Heroes in the Dark Chapter 2
Tokoyami watched in horror as the sight of his friends began to vanish. Whatever it was that had entrapped him had been released, and he was now vividly aware of the villain's familiar mist pulling them into the unknown. A hand that radiated heat held onto him firmly, and when he glanced down as much as he could muster he saw horribly scarred purple skin held together by crude stitches. He was at a loss, his inability to do anything a burden. He could only watch as Midoriya reached towards them a final time with what little power he had left, calling out to the student beside him that had been met with the same unfortunate fate.
Had this all been his fault? Somehow, it must've been. If only he had paid more attention, or seen the villain coming, or something.
Tokoyami reached his hand out ever so slightly, even as the pull of the portal sought to suck him into another void of darkness. "I'm…sorry." And then there was nothing for him to reach out to.
The mist of the villain, Kurogiri, was suffocating. He closed his eyes tight against it, but it only lasted a moment before he was dumped unceremoniously onto a cold, hard wood floor. He was only able to see the room and the menacing faces looking down on him briefly before chaos ensued.
Bakugou rose from the floor, shaking from fear and rage. "I'll take you all down for what you did to meee!" he roared, instinctively blasting everything around him.
In a panic, Tokoyami unleashed Dark Shadow to protect himself from the blasts, but it hissed and recoiled from the light.
A swift kick was delivered to Bakugou's back, knocking him into Tokoyami. He winced as another explosion went off near his face, and Dark Shadow receded unapologetically into his body with a hiss of contempt. "Stop, stop!" Tokoyami had to yell, and Bakugou regarded him for the first time, shocked as though he hadn't realized that the bird-headed student had become a part of the League of Villain's capture ploy. Then his eyes narrowed, and the look of determination could be clearly read: we're going to take these bastards down and escape from here.
A raspy, demanding voice caught their attention. "The hell is this? Why aren't you doing anything to restrain them?! And where are the others!" Tomura Shigaraki faced them from where he sat perched on a barstool. The grisly hand concealing his face masked his emotions, but the irritation and anger dripping from his voice were evident.
Tokoyami was effectively pinned to the ground, the same ghoulish hand that had gripped him before now shoving his beak into the floor. He willed his quirk to defend him from the assault, but it came reluctantly, he could feel, and when it did the villain holding him down unleashed fire from his other hand. His quirk left him once more. It didn't make sense, though; it should still be night out, so why was Dark Shadow holding up so poorly? Even with the fire, it shouldn't be like this. It occurred to him that his quirk might intentionally be unresponsive to him at the moment out of spite. It always became this way after he lost control, but it'd been so long since the first time that he'd hoped it would be better by now. Right now he was feeling worse than quirkless. Now's not the time for this!
The villain held his fire close to Tokoyami's face, and with no way to avoid it, the flames started to singe his feathers. "Well, aren't you a welcome surprise. Light's your weakness, huh? 'Splodey over there made it pretty clear. It should be pretty easy to take care of you, then."
Shigaraki came to stand by them. "Dabi, what is this? We were only supposed to get Bakugou. Anything else might be too troubling for me to want to deal with." The way he said that hung like a threat in the air. Tokoyami was reminded of the damage he had done to Aizawa-sensei back when they infiltrated the USJ, and more recently of the encounter between him and Midoriya at the mall.
Dabi sighed, loosening his grip on his beak so he could breathe better. "I dunno, you'd have to ask Compress about that."
"Oh!" The white-masked magician stepped up nervously. "You should've seen him. You may remember that student from the tournament, but what I saw tonight went above and beyond that! That quirk is a literal monster, even more so than that Moonfish. Took him out with a single hit, even! This one has tricks up his sleeve—"
"Alright, I get it," Shigaraki said, waving him aside to stride over to where Bakugou had been suppressed by a mound of Twice clones without too much struggle. "So Moonfish isn't with us anymore. Muscular and Mustard, too. Fine, whatever, if they couldn't make it back then that's their own damn fault. The success of our mission will compensate our loss. And Dabi, since you seem to have a pretty good grasp of the situation, I'm leaving you in control of that bird. Lock him up in the back room. First and foremost I wish to discuss with young Bakugou before addressing this…wonderfully unexpected guest.
Dabi lifted Tokoyami up by the hood of his burned and shredded coat, bringing him to his feet and pushing him forcefully towards a door behind the bar. Tokoyami chanced a look behind him to get a sense of Bakugou's condition. He didn't look hurt, but he was unusually quiet while being apprehended by the villains. It'll make things harder to be separated. His best bet would just be listening for information, but being separated so soon from the only (somewhat) friendly face didn't set well with him.
The door opened to a stock room filled with old bottles and crates, lit by a lone lightbulb. The air was stale and tinged with the smell of beer and gunpowder. In the back of the room sat a rusted cage, just slightly larger than a dog crate.
"We didn't exactly prepare for two prisoners. Hope you don't mind the minor inconvenience, but gotta restrain you somehow. This can be a pretty decent bird cage, right?"
They walked right up and stood before it. Dabi let go of Tokoyami and waited. He looked down at the cage dejectedly, unwilling to enter so easily but knowing he had no choice. It would do him no good to start something at this point. Tokoyami crouched to enter and sat on the cold steel floor, turning to look back at his captor.
The villain smirked. "I can already tell you're gonna be easier than that other punk. Give me the easy job and you'll do just fine here. All you have to do is sit tight and don't cause any trouble, right?"
Tokoyami watched him coldly as he clicked the lock into place. He wanted to hurl a cutting response at him, but kept his beak shut in case he said something that angered the fire quirk user. His cool smugness and superior position reminded him of everything he once disliked about Todoroki. Of course, the only thing he shares with the current Todoroki is their fire abilities and almost emotionless blue eyes.
"Help yourself to whatever booze you can reach. Just don't go reaching too far and don't tell anyone I said that. You're a minor, after all," he laughed, walking away from the cage.
Dabi turned back to him as he reached the door. "Did you want the lights on or off?"
"On…please."
"Okay, then." He turned off the switch and closed the door behind him, plunging the room and the scared, fretful student into darkness broken only by a thin sliver of light creeping out from the other room. Tokoyami let out a shuttered breath. He tried to pick up on the conversation in the other room going on without him, but a pestering voice that had been invited by the lack of light made it difficult to direct his attention.