CHAPTER 24

-THE COMPLEX-

Finally, after what felt like hours of constant claustrophobia and the fear that he would get himself stuck in there, Katsuo finally reached an exit point to the USJ's vent system that didn't involve clawing his way out like an animal. Sometime during his fight with Tokoyami, the villains who had invaded the USJ facility discovered Katsuo's rampage throughout the building and had activated the security measures to stop Katsuo from moving any further. Fortunately, a massive security flaw in the form of a network of vents presented an ample opportunity for stealthy movement.

Unfortunately, Katsuo didn't realize just how crappy the vent layout was in the ginormous facility, meaning he got lost pretty quickly. Eventually, the vents ended up leading him below the surface into what Katsuo could only assume was some kind of underground complex beneath USJ. Definitely somewhere a baby hero like Katsuo wanted to be. Of course, now that an exit was finally in his sight, Katsuo excitedly got ready to kick the vent covering off, just barely stopping himself when he suddenly began hearing a conversation in the room ahead of him.

Katsuo hadn't spotted a single member of staff yet, which meant the likelihood of the people ahead being friendlies was extremely low. With that in mind, Katsuo kicked the cover at its corners to weaken it before silently pushing it out of the way. Once he got out, Katsuo quickly hid behind a nearby crate and examined his surroundings.

It seemed that he was inside of a loading dock of sorts, with various trucks full of mechanical parts and such lined up in front of the giant metal doors at the end of the room. It seemed that the normal workday had been cut short by the villain attack, with a bunch of boxes and pallets scattered all over the place. Just as Katsuo began searching for a better vantage point of the room, the voices began speaking again.

"Holy crap Mickey, get a load of this stuff! Do you know how much we could get from all this?!"

Now crouched down on top of the rafters, Katsuo was able to use his bird's eye view to spot one of the villains busting open a group of crates with his crowbar, as well as another one throwing a bunch of workers into the security office.

"Calm down you idiot, there'll be plenty of time for that later after the mission's completed. Speaking of, can I get an update on team B?"

Katsuo looked around the room, trying to find the villain the supposedly leader had been requesting the update from. However, it was only when his eyes glanced at the shadow-laden corner of the room that he saw an extremely small ripple in the floor. If he hadn't had strengthened vision, it's entirely possible he wouldn't have noticed. Suddenly, the form of a pair of lanky arms emerged from the ripple, pushing off of the floor and allowing a man to climb out. Once he had fully immerged, the rippling stopped, returning the floor to a natural state as he approached the leader.

'Team B has just made their way into the engine room and are inspecting the machines right now. With their intelligence quirks, I'm sure they'll be able to start soon."

"Good, looks like everything is going according to his plan."

"However, there is one problem. It looks like the target hasn't appeared yet."

"What? I thought he was supposed to be teaching those brats today?!"

"That's what the schedule said, but it looks like he isn't here for whatever reason. Shigaraki had to improvise and is now holding the students hostage until All Might shows up."

'So, the person they're after is All Might? What the hell are these guys planning that makes them think they can take on the number 1 hero?'

"That damned fool better not kill any of those kids, or this is gonna to go south, quickly. For now, make sure there aren't any more guards, and then we'll meet up with team B for the grand finale."

"Yes sir."

The thin man quickly bowed to his superior before turning back and around and walking over to the same corner he appeared in. Before he could reach it however, Katsuo dropped down from the ceiling, landing on top of him and knocking him unconscious.

"What the hell?!"

By the time "Mickey" turned back around, Katsuo had already tied up the shadow villain, hanging him from the rafters so he couldn't hide in the shadows again. The villains in the room quickly gathered around the lone students, each one readying their quirks for a fight. Katsuo was expecting them to start yapping about how much stronger they were, but each one was dead silent, eyeing Katsuo like prey in order to determine his next move. They were clearly more skilled than the wannabe bad guys upstairs.

'My knife may be a little too dangerous, even if these guys are villains. System, open the shop function.'

YES, KATSUO, OPENING [THE SHOP] NOW

Katsuo quickly scanned over the weapon tab's various arms, each one looking sharper and deadlier than the last. There wasn't much time left before these seasoned killers were about to pounce, so Katsuo was desperate. Fortunately, the right weapon appeared just as a villain shouted something and ran forward. Katsuo selected his weapon, felt it appear in his hand, and swung forward, slapping the villain right across the cheek and sending him flying into a metal support column.

"What? Where the hell did he get that from?!"

Mickey looked on at the boy with a long-lost feeling of fear, realizing that the boy they were up against was no ordinary student. Katsuo's sharp purple eyes seemed to be gazing right into his soul, just begging for him to make the next move. His right hand was calmly gripping the handle of a police baton upside down, crossing his left arm over it to form a protective guard in front of his face. However, the smile etched into his visage told everyone in the room that he didn't need to protect himself from them.

Before anyone could realize, Katsuo had already lunged forward, grabbing the faces of two villains and slamming them into the ground with just enough force for a knockout.

"Damn it, kill the brat!"

Upon Mickey's order, all four of the remaining villains charged at once, hoping to overwhelm Katsuo's strength with numbers. A large man with rocks covering his forearms and shins grabbed a pipe off the wall and swung down to hit Katsuo on the head, who in turn blocked the strike and countered with his own, sending the man flying into two of his comrades. And just like that, Katsuo and Mickey were the last two standing.

"Who the hell are you, brat?! And why the hell are you getting in our way?! Don't you know it would just be easier to hide and wait for this to all blow over?!"

"My name is Katsuo. And I didn't get a second chance just to let it pass me by."

Before Mickey could question the nature of Katsuo's response, the young hero in training dashed forward. Mickey snapped back into the fight quickly and activated his quirk, transforming his arm into a rocky spike and using it to stop Katsuo in his tracks with a clash.

"You're a lot stronger than I thought you'd be, old timer!"

Mickey wanted to clap back with a response of his own, but it was taking all of the strength in his body just to hold Katsuo back. Meanwhile, the teenager himself seemed to just barely be breaking a sweat. Soon, Mickey stepped out of the way, priming himself to strike Katsuo on the back. Just as he was bringing his arm down however, Katsuo hit it away and struck his side instead, sending a wave of pain throughout his entire body. It had been a long time since Mickey had felt pain like that, and the flinching motion he made only have Katsuo more time to get in another strike, sending him flying into a metal support column and denting the hell out of it upon impact.

Katsuo watched Mickey not get up from the attack and sighed in relief, putting the baton away and grasping his sides to take a breather for a moment. Katsuo turned toward the security office and-

CRASH!

Katuso jumped out of the way as a box full of delicate yet very heavy machine parts was thrown at him, crashing into the security office's wall. Still on the floor, Katsuo turned around to see a giant, hardened Juggernaut standing a few feet away from where Mickey had supposedly passed out. Guess he wasn't totally out of the fight after all.

"Oh come on man, just take the-"

Katsuo's totally charming and witty banter was quickly cut off by another crate being thrown at him, this one exploding against the back wall as he ducked behind one of the delivery trucks by the loading bay doors. Mickey seemed to have completely lost all control, throwing the tantrum of the century while smashing everything within his line of sites. Any attempt to talk only lead to a deafening roar and chunks of concrete being thrown at Katsuo's head, so he ruled out communication as a solution.

'The hell is wrong with this guy? It's like he's on some kind of drug or something! Actually...'

Katsuo whipped his head around the front right wheel of the delivery truck, scanning the area where Mickey was originally unconscious. And while Katsuo usually enjoyed being correct, this time was an exception. Because lying by some rubble in that area was a broken, unmarked syringe leaking out a sort of pink fluid into floor. Mickey was juiced up on some kind of quirk enhancing drug. Damn effective one, too.

'Okay, Mickey's on steroids and probably won't take long before he either finds me or the workers in the security office. Fighting him while he's in this state isn't smart, so...'

Katsuo's eyes began darting back and forth across Mickey's monstrous form, searching for any flaw, any crack in the armor that he could exploit. And then he spotted it. It was barely noticeable, but just enough to where Katsuo could see it in passing. Mickey through yet another crate of expensive and fragile machinery, the crate exploding against the wall and sending chunks of metal across the room. However, unlike previous throws, this one left a single part still mostly undamaged. Slowly but surely, Mickey's muscles were beginning to waver, slowing him down and making him an easier target, but for what?

Katsuo then noticed a crane attached to a motorized track on the ceiling, usually meant for transporting heavy containers to their rightful places. However, in an extreme scenario, could be used to drop a payload onto an unsuspecting target. The controls were on the other side of the room however, meaning it would take some expert maneuvering to get around Mickey, and even then, the crane would be too slow to catch up before Mickey could turn Katsuo into paste, right?

Of course, that wouldn't be the case if Mickey were pinned to the wall by a nearby forklift, hidden behind one of the trucks and safe from damage. Katsuo would have normally flipped the plan over in his mind repeatedly before actually attempting it, but desperate times called for desperate measures, and Katsuo needed to save those innocent lives before Mickey remembered they were there. Of course, Katsuo also really just wanted to operate a forklift.

The young hero quickly shot out a few mana ropes, lifting a heavy chunk of concrete into the air before hurling it over the truck, causing it to slam into the back wall behind Mickey. The hulking juggernaut turned around, roaring before mindlessly charging into the wall behind him. While he was distracted, Katsuo giddily jumped into the forklift's seat and rubbed his hands together, eyeing the console's many buttons and levers with curiosity.

'Note to self: remember to learn how to operate special vehicles like forklifts. Or a tank. At least I know how the pedals work, right?'

Katsuo jammed his foot on the gas pedal, surprised at the sudden burst of movement and frankly unprepared for it. He pulled one of the levers back and watched the forks beginning lifting (pun not intended) up to Mickey's chest height. Realizing he may have been going a little too fast, Katsuo jumped out of the vehicle just as it slammed into the wall, pinning Mickey down like an ant under a boot. With how far the forks had dug into the wall, even Mickey's quickly dwindling super strength was unable to do anything about it. Katsuo was safe, at least for now.

As Mickey's stamina began winding down, Katuso quickly sprinted in the direction of the security office and kicked open the door, only to find the employees eyeing him curiously.

"You do know the door was unlocked, right?"

Katsuo looked back at the door handle, which had been knocked off the door when he kicked it. The lock was indeed in the unlocked position.

"Do you want me to save you or not?"

After receiving a round of head nods, Katsuo quickly brought out his knife and cut the ropes, healing any injuries with healing potions. Unfortunately, due to his absence from the scenarios, Katsuo was now fresh out of system currency, meaning no more potions for the foreseeable future. A dangerous oversight on his part.

"Listen everybody, I need you to escape through the loading dock doors, alright? Once you're outside, contact UA immediately and get them to send the teachers. And make sure to tell Snipe he better bring me my five bucks."

The workers grabbed any of their belongings that weren't damaged and ran towards the doors, with the security guard being the only one who remembered to press the button for the door controls on the way out the office. As they quickly made their way up the ramp leading towards daylight, Katsuo paused before exiting the office himself. Hanging in a glass frame next to the door was a map of the USJ, specifically the underground complex Katsuo found himself in now. The top of the map said "KNOW YOUR WORKPLACE!" and even displayed the quickest routes to escape the building in case of emergency. However, Katsuo was only focused on getting to one area: the Engine Room.

He was originally going to ignore that problem in favor of taking down the big bad, but according to this map, there was a catwalk in the Engine Room that lead to the plaza. With this in mind, Katsuo decided to follow that plan instead, hoping that the Engine Room didn't take up too much time...

Katsuo quickly burst through the metal double doors under the "ENGINE ROOM" sign, nearly running face first into a wall. Or so he thought. Instead of an ordinary wall like the ones he was currently surrounded by, this wall was made of machinery, filled to the brim with buttons and LED displays and such. Confused, Katsuo scaled the tower, hauling himself to the top in the hopes of finding a bird's eye view.

"Whoa!"

The Engine Room was revealed to be a large expanse of tech and machinery, forming a maze of corridors that easily spanned at least half of the USJ's square footage. While most of the machinery could easily be mistaken for a backdrop, several machines stuck out from the crowd. Katsuo even recognized their designs from a few engineering books he picked up from the library all those months ago, even if the designs were vastly different from their predecessors.

There was a lightning chamber, a storm generator, even a giant earthquake machine that was vibrating like crazy. However, in the center of the madness, was the Inferno Engine, a highly dangerous and equally destructive machine capable of creating extreme fires, all encased in a reinforced glass sphere above the rest of the machines. There were several tanks of oxygen being funneled into the ball, ensuring the fire didn't get snuffed out before it reached its target. Katsuo assumed these devices were being used to power the USJ's various scenarios, but something was terribly wrong.

Katsuo jumped down from the tower and sprinted down the long corridor, reaching the Inferno Engine's control panel in a crazed panic. While the culprits had long since departed, the evidence of their work was still alive and clearly visible. The control panel had been thoroughly destroyed, but not before eviscerating all safe guards and setting the Inferno Engine to 11, for lack of a better term. To summarize, if Katsuo didn't figure something out, the machine would supercharge the fires before exploding, wiping out the entire USJ!

"Shit, okay, let's think this through. If I remember correctly, which let's pray to God I do, the "Book On Engineering For Dummies" showed off a diagram of the machine's inner workings, as well as the control module. If I can just get to that, I can shut down the machine before it reaches critical mass in... 30 SECONDS?!"

Katsuo threw himself to the floor and practically ripped the machine's panel off its hinges, revealing a complex mass of wires inside. Throwing caution to the wind, he began ripping out anything he found unimportant before eventually reaching the control module. He pumped his fist in victory and reached toward the module before an ear-splitting sound sent shivers down his spine.

"KATSUOOOOOOOO!"

Katsuo never understood why horror movie characters turned around so slowly, but now he did. On one hand, he was terrified of the hulking monstrosity of testosterone screaming at him from across the room, but on the other hand, he really wanted to see it! And so, he turned around, only to find Mickey's still enlarged form standing in the doorway. Katsuo was so focused on not letting the entire USJ be blown up that he hadn't noticed Mickey tearing through the walls to reach him. And now that he was here...

"Mickey... Don't do it, man..."

"I"M GONNA WRECK ITTTTT!"

"God, no!"

Mickey charged forward, his hulking body tearing through the walls of delicate and very explosive machinery. Each small explosion tore through more and more of the maze, rocking the entire room and sending rather large cracks up the walls.

"MICKEY, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, STOP!"

Realizing that the monster had no intention to do so, Katsuo shot a line of mana across the room like a grappling hook, pulling him into the air. Mickey jumped off the ground, breaking it into shards as he did so, and began barreling through the air at Katsuo. And after just barely missing him, smashed right into the Inferno Engine's control panel.

"NO!"

The resulting explosion spread into the sphere, detonating the highly explosive and previously balanced gasses inside, sending a shockwave so powerful it not only through Katsuo violently into the wall, but also completely ruptured the stability of the Engine Room, causing the cracks to grow wider and farther until eventually reaching the ceiling and...

BOOM!

The ceiling completely collapsed, shattering the plaza floor and sending anyone unlucky enough to be up there falling to near certain death. Katsuo pulled himself out of the wall, bloodied and battered, woozy from the explosion and resulting impact against concrete.

The [SYSTEM] blared:

ALERT! ALERT! HEAVY DAMAGE HAS BEEN SUSTAINED TO [THE USER]! MANA CAPABILITIES HAVE BEEN SEVERELY LIMITED! ALERT!

Katsuo, still shaking from the heavy injuries inflicted on his body, managed to pool enough focus and mana to pick out his classmates and teacher from the crowd of falling bodies, shooting mana ropes to grab them and place them safely on top of the rubble. He saw other bodies, but they disappeared in a black mist before he could reach them. Just as he was about to begin his dissent to check up on his friends, he heard a cracking sound above him.

He turned his eyes upward and-

CRASH!

A piece of rubble that had been hanging by a thread suddenly landed right on his head, sending him to the floor in a bloody mess, unable to muster enough strength to get back up...

-END OF CHAPTER-

A/N

I hope you enjoyed my chapter, dear readers! Firstly, I want to apologize for being gone so long. I got busy with some work I needed to handle and admittedly forgot I even started this story. But don't worry, because I'm back now! Don't expect me to post everyday like I used to (yeesh) because this chapter was admittedly kind of hard to write. I wanted everything to be perfect or at least good enough, and I think it was! Next chapter will be the end of the arc, and then my own original arc will be after that, followed by season 2 of Hero Leveling. Stay tuned!