Chapter Text
Minoru had never been the biggest fan of heights. His short stature made everything seem bigger than they actually were. His bed, the seats and desks in class, and even his other classmates. Everything around him appeared enormous and huge, with Minoru looking more like an ant than a student at UA. Only his glorious Goddess was comparable in height, and even she was a few inches taller than he was. The building he was climbing the side of for example, was already huge by the standards of a person of normal height. To Minoru, however, it looked like it would lead straight to the heavens.
Yet, that still didn’t stop him from climbing up the side of the building, grabbing the purple balls off of his head to climb even higher. Climbing and tearing his sticky balls as fast as he could, blood was already starting to pour from his nose like a faucet. The wind whipped around Minoru as he continued his ascent, the sticky spheres on his head leaving trails of adhesive behind him as he scaled the sleek exterior of the I-Island tower. His fingers trembled slightly from the strain of constantly pulling off his quirk-generated ammunition, but the fire of determination in his heart kept him moving.
“For my Queen! For my Queen! For my Queen!” Minoru mumbled under his breath as he continued to use his sticky balls to climb the side of the tower, pushing past the pain from overusing his quirk. He kept going until he finally reached a hatch, and with tears pouring down his face from the unmeasurable pain, Minoru grinned.
“I did it!” He released a breath. “All hail-!”
The wind nearly knocked him off the wall.
Minoru’s grip slipped on one of his balls, but the one beneath his foot held strong, keeping him tethered to the tower like a bug clinging to a window. He swallowed a scream as he fumbled with the handle of the maintenance hatch and yanked it open with trembling fingers. The door groaned on its hinges, and he shoved himself inside with a final grunt, collapsing on the cool metal floor with a squelch of adhesive echoing behind him.
“Never again.” He wheezed, staring at the ceiling as stars danced across his vision. “No more walls, only elevators and stairs from now on.”
Minoru’s muscles ached and his scalp throbbed. He was fairly certain he had left behind half a liter of nose blood on the side of the tower, but he was inside.
And no one had spotted him.
Crawling forward through the tight vent shaft, Minoru soon found himself at the interior control panel for the emergency maintenance ladder. A small handle was folded against the wall, lit faintly by a blinking red diode.
He squinted to get a better look.
"Manual release..." Minoru whispered to himself.
Gripping the lever with both hands, Minoru yanked it downward with all the strength he could muster. There was a loud clunk followed by the hiss of hydraulics. He heard the sound of metal shifting, something heavy locking into place above him.
Then he heard Kaminari’s voice faintly shouting, "A ladder! The ladder’s dropping down!"
A crooked, lopsided grin broke across Minoru’s face.
He had saved the day!
“Good job, Mineta!” Mina gave the short boy a grin once she jumped free of the ladder. She had been the last one up, guarding their rear just in case any villains had followed them. The grape-head turned his head with a hmph. Ignoring him, and keeping her grin, Mina turned to everyone else. “Let’s keep on going!”
“Yeah!” Everyone pumped their fist in the air.
It was hard keeping pace with everyone, Kyouka thought, as they ran through the hallways. Her legs and thighs were aching, yet she still pushed forward. She wasn’t wearing her usual outfit, not her combat boots, or anything that gave her grip. She was wearing heels, goddamn heels, and a fancy dress that kept snagging around her knees whenever she tried to take too long of a stride. She wasn’t Weiss, who practically lived in these things! The leather jacket helped, made her feel less naked, but the fact that they were running for their lives in party clothes only added another layer of absurdity to this whole day.
She could hear Kaminari panting a few feet behind her, and Mina’s breathless voice spouting encouragement that only half the group still had the energy to acknowledge. Kyouka didn’t slow one bit, she couldn’t afford to. Weiss was still trapped and held hostage somewhere below them. And Kyouka didn’t know how to say it aloud, not even to herself, but the idea of Weiss being hurt again, of Weiss having to carry everything like she always did, made Kyouka’s blood boil.
“It looks like we’ve gotten lucky.” Kaminari said in between breaths. “The paths have been clear since we passed the hundredth floor.”
“Maybe we lost them?” Uraraka added, running alongside him.
“I doubt that.” Kyouka blurted out. They were trying to block them earlier, and now the villains were letting them pass? No, there was something else going on here.
“They’re likely leading us somewhere.” Momo said from behind them.
“A trap.” Iida’s voice was serious. “We need to be ready for an ambush.”
“We’re almost there guys!” Midoriya yelled with determination. “This is almost over and soon everyone will be safe!”
Now that was the true hero spirit.
“Is it me, or has this felt it’s been going on for too long?” Yu whispered low enough for Weiss to hear. The singer had been glaring daggers at the Masked Man whenever he wasn’t looking, hoping and praying that she was able to shoot lasers from her eyes to end him once and for all.
It was an unrealistic idea, since the whole island was still being held hostage.
“No. You’re right.” Weiss muttered back, her posture tense. “They’re dragging this out on purpose, they’re waiting for something or someone.”
The longer the villain monologued and stalked the floor like a hyena, the more obvious it became that this wasn’t just about ransom or leverage. There was something mechanical about it, like he was stalling. Weiss didn’t like that one bit.
Neither did Yu, judging by the way she kept flexing her fingers like she was testing the limits of her restraint.
From their vantage point near the far corner of the ballroom, Weiss could see most of the guests huddled in uneven clusters, scientists, corporate types, minor pro heroes who hadn’t had the chance to fight back. All of them were too afraid to move, too shocked by the ambush.
And there, in the center of it all, laid All Might.
Still not moving, still not fighting back to prevent the deaths of any hostages. .
Weiss clenched her jaw. Every instinct screamed at her to do something, but this was a game of patience now, a game of waiting for the right moment.
But her patience still had limits.
“How much longer do we wait?” Yu asked under her breath, eyes flicking toward one of the doors the villains had come through. “You’re the strategist, Ice Queen.”
Weiss narrowed her eyes. “As long as it takes.”
No one would die under her watch.
A/N
I really need to stop disappearing.