Rule #52: Always give people space when they get off of the elevator
"What is this place?" Midoriya called as they emerged into what appeared to be a large greenhouse.
"It's plant factory" Melissa informed him, "They research the effects Quirks have on fauna, here—"
"—Hold on!" Jiro suddenly moved in front and swung an arm out, halting the group in their tracks. "Look! The elevator's coming up!"
"Don't tell me the villains found us already!" Mineta panicked.
"We should hide and let them pass" Midoriya suggested as he searched for said spot. Moments later, the heroes and assassins found themselves hunched behind bushes and trees as they waited for the villains to arrive and pass through.
"I wonder if we can use that elevator to get to the top floor…" Mused Kaminari from behind a bush.
"No, only authorised people can use the controls unfortunately" Melissa dashed his hopes, "And it's built like a bomb shelter, so we can't even break in and try!"
"Of course we can't go the easy way!" Mineta whined, gripping tight to the branches in his fists and shaking the bush slightly in irritation.
DING!
Peering around the trunk of the palm tree she was hiding behind, Toru was able to see that the two villains who stepped out in the oversized greenhouse were dressed similarly to the two they had fought before. Though void of heavy firearms, these two sported mutation Quirks that gave no hints as to what they did. Tall and short, the two villains were like something out of a cartoon—one appeared tall and wiry like a bean stalk, whilst the other looked like a walking potato. But Toru knew better than to judge someone base on their appearances.
"Look at their clothes!" Midoriya noted, "They're definitely the villains from the party"
"They're after us!" Ochako squeaked through the hand covering her mouth.
"Stay quiet!" Iida whispered harshly.
"Please leave! I don't wanna die!" Mineta murmured into his own hands. Many of the others hunched further into their hiding spots as if that would help them, some covered their mouths to hide their loud breathing and others just tried their best to stay deathly still. Toru pulled her head back behind the trunk, her heart beating wildly in her chest as she heard the villains call out.
"Hey! We see you, stupid brats!" Came the voice of one of the villains; his tone squeaky and unthreatening. Shit! Toru gritted her teeth.
"What you say, you bastard?" Demanded the familiarly angry tone of Bakugou. Eyes shooting open—When had they closed?—She met the wide-eyed gaze of Rio, who sat at her feet.
"What are you two doing here?" Demanded the second villain, his voice decidedly lower. Peering around the trunk of her tree, Toru was able to see Bakugou and Kirishima facing off against the villains. Both were clearly dressed in formal suits and vests, with shiny loafers peeking out from beneath their pants. Hm, never thought Bakugou would be a flower guy. Toru mused when her eyes were drawn to the large roses embroidered up his sides.
"Heh, that's what I want to know too!" Bakugou huffed carelessly as he strode forwards with his hands in his pockets.
"Hey man, just leave this to me? Okay?" Kirishima cut in, well aware of the blonde's usual temperament. He sheepishly turned to the villains, "Um we kinda got lost looking for this party. Can you maybe point us in the right direction?"
When she felt a hand on her leg, Toru looked down to see Rio soundlessly asking for assistance. Gloved hands flowed through the silent language as Toru thought on the fly; eyes jumping between the scene in front of them, the environment around them and how to best deal with it. With a final nod shared between the two, they departed from their hiding spots and ignored the hushed pleas from the others to stay where they were.
Setting down the rifle amongst the bushes, Toru crept around to the elevator and stood behind the villains. At the same time, Rio emerged from the bushes making it appear like she had come up the garden path instead of the bushes. "There you two are!" Rio called jovially as she carelessly swung her arms over either of their shoulders, "I've been looking for you everywhere! "
"Rio?" Bakugou pushed his cousin off, a little annoyed at her attitude, "What's going on? What are you doing here?"
"Shut up and play along!" She hissed through her teeth even with her face stuck in the fake smile plastered across her lips. "Oh! Hello!" She turned to the villains as she held the pistol she pilfered earlier behind her back "Do you think you could help us? We were s'posed to meet our friends at the party, can you give us some directions?" She smiled, blonde hair swinging as spotted her invisible classmate in the gap between them.
"Show me your hands!" Demanded the shorter villain when he noticed her standing a little awkwardly, "SHOW ME YOUR HANDS!" A gun was pointed at the trio making the boys take a step or two back but Rio remained resolutely before the pair. Toru spared a quick glance over to the bushes where her classmates were doing a very poor job of hiding. At least they're not drawing attention to themselves. She sighed, sharing a subtle nod with Rio before she made her move.
"Y'know what?" Toru sighed, as the villains spun around to face her with surprise written across their features. Across from her, Rio pulled the pistol into view and cocked it, waiting for the signal, "I would love to get some ice cream after this"
"With sprinkles?" Rio replied clicking the safety off, this time catching the taller villain's attention and aiming the pistol at him.
"And chocolate dipped" Toru pulled her purse from her shoulder and the strap around her hand a couple of times to secure it. Wielding the holographic accessory like a weapon, Toru took on the short villain, and Rio the tall one. Taking the surprisingly heavy bag to the face, the villain stumbled a little as Toru followed through with a heeled roundhouse kick to the head, knocking him to the floor.
But that didn't deter the small man. Instead he simply rose to his feet and pulled a gun on the young heroine. Not one to be fazed by the small firearm, Toru spun back around and pulled one of the daggers from her purse as she did so. Ducking under the firing of bullets, she launched herself upwards into his personal space with knife in hand. Swinging upwards, she was able to slice along his chin, up across his cheek and out by his ear as he jerked his head away.
Unfortunately she didn't have the upper hand for long. What surprise she once had disappeared when she spared a glance over at the others. With pistol in hand, Rio was endlessly firing bullet after bullet towards the lean villain whose hand had morphed into this oddly-webbed bat-like thing. From the palm of his fist shot a torrent of wind that pushed the blonde assassin off of her feet and back into her cousin who looked ready to jump into the fray.
Toru cursed her moment of distraction as the stumpy villain nailed a kick to her stomach and sent her flying backwards in a surprising show of strength. She too, fell back into Kirishima where the two rolled across the ground and landed in a groaning mess next to the blondes. "Ow!" Kirishima whined from beneath his invisible classmate as the girl tried to disentangle her legs from his.
"Sorry" Toru winced as she rolled off of the red head and helped him to his feet. A quick once over of each other showed that not much other than their prides had been hurt. At least until a second volley of wind was sent their way, this one far more powerful than the last. This time, the quartet was saved by a giant glacier of ice shooting up from the bushes and blocking the way.
"This looks like…" Bakugou trailed off.
"Todoroki?" Kirishima glanced to his left where the icy-hot hero had appeared. Cracks spiderwebbed up the glacier and chunks fell off in large doses as Toru and Rio yanked the two boys away from the base of the ice. At the same time Todoroki created a patch of ice that crawled along the floor and spread out beneath their gathered classmates who had emerged from the bushes and pushed them upwards on a pillar of ice.
"The five of us can keep them busy down here" Todoroki instructed, "Look for a way to get to the top"
"What are you doing?" MIdoriya demanded as the ice pushed them upwards.
"Todoroki!" Yaoyorozu protested.
"We'll be right behind once this mess is cleaned up!" Todoroki reassured them.
"Wait! I can help!" Kayano looked as if she was about to jump off the side of the ever-rising pillar.
"Help them!" Toru called through cupped hands, "Hey! Rio, you still have your phone?"
"Yeah? Why?" Rio puzzled, pulling out said device from where she had stored it in her bra.
"Can you get Ritsu to send the same information to my phone?"
"Uh sure" The blonde nodded, quickly typing away on her phone as she turned to the base of the pillar. "KAYANO! CATCH!" Reeling back, Toru launched her phone up into the air where the two-toned girl leant fearlessly leant out over the side to pluck the phone from the air.
"Done" Rio stated as the faint notification sound pinged up above them.
"Good" Toru nodded,
"Who's Ritsu?" Kirishima asked. Rio simply turned her phone around to face the puzzled boys.
"He~llo!" Ritsu sang, her pixels shining bright in the evening light, "I'm Ritsu! It's nice to meet you!"
"Is that—is that an AI?"
"No, she's an AIFA" Rio replied, tucking her phone away.
"AIFA?"
"Autonomously Intelligent Fixed Artillery" Toru supplied.
"F-fixed Artillery?" Kirishima stammered.
"Yeah, but this is just the mobile version" Rio ended nonchalantly.
"Rio! Just what the hell is going on?!" Bakugou turned on his cousin with arms crossed and brow furrowed.
"You didn't hear the broadcast alert, Suki?" Rio asked, surprised. Bakugou scowled at the nickname, "Nevermind then, some thugs have hacked the tower—they've got hostages and a means"
"What!" Kirishima cried in shock.
"Wait! That's what this is about?!" Bakugou exclaimed.
"We'll explain the rest later; right now we need to deal with these goons" Toru nodded towards the base of the glacier where the silhouettes of both villains could be seen forcing their way through. Soon enough, large chunks of ice flew outwards in a burst of wind as the two villains emerged into the light once more.
"What's with this guy's Quirk?" Bakugou complained as the five of them fell into defensive stances.
"Stay on your guard" Todoroki warned.
"Shut up! I know that!" Bakugou snapped as the stumpy villain stepped up with a leering expression on his face.
"So you wanna pick a fight?" He snarled before shaking furiously and transforming into a purple hulk-like creature, "Let's see how tough you really are!"
Todoroki and Rio wasted no time in firing first. Jagged ice was launched towards the villain but it was easily broken through as though it was nothing more than glass. In turn, Rio's bullets either bounced harmlessly off of the purple skin as if they were made of rubber. Rushing through the rapidly expanding ice, the villains dashed towards them like an angry bull. They only dodged with centimetres to spare. "HN! DIE!" Bakugou screamed as he fired an explosion towards the back of the villain, only to be pushed aside when the villain emerged from the smoke unharmed.
"BAKUGOU!" Kirishima hardened his forearms just in time to be punched all the way across the room where he became embedded in a wall. Even a wall of ice (courtesy of Todoroki) couldn't stop him.
"KIRISHIMA—!" Bakugou cried, worried about his friend.
"SUKI! MOVE!" Rio cried, spotting the villain coming back for another swing and used Bakugou's shoulders as a springboard, launching herself forward towards the purple villain, intent on separating him from his partner. Jumping over the villain, Rio twisted in the air and grabbed tight to the villains spiky locks as she landed, yanking his head back in the process, "TORU!"
"Com~ing!" Toru sang, jumping up and landing several fiery punches to the villains head. It didn't do much, mostly enraged the villain who easily threw the two girls off of him. However, he was left with serval fist-shaped burns decorating his face.
A ferocious roar bellowed out of the purple villain, strings of spit dangling from both jaws as he threatened the girls. Running full-force at them, the two ex-assassins jumped out of the way just in time, and soon enough began a game of keep-away. "Aw! We should've asked Momo for a missile launcher!" Toru whined as she dodged the next attack. Neither her heliokinetics nor Rio's bullets seemed to be doing much damage to the villain. Behind them, both boys faced off against the wiry, wind-wielding villain. They too, didn't seem to be having much success but that wasn't deterring them; if anything, it seemed to push the two heroes further.
"Well, we'll need to figure out something soon" Rio replied, pistol still cocked "I'm almost out of ammo"
"At least we've still got the rifle…" Toru replied.
"Where?" Rio asked sharply.
"Base of palm tree, where we were hiding before"
"If I distract ugly, can you get the rifle?"
"You sure you'll be okay with 'im?"
" 'Course! Who d'ya take me for? 'Sides he's no Koro-Sensei"
"Fair enough" Toru nodded agreeably, "Ready?"
"3, 2, 1, GO!" With that both girls darted to the sides, Toru going left and Rio going right. The villains seemed confused about who to go after. "HEY! UGLY!" Rio shouted, madly waving her arms in the air.
"Rio…what are you doing?!" Bakugou hissed as he caught sight of his cousin.
"COME AND GET ME YA BIG CHICKEN!" Rio ignored Bakugou and turned on her heel, sprinting for the forestry on the other side of the facility with the enraged villain right on her heels.
Meanwhile, Toru sprinted back over to the bushes where the rifle lay waiting. A quick check of the barrel showed the few clips that were still full from the previous villain. This'll have to do. Toru huffed. With no more ammo for the rifle, Rio would have to make her shots count—not that she doubted the blonde or anything, but still…
As she came passed the elevator, Toru spotted an access panel and an idea came to mind. Melissa had said that there was no way to access the elevator without the security codes, but what about the elevator shaft? It's not like anyone would be paranoid enough to barricade that, would they? Standing up, Toru turned back to the fight at hand. And not a moment too soon. When Toru rose once more it was to Rio, Bakugou and Todoroki standing back-to-back squaring off against the two villains.
It looked like the villains were taunting them, but Toru couldn't quite make out what they were saying—at least until Bakugou screamed his profanities again and launched forward in a explosion of fiery rage. Meeting the purple hulk head-on, Bakugou exercised his frustrations out on the villain whilst Todoroki took on the other. Rio, who had been in between the two boys, jogged over to Toru and grabbed the rifle off of her.
"Still need this?" Toru gestured with the rifle.
"They seem to have it covered" Rio mused, "But I'll take it anyway"
"Better safe than sorry"
"Yeah…hey, wasn't that rule #18?"
"Rule #18a"
"Oh yeah" Rio sat back against the elevator wall as Toru pried off the access panel. "What'cha doing?"
"Can you pass me Ritsu?" Toru asked, yanking out some of the wires so she could connect the phone "I noticed that the villains were communicating with ones outside of this facility—probably bossman or the ones with the flies on the wall. Anyway, I figured, if Ritsu could hack into the system too, then she could block their frequencies—"
"—And stop them from communicating!"
"Yeah"
"But how does that help us outta here?" Rio spared a glance over at the boys who almost seemed to enjoy pummelling the villains, if their devilish smirks were anything to go by. "It's not like we can just jump up to the walkways"
"Remember how Melissa said we couldn't access the elevators?"
" 'Cause of all the security measures, right?"
"Yeah, well, she never said anything about the shafts, so…"
"…So you're thinking if we can get the doors open, we'll be able to scale the shaft?"
"Yeah, that's the plan anyway"
"But those doors must be welded shut! There's no way we're hacking into 'em now!"
"I never said anything about hacking the doors" Toru smirked, "Leave them to me"
Another big explosion ripped through the facility, blowing out strongly heated shockwaves that rippled like broken water. "There he goes again" Rio sighed, watching as her cousin blew himself up for the umpteenth time. "Why do boys like blowing things up so much?" She turned to her invisible friend.
"I dunno, maybe you should ask Kay?" Toru shrugged as she moved away from hooking Ritsu into the system, leaving her to surf the network and sort out their issues. Facing the elevator doors head on, she curled her right-handed fingers up into claws and pointed them towards the doors; where she then proceeded to attack the metal like a welder. "She is the pyrotechnic after all"
"Yeah, I s'pose" Rio agreed, her thoughts drifting to the point in time when Kayano sported a pair of great long tentacles and had set herself alight in the name of revenge. "Oh, looks like the boys are done—here they come"
Glancing away from the elevator doors, Toru noticed that all three boys appeared to be relatively unharmed. All three of them were missing bits of clothing, however—from Todoroki's blazer and shirt sleeve, to both the bottom half of Kirishima's blazer sleeves and back again, to Bakugou who sported only one red sleeve under his embroidered vest. Turning back to task at hand, Toru missed the greeting from Kirishima as Rio rose to meet them.
"Oi! Sunshine! What are you doing!" Bakugou growled, making Toru frown at the nickname.
"Sunshine?" She puzzled.
"Oh shut up!"
"But you just—"
"—Toru, did ya get it?" Rio interrupted.
"Uh yeah" Toru replied as a nicely-shaped cutout from the door fell into the shaft, hitting the top of the elevator (which had returned earlier at some point) before falling further down. "Can you see if Ritsu's finished?"
"Sure" Rio agreed amicably, moving over to see if Ritsu was done. When she received the confirmation from the AIFA, the phone was disconnected from the panel.
"HEY! What the hell is going on?!" Bakugou demanded.
"Did she disrupt their frequencies?" Toru asked, ignoring Bakugou's attempts at demanding answers.
"Uh yeah, she's playing the Badass Bitch playlist"
"Bitch-Sensei's one?"
"Uh huh" Rio nodded as she slipped her phone away.
"Cool"
"Toru, what are you doing?" Todoroki questioned, a little confused by the girl's actions.
"Making an exit" Toru replied.
"An exit?" Kirishima furrowed his brows in thought as he peered up and down the shaft.
"Uh huh"
"How the hell are we s'posed to climb that thing?" Bakugou sneered.
"Well, I figured you and Todoroki could probably sort yourselves out—shoot yourself up or something, but I'll take Kiri and Rio with me" Toru replied evenly.
"And how the hell do you plan to do that? Huh?"
Toru opened her mouth to reply but was quickly cut off by wailing sirens, the pew! Pew! of hot red lasers pointed straight at them and the sounds of Manny Quinn echoing all around them. "MOVE!" Toru shoved Bakugou to the ground just as the others hit the deck at her call. "Everyone okay?"
"G'off!" Bakugou grumbled.
"Yeah, you're okay" Toru muttered clambering off of the blonde. The wall of ice at her back told her that Todoroki put it up just in time, though it was starting to crack under all the fire.
"I'm good" Kirishima called.
"Me too" Todoroki agreed, sitting up.
"Rio?" Toru turned to her friend who sat hunched over and clutching her stomach. "Rio? Are you alright?"
"Son of a bitch!" Rio cursed, "That's gonna hurt tomorrow!"
"Rio?" Toru slid in front of her friend as the blonde slowly sat up; Bakugou appeared over her shoulder, worried for his cousin. Thankfully Toru didn't see any blood on her dress, but she wanted to be sure. Carefully undoing the halter top of her dress, Toru peeled away the fabric to see something that made her pause.
"Ooh!" Toru grinned as her eyes met the kevlar corset beneath, "A corset? Nice upgrade"
"Kevlar—but make it fashion" Rio joked, wincing a little when her laugh turned to a hiss.
"Well, thankfully the corset wasn't pierced—" Toru traced the smoking outline of the laser hole in the bottom of the corset, "But you'll likely have some bruising. This is gonna hurt tomorrow" Toru sat back so Rio could put her dress back together, "Y'know, I gotta ask why a corset?"
"Those damn vest were just so damn bulky" Rio replied as she tied off the halter and she grinned at the red cheeks of the boys around them. Todoroki and Kirishima refused to look at Rio and Bakugou was resolutely looking at her shoulders and up.
"But oh so comfortable"
"What'cha do with yours?"
"Mine? I turned it into a bodysuit"
"Really? Battle bodysiuit?"
"Says the chick in a kevlar corset"
"Touché"
Just then the ice behind them cracked and splintered, sending ice everywhere. Not giving anyone time to react, Toru quickly shoved Bakugou and Todoroki through the cutout and into the elevator shaft. A quick glance was spared over her shoulder at the horde of waist-high security red robots as the sounds of Bakugou's curse floated upwards. With heart pounding in her chest, she wrapped a hand around Kirishima and Rio's wrists before following after.
"AHH!" Kirishima yelled into her ear as the trio free-fell for a moment or two. Passing by Todoroki who had somehow latched on to the wall of the shaft with icy palms and, Bakugou who was in the process of launching himself upwards; before light enveloped her body and the three shot upwards like a rocket.
"Are you two coming?" Toru asked when they became level with the two pyrokinetic boys, getting in before Bakugou could explode.
"Toru…" Todoroki breathed, his eyes wide at what he saw. Toru, now enveloped in light, hovered in the air like a fairy as she held Kirishima and Rio by their wrists.
"What?" Toru tilted her head in question, golden eyes shining like torches in the night.
"You're—you're…you can fly?!" Bakugou demanded.
"Well, since I apparently float in my sleep, it only makes sense that I could fly when I'm awake" Toru shrugged.
"You what?"
"Oh yeah! I remember you doing that during camp once!" Rio nodded, "Scared the crap outta Itona—he thought you were possessed or something"
"How was I s'posed to know he's scared of demons?"
"Who isn't scared of demons?"
"Devils…?"
"Aren't they the same thing?"
"How should I know?" Toru readjusted her grip on the two teens, "C'me on, let's go"
