Chapter 62: Spotted.

Having managed to continue without being spotted, they still moved with extreme caution. Despite having an island resident with greater knowledge than most about the central tower's security, Vlad ensured that they didn't take it for granted.

This was a point that Yaoyorozu, Iida, and Monoma all agreed with. Even though the villains didn't know the system all that well, one simple mistake, such as Mineta nearly triggering the alarm, could put them on the villain's radar. Because of that, they didn't move as fast as they could have, but they made good progress all the same. Reaching the 100th floor, the halfway point of their journey, they found the break room that Mellissa mentioned.

Vlad was the first inside, turning on the light as the rest followed. Looking around, they found that, like everything else on I-island, it was pretty high-end. Silver LED-lined panels cast a cool glow across the gleaming countertops and stainless-steel appliances. The soft hum of the fridge greeted them as the students looked around the place; Jiro let out an impressed whistle when they spied the sleek coffee dispensers and other high-end kitchen appliances she would have only seen in a magazine or the store.

Kaminari and Uraraka focused on the far where a giant wall-to-wall window gave a vertiginous view of the dark ocean, illuminated by the hundreds of stars overhead, as well as the sight of the island, which looked beautiful, with all the lights showing glimpses of what it looked like in the day. Still, they could also see the flashing lights of what had to be security drones on patrol. Both frowned as they could only hope that the illusion held that this was routine for the sake of their friends, who could be targeted should someone figure out the truth.

Yaoyorozu and Midoriya went right to the fridge and cabinets, searching for something to eat. They found plenty of snacks and quick, ready-to-eat meals that would only take a couple of minutes to cook on the stove or microwave.

"Something has been bothering me for a while now," Todoroki said as Yaoyorozu snatched some noodles as Midoriya drank a soul of tomato and chicken soup he whipped up in record time. With attention on the fire and ice user, he continued, “How’d this happen?”

"What do you mean? Villains took control of the tower, and now we gotta stop them, easy peasy.” Mineta voiced, but that didn’t satisfy the boy.

"But how? How did they get on the island? How did they get that far into the tower without being detected? How'd they take control of the system? Mellissa said that it has passwords and authentication locks.” Todoroki reminded them that something was missing; he could feel it in his gut, but what?

"Setting aside even getting that far, from what I recall, the island's immigration security was incredibly thorough; I doubt anyone with a criminal record could have gotten out the terminal without the system flagging them," Vlad gave his input, as truth be told, it had been on his mind for a while now as I-island took their security incredibly seriously, even minor criminal offenses led to additional screenings from what he knew about the place, but these villains couldn't be amateurs if they could pull this off.

"Maybe they don't have records yet. They could be part of the rare breed of criminals that keep their faces and details off the record," Yaoyorozu suggested as Jiro handed her a cold turkey sandwich. She and Monoma helped make food to feed into their creation engine, walking furnace, and hell serpent.

"The heroes below were all restrained; could they have gotten their hands on such equipment beforehand?" Midoriya asked as it had to take something pretty strong to keep All Might down, even for a little while.

“What did they look like?” Mellissa asked, as she hadn't seen them. As Vlad and Jiro relayed this, her face grew pale. “No way, that…”

“Mellissa?” Kaminari asked as the girl looked weak on her feet, close to collapsing as she supported her weight on the island table.

"Those had to be the emergency restraining devices. But that's not part of the security system. They could only be activated…by someone who knew about them, " she said, sending a chill down their spines. The group's worries only grew as they considered the implications.

“Okay, but wouldn’t that be in the system?” Uraraka asked, trying to find a simpler, more palatable explanation than Mellisa could be thinking.

Mellissa wished it was so, but she shook her head. "No, that's part of the training for the security, but it's not like it's written somewhere." She didn't know if she hoped that it was as it would just mean that this was just blind luck, but if that was the case, what did the villains plan for restraint as they had to have such, right? No group could threaten I-island like that during an event where heroes worldwide would make a move without some means to restrain said heroes, right?

Vlad was the one who ripped the bandage off. “So unless one of the guards got sloppy, these villains had to have been informed of the system beforehand, or someone inside is helping them."

“Vlad-sensei, you can’t be suggesting that someone would aid the villains, are you?” Monoma asked, as they just felt…impossible. Set aside everything else, it was the highest honor to work on I-island in any capacity, and those who applied went through crazy background checks. Even if someone was corrupt enough to work with villains, surely they'll never get past security!

Unless…the traitor was in security?

"But what other option fits? The villains managed to get undetected on the island, along with their gear. I'm pretty sure that tactical gear and guns would have been flagged if they tried to smuggle them in with the rest of the luggage." Midoriya stated that even those who came as envoys to heroes like Iida and Todoroki went through intense screenings; they even had to prove they were legit through a quick DNA test designed to see through any transformation or illusion quirks.

Iida frowned, as the possibility was slight. Still, his encounter with Stain had taught him slight could prove enough given the circumstances. "This, in turn, gives the unpleasant possibility that someone on the island, someone with know-how and connections, helped them get on the island. They helped them get into the tower and into the security room."

“But didn’t Mellissa also point out that the villains didn’t know how the system worked? Wouldn’t whoever’s helping them man that as well?” Mineta pointed out, as someone was helping them, wouldn't the villains let them do all the computer stuff?

"It didn't have to be a security officer, but maybe there's some other reason," Todoroki stated, but Vlad cut things off.

"It's just a theory with some foundation but no solid proof, " he told them, though part of his reasoning was how poorly their non-hero student was handling the idea that someone she knew could be at the root of this.

“Mellissa,” Uraraka asked, helping the girl to sit as she tried to process this.

"If…someone turned against us, would my father know them? Uncle Might said they took him." Mellissa shook as she wondered if this was someone jealous of her father, or someone who had a grudge or…or, she didn't know what, which terrified her. Why bring these villains here? What did they gain from taking the island hostage? Uncle Might hadn't said, so he hadn't known. Was there someone they wanted to kidnap, or was there some new project they wanted to steal?

“What the case may be, we shouldn’t get lost in speculation. We know far too little to risk it.” Iida stated.

“Iida’s right,” Yaoyorozu agreed, wiping away crumbs from her mouth with a handkerchief. Our goal hasn't changed, nor has the path to get to it." She finished as she turned away from them and pulled her dress down, opening her chest. Through a show of sparkles, she created two boots—but not just any boots.

“Jiro, would these work for you?” she asked as she handed Jiro the boots that looked remarkable and matched her hero costume.

“Y-yeah, they’re pretty good stand-ins for my boots. Thanks.” Jiro smiled as she reluctantly removed the heels that Yaomomo had generously loaned to her, putting them into the corner so she could return for them.

Yaoyorozu smiled in turn. “With a full stomach, I can afford to create some support items. Do the rest of you need any?” She looked around the group, but most shook their heads.

"Could you produce radiators for my legs?" Iida asked. After explaining their basic design to her, Yaoyorozu was able to create a pair of boots for him with the radiators installed. They weren't as good as his costumes, but they'll work better than nothing. “Much appreciated.”

"We'll manage, " Monoma said as Midoriya finished eating with Koharu. Neither was full, but having something in their guts would go a long way.

"Then let's get moving," Vlad told them. They ensured the place had no traces of their presence before turning the lights off and closing the door behind them.

Line Break

Having climbed another 20 floors, the group found themselves in an entirely new area. The entire place felt like a giant aquarium, one that seemed to have at least five separate floors combined into one because of its size. Rows of large aquariums teaming with all kinds of fish and plants dotted the place, some with vibrant tropical corals while others housed Arctic plankton with ice forming along the glass.

Banks of computers formed one side of the facility, the green and blue glowing lights through the blue light from each aquarium, probably working on something the scientists had left as the party kicked off. Workstations dotted the place, but while many had all kinds of tools and instruments, they were all clean as a whistle, which made some sense. They were at a party today, and it was I-expo, so most would take time off or have finished up work on whatever they wished to show off earlier and thus cleaned up after themselves.

Above the tanks were several catwalks with a suspended pulley system connected to a few robotic arms for interfering with the tanks.

“Which level is this?” Uraraka asked as the group quietly entered. The girl walked up to one such tank, one that housed what looked to be the biggest goldfish she had ever seen, the fish looking bigger than her head.

"It's the maritime research area. It's like the Plant factory, but it also handles other forms of water-born life." Mellisa replied, looking around the place. With all the filtration and oxygen pumps working, it was hard to hear much that wasn't in your immediate vicinity.

"I thought you couldn't keep sharks in tanks like this," Kaminari muttered, as in one such tank swam a great white shark. One which saw them, but aside from swimming closer to the glass, it didn't do much else.

"I'll stay clear of the glass; some of the fish here aren't as friendly as you'll want," Mellissa told them, which Kaminari listened to as he had seen enough movies to know a shark could ruin your day instantly.

"This is a shortcut?" Yaoyorozu asked. As pretty as the area was, they were on a timer and had already taken time out for her and Midoriya to fill up on food.

"It should. We can cross through here to the other side of the tower and use the emergency stairs there," Mellissa explained, having already mentioned that the tower had two main emergency stair walls.

"It's getting tiring to have to swap between them so frequently. Wouldn't that endanger people using them?" Mineta whined as his legs started to feel jelly from all the running and stairs.

“I would assume that the villain’s haphazard implementation of security protocols has something to do with it, " Todoroki said, gazing into a tank that houses a string-ray, one that swayed away after losing interest in him.

“Which has been conveniently slowing us down. if I didn’t know better, I’ll assume they’ve known about us this entire time.” Monoma sighed, only for Jiro to hold up her hand.

The rest stopped moving and talked, letting Jiro plug one of her earphone jacks into the floor to get a better view of the area and mentally ignoring the sounds of the equipment around them.

“We have company.” She whispered, pointing ahead.

“How many and where?” Vlad asked, looking around the room for any attackers.

"It's around… three, no, definitely four of them. They're all straight ahead. It sounds like they're just walking through," Jiro whispered back to them.

“Hide!” Yaoyorozu hissed as the group scattered, diving behind aquariums and workstations. Moments later, they could all hear a group of people approaching. Looking out from their cover, they could confirm that they were the villains, as who else would be dressed in tactical gear, wearing masks, and armed with rifles?

They couldn’t tell much about them other than the fact that one of them was massive, at least 2m tall, and built like he was at nothing by protein powder. Another seemed to have an armadillo heteromorph gene, covered with grey armored plates and a tail.

“What do we do?” Midoriya whispered as those guys looked serious.

“Should we wait for them to pass?” Kaminari asked, only for one of them, the biggest dude there, to call for a break, pulling out a box of cigarettes and a lighter. "Dammit, of course, one of them needed a smoke break." Kaminari wanted to punch something, but that’ll give them away.

Vlad's frown grew as he eyed the group. Ideally, they could just wait for the villains to finish and keep going, allowing them to pass, but they had no means to know that they'd start moving once the big guy finished with his smoke break. “We don’t have time for this. I'll swing around back and handle two of them. Midoriya, Kaminari, you handle the other two."

“Why us?” Kaminari asked, getting a painful nudge in the side from Jiro.

The girl was less than impressed with his question. “Moron, you’re a walking stun baton.”

“Oh, right…” Vlad wondered if perhaps Kaminari needed additional lessons on keeping cool, recalling his strengths, and applying them. Still, he could pass them along to Eraser and let him handle it.

"Wait for my signal, " he told them as he quietly got up. Despite how large he was, the man moved without making a sound. Midoriya gestured for Kaminari and him to get into position themselves. They could strike from here, but that would risk the equipment, and he would rather not explain later why some fish got roasted.

Crawling along the floor, he let Koharu off his shoulders, the large snake leading them. She kept moving beneath tables and aquariums, rendering her approach impossible to detect. As the two boys got closer, they could see where the rest were hiding. Iida looked ready to spring into action should they need him, as did Yaoyorozu, who had already created a staff for herself, utilizing the room's low light to mask its creation.

Getting closer to the villains, they could start explaining what they were discussing.

“The boss tell you anything?" One of the four villains standing guard asked the other 3. Midoriya eyed how 3 of them had their backs to them while the 4th would see them as soon as they moved.

"No, nothing. Still can't believe we have to patrol this far up. How would you even get this far without being seen? Mitnick would have seen them coming a long time ago." The smoker grunted.

"The Boss wants to cover our bases. This is a really important job. The last thing we need is stuff getting out and the feds busting down our doors." The other stated, Kaminari grabbing Midoriya's sleeve, drawing his attention as he pointed to the other side, where they could just barely make out Vlad getting into position.

"Just cut the chatter. The last thing I want is the boss catching wind of it." The last of the group, the one armadillo heteromorph, stated.

The smoker took a drag of his cigarette, and the burning orange light was clearly visible to Kaminari and Midoriya. "He's in the lobby with the hostages; he's not gonna hear this." Both filed that away for later.

"You want to end up like the last guy who thought he was a smartass? " the first asked, to which the other three shivered. Midoriya noted that Vlad finally got into position, but with just one person with his back to him, they'll need to even things out.

“How can I forget?” the third man muttered as Vlad picked up a plastic jar and tossed it into one of the tanks. The splash instantly alerted the guards, who went on alert.

"What the hell?" The large one immediately snuffed out his cigarette, reaching for his gun as two of them moved forward towards where the sound came from, giving them their chance as Vlad leaped out from cover and grabbed the largest man, blood spilling from his gauntlets moving to restrain him.

The target let out a cry, but before the heteromorph of the group could even respond, Kaminari came up behind him, his touch sending over 100,000 volts of electricity into the poor guy, who let out a loud buzzed shout.

“What the-!” Midoriya jumped over the aquarium, flipping midair and kicking the 3rd man square in the face, knocking him off his feet and sending them head-first into the steel side of a workbench with an audible thud.

“Get off me!” The last was handled by Koharu, who lunged out from under the aquarium, wrapping around the villain before bursting into flames. The man let out terrified screams as he was restrained by a burning snake's skeleton. Lucky for him, Midoriya came over and knocked him out.

"Was that necessary?" Mellissa asked, coming out of hiding, not that the cost was clear and all four villains were down.

"Maybe you're right; hitting someone into a steel surface was excessive." Midoriya acknowledged, eyeing the dent the man's head made. Mellissa thought that wasn't her point as Koharu reverted back to normal and slithered off the slightly burned villain back to her human.

“What do we do with them now?” Jiro asked as Vlad brought out the villain he handled, carrying the much larger man with little, least visible strain.

“Tie them up and put them somewhere they can’t cause us trouble,” Todoroki suggested, pausing when he saw how a shark was eyeing the villain Midoriya had knocked out. “And away from the sharks. Why are they so many?”

“I can create a strong rope for that, but where should we put them?” Yaoyorozu was already making said carbon fiber rope.

"We can put them in the supply closets, but I'm not sure they'll all fit in one," Melissa suggested, hesitating when she turned to the big one. She wasn't sure it could even fit into one of the closets just around to store additional supplies.

"We'll put them in separate ones and gag them so that they can't call for help should it come looking, " Vlad said as Yaoyorozu handed him some rope, which he used to tie up his villain. Kaminari got help from Jiro in tying up his, while Midoriya and Iida handled the last two.

That done, they carried them one at a time to the closest, made sure they cleared them of anything dangerous, gagged the villains, and locked them inside. The biggest one took Vlad and Iida to ensure he didn't fall over as they worked, but it worked.

With the way clear, they continued on their mission.

Line Break

"Alpha team, report." Mitnick sent an attendance call to their teams spread around the tower sometime later.

“Our side is clear.” The duo that were watching the entrance responded.

“Beta team, report.” He contacted the second duo.

“Still clear." They should be stationed outside the lobby in case someone arrives late. He continued with the calls, as from the lobby, he called their people outside the reception hall and those that had spread out across the tower. Nothing seemed wrong until he got to Gamma, which ignored his call.

Groaning about them being idiots, he tried again: "Gamma team, get off your asses and report." But nothing happened, not even the radio being picked up. They couldn't just be ignoring him.

“Someone’s up?” The pink-haired man who escorted Shield and his assistant asked.

“Gamma isn’t responding to my calls," Mitnick replied.

The pink-haired man cursed under his breath as he approached him, leaning over his chair to better see the dozens of camera feeds. “Which floor should they be at?”

“They were stationed on floor 150, but the boss wanted them closer in case something came up, so they should be on floor 110…” Mitnick switched the feed to where the two idiots were meant to be but paused when he saw no sign of them. “What the hell, where are they?”

“They ain’t there?” the pink-haired man asked as Mitnick scanned the entire floor. He couldn't find them anywhere, not in the halls, the stairs, or the elevator, not even outside the bathroom.

“I don’t see them anywhere on floor 110.” He confirmed to the other one, whose gaze narrowed, as something wasn't right. He didn't particularly like them, but they hadn't spared expenses when recruiting the extra muscle for this job. These guys were all meant to be professionals.

“What was their last known?” He asked as Mitnick took a second to recall.

"Floor 120, they passed through when Simmons wanted a smoke break. I gave them 5 minutes, " he replied, to which the pink-haired man remembered hearing him say something about that.

"Then check it; I swear those dumb-asses want the boss to get mad." The pink-haired man told him, which Mitnick did, but when he went to the aquarium level, a concept he found insane to install that far up in the tower, he had no luck.

“They aren’t there either. Where the heck could they gone?” He looked through it thoroughly but found no trace of them or signs of a fight. The place looked just about as he would expect.

“Do a complete floor scan for anyone between there and here.” Mitnick looked at the other one like he was insane, but the man only turned his hand into a blade. “Just do it.” The threat clear, Mitnick turned and did as he was told. Calling for a complete scan, the hundreds of sensors worked to identify movement. He got a return through one such system.

"Got it; I'm tracking several IDs moving through floor 138." He read back.

“138th? How the hell did they get that far? Didn't you scan the place earlier?" The pink-haired man asked him.

“I did; there wasn't anyone there except our guys," Mitnick yelled back as he had scanned the place top to bottom when they took over. Their guys were meant to be insurance in case the system missed something. He was about to ask how those new guys could fail when he got video of the group in question. All were dressed in formal wear and looking pretty young, but the one at the front of the pack drew concern. "Crap looks like we missed a hero."

“Great, just great.” The pink-haired man growled as he reached for his radio. “Boss, I got some bad news.”

Line break

“How many of them?” their boss asked. He was still in the reception hall, and when he heard the bad news, he kept a straight face and spoke as softly as he had since they arrived, a means to keep the heroes from getting any ideas.

“And how did they get that far?" he asked. As Mitnick tried to explain what he thought happened, their boss grew in irritation at the failure of all that extra muscle, muscle he had paid for on his own dime for this job. When they got out, they'd be lucky he didn't beat them half to death for this.

“Well, either way, we'll have to deal with this problem before it gets worse. I ran their IDs, and I want to know who they are." He ordered.

“Sir, I just scanned their faces and IDs. They're almost all hero students from UA. The hero with them is a teacher there.” Mitnick stated that their boss frowned at that even though he knew about that school; getting in wasn't easy, and they produced some top-tier heroes, so those brats wouldn't be so easy to handle.

"You said almost all of them; who else is with them?" He asked, as maybe that was the teacher, but something told him Mitnick wouldn't have phrased it like that if that were the case.

“They have David Shield’s daughter with them.” The man's eyes widened slightly at that tidbit, but he composed himself without issue.

“So that explains how they got that far, they got an insider leading them through. It probably means they’re trying to get to the top and retake the security system.” That could pose a serious risk to them, they could smash up the controls, but that’ll bite them in the ass as well.

“Boss?”

"Use the barriers to trap them where they are and send the security drones to capture them." He ordered, gesturing for two of his people to hurry out of the room and head off to help handle the issue.

All Might couldn't hear any of this, but he could pick up subtle tells, and those signs pointed to Vlad having made some progress, which the villains had picked up on. He didn't know where he was or how high the man had gotten. He didn't even know if he was going in on this alone. But he had to put his faith in him and hold out till they retook the security or, at the very least, shut it down. 'Be careful, Vlad. It seems like the villains are onto you.'

Line Break

You know, I really didn't think this entire arc through, the movie. I mean, as I had the big moments on lock, there were no issues there, but it's the smaller stuff that I'm tripping up on, which…yeah, messed with the flow of this one. Lucky for me, it's something of the second-last chapter covering I-island since, for all the reasons you most likely already guessed, it can't be as long as the movie's plot.

Frankly, I'm looking forward to working on the Summer training camp, which would be done primarily from class B's perspective. So, I'm cooking up ways that they can train their quirks similar to class A and how crazy that'll get. This will lead to something of a surprise later, which will bring back some stuff I've played with already, but as that would be spoiling, I won't say more.

Oh, and that second chapter of that new project you all must have seen yesterday is nearly done. Once I finish work on the third chapter, it's back to regular Monday updates, as I also have plans for how the Sports Festival will go for it. And then I'll have time to finally finish work on chapter one of my Danny Phantom project. You have no idea how much I want to just finish it, but I can't rush it.