Alright, we're in for another chapter. I don't have much to say, other than thank you for all the positivity and support that this fic is getting. Honestly, I never expected this to blow up as much as it has. Sappiness aside, let's jump right into it!
[Forming The Team]
"…Z…! L..Z…! LUZ!" A voice spoke out to the young girl as she rocketed up from her flat position on the bed she had been on, a hand gripping tightly on her right arm as she yanked it away, eyes wide with confusion as she was face to face with Julia, who stepped back. "Oh god, Luz. I was worried! You were sweating and breathing heavily, and I didn't know what to do."
Luz looked down at herself and noticed that her skin was a little glossier than usual. She felt cold, really, really cold. That, and Julia was right, she was breathing pretty hard, too. "Luz… are you alright? Did you have a nightmare or something?" Julia asked as the caramel-brown-skinned teen cleared her throat, looking down at her hands, as well as the holes.
Before, she used to look at them with curiosity and joy. She had a superpower, something inherently unique to her and her alone. Granted, there were other people with superpowers, but this power, the one that she had, was unique to her.
And then she met Shigaraki. She learned the truth about her power, about where it came from, and how inherently selfish her power was. Now whenever she looked at the holes in her hands, all she could think about was the horrid nature of her power.
"Remember, keep what I said in mind. After all, we wouldn't want that what-if to come true, now do we?"
A shiver went down Luz's spine at hearing his voice in the back of her head. The last words that Shigaraki had told her made Luz want to curl up into a ball and forget it all. His red piercing eyes gave her the chills, his silky smooth voice gave her goosebumps, and his mannerisms belonged to that of someone who wanted nothing more than to rule the world. And what made all of those things worse was that every single word he said was true. And why wouldn't it be? He was the first user of this power… of All For One, so why would he lie to her?
Of course, there was always the chance that he was manipulating her, but… but even so, there was a saying that she remembered from when she played Danganronpa V3, er well, watched a let's play of it, but that's beside's the point. The saying was this: Truth can be found in another man's lies.
Even if Shigaraki was lying to her, there was some truth to be found in his words. That, most of all, made him that much more terrifying. When he spoke, he commanded respect. When he got serious, he commanded fear. It was like she had just finished talking to a bona fide supervillain. And what made things worse was that she had his power.
A power that could take other people's powers.
A power that was Greed incarnate. And the addiction that came along with it.
Was that even true? Was he lying about that? Or… was he being honest?
And if Shigaraki was honest about that, what else was he not lying about? Or better yet, how much of his words had been whole truths? It started to make Luz panic a little bit because now she was on a deadline. She didn't want to hurt anyone, yet, she had no real choice.
Luz wanted to discount everything that Shigaraki had told her. But logic demanded that she heeded his words. If what he said was true, then she might've been in for a rude awakening very soon.
She had no idea how close "soon" was, or if that was only moments away. Hell, it could've been right now and she wouldn't have been any the wiser—
"Luz? Are you alright?" It was Julia's voice that snapped Luz out of her thoughts. Luz blinked, her dark brown eyes meeting Julia's emerald green. There was a look of concern dancing throughout her friend's eyes. There was a part of her that hated seeing that. Seeing that someone was worried about her.
"No, I'm… I'm alright. Let's just get this party started, yeah?" Luz said as Julia arched an eyebrow.
"Luz…. You just about had a stroke," Julia said, her tone of voice dripping with worry and concern. "I don't know what happened, but you need to see a doctor, or—"
"What doctor, Julie?" Luz interrupted, her voice deadpan as she crossed her arms over her chest. "There's no doctor in this camp, and I doubt the Governor is gonna send one because one of us got sick. Hell, he's hoping for us to die here anyway, so what does it matter?" Luz said, her tone cold as Julia looked away.
A pulsing headache rushed its way through Luz's head, making her grit her teeth.
"After a day or two, you start to get irritable…."
Once again, his voice invaded her mind, making Luz's face scrunch up with annoyance as she looked away, standing up and heading for the door. It had been two days since she awakened her power. And if what Shigaraki said was true….
Luz's eyes widened for just a split second before she looked over to Julia, a sombre expression on her face. "He was right…." Luz thought, clearing her thoughts. "Julie… I'm sorry. I'm a little… irritable right now… It's a side effect of my power…." Luz said as Julia looked over at her, smiling.
"Oh, it's alright. I should've realized that there would be no doctor around here….. Come on, let's go talk to the others. They're all waiting for you at the campfire." As Julia said that, she glided past Luz, and out the front door. Luz took a deep breath through her nose, then let it out as a sigh.
"Come on, Luz! You can do this! It's just like Shigaraki said, you're the chosen one! You got this!" And with that, Luz stepped out of the cabin and walked toward the campfire. The other 9 people were waiting, all chatting and talking about one thing or another. That was, until, Luz came into the picture. Everyone stopped talking as an awkward silence befell the camp.
"Commander, you're here," Stanley said as he stood up, meeting her eyes. "So, what do you have in mind? Do you have some form of game plan for tomorrow?" Stanley asked as Luz scratched the back of her neck.
"Well… to be honest, no…." Luz said as Stanley frowned. Luz reacted almost immediately. "BUT! I do know what we can do right now. I've played my handful of strategy games, and… well…. I was thinking we could split everyone into groups with certain roles. You know, kinda like those top-view management games. Like Command and Conquer?" Luz explained as Marcone smirked.
"Good idea, Signorina Comandante. However, I think you're going to need a little bit more information on us than just our names."
"Yes, I know. Your power. I need to know what you can do before I put you into any roles. I already have my second-in-command, Julia. So that leaves the rest of you," Luz said, looking over everyone. "Soooo…. Who wants to go first?"
Silence. Luz rocked back and forth on her feet as no one answered her question. That was until Judy spoke up.
"Darkness. It allows me to create a black substance from my hands. I can hide in it, as well as shoot it out of my hands like projectiles," Judy explained as she demonstrated her power. A black fire-like thing came out of her hands. She twisted it around her finger before shooting it upward into the sky, kinda like a become. Immediately, Luz had a good spot for her.
"Recon. Commander. That's what you'll be. With your power, you can signal people to a targeted location. That, and you can hide in the dark, like camouflage. It's perfect!" Luz said as Judy nodded.
"Aye, aye, Commander."
Julia wrote down the necessary information in the notebook that Arla had given them to use as an information-gathering book, and when she finished, she smiled. "Alright, everyone. Let's keep this train moving!"
This continued for the next hour, Luz listening to powers being named and explained before then giving out titles and roles to them depending on their powers, all the while Julia wrote everything down. There was a bit of confusion every once in and a while during the Quirk descriptions, like with Carla's Black Cat power. When Luz heard it, it sounded like something out of One Piece, like a Zoan-type Devil Fruit. Other than that, everything went smoothly, which was a good change of pace compared to the last few hours. Once they finished, Julia spoke.
"Alright. So, let me get this straight and organized," Julia called out, looking over the notebook. "Judy is the Recon Commander. Under her orders is Ronny Armstrong with a Super Strength power, Jean Pierce with Sword manifestations, and Stanley Richardson with Shock Absorption. Arla is the medic with her Repair power. Theodore Jackson with his Arm Blades power, Carla Tsunata with her Black cat transformation power, Marcone Giovanni with his Life Giver power, and Johnny Marshal with their vibration control powers are warriors. I am Second-in-Command and Luz is the leader, which means she oversees all commands and approves them. If she is not here, that job falls to me. Does everyone got that?"
"YES MA'AM!"
Julia snickered at that, before sighing. "Alright then, this meeting is dismissed," Julia said as Luz sighed, looking up into the sky. The moon was bright and casting a brilliant blue light down upon everyone. The stars were brilliant as well, but there was something else that was brewing. Dread. A wave of dread washed over everyone. It was their first night in the "camp" and now they were expected to sleep here. This death camp. That was all it was. Everyone knew that, but they had no choice but to play along. At least, for now, they did.
It was all so surreal. All of it. None of this made any sense, and at the same time, it did make sense. It shouldn't have, but it did. No one ever said that the world had to be nice or to be fair. That was a lesson that Luz had to understand far faster than she would've wanted to. Then again, she realized that pretty quickly at school, especially with people making fun of her. But this? This was different. This was more than just getting her lunch money stolen. This was more than getting called "weird" or "crazy." This was about life or death.
And quite frankly, she didn't want to think about it. What was worst was that they were all expected to be their own Judge, Jury, and Executioner of those who were also forced to participate in this "game."
"Well, Commander, I think I'm going to hit the hay. We're probably going to have a long day ahead of us, so let's make the most of it," Stanley said, marching off to the cabin that Luz was just in. Once he was gone, someone spoke up.
"Say… Commander, what's your power?" Theodore spoke, an eyebrow raised as he leaned against the wall protecting them from outside threats. Luz bit the inside of her lip, before then speaking.
"I…." Luz paused, looking over to Julia, who smiled at her, giving her the courage to then continue. "My power is called…. All For One. I know, kinda cheesy, but… there's a good reason for it. It allows me to… to…." Luz stopped, looking down at the ground. "Please don't blow up in my face for this." "Steal other people's powers and keep them for me… permanently."
For a full minute, there was nothing but silence. That had seemed to be a trend, only this time the silence was more deafening. Just as Luz was about to leave, knowing full well that she might've just scared the rest of her team, a voice spoke up behind her.
"That's incredibly useful, actually…." The voice was belonging to Johnny Marshal, which made Luz snap her attention over to the boy in question. "Think about it. Yeah, it's probably really dangerous, but we're in a "war" like scenario, right? We got two groups of people who want nothing more than for us to die. I doubt "the power of friendship" is gonna save our asses. So, considering you got a power that literally de-powers other people and gives you that power… why I'd reckon you're our secret weapon."
Luz raised an eyebrow, a confused expression on her face. "Huh?" Was all that the girl could say before the realization dawned on her. Johnny was right. Not only was he right, but he was more than just right. She had never considered the fact that she could use this power of hers, All For One, on her enemies. Of course, she'd have to jump them first, but that wasn't a big issue. The forest was massive, and not everyone was keenly aware.
Johnny seemed to recognize the look in her eyes, as he smirked. "Now you get it. If our enemies are powerless, there isn't anything they can do against us. Right? All we'd have to do is send you out with the recon team and BOOM! Those chumps wouldn't even know what hit'em," Johnny said as Judy hummed.
"Yeah, that could work. But… I think we deal with that later. Right now, we should all get some rest. Except for maybe Luz. She just had a nap, did she not?" Judy remarked as Luz rubbed the back of her neck.
"Yeah, I'll stay up for a bit longer, just in case something happens. I know it's peacetime, but… you never know, hehe…." Luz said a nervous expression on her face as everyone was dismissed. Johnny patted Luz on the back as he went, a smirk on his face as Luz looked away.
Julia followed the rest of them, but not before giving her a quick hug, and a worried glance, before then after that, Luz was all on her own. Her stomach growled, and when it did, she looked over to the campfire. There were some Hotdogs on sticks propped up against one another. And with the Campfire still going, she decided that she would cook herself up something to eat.
-To Be Continued in – Search and Steal – Part 1-
Yeah, I know this chapter was extremely short. Technically I could've probably put this at the end of the last chapter. But, I wanted to make it separate. Chapters in the future will NEVER be this short, just thought I'd tell you all that. Till next time, peace!
