Hey all, BenchBeYolking, still checking in.
I'm running outta things to say, I'm being honest! Thanks for reading!
Always look forward to reading your guy's thoughts, but I've said that for the last 11 chapters, so maybe you've got that at this point.
Also yeah, I know the chapter is a little shorter, and this story has been moving at a snails pace, but I'm bad at staying on topic, and I've found I can actually get more done in a chapter if I try and get a certain amount done in one chapter then just try and make it as long as possible, so while this chapter is still pretty slow, I'm hoping to pick up the pace a little bit (unless you guys have been digging the speed we're moving at, in which case, I'll stay the course!)
Another advantage of shorter chapters: I can actually move to a weekly update schedule instead of a Bi-weekly/Whoops-Accidental-Hiatus release.
Hope you all enjoy!
As always and always and always, I'll let the chapter, speak for itself...
Lazarus stood before Kan's looming shape, without thinking, Lazarus clenched his hands into fists. Lazarus closed his eyes, cloaking his world in confronting darkness for a moment. He took a deep breath in, filling his lungs with air before pushing it all out. When he opened his eyes again, no longer was he alone before Kan. Lazarus stepped forward, feeling the entire class shift, all moving towards their teacher, towards their dreams.
Kan continued to look around, his demeanor shifting to that of the man Lazarus saw him as on the first day. Imposing, threatening, and utterly deadly. As Kan came to life and began to move, Lazarus saw the strangely out of place table in the middle of the street behind him. Lazarus finally took in his surroundings, the tunnel had ended at one of the urban test centers and opened into a main street where they had gathered.
"Okay, now let's talk about today's exercise. In today's hero society, what is the most important skill for a newbie hero to have?" At Kan's question, a hushed murmur spread through the crowd, as the class considered the incredibly vague statement.
"Honour!" Tetsutetsu spoke, false confidence heavy in his voice.
"Kindness." The girl from yesterday's training whose hair appeared to be made up of a series of vines replied, her voice quiet, but strong.
"Adaptability...obviously." Neito sighed as he gave his answer, putting a hand in his hair as he oozed real confidence.
"Ability to speak Japanese?" Pony-Chan piped in, the normally snide comment sounding perfectly innocent and honest from her mouth.
"Wrong, all wrong...not a single one of you know it, eh?" As Kan looked around, those who hadn't answered yet, Lazarus included, quickly descended into silence and tried to avoid Kan's glare.
Lazarus put a hand on his chin and did something he rarely did, think hard. Even though his tired state, he tried to look at his own experience, what had kept him alive? His quirk was the obvious answer, but he doubted that was a valid response. Fighting prowess was useful, but not all heroes needed to fight. He thought back to every encounter on the streets with his siblings and tried to draw a common line between them.
"Come on!" Kan growled, placing a hand on his temples, "I can't even give you participation marks if you don't say anything! Fine, the answer is…" As Kan reached the end of the sentence, he trailed off, as if giving the class one more chance to guess.
It hit Lazarus like a ton of bricks, the answer was so obvious. Every fight with his siblings, every victory he achieved, there was a simple connection that drew it all together.
"A good sleep schedule!" Lazarus cried out, slapping a hand against his head as it came to him.
Kan stared right through Lazarus, as if he couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. Lazarus stood, frozen in his position, waiting for Kan's response.
"No. That's...no." Kan sighed dejectedly as Lazarus unfroze, suddenly feeling incredibly confused.
"Really?" Lazarus questioned.
"Yes, Poe-kun. That's not the answer." As Kan continued to regard him with that same vague disappointment Lazarus always felt from Kan, all he could do was try and figure out where his mental train of thought had jumped the track.
"Okay, well it was either that or teamwork…" Lazarus half-mumbled to himself, half thought out loud. Kan had already begun to turn away, clearly accepting no one was going to get it.
"No, that's also not- Wait, no! Yes! Teamwork! That's exactly right!" Kan suddenly stood at his full height, stomping on the ground with such force that it seemed to shake the ground underneath Lazarus.
"Really? Because in my experience most newbies become overly concerned with overperforming in their fledgling career, and though doing such neglect having a health work-life balance especially-" As Lazarus began to rattle off his reasoning, Kan put a gentle hand up to stop him.
"Poe-kun, this is the first mildly not disappointing thing you've managed to accomplish. Please, for both of our sakes, just take the correct answer and let's move on." As Kan finished, a moment of understanding passed over Lazarus, and he understood.
"Haha! I got it right, give me five Tet!" Lazarus turned to Tetsutetsu and offered a high-five, which Tetsutetsu begrudgingly accepted after a moment.
"In today's society, Heroes are being driven to become more independent, as the market becomes more saturated with new unproven faces, Heroes are encouraged to stand out on their own." Kan continued, ignoring Lazarus's antics as he moved to the other side of the desk, picking up two boxes, one black and one white.
"Yet! Young heroes must not forget why they are there, they have to learn to work together, often time under incredible pressure and with no warning, in order to save the day. Especially because many of you will start, or make your living, as a sidekick, this teamwork is crucial to being a hero!" Kan shook the two buckets, before reaching a massive hand into each.
"That need to prepare for the unknown and work with others unexpectedly is what we'll be focusing on in this first year class. Eventually, you'll be working in larger teams in grander scenarios, but today we'll just be doing some classic two on two battles!" As Kan finished, he pulled two balls from each box, each one having a name on them.
"Poe-kun and Tsuburaba-kun! Villain team!" Kan cried, seemingly in an instant, Kosei was by his side. Lazarus however, felt a less then pleased churning in his gut.
"Villains? Why aren't we just like, hero-team-B or something…" Lazarus crossed his arms and huffed, being pegged a Villain was not an experience he wanted to relive. Kan laughed.
"Calm yourself, you'll all have a chance to be both the heroes and the villains. Consider it a boon, you'll have fewer rules you'll have to abide by to get a higher score." Kan reassured both Lazarus and the class, Lazarus sighed, but nodded, accepting the answer without further issue.
"You two will be facing...Tsunotori-san and Shishida-kun! Hero team!" As Kan finished Lazarus had one question on his mind.
"...Kosei, who the hell are Tsunororit and Shinshsiha?" Lazarus whispered, Kosei looked back with the most deadpan expression he had ever seen him wear.
"Wow you were not kidding when you said you were bad with names." As if to accent his point, he pointed to where two students had stepped forward.
"Oh! It's Pony-Chan-san and...some furry dude with glasses." Lazarus spoke, more to himself as he watched Pony-Chan step forward alongside a student he didn't know yet, a tall boy with an excessive amount of hair on his arms, legs and face. The two of them looked back at Lazarus, and the rests of the group seemed to fade away from his perception, leaving only him and Kosei against them.
"His name is Jurota Shishida, and Lazarus...you are aware that her name is Pony, right? Pony-chan already has the suffix -chan attached." As Kosei whispered in his ear, Lazarus suddenly found he had no words to respond as he looked at... Pony and Jurota.
"Thank you, Kosei. I assure you my fighting abilities surpass my context understanding skills." With that, Kosei nodded and backed away from Lazarus's peripheral vision, leaving only Pony, Jurota, and Kan in his sights.
Kan seemed satisfied with the two groups, before opening a heavy binder and flipping to a bookmarked page, clearing his throat to get everyone's attention.
"Today's exercise is a-" Suddenly, a burst of air hit Lazarus from behind, he stumbled, almost being knocked off his feet completely from the force. He saw Pony stumble as well, Kosei fall flat on his face, and Jurota stand stoically through it.
Turning, Lazarus saw the source of the blast, clad in red and blue, All Might stood behind them all, his classic smile plastered on his face.
"I am here!" All Might declared, stunning the class, most too surprised and awestruck to say anything else. Kan however, was unimpressed.
"Class A is in training block D today. First left on your way back, follow that tunnel to the end. Though if you didn't tell them to meet you there, they're probably still waiting in their homeroom class." Without missing a beat, Kan directed All Might to where Lazarus assumed he was suppose to be.
All Might stood stoically for a moment, yet Lazarus saw a bead of sweat move down his forehead and pass his impossibly wide smile. All Might nodded, raising a single thumb up to acknowledge the directions. Before turning around and crouching into a sprinter's position.
"Then! I...am off to teach my class!" Before Lazarus could blink, All Might was gone, and another massive blast of wind followed behind him. After half a second, Kan continued.
"...as I was saying, today's exercise is-" Before Kan could finished, Setsuna popped up from somewhere in the back of the group to speak.
"Wait, we're just going to ignore that? Just ignore that All Might rolled up to our class? That the number one hero-" As Setsuna continued talking, Kan looked up, a peeved expression on his face.
"Please don't interrupt me, and yes, we are ignoring that interruption." Kan paused, waiting to see if anyone else wanted to stop him, after a satisfying moment of silence, he cleared his throat again.
"We're doing a bomb recovery scenario!" As Kan spoke, he pulled out what looked like a remote control and hit a button. As soon as he did, a trailer truck driven by a robot pulled around the corner and back up behind him, the giant metal shutters hiding what was inside. Lazarus could feel the energy rising in the class as Kan walked up to the truck and threw open the shutters to reveal…
A totally empty trailer, with a bright yellow sticky note taped to the wall.
Kan said nothing, simply taking the sticky note from the wall and reading it out loud.
"My old friend Vlad King, I borrowed the fake bomb you had taken out of storage to use in my Heroics Class, I'll return it ASAP, Thanks a bunch. Your friend, All Might...and a smiley face." As Kan finished, Lazarus saw Kan close his eyes tiredly, taking a deep breath before releasing it.
"Excuse me a moment class." Kan spoke, his voice empty as he stepped up into the back of the trailer, closing the metal shutters behind him.
"What do you think he's…" Kosei turned to Lazarus to ask, but before Lazarus could respond. Kan's muffled voice became audible through the thin metal sheet of the trailer door.
"I think, our teacher believes this trailer is sound proof." Neito spoke from the crowd of students, leaving everyone awkwardly eavesdrop on their teacher.
"Good afternoon, Kayama-san, I just remembered you said you were free this block today because of a schedule mix up? I need a favor." As Kan's hushed voice leaked out of the trailer, Lazarus, along with the rest of the students, remained deadly quiet as their teacher appeared to make a phone call.
"I...I understand this is very short notice but All Might, yeah, yeah I know he actually wrote a competent scenario, the problem was, he used my prop, and I have an entire class of students waiting...well since I can't do a bomb mission I was going to do the one I use to do before switching to the bomb mission, I know the principal told me to stop using that part of the city because of the danger, but I don't really have a choice! I'm not going to just let my class miss such an important class... and if you remember I need-" Kan paused, seemingly waiting for a response.
"Okay-okay, uh, thank you, for agreeing, but uh, you're doing me a favor, so maybe don't be so excited about this…thank you again..." After another awkward moment of silence, Kan threw open the shutters, stepping out of the trailer as if nothing had happened.
"There has been a slight change of plans, we're doing a Hostage Rescue Mission!" Kan cried, trying to raise some excitement again, Lazarus couldn't help but raise his hand.
"Am I still on the Villain team?" Kan turned to face him.
"Yes." Kan response, Lazarus frowned.
"Follow up question then; Is killing the hostage a legal move for the villain team to make if it looks like we're going to lose?" As Lazarus finished, he heard Kosei take a step away from him as Kan regarded him with tired eyes.
"I'm just going to pretend that you're joking about that." Kan replied, Lazarus nodded.
"And by that response, I'm going to go with a solid 'no' for scorched-earthing the mission objective, got it. Just getting into character, Sensei." Lazarus pointed at Kan with both of his index fingers, nodding to show he understood, Kan simply ignored him.
"The objective is simple. Underneath our feet is an 'abandoned' subway station." Kan stressed the words abandon, making it clear that it was still part of the training ground. Though what Lazarus could hear of his conversation, it seemed like perhaps it really was 'abandoned' for real.
"The Villain team will have to guard the helpless hostage from being taken by the hero team for...ten minutes, let's say, if the hero team manages to retrieve the hostage and make it out of the subway, they win." Kan began listing off the rules, flipping through his binder in a clear attempt to figure out where he had written the rules for this old exercise.
"Otherwise, if the villains manage to hold off the heroes assault, then they win. Villains, you have five minutes to prepare...as soon as our hostage arrives…" Kan began to slow down, and Lazarus realized he was buying time for whomever he was talking with to get here.
"You'll have to take good care of me boys and girls...I'll be the one tied up for once." Lazarus felt his heart freeze as the familiar seductive voice spoke from behind him, the girls of the class turned and gasped, several of the boys turned and had a little stronger of a reaction. Lazarus could only feel fear.
"Students, meet our volunteer hostage, Midnight, the 18+ Hero." As Kan introduced her, Lazarus bit his tongue to ask again why the hell an 18+ hero was a teacher at a high school.
"That's right students, I'll be tied up with rope, helpless and defenceless to the villains who have captured me, enslaved my poor helpless body to-" As Midnight began to go off on a tangent, (and Lazarus felt the temperature of the crowd increase several degrees) Kan quickly shut her down.
"Hahaha! Okay, Midnight, I think they get the idea! You're the hostage." Kan quickly stepped in front of Midnight, who was just a few feet behind Lazarus, meaning Lazarus could perfectly hear their next whispered exchange.
"Midnight!" Kan hissed between a clenched smile, "Please for the love of everything allowed by the school code of conduct, don't make me have to gag you." Midnight turned and smiled innocently at Kan.
"Why Kan-san, I never knew you were into that kind of thing~" Kan's frown somehow became even more deeply set in his face as Midnight quickly walked away from him, the clicking of her heels being the only sound beside the excited murmurs of the (mostly male) students around her.
"Villain team! Front and center!" Kan yelled, clearly taking out his frustration through yelling, which Lazarus was happy he was doing instead of taking it out on him.
"Here! This is an earpiece that will let you communicate with each other, and let me talk to you if I need to intervene. Some chalk, a flashlight…and capture tape. Wrap this around your opponent to signify you've captured them to remove them from the fight." Kan handed each of them the items as he spoke, as well as a rolled up scroll of paper.
"Finally, this is a map of the subway system, with a marker for where the hostage is. The Heroes will get the same map, but without the hostage marker. You can't move the hostage, but you can return them to the room if the Heroes remove her." As Kan explained the last of the items he handed them, he took another deep breath.
"Feel free to use this time to strategize, or get yourself familiar with the area, I'll let you know two minutes before the heroes will start. Good luck you two, Plus Ultra!" As Kan finished, Lazarus looked to Kosei to smile, who quickly matched his expression. The two of them nodded to each other then bowed to Kan out of respect.
"Thank you Sensei!" The two of them spoke in unison, Lazarus quickly turned and began to bolt towards the entrance, Kosei trailing slightly behind him. As Lazarus moved, he felt his chest swell, his tiredness staved off by the promise of combat, even if it was just practice combat.
And suddenly, Lazarus was in the subway.
The darkness was oppressive, the rare, flickering, wall light barely illuminated directly around it, leaving plenty of dark corners to hide. As Lazarus slowed down to look, Kosei caught up to him, huffing slightly at trying to keep pace with Lazarus.
Lazarus smiled as Kosei recovered, the two of them were at the first fork in the road, both paths eventually converged on the 'Hostage' chamber, but there were quite a few winding intersecting passages, some longer than others, along the way. The light above them flickered only occasionally, actually giving the two of them some visibility.
"So, Cube-kun, what's the plan?" Kosei spoke, leaning in as he pulled out the map and pointed to where they were. Lazarus looked back at him.
"See, here's the thing, Kosei, buddy, I'm uh, I'm not really a 'planning' kinda guy. I'm not the brains, I'm the brawns, you know? So basically, what do you got!" Lazarus put a hand on his friend's shoulder, smiling.
Kosei stared blankly back at him, "Well, I'm glad that we're on the same wavelength Cube-kun, because I've got nothing."
"Huh." Lazarus replied.
"Huh." Kosei response.
"Huh…" Lazarus sighed.
"Huh." Kosei yet again asserted.
"So, protect the hostage?" Lazarus threw out the obvious statement, hoping to at least get the ball rolling. Kosei nodded.
"Works for me!" The brown haired boy spoke quickly looking back down at the map to try and figure out the quickest way to the hostage, Lazarus suddenly got an idea.
"Okay...so, here's an idea, why don't you set up a bunch of barriers, just at random areas, they'll get confused about which way the hostage is and we can run down the clock!" Lazarus snapped his fingers as Kosei quickly shook his head to disagree.
"Sorry, Lazarus. I can't make more than one barrier at a time, good idea though! Any more?" Kosei shut him down hard, and Lazarus winced, he had really put all his mental eggs in one basket.
"Well...then…" Lazarus thought out loud, walking to the wall and running his hand along the wall trying to think of 'something' helpful. Kosei looked around with him, before suddenly blinking rapidly.
"What's your costume do?" As Kosei asked Lazarus turned pulling down his scarf to reveal his metal collar. Tapping the side of it he couldn't help but smile.
"The rest of it's really a style kinda thing, switched from red to purple, the jacket's lightweight kevlar, and yeah, the pants are tough, but the collar is what's really important.
"What does it do?" Kosei leaned in, trying to inspect the metal device in the dark, Lazarus chuckled.
"Injects a bunch of deadly neurotoxins directly into my bloodstream, should kill me in about five seconds, if they can deliver on what they promised." Lazarus casually flipped open the front of the collar, revealing a red handle with a warning sign on it. Kosei backed away.
"Oh, wow, that's...fast." Kosei tried to form a coherent sentence, Lazarus noticed him failing.
"Yep. Just pull this handle and, you know, bleh" Lazarus closed the collar and adjusted his scarf.
"Pretty simple, all things considered, but I'm hoping I don't have to use it today. How's your costume help?" Lazarus turned the question back on his brown haired friend, who quickly pointed to himself as if to confirm before responding.
"Oh uh, nothing special, it's pretty minimalistic as you can tell...no kevlar…" Kosei suddenly seemed incredibly self-conscious about his costume. Lazarus looked him over, it was pretty simple, mostly functional hero apparel, A brown and light grey jumpsuit with what looked like several small air tanks on his waist, with tubes leading up to his head, where some kind of small device hung loosely around his neck.
"This little thing," Kosei remarked on the device almost as soon as Lazarus looked at it, holding it up to his mouth to demonstrate, "Is hooked up to a bunch of condensed pressurized oxygen tanks, it'll force a bunch of air into my lungs, you know, without kill me, so I can make a real big barrier if I have to." As Kosei finished, Lazarus nodded enthusiastically.
"See, now that's thinking outside the box, you sure you aren't an idea guy, eh?" Kosei laughed, but Lazarus saw his body language puff out proudly a little bit.
"When it comes to my own quirk, I guess I know a little bit…" The two of them smiled, then Lazarus remembered their time limit.
"Okay, so, I have an idea. I'll trade you for the chalk!" Lazarus reached into a specially shaped pouch on his jacket as Kosei held out the chalk for Lazarus to take.
"Wait, trade me what?" As soon Kosei spoke, Lazarus grabbed the chalk and placed his cube in Kosei's hand.
"Okay...okay. So I'm trusting you here…trust." Lazarus spoke, he tried to control the shaking of his hand as he moved it away from the cube now in Kosei's hand. Kosei looked incredibly concerned.
"Uh, are you okay? Does it hurt when you're away from it?" Kosei tried to offer the cube back to him, but Lazarus pushed his hand away.
"No pain! Yet! Just, trust issues. Not that I don't trust you! But uh, just, be careful with it, okay? My life is literally in your hands right now." Lazarus stepped away slightly, fighting the urge to grab the cube again as he wrung his hands.
"Okay...uh, why are you giving me this?" Kosei asked quietly, Lazarus took another step away, his separation anxiety dulling slightly, he knew it would only get worse as soon as he got out of sight of his cube.
"Simple, I'm going to go mark some shapes on key areas of the subway walls with this chalk, so we can maneuver our way around without having to keep looking at the map. The other team won't know what they mean, but we will. It'll give us a leg up if we have to chase them, we'll know where we are, hopefully." Lazarus explained his plan as he stepped away again, feeling his breathing steady.
"But why you? Why can't I go with you?" Kosei shifted his weight as he crossed his arms, clearly unsure of Lazarus's idea.
"You need to take my cube to the 'hostage' that way, worst case scenario, I can just use my costume to uh, 'return' to you quickly if need be. Please, stay by the hostage, okay?" Lazarus knew it was a waste of his one life, but he didn't expect either of his foes to fight him to the death, especially with capture tape being a non-lethal way to remove people from combat.
"Are you sure?" Kosei seemed unsure, Lazarus couldn't help but blink, the question ripping any confidence he had in his idea away.
"No...but I think it's a better plan then waiting here until we both get caught off guard with zero prep." Lazarus shrugged with a light chuckle, knowingly betraying how utterly off the cusp his idea was. Kosei laughed.
"Well, at least we have honesty going for us. I'll trust you Lazarus." Kosei grinned and scratched his nose with his thumb, giving Lazarus a quick thumbs up afterwards.
"I won't let you down." Lazarus replied, nodding, suddenly feeling more weight behind his task.
"You better not. I'm not the best at hitting the books, so I'm kinda banking on these practical test grades." Kosei smiled, but Lazarus saw the flicker of an actual plea behind them.
"Then stay in contact, I'll mark down where I put the chalk when I get back to the hostage." Lazarus turned and began to walk down the subway passage, into the darkness. Kosei suddenly spoke up.
"Wait! Don't you need the map? You know, to mark down where you put the chalk?" Kosei's voice gave Lazarus a moment of pause.
"...Two lefts then up the staircase, first room on your right Grav, that's where they'd keep the stolen goods…"
"...It's floor twelve, there's a vent shaft that leads right to the bathroom, from there, you can walk through the kitchen to get to the hidden back room. We'll find them there..."
"...Of course I know the way, you guys give me two jobs, GPS duty and human meat shield work, I'm the directions guy!"
Lazarus grinned, turning over his shoulder to look at Kosei's confused expression.
"Trust me, I think I've already got a good grip on the layout of this place." Lazarus laughed, more to himself then anyone as he moved into the darkness of the tunnel.
As Lazarus continued, he heard his laughter echo around him in the darkness, carrying both forward and backwards, the sound made him laugh harder, the distortion of his voice sudden seeming incredibly funny as he tried to take his mind off the growing distance between him and his heart, laughing louder to distract himself from the coldness spreading through his chest.
"Poe-kun." Kan's voice sparked to life in Lazarus's ear, sounding far crisper and closer than he expected.
"Yes-Sir-Sensei?" Lazarus put a hand to his ear, replying as his laughter died instantly.
"I understand you are part of the villain team, and intimidation is a valid tactic; But, the hero team, your teammate, and most of the classes is a little freaked out by hearing your and I quote a classmate of yours here, 'unhinged laughter emerge from the darkness of the subway like a demon rising from the pits of hell.' Would you mind dialing it back a bit?" Kan's statement froze Lazarus in his tracks, an awkward apologetic smile suddenly stuck to his face.
"Yes-Sensei. I'll uh, keep the 'unhinged' laughter to a minimum, properly hinged laughter only." Lazarus waited for a reply that never came, then quietly slipped further into the darkness, thankful that at least for a bit, he'd be alone and unobserved.
Lazarus noted that the darkness was rather intense, and with every step, he could feel not only himself get farther away from his cube, but also Kosei moving further away, doubling the distance with every step. Eventually, he reached the furthest end of the tunnels and began to work his way backwards, stopping to make abstract chalk marks as he went.
"Kosei? You there man?" Lazarus hit the comm in his ear, realising that he hadn't checked if it even worked, though considering that Kan noted that Kosei had heard his laughter, he assumed it was at least connected to the network.
"Yeah, what's up Cube-kun?" Kosei's voice seemed to be right beside his ear, but Lazarus swore he could hear his own heart beating from the other side of the intercomm, how far away from his cube had he gone?
"Where are you? In the Subway, I mean, you've made it to the hostage?" Lazarus marked a giant triangle on the wall beside him where a side passage split off, remembering that this was the longest way to the hostage from looking at the map.
"I'm was just with the, uh, 'hostage' a second ago." Kosei paused, and Lazarus sighed, knowing fully well what was about to come next.
"Dude! It's Midnight!" Kosei managed to both half-whisper, and somehow half-yell into Lazarus's earpiece at the same time. Lazarus barely managed not to scream into the void.
"Focus! Kosei, where exactly are you." Lazarus suddenly felt out of breath, he looked down at his hands and saw that he was deathly pale, a churning in his gut warned him of impending disaster. A distorted blob of flesh and hair darted by the edge of Lazarus's vision, and instantly, the tired boy knew he had made an error.
"Yeah, I decided to check out the other side of the subway, I'll promise I'll be back before the heroes start, so don't worry about me being with the hostage, but I'm almost at the other far end of the subway now." Kosei innocently confessed, and Lazarus could suddenly feel the darkness around him grow heavier as his legs suddenly gave out under him. Sending him down to his knees. A fear struck him.
He hadn't told Kosei why exactly he needed to stay by the hostage, or more specifically, near the center of the subway.
"Something up Cube-kun? Hello?" Kosei's voice floated into his ear, but the growing sound of static was all that filled his head. Lazarus looked down to see his flesh begin to crumble.
"..." Lazarus tried to speak, but all he could do was choke on dust, his voice lost, no matter how hard he heaved. Fear began to burrow into his gut, he had only been separated from his cube twice before, and both times, he had no memory of what had happened, all he could remember was regenerating next to his cube, with the strange feeling of waking from a horrible nightmare.
Then the hand appeared.
Lazarus wanted to close his eyes, but to his growing terror, they wouldn't obey him, he couldn't move, he couldn't speak, only flick his eyes to the side to see the shadowy, skeleton hand reaching out from somewhere behind his head, as it moved closer to his head, it grazed his cheek, almost in a mocking, loving gesture. At it's touch, his nerves fried, crumbled to dust along with his skin and muscles, and all the while his brain sent a desperate plea through Lazarus's body, he imagined this is what it felt like for a toy to run out of batteries.
Tears stained Lazarus's face as with every touch of the hand, his body was wracked with pain, not the dull sensation which he had learned to call 'hurt' whenever his body took damage, but unimaginable, horrific agony that hit him in the core of his being. In that moment, Lazarus finally knew why people feared death.
The hand finally grabbed at Lazarus's arm, crumbling the flesh around it until bone gripped bone, and then another hand appeared, and another, and another, and another. Lazarus felt the world around him flicker, as if he was trapped between reality and dream. The hands began to tug, pulling him backwards into a void he couldn't sea, while his body refused to move, it still felt like some part of him was being pulled out, as if he was being evicted from his own decaying body.
Lazarus heard nothing but static and felt nothing but pain, but he could still see, no matter how much he wished he couldn't. He watched the shadows shift into a familiar shape, Newtonia, walking towards him.
She was wrong. Her eyes were sunken and dim, her innocent smile was warped and mangled, and her body seized with every step, as if she was something not of this world, with every moment, Lazarus saw Newtonia's facade drip away, until he was looking into a mirror.
"Return to me, Lazarus…" The abomination with his face whispered, it's voice echoing around his head from a hundred different sources. it's arm reached out, and morphed until it was the exact size and shape of his face, resembling the inside of his Vigilante mask, and with every instant, the light seemed to flicker, and it's hand moved closer to his face.
"Please…" Lazarus whispered, his lips crumbling as he spoke, the abomination gave no heed to his plea. Another shadowed hand reaching out to wrap around his throat, choking what little air was left in his lungs.
"This vessel is too weak now...return to me for a new one…you'll forget all about this...soon...return to me..." As the abomination's hand inched ever closer, Lazarus felt his breath stop, and the world began to blur around him, the darkness of the tunnel becoming replaced with the nothingness he knew so well.
The abomination froze, its face contorting, before it frowned, and instantly flickered out of existence. Before Lazarus could do anything, he felt the hands release their grips, like marionette strings snapping, they released their death hold on him and were thrown backwards into the darkness, and in a moment, Lazarus was totally, and completely alone.
"Hello? Lazarus please, please, please respond! Sensei just released the heroes! Where are you man? I'm back at the hostage! Do you copy?" Kosei's voice sounded too clean and too crisp, like a drink of ice-cold water after a heat stroke. Lazarus looked down at his hands to find them shaking and gaunt, but otherwise intact, he felt along his face, arms, and throat, but though he felt clammy and cold, he was whole.
"What...the...everloving…" Lazarus whispered, tears falling down his face as he wiped his eyes with the back of his sleeve, stumbling to his feet, shock alone driving his every action. As he looked forward, his voice caught in his throat, in the darkness ahead of him, the abomination stood, flickering in and out of reality, beckoning him with a single too-long finger to a place too far away from his cube, inviting him to death.
A single thought overloaded all the others in his head, a single, unavoidable thought.
"My cube." Lazarus whispered, stepping away as the Abomination's flickering grew more rapidly with every step closer to Kosei he took.
"What?" Kosei spoke, clearly worried about both where Lazarus was and what was happening.
"Cube. Cube. Cube. Cube." Lazarus babbled, the thought consuming his every moment, his chest felt so hollow, so cold, so empty.
"I have your cube, you gave it to me, so just be quiet and get back…" Kosei tried to speak calmly, but Lazarus felt everything but calm.
"Cube." Lazarus spoke again, and he felt his body break into a sprint, he tripped almost instantly, his legs shakier and weaker then he remembered them being, his face hit the cold concrete beneath him, but instantly, he was back on his feet and running faster than before. Towards his cube, only towards his cube, every step feeling like his last, pounding the ground as hard as he could, as if he could crack the earth to reach his goal faster.
"Lazarus! Dude, what are you doing, I can hear your feet pounding on the ground from here! Slow down! You'll tip off the heroes."
Lazarus wanted to respond, he wanted to cry, he wanted to scream, his mind firing off in a way it never had before, gaps in his memory he never questioned before slowly filling, the abomination's presence suddenly seeming oh so familiar to him, but in that moment, all he could think was a single thing.
"Cube, Return to the source, save the vessel." Lazarus spoke, the words coming from his mouth, but not being thought by him.
"The hell are you talking about?" Kosei yelled from the other side, before he took another step, and a beam of light hit him from the side, causing Lazarus to instinctively freeze, running on pure instinct as he currently was, he could only imagine the beam as a police spotlight, his body preparing for a fight of self-defence.
Out of the corner of his eye, even through the blinding light, Lazarus saw two silhouettes in the darkness behind the beam, even in his shell-shocked state, Lazarus could tell exactly who they were.
"Found you!" Pony gleefully cheered in English, pointing a finger at him. All Lazarus could do was blink.