Hero Class Civil Warfare by RogueDruid (Icarius51)

Chapter 22: Taking the Castle

Day 2: 10 hours, 18 minutes (10:18 am, local time)

The Hero Agency was a large, square building. It was surrounded by main streets on two sides and a side-street on a third. It was backed by an apartment building that was two floors shorter than it.

From the plans that Mei and Izuku had... shall we say acquired, they knew that the ten-story building was set up as half operations center, half dorms for the heroes to sleep in.

The first floor was laid out with a large meeting room and a secure atrium, set up to provide the hero team with an advantage when holding down the fort against an assault. The second floor was the forensics bay and research area, the third the hero armory and workshop for modifying their gear, and the fourth was a medical wing. The fourth floor had two corner security offices which provided a broad view of the surrounding streets, the alley, and the neighboring building.

On the fifth floor were the holding cells.

Floors six and up were the dorms for the heroes to stay in.

Izuku and his circle of friends had spent some time studying the layout, both over the last few days before the exercise started, and throughout the past day. They had gone through and narrowed down plans and considered options for retreat and attack several times. They had generally planned for a stealth assault, to sneak in and out and move fast. Minimal casualties for both sides.

But then Bakugou took more than half his team on a rescue and assault mission into the sewers.

Izuku decided that subtlety was not needed.

"Hey, Mei. Go gas up my ride, would you?"

With a rattle of metal fragments and shattered concrete across the bottom of the tunnel, the manhole gave away. With a grunt, Katsuki levered himself down, Sero sliding down behind him and covering the tunnel going back the other way, arms raised and elbows locked and ready for firing tape.

"Check in," Katsuki barked out, listening to the comms.

"fzzfzzzfzzzfzz" Nothing but static.

"Great. Sero, keep with me. Eyes peeled."

"Got it."

They rushed through the tunnels, Katsuki disabling traps with judicious application of his explosions and Sero using his tape to preemptively trigger some so the two could pass.

In the distance, the scream of Kirishima came to them once more.

"BAKUGOU! IS THAT YOU?!"

"SHITTY HAIR!"

Kirishima came into sight, hair soaked and clinging to his face and the windbreaker he had borrowed torn to shreds. Even now the redhead's Quirk was active and for good reason. His torso and neck were covered in several splashes of red, but the paint was cracked and falling off, and since he was still in the game, it seemed he was still 'alive.'

Katsuki tensed up at the sight, before relaxing slightly. "Who was it?"

"Tokoyami. He had his Quirk separate me from the rest of the Hammer Squad about ten minutes ago, and we haven't heard from any of the scouts yet. You?" Kiri scraped paint flakes from his skin as he glanced around for more traps.

"Rescue run. We need to push towards the cistern. Let's go." Katsuki turned slowly, then got his bearings and took off at a jog, Kirishima and Sero following along behind him.

Monoma blinked slowly, faking as if he was still disoriented. It wasn't hard. He was in some pain, the deep ache of his arms slowly coming to the forefront of his mind.