In your sleep with your eyes closed! We can't fuck up!"
"I know! I know!" the man cried. "Ask me another!" —
— They spent four hours a day in the underground shooting range at the inn, so they wouldn't be completely useless with the tranquilizer guns Grim was supplying them with. Surprisingly, the best shooter of all of them was the fucking pipsqueak. Katsuki came in a close second, followed by Izuku, then Shoto, then the clown, then Hitoshi.
There was a buzzing sound and the targets began to slide sideways, forward, and back, giving them a moving target. Katsuki timed each shot with an exhale as Grim had taught them, determined to get first place this time. The clip emptied. Another buzzing sound and targets rushed toward each of them. Katsuki grabbed his and tallied his score with a quick glance.
"Three hundred ninety points!" he called out.
"Four hundred," the pipsqueak called back, voice chirpy.
"FUCK!" Katsuki roared, flinging the targets to the ground.
Her annoying giggle filled the air, and the clown tried to fucking console him!
"You're still a hundred points or more better than the rest of us. My honey is just exceptional!"
Katsuki's glare could have melted metal. "Hitoshi, tell me you beat this clown already!"
"Two hundred and ten points," the purple-haired teen answered stoically.
The clown's eyes widened.
Katsuki gave him an evil smile. "Looks like you're on the bottom, old man."
The clown gave Katsuki a glare and quickly reloaded his gun. "We shall see! This old man isn't done yet!" he cried, pulling on the noise dampening earmuffs. —
— They were in the meeting room the day before the mission. Papers were scattered over the table with diagrams, schedules, blueprints, lists, and schematics. Katsuki looked around at his team. They were all nervous and tense. Hitoshi looked like he was going to fall asleep, his head pillowed on his arms. Shouto looked as blank as a doll as he listened to Izuku mutter a mile a minute about something. The clown was drinking his shitty tea in his tiny porcelain cup ranting about how he'd become a legend while the pipsqueak stared up at him in adoration.
"We can't completely avoid every camera," Katsuki announced and instantly had every eye on him. "And we can't go in there like fucking bandits with our faces covered. That will draw too much attention. Those skin masks from Grim will alter our features enough there will be some question as to our identity, but we'll need to do something about our hair and eyes to really make it work."
Izuku's hand lifted to his black hair. "Does that mean…?"
"Yep. We're all getting make-overs." Katsuki shot him a grin. It would also help to keep them distracted and relaxed.
Deku resisted another color change. It was already messing with him that it wasn't his natural green, and black was a common enough color, but he did accept black contacts and allowed his hair to be professionally trimmed by the yakuza hair stylist. When he was turned to the mirror, he smiled and met Grim's eyes in the reflection.
"Now we match!"
Grim smiled. His own was short, barely falling over his forehead, and straight, but it was the same dark color, as were his eyes. "That we do, little brother."
Then it was Katsuki's turn. No one but a handful of people had seen his piercings. Still, he didn't want to be connected to the crime after the fact. At the same time, he didn't want to be completely vulnerable to psychic quirks on the mission, so he compromised and took out half. He changed the hoop in his nostril for a gold-plated iron stud, took out the two bridge and eyebrow piercings, left the black-studs in his tongue alone, but changed the snake-bite piercings for gold-plated studs instead of spikes. Last, he put gold-plated studs in his lobes and helix piercings, removing all the other bars and spikes.
For his hair, Izuku chose copper dye with yellow and red highlights. Izuku then had the stylist buzz the sides and back short, leaving the top long. A little hair gel and it got some hight and volume. In the sun, the new color looked like flames. Gold contacts and the look was complete.
"Wow," Izuku said, blinking.
Katsuki shrugged as he tilted his head this way and that in the mirror. "It's alright. You did good, Deku."
Izuku flushed a bright red. "Maybe a bit more than alright." His voice dropped, gaining some heat. "You look really sexy, Kacchan. Like a sun god. I think Apollo should be your code name for the mission."
It was Katsuki's turn to blush. "Yeah?" He gave Izuku a slow, sexy smile. "Then you have to be Hermes with those fucking jumps of yours and walking on air and shit."
Izuku grinned. "I like it!"
Hitoshi went next. He got a similar hair cut to Katsuki, but it was more extreme. He actually buzzed off almost all his hair, leaving only a three-inch wide mohawk running down the center of his head down to his neck. The fact that his hair naturally defied gravity made the look even better. He also dyed it black and chose black contacts to match Izuku. Aiba had let him borrow her make-up and he darkened the circles under his eyes as well as painted a black line running down his cheeks like tears.
"You look great, Toshi!" Izuku enthused. "Kacchan! Take a picture for Fumikage; he'll die!"
Katsuki did, smirking. "It's almost too bad you have to give the look up after the mission."
Hitoshi looked at himself in the mirror, turning his head this way and that. He rubbed his chin and shrugged. "Nah. It's too high maintenance."
"You look like Hades," Shouto said, watching from the background.
Izuku's eyes went wide with delight. "That's perfect!"
That left Shouto. He practically leapt at the opportunity to change his appearance. The first thing he did was use make-up to erase the large scar on the left side of his face. Then he put in a single grey contact to match his left eye. The white side of his hair had no pigment, so it wouldn't hold dye, so they just bleached the crap out of the red to get it to mostly match the right. It turned more grey than white, but it was close enough. Shouto stared at his reflection for a long minute.
Katsuki knew what Shouto was seeing. He was seeing what he would have looked like without his father. What he would have looked like without the pain and abuse. "You'll be the moon to my sun, IcyHot. You'll be Artemis."
"Isn't she Apollo's twin sister?" Hitoshi asked, head on his crossed arms on the counter in front of the mirror.
Shouto caught Katsuki's yellow eyes in the mirror. Goddess of the Moon. For his mother. And twin to Katsuki. Katsuki who understood him in a way no one else ever got. Not even his real siblings. Tears burned his eyes, but he didn't let them fall. "I like it," he said, voice thick. "It's perfect."
Katsuki gave him a fierce grin and held up his fist.
Shouto knocked his own against it. —
…
Dressed in full tactical gear, they left the inn at one in the morning. Katsuki, Izuku, Shouto, and Hitoshi all wore a thin film adhered to the skin of their faces so that their features would blur on camera. Tobita and Aiba refused it since they planned on filming and posting the rescue for fame. From Hokkaido, they were flown to a private airport outside Tokyo. By three-thirty, they were in the back of a delivery truck on the way to the Commission hospital. Katsuki's watch beeped at four-thirty.
"Get in position," he ordered quietly.
Without a word, everyone obeyed, climbing into the crates prepared for them and scrunching down as small as they could go. At exactly four forty-five am, the truck pulled to a stop at the first check point.
Katsuki's heart beat hard in his chest as he heard the back of the truck open. There were beeps as each crate was scanned. Katsuki held his breath, but the crates were lined with something that blocked the scanner from picking up their life signs. There was the muffled sound of male voices and then the door was slammed closed. The truck pulled forward. They'd cleared the first check point.
Katsuki counted to twenty before climbing out. The others followed his lead, climbing out and surrounding him. The clown and pipsqueak stayed to the back of the group, letting Katsuki and the others take point. The pipsqueak had her laptop out and was typing quickly, trying to get into the hospital's network. Truck stopped and then began to reverse. The sound of the tires changed as they entered the east loading bay nearest the cafeteria.
"Almost…" Aiba said, voice tight. "Thirty seconds."
Katsuki grabbed the truck door handle. Izuku grabbed the other. There was a tug, but they held the doors shut. A male voice. Annoyed. They couldn't get out, not until the pipsqueak looped the camera feeds. There was a harder yank.
"Got it," the girl whispered.
Katsuki and Izuku let go of the doors at the same time. They flew open, the guy flying back on his ass.
"You okay?" Hitoshi asked casually as he jumped down.
"Yeah…" His eyes went blank.
"Everything is normal," Hitoshi ordered, using his quirk. "In sixty seconds, you're going to drop that crate of cans on your foot hard enough to break it. You won't remember seeing us."
Katsuki and Izuku jumped down, followed by Todoroki and Hitoshi. The clown helped the pipsqueak. The loading bay was small with a ramp for carts running up one side leading to a locked double door. Hitoshi grabbed the key card from the brainwashed guy's front pocket and ran up the ramp, swiping it over the lock. He opened the door and tossed the card back to Katsuki, who tossed it to Izuku, who passed it to Shouto, who clipped it back on the guy's pocket. All of this took less than a minute and a half.
Crouched low, they made their way into the kitchen. They stayed in the storage section, behind boxes of food and supplies, keeping out of sight. Katsuki peered around the edge. It was early, so there were only five people working, getting ready to serve breakfast in the connected cafeteria.
"Ready when you are," Aiba whispered.
Katsuki's eyes latched onto their target. It was a service elevator. So supplies could be taken up to the smaller cafeterias on the other floors. It took a key card and a code to open and use. It was also in sight of all the workers. The pipsqueak could make them invisible to the cameras and get the elevator open and moving, but distracting the workers was all up to them.
A scream rang out loud enough that it carried even through the reinforced double doors. Two of the kitchen staff ran past the boxes Katsuki and his team were hiding behind. That left three. Katsuki tossed a small packet across the room and it landed in a fryer. It immediately ignited. The three rushed to the fire while Katsuki and his team kept low and ran toward the elevator. The pipsqueak timed it just right. The doors opened the second they got to them and swung closed again. Then they were going down. It took a very special key card and code to make the elevator go to the basement levels, but again Aiba had it covered.
"We're good so far," the girl said, flipping through screens. "No one's noticed the hack, and the workers haven't reported anything unusual going on yet."
"Fortune favors the bold!" the clown said boldly, grinning. He moved so he was standing next to the commission logo on the elevator doors. "Honey! Get the camera!"
The girl kept the laptop on her lap where she crouched. Katsuki, Izuku, Hitoshi, and Shouto very carefully got out of the camera view.
"This is Gentle Criminal! I've successfully infiltrated the Commission hospital!" He struck a pose, his eyes bright with excitement. "Justice can reach even the most impenetrable of places!"
The girl killed the camera, letting it fall back to her hip. "You're amazing, Gentle!" she gushed.
"Focus!" Katsuki snapped as B4 flashed on the elevator panel. "What's it look like?"
"One kitchen worker. Six guards down the hallway at the guard station. They're waiting to be relieved," she reported.
B5 lit up on the elevator panel. Katsuki took a deep breath. The elevator doors opened to a small kitchen. Hitoshi walked out first.
"What's your status?" he demanded, walking confidently into the kitchen with the others at his back in full Commission tactical gear.
The guy looked at him with wide eyes. "What…?" And his eyes blanked out.
Katsuki shook his head. No wonder the Commission was fucking terrified of the Institute. Hitoshi was only one person and look what he could fucking do. Granted, without the pipsqueak, this wouldn't be possible.
"Go about your business," Hitoshi ordered. "You can't see us. Everything is normal."
The guy went back to work as if they were invisible.
The kitchen was small with a large refrigerator, a display case for the prepackaged plates, and a row of microwaves. The seating area was only a little bigger with four four-top tables, a couch, and two vending machines. A large window stood next to the door so you could look into the break room. Through it, they could see a narrow white hallway. To the right there was the main reception and official elevator. To the left was the guard station. Then the hallway branched out into three paths, like a capital E where the guard post was in the center of the long side connected to the three shorter legs.
Katsuki and Izuku led the way to the guard station. Hitoshi and Shouto followed at their back, doing their best to block Aiba and Tobita from sight behind them. The guards were all men. They were big and had expert training, but it was the end of their shift. They were relaxed as they waited for the next group to relieve them.
"You're ten minutes early," one of the guards said, still unconcerned, as Katsuki and his team approached.
The rest straightened, coming to attention. Katsuki was ten feet away when they began to tense, realizing something wasn't right. Katsuki and Izuku leapt forward. In a flurry of blows, they had the men down and unconscious. One had managed to get their hand on their radio, but Izuku took him down before he could call out.
"We're good," Aiba said, breathing fast. The violence never failed to distress her.
Katsuki swiped one of the guard's key cards. There was a massive reinforce door at each of the short legs of the capital E. Katsuki used the card to get through the door to the center hallway. And that's where the look of a simple hospital was lost.
The hallway had a solid wall to the right, but the left had a wall of clear bullet proof glass. The first room was all white with a metal table and wooden chair. On the table was a computer and next to it sat a weird helmet with lots of wires coming out of it that were attached to a huge machine in the corner. The next room looked like a mixture of a gym with a treadmill and weights. The next looked like a storage room with floor to ceiling shelves filled with a bunch of different things: plants in pots, balls, musical instruments, rock samples, jars with different color fluid, even mice in a cage! The center of the room had a table and a chair. The next room looked like a hospital room. There was a padded examination table, a counter with jars of cotton balls and other supplies. The next room had what looked like an MRI. Finally, they got to the end of the hallway.
It was a normal looking bedroom. The walls had child-like drawings taped to them. A blond boy with fire out of his hands and red eyes as well as a boy with black hair and blue eyes filled nearly all of them. The bed had a thick pink comforter. A bedside table had a colorful hot-air balloon lamp. An open door at the side of the room revealed a tiny bathroom. In the bed, a little girl with silver hair slept. There was a band around her head with little lights blinking regularly and an eye mask over her eyes so the bright florescent lights in the ceiling didn't bother her. There were dried tear tracks on her cheeks.
This whole hallway was devoted to Eri. All of these rooms were hers. She'd been kept in these see-through rooms, examined and watched, since being taken from Overhaul forty-five days ago, and Katsuki felt rage burn in his blood. Izuku had been right. Eri hadn't been saved. This wasn't living.
Izuku grabbed the door handle to Eri's room. It didn't open. His eyes flashed to Aiba.
"I… I can't open it," she admitted, face pale. "It's on its own closed system. I can't hack in without gaining assess to an entry point. Maybe a doctor's computer?"
"We don't have time for that," Katsuki growled.
The clown must have sensed something had gone wrong. He'd been walking down the hallway filming the see-through rooms and ranting about the Commission's lack of humanity. He turned the camera off and hurried over.
"I can't open it, Gentle," Aiba wailed, tears running down her cheeks. "I'm sorry!"
There was a deafening groan and crunch. Katsuki flinched, ducking and lifting his hands. Shouto and Hitoshi were next to him, pulling the clown and pipsqueak back behind them protectively. Izuku - green static running up and down his body - tore the metal door out of the frame. His face was set in a snarl, his whole body straining, sweat drenching his face - and this was a boy who could lift enormous trees. The door must be ridiculously heavy!
He tossed it aside and the weight of it shattered the tile to dust, dented the hallway wall, and created spiderweb cracks all through the observation window into Eri's room. The little girl was sitting up in the bed now. The lights on her headband blinking rapidly. She'd pulled her eye mask off and looked at Izuku with wide, fuchsia eyes.
"Hey, Eri," Izuku said, smiling. "Remember me?"
She jumped to her feet, ran across the bed, and jumped. Smiling wide, Izuku caught her, scooping her sideways so she could sit on his arm. "Izuku!" she cried, tears streaking her cheeks.
He carefully pulled the band off the girl's head and threw it back into the room. Putting his forehead against her temple, he carried her out of the room. "I promised Kacchan would save us, didn't I?" he whispered. "Sorry it took us so long."
Her eyes impossibly widened as she caught sight of Katsuki in the hallway. She practically threw herself at him. "Kacchan!"
He caught her clumsily, not expecting the leap out of Izuku's arms. "The hell!"
Izuku was grinning ear-to-ear, tears in his eyes.
"You sure it's safe, Kacchan?" she asked, trembling. "You're a hero. You gotta protect people, and I'm not safe to be around."
He snarled in rage, holding her securely against him. "Of course you're fucking safe to be around!"
Izuku stepped up and put his hand on her head, right behind her small horn. "The Commission and Overhaul didn't want you to go outside because they wanted to use your quirk, Eri," he said softly. The painful knowledge that shadowed Izuku's eyes was mirrored in the little girl's. "Not because you aren't safe to be around. No matter what they told you, you know that's the truth." Voice firm, he stared her dead in the eye. "Eri, you've given more than enough to help everyone else. It's time for you to be saved."
Eri burst into loud sobs, clinging to Kacchan's neck.
Gas suddenly exploded from the vents along the floor with a loud hissing.
"Gentle!" Katsuki barked.
The clown quickly flung up his hands, putting an elastic barrier over the vents.
"It makes you sleep," Eri said, sniffing and hiccuping.
Katsuki crouched and set Eri on her feet. He looked into her large eyes. "It's going to be okay, Eri. You just keep your eyes on me, and it'll be over soon." He flashed a fierce grin. "I'm here to save you, and I always fucking win!"
Eri wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and lifted her chin. "Okay," she said bravely.
"They've taken control of the main elevator. They'll be down in thirty seconds!" Aiba called.
Katsuki and the others ran down the hallway. Fuck! They'd planned on at least getting to the ground floor before the alarms sounded. Now they were five floors underground! Trapped didn't begin to cover it. He grinned, fierce and furious. Well, now it was time to prove he was number fucking one.
"I still have the cameras, but I'll be locked out in a few minutes tops!" Aiba shouted as they ran past the still unconscious guards at the guard station.
They sprinted through the break room. The worker was gone, having finished stocking the kitchen for the day. The elevator doors opened and they all leapt on. Katsuki boosted Izuku up and his boyfriend climbed through the panel on top. Katsuki passed Eri up, then the pipsqueak. Hitoshi and Shouto jumped off his linked hands. The clown bounced up on elastic air. Then Katsuki blasted himself up. They put the panel back in place.
The elevator shaft was pitch-black, but Shouto clicked a flashlight on, covering it with his hand so the light didn't travel too far and give away their position. The elevator began to move upward, controlled by the pipsqueak. Izuku jumped up the dark shaft, leaving them behind to scout ahead.
The elevator suddenly came to a hard stop, knocking Hitoshi and the clown to one knee and Eri on her ass. Shouto held out a hand to help her back up.
"I'm locked out," Aiba said, slumping. She closed her laptop and slipped it into her backpack. "I messed up the camera system, so it'll be a few more minutes before they get back online, but that's it. I can't hack anymore locks."
"Gentle," Katsuki ordered, voice clipped. "Make some stairs." He pointed his flashlight up. Izuku stood at the top of the shaft in midair about six floors above them.
The clown flung out his hands, putting elastic platforms on either side. Katsuki picked Eri up and handed her to Hitoshi. He had the best memory of where the invisible elastic platforms would be and was the least likely to slip and fall. Hitoshi wrapped her in his capture scarf and secured her to his body. The clown picked up the pipsqueak and began to bounce up. Hitoshi followed in his wake, placing his feet exactly where the other man had.
Katsuki pressed his back to the wall of the elevator shaft, giving Shouto room. White hot fire ignited from the teen's hand. The thin stream of molten heat began to weld shut the ceiling panel. The air became thin, devoured by the flames. In seconds, Katsuki was drenched in sweat from the heat. Shouto only had time to melt two sides of the door before the elevator began to move down. Katsuki surged forward, hoisted Shouto over his shoulder and blasted up.
Metal screamed as fire, heat, and smoke bloomed under their feet, pushing them upward. Izuku already had the doors open at the top of the shaft. Everyone had gone through. Black tendrils whipped out, snagged both Katsuki and Shouto, and yanked them into the hallway before the fireball chewed them up. They crashed into Izuku, sending him to the floor.
Katsuki leapt to his feet, yanking Shouto and Izuku up with him by the shoulder straps on their tactical gear. They ran through the 5th floor kitchen, scattering the screaming staff. The Commission thought they were below ground. Or between the B1 and the ground floor where the elevator had stopped. They wouldn't think they could get up to the top floor so quickly, but that would only buy them a few minutes. Katsuki grinned. A few minutes was all he needed.
They all had their guns out. Eri was still secured to Hitoshi's chest with his scarf. The pipsqueak was held under the clown's arm. Gun in one hand, camera in the other, she had twisted so she was facing upward, filming the idiot who was grinning and laughing as they pelted down the hospital hallway as if this were a stroll through the park.
Four guards, two on their knees, two standing behind them. They opened fire. Gentle flung his hand forward. The elastic platform was tilted so the bullets ricocheted into the ceiling instead of back at the men. Before running face-first into the elastic air, Katsuki slammed through a door on the left. Pop! Pop! Two doctors collapsed as he shot them. He pulled C4 out of the pockets of his vest and slapped them on the outside wall. Shouto and Izuku were in the doorway, laying down cover fire, careful not to hit the elastic wall down the right side.
"Fire in the hole!" Katsuki yelled.
Hitoshi huddled over Eri protectively, covering her ears.
BOOOOM!
Force exploded outward, taking the wall with it. Katsuki could have done as much with his hands, but it was best to leave as little nitroglycerin behind as possible. They did want to get away unrecognized, after all.
Gentle posed in the smoking hole. The pipsqueak filmed him. "And now to escape with the damsel!"
"Go!" Katsuki snarled.
The clown scooped up the pipsqueak and leapt. They were on the top floor, five stories up, and on the west side of the building. The sun was rising to the east, but the building cast a deep shadow that they were going to escape in. A forest was just half a mile out. If they could just reach it…
The clown hit an elastic platform two floors down and it flung him forward, away from the hospital toward the forest. Hitoshi leapt after them with Eri. Gunfire erupted from the roof. Katsuki ripped a flash grenade from his vest and flung it upward. It exploded with blinding light. Izuku grabbed Shouto and Katsuki with Blackwhip, pulling them up close against his body, hopefully obscuring the black tendrils from view. Izuku leapt out the window, yanking them with him.
They hit the first elastic platform and were flung forward. Suddenly, Izuku twisted, spinning in midair so that Katsuki and Shouto were behind him. A red feather sliced past Katsuki's cheek. Another impaled Izuku through the shoulder. Izuku's blood spattered across Katsuki's chest, the teen grimacing in pain.
Hawks. They'd talked about coming into contact with Hawks. They were breaking into a Commission hospital, so Katsuki new the likelihood of running into the Commission's top hero had been high. They'd all agreed solemnly that if that happened, they had to be ruthless. Otherwise, Hawks was going to knock them on their ass and drag them all back to a Commission cell.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl as adrenaline roared through Katsuki's system. The feather curled around Izuku's arm from the inside out and yanked them to a stop in midair. Shouto reached forward and grabbed the feather. With a flash of flame, it turned to ash, highly flammable. Izuku screamed as the fire traveled through the small hole in his shoulder, cauterizing it. They dropped a few inches until Izuku solidified the air at his feet. Hawks suddenly blurred past them, going after Eri.
The viridian currents licking around Izuku disappeared to be replaced by a soft solid glow. Izuku was increasing his output. Katsuki wrapped his arms around Izuku's waist and closed his eyes. Shouto did the same. Katsuki's head was nearly ripped off his shoulders as they shot forward impossibly fast. They hit Hawks hard and began to plummet.
Without hesitating, Shouto reached forward and grabbed a handful of feathers. An enormous spout of flame roared to life. Hawks screamed in agony. Katsuki grit his teeth against the sound and opened his eyes. One wing was a blazing bonfire. The ground was racing toward them again. Feathers fell from the sky, sharp as spears, but Shouto had already turned his hand. Flame roared out, consuming most of them. One impaled Katsuki through the forearm, punching through and slicing into Izuku's side. Two hit Shouto, but Katsuki couldn't see where. The ground was racing toward them, everything happening in the space of a single heartbeat.
They slammed into an elastic circle of air ten feet from the ground. Izuku managed to get his feet under him and changed their trajectory with a kick using Airwalk, breaking away from Hawks. He began to sprint toward the forest. Two hundred yards out… one-fifty…
Two red feathers sliced through the air. Izuku screamed, a long feather sticking out of his calf, the other sticking out of his thigh. They slammed into the ground, hard enough to crack bones. Katsuki and Shouto rolled free, winded, bodies aching from head to toe from the violent impact.
Hawks's eyes were a predatory gold. He stood twenty feet away, one wing a charred black skeleton, the other bristling with gleaming red feathers. Katsuki exploded upward, getting in close. Blackwhip snapped out and tore three feathers aimed at Katsuki's torso from the air. Katsuki threw a punch at the hero's face, aiming for his temple and a KO, but Hawks blocked with a forearm, and a flap of his good wing pulled Hawks out of range.
More feathers streaking for him, but they hit elastic air before they could spear Katsuki. Katsuki nearly ran into the elastic platform himself but ducked and spun on a foot, going under it and coming up, his palm facing the enemy and releasing a blast that sent Hawks tumbling head over heels.
Hawks's one good wing flared and more feathers exploded outward. A wall of fire blazed to life, and Katsuki had to backflip to avoid running right through it. The fire died as fast as it came. Izuku, Shouto, the clown, and Katsuki stood around Hawks in a loose circle. The clown was glowing with love, the pipsqueak powering him up with her quirk. If all was going according to plan, Hitoshi, Eri, and the pipsqueak were still running, putting more distance between them and Hawks.
"Let her go!" Izuku yelled furiously. He was bleeding from his shoulder, thigh, and calf. Dirt covered him nearly head to foot from the hard fall. He pointed his gun at the hero. "She deserves to live free! Not in some lab!"
Hawks didn't look much better. One wing missing feathers, blackened and charred. The other down to about half. He was dirty, sweaty, and breathing hard. "Like villains will treat her any better!" he hissed coldly.
They opened fire, all four of them, shooting Hawks with their tranquilizer guns. The red feathers floating around Hawks spun in midair like the propellers of a plane. They slashed the bullets from the air while a half dozen other feathers streaked like missiles. Katsuki's gun was bisected, and if he hadn't spun out the way, the feather would have likely cut off his hand with it.
The clown and Izuku did their best to stop the feathers without getting in the way of Shouto and Katsuki's attacks. Hawks usually fought long distance, so Katsuki wasn't prepared for how capable he was in hand-to-hand. A kick caught Katsuki in the gut and he slammed back-first against a tree. Their fight had taken them past the tree line. It limited Shouto's fire, but it also limited Hawks's mobility.
Izuku darted in, skin glowing. A sandwich of air platforms slammed down in front of Izuku, pinning the feathers that had been flying at his face. Izuku dodged around the barrier and kicked toward Hawks's face, but the bird-man turned a his block into a grab, flinging Izuku down hard on the ground.
Shouto came at his back, fire flaring. Hawks snapped his remaining wing and the wind gust was enough to send Shouto tumbling back, his head striking a rock. He went limp. Katsuki snarled and landed a stomp-kick on the asshole's thigh. Would have gotten the bastard's knee, but the man had lunged forward enough for the blow to miss. But Katsuki wasn't holding back and the kick sent Hawks to the ground.
A second sandwich of air panels dropped on the hero, pinning him to the ground. The clown was a blur of speed, still steaming pink from the pipsqueak's love. He swung his foot, going for a knock out, but a feather streaked for his throat. Katsuki dodged, but it got him in the shoulder instead, throwing him backward against a tree and pinning him there.
With a burst of force, Hawks shout out from under the elastic air. Izuku slammed into him. Hawks hit the ground back first and slid with Izuku on his chest, first reared back. He punched Hawks in the face, the hero's head whipping to the side. A feather snapped around Izuku's throat and pulled him to the ground. The teen's face immediately went red.
Katsuki roared and yanked himself off the feather, ignoring the screaming agony of the move, and launched himself forward. Hawks was dazed from Izuku's punch. He tried to block, tried to flap his wing and get off his back, but he was just a little too slow. Katsuki was on him, his palm glowing as he slammed it forward next to the bird-man's ear. He let off an explosion that burst his eardrum and rattled the hero's brain, instantly knocked him out.
Katsuki climbed to his feet, panting, filthy, bloodied. Izuku was hacking, the feather choking him going slack as soon as Hawks lost consciousness. The clown stood over an unconscious Shouto. The pink steam had evaporated.
"Stop any bleeding," Katsuki growled hoarsely. There were too many blood related quirks. They had to cover their tracks. "Hurry!"
The clown immediately took out the first aid and knelt to attend Shouto. Katsuki did the same for Izuku. It took almost five minutes to patch all their wounds enough to stop the bleeding. Katsuki and Izuku got Shouto between them, hanging limply with his arms around their shoulders, and then they were running through the forest. They would have used Airwalk and the clown's panels to leap over the trees, but that would put them in sight, so they stayed on the ground.
Ten minutes into their run, helicopters flew overhead, the blades loudly cutting the air. Katsuki and Izuku put on a burst of speed. Shoving through undergrowth, they nearly ran into Grim. The man caught Izuku by the shoulders, helping him stay on his feet. The clown practically crashed into their backs. A spotlight from a helicopter cut through the forest fifty feet to their right.
"Suga!" Grim barked.
An old man with long blue-silver hair threw a shimmering blanket over them. It was pitch black underneath. "Everyone under?" he asked loudly over the roar of the helicopter blades.
Katsuki checked to make sure Shouto's feet weren't sticking out of the edge, but it was pitch black, no edge of light where the blanket wasn't meeting the ground. "Clear!" he yelled.
Silence. An eerie silence. Like the grave. No sound of breath or heartbeat. No wind. It was like being stricken deaf in a microsecond. The brain struggling to grasp the absolute absence of sound and failing. The absolute darkness. He had to be breathing harshly. He clutched at Shouto so hard he had to be leaving bruises. Then the darkness and silence were broken as the blanket was torn off.
He wasn't the only one breathing harshly. Katsuki quickly knelt and put Shouto on the ground. (His brain registered they were back at the inn in Hokkaido. In the yard off the back.) Izuku was on his knees, an animal sound of terror escaping his gritted teeth. His black eyes were wide and wild. Grim tried to hold his shoulders, to comfort, but Izuku had shoved him away hard enough the man had fallen back on his ass and slid a few feet. Izuku's skin was glowing. Blackwhip snaked dangerously around his torso from his wrists.
Katsuki made his hands crack and pop like firecrackers. On a delay, Izuku's eyes turned in his direction. He looked nearly feral, and Katsuki remembered the hours he'd been subjected to the deprivation pool while he was on his internship with Gran Torino. Izuku's mind was too fragile, too wounded after the Institute had fucked him up. After the stress of the mission, this final trigger was too much.
Katsuki's eyes snapped over to the back of the house. Hitoshi, the pipsqueak, and Eri — Eri who was running toward them. Hitoshi's capture weapon snapped out, snagging the girl gently and pulling her back toward the inn.
"Pipsqueak!" Katsuki barked. "Shoot Izuku! His thigh!"
He backed up, pulling Shouto and holding back Grim, to give the girl a clear shot. She looked wild around the eyes, but she aimed and fired. Blackwhip lashed the air. Izuku sprang upward twenty feet in a quirk-fueled leap, but the black tendrils faded with the glow in his skin. Katsuki sprinted forward and caught the nerd as he fell, unconscious, from the sky. The impact of Izuku's body knocked him off his feet and jarred a hundred different bruises. He held tight to Izuku even as his vision went gray and then black.
"Kacchan! Izuku!" Eri's frightened yell was the last thing he heard before unconsciousness claimed him.
Chapter end.
A/n: I really tried on this one, but in the end the rescue was probably too easy. I just felt like they'd had enough complicated and couldn't really write it any harder. (sigh) Let me know what you think?