A/N: Happy New Year! I'm going to have a super busy and probably not a good day at work tomorrow, so I thought I'd get this chapter out and at least I can look forward to any reviews/kudos/hits. I hope everyone is still enjoying this as much as I am!

The moment the door clicked shut, Kaylee felt terror seep through her veins. Sure, being bound, gagged, and blindfolded isn't a new experience for her, however, she overestimated her ability to handle it. Her heart was beating so fast it felt like it would explode out of her chest at any moment. Bile rose in her throat and she had to fight to swallow it back. She had to calm down.

Trying to slow her breathing, she began to concentrate on her surroundings. The floor was smooth and hard. Also, very, very cold and the thin fabric of her school uniform offered no warmth from the chill. She could hear a slow dripping sound. The air smelled damp, musty. There was an electric buzzing sound from the lights overhead. She wriggled her arms, trying to see if she could move them, but the bindings were strong and ran from the palms of her hands to her elbows, tying her arms behind her, palms facing outward. Her legs were bound just as tightly. The gag around her mouth was as soft as silk, but it was also tightly wrapped, as was the blindfold.

Taking measured breaths, she tried to keep her focus on the chill setting in, centering herself. She wasn't hurt for the moment; she didn't need to panic. She was bound and blindfolded when the captor had brought her into the building. Kaylee knew she'd been in an elevator and it went up for several minutes.

Focus, focus. What had the captor said to her? Kaylee tried to remember the words through her fear.

"They shouldn't take long to find you," Midnight told her as she placed her on the floor. "We really appreciate your assistance with this, with Eraserhead absent with little Eri, we would be down a hostage."

That's right, she was helping out the hero class. Midnight asked her if she'd be willing to act as a hostage during the training session. At the time, Kaylee was pleased to actually be an active participant instead of a bystander, so she willingly agreed. She'd be helping. She was fine as Midnight tied the thin straps of carbon fiber around her arms; she even recalled making a few jokes with Midnight about the pro-hero's proficiency with ropes and bindings. It was when the blindfold was wrapped around her eyes that Kaylee felt the tell-tale signs of a panic attack start, and she didn't remember much after that. Maybe she blacked out.

She wasn't too sure how long she'd been laying there, but now she could feel a slight rumbling through the floor. Remembering what she'd observed during the last training session, anything could be happening, but the staff was controlling most of it at the large console, like a director in a big budget action film. They knew where she was, she'd be ok. The cameras were everywhere.

The next rumble that tore through was enough to roll her on her stomach instead of her side. The hum of the incandescent lights flickered for a moment, then stopped completely. The air felt colder. Great, she was now bound, gagged, blindfolded, and the only source of light was gone. She wriggled her fingers, trying to see if she could get any movement. The first two on her left hand popped free.

Ok. Wait, what was she doing? She was there to be a hostage, right? This was all for her classmates. She was helping them; they needed to learn how to rescue a hostage in a dangerous situation, she would be the best damned hostage ever!

An explosion from outside caused the entire floor to violently shake. Kaylee took a deep breath. She could handle this. Still fine. Everything is fine. All good here.

There was a loud pop, the sound of water gushing, and Kaylee could scent the flood of water before it hit her, making her shiver even more as it soaked through her clothing. The gag felt suffocating, and her neck was cramping as she tried to keep her head from getting wet.

Nope, can't handle this.

Trying to keep calm, especially as bile rose in her throat, she thought over her options. She couldn't move much, her legs were bound too well. She got another two fingers on her left hand free. She could nearly make a fist, but what good would that do? It wasn't like she could punch anything, the carbon fiber straps were still too tight, cutting across her palms.

Carbon fiber. Carbon. Fiber.

Oh, right. She thought about all the times she'd been bound–the palms of her hands were always tied facing each other, because the one time her captors hadn't, she'd broken free by using her quirk. Kaylee tried to grin around the gag as she closed her fingers on left hand. There was a harsh tingle as the strap was absorbed into her palm. Pain shot through her right hand, making her gasp around the gag. She could feel the hard stone emerge, warm and sticky from her blood. Stretching out her arms, wincing even more from the movement, she tore off her blindfold and gag. Dropping the diamond with a plunk on the flooded tile, she quickly did the same to the bindings on her legs. The water was still rushing, although the room–she now guessed it was a bathroom–must be large enough that it wasn't more than a few centimeters high.

The rumbling started up again, and Kaylee stood up, rubbing and slapping her legs to get them to move through the stinging nerves. Tearing off a dry portion of her skirt, she used it to bind her right hand–the two relatively large diamonds forgotten on the floor. It was pitch black in the room. She felt her way around until she reached a tiled wall, hoping she was near a light switch or a doorway.

Shit, the power had gone out completely. Kaylee strained her eyes, looking for some sort of light–she didn't need much, she'd spent most of her life in low-light conditions and her eyes could see better in the dark than normal. Damn, there wasn't anything–the area was too well sealed off from outside light. Taking another deep breath to keep herself centered, she paused, hands running along the tile wall, the cool ceramic acting as a balm to her injured hand. Water was still rushing in, and her shoes made a horrible squelching sound as she stumbled. She had to have light or she wasn't going to get far.

If only she had a quirk like Bakugou, or Todoroki, or Yaomomo–

Oh. Wait. Frowning at her stupidity, she held her hand up, thinking of a happy memory. The soft glow that illuminated her skin wasn't much, but it was enough for her to see at least a meter ahead, and combined with the water on the floor, she was able to see that she was definitely in a bathroom. The floor was cracked in certain areas, and the gushing water was from one of the pipes at the sink.

Walking along the perimeter, feeling around, she finally found the doorway. It had no lock on it, so she pushed the door open to peer out into the darkness.

What appeared to be dozens of tiny red dots suddenly appeared, and Kaylee could hear an electronic clicking sound. She froze, her hand still on the door as the red dots all focused on her.

"INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!"

She quickly backed away from the door, hoping that whatever it was couldn't open doors. This was a public bathroom of sorts, so there was nothing she could see to block the doorway. Of course, the door was opening, and without thinking Kaylee dashed into one of the bathroom stalls, shoes sliding on the wet tile. She slammed the stall door shut, locked it and peeked through the slats. When the bathroom door opened, it looked like there were knee-high round robots, like something she'd seen in a movie recently. She couldn't see them very well, but they were large and oval shaped, with two eye stalks capped with red glowing lasers. They didn't seem hampered by the water at all, and Kaylee was thankful that the stall she was in went to the floor. At least she had a little time to figure something out.

She could hear them moving around the bathroom outside, and she quickly took stock of what she could do. The bathroom stall contained a western style toilet. The ceiling was low, and Kaylee straddled the toilet seat to see if she could reach what looked like a vent at the very top of the wall behind her. Great, she'd recently watched Die Hard. Maybe she could John McClane herself out of this mess. Standing on her tiptoes, her fingers barely grazed the metal.

Loud banging startled her, making her jump off the toilet. She could see the robots had focused on her stall door, and they were all pushing against it, rattling the thin wood. The acrid smell of burning wood hit her nostrils, and she knew without looking further the robots were burning through the stall door. Frantic now, Kaylee grabbed a trash receptacle next to the toilet, and used it to dislodge the grate. It fell to the floor with a bang. Using the sides of the stall for leverage, she managed to climb up to the top with her hands and feet and jump into what she hoped was an AC vent.

"Yippee ki yay, motherfuckers!" She shouted into the darkness, just as the bathroom stall door disintegrated.

….

Kaminari exchanged a worried glance with Kirishima. Bakugou was standing off to the side of the group as usual, but he kept worrying with his phone, texting something, then sighing and putting it back up. He'd anxiously fiddle with some part of his gear, then run his hands through his already unruly hair. Kaminari had never seen the dude act this way, and if he wasn't so concerned about the guy, he'd laugh. He, Sero and Kirishima had privately wondered what it was about the new girl that fascinated Bakugou, and honestly, it was puzzling to them both. He'd known him for three years, and in that time, the guy was so focused on being the best at everything, he didn't show much interest in anyone–male or female–in all that time. In Kaminari's shallow opinion, Kaylee was somewhat pretty, if you were into the skinny, pale, stringy, 90s grunge type. She was nice enough, and funny at times, especially as she'd grown more comfortable around people. She was so quiet though, soft spoken, timid even, and just the last type of person that a loud, arrogant, son of a bitch like Bakugou would fall for. It defied all logic or reason, in Kaminari's opinion.

Mind you, it was obvious Kaylee was into Bakugou with the way her eyes would go straight to him every time he walked into a room. That wasn't surprising, the dude was one of the best looking guys in the school. And he supposed with all the time they'd spent together, Kaylee would have fallen for that bad boy charm as well, right? Wait, that's not right. Bakugou wasn't like that around Kaylee–in fact, he'd never even heard Bakugou so much as yell at her, which was unbelievable with the temper that guy had on him. In fact, Bakugou actually treated Kaylee differently–like she was fragile, precious. He even sounded differently when they were together, his voice would go softer, lower in tone. Bakugou smiled more around her too, and oh shit, most of the times he'd seen Kaylee smile it was at Bakugou. Maybe Bakugou and Kaylee were one of those couples that didn't make sense until you saw them together, then it fit. They complimented each other, and brought out the best.

Kaminari frowned, watching the way the dude would alternate between looking at his phone to nervously tapping his fingers on the metal railing, to fidgeting with his gear. Man, the dude had it bad, and even if Kaminari couldn't really understand what it was about Kaylee that did it for him, it was really kinda hard to watch the guy in this state. She'd been gone all morning, and while that was unusual, it wasn't anything to get this worked up over. Right?

He spared a glance over to his girl Kyouka, who was standing just in front of him, twirling her earphone jacks between her fingers, whispering to Yaomomo. God, she was so hot! How in hell he'd managed to luck out in the girlfriend department, he had no fucking clue, but at the end of their second year, he'd worn her down enough and she finally took pity on him. They'd been together ever since. She must have sensed his eyes on her, because she gave him a look over her shoulder and mouthed "Pay attention!" and Kaminari was reminded that they were about to have a training exercise. He gave her a flirty wink, just because, and then grinned when she stuck out her tongue in reply.

"...rescue mission," All Might was saying. "Four teams of five, going after four hostages in various locations throughout the city. "

Hostages, save them, yada, yada, yada. Kaminari tried not to roll his eyes, but after their internships and work-studies, these training missions were just busy work. He let his gaze roam around his classmates, most of whom were either paying attention, like Jiro and Iida, or were like Mineta–who was more interested in Tsuyu's ass than anything else. Bakugou was now staring off in the distance somewhere, his fingers tapping impatiently on the metal railing.

"I can see from some of your expressions that you think this is going to be similar to what you've done here before," All Might told them. "But, young heroes, I can promise you it's not going to be." He held a remote up and on the screen behind him, Kaminari could see an outline of the entire grounds. Red dots blinked in various places. "These red dots are where the hostages are located, somewhere inside…"

"Houston, we have a problem," Sero whispered in Kaminari's ear, making him jump slightly. Kaminari kept his gaze on All Might, but leaned closer to Sero to hear what the guy had to say. Sero motioned for Kirishima to join them and all three of them put their heads together.

"Look at the console behind us, last screen, bottom right." Sero mumbled behind his hand, just in case they were overheard. "Not at the same time!" he hissed.

Kirishima turned his head slowly, his eyes widening. He let out a small gasp. "Oh fuck!" Kaminari followed suit, and oh, shit! The image was a grainy black and white, but Kaminari could plainly see the figure of someone bound, gagged and blindfolded. The figure was huddled on their side on some darkly tiled floor, which contrasted with their pale skin and shaggy hair. They were struggling some with the ropes, making their skirt ride up high on their thighs.

"At least we know where Kaylee is," Kirishima whispered.

Kaminari frowned. "They shouldn't be using real people, especially someone not in the hero course." These training sessions always had the potential to get out of hand.

"She should be ok," Kirishima replied. "I mean, they wouldn't intentionally hurt her, and she doesn't look hurt, just maybe uncomfortable on that floor a little."

"My biggest concern is who wants to tell Bakugou that his girlfriend is one of the hostages?" Sero asked quietly, looking over at the poor dude.

"Not it," Kirishima and Kaminari both whispered at the same time. Kaminari scowled. "Wait, why should we even tell him? The guy is about to fucking lose it as it is, and quite honestly, I don't think seeing her that way is going to ease his mind any." He popped his head up to make sure they weren't gathering any attention, but All Might was still talking.

Kirishima rubbed his chin, thinking. "It's a good point."

"What, you mean not saying anything at all? I don't think that's a good idea."

"Think of this," Kaminari told Sero. "We tell him right now that his girl is bound, gagged and blindfolded as a pretend hostage for a training mission. He'll go completely apeshit! Not to mention, storm off on his own, and the poor souls on his team will end up failing! We're in our second term of our last year! None of us can't afford that."

"Is there something you'd like to share with your classmates, young Charge Bolt?" Kaminari, Sero, and Kirishima all quickly shot up straight and tried not to look guilty. He felt his face grow warm as the eyes of everyone, including All Might were now focused on him, and even if All Might was not the imposing hero that he used to be, his eyes always managed to freak Kaminari out at times.

"Just eager to kick some ass–er, rescue some ass, sir," he replied, thinking quickly. He looked over at Kyouka who was now giving him her trademark "you dumb ass" smirk.

"Your enthusiasm is appreciated!" All Might boomed. "As you are so eager to begin, I'll do you a favor and let you choose which hostage to rescue and pick your team!"

"Sweet!" Sero muttered under his breath. "Don't pick me, please!"

"Uh, ok." Kaminari studied the map, thinking. He could pick the team and the hostage, which meant he had the chance to do one of his best buds a solid here. Not to mention Kaylee had to be terrified out of her mind, even if she knew this was just a training mission. "I'll take the last hostage."

"And your team?"

Kaminari looked at the location. It was in an area made to look like a business district–lots of tall office buildings and such. Lots of concrete and glass. He'd need to find teammates who were compatible with each other as well as handling external stressors, like when one of them found out their girlfriend was involved. "DynaMight. Earphone Jack. Red Riot." Ok, so he picked his own girlfriend, and two of his best friends, but Bakugou was a no-brainier because of Kaylee, and he'd need Kirishima to help with Bakugou when he found out they were rescuing Kaylee. Kyouka's quirk would be extremely valuable in locating the hostage and because well…she was his girl. His hands were tied. He looked around, thinking about who would best complete them. "Mineta." Perverted dude though he may be, his size and quirk could be useful. Plus, Mineta was terrified of Bakugou, so that would ensure the little guy behaved himself.

"Well chosen! Everyone else, pair up!" Kaminari got his group together while the others paired up. Sero patted both of them on the back and whispered "Good luck!"

Tsuyu raised her hand. "All Might, I was wondering if you knew where Kaylee was? She's been gone since homeroom and she normally observes and takes notes on us."

"Oh, I'm sure she'll be back soon," All Might coughed apprehensively. Kaminari and Kirishima exchanged looks. Fuck, Kaminari forgot that Tsuyu and Kaylee were pretty close.

"She's not answering her phone!" Mina trilled, holding up her own. "We're getting worried about her."

All Might held up his hands pleadingly. "Please, everyone. Your concern for young Kaylee is commendable, but you're all wasting time when you should be planning your missions! Time is going to start in 2 minutes."

"Come on guys," Kaminari nodded at the office building they needed to get to. Shit, considering knowing who exactly he was about to rescue, he hoped things would go smoothly for once. Just once.

Bakugou pushed open the glass doors of the large office building and turned towards Kaminari. "Oi, Dunce-face! What's the map say?" Goddamn it, he was not in the mood for this shit today. He'd barely even paid attention as All Might gave out their instructions, fooling around on his phone, trying to see if he could get in touch with Kaylee but she either didn't have her phone with her or she couldn't talk at the moment. Fuck, he'd been having nightmares about this very thing happening for weeks now, hadn't he?

"Hostage could be anywhere; this'll be like a needle in a haystack." Mineta said.

"We can narrow it down," Bakugou told him. "Hostages are normally kept in an interior location, away from any windows. Normally a basement or cellar, but I doubt they'd make it that easy for us."

"Bathrooms," Kirishima said. "In movies, hostages are normally in a closet or a bathroom."

Kaminari pulled up the map again. "We were basically given this and told the hostage would be somewhere in the building. The villains are long gone, however, they've left lots of little surprises for us." Bakugou studied the layout. There were twenty four floors in the office building, including a small food court at the back and a basement where all the mechanicals were kept. The hostage could be anywhere. Each floor contained what appeared to be standard offices, including a restaurant, a gym, and a private courtyard. The top floor contained the board rooms and executive level offices. Kirishima was right though, most hostages would be kept hidden, in an interior part of the building away from windows.

Mineta swallowed. "Surprises? Like what?"

Jiro rolled her eyes. "If only you listened to All Might when he explained what to expect, rather than stare at Tsuyu's rear…"

"I was verifying that her suit was fitted properly!"

"Whatever, pervert!"

Bakugou ignored the two and began searching the area, looking for anything suspicious. He'd never been so disinterested in a training mission before, and he wanted nothing more than to get this over and done with.

Jiro used her jacks, placing one in the floor and one in a wall. "I'm picking up some slight movement, but it's really faint."

Kaminari nodded. "Let's split up," he said. "Mineta, you and Kirishima go to floors 1-12 and the rest will go 13-24. Comms on everyone."

"Elevators or stairs?" Kirishima nodded to the large elevator lobby, containing four elevators. Mineta ran up to push the up button, but Bakugou grabbed his cape to hold him back.

"Wait!"

Mineta paused, tugging away. "Why?"

"Everyone mark the floors where the elevators are before recalling them," Bakugou replied. There's a good chance they didn't use the stairs to place the hostage. We can start our search on those floors."

"Good idea."

They each pressed a button and marked the location as the elevators descended. Jiro held up a hand, and quickly had her jacks placed on the elevator doors closest to her.

"EVERYONE RUN!" She grabbed Mineta and ran behind the nearest column. Bakugou, Kaminari, and Kirishima followed suit, taking cover behind another.

"The hell did you hear, Lobes?"

"A ticking sound."

A final sounding ding, and the elevator doors blasted off with a massive explosion. Kirishima activated his quirk just as the sprinkler system switched on. Water poured from overhead. "Fuck!" Bakugou felt the entire floor shake. The columns they hid behind were severely cracked from the blast. He shook his head, sending pieces of shrapnel and water flying. The lights flickered for a moment, then went out.

"You ok, babe?" Kaminari called out.

"Uh, I'm all wet!" Mineta protested, shaking water off of him.

"He was talking to me! And you're wearing a fucking rain suit!" Jiro slapped the back of his head. Bakugou noticed Jiro had a bit of blood trickling from her ear, but otherwise they both seemed ok.

"Guess we're taking the stairs!" Kirishima said cheerily, as though the whole thing never happened.

The first two floors they searched turned up negative, however, the little "surprises" that All Might mentioned came in the form of some rather nasty traps. The floor that Bakugou, Kaminari, and Jiro checked had hundreds of annoying little robots, which Kaminari was able to make quick work of with his electrification. Several floors below, Mineta and Kirishima met with a maze of lasers, which, when triggered, set off a round of rubber bullets. Kirishima's quirk withstood the blast and he was able to check all areas for the hostage.

"I bet all the floors will be like this," Kaminari observed once he'd recovered from his quirk, which with the help of a support item, was surprisingly shorter than when he first came to UA. "Are you able to hear anything now?"

Jiro had her jacks plugged into a wall and a ceiling; her brow was furrowed in concentration.

"Oi, Lobes!" Bakugou called, getting impatient. Fuck, he wanted this shit done so he could get back to campus. He was going to tear that place apart until he found Kaylee or found someone who knew where she was. Aizawa. He'd go to him first. Maybe he knew something.

"Shut up!" She kept plugging and unplugging into different areas. "I'm hearing something now. A voice."

"Could it be the others?" Kaminari whispered.

"Nope." Mineta and Kirishima walked up, looking a little worse for wear and panting heavily. "The 11th floor is clear." Bakugou looked them over, noticing the holes in Mineta's costume. Kirishima had several burns across his back and parts of his hair looked like it had been burned in places. They were both slightly smoking and smelled of–

"Acid!" Kirishima confirmed. "Fucking sprinkler system went off when we triggered a trap and it contained a pretty corrosive acid! What the hell kind of place–"

"SHUT UP!" Jiro hissed. "I hear a woman's voice!"

Bakugou missed the stunned looks exchanged between his two best friends and focused on Jiro. "A woman? What's she saying?"

"I thought all the hostages were bound and gagged." Mineta stated. "All Might said that all hostages were bound, gagged and blindfolded. It's got to be another trap."

"No," Jiro shook her head firmly. "It's coming from somewhere above. I can't hear much, but I think it's real. Let's go up a few more floors."

Three floors higher, and Jiro was now standing on the shoulders of Kaminari and Kirishima, while she had both her earphone jacks plugged into the ceiling just outside the 14th floor.

"Got anything, babe?" Kaminari whispered.

"Just some movement–wait!" Her head was cocked to the side, and she looked puzzled. "That—that can't be right." She held out a hand to keep everyone quiet. "It's singing."

"Singing?" Bakugou frowned. Surely this had to be a trap.

"Wait!" Jiro started nodding her head like she was listening to music. "No." She began shaking her head. "No–no–no–no. It can't be!"

"What?" Bakugou glared up. "What is it?" He watched as all the color drained from Jiro's face and she gave him a–look–and Bakugou suddenly felt sick for some reason. A chill went down his spine.

"It's Kaylee." Jiro said, swallowing nervously. Bakugou just stared at her, not trusting his ears.

"No." He shook his head frantically. "No, it's not. It's not Kaylee. You're crazy." No way would Kaylee be here.

Instead of replying, Jiro opened her mouth and started to sing. In English.

"My love is alive, way down in my heart, although we are miles apart."

"If you ever need a helping hand, I'll be there on the double as fast as I can," Mineta finished, pausing when he felt everyone's eyes on him. "What? It's a good song."

"Are you sure it's Kaylee?" Kirishima asked hesitantly.

"Of course!" Jiro snapped back. "I'm the one who put this song on her playlist! Marvin Gaye! Tammi Terrell! It's a Motown classic!"

Bakugou froze. He knew that song too. Just the other evening, she'd been singing it off and on as they walked back hand in hand to Alliance Heights. Fuck. An equal amount of rage and relief warred inside him. Relief that he knew where Kaylee was now, she hadn't been taken away, and rage that she had been used as a fucking hostage and was potentially in danger. "How–" he paused, his voice catching for some reason. "How does she sound?"

"She's a bit off tempo, but she's got a nice voice. There's an echo."

Bakugou closed his eyes, praying to the nearest deity for patience before he exploded.

"Uh, babe," Kaminari caught on quickly. "I think he meant if she sounded like she was hurt or something."

"Oh," Jiro's eyes widened in comprehension. " Oh! I mean, she sounds ok. Would she sing if she was hurt?"

"How is she singing, though?" Kaminari wondered. "All hostages were bound, gagged, and blindfolded."

"It could be a trap!" Mineta chimed in. "That may not be Kaylee at all."

"I know what Kaylee sounds like, you moron!"

"Listen to me!" Mineta protested. "What if it's Shinso, or another student–you know, there's a second year that can mimic appearance for a short time? What if we're supposed to think that it's Kaylee–"

"It's Kaylee," Kirishima said firmly. "We saw her."

"How? When?" Jiro said as they lowered her to the floor.

Kaminari slowly wiped his face, giving Kirishima an exasperated glance. "Dude's right. We saw her on the platform. She was on the control panel monitor, bound, gagged and blindfolded here in this building. That's why I chose this location."

Bakugou's head snapped up to Kirishima and Kaminari, who both were now sporting the same guilty expressions. "What. Did. You Say?" He felt his palms itching, and he let off a few small explosions while advancing on the two fucking morons. His vision was starting to turn red. No, no way would they have known Kaylee was here the entire fucking time…

Kaminari threw his palms up, trying to placate him. "Look, Bakugou–"

"YOU FUCKING KNEW WHERE SHE WAS ALL THIS TIME?!" Bakugou immediately began to stalk towards the bastards, his quirk in full effect right now. He thought about just blasting them to hell and damn the consequences but the building was already unstable due to the elevator explosions.

"She was supposed to be tied up!" Kirishima whined. "We saw her, she was tied up completely, legs and arms and she had on a blind fold, and was gagged–"

"I'm going to fucking gag you!" Bakugou exploded.

"How the hell did she get loose?"

"Look, we've got to focus here!" Jiro stepped between Bakugou and placed a hand on his chest. "Bakugou–deal with these two later–but right now, we've got to locate Kaylee!" Bakugou stared at her wordlessly, knowing she was right but he'd never wanted anything more than to rip his two best friends to shreds. "If she's somehow gotten free, then she's in this building and probably facing the same dangers we are. Every floor seems to have some sort of booby trap."

"Booby–" Mineta muttered under his breath, giggling slightly.

Bakugou nodded and turned to the asshole fuckfaces that he used to call friends. "If one hair–just one hair–" he held up a finger, "-gets out of place on her head, I will annihilate both of you," he threatened in his most menacing tone. The assholes both paled and nodded silently. He took a calming breath to center himself and turned to Jiro. "You said her voice was echoing when you heard her, right?"

"Yeah."

"What else?"

She motioned to Kaminari and Kirishima. "Lift me back up. Mineta, go to the next floor above us and start calling her name, see if she can hear you." Mineta dashed off to do as she commanded.

"I hear movement, but it's a weird sound. She's not singing anymore, but I think she's muttering to herself."

"What do you mean by weird sound? Like how is she moving? Is she walking?" On the floor above, Bakugou could hear Mineta calling Kaylee's name. "Can she hear him?"

Jiro held up a hand. "No. It's not footsteps but I can feel the vibrations, it's like she's sliding." Jiro blinked, jerking for a second. "I just heard something metal fall. She's not responding to Mineta, either, so she's too far up. We need to get closer."

They ran as fast as they could up three more flights of stairs, screaming her name as they climbed. Jiro used her quirk again while Kaminari and Kirishima held her on their shoulders. "I hear some scrambling noises, and it's moving quickly."

"KAYLEE!" Bakugou screamed her name, causing everyone to jump. "CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

"Wait! I just heard your name!" She jumped down and pressed her jacks into the nearest wall. "She's close! Keep calling!"

"WHERE ARE YOU? KAYLEE!"

"We've got to go up another floor!" Jiro darted off, Bakugou and the others right on her heels, screaming Kaylee's name.

"WHERE ARE YOU?"

"Shhhh!" Jiro was motioning for silence just outside the 19th floor doorway. Bakugou could barely hear over his own heart beat.

"Oh, we're so close!" Jiro was all but shaking with excitement. "Call her again!" They did. "THE VENTILATION SHAFTS! SHE'S IN THE VENTILATION SHAFTS! I FOUND HER!"

"How the hell did she get in there–" Mineta cried.

"Die Hard," Kaminari said, pumping his fist in the air. "It was on my list of films. Oh, she's so bad-ass.! Just like Bruce Willis!"

"Tell her to make noise, so I can locate her better," Jiro ordered and again, they shouted the command.

"I think she's on the next floor!"

Heart thundering, Bakugou blasted off to the next floor, the rest of the group just on his heels. Just as they were about to clear the landing, another explosion rumbled the floor followed by an ear splitting scream.

"KAYLEE!"

….

Kaylee didn't know how long she'd been in the ventilation shaft, but it was long enough to realize that maybe it wasn't her best idea. Even though it wasn't the first time Kaylee had been in a confined space, the never ending twists, turns, and effort it took to climb down and up was taking a toll on her. Thankfully, her glowing reflected off the shiny metal and Kaylee could see a good three or four meters ahead, although it was hard to keep focusing on happy thoughts to maintain the light. Her clothing was still wet, which meant that sliding through the smooth metal tunnels wasn't easy. Her leg in particular was starting to cramp.

Panic was also starting to rise again, especially as Kaylee had time to think while she crawled along. It was stupid to volunteer to be a hostage; she was a fucking trauma victim and why the hell did she think she could handle this? And of course, once she realized she couldn't handle it, she breaks out of her bonds and instead of just going to sit down somewhere and wait, she had to go and leave the room–where everyone knew where she fucking was, and now she's stuck in a ventilator shaft and she's probably going to die.

Finally she saw a different sort of light up ahead, and Kaylee sighed in relief as she saw a metal grate. Moving faster now, she got to the opening and punched her fist through, listening as the metal fell to the floor. Leaning over, she could see what appeared to be a room full of cubicles. Below her was a large desk. She stuck her head through first, trying to figure out the best way to land, when a loud click sounded right at her left ear. She smelled the strong odor of chemicals just before she saw something burst from the sprinkler nearest her head and it was thanks to her quick reflexes that whatever it was didn't hit her smack in the face.

The warm, thick, sticky sludge was now covering the left half of her head, and Kaylee immediately launched herself back in the shaft, her head bouncing off the top, making her eyes water as stars danced before her eyes. She rubbed her head, nothing seemed to be injured, but the stuff from the sprinklers was black and had the consistency of wet cement. The smell was awful, like tar, and Kaylee knew that stuff was not going to come out easily if she could ever get out of this.

Breathing deeply, she crawled some more, feeling a bit like a hamster at this point. The gunk in her hair had plastered it tightly to her scalp and was drying some, feeling a bit like cement. Her leg was actually paining her now. To keep her mind off the pain, she began to sing, the sound echoing in the tunnel. Jiro had shared a Motown playlist with Kaylee and she discovered she loved Otis Redding and Marvin Gaye in particular.

"My love is alive, way down in my heart, although we are miles apart. If you ever need a helping hand, I'll be there on the double, as fast as I can."

Up ahead, she could see a series of more grates. She popped the first one she came to loose, hearing it fall to the floor with a metallic thunk, then waited to see what would happen. There was a slight pause, then a loud hissing sound. Peering through the ceiling, Kaylee watched in horror as a bright yellow cloud burst from the floor and started rising ominously. Fuck. She scrambled ahead, trying to get away before the smoke made it high enough to affect her.

The shaft widened, and Kaylee nearly cried when she saw a vast network of more tunnels that forked off in multiple directions. Choosing the first one to the left, she slid along, pausing at times to rest her leg.

"Kaylee!"

She shook her head, wondering if she'd started hallucinating. The fumes from the stuff in her hair may be getting to her. She paused again.

"KAYLEE!"

It was louder this time and it was Bakugou's voice. "Bakugou?" Fuck, it was so hard to tell where his voice was coming from, and she quickly tried to go further into the shaft, hoping she was going towards him, rather than away. Fuck.

"WHERE ARE YOU?" This time there were others joining in, and it was closer, louder than before. Kaylee's heart thundered in her chest, hoping she'd be able to find them.

"I'm in the ventilation shafts!" She tried to hit and kick the metal, thinking they could hear it. Her glow got brighter and she could see that there were more grates ahead. Scrambling, ignoring the searing pain in her leg, she pushed the grate through the ceiling and immediately dropped down, not even giving a fuck about whatever trap she was getting herself into.

The metal grate landed on the desk, and Kaylee followed suit, landing flat on her back. The grate scattered to the floor, and she had no time to brace herself from the explosion that followed.

...

A/N: Sorry for the 2nd cliff hanger in a row! This was just a good spot to end the chapter and I have a hard time editing when the chapters get really long. The song Kaylee is singing is "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," recorded by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell.