Chapter 27: Thieves, Mercs, and Criminals
"This is an announcement from the I-Island Security System. We have received a report that an explosive device was discovered somewhere on the I-Expo grounds. I-Island will now be in high alert mode; your safety is our top priority. Residents and tourists should return to their lodging. Anyone remaining on the streets after ten minutes will be in violation of the law. Please clear out of all public areas. As a precautionary measure, most of the main island's buildings will now be sealed off. I repeat, we have received a report…"
Toshinori couldn't hear the rest of the announcement over the panicked screams of the guests. Somehow, a bunch of masked goons with guns showed up. And their leader…
"In case you haven't caught on, the security system is under our control now. I know we've got a lot of Heroes in here, but if you decided to make a scene… I'll make sure the security sentires think that the good people they've got in their sights are dangerous criminals. So, I'd play nice, because everyone on this island is my hostage. Naturally, that includes all of you."
…was definitely a smug prick.
Before the No. 1 Hero even had the chance to give the man's head a vacation from his shoulders, the floors opened up, as neon blue ribbons popped out, ensnaring him.
"The emergency restraining devices?!"
Oh, so that's what those are. Looking around, Toshinori could see that all of the other Heroes in attendance were also caught in their own device, collapsing to the floor. "Crap!"
BANG!
The blond stopped struggling the second he heard the shot ring out. Those guns weren't fake, and chances were, these Villains would be more than willing to use them against innocents. In situations like these, it was best to do as they said; he needed to prioritize the civilians.
"Don't move! If you take so much as a step, I'll kill everyone in this room!"
"Villain –"
BAM!
Despite it not hurting anything more than his pride, getting kicked down to the floor was still bad. Now, Toshinori had even less of a chance of breaking free and saving everyone. Shit.
"There's a good boy," this asshole of a Villain said smugly, before turning to the rest of the crowd. "You're going to follow my lead and do whatever I say, right?!"
From the distance, Toshinori could see Dave in the crowd, shaking his head, telling him not to move. The message was clear: Don't make a move, you have no choice but to listen to them.
Dave…
"I'm not getting any signal," Todoroki said. "It looks like my service is completely blocked."
"Are you serious?" Monoma asked, checking his phone.
"The elevator's not working, either," Jiro added.
"What the heck is going on here?!"
Melissa, meanwhile, had her thumb to her chin, in deep thought. "It's strange that the system would go on high alert. That's not the protocol for whenever explosives are discovered."
Ochako decided that they could sit here. "Iida, let's go to that party."
"For what reason?" the glasses-wearing teen asked.
"Because that's the place we can find All Might right now," she explained before turning to her new friend. "So, Melissa, do you know of any way we can get down there without the elevator?"
"Yeah, sure. We can use the emergency stairs. That will at least get us close."
The brown-haired girl nodded. "We'll follow your lead, then."
"Don't worry, if you stay quiet, there's no reason to hurt anyone," the Villain currently holding a gun at the hostages said. "We plan to release you safely when the time is right."
"What are you criminals after?!" Mr. Plastic, one of the Heroes, demanded to know.
BAM!
His only response was a kick to the chin, sending him down to the floor, with the big bad, Wolfram, if David remembered correctly, asking, "Do you not know how to listen? Stay down."
David knew that these guys were supposed to be top-quality actors, but he didn't know that Sam went and hired a bunch of method actors! If he didn't know any better, he would have assumed these guys were real Villains! That Wolfram dude literally just kicked a Pro Hero in the face! Then again, they were willing to go along with this plan in order to get his device, so either they were really committed to the craft, or just that desperate for work.
After getting some radio buzz in his helmet, probably notifying him it was time for the next phase, Wolfram turned around and stared down Sam. "Hey, Tubby, you a researcher here?"
"Yes, I am," Sam said, ignoring the mean nickname.
"Take this one up," Wolfram said to one of his armed goons.
"No, please, don't –"
Looks like it was David's turn to enter the scene. "Stop it!" he shouted, approaching Wolfram. "That man is my assistant. What do you plan on doing to him?!" Nailed it.
"Hm?" Wolfram turned around. "Ah, the famous David Shield. Bring him, too."
"What if I refuse?" he asked.
"Then somewhere on this island, you'll hear a pretty little blonde girl scream."
Okay, wow, that might have actually been too far. But David couldn't break character just yet, so he just had to play along. "Alright," he said, slightly scowling. "Lead the way."
Ochako couldn't believe what she was seeing. Well, not literally, but it was still a pretty hard stretch of the imagination to see All Might tied up along with several other Pros.
Thankfully, this balcony view was able to leave nothing to said imagination.
Once the goons were out of the place, she quickly used her phone's flashlight to try and get All Might's attention. She wasn't sure if he saw it or not, but he did eventually look up towards the glass ceiling to see her. "Okay, he knows we're here. Jiro, is your jack in place?"
"Yeah, ready," the purple-haired girl replied.
Ochako knew doing this was somewhat ridiculous, but she knew she had to. Quickly using her hands to play charades, she first flapped it opening and closing next to her mouth to resemble talking, and then cupped them around her ears to mimic listening. And…
Ochako looked towards Jiro, to see her nodding along to something. Good, that meant that All Might was talking to them. Unfortunately, the message was grim. "This is bad, Uraraka…"
After Jiro gave them a quick play-by-play of what had happened, Iida said, "We've received All Might's orders loud and clear. He is our teacher; I suggest we follow his instructions and escape this place. Otherwise, we would be going against his will."
"I'm afraid I have to agree with what Iida is saying," Yaomomo joined in. "We're still only students; we can't fight these Villains if we don't have our Hero Licenses."
"Why don't we get out of here and tell the Heroes outside?" Shinso suggested.
"Are you really okay with that, Shinso?" Kendo asked.
"Well, what choice do we have?"
"We should at least try and stop them?"
"Hey, come on, are you crazy?!" Monoma interjected. "Those Villains have even got All Might trapped! There's no way we can stop them ourselves if the actual Pros are stuck!"
It was then when Todoroki asked, "Aren't we trying to be Pros ourselves?"
"Well, yes, but we're not allowed to work as Heroes, you know that…"
"Does that mean… that it's right for us to do nothing at all?"
Yaomomo looked down. "Well… it's complicated…"
Everyone was silent for a good thirty seconds, before Ochako decided to add her two cents. "I wanna help." Everyone looked towards her, as she said, "I want to save them."
"You want to go fight those Villains?!" Monoma shouted.
"We don't have to fight them!" she interjected. "We just need to think of a way to rescue All Might and everyone else at the party without facing the bad guys!"
Shinso raised his hand. "That's easy to say, but you know it won't be that simple –"
"I know, but I still wanna try!" Ochako cut him off. "We can figure out what the best plan of action is, and keep these criminals from winning! We can save everyone!"
"I know where the security system is," Melissa said. "It's on the top floor of this tower. If these criminals managed to take control of it, then the authentication locks and password have probably been disabled. We should be able to restart the system ourselves. We just have to stay off the Villains' radar until we can get to the top floor. If we do that, the island will be saved."
Ochako could feel a smile creeping up on her face. "Then it's possible…"
"Sure, but how do we keep on the low for that long?" Jiro asked.
"The security system hasn't discovered us yet, that means the Villains probably don't know how it works very well," Melissa explained. "We avoid fighting anyone…"
"...and try to get the place back to normal," Todoroki finished. "It could work."
"Not bad, whaddya think?" Jiro asked.
Shinso nodded calmly. "Let's do it."
"Many of our enemies are likely gathered there, on the top floor…" Yaomomo said.
"If we're fast, we won't have to fight them," Ochako said. "If the security system goes back to normal, All Might and the others will be released. They'll stop the Villains, I know it!"
"Let's do this, guys!" Kendo called out. "I don't wanna sit around here being helpless, not if we can actually try! What's important is that we're helping people, even if we're not real Heroes!"
Ochako pumped her fist into the air. "Yeah!"
"Uraraka," Todoroki called out. "I'll go with you, too."
Iida groaned. "I'll join you, as well."
Shinso grinned. "Obviously, I'm in!"
One by one, everyone else joined in their declaration to help, until finally, everyone looked back at Monoma, who simply said, "You've all lost your minds. I'll go."
"Thanks, Monoma!"
"Let's do this!"
The first eighty floors up were both mind-numbing and exhausting.
Strategically speaking, there were two hundred floors between them and the top of the tower, so making it forty percent of the way up without arousing suspicion should have been a good thing, even if the teens were working up a sweat at that point.
Unfortunately, by the time they made it to the eightieth floor, the complete quiet and the energy they had drained running up had made them a bit careless, and very much prone to any Villain sneak attacks, which may or may not have included automated doors shutting.
Case in point, right now.
"TODOROKI!"
"I'M ON IT!"
The mass of ice wedged itself between the two ends of the doors, ensuring that it wouldn't be closing any time soon, as Iida blasted forward, kicking open one of the side walls. It was clear to them that the outer hallways were no longer safe; they needed to go in deeper.
"Everyone, quick! We can cross through here!"
"What is this place?" Uraraka asked, as their improvised team ran through what looked like the combination of a futuristic city and a garden, with all sorts of flora all around them.
"It's a plant factory," Melissa explained. "They research the effects that Quirks have on –"
"Hold on!" Jiro jumped ahead of them. "Look! The elevator's coming up!"
Villains were coming. Everyone immediately scattered and hid behind one of the larger bushes, as their hushed whispers were immediately silenced once the elevator dinged.
The doors of the lift opened up, to reveal two Villains, one incredibly short whose face gave off a harmless vibe, and another who looked like some kind of weird rodent with facial hair.
"You said the kids came in here, Nobu?" the shorter one asked.
"Yeah, Daigo. They just had to pick a place with so many hiding places…"
Everyone knew immediately who the bastards were referring to. No one made a single movement, as they hoped and prayed that the Villains wouldn't see them…
"Hey, we see you, stupid kids!"
Shit. Uraraka had no idea whether the assholes were bluffing or not. If they were, then their cover was blown the second they showed themselves. If they were telling the truth, then they had the advantage. What should we do? Are we gonna have to face them?
"What did you say, you bastard?"
Uraraka immediately poked her head out, to see that the two Villains weren't even looking in their direction. Instead, they were staring down… Kirishima and Bakugou?!
"What are you doing here?" the shorter one, Daigo, asked.
"Heh, that's what I wanna know, too," Bakugou scoffed.
"Hey, man, just leave this to me, okay?" Kirishima said, getting between the two of them. "Um, we kinda got lost looking for this party; can you maybe point us in the right direction?"
The two Villains looked at each other, before looking back at the two boys. The taller one, Nobu, ripped off his glove and snarled, "Don't lie to me, or YOU'LL REGRET IT!"
Several things happened in the last few seconds. Uraraka could remember yelling, that Nobu guy throwing some sort of air-ball thing at Kirishima, and then –
BOOOM!
…Todoroki coming in with the ice save.
"The three of us can keep them busy here!" the red-and-white teen shouted, as he created a second glacier, sending the rest of his team topside. "Look for a way to get to the top!"
"What are you doing?!" Monoma yelled.
"Todoroki!" Yaoyorozu cried out.
"Go! I'll be right behind you after I clean up this mess!"
As the son of Endeavor kept creating the exit spire, Kirshima approached him. "Wait, you guys are here, too? What the heck is going on, Todoroki? We heard a broadcast alert –"
Todoroki quickly cut to the chase. "Some Villains have taken over the tower!"
"Wait, that's what this is about?!" Bakugou asked.
"I'll explain more when I can, no time now!" he yelled, as the three of them prepared for a fight. Seeing as how Nobu was able to use his Quirk to essentially make parts of his iceberg disappear, it was time to play it defensive. "Stay on your guard!"
"Shut up, I know that!" the explosive blond barked.
"So, you wanna pick a fight?" Daigo said, as he transformed from a short man, into… some massive purple monster. "THEN LET'S SEE HOW TOUGH YOU REALLY ARE!"
Swordkil was getting really annoyed by this bullshit.
Everything was going smoothly at first. But then, one of the alarms go off, and the cameras show that a bunch of kids are making their way up towards the control center. Shit. Not only that, but a quick search showed that they were UA Hero Course students. Double shit.
They managed to track the running UA students on the security system, but the team's hacker couldn't do anything about them. Radioing Nobu and Daigo, he asked, "Hey, morons on the eighteenth floor, you're letting those dumb kids get away! What's the problem?!"
"WE'RE WORKING ON IT!"
Swordkil growled at that. "Well, work harder! We can't…"
His voice cut off, as he knew something was wrong. He couldn't hear Daigo. Hell, he couldn't even hear Wolfram. Turning back towards the hacker, they both knew something was up.
"Oi! Can't you fix our comms?!" Swordkil barked.
"I can't! Something is jamming us! And it's not the brats!"
"Correct you are!" The two criminals froze, as they heard the voice of a man coming through the computer. "I bid you good day, and apologies for hijacking your computer! But since this is I-Island's computer which you hijacked first, well… two wrongs, one right, and all that."
"What the –?! Who are you?! Get the hell off our tech!"
"Unfortunately, that is something I cannot do, good sir! The show must go on!"
Todoroki swept his hand through the air, creating a line of ice spikes that was quickly smashed by the discount Hulk, forcing the three of them to dodge, with Bakugou performing a few Quirk-based mid-air acrobatics to launch his explosions towards the Villain's back.
"DIEEE!"
BOOOM!
Sadly, it appeared that Daigo was just as durable as the Marvel character he was copyright infringing, as the big purple monster ran through the smoke, reared his fist, and –
"BAKUGOU!"
WHAM!
…struck Kirishima's hardened forearms. Strangely enough whatever impact was supposed to go with that punch instead went straight back to Daigo, sending him flying.
BOOOOOM!
Bakugou stared at his red-haired friend. "Shitty Hair, what the hell –?"
"DODGE!"
Bakugou didn't ask any further questions, as he quickly grabbed Kirishima and blasted them both towards the ceiling, narrowly avoiding Nobu's long-ranged displacement attacks. Todoroki, meanwhile, launched more ice towards the rat-faced bastard, which only got destroyed once again, forcing the three boys to keep their backs facing each other in the middle.
"You boys know how to fight, don't you?!" Nobu smiled.
"Hmph," Daigo grunted, his voice now deeper. "Where'd you come from?"
"Right, like we'd tell a couple of weak-ass Villains!" Bakugou laughed.
"A very good point, kid."
Both the Hero students and Wolfram's minions froze, as both parties knew that voice didn't belong to either side. Turning towards where the voice came from, all five of them saw a woman with white hair and wearing… so little clothes she was basically in a black bikini.
"What the… who the hell are you?!" Nobu barked.
"The name's Dusty Ash; and as for why people call me that, well… LET ME SHOW YOU!" In an instant, the woman's smile went from seductive to manic, as she shot out a massive stream of dust from her arms, which flew straight into Daigo's face.
"ARRRGH! MY EYES!"
As the giant purple Villain frantically rubbed his eyes, a second newcomer joined the party, a tall and bulky man who somewhat resembled Endeavor. However, unlike Endeavor, this guy had orange rock-like protrusions on his shoulders and gauntlets, alongside wearing a gas mask.
BOOOOM!
Despite that, the big guy did indeed seem to have a somewhat fire-based Quirk like Endeavor, if the literal fucking lava he just launched at the blinded Daigo was any indication.
"Who the fuck are you?!" Bakugou shouted.
"You can call me Volcano," the orange-haired man said. "And if you and your buddies don't wanna die in the middle of some sci-fi garden tonight, I suggest you help me take down that purple gorilla, kid. I seriously doubt a single blast of my Quirk would do him in."
Bakiugou decided to leave any further questions for later, as a slightly-burnt Daigo came back charging at the two of them. Quickly dodging the Amazing Bulk's fists, Bakugou blasted him in the face, while Volcano ran towards him, magma leaking from his arms.
Meanwhile, Todoroki was now dodging more of Nobu's attacks, as the fighting resumed pretty quickly after Dusty Ash blinded Daigo with her… well, dust. He quickly launched another barrage of icicles towards the rat-faced creep, who just displaced them again, and…
Wait a minute… DISPLACED!
"This guy's not making matter disappear! He's displacing it!"
"Is that how his Quirk works?"
The son of Endeavor immediately turned his head, and instead of Bakugou or Kirishima like he was expecting, saw that the owner of the voice was a man with grayish-blue hair in a ponytail, an elongated mouth, and massive hands with bright orange fingers, and goggles.
"Great, another one of you guys," Todoroki huffed.
"Gust Boy's my name," the blue-haired man said. "Wanna take him down together?"
While the newly-named Gust Boy and Todoroki still dealt with Nobu, Bakugou and Volcano were ready to finish off Daigo with one final attack. At least, that's what Bakugou was expecting before he felt an arm on his shoulder. "Save your strength, I'll finish this guy off."
Before he could even protest that, Volcano ran forward towards the charging purple Villain, but then stopped, threw his right arm into the floor, and shouted, "VOLCANNON!"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A massive eruption of magma appeared beneath Daigo, erupting skyward like a geyser, and covering him in lava, before spitting him back out, back in his non-Quirked body.
"DAMN YOU!" Nobu screamed, as he readied his Quirk again –
"I don't think so!" Gust Boy shouted, as his wrists suddenly began spinning, with his fingers acting as massive fan blades. In mere seconds, his spinning blades created a massive tornado towards Nobu, which launched the Villain towards a nearby wall, where Kirishima was waiting.
"Smile!"
"Wait, what –"
WHAM!
The artificial redhead used a Harden-empowered fist to punch Nobu's face in, effectively knocking out the Villain before Todoroki restrained him with ice alongside his partner.
"Okay…" Bakugou said, as he turned to the three newcomers. "Start talking. Now."
Ochako knew this was too easy to be real.
After leaving Todoroki behind alongside Katsuki and Kirishima on the eightieth floor, the rest of the team kept going up, with the last fifty floors or so being pretty clear, with no Villains or anything of the sort. Of course, that immediately was suspicious to everyone.
Iida and Yaomomo figured that the Villains were probably allowing them to pass, likely leading them somewhere. Despite that, they really didn't have much of a choice in the matter. They were almost to the top floor, so close to ending this, they couldn't quit now!
Unfortunately, the 130th floor proved to have quite the challenge.
"So many robot sentries…" Jiro whispered. She, along with everyone else, peered through the small window showing that the doors to the next staircase were on the other side… surrounded by an army of I-Island's automated law enforcement gone bad.
"The Villains just aren't trying to block us anymore," Iida said. "It looks like they're actually trying to capture us now. If so, then I think they've realized we're Hero Course students."
Yaomomo smiled. "If that's true, no reason not to show them what we can do."
"You're right. We'll go ahead and commence with Plan A. You ready, Kendo?"
Kendo smiled. "You got it! I won't let you guys down! Let's do this, Iida!"
"Right!" Iida said, as he grabbed the orange-haired girl's wrists and began to spin around. The speed of his spins began to speed up thanks to his legs, and soon enough, he let go, sending Kendo blasting through the door, and into the crowd or robots, fists at the ready.
"DOUBLE JUMBO FIST!"
The girl's fist grew in size, as she punched through several of the robots, before more of them took their places. "Our turn," Iida said, as he bent down. "Come on, Uraraka!"
"Right! Let's go!" Ochako nodded, as she activated the Full Gauntlets on both her wrists. Pink lightning encompassed her body once more, as she blasted forward. Seeing more of the robots charging at her, she tapped into forty percent of her power, and… SMAAAAASH!
BOOOM!
Ochako smiled, as the robots were blown away. She didn't feel any pain! She went over her current limit, and she was perfectly fine! Hell, both of the Full Gauntlets were intact!
The teenagers ran, as their three heavy-hitters kept smashing robots ahead of them, heading up two more floors, before they made their way towards a room full of computer servers.
DING!
Everyone looked ahead, as they saw the elevator doors at the other end of the corridor open up, revealing even more of those robots than before. "A trap?!" Iida shouted.
Ochako nodded. "Let's break through, guys!"
"Wait a sec! We can't damage these servers! It could affect the island's security system!" Melissa's warning made everyone pause; this was bad. This entire room was full of servers, there was no way they'd be able to get through here without damaging any of them. And if they decided to play it safe, the robots would get them, for sure. What do we do…?!
Before any of them could do anything, however, two figures dropped from the ceiling. One of them was in an all-black costume with blue highlights, while the other was wearing dark blue and yellow colors on her suit, armed with both sharp accessories and a hat. Anyone who was at the USJ or saw the recent news immediately knew who those two were.
Waverider and Megethos.
"What the hell?!" Shinso spat. "What's the League of Villains doing here?!"
"They are not alone!"
Everyone looked up to see a man with some odd facial hair in a dark purple jacket, pinstripe pants and a cane, drop down from the ceiling as well. Before anyone could say anything, the three newcomers attacked the robots, trashing them and sending pieces flying.
However, instead of any of the flying robot parts hitting the servers, they just… bounced off them; like the air itself was made of Jell-O. Is it that old-looking guy's Quirk?
Once the three of them were done trashing the robots, Jiro asked, "Who are you?"
The gray-haired man turned around and smiled. "Ha-ha! Have no fear, for I am Gentle Criminal! And in collaboration with the League of Villains and the Volcano Thieves, I bring you a Gentle Video extravaganza! GENTLE CRIMINAL SAVES I-ISLAND: THE LIVESTREAM!"
Shouta Aizawa could not believe his luck.
While the rat had said that they were both going to be attending I-Island for their investigation into Hephaestus, only for Nedzu to back out at the last minute, giving the extra ticket to Emi.
However, that would usually mean leaving their daughter behind with a babysitter, except for the fact that Nedzu somehow had a third ticket, meaning that the entire Aizawa family was going to I-Island. This was still an investigation mission, right? Not a family vacation.
Regardless, what was done was done. The Aizawa family had arrived on I-Island the same day as his students, and Shouta had decided to join his wife and his little girl in exploring the place, much to their happiness. He could always start his investigation later in the evening.
But then the emergency lockdown happened.
He had no idea how, but Shouta suspected that it was either his students' or All Might's fault. But whoever it was, the entire island was now in lock-down, including their hotel room. And to make matters worse, the TV wasn't working, so Eri would no doubt be bored.
Emi smiled, trying to reassure their daughter. "Don't worry Eri, I'm sure this won't last all night. In the meantime, we can kill some time by talking. Is there anything you'd like to know?"
"Where do babies come from?"
Shouta sighed. This is gonna be a looooong night…
Author's Note: So, according to the calendar, I'm a couple days away from the one-year anniversary of "Megethos," and pretty soon, "The Dungeon Crawlers." I don't know what I'm gonna do about it yet, but there will be something. Now… for the comments.
Knightmare Lord: You are… mostly right about that.
NickthePick: Technically, you're right.
Anyways, back to the regular old shilling…
I'm pretty sure as you all know now, I have also made a Twitter account to post my art, so if anyone is interested in checking it out, /ErnaloreProf is the link.
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Thanks for reading, and once again, see you next time!
- Ernalore