Mei Hatsume kicked a merc who had apparently been tough enough to take an electric grenade´s explosion and stay awake, if completely out of combat. A rocket kick to the noggin put him to sleep effectively enough, in the end. The third room she had cleared; blowing up the door, neutralizing the hired guns, giving her Babies the best trial that she could ever have hoped for. But she wasn't happy. She was pissed off. Testing Babies was fun with Izuku. Having to use them to rescue him from a goddamn LAIR…it was not fun at all. Now if she knew anything about dungeons, Izuku was probably held in the safest part. The fifteen goons she had zapped until now would probably just be a taste of what she would find deeper in the building.
At least there was only one floor, according to Baby Number 760, the geological analysis probe. And if she got lost, Baby Number 155 would fly around her with directions towards the densest walls. And so, as the One True King of Westeros had said, she would go forward, only forward.
155 pointed toward the wall to her left, so she placed a three-stage charge on it, inspired by the Quirks of Bakugou and Todoroki. An explosion would create hairline fractures in the concrete in a spiderweb pattern, a jet of water would fill them, and then the water would be flash frozen, expanding and shattering the wall! Baby Number 662 was great and functioned as desired! The thick concrete shattered, and she kicked through, boots first into the fray.
Inside, four stunned mercs reacted quickly to seeing a genius burst through a solid wall, aiming sloppily in her general direction. She fired a thrust from her right gauntlet, pushing herself left, spinning with the momentum directly into a goon´s face! One down! Her left arm was immediately up, and with a flick of the wrist she fired a taser dart at the closest merc, who was fried. Two down. Thrust backwards with the boots, Mei evaded the second hail of bullets. Sparring with Izuku had done wonders for her reaction time! It might not be hero-level reflexes, but these guys felt slow! Using her Quirk, Mei focused on the two hired guns´ weapons; quite outdated AK-12´s, with enough rust and just the right amount of bad maintenance to be neutralised in a hurry.
Mei raised her left arm again, moving her hand from the way of her lower wrist. A small pellet gun sprang, and Mei aimed. With her Quirk, she was a natural marksman…markswoman? Two little polymer balls shot before the goons could fire, hitting the magazine release on each rifle, then bouncing off…one managed to hit the opposite merc´s gun safety, the other bounced harmlessly to the floor. One guy still had a shot, and the other would just be momentarily inconvenienced. Mei had to act quickly. Using both boot and gauntlet thrusters, Mei launched herself at the most dangerous opponent, her helmet connecting with the man´s skull in a nasty cracking sound. The other man was reacting quickly and was already aiming at her as Mei tossed a large Allen key at his stomach.
With a few more seconds she might have aimed at his genitals, but the throw had made the man miss his last shot, so it was good enough! Until he swung the rifle like a bat straight into Mei´s ribs. She felt like she was choking, she wanted to cry. It was much, much worse than getting the air punched out of her lungs. She blasted her gauntlet thruster next to the merc´s ear and kneed him in the groin. The burst probably shattered his inner ear, Mei thought, as the man held his sore privates with one hand and his bleeding ear with the other. Mei used her taser on him for good measure.
Her ribs hurt so much. She had broken bones before, both legs and the fingers on her left hand, but this was worse. Every breath hurt. She was scared. What if a lung was punctured? She needed more armour. She needed a doctor. She needed Izuku. He made her feel so safe, even when she was doing seriously dangerous work. And that was why she had to find him.
The collection of babies she had brought along was growing thinner. The next wall would be her last implosion charge, designed around spreading magnetic metal particles through a surface, and then pulling them with a ridiculously strong electromagnetic charge. The metal particles were very malleable, and could latch rather well to various substances, particularly cements. Thus, a chunk of wall a meter wide was compressed into a ball twenty centimetres in diameter. At least this place was empty.
It was a short, well-lit corridor with a heavy metal door on each side. Would she pick the right or left? Or keep going straight? Her mind was going slower than usual. Exhaustion and pain, maybe? A couple minutes earlier she had calculated the vector for a rubber ball to bounce on a rifle to another, and now, she couldn't even decide on which door to go. She needed a minute, maybe breathe a bit. Just a bit, not enough to hurt…and then the right door swung open, kicked down by the enhanced legs of Tenya Iida. "Hatsume, you are alive! Why did you run off?" "I thought my plan was better than Todoroki´s, and I really want to save Izuku. But most importantly, where is your helmet? I didn't bring a spare, you know…only for Izuku. And why is Uraraka holding those rebar poles like javelins? Are you using them like that?" "Its good enough to spear a Nomu. I don't have time for your bullshit, Hatsume, get out of the way. Tenya, kick the door down." Mei noticed Uraraka calling Iida by his first name…when had that started? Uraraka shoulder checked Mei as she didn't move aside immediately. She looked downright murderous.
From the door came running Tokoyami "More Nomus, and something big. We have to move!" Dark Shadow ripped the door to the left from its hinges, and the team hurried away from the heavy footsteps and mindless wails of a horde of Nomus. "I thought only All for One had used Nomus!" said Tokoyami as they ran.
The door on the left took them in a curve, and in the edge of the corridor Mei could spot a heavy blast door. "That door can hold them, I can open it!" "Wait!" ordered Uraraka, with a new power in her voice that sent a chill down Mei´s spine "Give me a rope or something. I can retrieve my javelins if I throw them at the lights, making Dark Shadow stronger." Mei tossed a high-tension wire at the Gravity Quirk user, who caught it in mid air and started wrapping around the rebar rods as Mei launched herself forward with her thrusters. Iida followed in a sprint that did not use his Quirk, saving it for the fight ahead if they were caught between the Nomus and the blast door.
One by one every lamp in the corridor was smashed by Uraraka, and she stood her ground a good six meters away from Mei, who was working the lock with a ferrofluid lockpick. At the current pace it might take her two minutes. Iida joined his fellow heroes and the empowered Dark Shadow. The spirit bird was positively rearing for a fight.
The footsteps became louder and louder, and the gurgled screams of the Nomus filled the air. Dark Shadow made his move, slicing through the first ranks of smaller, normal sized Nomus, carving them up like a Thanksgiving turkey. But the spirit bird couldn't completely block the passage, and a few Nomus slipped past him. Uraraka threw her weightless javelins with frightening accuracy and speed through the brains of a few, while Iida kicked the rest into submission.
Then the ground shook. The corridor was almost a half-circle with a radius of some six meters, and the Nomu that charged their way had to hunch to fit. It might have been seven meters tall, and more than three meters wide, built of muscle, with dark red skin and no face; parts of his skull could be seen among the muscle tissue. As with most Nomus, his brain overflowed from a broken skull. The colossal Nomu smashed a few of his brethren to get to them, only to have his path cut by Dark Shadow.
"Dark Shadow: Wrath of the Cursed!" The spectral avian unleashed a flurry of punches that would have made All Might proud. The Nomu was pushed back, and the last punch made him slide on the floor a few meters. Among the Nomus appeared a blond man in a crimson, and the Nomus parted to let him through. Mei remembered Izuku telling her that Nomus were easy to brainwash into obedience, from what he had learned of All for One; this man seemed to have that well under control. "Muda! That was completely useless!" With a single gaze the Nomu attacked again, compelled by the man´s Quirk. The flurry of punches Dark Shadow had used was mirrored against him, and he started taking hits. Every punch that connected hurt Tokoyami, but he kept it up with courage. Mei had to hurry or Tokoyami would get killed.
Another turn around the mechanism and there…the blast door opened. "Go!" she yelled, vaulting over the thick steel plate into a room that looked like an airlock. Uraraka somersaulted into the airlock, Iida sprinted, Tokoyami flew with Dark Shadow under his cloak. The instant they were all in, Mei slammed the emergency lock button. The blast door closed with a thud, trapping a small Nomu under it and flattening it to death. A punch made the blast door shake, leaving a very small dent. The big Nomu would have to try harder!
The inner door was a simple metal door, so a kick from Iida opened it easily. Inside they found themselves inside a huge dome, dozens of meters tall. In the middle of it were two round rooms, made of glass panels. The glass was transparent, so Mei could see inside them with her Quirk like she was just standing there. A few people in each one, surrounding a chair in each. The room on the left had a man in a white suit and half a dozen mercs, around a girl, and in the one on the right were ten guards and… "Izuku!"