Chapter 23: Terror and Hope
Eri
I won't let them use me… Never again… If it comes to it… I'd rather die, those were the thoughts going through Eri's head as the robot that encased her flew through the air. She was terrified, but resolute. She would not be used again. She guessed that these Flying Armors belonged to the terrorists Marie and Denki, Deku, and LeMillion and many others were fighting in America. They supposedly wanted to end all Quirks, and she knew that her Quirk could do that. She remembered all the torments she went through as a little girl under Chisaki Kai and swore that she would never go through that again. Eri fought not to cry, she couldn't cry. She needed all her wits about her, she needed to be ready to fight, maybe escape even. One way or another, she would not let them use her.
Eri didn't know how long she was inside the Flying Armor, but she knew that it was not long before she felt them start to tough down. She didn't know where she was, but she knew it couldn't have been too far from where she was taken. The Hero-in-training focused then, wanting to be ready to do or die. She wouldn't be an experiment. Not again.
The Flying Armor opened and Eri was greeted by two tall, muscular men. She saw that they were white, with blonde hair, one had brown eyes and the other had blue eyes. They were armed with stun batons, which was confirmed when one pushed a button on his and the sound of crackling electricity filled the air. He said in American-accented Japanese, "Just come along quietly, and we won't have to hurt you." Eri focused then and knew what she would do. She quietly nodded, and one of them grabbed her shoulder. That was his mistake.
Faster than they expected, Eri grabbed the hand holding her shoulder and then twisted, pulling him off balance and bringing the one with blue eyes' head low enough for her to kick. She kicked him in his face as hard as she could, his nose was flattened instantly, and he dropped his baton in shock. Eri ducked below a jab from the guard with brown eyes and grabbed the fallen baton and quickly used it on the other guard. Eri heard a door open and ran at it, baton first. She stunned a woman in a lab coat and then kept on running. She found herself in a hallway, but only a few seconds after she entered it, she heard alarms go off.
"ALERT! ALERT! THE PRISONER IS ESCAPING! CAPTURE ALIVE! ALERT! ALERT! THE PRISONER IS ESCAPING! CAPTURE ALIVE!" a loud robotic voice screamed all around her as people came out of various doors armed with stun batons. Eri quickly activated her own and jabbed a man nearby with it, making him drop his weapon. She grabbed his stun baton with her other hand and soon was in the fight of her life. She blocked stun batons and countered with her own as fast as she could move; if she hadn't been training with Kasai then she would never have had the reflexes to dodge and counter her attackers.
Everything was less conscious thought and more raw instinct as she ran and blocked and shocked back her opponents. Constantly moving, block, dodge, counter strike, that was all she could think of as she moved, running further down the hallway, praying she was reaching an exit as more and more people chased after her. She made some space between herself and her pursuers and saw a door at the end of the hall. She ran for it as fast as she could, threw down one of her batons and turned the knob of the door.
The old man turned and saw Eri and looked surprised, then reached for the nightstand. Eri ran to him and then grabbed the drawer of the nightstand. She saw a gun inside and quickly snatched it. "Your reflexes are amazing, Aizawa Eri," the old man said in Japanese, and she recognized his voice from the Flying Armors that kidnapped her. "You!" she said, and then looked at the gun and pointed it at him. There was banging from the other side of the door and Eri told the old man, "Get me out of here!"
The old man shook his head, "This is a dead end, I'm afraid. No way out but that door. Just surrender, my dear. And things will go easy for you." The bangs got louder, and she heard the door starting to crack. "No, no, not again! Not again!" she yelled as she saw the door crack more. She looked down at the gun. Tears blurred Eri's eyes as she thought of her life. She thought of Deku and LeMillion, Joey, Jougo, Rukia, all her friends, her adopted Father, and put the gun to her own head. "I'm sorry everyone," she said as she closed her eyes and pulled the trigger.
Instead of oblivion, she felt a needle stick into her head. "No," she whispered as her body felt weak and numb. Her legs gave out, and she collapsed, only her eyes could be moved. The door broke apart and people rushed in. "I had a feeling you would try something…desperate," the old man said as people lifted up Eri. Her mouth was too numb to move as the old man continued, "I would never risk losing my precious final ingredient. I wasn't certain that you would reach this room, but, better safe than sorry. I must say, you truly are a remarkable fighter. You must have made your teachers proud." The old man turned to the people carrying Eri, "Prepare her, and take her to the lab."
Eri was dragged away back through the hall, tears falling from her eyes. Once again, she was powerless. Once again, she would be an experiment. She felt herself enter a room, and then her clothes were stripped off her until she was completely nude. "Don't…look," she faintly got out, realizing that all her scars were displayed. Eri was placed on a metal table, her limbs spread out and then straps were pulled over her arms, legs, and midsection. The old man entered the lab and stood up from his wheelchair and looked over her body. He slowly walked over to where Eri could see him. He had a sad look on his face as he looked at her.
"Your Quirk has only brought you misery," he told her, "If there was another way to save the Earth, then I would have chosen it. But the Quirk Singularity is fast approaching. There is no more time to lose. Men, like All For One and Deku are already as powerful as gods, or even Titans, unstoppable forces of nature. Soon, people will be unable to control their power, and the Earth will be doomed. This is the only way to save it. I am so sorry, my dear."
Eri felt needles enter her arms and legs, and a machine activated. Pain filled her as she felt her blood being drained. After ten minutes it stopped, and Eri looked at the Old Man. "I don't need more from you," he said, "That should be enough blood to complete the formula and enough for it to be effective." Eri felt so lightheaded from the blood loss, and struggled to concentrate, but she couldn't focus enough to use her Quirk. She was left in the room, and before he left the Old Man said, "Once it is over, you will be free. My life's work will be over, and there will be no more need for you to suffer."
Wolfheart
Marie stared at the man who had tricked them all, as everyone stood silently, stupefied, while the handsome man laughed at them. There's really no way to get them to Mt. Fuji? No, that can't be, it can't be over, it can't! But how do we get them there… They need to teleport… Teleport… Realization dawned on Marie as she returned to her Human Form and then pulled her phone out of her pocket, "Deku, LeMillion, follow me! I have an idea to stop this!" The two of them quickly followed Marie and Deku asked her, "How?" Marie explained to him, "There's a student in U.A., he has a Teleportation Quirk! I just need to call Joey and get him to send you to Mt. Fuji!" Deku immediately grabbed Marie and LeMillion with his Blackwhip Quirk and put on a burst of One For All superspeed to get them out of the mansion faster.
"Hurry!" he told her. Marie dialed Joey's number and prayed for a miracle. "Marie…" Joey answered, he sounded miserable, and Marie remembered that this was supposed to be the day he and Eri dated, that must have been when she was kidnapped. "Joey, listen to me," Marie told him, "This is important, it may be the only way we can save Eri, and the whole world!" Joey sounded more alert then as he said, "What's going on?" Marie explained everything to them about how they had been tricked, and her idea to get LeMillion and Deku to Mt. Fuji. "Will he do it?" Marie asked him. "Kurosawa has no love for me, but he's not a complete asshole or idiot. Just get on videochat so Deku can talk to him directly," Joey told her.
Marie switched her phone to videochat and Joey did the same thing. The three Heroes watched as Joey made his way to the U.A. Dorm's common area, and saw a tall, thin but with black hair and eyes that were red with black sclera. "Kurosawa, we need to talk, this is important," Joey told the boy, Kurosawa. "Like what? Here to gloat?" Kurosawa bitterly said, only for him to show his phone to him, and Marie handed her phone to Deku. Kurosawa nearly screamed, "Deku!?" Deku then said, "Kurosawa-kun, I need you to listen to me, right now! The fate of the whole world is on the line!" Deku told Kurosawa everything that had happened, and Kurosawa nodded, and then swallowed.
"I… I've never moved anything that far before. It'll take a lot of energy for me to do that," Kurosawa said. "Kurosawa-kun," Deku told him in his most reassuring tone of voice, "It's times like this that we need to go Further Beyond. Times like this, when you don't know if you can do it are when you MUST go Plus Ultra. That's the only way to know if you truly are a Hero or not. So, are you a Hero, Kurosawa-kun?" Kurosawa blinked at this, and then got a determined look in his eyes, "I'll need to know your exact latitude and longitude coordinates. I've been to Mt. Fuji before on vacation, so I know where it is, I'll send you to where I can visualize it, but I don't know if you'll arrive where the Villains are."
"Just get us there, and we'll handle the rest," Deku assured him. He then pulled out his phone and checked their GPS coordinates. He recited their coordinates, and Kurosawa said, "Alright, time to go Plus Ultra." Marie watched on her phone's screen as the young man closed his eyes, and then she saw veins starting to throb in his head. A small light appeared over them, and then disappeared. "Damn, this is hard," Kurosawa said, and then shut his eyes again, again his veins throbbed, and soon blood trickled from his nose. Another light appeared, for a few seconds, then was gone again.
"Kurosawa, you can't do this," Joey told him. Kurosawa looked at Joey and said, "I NEED to do this! If it saves the world, I HAVE TO DO THIS!" A beautiful girl then said, "Toshiro, you're pushing your body too hard!" Kurosawa looked at her and said, "Sakkie, I need to do this!" Before the girl said anything else, Kurosawa grabbed her and kissed her, and Sakkie was too surprised to say more. Kurosawa then closed his eyes a third time, grit his teeth as it looked like every vein in his body stood out on his thin body. Blood poured from his nose, and even his eyes bled, as a portal appeared over Marie, Deku, and LeMIllion. "HUURRRRYYYYYYY!" Kurosawa screamed as Deku and LeMillion leapt through the portal above them. "They're through!" Marie yelled once they were inside.
Kurosawa coughed up blood, and then collapsed, and Joey dropped his phone.