I-Island: Attack
Himiko Toga couldn't believe her eyes.
She had, courtesy of an ugly butler that she had taken the pleasure in making beautiful, snuck around sections of the island that she otherwise wasn't supposed to be in. Labs, containment areas, hell even a place that looked like a school. Apparently, whoever she had turned herself into had high clearance since she was able to get in anywhere.
And just around the corner was a familiar face.
Izuku Midoriya, or as she called him: Useless-kun, was mere feet away from her, smiling and chatting with a girl just a tad bit older than him. Perhaps the girl was Himiko's age. 'Wait… how old am I again?'
Time had long since blurred for Himiko, days passed by in the blink of an eye and sometimes her body would just shut down to help with her craving for blood or due to lack of food. Dates didn't make sense, even when she could see them since what stolen phone she had at the time would be dead since she never had a place to charge it.
Years, she knew for a fact it had been at least one year since she ran away from home. Right? That made sense to her. But what if it had been longer? What year of school was she supposed to be in? Or should she have already graduated? Should she be in college now? Married? Jailed?
Himiko shook her head, it was best not to spiral when she was in the depths of a mission that Shiggy, the nickname she had oh so kindly given Tomura, had assigned her and in the form of another body on top of that.
Useless-kun, or… Deku, right? Oh yeah, his name was Deku! walked by with a girl, a girl who clearly had a personal connection with her current disguise judging by the way her eyes lit up upon noticing Himiko around the corner.
"Sam!" The girl yelled and quickly hugged Himiko, who currently looked like whoever this "Sam" was. "Where have you been? I thought you would have been talking to dad about the banquet that's going to happen later today?"
"Ah, yes! The banquet…" Himiko's voice had changed to match the man, though clearly she hadn't matched his mannerism as Melissa looked at her slightly confused. "There was a… incident with some heroes that I had to take care of."
"Oh." Melissa looked perplexed by his tone, another mistake Himiko had made, but still continued nonetheless, "Sorry about that."
"It's fine." Himiko quickly waved her off, "Now, I must get going, your… father requested my presence!" She tried to be upbeat, but it seemed that was just another slip on her part.
She had always been used to examining her targets before changing into them, and the bad part about this mission was that she didn't have time. They had arrived just that morning and needed to pull off a heist the same night.
All without getting caught by Wolfram.
Wolfram was the one who had organized the entire heist on I-Island, and Twice and Himiko were just hitching a ride. He had, from what Himiko had seen, a metal manipulation quirk
Or at least she thought at first.
They had once more hidden among the cargo on the ship they stowed away on, after Twice had taken time to measure and examine the body. Himiko presumed it was for his quirk, but now the body of the man they had pounced was left to rot near the entrance of the hull.
Or at least it would have, if not for the emergence of someone else.
A giant man, with a metal mask covering the bottom of his face, and bright blood red hair, stomped out.
"Hm." Wolfram grunted as he looked down at the body, his eyes wandered up and to the right, towards where Himiko and Twice were. It startled the girl, but she clasped a hand over Twice's mouth to make sure not a sound was made. "Well…"
Wolfram raised a hand up, and the metal around the floor clasped around the dead body, rising up and lifting the body along with it. The information would be useful for Himiko and Twice's mission, it was clear Wolfram had a metal manipulation quirk.
Her musing stopped when the villain grabbed the dead body by the face before squeezing.
Himiko enjoyed blood, but she had to keep herself from vomiting as the man's skull was crushed, that was too much for her liking.
Afterwards, Wolfram dropped the man and wiped his hand on the body's jacket, "So dirty." Wolfram muttered as he pulled out a walkie talkie, "We're getting close to the island, get ready to depart…" He trailed off and once more glanced at the body, "And watch out for any rats that snuck aboard."
The two villains kept their heads down as Wolfram left. It was only then, once she had taken her hand off of Twice's mouth, that something was thrown into the air.
"He must be really strong to break a skull with one hand! I can kick his ass!"
It was clear to her that Wolfram had some sort of enhancement quirk on top of his metal manipulation. And that was doubly troublesome for them, while only adding more thoughts to her brain. How exactly did he get a second quirk?
There was too much to think about, too much for her mind anyways.
"You good, Sam?"
Himiko blinked, seeing the girl with a worried face. "Ah, yes, sorry I must get going now." Himiko responded and hurried around a corner.
Melissa and Izuku glanced back at Sam as he jogged away, confusion evident on their faces. "I take it that he's not usually like that?" Izuku asked as he peered at the retreating Sam. Something about him rubbed Izuku the wrong way.
"Yeah, I wonder if he had a bad morning…" Melissa trailed off, "Oh, but let's go get ready for the banquet!"
"Oh, right!"
It took a few hours, but Izuku met up with Melissa and made his way down to the banquet entrance, where they would have to climb a floor to reach the event. They were a tad late, as all the adults were already inside and waiting for the reception to begin.
"I can't believe you all are so tardy!" The iconic voice of Iida shouted as the two came in, dressed in an obvious blue suit to match his hair and eyes color. Alongside him were Todoroki in a white suit, Kaminari in a white shirt with a black vest and slacks, and Monoma in his… hero costume.
"You didn't have anything else, Monoma?" Izuku asked as he came up to his friend, he himself was in a red suit with black stripes.
Monoma played with his bangs, "A showman must always be prepared, Midoriya." He said very confidently before scooting just a tad closer, "I forgot about the banquet, so yeah this was all I had." He whispered. It made Izuku giggle.
"You look nice Todoroki." Izuku complimented.
"Mm. Thanks." It was better than nothing. "You look nice too, Midoriya."
"Man, I'm proud of you." Kaminari clapped a hand on Todoroki's shoulder, "I mean, remember when you were all dark and brooding at the start of the year?"
"Dark?" Todoroki looked confused, "But I still look the exact same compared to the start of term."
Any further conversation was silenced as a clacking of heels echoed through the room. All the boys, plus Melissa, glanced at the entrance to see the UA girls coming through. Yaoyorozu, in a light yellow sundress, Jiro in a black jacket, purple shirt, poofy pink skirt, and black leggings, Uraraka in a pink dress with black leggings.
And Reiko.
"Wow…" Izuku trailed off.
She was adorned in a light blue dress that left her shoulders bare, but had sleeves that went all the way down and covered her hands, as Izuku had learned she enjoyed with outfits. The dress went down to her knees and her legs were left bare. Her heels were a slightly darker blue compared to her dress.
But it was her face that left Izuku stunned. For the longest time, ever since they started school, she had always hit half of her face with a large bang, but not it was swept to the side with a hair clip, allowing him to gaze into both of her ceruleans eyes.
It was like being lost in the beauty of the night sky.
Her bags weren't as bad as usual either and her eyes had black eyeliner surrounding them, both of which Izuku attributed to some sort of make up Yaoyorozu either had on hand or conjured with her quirk, but he sort of missed her natural looks. Reiko's eye bags were something he deeply connected to her, with her ghostly habits and supernatural addiction. Her lack of bags was confusing, but he didn't mind. And that left her plump lips.
They were gorgeous, covered in a very light blue lipstick that had Izuku focusing on them more than he wanted to.
Monoma nudged Izuku's arm, "You're drooling." He whispered.
"I-I am not!" Izuku shot back in a hushed voice.
"You totally are, but I'll pretend."
"Yaoyorozu, you are late!" Iida chastised with a shout and wave of his arm, which had Yaoyorozu apologizing, though any one with eyes could tell that she wasn't that sorry.
The girls mixed around with the boys, with those of 1-A greeting each other and chatting with their friends. Monoma decided he would start talking with Melissa about random gear, like if she could make trading cards for him that were better than bullets.
That left Izuku along with Reiko.
Why was he so sweaty?
"H-Hey, Reiko." His voice peaked weirdly as she stood right in front of him. That wasn't all either, his body felt like it was shaking too, his suit had gotten weirdly tight and it was just a tad too hot in the room.
"Greetings to you as well, Izuku."
Many would think the silence that followed after would have been awkward, but it wasn't. The two couldn't help but smile at each other. Izuku's body relaxed after she spoke, her voice always had a strange calming effect on him, snapping him out of musings and bringing him back down to Earth.
She was like the center of his universe.
And he couldn't help but be locked in her orbit.
"Are you ready for the ball?" Reiko asked as she snaked an arm around Izuku's with a gentle hold.
His eyes locked onto it, making him gulp before he locked back onto her eyes, "W-Well…" Izuku cursed his stutter right now, "I think I am now…" Judging by her smile, he supposed that was the right thing to say.
They, together, took a single step.
Before everything was drowned in darkness.
"Woah!" Kaminari yelled before he sparked his quirk across his body, lighting up the area just a tad. Todoroki quickly followed with a small fire in his left hand while Izuku activated Full Cowling. "What happened to the lights?"
"I don't know…" Izuku trailed off before looking at Melissa, "What's going on? Is there a power outage?"
Melissa shook her head, "No, it seems like the security system went off." Her eyes trailed across the building, and the entrance to the banquet, which now, after a quick test from Kaminari, seemed locked. "But there's never been a false alarm before." Melissa continued.
"Uh guys?" Uraraka called out and appeared to be waving her phone in the air, "I can't get a signal, anyone else?" The rest of the group quickly fished out their own phones, only to confirm that the same had happened to the rest of them. Not a single one had a signal.
Yaoyorozu, Iida, and Izuku locked eyes.
"A premeditated attack?" The heiress asked.
"Possible, but unlikely." Ingenium's brother answered.
"But not impossible." All Might's successor finished. "We need to get into the main part of the building and see what's going on." Izuku surmised, "If there's a threat, then we help deal with it, if it's nothing then we can be confident in saying it was just a false alarm."
Iida paced, "Should we do something so…brash?"
"We don't even have provisional licenses, Midoriya." Yaoyorozu chastised, but still looked conflicted. "To enact heroic duties at a time like this would be illegal."
"Well…" Izuku powered One For All into a fist and broke the locked door, "If people are in trouble then I'm going to help them." Monoma and Reiko quickly found themselves at his side, each of them shared a glance.
"I followed your plan during our Final Exam, I'm not gonna stop now." Monoma grinned.
"I trusted you during the USJ attack, I find no reason why that trust would be misplaced now." Reiko smiled slightly.
The three of 1-B looked back, Melissa and those of their sister class looked a little frightened. It was Todoroki that stepped forward. "Just like you said, people could be in danger. And I don't want to stand off to the side and let that happen. I don't want to fight anyone, but I want to save everyone."
"Y-Yeah, me too!" Kaminari stammered, a bit on the sheepish side. "I'm basically a human stun gun, get me in front of a guy and we don't have to fight him!"
Jiro rolled her eyes and sighed, "If there's any villains I'll be able to snuff 'em out with my Earphone Jack."
"I might be able to help us sneak around if we need to using my quirk." Uraraka added in, though she wasn't too pleased with the idea.
Iida and Yaoyorozu shared a small glance before sighing, "Very well then, if we must join you then we will, but be cautious. We don't know who caused the security system to go off." Yaoyorozu answered, but Iida still looked troubled.
Melissa stepped forward, "We can go check the ballroom first, there's an upper level that looks down onto the dance hall. If there's something up then we can advance all the way to the security office and turn off the system. Possibly even deal with whoever set it off in the first place."
"Alright then. Let's get going!"
All Might was upset, because he was dumb.
Just moments prior, his best friend and the man's assistant had been escorted away by what he assumed were terrorists and the pro could do nothing to stop it.
Because of some stupid tape.
Well, maybe that was underselling the power of the capture device, after all it had been supposedly designed by an I-Island scientist. It was top of the line. And it had been used on every hero in the room, including himself. Only one hero tried to stand up to the hijackers, and he was quickly silenced.
One For All was burning inside of him, his embers flaring to get him to enact a counter attack. But he couldn't. He was straining his quirk just to keep up appearances, had no way of knowing where the gunmen had gone, and had multiple in this room ready to take out any civilians.
If he was going to fight back, he was going to need help.
"I really miss when I was able to do everything alone…" All Might muttered under his breath. The unstoppable power that he had in his prime was something he wished back every day. But that power was never going to come back.
Instead, his successor, Izuku, would eclipse even that power in just a few years.
Speaking of, why was his successor in the upper floor looking down at him? And it wasn't just him either, Young Monoma and Young Yanagi were with him as well, on top of Melissa and some students from class 1-A.
What were they doing? And why did their presence worry him?
It was only a moment later that Toshinori saw a small little bug climbing near him. However, it wasn't a bug at all. It was a robot. The little bug robot climbed onto All Might's face before reaching his ear.
"Uncle Might." Melissa's voice came through a speaker inside the robot.
"Melissa…?" All Might whispered back. "What are you doing? There are gunmen on the loose."
There was a short pause, "I know– We know… we're gonna do something about it." She didn't leave him room to say anything. "We'll get all of you out. And then you can fight the villains."
"Melissa, no! They took your dad and his assistant, don't let them get you too!" All Might bit through his teeth, but his niece and students quickly disappeared. "Damn it." He hated feeling so useless! He was the Symbol of Peace, damn it!
And all these gunmen that were pacing around him were really starting to get on his nerves!
"So, how do we get to the security tower?"
"We shouldn't, we should leave!"
Izuku and Iida had gotten into an argument. Izuku, ever the hero, wanted to storm the security tower and combat the villains to save everyone that was trapped in the building. Meanwhile, Iida wanted them to escape and leave everything up to the real heroes.
The two were like clashing bulls, neither willing to give up any leeway.
"We're just kids! We don't even have licenses! To interfere now would be illegal, Midoriya!" Iida fought. His words were true, they would be in trouble.
But Izuku didn't care, and instead he leveled Iida with a light glare. It was surprising to everyone present as he had never done such a thing before, especially not to someone he considered a friend. "You're being a hypocrite and you know that Iida."
The bespectacled teen flinched before lowering his head and looking off to the side, "I don't want anyone to get hurt because of recklessness, my recklessness. Not again." Iida conceded with a look of pain. Whatever the two were talking about, it was clearly something personal. It caused Todoroki and Reiko to quickly share a look and nod.
"Iida…" Izuku's voice was soft.
"Maybe he's right Midoriya." Uraraka interrupted, "We could get in trouble just for helping."
The group was silent for a while, no one knew what they were going to do. This wasn't like the USJ where they were attacked and had to defend themselves. Now, they were going out and looking to fight. They were instigating.
"M-My dad's being held hostage…" The group turned to Melissa, tears were brimming in her eyes, "He's up there, being held at gunpoint for ransom or something else just as bad…"
One For All burned as Izuku clenched a fist and his teeth, before something sneaked out of his hands.
Black Whip was manifesting around him, but this time he wasn't exploding outward. It coiled around his body like a shadow, "We don't have time to sit around and argue, either you're with me and Melissa or you're not. That's fine, stay here and wait."
"Quirk exceeding established parameters: changing to gauntlet mode" The Full Gauntlet beeped until it had completely covered his arm.
"Me and Monoma are going with you." Reiko pulled off her heels, "Yaoyorozu, can you make me a stone slab or something lighter and some shoes, please?" The heiress quickly complied and Reiko adorned the shoes before standing on the foothold before using her quick to make it float. "We'll need to cover ground quickly."
"I can help with that." Todoroki let frost cover his right arm, "I traverse quickly thanks to my ice."
"Can I copy that?" Monoma asked and Todoroki nodded, "I won't be as skilled, but I'll make due." He commented as mist wafted off of his own right hand. "Melissa, you should lose your heels, it'll make moving harder."
"Right." She quickly took them off and adorned shoes, courtesy of Yaoyorozu once again. "Can I jump on that board with you, Yanagi?"
"Of course." The ghost girl nodded and made room to share with Melissa.
Izuku, once more, glance at those left of 1-A. "Stay safe, stay out of trouble." He forced a breath in, and as he did so the quirk of his predecessor slithered back into his body as Full Cowling drifted off of him, almost like a cape billowing in the wind. "We're gonna put a stop to these villains, and–" His eyes shone emerald green, filled with determination, "We'll save everyone."
With that, the team broke out into a sprint down the halls of I-Island's most prominent tower.
Iida, Yaoyorozu, Uraraka, Jiro, and Kaminari were left slumped.
"AH! Come on!" Kaminari yelled before chasing after them, "I'm coming guys!" Jiro cursed and followed her idiot friend, shouting about him being stupid but not much else.
Yaoyorozu sighed before creating a motorized bike for herself and following behind the two.
Uraraka and Iida didn't move.
They wouldn't move.
The team they had forged made their ways through the halls, before the sounds of yelling interrupted and made them pause. "Might be villains!" Todoroki let flames dance off of his left arm.
"Everyone, get ready!" Izuku powered up his quirk and pushed himself in front of Melissa. They didn't expect to see Yaoyorozu and Jiro chasing after Kaminari, the purple haired girl screaming at the blond the entire time.
"Quit running around like headless chickens you 1-A fools!" Monoma yelled, falling into old tendencies for a moment. Thankfully, this time it actually helped this time as it got the three to stop.
Kaminari came to a halt, panting with his hands on his knees. "I-I still wanna help!"
"Us as well." Yaoyorozu commented as Jiro repeatedly stabbed Kaminari with her jacks.
"Well–" Melissa started only to get cut off, a loud shutting sound echoing from far away. "No way…" Another shutting sound, much closer, sounded off. And then another, and another, and more over and over again. Before long, giant shutters came into view, closing off the halls of I-Island's largest tower.
"Everyone, group together!"
The giant shutters continued around them, before trapping them in a small box.
"So, what's the plan now?"
"Shut up Kaminari!"
Lights overhead changed from blue to red and Izuku quickly looked over to Melissa.
"They know we're moving around." Melissa quickly responded, "They're trying to stop us from reaching the top of the tower." Trying to trap them like rats in the walls.
"Melissa, got a question." Monoma approached a nearby wall. "What's on the other side of this?"
The American closed her eyes as she tried to remember, "We've got a plant factory there, inside is an elevator we should be able to use to head up higher." The group glanced at each other, looks of determination across all their faces.
"Good good." Monoma grinned, "Midoriya, my good friend, if you would?" He stepped away from the wall.
"Gotcha." Izuku pounded his fists together before charging up One For All, "SMASH!" The wall went flying outward and into a vast open green area, filled with plants and water. "Let's go!" The teens quickly moved inside, only to leap in fright as the elevator in the middle of the Plant Factory opened, inside a duo of villains coming out.
"Alright, kiddos, stop this farce and no one has to get hurt!" A short, rotund man yelled into the factory, his shout echoing throughout the open area. His partner, a rather tall man with a strange looking face, grinned as he opened his arms up and his hand gigantified.
"What is that phrase Tetsu usually utters?" Reiko asked as she lifted her hands, "Do it die time, correct?"
"That's right!" Izuku bounded forward with Full Cowling sparking across his form, "Protect Melissa and try to get to the top floor!" He pulled a fist back and let One For All charged up for a moment, "TEXAS SMASH!" A cluster of air pressure was sent flying forward, right between the two villains, "I've got the short one, Todoroki get the tall guy with the big hands!"
"On it!" Todoroki replied and surfed on a wave of ice.
The rotund villain rolled into a crouch, "You know, kid. We really would've just let you go…"
"Funny." Izuku chuckled as he upped his percentage of One For All, "I was just about to say the same thing."
Why did her head hurt so much…?
"HEY FAKER!"
"Agh!" Himiko yelped as someone kicked her stomach. That's why her head hurt… she had been caught. Blearly, she looked up and winced when light hit her eyes. The light only made her head hurt more, she wanted to cry.
"You up kid?! Come on!"
She winced at the noise and locked her eyes shut. She wanted to sleep, to run away, to go someplace safe where no one would hurt her. Why was she even here again?
Ah, right… Shiggy gave her a mission, and if she failed she'd get thrown away.
She'd been caught…
"Where the hell is Sam, kid?!" The blinding light was hidden behind a big red face. Wolfram had caught her, and he was rather pissed if she had to guess.
"The fat guy…?" Himiko let out a dull chuckle, "I cut him up a while ago…" A gleeful smile came onto her face even as she looked up at Wolfram with hooded eyes, "He's somewhere around the island leaking out that beautiful blood."
The villain in front of her grimaced, rearing back a fist. "You stupid kid!" Wolfram smacked Himiko upside the head, causing her to fall onto her side. With her arms bound to her side by some kind of metal sheet, she was unable to get up. "Damn it!"
Off to the side, there was another man, but he looked a lot more normal. Oh but he was upset, and sad. He would look so much better covered in blood, but he was too old for her.
"Sam's… dead?" The older man whispered to himself as Himiko squirmed on the floor.
A little chuckle wanted to escape her, but she didn't want to be hit again.
"It doesn't matter." Wolfram grunted, "We keep on going, David, unless you're going to back out now once we've come so far?"
David, she now knew, paused. His eyes were distant and unfocused, and he had to force himself to look at Wolfram, even though it seemed he was really looking at the man. "N-No… we've come too far…"
"Atta boy…" Wolfram grinned, "Then let's climb the tower, we've still got more floors to go."
"And the girl…?" David trailed off.
Wolfram glanced at her, "Leave her be, let her rot here."
Himiko whimpered as they walked away, the lights in the room shutting off and leaving her abandoned in a darkly lit area. It felt just like the alley.
Izuku grimaced as the rotund villain destroyed the surrounding area. At some point, the man activated his quirk, turning himself into a large purple monster that packed punches as hard as trucks.
Luckily, One For All did the same.
Izuku found his body pumping more and more of the quirk into Full Cowling without him doing so consciously, and every few moments something would would sneak out from under the Full Gauntlet.
Black Whip.
It was responding to his emotions, to his desperation to save everyone, and trying to manifest outside of his body. Yet, it still appeared something was holding the quirk back from coming out fully, was it his lack of determination or—
BAM
"GAH!" Izuku wasn't paying attention, and received a large blow to the side of the head that sent him sailing. Izuku rolled with the blow and landed in a crouch, however the villain was right on top of him a moment later.
Quickly crossing his arms in an "x" formation, Izuku blocked the blow, but still buckled from the force. "I'm gonna beat you down kid!" The villain yelled, but recoiled when he noticed something.
Izuku was smiling.
The boy's crossed arms grabbed the villain's large hand and he began spinning, "OKLAHOMA–" Izuku let go and sent the villain sailing, "SMASH!" The giant villain was sent flying to the outer wall, the piece crumbling from his weight and opening a giant section of the tower to the winds of the outside.
Finally, he could take a breather…
On the other side of the Plant Factory, Monoma and Todoroki had managed to take down the villain with giant hands, through a combination of ice and fire manipulation that led to the man being caught in an explosion.
He was left standing afterward, but a quick shock from Kaminari put him out of commission.
"Told you guys!" Kaminari cheered as he pointed at himself, "Human stun gun!"
"God, I hate you…" Jiro groaned as she stretched out.
"We're not done yet…" Yaoyorozu sighed and gazed at the elevator leading to only higher floors. "Melissa, how many more floors do we have until we reach the top?"
The blonde grimaced, "Far too many for my liking…"
They were all tired, and fighting in suits and dresses was not comfortable or efficient in the slightest. At least Izuku had some gear, and Yaoyorozu had been able to trade out the girls' heels for boots that made it easier to move.
But still, their burning drive had dimmed slightly.
"...perhaps if I can use the power for just a moment, I can propel myself to a higher floor by grappling or hanging – maybe connecting to? – something higher and then use the enhancement aspect in my legs to kick the ground at a high enough power to give myself a sort of faux flight. To do that though I would need Black Whip to work and I doubt it would at this point…"
The entirety of the group turned to Midoriya, who seemed to be curled in on himself and, had somewhere, retrieved a notebook where he was drawing a diagram and muttering about who knew what.
Monoma and Reiko glanced at each other, "Want me to take this one…?" He asked to which she nodded. "Hey, uhhh Midoriya?" Monoma probed, but when he didn't get a response he resorted to nudging Izuku with a finger.
The greenette snapped to attention. "A-Ah, sorry!" Izuku quickly apologized as he shoved his notebook in the group's direction, "I was just thinking, I can probably get to the top floor through use of Black Whip and my enhancement aspect, while you guys go up through the elevator. "If the villain's are coming down then we can execute a pincer maneuver, if they're staying on the top floor then I can hold them off while Melissa works to turn off the security system and you guys come up to assist."
The assembled teens murmured, the plan had some merit, but if Izuku ran into something that he couldn't beat…
"I'll go with you." Reiko instantly spoke, "I may not have a quirk as strong as yours, but I more than make up for that in pure versatility. I can defend, attack, redirect. I am a shield and sword. I can take on large groups at once."
Yaoyorozu and Izuku glanced at each other. "So, you take Melissa and Yanagi-san, while I take the others up the tower?"
"Yeah, it's as good a plan as any." Izuku nodded.
"Alright then." Yaoyorozu looked over at her group, "Let us lead the charge and free everyone in the tower." She glanced over at Izuku and quickly produced three ear pieces within her hand, "Stay on call, if anything happens then let us know."
"We will." Reiko nodded.
"Then, let's go." Melissa cut through, looking determined as she pulled her hair into a ponytail, "We don't have much time left, and I don't want to even think about what they've done with my dad or Sam."
"We'll save them." Izuku assured as he crouched down, "Climb on, it'll be easier to move this way." Melissa, after a moment's hesitation, did so. "Alright, see you guys later!"
"Be safe Midoriya!"
One For All was stirring inside of Izuku as they jumped out of the tower, Reiko floating on her board by his side. It was only a moment later that gravity took hold as they fell and Melissa clung to his body.
His eyes shut and he remembered what Daigoro told him as Black Whip pulsed just under his skin.
You're going about it all wrong kid, Black Whip's controlled through emotion, you gotta keep yourself in check!
Through emotion, through a need, a desire.
'Help me out Daigoro, I need your quirk right now!' But nothing happened, Izuku and Melissa kept falling without pause, 'Black Whip come on!' Izuku yelled in his mind, yet the tower was getting farther and farther away with each passing second, and Reiko was looking at both of them in alarm. "Come on you damn quirk!"
Apparently, a curse was all he needed, as a tendril of Black Whip sailed out from under the Full Gauntlet and stuck itself to the side of I-Island tower. The quirk then retracted, but with the anchor on the tower, Izuku and Melissa were pulled towards the building.
With a quick, "SMASH!" Courtesy of Izuku, the three find themselves in an upper level of the tower.
"Next time, be more cautious in such preparations, I would have caught you if needed but I'd prefer if you didn't put such an emotional strain on my heart." Reiko chastised as they all got up, "Now, allow us to siege the tower."
"Yeah…" Izuku muttered, "Let's…"
Momo was rather displeased.
Their current position, inside the server room of the tower, was nonoptimal to say the least as they were being swarmed by at least a hundred robots.
And it was terrible.
Todoroki and Monoma could only do so much in such a cramped space, both not wanting to damage their friends or the servers that were around them. They were here to stop villains, they couldn't destroy I-Island's property. The wall that Midoriya broke? Easy to fix. An entire server room with what was probably yottabytes upon yottabytes of information?
Yeah, they wouldn't be doing that.
So, Yaoyorozu found herself and Jiro hidden behind some ice that Todoroki had made, while Kaminari was going around and shocking the robots. Though, he was quickly getting swarmed.
"Damn– How many of these things are there!" Kaminari yelled as he placed his hand on another robot. "They just keep on coming!"
Jiro clicked her tongue, commanding her jacks to come out of hiding and sending a pulse through a robot she had jabbed. "Don't know but this is starting to get annoying!"
Monoma cursed as he jumped back from a robot's swipe. He and Todoroki had placed themselves on opposite ends, to defend their friends – it was weird to call 1-A students friends – from the mechanical pains in his ass. However, that left him vulnerable.
He wasn't good at using this quirk as Todoroki, his control not as precise. Their strength was the same, but Monoma had to hold back to not damage the server room. However, he wasn't ready for his timer to run out.
The now familiar sensation of Todoroki's Half-Cold Half-Hot vanished and Monoma was left open for all the robots to flood him with attacks.
Momo noticed his panic and tried to conjure something to help but her mind couldn't land on any one object to create.
"RECIPRO–"
Luckily, she wouldn't have to.
"BURST!"
A blur of blue fire came out of nowhere as Iida crashed into an entire group of robots, sending them towards Momo and Jiro, the latter of which quickly dispatched the foes with a sonic discharge from her jacks.
"Iida!"
Kaminari grinned while shocking another robot into shutting down, "Man, am I glad to see you!"
"It's not just me, Kaminari!"
At the boy's confused look, the entire group saw a bunch of robots begin floating up, before crashing back down following the shout of, "RELEASE!" Standing in the middle of the broken automatons was Uraraka, sheepishly shaking her head. "Hey guys…"
"Glad you two finally decided to get your heads out of your asses!" Jiro chuckled as the commotion seemed to die down. The two winced and Momo shot Jiro a scolding look, "Ah, sorry Rep…"
"No." Iida cut through, "You're right… Midoriya was right."
"And you need to be caught up." Todoroki walked towards the group after having dealt with his remaining robots, "We're performing a pincer maneuver, climbing the tower while Midoriya, Yanagi, and Shield get to the top and descend it. We're bound to run into the villains eventually."
"I see." Iida hummed along, "In that case, let us continue upwards, but all of us should be wary."
Monoma sighed, "Agreed." He tapped Todoroki on the shoulder, "Now, let's keep on moving, we haven't time to waste." The entire group all took the elevator up to higher floors, pondering what would be awaiting them at the top.
Surprisingly, as they opened up into a moderately sized room, that was barely lit.
"Todoroki, if you would." Yaoyorozu calmly asked as she conjured a shield.
The dual-haired boy lifted his left arm before lighting a flame within his palm, it lit up in beautiful displays of orange light, and allowed them to notice one fact that escaped them upon their initial arrival.
There was a body on the floor.
The girls, along with Kaminari, screamed at seeing a body, but Iida stepped forward and pressed a hand to the girl's neck.
"She's alive, but unconscious." Ingenium's brother surmised, "Most likely knocked out by whatever villains came this way." He let go of the girl and stood to his full height. "We'll have two people stay with her while the rest of us climb the tower."
Quickly, they decided that Monoma and Uraraka would be the ones to stay. Uraraka's quirk could easily incapacitate people if needed and was an easy one to copy for Monoma, barring the consequence of throwing up but he was prepared. Todoroki, Kaminari, and Iida would easily take down villains while Jiro was exceptional at reconnaissance. Yaoyorozu was added just to have someone to hold the group together.
"Here." The Heiress spoke as she created more copies of the ear pieces she had given MIdoriya, Yanagi, and Melissa. "If you need us just talk through these."
"Got it, Yaomomo!" Uraraka grinned.
"Yeah, got it." Monoma was more serious. The group departed, leaving the two teens alone with an unconscious girl that they knew nothing about. Why did everything have to be so complicated? "It's like I haven't had a normal day since I met Midoriya…"
"Eh, you say something, Monoma?"
"Nope."
"So, how do you recommend dealing with these three, Shield?"
They were all quiet. None of them knew what to do.
After all their work to storm the tower and retrieve Melissa's father to make sure he wasn't killed had been made pointless in but a few seconds as they learned the unfortunate truth of the matter. David Shield, Melissa's father, was standing just a ways away from Wolfram with a case tucked under his arm.
"D-Dad?" Melissa stammered as David hid behind Wolfram. "W-What are you doing?"
"Melissa…" David looked afraid, unsure of what to do, "Y-You don't understand."
"Don't understand what?!" She looked between the two, "Y-You're working with a criminal! Just to steal some stupid tech?!" Melissa didn't know what to believe, was her dad really a crook?
"Melissa–"
"You took too long." Wolfram raised an arm and a wave of metal slammed into the three teens, Izuku quickly jumped in front but it didn't matter. "Come on, Shield, we've got a flight to catch."
"M-My daughter…" But David didn't have time to think, Wolfram grabbed him by the head and carried him away. "Melissa! Melissa, I'm sorry! MELISSA!"
END
Okay, this took a lot longer to write than I otherwise wanted, and I'm sorry about that. I wanted to get this out at the start of February but it's better late than never.
The next chapter will end off the I-Island arc, and another arc that's been building up for the entire story so far. Also, Himiko is going to interact with our heroes. How's that gonna go? ;)
I'll be back next time, Jay out!