*Pops confetti*
We did it guuuuuuuuuys! Past the 100 review mark! That goes to show you that no matter how much you think you suck, people still eat it right up! I'm joshing ya, seriously, thanks a ton for all the support I've been getting, it really does some good for my ego.
But yeah guys, I think I got my swagger back because this chapter was much easier to write! See ya later writer's block! Daddy's back in business and the garbage fire is fuckin roarin!
Continuing from last time, it seems to be more popular than I expected, so keep hitting me with that feedback so I know if I'm fucking up and all.
And even if I'm not you better fuckin smack that review button and at least tell me what your favorite food is or something because that's what friends do. My favorite is lasagna.
Dab.
"I hope you don't think I take any pleasure in this, kid." Karkath said as he paced around Izuku's makeshift prisoner room as the teen couldn't do much but just glare at him with tired eyes as he walked from one side of the room to the other while he chomped down on a sandwich "It's just the way of the world. Me? I'm just trying to get by."
"By kidnapping people…?" the teen asked with a grumble. He couldn't believe that he was being this confrontational himself in a time like this...but it had been hours since he was stuck in this room. His stomach growled, his lips were dry with thirst and the lack of ventilation made the whole place hot as a sauna. All of which combined dug at his nerves as he eyed the sandwich the shark took large bites out of with desire.
"Believe it or not, some people aren't as fortunate as you, kid." the criminal snickered as he brought his predatorial gaze towards the green haired young man as he ran his tongue over his sharp teeth "I wasn't born to a nice medium wealth home in a nice neighborhood with a mommy that pampered me."
"Is that supposed to work as an excuse?" Midorya retorted with a sigh as he straightened his back to look up at the shark defiantly, something that was hard enough as it was. His neck was killing him from being tied up in such an awkward position for so long.
"Hmm...looks like the puppy still has some teeth." the sharkman chuckled before taking another bite out of his snack "Say kid, what do you wanna be when you grow up? You look like the the type who dreams big! Astronaut? President? Maybe Pro Hero?"
Midorya hated the dumb smirk the man had on his face, that sharp and mocking toothy smile that held in it an air of humiliation left the teen boiling with silent anger as he refused to answer the question.
"Pro Hero, huh? I can see it in your face. Tell you what, I also wanted to be a hero when I was a pipsqueak." he commented as he stepped closer to Izuku before leaning down until he was face to face with the boy again "And it wasn't just some dumb pipe dream. I worked for it." the shark said as he tapped a clenched bicep with his palm "When the other guys were sleeping, I was working. When the other guys were eating, I was working. Hell, I was working before you were even born!" the shark exclaimed with a tinge of pride clearly evident in his voice.
"Sure...is that why you're holding a kid ransom? Doesn't s-seem too heroic to me." Izuku retorted as he looked away from the man with a shaky sigh, starting to think it would be best if he just bit his tongue already or else he might return home with a few bits bitten off.
"Hah! Typical wannabe hero dork." the sharkman shook his head with a toothy smile as he poked the green haired young man on the head to draw his gaze back onto him "It's because I didn't make it through the exam. The other kids got in through recommendation, or they had better quirks or they just plain got lucky. That's how heroes are made, kid. It ain't none of that inspirational mumbo jumbo about having a heart of gold and be willing to fight for justice or whatever. It's about who looks better in the media and who's daddy can pull some strings to get 'em in. And in the hero world's eyes, some shark faced misfit just wasn't hero material."
Deku felt ashamed for feeling so...understanding of Karkath's little tale. His eyes locked themselves down to the floor as he tried to ignore what his kidnapper was trying to tell him. Ignore how much it made sense. He understood the sensation behind that tale perfectly, the frustration, the feeling of hopelessness, the unfairness of it all, he understood it because he had gone through it all.
"The world isn't a fair place kid, quirks don't change that. In fact they only make it worse." the shark said as he held the latter half of his sandwich towards him, offering the teen a bite "You may think I'm everything that's wrong in the world, but at the end of the day, I'm just a step away from those people you call heroes."
Izuku turned his face with a frowned grumble of disdain evident in his visage. He didn't want to accept it, these notions, even if it meant starving for a while longer as his stomach still growled and grumbled incessantly.
"Suit yourself, kid. I'm sure you're making a righteous stand and really showing the bad guy who's boss by starving." the sharkman scoffed as he raised his nose at the teen before chomping the rest of the snack down in a single massive bite before wiping his mouth clean of any leftover sauce with the back of his hand "Shame, that was damn good too." the marine predator laughed as he turned away from the boy, leaving him to sulk on his own in the hotbox of a room they had him in.
Izuku's eyes were glued to the floor as he tapped a foot down anxiously against the concrete floor below him.
"He's just trying to get into my head…"
I mean, what else could he be doing? He wasn't honestly trying to have a heart to heart, villains didn't do that...did they?
"Villains...they're people too…"
They were. They had their worries, they got stressed about things and they had hopes for the future, didn't matter that they had succumbed to villany, they were all people just like him, just like anyone else...sometimes it was easy to forget that.
Midorya didn't hate Karkath, he was just a small time villain, just a...person that was struggling. Well, he disliked him for putting him in his current position that was for sure. What Izuku hated was how much he could relate to the sharkman.
That sensation of frustration as he told his tale, the desperate fire in his eyes, the anger and sadness that tried to lash out of him just by thinking about it and above all the indignation he sometimes let slip out of him for this world for how unfair it could be.
Maybe Karkath wasn't wrong...maybe if All Might hadn't found him that day, hadn't took him under his wing and showed him that it was possible...maybe he would have went down the same road...maybe there was another kid out there like him that won't have the same luck as him…
Izuku felt the tears begin to build behind his eye sockets as he closed his eyelids shut to try and hold them back. This wasn't a time to get existential and cry, he needed to do something...like...uhh
His thought process would be rudely interrupted as he heard a muffled explosion piping its unrelenting sound wave through the metallic door to his room.
Okay, he needed to get free from these straps. Now.
5 minutes earlier…
"I just want to say that I still think this is a bad idea." Asui added as the group of teens hopped over the backside fence of the old and rundown warehouse. Each landing down on the dusty dirt floor with a thud as their feet touched the ground.
The current Rescue Squadron was composed of Katsuki, Ochako, Tsuyu and Mina, all of which got both surprised and somewhat scared as the blond invited them for operation Save The Dork's Useless Ass so I Can Kill Him Myself Later...well, Bakugo came up with that title, the rest of the group thought it was better to leave the name pending.
"You said that like fifty times already and I already told you, if you think the idea is so bad then you can just scram. I invited you out of courtesy!" Katsuki snarled at the frog girl with a heated glare, which made her grumble and roll her eyes.
"I know the idea seems bad Tsuyu but...come on, it's Izuku...we have to do something." Ochako piped up. The girl was clearly worried about the green haired boy and seemed to be the most determined to make this work, perhaps even more so than Bakugo himself.
"Okay, so, go over the plan again." Mina said as she grabbed a handy stick off the ground and began drawing figures onto the sand.
"Here's how we do it: Tsuyu climbs around the outside of the warehouse to scout all the place and figure out where all the bad guys are. Once we know that, Uraraka floats Katsuki to the roof and then to the ground while I run distraction at the front door. Once you two find Izuku, Bakugo blasts a hole through the wall and we book it out of there safe and sound while the bad guys end up looking like big dumb butts! Then they go home like 'Boo Hoo, we lost our hostage to a bunch of kids' and we're like 'Yaaaaaay, now we're gonna celebrate with ice creeeeam!'"
Mina ended her drawing by making a figure of the whole group eating ice cream around a big round table with smiles on their faces. Which earned her a good few seconds of stares from her group.
"...I still think we should just bust the door down and I kill everyone in there." Katsuki finally broke the silence
"If you could really do that, you wouldn't have asked for our help now, would you?" Asui piped in with a cheeky smirk as the explosive blond rolled his eyes and simmered in his anger.
"Guys, focus. Mina's plan makes sense...mostly. Does everyone agree with it?" Ochako asked, receiving nods from all parties involved "Alright, then let's kick it into gear. Tsuyu, you're up!" she exclaimed, patting the frog girl on the back.
The green haired girl sighed and shrugged as she turned to face the outside wall of the warehouse "I still think it's a bad idea…" she commented, but still hopped on and latched onto the metallic surface of the warehouse's outer shell.
Even if Asuiu wasn't a fan of the current plan, she executed it with utmost texterity, climbing her way up the wall like it was second nature to the girl, because it kind of was at this point. With a long hop she could already be halfway up the wall and the latter half would be quickly climbed by through the girl's swift crawling along as she moved herself to one of the building's windows.
The rest of the group waited anxiously for the news until the frog girl held up two fingers, indicating she could spot two people inside.
"Alright, that's less than we expected, should be easy peasy!" Mina smiled as she cracked her knuckles.
Mr Burke was a simple man.
Yes, he was a criminal, part of a dangerous gang that had currently kidnapped a young teenager for some crazy hostage trade situation, but besides that, he considered himself a rather simple fellow.
He liked to watch reality shows on television, he thought politics were too stressful to dabble much in them, he collected bottle caps in his spare time and he loved, and I mean absolutely adored girl scout cookies.
So you can guess why is it that this hunk of a bull horned man was currently entertaining a pink skinned girl at the door of his hideout with a cart full of cookies, which all just looked like the perfect sugary treat he needed right now to take him off the edge.
"...Oatmeal, mint, chocolate chip, peanut butter, you name it, sir!" Mina engaged the scary looking man with an unwavering smile and her cheerfully captivating demeanor.
"Do you have caramel?" Burke asked in his deep, gruff voice that sent a faint shudder up the slime girl's spine as she laughed a bit awkwardly before taking a box in hand.
"Yup! Caramel! Right here!"
This was going well, better than she had hoped, she had this guy hooked like a fat fish chewing on a worm and right as she was reeling him in…
"Burke! The hell are you doing, man?!" another voice called from behind the horned criminal, who turned around with a glare
"Piss off, I'm busy."
"The boss said no opening the door to anyone! The cops might see us!" Mina would hear before a pair of furred hands attempted to close the door forcefully, though the bull of a man wouldn't budge a single inch.
"Well the boss brought a big ass sandwich with him. No one told me this would take more than a couple hours so I didn't bring lunch." Burke eyed his furred companion down with a frown "I'm hungry."
"This ain't about being hungry man, we got a whole operation here!" the other man said from inside the building
"Want me to ask her to come in?"
"No, that's even worse! Just tell her off!"
"I'm not telling her off before I get my caramel cookies." the bull man said bluntly as he turned to face Mina once again "I'll take two boxes."
"Well...uhh...actually, we have a promotion where if you buy three the third one goes for half the price!" the pink skinned teen replied, which seemed to get Burke in a thoughtful mood as he leaned his head back with a mumble, seeming to count something on his fingers, though having trouble with it.
"I can't believe you're doing this for some stupid cookies…" the furred man grumbled as he tried to close the door again, though to no avail
"We've been sitting in that room for hours, it's hot in there, it smells like mold and I'm hungry. I'm not missing this chance." the horned man answered plainly as he went back to counting before the furred man sighed and slowly crept from around the door to glare at Mina.
"Hey kid...uhh...ya got lemon zest?"
Watching this whole exchange unfold, however, were a pair of police officers in a disguised car, their mouths agape as they watched this little girl just expose the whole criminal operation to them.
"Holy crap that's them!" one of them said as the other one slowly reached for his radio to call for backup.
"Looks like Mina has them distracted! It's you guys' turn now!" the green haired teen announced to her friends.
"Alright Bakugo, we're up!" Ochako said as she placed both hands onto the explosive teen's shoulders and then proceeded to hop onto his back, much to his dismay.
"Why did I agree to this again…" he grumbled under his breath with a sigh before flexing his knees and jumping upwards.
Uraraka then activated her quirk, the two of them being enveloped in a pink hue as gravity was lifted off of them, leaving only the upward momentum from the teen's jump leftover bringing them slowly to the roof of the building.
Landing was,,,mostly smooth, though Bakugo did bump his stomach on the corner of the roof, which left him much more irritated than before, even as Ochako pulled him up to the surface of the ceiling and deactivated her anti gravity quirk.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, don't lose focus. We gotta find the dweeb." Katsuki snarled as he rose back onto his feet before gesturing a few meters in front of them "There's a loose roof tile over there, we can use it to get in."
"Right."
The two teens carefully made their way through the roof of the warehouse until they met their mark, the loose tile that was left slightly crooked, letting the sunlight seep into the interior below. Ochako quickly leaned down against it to peek inside before bringing her head back up with a thumbs up.
"There's a railing just below us, I can float us down so we don't make any noise."
"Sure, let's just be quick, I hate this already." Bakugo complained as he pulled against the tile, sliding the opening wider until they could both fit through.
Once again, Uraraka hopped on the blonde's back to make the process easier and they would gently fall down, like a plume in the wind, to their destination, a metallic railing that served as a second floor to the building's interior.
"Damn, this place smells so old and musky…" Ochako said quietly as she plugged her nose.
"Suck it up." Bkugo said plainly as he crouched down and hid behind one of the old crates before the old, rusty creak of the door pulled his attention to the front of the building "Shit, looks like your your friend did all the distracting she could. They're coming back."
Indeed they were, the pair of goons, each carrying three boxes of girl scout cookies in their arms casually drifted back to sit atop a crate as they began eating their treats and idly conversing about whatever a hard working criminal talks about.
"Wait, are those real cookies…? Where did she even get all of those?" Katsuki raised a brow
"Eheh...apparently they're from her personal stash...I think she's a bit of a sweet tooth." the anti gravity girl shrugged her shoulders as an answer as a vein bulged atop Bakugo's forehead
"Why didn't she poison them or...put something in them to knock them out!?" he snarled a bit loudly.
"Hey, she's a sweet tooth, not a-Oh no…" the girl stammered as she covered the angry blond's mouth before gesturing downwards towards the two animalistic men on the lower floor, who were looking up at their railing.
"The hell was that noise?" Burke's voice echoed throughout the room as he glanced up, thought seemingly unable to spot the two intruders just yet.
"Eh, probably just a racoon or whatever." the furred man said before stuffing another cookie into his mouth only to be pulled by the ear off his seat and pushed away by the horned criminal, qho frowned at him with a scoff.
"Go check it out."
"Are you serious, man?!"
"Now."
With a grumble the furred one turned to make his way to the stairs that led up to the railing, complaining all the way up.
"Dammit...move! And keep quiet!" Uraraka finally let go of Bakugo's mouth as she quickly, or as quickly as she could manage without making noise, made her way along the railing with Katsuki following behind, a quiet growl hidden under his breath for just having been ordered around by some girl.
The two of them made it to the other end of the railing just in time to duck out of the criminal's line of sight as he came up, looked around lazily and then leaned over the edge of the railing to call down "See, man? There's nothing!"
"Phew…" Uraraka giggled quietly as she tried to steady her hearts incessant thumping from the minor rush of adrenaline she had just gotten "Close call."
And then a loud metallic crank was heard along with a sudden drop worth a few inches that made the pair look at each other and emit the same sound at the exact same time.
"Shit."
The warehouse was old, and the railing was rusted to the core, it seemed like it hadn't had someone atop it for years and now that it did, it couldn't hold the weight atop it as it began to break down and fall, sending the duo on a tumble towards the ground as the two criminals looked up at them in surprise.
"Screw it! Now we do it my way!" Bakugo's voice cut through Uraraka's screaming he controlled his fall, raising a hand towards the pair of goons below with a wicked smile plastered onto his face "DIE!"
The blast was loud, too loud to have been an accident. Something was happening and it gave Izuku a very bad feeling.
But he couldn't get out there when he was tied up here...unless.
Unless he used his quirk.
He had been avoiding the thought for a while now, I mean even if he did break out he would have probably hurt himself in the process and then it would have been three against one, the chances of actually escaping were very low so he figured it was better to save his energy, but now...he had no choice.
Even if he broke his arms, he had to free himself, there were no two ways about it.
"Alright...don't do it all the way, just enough to break the rope…" the teen closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to ignore the sounds of the commotion outside as he reached deep inside of him for All Might's power and slowly but surely he began to pull his wrists apart against the rope.
"Careful...bit by bit…"
It required a lot of focus, he wanted to avoid breaking himself if possible as he tried to slowly ramp up One For All, gritting his teeth as he felt the burning sensation of the ropes digging into his skin, leaving a stinging red bruise on it, but he had to just push through it, suck it up, if he lost concentration he'd have to work with a pair of broken arms and that wasn't feasible.
Slowly but surely, he reminded himself of his time meditating with Ochako. Think less, think slower, let it flow until…
The rope snapped.