Chapter 30: Betrayal

Chapter 30

Kurono huffed as he made his way up the stairs, but he refused to slow down. Why the fuck were Izuku and the others here? This complicated things way more than they had to be! The plan had been simple: take out the villains in the reception party, make his way up the stairs to the top of the tower, and take care of Wolfram before taking the Quirk Amplification Device for himself. Then he'd stage an explosion in the tower room, use some of the light refracting technology to hide the device, then have Kurogiri warp him back to the hideout and explain that it was destroyed after All Might somehow got free and punched his way into the security system, accidentally triggering an explosion which destroyed the device. Badda bing badda boom, Nedzu has the device and he can go cuddle with Mei and Shiozaki.

So, having such an unpredictable variable in the mix was the very last thing he'd wanted.

Kurono longingly eyed the elevator as he ran into Floor 90, but he shook his head. Wolfram had said he was disabling the elevator entirely after he took Mr. Shield and the other researcher with him, so the only way up was with the stairs. It was a shame, it'd be way easier if he could take the elevator, but he'd make do with what he had.

"Damn it, how'd they already get so far?" Kurono muttered, reaching Floor 91. Surely they would have been stopped by something by now, right? Unless...Kurono scowled as he realized that they'd probably skipped most if not all of the steps by using Izuku's quirk, or maybe even One for All. This was bad. Like, really bad. He'd been hoping to overtake them quickly, but now it would be impossible to do so if he just took the stairs.

Well, there was his answer, he supposed: don't take the stairs.

Kurono quickly looked around for a vent, and he soon found one. He sent forth two arrows, wrapping them through the vent and back out in a different hole in the vent, then proceeded to rip it out of the wall with ease as he retracted his arrows back to his head.

"I don't know if this is even going to work," Kurono said to himself as he jumped into the vent, "But if all roads lead to Rome, then surely all vents lead to the top of the building, right?" Kurono sure hoped he was right, because if he failed this mission, it could be the end for Hero society.

"Tokage-San, do you see anything at the top?" Izuku asked as they ran up another set of stairs. Setsuna's face took on an annoyed look. Or, at least, most of her face did, as he other eye was currently not present as it had flown out of a hole in the wall and up towards the top of the tower.

"No, probably because there's steel plates blocking the windows." She replied. Ah, yes, steel plates, they could make reconnaissance difficult. Izuku sighed as he and his squad made it up to floor 138.

"Well, at least you tried." He offered. Izuku looked around the room to see what looked like black and red columns, far different from the bland hallways they had been traversing earlier.

"What's different about this room?" Kendo asked Melissa.

"These are the servers for I-Island. If they were destroyed, then everything the scientists here have worked towards would be all for naught." Melissa explained.

"Damn, if this wasn't a life-or-death situation, I would give you five stars as a tour guide." Setsuna snarked. Their attention was stolen however as they heard the door opposite them open, and they watched as a whole legion of machines swooped in like demented Roombas, red lights glowing even in the well-lit room.

"Uh, do they bite?" Monoma asked, pointing quite needlessly at the robots.

"No, but they can wrap you up in a wire that's pretty much impossible to break." Melissa replied. Tokoyami groaned.

"We cannot spare the time to battle these foes of darkness! Yanagi-San, Yaoyorozu-San, Monoma-Kun, we should stay back and allow our allies to speed ahead!" He declared, throwing his suit jacket to the side. Reiko and Momo nodded, in agreement with his plan.

"Wait, b-but we can help!" Izuku said, a look of determination in his eyes.

"No, Tokoyami is correct. If we were all to remain here, then we may not find ourselves capable of reaching our goal. Have no fear, d-darling, we shall be fine." Reiko assured him. Monoma shrugged and tapped Izuku on the cheek.

"Alright, time to show these robots the superiority of 1-B!" He declared, putting a hand to the ground, before freezing, "Uh, how do I use this?" Izuku sighed, turning to leave.

"Tense your fingers and imagine how you want to manipulate the thing you're touching!" He yelled quickly before running off with Kendo, Melissa and Tokage. Meanwhile, Tokoyami, Momo, Reiko, and Monoma stood their ground.

"Tokoyami, Monoma, try and fight up close! Reiko, you, and I will fight from here!" She ordered, already making something from her chest. Tokoyami sprung into action, Dark Shadow erupting forth from his body while Monoma, seemingly disregarding Overhaul as a lost cause, tapped Tokoyami and copied Dark Shadow. A shadow, not too dissimilar in shape to Monoma, grew from the boy's chest, rushing forward with gleeful yellow eyes. Both Shadows reached the robots at the same time, and quickly got to work on tearing them apart. However, they were unprepared when two more contingents of robots fell upon them from above, and their eyes widened as they saw the wire shoot forth.

Before it could hit them, however, a small white sphere hit them, gunking up the robots as it expanded into a foam. The spheres had come from Reiko and Momo, where Momo was mass producing these items while Reiko telepathically hurled them with terrifying precision at their opponents, her hands moving as if she were puppeteering arms that they could not see.

"I shall be the first to admit we make quite the brilliant alliance." Reiko stated, flinging another 10 spheres around at the robots.

"Maybe you 1-A students aren't so bad after all!" Monoma replied with a laugh, his Shadow ripping a robot in half.

"Clearly, these robots do not know of quality over quantity. Have they never heard of Belisarius' Reconquest of Carthage? He had only 15 000 men in total, and yet he-," Tokoyami never finished that sentence, as he quickly had to dodge a robot which had evaded Reiko's attacks. Dark Shadow swiftly twisted around and pummeled the robot in a barrage of fists, repeatedly yelling some word while he did it.

"There is quite a few of them though, isn't there?" Momo mentioned, still making the foam balls, "Hopefully they run out of reinforcements before I run out of lipids." Momo jumped slightly when a thud came from the vents, and she and Reiko heard someone grumbling before it disappeared. Eh, it was probably nothing. And if it was something, then hopefully Kendo, Izuku, Setsuna and Melissa could handle it.

"Where the fuck are we now?" Setsuna asked as they entered a rooftop of sorts, giving them a beautiful view of the Island.

"This is the wind power generator system." Melissa replied bluntly, seemingly starting to get slightly annoyed at being an over glorified tour guide.

"And why are we going this way? The last time we tried going around the stairs it didn't end too well, remember?" Kendo asked, craning her neck upwards to look at the fans.

"Do you want to climb up another 60 floors? Because I don't!" Melissa snapped, having finally had enough of being asked questions it seemed. Maybe it was because the author realized that she had been pretty much useless this entire arc and had decided to just make a joke about it? Izuku shook his head; where the hell did that idea come from?

"So, I guess we're heading up to that door up there on the walkway thing?" Setsuna asked, pointing upwards at what was, indeed, a door up on a walkway thing.

"Yeah, it should take us straight to floor 180, if my memory serves right," Melissa confirmed, walking over the wall, "Midoriya, you should be able to take us all up again, right?" Izuku nodded and jogged over with Kendo and Setsuna before putting his hand on the ground again.

"I thought you could float, Tokage?" Izuku asked suddenly, remembering how she was floating above them way back in chapter 8. Setsuna shrugged.

"I could, but it's honestly way easier to take the Midoriya Elevator." She admitted. Kendo nodded along.

"Yeah, I could probably jump up, but why do that when we have a free ride?" Izuku sighed at that and activated his quirk.

"What progress we are making!" he snarked as they moved upwards, "In the middle chapters, you would have called me creepy. Now you are content with calling me an elevator." If Setsuna found anything odd by the mention of middle chapters or the general breakdown of this story from a semi-serious fic into a 4th-wall smashing crackfic, then she did not state it.

Pretty soon, they reached the entrance to floor 180, and they all went to open the door. However, before they did, Kendo, put a hand to her head and grunted.

"All good, Itsuka?" Izuku asked, looking back at his friend.

"Y-Yeah, my head just felt like it was exploding for a moment." She replied, face scrunched up in pain. Izuku shrugged and opened the door.

And immediately got shot in the shoulder.

"ARGH!" Izuku cried out as he fell back, and Setsuna's disembodied hand slammed the door shut, which was riddled with even more bullets. He quickly repaired his shoulder, still rubbing it even after it was fixed. He hadn't been expecting to get shot when he opened the door, but at least it wasn't the head, or anyone else. He shuddered to imagine Reiko being shot.

Reiko.

Shit. Reiko, Tokoyami, Momo and Monoma were still fending off the robots. They had to hurry up, before it was too late. Kendo charged forward, breaking the door off its hinges, and slamming into the hallway, bouncing around the walls like a madwoman to evade the bullets.

"Temple Touchdown!" Kendo yelled, aiming a punch at a villain's head. He went to block, but as a result he didn't notice the leg aimed at his legs, and he toppled over as they made contact. Kendo flipped over him and went towards the other villain. However, Setsuna got to this one first, and a quick punch in the nose and a chop in the neck brought him down just like his friend. Melissa walked in afterwards, followed by the staggering Izuku, whose legs still felt a bit wobbly after being knocked to the ground.

"I- fuck, this got serious, didn't it?" Setsuna breathed, checking the villains bodies for anything they could use, eventually pulling out a keycard. As she did this, Melissa threw something at a camera, disabling it.

"You just realized?" She deadpanned, checking the other body, and also pulling out a keycard of her own.

"Stop arguing, we still have 20 floors." Izuku grumbled, walking ahead of the three girls and up the stairs to floor 181. He barely noticed a clanging in the vents, but he figured it was just rats or something. Setsuna's body, floating as a maelstrom of pieces, caught up next to him, an eye rushing ahead to scout ahead. Kendo jumped up next to Izuku as well, carrying Melissa with her.

"I can't wait to beat the shit out of the leader of these assholes." Melissa muttered, crossing her arms as she got out of Kendo's grasp to walk on her own.

"Hopefully my quirk cancels out his in elemental superiority." Izuku said, looking at his right hand, flexing it instinctively. Setsuna was right, this had gotten serious. This wasn't some happy-go-lucky adventure to stop the bad guy; they could die. And Izuku...Izuku wouldn't be able to live with himself, knowing he allowed a friend to die from his carelessness. No more. There would be no more needless deaths after Water Hose. He could heal anyone, and if someone died while he was on the field, the fault could only be his own.

And Izuku- no, The Reformation Hero: Revolutionary, would not fail.

Finally, after a couple more steps, they reached floor 200, and they all collectively breathed a sigh of relief. They were definitely taking the elevator down once this was all finished. They walked ahead to where the control room should be, and they were surprised to see David Shield and some other scientist with him.

"...Why is Papa here?" Melissa wondered, eyes wide.

"He's probably being forced to get something by the villains." Izuku reasoned. However, this was soon disproven when David and the other scientist began talking about how they had finally gotten something back, and that they had arranged the whole thing to get this back. Izuku felt his eye twitch.

All this effort.

All this terror.

All so this stupid fucking scientist could get his little experiment back?!

Izuku may be a scientist, and he may understand how important experiments are to other people. But to get it back like this? Nah, that's too far.

Before he could voice his opinion, however, Melissa stepped forward.

"Papa..." She said, looking utterly horrified, as if she had just discovered her father was someone he was not (which, really, she technically had).

"M-Melissa? Kendo-San? And two others?" David Shield replied in shock, taking a step back.

"What do you mean 'arranged'?" She probed, slowly stepping forward, "Don't...don't tell me you were the one behind this incident? All to get that device? Is that true, Papa?" David looked petrified, and honestly Izuku didn't blame him. To have your daughter find out how you did so many bad things for such a selfish want...it would be horrifying.

Of course, he deserved it entirely, but still.

"...Yes, it's true..." David admitted, looking utterly defeated. And then, David and his assistant began explaining the backstory of this damned operation. Of how his work was stolen. Of how they plotted to get it back with fake villains. Of how it was for All Might, and his drastically lowering power. Izuku sneaked a glance at Kendo when that was mentioned, and she seemed to be...ashamed, he supposed he would describe it, ashamed that she was causing All Might to decline because she took One for All.

It was at this moment Izuku remembered something from David's speech.

"Wait, you said that the villains wouldn't hurt us, right?" Izuku asked, stepping forward. David raised an eyebrow, but nodded, "Then why did we get shot at?" David went pale at that.

"W-What? That wasn't...Sam, are you sure these were-," Suddenly, a mass of metal erupted from around the room, pinning Izuku, Setsuna and Kendo to the wall. They all struggled against it, but the rails (it looked like rails anyways) wouldn't let them move an inch. Izuku tried to maneuver his hands to touch it, but they were trapped in a way that wouldn't let him without great pain.

"It was an act," A cool voice stated, walking forward. Izuku took note of him, seeing his white coat and strange mask. All things considered, he was probably the main antagonist of this arc, "Sam, where's the device?" Before Izuku could even question who Sam was, the fat scientist grabbed the briefcase and carried it over to the villain.

"Sam? You...betrayed me?" David asked, hit with a double whammy betrayal.

"No, you betrayed me! How could you let them freeze your research? All the honor and fame we would have gotten went down the drain, and I didn't see even a cent for my hard work!" Izuku changed his mind, he really fucking hated Sam more than anyone else in this room now, even the villain.

"Here's your reward." The villain said, and before anyone could do anything Sam had been shot in the shoulder. Izuku's eyes went wide as he saw the splash of red, and Sam fell to the floor, clutching his shoulder.

"W-What? Wolfram, You betrayed me?" Sam cried, looking up at the villain who was apparently named Wolfram.

"Yeesh, all this betrayal is starting to get dizzying. Yeah, I betrayed you." Wolfram shrugged, shooting another bullet at Sam. However, it never reached the fat bastard. Instead, David had jumped forward to take the bullet.

"R-Run!" He croaked to Sam.

"Papa!" Melissa screamed, running at Wolfram. David yelled at her to stop, but Wolfram simply hit her in the nose with his pistol, knocking her to the ground. Izuku's eyes narrowed; this was where he drew the line! He strained his hands to the point of breaking and destroyed his bindings, falling to the ground and activating his quirk to put spikes through Wolfram's sides. At the same time, a silver arrow which Izuku immediately noticed was Kurono's shot out of the vent, aiming for Wolfram's throat. And also at the same time, a sphere with a pink aura around it flew into the room, aiming for Wolfram's head.

But none of these things hit Wolfram.

No, right at the last second, a swirling purple vortex opened up, and a hand flew out and grabbed Wolfram's head. He didn't even have time to scream as his body exploded. Not in a fountain of crimson blood, but an explosion of yellow stuff, although organs still came forth from his lower body. Izuku retched as he watched it happen, and he fully vomited when he felt the intestines land on his back.

"Ugh, that's filthy." A familiar voice growled, frustration etched in his voice. Izuku looked up in horror to see that Kai Chisaki had entered from the vortex and had grabbed the briefcase.

"Apologies for the disturbance, everyone. I hope nobody innocent was injured or worse in this operation." And with a bow, Chisaki left back through the portal, with everybody too stunned to even think of stopping him. It was only after he left that they all came to their senses, and after Izuku healed his hand, he helped Setsuna and Kendo out of their metal prison. The vent door burst open, and out of it jumped what seemed to be another terrorist, but once his mask had been removed it showed it was only Kurono.

"Holy shit." Kurono whispered as he looked at the remains of Wolfram's body, eyes filled with disgust. All that remained of the villain were his legs, the pants already soaked deep with blood. Momo entered the room along with Monoma and Tokoyami at this point, but all three left immediately after seeing the mess. Melissa poked at a yellow chunk uncertainly and frowned.

"...It's fat." She informed, sounding surprised, "But...he shouldn't have- there's no scientific reason as to why he exploded into fat pieces? And as far as I can see, it actually outnumbers the blood." And sure enough, a quick look around showed that there was indeed more fat than blood. Izuku's eyebrows furrowed.

"...Chisaki. It must have been Chisaki's quirk that did this," He reasoned, looking at the place that Chisaki had disappeared, "That purple portal was Kurogiri, and Chisaki is the only one whose quirk is a mystery to us. From what I can tell, he can heal people and also kill them...perhaps some kind of fat manipulation? Yeah...yeah! He could cover wounds with fat molecules and also make people explode by pulling their fat molecules out of their body in every direction!"

"That doesn't explain the fat to blood ratio." Kurono countered, causing Izuku to hum.

"I dunno, but it's the best I've got. Nice to see you, by the way." Izuku added, looking over at his friend.

"Same here." Kurono replied.

"Hey, I remember! You were helping Shiozaki with her shopping back at the mall! Why are you here?" Setsuna demanded, glaring at Kurono, who simply shrugged.

"A whole lotta stupid reasons, really." Was all he could say. Before Setsuna