[85: Knockin' On Heaven's Door]
"THIS IS CRAZY!"
"This is the most fun I've ever had!"
Constant gunfire echoed in the hideout.
When Toga and Twice entered the hideout after the drones, things almost instantly went wrong. Or rather, enemy contact arrived almost instantly.
Things almost immediately dissolved into a high-octane fight.
The drones were constantly firing and flying around, but the close quarters and tight space caused some problems.
A few bodies were already scattered, bullets in their head and chests. Some of the villains were hiding behind walls and in rooms. They were too scared to poke their heads out. Even a small glance would result in them being killed instantly by a drone, due to the reaction of the machine.
Twice and Toga advanced steadily, letting the drones kill and take the brunt of the damage.
They had switched to the shotguns for this fight.
"Watch out!" Twice screamed as he and Toga retreated.
The ground beneath them started cracking and rumbling. The concrete slowly tore apart as dirt came out. The dirt quickly rose up and formed into a large and solid shape, targeting them.
Toga and Twice ran down the halls. The drones scattered. Some followed them, some continued their assault, and a few were destroyed.
The dirt destroyed everything in its path. Chunks of wall and roof were destroyed, electronics fizzled out as wires were cut; pipes broke, causing water to leak everywhere.
Twice and Toga quickly took some of their grenades and dropped them behind them. The small devices and the micro-fuse quickly detonated. The dirt that was following them was blown apart in chunks.
"We can't catch a break here!" Twice shouted as they continued to run. For now, they avoided disaster.
"What kind of quirk is that? Controlling dirt, or something?" Toga yelled.
The sound of gunfire from the drones didn't let them speculate for long. It was a constant reminder that their lives were at stake all the time.
Twice and Toga spotted a room. Twice pointed at it. "There! We need just a few seconds to recover."
They ran to the room, but just before entering, Twice threw in a few flashbangs. Toga and Twice stood on the sides of the doorway and looked away.
A few loud bangs and bright flashes came from the room. Along with the sounds of groans and yells.
Twice and Toga entered immediately, shotguns raised.
They spotted three of them.
Without hesitation, Twice pulled the trigger on his shotgun. BANG! A giant hole was made in their chest, instantly killing them.
He moved and shot the other one. BANG! A headshot. A faint, bloody mist covered the walls, the body being launched backwards, also dead.
Toga aimed her shotgun, her aim slightly off. BANG! An entire arm flew off, blood pouring and pooling. The body fell. Toga switched to the assault rifle and put a round in the head to ensure a full death.
Twice let out a breath, one he had felt he had been holding in the entire time. "Okay, we need to think! We've gotten off easy so far with the quirks we've encountered. We are lost!"
"Let the drones map out the place! We can follow them!" Toga said.
"We've already lost some of them, and we've just started! And we're not close to finding the storage device Eleanor needs! This place has multiple floors, and who knows how many people are here, and there might be more on the way if they've already most likely called reinforcements!" Twice said.
"Well, just make copies of yourself! Problem solved!" Toga said.
"We don't have enough guns!"
Toga shrugged her shoulders. "Well, just use them as cannon fodder. A shield or something."
"That's…brutal, but…desperate times and desperate measures, I guess." Clones started to appear one after another. They ran off in groups, going all over the hideout.
"Okay, they'll…well, they'll contribute to this cause," Twice said.
"We have to start moving again," Toga said.
Twice and Toga left the room and started moving. They already got one scare.
"I don't know who the person that controlled the dirt is, but I hope they're already dead," Toga said.
More gunfire erupted from drones scattered throughout the hideout.
Twice and Toga walked over and past dead bodies. Blood was scattered in the halls, and some of the particularly gruesome corpses had a large pool of blood beneath them.
Slight squelches sounded from their boots whenever they stepped in blood.
Twice suddenly stopped and pointed at one of the blown sections of walls. There were sparks coming from the wires. "Look. It's a bunch of wires and electrical stuff. If there was a place that needs so many wires, it's definitely a computer room or something."
"Uh…you sure? Don't all buildings have wires in the walls?" Toga asked.
"Let's just check it out."
Twice and Toga followed the path. They stayed vigilant, shotguns raised as they turned a corner.
They reached a door with a power sign on it.
Toga reached and tried to open it. "It's locked. Luckily for us, I have the ultimate lockpicking tool." She aimed the shotgun at the lock of the door and fired. BANG!
The door blasted open. Twice and Toga entered. There was nobody.
"A power room. Let's shut this down. The drones will be harder to destroy," Twice said.
"But what about your clones? We have the night vision stuff, but your clones don't," Toga said.
"You're right. Okay, we'll leave it on. Let's leave."
Twice and Toga left and continued.
As they kept moving, they reached a staircase heading down.
"Should we go down? We haven't checked out this entire area yet." Toga asked.
"Don't worry about it. You can head down. Twice, recall your clones for now. My drones are heading your way. Let them lead. Losses are minimal for now," Eleanor's voice suddenly came from the earbuds.
"Eleanor! You're finally talking to us! What took so long?" Toga asked.
"I was always here. You two seemed to be taking care of things well enough without my guidance. Anyway, the drones have mapped out this floor. There was no sign of what we're looking for. Head down and stay vigilant," Eleanor said.
"Will do!"
A few moments later, the drones flew ahead of Twice and Toga, heading down the staircase.
Twice and Toga followed.
"There can't be that many left, right?" Toga asked.
"How about we stop asking questions like that, hmm?" Twice said.
Twice and Toga descended.
What greeted them were more brightly lit halls, relying on artificial light. Unlike upstairs, which at least had some natural light, even if it was dark, there was no such thing here.
"This is too quiet," Twice said.
Twice and Toga moved steadily, walking at a brisk pace. They held their shotguns up, ready to blast anything that moved.
"You think most of the people here already died?" Toga asked.
"Well, there was a massive gunfight, and we walked across quite a number of corpses. Whoever was down here probably went up to help," Twice said.
Twice and Toga kept looking around. The drones moved quickly, scattering and quickly mapping the area. Rooms were opened and examined. Slowly, the place was being mapped. Locations were marked off, limiting the places they were actually looking for.
Eventually, they reached the last place they hadn't checked.
Twice and Toga approached. Twice reached for the handle and slightly twisted it. It was unlocked.
Twice stopped and looked at Toga. Toga nodded and got a flashbang. She threw it into the room. They looked away before a loud bang and flash filled the room.
They immediately went in.
There was no one, however…
"I think that's it right there. Whoa, this tech looks kind of insane." Toga looked around. Servers, computers, and a physical device connected that was downloading data.
"This must be it." Twice looked at the computers, seeing what was on the screen. "What is all this?"
Twice saw what looked to be gibberish. Letters, numbers, and other weird symbols he didn't recognize were on the screens.
Toga also took a look.
"What do you think this is? Is the intel stuff Eleanor was talking about?" Toga asked.
"I think so. Whoever was here probably left in a hurry." Twice kept looking at the screen. While most of it was gibberish to him, there were some parts he understood.
"Yuga Aoyama? UA?" Twice kept reading the parts he could. "Undersover asset? Communications with unknown person. Suspected double-agent?"
"I don't understand this," Toga said.
"It seems the League of Villains had a spy in UA called Yuga Aoyama. Part of Class 1-A," Twice said.
"Hey, that's where Eleanor is from!" Toga said.
"Yeah. It seems Yuga Aoyama is in very big trouble if the League of Villains pin him as a double agent. But who is he a double agent for?" Twice kept looking through. He saw some message logs, mostly nonsense, but he saw that they came from Aoyama, but the receiver was unknown.
"Should we leave already? Let's destroy all of this and take the storage device thing Eleanor needs," Toga said.
"Just a second." Twice kept reading.
"Come on! The only one who could possibly understand this stuff is Eleanor! She's the computer person!" Toga exclaimed.
"Eleanor. She said she had a source about the League of Villains, didn't she? Or something like that?"
"Yeah. And?" Toga shrugged her shoulders.
"You don't think…that source would be Aoyama in UA? I mean…they're both in the same class, and if anyone could figure it out with all this tech mambo-jumbo, it would be Eleanor. She's shown she can do this kind of stuff," Twice said.
"Huh? Really?"
"Yeah, really. Like…Aoyama would be her source in the League of Villains, since he is apparently part of them. Maybe not for long though, if the League decides to get rid of him," Twice said.
"We can ask her later! Let's just get moving!" Toga unplugged the physical storage device from everything.
"That would look really bad if this got out. She's playing multiple angles here. She's knowingly letting a spy in UA operate and turned them into a double agent," Twice said.
"So? How is that our problem?" Toga asked.
"You don't think she should've told us? It's a trust thing. We're a team, after all," Twice said.
Toga started thinking. "Huh. Eleanor's done a lot for us already. If she didn't tell, she has her reasons. If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't be friends! Who knows where we'd be if Eleanor didn't show up. When I look back, I feel like a different person."
"I guess so. Anyway, let's destroy all of this and then head back and call for Eleanor to pick us up." Twice pulled out some grenades and set them on a timed fuse. Toga followed suit, maybe a little crazier as she chucked them all over the room.
Twice and Toga quickly left the area, sprinting through the halls.
A massive explosion sounded behind them. The room was torn to pieces. All the computers, servers, and electronics were destroyed. Only the physical device held by Toga was left.
Twice and Toga quickly made their way up the stairs and back onto the first floor. They ran and finally left. It was still dark, but the sun was almost about to rise; luckily, there were dark clouds above.
"Eleanor, we need a ride out of here," Twice said.
There was a bit of silence.
"Eleanor?" Twice asked.
Twice heard static in his ear before it cleared up and he heard Eleanor. "Yeah, I heard you. Sorry about that. A bit of little issue that popped up. Sit tight and wait; I'm sending an aircraft to pick you up."
"Thanks, Eleanor," Twice said.
Just when Twice and Toga thought they could relax, a massive and misty purple portal popped up in the distance.
Through the portal, a shadowy and purple figure walked out, followed by a large number of villains.
"I would apologize, but unfortunately, you are intruding on our territory. I can't let you two leave at all. I know you understand."
It was Kurogiri.