Chapter Text
For a group of hero students, nothing felt worse than being absolutely helpless in a villain attack. It’s morbidly funny, in a way. Class 1-A has spent months training so that they would be ready for anything. Yet somehow, here they were, a small group of kids, crouched behind the counter at the convenience store, as several masked gunmen crashed and smashed around the store.
It was early in the evening when a portion of the class had decided to go out to buy a disgusting amount of snacks for the movie night marathon that they had planned. Ochaco and Momo had opted to go, as well as a few of the boys. Ochaco had been super excited about it, she wanted to buy some frozen strawberry mochi for her and Tsu to share, since it was both of their favourites.
Now though, the mochi in the plastic bag at her feet would be starting to melt, and the other snacks she had chosen with Kirishima and Momo were likely crushed.
“Hey! Grab those two over there! A hero could show up any second, we need insurance!”
Ochaco’s eyes widened and her heart launched into her throat as she heard a woman shriek in terror, and the sound of products spilling off the shelves. It sounded to her like the woman had been grabbed and dragged over into the center of the store, nearly right on the other side of the cashier counter she was hidden behind. Uraraka moved her eyes to meet Momo’s, who was curled on the ground beside her, Kirishima on Momo’s other side. The old man who had rung up their groceries was also behind the counter with them, though Ochaco kept her eyes away, she didn’t want to see the glassy eyes looking back at her or the blood spray on the back wall.
Another cry followed the first as one of the thugs presumably grabbed another hostage. A light suddenly shattered, people cried out, one of the men had sent several gunshots at the ceiling, yelling, “SHUT UP! Anyone moves from where they are and I’ll fill ya so full of holes yer mama won’t recognise yer corpse!” This was followed by a fearful whimper from the woman, and the nauseating sound of flesh colliding as she was presumably hit by the man holding her. Kirishima visibly tensed up, and Ochaco could see the fire in his eyes, she knew he was about to jump in and intervene. Momo reached out and grabbed his wrist, whispering so quietly it was nearly inaudible, “Don’t, you might be invincible, but those hostages aren’t. We need to alert a hero.”
Uraraka couldn’t help but think that a hero wouldn’t be of any help. If five hero students in the store couldn’t do anything about several men with lots of bullets, what would any other hero be able to do? Despite the time of day, there had been lots of others doing their late night shopping. So many innocents who could be hurt, who had been hurt. The initial spray of bullets as the men had entered had instantly killed the cashier in front of her, and Uraraka had certainly seen a man holding his arm in pain as he scrambled behind a product display. The three of them had only been lucky to avoid being hit, and had managed to find good cover behind the counter.
Ochaco’s eyes widened in horror as she realised there had been four of her classmates with her in the store. Kirishima and Momo were currently safe beside her, but she had no idea where Kaminari and Sero were. Last she had seen they were messing around looking at Pokemon cards. She really really hoped they were alright.
Her hopes were shattered at her feet beside her mochi, and she shared her look of terror with her friends as one of the men spoke,
“HAH! Tshimi, check it! That kid ya grabbed is wearing one of them hero school uniforms!”
“You’re right, haha! What are the chances! Ain't no way a hero can stop us now, not if they don’t want us to kill him and showing once again how useless that school is at protecting their students!”
Ochako was shaking now, she couldn’t think clearly at all. Two people needed her help and she was frozen. The men had clearly grabbed either Sero or Kaminari, as well as the woman who was still quietly sobbing in fear. If only one of the boys had been grabbed, where was the other? They had been together right before this nightmare began. Ochaco’s mind provided her with an obvious answer. Images of either of her classmates, whom she had been through so much with, dead and unseeing on the cold tile, appeared in her vision. It was possible, and it made her want to throw up at the thought.
The faintest hitch of breath had her whipping her head to her other side, where she had a clear view of the store to the side of the counter. A view of the darkest back corner where the ancient ice cream freezers were humming, and where a trembling and absolutely terrified Kaminari, wedged between them, met her eyes. His hand was held over his mouth to stifle his crying, a bloody gash dripping red down his face from his temple. After their eyes met, his immediately flicked away from hers toward the centre of the store, where he unfortunately seemed to have a pretty good view of the scene happening.
All four of the hero course students were helpless, too scared to form a plan. And all four of them were dead silent.
So they heard it clear as day when the group of men stopped laughing and the leader spoke again,
“I say we rough up both of these hostages! Gonna be honest, I wanna stick it to those bastard heroes. Let’s see how they feel seeing how easily a buncha thugs beat the tar outta their supposed hero-to-be!”
The laughing continued and Ochaco was filled with despair, Kaminari’s tears fell faster, Momo’s began to shake horribly, Kirishima holding tight onto her.
Sero whimpered in fear as he lay on the dirty ground with a stranger, surrounded by men who wanted nothing more than to cause pain.