~~~
The tiny red robots are only half her height, but they don't seem to stop appearing. The walls around them open up, like great, ominous mouths and the robots leap out from them, landing on their little wheels and careering towards the four of them.
"Oh, calm down," Bakugou says, in a tone that just screams annoyance. "These things are nothing."
"They do seem kinda harmless," Kirishima admits. "After those two villains, I feel like this will be a piece of cake."
"What the hell are you talking about, shitty hair?" Bakugou retorts. "Those villains were a piece of cake."
"Whatever you say, man!"
"I guess you're right," Kira sighs, as the robots approach them, their red lights blinking on top.
"You never know," Todoroki says, ice particles swirling around his fist. "We have to be ready for anything."
"I know that!" Bakugou barks. "I don't need to hear it from you, Icy-Hot."
Kira slowly steps towards the row of robots, their heads swirling around as if analysing their potential opponents.
"You know," Kira starts, leaning over ever so slightly. "If you look at it this way, they're kinda cute-"
Suddenly, the robots start to blare out an irritating alarm and their middle sections open up, wiring shooting out from the hole.
"Hey, what the hell!?" Kira frowns at the wiring wrapped tightly around her arms.
There's so much of it, she can't even see her skin anymore. That doesn't mean she isn't able to use her Quirk though. As more robots launch over the first row, their middle sections opening, ready to capture her, Kira burns her Quirk around her arms, the light sizzling through the wiring. Their defences are tough - it takes all her energy to burn through.
The wires snap back to the robots due to the tensity of their hold on Kira, slapping them in their blinking faces. The second row of robots that leapt over the first launches another assault towards Kira, their wiring ready to capture her once again. However, familiar hardened arms snap down on them, chopping them in two.
"Kirishima!" Kira says, relief flooding her.
For some reason, she forgot about her classmates. Perhaps, it's the adrenaline pumping through her body, her blood rushing through her ears that made her feel alone. An ice wall slices by her side, wiping out a dozen or so robots. To her other side, wiring snaps towards Bakugou which he dodges with ease, a grin plastered across his face. Of course, he finds amusement in all this.
As a few robots are able to escape the carnage that is her classmates and rear towards her, Kira allows herself some space to attack, throwing herself backwards and extending her arms out. Her light travels down her skin, practically shimmering green and then a blinding white. Twin beams shoot out from her palms, incinerating the closest two robots. She repeats, firing her light Quirk in every which direction.
"They just keep coming!" She shouts, even though that's obvious.
"We need to get outta here!" Kirishima's muffled voice replies from somewhere to the left.
"Over here!" Todoroki yells from afar.
"Akira!" Kirishima echoes, his voice growing distant.
Kira fires another beam, spinning on her naked heel towards the sound of their voices. Around her, dozens of crippled robots twitch on the ground, smoke erupting from their gaping cracks.
"Die!!" Bakugou's voice - somewhere in her right ear.
"Kirishima?" She manages to say.
She doesn't remember when she got so discombobulated. Sometime during the battle, she lost her sense of direction, smoke rising from the ground, as if she were in the centre of an active volcano.
"Dammit, Bakugou," she mutters through gritted teeth.
His Quirk may be effective, but the visual implements it has on others is going to get her killed one of these days if she's not careful. His explosive Quirk causes his opponents to, quite literally, go up in flames and where there's fire, there's smoke.
Kira wafts some from her eyes, squinting in the smokey atmosphere. An idea clocks her mind, something that should have been obvious from the start and so she brightens her Quirk in her arms, using them as a light source to guide her through the smoke.
A figure makes themselves known, their wobbly silhouette gaining speed as they travel towards her, the smoke swirling behind them. She narrows her eyes further, her hands at the ready for an ambush. Sure enough, another robot has found her - their red light giving them away long before their tiny bodies are noticeable. She aims her arm up when another explosion obliterates it before her very eyes and a very dirty Bakugou steps out from the smoke, a frown set deep onto his brows.
"What?" He snaps and Kira just blinks at him, his tie undone and hanging limp around his neck with faint traces of dirt on his cheeks. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, glaring at her still. "What the hell's taking you so damn long?"
Kira shakes herself back to focus as she races after Bakugou, careful not to lose him in the smoke again. It's his fault she got lost in the smoke anyways. She wants to retaliate, but chooses to hold her tongue, an endless amount of insults crowding her brain. After all, there are much more important matters to attend to right now, like escaping these persistent robots.
"Let's go." Todoroki nods, once he notices Kira step out of the smoke behind Bakugou.
"Shut up." Bakugou continues to mutter his retaliations whenever he can.
Besides him being a bully whenever he can, Kira can't help but think that Bakugou may still be a little sour about his battle against Todoroki at the Sports Festival. After all, he apparently didn't win the way he intended to. Kira always wondered if that was the same with her fight against Bakugou - she lost in her way, because of her own faults, not because Bakugou beat her. She finds herself shrugging, perhaps it's because it wasn't for the number one spot.
Todoroki blasts an ice wall at a nearby locked door, the sharp shards smashing straight through the barrier. This leads them straight to another stairway and Kira heaves in a mouthful of air before allowing her legs to carry her up the flights. She would love to use her Quirk right now, but she needs to conserve every ounce of energy she can. Those robots are a lot tougher than they look.
Kirishima sticks beside Kira, while Bakugou and Todoroki lead the way, the sirens of the robots right on their heels. One of the robots seems to have a burst in confidence, if that were even possible in the slightest, bouncing off the head of another and rebounding off one of the walls, lunging straight for them. Kirishima lashes his hardened arm behind him, slicing the robot in two. Kira marvels at the strength behind his Quirk - he always complained about it not being the most striking in appearance, but it certainly was something she admired.
Todoroki and Bakugou come to a halt at a clearing, where the hallway splits into two. "We should split up," Todoroki suggests.
"Don't you watch movies?" Kira pants, holding her chest. "Not a good idea. Besides, we're better together."
"I agree." Kirishima nods. "Let's just pick a side and- wait! Bakugou!"
Whilst they've been discussing, Bakugou decided on a direction for them, using his Quirk to blast him down the left corridor.
"I'm not wasting any more time!" He yells from up ahead, his voice getting lost amidst his explosions. "There's gotta be a leader and I'm gonna find him!"
"Then what?" Kirishima shouts, sprinting to catch up.
"What do you mean: 'then what?'" Bakugou steals a glance back at his classmates as they try to keep up with his speed. "I'm gonna kick his ass!"
"We need to find and catch up with Midoriya and the others!" Kira tells her explosive classmate. "Where are they going, Todoroki?"
"The two hundredth floor."
"What's up there?" Kirishima wonders.
"The security controls," he replies coolly. "All the pro heroes have been taken hostage by the villains. Even All Might."
"All Might?" Kira repeats, frowning at Todoroki. "Then why the hell are we even worrying? Can't he just bust out of the restraints and beat the crap out the villains before they even know what's happened?"
Todoroki shakes his head. "The restraints are strong enough to stop All Might."
"You serious?" Kirishima says, but Todoroki doesn't have to answer to prove his point.
"Okay, so we need to get up there." Kira nods, as the robots continue to keep up with them. "But, we're not gonna get anywhere with these robots chasing us."
"You're right." Todoroki spins around, using his ice to turn him quickly, so he's facing the robots.
Kira and Kirishima screech to a halt when they spot Todoroki raise his right arm up and a huge ice blockade spreads over the entirety of the hallway. The robots crash themselves into it, but it doesn't even splinter. Ice spreads over Todoroki's right cheek and his breath is icy cold.
"That should hold them for a while," he informs them.
"Nice job, man!" Kirishima blurts, a grin spreading across his face.
"We still have to catch up with the others," Kira says. "They could be in trouble right now."
"We also have to catch up with Bakugou." Kirishima sticks a thumb behind him, finding the corridor behind them empty.
Kira groans in annoyance at their stubborn, irresponsible classmate and starts to give chase, Todoroki and Kirishima beside her.
They follow the path of explosive debris to find their way to Bakugou. It's pretty easy to figure out which path he's taken based on his destructive trail, each door or wall destroyed in his wake. But then again, Bakugou isn't really bothered when it comes to stealth.
"Look!" Kira nods at another opening.
"Why are these doors open?" Todoroki wonders, his voice quiet as if he's thinking out loud.
"There's no more exploded doors," Kirishima says.
"Yeah," Kira agrees. "Bakugou must have gone through here."
They race through the open door, coming across another one left ajar for them.
"Why are the villains leaving a path for us now?" Kira frowns as they pass through, looking up and around, as if waiting for an unsuspecting ambush.
"You think they're leading us somewhere?" Kirishima inquires from beside her.
"It's possible," she replies, offering a semi-reassuring smile. "We just have to hope that Midoriya and the others came this way too."
The three of them race up the stairs, when Kirishima halts them, raising a hand and ushering a hushing sound. They freeze, one foot on the step in front of them, listening. When Kira hears it - the muffled explosions of a certain somebody's Quirk up the several flights of stairs.
"Die!!" His voice echoes down to them, followed by another rattling explosion.
"That's Bakugou, alright!" Kirishima grins, as if he's proud of his friend.
"Is he telling another door to die?" Todoroki mutters behind Kira and she frowns at him before shaking her head.
"Come on!" She urges, continuing her pace up the steps. "We have to be catching up to him."
When they reach the top, Kira doubles over, fighting the urge to be sick, her chest heaving and her legs trembling.
"What... floor... are we on?" She rasps out.
"Uh..." Kirishima falters, staring around at their surroundings. "One hundred and thirtieth."
She groans out, straightening finally when she catches her breath. "Is that all?"
"Through here." Todoroki guides them through the next open door.
In here, Kira's greeted with some kind of lab, a green pillar in the middle, walkways from each side of the room meeting in the middle.
"It seems we're still on the right track," Todoroki points out, crouching down to examine something.
Kira kneels beside him, noticing a dozen or so of Mineta's purple balls glued to the ground, holding together a bunch of the robots.
"At least he's good for something," Kira mutters distastefully, getting back to her feet.
Kira checks out the other robots, when she spots a huge blanket hanging over the railing of one of the walkways. She runs over to it, grabbing it's material - insulated.
"Kaminari and Momo?" Kira wonders, rubbing the blanket in between her fingers.
"Bakugou must have come this way too," Kirishima states.
"Hopefully."
"He probably didn't waste any time looking for clues though," he jokes. "So, we should keep going."
"Yeah, but which way now?" Kira glances around at her surroundings, her voice echoing in the large space.
"We just need to keep heading up," Todoroki tells her.
Kira looks directly up at the ceiling, wondering how thick the concrete building is. Would Kirishima's Quirk be strong enough to burst through? Or hers or Todoroki's?
Before she can utter her ideas, Todoroki creates an ice pillar, carrying the three of them to the top of the room.
"We're taking too long following after Bakugou," he says, ice covering his suit. "We should just head straight up."
"I got this!" Kirishima hardens his arms, aiming a punch straight up to the ceiling.
It starts to give way from just the one attack, cracks spreading over the concrete. Kira assists him, aiming her hottest light beams at the weakest parts that Kirishima created, her heat burning through. When the ceiling starts to crumble, both her and Todoroki put up instinctive protective surroundings, her creating a light shield that arcs over the three of them, while he swoops over a thick wall of ice, blanketing them completely. Kira and Todoroki share a look as the ceiling caves down on their defences, before falling around them. When it's silent, Kira slowly but surely cancels her Quirk and Todoroki's ice melts away, revealing a gaping hole in the ceiling.
The three of them stare up into the next floor, gazing at the next ceiling way up ahead, when Kirishima speaks up, rubbing his head. "So, how many more times we gotta do this?"
~~~