Chapter Twenty-Two
~Kana's POV~
"Guess they failed their boss one too many times." Kana readied her hands to open or throw a portal as she could see the two villains getting more and more angry as she and James continued to taunt them. Kana was hoping none of their classmates interfered as this was the best possible option for them to sneak away undetected. She and James could handle these guys fine on their own. Kana was ready when the giraffe exploded and released a pressurized air bullet. James darted to the side leaving her alone in the path to open a portal to redirect the air bullet. Or at least that was the plan.
"Kana!" What she hadn't expected was feeling someone slam into her, shoving her flat on her back onto the concrete. Kana groaned as she glanced to see who was dumb enough to hit her. It was Kirishima. "Are you okay?" His wide eyes blinked at her in sincerity that honestly made her feel bad for yelling at him.
"Kiri what the heck! I had that!" Kana cried out as he rolled off her in sheepishness. Kana scrambled up to her knees to get the two villains back in her line of sight. That was blocked as a large ice formation appeared in front of her. She growled under her breath in frustration. If Todoroki had used his ice then there was a good chance that no one choose to see her and James' sacrifice as it was. Which meant they had just revealed themselves to their opponents.
"Todoroki?" Bakugou's familiar growl had Kana looking behind her to see the angry blond also with Kirishima. The ice started to break due to the two villains on the other side. Kana stood up, preparing to defend herself.
"The three of us can take care of them." Todoroki called. "Look for a way to get to the top." Kana yelped in panic as ice formed beneath her making her slip and slide towards the other students who had come out of hiding. The ice then formed a platform that raised them all up to the catwalks above. "Yaoyorozu, I'll be right behind you."
"You better!" James yelled down as the ice came to a stop. "Come on guys!" Kana felt James grab her upper arm and pull her along. Part of her wanted to go back down to help the boys but her Quirk was more useful if they needed a quick getaway from up top. Reluctantly Kana started to run with the rest of her class. Iida broke through the door at the end of this catwalk but beyond that was a hall that had already been blocked off. Kana mentally whimpered at all the running she'd been doing so far. Her asthma hadn't acted up so far but if she kept pushing herself she would be in trouble.
"This way is blocked off too."
"Which way are we supposed to go?" Mineta cried. Kana looked around before looking up at the ceiling to see if any skylights were up there.
"We're like mice in a fancy cage!" Denki cried. "We need a plan!" Kana saw the vent a second later.
"Hey Melissa?" Kana called not looking away from the vent. "Where does that vent up there go?"
"I think it runs under the maintenance room for the sunlight system."
"There's probably an emergency ladder in the maintenance room right?" Iida cried out.
"Well yes there is, but it's a manual release. Someone would have to be inside to let it down for us." Melissa said.
"Is this really as far as we go?" Ochako asked.
"No." Yaoyorozu stated as she created a bomb and threw it at the vent door. "If somebody climbs through the vent and to the exterior wall, they can get into the maintenance room."
"But who could climb through the vent and also climb through the other side? Kana?" Midoriya asked. Kana scoffed.
"I'm small but I'm not that small Midoriya." Kana looked at Mineta. Physically his body structure was the only thing that could have been able to squeeze through that vent. "Mineta, what is your Quirk?"
"I can throw the purple balls on my head, and they'll stick to any surface." He grinned. "It doesn't stick to me though since I make them." Everyone looked at Mineta. His face changed as he realized what he had said. "Oh no! No, you can't expect me to go through that! I could fall!"
"You have to Mineta." Ochako pleaded.
"You're the only one of us who can!" Jiro joined Ochako as they knelt down to face Mineta fully. Despite being a pervert, Kana saw how anxious he was and wondered why he was even in the Hero Course if he was this high strung about his safety.
"You idiots! Do you have any idea how high we are?" Denki squatted down to Mineta's level and spoke in a creepy voice.
"If you save everyone and become a celebrity, they'll interview you on TV, and you'll be popular with girls everywhere!" Kana had to admire Denki's thinking on using Mineta's perverted nature against him. She supposed that was something she was going to have to get used to if she wanted to remain friends with Denki. Of course, James and Yuto would probably have something to say about that. This didn't matter right now, they had other things going on that had nothing to do with this train of thought. Kana shook her head to try and get her head back in the present.
"I can get you close to the vent, but you'll have to crawl through it and get to the maintenance room on your own." Kana said. She shook her hands before throwing out her hand, creating a portal to the vent in question. "Better go now."
"Oh, this is insane!" Mineta called before he went through the portal. Kana closed it afterward. The next few minutes were spent in tense silence as everyone waited for Mineta to go to the maintenance room. Finally, Mineta's voice calling out had everyone cheering as the ladder came down.
"Let's go everyone!" He called down at them.
"I think the guys should go first." Kana suddenly spoke.
"I second that." Jiro spoke. Kana and she shared a look.
"But shouldn't you ladies go first?" Iida asked.
"Iida?" Kana spoke choosing to speak plainly for him. "We're wearing dresses. Trust us, you can go first." Iida's face had turned slightly pink at that and he nodded once before he and Midoriya proceeded to have Denki go up the ladder.
"Good job Mineta!"
"Way to go!"
"I'll admit you did good; you were fast." Kana said begrudgingly as she made it up the ladder.
"We should get going before they find out where we are." James said.
"Jiro, can you knock out the cameras on the way?" Kana asked.
"But it'll show a clear path of where we're going." Yaoyorozu stated. Kana nodded.
"Yeah but it'll also keep what we're doing a mystery if we need to split up." Jiro nodded.
"Jiro if you can, you should also use your earphone jacks to keep an eye on where the villains are so we can try to avoid them." Midoriya said.
"I will. Let's go!" Kana was dearly coming to hate all the running and climbing they were doing. This was ironically more intense than any UA training they'd done so far. It was a good thing adrenaline was helping to take the edge off.
~Shina's POV~
Watching the guards continue their short patrols of the ballroom was only entertaining for so long. Instead, Shina had been trying to think through what the motivations for this villain was. Obviously it was something to do with the scientists and something they had created, but if that was true, why didn't they just take the machine or whatever and hightail it out of here? Why stay and take hostages? She was missing a good chunk of the puzzle. Shina shifted so she was sitting in a more comfortable position as she thought about this villain. She'd been observing him and his team and while they looked professional and were efficient, the head honcho was comfortable leaving his other subordinates to do a lot of the work while he stayed here. Which meant he had faith in his team to pull this off. They knew each other then, or he knew they feared him enough to get this right.
Either way, this villain had come in and had his team take over the island's security system in what she was assuming were only a couple days of planning. It couldn't have been a long term con as I-island's staff no doubt had multiple background checks run on their employees, if they found anything out of the ordinary they would have picked up on it before this had happened. That didn't make sense as the other option was that this group hacked into I-Island's security system within a few hours but considering the island's system was comparable to Tartarus Prison, she doubted it could be hacked that easily. They hadn't planned for the UA students to be here, but they had known All Might would be. Which meant it was probably planned out in the last few days with room for error.
If she and her clan were doing this, they would have come in, grabbed what they wanted, and gotten out without being caught by anyone except on camera. This guy wanted to make a splash by taking not only civilians hostage but also Pro Heroes. Shina glanced at Hawks to see he'd stopped fighting the restraints and was watching the villains with a calculating look in his eye. Shina looked at the restraints and frowned. There was another question she believe was tied into the security, how did these guys know so much about the island?
"You okay?" Shina blinked, meeting Hawks gaze. "You were thinking a bit hard there." Shina glanced around before murmuring under her breath.
"I-islands security system is on par with Tartarus Prison. It's not supposed to be able to be hacked. How did these guys manage to hack it in a few days?" This was a troubling thought that kept repeating in her head no matter how she tried to think beyond this. Nothing made sense unless she had this question answered and her mind just wasn't thinking of an answer.
"I was thinking that too." Hawks said slowly. "There's no way they could have." It was nice to hear that validation from someone who was probably already thinking these things. Of course, if he was watching her that closely then she needed to be careful how much she let slip. She was after all, supposed to be a rich sponsor only.
"I doubt they applied to be part-time employees." Shina murmured, eyeing the closest guard. "They would have had to go through years of background checks and red tape to get clearance to the whole islands security system."
"You think someone on the island gave them access?" Hawks asked. "It almost makes sense if you think of it as an inside job. But why would a scientist do that? What could they gain from this." Shina shrugged.
"They could be blackmailed." Shina could relate to that all to well. "Or the scientist in question was wronged in some way. Though only someone high up on the food chain would have had the necessary clearance to let these guys in. Someone who knows the islands security as well as what these guys would be interested in to offer it as collateral or payment."
"One of these people? Why take the other two scientists then?" As soon as Hawks said that the lightbulb came on in Shina's head.
'David Shield… bring him too.'
'What if I refuse?'
'Then somewhere on this island, you'll hear a pretty blond girl scream.'
"Why would a villain know who a scientists daughter is?" Shina asked slowly. She didn't let any information leak about the kids when they had first started out. She still didn't. To this day no one knew how many were in the Shadow Clan. All they knew was the head was Sunfire, the redhaired woman who took no hostages and was in and out faster than the police could get there to stop her. Scientists world famous may have been different, but if he wanted to give his daughter a normal life then he would keep her out of it. Shina didn't think she'd ever heard of David Shield having a daughter, but she could have been mistaken. Still it was something to consider.
"David Shield?" Hawks came to the same conclusion as Shina did. "He was taken hostage with his assistant. Or they planned to be taken so they could get to what they need while everyone's attention was on the villains down here."
"I doubt the Villain is going to let them off as easily as they want. He's not an actor. His gear is top grade and so is his outfit. I have trouble believing he wouldn't double cross the scientists." She caught the gleam in Hawk's eye and mentally smacked herself for letting herself become this relaxed in her musings.
"You've been thinking about this hard enough to suggest that route. Who are you again? Cop? Detective? You're not a hero, no costume." Shina smiled.
"I'm just a bored crime podcast junkie who is honestly tired of cowering for this villain. Forgive me for jinxing us, but he could stand to make things a bit livelier." As if on cue Shina and Hawks both stilled as the Villain's words carried to them.
"The brats are probably trying to restore the security system. Be on alert." Shina glanced at iron face as he spoke into his comms. "You sent out the security drones on the 80th floor, right?... Then raise any barriers from floors 100 to 130 and let em pass freely… Just do what I say."
"How many floors does this place have?" Shina asked.
"Not sure. But it sounds like the students are going to run into trouble soon." Hawks murmured.
~James' POV~
James' nerves had been building as the group continued to run through the halls of the tower. They hadn't encountered anything after they'd passed the 100th floor. From all the noise they'd made so far, the villains had to know they were here. It was like they were letting them come closer to fall into a trap.
"The paths been clear since the 100th floor." Denki huffed.
"Yeah do you think we lost them?" Ochako asked.
"I doubt that's it." Jirou panted.
"It's quite possible they're leading us somewhere." Momo panted. James growled.
"Melissa, is there any other way to get to the top that they may not know about?" He asked glancing back at their resident guide.
"No." She panted. "Everything else is too far out of our way."
"So, we're willingly falling into whatever trap they've laid?" James asked. "That doesn't seem smart on our half guys."
"Even if there is a trap," Midoriya stated. "We're so close to the top. We can't alternate now."
"Then I hope you have a plan for whatever we run into." Kana said. "I want to make it to morning." They continued to run. When Melissa indicated the hall they needed to run down to get to the specific room they could get through to the security office, James felt his ears twitch as he caught the unmistakable sound of machinery humming.
"Stop." He called as he paused. "There's something on the other side of the walls." Everyone looked at him, but his eyes were on Jiro. "It sounds like humming from a fan, but can you verify Jirou?"
"Hm." Jirou used her earphone jacks to listen intently.
"Guys!" Ochako called softly. "Over here!" They ran over to look through the glass on the doors. Inside the green lit room were four different walkways that led to three other rooms or halls, James wasn't sure what may have laid beyond them as his attention was on the occupants in the room.
"That's a lot of robots."
"The villains aren't trying to block us in anymore." Iida spoke. "It looks like they're actually trying to capture us now."
"If so then I bet they figured out who we are and what school we go to." Midoriya said.
"If that's true, then we don't have much of a reason to hold back." Kana said.
"No we don't." Momo created a large blanket. "We should commence with Plan A." James hoped this plan worked as these robots were supposed to be smarter than average robotics. They were made from smarter minds than the ones UA employed to create those robots they fought daily. Which meant these robots had fail-safes to prevent being hacked or destroyed easily. But this was all just his paranoid thinking, he hoped. James followed the group as they slipped into the room catching the robots attention.
"Ready Kaminari?"
"Ready! I won't let you guys down." He cracked his knuckles.
"Let's go!" Iida fired up his thrusters and started to spin with Denki. Everyone backed up quickly as the two started to rotate faster until Iida threw Denki into the air.
"Into the blanket!" Momo called. James quickly gathered Kana and the rest of the girls under the blanket before he closed his end of the blanket. He didn't want to look out to watch this. Lighting was bright and left afterimages in his eyes he didn't want to be distracted by.
"Indiscriminate shock!" Denki shouted. "1.3 MILLION VOLTS!"
"It's not working!" Midoriya shouted. James was almost tempted to look outside the blanket but if any failed experiments had taught him anything, it was to protect yourself at all costs.
"Fine, how about we try 2 MILLION VOLTS!"
"Is he crazy?!" James shouted. That would turn him into dunce face.
"Don't! If you do that then," the sound of electricity ended, and Jirou's voice turned disappointed. "you'll turn stupid." James yanked the blanket off his head to see Denki sitting in the middle of the robots that looked for all intents and purposes like they'd been stopped. He didn't trust this. Yuto and his dang robots had made him paranoid about 'confirming the kill'. Kana stayed back with him as everyone got up and started to walk closer.
"Well, at least he stopped the robots right?" James saw the red lights lit up and didn't hesitate to call out,
"Kana! Grab Denki!" He charged up his Chaos Sphere and darted forward. He jumped up to land in the center of the four-way. "CHAOS SPHERE!" James saw Denki being pulled into a portal, clearing the space where he'd been sitting. James used that same area as his target zone and released the sphere of destructive energy. The catwalks turned dark and flaky as it started to crumble in on itself. James didn't stay to find out anything else as he jumped back into the air. The catwalks below him were destroyed and fractured under the weight of the robots. A portal opened in front of him allowing him to roll to safely beside Kana and the others.
"Deku! Iida! Kick the ones who didn't fall back into the hole! Momo and Mineta, stick them together so they can't get out!" Kana ordered. "Melissa which entrance do we go through?"
"Right!" James looked to Jirou.
"Jirou are there anymore coming?"
"Yes they're coming from the left!" James nodded and looked at Kana who was already opening a portal to the right side.
"Everyone let's go!" Iida called. They continued with running through the portal and to the doors. As soon as they made it through the doors Midoriya called them all to a halt.
"Wait!" Everyone halted. "We should have Jirou check to see if there are any more robots up ahead. We can plan accordingly or avoid them if possible."
"Can you also hear where the villains are?" Melissa asked. "Keep an ear out for them as well. There's no way to know if they're patrolling themselves." Jirou nodded and got to work as she logged into the wall. Everyone waited in tense silence as she gave them a report.
"I hear a lot of those security machines on the floor below us."
"Any on the floors above?" Midoriya asked.
"No, it should be clear."
"Let's get running." Iida ordered as he shifted Denki on his back. The group ran up the halls until they reached the 138th floor. As soon as they entered the room, James could see this was different than the other floors. It was red and black and there were servers all along the walls. They didn't get halfway when the door at the end opened and a whole pack of robots appeared.
"A trap!?"
"I called it." James murmured, feeling his ears press flat to his head as he felt a hiss coming. There was no where they could run further into this room. Chances are they were going to have to split up now while the others made it to the security room.
"Let's go Iida!" Midoriya tensed like he was going to fight.
"Uh Midoriya-" James tried.
"Wait a sec! You can't fight in here. These are the servers for the islands computer systems. If you take these out then so does the system." James was frustrated with this answer. He wasn't going to be able to go all out in this fight. He'd have to take extra care to be careful. His attention was stolen as robots jumped over the railings from above.
"How many of these things are there?" Mineta asked.
"We can handle these machines while protecting the servers." Momo stated as she started to create.
"Midoriya go, see if you and Melissa can find another way into the security room." Iida ordered. James glanced at Kana.
"Kana, go with them. You and Uraraka should be able to provide them some support."
"But what about you?" Kana asked as she grabbed his sleeve. James shook her hand off as he also took his jacket off. It was too late to save it with all the sweat, dirt and tears he'd got on it.
"I'll help everyone here." James stated. "We'll join you guys when we're done here." Kana nodded and looked to Ochako and Melissa.
"Let's go." They ran back the way they came initially while James and the others faced the robots. James glanced around the room and the servers. They were going to have to be very careful.
"Momo, see if you can make a substance that will have the robots stick to it, nothing flashy just something that will get them out of the way. Mineta, build from whatever Momo makes and create a wall." James said. "These guys haven't shown that they're able to fire anything and hopefully they aren't the kind of AI that grows with each failure. Whatever we can do that will slow them down would help."
"On it!" Momo and Mineta called.
"James, you and I can give them some cover." Iida spoke. James nodded. He created a Chaos Sphere in both hands before crushing it to make his Chaos Claws. Iida's thrusters fired up and he went running towards the robots ahead of James. James rushed after him swiping his claws left and right. They went down easily enough but their numbers were many and James knew right then that this was going to test his stamina more than anything. He prayed Kana and the others could handle themselves while they held these guys off.
~Kana's POV~
They hadn't made it far from the server room when Deku stopped as the loud sound of bombings came. Kana wanted to stop as well and go back to help but she wouldn't be very much help against the robots. All she would be able to do was open a portal and keep it open and that wasn't going to help anyone.
"Deku! Don't stop." Ochako ordered as they caught up to him. "Keep running! If we stop now then everyone will have stayed behind for nothing!" He hesitated only briefly before he nodded and kept running.
"Here! This will take us to the roof of this level!" Melissa called out. Everyone rushed through the door that opened to another short stairwell that had a door at the top of that staircase. Kana attempted to open the door but it wouldn't open.
"Deku!" She moved aside and let Deku punch the door. The door exploded outward, and a rush of air rushed into the stairwell. It was enough to shock Kana as it was fresh, cold outside air. Kana slowed as she approached the door. It was dark outside compared to inside but there was enough moonlight to see that there were wind turbines layered over each other. Kana mentally resolved to not look over any edges as she was sure she was going to faint if she did that.
"What are these?" Ochako asked looking around.
"It's a wind powered generator." Melissa answered, taking point as she knew where to go.
"So what are we doing here?" Midoriya asked.
"There are a lot of robots in the tower probably waiting to ambush us. If we can get to the top of this here, we can enter the emergency exit at the top and get to the security office."
"That is way up there." Kana murmured. "I can't even see that." She squinted slightly but her vision kept watering from the wind.
"That's a good thing we have Ochako." Melissa said turning to her. Kana watched as Melissa explained her plan for having Ochako float Melissa and Deku to the emergency exit. Kana was just secretly grateful that she wouldn't have to be the one to do it herself. It was very high. Kana helped get Melissa and Deku into the best arrangement that would have Deku able to maneuver them if anything should happen midair. It ended up with Melissa on Deku's back like a piggyback ride. Kana secretly wondered how Ochako felt about that internally but that was only for a moment. Her brain was mentally slapped and pulled back on task.
"You two should be fine from here." Kana announced.
"Melissa, hang on to Deku." Ochako ordered as she touched both Deku and Melissa. They instantly became weightless. Ochako grunted as she forced both Midoriya and Melissa up into the air. "Alright…"
"They got this." Kana promised. Ochako gave a determined nod. A ding had them both looking to the side as, horrifyingly, an elevator opened and a group of robots was inside it. They came rolling towards the two girls at top speeds. "I got this Ochako, concentrate on getting them to the top." Ochako nodded as Kana shot a portal out to the first wave of robots. Those that fell in were sent to UA's Battleground Beta training arena. Kana closed that portal and opened another. Every wave she managed to grab were sent to UA. The ones that veered away Kana shot a smaller portal at them that cut them in half.
Kana grit her teeth as more robots appeared, they were getting smart and started to fan out making her split her focus. Kana shot a portal at Ochako that put her up on the lowest wind generator branch, out of the way of the robots. Kana then opened a portal behind her and stepped through it. She reappeared a few feet away and held both hands out. She shot two portals at once, this time, making them bigger to encompass more robots. While they did go through the portals, more robots were appearing from the elevator.
This was a test of stamina that Kana was going to lose any second now. Considering she'd just run up 140 of stairs, thrown around a few portals and was now outside in cold thin air, Kana was winded faster than usual. The stitch in her side that had been growing made Kana fall to her knees as she tried to get a good breath in. Her vision was getting fuzzy the more she struggled. Kana was out of steam and out of options and was really wishing she'd brought her inhaler with her as she clutched at her chest.
"Kana!" Ochako yelled. Kana grit her teeth, forcing herself to watch the robots come closer. She was just summoning up the willpower to throw one more portal when an explosion went off in front of her. Kana's breathing halted as she saw Bakugou flying past. Kana's body jerked and she coughed as she unintentionally relaxed faster than she'd meant to. If Bakugou was here then everything would be fine. Ice went past Kana trapping the robots and making a few of them fall over. Kana glanced to the side and saw Todoroki and Kirishima running over. Kana took this time to try and catch her breath.
"That was close." Todoroki stated as he came to a stop beside her.
"Are you okay Kana?" Kirishima asked, he knelt to see her face but didn't touch her as he knew her issues with touch. Kana nodded as she coughed a couple more times. She closed her eyes and tilted her head down, focusing on getting her breathing under control. She also didn't want to open her eyes and see the sympathy on her classmates faces so she kept them closed.
"Just… got winded. Can you help me up?" Hands gently took her arm and helped her back onto her feet. Her hands hurt and she guessed they were pale.
"Your hands are freezing." Kana nodded to show she knew this. "You should take a breather; we can help with the rest of them." Kana opened her eyes and took everything in. Bakugou was fighting the robots with his blasts while Todoroki was assessing the battlefield.
"Todoroki!" Kana looked up and saw Ochako yelling.
"Shoto," Kana coughed making him look at her. "Ochako is there." She pointed her out to him. He nodded and an ice slide appeared to help her down. Once Ochako was down she started to talk.
"I got Deku and Melissa up to the top with my Quirk. It's all up to them now."
"Good job. You can watch over Kana while we take care of the rest of the robots." Ochako nodded and traded her off with Kirishima.
"Who made you the boss?" Bakugou yelled.
"Chill man," Kirishima called as he entered the fight with Todoroki. "We're all on the same side."
"I need to rest a bit." Kana murmured to Ochako who nodded in understanding.
"I'll watch over you." Kana was very glad she was friends with these would-be heroes. Of course she desperately wished her brothers and sister were with her to watch over her.
~Shina's POV~
The main villain suddenly getting to his feet had Shina's full attention. His body language looked calm but his voice, the tone was agitated.
"Send Swordkil and others in…" Shina watched as the main villain started to head for the entry hall.
"Is he leaving?" Hawks murmured. Shina nodded subtly.
"Defend the control room until I can get there." He passed through the doors and into the hallway with another guard trailing behind him.
"He's gone." Shina murmured. "Sounds like the kids made it to the security room." Hawks struggled once more before going lax.
"Hopefully we'll be out of these restraints in no time then." Shina eyed the remaining villains who had been left to watch over them. "How many are left?"
"Not that many." Shina murmured. "About… fifteen."
"I could take them." Yuto's voice whispered from behind Shina. He had come out of his shadows a while ago. Shina guessed the shadows were tempting him again and he needed a break. Unfortunately, she'd had to listen to his pestering to take out the villains since he'd become solid again. Normally she would have allowed it as she could have helped him but, there were a lot of heroes in here and they didn't need that kind of attention. It was bad enough that Yuto kept asking about it in front of Hawks who was definitely picking up on something about them. She wondered if he had connected the dots on her being Sunfire.
"They're armed men who are probably mercenaries." Shina reminded Yuto once again. "There's no backup beyond the restrained heroes. You don't have any shadows in here Yuto. You'll get hurt."
"Could knock the lights out." He offered.
"With what?" Shina asked.
"Hawks can control his feathers." Yuto stated. "Just take out a few light bulbs, create some shadows and I can do the rest."
"I'm not going to have you do everything kid." Hawks stated. "Shina's right, you don't have any backup. I gotta say, I don't remember you being this eager to fight villains."
"That would imply that you were around during the internship." Yuto shot back.
"Ouch, that was savage kid." Hawks looked like he wanted to press his hands to his chest but was denied this. Instead he gave puppy eyes to Shina to garner sympathy.
"I learned from the best." Shina rolled her eyes at Hawks but the quirk of her lips betrayed her. She was enjoying the banter between the three o them, all things considered.
"Yu, enough!" Shina ordered with finality. Heavy footsteps caught Shina's ear as she realized they'd been getting too loud. The nearest villain had come to them. Shina fell silent as the villains got close enough that she could smell metal and rust. He stopped in front of her and Hawks. Shina kept her eyes down on her lap, trying to appear defenseless.
"You two, you've been chatting nonstop this entire time."
"Who us? Couldn't be, I've been a good boy." Hawks snarked making Shina mentally groan. Shina herself didn't say anything or react.
"Oi, I'm talking to you Red." A hand lodged in her hair making Shina's eyes widen before her head was yanked back so her eyes met the villain. She couldn't see much beyond the mask, but his dark grey eyes she would definitely remember.
"Hey, hey, can't we all just be friends? I mean you clearly have the upper hand so why not be nice to the poor civilians. I'm sure their tired of being threatened enough."
The villains eyes stared at her intently almost like he was drinking in her features before they hardened. "What do you say Red? Wanna be friends?"
"If it's all the same to you. I'd rather not." Shina grit out. "I don't grab my friends by the hair."
"How about we be more than friends then huh? Come on, let me hear your pretty voice beg." Shina glared at him. "Don't be shy honey, come on." Shina's breath caught as the villain lifted her further off the ground making her wince in pain.
"Put her down man." Hawks tried. "You already have us Heroes, why be so mean and hurtful to the pretty lady?" The villain got closer to her before he whispered in her ear.
"I remember your hair. Your boss was very specific. But then, my boss isn't very pleased to have to bow down." Shina narrowed her eyes. So they were aware of her, what about the kids? Shina withheld her questions and sarcastic retorts; it was admittedly the hardest thing she'd ever had to do. Well, that and not ripping into this guy with her Quirk. He leaned back to say in a louder voice. "You're a beauty you know that? I can see why this scum," he kicked Hawks here making him grunt, "would be interested. Let me guess, he's just your type."
"If I were you, I wouldn't go assuming things." Shina growled. Well, in for a penny. "Not unless you want me to kick your ass." He yanked her head further back making her neck pop. Shina gasped in pain before he released her making her fall onto her side. Shina just caught herself with her hands. Ignoring the pain in her hands she froze as she heard the click of a gun above her head. She could feel the metal against her head as the villain spoke,
"Arrogant bitch." Shina heard someone whimper off to the side. She could see in her peripherals that Hawks and some of the heroes tensed.
"I take that as a compliment." Shina hissed as she felt the air temperature change. Yuto was going to attack. "Isn't All Might supposed to be tied down?" She asked loudly. The villain turned to the main stage making. Shina twisted quickly. She kicked the villain in his groin making him groan in pain. His gun dropped to the side as he himself fell to his knees. Shina cursed under her breath as she went for the gun and aimed at the ceiling. "Yuto make it fast!" She fired multiple shots at the lightbulbs taking them out, casting shadows through the hall as she also shot a few other lightbulbs.
She ignored the sounds of screaming and shouting as she continued to shoot the lights out. When the gun was out of bullets Shina dropped the gun and looked around. Yuto was fighting the villains by pulling them into shadows like a Trapdoor Spider. Shina saw civilians huddled together while they screamed. Gunshots were ringing out from the other villains, but they were only two at a time and didn't seem to be aimed at anyone in the hall. If anything, they helped aide Yuto as they shot the ceiling and the lights.
"Shina?" She turned to see Hawks staring at her with relief and a slight bit of suspicion. Shina knelt down next to Hawks but kept a look out in case any other villains appeared.
"I have never been so happy to have taken self-defense classes before." Shina said. "Yuto looks like he has everything covered. Guess I should have let him do this sooner." She winced as more glass broke.
"You're not hurt?" Shina blinked at the question. Heroes.
"No I'm fine." She could feel her hair was a mess but didn't really give it much thought as she pulled it down to fall down her back. She was honestly so glad she hadn't worn heels, would have been a shame to just break them. "Honestly it caught me by surprise that he grabbed me. Guess his boss being around meant the rest of the group was well-behaved." Shina winced as she saw Yuto take out the last villain by kicking him in the head before he was pulled into the shadows.
"You sure did jinx yourself earlier. Just had to ask for something to make this night livelier." Shina chuckled.
"Forgive me for not wanting a boring time. But your presence and prestige kind of wore off after the first ten minutes."
"Well damn. Yuto wasn't kidding about you being savage. You're tougher than you look." Hawks complimented. Shina shrugged.
"Kind of have to be with three teenagers. They play rough." Hawks hummed. The silence of gunshots pulled Shina out of her conversation with Hawks. She looked around to see all the villains knocked out with Yuto standing over the last villain. "Yuto!" Shina called. He looked at her before disappearing into shadows. He reappeared next to her.
"Are you okay Shina?" He hesitated to touch her head. Shina smiled at him encouragingly as she nodded. Yuto allowed his hand to pat her head twice before he pulled back.
"I'm fine Yu, promise. Did you knock all the villains out?" He nodded.
"Yes. The civilians can stop cowering. I don't know what the best way would be to help that though." Shina could understand, she didn't like giving speeches either.
"Find Selene and Naomi, they can let everyone know that it's safe to organize themselves now that the villains are down. I'm sure the heroes would like to get everything wrapped up easily once they're released. Whenever that happens." Yuto nodded. Shina sighed and pulled out her cell phone. She sent a quick text message to Kana and James, silently thanking the gods that cell service was back on. Shina blinked and looked at her phone, cell service was back? Since when?
'I-islands security system is now operating in normal mode.' Shina jerked at the announcement.
"Guess that answers that question then." Shina jerked back as the restraints on Hawks disappeared and he was finally able to move again. She moved back as he sat up, ruffling his wings as he worked the knots out of his joints.
"Looks like the kids were successful." Hawks said, smiling. "On all fronts."
"Yeah seems so." Shina looked around. Upon seeing the other heroes standing up Shina did as well. "You probably need to check in with someone to round up the villains. And I should probably check on my scientists." Hawks nodded.
"It was nice meeting you Shina. I don't run into a lot of civilians who aren't screaming for help a lot. You're certainly interesting." Shina snorted. If only he knew.
"Oh be still my heart, I'm... interesting." Hawks smiled at her sarcasm.
"You said your Yuto's guardian. Mind if I have your number?"
"Why?" Shina asked curiously. This was a turn she hadn't been expecting. "I'm sure we'll meet again if Yuto ever asks to join your agency."
"To go so long without your brand of sarcasm? How will I live?" Hawks held a hand to his chest dramatically. Shina had to bite her lip to stop from laughing at him.
"Uh, are you two done flirting?" Yuto asked. Shina sighed and mentally took a step back.
"Calm down kid, if I was flirting you'd know." Hawks winked at her. Shina rolled her eyes.
"Tell you what." She said. "If you can convince Yuto to give you my number you can text me your dramatics anytime."
"Deal." Hawks stated before he swung an arm around Yuto. "Yuto my protégé, we must have a nice chat about the villains and your safety. Following this, I'm going to need to contact your guardian to let her know how brash you've been. I'm sure she's very worried." Yuto gave Shina a glare as he was wheeled away. Shina could only snicker at his misfortune.
"Shina!" Naomi's voice called out. Shina looked over to see Naomi waving to get her attention. Shina felt guilt crash into her like a bus as she remembered Naomi and Selene. All for this charming sarcastic bird. When had she fallen so low? Shina rushed over to check on Naomi.
"Are you okay Naomi? I'm sorry I didn't try and have Yuto warn you about the shadows. Or where and how we were doing." Shina apologized. Naomi simply clicked her tongue and pulled Shina in for a hug. Before she pulled away and started to yell at her in Brazilian.
"You smart, wonderful, idiotic woman! Do you know how dumb that was talking back to the villain in a hostage situation? What were you thinking? I'll tell you what you were thinking, you weren't thinking at all. If I know you, you probably had to hold yourself back from sarcasm! You could have been killed! Do you know how dangerous that would have been or what the kids would have done if you'd been seriously injured?" Shina was shaken as Naomi continued her rant. Literally, Naomi literally shook Shina as she continued to berate her. Shina could only take it in the face of her rage.
~Kana's POV~
The robot attack finally coming to a stop was a huge relief to everyone. The waves of robots had just not stopped coming after them. Kana had been trying to get in the fight and had managed to shoot off a few more portals before she'd once again descended into a coughing fit until
"Kana let's go, Deku needs our help." Kirishima called. Kana nodded and forced herself up. James and the others had arrived while they were fighting. He pulled her arm over his shoulder and helped her walk. There was loud quaking was going on up on the roof and that everyone surmised, was where the fight was going on. Everyone loaded into the elevator looking worse for wear. Kana saw Mineta's scalp bleeding, Iida was helping to support Momo who looked half asleep. Denki was still out of it due to his shocks. Kirishima was holding his arm like he was in pain while Todoroki had burned half his shirt off. Bakugou looked unaffected but Kana' saw his hands shaking slightly. He was probably in as much pain as the rest of them. Kana could personally feel James was physically fine but she guessed he had shut off his pain receptors. Lucky cat.
"Are we really going to try and help fight a villain this huge?" Mineta asked.
"We have to try." Iida spoke. "We've come too far now to turn back." Kana, silently disagreed. When they arrived up top it was to see pandemonium. Deku and All Might were fighting against the villain that had apparently gotten his hands on the tech he'd been wanting. The entire top was destroyed. All Might was alone as he held back the metal that was attempting to kill him.
"Why won't you just die already?!"
"Todoroki, Bakugou help All Might." Momo ordered. Kana saw Todoroki and Bakugou run forward. Ice froze the metal as Bakugou's bombs hit to weaken the force holding All Might down.
"Shut the hell up already!" Bakugou yelled. His bombs hit true but she saw him gripping his wrist. "How can you let yourself get beaten by such a lame boss? Hurry and take him down!"
"We'll do what we can to help you!" Todoroki promised.
"Iida, James let's take care of the metal in the sky!" Kana yelled at she saw the chunks falling too close to them.
"Right!"
"Kana, stay here." James ordered. She nodded as he let her go. He jumped away with a Chaos Sphere already formed. All Might broke free from his prison and started to fight back seriously. Metal started to fall all around them making everyone by the elevator gather.
"Everyone stay behind the walls." Momo called as she created a final shield to hold against the metal that the boys were helping to destroy. Kana hated to admit but she zoned out for a moment as she focused on her breathing. She needed to calm her body and rest if she was going to be able to open another portal. As much as she hated to say the cheesy line, she needed to push past her bodies boundaries and go 'Plus Ultra'.
When she focused back on the fight, it had changed for the worse. All Might was held by wires while the others weren't in any better shape. When she saw James fall from a large metal ball Kana had enough. She stood up.
"I'm sorry you guys. But I can't watch us get injured any further." She spoke.
"Kana?" Momo asked. Kana didn't answer, instead she created a portal to the mezzanine that was close to the party downstairs and brought it down on Momo, Ochako, Mineta and Jiro forcing them to go through the portal.
"Kana wait!" Momo called from the other side of the portal. She was reaching towards Kana. Kana closed the portal on her. As much as they wanted to watch the entire fight, it wasn't smart as they were all drained. Kana turned to see Iida, Kirishima and James regrouping. She shot another portal at them, catching all three in the portal before she closed it behind them. Kana then looked to the side.
"Kana don't do it!" Bakugou yelled. He and Todoroki had seen her send the other boys and they looked like they were going to fight her on this one.
"We can still help Kana!" Todoroki called.
"Yeah we can." Kana shouted back as metal started to reform. "Get the heroes up here. They're able to help fight against this guy. We're all tired and low on power. Don't even try and lie to me Bakugou, I can see you holding your wrists." He grit his teeth in defiance but Kana wasn't having it. She aimed like she was going to shoot a portal at him.
"SO LONG SYMBOL OF PEACE!" Kana and the boys turned their heads to watch as huge balls of metal started to encase All Might before large bars of metal were shoved through like an iron maiden. Kana felt her hope dip at that as she looked down. So much for the #1 hero. A bright shot of green light lit up the sky making Kana look up. She couldn't believe her eyes as the huge balls of metal were destroyed. And All Might was freed.
The resulting fight was over in two minutes but felt like longer to Kana and the boys. All Might and Deku teamed up to fight the villain and essentially won. Metal came crashing down just as the morning sun appeared over the horizon. Kana hid among the debris as more came crashing down. When it was finally silent and only the odd chirping of birds came Kana peeked her head up and looked around the rooftop. It looked like a crater had landed. Kana didn't spare a second to fall over as she realized this long and crazy night full of villains and robots was finally over.
~James' POV~
Packing up to leave I-island on their fourth day was mostly silent as the Nara kids had spent the previous day mainly recovering from the fight. Shina had taken over handling extending their stay one more night as she wasn't comfortable having them travel in case something happened mid-flight. James was okay with this as it meant he was allowed to sleep all yesterday.
James ear twitched as he heard Yuto come out of the bathroom. His brother wasn't as bandaged as he and Kana were and hadn't spent much time on rest but from what Yuto had said yesterday, he'd pulled his weight in fighting the remaining villains when one of them had threatened Shina. He had gotten harder to understand when he's spoken about scary Brazilian women with flames in their eyes and a voice like a banshee. James shook his head as a knock sounded on the door.
"Are you both ready to get going?" Shina asked. "Bell hop is here to take our stuff downstairs."
"Yeah just about." James said as he zipped up his bag and slung it over his shoulder with a slight wince. His muscles were still aching, but he took it over a broken bone. "What time's our flight?"
"Plane is going to be ready to leave in about 90 minutes." Shina stated. "If you two are ready then go ahead and head downstairs. Kana is just finishing, and I'll go with her when she's done." James nodded as he and Yuto grabbed their shoes and left.
"You think the camping trip will be easier than that?" Yuto shrugged.
"Not sure. I didn't really participate much in the run up 200 flights of stairs."
"Lucky." James murmured. "Had to put up with Mineta and Denki being perverted when they saw the girls in dresses. Plus, the robot hoard that never ended."
"I would have preferred that over hearing Shina flirting with Hawks." James head snapped to Yuto faster than a whip.
"What?" Yuto raised an eyebrow at James before a slow wicked smirk formed. "Hawks? You mean the Pro Hero Hawks? He's here?" James stopped his questions when he realized Yuto was merely waiting for something. James groaned. "What do you know? And how much will it cost to get this information?"
"I want full access to your lab so I can see the weapons you've made that Shina doesn't know about." James blinked in shock.
"No!" Yuto merely shrugged as the door dinged. They'd arrived at the lobby.
"Then this info stays with me. But I will say, he was very impressed with her. He asked for her number." Yuto walked out of the elevator making James trail behind him.
"Did she give it to him?" Yuto's cackling was his only answer. James ran after his brother intending to offer any other payment that would get him the information regarding a potential suitor for their sister. He needed to let Kana know so they could plan properly just in case.
GM NASAI: Another long chapter. I must say I'm glad with how this turned out. Next chapter back to UA high.