"So, what you're saying is that you called your friend at Tartarus, told them that it's probably Chargebolt and not Toga Himiko they have in there, and to kill him anyway?" Nato pressed, hissing through his teeth, eyes narrowed.
The agent smiled, glad to know that Nato was keeping up. They should really clue in their PR guy more often!
"Yes! I was thinking of arranging for an accident or something, but those guys there are professionals and decided to just stick Chargebolt in a room with Full Throttle and let them go at each other. Two birds, one stone. You know?"
The other agents winced. One sucked in a breath through her teeth and looked away, finding the wall more bearable to look at.
"Right, right," Nato said. "And what was the reasoning behind that, exactly?"
The agent frowned. Maybe this guy wasn't as smart as he gave him credit for. He sighed, and started to explain, figuring he could be a team player and dumb it down for him. "If we're getting Chargebolt out of the picture, it's best to get rid of Full Throttle, too. We wipe our hands clean of it all. We'll just have to send the word to whatever holding cell has Phantasm to really secure everything."
"Phantasm has escaped," one agent who opted to stand leaning against the wall instead of sitting in a free chair said, glancing down at his phone where the update glared up at him.
The first agent laughed nervously. "Well, that can easily be fixed. After that, no problem! No evidence, no witnesses, nothing!"
"Except," Nato started, and the agent realized by his tone that he might have messed up somewhere, "the mistake is all over the news, the evidence of Chargebolt's mistreatment is all over the walls," he said through gritted teeth, gesturing toward the projected images behind him, "and this is supposed to be a goddamn hero organization."
Nato rifled through the folders on the table in front of him and pulled out the one that held his contract. "This here. This says nothing about helping criminals get away with murder. Literal murder."
"We aren't criminals," the agent argued, turning to his colleagues for support, but finding none.
"Let's look up the definition of criminal, shall we?" Nato offered, pulling out his own phone. "And then you can join the others in the corner." Huffing as he looked around the room, he asked, "are there any rooms in this building with more than four corners? We're quickly running out. I'm thinking like an octagonal room might be better suited for us."
The agent furrowed his brow as he looked around in confusion, silently counting to himself. "There are only nine of us in here."
Nato's grin wasn't what anyone would describe as friendly. "Exactly."
"Nato," the agent leaning against the wall alerted, glancing up at Nato from his phone where he was still getting alerts about the current situation that was still unfolding even as they were meeting about it. "You might want to turn on the news. Channel six."
The images of Chargebolt's black eye and bruised form staring sulkily at the meeting's inhabitants changed to the news, and Nato reached forward for the controls to turn the volume up.
"As you can see behind us, and as we'll play as soon as we get the footage turned around on-site, we are experiencing a first in the history of Tartarus. The first escape, caught on camera, only here, on channel six news! Stay tuned!"
"I wonder who that could be," Nato muttered under his breath, the barely-there amusement quickly dimming further.
"I'll bet two days PTO that it's Chargebolt," the agent against the wall supplied helpfully.
"There's no way," the woman who incessantly tapped her fingernails against the tabletop commented. Nato wondered how it didn't hurt her fingers to do that constantly. "We can't be that unlucky, no matter what he says about how lucky he is."
When the footage blasted through the room, showing the lightning strikes moving quickly away from a crumbling Tartarus, the agent against the wall laughed. "So, that PTO. Will you transfer that to me now via the app or later through hardcopy paperwork?"
The woman scowled, but pulled out her phone and logged into the app.
"This might have just solved our problems!" the agent that was about to stand in the corner exclaimed, slamming his hand down on the table as he stood up, his eyes glued to his own phone screen. "My contact at Tartarus said that the initial sweep showed that Full Throttle is gone, too! If Chargebolt helped Full Throttle escape, there's no way for him to turn that into a positive! We can take him down without having to hide anything because he'd turn into public enemy number one!"
"What if he didn't do it willingly?" the agent against the wall asked as his phone pinged with the notification of two days' worth of PTO being transferred to his account. He quickly thumbed over the acceptance of the transfer. "What if Full Throttle got to him, and your stupid plan backfired on everyone? What if Chargebolt hightailed it out of there so he wouldn't bring everyone down with him, and what if Full Throttle just happened to use the chaos to escape on his own terms? We can jump the gun on this; if we're wrong about this, we'll dig ourselves into an even deeper hole than we're in already."
"I hope you're all wrong," Nato said. "The last thing we need is for Chargebolt to become an enemy, here."
"He chose that for himself when he didn't agree to our terms—" the woman who was already agitated because she had lost two days of PTO argued but was cut off by Nato.
"You mean when you tried to strongarm him against his will? Going directly against the contract you hold with UA? That time?" Nato sighed, agitated to the highest degree. "I think we could spread all the rumors with all the evidence, fake or real, we wanted. I don't think it would make much of a difference. Out of all the heroes, Chargebolt was a poor decision to make an enemy out of. He's loved by the people."
"With the right rumors, that can be changed."
"I don't think you get it," Nato spat, standing up from his chair and pushing away from the table. "Even if I would overlook the legality of falsifying information to try to push this under the rug, Chargebolt is the one who is out on the streets. He's the one who is saving people, giving kids high fives and signing autographs, and talking to the press. He's the face that people see on TV and if they happen to be in a collapsed building when they aren't sure they'll ever see their loved ones again only to see his smiling face and hear his voice telling them that it's going to be okay. And who are you people?! Huh?! Who the hell is going to believe anything you have to say about that fucking ray of sunshine over what they already know about him from personal experience?"
Nato stalked to the door, anger wafting off of him. The agents who had the displeasure of still being in the corner hunkered their shoulders up to their ears in anticipation of what might come next without risking turning around to see.
"If Chargebolt doesn't rightfully take us for everything we're worth, then he's going to be our goddamn hero, too. You'd be smart to keep that in mind for any future plans you have regarding him. I'm going to recommend to the council that any private actions not be protected by the Commission as a whole and be fully punishable to the fullest extent of the law. Please keep that in mind for anyone who thinks of going off on their own with any more idiot fucking plans in the future, yeah?"
Nato stormed through the door, slamming it behind him without waiting for a response, so he missed the curse that the agent who barely escape getting sent to the corner muttered under his breath.
He had already sent the go-ahead to cause a big distraction in the city.
-.-.-
It was the seventh… or maybe the eighth time… Isozan lost track. It was either the seventh or eighth time since making it to the mountain top that Denki's electricity had built up too much for him to contain.
The first time, Denki had electricity zapping off of him, Isozan was close to panicking, but Denki had just smiled, as he looked out toward the direction of the city—not that they could see anything through the trees—and sang, "I'll be here to hold your hand, I will wait for you, I will wait for you."
Denki then told him to wait right there, took a few steps away, and did something that Isozan had never imagined possible.
Standing in the middle of the clearing, Denki had closed his eyes, and instead of suppressing the charge, he allowed it to overtake him and consume him completely. A bolt of lightning struck, and he was gone, nothing but a scorch mark in the dirt where he had stood.
Isozan had freaked out. Of course, he had. He knew it was a bad idea. He had tried to warn Denki that he wouldn't be able to manage it, but Denki had seemed so sure of himself that Isozan figured Denki must have figured something out that he didn't know himself.
Right before Isozan could collapse with the overwhelming feeling of dread and helplessness, another strike of lightning struck the same exact area, and Isozan directed his eyes upwards to find Denki falling through the air from a great height.
So, Isozan naturally panicked again for another reason.
But, before Denki could hit the ground, the lightning would strike again, and he'd just be a speck in the sky before he'd appear to get larger as he'd free fall once again. Isozan would think he was dead if he didn't figure out that it was his quirk that was doing all that. He looked so peaceful as he lazily spun through the air, arms and legs spread, spinning and flipping however the wind deemed it necessary to move him.
When another bolt of lightning struck only for Denki to land right in front of Isozan, smiling and shaking off excess electricity like water after getting out of a pool, Isozan could only stare.
"What?" Denki had the audacity to ask.
"What?" Isozan repeated with a squawk. "What do you mean what? I thought you died, you dick!"
"Oh," Denki said, a conflicted look on his face as he brought his hand to his chin in thought.
Isozan did notice the difference immediately. Whereas seconds before, lightning had been striking off of him and his eyes had been glowing, his hair lifting uncontrollably, it was almost like his quirk was not inherently on at that point after getting rid of all the excess energy. It made Isozan feel better, that maybe he did know what he was talking about and that he would be able to make it until the quirk Full Throttle wore off.
"I'll just bring you with me next time, then! So, then you won't need to worry!" Denki offered, eyes squinting with the force of his smile.
"Uh, what?" Isozan asked.
"Yeah! Actually, come here! I'll show you what it's like right now!" Denki said, reaching out for Isozan.
"Oh, fuck that!" Isozan screeched and bolted away, a laughing Denki chasing him until they both ended up out of breath and laughing on the plush grass carpet covering the mountaintop.
"It does look peaceful," Isozan admitted after taking some deep breaths, turning his eyes up to watch the clouds through the leaves of the trees. "You even had your eyes closed as you let yourself fall. I can guarantee that I wouldn't be so relaxed, though."
"You have control issues, Isozan?" Denki teased.
"I'll say no to your face," Isozan said, "but then I'd be crawling all over you like a cat trying to avoid a bath if you ever actually tried to get me to do that with you."
Denki burst into laughter once again but didn't try to take Isozan with him every time he repeated the maneuver to let of excess energy that built up due to Isozan's quirk, leaving him to watch from the security of the ground beneath his feet.
"Do a flip!" Isozan yelled.
Denki, the overachiever he was, pulled his legs up into his chest and tucked himself into a tight ball, allowing himself to flip the whole way from the top of one lightning flash to about ten feet from the ground until another lightning flash put him right in front of Isozan once again.
Isozan let out a whoop of approval while simultaneously reaching out for Denki to steady him as he tilted and laughed, dizzy from the quick, endless spinning.
-.-.-
Neito and Hitoshi were booking it through the city, going in as straight of a line as possible from Tartarus to the last place they think they say lightning strike down, when the ground rumbled under their feet.
Civilians came pouring out of the nearest underground metro station, screaming for help, some already bloody and bruised, stumbling around with delirium from fear, pain, or both.
Hitoshi and Neito shared a pained glance, shooting once last longing look toward the mountain before changing course and descending into the metro station, running down the stairs against the masses running, stumbling, scrambling up.
"Time is running out for the magic pair, I know you gave the best that you have, But one more chance, Couldn't be all that hard to bear, Wait for me please, Wait for me," Neito sang under his breath as he ran, Hitoshi shooting a grateful glance in his direction.
I'll be here to hold your hand, I will wait for you, I will wait for you.
That quick glance was all Hitoshi could spare at the moment; he had to turn his gaze right back in front of him to avoid crashing into any incoming, panicking civilians. They would just have to trust that Denki would be able to hold out until he could get to him, or until Neito could.
Before they split up, Hitoshi running down the south tunnel and Neito running north, Neito and Hitoshi reached out for each other. A brush of the fingers, one last glance that said everything that they didn't have time to actually say, and they split up.
Neito wondered if Hitoshi was having better luck than he was as he looked around the derailed subway car. The civilians were mostly uninjured but had stayed put, not daring to make their way out and around the tense group of villains that guarded their hostages.
Hitoshi cursed under his breath as the dust settled heavier in his lungs, pulling his capture weapon around his face to better filter the air as he made his way deeper into the tunnel, softly calling out for anyone who didn't get out.
"In here!" a voice whisper-yelled, then coughed. "I'm stuck," the voice rasped from inside a station office, the door blasted off its hinges and light flickering ominously.
Hitoshi ventured in quickly and carefully and swore under his breath as the man began to struggle and panic.
"Not you! Anyone but you! Please!"
A/N: I'm literally giddy with excitement as I post this chapter for you, shrieking in evil delight at what I've just done!
Songs used in this chapter:
Wait for Me – Hall & Oates
Wait for You – Tom Walker, featuring Zoe Wees