Dad For One

Chapter 35 - Escape

Crack

It sounded way louder than it probably was, seeing as nobody reacted to it, but to Izuku it didn't matter. It was the sound of relief, of progress. He was finally breaking free! The pain would finally stop! After banging onto the glass for so long, after trying to activate a quirk, any quirk, after failing to power up every single time-

CRACK

He could finally feel his quirk spark up inside him, throwing himself against the glass as it slowly but surely started to weaken. Small cracks started to appear, small gaps that allowed a few droplets of this damn liquid to escape. A liquid that seemingly suppressed his quirk factor in one way or another, that made him feel dizzy and weak. Yet it didn't numb the pain. So much pain-

CRACK!

The glass finally burst, causing the liquid to flood out, taking Izuku with it. All the wires and tubes started to break loose, disconnecting as he fell onto the ground, straight into the mess of sticky fluid and broken glass. He gasped and shuddered, ignoring the alarms that were going off around him. The doctor wasn't here right now... This was his chance to escape! To get away from this facility and get back home! Oh how he longed to just go home...

A loud screech reached his ears as he slowly crawled up, still feeling weak from being inside the vat for so long. How long had he been in there..? He didn't know... Izuku knew he slipped in and out of consciousness from time to time, so he couldn't really recall how long it'd been. But it had been long, too long. His body seemingly forgot how to walk now that gravity hit him full force again and he was barely able to dodge the Nomu that attacked him in order to restrain him again.

Must be a security measure the doctor put in place... Izuku didn't have the strength to fight the thing right now, still struggling to keep standing as his blurry vision was trying to gain more accuracy. But as disoriented as he was, his quirk was now fully active and acting on its own. Lashing out at the Nomu on instinct in order to protect himself in this fragile state. All For One's black tendrils quickly found their way towards the Nomu, reflexively doing the one thing it's meant to do: Absorbing quirks.

Izuku felt some of his strength return as he took the quirks this Nomu had to offer, reducing the beast to a mere man. It was a strange sight, seeing such a deformed creature morph into a plain looking human man. Izuku didn't know what to think about it. He knew the Nomu were artificial mutated humans, but he hadn't realised that they could be turned back if their quirks were taken away... Well, that's why they were mutated in the first place, right? In order to hold multiple quirks...

He carefully kneeled down next to the man, checking for a heartbeat, for a pulse, any sign that he was still alive. Nothing. Izuku's breath hitched as he backed off. No... No, no, no, no! He didn't- Tell him he didn't- This was his fault-! He-! Panic washed over him as his breathing picked up, his senses dull and sharp at the same time as the only thing he could focus on was the dead body in front of him. He did that... He killed him by taking away his quirks...

Before he could comprehend what he did, another Nomu ran up to him, All For One lashing out on instinct and neutralizing the thing in an instant. Izuku froze up when he heard the body hit the floor, not looking at it because he knew he'd puke. 'All Nomu are human... Which means that at training camp-'. He shuddered, pulling his knees up to his chest as he tried to control his breathing. He killed them... He murdered all those people!

All For One lashed out again, tuning into his emotional state and reflecting the panic he felt as pure chaos as the facility was destroyed. Glass was broken, spilling all kinds of liquids onto the ground as the alarms kept on blaring through the air, the red flashing lights only adding to the madness. He heard several Nomu screeching and screaming, but they never lasted long and none of those monsters ever reached his trembling body. No, not monsters, humans.