The Sound of Your Voice

Chapter 8

Aizawa pulled up to the crime scene and zeroed in on a group of civilians, cowering behind a corner. "Alright, we're here." He paused before getting out of the car, "Are you sure you don't want to go home?"

"No chance, I go where you go," Present Mic assured him. The two shared a quick kiss before rushing out of the car.

The sound of an explosion drew them towards the fight and Present Mic flipped on his speaker. "Everyone! Please evacuate the area as quickly as possible. Do not panic, the situation will be brought under control shortly. Please evacuate the area!"

Shouting broke out amongst the gathered civilians as people began to realize pro heroes had arrived. Most did as they were told, thankful to have someone to look to for instructions. Others began pointing Aizawa and Present Mic over to where a building was currently surrounded by police.

As one of the officers noticed Aizawa and Present Mic approaching, a look of relief washed over his face and he ran to meet them. "Eraserhead! Present Mic! Thank goodness you're here," he said, somewhat out of breath. "We haven't been able to identify the villain yet but he has a kidnapping victim held hostage in there."

The cop gestured urgently to an old office building, broken down and scheduled for demolishing in the next week. It would seem the villain wanted a crime scene that would take care of itself.

"We got a tip about a suspicious figure and sent someone in to investigate," the cop continued. "She came back with burn marks and a call for backup. The villain's quirk seems to be fire related and powerful. Unclear who the victim is but we think it may be a personal matter."

"Is anyone else here?" Aizawa asked.

"Not yet, you two are the first to arrive. But you should be getting backup soon, if you can just go inside and make sure no civilians have been harmed. We tried but haven't been able to breach the building."

Present Mic flashed a thumbs up and gave the cop a reassuring grin, "Tell the other police to work on getting everyone out of here. And tell anyone who shows up to come join us inside. We'll take it from here."

The cop sighed and gave a quick bow, "That's good to hear sir, good luck."

As he ran off to do as he was told, Aizawa took a deep breath. His jaw set in determination and he nodded at his fiancé, "Ready?"

"When you are," Present Mic replied, gesturing to one side of the building. "Meet me in the middle?"

"You got it," and with that, the two ran off in opposite directions.

Aizawa made it to his side of the building and kicked through a side door with one clean motion. Almost instantly, an intense heat washed over him and he shook his head, blinking sweat out of his eyes. The officer wasn't kidding when he said fire quirk.

As he began prowling through the building, he heard Present Mic's voice ringing out from a distant corner. "Villain! You have been surrounded, reveal yourself and we can end this peacefully. If you do not cooperate, we will have no choice but to use force."

Following both Present Mic's voice and the steadily growing warmth, Aizawa made his way up towards a floor that had already been mostly cleared out. Empty cubicles filled the room, and if the villain was here, he was hidden from view.

"Alright, I warned you!" Present Mic's voice boomed and Aizawa caught a glimpse of his tall blond hair from across the room.

Bracing himself for what was to come, he ducked behind a cubicle and covered his ears as much as he could. And not a moment too soon as a sonic blast rang out, reducing several rows of cubicles to rubble.

In an instant, Aizawa was back on his feet and as the dust settled, the villain was revealed.

A tall and lanky man stood amidst the rubble, wearing a black body suit and crouching next to a woman, bound and gagged to an office chair.

The man seemed shocked for a moment before scowling. "Get away from me!" he shouted and spread his arms. In a flash, his whole body ignited. At least, it seemed that way, until his form began to writhe and transform and it became apparent that he hadn't been lit on fire. He had transformed into fire.

Before he could expand very much, Aizawa turned his quirk on him. His eyes ignited brighter than even the villain and through the blistering heat, the villain changed back in an instant.

Once again, he wore a surprised expression for seconds before he scoffed and ducked out of sight.

Aizawa and Present Mic both began to run towards where the villain had disappeared. But they were stopped in their tracks as an inferno burst forth from the middle of the room, expanding quickly into a wall of fire.

Aizawa tried again to nullify the villain's quirk but to his surprise, simply staring at the wall of fire did nothing. He blinked hard as sweat dripped down from his brow and tried again to an equally underwhelming result.

The villain cackled loudly and his voice seemed to move around the room as he did so. "Good luck turning off my quirk when you can't tell which part of the fire is really me," he laughed.

With a growl of frustration, Aizawa sent out his capture weapon, hoping to disrupt the fire somehow. To his dismay, his capture weapon simply caught on fire, forcing him to draw it back and put out the flames.

The villain laughed again, "As you can see, your little tricks are useless against me. So why don't you just back off and let me do my thing."

Aiming towards the voice, Aizawa sent out his capture weapon again and this time hit something solid. With a grunt, he tried to restrain the villain but as fire raced down the fabric and towards him, he was forced to let go once again or risk being burned.

"Well aren't you tricky," the villain sneered. "Guess that's my cue to stop messing around and finish my job. I was hoping for something more elegant but this will have to do."

There was a pause in his monologue that was quickly resumed with a shrill shriek. "What? Where did she go? What did you do?" He reverted back to his human form, wisps of smoke rolling off him as he stared at a now empty chair.

"While you were busy staring at Eraserhead, I took the liberties of retrieving your hostage," Present Mic taunted. "She's somewhere safe now and will be taken care of by the police very soon. Give it up now."

"Do you have any idea how long this took to plan?" The villain shrieked, bursting into flame once more. "You stupid heroes always have to mess everything up, don't you? Die!"

Aizawa rushed to activate his quirk before the villain could get too big to handle but he was interrupted by a loud crash.

All three of them turned in surprise to see a figure burst through a nearby wall, and though a heavy dust cloud obscured most of his features, that silhouette was unmistakable.

"Burn this!" Endeavour growled, stepping through the hole in the wall.