Chapter Text
“…(Where am I?)”
Ochaco felt her consciousness slowly return to her while her vision was still dominated by endless darkness. Was she...sleeping? She could feel the surface below, but there was no comfort of the school’s bed to be felt. It was hard, cold, like she was on the floor instead.
“ …..ty… ”
A small voice began echoing in her head. Though initially faint, it gradually became clearer, both tone and message.
“ Ura...ty...Uravity! ”
“(Wait...I know that voice!)” Ochaco thought to herself.
“ Guys, I f...nd Uravity! She’s…er here! ”
A glimmer of light slowly overtakes the darkness, as Ochaco dared herself to open her eyes. Her vision was at first blurry, however, it slowly returned to normal. She blinked slowly as she got up slowly, taking in the surroundings…
The street was a total mess. Craters were everywhere, spread out irregularly around the roads, some of them bleeding through the sidewalks. Several walls, whether individual or part of a house or a building were either filled with holes or completely demolished. The windows from many shops were broken beyond repair, yet in an odd display, most of the goods inside remained intact…
...What has happened here? Why was she unconscious inside a crater in the middle of a road? Ochaco groaned as she tried to recall, and yet...nothing showed up in her head.
“I’m glad you’re alright.” Came a voice familiar to her at her left. Ochaco turned around, coming face to face with a classmate. Kyoka approached her friend, a relieved smile on her face. “Earphone Jack…? What happened? H-how long was I out?” Ochaco asked.
“Beats me. I tried to remember, but all I’m drawing is a blank. Judging by the question, looks like you can’t remember either...” Jiro replied simply, scratching the back of her neck. “I just woke up a couple of minutes ago, I have no idea how long you were out either.” she continued, twirling her left earphone jack as if it was a strand of long hair.
Ochaco nods. “Right, I see…” she replies, not breaking eye contact with the other for the moment. “Have you...seen Deku? Or anybody from the class?” she questioned again. Deku was usually a pretty tough guy and he could handle himself just fine, but...something felt amiss. She couldn’t say why, but...it certainly felt like that.
“Deku? I haven’t seen him anywhere. I’ve only seen Creati and Chargebolt. They’re the ones who found me before I found you, actually.” Jiro replied.
“It’s all right.” Ochaco said, offering Jiro a small, relieved smile. Hearing that Momo and Denki were around was good news, after all. As if on cue, she heard Denki going “Heeeey!”, prompting both Jiro and her turning around to see both classmates waving at them. With no hesitation, Uraraka moved to close space.
“Glad to see you guys are alright.” Ochaco said, Kyoka following close behind. “Do you guys have any idea on what’s going on?” she asked.
Denki’s carefree smirk dropped a bit after the question. “Honestly? I have no idea. I don’t even remember running out to do patrols, and yet here I am, waking up in a crater in the middle of the street.” He replied.
“That is quite concerning…” Momo interjected. “If my assumption is correct, all four of us regained consciousness after being knocked out in what seemed to be a large-scale battle, yet we can’t recall what happened.” She said before pausing to think.
“You think we got hit by a memory-erasing Quirk?” Jiro theorized, placing a finger on her chin as she tapped it twice. “Whatever happened must’ve been important, and it wouldn’t make sense for us to just draw a blank.”
“That is a possibility.” Momo nodded. “But we have nothing but speculation at the moment. We could perform a recon around the area to find any clues, however…I’ve received a message from Battle Fist. Eraserhead needs us back at U.A. as soon as possible.”
“Oh...well, let’s not keep him waiting, then!” Ochaco replied. “We can ask him if we can investigate this place later when we get back.”
Her three friends nodded, seemingly fine with the idea. With no more to say, the four heroes-in-training moved away from the street they were on.
Grey skies extended as far as Ochaco’s eyes could see. The walk to U.A. was starting to feel like it lasted longer than it should have. Every road seemed to stretch longer the more she and the others walked. Not a sound came from the city buildings, shops...the neighborhood was completely deserted.
( The Pro Heroes probably made a mass-scale evacuation happen… ), she theorized in her head. Sure, it didn’t help the fact that the atmosphere was all kinds of unnerving, but it eased her fear of possible casualties, at least.
After a few moments of walking, Ochaco picked up her flip phone. She went for her messages, and hovered over Deku’s contact for a while before tapping on her keys to write a quick text to him. Just...something to check if he was alright.
“ Deku, please respond to this ASAP. Haven’t heard from you and I’m worried. :( ”
She hesitates on keeping the final part for a moment, but she relents and sends the message as is. Knowing Deku, she would made him worry if she sent it vague and serious-sounding.
“Hold on.” Came the voice of Momo. The heroine-in-training puts her flip phone away before trying to look ahead, trying to see what her taller classmate saw…
Her eyes felt like they could’ve popped out of her face from how wide-eyed she became.
Not too far from the quartet, there was a...creature, so to speak. It shared the height of an average humanoid male, however, that was the only similarity it had when it came to humans. It had a sickly green, mucky-looking skin, and four long tentacles with serrated blades on their tips, two at each side. A series of five shorter tentacles wobbled as it moved around, emitting an otherworldly guttural noise.
“The heck is that thing??” Denki questioned in a hushed tone, covering his mouth in a panic.
“I’m uncertain. It is probably a person with a Mutation-type Quirk, but...they seem to have lost their senses.” Momo replied as quietly as she could, turning to face her friends. “We should try to avoid it, find a different route--”
“Uh...Creati...hate to break it to ya, but…” Jiro suddenly spoke up, pointing forward with fear.
Momo’s blood ran cold as she turned around.
The creature stared right at them. Five blood red, beady eyes blinked slowly, each on their own time. And then...the creature grinned maliciously with a smile that suddenly seemed to just...exist now.
“Earthlings…” they spoke, their voice hoarse and echoing. “Seems like we missed a few…”
“Guys, be careful!” Ochaco warned. While the words the creature said were confusing, her battle instincts cried out, urging her to defend herself.
Without any further warning, the monster shot its four weaponized tentacles towards the group, one for each. Jiro rolled to her left, and immediately attempted to retaliate by plugging one of her jacks into her amplifiers before blasting the alien with a sound wave. Momo stayed on the defensive, quickly making a shield to parry the incoming blow. Denki nearly fumbles a dodge to his right, almost losing his balance before managing to successfully recompose himself. Ochaco ducked in a hurry, the sharpened tip of the tentacle just barely missing her.
The sound blast had struck dead on the monster, with them hissing in pain as they recoiled. Momo capitalized on that by bashing the monster with her shield, in an attempt to further disorient it. “Uravity! Try to cancel his gravity! Chargebolt! Once he’s floating, shock him!” she commanded, creating a staff as she kept her shield up.
“Got it!” Ochaco said with a nod, moving towards the monster. While she moved towards it, Denki pointed his sharpshooting gear towards two streetlights ahead of them, shooting a pointer for each one. He smirked. “Pointers are in place! Get ‘em, Uravity!” he yelled out.
The monster attempted to use two of its tentacles to strike the incoming hero-in-training, however within the moment of disorientation, the maximum the monster did was graze her cheek. Breathing sharply, Ochaco brought both hands forward and activated her Quirk on them, before kicking them upwards.
“You’re in for it now, buddy!” Denki said, charging some of his electricity in his right index finger. “Have a taste of 100,000 Volts, a gift from yours truly!” he called shooting a beam of electricity toward the villain. As it made contact, the lighting conducted itself towards the set Pointers before returning to the origin point.
The monster kept getting shocked as he floated there, hissing in pain. The assault from the students continued until Momo gave a sign. Ochaco nodded and released, and Denki stopped zapping it. The monster quickly dropped to the ground.
“There. This should incapacitate them.” Momo said, quietly approaching the monster with a net in hand. Painful seconds of silence pass by, with everyone warily eyeing the felled thing…
Suddenly, two of the tentacles shoot out towards Momo, one of them grasping her right arm. Soon afterwards, the hero-in-training yelled in pain. Her arm felt like it was burning up. What...was that monster?
“Creati!” Jiro called, trying to intercept the attack in a rush, only to be intercepted by another tentacle slashing at her from behind, sending her tumbling to the ground. Denki tried to follow-up with a lightning bolt, while Uraraka charged at it to attack, but the monster simply cackled as it smacked Denki to disorient him, before grabbing him by the leg with its third tentacle and throwing him at her, both of the students sliding on the ground until they reached a building.
“Ow, my everything…” Denki groaned, trying to get back up. “Uravity, hang in there!” he called to his classmate. Ochaco coughed as she tried to get back up as well, a bit of blood trickling from her head.
“I’m going to take you all with me!” the monster spoke with a hiss that almost resembled laughter. “I cannot wait for all the experiments we shall do with you.” they continued, their tentacles getting ready to grab the struggling students…
...but the monster was interrupted by...tape suddenly soaring above it? It suddenly pressed onto their skin with a powerful force, restraining all their movements. All of the students turned their heads to where the sudden assistance came from...
“Don’t you dare lay a finger on them.” Came the voice of Eraserhead, whose usual lethargic tone was replaced by fury. Pulling on his capture weapon, he forced the monster to come to him, making them drop Momo in the process. Once close enough, the underground hero leapt and slammed his right leg on the monster’s face, sending them flying to the side. Before the monster could make contact with a building, Aizawa tightened his hold on the capture weapon before swinging to the other side making the monster stop abruptly before being sent to the sky and plummeting to the ground on the other side of the street.
The monster laid down on the ground, growling at the hero who captured them as they struggled against the capture weapon. Aizawa pulled the cloth towards him again, trying to aim for a finishing blow, but the monster suddenly began to glow...and disappeared right as he was about to strike. “Tch.” Aizawa grumbled to himself, bringing the capture weapon back to him.
“Wh-what just happened?” Denki questioned, almost jumping back up due to the suddenness of the situation. He glanced around, fearing the alien would show up once again.
“We can talk about this later. For now, let’s return you to U.A.” Aizawa said, taking a moment to help the remaining struggling students come back up and administer their injuries. “We have a vehicle close to here. Can all of you walk to it?”
“I do believe none of us has sustained any incapacitating injuries…” Momo replied. The rest of the students nodded in agreement.
Eraserhead takes a moment to let out a sigh of relief. “Alright then. Follow me.” With that said, the teacher began walking, his students following suit.
Not too long after they resumed walking, Ochaco noticed a white van waiting by the sidewalk. The skinny form of All Might appeared from the right window, ushering the students to enter the van. Eraserhead moved towards the left door, while Denki opened the door leading to the back seats, quickly leaping into the vehicle, with Momo and Jiro following suit. Not to leave them waiting, Uraraka quickly followed the others inside, closing the door behind her.
Sitting down on a chair and fastening her seat belt, she could see her homeroom teacher looking over them before turning back and starting the van, the vehicle leaving the sidewalk.
“Uraraka?” Momo called softly to her, offering bandages to her. She nods in response, before wrapping them around the upper part of her head. “Thanks, Yaomomo.” Ochaco said with a light smile.
Her classmate smiled back before she turned to face forward. Ochaco, on the other hand, turned towards her flip phone. Her brief smile quickly turned into a worried frown.
Deku hasn’t even read the message.