The Emperor's Dragon

Interrogation

Vlad resisted the urge to rub at his temples. He'd pulled all nighters before. He'd pulled multiple days before. The life of a hero dictated readiness, even in the face of personal exhaustion but this was different. He now knew why they always said you couldn't be involved in cases where you knew the victims. He'd known that before but he now truly understood it.

Except there was no choice. There was no one else here and there wouldn't be for another few hours. That meant it was up to him, and the other heroes to take charge.

Now, hours after the attack, they had all the students together and had a firm role call. Two of Aizawa's class were missing, and several of his class were injured. It was mostly minor injuries caused from falling when they inhaled the noxious gas but Kamakiri also had wounds relating to blood loss. He'd be fine though. He was now with the others in the communal sleeping area they'd made. Maybe the classes would bond but he doubted it.

In addition to the missing students, one of the Pussycats had been taken and their nephew was still missing. No one was sure if the kid had taken or was hiding. They were all fervently hoping he was hiding, though with the sun rising, it was possibly time to organise their classes into search parties.

Or question the prisoner again except it was pretty obvious that the man knew nothing. Or at least nothing useful. They'd been kept off balance the entire night and Kamakiri's injuries said that there were villains they hadn't even accounted for.

How had the villains known they'd be here? And how had they known they'd be so vulnerable? After his class had taken their positions for the so-called test of courage, scattering into the woods, the villains had struck.

One of them - so far unaccounted for - had released toxic gas. Thankfully it appeared to just induce sleep, but it had been enough, and with most students having never really been in the woods at night, it had spread effectively. They hadn't recognised the mist as not natural.

In some ways he was kind of glad for that. It meant most of his class slept through the worst of it but it also meant they couldn't help. Though as students they should not be in a position to fight.

Then, just as they were beginning to grasp something was wrong, the villains had actually appeared. They'd defeated the fire villain but then he'd dissolved and they had realised he had never really been there. That was the first real hint that there were multiple attacks from the villains. And then the explosions had started.

Aizawa had recognised them. They belonged to his student. He'd yelled for him to remain in place and run towards the explosions, straight into a villain they both recognised. Given that the camp was being run with the Wild Wild Pussy Cats, they'd both done their research on the group. They knew about the death of Water Hose and who did it. Seeing Muscular here was not comforting.

The villain was a tank and he'd held them back. They'd been fully occupied fighting Muscular that hearing the explosions in the distance had been a good thing. Even the fire was good once Aizawa had told him it was Todoroki's fire. He'd been worried about his students then, and so had Aizawa but at least the students had the sense not to attempt to interfere in the fight.

He'd felt thankful for that. Vlad wasn't thankful now. They hadn't interferred because they couldn't.

Todoroki and Bakugo had obviously been occupied fighting other villains, and they'd lost because they were no longer here. Kirishima, and others from 1A had been there and had tiredly reported that the two boys appeared to be the target all along. He didn't know both boys well but he couldn't see them going quietly. Apparently they hadn't had a choice. One of the villains had some sort of quirk which did something to them. Kirishima had said it turned them into beads. And they hadn't been able to retrieve them. It wasn't their job to retrieve them.