Chương 2284: 26
Chapter Text
Izuku was still deep in thought when Mei led him to the hotel they were staying at. He wasn't really paying attention to his surroundings, and was instead trying to form connections between the peculiarities of his quirk as Mei dragged him along.
It was only when he'd passed through the door and he noticed Mei beginning to unpack at the edge of his vision, that Izuku broke himself out of his thoughts.
"Why am I in your room, Mei?" he asked meekly.
She quirked an eyebrow. "You mean our room? Because if that's what you're asking, it's because I dragged you all the way over here from that window you were staring into back at the restaurant."
That wasn't what he meant, of course. But Mei's first sentence brought up even more questions. "Our room?" Izuku asked. "Why are we sharing a room?"
"They gave us two passes, not two rooms," Mei answered, as if stating the obvious. "Besides, what's wrong with sharing a room?"
Izuku sighed, taking a second to absorb Mei's obliviousness. "At least they're two beds, so there's that," he muttered to himself.
"And our luggage came in alright, which means we won't have any problems going to the reception!" Mei continued. "And I'll get another chance to talk with David Shield again!" At that moment, an elegant maroon dress came flowing out from her suitcase.
"Huh," Izuku said under his breath. "I never thought that I'd see you in something so formal."
Mei scoffed. "This thing?" she waved the dress around. "This isn't the first time I've worn stuff like this; my mom gets invited to events like this all the time, after all." She took an opposing look at the piece of clothing, giving it the stink eye.
"But… just… Bleh. I wish I didn't have too. But they wouldn't let me in otherwise, so I have to." She shook her head.
"Now," Mei continued," where's yours?"
"I, uh… don't have one?" Izuku admitted slowly. "I didn't know we'd be going to anything like this. Sorry I'm not prepared, Mei." He rubbed the back of his head. "Besides, I wasn't one for formal events anyways. I feel like I'd crash the event with my presence rather than act normally in one. Don't exactly know why, but I think it just has to do with my bugs. I never really had a good grip on them back when I was younger and I still don't feel comfortable without them on me. It doesn't help that all those parties always seemed so stuffy to me, and with my bugs I'd just—"
"You're rambling again," Mei waved Izuku off, diving back into her own luggage. "And I wasn't talking to you, actually. I was just thinking out loud." After a few moments Mei arose from her luggage with glee, a full piece suit in hand. "Aha!"
Izuku stiffened.
"Oh come on, don't be like that," Mei pouted. "I just wanted to see my assistant wearing a nice looking suit for once. Can ya blame me?"
Izuku was stuck yet again within his own thoughts. Nevermind the fact that Mei had packed him a suit without consulting him first. Even if the matching maroon coloring did look promising. He had one question in mind.
"When did you get my measurements?"
Izuku grunted as he readjusted the small pack on his shoulders. The bag was weighing him down a bit, making him stumble every now and then when something inside jostled around. "Why are we bringing all this stuff with us again?" he asked. "I mean, it's not like you're going to need these. We're just going to a party"
"Yeah, a party with David Shield! I wasn't prepared last time, but now I'm ready!" Mei declared.
"I'm sure Mr. Shield will have plenty of time to review your gadgets with you later, Mei. He'll be busy tonight."
"Oh, hush you. Just you wait and see," she challenged. "I'll have him within my sights and captivated with my babies in minutes!"
Izuku didn't reply back. He knew I'd be useless to argue back at this point with Mei as fired up as she was, so he let her ramble as they walked on.
It didn't take too long for them to get to their destination. They passed through a set of automatic steel doors to enter the lobby that held the elevators that would lead up to the reception. Inside were the familiar faces of Iida, Todoroki, Kaminari, and Mineta.
"Evening, Midoriya, Hatsume," Iida greeted. "Glad to see that you could make it."
"Ever the formal one, ain't ya, glasses?" Mei instantly quipped.
Iida crossed his arms. "I suppose I am, Miss Hatsume. It's in my nature as a member of the Iida family, for I must uphold the utmost integrity to my family name."
"Yeah, yeah," Mei said. "I really must thank you, though. I wouldn't be here right now if it weren't for the spectacular demonstration you provided for me back during the Sports Festival."
"I— You— Now hold on a second…"
Izuku smiled at his friends' antics. Leaving the two alone, he planted himself in front of the other three people present in the room.
Todoroki was off in a corner by himself, while Kaminari and Mineta occupied another corner, quietly talking among themselves.
"Hello Midoriya." Todoroki nodded in his direction.
"Hi Todoroki," Izuku responded in kind.
Todoroki laid back against the wall with his head down, seemingly content with a simple greeting instead of a conversation. Izuku wasn't sure why that was, but it was something he had gotten used too. Ever since the sports festival, Todoroki would greet him whenever they crossed paths, but that would be all. Todoroki had yet to fully break out of whatever shell he hid himself in. But still, it was progress, Izuku mused.
"Hey guys," Izuku said, turning to the other two.
"Hey yourself," Kaminari said.
"Hey Midoriya." His gaze shifted around Izuku. "I've got to say, your friend is— ACK!" Mineta reached for her hand, a small bee flying off of it. "Alright, alright."
The door to the lobby then opened, bringing along Yaoyorozu, Uraraka, Jiro, and Melissa.
"Hello everybody!" cheered Yaoyorozu.
Izuku's gaze found itself focused on the newcomers. "Hello, Yaoyorozu," he said. "You look nice."
"Oh," Yaoyorozu stuttered. "Thank you."
Izuku turned to the others. "So do you three, Jiro, Uraraka, Melissa. Quite unlike your usual selves. I like it." The three girls acted in a fashion similar to Yaoyorozu with Izuku's words.
Off to the side, Mineta looked curious, leaning over to Kaminari. "When did Midoriya get so good with girls?" Mineta whispered.
Kaminari shrugged. "Eh. Who knows?"
The group then went on to linger for a while, waiting for the late arrivals of Kirishima and Bakugo. Minutes passed by, and the group nearly decided to leave without them.
However, their efforts were blocked with the sudden emergence of a blaring siren, and the immediate closure of the metal shutters along every opening in the room.
"The heck just happened?" Kaminari questioned.
It took a moment, but Melissa eventually responded. "It's the island's security system. It means that someone has breached the island and set off the alarms."
"My phone doesn't have a signal," informed Jiro.
"Yeah, that's part of the security measures. Makes it harder for villains to communicate," Melissa said.
"We should go and get All Might, or at least see what he's planning with the other heroes," Izuku blurted out.
Everyone moved their heads towards Izuku, mulling over his proposition. There were a couple of nods all around, and everyone got ready to head towards the party.
It was only when they were halfway there that Izuku noticed the situation using a stray fly that had found its way into the party. After a brief session of All Might trying to and failing to blow away a rogue fly, the hero finally noticed Izuku up above.
Izuku promptly motioned to Jiro, which led to All Might briefing them on the events leading up to his predicament. After All Might finished, Izuku and Jiro hurriedly made their way back to the rest of the group, debriefing them on the situation.
A couple arguments flared up, with Iida arguing for escape, Todoroki, Jiro, and Yaoyorozu aiming to help the trapped heroes, and the rest staying silent.
"There must be something that we can do," suggested Yaoyorozu.
"Well, there might be something…" Almost everyone looked Melissa's way as she spoke the words. "If we get to the top of the tower, we can possibly reset the security system against the villains."
There was a slow roar of approval from most of the students. All that was needed were the thoughts of a few more.
"How about you Midoriya?" asked Melissa.
"Huh?" Izuku uttered, refocusing himself. "Sorry. I've been trying to get some bugs in from the outside, but I'm having trouble finding any openings into the building.
"Yeah, that's another security measure of the building," Melissa surmised. "The building is air tight due to all the shutters closing up."
"Ah. I see," Izuku said. "Well, I'll be directing some bugs as we go up then, just in case I have a chance of bringing some in."
"Umm, how many bugs do you have in you, Midoriya-kun?" Uraraka asked.
"How many?" Izuku questioned. "Let's see… Two fireflies, five wasps, three spiders, three bees, one stinkbug, one mukade, two denkis, a mountain leech, a cockroach, two ants, and two dragonflies. Twenty-three in all." As Izuku listed off the creatures, one by one they revealed themselves from Izuku's hair; flying out of the green mess or crawling onto more noticeable parts of his skin.
Most of those present were staring at him with various looks of surprise and alarm. The only exceptions were Todoroki, who seemed unsurprised, and Mei who was digging around in the bag on Izuku's back.
The bugs eventually returned to their place within Izuku's hair, buzzing and squirming their way until they were virtually unnoticeable. When the process was over, Izuku looked out in confusion as he noticed the mixed variety of faces.
"What?" he asked.
Mineta was the first to break the silence. "Thanks for reminding me to never mess with you, Midoriya," he muttered.
Everything had been going fairly well until the 80th floor. Minutes of traversing the tower floor by floor came to a halt when the group found their way blocked by a barrier. With neither Mei nor Melissa having the skills capable of bypassing the barrier, they were left with the option of using a narrow vent.
Luckily, Mineta had found it in himself to volunteer for the job. And so, with the barrier opening up after Mineta's journey through the vents, the group was able to continue their trip. That is, until multiple shutters began closing on their path, forcing them to escape into the tower's botanical gardens.
Much to Izuku's chagrin, the garden only held a few birds, being completely void of any insects. To make matters worse, the central elevator had brought upon two members of the invading villains into the room.
Out of nowhere, the two goons were suddenly being held off by a wayward Kirishima and Bakugo. Todoroki joined the fray after, sending up an ice pillar so everyone else could keep moving towards the control room. But then came another obstacle.
Mineta was much more wary of using the vents this time. Izuku didn't fault him, since Mineta would have to crawl up the side of the building to get to the next floor. Still, Izuku could feel the swarm he'd amassed outside the walls. The promise that he'd watch Mineta with the bugs convinced the boy to go through with it.
As Mineta made his way in, so had an equivalent of three clones worth of bugs. The remaining nine individuals (plus three, if counting the clones) then continued their way up the tower, eventually finding themselves in front of a swarm of security bots on floor 130. Eventually, plan A was formed. But before it came into fruition, Mei pleaded for a few moments of time.
"Izuku. Turn around," Mei commanded. "I need the pack. Gimme gimme." Izuku followed her request, turning so Mei could more easily reach into the pack he was still carrying. Meanwhile, the bug clones stood eerily still, no doubt completely under Izuku's control.
"Why is Izuku lugging your stuff around anyway, Mei?" Melissa asked.
Mei looked at Melissa as if she were crazy. "Are you kidding? You always have to be prepared for situations like this!"
"I thought you just wanted to show off your inventions to Mr. Shield," one of the clones rebuked.
A few of those present jumped in surprise at the response, not expecting for one of the bug clones to speak.
"Pfft. That's a simpleton's train of thought, Izuku! Sure, that was the main reason I had you bring my stuff, but this just goes to show that you can't go anywhere without my tech!"
A few moments later, Mei let out an excited noise and held out a small bracelet.
"Finally! Zappy, get over here!"
Kaminari blinked in surprise when he heard his designated name being called out, its usage ingrained in his mind after the few times he spent in Mei's lab. He walked up to the eccentric inventor unsure of what to expect.
"Yes, Hatsume?"
The bracelet in Mei's hand suddenly found itself wrapped around Kaminari's wrist, making a distinct clicking noise as it locked in place.
"Hey! What the— Is this what I think it is?" Kaminari said, eyes wide in disbelief.
"Mhm! It's still just a prototype, though. I need to work on a bigger, more versatile version still, but this one should work! Just clench your hand into your wrist. Then watch the magic happen!"
"Miss Hatsume," Iida began, "what is that, if I may ask?
"My baby? Well, if you must know, it amplifies and concentrates Zappy's electricity in one place. Pretty neat, eh?"
"It is. But why do you have a device that specifically caters to Kaminari's needs?" Iida asked.
"Hmm? Oh, Izuku brought him in the other week. I've been working on this baby since!"
That seemed to fulfil Iida's curiosity. And so, with questions answered, Plan A was set into motion. Kaminari slowly made his way towards the security bots. When he was ready, he clenched his wrists and let out some electricity in his hand.
Three wires shot out of the device, embedding themselves into the bodies of three robots. As Kaminaris's electricity went through the wires, the robots light up in a bright yellow. They then went into a frenzy, eventually toppling over with smoke rising up from their charred chassis.
The rest of the robots then turned their way toward Kaminari all at once.
"Oh. We didn't think this through," Kaminari muttered to himself. He quickly turned towards Mei. "How do I retract the wires?!?"
"Press the button on the side!" Mei exclaimed in an instant.
"Button?!?" Kaminari yelled, panicking down below. "Which button?!? I don't— Aha! I found it!" As the three wires retracted into the device, Kaminari suddenly found himself surrounded by dozens of security bots.
"Son of a—" Kaminari let out his signature move as the robots launched their own coils, rendering Kaminari out of action.
"Well, there goes Plan A," Jiro said.
After rescuing a dumbed down Kaminari with the sacrifice of one bug clone, the group found themselves on floor 138 with a horde of robots closing in by the second.
"What are we going to do now?!" Mineta huffed.
"We're almost to the generators," Melissa informed. "They're outside, and I should be able to bypass the door so we can ride the wind up the rest of the way."
"That's good!" Iida exclaimed, stopping the group. "In that case… Miss Shield!"
"Yes?"
"You go ahead with Uraraka and Midoriya. Uraraka will be able to lift you up with the generators while Midoriya can direct your flight with his bugs."
"Right!" Melissa exclaimed. "Let's—"
"Hold up!" Mei exclaimed. "Give me my pack! This is a prime time to test out my babies!"
Izuku laughed a little. "You never change, do you?"
"Nope!" Mei laughed as she grabbed the pack, diving her hands into it yet again.
That was when a distinct rumbling of metal began to arise from further down the hallway.
With the onslaught of robots incoming, the designated trio made their escape. They made their way outside without any complications, leading Uraraka to activate her quirk. Izuku and Melissa to rose up into the air as the wind generators pushed them upwards. That was when the robots had caught up.
However, Bakugo, Todoroki, and Kirishima suddenly appeared, pushing back the robots.
Meanwhile, up in the air, Izuku used his bugs to guide himself and Melissa to a nearby shutter. After a few moments of tinkering on the panel, Melissa had the shutter open with a loud thunk. They promptly made their way inside as they felt Uraraka release her hold on her quirk.
A guy with swords for hands immediately came charging at them, though he just as quickly fell to the ground as he became covered in a swarm of biting and squirming bugs.
"Huh. That was quick," Izuku muttered to himself.
"Is… is he going to be alright?" Melissa asked, slightly horrified by the sight.
"Of course," Izuku assured her. "As long as he's not allergic, anyways."
"Oh."
The swarm lifted off the unmoving — but still breathing — man. They flew their way further up the stairs, a few screams echoing down as they found themselves attacking new victims.
Izuku grabbed Melissa's arm. "Come on, we need to get the control room."
They quickly made their way up the flights of stairs, still uncertain of what was to come.
"Thank you, Miyata," came the voice of the presumed leader of the villains. If Izuku had heard right from All Might's debriefing, the man's name was Wolfram.
Izuku had been completely blindsided by Wolfram's sudden appearance. In fact, he and the lackey beside him had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Izuku's bugs hadn't picked up on a clue of the villains' presence, which was something that what greatly bugging Izuku.
Sure, Izuku could have blamed the fact that he had just found out that David Shield had hired the villains in the first place. The shock might have been enough Izuku to have not noticed the villains with his bugs, but he had a feeling that that wasn't it.
Izuku coughed, a small trail of blood spurting out from his mouth. His vision was blurry, and he was having problems clearing out his thoughts. He was fairly certain that he had hit his head when Wolfram had shot all that metal at him, pinning him to the wall.
He was mostly defenseless, since all his bugs were outside the vault, unable to get in due to the giant sheet of metal blocking their way in. All Izuku had were the bugs in his hair.
Already, the spiders were spinning and the fliers were flapping their wings. They would have to do.
It was fortunate that Wolfram had disregarded covering Izuku's head. Before long, all twenty-three bugs began to disperse themselves around the room. A crude plan was slowly forming within Izuku's mind.
The first thing Izuku did was assess the situation. His small battalion of fliers took note of what he couldn't see with his eyes.
Wolfram was monologuing to David Shield, who was splayed down bleeding on the floor.
Wolfram's lackey — Miyata, if Izuku heard right — was simply smiling, looking down at Shield in contempt. The villain was a mystery for now; as for his quirk, Izuku didn't have a clue. It was likely that he'd been hiding up here in the control room the entire time, unseen by any of the heroes below.
Izuku winced as Melissa was struck to the ground by Wolfram. The sight made him furious. And then the gun's trajectory made its way towards Melissa.
Izuku didn't think.
The miniature swarm of fliers swooped down towards Wolfram. Unfortunately, Wolfram saw the bugs coming. He switched his target, aiming towards the trapped form of Izuku.
A single shot went off before the bugs could arrive, but by then it was enough. The denkimushi-wielding bees aimed for the man's hand. The sudden shock and stinging had Wolfram immediately releasing his grip on the gun, the weapon dropping to the ground. Two wasps went for his exposed eyes, and the man screamed.
The noise triggered something in Melissa, who quickly got up and ran straight for the control room.
Rather than take chase, the other villain quickly backed away, his body turning somewhat see through and misty. The wasps aimed at him merely passed through the man's body.
Intangibility, then, Izuku thought. Made sense as to had they arrived so discreetly.
Izuku was about to send back the wasps, aiming to keep them within Miyata's body so he couldn't shift back, when the villain backed away and jumped through the wall. It seemed that he would be abandoning his leader, then.
Meanwhile, spiders and the giant centipede crawled their way up Wolfram's legs, biting and injecting small traces of venom as they made their way up. The wasps and bees went for his other hand, and the case holding the quirk enhancer clattered to the ground. The electric bugs kept on shocking. The bees and wasps kept stinging.
Izuku sent an order to the stink bug, and it emitted its stench right in front of his nostrils. And then he sent the two ants right down both of his ear canals.
The assault had the intended effect. Wolfram was unable to call upon his quirk to help with all the pain he was under. He couldn't see, and soon enough he wouldn't be able to hear. He'd be unable to make an escape. The villain fell to the ground within minutes.
Wolfram was incapacitated. And that was good. He could finally rest.
"Midoriya! Midoriya!" came the voice, distant and yet so close. When he came to, Izuku was barely registering that somebody was shaking his body and screaming his name. It didn't help that he was still disoriented from his potential head injury. And he didn't exactly feel like making his body move, either.
At this point, Izuku could tell that the shutters had all been deactivated, which meant that Melissa was successful. It also meant that he could amass his swarm again.
High above, the slowly gathering bugs painted a picture for Izuku. All his classmates were there, minus Jiro and Mineta. Wolfram was missing, but so was David Shield and his assistant. It was safe to say that they had already been escorted away and/or restrained by his missing classmates.
Switching his attention, he found that everyone else had gathered around his crumpled form, head slumped and body unmoving. Yaoyorozu was the one shaking him as Kirishima and Mei attempted to pry and melt away the metal holding his body captive. Izuku sent his newly formed clone down to the floor.
"Yaoyorozu, could you stop shaking me, please?"
She jumped, as did everybody else present. They all looked at the newly formed swarm, and it didn't take long to put two and two together.
"Midoriya! You're alright!" Yaoyorozu sniveled.
Everyone else adopted similar faces of relief barely concealed emotion.
Except for Bakugo, who predictably scoffed and stomped off.
Yaoyorozu began making some white cloth with her quirk. Izuku paid it no mind, his mind more focused on the more important matter at hand.
"Is Wolfram taken care of?"
"You serious?!" exclaimed Mei, stopping her work. "That's the first thing you think of?" she sighed. "No, no. That's just how you are, it makes sense. Carry on," she relented, focusing her attention back on her… blow torch-gun-thing.
"He has been," Iida spoke. "Mineta is currently restraining him with Jiro. All Might was here earlier, but he went ahead and took Mr. Shield and his assistant to get help. Miss Shield went along with him. All Might was a bit reluctant to leave you behind, but we said that we'd take care of you."
"Oh," the swarm echoed. "Thank you."
"Don't mention it, Midoriya," Iida said.
After a moment's silence, the clone spoke again. "You know, I was expecting something more climactic to happen," Izuku mused.
"Climactic?!" Yaoyorozu exclaimed. "You got shot!"
The bugs' attention went back to her, and it was only then that Izuku noticed that she was slowly wrapping bandages around his shoulder area. Splotches of blood were easily viewable behind the thin wrapping.
"Oh. I didn't even notice."
"You didn't notice that you got shot?" Kaminari spoke for the first time. "You're kidding me."
The swarm shrugged its shoulders in response.
"High pain tolerance," Mei suddenly said. "He's had to adapt to having one with what I put him through!"
"I'm not sure that even a high tolerance of pain would have prevented Midoriya from noticing he got shot," Yaoyorozu added.
"Eh, gave it my best explanation. Worth a shot, I suppose," Mei said.
Uraraka was the next one to speak. "Are you sure that you're okay, Midoriya-kun?" she asked.
"Of course," the Swarm immediately responded. "Why do you ask?"
Izuku heard Yaoyorozu exhaling air out of her nostrils. "Aside from the gunshot wound, I mean."
"Well… It's just, you look kind of creepy right now," Uraraka said.
Kaminiari chuckled. "Heh, she's not wrong.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, first off, there's all the blood all over the place," Kaminari said.
The clone peered over to the body, and upon closer inspection did find a lot of blood oozing from the wound all over onto the floor.
"And two," Kaminari continued, "you really look like you're actually dead right now."
"Kaminari!" Iida interjected. "Don't say things like that!"
"What? I'm just stating what I'm seeing, you know."
Izuku made himself raise his head. "I'm alive. Don't worry." He took a breath. "Sorry if I freaked you all out," he added as an afterthought. He took another breath, lowering his head this time due to fatigue.
He brought himself to relax, enjoying the feeling of Yaoyorozu wrapping the bandage around him, simply waiting until he'd be able to get out of his entrapment. The tearing of metal and low hum of fire melted away, and found joy in the ambivalent sounds.
But then another thought came to mind.
"Hey, would one of you mind asking Melissa about the bug exhibit-slash-research center that I sensed earlier?"
Notes:
And that does it for Two Heroes. Does the in-between feel a bit rushed? I think it does, and I think that's because I sorta wanted to get the trip up over with in two chapters. It's the ending that I really had something different in store, so that probably has something to do with it.
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