The pair of doors at the end of the locker room blasted open. The locks shatters and lodge chunks of metal into the two of them as the doors flew into more lockers. The sparks of electricity brightened up the black hole of the corridor before the set of monsters arrived. Modified Numus that sporadically shifted their heads and observed the room. Their limbs were messed with to have packs of blinking mines surgically attached.
Their skin was off compared to the others they have faced, more rubbery consistency than the others. To have a pair of these monsters on their side, was all the evidence needed to see their connection. No evidence to see if they hold a promising position with the League, but enough to know of the threat they hold.
Geus, sore yet still at nearly full strength filled his body with a shell of solid gas. His grandfather on the other hand, still unconscious from the fall. His concentration remained on the two Numus as he had an extra part of his gas on his grandfather. It dragged him behind to the back row of lockers.
He was in a massive trap orchestrated by the fake Iroh.
The large man was unconscious as well in the cacoon of his quirk, one down at the very least. Still he was in the bottom of a hole with enemies all around him. And these villains had plenty of time to establish any preparations.
The first Numu walked up with their curious investigations. It walked right up to the cacoon and placed a hand on it. One of the mines acted on its own, moved through the rubber skin to its forearm. No warning came as it exploded on the shell.
"Jesus!" Geus shouted, witnessing the gray smoke disapate to reveal severe burn marks on the boy's face.
The second Numu took notice and charged forward. The animal instinct it had caused it to swing without thinking. The mines attached rolled to its hand with its swing. Geus managed to block and absorb the blast while he slid further back into the lockers.
The other Numu was already on him, it crashed into Geus's shoulder and exploded another mine. The impact launched Geus in the air and into another subsection of lockers.
"Grandpa!" Geus recovered as fast as he could and ran around the corner. He propelled a blast behind him and drove straight for the creature. Geus's arm widened up for it to suction around the Numu's head. "Get your hands off of him!"
Geus planted an anchor of gas to the ground and pulled himself in. As more of the gas filled the monster's head and reached the ground. He blasted the bottom and hammer swung around and crashed it into the ground. He released the hardened inside for a cloud of infectious gas to enter it's skull.
It struggled and clawed at the attack. Geus saw two more of those mines flow around it's body to the point of his gas. With the other mid pounce, he had no choice to back off and release. He dodged to the side for the beast to miss into the lockers. Geus took a quick opportunity to strike the ribcage.
Another mine interrupted the attack for Geus to penetrate inside. The explosion knocked both of them into opposite facing lockers. Within that time the other Numu was up and on Geus.
The gas around Geus's chest and stabbed the Numu's gut. The speed and hazardous material didn't make a scratch. It fell back enough to free Geus but acted as if the attack did nothing.
'What the fuck are these?' Geus's mind started to panic. Nothing ever truly past his strength with mixes of pressure and acidic prowess. 'There's no way they got that much of that material.'
Geus wrapped his quirk around the Numu and pulled himself back in. A quirk infused hook did nearly nothing against it. It rocked the Numu's head to the side, barely managed to stumble it. The belt shape part of his quirk exploded for him to create distance.
'Are these the All Might grade Numus from way back then?' No way they would've dropped them to these idiots.' Geus took a moment to collect his environment. A basic locker room, mostly destroyed with a few showers deeper in. And two nearly invincible monsters. 'They did have time. The town, all that research and development just went to the League. Rubbery based shock absorbers for skin, probably coated around anything that ignored the sulfuric acid of my quirk.'
The monsters took two opposing sides to the combat. One remained attentive to Geus while the other took focus to Gaz. Geus saw nothing he could do, he could target the mines but they weren't deterred from the explosions, and the electricity. All while Geus was fully countered by those two things, even if he can hold out against the attacks.
Nearly nobody knew they were here, no backup heroes, or his classmates. The manpower just wasn't there to take action against villains, everyone was assigned to defend the civilians. Geus stopped and held his hands in the air. He looked up to the hole while one man looked down.
"Stop, I'll do it!" Geus shouted out behind his shield of gas.
A surge of electricity ran rapid around both of the Numu's. Their bodies frozen in place and fell off to the side. Not even the creatures realized what happened, the bloodlust and murderous intent still there.
"Put on these then!" The shadowed man yelled from the hole.
He dropped a set of heavy electronic handcuffs and collar. Geus caught them and did as he was told. He felt the effects of the cuffs immediately. His breathing slowed down exponentially as his gas dissipated. His exo-piece signaled his body there was nothing in the reserve.
"Don't worry, it's not strong enough to kill you. Can't risk losing your quirk enough without risking our haul." The man's voice was camouflage behind a radio sound. "Continue down the hall, someone will collect your grandfather." The man disappeared from the hole right after.
Geus was hesitant to leave, even with the crippled Numus. There was nothing he could do now anyways or moments ago to defend him. 'Maybe this is payback for rejecting the League.' Geus thought.
He walked through the wide open door frame and down the blank hall. It was as if nobody touched it or walked down here. A 180 appearance compared to the rest of the building. Geus froze as he realized
where this hallway went. A dozen or so feet ahead had open elevator doors. The interior cabin was different from the rest. This was to mark for one reason only. His room.
"Go down it, you should have the buttons memorized by now." The fake Iroh called through the system. "I'll see you down there soon."
Geus's feet trembled but still did what he was told. His mind was a bit fuzzy and nauseous to press the lowest button. The ding and lock of the elevator doors are audible compared to the others. He controlled his breath the best he could for these moments.
Yet his body wouldn't stop, this was nothing compared to his original escape. His muscle spasms, and the chitter of his teeth were unstoppable. His fingers couldn't land on the button, a stutter always made it miss. He stopped, hovered his finger before the button.
"You got this." He mumbled to himself. His hand focused for a solid click down.
The doors reopened to a bright room, blood splatter on the ground, and several bodies around one of the corners. A young woman sat in a makeshift desk with her hands dug into her face. She groaned and talked to herself in rapid short intervals.
"Ma'am." One of the boys in the prison's jumpsuit called. "He's here."
One of her hands left her face to give a snap. In unison the boys in the corner spread open. Tied up from hands, feet, waist, neck, was Bailey against Geus's old bed. His body was thickened from his work, layers of new skin and flesh surrounded the nearby floor. While he looked relatively untouched.
His breath was stammered and the impact his soul had was visible. Geus turned to the girl, his once tarnished spirit gone. His fists clenched and his fingers dug into his gloves.
"What the fuck are you guys doing down here." Geus grumbled. Forced to bite his tongue to hold back his voice.
"Easy. Bailey knows the codes, and we need them. By any means." The girl answered, her gray hair kept her appearance hidden. But Geus knew this girl as Yuki, the Dream Eater quirked one. "Psychological is often the best route."
"This is beyond messed up Yuki, even for your standards."
"The hell do you know me? You were the one locked down here. Away from the rest of us, since no one was allowed to suppress your quirk." She snarled. Her disgruntled face marked onto his. "Cause our government couldn't handle it if you were killed from it. Pathetic, honestly just a waste of resources that kept you alive." She leaned back on her chair and pointed at Bailey. "Get him to reveal the passwords, we'll let you three leave."
"Why do you and the Iroh shit think he'd say anything to me."
"You really don't get it do you?" She leaned forward with her forearms crossed on the table. "you were Iroh's golden boy, because Bailey recommended you out of all of us."
Geus turned his head over to Bailey. "He wanted me dead, like the rest of them. He didn't care about me till I proved them wrong."
"Yeah that's true. But after you showed off at your sports festival, none of the guards could shut up about you. All day I heard them laugh and joke about how much better you were than us. And Bailey, only one to amend for his wrongfulness."
Geus saw in her eyes the same look that the fake Iroh has. A revelation that their Messiah gave to them. She was just in the hole as the others are, they believe this, they follow this as the de facto truth.
"So go on golden boy." She grinned, her eyes wide as her mouth. "Save your preacher."
Geus's rickety steps closed in on Bailey, a man layered in bulked out, bloodied and bruised flesh. His mouth gaped open and heaved with a broken breath. Either imagination on Geus's side, or he heard the air bristle between his cracked ribs. Bailey was near death, barely anything left inside this man.
"Bailey..." Geus forced his name out, it was almost crushed by the chick in his throat. "I'm sorry."
Bailey's eyes stammered open, pure bloodshot with red tears to match. His breath groaned as his arm moved and smiled. "I knew you'd survive all this. Come back to this place."
"Please Bailey, what's the password?"
Bailey tried to laugh but coughed up dark red blood onto his chest. The crusted old blood blended perfectly in with the rest of his open wounds. "Not you too, what'd forget all the words in the past?" Bailey closed his mouth and spat out red. "Thought I trusted you more."
Geus knelt down to his level. "Please, they have my grandfather. I can get all of you out of here, get a firm reset before we try again." Geus whispered, even though he knew the others around him could hear.
"Forget it, I lasted this long and they all hate it." His neck rose to look at Yuki. "Not even your death quirk stopped me!"
"Shut up!" The small woman slammed her fists into the desk and marched to them. She pushed Geus to the side and back handed Bailey. "Just give us what you know! All we want is Iroh's teachings! He left them to us to find and learn from it!"
"Cultist freaks. Why couldn't you be like Geus more? At least he made a name for himself."
She looked slightly behind her and nodded. Two of the boys snatched Geus by the neck. They pinned him on his knees with a foot on both his legs. His neck was gripped tight and on Bailey's eyes.
"We lost someone dear to us, now you can lose one of yours."
"You are all lunatics aren't ya? I have a family outside of this place. A wide, a kid, and you chose an inmate I watched for a year."
"All you did while we were here and he was out was speak about him!"
Bailey laughed but eventually still coughed up more blood. "Cause it made you psychos so mad! Cause that's all you think of!"
She screamed more and turned to Geus. "You know how Iroh is going to act? How mad he's going to be when he finds out you were nothing but a red herring?" She looked over to another boy and nodded at him. His fingers turned red before they burst into flames. The flesh melted off till they were just bones. "You move and I sound the alarm for Iroh."
The boy with the flamed fingers walked behind Geus and hovered them over his head. "Finally." Bailey rolled his eyes.
Sections of his flesh molted off from his arms. His arms became free from the restraints. A small steel syringe exposed itself in his hands. He stabbed himself with it, immediately the effects showed. His veins pulsed out as his old flesh fell off to a perfect underbody. New flesh grew to follow suit and free him from the rest of his restraints.
"Hit the button now!" She yelled.
Bailey grabbed her by the hair and chucked her into the desk with the button. She bounced off the steel and crushed the button along with her roll off. The rest of the boys remained frozen in shock. He punched the boy over Geus and kicked away the second.
The other two began to run for the exit. But Bailey wanted none of that to happen. He clutched down in a sprinter's position. His legs blasted from the ground to instantly catch the boys. He grabbed the back of their heads and slammed them into both edges of the door.
"Huh easier than I thought." Bailey began to cough, this time it didn't show any signs to stop. "Or not."
"What the hell was that?" Geus shouted, he got up to his feet and looked at the freak of nature Bailey turned into.
"An opening." He walked over to the desk and grabbed a phone from one of the drawers. "I was waiting for when I had a better chance." He made his wave over to Geus. He friendly slapped Geus's shoulder before he adjusted his pants. "You all good?"
"What'd you just take? You look good as new! That's not normal."
"One of the last boosters confiscated from one of the kids. Got hold of it right before this mess went down." He turned to the door and signaled for Geus to follow. "But I'm not good as new, Geus. I can feel my ribs shatter still and several open wounds in my gut.
"One of Chisaki's inventions?" Geus gripped his fists tighter. "You have any idea of what the guy did to me? The torment he placed me through for his own gain? The friends he hurt? And you just use his drugs without consequence!"
Bailey stopped dead in his tracks. "I'm dying as we speak, Geus. I don't know how long I have before this quad-dose quirk steroid juice wears off. Once it does, I'm done for. The blood loss will reach me and my caved-in rib cage will give out. I'm doing this to get you and your grandfather out "
"Which is it? Do you hate me or like me? I just don't get it."
"You are a prized kid in this facility, you proved what Iroh's diluted head spat. That enough torment will fix anyone to being the good guy, but it wasn't torment that got you out. It was compassion and your friends you protected that got you out." He turned to Geus with his finger pointed to him. "I'm damn proud you showed the world who you really are. But you aren't my family, you aren't my new wife and newborn son, but I want to say goodbye to them. I want to look at them one more time to tell them who really saved me, and who stopped this cult following from killing me. So please remember what I told you way back at your licensing. Be the hero the world needs, not the hero the world wants. Don't be afraid to spill a little blood."