UPROAR
Summary: Just because you're a Pro doesn't mean you're immune to the shit life throws your way. But that's part of the fun, right? Right…? Ugh, All Might made it all look so easy. Aged-up. Rated T for now. Connected drabble series.
A/N: Hiiiiiiiii! I'm a few days past my usual update this month, so this time I'll blame it on midterms ;) Anywho, this chapter's title comes from a Barns Courtney song, just so you don't think I couldn't come up with something more creative – it's the song title, dammit! XD Enjoy! (EDIT: sorry if you got a double notification for this chapter - I had to reupload because a bunch of the underlined dialogue was missing so I had to go back and do it again!)
Chapter 11: Fire
Five Days Later
Bakugo cracked open the cold green tea he'd bought from the vending machine outside the train station and plopped down on the couch. He'd changed into his dark gray joggers; but it was too hot for a real shirt just yet, so he kept that baggy black tank top he'd had for years next to him until he was ready for it. He shifted his towel from his wet hair to around his neck in an effort to cool himself down some more. Even the tea wasn't quite cold enough to help him.
Mikan leapt onto the couch and settled herself down atop Bakugo's shirt, which he should have known would happen. He flipped on the TV and the news blared updates of a raging fire downtown that bathed the night sky orange. His phone had no new messages nor any missed calls, and he cursed before slamming his tea onto the table.
He called Kirishima to see if their agency had been deployed and he finally answered after being sent to voicemail once.
"Little busy, Bakugo." Kirishima sounded out of breath.
"Are you at the fire?!"
"Yeah, where the hell are you?" He demanded.
"I wasn't called!"
"Well, I mean, it's a real rager." He panted. "Maybe your quirk was too risky to use."
"Like hell!" He snapped. "Nobody's faster than my Turbo! I could get those people outta there faster than you can!"
"I'm not here on…rescue duty." His voice faltered as loud noises rumbled in the background. "I'm here to help keep – shit, goddamn it! – the building up!"
"Shit!" Bakugo threw the phone down and paced around the living room, glaring at the TV. He didn't have his full gear with him at home, just a bag with his mask and boots, his gloves, and a few spare grenades to be used in case of emergency if anyone was ever stupid enough to attack him at home.
When the newscaster reiterated the location of the blaze in order to keep people away, Bakugo leapt into action.
"My sister!"
He froze and spun on his heel, heated crimson gaze leaving scorch marks in their haste to locate the woman's voice.
"Who's there?" He demanded. The only other thing in the room with him was the orange cat perched atop his black shirt.
"Well." Mikan spoke, startling Bakugo into the wall (which he still had yet to patch up after he'd punched that hole through it). "I guess the jig is up."
"D-did you just talk?"
Mikan leapt off the couch and sat in front of him. She closed her olive orbs and a bright light swirled around her, transforming her into an upright cat-human hybrid. She looked the same as a woman, but with her usual orange fur in place of skin. Her olive orbs were sharp and angled like a cat, and her mouth still curled up in that trademark feline smirk.
"Thanks for all the intel." She winked. "But I've got to go save my sister now."
"Who the hell are you?!" He growled, palms sparking frantically. "You're not going anywhere! Tell me what the hell is going on here!"
She held up her paw-like hands to frame her face in a cute pose. "Why, I'm still your precious Mikan! Can't you tell?"
He eyed the front door and his bedroom door, comparing the distances from where they both currently stood. In the time it would take for him to double-back to grab his gear, this freakshow would likely be long gone down the street.
"No hard feelings, Katsu-kun. I was just following orders, after all."
He wrinkled his nose. "What the hell did you just call me?"
"No good? I guess pet-names are harder than I thought…"
"Cut the bullshit, lady!" He snapped, inching closer to the bedroom as subtly as he possibly could. "Tell me what's going on here!"
"Now, now…" She held up her finger to shake it at him. "You'll have to pay me first."
"Enough!" He warned, fingers itching with sweat as he finally slinked in front of the threshold. "Who hired you?"
Mikan gave him a playful wink before vanishing into another ray of light. Bakugo reacted on reflex, closing his eyes and unleashing a blinding light from his Stun Grenade, diving into his bedroom for cover. Mikan reappeared in her cat form, dazed, and crumpled into a heap on the floor, incessantly scratching at her face to clear her vision. Bakugo quickly dragged the duffle bag out from under his bed, thankful that his limited knowledge on the sharpness of a cat's vision also proved to be their biggest weakness. He slipped into his gloves and scruffed the pesky cat by the excess fur on her neck.
"Just give up." He rolled his eyes when she tried to scratch his armored gloves like she was gutting a rat. "All you did was waste my time." He dropped her into his newly empty duffle bag and zipped it closed.
"Please!" The bag rustled. "My sister lives in that building! I have to save her!"
"Yeah, and who is she spying on?" He spat.
With his prisoner secured in her makeshift jail, he went back to slip on his mask and boots. But another bright light erupted from the duffle bag as he hefted it over his shoulder, and Mikan emerged in her hybrid form, tearing the seams right out of the bag and nearly tipping him over like an uneven scale.
"Shit!" He released the handles and tossed the bag at the door with an explosive fist, but she switched back into her cat form to dodge it. Which just meant that he effectively blew off his own front door for her.
"Thanks for the help." She quipped before dashing away from the smoking rubble.
Bakugo gave chase as best he could, but she was too swift for even his Turbo to keep up with. But at least he knew where she was racing off to.
Ochako breathed as slowly and as steadily as she could, given the circumstances. The once flashy high-rise apartment she used to pass on her morning runs was currently ablaze and threatening to come down around her at any moment. One wrong step and she could punch a hole through the floor that could cause the lower levels to collapse below her. She had to be cautious if she stood any chance at all at rescuing the ones on the floors above the flames before it could spread up to them. By her side was fellow Pro Hero: Gummy, whose quirk allowed him to elongate the bones in both his forearms and legs over great distances like a rubber-band.
His and Ochako's mission was to locate and recover the remaining tenants, floor-by-floor. The ones on the levels immediately above the flames took priority, so they'd been left in the hands of more experienced Pros and firefighters. He wasn't sure if they were too high to jump onto one of those inflatable fire rescue cushions, though.
"How many are there?" Gummy asked, clad in a neon green and black costume that could only be described as an old-timey gentlemen's swimsuit. His torso was armored in order to give him some form of protection, thusly freeing his arms and legs to do what they did best with the least hindrance possible.
Ochako pulled up the information in her visor. "The info we have doesn't definitively say. All we know is that there are 12 apartments per floor, excluding the penthouse suite at the top."
"Assuming there's families mixed in, we could be looking at anywhere from 12 to 48 people altogether." Gummy rolled his eyes in frustration – that didn't give them a lot to work with. It would be too easy for someone to get left behind, or for them to waste time searching for someone who wasn't there.
Ochako nodded her understanding, too optimistic by nature to weigh the risks effectively, even though she wasn't stupid enough to ignore them entirely. "Shall we split up to reach them faster? I'll take this side, you take that side, and we'll meet up at the end of the hall."
"Roger." He agreed, realizing they didn't really have time to lament their lack of intel. "Good luck."
She gave him a thumbs up and turned to the first apartment. Over the years, she'd had a few helpful upgrades to her costume that could only come after the trials of firsthand experience. One of them was temperature-resistant padding in her gloves. This allowed her to properly grasp hot and cold objects without any adverse effects to her hands, which allowed her to quickly snatch the hot doorknob of the first apartment and swing the door open.
Inside, a mother cradled a child under each arm, praying out loud as she soothingly rocked them in their genkan.
"Oh, praise the lord!" She exclaimed, eagerly shoving her kids into Ochako's awaiting arms. "Thank you, thank you!"
"Is there anyone else here with you?" Ochako needed to know before they began their escape.
"No, it's just us!"
"Good. Follow me, quick!" She trotted over to the windows that they'd marked off with red duct tape as the designated escape routes. "My name is Uravity and my quirk is gravity manipulation. I'm going to lower you and your children down to the sidewalk safely." She explained to the frantic woman. "It's important that you stay as still as possible while I float you down, do you understand?"
She nodded rapidly, though she was probably too relieved or panicked to properly grasp her words.
"Alright." Ochako touched each of them and steadied her breath to guide them out the wide window, one-by-one.
"Whoa, cool!" One of the kids exclaimed excitedly, peering around the night sky.
"We're flying!"
"Thank you, Uravity!" The mother shed tears even as she tried desperately to keep her skirt modestly tucked in. "God bless you!"
Ochako kept a close eye on them as they slowly floated to the ground before finally pressing her fingertips together to release them from her quirk.
Gummy rushed over to another window with a three-person family wrapped within his stretchy arms. He lowered them down the several stories to the safety of the sidewalk much quicker than Ochako had been able to. But that was the nature of his quirk, she supposed, dashing into the next apartment as quickly as she could.
Things progressed about as smoothly as the situation would allow, until Ochako neared an apartment at the end of the hallway. The woman inside was unconscious, which forced Ochako to run inside to fetch her.
"Gummy!" She called. "Can you take this woman? She's unconscious and I have to check the rest of the rooms!"
His wriggly arm appeared in front of the open door like a hungry snake. "Yes, give her to me!"
Ochako hefted the woman over her shoulder to spare some strain from her quirk and deposited her into Gummy's awaiting grasp.
"Hello?" She cupped her hands around her mouth as she called out into the apartment. "I'm here to rescue you! Is there anyone else here?" She ventured through the rooms in search of anybody else who may have also been unconscious, mercifully finding none.
On her way out, a loud rumbling shook the building and the entire floor caved in. She held her breath to capture her shriek, fast fingers working before her mind could even understand the situation. She hovered for a moment over the gaping hole in the floor before floating back to safety on the other side.
Out of breath, her communicator chirped and Gaia's voice was patched through.
Uraraka, the building's coming down! We need to get these people out of here!
"Understood." She replied, watching Gummy unload another family out the window behind her. "I have one more apartment to go and this floor will be clear."
Please hurry and evacuate! We need you down here to help stabilize the foundations! There's been an explosion!
"Roger." She tried the door, but it must have gotten jammed when part of the floor crumbled. Luckily, her quirk lightened the load enough for her to ram it down with her shoulder, and the man was huddled on the floor beneath a damp sheet sprang off the floor into her arms.
Ochako was a bit surprised but her years of rescuing people had sort of desensitized her to panicked overreactions like this. She clutched his shoulders and activated her quirk to lighten the load.
"Sir, is there anyone else here with you?"
"Please! My cat!" He pleaded. "She's still inside! She's all black! Please – she's all I have!"
"Gummy!" Ochako beckoned.
The blonde turned and stretched to snatch the man with no explanation needed. "Got him!"
With a heavy sigh to stamp out her self-preservation instincts, Ochako dashed back into the apartment in search of that damn black cat.
"Uravity, we need to move!" Gummy shouted through their communicator. "Where did you go? This building's coming down!"
"There's a cat in here!"
"I'm sorry, did you just say a cat?!"
She switched her visor to night-vision and hit the lights, praying no flames would suddenly emerge and blind her. The smoke was getting too thick to see through and she was about to turn around and give up, when she heard a tiny cry from atop the stranger's refrigerator. There she was.
"Here kitty, kitty." Ochako beckoned in her sweetest voice. "Here, girl. Come on." She approached slowly so as not to frighten the already skittish animal. Once close enough, she snatched her up by her purple rhinestone collar and ran for the window. Gummy was waiting for her with an incredulous look on his face and leapt out right after her.
"Twilight!" The man exclaimed when Ochako floated down to a visible height with the squirming animal in her arms. "Oh, thank you! How can I ever repay you!"
Ochako smiled warmly and relinquished the cat, hardly a moment before Gaia snatched her arm and directed her to the base of the building.
"We have to act fast otherwise we won't be able to save them all – you need to get in there and keep it from coming down." She jutted her thumb at a pile of giant cement blocks. "Red Riot is still in there holding this place up, but he was only supposed to take the place of one support beam. We need to swap out the damaged ones with these temporary ones to make sure the building stays steady. Time is of the essence here."
Ochako nodded and strained her eyes to get a closer look. She could never be truly certain of her chance at success without being inside, but she was willing to risk it if it meant preventing an all-out collapse. After giving each block a quick tap, she ran headlong into the rubble and switched her visor back over to night-mode to survey the extent of the damage. Luckily, the building had been built atop a thick cement foundation, so it had been strong enough to withstand most of the blaze.
So why was it choosing to collapse now? Newer buildings like these were specifically designed with cement blocks in order to minimize structural damage in the event of a fire. Cement didn't burn, bottom line. So just what the hell was going on here? If the flames were hot enough to melt cement, then they would never have been able to set foot inside this place to begin with. Ochako couldn't have been the only one suspicious of what was going on here, but she'd have to save her speculations for later.
Right now, her job was to find any damaged or out-of-place pillars and set them right again with the new ones. Quick feet made quick work, and she was able to dart in-between smoky ashes with relative ease, wondering where exactly Kirishima-kun had been stationed. With a quirk like his, he'd be better suited as close to the center of the building as possible. He'd be able to not only stabilize the foundation as equally as he could, but he'd be best protected from debris since it was usually the walls that came down first.
"Red Riot, do you copy?" Ochako spoke into the communicator, hoping he'd been patched in. "This is Uravity. I've been dispatched to help you stabilize the building."
"Yeah…I'm here." He was panting.
"Where exactly are you?" She questioned, pausing in order to do a proper scan of her surroundings. "I have some temporary support beams with me to replace any damaged ones. Where should I begin?"
"I'm stuck dead center." He replied, sounding a bit out of breath. "I can't move or else the whole place'll come down."
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." He assured, though he sounded increasingly short of breath. "There was a big explosion at the back of the building that caused the most damage. I'd start there if I were you – I can feel the building tilting that way, so we don't have much time."
"Got it."
"I don't know what caused the explosion, but my quirk took the brunt of it. So, please, be careful, Uravity."
That was probably why he sounded so winded, she surmised.
"Roger. I'll be quick."
One pillar to her right had been warped enough to expose charred rebar and she descended like a hawk. She dropped the blocks floating behind her in order to touch the one in front of her. It moved with relative ease, but she was still gentle in her movement lest she set off a lethal game of Jenga.
But just as she had set the new blocks in place, a bright light blinded her through her night-vision and sent her reeling. She tore off her helmet and rubbed her eyes, coughing now after taking in so much fresh hot smoke.
"Get back here, bitch!"
She whirled around, struggling to see in the darkness and learning just how stifling the heat truly was outside the protection of her helmet. Feeling around the ashen ground, she skittered around in search of it before the elements got the best of her. Covering her face with her hand could only stave off the smoke for so long.
"Uravity?" Came Red Riot's patched-in voice from somewhere in the darkness. A second explosion went off and rocked the earth around her. "Uraraka-san, do you copy? Are you alright?"
"Kirishima-kun! I'm here!" She choked back a cough as breathing became a burden. "Do you read me?"
Another explosion went off, this time close enough for her to make out a silhouette. But then again, her vision was beginning to blur so badly that it made no real difference whether her eyes were open or closed.
"Uraraka?" Gaia's voice now came through, sounding more frantic than she'd ever heard. "Ochako-chan – do you copy?"
"Nyaaaa~?"
"Who's th–" Ochako sputtered, interrupted by the next explosion.
It sent Ochako soaring through the air too forcefully for her to use her quirk fast enough. She slammed against the cinderblocks she was supposed to be rebuilding and crumpled onto the ground. Sitting up took more strength than she could muster, but she had to find her helmet if she stood any chance of getting out of this literal hellscape. She devolved into a fit of coughs. Breathing was becoming too much of a chore without any protection against the smoke. It was starting to seep directly through her suit now. She was inhaling too much ash – she could taste that caustic copper acridity. Her eyes began to water, but she'd convinced herself that the stinging smoke was to blame for that.
"Uraraka?!"
Ochako slumped to the ground and closed her eyes. At least the building was still standing and Kirishima-kun was alright. She strained to take in the last shallow breaths she could find, as the tears finally fell and dissolved on her cheeks.
A/N: Dun dun dunnnn! Sorry to leave you on such a terrible cliffhanger but this sucker was 7 pages long already! Next chapter should be out soon though, don't worry! I've got about a quarter of it written already as I upload this one!