Liberty

Tracker

The white-coat stepped aside, allowing Izuku to walk into the cold room. The room itself had half white half teal walls and a grey tiled floor. Bright fluorescent lights lined the ceiling. A cold metal operating table was positioned near the back of the room, light brown leather restraints hung loosely in various places around it. There was a silver trolley next to the table, the top covered in a white cloth, probably containing a tray full of medical equipment, a black cord leading from beneath the cloth to the wall behind the table.

Izuku gulped. He'd only seen the white-coats use trolleys when they...when they...

"Get on the table."

The white-coats cold voice cut in, making Izuku jump and rush to the table side. One of the first rules he learned when was first kidnapped: Never disobey a white-coat. 

Flashback

Izuku was in shock. 

He stood to the side of the operating room's door, knees shaking. Cold sweat rolled down his forehead and the bitter taste of bile lingering in his mouth. His breathing was laboured and eyes wide open. That boy. The one in the other room. He was dead.

Dead. 

Dead.

Dead, his mind chanted. 

Izuku's knees felt weak.

Dead, and you stood by and did nothing!

Izuku dropped to his knees, his hands covered his mouth as fresh tears poured from his eyes. He could feel the bile in the back of his throat begin to rise.

"G..t...p..et...up...GET UP SUBJECT 3!"

A pair of hands firmly grasped his shoulders, that and the sound of the white-coat's angry shouting shook Izuku from his thoughts. Dazed, the boy looked up at the white-coat. Dark hair greying at the roots. Pale skin. Square glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. 

Forgettable.

There was pain in his arm as the lab-coat let go of Izuku's shoulders, instead grabbed Izuku's wrist and yanking him up. The boy's feet dangled mere centimeters above the floor. Izuku was dragged across the room  and slammed on to the operating table, he winced and cried out in pain as his unprotected back met cold metal. 

The white-coat began to strap Izuku in place, the leather straps pulled too tight and cut into his skin. He whimpered quietly as the white-coat picked up a large syringe from the equipment tray, the man's cold eyes glaring down eerily at Izuku.

"Quirk Injection I commencing."

Flashback end

Izuku hoisted himself up onto the operating table, forcing a blank expression onto his face to mask his fear and resentment. The white-coat nodded sombrely. Eh, he's probably just glad that he didn't have to wrestle Izuku onto the table. The white-coat walked to the side of the operating table and began strapping Izuku down.

Two on each arm, in the middle of each upper-arm and forearm.

One on each wrist.

Two on each leg, in the middle of each thigh and calf.

One across his waist.

One across his chest.

One across his forehead.

One across his neck, though tied looser than the others as not to accidentally kill him if he squirmed too much.

And one...over his mouth? This was new.

"Bite down on that when it starts to hurt." The white coat stated calmly. 'Ah' Izuku thought 'It's used to stop patients from either screaming loudly or biting their tongues off. Great.' Izuku knew this was going to hurt. As the white-coat removed the cloth covering the trolley, Izuku managed to glance at what lay beneath out of his peripheral vision.

A metal plate and a power tool plugged into the wall behind him.

Panic, that was the only thing Izuku could feel. Pure panic. Izuku could feel the panic and the fear, icy and cold, flood his veins and swell in the pit of his stomach. His mind screamed at him.

Run!

Hide!

ESCAPE!

He couldn't move. He was trapped. As he struggled, the too-tight restraints cut into his skin. The white-coat picked up something and turned to him, he felt something tickle the back of his hand. It was cold and small, a pen maybe? The white-coat seemed to finish what he was doing and turned back to the trolley. Izuku froze as the white-coat turned back to him, this time however with the metal plate, four nails and the power tool.

A drill.

Izuku felt his heart sink, his body was covered in the cold sweat and shaking with fear. The white-coat placed the metal plate over the back of Izuku's left hand, the hand he'd previously marked with some kind of pen. A marker pen, Izuku realised. The metal plate was cold against his skin, Izuku could feel the holes for the nails in the metal as the white-coat pressed it firmly against his skin. The pressure didn't let up as something sharp, a nail, pressed into one of the holes

"P-please, please don't do this!" He begged, his voice muffled by the mouth strap.

The only warning Izuku received was the loud whirring of the drill. Pain exploded in his hand as the nail twisted through the thin skin and into the bone. Izuku bit down on the mouth strap, muffling his screams of pain. Warm blood flowed from the wound, it trailed along the outline of Izuku's hand before spilling over the edge of the operating table and pooling onto the floor.The drill stopped, but the agonizing pain didn't. Izuku barely noticed as the drill switched off, and a new nail was placed into another drill-hole.

This process didn't stop till all four nails were in place, lodged deep into the Metacarpal bones of his hand. By now, Izuku was barely conscious. He was in so much pain. It hurt.

"...p-please...s-st-stop..." Izuku's voice was hoarse, strained and dry from screaming in pain. The white-coat's head was bowed, if Izuku looked he would have seen a single tear roll down the man's face and the drill shake in his grip.

"...d-don't...want...th-this..." Izuku's vision filled with black spots as he slipped in and out of consciousness. The last thing he saw was a flash of grey and blue, the tightness around his limbs, chest, waist, neck and forehead disappeared. 

He felt as though he was floating.

He could no longer feel the throbbing pain in his hand anymore.

He felt...peace.

"...m-mommy..."

Everything went black.