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Waking up with his hands bound together in an steel fucking box was definitely Katsuki’s least favorite way to wake up and it had happened way too damn often! First UA, then the League, and now whoever these ass clowns were. The metal dug into his wrists and the base of his hands until the skin was raw and ragged as he tried to wriggle free, without luck. No point in fucking up his hands trying to break out. He’d have to find another solution.
Taking stock of the rest of his situation, Katuski found he was chained to an uncomfortable ass pillar, probably a support beam of some kind given the corners digging between his shoulder blades. The chain was wrapped around his chest and biceps a few times and he could see the padlock connecting the two ends together sitting on his chest. He still had his uniform shirt on, but it was torn to shit and dirty. He’d have to get a new one when he got out of this. His gauntlets were missing—of course. He’d add theft and destruction of property to the kidnapping charges. There was another chain looped around his waist and hips, but seeing as he didn’t feel his utility belt and backup grenades digging into his hips, he assumed the bastards had removed those too. Pants were as dirty as his shirt, but the heavy duty fabric has survived better, so they were salvageable with a trip through the laundry. His fucking boots were missing though.
Katsuki fumed as quietly as he was able. A few years of pro hero work and his last year at UA under Aizawa-sensei had finally drilled some stealth and subtlety training into his skull, but he’d never be fucking great at it. Leave that shit to Eye Bags and Bird Brain. All he needed to do was finish assessing his situation before the dicks that took him came back to check on him.
From what he could tell of the building, it was old construction. Red brick, wooden supports and flooring, and old fashioned light fixtures. It actually strongly resembled the damn bar in Kamino, if it weren’t for the fact that building had been reduced to less than rubble and that this room lacked a bar, Katsuki might have believed he was back there. Still, the similarities were enough to piss him off.
Piss him off more , anyway.
Before Katsuki could get bored enough to shout for his captors to show themselves, three men walked into the room from the only visible door. He recognized them as part of a gang of villains that had been making a name for themselves recently by trying to wreck infrastructure across the district by the distinctive tattoo on their forearms. Bridges and overpasses were their favorite targets. A small taskforce of rescue heroes and other pros with appropriate quirks had teamed up to stop them; they were doing well enough mitigating damage and saving lives, but they hadn’t been able to locate the gang’s headquarters yet.
The gang called themselves something dumb, but they’d killed more than a few dozen civilains already despite hero intervention, so they were pretty squarely at the top of almost every agency’s shit list.
They weren’t, however, part of Katsuki’s current caseload. Something about explosions near unstable structures being too big a risk for civilians. Wasn’t his wheelhouse, fucking whatever, he had plenty of other cases that were, but it raised the question.
“What the fuck do you shit-for-brains want with me?” Katsuki spat.
The villains ignored his perfectly reasonable question and sat down at one of the nearby tables. There were a few rolled up lengths of paper scattered over its surface, but Katsuki couldn't see what was on them from his post. The villains bent their heads down over one of them and began discussing something quietly.
WIthout his hearing aids and without being able to watch their lips as they spoke, Katsuki had no hope of understanding what they were talking about, and he was tired of being ignored. He strained against the chains binding him, but it was no use. They didn’t budge.
“Don’t ignore me, you overused piss bags! You went through the trouble to get me here,” and it was driving Katsuki crazy that he couldn’t remember how , “come monologue or some shit so I know what to put in my incident report after I beat your sorry asses.”
One of the goons sighed and looked to the ceiling as if asking for patience, speaking up at last. “You sure we can’t gag him?”
“He’s supposed to make noise. That’s the point.” Another said.
Katsuki growled, “Come undo these cuffs and I promise I’ll make a lot of noise.”
The third goon pulled a radio off his belt and held the talk button, “Kesseki, Setchi report. Tell me you still have eyes on the target.”
There was a crackle of static and then, “Confirmed. Target is on the move, headed toward primary location.”
“Good. Keep me updated.”
Katsuki was getting more annoyed by the second. Who the hell was the target? Why the fuck was he here if he wasn’t the target?
Before Katsuki could scream more colorful profanities at the trio, the door opened again and another villain walked in. Unlike the other three, this one was well dressed, wearing an immaculate three-piece suit, perfectly tailored for her figure, that spoke of money and soft living. The goons around the table were in no better than biker leathers and denim, durable but rugged. Not suited to a board meeting like the newcomer.
Also unlike the others, the newcomer approached Katsuki with a placid smile. “Good evening, Ground Zero. I apologize for the disruption to your day, but I’m afraid it was unavoidable.”
His last solid memory was from lunch, just how the fuck long had he been out? “Kicking the crap outta fuckwits like you is hardly a disruption. I do villain takedowns on the daily.”
The villain gave him a pitying, patronizing smile and Katsuki wanted to smash her face in. “Unfortunately, you seem to be operating under a misconception. We don’t care about you, you see. As far as I’m concerned, you’re hardly a blip on my radar, but you are rather well acquainted with a certain meddlesome little thorn in my side.”
Well that fucking grated. He was Bakugou Katsuki, number eight pro-hero Ground Zero. He was more than a damn blip on everyone’s radar. Just who the hell was this lady after if not him? It could only be another pro, Katsuki just didn’t have any civilian connections—unless you count his parents—and the only heroes he was ‘well acquainted with’ were the extras from class A.
Katsuki connected the dots rather quickly and bared his teeth in seething rage, “Uravity.”
The villain bopped him on the nose with one perfectly manicured finger and winked. “Got it in one.”
“Touch me again and I’ll bite your fucking finger off.” Katsuki snarled slowly.
She ignored his threat with a saccharine smile, “Your bubbly little paramour took something of mine, so I took something of hers in response. When she gets here, my men will take her down, tie her up, maybe rough her up a little, and then the two of you will be buried together under a building or two of rubble and I’ll finally be able to continue with my work uninterrupted.”
Their target…made sense. Uravity had practically been leading the taskforce assigned to bringing this gang in; her help in rescue efforts had saved hundreds of lives and even kept a few of their targets intact enough for Cementoss-sensei to repair the damage. Hell, Cheeks had laid waste to one of their gang last week when he’d failed to get the hell out of dodge after busting up a bridge. Took him down on live television too. Katsuki had the clip saved to his phone.
He was nothing more than bait for this trap, something to lure Ochaco out and give her incentive to come running into their crosshairs. They probably sent her something of his for proof of life—he hoped it was his goddamn boots—and told her to come alone or they’d kill him. They even had people watch her to make sure she complied. They couldn’t get to her in the field, so instead, they brought Ochaco to them.
Katsuki couldn’t help it.
He laughed.
Low and quiet at first, his mirth eventually built up until he was practically cackling, head thrown back and sides aching with the force of it.
Finally, as his laughter subsided, he relaxed, leaning more comfortably against the beam at his back, letting the chains go slack against his arms as he stopped resisting and grinned—all teeth and no sympathy. “You deserve absolutely everything you’re about to get, and I’m gonna enjoy every fucking second of it.”
Katsuki relished the brief flash of uncertainty that the sharp dressed villain tried to hide before turning to her minions. “Status. Where is she?”
There was a quiet argument from the three thugs that Katsuki didn’t need to hear the details of to know that something had gone wrong. Their sharp gestures and stressed features were loud as a bell from where Katsuki was looking.
“She wears bubblegum pink and is a rescue hero! What do you mean you lost her?” The boss lady didn’t sound happy. Good. He was more than ready to sit back and watch her day get so much worse.
The building shook.
“Find her.” The villain snapped her fingers and the others jumped from their seats to comply. Katsuki chuckled again, drawing the villain’s ire. “Laugh all you want; she’ll be dead soon.”
Katsuki just smirked as the building groaned and the sounds of breaking walls and glass reverberated through the old stone and wood. Soon enough, the sounds of fighting could be heard through the ceiling to the floor above. Crashing, banging, and the occasional breaking echoed continuously for almost a full minute before there was silence again. Then, the sound of a single set of footsteps made their way across the floor, fading into nothing as the owner moved calmly on to the next room.
Pale faced, the villain grabbed her radio. “Status.”
There was only extremely satisfying silence.
“Damn it, someone answer me! Where is she?”
When the radio continued to emit only static, the villain released a strained, frustrated scream and strode quickly to Katsuki. A small knife suddenly found itself pressed against his carotid. Katsuki bared his teeth in defiance and stared her down, unflinching.
“That cunt is costing me more and more by the second. She’s a rescue hero! A glorified cleaning service with a head full of air and costume that might as well come with a Pro-Hero Barbie name tag. She can’t have taken my men on by herself. This isn’t happening!”
“Uravity makes one of the fundamental forces of the universe her bitch as easily as you and I breathe. She’s the top ranked rescue hero and eleventh ranked overall, with a fucking masters degree in physics and a black belt in Krav Maga and Aikido. She wears that sickeningly sweet pink costume to put scared panicky civilians at ease and to fool dumbasses like you into thinking she’s just a rescue hero,” Katsuki growled quietly, warningly. “Your pathetic, punk-ass crew of wannabe thugs never stood a chance.”
“Oh Katsuki,” a bright voice giggled from the now open door, “you say the sweetest things.”
Ochaco walked slowly, calmly into the room, unconcerned smile on her cheerful face, but he could see her eyes were hyperfocused on the knife and villain threatening his vitals with a hard glint shining behind the bubbly facade. Katsuki looked her over quickly. She was a little dusty and she had a purplish bruise starting to blossom on her jaw, but otherwise looked completely unharmed. She’d looked worse coming out of one of their sparring matches.
Cheeks had closed half the distance between them and the door before the villain got over her shock. She spun on her heel and threw the knife at Ochaco, but she just skipped out of the way.
“You’re under arrest. Come quietly,” her smile turned vicious. “Or don’t. That would be more fun.”
Katsuki snorted. A pissed off Ochaco was a fucking delight.
“I will kill you,” the villain sneered.
“You’re welcome to try.”
The villain truly was breathtakingly dumb as she charged forward with a screech of fury. Even from his position, Katsuki could tell she’d had no training; her form was appalling and she left herself wide open. It was absolutely no surprise when Cheeks pivoted to the right, ducked under her wide swing, and came up with a swift and brutal jab to the throat. The villain choked, clutching her neck as she gasped for air.
With a fist in her hair, Cheeks roughly pulled the villain up, planting a boot behind her impractical heels causing her to lose her balance. Before the villain could fall, Ochaco grabbed her by the wrist with all five fingers, activating her quirk.
Leaning down into the villain's space, keeping a hold of her by the hair and the wrist, she said sweetly, “Give me the keys, or we’ll find out if I can pick locks with finger bones.”
The villain gasped and coughed until she had enough breath back to protest, “You c-can’t do that. You’re a r-rescue hero.”
“I’m also a possessive bitch who doesn’t like people touching my stuff.” Ochaco shrugged. “It’s a character flaw.”
“No it ain’t.” Katsuki grinned.
Cheeks shot him a wink before leveling the villain with a cold stare. “Last chance.”
“Inside pocket.”
Ochaco pulled sharply on the villain’s hair and pulled up with the hand on her wrist to flip the villain until she hung upside down in the air. Then she let go of the hand in her hair and dug into the tailored suit jacket until she retrieved a small ring of keys. Treasure in hand, Ochaco tucked the keys into her belt and then pulled out a pair of quirk suppressant cuffs, locking them in place around the villain’s wrists before releasing her quirk.
The villain fell in an undignified heap on the ground and groaned. Cheeks spared one last thought to deliver a final punch to the villain’s temple, knocking her out, before stepping over her unconscious body towards Katsuki.
“They damage the goods?” Cheeks asked playfully, but he could see the worry in her chocolate eyes.
Katsuki shook his head. “Get me outta these fucking cuffs.”
Obediently, Ochaco pulled the keys out of her belt and found the one for the cuffs first. She freed his hands, activating her quirk on the cuffs so they didn’t fall and crash into his bare feet. Katsuki flexed his hands and let out several small explosions as soon as they were off as she moved on to the chains around his chest and hips.
Once he was completely free, he swept her up in his arms and kissed her hungrily, burying a hand in her hair and pulling her flush against him with another on her hip. Her arms went around his neck as she returned the kiss with equal fervor.
When he finally broke the kiss, he ghosted his lips over the line of her jaw and rumbled, “Your murder face is hot, Cheeks.”
“I hope so,” she moaned softly, but he could hear the smirk on her lips. “I’d be a pretty poor Queen Explosion Murder otherwise.”
Katsuki barked out a surprised laugh and kissed her again. “I fucking love you.”
“I love you too, Katsuki. Let’s go home.”
He was absolutely on board with that plan; there was only one thing he wanted to know first, “Don’t suppose you know where the fuck my boots are?”