Chapter 37

"Eraserhead vs the babysitter"

He handcuffed his own, previously warn hand cuffs around the solid pipping and to the unconscious hell-hound user's wrists. Making sure the freezer was shut too, it was a treasure trove of evidence.

Those were not hot pockets in there.

He had to find his kids, right now, he did not have any more time to spare. The other heros would be arriving soon, hopefully in force. Eraserhead cautiously prowled around the ship, back to where he was sure they had stashed his gear. All things considered, for such an organized group, this was disturbingly easy.

Then again, being underestimated was the benefit of people not exactly knowing who you were in much or any detail. Nevermind a group not originating from Japan, dealing with a local, secretive, Hero from Japan.

Whatever the cause, he managed back to the room he was fairly sure he'd been stripped of his gear in, and managed to reclaim it before having to press himself into an alcove to avoid the patrol hell-hound's attention.

Before, of course, taking them to the ground, and zip-tying them as well, while they laid semi-unconscious on the ground. In addition to, moving them elsewhere, to avoid them being found by an errant patrol, and completing that unconscious state for them with a fierce hit. They'd be fine later, just headaches and shoulder pain.

Which was only a little bit annoying to him. Only a little.

His phone still functioned, surprising him that they hadn't crushed it, but, it still worked, and the news was good news. Sunshine's main group was heading over, with a small group going on head of them, being airborne. No direct names but the news was very good indeed, they'd be there very soon, so it was his task to secure the kids. All 15 of them.

He found a map stuck to the side of the ship, confirming it was once a real, small cruise vessel. Ironically, family oriented, given the small cartoon, happy lobster in the corner. He committed the info to memory, getting a little small communicator hooked over his ear were it would stay. It was finally going to be useful, and any minute now he was going to be needing the bits of information from his soon-to-arrive allies. Now all he needed was Intel on where they were keeping either his kids, or all the kids.

His chance came soon enough, coming up behind a blond man going through some papers on a desk. Eraserhead found it quite easy to both bend the other over, and quickly restrain him. Holding him quite firmly by the scruff, well, back of the head, his hand buried in the others hair.

"Where are you keeping the kids?" He growled, "this'll be easier on you if you just tell me."

A minute's silence while the other twisted mildly. "You'll leave those kids alon—AGhj!"

His hands shifted from holding the back of the man's head, to his arm and shoulder, and proceeded to dislocated the other's right arm. "I can do the other if you'd like."

"No! Fine!" He let out a little gasp. "They're down below the main deck, its really obvious; it was the nursery for little kids on this ship before we took it over."

"There now, that wasn't so hard." Eraserhead pulled him out of the chair, letting him drop onto the wounded shoulder, before binding his ankles, too. He stopped in the doorway of the room before entering back into the main hall, checking to make sure it was clear again. "I better not have to come back." With that he left another hell-hound on the ground bound up.

The Nursery's location had been well marked on the map. Probably so parents could always know where their kids were. It wasn't necessarily a strategically solid place for hiding kids, but it was a logical place to put them. Already done up and ready for kids to inhabit it.

Making it there was much of the same as before, sneaking, avoiding, quietly taking down just one more unaware guard hell-hound, though they looked more like a young man, barely of age to be doing 'guarding' at all. He didn't think about it too much, before making sure they weren't going to be running up to bite him literally in the ass, later.

As he approached the Nursery, he could definitely hear voices, chipper, peppy voices of small children. They were arguing about something as children were prone to do. Were they...

They were. They were arguing about who was going to get to play with 'chargebolt' first. He kept that sigh to himself, hearing a woman's voice calmly ushering these kids to just be calm and continue to color.

Staying low, as the walls had clear glass, albeit frosted, along them. There were two doors, if memory was correct, then Nursery room had two sections within it, with a connecting door inside. He walked past the door, behind which was filled with the chatter of youth, to the other, more silent one. Risking the chance, Eraserhead took a peek.

He quietly opened the door and slipped in , to the wide-eyed, but quiet looks of appreciation from his two students. Finger to his lips, the two boys nodded as he got their restraints off, and pretend to ignore the bandages on Shinso's arm. The two of them rubbing at their red wrists from having been handcuffed for so long.

"Oh man, thanks! It's a relief to see you, this place is nuts." Kaminari whispered to him, trying to shake off the nerves that were clearly present. Shinso didn't look too affected but the kid was always a hard read. "They've weirdly taken care of us, but there are all these children here, but.. they're.."

"Parasus is trading them, like favors. She's chosen to give one of the kids over to the group they're working with here, to some guy who calls himself a Knight of Flowers." Shinso finished for Kaminari. "It's human trafficking."

Eraserhead nodded, "I'm going to be trying to get them out too,"

"Did you meet up with ric-Stone? Pretty sure she's the one who escaped." Kaminari asked

"No, she's somewhere else on this island." He stated, watching the two boys different expressions that their classmate's whereabouts were still unknown. Shinso caught the brief sight of Miss 4 heading their direction. Making a gesture to his teacher that someone was coming.

Eraserhead readied himself for the attack, as the door came open, the slender woman who had been watching the kids came in. She had sparse few seconds to react before gray cloth was around her. She started to shift to a hell-hound form, before being forced back to human and pinned to the wall. An audible little gasp came out in the room before someone was tugging on Eraser's pant leg.

Not relinquishing his force on Miss 4, he looked down to see a solid blue eyed child, aggressively shaking his pant leg. There were tears threatening too as her little face reddened but she didn't let go.

"LET MISS 4 GO!" She yelled, "And give her back her puppy powers! Right now!"

"Anna.. He.. uh.." Kaminari completely failed to explain to the little kid what was going on. The rest of the kids had spilled through the open door and were gawking at the situation. One had attached himself possessively to Kaminari's leg, most of them looked very upset, a few near tears. Some were not... so, some looked ready to fight him. Particularly the two older kids, looked the most ready, though they moved themselves to protect the tinier kids. Big siblings protecting the smaller members of their pack. "He's a good guy!" was all Kaminari could finally add.

Many of the kids looked at him in disbelief. Anna in particular did not look convinced, in fact the crying got worse. Now she was just begging him to let Miss 4 go.

"shh, Anna, just go over to the others okay?" Miss 4, surprisingly, called. "Me and Mr. Hero are just gonna have a talk."

Eraserhead gave her quite the look for that, but she looked back at him, challenging him. With a deep sigh, he unpinned her, but did not untie her. The little pup finally let go only to be scooped up by one of the others, who gave him a withering look for making her cry.

"Skillet, Pip, take the kids back into the other room." Miss 4, commanded again, though there was some hesitation from the kids.

"Chargebolt, Shinso, why don't you go with them, too?" Eraserhead added on, which he was sure Shinso wasn't wild about, but with the two boys help, the pack was herded out of the room, and the door shut.

"Surprising amount of cooperation from someone willingly participating in human trafficking." Eraserhead prodded, gauging her reaction carefully as he let her sit down. She shot him a look for the comment then rolled her eyes.

"We're those kids' family, at least I am, that's not human trafficking." She responded, as if she'd been accused of it before.

"They're all kids of willing members, of this association?" He questioned again, knowing full well that it was likely not the case at all. Not if the info from the past behaviors of hell-hound packs had been remotely true. Given what Shinso had said, was likely the case still.

"Yeah." Miss 4 answered defensively, " of course they are."

"You're not a very good liar." Was his own, curt response. "Either way, knowing or not, your 'boss' is trading one of those kids to your lovely hosts. Probably isn't the first time either."

"What? That's..." Miss 4 seemed to surprised by that, before glaring into the floor. "That's not what she promised me" She mumbled out under her breath.

Before Eraserhead could say anything else, red lights immediately flashed around them, and alarms sounded across the metal ship. Both villain and Hero shared an alarmed look at each other as there were loud thunks.

"They locked us in?!" Was Miss 4's suddenly energetic and anxious response. Then she started actually struggling against the capture weapon. Squirming violently but getting no where.

"The ship shouldn't have that..." Eraserhead quietly stated. "Why would they have it do that?"

To his own discomfort she turned to him and her eyes were filled with a barely hidden fear. "To keep people out of course, or..." She stopped squirming for a moment. "To keep people in. Listen, I'll help you get the kids out, if you'll let me go."

Despite their situation one of his eyebrows cocked up, not really believing her. "You know how to get out?"

"I can figure out how." She said with a shoulder shrug. "plus... do you think those pups are going to listen to you?"

To his chagrin, she had a point, and without saying much else he simply released her from the weapon's bindings. She gave him a nod before opening the door to the other side. "Alright pups. " She started. "We're going to be working with the power-stealer, it's like a little field trip but you have to listen, got it?"

There were several nods, a few small yeses, but mostly, just kids looking for someone to protect and guide them after the scary alarms had gone off. The same kid from before was securely attached to Kaminari's leg. Miss 4 strode over to a counter, and pulled out a map, lacking the cute cartoon lobster on it, and laid it out. She picked up one of the kids' crayons and began to mark out by memory where she'd remember seeing the added-on locks and heavy doors.

As she did that, there was a buzzing in Eraserhead's ear, his little radio going off and informing him that the teams were about to make landfall, and that Ryukyu's team, apparently herself , Miruko and Mic, of all people, were already overhead.

"Alright, here." Miss 4 said, getting his attention by laying out the map in front of him. "there's all the doors, I can probably knock out some of the electric warning systems but you'll want to keep back from me, when I do."

Eraserhead gave her a look. "you have an electrical ability?" Kaminari looked concerned from where he was standing.

"No, more like EMP, kind of ability. " She smiled thinly. "My code-name is actually 404."

He just nodded to that, looking back at the map she'd marked out. "It'll force the magnetic locks to release, since they won't have power, but some of them will still have physical parts, and they're going to be heavy." 404 clarified as they looked over the map.

They had at least 2 doors to get through, before they were able to get onto the main deck and onto the docks. His ear buzzed again, asking him for his status. He eyed 404 for a brief moment, then responded.

"On the Cruise ship. I'm with two students, and about 13 child hostages, with a turncoat." 404 looked displeased at this choice of words, but what could she do about it? Nothing. He listened quietly to their response and instructions.

"Alright, we're on our own getting out, 404?" He turned but the woman was already stripping down. The pre-teen she'd called 'Skillet' was taking her clothes from her as she shed them. Kaminari was turned around by Shinso, but the rest of the children didn't seem to care. Eraserhead quietly admitted he shouldn't be so surprised by the sight.

404 became the slender hell-hound from before, spines barely visible through soft fur running down her spine. With a denser cluster of them between her shoulder blades, poking through her colored mane. The boy opened the door and she slipped out quietly.

"You kids trust her a lot." Eraser commented, looking at Skillet still holding the clothes dutifully. The girl gave him a wary glance, before walking away from him completely, to wait elsewhere with the clothes. The rest of the pack who weren't curious enough to stare, walked away, too. One of them even growled at him.

From there, they just waited for a moment, the lights flickered on one side of the room, one of them going out. A few more tense moments later, and there was scratching at the door, and the sleek hell-hound was let back in, where she shifted back into her human shape, reclaiming her clothes.

"You're being really cooperative." Shinso said, cutting off any response from Eraserhead, who let out a small sigh.

Not pausing in putting her clothes back on, she just looked at Shinso. "These pups are my responsibility." and she bared her teeth, fangs appearing. "And, I don't like being lied to."

Shinso looked to Eraserhead, "We had a talk." was all he said.

Getting the little pack under control was easier with 404 around, delegating between the two older preteens, and handing the smallest kid over to the boy to carry. Though even as they got out, the door was proving almost impossible to move, even with a pro and two trainee's trying their best. The door barely budged.

"w-well... now what?" Kaminari couldn't help the stutter in his voice, the door had moved maybe an inch? He'd passed by these doors before and never even considered how they would function on the ship.

There was another silence as they examined the area around them. Suddenly, Kaminari's eyes widened. Running over to the pack of kids who were staying back as they tried the door. "Hey, kid how strong is your … laser?" He hoped he was looking at the right dark headed child.

"Really strong!" A dark haired kid announced, bouncing to get Kaminari's attention. "I can fire my laser!?" His little hands had already gone to rip off the shift, as he danced in place.

"You can't use one of my Pups that way." 404 growled, Eraser gave Kaminari a silent reprimand for the suggestion as well. The blond also deflating, just a little but the child, dubbed 'laser' now was still fiddling with his shift, waiting for the go ahead.

"Why not?" Skillet asked, suddenly getting the irritated look from 404, before she let out a frustrated sigh and just nodded. There was an excited noise from 'Laser' who ran forward throwing off his shift but getting caught by Kaminari.

"Wait, wait! Here, I'll hold you, you know,... to like, help you aim, and you can fire off the biggest, strongest laser you have, when I say 'fire' okay?" The little kid was shift-less and bouncing up and down in excitement and nodding. Neither 404 or Eraser were sure the kid was even listening to Kaminari but, either way, they both pushed everyone out of harms away as much as possible. Eraserhead very much unsure about this entire plan or idea.

"You sure about this, Chargebolt?" Eraser said keeping one of the younger, less fearful children behind his leg, though they didn't seem to appreciate his protective gesture. Laser was obviously the least apprehensive of the entire grouping.

"I am." Kaminari responded, holding the kid's shift in one of his hands, now. The child was quickly a pup, and scrambled up into Kaminari's arms. Scratching him a bit in the process, and Kaminari noting that the pup's drool was glowing.

"He drools out plasma, so be careful, Usually I play with him cuz it doesn't hurt me." Skillet called out to Kaminari. There was a few murmurs about what he may or may not have destroyed with his plasma drool. A few drips hit the ground and sizzled on impact to emphasis it.

"Thanks." Kaminari responded, feeling Laser's short fluffy little tail wag violently, slapping him many times. "alright Laser, give me a nod if you're ready."

The little drooling skull pup gave an excited nod. Some spit flying off and making Kaminari tense as it missed him and also landed on the floor. "Alright!."

A deep breath from the teen, and a short silence.. and then;

"FIRE!"

The little hell-hound pup, opened his glowing mouth, and fired off his laser.

Despite probably barely weighing in at 20 lbs as a puppy, and being a goofy, drooling mess, it was rather intense. The group, and especially Kaminari, were unprepared for what that looked like.

A beam, exploded out of the pup's mouth with ferocity, and brightness. Pups, teens and the two adults closed their eyes, as it was incredibly bright. Heat was immense, from closed eyes everyone could tell something was happening. Kaminari was massively unprepared for how powerful the laser was going to be, and he was launched backwards, managing to keep the laser aimed before falling onto his back.

Where, thankfully, the pup stopped firing, bouncing out of Kaminari's dazed hands to run around him in circles yipping and barking.

Eraserhead helped his student back up, subtlety giving Kaminari a once over for any burns. Skillet wrangled Laser back into his human form and then into his shift.

"I did it! I fired my laser! Did you see me!? I fired my laser! It was my biggest, too! I fired it just like Chargebolt said to!" He was still excited, despite yawning, and Skillet picking him up and carrying him on her back. After a few moments he was already quiet and yawning again. The two UA teens, and Eraserhead took in the sight of what Laser's...laser did.

There was now a gaping hole where the door, and some walls had been, that went all the way outside. There was glowing hot metal all over the floors that was in need of cooling. Some of the ceiling had been taken out too, probably when Kaminari had been unable to withstand the force while holding the puppy any more. Shinso looked at Laser with a mix of subtle horror and fascination on his face.

The other kids were breathing sighs of relief, and a pair who looked vaguely related, shrieked loudly. "Now WE can use OUR puppy powers!"

404 did not stop them, as the two puppies were pretty much immediately using their puppy powers on the hot metal. The reason she hadn't stopped them, was soon patently clear. The duo's puppy powers turned out to be handy for cooling down what remained, and moving things. One having what appeared something like telekinesis, and the other clearly had a cooling breath. The hallway filling with warm steam and the smell of burnt metal.

With an escape route made, and kids wrangled back into their clothes, the small pack followed Eraserhead and 404 as the two adults led the way out. Laser's blast had cleared them a spot all the way to the docks. Though getting from ship to dock would require them to jump from hole to dock. Eraser went first, then 404, and the two teens helped the pre- teens get the smaller children out. Lifting them one by one into either adult's waiting hands. Though, a few didn't particularly like being handled by Eraser for the few brief seconds he held them.

"Now were are going to meet up with your hero friends?" 404 asked, not sounding too pleased about it. Eraserhead looked towards the head of the island, where there was definitely the sound of action. The dock was too small to take more than just the cruise-ship currently there, and he could make out the faint shape of speed boats further down the beach.

There was a growling sound, as a Hell-hound, of what Eraser guessed was probably moderate size for one, rounded on them from the ramp on the ship. It was hairless, but not scaleless, its skin looked like the color of uncooked bread. Occasionally there were spots on its skin .

"Bun!" called 404, who sounded more angered than surprised. The hound's ears lifted but it still looked ready to attack. Eraser prepared himself for this, before 404 turned to him. "Do you have any bread on you? Crackers even?"

"What?"

"ugh, its 404! He's with us! Bun!" 404 tried to get the hell-hound's attention, but he was too interested in picking a fight with Eraser. Someone cried, the Hell-hound leapt, and Eraser's eyes flashed red, and now there was a naked, confused man entrapped in Eraserhead's capture weapon.

Who also began crying, adding on to the confusion of Eraser's day.

"You didn't have to do that to him." she grumbled out, almost sympathetically annoyed for the sad hound-turned-man now being zip-tied on the ground. Eraser shot her a glare and she shut up. As he was done with 'Bun' on the ground, still sobbing, he felt a familiar cold voice in his head.

~404 what are you doing!? All of you, Stop!~

Unfortunately, everyone heard it.