Chapter Text
“We’re going in pairs of two, I assume you’re all okay with that?” Brandon asked, passing out the packs and night vision gear. No one voiced any complaints. “Aight start pairing up. You’re with me,” He said, pointing at Bakugo.
“Tch, yeah right.”
Brandon scoffed. “Work with me man. Fuck the pride, people are missing.” That, thankfully, seemed to get through to the angry blonde, who accepted the pairing with little more than a grunt of annoyance.
Izuku suspected Brandon was doing it to keep Bakugo in check, but the C-Rank had much deeper reasoning behind his actions.
Outside of that, the others began to pair up. Izuku and Iida, Setsuna, and Yui, Jiro and Kaminari surprisingly enough, Mina and Uraraka, Aizawa and Esil who was wearing makeup and baggy clothes to hide her identity from the populace for the moment - they didn’t want to cause a panic - Tokoyami and Ibara, Kirishima and Kamikiri, and Hagakure and Aoyama.
“Each pack has a flare gun with five shots, a first aid kit, enough food and water to last a week in the wild, and other assorted items like emergency space blankets.” Because they were all Awakened, and because the weight wouldn’t slow them down, the massive packs were stuffed to a ridiculous degree with just about everything they could need. “These GPS devices outline the paths each group will take to cover the entire island.” Each student had a watch with a GPS and built-in radio. “Avalon police and medical personnel are standing ready here in town as always. In search and rescue, never rely on one sense alone. Keep your eyes scanning, listen for any abnormal sounds, and… if you smell something foul, you should investigate. We’re aiming to bring these people home, whether alive or dead, remember that. Closure is important for these people. The flares are only for emergencies. Meaning you can’t reach anyone on the radios, and you are in a very serious situation. Anyone who sees a flare should head towards it and assist however possible. Remember, we don’t know what caused these disappearances, so be ready to fight. Assess injuries before moving them, treat if possible, and make for the city if movement is available to you and the survivor. I assume you all have been trained in first aid?” He glanced around at the students’ faces, but focused on Aizawa, who nodded along with his class. “We’ll rendezvous back at the houses every couple of days. We’ll stay in radio contact so don’t concern yourself with a stringent time table.” He finished by handing out a small laminated sheet of paper with the faces of the missing people. “Any questions?”
Aizawa stood by listening. He was a professor, but he wasn’t really a search and rescue specialist. Neither was Brandon, for that matter, but it was clear he had prepared as much as possible.
“Any wild animals we should watch out for?” Iida asked.
“Excellent question. Catalina has very few large species. Bison and swine being the main ones, mostly harmless. But there are also some venomous snakes on the island. The first aid kit is filled with anti-venoms for the ones you could encounter, as well as epinephrine in case anyone has an allergic reaction to said anti-venom.” He looked around for other questions, but no one spoke up. “Professor Aizawa?” He asked, ensuring he didn’t miss anything.
“Watch for caves and uneven terrain. Use your Awakened Senses to search bodies of water, we can’t go wading into every puddle we find. Be thorough, but efficient.”
“Alright, check your watches for your designated starting search location. Let’s head out,” Brandon shouldered his pack and looked to Bakugo. “We’re gonna cover the South-East section of the island, closest to the city, so we’re gonna go over it quickly before heading north with the others. Think you can keep up?”
Bakugo gave a self-important grin. “Who the hell do you think I am?”
“Good,” Brandon took a step like he was going up stairs, but instead of his foot coming down and hitting the pavement, it perched in midair. Taking just a few more steps had his entire body floating above the ground.
“What the hell?” Kaminari narrowed his eyes, as if looking for some ropes or string holding him up.
“Oh is that Omni-Movement?!” Izuku cried out. “That’s what the number four Hero in America has right?”
Brandon nodded. “It’s a helpful Skill for getting around, now let’s go,” He said, not wanting to waste more time, and took off running across the air like there was a glass floor beneath him. Each step boosted him faster and faster, giving him a bit more speed than the average C-Rank.
Bakugo, not one to be shown up, pointed his palms at the floor, using his Quirk, which specialized in Explosion Magic, to take off after him.
“Well now I feel kinda lame just walking to our survey area…” Kaminari bemoaned, turning around and following Jiro off. The rest of the class split off to cover the island, from end-to-end.
Normally a search effort like that would take weeks, but all of the class, and Brandon, were Awakened, meaning their stamina and strength was greatly improved. They could spend several days just walking and searching without needing to take a break. And they could clear difficult terrain without any sort of machinery.
A fallen tree? They’d just pick it up with one hand. A cliff had collapsed, leaving a ton of rubble in the way? They’d get it cleared faster than an excavator. An unstable cave was threatening to collapse? A high Rank could hold it up with their bare hands until everyone was safely out. Awakened Humans were, by far, the best search and rescue operators in the world. Unfortunately, most Awakened Humans wanted the big bucks, and avoided rescue work, leaving it for the normal humans outside of really big or publicized events, in which case they’d pitch in, if only to get some publicity.
For example, five years ago, when a terrorist detonated a bomb in a downtown New York building, Thomas Andre made a big show of lifting massive chunks of rubble, steel girders, etc. The photos of him picking through the debris went viral. But just a few months later, when an old building collapsed on its own in an economically downtrodden area of New York, workers had to bring in the big machinery to clear the rubble, because no one cared about that part of town. It didn’t matter that there were still plenty of victims, some who weren’t saved in time, it just wasn’t as patriotic and newsworthy, so Andre stayed out of it. And it wasn’t just an American thing, all sorts of Heroes around the world went with the flow of the media. Popularity helped them sign advertisement deals, get better contracts at other Agencies, and just generally have more opportunities in life.
For those reasons, Bakugo found it strange that one of America’s Top Ten was on some low income island, doing his best to avoid popularity. In his mind, he couldn’t conceive an outcome where he’d get onto the Top Ten and let his name fade from the records by lazing about on a remote island. However, there was an even bigger question on Bakugo’s mind.
As he and Brandon landed on the South-East end of the island, starting their coverage of the extensive forest and working their way towards the city of Avalon, he couldn’t resist asking.
“Why’d you pick me as your partner? Was it because you don’t trust me?” Bakugo, somewhat ironically, had come to the same conclusion as Izuku.
“Don’t take it too hard,” Brandon said. “I don’t really trust anybody. But that wasn’t the reason.”
“Then why? It’s clear you don’t like me.”
Brandon chuckled. “Again, I don’t really like that many people. Most human beings annoy me to no end. You’re not special.” He swept aside from foliage, checking a footprint on the ground, it was headed towards town. Not surprising since the area was a popular hiking destination, but they couldn’t skip over any details.
“You could’ve chosen the nerd, or any one of the girls in the class.”
“You say girls as if they’re suddenly a different species.” Brandon looked down at his watch, they were moving along a grid pattern. “I chose you because I can’t figure you out.”
“Huh?”
“Well Izuku is a pure optimist who believes in the more naive side of life, somewhat annoying. Iida acts mature for his age but is doing it more out of an obligation to uphold values he doesn’t necessarily believe in. Yui looks apathetic, but really she’s likely been chastised for expressing emotions in the past, so she’s just doing her best to avoid being hurt again. Jiro doesn’t much care for Hero work, but she thinks it's the right thing to do. Kaminari is in it mostly for the fame and glory, but you can tell he has a good heart. Setsuna is afraid of-”
“You don’t know us,” Bakugo spat.
“Ha!” Brandon barked out a laugh. “I’ve spent half of my life trying to write believable characters for novels and short stories and stuff. Once you start seeing the patterns, it's really easy to figure people out. But you… I don’t think I’ve ever met someone with such indiscriminate anger towards everyone he meets. So what is it? Mommy issues? Daddy issues?”
Bakugo scoffed, focusing his A-Rank senses to listen for anything abnormal.
“Oh please, don’t act like you’re some edgy guy just because you have a lot of anger built up. You think you’re the only one who’s had it rough? We’re all screwed up by our parents, it’s not-”
“Don’t talk about my parents like that!” He spat, walking over to Brandon with small explosions crackling in the palm of his hand. “They’re good people!”
“Really? Huh, mine were shit, so I figured we had something in common. What is it then? High blood pressure? Mental health issues? Financial stress? You don’t seem like the type to get stressed about school… hmm.” Brandon made these observations as he continued searching, barely glancing in Bakugo’s direction.
“Do you wanna die?”
“Pfft,” Brandon snorted. “Already tried that once. Would you believe that I Awakened right as I pulled the trigger? I don’t really believe in fate but that was some auspicious timing.” He used Omni-Movement to hop up to some trees, looking at the branches. “Huh… there’s some blood up here… dried… and one of the branches was snapped by force.” He looked around, not noticing Bakugo somewhat stunned by his last sentence. “Might just be animal blood… So, you really not gonna tell me why?”
“Why would I tell you?” He spat, getting back some of his bravado.
Brandon shrugged. “Just figured we’re kindred spirits.”
“Tch, yeah right.”
“The only difference between you and me… personality wise at least, is that you let all of your anger rise to the surface and use it indiscriminately. Trust me, I know what it’s like to feel so much anger rush through your head that you feel like you could go on a murder spree, not that I would, of course. Just makes me wonder… what happened to make you that angry?” Brandon looked straight into Bakugo’s eyes, not a hint of emotion on his face. “Because I know how much had to happen to make me that angry, to become so full of hatred that I distanced myself from everyone I knew to live on this island, and clear Gates all on my own, without a single care for my life. And even then, I can suppress it, keep it under wraps so that I never hurt people who don’t deserve my anger. It begs the question… what do you need to get off your chest?” His eyes softened ever so slightly.
Bakugo opened his mouth… and then shook his head, pointing to the bush right beside the tree Brandon had checked. “Therapy session is gonna have to wait, doc. I think that’s more blood than a bird or a rodent could carry.”
Brandon pushed the bush aside, revealing a horrific streak of blood, traced off into the forest. “Fuuuuuck…” He shot up from his crouched position, racing off to follow the trail, Bakugo sprinting alongside him for just half a second, exceeding his speed in no time.
They didn’t have to run far to find the source. When Brandon caught up to Bakugo, he was digging in the dirt. The exact spot where the blood trail stopped. The area around the blood had been disturbed… It was a shallow grave.
Brandon jumped to work beside the fellow blonde, throwing dirt behind him like a madman, clawing for what was beneath the surface.
“Fuck!” Brandon shouted as he felt one of his fingers slip into the slimy gap between two muscles, human muscles. Not just that, but Bakugo had brushed away the dirt from the face of the victim. It was naked. The body… had been skinned. Both of its eyes, and all of its teeth… were missing.
*******
“Baruka.” Izuku said once he and Iida were clear of the rest of the class. The Elf Baron, as well as 50 Ice Bears, rose from the Shadows. “Use Shadow Storm to stay hidden, cover as much of the island as possible. If you need to reveal yourself to save a life, do so.”
They all bowed their heads before Baruka hid them with his Stealth Skill, disappearing into the night.
“Why didn’t you bring all of the Shadows?” Iida asked. “They could’ve covered the entire island.”
Izuku winced, he didn’t want to look like he wasn’t prioritizing human lives. “Those two Anti-Heroes we brought back from Europa? They were both Japanese. And they seemed to be somewhat familiar with the Shadows.”
“You’re worried about Yaoyorozu?”
“Not her. My sister, my mother, Fuyumi and Natsuo. Just Japan in general. They’re short staffed when it comes to Heroes, and the Shadows are assisting. We can’t be too cautious when it comes to protecting our home, especially with all the weird stuff happening,” Izuku shrugged. “I figured these guys would be enough, the Ice Bears have really good heightened senses. Besides, if we blanketed the island with Shadows, that would raise some questions. People would be able to draw a line between them and Class 1-A.”
“I suppose that’s fair,” Iida accepted. He had a very uptight moral standing when it came to using power, especially immense power, like that of the Shadow Monarchs, to its fullest potential. But of course, everything had its limits, especially when you were trying to hide stuff.
Not to mention nationalism. Some countries would not look kindly on the Monarchs intervening without express permission. For example, China or America would see it as a humiliating admittance that they needed the help of foreign nations, even if they hadn’t asked for the help at all.
Izuku would always prioritize lives first, but the world was a messy place. Politics and ego got in the way of a lot.
“You ever hear of the FCP?” Izuku asked, making small talk as they lightly jogged through the woods, occasionally glancing down at the images of missing people to ensure he would recognize them instantly.
“No, what is it?”
Izuku explained the Fusion Center Paranormal that Woodstock had told them about on the flight over.
“You seem concerned by it, why?” Iida asked. “Every government agency has classified documents, and the FCP was merely acting to ensure no Villains made it into the wild.”
“I’m not worried about them. It sounds like they aren’t even operating anymore,” Izuku clarified. “It just caused me to realize something. Japan has the Shadow Organization, and the Yaoyorozus were working for their own gain. We don’t even know what other countries are doing to exploit Awakenings. We have no idea how little we know.”
Izuku wasn’t stupid. He knew governments, by default, were kind of shady. Those in power rarely had nothing to hide. Izuku himself was an example of that. He, arguably, could’ve conquered the world if he set his mind to it, and had people eating out of his hand. But he still chose to remain secretive for multiple reasons, and none of them could be perceived as malevolent. If that was what he was hiding, what was the rest of the world up to?
Iida couldn’t help but feel a pit in his stomach. He had similar concerns, but chalked it up to paranoia. But if Izuku was bringing it up like this, then there was merit to his worries. Not just for other countries, but his own family as well.
The Iida family was, in many ways, no different from the Yaoyorozu family, or even the Endeavor family. They were massively influential, held sway with politicians, possessed ludicrous sums of money, and had a good deal of Awakened strength within their circle of trust.
Tenya Iida was the youngest in his family. Could he trust that his family was as moral as they had raised him to be? Or were they just another Endeavor? A heroic family of Japan hiding more beneath that surface.
“I… am hesitant to suggest such a… morally gray operation, but you possess quite possibly the most advanced monitoring magic on the planet. Not only your Shadow Magic, but your Shadows. Both are nigh undetectable.”
“You're suggesting I spy on the world’s governments?” Izuku was taken aback, not by the proposal, but by the fact that Iida was the one to suggest it.
“My faith in institutions has been… shaken in these past few months.”
“It’s definitely something to consider…” Izuku said, not outright rejecting the idea. He’d already given thought to such a thing, but had stopped himself short, worried about the moral implications. “I-”
The two were interrupted the crackling of static from the radios on their wrists.
“This is Brandon and Bakugo. We found a body. It was… flayed, completely stripped of its skin. It wasn’t the result of natural decay either. It was buried, missing other body parts. We didn’t find any of them nearby.”
“Keep an eye out for blood trails and shallow graves,” Bakugo added.
“We’re gonna take the body back to Avalon. My friend Maigo should’ve arrived by now, she’s a biologist and has experience with autopsies, so we’re gonna see if she can glean anything from it. We have confirmation that these people are going missing as a result of intentional…” The watches buzzed, creating static.
Izuku and Iida exchanged a glance. Radios were still the most reliable form of communication, especially on an island like Catalina. Some interference here and there was expected, but the signal wasn’t returning.
“Woah!” Izuku yelped as the watch sparked and died suddenly. He threw it off his wrist on pure reflex, but it wouldn’t have actually harmed him.
“We should head back…” Iida said, looking around. “You felt that too right?”
“Yeah… a lot of Mana.” But before Izuku or Iida could proceed further, Izuku felt a mental nudge from Baruka. “The Shadows found something.”
Iida pursed his lips. “We should check that out, then head back.”
Izuku agreed and the two took off running.
“Is it a body?” Iida asked, knowing Izuku could effectively see through the Shadows' eyes.
“I think so…?” They came to a clearing where Baruka was crouched down. But Izuku didn’t stop talking because he saw some gruesome sight, he stopped talking because he realized that, outside of Baruka and the Ice Bears already on the island… “I can’t feel the other Shadows…” He forcefully attempted to reach out to Igris, but both his connection to the Shadows, and his Shadow Magic, both of which could span across the solar system as they’d learned on Europa, were suddenly cut off at Catalina alone “Something’s wrong!” Izuku said to Iida, now next to Baruka.
“Yeah… something’s really wrong,” Iida looked at the body on the floor, clearly made of flesh and blood. But it was not human. “I think… I think I found those body parts…”
The corpse on the ground was an amalgamation of human flesh, morphed into a barely recognizable shape, with a disturbing elongated and bloodied grin that would haunt them both forever, its mismatched eyes staring off in glee, frozen at the point of its last meal.
But that wasn’t even the worst part. It had been torn open by something else. Whatever this thing was, it wasn’t the only predator on the island.
“I suppose I should finally introduce myself…”
A red glow came from the darkness of the trees, illuminating a shape that they had seen before. It was the metal man… from Europa.
