Happy spooktober everybody! While this chapter may be lacking in the usual Halloween stuff, hopefully it's shocking in the right ways, lol. Enjoy! Hopefully I wont be too busy with all the different game events this month that it comes in my writing schedule.

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"This means someone is talking."

'This means someone is thinking to themselves.'

This means it's a flashback.

*This means it's a sound effect!*

{This means I'm speaking in a different language!}

Angel in a Gilded Cage


Angel shivered in the small metal stool, rubbing the goosebumps along her arms, the light fabric of her blue dress doing little to shield her from the artificially cold climate of the room she was in.

It was one of the sealed rooms her father's company used to test support gear. The concrete walls andF ceiling were decorated with remnants of demonstrations in the past, her eyes wandering over the black scorch marks, bullet holes and craters marring the yellow paint. A single elongated window provided a view inside for the members of research and development.

Angel didn't know why she was here and it gave her relief and worry in equal measure. It was the first time she had been outside of her room in years afterall. While she was disappointed that it wasn't anywhere more open or clean, it was a definite reprieve from the walls of her longtime home. On the other hand, her speculations of why she was in here at all made her ansty.

Her arm looped around a salmon colored teddy bear and squeezed it to her chest. It was a recalled product, sporting a third eye and an extra pair of arms. To some, it would be a little odd for an eight year old to still carry a stuffed toy, but it didn't much matter when there wasn't anyone around to judge her for it. Her father was getting busier these days, spending less and less time with her. And even when he did come and visit her, he seemed different. Little by little, she could feel him becoming another man and he scared her. To her, Captain Bear was one of her only friends and a reminder of how things used to be. When her father's smile wasn't so empty, when her mother was still around and before…

Angel swallowed and shook her head before burying her face in the old fabric of her toy. She didn't want to remember that day. There was also the fact that whenever she brought it or her mother up, he got angry. She never got yelled at, but she could still tell by the thunderous expression that would cross his face. His perfect face.

Static abruptly cracked from the speakers. "Testing… testing… one, two, one, two." Her father's voice echoed and she spotted him in the window.

"Daddy?"

He gave her a smile and a little wave. "Hey Pumpkin. You comfortable in there?"

She let out a hum and shook her head. "It's cold."

"Aw, that's too bad. Sorry, but Daddy really needs you to do something a little different this time alright? Do you think you can do that for me?"

Hesitantly, she nodded. She never had a choice, did she?

His smile widened. "Thanks Sweetie. Mister Wilhelm, you may proceed."

The reinforced steel doors opened and in walked a large, bulky man. Immediately, Angel could sense a multitude of devices in his body, setting alarm bells off in her head. This man was part machine.

Wilhelm, as her father introduced, stepped into the room a few meters across from her. He scrutinized her with his metal eye and sneered, making Angel shift in her seat. He turned his attention to the window.

"What's this shit? I was told you had a job for me. I'm not a babysitter." He grumbled, Angel jolting at how nonchalantly he swore.

"Consider this your job interview. This is my daughter. Say hello Angel."

She gave the intimidating man a tiny wave.

"Before we proceed, please refrain from swearing in front of her. She picks up words real fast." Her father continued, the shuffling of papers carrying over the microphone. "So, I've looked over your, uh, resume and I think you might be a fit for the position."

"So what's the catch?"

"The catch is that I need to test whether you have the proper ability to fulfill this role. Angel here has difficulties controlling her quirk, which by its very nature can be catastrophic if left unchecked. Aside from "other" activities, you will be responsible for her safety, should she prove to be a threat to herself or others around her."

His words stabbed at Angel like knives. She hung her head at how he described her. A danger, a loose cannon. She couldn't find it in herself to disagree.

"Huh, is that right?" Wilhelm rumbled, raising a brow at her. "So you want me to do something with my quirk." He said, lifting his arm. It cracked and shifted, the skin and muscle peeling back to reveal a metal fist. The sight and sound of the metamorphosis made Angel gag loudly in revulsion.

"Exactly!" Her father snapped his fingers. "Wilhelm, please position yourself within reach of Angel."

"Whatever. If she messes up my hardware, I'm coming through that window and breaking your teeth in." Wilhelm said and started lumbering over to Angel. She could feel the floor tremor with each heavy, metal plated step. Her legs tucked into herself as she held Captain Bear in the meager hope that he would protect her from the giant standing over her.

"Now Angel, try to control his body. Alright?"

Angel's eyes widened. He wanted her to do what? Did he forget his own words? That she was dangerous? That she destroyed everything that came close to her? Did he not remember that day?!

"D-Daddy, I-I'm scared! I don't want to do this!" She quailed, looking to the window for help. Her father just gave her that sigh whenever she was testing his patience, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Don't be like that Angel. After everything that happened, I can't trust you not to hurt anyone. Mister Wilhelm here is trying to help us make sure you don't lose control again." He lowered his hand and gave her a glare filled with expectation and thinly veiled disappointment. "Now be a good girl and do as you're told." He said coldly.

Angel shivered. She lowered her head while her lip wobbled.

She turned her head upwards, meeting Wilhelm's annoyed gaze. He lowered his robotic fist down to her level.

She gave her father one last glance, a silent plea for help. He was watching intently, his hands steepled as he continued to look down on her.

She swallowed, trying not to choke on her own spit.

Angel returned her attention to her target and reached out with her left hand, trembling. The tips of her fingers touched the cold metal and immediately her markings lit. Taking a shaky breath, she felt the energy within her and she pushed. Sparks flowed up her hand and coated Wilhelm's offered limb.

"Huh, kinda tickles." He muttered.

Angel concentrated. Now that she was "linked" she tried to control the hand as she would any other device. Maybe make the fingers dance a little.

But nothing happened.

She blinked and tried again only to be met with an alien sensation. The feeling of her powers getting completely and utterly denied. She was connected, she was sure of it, she could feel the arm itself. But no matter how much energy she pushed in and how hard she clenched her brow, nothing happened. She didn't realize she was gritting her teeth until she heard her father speak again.

"Angel, enough."

Angel shuddered, wrenching her hand back.

"Wilhelm, how do you feel? Any adverse or lingering effects?"

The cyborg hummed, holding up and inspecting his arm. Servos clicked as he closed and opened his fist, testing his fingers. "Working at one hundred percent capacity."

"Ha ha! Success!" A clap over the speaker. "That was me high fiving myself. Looks like my hunch was right!"

Angel couldn't quite process what was going on. She couldn't control Wilhelm's mechanical parts and it was making her father really happy.

Was that… good? Did she do well? She wasn't quite sure.

"Yeah, cool, whatever, am I hired now? I'm getting bored." Wilhelm grunted impatiently.

"We're close, hold your horses. We've got one last thing to take care of before we can break out the papers. A stress test."

"You want me to run on a treadmill?"

"Not quite." His tone lowered and he gestured to his daughter. "In times of great emotional stress, Angel's quirk power increases exponentially. In order to be completely sure you are fit for the job, we need to make sure you can handle her maximum output. To test that, we require proper… motivation. As it happens, I also have a loose end I need taken care of." He reached over to his console and pressed a button. "Send him in."

The doors opened again.

"Get yur stinkin' hands off me ya piss buckets!" A man dressed in a dirty leather jacket and pants adorned with spikes roared as he was pushed into the room by two members of the Hyperion security force. He wore a metal helmet with a red cloth draped over the top half of his face, an oval eyeball painted in black on it. He had a short, spiky red beard and a mouth of pointed shark teeth, a couple rings looped on his lip.

The two men behind him gave another a shove, pushing him into the room and the door slammed closed.

"Where the hell am I?!" The new arrival spat, glancing about wildly before his gaze fixed on Angel's father from behind the glass, despite the drape over his eyes.

"Finally! I've been looking all over for you, ya rich jackoff! Me and my boys got rid of those bigwigs for you! Now pay up! A million bucks, right now!" He demanded.

"Heeey Flanksteak, just the gangster I wanted to see. I wanted to renegotiate our agreement."

"What, is this because of the fee?! Fine! I'll lower it! A hundred thousand bucks!"

"D-Daddy?" Angel looked to her father nervously.

"Not quite, buddy. See, you did take care of that old lady Harren, but you were really sloppy about it. And frankly, I can't afford that right now."

Flanksteak's brow wrinkled under his mask. "Uhh… so fifty thousand?"

"Let me put this in words even your lead pickled brain could understand. You. Are. Fired. Wilhelm?"

"WHAT?!" Flanksteak had just enough time to turn around before a metal fist latched onto his head. The cyborg effortlessly lifted the other man off the ground. "What the fuaagh?! That hurts!"

Angel gasped, jumped off the chair. "Daddy! Stop it! You're hurting him!"

"Now Angel, here's another test for you. I want you to use your quirk to get Mister Wilhelm to put Mister Flanksteak down okay?" He turned to Wilhelm. "Kill him."

Wilhelm grinned. "Huh, I think I'm starting to like you. You got it… Boss!"

His arm whirred and began to squeeze. Flanksteak howled and clawed at the fist crushing his head, his helmet denting inward like a tin can.

"NO! STOP!" Angel cried, dropping Captain Bear and running to Wilhelm. "YOU'RE HURTING HIM!"

"Use it Angel. Use your quirk to stop him. The best you can do." Her father instructed from behind the glass, his voice devoid of emotion. Just cold, calculating and unfeeling.

"STOP! STOP IT!" She cried again, her markings instantly flaring white. She grabbed the taller man's leg, feeling the machines lurking within. She pushed as hard as she could, energy swirling and crackling over her form. Her power flooded up Wilhelm's leg and torso, reaching his arm, all the while Flanksteak screamed, blood starting to leak from the metal fingers closing on his head.

'Stop! Stop, stop, stop!' She implored.

But nothing happened.

Tears running down her face, she pressed harder, grinding her teeth to nubs. She needed more!

Energy surged over her, washing over the entire room. The lights flickered, brightening and finally shattering in a shower of glass. The world went dark, illuminated only by the skin of the desperate child.

'STOP! OPEN! LET HIM GO! ANYTHING, PLEASE!' She begged herself, to the power held deep inside. She always treated her quirk as something to be feared, born out of the tragedy of that day. Now, she pleaded with it, begging it to help her save this man. If she failed, it would be her fault, again. Someone will have died because of her.

Nothing.

"STOOOP! PLEASE! DAD! MAKE HIM STOP!" She wailed, ineffectually slamming her fists against Wilhelm's leg. Flanksteak's screams reached a higher pitch.

Then-

*Crunch!*

The man's legs spasmed and went limp.

Angel's eyes widened, a buzzing in her ears drowning out the sound of blood spilling on the floor. She lurched, something pushing up her throat.

Stumbling away while holding her stomach, she got a few feet away before bending over and she vomited.

Out of revulsion, fear and guilt.

Static again and slow clapping hit her ears. "Perfect. Absolutely perfect. You're hired."

"Heh, 'bout time." Wilhelm chuckled, chucking the corpse into the corner of the room like a broken toy. "So, what now?"

"Now I'll give you a tour of your workspace. And while we're at it, you can take Angel back to her room."

"You got it." He nodded and turned to Angel, walking towards her. "Come on, Runt. You heard the man."

Angel's legs gave out and she fell on her backside. She frantically began to scoot backwards, away from the monster lumbering over with his human hand open to grab her.

It finally occurred to her. He was immune to her quirk.

She was helpless against him. Nothing.

"No! NOOOOO! DADDY!" She screamed, recoiling and shielding her face as his hand loomed over her.


Angel woke with a start, heart pounding. Her mind scrambled to put things together, like where she was and what was going on, only to be stopped when the back of her head hit something.

*Bonk!*

"Ouch!"

"Ow! Fuck! What was that for?!"

She blinked.

"Bakugo-kun?"

"Yeah it's me! Fuck! You have a hard head, you know that?!" He spat from behind her.

She tried to turn around to face him, but something held her back. Looking down, she finally took in her current situation. She was fastened down into a padded, wooden chair. Leather belts wrapped around her chest and legs kept her in place. Her hands were encased in a metal box cuff, which was chained to another pair of bands linking her forearms together.

They were currently in the middle of a small brick room. A single light build hung from the ceiling, buzzing softly. There was a single, wooden door.

Even though Angel knew the result, she pulled against her restraints, the chair creaking as she tried to free something. No luck.

"Don't bother. I already tried hours ago." Bakugo muttered.

"So that means you're chained up too?" Angel asked, craning her neck as far as her bindings would allow, catching a glimpse of his spiky hair from where he sat in another chair behind her.

He grunted in affirmation. "Can't even blow off these cuffs without torching my hands. I'll give those villain shitheads credit, they know how to tie people up."

Villains. It all came flooding back. She had been running for safety with the rest of her classmates and friends, then got captured. It was all black after that.

Her body ached all over. She couldn't quite see her ankle, but it felt swollen in her shoe. Her head hurt from her rude awakening and there was also a pain in her thigh.

She let out a sigh and hung her head.

"They got us, huh?"

"That tophat motherfucker blindsided us. Figures. Couldn't take me straight on." He grumbled.

Her eyes studied their surroundings, looking for anything that could be used to escape, but was only met with the closed door and the cracked bricks in the wall.

"So this is the League's base?"

"No idea. I just woke up in this room with you."

"When was that?"

"A few hours ago. Don't know how long I was out for, they knocked us out as soon as they nabbed us."

She swallowed. "So it could be days since we were taken."

"That's what I thought."

They went silent. Angel tried to think.

She and Bakugo were stuck, chained and locked in a closet in the League's secret base. They had no idea where they were and had no ways to contact the outside world while also being surrounded by dangerous villains.

'Was this what you'd call a catch-22?' She wondered briefly, then returned to her musings. She still didn't know what the League even wanted with the two of them, but at least they had a reason for keeping them alive. Hostage exchange? A statement perhaps?

Regardless, they had to do something.

Getting an idea, she straightened her back and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath through her nose, held it and blew out.

"What are you doing back there?" Bakugo asked, shifting in his seat to try to get a look.

"Concentrating. Trying to sense where we are through the devices around us." She answered quietly, taking another breath. The world in her head expanded, blackness gradually populating with sounds, the white noise filling her ears. She felt the lights, heating, plumbing in the building they were in, as well as the adjoining systems trailing a few stories upward.

They were on the ground floor it seemed.

She pushed further and found even more, machines and their connections all together in a familiar grid shaped pattern. It resembled the tight building structures of a cityscape, or at least a block from what she sensed at the moment. Dozens of sensations passed by in straight lines nearby. Streets filled with cars.

"We're in a city somewhere." She said, opening her eyes and letting the noise recede.

Bakugo snorted. "Well that's helpful."

"Better than being stuck somewhere isolated." She retorted, being too focused to put any bite into it.

Could she do anything armed with this knowledge? It was possible to attempt setting off a command pulse to signal their location by making the nearby electronics malfunction or blow out the power, but that came with its own risks. There was no telling if anyone, let alone the authorities, would investigate their building specifically. Even if someone did notice, the League would immediately know if she was doing something, not to mention it wouldn't free them from their little prison.

Just like Bakugo, using her quirk to break out herself was out too. With her hands bound the way they were, she couldn't use her phasebolts to attempt burning through the leather belts.

And with that, she was out of escape plans.

Angel pursed her lips. It couldn't be. Was there absolutely nothing they could do aside from waiting for a rescue?

It was a deep frustration that she had known a long time ago. Years spent hoping that someone was coming for her, to save her.

Though she loathed to admit it, by the time she was ten she had given up, causing her great surprise when it actually happened

This time would be different, right? No one had known she needed help then, not even herself at a certain point. So many people cared for her. Moxxi, Izuku, Uraraka, Iida, the rest of the class, All-Might. Surely people were looking for them, right?

The knowledge helped abate the doubts at the back of her mind somewhat, but the fear was still there, putting the sweat under her arms in anticipation of what was to happen.

She looked back over her shoulder as much as she could muster, at the blonde's still form.

What about Bakugo? She had never seen him so quiet. He was in the thick of it just as much as she was. Was he scared too? He put up the front of being completely fearless, but that might just be it, a front. As volatile and rude the boy could be, didn't he deserve a right to be worried over like any other human being?

"How are you holding up?" Angel asked.

He let out a snicker. "Fucking golden. I love being chained to a chair."

She frowned. "Really? Even now you're going to be a jerk?"

"I don't have to be nice when I'm a hostage, thank you." He shot back.

"Fair." She conceded, facing forward. "You think anyone is coming for us?"

He scoffed. "Don't be stupid. Of course there's heroes coming to save us, probably even All-Might. Everybody fucking loves you."

Angel blinked. "You make it sound like you're an afterthought there."

"That's because I am. Sure, they'll want to get me back, but probably just to make up for losing me in the first place. Plus there's all those dumbasses who think I'll go bad. Tch."

Angel's mouth fell open at the admission, Aoyama's words from the night of the attack coming to mind. She hadn't imagined that he would actually be aware of that concept, that some people counted on him joining the villains.

Living with that knowledge, that the people around you had so little faith that you'd stay true to your ideals, it sounded suffocating.

"Do you really think so little of yourself that you'd think no one would come looking for you just because they care?" She asked softly.

She could feel him roll his eyes.

"Of fucking course not. I'm goddamn amazing!" He boasted, followed by an irritated groan. "But I'm not an idiot. I know what people think of me."

"Then… why don't you do something about it?"

He craned his neck back and fixed her with his red eye, staring at her, dead serious.

"Because I don't fucking care. A real hero doesn't give a rat's ass about what people think of him. He just does his job, win and save the day."

Angel didn't know what to say. Even he cared about what the public thought of him, doing everything possible to continue bathing in the adoration of others. But Bakugo didn't think anything of it. In his mind, all a hero has to do is save those in peril and defeat evil. That was his definition of winning, of being the best.

So much of his behavior suddenly made sense now. His relentless drive to be the best, to be the uncontested winner in all of their academics, exercises and the Sports Festival, it was all to prove that he could be the unique brand of hero he aspired to be.

It was admirable in a way and that realization almost drove Angel to madness. Her, looking up to Bakugo of all people. But his strength was undeniable and he deserved his respect for that.

Still… it sounded like a lonely way to live.

"So what if it is?" He said and she jolted, realizing she had said that aloud. "All-Might didn't need anyone with him at the top and neither will I."

Angel pursed her lips and looked away. She thought back to when the symbol of peace had visited her, how he had opened up about his own problems, how he feared what others would think of him for what he considered his greatest failure.

He did care what others thought of him in a way, he just hid it behind that iconic smile.

"I don't know if that's true."

"What do you know about All-Might that I don't?"

Plenty of things. Or at least that's what she wanted to say. But All-Might had told her his secrets, his deepest insecurities in confidence after promising not to spread her own. She wouldn't break that trust for the sake of proving Bakugo wrong.

Angel averted her eyes and he scoffed. "Yeah, that's what I thought."

She blew some of her locks that fell over her face, lacking the dexterity of her hands to do so.

"Still, do you really believe there isn't anyone who will worry about you?"

"Why should they? I don't want anything from them so I don't give anything back."

"Well, what about Kirishima-kun?"

"What about Shittyhair?"

"I've seen the way he acts around you. No matter how much you yell at him, he just laughs it off. I'm still pretty new at this whole socializing thing, but I don't think someone would put up with all your screaming if they didn't care a whole lot."

Bakugo clicked his teeth. "He does that with everyone. He's like a goddamn puppy."

Angel laughed softly. "True. But he still came for you that night. He didn't have to do that, but he did."

He didn't have anything to say to that. Point to Angel.

"That's one, who else?" She hummed. "Oh, what about that girl from class B, Baha?"

He shifted and fixed her with a murderous glare. "Don't even get me started on her."

"Hee, right." She nervously tittered at his reaction. "Bad choice I guess. Moving on." She said, going through the list of individuals she could think of. She blinked as one came to mind. An odd, nay, inexplicable case in her opinion, but an example nonetheless.

"Izuku-kun, he'd care."

Bakugo stilled for a microsecond, then let out a low growl. "You had to bring up fucking Deku, didn't you?"

"It's not like I understand it either." She muttered, lifting her gaze to the ceiling. "Out of everyone in class, you treat him the worst. Would it surprise you that I've never, ever heard him speak ill of you?"

"Of course he wouldn't. That's just the way he is, stupid loser."

Angel scowled. "Why are you always such a jerk to him anyway?" She asked slowly.

She knew that she was just asking for trouble broaching this topic, but it was a mystery that had been plaguing her since their first day of school, born from the blonde's adverse reaction to her friend's performance in the quirk apprehension test. Besides, what better time to ask then when he's completely unable to move?

Bakugo snarled, the leather straps creaking as he bunched his fists. "It's none of your fucking business." He said in a low tone. She could feel him baring his teeth despite both of them facing away from each other.

"Maybe so." She admitted, feeling like she was sticking her head in the lion's mouth. "But I'd like to think that the way you treat one of my best friends makes it my business. It infuriates me, you know? How he looks up to you, yet you treat him like shi-my bad, crap. If I were him, I'd ignore you completely. But I can't force him to change how he thinks. The best I can do here is at least try to understand it, even if it means confronting you about it, the guy who pinned me against a wall."

He was silent for a moment before finally meeting her gaze, his brimming with anger, but perhaps begrudging respect as well. "When did you get the balls?"

Angel smiled a little. "About the time I realized that you're not as scary as you make yourself out to be. And as far as I know, I have all the time in the world right now."

He scrutinized her for a few seconds more before narrowing his eyes and looking away.

"If we survive this, I'll tell you."

"Is that a promise? I'm going to hold you to that."

"Angel-girl, I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a fucking liar."

She nodded and sighed, staring at the locked door in front of her. "We'll see about that."