#do i care that its wired and not wireless? also nah | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

comicgeekscomicgeek · 4 years ago

Text

Their Hero Academia - Chapter 67: Island Insanity Intensifies

Presenting the next installment of my on-going, nextgen, MHA fic! Earlier chapters can be found here

“Ah!” Tensei Iida exclaimed, gesturing wildly at the display before them. “A most ingenious device.”

Toshi gave it a second look. He’d glanced at it briefly, but had been busy listening to Sora and Dave discuss the punch-enhancing gauntlets they’d seen at the previous booth and hadn’t been paying a lot of attention. So far, he didn’t use any Support equipment himself, though he had a few ideas for some new bits for his costume he’d thought of after the Final Exam. But if one of the twins thought something was well designed, it was probably worth paying attention to. His girlfriend and her brother were two of the smartest people he knew, somehow managing to be in the Hero Course and still having time to take Support course classes as well.

Speaking of girlfriends, the device had now caught Sora’s attention as well. She was, in fact, practically drooling over it. “Oh, yes,” she agreed. “This is quite spectacular!”

Toshi considered himself relatively smart. He was probably wasn’t in the top fourth of the class, but close enough. But when it came to advanced stuff like this, he didn’t have a clue. It just looked like a silvery helmet with a dark visor to him, connected by wires to some kind of power source. Before he could ask any questions though, Sero piped in.

“So, what’s it do?” Sero asked. “Because I don’t know if that’s going to work with my aesthetic.” Considering Sero had once said he’d purposefully bought a bowling shirt because the colors gave him a headache, Toshi wasn’t exactly sure what his aesthetic was and how anything could clash with it.

“Oh, it would be very useful,” Tensei explained. “It combines several different scanners from across the electromagnetic spectrum into one device. This should enable its wearer to view everything from the infra-red all the way to the ultraviolet end of the spectrum. Very useful for locating Villains, even if they have stealth Quirks!”

“I do have concerns about the power source, though,” Sora added, further scrutinizing the device. “It would have to be properly armored and those wires could be easily grabbed. And, of course, if pierced, the detonation could be rather significant…”

“Definite significant,” Sero said.

“You would not require cremation,” Sora told him, matter-of-factly.

“Still,” Tensei went on, “I do see possibilities. I wonder though, if it would be better to house such power sources externally? Somewhere where they would not endanger the user?”

“A drone, perhaps?” Sora questioned. “That way its power source could be properly armored, and then you would only need a wireless transmission to a visual source, such as a visor or other display…”

“Yes!” Tensei agreed. “Though the power supply needed to see the entirety of the spectrum would…”

Toshi lost track of the conversation at that point, not having the head for the engineering or scientific principles behind it. If it ever got to gravity or some basic physics, then he was on pretty good ground. Otherwise…

“Got us a couple of smart ones, didn’t we?” Sero said, after a moment, giving Toshi a conspiratorial look. He grinned. “I have no idea what they’re saying.”

“Then why do you look so happy about it?” Dave asked. Once again, his patience for Sero’s actions was wearing thin, Toshi could tell. “Don’t tell me you’re celebrating your ignorance.”

“Nah,” Sero said. “I just like seeing Tensei get all happy about something. He’s cute when he’s pontificating.”

Toshi had to admit, Sero had a point. He thought the same thing about Sora. Her eyes just lit up when she got passionate about something she was working on, even if he couldn’t follow it.

Mercifully, it didn’t take too long for the twins to wind down though, and by the sounds of it, they’d come up with yet another project for when they were able to access to a lab again. He was sure he’d hear more about it later. He was probably going to have to remind them to eat and sleep in the near future.

“You two might want to consider a limited A.I.,” Dave said. “Otherwise, it’s of limited utility. If you have to keep manual control, then you’re going to be distracted focusing on that. With an A.I., you can give it a target to follow or a patrol route.”

“Dave’s got a point,” Toshi agreed. Not surprising. Dave was both a star of the Support Department and had grown up with a Hero dad and older siblings. It gave him a unique insight into the way in which the two met up.

“He does indeed,” Sora agreed.

Tensei nodded. “More difficult then. And not our specialty. Would you care to collaborate, Togata?”

Dave shrugged. “So long as Power Loader signs off on it. Last time I checked, you two were on his shit list.”

“Very unfairly!” Tensei declared, arms flailing.

Sora joined in the protest, her own arms flailing as well. How they managed not to hit each other, Toshi didn’t know. “Just because we occasionally cause small explosions is no reason to restrict our lab access! You would think he would understand that explosions are merely learning opportunities!”

This got a laugh from Sero and Dave, who looked at each other in surprise. Both shrugged and then the group peeled off to look at the next exhibit.

“Oh, speaking of opportunities,” Sero told Dave, “Kimmie made me promise I’d ask if you were seeing anybody. Because if not, she’s actually got some people lined up.”

Dave just shook his head. “I swear, you’re all as bad as Dad….”

***

“I can’t believe you know Godzillo,” Isamu told Togata, carefully carrying the signed statue in a small bag. He’d mentioned wanting to get the retired Hero and actor’s autograph and Togata had insisted on introducing him. Kana was going to flip out when she saw this.

“Dad and Uncle Izuku teamed up with him back when I was just a kid,” Togata explained. “They got along real well, I guess. Of course, Dad gets along with everybody…” He laughed. “But yeah, I figured I could convince him to do a gratis autograph if I asked.”

Isamu just shook his head. “I appreciate it though! Kana’s going to love this!”

“Kana?” Togata asked, inclining his head slightly.

“My, ah, girlfriend,” Isamu said. It still felt weird to be able to say that. The notion that any girl might like him, let alone one who could probably kick his ass six ways to Sunday, was still a surprising one to him. Though he also wasn’t entirely sure if her parents knew. He’d mentioned Kana to his, to his mom’s particular delight. On the other hand, she hadn’t formally introduced him yet to her mother, despite her mom being a teacher at U.A.. So he wasn’t sure what was going on there. He wasn’t going to put too much thought into it. Considering she’d been the one to ask him out, he was relatively sure she wasn’t embarrassed by him or anything like that. “Kana Tetsutetsu.”

“Battle-Fist and Real Steel’s daughter?” Togata asked. He nodded slightly. “Saw her at the Sports Festival. Uncle Izuku likes to have everybody working under him watch, get our opinions, see the upcoming Heroes. She’s pretty talented.”

“She is,” Isamu agreed. He wasn’t sure how well he’d have stacked up to her martial arts skills or ability to guard against attacks.

They passed a few stalls selling various Hero merchandise, including one with a man with floppy once-dark now-grey hair and glasses glasses, who seemed to be selling copies of some kind of book. Isamu looked up at the banner on top of the stall. Taneo Tokuda – Author of When the Symbol of Hope Was Young –Soon to be a Major Motion Picture!

Isamu recognized the name and the title; there was a copy of it in his house. It had been in publication for years, though originally it had been titled When the New Symbol of Peace Was Young. It had retitled after a few years, when Deku had adopted the different and more fitting title. It was still one of the top selling books, annually.

The man—Tokuda, he now recognized from the author picture—shot up at the sight of them. “Tamaki Togata,” the man said, beaming. “As I live and breathe! It’s been too long!”

“Not since the last time you interviewed Uncle Izuku for your script, Mister Tokuda,” Togata said. “I still can’t believe they’re finally turning your book into a movie.”

Tokuda laughed. “You, me, and my bank account. And I’ve told you, call me Taneo. All my friends do.” He gave Isamu an appraising look. “Ah! I know you! From the Sports Festival. Haimawari, right?”

“Yes, sir,” Isamu said.

Tokuda seemed to give him an appraising look. “Oh yeah,” he said. “I can see why Deku took you on.” He pointed towards Togata. “Both of you. You’ve got the same kind of spark. Takes me back to the first time I met him, really.” He peered at them over the top of his glasses.

Not that he didn’t appreciate the comparison (He was, however, not going to think about it too hard, because down that path lay panic), but Isamu wasn’t entirely sure he was comfortable with the scrutiny the man was giving him.

A smile did work its way onto Togata’s face, though. “You can turn that investigator mode off, Taneo. He’s here on vacation, same as me.”

Tokuda’s face fell just a little, but he pushed his glasses back up and smiled amiably. “So no chance of an interview about everything going on back home?”

“Top secret,” Togata told him.

Tokuda laughed. “Ah, well, can’t blame a guy for trying. Still, expecting big things from both of you, so promise me an interview whenever you go Pro? I know we’re going to see big things from you, Togata. Just call it a hunch. ”

“Ah, sure?” Isamu said, uncertainly. Deku taking an interest in him was one thing, but a reporter/writer as well? One who’d done an official biography of Deku? What exactly was his life?

“You’re going to be waiting a while,” Togata said. He didn’t actually answer the question, Isamu noted. “He’s just a first year student and I want a few more years working with the best under my belt.”

Tokuda shrugged, smiling easily. “I’ve got time. But let me know if you want to come on set sometime. They start filming in a couple months and I’m sure I can get some passes.”

That might be fun, Isamu thought, though he figured Tokuda was probably talking more to Togata than him.

“We’ll see,” Togata said. “Nice to see you, Taneo.”

As they were walking away, Isamu turned to Togata. “Everything all right there? Guy seemed a little, ah, intense?”

Togata just smiled and shook his head. “Tokuda’s a good guy. Probably nobody out there who’s a bigger fan of Uncle Izuku than him, actually. …Well, maybe not bigger than the Shinso kid. He just really believes in what Uncle Izuku means as a symbol. But he can’t quite stop looking forward or turn off that reporter’s instinct, so he’s always looking for the next story, whether it’s there or not. His instincts are usually on the money though.”

“Great,” Isamu sighed. “One more person expecting big stuff out of me.”

“I told you,” Togata said. “Don’t worry about that. Focus on your training and being the best you can be. You’ve got time.”

***

Melissa had already studied the hologram in front of them numerous times. Hell, she’s studied the real thing. She’d been up to her elbows in it, even. Working together with Mei and the best forensic analysts at both Deku’s agency and that the HPSC could spare, they’d taken all of the robot-Nomu apart one piece at a time and studied every inch of every one of them.

That their secrets continued to elude them was nothing short of infuriating. The combination of enhanced technology and bio-augmentation suggested an expertise in multiple fields of science. Who had that level of knowledge and expertise?

Jinsei rubbed his chin with his hand. “The same design, every time. These were definitely mass produced. Nothing identifying to any of the parts either.”

Melissa nodded. “There’d been some technology thefts in the weeks prior to the attack, but none of the Heroes were able to find any leads, even with the Voice and Glamour hitting the streets and shaking down just about every source.” She tapped a few keys and called the list up. “Not nearly enough to account for all of this… unless you only needed a handful to take apart as a model.”

He nodded his agreement. “Very sophisticated robotics. You can see certain systems here and there that are extrapolations of current theories and designs though. I can see some of the technology from U.A.’s robots, there’s Shield tech, and I even see a few of Hatsume’s designs. And…”

Nothing they didn’t already know. Whoever had built them was well versed in current technology, no matter how proprietary. But the facial journey Jinsei was undergoing was something else entirely.

Jinsei frowned, his face flush with anger in a way that made his scars stand out even more. “Those bastards.” He slammed his hands on the console, causing the hologram to briefly flicker. “Those bastards! How!?”

“What? Melissa asked. She’d jumped at his outburst and paused to readjust her glasses. “What is it?” She’s seen Jinsei get angry before, especially after… But the pure rage she was seeing here was stunning.

He tapped keys, bringing up a hologram next to the one of the Nomu. With more tapping, he isolated what they’d identified as the Nomu’s power source. Melissa let out a soft gasp. The two were identical.

“That’s the power source for the robots I’ve been designing,” Jinsei said. “The ones I consulted you about. The ones that were going to…”

He trailed off. Melissa had listened to his arguments about the failures of Heroes often enough to know where he’d been going with it. That they took too much on and that too much was expected of them. That they were worked to exhaustion and made mistakes. His idea to replace or supplement them with robots who didn’t get tired or have bad judgement was well meaning, even if she knew it wasn’t possible. The level of A.I. just wasn’t there yet, among other things.

“That was Ami’s design,” he growled, head down, body shaking with rage. “Back when we were just designing the robots to support the Heroes. Before…”

His head snapped up. “Those bastards stole her design!”

Melissa blinked her eyes slowly, then set her face in grim determination. Jinsei needed goals and directions now, if he was ever going to come out of this state and not spiral into self-destructiveness. “Who else would have had access to the plans? Do you think there was a data breach?”

Jinsei started pacing, quick frantic steps back and forth. “My lab assistants. The board. A few others I’ve had to consult with. You.”

She jerked in surprise. “You can’t possibly think…!”

He shook his head rapidly. “No, not you, never you. I trust you, Melissa. I’m just… my life’s work… turned into part of those monsters. I wanted to help. And something I designed nearly killed so many…”

Melissa placed a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. “Hey,” she said quietly. “It’s another clue. We’re going to get this figured out.”

***

They were working their way through the crowd to meet back up with Midoriya and the others when Togata suddenly stopped. “Everything okay?” Isamu asked.

“I don’t know,” Togata said. He looked around, scanning the crowd. In an instant, his body language had changed, moving from relaxed and at ease to alert and ready for action. Isamu had heard that the really good Heroes had a certain kind of instinct, the kind that came from years of dealing with trouble. Supposedly, they could tell when trouble was coming practically before it even started.

Tamaki Togata was only a Sidekick. But he was the Sidekick to the greatest Hero on the planet and had worked with many more. It wasn’t surprising that his instincts would already be finely honed.

Isamu straightened up, looking around as well. If Togata thought there was something worth getting ready for, there probably was. Even if he couldn’t see it. All he could see were people milling about, going from stand to stall to booth. People were snapping pictures, signing autographs, showing off their Quirks. It seemed about as non-threatening as was possible to get, his early feelings of being overwhelmed notwithstanding.

He forced himself to listen, to look around for signs of trouble. Isamu didn’t have super-human senses. He wasn’t an even an expert at listening like Shoji. But his Quirk did demand that he be observant and react quickly. If he wasn’t, he’d have ended up a smear on a wall the second something came up that he couldn’t maneuver around when he was sliding.

There.

It was distant, but he could hear the sound of screams now. They were growing louder and getting closer by the moment. The crowd was parting now, trying to run away from whatever it was.

Togata was already taking off, heading towards the source of it, a blur of motion. He should have stayed where he was. Even with the super-relaxed Quirk-use laws on I-Island, he was still just a Hero student. No license, barely a term into his studies. Absolutely no one would have blamed him if he’d just stayed where he was.

Instead, his body moved on his own. He pitched forward and fired a burst of power from his Quirk, his autographed statue left behind without a thought, sliding through the crowd and around the fleeing Expo guests. Just ahead, he could still see Togata, faintly glowing with power as he darted through the crowd.

It didn’t take long to see what was going on. Already, a number of booths and stalls had been completely trashed. It didn’t look like anybody was injured, but that wasn’t likely to last long. At the center of the destruction were several people—he assumed they were civilians because they weren’t in costume—all swathed in a bright orange glow. One seemed to have some kind of fire Quirk, one was a giant rhino man, and the other was woman lobbing blobs of sticky goo.

There was no coordination in their attacks, just seemingly random destruction.

“Get away! Get away!” the fire-wielder, said, letting loose a stream of crimson flames. They didn’t look all that hot; he couldn’t even feel the heat from this close. “You can’t have my liver! I’m using it!”

“Scorpions!” the rhino man shouted, charged and smashing everything in his path. “Covered in scorpions! Get ‘em off me! Get ‘em off me!”

The woman was spraying goo everywhere, her eyes wide in panic. “Clowns!” she screamed. “Not clowns! Anything but clowns!”

Togata seemed to sense his arrival. “Haimawari?” he said, not turning to look. “Stay back. This looks dangerous.”

Another Hero arrived on the scene, but not one that Isamu recognized. He was wearing a black costume, with boots, gloves, trucks, and a cape all the dark grey of approaching storm clouds. A square-ish lightning bolt symbol adorned his chest. “<Don’t worry,>” the Hero said, in what he realized was English, “<Thunderhead will stop them!”>

The Hero—Thunderhead—brought his hands out to the side and then slammed them together, hard. It created a powerful boom that sounded like a clap of thunder, sending a wave of sound out from his hands. It struck the rhino man dead on but did little more than knock him back for a second.

The rhino man eyed him, his tiny, dark eyes widening in fear. “More scorpions!” he shouted, his voice laced with fear. “Gotta stop them before they can sting me!” The rhino man struck out, hitting Thunderhead hard enough to send him flying.

When Thunderhead got up, he was glowing. The exact same orange glow as the others. There was a madness in his eyes, one that was clearly driving his actions now. “They’re all against me! They think I’m an idiot! Well I’ll show them!”

Thunderhead brought his hands together, unleashing another wave of force. But Togata moved, his own body aglow in green light and he placed himself right in the line of fire. The wave of force rocked against him, but he was not moved. Not for nothing was his Hero name the Shield.

“Whatever it is that’s driving them crazy,” Togata said, “it’s contagious!”

Togata drew back a punch. “Dammit,” he hissed, “no time to be subtle about it!” He threw the punch forward, glowing brighter as he amped up his density. The force of the blow itself was enough to push the air forward, a powerful gust that knocked Thunderhead down for a moment, still aglow with orange light.

Which still left the other three. If they touched anyone else… Isamu quickly began to realize that following might not have been the best idea.

“Do not worry,” a voice shouted, “I am here to render assistance!” Isamu looked to the source and found that it was Ingenium: Tenya Iida, the twins’ father. He was clad in his armor and running at full speed.

“Roller skate clowns?!” the goo-throwing woman shrieked. She tossed blobs of her goo, but Ingenium dodged every one. But then he got close…

“Ingenium!” Togata shouted. “Look out! Don’t let them touch you!”

But it was too late. The woman’s fingers brushed against Ingenium’s armor, even as he dodged out of the way of her attack.

That was all it took. Ingenium skidded to a stop, turning on a dime. And by the time he had finished, he too, was glowing orange. Isamu couldn’t see the man’s expression behind his helmet, but he got the feeling that it wasn’t one he would have wanted to ever see.

Ingenium readied himself to run again. “Back for more, eh, Stain? You’ll not find me a careless child now!”

There was a roar like a jet engine as Ingenium fired his Recipro-Burst.

***

Rei lowered her binoculars and grinned. “Looks like the guy we sprung is doing his job.” Unlike the other “voluntary detainees” under I-Island, Setsushi had been stored in a tube, constantly sedated. His Quirk took the form of a communicable madness, making whoever was infected with it hallucinate heavily, bringing their worst fears or other delusions to life. And once someone was infected, they could pass it on to others. All it took was a touch, didn’t even have to be skin to skin contact. Ursa had had to design very special gloves for the two of them to wear to be able to get him up to the surface and let him loose in the expo. Didn’t even need any real prompting. Just had to let him stagger around and bump into a few people.

Perched on one of the island’s towers, in the blind spot between cameras, they had a very excellent view of the chaos below.

Miss Compress lowered her own binoculars. “Barely twenty minutes since we dropped him off, and he’s already infected more than a dozen people, including a few Heroes. Everyone else is running or panicking. Quite the catastrophe we’ve engineered, dahling.”

Rei did, ultimately, feel just a little guilty about that. She did have family down there, after all. Not close family, but her little rocket-powered cousins-in-law were still part of the crowd. At least it wasn’t her actual cousins or anybody like that. Sometimes, you did have to break a few eggs.

“How long did the boss say this was supposed to last?” she asked Compress.

Her companion pulled a pocket watch from her coat pocket and examined it. “Infection in any given person is supposed to last no more than thirty minutes and no less than five, depending upon individual resistance factors. But reinfection is possible, so depending upon how many people it spreads through once it starts hitting the crowds… Possibly forever. Or at least until they all beat themselves senseless or worse.”

Compress replaced the watch in her pocket. “Quite the show. You don’t think our dear leader is going too far, do you?”

Rei shrugged. Compress was, she knew, more in it for the thrill of it all, the chance to pull one over on Hero society. That it aligned with their leader’s overall goals of showing the cracks in Hero society and destroying it worked out well, but she didn’t have quite the same lust for battle that some of the other members did.

As far as Rei was concerned, it could all go burn. Any society that let monsters like her grandfather live, even humiliated and in exile, didn’t deserve to stick around.

“Still,” Compress went on, “one more straw for the proverbial camel’s back, I suppose. And I can’t say I’m disappointed to see Ingenium down there.” Ingenium, Rei recalled, had ultimately been responsible for the capture of her mentor, Mister Compress. He’d been the last of the original League of Villains to be captured, staying free for years after the others had been captured or killed. Small wonder she bore him some enmity.

Rei’s communicator beeped and she checked it. “We’d better get going. Overdrive just sent the exit confirmation. She’s meeting us at the docks in twenty.” Her tongue slid over her lips. There was bound to be plenty of blood by the end of the day. “Shame we gotta run so fast. It was just getting’ interesting. You got still got the sample?”

Compress patted one of her coat pockets and nodded. “Of course, dahling. And don’t worry. I’m sure our benefactor will have plenty of video we can watch later.”

***

Ka-Pow!

The blue-white energy bolt hit Ingenium squarely in the middle of his forehead. There wasn’t a lot of power behind it, but when combined with the Turbo Hero’s speed, it was like running head first into a throw fastball. Isamu looked at his hand as though he was seeing it for the first time. Had he really done that? Had he actually just assaulted a Pro-Hero, the Number Six ranked Hero at that?

He wondered if you could get expelled for that kind of thing.

Togata turned his head to look at him. “Good job!” he said, flashing him a brief thumbs up. But worry immediately replaced the cheer on his face. “This isn’t good. Whatever this is, it’s spreading fast and spreading by touch by the looks of it.”

Isamu’s thoughts quickly went to Midoriya and the others, and then to the countless others on the island. Even with more Pro-Heroes than you could shake a stick at, it wouldn’t take much for this to spread and spread quickly. He didn’t even know if it would wear off. Ingenium was down, but still glowing.

The other infected were leaving them alone for the moment, but still causing plenty of trouble, lost in their own personal madness. But it was only a matter of time before someone was seriously hurt.

“Probably shouldn’t do this,” Togata said, “but I know Uncle Izuku has faith in you. So I’m deputizing you until this is all over. So you can use your Quirk to fight. Just don’t get killed, okay?”

Isamu nodded, even as his heart was thudding in his chest. “Okay,” he said. “What… what do we do?”

Togata shook his head. “Try to keep people from killing each other, try to find the cause of this, work with as many Pros who’ve managed to avoid catching this as we can. See if anyone’s made a call for help. Whatever else happens, we can’t let this get off the island.” Worry strained his voice. Isamu knew his family was somewhere on the island now too. Togata’s younger brother, David, would probably be with Midoriya and the others, so he was about as safe as could be. But he had no idea where Doctor Shield or Togata’s older sister, Nejire, were. Nejire Togata was, at least, a third year U.A. student and one of the Big Three. Her phasing Quirk would probably keep her safe.

People counting on them. The whole island in danger. His friends missing. Some kind of insanity that was spread by touch. And he’d just shot Ingenium in the head. It was all too much. Isamu could fell himself start to shake and he bent at the waist, hands on his knees to keep himself from falling over. This was supposed to have just been a vacation. Not… whatever this had become. He was barely sixteen. How the hell was he supposed to cope with all of this?

He became aware of a hand on his shoulder. Togata. “Look,” he said, “I know this is overwhelming. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared too. But right now, we’ve got to get moving. Every second counts.”

Isamu straightened up. He pulled his goggles down over his eyes and his bandana up to cover his nose and mouth. All round now, he could hear the sounds of screams, of Heroes calling out attacks and telling people to head for shelter, and the sounds of all kinds of Quirks going off. It definitely wasn’t the time to be worrying. It was a time for action. “Can I have a panic attack later?”

“We all can.”

***

The sound of screams split the air. The kind of raw, panicked screams you heard when there was serious trouble afoot. Takuma’s eyes darted around and he could see that Midoriya, Sora, and Tensei were all doing the same. They might only have been first-year students, but all of them were the children of Pro-Heroes. Long before they entered U.A., their parents had been teaching them how to look out for themselves.

His parents were lower-ranked than some of his friends, but both still well within the top one hundred. He knew for a fact that there had been more than a few kidnapping attempts on the children of higher ranked Heroes, the twins and Midoriya among them. The adults didn’t talk about those much, but from what little he’d been able to gather, it hadn’t gone particularly well for any of the would-be kidnappers. Kaminari had once joked about it, suggesting that anyone who had kidnapped Kirishima-Bakugo would have brought her back almost immediately. But even now, on the road to becoming Heroes themselves, vigilance was a must.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see David Togata moving to the back of their group. Probably smart. Togata didn’t have Hero training or even a combat-oriented Quirk. It sounded like the screams were coming from outside though…

“Maybe… maybe it’s nothing,” Takuma ventured carefully. He didn’t really believe it, but…

“I don’t think so,” Midoriya said. The crowd around them in the Expo building had frozen, waiting for the next shoe to drop. A few people he recognized as Pro-Heroes were making their way towards the front of the show floor.

“But who would dare dream of causing trouble here, with so many Heroes present?” Tensei asked.

“It has been dared before, little brother,” Sora said. “You’ve heard Father tell the story often enough.”

CRASH!

With a terrible sound, a chunk of wall came tumbling down, sending people fleeing and crushing several booths and pieces of Support equipment on display. And through the hole stepped a purple-haired man in a military-stylized uniform with a peaked cap. An orange glow surrounded him, as well as the blobs of flesh floating in the air around him.

“That’s Sisicross!” Midoriya exclaimed. “But why’s he glowing?”

Sisicross looked across the show floor and sneered. “Trying to surround me, eh, Villains?! You’ll not find this son of Shiketsu so easily beaten! Come at me! I’ll take you all on!” With his hands held behind his back, he clicked his heels and send the fleshy blobs flying into the crowd. Each time they stuck someone, that person went down, transforming with a painful sound into a fleshy-blob. Takuma gulped and fought the urge to be sick. And worse still, the blobs themselves were glowing the same orange. He saw one man try to pick up the blob that had been his companion and the glow spread to him.

The man let out a scream, dropped his friend, and unleashed his Quirk, firing sharp Quills from his body. Most of these missed, but a few stuck people, spreading the orange glow even further. They started freaking out too, talking about perceived threats and other nonsense.

It was, in a word, madness.

A swarm of fleshy missiles headed straight towards them. “Move!” Midoriya shouted.

They hadn’t planned on it, but not for nothing were they Hero-trainees and friends. The twins rocketed into the air, Sora grabbing onto Midoriya’s hand while Tensei grabbed Togata. Takuma fired off a strip of his Acid Tape and gave a hard yank, reeling himself upward towards the ceiling. The flesh missiles hit where they had been seconds earlier, splattering against the floor with a sick, wet sound.

“Too close,” Takuma muttered. They touched down at the far end of the room. The chaos was only getting worse, with people succumbing to the orange glow or panicking trying to get out.

“Let’s not do that again,” Togata said. He looked vaguely ill from the sudden acceleration, to say nothing of the danger they’d been in.

“What do we do, Toshi?” Sora asked.

Midoriya looked pale. “I… don’t know.”

#my hero academia #their hero academia #my writing #fan fiction #fan fic #toshi midoriya #isamu haimawari #takuma sero

2 notes · View notes