Kirishima ran up to the policeman in charge, “What is the situation?” he asked.

“Red Riot! I’m glad you and Chargebolt are here,” the policeman answered. “We might need backup. At least five villains have taken hostages in a jewelry store on the sixth floor of the building. Ground Zero and Wildside have successfully made their way inside. They are making their way down from the roof.”

“Ground Zero is in there?” Kaminari said, exchanging looks with Kirishima. It was known that stealth missions were not Bakugou’s strong suit. He tended to lose patience and charge in with a bang.

“Can we get in the building from the ground floor?” Kirishima asked the policeman.

“They have barricaded the third floor with some kind of stone. We haven’t been able to break through it,” the policeman informed them.

“Let’s head up there,” Kirishima said, turning to Kaminari.

“Yeah, it shouldn’t be long before Ground Zero blows a fuse,” Kaminari laughed.

Just then the policeman’s cell phone rang. “It’s Ground Zero,” he said before answering. “Any new information?” he asked.

Kirishima could hear Bakugou’s rough voice as he told the policeman new information. “Seven villains, and you have captured two,” the policeman echoed. “Sunshine has gone undercover and been taken hostage… Who is Sunshine?” the policeman asked.

“His partner,” Kirishima clarified, “Let me talk to him.” The policeman handed his phone over to Kirishima. “It’s Red Riot. Chargebolt and I are here now. How can we back you up?”

“Kirishima! Took you long enough,” Bakugou growled. “Are you and Dunceface able to get inside the building?”

“Yes, but only up to the third floor. The villains have barricaded it there,” Kirishima replied.

“Get there and be ready. Sunshine is playing hostage and will radio back the number of hostages and the positions of the villains. Have Sparky patch you two into our frequency.”

Kirishima turned to his own partner. “He wants you to tap into their frequency,” he told Kaminari.

“He called me Dunceface didn’t he?” Kaminari asked.

“Hey, at least he knows who Chargebolt is!” Kirishima offered. “Let’s head inside,” he said as he handed the phone back to the policeman.

Making their way to the front doors, the two heroes slipped inside.

%%%%%

Kia pretended to wake up as the villain carried her to the sixth floor. Kicking and beating on his back, she demanded he let her go. The villain walked through the door into the jewelry store, throwing her on the floor and binding her hands and feet with some kind of hard substance he created.

“The heroes are gonna stop you!” Kia said after he was done binding her.

“Well, we will just see about that, won’t we, Sweetheart?” the villain said, grabbing her jaw and looking her in the face. “I bet a pretty thing like you would go for quite a bit in the right market,” he chuckled.

Kia swallowed her anger, showing the villain a horrified look you would expect from a hostage.

Laughing, the villain pushed her down and walked over to where five others were standing. Pushing herself back into a sitting position, she looked around the room. There were a lot of hostages and all of them had their hands and feet bound. Kia could count eleven all together. They were all huddled in a back corner of the store. Pretending to rub her face where the villain slapped her, Kia turned on her earpiece.

“B, I’m in,” she whispered.

“It’s about damn time,” Bakugou growled.

“Oh, your partner is a woman? Is she hot?” Kaminari’s voice came over the ear piece.

“That’s Chargebolt, and I’m Red Riot. We are here to back you up,” Kirishima clarified.

“How many hostages and villains?” Bakugou asked.

“Eleven…six,” Kia replied in a whisper. The other villain had lied and there were actually eight of them all together.

Kia straightened, up leaning back against the desk behind her. A woman sat crying next to her with an elderly gentleman on her other side.

“It’s ok, the heroes will save us,” Kia reassured the woman.

“Hey! You, over there! Shut up!” said the villain that carried her in. Walking over to her, he grabbed her by the throat and lifted her off the floor. “You better keep quiet or I will show you what happens to naughty little girls,” the villain leered.

“Let her down,” said the elderly gentleman.

“You want to take her place, old man?” the villain asked, dropping Kia back to the floor.

Stomping over, the villain kicked the old man in the stomach, causing the woman next to him to shriek.

“Leave him alone!” Kia said, coughing after being choked.

Bakugou could hear everything that was going on and snapped. “That’s it, I’m blasting down there!”

“No!” Kia coughed.

“If the villains are in the center of the building, an explosion could cause the ceiling to collapse,” Kirishima warned. “I know it is hard to listen to, but stay calm, Bakugou.”

“Not to mention the property damages…” Kaminari added.

“Tch,” Bakugou started.

“Stop I’m … I’m ok…” Kia’s voice said over the earpiece.

“You think so, do ya?” the heroes heard the villain say.

“What is going on over there?” another villain called out, walking over to where the hostages sat.

“We have a hero lover here that is causing problems,” the first villain responded.

The new villain crouched down in front of Kia. “So, you think heroes will come save you?” he asked her.

“What makes you think they won’t come right through the door?” Kia croaked. Catching her meaning Bakugou headed to the stair well.

“There are six of us, and nothing is harder than Yuma’s quirk. They won’t be able to break through,” the villain laughed.

Kirishima smirked hearing the villain’s declaration. “We will see about that… We are just about to rach the third floor.”

“Hurry up, damn it!” Bakugou snarled over the earpiece. “I’m at the door,” he told Kia.

“What are you going to do with all of us?” Kia asked the villains tearfully.

“The heroes will be busy trying to save all of you while this place goes up in flames,” the villain laughed.

“I can break through,” Kirishima informed them over the earpiece.

“Sounds to me like you guys might be a little over confident,” Kia smiled, looking down at her lap.

“What?” the villain named Yuma snarled.

“Did you ever think that a hero might get into the building through the roof?” Kia asked, grinning up at them.

“Has anyone heard from Manzo?” the second villain demanded.

“Not yet, Kono… Why?” the third villain asked.

“Who the hell are you?” the villain named Kono barked at Kia.

Scales spread across Kia’s face as she smiled up at the villains. “A hero,” she stated as she sunk her claws into the restraints on her feet. With a heave, Kia split her restraints in two, freeing herself and jumping to her feet.

At the same time, Bakugou blasted through the door and barreled straight into Yuma. “You said the next one was mine!” He grinned as he slammed the villain’s face into the floor.

Kia transformed, spreading out her wings and tail to cover the hostages as she faced Kono. “He is all yours,” she hollered back.

“You fool!” Kono exclaimed. “You didn’t think to check her before you brought her down here?”

Yuma grunted and stood up as the same substance he used to restrain the hostages covered his entire body. Bakugou peppered him with small blasts, trying to find a weak spot in his armor. The villain swung wide as Bakugou dodged, blasting him in the face before grabbing the villain’s wrist while twisting and using one of his blasts to give him momentum to throw the villain. Bakugou sent Yuma crashing in Kono and they went stumbling into the other villains.

“You two are going to regret this!” Kono threatened. “Shig! Uyeda! After them!” Two of the other villains lunged forward; Shig’s fists alight with flame and Uyeda turning into some kind of beast.

“Where the hell are you?” Bakugou snarled through his radio.

“Almost through!” Kirishima answered.

Bakugou blasted Shig backwards into a display while Kia lunged forward to meet Uyeda head on. Kono turned around to join the other three villains as they gathered the bags of jewelry.

Bakugou turned, aiming a blast at the other five villains, but Kono turned around and thre up a shield made of water that stopped the blast. One of the other villains stepped up next to Kono and began throwing metal balls the size of golf balls at Bakugou. Blasting them away, Bakugou realized the villain must use some kind of magnetism quirk to throw them. Defending the hostages from the two villains, he watched as the last villain and Yuma kept gathering the bags of jewels together.

Kia dodged as Uyeda flailed at her. The villain was stronger than her but not faster. He also seemed to lose his sense of self in his beast form, making his attacks unpredictable. She glanced over to see how Bakugou was fairing, which gave Uyeda a chance to grab her, swing her around, and throw her across the room. She braced herself as she went through the wall and found herself falling down the middle of the stairwell. Unable to use her wings to stop herself in the narrow space, she braced for a hard landing. Suddenly, a pair of arms shot out, catching her in midair. Surprised, Kia found herself in the arms of a red haired man.

“Hey, handsome! Nice catch!” she smiled at her rescuer.

“You’re welcome,” Kirishima smiled back, blushing a little at her compliment.

All of a sudden, they heard Bakugou’s yell followed by a few explosions and screaming hostages. Kia jumped out of Kirishima’s arms and bounded up the stairs.

“You help the hostages get free while I help Ground Zero,” she said to Kirishima.

“Yes, ma’am! Chargebolt, you help Wildside,” Kirishima said as they burst through the hole in the wall.

Bakugou was holding off four of the villains by blasting one after another as they tried to get close. The cramped space only allowed him to create small blasts so he wasn’t able to knock out any of the villains. Kia sprinted to his side, grabbing the magnet villain with her tail and throwing him into the checkout counter.

Kaminari rushed to stop the last villain from getting away with the jewels only to come face-to-face with Uyeda. The beast reached out to grab him only to find out the hard way how Kaminari got his hero name. Uyeda slumped to the ground after being electrocuted and Kaminari rushed after the villain with the jewels.

Kirishima had made quick work of the restrains and was showing the hostages through the door and down the stairwell when the fifth villain came barreling through them followed closely by Kaminari. Stopping, Kirishima hardened his arms and stepped up to clothes line the villain as he tried to run down the stairs. Kaminari cuffed the villain as Kirishima grabbed the bag of jewels. They took the jewels, the villain, and the hostages down the stairs to the police outside.

As the two heroes turned to go back inside, a loud crash sounded overhead. Looking up they saw Kia and Uyeda, who had recovered from Kaminari’s attack, hurtling towards the ground. The police cleared out from under the two as they fell. At the last second, Kia spun the villain under her, cratering him into the pavement and effectively knocking him out.

A loud blast sounded overhead as the remaining four villains jumped out the window onto a swirling vortex of water Kono had created as they fell. Bakugou blasted out the window after them. Kia took off, leaving Uyeda to the police as she rushed to her partner’s side. Kirishima and Kaminari rushed after their comrades. Bakugou dodged Shig’s blasts of fire as the villains tried to make their escape. Picking up speed, Kia flew into Kono, breaking the villain’s concentration on the water vortex and sending them all falling to the street. Kia landed in front of the villains as Bakugou blasted his way behind them.

“It’s four on two, heroes,” Kono said.

“You might as well give up now,” Kia taunted.

“Get them!” Kono yelled. He and Shig advanced on Kia as Yuma and the magnet villain faced off with Bakugou.

Bakugou blasted Yuma with strong explosions as he dodged the other villain’s projectiles. Kia used her wings to defend from Shig’s fire as she tried to hold back Kono’s water with her flames. Kia was blasting Kono when two discs flew by her imbedding themselves into the street at the head villain’s feet.

“Wildside, look out!” Kaminari yelled as he got within range. Pointing his finger, he let loose his electricity as Kono sent a blast of water at the electric hero, a move that only acted as a conductor for Kaminari’s quirk. The villain was helpless as Kaminari’s electricity shot down the water and hit the villain full force, giving him the shock of his life.

Kirishima ran past them to help Bakugou with the villains was fighting. The sturdy hero ran straight for Yuma, crashing into the hardening villain and sending him stumbling backwards as Bakugou squared off with the magnet villain.

“Let’s just see whose quirk is harder.” Kirishima grinned as he held up his fists.

“No chance, little man!” Yuma said. “Nothing is harder than my quirk!”

Rushing each other, the villain and hero began to pummel each other as they tested the other’s endurance. Hardening himself as much as he could, Kirishima let the villain hit him full force. The villain’s own quirk shattered as he connected with Kirishima. The villain cried out in pain as his quirk crumbled. Smiling, Kirishima pulled back a fist.

“Looks like you aren’t the hardest one around,” Kirishima said as he hit the villain square in the face. Yuma flew backwards, landing in a heap.

Throwing a fist up in the air, Kirishima turned to see Bakugou use his AP shot to send the villain’s projectiles right back at him. The villain wasn’t prepared as his own attack pelted him. Bakugou shot forward using a blast to knock the villain out.

Bakugou immediately turned around to see the last villain blasting Kia with fire from both hands. The resulting inferno was starting to melt the pavement around the heroine. Kirishima took a step forward to go help when Bakugou held out and arm to stop him. The fireball Shig was blasting was getting closer and closer to Kia. As he got near her, Shig started to tire, his flames dying down as he ran out of steam. The flames dispersed to reveal Kia standing before the villain, unhurt.

“There is one thing you should know about me,” Kia said, leaning in towards the villain, “I’m fireproof.”

Shig dropped to his knees and put his hands up in the air in surrender as Kia cuffed him.