I figured that, if this is my first time writing in over a year, it'll probably take a while to get back to what I was before. I'm sure it'll just take some practice before I'm back to being a decently average writer. For now, though, I'd better take it slow, reconstruct some of that writing memory, and find my rhythm again.
I'd normally write a really long foreword, but you guys have waited a long time for the last chapter's cliffhanger to find its conclusion, so let's just jump straight in.
"So… what's the plan?"
20 minutes had passed since the group fled from the hospital. No heroes had happened across them just yet, but the area would likely be flooded with them soon. Even as he frantically tore through the lobby, Kaminari had noticed the lady at the reception desk reaching for her phone.
Currently, the band of criminals was taking a rest behind a flower shop about 4 miles away from the hospital. Apparently, it only opened at night, if the closed security shutter was any indication.
"Can't… go on. We've been running… for 581,760 minutes" Twice gasped out. Everyone ignored his nonsensical statement, as usual.
"...We need to find the others. Spinner, Magne, and Compress are still out there somewhere. If they try to go back to the bar, they're screwed. No matter what, we have to find them before they go back," Peter explained slowly, trying to put his thoughts together. "After that… after that, we need a new place to hide. Luckily, I've got a lot of experience with finding places to bunker down. If we head to the industrial district, there'll probably be some abandoned factories or storage buildings we can set down in for a few days."
Stain nodded in approval. He would have suggested they simply retreat to his base of operation if he actually had one. However, his method had always been to stay on the move. "Home" did not exist for more than 2 days at a time before he moved on to the next hiding place. Even if they went to his most recent spot, the empty, worn-down duplex sandwiched between a butcher shop and a playground wouldn't hold their entire group. At best, 5 of them could stay there. Any more, and hiding their presence would be impossible in the tiny building.
"D-do you have any idea where they could be?" Midoriya asked tentatively.
"No. They didn't say anything about where they planned on going before they left. It's only been about 4 hours, so they can't have gone too far. With any luck, they heard everything going on at the bar and took the hint to get the hell away." Dabi interjected, sounding more than a little frustrated.
He was enough of a professional to make their current situation his top priority, but the moment they were able to find their allies and bunk down somewhere, he needed to have a long talk with Peter about where he came from.
And who he was.
"Actually, I might be able to track them down," Peter revealed, drawing everyone's gaze. "Spinner left wearing the first Iron Spider suit, so I should be able to track its signal. Karen?"
"Already done Peter. Sending the source to your HUD now."
Wasting no time, Peter threw his mask on and carefully observed the digital map displayed in his lenses. Roughly 2 miles away, a small, red marker stood out among the electric blue city model. While it was a great relief to see that it was so close, there was a problem.
"...It's not moving. At all."
Peter tapped a button on the side of his mask and his lenses projected the map for everyone to see. As he said, the red marker remained completely immobile, not budging one single inch. If it were somewhere hidden, such as an alley, it would make sense, but the marker was right on top of a two-story building, right in the center.
"Do you think they're being held up by a group of heroes? They might be surrounded right now," Kirishima put forth his idea, speaking as though he were unsure of himself.
"It's… definitely possible," Peter admitted.
"Then let's go! If they're surrounded, we need to get there right now!" Toga took one final glance at the map before turning around and taking off in the direction of the marker.
"Toga! Hold on, you're not used to-"
Peter's warning was too late. Toga made it 4 steps before tripping over her own feet and face planting on the pavement. In those 4 steps, she had easily covered over 50 feet, the final ten coming from her power slide across the alley. A low, pained groan emanated from her fallen form.
"..."
"..."
"... Forget how to walk, vampire girl?" Came Stain's biting remark.
"I'll help her, you guys head for Spinner and the others. We'll be right behind you."
Receiving nods of confirmation, Peter jumped over to Toga, who was beginning to pick herself up. The only damage she had received was a tiny scratch on her right cheek and a few tears in the knees of her pants.
"Ugh, that sucked," Toga rubbed her nose frustratedly, dusting off her knees as she stood."
"You're not used to being able to move so fast. I fell down a lot when I first got my abilities, too. You just need practice so your brain can learn to keep up, and the spider sense will help with the rest," Peter offered, plucking a wet piece of paper off of Toga's back. "For now just take it easy. Trust me, even lightly jogging will put you ahead of everyone else."
Toga huffed in annoyance. These cool new powers were shaping up to be more frustrating than anything.
Now unsure of herself, she took a few long strides, almost like she was trying to skip. The speed wasn't anything too unnatural, so she picked up the pace. 1 pace, 5 feet. 2 paces, 6 more feet. 3 paces, 4, 5, 6 7 8…
It wasn't an all-out sprint, more of a simple jog, but Toga still felt like she was moving much faster than usual. The rest of the group had gone deeper into the alley, intending to use the hidden network of dark passageways to get as close to the marker as possible. Ideally, they wouldn't have to reveal themselves at all until their destination was within reach.
Even the simple act of jogging through the alleys felt like an alien experience for Toga. Being able to hear and "see" everything was uncomfortable at best and painful at worst. She could hear each and every fly buzzing around every dumpster in a 3-block radius, hear every alley cat wrestling its food away from the crows, and feel every little change in the wind. Simply focusing on the act of jogging was made much harder than it should have been with all the invasive stimuli assaulting her senses.
"How does Peter do it? With All Might, I was able to shut my mind off and focus on the fight but now… there's just too much. Too much information, too many sounds… loud… so loud!"
Toga raised a hand to her head, groaning as she rubbed her temples in a way not dissimilar to a sleep-deprived teenager waking up for school. She was painfully aware of Peter jogging alongside her, keeping a close eye on her condition, and of the rest of the group, already barely 100 feet ahead of them.
She felt… hungry. Not for blood, like usual, but simply hungry for food. It hadn't been that long since she had eaten, but it felt like her last meal was days ago.
"I should have grabbed something from the vending machine before we left the hospital."
Peter watched Toga with a small degree of concern. Though her groans of discomfort were hard to listen to, the pained looks and the uncoordinated steps awkward to behold, it was, as far as he knew, normal. This was all the same as what he went through and, though he knew it was unpleasant, there wasn't anything he could do. Toga just needed time to get used to her new abilities. After some time, the negative side effects would fade and she would grow accustomed to her new powers. Until then…
"Peter, that's it, yes?"
Todoroki's voice broke Peter from his thoughts. Ahead of them, through the alley and across the street was the building that had appeared on the map. There was nothing particularly special about the two-story brick building. Perhaps it was a small apartment building or a family-owned law firm. With no signboard or even people around, it was impossible to say for sure.
"Yeah, that's it," came the quick reply after consulting the digital map a final time.
The building was indeed the correct one, but then, where was everyone? Where were Spinner and the others? The heroes that had supposedly cornered them? Had they arrived too late?
"You guys wait here. I'll go check it out."
Backing up a few steps, Peter ran forward and took a flying leap out of the alley, easily clearing the street and landing with a roll on the roof of the brick building. Quickly climbing to his feet, Peter thrust out one hand, web shooter at the ready.
Nothing.
No sights.
No sounds.
No heroes or allies anywhere, not even any signs of a fight.
"... Spinner?"
No reply. The rooftop had nowhere to properly hide. There were a few flowerbeds, some plastic lawn chairs, a discarded soda bottle or two, and roughly a dozen unused bags of fertilizer.
"This doesn't make sense. They're supposed to be here. Karen? Is something messing with the signal?"
"Sensors are working at full capacity and no signal jammers have been detected in the area, Peter." Karen immediately denied the suggestion. "I am clearly reading the Iron Spider Mark l's signal from this building's rooftop.
"What? How?! There's nothing here!"
Peter looked all around, paying attention to every little thing the spider sense picked up on. There were no boxes to hide in, nobody was hanging off the side of the roof, and the door leading inside was bolted and chained shut. In desperation, Peter even dug through the flowerbeds, thinking maybe Spinner had somehow buried himself to hide. Long-dead flowers and infertile soil littered the roof, yet the now empty flower beds still revealed no secrets.
"Something's not right here," Peter couldn't help but state the obvious aloud. "The systems are working fine, no jammers are nearby, so how… is there a hero with an electromagnetic ability in the city?"
As possibilities ran through the boy genius' mind, he stared across the street at his group, still huddled in the dark alley. They looked to him for confirmation, so he reluctantly shook his head. Some remained passive, others looked frightened.
"Crap. What now?"
Peter dropped onto his butt and stared straight up, lost in contemplation. As if to mock the serious situation he found himself in, the day was perfect. A clear antithesis to the tension and fear he had faced for the past 4 hours, the sun was shining brightly upon the Earth, not a single cloud marring the surface of the endless blue.
"I wonder if All Might did this. He did change the weather that one time."
In an effort to distract himself, Peter chose to focus on such a pointless detail. The few clouds that had been in the sky before their big fight were nowhere to be seen. Perhaps they fled to allow the world just a bit more light, knowing the people of Japan would need all the light they could get after the news of his betrayal hit the world.
Sighing, Peter rose to his feet and jumped across the street once more, landing just behind his group.
"He wasn't there?!" Kirishima half-shouted, sounding panicked.
"No. None of them were," Peter confirmed with another shake of his head.
"Perfect. Just perfect." Todoroki muttered to himself, taking a few paces away from the group and turning away, collecting his thoughts.
Stain was the only one who remained completely stoic, a hand raised to his chin in thought.
"... I propose we forget them and find a hideout for now."
"WHAT?!"
"You can't be serious!"
"What are you thinking!?"
"SHUT UP!" Stain snarled at the affronted teenagers, earning himself a moment of silence. "Think with your brains, little heroes, not your hearts. Those 3 are no strangers to living on the run. Just because their leader is suddenly a headliner doesn't mean their situation has gotten any worse. Most likely, they've already heard news of Peter's 'betrayal" and know not to return to the bar. Our best course of action is to find a hideout and send word through the underworld that Spider-Man is looking to reunite with his crew. With any luck, they'll be back with us within a week."
"... I agree."
"TODOROKI?!"
"Shut up Kaminari. He's right. They have far more experience than we do with being outlaws. Being chased by the police is a regular Tuesday for them. Right now, we're just asking to be caught by traveling in a group this large so soon after we were featured on the news. The best move we can possibly make is to find somewhere to set down and worry about reuniting later."
The dual-colored teen finished his explanation. Stain nodded in approval while the others - save for Dabi - looked conflicted.
Kirishima was inclined to agree that the plan was logically sound, but leaving teammates behind without even trying to look for them just felt so… unmanly.
Midoriya also agreed with the logic, though abandoning the others left a pit in his stomach. He wouldn't abandon his classmates under any circumstances, and these people, regardless of their backgrounds, were now part of his team. His compassion extended to them as well, even if they wouldn't accept it.
Toga refused to even admit the plan was logically sound. Leave Big Sis Mag? No way in hell. She wasn't going anywhere until she found her.
As for Peter, he remained uncharacteristically silent. He ran the numbers in his mind, went through the risks, the possibilities, and every little detail he could think of. If Toga's angered expression, the conflicted looks of his classmates, and the apathetic glare of Dabi were any indication, an argument would soon break out, and that was the last thing their fractured band of criminals needed at the moment.
Before anybody else could break in, Peter opened his mouth to speak. But…
"Why don't we just split up?"
Every head turned to one person, the one who had made his thoughts known. Not Peter, but the boy with electric-yellow hair.
Kaminari.
Shying away slightly from everyone's intense looks, Kaminari shakily continued.
"W-well, we need to find somewhere to stay, but we're also way too small a group to start losing people, r-right? So, w-why don't we just break apart? Some of us can look for the others, and everybody else can find shelter."
All eyes remained on Kaminari even after he was done speaking. A bead of sweat rolled down his face, powerful feelings of discomfort and unease rolling over him.
"Crap, did I say something wrong? Now they're all gonna call me an idiot again. I really did think hard about thi-"
"That could work."
"... Huh?"
"Splitting up is certainly a risk, but if nothing else, it will make travel easier if we cut down the size of our group."
"... HAH!?"
"If we choose each group carefully, we could easily maximize our efficiency. Though I would prefer our original plan, this is an acceptable alternative."
"They… they liked it?! Nobody's calling me an idiot! Is… is this what being the smart guy feels like!?"
Kaminari clenched a fist in front of his chest, one of Kirishima's trademarked tears threatening to spill from his left eye. Finally, he was the guy who-
"Good job, idiot."
"Indeed, not a bad idea for an idiot."
"Even idiots can have good ideas sometimes."
"COME ON!" Kaminari indignantly screamed, an accusing finger thrust out as real tears pooled in his eyes.
"That's enough!" Iida interjected, chopping his arm at speeds unheard of.
"Iida! I knew you'd have my back man! That's the class rep for y-"
"Though Kaminari's test scores and ideas may be subpar, he is still our precious classmate and should be treated with respect."
Despite his good intentions, Iida was unaware of the true effect his words had on his electrical classmate. After turning around, the bespectacled boy was shocked to see Kaminari squatting down, one arm wrapped around his knees as he drew in the dust with a dead look in his eyes.
"I knew it. Even Iida called me an idiot. Just leave me here, the cops can have me." Kaminari's hopeless tone was so pathetic, even Todoroki felt a small amount of pity, but there was no time to comfort the motivationless teen.
"If we're doing this, then let's hurry up and split into our groups. The sooner we get moving, the better," Peter drew everyone's attention easily. Even Kaminari turned his head over, though his free hand remained sketching the dust on the ground.
10 Minutes Later:
The groups had long since been sorted and a plan was devised.
Midoriya, Kaminari, Kirishima, Todoroki, Iida, and Stain would head to the industrial district and search for anything that could serve as a shelter, even if only for a little while. Meanwhile, Peter, Toga, Dabi, and Twice would go looking for the others.
While it may have been better to send Twice and Dabi with the search group, Peter decided it was best to keep his classmates out of the spotlight as much as possible. Despite the news report claiming he had been spotted with "several other students of UA high," there were no camera crews present for the assault on the bar and nobody was present during the battle with All Might.
Of course, it was only a matter of time until eye witness reports came out, but for now, it would be better to keep their involvement a secret for as long as possible. Even with the pictures that were shown on the news, they were little more than blurry, low quality trash taken on cell phones. That "evidence" was little more than blurry outlines of bodies with noticeably colored hair. The images shown on the news could have just as easily been any random person off the street than one of the rogue UA students.
"You sure you can handle them?" Despite the situation, Peter found it difficult to not laugh. The idea of Stain lugging around his 5 teenage classmates was just too funny. Even now, as Stain stood stock still, a murderous yet resigned look already on his face as the 5 boys hung around him brought to mind a burned out daycare instructor.
"... Don't talk to me for at least 2 days." Stain growled through his teeth. He whipped around and stalked off, not deigning to present any more words to the group as Midoriya and the others padded after him.
Their job was simple. After Stain gave his seal of approval on wherever they chose to hide out, Midoriya would send a signal to Peter's suit. Hopefully, whatever problem prevented a proper reading of the signal put out by the Iron Spider Mark 1 would not persist by then, otherwise the plan would go south almost immediately.
Of course, they tested the system beforehand. Midoriya patched a call through to Peter's suit and it connected perfectly. Still, there was no guarantee it would continue to work later, so they had to move fast. The moment they had a moment to rest, Peter would have to sit down and find out what was wrong with Karen.
As for his group, they had no choice but to go block by block until they happened upon Magne, Compress, and Spinner. If they found nothing by the time night fell and the street lights kicked on, they would hunker down in a back alley or something until Midoriya sent out a call to let them know where they were.
In regards to Toga, Peter wanted her nearby to keep an eye on her. She could handle a weakened All Might while her powers were still kicking in, but it was still dangerous to leave her be for now.
"Well, let's get going then." Peter climbed to the roof of the nearest building, webbing Dabi and Twice after him. Toga, however, decided to try and climb up herself. Her hands had been sticky back at the hospital, so maybe…
The vampire girl hesitantly reached towards the side of the old building, like she was worried it would sprout fangs and bite her. Her dainty fingers made contact with brick… and stayed. She pulled gently and they remained stuck. Taking that as a cue, she placed her other hand on the wall, and it too stuck. Feeling confident, she tried to remove her first hand and continue climbing, but found she couldn't.
Confused, she pulled harder, but only succeeded in yanking a brick out of the wall. For what felt like the twentieth time that day, Toga groaned in annoyance.
"Relax and ease into it."
A voice floated down from above. Glancing up, Toga saw Peter leaning over the edge of the roof.
"Don't force it. Just think of it like a natural thing you've always done, just like walking or swimming. You climb every day, it's completely normal. It's so easy you could do it with your eyes closed," came the expert's advice.
"... Right. This is normal. You… do this every day, Toga. Totally, this isn't anything new." As the comforting false thoughts ran through her mind, Toga subconsciously raised her now free hand above her head. "You've walked a million times, and you've definitely climbed a million times. It's so easy you could do it with you eyes cl-"
"Hi there."
Startled, Toga snapped out of her thoughts, her eyes focusing on what was in front of her, which happened to be Peter's smiling face.
"Feel good about finishing your first climb?" To emphasize his point, Peter pointed a finger straight down. Toga's eyes fell downwards and the sight almost shocked her.
The building wasn't terribly large by any means, the roof barely even hitting the 20-foot mark. Still, when hanging from the side of said building by your fingertips, it was remarkably easy to begin panicking.
Hurrying to "save" herself from falling, Toga flung herself with her one hand that was still attached to the wall in a motion similar to a one-armed pull-up. The momentum tore her hand free of the brick and she seemingly flew a meter or two above Peter's head and landed in the center of the roof, legs slightly trembling.
"I'm… definitely gonna need to get used to that."
"You okay?" Peter's concerned tone wasn't lost on Toga. A small, embarrassed blush spread on her face as she punched her leg to stop its shaking.
"Y-yeah, totally fine. Let's, uh, let's keep going."
"Ahhhhh! Come on, girl! You've been high up before, so what the hell is this?! Shaking legs?! What are you, a schoolgirl?!"
Shoving down her embarrassment, Toga turned to the next building over and easily hopped over. That had been the plan from the start. The high ground would certainly be preferable, both because it would make it easier to spot their missing allies and because it would be harder for the heroes to locate them. If the gap between buildings was too great to jump over or if all the surrounding buildings were much taller than their current vantage point, Peter would carry Dabi and Twice with him.
He offered to carry Toga as well, but she refused. She needed to learn how to use these powers as soon as possible and she wouldn't get anywhere by relying on Peter.
The golden-eyed girl watched Peter launch himself to the roof of a much taller building with a web line. Okay, fine. She could do that too. Probably. She just needed to… to…
"... Ehhhh, no. No, no, no! Not, um, not yet. No web swinging just yet. I can… I can learn that later."
Not caring that she had just contradicted herself, Toga took a flying leap and grabbed hold of the smooth surface of the building. Climbing, she understood. Climbing, she could do.
"Focus on this for now. I can learn web swinging later, when we're not in a rush."
Fortunately, climbing really was a familiar action to her. Sort of. Obviously, she didn't have experience in scaling buildings with her bare hands, but the spider-like movements were similar to her usual motions. Remain loose, flexible, move in whichever was most comfortable in the moment to stay free and unpredictable, and above all, don't overthink it. Treat like any other normal action, and it would be that much easier.
Thanks to her previous "experience," Toga actually did a rather good job of keeping up with Peter. After reaching the top of the building and setting down Twice and Dabi, he only had to wait a few seconds before Toga climbed up after him.
He couldn't help but smile wide under his mask, seeing how fast she had adapted.
"Well, this looks like the biggest building in the area. Any ideas where we should check first?" Peter posed the question for the room to answer. They likely knew this area much better than he did, including its hiding spots and forgotten districts.
"... Maybe the North residential area? I heard they started tearing down all the old apartment buildings to put up new ones, so there shouldn't be many people."
"The candy factory… NO, THE BREAD FACTORY… WHAT THE HELL IS A BREAD FACTORY YOU SIMPLETON!?"
Nobody paid attention to Twice's argument with himself as they surveyed the city. Nothing of importance could be seen from here, aside from a handful of police cars speeding towards the hospital.
"I guess that's our best move, then. Okay Toga, lead the way." Peter slung Twice - who was still arguing with himself - over his right shoulder and held Dabi in the crook between his body and his left arm. Toga gave him a nod and, after picking out the nearest building with the closest height to their current perch, she leapt off the building, Peter close behind.
Elsewhere, 30 Minutes Ago:
"DAMN IT, THIS ISN'T A PLAN, IT'S SUICIDE!"
"I KNOW IT'S NOT PERFECT, BUT IT'S OUR BEST CHANCE!"
The shouting match had been going on for several minutes now, despite the heroes closing in.
"We don't have a choice. I'll dump it off and they'll be forced to follow. You focus on getting out of here." A gruff voice gave one final order. Before the argument could continue any longer, its owner whipped around and ran like a man possessed, an orb in his hand.
"...Damn, he's gonna be so pissed when he finds out what we did. Sorry about this, kid, but there really wasn't much choice. I promise, if there was another option, we definitely would have taken it.
Yes, I actually did do the math. Well, not really, I just typed into a search engine, "How many minutes in 404 days," and apparently it's 581,760 minutes. The more you know.
Even though it was technically a bridge, I can't help but feel like this chapter was filler. Nothing really happened, but that's okay. It was a good way for me to get a feel for writing again after so long. Even in English class, I never really do any creative writing, only literary analysis, which isn't very helpful in this case.
Next chapter we can get back to more exciting stuff, I promise.
With that, it's time to go. I need to get to work on the next chapter. You've all waited too long, and I need to make up for lost time. And so, good night to all you beautiful people.
Aren signing off.