Chapter Sixty-Eight

Gathering back in the stairwell, the others shared worried looks, while all I felt was a calm, grounded, confidence. The shit had hit the fan, and, honestly, compared to some of the things I'd worried about, like an engineered plague, or a rogue AI, terrorists were pretty low on that scale. Hell, most of them had guns, so they weren't even true Villains, by the letter of the law, at least in Japan. It'd be dangerous, but we could take them.

My classmates, however, had different ideas.

"We've received All Might's orders loud and clear," Tenya stated with authority he did not possess. "He's our teacher. I suggest we follow his instructions and escape this place. Otherwise we'd be going against his will."

Momo shot me a regretful look, adding, "I'm afraid I have to agree with what Ida is saying. We're still only students, Denki. We can't fight these Villains if we don't have our Hero Licenses."

"Ah, because it's okay not to do the right thing and help if you don't have the proper paperwork," I shot back, mostly without heat, rolling my eyes. "I forgot that was how morality worked for a second."

"What if we get the word out?" Sero suggested, glancing between Yaoyorozu, as she winced, and me. "Get the experienced heroes out there. The ones in there were tied up, but there's gotta be others."

Ms. Shield shook her head, "It's not going to be very easy to escape, or communicate with the others. The security system here is on the same level as that of the Tartarus Prison, which is where they keep the most dangerous criminals in the world."

The prison, located on one of Japan's smallest islands, yet only a couple miles off the mainland, had gotten support in its construction thirty years ago, All Might's presence nearby being the deciding factor. After all, if there was ever a breakout, the Symbol of Peace would be able to stop it in its tracks. Thankfully, there never had been one, and, hopefully, never would be, at least while I was around, as that was a can of wyrms I didn't want opened.

"Okay, so we can't get out, but this tower is huge," I replied. "Is there something here we can use? Some kind of way to override what's going on out there? Security systems usually fall apart when the people who are supposed to maintain them aren't able to keep them up, and being forced to the ground at gunpoint definitely qualifies."

"We should just stay here," Mineta argued, sitting on the ground already. "We won't get in the way, and they got All Might trapped; there's no way we can stop them ourselves if the actual Pros are stuck!"

Todoroki looked at his right hand, a single spark stirring in his palm, "Aren't we trying to be Pros ourselves?"

"Well, yes," Yaoyorozu agreed, "but we're not allowed to work as heroes, you know that!"

"Oh, I must've missed the point when we all refused to use our Quirks during the USJ attack, since we didn't have explicit permission," I countered, annoyed at her reticence. "I-Island isn't Japan, Momo, and Quirk use is free here. This isn't a question of bureaucracy, it's a question of morality, and courage."

Todoroki nodded, "And is standing by while people are in danger, is doing nothing at all, really the right thing to do?"

"Well, no," the heiress admitted. "But it's more complicated than that."

Crossing my arms, I stared at her. "Is it? Really?"

Before she could respond, Midoriya did, his quiet declaration of "I want to help," carrying in the empty stairwell.

"Are you sure, Deku?" Ochaco asked, worried, having been quiet, along with Asui, since the lockdown started.

Midoriya stood straighter, looking around the ledge at the top of the stairs, as if daring us to challenge him. "I want to save them," he insisted.

"Well, I'm in," I smiled, Mina nodding in agreement, even as Mineta jumped to his feet.

"Are you insane!?" he demanded. "You want to go fight those Villains? Didn't you learn anything from the USJ, Midoriya? We lost someone then, and we'll lose someone here too!"

"This is totally different!" the green haired boy objected. "We don't need to fight them. We just need to figure out a way to rescue All Might and everyone else at the party without facing the bad guys."

Yeah, this is a movie, no way that's actually happening. "You know we're gonna end up fighting someone, right?" I asked him.

"I know, but I still want to try!" he declared, full of passion and resolve. "We can figure out what the best plan of action is and keep these criminals from winning! We can save everyone!"

"I'm saying let's go for it, just be realistic," I laughed, shaking my head. "To be honest, I was still gonna try even if you guys said no. That said, saying we're gonna do this is a lot easier than actually doing it."

"Are you sure, ribbit?" Asui asked nervously, and Midoriya nodded firmly. "Then I'm helping too."

Melissa spoke up, "I know where the security system controls are, they're on the top floor of this tower. If these criminals managed to take control of them, then the authentication locks and passwords have probably been disabled."

"Which means that anyone can just walk in, including us," I nodded, this entire thing becoming much easier.

"Yes," the college girl replied. "We should be able to reboot the system ourselves. We just have to stay off the villain's radar until we can get to the top floor. That's all. If we do that, the whole island will be safe again!" she declared, Midoriya's determination spreading to the blonde.

"So it's possible," the boy in question breathed, and I had to look at him, wondering why, if he'd thought it was actually impossible, he was still going to do it. Right. Shonen Protagonist.

Momo frowned, "That sounds like it may work, but how do we keep from being seen? Surely this location has more than adequate security measures to spot us long before we finish our ascent."

Ms. Shield shook her head, "The security system hasn't discovered us yet, when we shouldn't even be having time to have this conversation. That means the Villains probably don't know how it works very well."

Mei nodded, "A lot of people are kinda dumb."

Ignoring her, Todoroki mused, "So we avoid fighting anyone and get this place back to normal. That could work."

Turning my hand to lightning, I grimaced, "If I had full control, I could just go up there myself."

Mina, however, just rolled her eyes, "Yeah, and? If I was stronger I could just melt through the walls and carry us all up. Work with what ya got, Sparky, not with what ya wish ya had."

"Most of our foes will likely be gathered at the top floor," Yaoyorozu observed, still unsure, but now actively planning.

"But if we're fast, we won't have to fight them!" Midoriya countered, the boy's enthusiasm overriding his intelligence. Even if it was just as simple as pressing a single button, we'd still have to make it to that button, and they would try and stop us. "When the security system goes back to normal, All Might and the others will be released. They'll immediately jump into action and stop the Villains. I know it!"

Ochaco nodded, hands balled up into fists, trying to look serious in her pink floofy dress and almost succeeding as she announced, "Let's do this, guys!" From the others' looks, though, the effect worked better on them as she stated with conviction, "I don't want to sit around here being helpless! Not if there's something we can actually try! What's important is that we're helping people, even if we're not real heroes!"

"Preach it!" Mina cheered, Asui nodding in agreement, as Izuku stood straight.

"That's exactly the way I feel about things!" he agreed. "We'll follow our hearts and save the island!"

Now kiss, some stupid part of me thought, the two of them adorable together, but I just shook my head as Todoroki stepped forward, announcing, "Midoriya! I'll go with you too."

"Samesies!" Mina added, giving them both a thumbs up.

I just opened my arms, "Hey, you already know I'm in."

"The moment I think we've gone too far, it's over," Ida announced, and I frowned, as the boy did not have that fucking power, but Mina shot me a look and shook her head before I could tell him to go screw himself. "If that's something you can agree to, I'll join you as well."

It wasn't, but that just meant that Ida wasn't an asset that could be trusted, something I was coming to realize more and more. The others added their own agreements, Mei just rolling her eyes at me when I looked at her, telling me, "You're my partner, partner. Of course I'm going! Oooh, I wonder what I could learn to make by poking around this place!"

Well, it's the thought that counts.

I tried not to laugh when Midoriya suggested Melissa stay behind, as she was Quirkless, the sheer hypocrisy of it undercut by the fact that he meant well, and I actually laughed after she slapped him down, pointing out that she was the only one here who actually knew how to reset the security systems.

"I know I might just get in your way," she said, looking down, "at least until we get up to the top floor, but I want to help. People are in danger!"

Walking up behind Izuku, I clapped him on the back. "'Sides, you don't need a Quirk to be a hero, isn't that right Midoriya?" The boy's head snapped to me, eyes wide. "Yours hadn't kicked in yet when you tried to take on that slime Villain, after all. After Bakugo bitched about it enough, I looked it up. Yeah, you couldn't win, but if you hadn't done what you did, our resident explosion in human form might've died. Kinda unfair to stop her now. Shield, you any good with a gun?"

The girl shook her head.

"Pity. Might want to pick up the skill. You'll stay in the back with Mei, and let us take the hits," I smiled, jerking my hands forward as I extended my gauntlets. "We'll be the brawn, and you'll be the brains. That sound good, Deku?"

The boy sighed, nodding. "Yeah, alright then. Let's do this. We'll save everyone!"

Melissa smiled, nodding back. "Yeah!"

MHA

It was one thing to say 'we're gonna go to the top!', it was quite another to climb over a hundred sets of stairs. After Midoriya went back to 'go tell All Might what we're doing', we started climbing. And climbing. And climbing. After the we reached the thirtieth floor, someone finally thought to ask how many levels this building had, which turned out to be an even 200.

After the 40th , I started pulling on OfA, and picked up Mei, who was starting to flag a little, the girl having not been one for cardio, in-shape because of the heavy lifting required for her profession, and for her tendency to skip 'unnecessary meals', which, if she had her way, would be all of them.

After the 50th , Melissa was starting to flag, the lack of the foundational Atlas Quirk starting to show itself, as everyone else was breathing hard, but otherwise fine. Mina, Midoriya, Tenya, and weirdly enough Ochaco weren't even winded at all. Mina had Body Talent, Midoriya had OfA as well, and had started to copy my low-level use, and running was Ida's thing, but Uraraka didn't seem to be using her Quirk on herself, so I wasn't sure how she was keeping up so easily with the rest of us.

However, the college girl didn't ask for help, just slipped off her heels and started running barefoot, which was surprising, but she obviously knew what she was doing, and caught up with us, pushing through the fatigue she was obviously feeling.

By floor 70, Mineta was just as bad as Melissa was, but with the boy's size he was essentially taking the steps three at a time, so the fact that he was keeping up with us at all was impressive, and everyone but Midoriya and I were breathing hard, even Mina's Company-granted physical upgrades not enough to keep up, though she was doing better than pretty much everyone else.

Unfortunately, at the 80th floor there was a metal security latch blocking the stairs up to the next level, stopping us completely. "How thick is this, and will the systems pick it up if we just burn a hole through it?" I questioned Melissa, hoping it was just the one barrier, as if we had to do this on every floor Mina wouldn't be able to keep up, and it would slow our progress tremendously.

Ms. Shield held a hand up to ask for a moment of time, desperately getting her breath back, but waggled the hand in a 'kinda' gesture. "There's sensors, but not throughout the door. If we bash it open, it will, but if you can take out part of the side, maybe."

"Thickness?" I questioned the blonde, turning to Mina. "And you think you could control your acid enough to do that?

While we talked, Mineta, stumbling from tiredness, walked over to the entrance to the floor itself. "Why don't we just go through this door instead?" he asked, reaching up and grabbing the handle mid-sentence.

"No!" Melissa, Midoriya, and I all yelled at once, but the stupid boy pulled the handle, a light turning on next to it as the door swung open.

"Jesus Christ!" I swore, but the damage had been done. "You fucking moron! Aizawa would tan your hide for that! Will, when I fucking tell him!"

"Wha?" the small boy asked, confused, taking a step back in fear. "What's wrong? It opened, din't it?"

"And likely created an alert for the Villains," Ida snapped, as the small boy's eyes went wide. "But the damage has likely been done. We should press on this way, and find another route." He started to move through the doorway, as my arm snapped out and caught him on the shoulder, yanking him back. "What?" he demanded. "We don't have time to waste!"

"One, that's literally the same dumb shit we just yelled at him about," I told the arrogant speedster, jerking my head at the cringing Mineta. "Two, Melissa, is that a good idea? There's not laser grids that'll slice us apart, or cameras that will see us, or an army of robots that'll shoot us, or something."

"The laser grid isn't in this building," she offered, which didn't help, "but they know we're here, and unless they look through the cameras directly, they won't see us. We've passed dozens already."

Sero, looked around nervously, and I asked our guide, "Is there another way up?"

"If we run all the way around, there should be another stairwell," she offered with a shrug.

"Okay, then let's double time it," I commanded, looking around, "Mina, carry Melissa. Midoriya, Ochaco. Sero, tag Todoroki with some tape and let him pull you behind him on the ice. Ida, Mineta. Momo, make some skates, and Asui, you can jump fast enough to keep up, right?"

Ida looked like he wanted to argue, but everyone nodded and we took off at speed, blasting out the door and down the slowly curving hallway as fast as we could, almost there when metal doors started to close in front of us. Midoriya slammed a powered kick, but only managed to dent the metal; whatever these things made of they were strong.

"We have to fall back, I saw a door!" Tenya announced, taking off at a run, the rest of us having to follow him or be separated.

There were probably only a couple doors, I thought with a grimace, We probably could have made it through them. Thankfully, with our speed we were able to move faster than the doors closed, reaching the entrance only to see the large metal panels had been coming down from the other direction, trapping us with only one way to go.

Ida, with a yell and a flare of his Quirk, slammed a kick into the doors so hard they blew open, and I wondered if that was entirely necessary, as they seemed to be made of a lesser material than the security gates.

Regardless, we ran inside, into the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Aperture Science edition.

"What is this place?" Deku asked, still carrying Ochaco, who looked around in wonderment alongside him.

"It's a plant factory!" our guide informed us.

"Plant what?" Yaoyorozu asked, looking around as well, as we all moved further inside, with speed, but not the mad dash we'd been at moments ago.

"And where are we going?" I chimed in, looking around at the space that must've been ten floors high on its own.

Melissa, glancing around, almost absently answered, "It's where we test what effects Quirks have on Fauna. And I'm not sure."

Mina slowed a little, looking back at the girl she was carrying, "Wait, you don't know where we're go-"

"The elevator!" Sero called, pointing at the column that ran through the center of the room. Sure enough, there was an elevator door at the base, the numbers quickly counting upwards. "It's coming up!"

"Don't tell us the villains found us!" Mineta gasped, and I had to turn and look at him. The metal gates closing in wasn't a clue?

"We should hide, and let the Villains pass!" Midoriya declared, and I turned around to look at him instead.

The others started to move for the shrubbery nearby, while I just set down Mei. "Guys, what the hell!? They know we're here! They closed the gates and everything! They're not gonna go 'oh well, must have been the wind' when Ida blew up the doors!"

Mei stood next to me, regarding the teenagers with similar derision, nodding, though the girl had so little sense in other things herself, she really didn't have a leg to stand on here.

"M-maybe they think we've left?" Mineta suggested, and I just groaned.

Glancing over, the number were clicking up, in the thirties now. "Actually, can we just use the elevator to go up? We'll have to fight our way out, obviously, but that was gonna happen no matter what."

Melissa shook her head, "No, only authorized people can use the controls, unfortunately. And it's built like a bomb shelter, so we can't even break in and try!"

I just stared at the girl. "You're saying we can't get into the elevator?" she nodded. "The elevator that has to open to let the Villains out?"

Said elevator was now in the fifties, as there was a moment of silence.

"Well, we still won't be able to," she said, though I could tell even she doubted her words.

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I looked at my fellow students, most of whom were looking at me like I was the crazy one. "Am I the only one here who studied tactics? No, no I know I'm not, just... ugh."

"We're tryin' not to fight," shrugged Mina, helpfully explaining the others' reluctance.

Shaking my head, I turned, tapping Mei on the shoulder, and motioning for her to move towards a column that'd give her line of sight on the elevator door opening. "Cover me, shoot if they don't go down in the first hit."

"You got it, partner!" the girl smiled, dashing over to her spot, even as I took a runner's stance, letting my hands and feet turn to lightning, the ground metallic enough for me to attach to.

"What are you doing?" Ida demanded, as the elevator hit the mid-sixties. "They'll see you!"

I didn't bother flipping him off. "How quickly do the doors open, in seconds?" I asked Melissa instead.

"Two seconds, and there's two layers of doors," the girl answered, as the counter was now up in the seventies.

Okay, figure out acceleration, distance, and they're almost certainly not going to come out shooting, but if they do I can dodge, I judged, as the counter hit eighty and a bell chimed, and NOW!

With OfA pushed high, I threw myself forward with muscle power, taking that initial momentum and riding along the ground as I pushed myself even faster with my Induction Grind, a little wobbly as I couldn't just following a single wire, but it was easy enough to correct as the first set of doors opened and I flared my gauntlets, twin bursts of gold expanding behind me as I shot forward into a spinning leap, feet first, for the center seam of the doorway.

It opened, and I saw they were heteromorphs, or close enough, one guy thin and gawky, the other a dwarf, though still taller than Mineta. They both looked relaxed and bored, but both their eyes widened as I shot past them, spinning in mid-air and catching both in the face with grasping, electric hands, arms shifting electrically to the elbow and shooting them backwards to slam their heads against the far wall of the elevator with a ringing smash that dented it. Both men started to move, the smaller one growing while the taller one's hands expanded, but that was just step one as I pulled down and force-fed them half a million volts each, the flow smooth and consistent, as it always was, as it passed through them, causing both men to spasm as they were electrocuted.

Smoking, they were both limp as I dropped them, turning to the others with a mocking smile. "Tactics people! I'm literally a living stungun! And, now we have an elevator!"

AN: As Usual, Next Four Chapter Up On !