Day 226, 9:00 AM
South Side of I-Island
Arriving at the intended location on time, Icy Hot adjusts his mask, ensuring his identity is hidden. According to Adrenal, these criminals in this part of town know about the I-Island Elites but have failed to see their faces. A large majority of the people haven't seen their faces but most people on I-Island use Occam's Razor to deduce that Shoto Todoroki is Icy Hot based on his hairstyle. It doesn't make a difference because his reputation on I-Island keeps him safe, protected, and made wary of potential threats.
"Let's do this," Icy Hot tells his brother.
Dabi laughs. "Yeah, let's get started, shall we? My flames are wanting some fuel to burn."
Adrenal leads the Elites to the same location he and Aglaea met the peddler. The peddler and the other vagrants stand at attention with worry rather than respect. The peddler steps forward, shooting daggers with his eyes at Adrenal.
"Right here as fucking scheduled," Adrenal chuckles, "I love wasting your fucking time but right now, we don't have much fucking time to waste."
"Fine," the peddler says, "follow me and... just get on with whatever the fuck you're about to do."
"That's all we ever fucking intended, dogfucking maggot."
The peddler flips him off before walking across the street.
The Elites follow the peddler. Circus is at the back of the line, pushing Backbone in his wheelchair while giving him a shoulder massage.
"Look at this hellhole," Backbone says.
Circus chuckles. "Even in a utopia, there's always going to be rundown parts. Heaven is a paradise the human mind can't comprehend but I'm sure even that has a rundown part."
"Do you know what I see when I look at this place, Circus?"
"I don't care what you see so tell me all about it."
"I see a job opportunity. I see a job opportunity for those environmentally conscious bastards and green companies to make a buck in cleaning this place up. I see construction crews paid for by said green companies to rebuild this place. Followed swiftly by a cleanup crew and hazmat team coming to clean the shit, dirt, and muck off of every surface in this rathole-infested cesspool. And then exterminators come in, living up to their job title. Once this crapsack city has been cleaned up, I see a golden opportunity for businessmen such as myself to make a profit by turning this neighborhood into a lower middle-income neighborhood that people can pay rent for. After that, I see an opportunity to up the prices to attract wealthy people. Gentrification, truly a thing of beauty. And once I raise enough prices, I make it clear this is a neighborhood for the rich to live on and the reputation of the neighborhood would be my crowning achievement. That is what I see when I look at this cesspool: a chance for a rundown neighborhood to become home to rich and wealthy. So, what do you see, Circus?"
Circus flinches, the words taking a few seconds to catch up with his mind before he shrugs. "Bricks, that's all I see." He pats his companion on the back. "You and I think alike. You and I would've been business partners had the world not gone to shit."
"Business associates, not friends?"
"Business associates."
"Is that what you consider me and everybody else?"
"Co-workers. We're security, police, military police, and whatever our jobs tell us to be here on this paradise of an island."
A few minutes later, they arrive at a pier with a dead boat in the water. The peddler walks to the end of the pier, mindful of his step due to the cracks all over the wooden pier, and pauses at the edge.
"This is where your targets or criminals were," the Peddler turns. "Here. I don't know if they left something behind or whatever but... here's your spot to investigate."
"Thank you very fucking goddamn much." Adrenal looks over the edge into the water leading to the open ocean. "Where did they vanish from specifically?"
The peddler points to the very edge of the pier. "They stepped off the edge and they just suddenly vanished into thin air. Teleporting quirk, invisible portal, or whatever, I don't know; I didn't bother to check. But here, I fulfilled my end of the bargain."
Adrenal reaches over the edge, trying to get a feel for something invisible. He pulls his hand back.
"Don't worry," Lizardy says, "I'll take a look down under." She separates her head from her body and sends it flying under the pier.
The peddler gasps at Lizardy's headless body, nearly falling into the water had it not been for Adrenal catching him.
Lizardy heads under the pier, checking every crack and crevice in the wooden bridge as she searches for anything out of the ordinary.
Lizardy forces her head to tilt as she spots what looks like a gun taped to the underside of the pier. She sends one of her hands to meet up with her as she touches the gun with her separate hand.
"Now, what do we have here?" She uses her one separate hand to remove the gun from the pier and examines it. It looks like a modified AK-47 with small lightbulbs hanging off the side like shotgun shells on the side of a shotgun.
She calls her other hand to join her on the bridge's underside. The second hand removes the magazine to find it empty. Tilting her head, she slaps the magazine back into place before her head and hands fly out of the bridge's underside and back to the surface. She reconnects with her body, holding the gun in her hand.
"Look what this dinosaur lover found for all of us." She points at the peddler, pretending to shoot. "Pew."
"What is that?" Icy Hot asks.
"AK-47," Broken Arrow answers, "common weapon worldwide. Thirty bullets." He takes the gun and looks at it, turning it sideways, gangster-style, before checking the magazine.
"Wunderwaffe DG-2," Mudman says.
Broken Arrow looks at him. "Excuse me?"
"It's like the Wunderwaffe DG-2 from Call of Duty."
"Yeah," Empulse nods. "It's a wonder weapon used against zombies; it fires electricity."
Broken Arrow looks at Empulse. "Maybe it's a gun powered by electricity." He checks the empty magazine once more. "We'll get this back and we'll see if this is one of the weapons stolen."
"Hey!" the peddler yells. "What about our deal? We need you guys to clear out the area of zombies!"
"If there's zombies," Aglaea corrects him. "If there aren't any zombies, this is going to be very embarrassing for you."
"We'll deal with it." Icy Hot turns.
"Wait for me." Dabi follows after him.
"Wait!" the peddler calls out. "You don't even know where to go?"
"We're clearing the entire area so stay out of our way," Icy Hot warns.
"Whatever hole you crawled out of, crawl back in." Backbone rotates his wheelchair and wheels himself forward. "We'll find you when it's done."
Creati turns and pauses. She grabs Lizardy by the shoulder. "Hold on, I think I have a plan with the electricity gun." She looks to her left. "Broken Arrow, any chance you can stay here with the gun?"
Broken Arrow salutes her.
Empulse stays by his side. "If Broken Arrow stays, I stay."
"Alright." Creati takes the gun from Broken Arrow. "I just need to do something real quick."
10:00
Warehouse
After searching the rest of town, all that is left to check the area for any signs of the undead is a warehouse in the distance. Icy Hot, Dabi, Toga, and Circus search the warehouse with Icy Hot and Circus in front with Dabi and Toga in the back.
As they search the rundown warehouse, Dabi produces an old iPod out of his pocket and holds it out to Toga.
"Aww, for me?" Toga takes the iPod. "How did you know I've been craving for one of these?"
"When we first met, you got distracted by the music on your earbuds and almost got killed."
"Aww, and you want me to be distracted again so you can finish the job; how nice of you."
"I wouldn't be Dabi if I didn't go through with it. I would've had Creati make one but she signed a contract. I bought this off the peddler for one card."
Toga puts an earbud in her right ear. "Want to listen to a song together?"
"Maybe after when we're done." Dabi laughs. "Maybe I should make my own playlist to hype myself up for when I meet Enji Todoroki."
"Still haven't gotten over dear old dad, have ya?" Toga grabs his hand, running her fingers over the patches on his burnt flesh.
"I wouldn't expect you to understand; you got what you wanted."
"And what is it that I wanted, patchwork?"
"To live in a world as freely as you want."
"Aww, don't give up on yourself, Dabi, I'm sure you'll fulfill your dream someday. Who knows, maybe your father is still alive and waiting for you."
"Doubt he's waiting for me; he thinks I'm dead."
"We all did," Icy Hot says out of nowhere.
Dabi points. "See what I mean."
"Aww." Toga runs her hands up his arm, touching the dominant vein in his inner elbow. "You know, if I had a drop of your father's blood, I could probably transform into him for your sake. You know... so... you can take out some of your anger on him on me."
Dabi smiles. "I thought I was the masochist in the relationship, psycho."
"We can switch it up sometimes."
"That would be hot to see," Circus says randomly.
The four pause.
"I don't think there are any zombies nearby," Circus says. "If there were, Lizardy using her quirk on the pier would've attracted them."
"You never know." Icy Hot looks around the warehouse. "Dabi, you want to light up your quirk and attract any nearby zombies."
"It's what I was born for." Dabi lights up a small blue flame on the tip of his index finger. "Now, let's see what moths will be attracted to this flame."
~A few moments later~
"This is bullshit." Circus sighs. "Let's just leave."
"Looks like those bastards got spooked over nothing." Icy Hot rotates and makes a beeline for the door. "Let's go." He pauses, his ears perking. "What is that?"
CRASH!
The west wall of the warehouse explodes as a creature of ten feet tall crashes through. The beast roars at the top of its lungs, its ribcage jutting out of its chest along with skin peeling back on its forearms to reveal muscle. To top off the horror of the beast before them, the creature has blood running down its cheeks like tears made of blood and blood dripping down its chin like a vampire. The beast roars before charging for the four Elites.
Icy Hot sends an ice wall in its path before backing away. The beast roars and crashes through the ice wall like a football player and smashes its hands into the ground. The four make a run for it. The beast rips a chunk of the ground out and hurls it at the group.
Circus and Toga retreat while calling for backup.
Dabi shoots blue flames at the beast, smiling. "Man, if only dear dad could see me right now." The blue flames engulf the beast, making Dabi's smile widen.
He gasps as the flames shoot up, indicating that the beast is running towards him in the flames. Dabi leaps out of the way as the beast takes a swing at him, the creature missing him only because its vision is obstructed.
The beast, now charred to a crisp but still standing, turns to Dabi.
Dabi fires more of his blue flames at the beast, who shrugs it off.
Dabi moves back as he cancels his flames, allowing the beast to rip a piece of debris the size of his chest out of the ground and use it as a shield for Dabi's next fire attack.
"Touya!" Icy Hot fires more ice at the beast, capturing it in an ice prison.
The beast rips out of the ice prison and throws the debris at Icy Hot. Icy Hot ducks as it crashes into the wall behind him.
Dabi fires more blue flames at the beast, burning what's left of the undead barbeque's skin but the beast shows no reaction. The beast roars suddenly before charging at Dabi. Dabi moves out of the way but the beast smashes its fist into the ground, causing Dabi to lose his balance. The beast kicks Dabi in the gut, sending him sliding across the ground. Dabi hits his scalp against the wall, going unconscious.
The beast turns to Icy Hot, patting the rest of the blue flames off of him. Icy Hot fires more ice at him. Instead of running, the beast marches to Icy Hot, smashing the wall of ice in front of him like a toddler knocking down a block tower.
Icy Hot walks backward, keeping its eyes on the monster. "Stay away from me!"
The beast's marching picks up speed. Icy Hot begins jogging backward. he fires more ice at the beast, only for the beast to smash through it.
Sighing, Icy Hot feels the inside of his mask gets cold on the right side. Realizing that frost was starting to form on his skin, he backed away.
Taking cover behind a crate, Broken Arrow removes his How Type 64 gun from his back. He checks the magazine and nods firmly upon seeing a single bullet in the magazine.
One bullet is all I need.
He slaps the magazine back into the gun and cocks the rifle. He leaps out of cover and fires.
RATATATATATATA!
Broken Arrow. Quirk: One Shot. He is able to generate infinite ammo for any firearm he wields. However, this only works if there is at least one bullet in the magazine. It doesn't work on bolt-action rifles, shotguns, revolvers, grenade launchers, or rocket launchers.
The beast flinches and looks over at Broken Arrow. Broken Arrow fires rapidly at the beast, aiming for his eyes. The former soldier kneels and aims for the beast's chest, putting several bullet holes in its charred skin.
The beast growls softly before stomping its foot into the ground like a child throwing a tantrum, causing the ground to form a crater extending from him to Icy Hot. Icy Hot gets his foot caught in one of the cracks and stumbles but manages to catch himself. He pulls at his leg, trying to free it from the cracks.
The beast charges for Broken Arrow. Broken Arrow ceases firing and makes a run for it. His destination is the door, which he kicks open and makes a sharp turn to the right.
The beast crashes through the doorway, suddenly tumbling to the ground. It falls into a muddy pile of... ground... and sinks to the bottom.
"Nice," Mudman smiles. "You never can be too careful about where you step nowadays."
The beast sinks into the ground through Mudman's quirk. It reaches a hand up to try and claw its way out but by then, the Elite were already making a break for it.
Inside the warehouse, Dabi sleeps next to a shadow on the ground. Circus suddenly materializes out of the shadow on the ground and grabs Dabi by the arms. He carefully phases into the shadows once more, taking Dabi with him, both men vanishing from sight.
A few seconds later, Icy Hot manages to pull himself free and run to where his brother is.
Circus leaps out of the same shadows and stands before Icy Hot. Unlike his previous appearance, Circus's skin is not entirely paper-white with not a shred of any pitch-black color on his body, whether it be his skin, hair, or eyes. He grabs Icy Hot and pulls him into the shadows. They vanish from the warehouse, appearing on the outside, where Adrenal and Aglaea attend to Dabi with Toga and Empulse watching.
"Is he okay?" Icy Hot asks.
As they step out of the shadows completely, the pitch-black color previously absent in Circus returns, his physical appearance back.
"Wake up." Adrenal puts his hand on Dabi's chest.
Dabi's eyes burst open and he punches Adrenal. He jumps to his feet, screaming at the top of his lungs. "That feels fucking good!" Never mind the steam coming off his hands.
Aglaea touches him, the blisters forming on the unaffected parts of his skin beginning to vanish. Aglaea blushes madly, smiling behind her mask.
Adrenal. Quirk: Adrenaline Activation. By touching someone, he can activate their adrenaline for a brief period of time. Comes in handy when he's reviving someone. However, this quirk drains up his stamina for a few minutes.
Aglaea. Quirk: Perfect Touch. She can heal someone by making contact with their bare skin. However, this doesn't work with all wounds. The healing time is faster for men than it is for women.
"Calm down," Toga orders. "Calm down."
Dabi backhands her. "I don't need to calm down!"
Icy Hot freezes him in place. "Adrenal, think carefully before using your adrenaline quirk on my brother."
"The big one." Backbone rolls up to the group. "We still need to take out that big zombie. Here's a little something for you, Dabi."
Dabi melts the ice surrounding him before feeling Backbone grab his hand.
"POWEEEEEER UUUUUUUUP!" Backbone yells.
Backbone. Quirk: Power-Up. He can augment one's physical abilities temporarily.
Backbone winces, feeling like a bone in his spinal cord crumbled from the inside.
At the cost of some of his motor abilities.
Dabi takes his hand back before running around the warehouse, meeting up with the others.
The beast claws its way out of the soft ground and reaches out for Mudman and Broken Arrow.
"Fall back!" Broken Arrow grabs Mudman and leads him away. "Fall back!"
Watching from the sidelines, Creati and Lizardy watch from behind a car. Creati creates an identical gun for Broken Arrow before tossing it to him.
Broken Arrow catches it. A few seconds later, a bullet flies his way. He catches it and loads it into the magazine. Holding the dual guns up, he fires at the beast, howling at the top of its lungs as the beast finally frees itself out of the soft ground.
"Electricity gun!" Broken Arrow yells.
Creati tosses him the electric gun.
Broken Arrow drops his dual guns to catch the gun. He pulls the trigger.
A lightning bolt without the thunder sound shoots out of the barrel of the gun, hitting the beast square in the chest. Broken Arrow blinks in surprise. He fires two more shots in the chest before shifting his aim to the head, hitting the beast in the skull.
The beast tumbles over like a fallen tree, falling back into the soft ground, and sinking like a ship.
"Awesome," Lizardy cheers.
"Hold on a second!" Circus and Dabi come running up to Broken Arrow's side.
"Burn!" Dabi fires blue flames at the beast, increasing their size and temperature. "Burn, burn, BURN!"
The beast yells, shrugging off the flames as it begins clawing its way out of the ground once more. Dabi continues to fire blue flames at the beast, even as it stands. Dabi cancels his blue flames, the adrenaline in him wearing off as he steps back.
The beast roars and rushes Dabi.
Circus thrusts his hands out. The black colors on his skin leap off his body and take the form of a shadow on the ground. The shadows extend forward, expanding to the size of a doorway. The beast steps onto the shadow and falls through immediately. With the beast halfway through the shadow portal, Circus thrusts his hands back. The shadows obey their master's command and return to his body, the patches of black skin returning to Circus's body. As the portal disappears suddenly with the beast sticking half of its body out, the upper half of the beast's body remains as the shadows disappear. A few seconds later, the lower half of the beast's severed body falls through a shadow inside the warehouse and falls on a create
Missing everything below its waist, the beast picks itself up on its hands. The beast roars again before Circus thrusts his hands out once more.
This time, a shadow... a white shadow (yes, a white shadow) launches from Circus, the white patches of skin leaping off of his body to form said white shadow and extending to the beast. The white shadow covers the beast entirely, pinning it to the ground and solidifying its movements, making it look like a corpse trapped by a spiderweb.
Circus. Quirk: Black/White shadows. He can cast two different shadows from his body. Black shadows can be used as portals that allow him to teleport through other shadows. White shadows are used to hold something in place. He can only use one at a time.
"We got it," Circus gasps, out of breath, his skin pitch-black. "We got it."
"Okay." Icy Hot steps forward. "Let's kill it."
"Wait a minute." Creati stands beside Icy Hot. "Wait, this is the first big zombie we've seen in a long time. We know all about the walking zombies and running zombies but... these big zombies are rare. And look how durable it is."
"Survived my flames." Dabi groans and curls his fingers.
"Aww, is somebody mad that their flame quirk was useless?" Toga teases. Empulse laughs.
"The two of you didn't do anything."
"~Upset~," Adrenal whisper-sings to Aglaea. The nurse nods smugly.
"What are you suggesting, Creati?" Backbone wheels himself forward.
"We should scavenge what we can of the big zombie and take it to the scientists on I-Island labs," Creati explains. "It could further help their research."
"And how do you suggest we do that?" Mudman undoes his quirk on the ground. "How are we supposed to get this big one to the labs?"
Everyone looks at Circus. He holds his hands up in a surrender fashion. "I can only teleport through shadows within the immediate vicinity. Plus, as soon as I call my white shadows back, big boy here will be free."
"We'll cut off his arms. Somehow. As for transporting him back... we'll figure it out." Creati taps her chin. "I think I can create something to help us carry it back." She turns to Backbone. "Any chance I can borrow your power-up quirk?"
Backbone groans. "It takes me a month to walk again after I use my quirk; are you trying to force me to park in handicapped spots forever?" He laughs. "Just kidding; I like parking in handicapped spots."
I-Island Academy Labs
Shield and Samuel stare at the beast with no hands on the floor before them. They exchange a weird look with each other before directing said look to the Elites.
"Present," Backbone smiles, his mask still on. "You haven't had a big zombie here in a while so we figured that we would... you know... drop a little something off."
"Have you found the weapons that were stolen?" Samuel suddenly asks. "We got the blackhole grenade back but what about the others? The electricity gun, the ray gun, the other special grenade."
Backbone pauses as he studies Shield hard. "No, we have not found any other of the stolen weapons." Backbone looks over at Samuel for a brief second. "But we're hoping this will make up for it." He looks over into the closet. "We hope that this big boy zombie can help you in your research to save your daughter, Dr. Shield."
Shield gulps. "Thank you, Backbone." He pulls several cards out of his pocket. "Here, for you and your teammates."
Backbone accepts the cards, counting twelve of them. "Thank you very much. My underlings will be happy." Backbone does a 180 with his chair and wheels himself out of the lab. As he turns, he looks to the wall to see several more identical electrical guns displayed. As well as several red pistols with green handles and grenades with a skull painted on them. He pauses for a brief second before glancing over at Shield and Samuel.
Turning back, he wheels himself out of the room.
So the inside man is one of you guys; good to know.
Character Cards
-Yuko "Cat Kitty" Itō
Quirk: Irrelevant
Occupation: Carpenter (Formerly), a stripper on I-Island.
Age: 24
Birthday: January 7th
Height: 158 cm.
Blood Type: O
Likes: Dungarees.
Other Facts: Skilled swordswoman.
Isao "Zen Lion" Tagawa
Quirk: Irrelevant
Occupation: Fisherman (Formerly), McDonald's cashier on I-Island.
Age: 32
Birthday: September 4th
Height: 170 cm.
Blood Type: B
Likes: Eggrolls.
Other Facts: Kleptomaniac.
Satoru "The Cashier" Hirako
Quirk: Irrelevant
Occupation: Massage therapist (Formerly), sales clerk on I-Island.
Age: 30
Birthday: December 21st
Height: 171 cm.
Blood Type: AB
Likes: Archery
Other Facts: Adopted a child at 17.
Kayo "Heartache" Nishimirua
Quirk: To be revealed.
Occupation: Student of Shiketsu Academy (Formerly), resident of I-Island.
Age: 16
Birthday: April 25th
Height: 180 cm.
Blood Type: B
Likes: Boomboxes.
Other Facts: Got into Shiketsu High through recommendations.
A/N: There is going to be a third book.