"What?!" Wolfram screamed into the mic. "Where are they?!"
"… On the 80th floor," the Villain replied, watching the kids from the control room at the top of the tower.
"Tch!" Wolfram tsked. "Useless! You two…" He pointed at two Villains who were holding people hostage at the reception party with him.
"Go to the 80th floor," Wolfram barked. "There are a few runts on the run. Make sure to teach them a lesson."
Grinning, the two Villains rushed to the elevator.
Lying on the platform, All Might gritted his teeth, knowing Wolfram was talking about Midoriya and others.
He had specifically asked them to leave the Tower.
However, it wasn't in a Hero's nature to give up when innocents were in trouble, too.
So, in a sense, All Might was proud of his students. He just hoped they would be wise enough to avoid confrontation with the Villains.
Suddenly, smoke began coming off his body, curling up in thin trails.
Shit! All Might cursed, biting through the feeling. Not now…
He couldn't afford to lose his muscle form yet. If the children succeeded in disabling the Security System, then he would need to use his powers to save them.
But, regardless of All Might's wishes, confrontation with the Villains seemed impossible.
…
On the 80th floor, the children had to break into a Plant Factory to not being sealed by huge doors into the corridor.
The moment they entered, they saw the central elevator, running through the entire tower, coming up.
Holding their breath and remembering their mission, the children hid in the bushes to avoid the Villains.
To their surprise, when the Villains walked out, they instantly found the targets they were looking for.
No. It wasn't Midoriya's group.
It was Bakugo and Eijiro!
Turned out, they had entered the tower well before the start of the Reception Party, but got lost.
Walking and walking, taking the elevator before the tower was sealed, and losing their way even more, Bakugo and Eijiro managed to reach the 80th floor.
Moreover, all this while, they had no idea about the Villains taking control of the tower as well.
So, when the two Villains walked out and attacked them, neither Eijiro nor Bakugo could react fast enough to get out of the way.
A boom rang out as a massive ice wall appeared between Eijiro and the Villain's attack.
"Todoroki?!" Bakugo and Eijiro together exclaimed as Todoroki walked out of the bushes, followed by the rest of them.
Suddenly, bangs rang out from within the ice walls as the Villains from the other side pounded it.
Shoto placed his hand on the floor and created a sheet of ice under Midoriya and the others' feet.
"The three of us will take care of them," Todoroki said. "Look for a way to get to the top!"
Then, with a burst of coldness, the sheet of ice became a pillar of ice, taking them all up to the platforms running from the elevator to other doors within the Plant Factory.
Meanwhile, the two Villains tunneled their way through the ice wall as Todoroki filled Eijiro and Bakugo in on the Villain attack.
"Not normal ones, these children," one Villain said, with huge hands and a lizard-like mouth.
The other one nodded, becoming a massive, purple-skinned Ogre. "I will make them normals… with my fists!"
As Todoroki, Eijiro, and Bakugo began fighting the Villains, Midoriya, Tenya, and others broke through another door, finding the corridor ahead sealed as well.
"Hey, Melissa!" Midoriya said, his eyes falling on a ceiling hatch. "Where does that lead to?"
"It must go to the maintenance room for the sunlight system…" Melissa recalled.
Tenya's eyes lit up. "There must be an emergency ladder in the maintenance room, right?!"
Melissa nodded, hesitating. "But it would be a manual release. Someone will have to go inside to access it."
Everyone's faces suddenly fell.
The sealed hatch was just too far from them, anyway.
To go inside it to access the ladder didn't seem only difficult, but almost impossible.
"Don't give up, guys!" Momo shouted at them. "We cannot lose hope after coming so far…"
Using her Quirk, Creation, Momo created a modified bomb before throwing it at the sealed hatch. The bomb stuck itself to the hatch before exploding, opening the seal.
"If someone goes through the vent," Momo explained, "and goes to the maintenance room from outside the tower, then they can drop the ladder, and we can all leave this place."
"That's a brilliant idea!" Melissa praised.
Midoriya saw the problem, though. "But who can get into that cramped vent and climb up the outer wall of the tower without falling?"
Suddenly, an image appeared in their minds together, all heads shifting to look at Mineta.
Mineta's soul gave away. "No!" he cried, stumbling back. "I can't…"
"Hey! Is that Nyx?!" Toru cried.
As everyone looked down, behind Bakugo's explosions and Todoroki's ice attacks, they spied a black dot.
Even from afar, they could tell that there was something wrong with Nyx, as she kept losing height as she flew toward them.
"Wait…" Midoriya's pupils dilated, his throat going dry. "Where's Luke…"
As Nyx came to them, Midoriya had to lean over the railing to catch her, preventing her from falling.
"Nyx!" he shouted. "Wake up! What happened?!"
For once, Nyx wasn't faking the tiredness, her Stamina running incredibly low.
The repeated use of EMP and Exchange Positions Quirks had left her exhausted. As if those weren't enough, she had to fly up to the 80th floor to catch up with the children… just to deliver the worst news they could get after all that had already happened.
"Where's Luke?!" Toru, Momo, Melissa, Tenya, and others simultaneously asked, knowing something had gone horribly wrong.
Nyx flapped her wings, cawing brokenly.
"… Luke… was captured…" she told them, panting. "He's here… Deku…"
Midoriya's hands shook, his heart skipping a beat. Still, as if dared by fate itself, he asked, "… Who… Who's here?"
The Clown looked at the children, bringing tears to her eyes. "… Dr. Blessed."
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