I looked out of the open hatch and glared down at the scene beneath me. A valley full of evergreens, the whole place covered in snow, and in the center of them stood an unassuming building. It appeared to have only one floor with little to offer in regard to square footage. Built from cement and riddled with aluminum piping, it resembled a small factory, or an unused, heavy-duty supply warehouse. But as modest as the place seemed above ground, the levels beneath it were much more telling. This was a bunker.
Three planes were flying to the coordinates given, housing a sizeable team of about twenty heroes between them. After a month of investigating the area and its surroundings, utilizing infrared tech to get a feel for the bunker's layout, and formulating our strategy, we were finally making our move.
"Thirty seconds to the drop zone."
"Roger," I responded to our pilot. "Squad A is a go."
The two other squads gave their okay, signaling that our mission had begun.
I was the first to jump from the plane, followed by the rest of my squad, then the others. The cement foundation extending from the north side of the building was our makeshift landing pad. I released my chute a little late, made evident by my less than graceful impact with the ground. I had been distracted, thinking about the plan.
Get it together, Katsuki. Now is not the time to lose focus.
When I had established that all three squads had made it to the ground safely, I removed my parachute pack and moved on to our point of entry. I messed a little with my earpiece, making sure it was secure. Then I re-strapped my gloves and triple-checked that my gear was ready to go. We were ready for this. I was ready for this.
"I see four in total," Therma said, whispering over my shoulder. Her quirk allowed her to visualize the spectrum of heat coming off of anything. A sort of thermal imaging. She was handy when it came to locating people, but also weapons and even chemicals. Though her detection of chemicals wasn't as reliable as seeing the heat from actual bodies, it was still a critical component of determining the success of this mission.
"There are three grouped together," she continued, describing what we hoped was our stolen heroes. "It appears they are being held in separate rooms. But they're alive."
"That's a relief," I heard Le Million mutter to himself.
"Only four?" I choked. "This place is huge and there're only four people? And that's assuming three of them are our victims. He doesn't have any backup?"
She shook her head, suddenly nervous.
"Check again," I snapped. "Widen your range, whatever you need to do. There's no way that he would be alone here. Especially since he knew we were coming. For being so intelligent, that would be a stupid move."
She went quiet, focusing every ounce of her energy on her reading. But after a few minutes, she looked up, eyebrows scrunched up.
"I only see the four," she mumbled, worried I would yell at her again. "There's no one else. So, either the villain has our three people grouped together, or those are his accomplices."
I scowled. Damn it. What the hell??
"It's more likely to be our people," Le Million piped up. "If he has accomplices, I don't know why they would be separated from their boss."
"How far down?" I asked.
"A few levels. Five I think."
"And the fourth?" I asked. She concentrated again.
"He appears to be three floors down in a large room within the northwest wing," she concluded. "He's not moving, just... sitting."
"Waiting," I said, more to myself than anyone else. I knew he would be expecting us, but the fact that he was just sitting there waiting sent chills down my spine. I became painfully aware of just how little we knew going into this mission. But he had forced our hand. We were playing a game that only he knew the rules to, and I hated it.
I made sure that all eyes were on me before announcing the immediate plan. The general energy of the gang felt tense. Everyone seemed to be on edge. That was going to be a problem if we didn't kill that, and fast.
"Here's what we're doing!" I called out, just loud enough for the three squads to hear. "Squads A and B are going to move into the bunker, while Squad C keeps an eye on the perimeter. Squad B will go for the victims. You'll follow Therma. Squad A will engage with the enemy. You're with me. A and B will remain here until C gives the all clear.
"Comms are for notifying the team of abnormalities, or to confirm you've obtained your target. No stupid crap that no one cares about. Therma, if the targets move, inform us."
She nodded. I looked over our team one more time before signaling to everyone that phase two of our mission had officially begun.
Squad C moved immediately to begin their perimeter check. We had our birds in the air still, who would be monitoring from the skies, but I felt like it didn't hurt to have some extra assurance. The waiting was agonizing though.
"Perimeter clear," a voice crackled through the comms. "Proceed to next phase."
"Copy," I replied. Then calling out to the remaining squads, "Let's go!"
Things were pretty boring as we moved through the bunker. Getting in wasn't difficult, but whether he tried to make that difficult for us or not, we came prepared with whatever we needed to get through armored thresholds and cement walls.
Everything was quiet, aside from the sound our footsteps made, ricocheting off the walls of the wide hallways. True to Therma's word, the place screamed vacant. We didn't see a single living thing as we made our way through the first floor.
"It's eerie," Le Million said at my shoulder. His whispers rebounded off the walls, becoming exponentially louder as they echoed.
"Yeah," I replied, not sure what to make of it either. We had come so prepared for every scenario we could think of. But this... was totally unexpected.
The big guy was silent for another moment, before picking up his pace and saying, "I'm going on ahead."
"Hey!" I burst, but not before he had sunk through the floor to the level below us.
Idiot. Was he really that stupid? Now was not the time to move on his own! But what could we do except try and follow him as quickly as we could? Though, without the convenient ability to permeate solid surfaces, we had a more challenging time.
We made it to the third floor though, without any hiccups. It was then that Squad B split off to head to the lower floors in search of our captive heroes while my squad continued deeper into the third floor.
"Other than some mindless walking about, he hasn't moved," Therma said, her final report before heading off for the victims. "If you head south and try to stay towards the center of the floor, you should find him. My guess is he's in some kind of control room. Seems about the right size."
Our two squads separate, mine following her lead. But it wasn't long before-
"Ground Zero!"
I whipped around only to catch a short glimpse of my squad before a reinforced barrier slammed shut and separated us. I set off a few explosions to break through the metal, but it was no good. To make things worse, the one with the quirk to get us through the armored metal was down a few more floors to break out the prisoners from their cells.
Dammit! I shouldn't have gotten so far ahead!!
I couldn't hear anything. The metal was scorched from my blasts but otherwise unscathed. These were thick barriers. I'd be here for months trying to bust through. Longer if I tried straining my ears to hear anything from the other side. I finally turned my back to the newly established wall and resolved myself to moving forward alone.
YOU ARE READING
Wasted Quirk
Fanfiction"He did it. He actually did it." Katsuki Bakugo is haunted by the suicide of his childhood friend, or rather the guilt of knowing he was the one who pushed him to it. How does he cope now that he's the most promising up-and-coming hero? And what hap...
