Liberty

Training

Izuku was lead down a dimly lit corridor, the dusty lamps overhead flickering weakly. Their dull, pale orange glow illuminated the corridor's dark wooden walls and maroon carpeted floor.

They had passed a few doors on the way, each with a brass door handle and made of the same polished dark wood as the walls.

Izuku barely noticed Kurogiri stop as the two reached the end of the hallway and walked into his (surprisingly solid) back, he stumbled back a few steps in surprise. Kurogiri stepped to the side and turned to face Izuku, the shadow man holding a grim aura about him.

"Behind this door is the training room,  your instructor will be waiting inside. Do as he says. Good luck, stay safe." The last part was a quiet murmur but Izuku heard it, if his equally quiet response of 'thank you' was anything to go by.

Izuku stepped up to the door and grasped the cold door knob, twisting it slowly and opening the door. Walking into the brightly lit room he began to close the door behind him, hearing the faint sound of Kurogiri's footfalls as the man walked away.

He wasn't expecting the room to look as it did inside. The walls were made of metal and the floor solid concrete, the bright fluorescent lights were built into the ceiling. The room was big, about the size of a football pitch, and had a high ceiling too. Probably to 'train' people with gigantification quirks, he mused.

As he took another step forward, Izuku froze. There were a few people in the room, a few very intimidating people. And one of them was familiar.

The familiar teen stood in the middle of the room, his chapped lips pulled into a mad grin. Red eyes glinting with madness barely visible behind the hand, that Izuku hoped and prayed was fake, obscuring his face. In fact, there were a number of hands on the teen's body. He looked younger than Payton.

But that wasn't what made Izuku freeze.

Behind the teen there stood three other people carrying guns, and two familiar people on the ground kneeling. Two very familiar kids.

"GIN! HOSHI!" Izuku yelled, his voice laced with concern and worry. He lurched forward, ready to run to them, and froze. The three thugs aimed their weapons at Gin and Hoshi, the metallic clicks echoed throughout the room.

"Now now subject 3, let's not get too hasty." The teen with chapped lips rasped, the sadistic chuckle sent shivers down his spine. "We're going to play a little game, you and me." The teen walked toward where Gin and Hoshi were held at gunpoint and crouched down beside them, slowly raising a hand to Gin's throat. "It's called 'Learn to dodge properly, ooooor these two get it'." There was that creepy smile again as he touched Gin's chin with four fingers, the index hovering a few milimeters above the skin.

Izuku's throat went dry, knowing the implications behind the subtle threat. He nodded his head furiously, feeling tears prick at the corner of his eyes as he began to panic. "I'll do it, I'll do it. Just, please don't hurt them!" His voice cracked a bit near the end, becoming more like a whimper  as he feared for his sisters lives.

The teen paused for a second before removing his hand from Gin's neck, causing both Gin and Izuku to sigh a mental sigh of relief. This relief was short-lived though, as the teen got back up and turned to face Izuku once more. "If you move even a toe out of line, they will get hurt. If you don't dodge properly, you will get hurt. And we don't want that now, do we?" There was a mocking edge to his voice, his manic grin widening as he took a step forward in Izuku's direction.

Without warning, the teen sprinted at Izuku. The blue haired teen's hand was outstretched, his eyes had a crazy gleam to them that matched his equally manical grin. "You fail." The teen sneered as he reached Izuku, outstretched hand grabbing the boy's shoulder.

The world seemed to fall away as one thing, one feeling overcame Izuku's mind. Gin and Hoshi's screams, the mad teen's laughter, the grunt's taunting, they were all drowned out by the feeling of searing pain spreading across his shoulder. Still dangling a foot above the floor in the teen's grip, Izuku writhed about in agony. A pained cry, mixed with sobbing and pleading, filled the room followed by a thump as the teen let Izuku fall to the floor.

The only remains of Izuku's shirt sleeve were the bloody, semi-decaying threads around the collar. Dangling limply above a pile of red flakes and a small puddle of blood, the still bleeding flesh of Izuku's shoulder and upper arm looked as though the outer skin layer had been burned off almost completely.

Izuku's heart wrenching cries went unheard as the teen stared down at him, his expression one of disappointment and mock pity. "Tsk tsk Subject 3, what did I tell you. If you fail to dodge, you will get hurt. So dodge correctly. What part of that did you not understand? It was a simple task really, and you couldn't even do that. How...pathetic." Laughter bubbled up in the teen's throat as he kicked the sobbing, injured child in the side.

The teen stopped chuckling, instead opting to stare at Izuku with a look that could only be described as a mix of anger and boredom. "Get up and stop crying, you won't get any pity from me." The teen waited for a few seconds for Izuku to get up, or at the very least do something. The bored look on the teen's face was replaced with more anger at Izuku's unwillingnesss to move, this was followed by another angry shout of 'Get up' and a kick to the boy's ribs.

"Grrrrr, get up. Get up. Get up! GET UP!" The teen roared in frustration, each word punctuated by a kick to Izuku's gut, back, head or sides. Izuku coughed up blood after the final kick, curling into a tighter ball. He was still crying, but he wasn't making any sound. He simply couldn't, not any more. It hurt.

The teen growled and turned on his heel. "Fine, if you won't play by the rules." He was suddenly in front of Gin again, hand just inches away from being wrapped around her throat. "Then this subject will pay the price."

Time seemed to slow as the teen's hand closed around Gin's neck.

Hoshi screamed next to her, held back by the grunts and begging the teen not to harm Gin.

Izuku kneeling on the floor in a puddle of his own blood, arm laying limply at his side and blank eyes staring right at the teen and Gin. Tears streamed down his face as he watched. This couldn't happen. This couldn't be happening. No. Nonononono.

No...

NO!

In that moment the air seemed to freeze and burn at the same time. Blisters, frost and angry red blotches appeared on the grunts and the teen's skin, the grunts let go and stepped away from the two girls while the teen just moved his arm away and smirked.

"We're done here. Kurogiri will arrive in a moment to escort you back to your rooms." He turned to face the grunts. "Keep an eye on them." And with that, the teen left the room.