[Summer Break Shenanigans – Part 4]

Luz had no idea why she was sent to the store. Well, that wasn't entirely true, but it was true enough. Her mom was, understandably, tired from working a night shift. That, she totally got. She understood that her mother just wanted to sleep.

That was all well and good. But making her go out and buy the groceries? In this town? The one that hated her? She didn't know what her mama had been thinking, but it clearly hadn't with all of her functioning brain cells.

Well, she couldn't blame her mother. She was, after all, sleep deprived. Who she could blame for being Lazy, however, was Riley. Her cousin had spent the night and had planned to leave this afternoon for a hotel. The least she could've done was head to the store and drop off some groceries before she left. But noooo! She had to get some extra sleep.

"Maybe you shouldn't have stayed up till the ass-crack of dawn…." Luz thought as she dumped a can of lime beans in the cart. Checking over the digital list her mom had sent her. Rice, mushrooms, celery, a dozen eggs, milk, cheerios, three cans of lime beans, and a loaf of rye bread. Assorted juices of her choice—Kool-Aid, she shoved a bunch of varying flavours of Kool-Aid into the cart—chicken, ground beef, and Pizza Pops.

That was what she was tasked with buying, and she was given $200 to do the shopping. Luz thought she wasn't going to need that much, but as she got to the beans and dropped the other two cans in, after doing the math, she was already halfway through the budget. She had no idea that shopping for weeks worth of groceries was this expensive. It was honestly disturbing.

Pushing the cart forward, Luz ran a hand through her hair. She hadn't even been given the choice to change out of her pyjamas; which had consisted of a black tank top, and a pair of red and black knee-high shorts. She hadn't even had a shower yet. In fact, Luz had only been awake for, what… ten minutes?

"Whatever, at least the grocery store hasn't blacklisted me…" Luz thought, a callous frown taking up her visage. This town was slowly becoming a pit of hell because of a crackdown on supers by the police. You were no longer allowed to go outside unless had some sort of verified license that told everyone what their power was. She was exempt because everyone knew what her power was.

Because of that, most people didn't even so much as walk near her. She had been painted as a monster who would, and she was quoting this from a local newspaper, "kill anyone who so much as looked at her the wrong way."

First of all, no, no she wouldn't. Sure, Luz had a bit of a mean streak about her—she would freely admit that; especially to those who tried to throw their weight around as a way of harming others—but she wasn't a heartless monster. If anything, she was a troubled teenager with mountains of trauma. Trauma that had originated from the States Governor, not anyone else.

Any time someone looked at her, it was either with fear or anger. Little children would run away from her in fear, adults would run indoors after a mere glance, and as previously noted, most of the stores in Gravesfield had blacklisted her except the major market chains, which took up only 5% of the shops of the town. And even then security would watch her like a hawk.

At least here, at The Independent, no one gave a shit about whether or not she was in the store. Or, well, the staff anyway. The staff probably weren't paid enough to care. And that was her only saving grace.

She hated this. She really, really hated this. She wanted to move away, but her mother was too attached to the town. Even when they had the money to move, they didn't. She didn't blame her mama for wanting to stay. And besides, she had promised Pastor Domenico that she would protect this town and avenge Julia.

The only problem with that was that Julia's parents were extremely powerful, politically speaking. Not only that, but they were extremely elusive. And to make matters even worse, it was clear that they were manipulating the media to give her an even worse reputation than she already had. Which, as she had been experiencing, was having its intended effect on the populous of Gravesfield.

Just as she was about to exit the aisle to continue the shopping list that her mama had given her, and just as she was about to get this stupid venture over and done with….

"Oi!" A voice cut down the aisle as Luz looked over her shoulder. Standing there, at the end of the aisle, was a man wearing a bulletproof vest, an American Flag-themed bandana, a white tank top with various stains, a pair of beige shorts, and a pair of Timberlands. The man's legs were hairy, as were his arms, and he wore a pair of shades. It kind of reminded Luz of the stereotypical truck nut seen on TV. In his arms was what appeared to be a rifle and… he was pointing it at her. "Is this idiota serious?" Luz thought, sighing.

"Can I help you, sir?" Luz called out as the man jabbed his rifle forward, trying to make it seem as threatening as possible. It was some kind of semi-automatic weapon. If she had to guess it was an AR-15. What kind of AR-15, Luz didn't quite care.

"Stand down, Demon! Or I'll shoot!" The man shouted at Luz. Everyone else in the aisle ran like the wind. Even with her eyes closed, she could feel her right eye twitch. This had been the third babuino idiota this month who had pointed a gun at her.

"Demon…? Look, sir, I—"

The man fired off two warning shots just below her feet. "DOWN ON YOUR KNEES!"

In response, Luz blinked, a little shocked that the man had actually fired the gun. The other two she had scared off by staring at them. But this one… this one was special, it seemed. Specially stupid. "And most likely radicalized by the media… poor bastard."

Luz extended her hand forward as she activated Spear Fingers. The gunman went to fire more rounds at her, but all that ended up happening was the gun being plucked out of his hands by knife-like fingers, having pierced the chamber of the rifle. Retracting them, Luz grabbed the gun by the barrel and squeezed. An obnoxious crunching and squelching sound came from the gun as the barrel snapped.

The AR-15 fell to the ground in two pieces, right at Luz's feet. When the last intact part of the gun hit the floor, the Dominican-American teenager crushed it with the heel of her black airforces—something she bought out of pure irony. She had seen some of the comments on the camera footage of her butchering those campers. They said she had "Black Airforce Energy", whatever the hell that meant.

The man took a step back before falling flat on his ass as Luz approached. By the time she had closed the distance between them, her face had twisted into one of a sneer, her eyes glowing a bright, crimson red. "Now. I don't think I have to tell you how stupid that was. Do myself, and everyone else a favour, and leave."

Suddenly, out of nowhere, gunfire rang out from behind Luz. The bullets cut through her skin like butter as blood sparkled on the floor. Five bullets shot through her lower abdomen, three bullets shot directly through the center of her chest, missing her heart by a few inches, eight-or-so bullets blasted through the side of her throat and cut right through a major artery, and finally, 3 more bullets had completely blown off her right arm.

Had Luz not been, well, Luz, she would've died right then and there. But, thankfully, she was Luz. And she had several powers that practically made her near invincible.

due to Pain Nullification, she felt none of the pain of both the bullets firing through her and the effects of Super Regeneration, leaving holes in her clothing. Turning her head slowly, Luz looked in the direction where the bullets had came from. Two more gunmen, all dressed in casual clothing stared at her as if she was some sort of monster, their AR-15s lowered in shock as Luz narrowed her eyes.

"You know…" Luz drawled, rubbing at the side of her neck as it slowly healed, along with the rest of her wounds. Muscles and veins began to reform at an inhuman rate, followed by patches of skin growing back at an irregular rate. Blood cascaded down her clothes as the crimson liquid pooled around her, while at the same time, she turned to face the original gunman. "I just wanted to get some shopping done. Really, that's it!"

Bones grew from the severing point where her arm had broken off, followed by it being coated in a similar amount of muscle that she had gained from her routine of working out, capping off with a fresh layer of skin. She squeezed her hand in and out of a fist, all the while she rolled her shoulders. The rest of her wounds finished patching themselves up as Luz sneered.

"But, it would seem as if I'm not even allowed that."

The words slipped out of her mouth like a poison. Thick and full of anger. Her eyes glowed a radiant ruby red as her arm rocketed forth, grabbing the first gunman by the neck. As soon as she did that, the two men behind her began to unload what remained in their magazines. And yet, even though that was what they were doing, all of their bullets ended up littering their friend instead of her—not that it would've done anything.

The bullets rained down on the man as holes the size of dimes covered him from head to toe. His bulletproof vest stood no match for the hailstorm of weaponry, signalling to Luz that they had to have been using, at the very least, 50. Calibre rounds.

Lunging forward and closing the distance between herself and the gunmen, Luz activated Super Strength and batted away the man to her right, caving his chest in as forcibly vomited up enough blood to fill a small bag to the brim. Needless to say, the man was dead. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a line connecting to his partner's forehead. The partner in question was a superhuman of some kind and said superhuman jumped back a good distance away from her and discarded his gun.

The man took a fighting stance as several arms began to grow out of his right and left arms. They all glued together like one giant monstrous mass, and then, with a powerful lunge, the man, who now that Luz paid full attention to seemed to be no older than 17 years old, swung his massive limb in a swiping motion.

Luz threw up a forcefield with her right hand, blocking the attack as she had been pushed back a good few feet along with her aggressor.

"Luz." Shigaraki's voice filled her thoughts as the second holder of All For One frowned.

"Shigaraki. You've been awfully quiet lately," Luz responded in her mind as she swayed right to avoid an overly choreographed punch with the teen's massive left arm. "What do you want?"

"That was one of my original Quirks. You can now hold up to 15 Quirks. I want you to steal it," Shigaraki said as Luz sighed.

"Was already going to do that. You didn't need to ask," Luz replied mentally as activated Spear Fingers, trying to impale the teen. Unfortunately for her, the teenager blocked the attack by crossing his massive 4-foot-long arms together in an X formation. The teen grunted, deflecting the blade-like fingers as they snapped into pieces like fractured metal.

What remained of Luz's fingers retracted back and regenerated in the blink of an eye as the teen closed the distance, slamming his massive appendage into Luz's face as she was sent flying through multiple aisles, knocking them over as she went, before she finally collided with a wall that almost shattered upon impact.

A small line of blood streamed down her left temple as she snarled, her eyes flaring red. "How the fuck is that power so strong without Super Strength?" Luz asked Shigaraki, who chuckled.

"Simple: Mass times acceleration, Luz. The more mass, and the faster it travels, the more of an impact it will have. Did you ever pay attention in class, dear?" Shigaraki snarked as Luz grumbled. Out of all the times he had decided to start talking it was in the middle of a battle.

As she slowly began to stand up, a huddle of people to her right, all of which had been grouped up in a corner. A few of them were little children, and a few of them were adults. The adults were glaring at her as if this was her fault. She wanted to sneer at them, but she didn't. She had more important things to deal with.

"Yo," a voice cut through her observations as she looked over to her right, which had been where the voice was coming from. On the ground level, no one was there. But, when Luz craned her neck up, she saw someone sitting on… a broom. They were a female with grey skin and red eyes, with long flowing black hair. Their ears were pointed like that of an elf she had seen movies, though unlike an elf there was a sinister energy floating around the… child?

They didn't look older than 10 years old, and yet they felt so… demonic? Was that the right word? Maybe, but either way, it hardly mattered. The child was wearing a white cloak, and with it came a hood that the child had up, with their black hair spilling out from the sides of the hood reaching down past their shoulders. The cloak was kept together by a golden triangle pin, and underneath the cloak was a black jumpsuit and a pair of ridiculous balloon pants.

"You're All For One, yeah?" The child asked as Luz narrowed her eyes. Just how much had this child seen? Had she seen the entire fight that had been going on? She had obviously seen her use multiple powers in a row, so it wasn't like Luz could deny it. The child snickered to herself, before sticking out her left index finger and drawing what appeared to be a golden circle. "You know what? Don't bother answering. I'm here to kill you on behalf of The Wittebanes. Say hi to Julia for me!"

Upon tapping the circle a beam of pure light slammed into Luz as it cut a hole right through her stomach. Immediately after the fact, somehow, her other attacker had snuck up behind her and sent her flying with another backhanded attack. A trail of blood followed her as she was sent flying, all the while the massive hole in her stomach healed over in a handful of seconds.

"This is going to leave a bunch of nasty scars, isn't it?" Luz thought as she dug her hands into the tile ground, tearing up the ground as she slowly stopped herself. "You know… this fight seems like it's ripped out of a shonen manga…."

"You read Manga?" Shigaraki questioned, genuine shock in his voice as Luz coughed, small flecks of blood littering her hand. Her regeneration would fix the internal bleeding, so she didn't need to worry.

"Not the time, Shigaraki. But yes, I do. I reading One Piece, actually. Have you heard of it?"

"It's called Two Piece where I'm from. Is the main character named Luffy?"

"Yes."

"Ah, I see. Then I'll keep quiet then."

Luz sighed, standing up as she dodged to the right, barely avoiding yet another punch from the fleshy mass. The teen snarled, glaring at her with golden eyes. "You just don't know when to die, do you?" The teen snarled as Luz huffed.

"And you don't know when to give up," Luz quipped as she created a forcefield in front of her relative to her height. Her fingers were spread out evenly around the center of the forcefield, and then she flattened her hand into a spear-like charade as the forcefield launched forward. "Think fast!" Luz shouted as the enemy attempted to block the attack, only to fail, for the forcefield was going far faster than he could've blocked.

The forcefield connected with its target, and slammed into her primary target. The forcefield exploded upon contact, causing the teen with the multiple-arm power to spew a large amount of blood from every source imaginable—mouth, arms, torso, waist, legs, eyes, ears and nose. Blood coated the teen from head to toe as he fell to his knees, gasping for breath as Luz approached. The second holder of All For One placed a hand on his forehead before red lightning sparked from her hand, up her arm, and surged around her attacker.

The teen screamed in pain as Luz sneered, shutting her heart off to his pain as the power transfer began. She could feel the power enter her body, and at that moment she felt triumphant, her sneer being replaced by a vindictive smirk. The surge of gaining yet another ability under her control acted like a high; and while it only lasted a few seconds, she savoured the feeling. It wasn't every day that she got to take someone's power away from them, and something that she shouldn't get used to.

The all-but-dead teen's arms reverted to normal, and yet, Luz didn't let go. She stared down at the teen, her smirk turning into a neutral gaze. Was there any reason to keep this guy alive? Truly, was there a reason? Even if he came out of this, he would most likely be crippled and forced to stay in a hospital. Then again, his eyes didn't portray any kind of consciousness, and yet they were still open.

The teen looked like a lifeless husk. She hadn't even wormed a name out of him. And honestly, she didn't care if got one. All she knew was that this guy tried to kill her, and while she knew it wouldn't have worked, she had to give credit where credit was due. He never backed down, not even once. He kept going at it until the better end.

"For that, he has my respect… if that means anything, anyway," Luz thought. How would have told her to react to this? Would she be freaking out? Crying because she was too weak to handle the emotional strain?

Yeah, yeah probably that. No, actually, exactly that.

"Still, keeping him alive would only hinder me. If the surveillance footage doesn't out me, he will. All For One is supposed to be my secret identity. No one needs to know that she's the same person as Luz Noceda…" Luz thought as, with eyes burning a crimson red, she activated Super Strength. With a gentle squeeze, the teenager's head popped like a zit. Blood, skull fragments and grey matter sprayed in a small radius around his body as Luz recoiled in slight disgust.

A small pang of guilt filled her chest upon killing the teen. Although it was only a small amount of guilt, and nowhere near the amount of guilt she felt after "The Massacre Of Fools." "Compared to that, this is nothing."

"Brutal!" The pointed-ear girl said, a smile on her face as Luz craned her neck upward to see the strange child, who was still sitting on a broom, as yet another golden circle appeared in front of her. "Now, actually die this time." And with a tap of the circle, a beam of pure light shot forward as Luz parried it with a forcefield.

The light beam reflected off of the forcefield and hit the ceiling. That didn't stop the child though from creating a different coloured circle, that being a purple one. Upon tapping that circle, a mass of purple sludge blasted forward. Luz recoiled in disgust at the stench, jumping back to try and avoid it, only to look on in abstract confusion and horror that it followed her movement.

Creating yet another forcefield, the sludge slammed violently against it, pushing Luz further and further away until she was dragged outside. In her peripheral vision, she saw red and blue flashing lights. "The cops!" Luz's mind screamed at the idea of the cops getting dragged into this mess. They already disliked her as it was, she didn't need to get them involved and possibly skew this as all her fault. And so, she propelled the forcefield from her hand as it pushed back against the purple sludge with prejudice.

Not only was the forcefield stronger than the sludge, but it was faster. The sludge parted like the red sea as the forcefield glided through, blowing up in the process as all of the windows shattered thanks to the shockwave.

Luz just barely stopped herself from crashing into a barricade, her feet dragging against the ground as she tore up asphalt. "Something tells me that the damages to the city are going to be vast… and it's all going to come out of mama's pockets…." Luz shuttered at the thought of her mama being angry with her. An angry mama was a scary mama. It didn't matter how powerful she was, her mama was her mama, and that was that.

"PUT YOUR HANDS WHERE WE CAN SEE THEM!" One of the police officers behind her shouted. Several red dots were lining her body as Luz looked over her shoulder. True to her fears, the police had already made their minds up. "DO NOT MAKE ANY SUDDEN MOVEMENTS OR WE'LL SHOOT!"

There were, at the bare minimum 7 officers fully kitted out in ballistic gear. Riot shields were equipped and they were armed with high-power assault weapons. Luz felt her headache grow into a migraine. Out of all of the things to happen today, Luz had to admit that this was not one of them.

"All of this because I wanted to go shopping…. For fucksake…." Luz thought as she glanced back to The Independent. The child wearing the strange cult-like uniform walked out, broom in hand as she wore a devilish smile on her face.

"So this is what All For One looks like, huh? To think that the vigilante of one solved crime was the same person who committed a massacre that killed 22 minors. Oh, the irony."

"Again… I repeat, all because Mama wanted me to go shopping." Luz's eyes burned with hate, but before it could get any worse, she calmed herself. The last time she gave into her rage, 22 people ended up dead.

And just as she was about to surrender, she felt a hand brush up against her back. When she looked over her shoulder, she was greeted by Riley staring down at her. Her eyes were narrowed and filled with anger, her face drawn into a grimace as her hand mimicked that of a detonator. Before Luz could even so much as utter anything, Riley's hand pressed down, and then…

There was pain.

Her body felt like it was on fire. Everything burned, everything hurt. And yet despite all of that pain, even though she could see her torso across the parking lot, and despite the fact that she could see the police chief standing over her would-be corpse, shit eating grin on his face as Riley looked on with a mixture of emotions…

Luz should have died.

By all rights, Luz's life should have ended right then and there.

But Shigaraki knew better. He had come back from worse before, and so he knew how this was going to go.

Because….

Luz. Didn't. Die.

Arms began to multiply across from her base arms, as they pulled her body together faster than the police could shoot them away. Bones regrew, muscles fused back together, as Luz regenerated from what should've been her death.

Luz's hair, rather than being darkish brown with white spots, now looked more akin to someone with half-brown hair growing on the bottom with white hair coming out from the top. Blood trailed down from her forehead and seeped out of her mouth as her expression became nothing more than a violent mix of fury and hate.

The police chief stared in horror at what he was seeing. No human had the ability to quite literally pull themselves back together, and yet, he was seeing just that.

Millie, the child with the strange ears, could only look on in fascination and slight terror at what she was seeing.

And Riley? Riley pissed herself with dread as she took several steps back.

Luz could barely see anything. That was how furious she had been. That was how angry she had been. And thus…

She gave into her hate.

-To Be Continued-