My Hero Academia
Tales of the Wanderers
Backrooms Level One
Small Infestation
"You saw what just happened, sir?" Marko asked before hearing a voice coming from his communication device.
"I saw, so far they seem to be able to hold a conversation and they don't look like most of the sentient entities with anomalous properties. This might be a good opportunity to gather some information on some new entities…If you can, see if you can ask them for assistance with a little matter that we found yesterday."
"You're joking, right?" Clark asked. "You're going to trust them off the back like that? For all we know, they could be working for the guy that made this place or worse. They could just be like every other entity in this place and just waiting to kill us with our backs turned."
"Perhaps, but given how they didn't straight out attack Marko, I'm willing to take the chance to talk to them."
"Well, I'm saying it's a bad idea. We should just leave them alone, and be on our merry way. So, what is it that you want to deal with?"
"Well if you must know, we were planning on having the cat girl use her powers to clear out an infestation of Smilers on the level below you, but seeing how you're more than willing to deal with the problem yourself, then you can handle it, right." The voice said as Clark went silent for a moment before speaking.
"On second thought, maybe it would be in our best interest to ask for their assistance."
"Nice to see you're willing to put some trust out in the open." The voice said in a sarcastic tone. "Anyway, if the cat girl entity can do what he did to the Skin Stealer, then we could ask them for assistance with some matters within certain parts of the backrooms."
"What if they say no?" Vanessa asked.
"They try to persuade them to help with information about the backrooms. They don't seem to know much about it other than the notes they found on level zero."
"So basically what you're saying is, ask them to deal with the problem and we'll give and we'll
bring them to the outpost to answer their questions."
"Yes, that is the deal if they refuse to assist you in dealing with the smilers."
"Alright, I'll see what I can do, but I can't guarantee this will plan out well," Marko said before ending the conversation. "Looks like we'll be on extermination duty."
"I'm still saying it's a bad idea," Clark said as Vanessa rolled her eyes.
"We know, but I'm pretty sure you don't want to deal with Smilers, right?" She asked as Clark remained silent. "Thought so, now suck it up, and let's get this over with."
"I'm hoping this doesn't end badly," Marko said as he motioned for the two to follow them back to where Rebecca and Claudia were waiting. The moment the trio returned, they noticed a lot of open crates within the area. Upon further inspection, they could see the two U.A. students currently opening up another crate that was filled with gold bars.
"Man, this place is amazing!" Rebecca yelled as she was tossing the gold into the pocket dimension Claudia made next to them. "If we end up getting out of this place, we'll be living the sweet life!"
"We can buy an island and live on it for the rest of our lives! Oh, even better! We can open that coffee shop that I mentioned some time ago!" Claudia said before noticing Marko returning. "Military man is back, he also brought his friends."
"Hey handsome, how's it going~?" Rebecca asked with a flirting tone in her voice.
"Um…I was not expecting for you two to remain here."
"Well you did ask us to wait, so we did. Plus crates started to appear in this area, so why pass up on an opportunity for free stuff."
"I…suppose that's fair," he said before looking over at Vanessa and Clark who were taken by surprise by what Rebecca and Claudia were doing.
"So, who are your new friends?" Rebecca asked as Marko looked over his shoulder and motioned for Clark And Vanessa to speak up.
"I-I'm Vanessa Kings, it's nice to meet you two." She said before noticing Clark's annoyed expression as she elbowed him in the ribcage.
"Clark Persimmons…let me be clear that I don't trust you two entities, so don't expect me to be all chummy or friendly with you, got it."
"Clark!" Vanessa yelled as Clark rolled his eyes at her.
"It's a bit rude to bluntly say that, don't you think?" Claudia said which caused the man to snort in amusement.
"Whatever entity, it's not like I'll be friends with you anyway." He said as Marko smacked him upside his head. "What was that for!?"
"For being an ass, you ass," Marko said before looking at Rebecca and Claudia. "You'll have to excuse him. He tends to be like that around new people."
"So long as he doesn't say anything like a sly remark, then we're cool…but we're allowed to smack him if he gets out of hand, right?"
"I'll allow it," He said, which caused Clark to stare at Marko in disbelief. "Anyway, we need your help with something before bringing you over to the outpost. That is if you're willing to help?"
"That would depend on what it is," Claudia said while looking over at Marko. "Because if it's something involving money, then we'll decline on that."
"No, no, nothing like that. It's more of an infestation that we were hoping that your…cat friend can help us with." He said which caused Rebecca to tilt her head in confusion. "We were wondering if you can use that beam from before on a large group of entities."
"Depends on what the entities are," Claudia said as she noticed Marko pulling out a picture of a Smiler. "...This looks like something you would see in a dark alleyway. The hell is this thing."
"This is what we call a smiler. It's also known as the smiling thing or the night hunter. They're treacherous entities that roam most of the backroom levels. The only distinguishing features that they have are the beady eyes and enormous grin carved across their face. It's the only thing which reflects light off its body."
"Or if it has a body," Vanessa added.
"You think you can take care of the problem with that power of yours?" Marko asked as Rebecca looked over at Claudia who shrugged.
"I suppose it shouldn't be that hard to deal with them given how they're not human, just entities that would be considered animals…I think?" Rebecca said as Marko and Vanessa let out a sigh of relief from her answer. "So where are these Smilers that you need me to take care of?"
"We'll take you to the lower level of this place," Marko said as he motioned for the two to follow them. "If you don't mind me asking, where did you two come from?"
"Why would you ask a stupid question like that?" Clark asked. "They're obviously from this place given their weird appearance."
"Wrong, jackass," Rebecca said, which caused Clark to glare at her. "We're U.A. Students from Japan."
"U.A…that sounds familiar somewhere. What's that supposed to mean?" Vanessa asked.
"In layman's terms, Hero High School." She answered, which caused Clark to burst out laughing.
"Seriously, a school where you go to become a hero? What load of crap!"
"Clark, don't be rude," Marko said as the man continued to laugh.
"What? You can't expect me not to laugh at something so stupid. Who's the idiot that thought of a stupid idea like that?"
"Well, it's the only place where those with heroic quirks go if they want to become heroes, or if not they could just continue their education with general classes."
"And let me guess, you two went with the hero part of that stupid school?" he asked as Claudia made a small portal and thrust her hand into it. In doing so, it caused a portal to appear near Clark's foot as she grabbed it and caused the man to fall face-first onto the concrete floor. "Mother fucker!"
"Consider that a slight warning for making fun of our culture. Next time it will be a punch to the face~" Claudia said as Clark pulled himself up.
"You little brat! Give me one reason why I should kick your ass!?" Clark asked before hearing Marko speak up.
"Because I said so, and I'm pretty sure she'll end up making you hit yourself if you do try that." He said before giving him a stern expression. "Now if you don't have anything else to say that isn't a question or doesn't involve insults, then I advise you to shut it and keep an eye on our six. We don't want any surprises sneaking up on us, understood?"
"...Yes, Captain," Clark said in annoyance as Marko turned his attention onto Claudia and Rebecca as the cat girl continued.
"As I was saying, it's a school for those who want to become heroes. Or if you're looking for something else, you can join general studies to continue your education or support where they create support gear for heroes."
"That would explain the get-up you two have," Vanessa said as she eyed the two students up and down. "Though most heroes I read in comics like Marvel or D.C. would be wearing slightly revealing hero costumes."
"Never heard of those, but you would have to be an idiot if you're wearing stuff that can't protect you from knives, bullets, and quirks that can pierce through clothing."
"I'm sorry, but what do you mean by quirks?" Marko asked as Claudia made two portals appear next to Marko and Vanessa. The two flinched upon seeing this as Vanessa stuck her hand through it to touch Marko's shoulder.
"You can create portals out of nowhere like that!?" Vanessa asked as she walked through the portal to appear next to Marko.
"Spatial Draupnir, a quirk that allows me to manipulate space," She said before reaching into her pocket to pull out a bottle of Almond Water and make another duplicate of it. "And duplicate objects."
"...If you don't mind me asking…how old are you two?" Marko asked.
"Fifteen," Claudia answered as the three M.E.G. members were taken by surprise by this.
"Hold the fuck up. You mean to tell me that this school lets kids like you become heroes at a young age!?" Clark yelled as Claudia and Rebecca nodded. "You gotta be shitting me? Eighteen I can understand, but fifteen? Why the hell did you go to become heroes." he asked, which caused the two to look at each other before looking over at Clark and the others.
"We prefer not to go into detail about it, but let's just say we were pretty much strong-armed into becoming heroes," Rebecca said as the M.E.G. members looked at each other with raised eyebrows as Marko spoke up.
"By strong-armed you mean blackmailed?"
"More like the sins of the father are now the son's kind of strong-armed." She said before noticing Vanessa was about to speak, only for Claudia to open a small portal and place a hand over her mouth. "Again, prefer not to go into detail. Let's just leave it at that."
"F-Fair enough," Vanessa said before noticing that they were coming up on the location of the smiler infestation. "This is the place." She said before pointing ahead at the lower level of the area they were in. At first, they didn't see anything. But the moment Marko reached into his backpack to pull out a piece of meat, he threw it into the darkness. Pairs of illuminating razor-sharp teeth and glowing eyes appeared as they quickly ran toward the meat. The sounds of flesh being ripped into and bone snapping echoed through the darkness for a good couple of seconds before it went silent.
"...The fuck was that!?" Rebecca yelled as she heard Marko let out a small chuckle.
"That my cat friend is what we call a Smiler." He said as she and Claudia slowly looked over at him with shocked expressions on their faces. "It never gets tiresome to see the expression on new peoples' faces when they see something like this~"
"Well if I was planning to sleep with the lights off, that's out of the question now," Claudia said before looking back at the Smilers moving around in the darkness. "Do you guys have some way to get rid of them?"
"Sadly, no. I mean we have found ways to repel Smilers with a repellent the boys in the lab made, but that doesn't work all the time." Marko answered. "A lot of Wanderers end up becoming food for these fuckers, and there's not much we can do other than trying to avoid dark places. But seeing how your friend killed that Skin-Stealer with her…quirk, she should be able to get rid of the Smilers infestation in this section of the level."
"I make no promises, but I'll give it a try," Rebecca said as she took a few steps forward and clapped her hands together. "Don't know if they have bodies or not. But just to be safe, better go with a wide-range attack." She said before the group noticed pale blue energy flowing into her hands as she slowly revealed a small pale blue orb that was about the size of a baseball.
The cat girl aimed what she could guess was the center of the group of Smilers and chucked the ball at them. The ball soon landed and rolled into the center of the group as the cat girl snapped her fingers. Upon snapping her fingers, the ball started to light up quickly before it let out a massive explosion the group quickly covered their eyes upon seeing the flash. They slowly opened their eyes as the M.E.G. members stared in shock upon seeing the dark area lit up with pale flames and the Smilers screaming in pain before slowly disappearing. The other Smilers off in the distance stared at the scene in front of them as Rebecca slowly made her way into the darkness while within the flames from her previous attack.
"Is she going to be okay?" Marko asked as Claudia shrugged.
"Well, it's not like her quirk can hurt herself, so as long as she's within the corrosive flames, then she should be fine." She answered before looking at Rebecca standing within the corrosive flames. The Smilers would slowly make their way towards her but backed off once they felt pain from the corrosive force slowly eating away at the floor. They let out hissing noises as they started to circle Rebecca to try to find an opening to attack her.
"Huh, looks like my quirk's useful for once." She said while the tip of her fingers lit up. She soon raised her hands at the smilers darting around her before firing off destructive energy in the direction of the smilers. A few of them were able to dodge the beams, but those that couldn't, recoiled in pain as parts of their faces were slowly cracking from what Rebecca could see. The moment the Smilers see an opening through the flames, they make their attempt to charge at the cat girl with the intent to eat her.
Rebecca's ears twitch upon hearing the sounds of what she could guess were feet heading towards her from behind. She quickly turned around and she fired off a wide-range beam of destructive temporal energy at the entities. The moment it made contact with them, they quickly let out a blood-curdling scream before going silent as they crumbled into dust.
"If you don't mind me asking, how many of those smilers are there in this area?" Claudia asked
"Ten, sometimes twenty if we go deeper into the level, which we avoid seeing how some wanderers aren't prepared," Marko answered as he looked over at Rebecca fighting the smilers. "If I had to guess, I would say there's about fifteen in this area. Though given how your friend is reducing them to dust within seconds, I say she has about six left." He said before noticing the six remaining smilers surrounding Rebecca, but we're slowly backing away from the cat girl. A grin could be seen on Rebecca's face as she looked over at the remaining Smilers. From what she could tell, they were keeping their distance from her while slowly backing away. The moment she took a step forward, they would back away. If she raised her hands and activated her quirk, they would freeze up.
"Nice to see you guys aren't a bunch of mindless beasts," Rebecca said before bringing her hands together to create a ball of energy that was about the size of a basketball. The Smilers took notice of this as they started to scatter away from her. The cat girl took notice of this as she quickly let loose to collective energy into the direction of the smilers; each homing laser hit the smilers in the face and let out a blood-curdling scream before crumbling into dust. The moment the smilers were erased, the lights in the area she was in lit up as she would find herself in what appeared to be a parking lot of some sort with bits and pieces of the ground and surroundings eroding for a bit.
"Smilers eliminated," Claudia said as she looked over at Marko and his friends who were staring at Rebecca in shock. "Not bad for a first-year student."
"...And you're telling me that there are people like her where you come from?" Vanessa asked as Claudia nodded.
"Yep, never thought about the training we get from U.A. would be useful in a situation like this. Though I'm sure the combat training part would apply here given how we're dealing with entities like that." She answered before looking at Marko. "So, we finished taking care of the problem for you. Now I believe it's your turn to help us, right?"
Sorry for the long wait with this story, been doing a lot of drawing for this story (You can find this story on Archiveofourown and Quotev.) Specifically picture refs for some upcoming characters that will be added later on in the story. That and work's been draining me due to not having enough employees to cover some of the shifts. Anyway, I'll be sure to put more time into this story as best as I can.