The second chapter is here! I'm having fun writing this... Enjoy!
Chapter 2: Blackout
It was dark—Pitch black, in fact. Bakugo could see absolutely nothing. The elevator he was in had stopped working, having left him in completely silent darkness. A power failure? Maybe it had something to do with the loud noises from just seconds ago. The elevator had started trembling dangerously, which caused his heart to beat faster, but now everything was still. Something must've happened on the lower floors.
There was no light source anywhere, and his eyes couldn't adjust to the darkness, so he pulled out his phone to make some light. Then he remembered that it was pointless. It wouldn't even turn on. He felt the shattered surface of the phone's touch screen against his fingers. Anger growing inside him, he put the broken phone back into his pocket. He tried to push the buttons in the darkness, but nothing worked. Then he tried to knock on the metal doors hard and pressed his ear against the smooth and cool surface. Nothing. Absolute silence. Annoyed, he clicked his tongue and thought about calling someone. But of course, he couldn't, thanks to certain people. Fuck.
"What the hell's going on?" Bakugo muttered to himself and tried banging on the door once more. He waited a moment, but nothing happened. If he was correct, he'd just gone past the eleventh floor. He'd have to escape from the elevator by himself.
Luckily, they were taught in school about how to escape from an elevator that was stuck. In the absolute darkness, he blindly searched for the "stop" button and was glad to remember where it was. He pressed the button and then moved in front of the doors. The boy dug his fingers between the elevator doors and forced it open. He still couldn't see anything, so he searched for the shaft door on the lower part of the elevator, and kneeled down, still holding the doors open. It was easy to find and pull the interlock and open the door. It was dark in the hallway too, but at least he could see something, though they were only silhouettes. He also noticed how little room there was to fit through. He had to carefully crawl through a narrow gap. He could only wish that the elevator would stay put because if it started moving, it'd be bad. Very bad. In a short moment, he dropped down onto the floor mat with dark rectangular patterns.
Bakugo was right, he was on the eleventh floor. He could barely make out the floor's number above the elevator doors. Quickly glancing around, he saw nobody. It was tranquil and dark in the corridor. Something in the back of his mind told him to proceed deliberately. He could almost smell the threat in the air as he stared the stairs in front of the elevators. Up or down? The fact that he couldn't see outside disturbed him greatly. After a moment of hesitation, he decided to head down. That's where the ruckus had come from. He made his way down as quietly as he could, sliding his hand on the cool gold-colored railing. Every time he made a turn, he made sure to peek through the railing to make sure someone wouldn't surprise him.
He'd only descended two levels when he heard steps below. They were heavy and were heading up. Thinking feverishly, Bakugo decided to hide behind a corner and wait for the person to pass him. Then he realized that there were multiple steps, not just one pair. Two, perhaps? Were they enemies? Not ordinary people would sound so calm and collected in this situation. Now that he thought about it, it was very quiet. Anyway, it would be easy to take on to guys by surprise, but the problem was that he didn't know what their quirks were. Though he was powerful, there was always a chance of a lousy matchup that wouldn't necessarily favor him. Rushing into a fight blindly wasn't a good idea, not in this situation of which he knew absolutely nothing. It was also a fact that his quirk wasn't suited for sneaking missions, and his explosions could just gather more people around. And on the other hand, those two could be civilians for all he knew.
The two persons got closer, and though it was very unusual for his character, Bakugo turned around to jog quietly through the linear corridor. He really wanted to find out who they were, but a voice in his mind told him not to let the people — that he assumed were villains — learn about him yet. There were other stairs a little further away, but he felt painfully exposed in the empty hallway. Glancing back, he didn't see anybody. It was dark anyway, which was actually good for him. The darkness would provide him some cover, except if they had flashlights. Then there wouldn't be any benefits of moving in the dark. It's not like he had many options, though. When he thought about it, there was no emergency lightning like there would usually be if the ship's generators would fail. Emergency generators would provide enough energy to provide the necessary power to keep the ship's main system going. But now there were no lights, and the elevators didn't work either, indicating that something could be wrong with the emergency generators too.
Being lost in his thoughts, he suddenly realized that the noises had disappeared. There were no movements behind him, so he picked up the pace. The next staircase was close, he was almost there. He saw the silhouettes of the elevators in the darkness and knew that the stairs would be on the opposite of them. He was about to turn from the corner when a bright light shone right in his eyes, blinding him. Covering his eyes, he caught a glimpse of a tall man with a weird gun pointing at him. There was a click, and thanks to his incredible reflexes, he was able to dodge the small projectile from almost point-blank. Something scratched his right arm, and he pressed his palm against the man's face that had a mask on it, sending the enemy down with a blast.
Bakugo almost triumphed over his one-hit KO when another light pointed at him from his left. The enemies must've circled around the other way to take him by surprise. He turned to see another gun, but suddenly the man was thrown against an elevator door. It made a hollow thump sound, and then the man fell down, motionless. Where the man had stood just a second ago, was now a person with green lightning surrounding him.
"Kacchan!" the freckled boy exclaimed when he saw his classmate. "Found you!"
Bakugo wasn't sure if he was happy or not to see Deku grinning brightly in front of him. At least that stupidly happy smile annoyed him like usual. He glanced the unconscious men and recalled seeing many more of these red and black costumed people around the ship, but mostly on the lower floors, and that's where all his classmates were. An uneasy feeling grew inside him. "What the hell's going on out there?"
Midoriya's smile faded and was replaced with an anxious look. "I don't know. I was on my way up when I heard explosions. Then all the lights went out, and those men..." he pointed at the unconscious men on the floor. "...became hostile. One of them attacked me, but I defeated him easily. I knew something was off about them," he paused for a moment. "Are you okay?"
"You think those weaklings would manage to get a hit on me?" Bakugo stated but noticed his right arm growing numb. A tingling feeling reached from shoulder to tip of his fingers. It was the arm that was shot. The wound wasn't big, only a light scratch. He turned around, but it was too dark to see, so he ripped off one of the men's small flashlight from his black chest plate. The light was like a round button.
Midoriya followed him as he shone the light on the floor. He searched for a moment and spotted something gleaming in the bright light. A small bright-red needle, about ten centimeters long, was sticking from the carpet. Bakugo took it carefully between his fingers and examined it closely. It had a plain design, but on the other end was almost invisible slimy matter covering the tip of the needle. He compared it to his small wound, and if he stared closely, he noticed the same transparent slime on his damaged skin.
"What's that?" Midoriya asked, frowning. "Did you get shot?"
"It's just a scratch," Bakugo muttered, still examining the needle. "There's some kind of poison or some shit on the needle. Dammit!"
"Poison?" Midoriya gasped, eyes widening. "Are you okay? Do you feel ill?" the boy panicked.
"Shut it, nerd!" Bakugo snapped angrily. "I'm fucking fine, okay?! My right arm's pretty numb, but I can still move it well enough," he clenched his fist and opened it, and when he tried to create small explosions, they came out uncontrollably. He couldn't adjust their power like he wanted, some blasts were only sparks, some were bigger than he wanted. Then he used his quirk on his left palm, and everything was normal. "It's probably mean to paralyze its victims."
"It has to be quite strong if only a little amount reduces your control over your arm," Midoriya analyzed, sounding more interested than worried. He walked over to the other man's side and took his gun. "How does this work? Where's the trig—" The arm broke into pieces, startling Midoriya, and the pieces fell onto the floor.
"What the hell, Deku?" Bakugo looked at the mess and the shocked Midoriya.
"I didn't do anything!" Midoriya defended himself. "It just fell apart! Try it yourself!"
Bakugo tossed the needle onto the floor and went over to the other gun. He picked it up carefully and took a look. It was okay, nothing seemed broken, but when he slid his finger on a weirdly shaped switch that was probably the trigger, the weapon just fell apart in his hands like Jenga.
"See?" Midoriya nodded.
"Tch."
Dropping the rest of the gun parts down, Bakugo frowned. "Those are probably made so that only those bastards know how to use them. Otherwise, they'd just break so their opponents wouldn't be able to use them against them."
"Could be," Midoriya agreed and ripped a flashlight for himself off the other enemy. Now they both had lights to illuminate their path in the dark hallway.
But Bakugo switched off his light. It'd be easy to spot them if they had lights on, and now they only had to get down, and it could be done in darkness as well. The freckled boy understood and put out his light too.
Bakugo continued his way down in silence, only his and Midoriya's light steps thumped on the dark carpet.
Suddenly strong tremors threw them off balance. Bakugo managed to get a hold of a railing, while Midoriya fell onto his buttocks. It was like a train hitting brakes, though they weren't on tracks but an open sea.
"The hell is going on?!" Bakugo regained his balance but didn't loosen his grip in case the tremors would get stronger again.
Midoriya pulled himself up, eyes wide open. "Did we—Did we hit something?"
"How would I know, you idiot!" Bakugo snapped, continuing his way down faster, but the strong shaking prevented him from running. He was about to say something when he heard screaming from lower levels. Gunfire followed the noise and then more desperate screaming and angry shouting. The two boys looked at each other in confusion.
"There should be a window at the other end of this hallway," Midoriya managed to say in a hurry. "Let's go!"
Now Bakugo didn't care about how much noise he made as he ran through the corridor, Midoriya sprinting right behind. The tremors would kill the sounds anyway. The hallway was long and empty, but when they got to the end, Bakugo saw the light coming from behind a corner.
There was nobody around, so he skidded to a halt in front of the large window. The sun shone brightly in the cloudy sky, but they had no time to admire the beautiful weather. The two looked down below but saw nobody. The whole central park was desolate, there wasn't a single soul out there, and the glass parts were obliterated. The shopping district seemed to be empty from what he could see.
"What's happening?" Midoriya looked bewildered, hands pressed against the clean glass. "Where is everyone?"
No matter how closely he stared and tried to find any movement, Bakugo saw nothing. He punched the glass in frustration and turned away from the window. There were stairs right by them, and elevators too. He noticed that the tremors had weakened and almost wholly vanished along with the gunfire and screaming. In fact, it was almost dead silent like back in the stuck elevator. His brows were deeply furrowed as they walked to the next stairs and stopped, trying to listen if anybody was coming. He heard nothing, but the dim light coming from a window on the lower level gave him an ominous feeling, and the relaxing weather outside felt so distant.
"You could've chosen an even worse place," Monoma stated, whispering as he, Todoroki, and Aya were crouching under a counter of an ice cream kiosk. The seller wasn't there; the stall was supposed to be closed during the concert.
But Todoroki had quickly decided to invade the place when glittering glass rain showered down on everything. Luckily for them, the kiosk had a small roof that blocked most of the fallen shards. The rain had ended as quickly as it had begun. After that, there had been people screaming in fright and pain that was followed by gunfire and more shouting.
Now Todoroki could hear only quiet weeping and painful groaning. He didn't dare to look outside yet when he heard some men talking while leading terrified civilians away. He'd assumed that the men — who had an awfully similar voice to each other — were villains because they sounded way too calm toward the situation at hand. No matter how much he wanted to leap out of hiding and surprise the villains and save the innocent, he knew it was selfish and pointless. It would only cause harm toward everyone, especially Monoma and Aya, who were hiding with him. And the enemies had guns, which made it even more stupid idea to give himself away. Even though his ice was fast, it would be difficult to match the speed of a bullet.
Many unpleasant images went through his mind when he thought about his class. They'd probably all be cornered inside the theatre along with the hundreds of other people. They could be hurt or worse... He shook his head; he had to get those kinds of thoughts out of his head. On the other hand, Midoriya and Bakugo weren't with the others. They were out there and probably free, somehow he doubted that they'd be captured so easily.
"What do we do?" Aya whispered, trembling as she was still clinging onto Monoma's arm. "They're going to kill us!"
"No-one's going to get killed," Todoroki reassured with a faint smile. "I'll check the situation. Stay put."
"You better not let them see you," Monoma muttered doubtful expression on his face.
Todoroki slid from under the counter, wiping the glass out of his way with his shoe. He was as silent as he could and straightened enough to take a peek outside. What first caught his attention was the ice cream in front of him. There were glass shards among the different flavors of ice cream. He made a note in his mind to keep clear of this specific kiosk if he'd survive this situation. Licking sharp glass wasn't exactly on his top list of what-to-do-after-you-survive-a-villain-attack-on-a-cruise-ship. Not that he had any idea of what that list would even include.
He switched his focus from the deadly ice cream to what was going on in the shopping area. Not much was happening, actually. Fortunately, he saw no masked men or anybody else from where he was. Benches and tables were knocked over around the kiosk, and among the glass on the ground were ice cream and blood.
"I can't see or hear anybody," Todoroki said to the other two.
"So, can we leave?" Aya asked.
"I don't think it's a good idea. We don't know what's on the other side of the kiosk," Todoroki mentioned. There were no hideouts nearby. The closest store was about twenty meters straight from the ice cream kiosk. It was a clothing store, and the cloth stands in the shop was knocked over, probably from when people had taken cover inside the store. He assumed that the people had pushed the stands when they had ran inside, causing them to fall. Clothes were all over the place in the dark store with no lights.
They could cross the open space in no time, but it was like running through a corridor full of invisible laser pointers. Anybody could see them from far away, and if they went top speed, the glass would create noise and attract enemies. It was too risky, but it would also be dangerous to stay where they were. Somebody would find them sooner or later.
"I can go outside to look," Aya said suddenly and earned a confused look from Monoma and Todoroki.
"What?" Monoma questioned. "It's too dangerous. Let me handle this," he glanced at Todoroki. "I'll let him help too."
"No," Aya protested, almost raising his voice, but shut her mouth quickly. "They won't see me."
"If it's because you're small, then that won't help," Monoma insisted.
Todoroki hunkered next to her. "What's your quirk?"
"I can hide my presence entirely. No-one can see me or hear me," Aya explained proudly. "Only those who see me activate my quirk, can see and hear me, and if someone around me becomes clearly aware of my presence, my quirk loses its effect. Cool, huh?"
"That's," Monoma actually seemed impressed. "That is pretty handy."
"Yeah," Todoroki muttered, just as impressed as the blonde. "But it's still dangerous."
"I know, but if I can be of help, it's okay," the girl was persistent. "Please? If you could just lift me out of this kiosk, I can check if anyone's there."
Todoroki pondered her proposal for a moment. Then he held out his right hand against the top of the counter, and when he touched the smooth surface, a thin layer of ice slithered down the kiosk to the floor outside, covering the broken glass.
"Okay, I froze the shards so they wouldn't move, but it's still slippery, so watch out," Todoroki said, and Aya nodded.
He and Monoma grabbed the girl and rose her onto the counter as gently as they could, and Aya slid slowly to the edge of the counter. She got down quietly, focused expression on her face. No matter how brave she tried to act, there was a hint of fear in her eyes.
Todoroki swallowed. He didn't know if Aya was using her quirk, which made him nervous, but when the girl was standing steadily on the ice, she showed thumbs up, meaning that she was okay. He watched as she disappeared behind the kiosk, out of his field of view. As a hero in training, he didn't want to put a civilian in danger for him, but the situation was difficult, so all he could do was to trust in Aya.
It had been only a few minutes before Aya came back, but it had felt like hours for Todoroki. She leaned against the counter and spoke. "There's nobody here, but I saw a couple of those masked men leaving the shopping area just now. This may be our chance to move."
"Then we should go," Monoma stated and stood up. Rather than going over the counter, he left through the door on the side of the kiosk, Todoroki following him.
They went straight to the clothing store in front of them, and Aya almost slipped on the glass, but Monoma managed to catch her in time before she'd have an open back. Todoroki looked around as he ran, but the place was deserted. It was strange how this vast area was full of people just a while ago when happy chattering and laughter filled the air. Then he realized that there could've been people standing on the glass flooring on the seventh floor. He looked around, expecting to find corpses, though he had just checked that there were no people around. Fortunately, he was right; there were no limp bodies twisted in unnatural positions. He let out a relieved sigh.
"What are you doing?" Monoma whispered aloud like Todoroki had just done something absolutely senseless. "Get a move on!"
Todoroki snapped out of his thoughts. He didn't realize he had stopped in his tracks. Monoma and Aya had arrived at the store, and he sprinted the rest of the way at full speed. They went further in, to the back of the dark store, where they didn't have a clear view outside. They sat on the floor, forming a small circle. Or maybe it was more like a triangle, but that wasn't the point at the moment.
"So, what do we do?" Aya asked, surprisingly calm, but when Monoma and Todoroki were lost in thought, she continued. "I'm worried about my brother."
Monoma crossed his arms. "I'm worried about my class, too," he admitted. "But, I'm sure they're okay because they're strong, and I'm sure your brother is fine too."
Aya glanced at him. "He could be. If he were able to escape that chaos, it'd be challenging for the villains to catch him. Not only does he have a useful quirk, but he does also know the layout of this ship quite well. I do as well," she said, the same proud energy returning.
"Really? Have you been on this ship multiple times?" Todoroki looked at her, and she nodded. "That's good to know," he said and meant it. If they knew where everything was, it would make things easier. But he assumed that the villains had the information too. Or else he didn't see why they would roam around the cruise ship so confidently. Well, he didn't know if they really knew, but he was pretty sure that the enemies were behind the power failure and the problems with the ship's network. They couldn't call for help, not in the middle of the ocean. He didn't know if any pro heroes could fight, there could be someone who could help them, or on the other hand, the three of them could be the only ones free.
"That is indeed great," Monoma swung his hands. "But we need a plan. We know basically nothing. I think that we should do some scouting before we can decide anything, though."
"Should I go out there?" Aya asked, but seemed uncomfortable with the idea.
"Yes, but you won't be going alone," Monoma winked with a grin. "I'll come with you."
"But you can't hide like I can," Aya frowned.
"Oh, but I can," Monoma said proudly. "If you lend me your quirk."
Aya looked confused, so Todoroki explained. "His quirk lets him copy someone else's quirk and use it for five minutes. He can copy three quirks in total, but use only one quirk at a time."
Monoma looked at him displeasedly. "I didn't ask you to explain how my quirk works. He," he pointed at Todoroki. "can use ice and fire, but not very delicately. He's pretty clumsy if you ask me. And because I can copy his quirk, he's not superior or anything."
Todoroki frowned. Monoma was starting to annoy him a bit. "Who said I'll let you copy my quirk?"
"Don't be so easily offended," the blonde smiled arrogantly. "You know it's true."
"Please, don't start fighting," Aya hurried.
She was right. Todoroki shook his head. There was no time to argue over stupid things. Maybe stress was getting to him. The fact was that they were here, alone, and they had to act, but it meant waiting for him meanwhile Aya and Monoma would go check things out.
"So," Monoma stood up and held out his hand to Aya. "Are you ready to go? I promise, as a hero, that you won't get hurt."
"Wait. You're a hero?" Aya's eyes widened in astonishment. "Really?"
"Of course, from U.A. High School," Monoma explained haughtily.
"That's cool! I want to become a hero too!" Aya exclaimed, eyes shining. "What about you?" she asked Todoroki.
Todoroki nodded. "I am from the same school, but we are in different classes."
Aya gasped. "How didn't I recognize it before? You're the Todoroki. Todoroki Shoto, right? I saw you on TV at the U.A. Sports Festival. I can't believe I got to meet you in person!"
Monoma's face twitched. "Too bad he gave up in the final round, letting a certain mad person win instead. But that aside, we should go before those villains show up."
"Oh, right," Aya said, but didn't seem to be as scared as before. She grabbed Monoma's hand and stood up.
Todoroki got to his feet too. They walked to the shop's entrance. There was nobody in sight, and the silence was still all around them.
"Be back in fifteen minutes. Otherwise, I'll think that something has happened," Todoroki said, and Aya nodded understandingly.
"Sure. Be a good boy and wait here," Monoma said to Todoroki. "Don't pull any foolish stunts like your class usually does. Let's go, Aya."
With a lazy wave of his hand, Monoma left the store with the tense Aya, who followed him close behind. Todoroki watched them go, and when they disappeared from his view, he sat onto the floor next to the exit, choosing a spot where he had a good view outside, but could quickly hide when necessary.
He should try to come up with a plan while the two were out. He checked his phone though he knew it was pointless, and he was right. No new messages, no calls, no way to communicate with others, and no way to check if they were unhurt. He could only hope that his friends were okay. There was one more thing that was troubling him and what made everything feel even worse.
He was alone.
Chapter 2: End
I hope you liked it! As I said in the first chapter, I'll update one chapter a month. I'd prefer to update two chapters every month, but I'll stick with one for now. There's still the chance of two chapters, though. If I have time, that is.
Comments are welcome, as always!