"God I'm insane," you muttered to yourself, hopping across the rooftops of whatever buildings existed on this godforsaken island. Hanta Sero was oddly strict with his instructions, but it came with a price - your help in return to aid your private investigations into the Front. It was a risk, especially for one like yourself who lived off stealing from others. The thought of a double cross did saunter its way into your mind, but your own doubts followed after.
Sero would never betray your all-giving nature and trust. Right?
You quietly made your way towards a large courtyard by the port side of the island. It was reminiscent of a docking bay, much like Endor Docks, but barren and dilapidated. It seemed to be the Front's MO to hide amongst abandoned housing, but something felt terribly off. It was abandoned in general. You hardly came across anyone. Not even a lowly guard wandering around. If the plan was to rescue someone, shouldn't there be people around to stop that from happening?
The distant whirring of an engine caught your ear, stirring the waters by the dock before you noticed a speedboat on approach, spotting the Commission's insignia on its starboard bow. Your suspicions hiked minutely from the company that had arrived, only to spot three very familiar Pro-Heroes disembark, talking amongst themselves. First was Chargebolt, already charging forward and bolting across the courtyard, determined in his frantic rush. Second was Deku, the Number One already on alert while he traversed away from your position, heading towards the opposite direction from Chargebolt. And lastly, but certainly not the least, was Cellophane - Hanta Sero - staying put by the docks. Your eyes kept closely on him, watching him tread carefully through the docking bay while his eyes turned towards the rooftops.
You instinctively ducked below, hoping he had not spotted you just yet. What fun was there to give away your involvement, when you can keep him on his toes? It felt a little childish, maybe unintentionally wanting him to keep guessing. Keep the mystique and the intrigue.
"I'm still mad at him," you murmured to yourself, hoping to find meaning in that reason. It was starting to get old, grumbling under your breath while you covered your eyes from the dying light of dusk. You questioned how this cascade of emotions happened overtime. When did you start falling? How did he get under your skin? Or on your nerves? How did the tables turn?
A slight twinge of uncomfortable pain stirred your insides, feeling the grumble interject with your train of thought. You whined under your breath at the feeling, breathing deeply as a means to attempt ignoring the sensation.
"Shoot me," you slowly grumbled, dwelling on your thoughts while you laid on the cold concrete. Perhaps you had fallen for him, you thought yet still refused to accept. It was fun to play around, but it was becoming too real, feeling the swell of emotions conflict with your own personal goals. What was important was getting answers, you thought, while you pulled your hands from your eyes, adjusting now to the dark sky until your eyes met another's, widening at their sudden presence.
There stood a little girl with golden curls that dangled from her, framing her face in the dark. Her large eyes stared down at you curiously before she smiled widely, pointing her finger at you in the shape of a gun.
"Bang!" she chirped loudly before her fingers sparked with a harsh hot light.
BOOM
In a flash of blinding light, you found yourself suspended in the air to escape while the blast tossed you aside, feeling the thrust of its explosive power send you off the rooftops. The crash into the pavements below scathed across your limbs as a means to protect your head, feeling the burn against the concrete and asphalt that made the port. The surprise was unbecoming, invoking concern and shock. How did she sneak up on you? You're the sneaky one last you remembered.
A flutter of paper rippled through the air, catching sight of a string of empty notes the size of postcards shooting across the dock towards you. Quickly dodging you clumsily ran, suddenly chased by a trail of explosions that resonated from behind, trembling the ground under your feet. A quick glance up high caught your attention back on that little girl, her smile brimming widely while she threw explosive ammunition your way. If you didn't know any better, the smile she sported looked innocent and playful, as if this were a game of cat and mouse.
You called forth a ball of light only to find it fizzling at the seams. A toss of it in the distance helped in escaping the barrage, keeping you from the girl's watchful eye.
Only for that hunger pain to strike again.
You cringed, gritting your teeth to keep it at bay before calling forth another ball of light only to find it fizzle into nothing but tendrils. You cursed at yourself. Your body needed to replenish having taken the long route to the island. It made you regret not stealing someone and their boat to get here.
The happy laughter that rang through the docks was an undertone against the harsh and loud cacophony of these paper bombs, fluttering towards you in a swarm. You rolled and dodged, escaping each blast by mere hairs, until the pain shot through your stomach as if someone impaled you from the inside out. Your body keeled over, clutching onto your sides to ease this sudden rush of intense excruciating agony until something wrapped around you tightly, pulling you violently away from the cascading explosions that caught up to your feet. You flew in the air with a jerk and crashed into another, his arms grabbing hold of yours before landing a distance away atop another rooftop.
Hanta Sero gripped onto you tightly, only to release you immediately once you pushed away from him. The sudden jerk did not help your crippling hunger pains, feeling the stabbing sensation once more in your gut.
"What's wrong?" Asked Sero, noticing your slight keel with your arms pressing into your stomach.
"I'm just a little peckish," you muttered a little through your teeth.
"Stay put," he ordered before he swung back into the fray, drawing the attention away from you. Your eyes followed after him, finding the little girl indeed taking flight after him, throwing her explosive string of papers in his direction. At least she had a short attention span while she had her fun with the Pro-Hero, pulling himself away with every string of tape to give him momentum. The loud cacophony of explosions deafened your ears, but while Sero took control of the situation, you tightened your grip on your stomach in hopes that it would ease the pain.
Sadly it didn't.
You scoffed under your breath, swallowing the urge to surrender before you forced another ball of light in your palm, the fractals barely keeping themselves woven together. "I can't let you have all the fun, Bucky," you murmured to yourself, eyeing the next trajectory point. "This was your idea."
Amidst the explosions, you threw your light behind the girl, casting yourself towards her to catch her off guard. Appearing in a flash, you threw your arms back to grab hold of her, but was immediately met by a post-it note.
Bang! It read before a small explosive heat blasted in your face.
You reeled from the surprise attack, hissing and shutting your eyes from the momentary blindness. The sound of childish laughter caught your ears, only to feel the small charges of explosive power burn into your limbs. Peering through your eyes that stung from the flash bomb earlier, you saw the girl through misty tears, her smile still present while she shot with playfulness.
"Bang, bang, boom!" She cried with joy, each piece of ammunition eating away into your body, until you fell to your knees. You felt the sting of your skin from the burns and the rippling piercing pain from your gut. Inside and out, you couldn't catch a break.
"Tesoro!" Yelled Sero from afar, swinging with as fast a momentum that he could muster. His body flew towards you only for a flutter of paper to surround him, exploding in a ring of fire.
You only sat, listening intently to everything around you while drowning in this pain. Sero's gasps and pained scoffs were easy to discern, finding that he was now having trouble closing the gap between himself and the girl. The laughter, the explosions, the sound of tape zipping through the air, you could discern them all while you kneeled in pain that grew numb. That was a bad sign, you thought, feeling your body succumb to your injuries and circumstances. With gritted teeth, you bit down on the pain before slowly standing to your feet, arms still on your stomach. Your eyes cast on the girl while her back was turned m, finding this rare opportunity of sorts falling into your lap. With a heave, trudging through the pain, you charged towards the girl, arms raised once more. This was short-lived when she turned with that smile.
"Red light!" She chirped while flinging a large piece of paper in your direction, its creases fluttering about against the sea breeze.
Everything was in slow-motion upon seeing the sight of it fly languidly towards you. The pain in your stomach grew intensely while you bit through the burns on your skin. Dodge or charge, that was the question, still in motion while you flew towards the girl with this explosive in-between. Why couldn't you do both?
"Green light!" You roared, pushing through the pain before something warm engulfed your insides. A blinding light exploded from your vicinity, followed by the explosion that smothered you from sight.
Sero stood across the way on another rooftop, covered in burns with a singed outfit while his heart sank. He peered into the smoke, hoping to find you within. But only silence caught his ear before the breeze cleared the dark smoke that lingered. From within, he spotted a pair of feet, relieved that you were still alive, until another pair of feet caught his eye - exactly identical to the other. He thought he was seeing things while he blinked his eyes profusely, yet another pair of feet appeared, as did another. Five pairs of feet were present before a golden glow faded, leaving what he thought was a trick of the mind, or rather his eyes.
There were five of you, all identical and yet moved independently on their own. Each of you turned to one another, shocked to find clones of yourself staring blankly and confused.
"Well, this is different," one of you spoke to break the awkward silence.
"You're cheating!" Shrieked the girl, soon throwing out multitude pieces of paper from her person in a tantrum.
In sudden haste, all five of you scattered away from the explosive might from the child, soon charging towards her from all sides. With every throw of ammunition, she whittled down the options, landing one of her explosives onto you with a blast that shattered the image into tendrils of light. A fake, a duplicate, almost a mirage.
Sero immediately took flight swinging towards one of you in immediate danger. A swipe of his arm onto your person only fractured the image into light fractals, leaving him empty-handed.
"Light?" He muttered while his eyes still kept a lookout on the remaining three that dodged and weaved between the fluttering paper trails. A quick twist and turn left another in the dust, exploded into light leaving only two of you left, charging towards the child. Left confused and slightly fearful, the girl shift her eyes, crying before she threw a flutter of her papers haphazardly towards the two of you.
It was a chance.
You hopped away, leaving your mirage to take the blow before they exploded in a blinding light. With the distance closed in, you dove towards the girl, arms outstretched to tackle her until a cast of lightning sprung from above. The light blinded you before you were grabbed once more, swung away from the crash in Sero's arms. Flying in the air, you both turned to find the girl in the arms of another - a tall young man with light hair consoling her against his shoulders that was marred with blood. His eyes spotted the both of you while his mask kept his identity at bay.
"Playtime's over," he whispered before he disappeared in a crackle of light, his energy shooting out towards another building not far away, and soon, disappearing from sight.
Sero landed atop the roof again, keeping you in his arms while your legs gave in, grabbing hold of his shoulders immediately. You pulled yourself up, your face close to his while he inspected the state you were in.
"What were you thinking?" He questioned while he still held onto you, your body weight growing heavier by the second.
"... I'm starving," you muttered before your legs crumpled below you. Sero's hands gripped you tightly only for you to fall towards the floor, taking him along with you. With a scuffle, you laid in his lap, feeling the pain return within your gut and ribs. Yet you laid still, as did Sero.
"You're stubborn, you know that?" Questioned Sero while he tried to assess the injuries on your person.
You only mumbled in reply, an act of defiance while your mind wandered again through the pain. He was always on your mind, no matter what you tried to deny, now finding the irony of being in his company again. "And you're... stupid," you continued to mumble weakly, feeling the sleep wash over from the exhaustion and the numbing pain that coursed and took over your senses.
"Not so imaginative, aren't you?" Whispered Sero under his breath while his hands brushed part of your hair away from your face. Hearing no further response from you, he carefully collected you from his lap, hoping to carry you safely towards the others. In a way, he was grateful you were unconscious. He knew that if you travelled with the others, you wouldn't be pleased.
Still, he hoped you would be accepted. He bargained on it already.