The moment Kirishima let out that strangled gasp, Momo knew their plan had gone to shit.
It had been the most likely scenario, really, and she knew that. She'd been so sure that once the boys saw how stacked the odds would be against them, they would relent — they just had to make it that far. With the sole exception of Kirishima, none of them were hotheads, and even he had reeled himself in in lieu of the seriousness the situation required. But as Kirishima wavered up on top of Iida's shoulders, Momo's fight-or-flight instincts kicked in, and they told her to run.
She'd seen at the training camp what the League of Villains was capable of. There were some villains they couldn't afford to encounter on their own when they couldn't use their quirks. It was just too dangerous. From where she stood on the ground, looking up at Kirishima's face, she knew that's exactly what they had run into.
"Hey, are you okay?" Midoriya hissed as Kirishima grabbed onto the wall to keep himself steady.
Below Midoriya, Todoroki added, "What's wrong? You weren't spotted, were you?"
"The back left. The corner, Midoriya. Look."
That's all Kirishima said as he passed the night vision scopes to Midoriya. His eyes were focused down below him, and Momo could see him shaking. If he'd been seen then he wouldn't be giving Midoriya the binoculars — and her head filled with all the things that could possibly be worse. Like Bakugo strung up and dead.
"No way," Midoriya breathed. "Are those all…Nomu?"
"Are you serious?" Momo hissed, taking a step back. "How many?"
"At least ten of them," Kirishima said.
It made sense that her tracker had led her to the Nomus, though. She'd tagged one of them, after all, not Bakugo, and it shouldn't surprise her that there were more of those things. It was probably for the best she'd been unconscious through most of the chase in the woods — she'd been spared the worst memories of it.
"What do we do?" Midoriya asked. "We can't just walk away."
"We call the Pros in!" Iida said without a moment of hesitation.
Todoroki caught them all off-guard; "I think we should tell the Pros, but I still think we should go in."
"Are you crazy?" Iida was lowering Kirishima back to the ground. "We can't use our powers to attack villains!"
"We won't fight them," she said.
Everyone turned to look at her in surprise as she spoke.
"If anyone or anything leaves this building, it could be a disaster of monstrous proportions," Momo explained slowly, the idea growing in her head as she spoke, "We just need to make sure nothing can get out of this building."
"Then let's bar the doors and call the police! They would be here within minutes, Heroes in tow to secure the scene. There's no reason for us to get more involved."
"How do we do this?" Kirishima asked her, ignoring Iida and already on board. Deku and Todoroki's reservations were written on their faces, but they voiced no objection as Momo laid out her plan to them. Iida looked increasingly horrified the more she explained.
"That is insane," Iida insisted.
Todoroki asked, "Are you sure you can do it?"
She heard the question in his voice — the real question. It was a blow to her nerves at first, but it was Deku's reassuring nod that pushed her through.
"Yes."
They boys looked away while she created and changed into black clothes, then they helped to lift her over the wall. Kirishima and a reluctant Iida followed. Iida lifted her up and she made a glass cutter, and ran it along the edges of the lowest window. It gave a low whistle as she did, and she paused to press her face to the glass every so often to check for movement inside. Once she had it cut, Kirishima was lifted up again and he pushed on the rectangle she'd cut out. The glass popped out, harmless against his hardened hand, and he snatch it out of the air before it could fall and shatter on the ground.
"Are you sure about this?" Iida asked again.
"Yes."
"I'll call the police once you come back out. If this were one of the others, I wouldn't let this happen — but I trust you, you aren't headstrong or rash. I trust your analysis."
He was putting his faith in her completely in this moment. She would go inside and rig the building with explosives, and then they could each take a place to observe the building from and guard it until sufficient Heroes arrives to deal with the threat of the Nomus. If they saw any of the Nomus being released or leaving the building, they would blow it all up.
Iida gave her a bow, then laced his fingers together to create a foothold to boost her. Momo put her foot in his hand, holding onto his shoulder and the wall as he lifted her up high enough for her to slip inside.
Her foot touched on the empty top shelf of a rack, and Momo crouched as low on it as she could so that she didn't have the window illuminating her back. She stayed there for a long minute just holding her breath and looking around in horror.
There were twelve tanks in the back of the room, glowing dimly, lit by the line of screens on the wall behind them. She could see that each Nomu was different than the ones in the tanks beside it. She couldn't see anyone else in the room besides them. Momo crept down the shelves, testing her footing before committing to each movement, until she was on the ground.
Her phone began vibrating.
Her eyes opened wide and for a moment she was completely paralyzed, uncertain of what to do. She'd brought both her phones — her regular phone, and the burner. At first she thought maybe it was the boys from outside, calling to warn her about incoming danger. Except it was the burner that was ringing.
Momo took it from where she'd tucked it in her bra, and saw the number for Aizawa's burner on the screen. She second-guessed herself for a half second before she pressed a button to ignore the call. She hadn't even put it away when it began to ring again. Now there was a lump in her throat as she ignored it a second time. Momo stuffed it back in her bra
Her body clenched as she created cyclonite — O₂N₂CH₂, scentless, tasteless, combustible — and wire. The phone was ringing again, and she closed her eyes against it, shutting him out. When she opened them, she advanced around the room to plant the explosives, rolling out the wire as she went along.
She didn't know a lot about demolition, but she felt like she knew enough. The warehouse was made of primarily steel, not concrete, so dynamite was a less than ideal explosive to use. For this, it would build up an electrical charge and, when current was sent through the wire, it would heat and ignite. The RDX would make short work of the steel, and hopefully collapse the building directly onto itself — destroying the facility and the Nomus before any further danger could come from them.
The phone rang again.
He wasn't going to stop, she realized with dismay. Momo held her breath as she quickly created a headset and slid it on over her hair, bending the microphone close to her lips, then she took the phone back out. She'd already missed the call by the time she had it set up, but it began ringing for the fourth time after only a few seconds reprieve. She was in a corner, in the shadows. It was as safe as she was going to feel here. Momo knelt.
"Where are you," Aizawa demanded as soon as the line connected, before she could even get a word out.
Her heart pounded. Pounded. If there was anyone else in the vicinity, they could've heard it, she was sure. "The hospital. I was asleep."
"You're a shit liar. You think I can't track location on my own burners? What do you think you're doing?"
"I'm with Todoroki, Midoriya, Iida, and Kirishima," she whispered, eyes darting around her, probing as deeply into the shadows as the naked eye could see.
"That list of names should reassure me more than it does."
"We are safe."
She breathed those words as she crept low between the Nomu tanks. The glow of the nearby screens lit up the fluid inside, and this close up she could see the texture of their skin, the creases of their joints. Their eyes were open, and she watched them closely to see if their pupils would track her movements. They didn't.
"Don't bullshit me. If you're were safe you wouldn't be whispering. Your tracker traced the chainsaw Nomu to the same area you're in."
Momo said nothing as she paused in a crouch to create more explosive, placing it as strategically as she could around what appeared to be load-bearing beams. Next she manifested the detonator. Her palm felt slick with sweat and it was hard to grip.
"You need to get the hell out of there," Aizawa continued when she didn't reply. "The police have the situation—"
"What an interesting quirk you have."
Momo gasped aloud despite herself, flinching hard at the unexpected male voice. Her eyes rose, looking into the shadows ahead of her, but she saw nothing.
"What was that?" Aizawa demanded in her ear. She couldn't find words to answer him as she slowly pushed herself up to her feet. Her tongue was too thick to talk around, her throat too swollen to communicate. Aizawa was saying her name now, trying to get her attention.
"You should answer your friend," the voice continued. It sounded closer now, and from a different place. But how? She hadn't heard anyone move. "They'll be worried."
Strangely, she felt like she'd needed that permission. Something in their tone, soft and soothing as it was, coaxed and comforter, even though she could hear the danger lacing every word.
"S-Someone's here with me," she breathed.
"Yaoyorozu, get out now—"
"What are the limitations of your quirk? I have seen you in pictures, and at the festival and have heard a little of you from the training camp. You are the girl who carries a book. You make things."
This time the voice was close. Unbearably close. The hair rose on the back of her neck as movement in her peripheral vision caught her attention, and she turned.
He stood on the other side of the Nomu tank, his height towering over her. He was almost as tall as All Might, and broad shouldered beneath his suit jacket. A man of his size shouldn't have been able to move so soundlessly. His face was hidden by a mask with breathing apparatus protruding from it. His aura commanded authority. She had no idea who this villain was, but she knew already this was behind her scope. Her lips parted, shock settling deep, and she wanted to scream. She desperately needed to scream, but every receptor in her brain felt disconnected.
"Yaoyorozu, answer me!"
She was helpless, stricken, as a black oil slick seemed to fill one of the Nomu's tanks. It engulfed the Nomu and, before the wheels started turning for her again, the Nomu was suddenly gone from its tank and towering in front of her. Its muscles rippled and quivered under its gray skin as its body awakened. She could see the pulsing throb of its exposed brain matter. They were between her and her exit. The Nomu gave a grunt.
That did it. It made her feet move. Momo tripped over them as she scrambled away, putting distance between herself and the Nomu. The monster was slack-jawed. Then it blinked, expressionless, but she could see the fog leaving its vision. Aizawa was in her ear, but she couldn't understand what he was saying.
"Capture her for me," the man ordered. "Unharmed if possible. Keep her alive."
The man was turning away from her, trusting the Nomu to do what it needed to without further supervision. It hadn't seemed to have snapped out of its daze quite yet as she spun on her heel, stumbling in her haste, and fled deeper into the warehouse.
"Talk to me!"
Aizawa's words finally registered as she bolted across the concrete floor, her mind completely void of any idea or plan except the most base instinct to survive.
"Nomu!" was all she could manage to say, her eyes flashing around the room, panic cutting deep as she searched for an escape. No windows. Emergency exit blocked by a pallet of crates. Overhead, under sickly dim yellow lights, a cat walk with no obvious access. There was a heavy metal door ahead of her, the only place to go by design. Behind her, the shrieking cry of a predator, then a single heavy footstep.
"—called the police, they're on the way, hold on—"
Momo's hands grabbed the heavy, horizontal handle of the door and pulled, only dimly aware that her hands were empty, the detonator gone, dropped somewhere along the way. Cold air and darkness slapped her face. She heard another crashing step — it'd been only a heartbeat, but it was behind her. She was sure she felt its heavy breath on the nape of her neck as she dove into the darkness. There was only a split second when she turned as she pulled the door shut behind her, and its yellow eyes were an arms length away, maw open. So many teeth.
She was pressed against the door, fingers fumbling to figure out the handle mechanism. The scream she'd been holding onto ricocheted around her when there was a terrible slam on the outside of the door when the Nomu crashed into it. The thick metal dented, throwing her backward.
"What's happening, Yaoyorozu—"
She had to secure the door. It was her only coherent thought as she fumbled for her other phone, hands quaking so badly she almost dropped it, and turned on the flashlight. A howl bounced off the outside of the door, and she screamed again as a corner of the metal bent — it was going to rip the door off its hinges. She saw the heavy interior bolt and reached out with both hands, slamming it home.
"I'm right here, hold on, help is coming, it's going to be okay—"
The metal groaned and she watched it buckle under the beam of light. Her body felt so cold. She took a step backward, shaking, as the corner of the door bent another inch. A sliver of light from outside was visible now.
The entire building jolted, a tremor quivering through the structure — the dim light she'd seen blinked out. The room suddenly went quiet. Momo held her breath, eyes riveted to the door, but nothing more happened. She heard dim sounds, muffled and centuries away, from the other side of the door. She exhaled and saw her breath.
The cold wasn't her fear, she realized now. She was inside an industrial freezer.
"Say something," Aizawa demanded.
"I—I'm here," she answered, shivering. She didn't take her eyes off the door.
"The Heroes are on site, they've seized all the Nomus. Are you injured?"
"No, I'm okay. I barricaded myself inside a freezer." The tightness in her chest seemed to relax enough for her to breathe. They had apprehended the Nomus — it was safe. She leaned in to swing the interior bolt upward, and the cold metal didn't so much as budge under her hands.
"I can't get out," she reported, surveying the door more carefully now under the beam of her phone's flashlight. "The Nomu bent the door trying to get in, now it won't open."
"Okay," Aizawa said, and she could hear the strain in his voice. The worst of the danger was passed now, it was only a matter of patience for the Heroes and firefighters to be able to get her out. She turned off the light to save her battery. "I'll let someone know you're in there, just hang on."
"Did they capture the man, too?" Momo asked.
"What?"
"The man with the respirator — did they capture him?"
There was scrambling on the other end of the line and Momo tensed. She swallowed hard, wrapping her arms around herself. His voice returned, but he sounded panicked. He was afraid, and that scared her worst. "You need to get out of there. Now."
"I can't, Mr. Aizawa, the door—"
"Look around you, is there a vent or anything you can crawl out of?"
"Let me look—"
A shockwave rippled over the fridge and Momo lost her balance from the force. Her hands flew out blindly to catch herself, and she grabbed onto a frozen, stiff arm.
Momo gave a blood-curdling scream of horror. She snatched her hand back, afraid to touch anything, afraid to wipe her hand off, grabbing out her other phone and turning on the light.
She screamed again. She didn't even know she was screaming anymore as, wide-eyed and shaking, she watched the man she'd bumped into swayed stiffly on the meat hooks protruding from beneath each collarbone. The his face was slack, jaw dropped, and eyes frosty white. A thin layer of crystals dusted his cheeks and sparkled under the light of her phone. A puddle of congealed blood made a dark, sticky mark beneath him. His long, dark shadow swayed behind it. He was dead, frozen solid, swinging gently for her. The sound of her screams ricocheted off the metals walls and back to her ears, but she was deaf to the sound as her eyes finally registered what laid beyond the first body.
More bodies. More bodies hanging like fruit from trees. More than she could count, each more dead than the last. Maws open and violently purple, tongues frozen stiff where they'd once limply stuck out. Some hung fully dressed, others naked. The visible wounds on some were sticky red and black. Others were horribly mutilated, empty cavities exposed and limbs missing. The weak light from her phone made dark hollows under their eyes. Each hung from meat hooks, like stockings over the fire. Momo spun around, pounding her fists frantically against the door.
"Get me out! Get me out of here!" she screamed, hysterics bubbling up in her throat and out her mouth. "Please, someone let me out!"
A deafening crack splintered through the air, loud enough to make her ears ring. The entire freezer shook, and she heard a loud thud as a body fell to the floor behind her. She collapsed onto the ground, covering her head with her arms, as the door of the freezer was pelted on the outside by debris. She wondered if something had detonated the RDX. Then a tremendous crash, and the ceiling of the freezer bowed.
"Yaoyorozu—" Aizawa's voice crackled in her headset.
"I'm here, I'm here, the freezer has dead bodies in it," Momo wept. "Please get me out, please—"
The flashlight illuminated the bodies, all dusted in ice crystals and sparkling, swaying in the aftermath of the shockwave. Their faces had frozen puffy, and the skin was red around their eyes. Their lips and fingertips were tinted blue. Long shadows climbed the metal wall of the freezer behind them.
"Shit—" A pause. "Stay on the phone with me. The area is being evacuated — All Might is fighting a villain there. It's going to be a little longer for help to arrive. I'm on my way. Stay on the phone."
"Please hurry!"
"Turn off your light," he instructed. His voice was strained, but collected. "Don't look at the bodies anymore."
Momo made a half-sobbed sound in acknowledgement, and did as he bid. The corpses twinkled in front of her, then the room plunged into darkness. She could see them still in her head.
"What are you wearing?"
"What?" she asked, jarred by his question.
"You're in a freezer, it has to be cold. Do you have a jacket? Are you in warm clothes?"
"I—Pants and a shirt But I'm not cold."
"You're in shock, Yaoyorozu. You're not feeling it yet and when you do it may be too late. Focus. Make yourself warm clothes."
She did as he bid, creating a pair of boots, gloves, and a jacket. She had only just pulled them on when another blast hit the freezer. Momo struggled to keep her balance as the ground shook beneath her, and she heard the freezer door give a mighty groan. There was a slam overhead, and the metal of the freezer shrieked. She heard another body fall to the floor.
"What was that?" he asked.
"I think the roof is caving in," Momo reported with uncertainty. She squatted down, wrapping her arms around her knees. "It sounds like—like something fell on the building."
"Stay on the phone with me. It's going to be okay. I'm coming."
Momo closed her eyes and nodded. The cold air of the freezer felt like Death laying a kiss on her cheeks. But there was so much conviction in his tone that she allowed herself believe in him. He was on his way, All Might would defeat the villain, and—and there were bodies in here with her. Dead, murdered people hanging from hooks like cattle. Her breathing went ragged again.
"Talk to me, Yaoyorozu," Aizawa prompted her.
"I'm scared."
"It's okay to be afraid—"
Momo screamed as another smashed rocked the building. Sharp metal slammed into her back, jettisoning her forward and she went sliding across the floor. Legs and shoes thumped against her head as she careened under the dead bodies overhead, and weighty thumps followed her path. Her head knocked into the wall — her vision flashed white hot and pain splintered from the front of her head all the way through the back of her skull. Something heavy and cold dropped onto her, and stiff limbs tangled with hers. Momo's cry was clipped and broken, coming on like hiccups as she struggled to get out from underneath it. She finally scuttled out, head spinning and bile in her throat. Her back felt wet.
"Are you okay? Momo?"
"I—I'm not sure," she groaned, on her hands and knees. Even in the darkness she could feel her vision swimming.
"What happened? How bad is it?"
Her voice came out as barely a whisper. "I'd have to turn on the light to see."
"Okay. Turn it on. I'm right here," Aizawa said.
Momo pulled out her phone again, keeping her eyes shut even after she turned the light on. She tried to steady her breathing. She tried to match her to the sound of Aizawa's breathing across the line. Her back was beginning to sting.
She opened her eyes.
"The—The door is caved in," she managed. She could see where the metal had broken, split horizontally. "Completely collapsed. It looks like the building is coming down." She closed her eyes, steeling herself for what she had to do next. "The ceiling is collapsing, too, from the looks of it."
She felt vomit rising in her throat and she gagged, choking it down as she watched the bodies swaying above her. The bar the hooks had held onto was bent, and the bodies were sliding to the center. A handful had already fallen, and laid in awkward, broken positions across the floor.
She took off a glove and twisted her arm backward and reached up underneath her jacket. Her skin was wet; blood. Momo's face scrunched — she was beginning to feel the cut now. She pulled her glove back on.
Another shockwave hit her shelter, and Momo scrambled away from the door as snapped off its hinges and the ceiling caved in completely. Dust exploded into the freezer, and she turned away, burying her face in the crook of her arm. The room spun in front of her eyes, and she pressed her hands against the floor.
"Are you there? Answer me."
"I—"
"Just hold on, I'm getting close to your area. All Might and the villain are still—"
Another explosion rocked her, and she looked up, horrified, as the ceiling over the door began to cave in. Debris rained down on her head, and Momo scrambled to escape it — the only way was deeper into the freezer. As the ceiling slanted, giving in under the weight of the collapsing building on top of it, more corpses thunked onto the floor. One's arm landed across her leg. She yanked away from it, curling up tight and cover her head with her hands. Her head was pounding.
"You can do this," Aizawa reassured her. "Just a little longer."
She sobbed as the ceiling gave, and she heard more bodies dropping. Bile was in her throat, and her stomach threatened to retch as she stared at the frozen people laying all around her. A pair of shoes swung back and forth inches from her face. Another shift in the structure. Momo covered her mouth with her glove to muffle her weeping as the bodies dumped off the bar above, landing in a pile in front of her. The body atop the pile rolled down, limbs flailing, and landed heavily against her legs. The ceiling was inches above her head,Ike the entire freezer was being flattened. Momo tried to turn away, but there was no more room in front of her as the bodies piled around her. She tried, shaking, to push it always sign her feet — and only succeeded in another body tumbling down and landing in her lap. She flung it away with a shriek, but it was heavy and frozen stiff, and even after she moved it, it was still pressing against her hip.
"It's touching me," she moaned, trying not to gag.
"Do you have the light on?" Aizawa asked.
"Yes."
"Turn it off. You don't have to see this, Momo. You don't have to look."
She listened, and the small space went dark. She closed her eyes, doing her best to ignore the bodies touching her. They were so cold, it almost felt like she was being burned.
"How do you get a binary molecular compound?"
The question caught her off-guard. "Uh. They're formed as the result of a reaction between two non-metals."
The ceiling groaned forebodingly. A sob came up in her throat, and she choked on it when she tried to push it back down.
"List five polyatomic ions."
"Nitrate, cyanide—"
The bodies were touching her.
"Keep going," he said.
"Sulfate, phosphate."
The bodies were touching her.
"Momo. I said five."
"Nitrate."
"You said that one already."
"Ammonium."
He stayed, quizzing her. Grounding her. Taking her away from the dead bodies closing in on her as they began to thaw in the small space, muscles going wet and soft. Keeping her safe for precious seconds in the darkness, keeping her safe as it tried to consume little pieces of her she could never get back.
"What's the pH of milk."
"It contains lactic acid so slightly acidic."
"What is a raincoat made of?" he asked.
"P-Polychloroethene."
"When's your birthday?"
"Huh?" She blinked, more surprised by it than his first question.
"When is your birthday."
"September 23rd," she said.
"Good, now ask me mine."
"Uh—When is your birthday?"
"November 8th," Aizawa answered. "What's your favorite movie?" She didn't want to tell him that. Her face got red at the thought of saying it aloud to him. "Oh this is going to be good," he laughed when she hesitated. "What is it?"
"Sharknado 2."
Then he laughed again, aloud, and a giggle and butterflies crept up on her out of nowhere. For a split second she forgot she was trapped in a freezer of dead bodies. For that split second, all she could do was drink in the sound of him laughing — really laughing.
"Those movies were terrible," he said.
"So you've watched them?" Momo asked pointedly.
"Next question."
"What's your favorite movie?"
"Godzilla, 1954."
She sputtered haplessly for a moment. "But—"
"Godzilla is a classic and the special effects style they used became a staple in cinematography," he cut her off. "The fight is over. All Might won. Rescue crews are entering the area now. I'm close by."
And just like that, the moment was gone. It was like a light flicked off, and she was back in the dark, entombed in this cold place where nothing living was meant to survive. Abruptly she wondered whether any of the people had still be alive when they'd been brought in here. In her head, she saw the man's body again, dangling in front of her — then he blinked.
"Please—"
"I'm not giving up on you."
She could hear yelling in the background of the phone call, and Aizawa's muffled voice — he must have covered his phone to talk to the rescue crews. In his silence, the darkness thickened. And, in her mind, the dead man blinked.
"Don't do that," Aizawa said, snapping her back. "Don't get quiet on me."
"I'm here," she whispered.
"Where did you last go on vacation?"
"Taiwan." Momo swallowed hard. "What about you?"
"I went to Italy once."
"I've never been there."
"You should go sometime. You'd enjoy it. How do you take your tea?"
"Plain. You don't drink tea," she stated.
"I don't?" he asked rhetorically, interest piqued.
"No. You drink black coffee with two sugars."
"You might have a future doing stealth missions," Aizawa murmured, voice lowering to a confiding whisper. "I knew you were tailing me — I didn't think you were paying that close attention though."
"I probably know all sorts of things about you that you don't realize yet," she said.
"Except my favorite movie."
"Except for favorite movie," Momo agreed.
"I tracked the location of your phone — I need you to listen. Tell me what you hear."
She did as he asked, and listened hard. Far, far away she heard a series of bangs.
"I—I heard tapping. Two short, two long."
"I'm above you with a rescue crew. We're coming." Momo gave a sob of relief, her head falling forward into her arms as she started crying anew. "It's going to take some time to get through the rubble and debris, but we're coming."
He stayed on the line with her while they dug her out. When, at last, a hand reached through the debris to her, she grabbed onto them as quickly as she could lest they slip away.
The firefighter pulled her up, her arms and legs scraping on broken metal and busted concrete on the way out, and it was like being born. Momo collapsed onto her hands and knees, sucking in lungfuls of good air, and he knelt in front of her.
He'd really come for her. She burst into tears again seeing him there. His hair was no longer slicked back, though he was still in his button up and slacks. He immediately draped his suit jacket around her shoulders, and he drew her to her feet and put an arm around her, leading her toward an ambulance. He didn't push her away as she clung to him, fingers buried in the material of his shirt and her face tucked into his chest.
Behind them, the rescue crew began to excavate the bodies that had been trapped with her.