Chapter 56: The Ascent Begins

(Previously)

'Dave,' All Might, back in the reception hall, watched the group leaving under threat. Straining at his restraints, he found that they were tougher than he thought, enough that he wished that I-island, for once, made cheaper stuff. More than that, it was taking an effort to maintain his muscle form as these bands were squeezing on him. 'I have to subdue these villains and get the system back online, but how much time do I have left?'

'I have to find a way because I am here! The Symbol of Peace!' Still, he struggled as he tried to figure out a way out of this. If he could break the restraints and take out the villains present, maybe he could make it outside the building. He knew the security was on the upper levels and could get up there in seconds.

Whatever plans he had came to a pause as he noticed a patch of light in front of him, one that blinked in and out of existence. Was one of the lights flickering? Looking up, he saw that it wasn't a mere light but his successor flashing her phone's flashlight at him. 'Wait, young Kendo?’

Line Break

"Alright, he sees us. Jiro, is your jack in place?" Kendo asked as she and Jiro stood on the floor above the stage, able to see the stage thanks to the clear glass dome that rested above it. The rest hadn't come with them because they didn't want to risk getting spotted, and the security was weakest in the emergency stair shaft they used to get here.

Jiro gave a thumbs-up as she plugged one of her earphone jacks into the ground. After a second, she could hear everything going on down there.

"Yeah," Jiro confirmed.

"You can talk to us; we're listening." Kendo motioned out to All Might. Lucky for them, All Might understood, so he started whispering into the ground to lessen the odds of one of the goons hearing him and getting suspicious.

“Hope you can hear me. Some villains have taken control of the tower. They have control of the security system, and now everyone on this island is being held hostage. That includes the heroes who are at this party. It's dangerous; get away from here as soon as possible." All Might informed them as he looked away for a second at all the restrained pros in the room. Hearing all this, Jiro quickly unplugged her earphone jack as she turned to her fellow student, nervous about what she had just learned.

“This is bad, Kendo.” She told him.

Line break

“We've received All Might's orders loud and clear. He's our teacher. I suggest we follow his instructions and escape this place. Otherwise, we'll be going against his will." Iida told the group after Kendo and Jiro returned and informed them of what they saw and heard. Everyone was in varying levels of shock at the news, leaving Iida to be the first to speak.

"I'm afraid I agree with what Iida is saying. We're still only students. We can't fight these villains if we don't have our hero licenses." Yaoyorozu agreed, though she would be lying if she said it didn’t leave a bad taste in her mouth to flee.

"We could always try to get out of here and tell the heroes outside. They could help." Kaminari suggested, as they knew there were many pros on the island. There was no way all of them were at the party.

"But from where?" Tokage asked. "The entire island is on lockdown, and we'll need to make it to heroes and back again without being spotted."

“The security system here is on par with Tartarus prison, where they keep the most dangerous prisoners. If we try to leave the tower, we'll be spotted," Mellissa told them.

“So, what? We just sit on our asses till it’s over?” Kaminari questioned as he felt dejected at the notion that the deck was stacked so against them, it wasn't funny. Forget his finals; this was an impossible task.

"Do we have a choice?" Kyūfune asked, being the second non-hero voice in the group. “Those villains managed to take the island hostage and restrain several pros, including All Might, without a fight. If we make a noise, we'll endanger those people."

"Don't you think we should at least try and stop them?" Jiro spoke up as her fist tightened from the anger coursing through her.

"Hey, come on! You said it yourself; they took down legit pros." Mineta made a good point: None of them could hold a candle to the number one, and he was wrapped up tighter than a Christmas present right now.

“But aren’t we training to be pros?” Todoroki asked, silencing even Mineta.

"Just because our chances are small doesn't mean we get to throw in the towel." Kendo agreed with him. To her, this was just like the encounter with Stain. Sure, they were in over their heads, and this was something best left for the professionals, but as the professionals were otherwise unaware or being kept in check, was there any other option? As people who wished to be heroes, could they just stand down?

She knew she couldn’t

"But we're not allowed to work as heroes, you know that." Yaoyorozu reminded her of one big issue with this.

"So does that mean it's right for us to do nothing?" Todoroki asked, not just to herself but to the group as a whole. None of them was willing to say yes because not a single person agreed with the laws right now and was happy about standing back.

"Well, no, but it's….complicated," Yaoyorozu said as she lost the will to counter him and merely looked away.

"It really isn't," Midoriya said, having sat next to his girlfriend silent for a while now, a silence he was breaking. There is a crisis. The heroes can't step in yet. But we can. So we will." He remembered ash, heat, screaming, burning flesh, and pleas for mercy.

This tower was still pristine; not a single person was injured or, heavens forbid, dead, and he would fight to ensure that didn't change.

"Are you serious, Midoriya? I knew you were a crazy cat, but this takes the cake!" Mineta yelled at him as Midoriya only glanced at him—no smugness, no joy, just determination.

"Maybe, maybe not. Doesn't change the situation and won't change my decision." He told him as Kyūfune looked towards the two who had gone to ‘speak’ with All Might.

“Kendo, Jiro. You said that the villains took control of the security?” She asked them.

“That’s right, for the entire Island as far as All Might knows.” Jiro nodded, and the oldest looked towards Midoriya. The two hatch a plan that could see them handling things without this turning into a giant mess.

“Are you two…?” Kendo picked up on that but shook her head with a chuckle. "Why am I asking? Of course, you're thinking that."

“What?” Uraraka asked as she and the rest were lost in what was happening between the three.

"We don't need to fight the villains. It'll only put lives at risk, and that's why All Might hasn't just busted out. But, if we can retake system control while avoiding combat…" Kendo started, which caused Iida, Todoroki, Tokage Yaoyorozu, and Mellissa to realize what the trio had noticed.

"Then we wouldn't be breaking any rules and minimizing any risk to us!" Yaoyorozu declared.

"And we totally have the advantage here. They don't know we're even in the tower, and we have an I-island resident who can get into that system and kick them out." Tokage looked towards their resident American...well, outside Tsunotori, who wasn't with them.

Mellissa also saw how this plan was a solid shot for them and started thinking aloud. “If the villains could take control without an alarm, it means that the authenticity locks and passwords must have been disabled. Suppose I'm able to get to it and initiate a system reboot. In that case, everything the villains did to take control of it will be expunged… but it won't be easy; the security is near the very top of the tower."

Still, she didn’t let that stop her. Quirkless or not, trained or otherwise, she was still All Might's niece, and she would be darned if she just sat around and waited for others to act. "But I want to help! I can't just sit here and let these people do what they want and trust their world that no one will get hurt. No, even if they kept it, letting villains just escape isn't right."

“You’re all talking like that would be easy.” Kaminari reminded them, to which Kyūfune turned to him, frowning at the young hero student.

“Is that going to be enough to stop you? That this will be a challenge?” She challenged him, her gaze remaining passive and non-judgemental, which somehow felt even worse to the guy as he knew he wasn't the bravest person out there. He wasn't the type that would jump in to take a bullet without thinking, but he was still training to save lives, wasn't he?

“Look at me, making a fool of myself in front of a hot babe,” Kaminari, despite the situation, joked, as he could already hear Aizawa's words about how being a hero meant fighting against the unfair world and managing to come out on top. It seems like that was something he needed to do tonight.

So he jumped to his feet, ready for action. "You know what? To hell with it! I'm from U.A. We take challengers and eat them for breakfast. This won't be like class where we had to fight; this time, it is all stealth."

“I’m in.” Todoroki might not have needed to speak up but decided to anyway.

“So am I!” Urataka noted, as did Jiro, Tokage, and Yaoyorozu, leaving just Iida undecided.

Midoriya was about to try to encourage him, but Kendo shook her head. Iida needed to decide, not that it would be easy for him. Not too long ago, he went against the rules, and Kendo knew that ended up for him.

"It would be naïve to believe that there aren't going to be villains gathered close to or in the security team," Iida noted.

“That’s pretty much a guarantee, but we can handle it if we're fast about it. We just need to buy Mellissa time." Kendo didn't sugarcoat it, but she believed they had a shot.

“The moment I think we’ve gone too far, it’s over. If you can agree to that, then I’m in.” Iida eventually spoke up, getting relieved smiles from the rest of them.

“Understood.” Kendo was among them.

"Okay, but how the heck are we supposed to get all the way up there without being seen?" Mineta was the last holdout, and it wasn't like he was wrong to ask that. The tower was bond to be filled with security.

"The fact that we haven't been caught," Midoriya noted as he turned to their host. "Mellissa, does the emergency stairwell have cameras or sensors?"

"It does, but they don't appear on the main security feeds unless you check. The villains haven't done that, which means that however they got access, they weren't told about everything." Melissa replied, to which Tokage let out a bark of laughter, a shark-take smile forming on her face.

"Or they'll just be lazy. Either way, that's one point to us; the other is who we got with us." She started by pointing out to each person and saying their names. "We have a genius who knows the system like the back of her hand to guide us. Yaoyorozu will make any gizmos and tech we need, including Midoriya's nose and 6th sense and Jiro's hearing. I'm pretty that get us far before they know we're here."

"I can handle whatever medical needs we have and, if need be, help keep any villains from raising the alarm," Kyūfune added, which led to some unease, to which Midoriya only smiled and said she’ll prove herself a good asset.

Line Break

A couple minutes after they had left, All Might noticed that Kendo had returned, but alarms rang in his head when he saw his successor looking back at him. ‘Oh no! That look in your eyes! Don’t tell me … ran away!’

'Sorry, All Might. I know what you're thinking, but…' Kendo thought to herself but offered a mentor a smile, just like the ones he would give people in times of crisis.

‘She’s not going to leave. I should be furious that they're ignoring the wishes of their teacher, but,' All Might couldn't help but grit his teeth and smile. Yes, his time was running out, and it was becoming harder to maintain his muscle form. Yes, his student had blatantly disobeyed him and even had the gall to use his smile to do it, but…

‘If she didn’t act right now, I wouldn’t have chosen her as my successor.’ All Might, along with worry, also felt proud of Kendo’s choice.

'I'll just have to keep this form up and have faith that they can get us out of this situation independently.' He concluded as he worked to ensure his muscle form was kept up just a little longer. 'We're counting on you, fledgling heroes.' At that same time, Kendo re-joined their group, who were waiting for her in a hallway outside the dimly lit stairwell.

“Let’s go!” Midoriya stated.

“Right!” With that, they took off.

Line Break

At their destination, there were only three villains, one of whom remained at his station manning the security, with two others acting as security for him. Things were quiet until the elevator dinged, though none of them moved as they already knew who was inside.

Their confidence was well-founded when the doors opened, and David and his assistant were led out by an armed assailant. “Here’s the smart guy.” The guard announced as they entered the room.

"Good, hurry up and unlock the vault, " the person manning the console told them as the two scientists looked around.

“You’re not the boss here.” Their escorts said as he removed his helmet to reveal the face of a man in his early 30s with salmon hair and purple tattoos. He may have put his weapon down, but then he raised his arm up, and from the elbow going down, his hand mutated into a sharp-looking blade that was aimed at David's neck. "Well, you heard him. I'd move quickly if I were you. That is if you want to keep your head."

“Sure.” David agreed.

“Take 'em. Make sure they don't try anything." The salmon-haired man told the two masked men that had been present as he walked towards the guy operating the console. Why? David didn't know.

"This way." The two criminals ordered them, but the two scientists didn’t fight them as they led off to do who knew what.

Line Break

Out of the attention of the villains, the group of would-be partygoers made their way up. They could have used the elevator, but it was both locked and would be a surefire way to allow themselves to be trapped, so they used the stairs. Unlike the first couple of flows, the rest of the way was well-light, with each level clearly marked so that they would know their progress.

Thanks to the training most of them went through on the daily basis, they could keep a good pace even as they found themselves approaching they continued their ascent, with Iida and Midoriya leading the pack. “This is the 30th floor." Iida pointed out before Midoriya realized something.

“Mellissa, just how tall is the tower as I definitely looked bigger than 50 or even 60 floors from the outside.” The girl in question was much more winded then the rest as she liked to think she kept in good shape, but compared to them, she was really out of shape.

“The 200th floor.” She replied after taking a moment to catch her breath.

“There are how many?” Kaminari cried as he knew the tower was tall but not 200 floors tall!

“That’s way too many stairs!” Mineta cried out, how was they expected to just run that entire trip, his tiny legs could never manage that!

"But it's still better than running into the villains," Yaoyorozu stated as the group kept on running up the stairs with Iida, Midoriya, Kendo, Todoroki, and leading Tokage the group with Mineta, Uraraka, and Mellissa trailing behind them.

It wasn't ideal, and some of them would definitely be feeling it in the morning, but they continued on, first making it to the 40th floor and then to the 50th, which was when Uraraka and Kyūfune noticed that Mellissa was really lagging behind.

“Mellissa, how you holding up, do you need me to use my quirk on you?” Uraraka asked their guest as they reached the 53rd floor.

“No, it’s fine. Save your strength, I can handle this.” Mellissa replied, though she was visible struggling by now, her face already covered in sweat and making some of her make-up run.

“Still…”

"Trust me, I won't slow you down-!" Mellissa promised as she removed her heels, only for the large fox woman to turn around and head back towards her, picking her up and holding her close to her as she started running again, moving at a much faster pace now.

“It wouldn't be right to leave you behind. Besides, you're kinda the most important person here. Otherwise, we won't have a clue how to kick the villains out of the security." Kyūfune smiled at the blushing, breathless blonde in her grasp, Mineta mumbling about Mellissa being lucky but giving no other complaints.

Without Mellissa sadly slowing them down, their collective pace picked up, but as the numbers rose, their stamina fell as they kept climbing till they hit a literal roadblock at the 80th floor.

“Is this normal?” Todoroki asked when he saw the metal barrier keeping them from progressing.

"If they knew we were here, I doubt it would just be a barrier they'll put up; they must know we could get through it." Kendo pointed out a little winded after nearly 80 floors of nonstop stairs.

“Depends on if they know we’re hero students.” Tokage reminded them, as it wasn’t like they were in their gear.

"Still, if we did, that's sure as hell going to alert them that we're here and that we're not just a bunch of brats," Midoriya added, the least winded out of the group, though he it wasn’t as if he wasn’t feeling it, he was just cycling through his tenet to keep his body refreshed.

“Then why don’t we use this door?” Mineta was already walking towards a door to the side, one that looked identical to everyone they'd seen since.

"No, Mineta, don't!" Kendo yelled at him, as that just screamed bad news.

“Don’t do it!” Mellisa yelled as well, but it was too late as Mineta already pulled on the latch, and the lock gave way, though as it did so, the light next to it went red with a ping.

“What?” Mineta asked, to which Tokage pointed out the thing with the lock.

“Look, the light wasn’t one before, they probably know someone just opened that door.” She told him, as they were now working against an enemy that was on the watch!

“Forget, we can worry about that later, right now, it’s best if we put as much distance between us and the door as possible!” Iida told them as they took off, leaving the stairs behind. All the while, Kyūfune continued carrying Mellissa, while Midoriya grabbed up Mineta so that they could move at a faster pace through the large, empty halls of the tower’s upper floors.

“Is there another way up, Mellissa?” Todoroki asked, as it was well and good to put distance between them and their last known sighting, but it wouldn’t do them any good if they remained on the same level.

"There should be another emergency staircase at the end of the hallway," Mellissa replied, only for the group to hear something up ahead. That made itself known fast as they saw the bulkheads sealing, one after another.

“The gates!” Uraraka cried out as Yaoyorozu looked to their rear and saw the same thing.

"The one's behind us too," She called out, the group realizing that they had been caught and the villains were trying to box them in, though Kendo saw that just past the next bulkhead, there was a door. She didn't know where it led, but she knew it was better than where they were.

“Todoroki!” She turned to her classmate, but he had seen that just as she did.

“Already on it!” Todoroki stomped his foot, sending a wave of ice towards the bulkhead as it started closing, the large volume and jagged size jamming it, allowing Iida to race ahead and jump over it, his quirk propelling him forwards towards the door which he smashed through with a single kick.

“Everyone quick, we can cross through here!” He directed them in as the group made their way past the jammed bulkhead, and into this new space. One that was vast, multi-levelled and filled to the brim with all sorts of plants.

“What is this place?” Midoriya asked as slowed down a little. The area being pretty much his vibe with all the green that could be found from shrubs to small palm trees. If they weren’t in a crisis, this was the sort of place he could take a nap in.

“It’s the plant factory. They research the effect quirks have on fauna here.” Mellissa explained.

“Stop, look ahead!” Jiro stopped them as she pointed towards the center of the space, where what looked to be a large pillar stood. Only upon closer inspection did they realize it was an elevator and one that seemed to be in use.

“The elevator?” Uraraka asked, already nervous about it.

“But the only ones who could use it is…” Kaminari started before Tokage grabbed him and raced towards the largest bush she could find, the rest following after her.

Watching the elevator, a thought occurred to Kaminari. “Hey, could we ride that the rest of the way?”

"Only authorized people can use the controls, and it’s built like a bomb shelter, so we can't just force our way in." Mellissa shot that down, having finally been put down by Kyūfune, who, thanks to her size, had to lay on her stomach to ensure she was completely hidden by the bush.

"Of course, we can't go the easy way!" Mineta grumbled, tearing at the leaves around them as the elevator slowly pulled up to their level.

“Just stay quiet, Kyūfune, till you handle things," Midoriya told them, already loosening his tie.

“Wait, how?” Uraraka asked him, Midoriya was an odd-one, but pretty strong, but she wasn’t too sure about Kyūfune.

Midoriya only gave them a cat-like smirk. “Trust us,” In what felt like a blink of an eye, both and their largest party member vanished.

“Where they go?” Iida asked, which brought back some memories for Tokage.

“Oh, he’s doing that trick, didn’t know that his girlfriend could do it too.” She noted, the rest being confused by her statement, but she didn’t explain things as 2 of the villains walked out of the elevator, already on the look-out.

“You said the kids came in here?” One of them, the smaller, stockier one, asked.

“They just had to pick a place with so many hiding spots.” The taller of the two complained as they looked over the place but didn't see any signs that anyone had been up here that day. It would have been nice if those brats tracked mud or snapped something obvious.

"They're after us," Mineta muttered in fear.

"Stay quiet," Iida whispered to him, keeping his eyes on the threat.

‘Keep going.’ Jiro tried to will them to leave.

‘Don’t stop, please don’t notice us…’ Yaoyorozu on the other hand, tried to pray for them to move on, but it wouldn’t be so easy as the villains moved slowly, scanning for them as with all these plants around, trying to move now would surely make a sound.

“Did they move on?” The smaller one asked.

“They would have had to make some noise doing it with all the entrances blocked. We’ll just have to search for those brats.” The second’s response only made them sweat all the more as it meant they couldn’t wait for them move on, these two wouldn’t leave till they were satisfied that they weren’t in here.

“One of them was really big, according to our eyes in the sky. Are you sure that's a kid?" The smaller of the two added, only to feel his heart skip a beat when Midoriya seemingly materialized in his face, his eyes narrow and bright like the gaze of an alley cat in the night.

“That’s rude, you know.” Midoriya didn't say more as he swung down a massive wooden hammer into the man's head, sending him crashing into the ground head first.

“What the-!" His partner tried to react but was punched in the back of the head, knocking him out, the same as his partner.

“That was…excessive, right?” Iida asked as he slowly came out of their hiding spot, the same as the rest, and he still wondered how Midoriya and his partner accomplished that. Did they have some sort of invisibility aspect to their quirks? Teleportation?

"What? You guys didn't see it? He was totally going to transform, and we don't have time for that." Midoriya hardly cared for how hard he hit the villain, only that he handled him in a single, decisive blow.

“Good job with the attack, but where’d you get the wood?” Tokage asked, as Midoriya was still holding onto the war hammer he just used.

To answer the question, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small plastic bag; inside was a small collection of identical seeds. "I make it a habit not to go places without at least a few, and unlike the sees I was forced to use at the Sports Festival, these ones are ideal for my abilities." Midoriya pocketed his seeds before he lost them, as he could have used something from the garden, but he didn’t trust them as much as the fauna that was grown at home.

Kendo noticed that Todoroki was about to do something and had an idea. “Hold it, Todoroki. Before you restrain them, search them.”

“For what?” He asked, as yes, both were knocked out, but that wouldn’t keep them down for long.

“Weapons, tools, communications device, anything that can be useful.” Kendo told them, as they seemed to have been informed about that, enough to know that they weren’t too old, and with Mineta having opened that door not too long ago, they didn’t have time for someone from the top or bottom to have been told and rushed up here.

“Got it.” Todoroki started searching for just that.

Line Break

Man, was this late as well. Now, I just have to accept that I can't handle putting out 2 chapters a day, even if I have a day off. It's just not sustainable. Still, I do admit that this was something of a rushed job as it started this Friday afternoon, and now it's coming out Saturday morning, like really early as I don't know what parts of the world you all are, but for me, this is going to be posted around 2.45am.