He lost track of the lyrics as he watched her rush out the room with her phone pressed against her cheek. What the hell? All that smack talking and threatening to embarrass the shit out of him, and she just walks out to answer a call?! Rude! Couldn't she have sent it to voicemail or something? She better come back before the song ends; he'd be pissed if he didn't get a chance to rub his win right in her face. For the time being, he tried to ignore it by putting his focus towards finishing his serenade.

After a while, the guitar softly faded out to silence, leaving him glaring at her still-empty spot. Geez, where the hell was she? His friends clapped for him as he stepped away from the spotlight.

"Nice job, Man." Kiri flashed his white chompers and gave him a supportive thumbs up.

"Thanks…"

This was annoying. It didn't seem like her to just walk out on a bet. He set down the mic and reached for his cup to take a long pull of his water. Crazy how quick your throat can dry out when you're singing on the spot. Guess when people get even a tad bit nervous, that happens, but he'd never admit it. He peered at the door from the corner of his eye, the passing seconds now starting to get him a little wary.

"Hey, uh… I'm gonna hit the head… I'll be back." He put his drink down before making his way to the exit.

"Okay. Jiro should take another turn! Or perhaps, a duet?" Sparkplug smirked as he snatched the mic and flashed his eyebrows playfully to her. The gesture instantly made her turn away, flustered, and left Kirishima feeling like an awkward third wheel. Without Bakugo, this was going to be a painfully long song.

Bakugo stepped out into the hallway, checking first to his right, then his left until his eyes set on her red velvet hair standing a few feet away. The sounds of muffled music emitted from the other rooms as he passed by. True to their word, the place did a good job trying to soundproof their rooms, but even amongst the soft noise, he could barely make out her words. He stepped closer.

"Look, just try to calm down… Ok, but-... Everything's going to be okay. I'll be right there. Just try to find a safe space. I'm on my way."

He caught the last bit of what she said. The fuck? He stared at the back of her head questionably. Where is she going now? She cursed under her breath as she pressed the end-call button. The look on her face presented an ominous feeling in the pit of his stomach. Something wasn't right.

He approached her directly. "Hey."

She flicked her eyes back to him, a bit surprised that he was there, and slid her device back in her pants pocket. "Hey, something came up. I've gotta go."

"What did?"

"Just… something." She reached for her wallet and pulled out one of her cards to offer him. "Look, I can't stay, so just pay my tab for me, will ya? I'll get it back from you at the dorms."

He contumely nudged her hand away, a bit more forceful than expected. He was starting to get so sick of hearing these hollow answers. "You really do suck at lying, so spill it. What's going on?"

She sighed at his stubbornness. "It's Maiko."

"Who the fu-? That brat from the mall?"

She nodded.

"What, those thug-wannabes take her shit again?"

"Actually, it's not them this time."

His ears perked.

"It's her father, the pastor that runs the orphanage. She said he's been going crazy ever since he got home."

"Crazy how?"

"I dunno… I couldn't make out what she said, but from what I could hear in the background, it doesn't sound good. Heard a lot of shouting. He may be getting violent. And if there are more kids there with her, they could be in trouble… It's weird, she didn't come off as abused, or even fearful of going back there." She puzzled with a hand to her chin. Then again, some abused kids have been conditioned to give the impression of a perfectly normal, happy demeanor in public, and hide their pain behind closed doors. It's not like it hasn't happened before.

Bakugo clicked his tongue. This kind of mess shouldn't be her responsibility. She still wasn't a licensed hero yet. "Shouldn't you call the cops or something?"

"I don't know if it's gotten to that point yet or not. If it does, I'll let you know and you can alert Midnight or Aizawa." She went to move around him, but he stepped in her way.

"Who said you were going alone?"

Her eyes narrowed. What's with him all of a sudden? "Look, I don't have time to argue with you."

"I'm not arguing! Don't forget, you're still a newbie to this kind of shit. You can't just jump in without a plan. It's not safe."

"I don't have enough information yet to make one. My plan is to get over there and find out."

"Not by yourself!" The tension raised the volume in his voice, making her take a small step back.

"I don't know what you're getting so worked up about. I can handle myself just fine."

"Will you just fucking-!" He clenched his hands into fists, catching himself before he said something he knew he'd regret. He took a quick breath and relaxed. "Ugh! I'm not saying you won't be. Just don't let shit happen, like it did before… It doesn't hurt to have someone watch your back once in a while, alright?"

Before? That's when it clicked. He didn't want her to get caught off guard and almost killed, like it did with that homeless guy. She didn't understand why he didn't mention it sooner, but then again, he was always so quick to anger, and he admitted that he wasn't really good at filtering some of the things he said. At least he tried. Still, it was sweet that he cared, especially when he tried to act all tough about it. Even trying to hide it made it so obvious. Knowing that, she fought the urge to smile.

"... Then come with me."

It didn't take long for him to think it over. He hummed. "Alright, but only to make sure there's no sketchy shit going on, got it? And anything is better than listening to Sparkplug all night long…"

He made a good point.

"Let's go tell them we're not staying then."

"Why? Let's just go." What was the point? If it was urgent, they probably shouldn't waste any time.

"It would be rude not to, but I promise to make it quick." She said and together they re-entered the room.

Their ears instantly trembled from the off-key notes of Kaminari's voice emitting from the loud speakers. Shivers ran across her skin as she tried to power through it, but Bakugo wasted no time as he marched right over and yanked the tablet off the table. He pushed the pause button, and as soon as the room silenced, all eyes fell on them.

"Hey, I got an urgent message from a friend, so I think I'm gonna bounce." Akane said, throwing her thumb over her shoulder to the door.

"But we've only done one song each. Don't you want to at least hang out until our time's up?" Jiro asked, feeling a bit hurt that she wanted to leave so soon. Sadly, it couldn't be helped this time.

"Sorry, she sounded pretty serious."

"... Well, ok." The disappointment in her tone drained the life out of Hattori.

"I promise, I'll make it up next time." She gave her a reassuring smile and that seemed to make her feel a little better. On that note, she checked to make sure she grabbed all her things and passed a small wave before walking out.

"I'm leaving too. I don't wanna hear Sparkplug's wannabe idol shit anymore."

"Hey!" Denki fought the urge to stick his tongue out at the spiky hot head. Maybe it actually would be best if he left. He's been such a downer this whole time and frankly, he was getting annoyed with the constant complaints. It was really killing the vibe.

Kirishima stared at him. "Where're you going?"

"Anywhere, but here." Bakugo said while patting his pants pockets to make sure his phone and wallet were still tucked inside. Thankfully, they were. Without a moment to spare, he disappeared behind the shut of a door.

Kirishima didn't understand. He thought they were all having a good time up until this point. When he got up on the small stage, it seemed like he was really losing himself in the music, but then again, he'd made wrong assumptions about Bakugo before. It wouldn't be the first time he did a solid just to make him happy, but still… To have him and Hattori both gone, it just made things awkward and boring with the three that were left there.

Kaminari nudged himself a bit closer to Jiro as they looked over the tablet together, trying to pick another song. All this time, these two had been friends, yet there was no denying that there was some kind of chemistry between them. Having him there, sulking deeper into the leather chair only made him more unsettled. What if they finally got together and started making out or something? Like he needed to see any of that right now…

"I think I'm gonna go too." He said, which instantly made them snap their necks in distraught.

"You too? Look, if you guys didn't want to do karaoke, you could've just said something." Denki explained, hard-heartedly.

"Yea, we could've done something else." Jiro added. Aww, now he was filled with guilt..

"It's not that. It's just not as fun without Bakugo and Hattori around…" he muttered, a bit sad to admit that out loud.

"Oh, so we're not 'fun' enough for ya?" Denki scoffed. Kirishima's eyes grew wider. Shit!

"Wha-? No! No! That's not-"

"I get it, man! Jiro and I are too boring!"

"No, Denki! That's not it at all!" Kirishima pleaded, balling his hands into fists. He really didn't have time to argue, not if he was going to catch up to Bakugo, but he didn't want to leave things on bad terms with his friends.

Kaminari chuckled, which immediately confused him. "I'm just messin' with ya, dude! It's alright. We'll do something else next time."

"Ah! You're so mean!... I'll meet ya back at the dorms, 'kay?"

Man, he hated it when he joked around like that sometimes, but at least he got the green light to go. He shut the door behind him and tread down the hallway to the front desk. Lucky for him, Bakugo was just finishing up paying his tab with the clerk. Strangely, Hattori stood off to the side, as if she were waiting for him. Wait! Didn't she say she had to go meet with a friend? Bakugo didn't say anything about leaving with her, so why was she-?

Unless they were planning on meeting in secret…

His heart dropped to the pit of his stomach, making him almost stop in his tracks. No! That was all in his head! There must be some kind of reason unknown to him, so he ignored his hunch and pressed onward. Even if his suspicions were correct, he still planned to have some bro-time with his bud and damn it, he was going to do that! He needed to know what was going on, and talk to them as a friend. Even if it meant possibly getting his feelings hurt, he wanted to know what they were doing together.

"Thank you, come again." The clerk answered as he offered Bakugo the small plate with his copy of the receipt and his credit card. Kiri approached him as he put it back in his wallet.

"Hey, what's uh-... What's going on?"

Bakugo snapped his neck to him. He definitely didn't expect him to follow. "What're you doing? Shouldn't you be back there singing?"

"I was, but I really only came here to hang out with you guys. It kind of sucks without you, Man…" He couldn't help but rub the back of his head in embarrassment admitting that thought. "Where're you two going?"

Hattori and Bakugo quietly exchanged glances before she gave him a weak nod. Looks like there was no time left to come up with an excuse to get around this.

"I'll explain on the way." Bakugo said, his words suddenly filling his chest with some much-needed relief.

"Okay, just let me pay my-"

"I already took care of it. I paid the whole tab. Well, everyone but…" She pointed over to Bakugo and rolled her eyes. Seemed legit. He never liked the idea of feeling like he "owed" somebody, even if it was something as small as offering him a piece of gum.

"Ah! You didn't have to do that. I could've paid for my own-"

"I know, but I wanted to make up for leaving so soon." She assured him, but still, paying for four people plus food and drink, that couldn't be cheap. That was incredibly nice of her. How could she afford that?

"Thank you. I'll pay you back, I swear."

"Don't worry about it."

"No, really, I-"

"Ugh! Will you two shut up! We've got to go!" Katsuki interrupted, instantly drawing everyone's attention back to the matter at hand. Hattori nodded and went to hold the front door open for them.

"Go where?"

Along the way, Hattori filled him in on the situation with Maiko. How they met, the three bullies that stole her candy, and how she was a disowned child that lived in a religious orphanage. She went over the details of the phone call she got, just as she did with Bakugo, and Kirishima was stunned. He didn't realize that they had spent so much time together outside of class and training. And to think that Bakugo willingly went along with it, just like he is now. For some reason, he assumed she was making up some excuse to leave the party, but that wasn't the case. She was honestly trying to help a friend… In shame, Kirishima felt a little disgusted at himself for being so jealous of how much time they hung out together. He didn't know it would be for something like this. From this moment on, he made a vow to not let his feelings take over what goes on in his head because thoughts aren't reality, and they deserved a better friend for that.

"So what do we do when we get there?" Kirishima asked, tailing right behind them as they briskly paced across the pavement.

"First, we see what's going on with the whack job and then move in for the kill." Bakugo answered with a sinister smirk.

"We're not killing him! We need to see what's going on and we should get the kids somewhere safe until he calms down. I don't know if it's serious enough to call the police yet, but she called me, so I'm gonna help her out." Hattori explained.

Without another word, he eagerly followed them to the direction of the shopping mall by the school. Though it was getting dark, Akane managed to make out the road signs she remembered taking when they last brought Maiko home. They got lost once, which resorted to Bakugo using his quirk to get a bird's-eye view of the city to find the right path again. Now that he was a licensed hero, he was allowed to use his quirk as he pleased in public, so long as it didn't harm anyone or damage any property without purpose. Once he recognized the giant white cross and the stained glass windows on the church, they finally found their way back in the right direction. Soon, they were standing outside the front double doors.

Akane went to turn the knob, but it was locked. She tried for the other knob adjacent, but that didn't work either. Weird. Usually churches were always open to the public, no matter what time or day of the week for those open to the faith, but given the circumstances, he clearly didn't want anyone getting in. Bakugo didn't hesitate to nudge her out of the way and pounded hard on the door. A few moments passed by, but no one came to the door. A faint growl rolled down Bakugo's throat as he beat on the door more aggressively.

"Damn it! Open up!"

Suddenly, a vibration went off from her phone in her pocket. She pulled it out and immediately recognized the number and accepted it.

"Maiko?"

"Are you coming?… I'm scared!"

"Don't worry, I'm here. Where are you?"

"I'm hiding with my brothers and sisters in the basement." She could hear her voice starting to tremble with fear and the faint sound of other children whimpering in the background.

"Maiko, the front door is locked. Is there any other way to get in?"

"There's the door in the back, but Daddy's still out there."

"It's okay. I'm here with my friends and we're just outside. We're going to help your Dad, okay? Just stay put where you are." She said softly to try and comfort her.

"Okay…" she sniffed. Akane hung up the phone and slipped it back in her pocket.

Bakugo stepped up. "Where'd she say to go?"

"Back door."

On cue, all three of them walked around the church only to find that there was a large metal fence dividing the yard halfway, too tall for one person to jump over without some kind of boost. Bakugo cursed under his breath and turned to Kirishima. With no words, it was almost as if they had full on conversation with their brains, knowing exactly what the other was thinking. Bakugo placed his hands out at his side and detonated, propelling his body high above the fence. There, he controlled his sweat to set off more mild explosions until his feet were planted firmly back on the other side of the gate, where pulled up the bottom so they could crawl under.

Once they stood up, they dusted themselves off and followed along the painted white brick building until they came across the said door. Kirishima reached for the handle and gave it a quick tug. Still nothing. Damn it!

"Aww! This one's locked too."

"Ugh! Move it, Shitty Hair!" Said Bakugo as he aggressively shoved him out of the way. "I'm blowing up the damn door!"

"Don't!" Akane interrupted, nudging her way in front of them. "She said they were hiding in the basement, but there could be kids hiding on the other side too. Let me handle this."

Hattori twitched her hand, and it swelled to a bright bulky red. Without hesitation, she grasped the handle and yanked. The tearing metal screeched as the deadbolt bore through the steel frame and popped out. She flung it open, revealing an eerily dark storage room. Akane hesitated before she cautiously stepped through the entrance, with the boys following closely behind her.

Closing the door, they were immediately enclosed in darkness. Bakugo held out a hand to emit a series of tiny explosions, just enough to give them some light until Kirishima found the power switch. He flicked it on, revealing shelves and shelves stacked against the walls holding bulk amounts of household items, such as toilet paper, giant cans of food, cleaning supplies, and so on. All three of them quietly checked around the room. Unfortunately, there weren't any frightened children.

SLAM! CRASH!

Their ears followed the distant sound to the door across the way. There wasn't any screaming that followed, but whatever it was, it without a doubt echoed throughout the whole building. They didn't know what the Pastor was doing, but judging by the distance of the sound, it seemed to take place towards the front, where they just were. They had to trust their ears and pray he would stay there for the time being. If they were quiet, they could find the kids and get them somewhere safe without getting noticed. That plan was risky. It relied heavily on the kids being smart enough not to call so much attention to themselves and that the pastor wouldn't come to check on them. It would be a real pain if they were caught and got charged for breaking in.

Without a word, they turned to each other. All of them knew that there was a possibility of bumping into the Pastor if they opened this door, but they had a duty to find the kids. They had to make sure they were safe.

Bakugo nodded to them before stepping up to the door first. Though his heart beat like a war drum, he forced himself to remain focused. Anything could happen, but if that guy decided to try anything stupid, Bakugo knew he'd be the one to hit first. He sucked in a short breath as he slowly turned the knob so that it didn't make a sound and pulled it back. He peeked through the small crack first before opening it completely.

It revealed only an open hallway that split in two directions, both sides with various doors that went who knows where. Quietly wondering what to do, Bakugo turned to them and showed his hand giving the Vulcan signal to split up. He gestured for Kirishima to take the right while he and Hattori took the left. The red head nodded and gave a thumbs up in agreement before he softly motioned his body away from them to the first door.

Bakugo met Hattori's gaze and with a flick of his eyes, he cocked his head, gesturing for her to follow him. Everyone was essentially on the same page, to find the basement. Find the basement, find the kids. That was all in the plan at the moment.

They both approached a door, turning the knob ever so gently to avoid getting noticed and quickly peeked in. A bathroom and a linen closet. Both empty. Shutting it, they glanced back at each other and shook their heads before moving on to another. The next one Bakugo opened led to a big open room with many bunk beds evenly spaced out, toys and clothes strewn across the covers, but no one inside. For Akane, it was also another bedroom, this one a much smaller space, but with larger beds, perhaps for the older kids. There were many textbooks and manga on the shelf adjacent and an outdated television on the wall, but still no kids.

"AHHH!" BAM! FUMBLE!

Their heads paused at the remaining double doors at the end of the hall on the right. Concerned, Bakugo shot her a rapid glance. She stared down the door intently. Just from that one look, he knew exactly what she wanted to do. Calmly, she snuck up to the door and went to reach for the knob, but stopped when she felt his hand forcefully grab her wrist. Their eyes locked instantly and he shook his head. She grimaced, and he loosened his grip, but didn't fully release her.

If they opened that door, there's no telling what they would find on the other side or what that man might do. Even though she proved to be strong and fearless, he wouldn't feel right letting her go in first. He released her arm and pointed at himself. She blinked at him, reading his all too serious face. As much as she didn't want to give in to his stubbornness and let him take most of the risk, he did have more training in handling this kind of thing. She gave him a slight nod.

"Psst!"

They whipped their heads back to see Kirishima gesturing to the opened door at the end of his side of the hall. Before they could respond, a short kid with lilac hair and a knitted beige sweater appeared in the doorway. Maiko! As soon as her eyes met Hattori's, she bolted past Kirishima and flung her arms around her waist in a tight hug, silently sobbing into her shirt. Relieved that she was still okay, she bent down and held the poor girl close, shushing her to calm down.

Right after, a few other heads popped out from the doorway. Two children, who appeared to be younger and smaller than Maiko, stood under a few Middle school aged kids. One had ruffled minty green hair and shimmering scaly skin and the other had white, neck-length hair with insect-like antennae and an extra set of arms. They glanced at Kirishima, then at her and Bakugo with curious eyes. Then instantly, they turned away and a taller, older boy stepped out in front of them. His hair was short with dark gray ruffles down to the piercings on his ears and his frame was slim, but with some underlying muscles. All in all, he appeared to be a normal teenage kid, more close to their age than anything. He shot a serious glare when he looked to Kirishima, and then to Hattori and Bakugo. It grew more grim when he noticed Maiko holding onto her.

"Who are you?" He quietly demanded, keeping his voice at a steady level to not attract unwanted attention from outside.

"A friend." Akane answered, trying to match his volume.

He continued to avert his gaze from her to Maiko, but his daring eyes didn't lessen the tension. Some time passed in silence before he finally spoke again. "Are you cops?"

"No, we're heroes." Kirishima whispered.

"Most of us anyways…" Bakugo added.

"You're who she called?..." he asked, rolling his eyes to the back of his head in disbelief. "I can't believe this. You're just a bunch of kids…"

"Look who's talkin'." Bakugo muttered under his breath.

They all fell silent at the sound of bumping and scraping. What the heck? It sounded like he was frantically moving a bunch of furniture around. Akane's speculations faded the moment she felt Maiko's body start to tremble. She rubbed her back gently to comfort her, and it seemed to help her settle down a bit. When she went back to address the older brother though, he looked just as concerned, which led her to question if this was something more serious than they led on.

He drew in a quick breath as if to speak, but he pursed his lips together and nodded his head over to the doorway, gesturing for them to follow. Akane lightly pulled Maiko's arms away from her waist to look at her more directly and whispered for her to follow him, on the promise that she too would be right behind her. With her sleeve, she wiped her eyes and headed to her brother who was waiting for her at the doorway. Calmly, he patted her shoulder as she went down the wooden steps. The three of them wasted no time heading down there with them.

Once Bakugo shut it behind him and secured the latch, they were met with the overwhelming sight of all the remaining children, each of them of various ages and sizes, some with a lot of pronounced visible quirks. If they could estimate, there had to be at least 20 kids here and this was probably all of them. The room was mostly closed in and used for storage for disassembled cribs and such, but they couldn't wrap their heads around as to why they would come here instead of hiding in their rooms. If their dad was just acting out, implying that it was on a normal basis, what difference would it make if they were in their rooms with the door locked?

"It's her! The girl Maiko talked about!" Yelled the scaly kid with the green hair as he pointed directly at her.

"Yea, she got her all that candy!" commented another.

"Did you bring us some?" said one of the small ones.

"We have bigger things to worry about right now…" The oldest explained and turned his scowl back to them. "Are you really the one who helped Maiko from that thug Nishida?"

"Yes. My name's Akane. I offered to buy her candy and she told me that they kept taking it from her, so I walked her home. Hope they're still not giving her trouble."

"They're not, at least, for now… Look, I appreciate your effort for coming out here to check on her, but you should go. Whatever she said to you, we're fine…" his complexion didn't budge, almost threatening.

"If you're fine, then why're you all hiding in the basement?" Bakugo pointed out.

"It's daddy! He's really mad right now!" said the small boy with antennae as he clung to Maiko for support.

"Quiet, Kenji." He sternly projected.

"But what if they can really help us, Isa?" Maiko pleaded as she clasped onto the edge of his dark green shirt.

"Isa?" Kiri questioned.

"Isamaru…" He corrected him. Akane stepped forward.

"Can you just tell us what's going on? If needed, we can call someone-"

"No cops!" Isamaru interrupted loudly.

"Why?! Just what the hell is going on here?!" Bakugo shouted, matching his energy.

"Language. Bakugo." Kirishima added. They needed to remember that there were a lot of little kids around. Even older kids needed to present themselves accordingly to the younger generation. Katsuki growled in response.

Isamaru slumped his shoulders and sighed. What was he going to do? He couldn't protect all of his brothers and sisters by himself, but these were just a bunch of kids no older than he was. What could they possibly do?

Akane read his expression loud and clear and faced him. "Look, we can't promise not to let the authorities get involved, but we need to figure out what's going on with the pastor. Seeing that you're all hiding in here makes me think the problem is bigger than you're trying to make it seem to be… We're students from U.A. high, we're training to be heroes. Whatever is going on, you can trust us."

"I wish I could tell you, but we don't fully know what's going on with him either. Two guys came by yesterday and spoke with Father. We thought they were coming to adopt one of us, but they just ended up talking. None of us heard what all was said, but ever since their conversation, Dad just kind of lost it… He started freaking out, locked all the doors and cut the phone lines. He didn't let any of us outside, not even for the little ones to play or go to school. We all missed our classes today… When we tried to ask him what was going on, he just screamed for us to go to bed. He's never acted this way before…"

"Those guys that you saw, what did they look like?" Akane asked.

"One of them had dark hair and a mask covering above his nose, the other looked like a normal middle aged man. He had a rest vest and a black hat, nothing that would appear out of the ordinary. We get people who come by the church all the time, people who come to confess their sins, to donate to the church, bring food, or possibly adopt one of us."

"What about cell phones? Did any of you think to call for help?" Bakugo asked gravely, considering it'd be dumb of them not to.

"We can't afford phones, but a friend from school gave me his old one. Maiko found it and called you." He explained.

"But why no cops?"

"The last time we went to the cops for help, they told us to solve the problem ourselves; they said they had enough going on than to deal with us…They're not reliable at all!"

"Fucking serious?..." Katsuki mumbled under his breath in disbelief.

That's awful, but it wouldn't be surprising considering that there was such a rise in crime ever since Stain's influence took over. More villains were coming out of the shadows when all the attention went towards crooked hero murders. And with all the dead heroes, things were getting more heated, leaving all the responsibility to the local authorities. 'Too busy', was a statement Akane knew well when it came to the local police, but no one knew just how bad this problem really is. It should still be looked into, and if it turns out to be nothing, then good.

"Well… We are reliable." Akame assured him.

"How's that? You're just kids, probably the same age as me." Isamaru snapped.

"Because we showed up!" Bakugo snipped back.

Isa paused, speechless at his intimidating demeanor. This was all so crazy! They only knew Maiko for a short time, knew practically nothing about her or anything about the orphanage, and probably aren't even a religious bunch themselves. Why did they care enough to come all the way out here? Did they think there was something to gain from being here? Was it a requirement they had to do for their stupid hero school or something, like volunteer charity work? It just didn't make sense… Even real heroes wouldn't show up unless they were getting paid for it, right? What could they possibly have that they want? What could a bunch of hero-in-training kids do to make this situation any easier on them? Just… what?

"But what can you do?..."

"Sounds like we need to have a talk with this 'Father'..." Bakugo replied and turned up the stairs for the door.