AMATEURS [Tenya Iida x OC]

Chapter 13 - The One Where Things Are Tense

 The pain woke Peri before the light or the kick to her gut.

Just barely.

She cried out, sliding across the concrete floor until she smashed into the far wall. Her body pulsed like a fresh bruise, raw and throbbing. Peeling her eyes open, the bare fluorescent lighting overhead seared into her retinas. Peri hissed and curled in on herself, protecting her freshly-kicked abdomen.

"Thought you'd never wake up, child." Thundering footsteps approached, and Peri rolled over to look. It was the villain who had taken her, his white gloves in place and black sweatshirt hood pulled up over his head. "I didn't think I used too much of my quirk on you, but you were out for nearly forty hours. We have work to do. Don't sleep again until I say so, you got it?" He kneeled down next to Peri and sneered at her, obviously waiting for a response.

She stared into his lifeless eyes and grit her teeth. "Va te faire foutre," Peri hissed. "I'm not doing shit for you."

"Hmm," the villain sighed, standing. "The thing is, girl, you are essential to this ransom plan. So if you don't willingly help... then you'll be forced. Just like your little boyfriend."

Fear coiled in Peri's stomach, but she did her best to keep her face calm, unchanged. She pushed herself up to a seated position. "What do you mean? What did you do to him?" Her voice wavered, undercutting the courageous demeanor she was trying to portray.

"First things first," the villain said, "Time to write that ransom note. We can talk about your dead boyfriend later." He turned and faced a set of stairs Peri hadn't noticed. "Daze! Come down, dear."

Peri felt weightless. Her brain and heart had disappeared with his nonchalant sentence, and in their voids only screaming, heartbroken phantoms remained. She tried to focus on her surroundings and not on the gaping holes in her body. Tenya... gone. Just like that. After everything she'd done to save him.

A wisp of a girl breezed down the stairs, footsteps inaudible in the echo chamber basement. Hair swept away from her face in a severe, short cut, she looked to Peri to be roughly her same age. Her face was a mask, collected and serious, eyes cold as steel. "Yes, Syncope?" she said, militaristic edge to her voice.

"Keep our friend from using her quirk, please, while I fetch some paper," the man, Peri now knew as Syncope, grinned. He turned and disappeared into the darkness of the basement, slipping behind a screen.

Daze stepped forward, stare unfeeling, and raised a hand. Vertigo ripped through Peri, disgustingly familiar and terrifying. She reeled back, and tried, but failed, to hold back the vomit that rose up in her throat.

"Ew," Syncope groaned, approaching with paper and pens in hand. "Did I say 'please make her barf'? No, I didn't, Daze. Jesus fuck." He shot a nasty look at his coworker, and sneered. "Back off, you've done enough."

Daze sighed and stepped away, the vertigo rolling back with her.

Peri flinched when Syncope dropped a pen on the floor, and held out a piece of paper to her. "Write exactly what I say," he hissed, "Or I'm mailing your dads one of your fingers as proof of life. Or maybe your tongue. I haven't decided yet."

-

The letter arrived just after noon, delivered in the mail to the headmaster himself.

At lunch, the teachers met to discuss what to do, how to handle the situation. Mr. Aizawa called Peri's parents to relay the latest update, and Emerald snapped, "We'll be on the next flight."

Tenya hadn't slept. He stared into his soup, and willed himself to eat, but couldn't. The guilt was crushing, consuming. Not only had he been useless during the kidnapping, but he had wished... had wished he'd never met her. The second the thought left his brain, he wanted to take it back, shred it to pieces, crumple it up and toss it in the trash where it obviously belonged.

"Tenya, you need to eat," Ochaco said, keeping her voice soft. "When they find Peri, you'll need your strength to see her and take care of her, right?"

He managed a nod, and lifted a scoop of stew to his mouth. It tasted like water, but he swallowed it down anyway. His brain went on autopilot, and he continued to feed himself without thinking about it. It wasn't about energy or flavor, anyway. Like Ochaco said, he needed energy for Peri.

Ochaco and Izuku exchanged a worried look. The dark smears under Tenya's eyes concerned them more than his eating did... even during finals, Tenya always managed to get a few hours of sleep. They'd never seen him like this before.

The lunch bell rang, and the trio got up from their table, shuffling back to class together. Izuku had to steer Tenya more than once to help him avoid mowing down a classmate or teacher by accident. They took their seats, and Mr. Aizawa stood at the front of the class, arms crossed. "As all of you are aware, Peri was kidnapped Sunday by some villains while downtown," Mr. Aizawa said, instantly silencing the class. "While you were at lunch, we received a ransom note."

Tenya's stomach twisted into knots.

"She is alive," Mr. Aizawa confirmed, "She wrote the letter herself, and gave us the villains' names in code, which was brave of her considering the circumstances. Peri's parents are on their way to take hold of the situation, but I assure you that I will keep everyone updated." He sighed, and said, "Does anyone have any questions?"

A few hands shot into the air, and Mr. Aizawa called on Tsu. "What kind of code did she use to give you the villains' names?" she asked, voice wobbling.

Mr. Aizawa nodded, and turned to the board, "She spelled certain words wrong by adding letters. When we wrote out the letters, it spelled two words, and we put them in the database, which confirmed that they were two villains' aliases, and they have collaborated with the villains who attacked Peri and Tenya last week." He wrote out four words on the board: andd, raansom, cazsh, and deade. D A Z E.

A swell of pride bubbled up in Tenya's chest, chased quickly by frustration. Of course she was trying to be helpful even when she was captured, but why chance it? Why take the risk?

"Is there any way to trace the ransom letter?" Sato asked.

Mr. Aizawa shook his head. "If there is, we haven't thought of it yet. The villains paid a civilian to give it directly to the postman that delivers to the school." The class went quiet, and Mr. Aizawa continued, "If I know you all, which I think I do, you'll try to plan a rescue somehow. And I want to remind you that despite your provisional licenses, you are not Pro Heroes. You are not above the law. One misstep, one 'courageous' idea, and Peri is dead."

A shiver ran through the room.

"Please leave this to the professionals," Mr. Aizawa said, locking eyes with Tenya. "We all want to get her back safely."

Tenya swallowed back the lump in his throat, and nodded just barely at Mr. Aizawa. When Mr. Aizawa turned his back, changing the conversation back to school topics, Tenya pulled out a spare piece of paper and began writing two columns: Things We Know and Things We Don't Know.

If he couldn't rescue her, then he was at least going to try to help.

And a list was the best way to start.