Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia
Chapter 103:
"Zach this is really weird," Darling whispered. She had an earpiece in so she could whisper it without getting closer to the boy standing in front of the drug dealer they had tied to a chair.
Zach stared at the Serum dealer who they found after moving up the chain from the fraternity party they had gone to earlier. Both of them had on black costumes with their helmets on now, and Zach just replied to his comrade in a low voice, "We're in the field. Call me Death, or Commander. And stay on guard. Something is, up." Zach agreed at the end about how this was weird, and he gulped which he hoped was not noticeable through the thin material over his neck. Whether it was noticeable or not though, the woman in front of Zach did not react. The young woman with short red hair was staring straight at his helmet, and she was not saying a word no matter how threatening he tried to be.
The last guy, was weird too, Zach thought. He moved to the right and watched as the woman's eyes slowly shifted to follow him. He had already turned off Nightmare as it did not make her any more obedient. She was just staring at him. "What've you got on her?" Zach asked quietly in his helmet only.
Darling looked down at the wallet on the floor next to her laptop. "Keisha Winters. Twenty-four years old. She has a driver's license, and some credit cards, no cash. Death, what's wrong with her?" Darling looked back towards the woman herself while asking, and she gulped at the creepy look of the woman sitting on that chair. "The last dealer, he barely reacted at all to what we were saying. But she's like… I don't like this."
"Me neither. Look her up online and find what you can," Zach stepped closer to the woman in the chair in front of him. "Keisha," Zach began, and the redhead lifted her eyes to the visor but did not react much to the dark figure who tied her up in a small shack at the edge of her town. It was three in the morning, and Zach and Darling had been out all night being threatening and hunting down drug dealers. They still did not feel any closer to whoever was making the drug, but they were getting more nervous the higher up in the chain they got. "Can you understand me?" Zach wondered.
She stared silently at him without responding. What happened? She was answering Rubin's messages when we sent from his phone, and she spoke before we ambushed her. The second I started telling her to tell me where- just like Rubin. He was so spooked at first, but when I told him to tell me where the drugs were coming from, it was like his fear went away. Not that he was afraid of someone else. He actually started to calm down, and he almost wouldn't tell us. I had to go so much farther in the threatening… But it wouldn't work with her. I can see that. So then, how?
Zach closed his eyes tightly, then he opened them in a slow way and he said under his breath, "Well, might as well try it." Darling looked over for a second from her computer, though she turned back and continued going through the web with a confused look on her face as she was not too used to using the internet in English. She listened though in a bit more confusion as Zach continued louder to the woman in front of him, "I'm looking to buy some Serum. Do you have any to sell me?"
"Yes," Keisha replied, the first thing she had said in fifteen minutes.
Darling spun back in surprise, and Zach's eyes widened too as that was more of a shot in the dark than anything. "Oh, that's great."
"I only sell to dealers though," Keisha continued. "Like Rubin. Where is Rubin?" Her head cocked to the side and Zach tried his hardest not to pull back at the creepiest thing he had seen all week.
"Um," Zach started, and he cursed in his head for the unintentional response. Fuck! Keep focused. Think constantly. She's stuck to a certain response set. Or, no that seems right. She's clearly out of it. "Rubin's not going to be a dealer anymore, I'm taking his place." She doesn't seem to be able to think comprehensively. Most people would be able to see through the lie. "So could you sell me some Serum?"
Keisha un-cocked her head and then she flattened her lips out. "I don't think so. You were demanding to know where I got it from."
"That's because I want to sell more than you have to give me," Zach replied with the first thing that he could think of to keep the conversation going. Don't shut up. What is wrong with you?
"Zach," Darling whispered. Zach got a frustrated expression on his face as Darling did not call him by one of the names he just told her to use, but Darling turned towards him and stood up from the laptop. "This woman, her parents reported she's missing." Zach looked towards Darling and then back at the dealer in front of him. He started breathing faster, and Darling whispered in a quiet voice, "Just two days ago."
Missing? This is- the dealers at the top? Are they the missing people? Have I got this all wrong? Zach stepped back from the woman and he ground his teeth in frustration for a second. Then he stopped and he shook his head around. No. Even if the people I'm trying to help are drug dealers, something is wrong here. It doesn't feel like she's doing this by choice. Something's wrong with her. Zach looked closer into the woman's eyes in front of him, and he frowned at the size of her pupils that were still as large as they were when he came in. She's high. It looks like, at least. All the dealers have been so far. Wait a second. Hold on. "Darling, you said she doesn't have cash in her wallet?" Zach whispered.
"No. Not a cent."
She was coming from a different deal when we messaged her from Rubin's… "Though, I could also just sell however much you have. How would that work?" Zach asked louder to the woman who had not responded with his last statement.
Keisha nodded once at Zach and she turned to her right towards the door and where her car was. The chair moved, then she looked back down and Zach's eyes widened as it looked like she forgot she was tied up for a second. She frowned, and she rose her eyes slowly back up to the dark figure before her. "I have some Serum in my car. If you untie me, I could give it to you. Then after you sell it, bring me the profits and I will give you more."
"Bring you cash?" Zach asked.
Keisha nodded her head. "Cash only."
She couldn't have deposited it this late. She just handed off the money from her last deal, and it did not take her too long to get here after we messaged her. Alright. Zach took a deep breath and then he pulled out a knife from his belt and walked up to Keisha. She did not flinch, but Darling looked over in surprise as Zach cut her binds and released her. "I'll take everything you have. As long as I get to use the Serum myself too."
"Of course, though soon you won't need it anymore," Keisha replied only half paying attention as she stood from the chair and started towards the door.
What? Zach and Darling both thought while watching the woman walking to the door of the shack. Zach shook his head and then started following after her, deciding that not saying anything at the moment was better than asking a question about that unsettling statement. Zach walked out of the door right behind Keisha, and he had a strange feeling bubbling in his chest that was filling his eyes with pity as he stared at her. Does she… she doesn't even- is she on it right now? "Darling," Zach whispered. "What else did your search say?"
Darling was cleaning up in the shack and packing things up into a black pack she slid her arms under the straps of. She whispered in response, "She graduated OMU with an English major, got a Master's in Education. She was working as a teaching assistant, until a few weeks ago. The first thing I saw after looking up her name was this big angry feed on Quirkbook where parents were mad because a teacher had cursed in front of really young students. The school fired her."
And she became a high-level drug dealer? In a couple of weeks? Zach frowned at the woman in front of him who went to her trunk and popped it open. "Rubin isn't going to be-" Zach reached his right hand forward and grabbed the end of the shotgun barrel Keisha spun towards him after reaching into her trunk. BANG! Zach pushed the barrel to the side just enough that the shot slammed into the shack behind him. Darling! Zach ripped the shotgun backwards and right out of Keisha's hands as she got pulled towards him. Zach brought up a knee and slammed it into her gut between her stomach and her chest, the point that knocked all the wind out of her and made her collapse to her knees. "Darling," Zach said, while swinging the shotgun butt down and into Keisha's face. "Are you alright?"
"Nothing hit me," Darling said, rushing out the door and looking towards Zach to see if he was alright. "What happened?"
"I let my guard down," Zach said in a dark voice. "I'm sorry." That was almost fatal. The barrel didn't even slow in my mind. I don't know what activates that. My heart rate has to already be high I think, and then if something life-threatening is coming it prepares me. Maybe. Maybe I just fucked up because I was feeling too bad for this woman. Zach reached down his left hand while tossing the shotgun away with his right. He grabbed Keisha by her shirt and yanked her back up, and he put his helmet up close to her face. "Why did you-" Keisha's face was right in front of his visor, and her expression was back to the blank look it had when she was inside tied to the chair. Her eyes shifted over to where Zach tossed the shotgun, then to her vehicle. She's not afraid. Zach lowered the woman down a bit which made her turn back to him wondering what he was doing. Zach touched his chest with his right hand, then he reached out and a single moment of fear flashed over the woman's face when the hand covered in black wisps was about to touch her face.
Zach dropped Keisha unconscious to the floor. He glared down at her but started calming down his fast breaths of dark air. "Something bad is…" Zach's dark voice trailed off, and he growled and tapped his chest with his right hand. "I don't like this," he said while his aura disappeared. He turned to Darling and said to the girl walking up behind him, "Give me her phone."
"What are we going to do?" Darling asked. "You were planning on following her once she sold us everything and needed to go hand off the cash, right?" Zach nodded, as Darling once again understood what he was planning without him needing to explain it to her. She gave him a more confused look though and then shifted her eyes down to the unconscious woman below. "She wasn't scared at all. This random, school teacher."
"The missing people," Zach began slowly. He looked at Keisha's phone and found a passcode lock on it. He looked down at the woman on the floor and reached to her right hand, grabbed her thumb, and he pressed it against the bottom of the phone to open it up. Darling grinned at him, but she regained her serious look behind her visor as Zach continued in a low voice, "Someone's controlling them, or something. She seemed capable of more thought that I realized. Like she was tricking me, except… I think she really was just," Zach frowned deeper and he glared at the text messages on the woman's phone.
Rubin's texts to her were the second conversation down on her list. The top conversation that had been texted in most recently was the one Zach tapped on. 'The King.' Is this the top of the chain? Weird contact name, unless, the guy who she was texting told her to make that his contact name. Is he the controller? Zach scrolled up through the conversation, and he glared harder and harder at the phone in his hand that Darling came over to look at too. Her messages get more and more, the same. As time goes back though, she talked like a normal person. The last five messages… Zach copied the most recent message from Keisha going out to 'The King.' He froze before sending it though, as he looked at the response from the supposed Serum kingpin.
"What?" Darling asked as she saw Zach's hesitation.
"An address," Zach whispered. He started scrolling back through the phone, and at the same time both he and Darling heard a siren in the distance. Zach glanced over towards the shotgun, then to the unconscious woman next to it who likely had a lot of illicit substances in the back of her car. I don't like this. I'm sorry, Keisha. Zach turned and he started walking away, and Darling walked up to follow him as they moved away from the building they had interrogated Keisha at. They disappeared into the night, and Zach said in a low voice as they walked, "She doesn't have an address in here, and if I ask where it is he'll know it's not her."
"So what do we do?" Darling asked. "This can't be the end of the trail. We've come so far."
If all the missing people are drug dealers who abandoned their lives to turn to crime… But, what if it's against their will? Rubin, said he used to be a Ryde driver too. He stopped doing it recently though. He was acting weirdly too. Not yet at Keisha's level, but, but what if he was going to reach that? Are these people just gradually- and what did she mean by I wouldn't need it soon? Zach stopped where he and Darling were behind a store on a strip near the outskirts of town. They could still hear a siren in the distance, getting closer to back where they had been earlier where someone had probably reported hearing a gunshot. Zach glared at the phone in his hand that he was constantly using so it would not turn off where he would need Keisha's fingerprint again.
Zach lifted up the phone and he erased the message he had pasted into the text bar. He frowned with his teeth grinding behind his visor as he erased 'Have cash. Need Serum.' Zach started typing with his fingers fast into the keyboard on the bottom of the screen, and Darling's eyes opened wide while her cheeks turned red. She lifted her eyes to Zach and felt her heart racing for him as he typed in a fury. 'Yo motherfucker I have that bitch Keisha's phone. She's with me now. I'm taking charge of the Serum business. You got a problem with it then tell me where to fucking meet you. Let's negotiate.' Zach sent the message. I clearly have no idea what I'm doing, and I'm bluffing about Keisha which he would know. He had her put his name as 'The King' so he's a smug cunt-
'Oh you think you're tough shit. I ain't afraid of you.' A map with a pin dropped on it appeared on the screen below the last messages. 'Come and get it you bitch ass pussy!'
He's cocky. Maybe he's right to be. Need to be careful. Cautious. But this mother fucker, he knows I must be nearby because Keisha just left him not too long ago. That pin, isn't too far from my current location. We really tracked it back. Zach shifted the phone a bit to show Darling, then he turned it to himself and replied, 'Big man huh? We'll see how much you deserve that 'King' title you lil bitch. You and yours are gonna either join with me or you're getting out of my way. B there in 20.' Want more time to prepare, but I'm too close that he'll suspect something's up if I take too long. If I go too short though, he'll know how unafraid I am. I want him to think I need some more time to prepare now that he was so quick to respond.
'I'll be waiting.'
"He has to know this is a trap," Darling whispered at the boy next to her who had her heart swirling with emotions at the exchange she just witnessed. "If this really is the man in charge of the Serum distribution-"
"I think we're overestimating him," Zach said. Darling looked at Zach in a confused way, and he shook his head before turning back to her. "But we're going to be careful anyway. Let's get there right now. You'll set up at a good position to keep overwatch…"
How the hell does he have this building? This place is massive. Unless, he got the person hooked on Serum- or, if he got them to the point they're like Keisha. This is ridiculous. Fuck this guy. People have died over Serum. Drug dealers found dead with Serum on them, and dozens of people missing. College students getting addicted and turning into dealers themselves. Zach stared ahead while walking in a cocky way right into the middle of the huge open building in the industrial part of the town he was in. It was a factory except the floor had been opened up with all the heavy machinery pushed to the sides. Yet as Zach glanced around under the dark hood he was wearing, he spotted movement behind some of those machines.
How many people? Darling should be watching over me right now. Don't want to say anything, she'll get me… "Here someone comes. There are a lot of people with him." Her voice spoke quietly in Zach's ear.
Show of force. He's trying to intimidate me. At least he's not just going for a kill right away. The fact that I came in alone tells him that my associates are probably around somewhere, and he'll want to know where and what I'm doing. Besides, he's not afraid enough to just lash out. Not if he's the kingpin. "So," Zach said, speaking towards the shadows up ahead of him. The part of the factory floor he had walked into was illuminated brightly by floodlights on the walls and on steel bars pointed down towards him while keeping most of the room in shadows. "I take it you're 'The King.'"
A man walked out of the shadows towards Zach. His skin was dark gold, he had some brown freckles on his face, and he wore a black suit with a white shirt below that had the collar popped up around his neck. On his right fist were brass knuckles, and he smirked as he stepped into Zach's view. He's young, Zach thought, while the man in front of him just tried getting a better look at that face partially shadowed by the hood and partially covered by his black bangs. A few years older than me. Younger than a lot of the people around him, Zach's eyes shifted around while his head lifted a bit, and he got a more hesitant look on his face as he stared at the line of ten people who stepped out behind 'The King' in a simultaneous step that seemed so coordinated Zach figured it had to have been rehearsed. Except he also knew there was a good chance it was not rehearsed at all, and the people behind him were not acting but actually moved in weird movements like that.
"That's right," the gold-skinned man started, his voice threatening and his eyes narrowing down at the figure in a hoodie who looked to be trying to intimidate them with his appearance. After he spoke, the two closest to him on his left and right just behind him rose up their right hands and pointed pistols forward at the hooded figure.
"Hey, let's talk first," Zach started, holding his palms up defensively. Work. Please, if I need it, he thought at his own eyes. This was dangerous. So dangerous, but I'm too confident in who this guy really is. I need to realize that this is life or death. Not just for me. I have people who need me! Darling is right up there and if I start getting hurt she'll rush down with no regard for her own life. Zach forced himself into more panic, and he made that expression show on his face too. "Who the hell- you have this many people?" Zach looked around the line with scared eyes, and then he snapped his head to both sides at the sight of some figures stepping out from behind machines and moving into the light.
"That's right," The King responded in a cocky tone. Then he started walking forward towards the shorter figure in all black, and he glared down his nose at him while continuing, "What did you do to Keisha? I know she wouldn't betray me."
"Wh- Yeah she did-"
"Don't fucking lie to me," the man said, coming to a stop and glaring into Zach's eyes in a much more threatening way. Zach lifted his head a bit, and the man lowered his head that he leaned back to look down his nose. The man lowered his head and his eyes shifted down from the boy's eyse, to the right side of his face and the scar there. A bead of sweat formed on his face, but he snapped in a low voice, "Keisha's my best girl. What the fuck did you do with her? I know she wouldn't betray me-"
"And how do you know that?" Zach asked, and his scared and nervous tone was gone. He stared into The King's eyes and his expression had the kingpin frozen in place. Their eyes were locked, and Zach said in a low voice, "What did you do to her?"
"What the fuck are you on about?" The King snapped. "You admitting you never had-"
"Are you doing all of this?" Zach asked. He stared into the older boy's eyes and his eyebrows lifted up as the man pulled his head back. "This, is this all you? You alone?" Zach's eyes widened at the look on the man's face. "Holy shit, you're all alone."
"I'm alone?!" The King shouted in a skeptical and furious voice. "You know who you're talking to?! Look at me! Look around you! You're fucking surrounded! What the fuck are you-"
"What did you do to them?" Zach questioned. He brought his right hand into his chest and erupted in a mass of black flames that had the man in front of him stumbling back in terror.
"Shoot him!"
Bang! A bullet flew through The King's right shoulder, and he flew backwards yelling out in pain as blood splashed out behind him. Bang bang bang brrr-br-br-br dink -chink- dink Doof! Can't run towards any of them or the others might keep shooting. They probably will. Only person they probably won't shoot at. Zach raced towards the man stumbling backwards, and the guy lifted his head after looking at his shoulder he grabbed in pain. He stared at the dark figure in terror, and then his bottom lip dropped at the sight of the dark figure leaping up in the air and bullets dinking up into metal bars all over the place.
"Tell them to stop firing or they're going to hit you!" Zach bellowed, while swinging his arms to the sides and spinning his body. He turned into a spiral in midair and rocketed down towards the kingpin of the Serum drug whose eyes bulged at the flaming black mass heading straight for him. Then what that mass shouted at him made The King scream out in panic for everyone to stop shooting. The dark mass flying down at him saw him start shouting it, and he slammed his right hand back into his chest while flying through the air.
Zach's dark aura was left behind and he shot out of it and tackled the man with a bloody shoulder. He slammed The King's back into the floor but his momentum was too much that he started rolling and then made them roll again so he was still on top. Zach flipped on top of the man and had a knife drawn and down against his throat in an instant. "Tell them all to back off," Zach growled. "Or I'll slit your throat-"
"Everybody freeze! J-Just stay where you are!"
"Not so cocky now," Zach muttered in an annoyed voice, while looking down at the terrified expression on the drug dealer's face. "God, what the fuck?" Zach leaned up off the man lying on his back in fear and with blood all over his shoulder. "Darling, why'd you shoot him?"
"He told them to shoot you!" Darling called down in frustration from the rafters, even though she could have just responded in her earpiece.
"Wh-Who the fuck are you?" The King whispered, leaning up a bit and then darting his eyes around to the men and women all just standing still around the factory. He gulped when he saw the dark eyes of the boy in front of him glaring down out of his hood in a menacing way, though he was regretting screaming all he had in panic. He was wishing he had planned for a contingency here, but he was too scared to do anything except stare back into those eyes once the younger man started glaring at him.
"I'm," Zach began. He started in a dark voice, then he looked to the man's shoulder that really was bleeding a lot. "I'm just trying to figure out, what happened to all the missing people," Zach replied. The man he was looking down at opened his eyes huge, and then he grit his teeth and shifted eyes full of regret towards the people closest to him on his right. Zach shook his head as he saw a look he recognized too well in that man's eyes. "Come on, I'll wrap your shoulder. Then I want to know everything." He stepped forward and lowered his left hand for the man to take, and the man lowered his left hand from his shoulder and then reached up to take the younger man's.
The King's brass knuckles were on his right fist, but he could not even move that arm without feeling such incredible pain in his shoulder. He let the shorter boy lift him to his feet, then he asked the person in front of him in a hesitant voice, "Your face, you're, Lifebringer aren't you?"
I really do need to wear my helmet more often. Everywhere. "That doesn't matter," Zach muttered. He glared up into the man's eyes and then shook his head again before asking, "What are you doing?"
The King grimaced and then glared harshly down into the younger man's eyes. Zach just kept looking up in a regretful way of his own, and he had a look of understanding on his face that confused and made The King feel uneasy. "What's your name?" Zach asked. "Your real name, not, that stupid nickname." Zach started pulling his sweatshirt up and over his head. The King stared at him in shock as he blocked himself from his vision, but as he opened his mouth to shout something, he recalled the current sharp pain he was feeling in his right shoulder. And he remembered that there was someone aiming a gun down at him from the rafters that he slowly shifted his eyes up to in a nervous way.
"He almost decided to kill you right there," Darling warned in Zach's earpiece. Zach finished taking off his sweatshirt and he glared in a pissed off way at the man in front of him he was testing a bit with that. "You're really, a stupid fuck." Zach cut through one of his sleeves and then ripped it apart, and he motioned for the man in front of him to step forward. The kingpin gulped but could not deny him, and he stepped forward and stood there as the younger man started wrapping up his arm.
"This," Zach said while he wrapped up the guy's shoulder. "This is fucked up. I mean, I'm trying to wrap my head around this." He lifted his gaze up to meet The King's, but the older man stopped looking at him. He had to pull his gaze away as the teen said these things to him. "Look at me," Zach growled, his voice serious and dark again to make the man turn back his way. "You've gotta tell me what's going on here. I'm not a hero. I'm not trying to steal your business. I'm just…" Zach grit his teeth and he looked into the man's eyes in such a frustrated way at how much regret he could still see in them. "What the hell is going on here? I recognize those people around you. Ryan Hayward, Marcellus Undonque, Oliver Reyes, Francisco Johnson… They're the missing people. These people… what did you do to them?"
The King opened his mouth. He got a cocky look on his face, and for a second it looked like he was about to snap something at Zach or even shout at his people to attack. Instead though, his eyebrows curved up and he bit down on his bottom lip. "It wasn't supposed to be," he started, then he cut himself off and grit his teeth in frustration.
"Explain it to me," Zach said. He backed away from the man and gave him an understanding look, but he kept it stern to show this was not up for debate. "If you don't, I'll just have to assume the worst. And seriously, you don't want me assuming what I currently believe is happening here."
Zach's expression got darker, and the man in front of him could imagine the dark form with glowing red eyes and a skull-like face that had dodged bullets and attacked him. He was feeling tired after getting shot in the arm too, and after Zach backed up he glanced at his shoulder to see it was wrapped in the thick dark fabric of the kid's ripped sweatshirt. He hoped the bleeding would stop with it, and he lowered down feeling exhausted with his shoulders slouching so much. Zach watched as it looked like he was taking off hundreds of pounds of metaphorical weights as he collapsed down to his butt. "Pedro, Gonzales," the gold-skinned man said.
He looked up into the hazel eyes of the figure before him wearing a black long-sleeved shirt and staring down at him. Pedro took a deep breath and then he lifted his left hand that still had some of his wet blood on it that he rubbed on his forehead. "Serum's gotten way out of control," Pedro started. He looked into the kid's eyes and said in a regretful and low voice, "It's my own Quirk. I secrete it, kind of like sweat except I can choose how much and when… Anyway," Pedro shook his head around and tried getting back on track. "I knew from back when I was a kid that people loved it. In middle school I got tired of being told not to use my Quirk, and I lost some friends who I wouldn't let take my Serum anymore after giving it to them too many times."
Pedro shook his head again and he lowered his gaze from the boy to the floor between them. "They had started acting weird about it, and I couldn't keep giving it to them so we got in fights. A bad fight even," Pedro lowered his left hand from his forehead and down to his chin, and Zach saw a small scar that Pedro rubbed a finger over with a dark look in his eyes. "I knew people got addicted to the stuff," he continued in a low voice. "But I needed money for college, so I started selling like it was an up-and-coming party drug. People loved it, told their friends, and then I started putting my Quirk into vials and gave it to other people to sell for me because I didn't want to get caught."
Darling listened to what was going on from up in the rafters, and she stared down with her eyes wide before shifting them around the people in the factory who were all just standing still doing nothing without any orders. They had creeped her out at first, but her heart was racing faster and her eyes shifted back to Pedro with a much darker look in them. Pedro looked up and saw the boy in front of him glaring at him harder than before, not the look of understanding Pedro wanted to see. "It wasn't my fault," Pedro whispered, then he continued fast to try and keep explaining his side of the story to this scary teen, "I didn't have to pay the dealers, because they were just allowed to do as much of it as they wanted. Then things started getting weird though."
"Of course they did," Zach said, glaring at Pedro who pulled his head back and then leaned forward again to shout his explanation.
"The drug is perfect," Pedro snapped. "The best drug- It doesn't make people need to go back for it, but because it's so great a lot of people do for a second, and third, and fourth time. By the fourth, they believe that they're in control of when they do it, but that's also the same time it starts to get to them." Pedro gulped but he started smiling even as sweat formed on his face. "When they go out they need Serum to have a good time, then just to have an enjoyable night even alone. Demand rose, and when people started wanting more I let them become drug dealers for me too. I, really thought I was becoming this cool drug kingpin and that no one was really getting hurt, but then things got really weird! The dealers stopped asking me for more of it just for themselves, and I, I finally asked them how they were making so much yet always seemed so high, and they told me they hadn't been taking it."
Pedro pursed his lips for a second and he struggled to keep a smile. His lips curled down and he said in a nervous voice, "After they had started taking Serum every day, multiple times a day, it had just stuck in their bloodstreams. Merged with them," Pedro whispered in a scared voice. He looked down towards his left hand, and bubbles started forming over his palm and then liquid formed out of his skin. He glared at it and then swiped his palm away, splashing Serum aside with an angry look that Zach just glared at harder.
Why are you angry about it? What do you have to be angry about?! This is all you! "You did this to them-"
"I didn't know," Pedro whispered, looking back up desperately into Zach's eyes. "I noticed it before then, but the dealers wouldn't really question my orders after a while, they stopped asking about Serum, and they just, they did whatever I said." Zach started grinding his teeth angrier, and Pedro could see that and he exclaimed, "I was freaking out because of it! I didn't want that to happen! They kept doing what I wanted even when they stopped doing Serum, even though I didn't pay them. I knew they weren't getting anything from helping me and it freaked me the fuck out! So I tried ordering them to stop doing what I asked, but they were different. They lost their jobs, couldn't do schoolwork…" Pedro's face covered in fear and he leaned forward and whispered, "Unless I told them to."
Zach pulled his head back. What the fuck? His eyes shifted around to the people all over the room. He looked at them, and he saw these people all staring right back towards him with blank looks on their faces. No seriously, his eyes darted back to Pedro, what the fuck?!
Pedro nodded his head at that look in the teen's eyes. "I realized something bad was happening and tried cutting off the supply," Pedro continued, and Zach's eyes widened more as did Darling's at the sound of that. "But the chain was too big by that point," Pedro said and shook his head.
"What do you mean?" Zach asked, keeping his voice dark though confused at what the man meant.
"There were people hooked at different parts of it," Pedro explained, shaking his head more in such a regretful way. "Dealers who weren't that hooked but had customers they needed to get product to. Or worse, the dealers higher up who knew me and had been super addicted to the Serum, but crazier addicted than I'd ever seen before trying to stop them. Back in middle school, they hadn't reached that point, but they were still so mad. I- I told the ones who had started listening to whatever I said to go let everyone know there was no more supply, as I tried to just slip out of it… And my drug dealers started a war with each other over whatever product was still out there, and they were trying to locate me. They killed each other." Pedro said it and he closed his eyes for a second tightly, then he opened them with more of a look of a drug kingpin that he had had earlier.
Pedro looked up into Zach's eyes and in a dark way continued, "So I started making it again. Because I was scared. I sent it out to keep the chain going, and I got the few who still listened to me who weren't killed while telling the others to stop, to get some guns to protect me with. I got some of them to train their Quirks, all for nothing," he muttered at the end while glaring at the kid who had defeated him without any trouble at all.
I barely had to dodge them at all. They don't have good aim. The ones who started training Quirks wouldn't have been able to do anything either. You're a fucking idiot. You're so, so stupid! Zach's eyes shook and he narrowed his eyebrows in towards his nose with a pissed-off glare at Pedro.
Pedro saw that look and shook his head fast while saying, "I knew it was too far gone at that point. There was no turning back. People had died, and I couldn't stop the supply when so many people were dependent on it. It was a business, and it couldn't just up and disappear like I wished. That was a few months ago though," he continued, his eyes getting wider and his breath speeding up. "And the chain keeps getting bigger! More and more people keep reaching the top level of the drug where they start to lose who they are, and they do whatever I tell them to! I've told them to go back to their lives, but then I'll go and fine them in terrible places because they're not themselves anymore. I found one homeless in an alley, and for the first time in over a month since I last saw him, I told him to do something and he did it without question-"
"You have slaves!" Zach finally snapped at the man who was trying to act like a victim here, while surrounded by his literal slaves.
"I never wanted this!" Pedro shouted back. "I just wanted some money to get through college! My parents died first semester in a villain attack, and I couldn't get through it without the extra cash on top of the part-time job I already had!" Zach's teeth started grinding in so much more anger, and Pedro shouted at him while getting off his butt and to his knees instead, "I never wanted to hurt people, never wanted to have slaves! I never wanted any of this! I, I've even been using the money I got from the operation to try and find a way out, try and come up with a cure… but it hasn't been working, and if I can't find one soon, I'm just going to disappear."
"If you do that," Zach began in a dark voice, unclenching his teeth while tightening his fists so hard at his sides. "All the people addicted in the chain will start fighting again. Your slaves won't know what to do and will probably die without your orders."
"There's nothing else I can do though!" Pedro yelled. "It'll only get bigger the longer I stay! It'll only hurt more people when I end it. So there's no other option except to just, just get some more money and then, disappear forever. There's nothing else I can do." Pedro looked into Zach's eyes in a desperate way, "I just need to get out of here."
This is what happens when normal people use their Quirks unrestrained. No, no no, this is what happens when people don't know what their Quirks do. This isn't a counter to my beliefs, this is the very proof. He's such an idiot. Such a fucking idiot. Zach's face was scrunching up as he stared down at the desperate look on Pedro's face. "There is though," Zach said. "Something you can do," Zach continued, and his eyes started getting darker, his fists clenching so much harder. It's not even, it's not a sure thing. It's nothing. It's not enough to… except, "You've enslaved people. And people killed because of you. I, I listened to your story. And there is something you haven't tried which could free them all."
Pedro reached his left hand back behind his waist in a quick movement. Zach reached his right hand forward and his fingers slid out of his glove. I'm sorry. Zach grabbed Pedro by the face while his arm was swinging around the side of his body. The pistol Pedro pulled out flew out of his hand, clanked on the floor and skid away through the factory while Pedro collapsed to the floor. It was instantaneous. He fell forward and face-planted below Zach's outstretched arm. Zach's hand started shaking where he had just grabbed out in such a fast and reactionary movement, yet also one that he had thought about beforehand.
Clank clatter Zach turned his head to the left and stared at an uzi that just dropped on the floor and came to a stop in front of a woman's feet. She looked down at her hands in the most confused way, then she turned to the right and looked at a man who was looking at the pistol in his own hand with just as much confusion.
Darling looked around the floor down below with her eyes still wide from what she just saw Zach do. It worked?
It worked. It worked. It worked. Please, mean something. Be worth it. Zach stared around at the idle slaves who all started getting confused as Serum stopped working on them. They were freed, and they switched quickly from confusion to fear as they looked around them in the factory they all remembered getting to.
"Oh my God!"
"What happened to me?!"
"AHH!"
Everyone started freaking out fast, and at the same time Darling turned her head and got an uneasy feeling in her chest. All those people shouting at the same time made her wonder about something, and her eyes opened wide so she transformed her right hand into a grappling gun. She aimed carefully and shot herself over to the edge of the factory on the side closest to the main street. She was at a window high up in the building, and she looked outside and down on the street where there were several vehicles all with their lights off.
"Zach. Cops. We have to leave now."
Zach stared back down at Pedro's body. His chest ached even after looking around at the people all panicking around him. They might have been drug dealers, but the cops will understand. They all sound like they remember what was happening. Pedro, you, you shouldn't have… He stared down at the first man he had killed since the night he left his class in that forest. His right hand shook in front of him and he lowered it down to his side. His fist clenched, I much rather would have killed Mongoloid. A lot of people, more than… You were scared of your own Quirk, but you knew what you were doing. You knew you were enslaving people and people were getting killed over this, and you kept it going anyway. You made that choice! I HATE this!
Darling dropped down to the floor and started sprinting towards Zach. "We have to-" she started, then she ran straight up and threw her arms around Zach's sides. "It's okay," she told him, and Zach's eyes opened wide while he spun his head and looked down at the girl hugging him. She pulled back and looked up through her helmet, and she lifted up his helmet for him to take too since his face was in the open. "I know it must hurt-"
Zach reached up and grabbed the helmet, and he put it down on his head without a word to the girl who stared at him in shock at how quickly his expression had returned to normal. "There's work to be done," he said. Zach turned and he shouted louder than all the people in the factory who were freaking out and asking each other what was going on, and many of them were already staring over as they had been watching everything that occurred even if their minds had mostly been blank for it. "If you all remember what's been happening here, then explain it to the police! And if you all know where the lower level dealers are, the others who are semi-addicted to Serum who are also probably confused as to what's going on right now, tell them too!"
"What's going on?!"
"Who are you?!"
"Help me!"
"Where am I?"
"Why did you kill Pedro?!" Zach turned his head and saw a guy looking around Pedro's age moving forward. He grabbed at his head in a confused way and then shook it around a bit before glaring at him harder. "He was-"
"He deserved so much worse than that!" A woman behind one of Pedro's old friends shouted.
"Oh my- oh my God! I- I killed someone!" Another woman screamed over near some factory equipment. "Why did I-"
I don't know if this will stop a drug war afterwards. If all demand for Serum has gone down though, even the extra in the vials already out there will disappear soon. People probably won't get addicted without Pedro around either, and once the cops figure out what's happened here, this'll become big enough that no one's going to start a drug war while heroes are investigating. Zach turned to Darling and he nodded away, and he rose up a grappling gun he had on his waist under the hem of his shirt. He lifted it with his left hand, and his eyes focused on the red on his palm that he felt the gun getting slick with. He had picked Pedro up before by the hand the man had used to grab at his own bloody shoulder, and Zach stared at the blood on his hand with so much darkness in his eyes.
Then the door busted down.
Zach and Darling fired grappling hooks up and into the shadows of the factory. The cops started shouting at people to drop their weapons, and the panicked former drug dealer slaves all complied while yelling out in panic that they had done nothing wrong. It worked, Zach thought as he and Darling ran off through the abandoned factory as fast as they could. It worked and yet, yet! I hate this so much. Killing that guy. Even though, it feels good- or maybe even more so because it does feel good, I'm disgusted. I'm disgusting- no! I, I saved people right there. Taking him out of the picture, arresting him for a long time wouldn't stop making people addicted. He said he already tried that and it didn't work, the people just fell apart without him and would be waiting for his orders. Most of them weren't even addicted anymore. They had become slaves… I don't understand his Quirk either. It's unknown. Something, that could have been terrifying.
Zach's eyes widened under his helmet as he ran. His mind started racing and he began panting at the realization he just had. He could have taken over the world, had he had the ambition. Had he been more evil. He really, wasn't necessarily a bad person, but he knew people acted weirdly after using his Quirk when he was a kid. He knew! And he did it anyway, without caring about what the consequences could be. All for money. I- I just acted as the judge, jury, and executioner after hearing his story! But, but it was the right thing to do. I believe that. Even with his parents, and for his education, and his intentions. As much as I sympathize with you… Zach's eyes got a lot darker, and he and Darling stacked up against a back door they heard noises on the other side of. Zach pressed his right hand into his chest and glanced at Darling who nodded and climbed up on his back. "Pop smokes," Zach said, and he cracked the door open.
"Freeze!"
Smoke grenades shot out of Darling's arm cannon, and then a black form shot into the smoke and out of the other side so quickly that only one officer saw it. The others all looking into the smoke or towards the doorway were yelling at the person inside it to come out with their hands up, while the one who just saw that dark form sprint out the other side and farther into the industrial park had his jaw dropped for a few more seconds. He turned to shout at the others what he saw, but he realized that if he said it they would have to go chasing through this spooky dark factory complex searching for that flaming black monster. So he kept his mouth shut.
Zach sprinted away from the factory and let out a dark breath of darkness inside his helmet. I felt much worse for all the people you hurt, Pedro. The ones you had knowingly hurt and kept hurting just to save your own life. You thought that being afraid freed you from guilt over what you did, but it didn't. I decided that. And I think that decision is going to save a lot of people. Innocent people who you abused, and tricked, and enslaved, and even made kill people! You were a bad person. But more importantly, more good came from killing you than leaving you alive. As much as Mongoloid was the worse monster, that's what it has to be based on. How much it can help the world. How many innocent people can be saved. Your life… is the cost of peace.
Darling walked up to Zach with her hands behind her back and the boy leaning against the back of the clothing store right after it opened leaned his head a bit to the side to look around her. Darling brought her hands up in front of her and showed a sweatshirt that was navy blue instead of black, and Zach nodded once and held out his hand for her to hand it to him. He reached down and picked up his backpack after putting his new hoodie on, and Darling threw on a sweatshirt herself with her dark red hood up over her head.
"Where to next?" Darling asked.
"I'm not against heading towards Vegas," Zach said. Darling smiled a bit, and he added, "We can work with L for a bit in person. I know video-chatting isn't much different, but maybe there's some stuff she needs help with in Vegas."
Zach felt his pocket buzz and he reached down and looked at the screen. He pulled out an earpiece from his pocket too and put it in his ear fast, and Darling did the same so Zach made sure to add her into the call as he accepted it. Zach smiled as he answered the phone, "Rebel?"
"Hey," Rebel started.
"So where do you live?" Darling asked as she entered into the call. Zach shook his head once at her but she was smiling, and the left corner of Zach's lips lifted for a brief second at a conversation the two of them had had earlier in their trip.
Zach decided to stop being absorbed over what had happened the night before, and he added, "We might be close by, if you decide you want to meet us for real-"
"Yo Zach, Darling," Rebel started again, and this time his tone came through better and made the seventeen year olds talking to him lower their smiles. "I've got Gentle on the line. I'm connecting you."
There were no jokes, and he barely used any slang. Zach's expression became deadly serious and as soon as he heard the clicking of the lines connecting he asked, "Gentle, what's wrong? What happened?"
"Ahh, haa," Gentle took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "We lost," Gentle replied after a couple of seconds. The tall man with gray hair looked down at his side he was grabbing with one hand, and he moved his hand away and winced at the gash on his side that La Brava was pressing gauze pads into with a worried look on her face. They were in the back of a truck with a couple of others who were grabbing at injuries or knelt over bodies they had in there with them, and Zach could hear some shouts of anger coming from the background of Gentle's call.
"What were you doing?!" Zach started in an upset voice.
"It was supposed to be an easy-" Gentle cut in with a frustrated tone. "But it was an ambush, when we were trying to ambush a smaller group ourselves. Seven of ours were killed…" Gentle stopped for a second and he lowered his voice more, "I'm sorry."
Zach leaned back on the wall of the store behind him. He lost his breath there and he almost fell down. His heart was racing, and his hand started shaking the phone he was still holding in front of him despite speaking with the earpiece. "Who?" Zach questioned in a hoarse voice.
Gentle looked towards the back of the truck still speeding away. He started in a dark voice, "Aces, Farid, Ling, Le-Q, Rumble…" Gentle turned his head a bit down to the floor near the back door of the truck. "Tina," he added, and Zach lifted his left hand and put it over his face thinking of the woman he had brought back in Hatto. Then Gentle looked down right in front of him and the woman he had kept talking to up until a minute ago when Hank had fallen back from next to her and started cursing at the top of his lungs. "And Hummingbird. They knew we were coming, set the trap with bad info. The last guy who ratted acted like he didn't want to say- and I really thought- how long would it take you to reach Finland?"
Zach pressed his left hand into his face harder. "You know I'm in America," Zach whispered angrily back at Gentle.
Gentle lowered his gaze down more and he grit his teeth in anger himself. He also shook his head and then added in a low mutter, "Apologies." He heard in that tone the frustration of the boy he was talking to who they both knew couldn't reach them in time to bring their comrades back. Gentle looked back down at Hummingbird though, and he saw the woman yelling at him to be more careful as they fought a couple of fighter jets together in the skies of Saudi Arabia. "Damn it… Not many in the team I brought, escaped. The exfil team who came for us did good but… we lost. We just…"
Splitting up, was a terrible idea, Zach lowered his left hand from his face and glared down at the pavement of the lot behind the clothing store he just got his sweatshirt from. "Gentle," Zach began in a soft whisper. He said it a second time a bit louder because he did not know if his voice even reached his earpiece. "Gentle, it's…" Splitting up might mean we can do more, faster- say it out loud. "We shouldn't have spread so thin," Zach said. He looked towards Darling who started getting a more hurt look on her face thinking about the last week she spent with Zach. He grimaced and then shook his head and continued, "Splitting up means we can do more at a faster pace, but getting things done fast doesn't matter. I mean it does, but not as much as doing it right. Keeping everyone alive."
"I told you before, it wasn't going to be the last time," Gentle started in a dark voice. "It's not that easy to just-"
"I want it to be," Zach cut in. Darling, Rebel, and Gentle all opened their eyes wider at the frustrated yet hopeful tone in Zach's voice. "Don't say it's impossible, because we're doing the impossible right now. All these people following me, are following me." Zach emphasized himself more on the second time and his eyes got more determined and hardened while he pushed off the building he was leaning on. "I shouldn't be leaving missions where people can die up to others, because the fault is still on me when they die." Gentle's eyes widened more and he opened his mouth to counter, then he clenched his teeth and just lowered his gaze as he had wanted to shift the blame himself. Hearing Zach do it on his own though, it made the older man clench his fists down at his sides in even more regret.
"I'm heading back. We'll all regroup, and make our next plans together. Rebel, you're listening right?" Zach waited for a second and then heard a response from the American who had been staying quiet out of the conversation. "Find me a fast route back, and send me a PIN to an account you and L set up. I'll need some more cash for a bribe." Zach ended the call on his phone and shoved it hard back into his pocket. He looked towards Darling and motioned his head to the right and the edge of the store they had to go around to get to the bus stop they had already scouted out earlier.
"Are you alright?" Darling asked as she walked right up next to Zach. She grabbed his left arm to try and comfort him but he pulled it out of her grip fast. She leaned back at the motion, thinking he was mad at her or something.
Zach just turned to her with a serious expression on his face though. "I'll be fine Darling. But I've told you before, the two of us are not like that."
"Not yet," Darling said, and she smiled at him out from beneath her hood. "And you can't say it'll never happen," she added, giving him a sly smirk. Zach turned away from her instead of continuing the argument which made Darling lose her smirk fast with her eyes going wide in worry. "Sorry," she said quickly while getting up next to him again, though without grabbing his arm this time.
The Army of Death isn't going to do multiple missions at a time anymore. I was stupid for relying on others. I, I can trust them, and still feel a need to protect them. Trusting my comrades doesn't mean I should trust them not to die. Zach got a darker look in his eyes and ground his teeth angrily at himself for taking things so casually recently. What we're doing is the most dangerous thing in the world. We're actively hunting down villains, over and over again. The Army of Death, can't lose. So we attack with full force, and if I have to be at every mission to make sure no one dies and it's a success, then I'll do it. I'll pick who comes with me. I'll decide what our plan of attack is, and, and I'll even make decisions during the plans if things start to fall through. It's not my forte, and I'll listen to the people around me too, but I have more experience. I have, the drive! I can do this! I can be everywhere. Fight, every villain. I'll keep the information network spreading, keep my support teams, keep working in different fields and finding different villains and missions, but I'll choose which fight we go to one at a time.
Things might slow down. But I am the one who recruits people into this army. I am the one who leads it, and they follow me!Zach's expression got even more intense under his hood, and he lifted his phone to see Rebel already sent him a message about a boat leaving in a few hours he could bribe his way to stowaway on. Zach stared at the message and his hand tightened around the phone. We are only going to win from now on. I'll make sure of it. And even if we do lose people, I'll be able to bring the others back. If anyone dies, I'll always be there. Gentle, I'm sorry. I'll apologize to all of you when I gather everyone. I never should have left you, but leading so many people was heavy. Was that it? Maybe, I chose to come on this mission with only Darling not to stay stealthy with few people, but because I needed a break. Zach clenched his fists at his sides in fury towards himself.
No more breaks then. This is my Army, and I have to take responsibility for them. Protect them. Keep them alive.
A/N Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Leave a review below!
radoddish chapter 102 . Oct 24
Will there be a Halloween Special that is non-canon?
Actually sounded like a good idea to me, but the last chapter was about as much Halloween fun as I could handle. Lol really I'm just pretty busy writing my college thesis, so when I've got time it's to progress the plot of this which is always moving pretty fast. I figured by the time Halloween actually comes, it might be a month later story-wise too... anyway it's a soft no on this one. XD Sorry
BackflowTorrent chapter 102 . Oct 25
You know what's ironic?
Zach died a hero AND lived long enough to see himself become a villain.
...GREAT CHAPTER BTW.
This review was awesome! Got mind blown there for a minute... THANKS!