I don't own My Hero Academia, it is owned by Horikoshi
Chapter 27 - Terror Under the Full Moon
Changing Area:
Izuku Midoriya zipped up his hero costume, it would be the first time he would be using version gamma in an actual patrol, he took off Melissa's prototype full gauntlet and put on the Mark I set he brought with him, the spares being in his room at U.A. He looked himself over in the mirror as he pulled the red goggles over his eyes, "I guess I'm back."
"Well you look like a totally different person," came a voice behind him.
"Thank you Mr. Haimawara, sir!"
"Just call me Koichi," the former vigilante ruffled Midoriya's hair, "So Aizawa put Tokoyami through his paces, now it's my turn to put you through yours." He put a headset with a microphone on Midoriya's head making sure everything was in place. "This way we can keep in touch with each other."
"T-thank you for taking the time to teach me," Midoriya grinned, "I really don't deserve it."
As the two of them walked out the door, they ran into Aizawa and Tokoyami whose eyes went wide as soon as he saw the man he had thought to be a simple bus driver in a full pro-hero costume. "It seems you decided to stop being incognito," commented Aizawa.
"My suit's visor has a heads up display that enables me to see infrared and has built in night vision, which it will switch on and off automatically in less than a nanosecond," Koichi remarked, "Cap made that mandatory last year after we had to deal with a villain causing a major blackout in the middle of the night."
"Good, Tokoyami meet Koichi Haimawara, also known as the Skycrawler, he's a pro-hero that normally works in the United States," Aizawa introduced him to his other student.
"A pleasure, I take it he's a former student?"
"In a manner of speaking."
"Anything unusual we should know about?"
"Not at present, Midoriya?" Aizawa noticed Midoriya was staring off into space his head tilting in a manner that Mineta had described to him, he activated his quirk causing Midoriya to suddenly snap to attention.
"Wha? I just felt as though there was something coming, then it... Why are you using your quirk?"
"Because I just confirmed something," Aizawa answered deactivating his own quirk and Midoriya started to look uneasy as soon as he had done so."
"What do you mean?"
"Midoriya don't ignore that feeling, it's part of your quirk, it may not be foolproof, but I think we've proven you have a 6th Sense," explained Aizawa.
"The brain activity scan..."
"We can explore his what he's capable of with it later," Koichi's face turned serious turning to Tokoyami, "Can you stay awake and alert, it would be good if the two of you can stay ready." He tossed Aizawa a thermos, "Your coffee."
"He seriously is your student," muttered Tokoyami.
"Unfortunately, I have to deal with remedial lessons," said Aizawa, "Just make sure to contact me if things turn south."
"Roger, set to channel 4," Koichi commented, "Eraser you can listen in to our comm traffic, don't worry this is encrypted."
Forest (Dusk):
"We're going to have a test of courage," stated Mandalay, "Class 1-B gets to try to scare 1-A. We're going to draw straws for pairs."
"Where's Tokoyami and Midoriya?" asked Kaminari.
"I'm having them working on a lesson," answered Aizawa walking up.
Despite what people often assumed, Kaminari wasn't as dumb as what people thought and could read between the lines. "That's cool, I'll let them know what they missed."
As the students drew pairs, Todoroki got paired with Bakugo, Kaminari got paired with Yaoyorozu, Mineta got paired with Hagakure, Koda with Jiro, and so on.
'Why am I paired with her/him?' both Mineta and Hagakure thought at the same time.
"Kaminari I want you to behave yourself," ordered Yaoyorozu, "We must be on our guard to complete this task." Kaminari just sighed.
Forest Trail:
Mineta walked ahead of Hagakure. "I can't believe I'm paired up with you." they both said at the same time.
"What was that?" growled Hagakure, but Mineta just shrugged it off.
'Okay we've probably walked a good 20 minutes and nobody has done anything yet. Suddenly there was a loud sound in the distance. "What was that?"
"We're under attack by Villains, get back to the base camp and do not engage!" came a voice in their heads. Mineta noticed a visible gas cloud cutting off the route ahead.
"Crap, we've got to..." Mineta was turning around when something heavy hit him in the side of the head, "It was YOU."
"Well yes, the girl has been quite a suitable vessel, don't you think?"
'It's not Hagakure, it's something inside her...' Mineta thought struggling to keep his balance. There was what sounded like an explosion in the distance. He wasn't quick enough to avoid whatever it was that gleamed in the moonlight that was in her hand and pain exploded through his body. 'A knife, is my lung punctured?' He could hear voices in the distance as he struggled to keep conscious.
"Mineta? MINETA!" Kaminari came running up.
"Hang in there," ordered Yaoyorozu, 'There's an awful lot of blood...'
"M-momo."
"Don't try to talk."
"I-it was her, the s-spy," Mineta coughed, "Some... inside her. W-watch out!"
It was Kaminari that acted throwing himself between Hagakure and Yaoyorozu, to Yaoyorozu's horror, she saw the glint of a knife slam into Kaminari's chest.
"1.3 Million Volts!" Kaminari electrified himself and Hagakure, causing the Invisible girl to collapse.
"Kaminari!"
"I'm fine, well mostly."
"How can you be? I saw her get you."
"Oh she got me alright," he opened his shirt to reveal an inner pocket, "She killed my smart phone!" He looked back at Hagakure to see something worm like emerging from what appeared to be thin air, "What the fuck is that?!"
Yaoyorozu created a jar and lid with her quirk and immediately trapped it, "Whatever it is, it was controlling a classmate."
"Mineta," Kaminari felt for a pulse, "His heart's stopped."
"Denki there's nothing..."
"Yes there is," he started channeling electricity between his hands, "While this move can stop a heart, it can also potentially restart his heart, I need you to make some bandages."
"Kaminari the other students..."
"This will just take a few seconds, CLEAR!" he ran electricity through the small boy's chest along his heart, checked for a pulse then increased the voltage.
"Kaminari!"
"I got a pulse!"
There was a heavy thud behind them, "You kids alright?"
'The bus driver,' thought Yaoyorozu, "We have two injured, one critically."
"Looks like the other got fried..."
"We found out she was being influenced if not outright controlled by this," answered Yaoyorozu, 'It was just like Aizawa to hide the fact there was another pro-hero here.'
"Eraser, do you copy? I've got to bail we have a Code Blue! Damn it Eraser, do you want the kid to live or not?"
"Yaoyorozu, the gas is clearing up..."
"I already took care of that guy from long range, secure her to me please, I have to use both hands to carry the little guy," he waited impatiently for her to do so as he stored the jar in a side pouch attached to his belt.
"I already had to use my quirk to restart his heart," stammered Kaminari.
"Don't worry I'm not going to take my time," he picked up Mineta, "Gotta go fast..." Koichi launched himself into the air traveling at breakneck speeds towards where he knew the nearest hospital was. 'Just hang in there kid.'
Kota's Hideout:
"I'm lucky these things held up, well mostly," Midoriya commented, 'I can't use full strength anymore the gauntlets are busted, if I can get to the prototypes.'
"Why?" Kota asked him.
"Because I couldn't just let him do whatever he wanted to you," Midoriya answered, "Also right now you're the most valuable person here, you see those fires that are potentially trapping people, only you have the power to put them out. Get on my back."
"Code Blue!" Midoriya froze as soon as he heard that.
"What's wrong?" Kota's voice jarred him back to focusing on getting the youngster to safety.
"We've got to get going, get on my back!"
"Got it!"
"Mr. Aizawa can you read me, I know who they're after, they're after Kacchan, for some reason they're also after Kota," Midoriya took off full speed, "I'm running Kota back to base camp and then I'll."
"Get your butt back to base camp," came Aizawa over the ear piece.
"Sir?"
"They're after you too aren't they," came his teacher's tired reply, it wasn't a question.
"Y-yes they are, but I'm..."
"Midoriya, get back to base camp and back up Vlad, that's an order."
"Yes sir."
"What's wrong?"
"I'm not being allowed to help anyone else, just get you to base camp," his head started pounding.
"That's if you two even make it that far," a figure in a mask wearing a ridiculous hat grabbed for them launching himself from out of the trees, but Midoriya had already changed directions causing the man to grab only thin air and he began to give chase.
"Aizawa, another guy just tried to engage me, and is in pursuit," Midoriya swore after not hearing a response back, "Guess he's busy too. Hold on, this is a bit of a gamble." He let his control slip a bit from 5% to what he guessed was 8%, the figure gave up trying to chase him.
"You lost him," said Kota only for Midoriya to leap straight up into the air dodging the same guy, only this time he kicked the guy in the face causing him to turn to a liquid.
"Tokoyami, Aizawa, one of these guys has a duplication quirk!"
"I know," he heard Aizawa respond, "Those duplicates can use the quirks of those they duplicated."
Midoriya passed by Aizawa running towards Mandalay, 'Kota is priority,' Midoriya thought crying, he felt helpless, but knew Aizawa was right. As soon as he got to the camp he skidded to a halt at the changing area.
"Why are we here?"
"My suitcase," he slipped off his damaged Mark I's and found the suitcase, then pulled out the prototype set while storing the Mark I's.
"Can we go now?" Kota asked as Midoriya put on what looked to be another set of wrist bands.
"Yeah," he lifted up Kota.
"Are those like the same thing as those other gloves?"
"Yeah," Midoriya admitted, "I can't use my full strength without them, these will probably only be able to handle me using full strength three times."
They arrived just as a man wielding flames entered the class room, before Vlad could react, Midoriya kicked the villain into a wall only for him to dissolve into a liquid. "Another copy," Midoriya groaned.
Suddenly the room was filled with gas, Midoriya managed to get his mask on and he noticed Vlad was still moving.
"Tough luck heroes," came a voice, "Ah ah ah, I wouldn't do that unless you want the kid's brains blown out. By the way you better get some ventilation or everyone in here will die."
"Midoriya we need this place opened up stat!" called out Vlad. To which Midoriya used 20% of his power with the prototype gauntlet and blasted open the wall.
'Jeez, glad I didn't try to make a grab for that kid, he could have killed me,' Mustard radioed for pick-up.
Vlad meanwhile picked up Kota's hat. "Vlad, sir?"
"It's not your fault Midoriya, we screwed up, we should have had you run and keep running with the kid, they were waiting for you to show up."
Aizawa slammed his fist into a tree, he had managed to save Tokoyami, but they had abducted Bakugo. Truthfully, he couldn't be mad at Koichi for bailing like he did, as he ran into Kaminari on the way back to camp, and heard sirens in the distance. Yaoyorozu had set Kaminari's arm, they had encountered a Nomu the boy explained.
"The bus driver carried off Mineta and Hagakure," Kaminari looked up into Aizawa's eyes, "I-I had to use my quirk to restart his heart, some thing used Hagakure to try to kill Mineta."
"You did the right thing," Aizawa said put his hand on Kaminari's shoulder, "You saved a classmate's life and rescued another from continuing to be a puppet, you should be proud."
The ear piece came to life, "Aizawa," came Vlad's voice, "We have a problem, I'm sorry they grabbed Kota, I think one of them was waiting for Midoriya and the kid to show up then snatched the kid while using a poison gas quirk on the class. We're lucky Midoriya blew out the wall."
Hospital:
Detective Tsukauchi stormed into the hospital to confront the 'Crawler,' only seeing the former Vigilante covered in someone else's blood gave him pause. Koichi was talking to a doctor and hadn't noticed him yet. He walked towards the two and listened to the conversation.
"So how are they?"
"The girl has neurological damage, we think it can be treated, and her left ear drum is a wreck, Recovery Girl should be able to heal it though?"
"The boy?"
"We nearly lost him again in the ER, we had to give him a massive blood transfusion, whoever had the bright idea to run an electric current through his heart probably saved his life. We managed to save his lung, whatever was used to stab him by some miracle just scraped the outside of his lung but didn't puncture it, it still caused massive damage though to the diaphragm, he'll be unable to do anything strenuous for at least a week, that's with healing quirks being used to speed him along. If we didn't have people with healing quirks on hand, his career of being a hero would be over and he'd likely need an inhaler for the rest of his life at least. Additionally there are signs that he has a serious concussion and swelling of the brain which is being treated. Shouldn't you try to get back..."
"Yeah, I should be able to push myself to get back there now," Koichi sighed.
"Don't bother, there are police arriving there now with other pro-heroes."
Koichi looked up with an 'Oh crap' look.
"Calm down, it seems like you behaved professionally," the Detective put his arms on the counter standing next to the former vigilante, "Sounds like you had a tough call to make. The villains managed to abduct a student, Ragdoll, and some kid as well."
"Sorry."
"I'm not blaming you, there is a good chance the student and the kid are okay for the time being, while if you hadn't done what you did there would be another dead student."
"You guys planning a rescue... Count me in."
"What?"
"I've heard about one of these League of Villains having a decay quirk, kinda scary, but won't do him any good if he can't touch me."
"Okay you have a point, make sure you get your suit cleaned, first."
Bar:
Tomura was pleased that the Vanguard Action Squad had managed to abduct at least one student.
"We lost our agent and the boy lives," came All for One's voice.
"Yeah that was the risk, though the agent would have been dead soon anyways."
"She lives, apparently our little pet was vulnerable to electricity, that said it is rude to ignore your guest."
"Yeah," Tomura turned his attention to Bakugo, 'It's too bad they couldn't have captured All Might's whelp, the little kid and I are going to have so much fun... Well I will anyways, more so if those other two had been killed. Oh well.' He took a breath, "Speaking of which, sensei's grandson..." he looked over at Mustard menacingly as Kota had just started waking up and slowly getting to his feet.
"Relax, I made sure to use the lowest toxicity in my gas that I could while still rendering people unconscious quickly, and I deliberately let slip the danger so the heroes would focus on rescuing everyone else in the room," Mustard pulled off his helmet revealing a Middle School student, "Look we weren't to kill or seriously injure your old man's grandson, I just incapacitated him temporarily which kept him from trying something stupid."
Tomura backed off at that comment, "You have a point, doing what you did may have saved sensei's grandson's life." Kota tried to begin to edge away towards the door. "Where do you think you're going?" Kota scrambled towards the door only for Tomura to be on him in an instant backhanding him. Kota crashed through a chair, then sitting up his head bleeding. "Search the brat, I don't want a situation where he has a smart phone or something they can use to locate kid, destroy Murder-God's phone too."
"Oh I want to play with him," Himako Toga whined, "He's so cute with all the blood."
"Knock it off, he's valuable bait if kept in good health remember," Spinner growled, "I'll search him, "Kurogiri, can you find me some shorts for him?"
Tomura nodded at Kurogiri, "Of course."
Spinner dragged the boy to the back, "Kid I'm sorry, just stay close to me okay, just behave for now."
"I can change myself you know..."
"I believe these will be the appropriate size," Kurogiri spoke up behind Spinner startling him as he was pulling off Kota's shirt.
"Thanks," Spinner commented and after waiting for Kurogiri to be out of ear shot he whispered in Kota's ear, "I'm going to find a way to get you out of here I promise."
After finishing changing Kota he led the boy out while carrying the boy's clothes. "He didn't have anything on him."
"Good," Tomura commented, then grabbed the articles causing them to decay right in front of the boy's face, "That's going to happen to you, if you don't behave, got it?" Dabi walked over and snapped some handcuffs on the kid followed by putting duck tape over his eyes.
"I'll watch him got it," Spinner snapped at the others, "Besides you wouldn't want to set a bad impression for your other guest." Inside he was trying to figure out how to get the kid out of there, 'I don't mind killing false heroes, but this is a just a kid for goodness sakes, and we don't even have the other person we were going to use him as leverage on.' He led the kid over to a corner at the far side of the bar and got him to sit down. He got a blanket to put over the kid. "Stay quiet okay kid, say what's your name?"
"K-kota."
"Okay Kota, you can call me Spinner, now just stay quiet and hopefully they'll forget about you." At that he grabbed a chair and positioned himself so he was between the boy and the others.
Notes:
For those that guessed Mineta was on the capture list, sorry the additions were Ragdoll and Kota. Mineta was on the kill list just to get at Midoriya as was Uraraka, if they were killed coupled with Kota being on hand for Tomura to torture and use as a hostage, Izuku would have been shattered irrevocably. Fortunately for Mineta, his small size and reflexes saved his life because Hagakure was not used to fighting someone as small as him. Early ideas was for Mineta to actually get killed in this chapter, but he seems to have more lives than a cat via dice rolls (Specifically, Kaminari succeeded in his roll to restart Mineta's heart with a natural 20 on the third roll).
In any case just abducting Kota and not Midoriya too was not in their game plan. I was leaning that Kota wouldn't be abducted, but I left it to the dice and well Kota wasn't so lucky. That said, this is putting Spinner at odds with his compatriots due to Spinner having a sense of honor in following Stain's will and in his mind Kota is an innocent.
As for Hagakure, I had been hinting the spy wasn't exactly willing, if you've ever seen Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, you'd see where I got my idea of the creature, though there are other possible inspirations such as Star Gate SG-1.
