SCREAMS AND GASPS WERE THE SYMPHONY OF DISTRESS. Panic and fear were the immediate companions through the confusion that gripped the souls within the Sarayashiki Public High School for The Quirkless and General Public. And as Zinnia felt the hands holding her pinned against the glass windows release her, she knew without a shadow of doubt that something had gone horribly wrong.

The vicious tremors that shook the building had subsided following the sudden explosion, and the windows at Zinnia's back had cracked from the force.

'Wh-what the fuck was that?!' The blonde named Ikari yelped out, eyes practically bulging as her eyes lifted from Zinnia to gaze up at the plumes of black smoke flooding the view outside.

'An explosion?!' Another girl gasped.

Zinnia cast a discrete glance down towards the front courtyard of the school, spotting naught but the wall of smoke that arose from the very ground right before the window.

Even without her glasses, she could see the faint glimpses of blue and red overhead lights of police cars through the smoke.

Premeditated? This was almost certainly the case. She could have missed it with the gang of unpleasant girls hassling her at the time, but she was fairly sure there was no commotion outside before the explosion.

'Alright, alright! Let's get the escape phase of this heist underway, people!' The humming had stopped as a voice called out from the stairwell of the building, alerting the eight girls on the third floor to the approaching forms on the lower level of the school building. 'This is a school, so go for any brats that don't have a teacher with them! Leave the rest to escape, or if they cause too much trouble, kill them off or whatever takes your fancy; they're just quirkless!'

A chorus of voices cheered out in acknowledgement.

'Now get up there and snag some bartering chips!'

The girls standing before Zinnia flinched as more roars of acknowledgement rung out from the stairs, and one had even stumbled back with panic written clear across her face.

Screams and yells of fear shot through the air, mixing with the sounds of smashing glass and pounding footsteps on the wood floors below. The splitting of the air was shrill, harsh against the ears, and Zinnia's blurry gaze could pick up on very little as the smoke outside expanded to block most of the light from filtering in through the windows.

'What are we going to do?!' One of the girls yelped out, rounding on the others as sheer desperation began to take hold. 'There's villains here?!'

Obviously.

'You expect us to know?!' Another snapped.

Zinnia's gaze slowly lifted from the group of girls before her, casting her view discretely across the hallway towards the stairs, paying little heed to the girls arguing shrilly among themselves.

It didn't appear the villains were at their level yet, but that was the only way down. Curse the layout of a pathetic school with only one staircase.

'You! You damn mutant freak!' The closest girl, one appearing to be a ravenette spat as she rounded upon Zinnia, drawing the latter's reluctant attention away from the stairs. 'You're the one with the fucking mutant power! How about you go out there and check out what's going on!'

'No. I don't think so.' Zinnia bluntly declined.

Even in Zinnia's poor vision without her glasses, she could see the utterly appalled looks written across their faces.

'What the--?! We're the vulnerable ones here! Aren't all you mutant fuckers all out to be heroes?!'

Really?

Was every person in this gods forsaken city brainwashed by hero-centric theatrics and media?

'Where were you when they handed out the brains?' Zinnia couldn't help but mutter in disgust.

'WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!' The shorter blonde in the back shrieked out.

'You little--!' The ravenette snarled, raising her hand harshly against Zinnia's motionless form.

However, it was curious to note that the girl had frozen completely in her tracks the very second her hand had started to near Zinnia's face to slap her, stuck rigid and motionless as if she had been frozen by a time-quirk.

'I wouldn't do that if I were you, Yamamoto-san.' Came the voice belonging to none other than Zinnia's favorite person in this whole facility.

'Tch, it's that freak teach...' Muttered one of the girls, with an obvious leer thrown in the approaching woman's direction.

Ohara Shizuru came stalking down the corridor urgently, her piercing gaze flicking from the wall of smoke and debris outside, to the group of unpleasant girls cornering Zinnia in front of one of the cracked windows. Her already foul mood was doubly worsened by the clear signs of villains infiltrating the school, and she was quick to turn her attention back upon the girls surrounding Zinnia. The woman's eyes appeared to almost glow a haunting yellow through the ominous darkness the smoke screen plunged the corridors within.

'It looks like stalking a student for further assaults has backfired on you, hasn't it, girls?' Ohara spoke coolly as she noted the clear hostility and apprehension that remained thick in the air surrounding the larger girls. 'If you went home on time like you were supposed to, you wouldn't be in this situation to begin with.'

'Shove it, lady!' The butch brunette spat, tersely. 'You quirked freaks are just as bad as the fucking villains!'

From the heavy inhale that escaped Ohara, it was immediately clear to tell that she was sorely tempted to say something quite unbecoming of a teacher at that moment, but managed to keep it from escaping her with obvious difficulty.

She instead cast Yamamoto a stern look and seemed to make a purposeful move to tug the girls outstretched hand away from Zinnia's face.

A sudden gasp escaped the girl as she was suddenly rendered unfrozen, heaving heavy breaths as she stumbled away from both Zinnia and Ohara alike.

'You monster!' Yamomoto all but shrieked at the woman. 'What the fuck did you do to me?!'

'Intervention, girl. Now, come.' The woman commanded, forcefully nudging the nearest girl towards the door of a nearby room as she glanced towards the stairwell, where the chorus of shouts, cheers and chaos seemed to only grow louder. 'Hopefully the fire escape has not been left locked up.'

At the mention of a possible escape out of this mess before anything happened, the group of girls were remarkably quick to change their tune; They shoved away from Ohara to tear inside the classroom with haste, knocking one another inside to get through the door first.

A sudden scream tore through the air, ringing with painful clarity from what appeared to be just half-way down the stairs, causing Zinnia to flinch from the fright. It sounded like a girl, caught by the villains if the chorus of gloating laughter that rose in response was anything to go by. It brought the girl to hesitate in her steps to follow Ohara and the others, pausing just briefly as she heard another scream from what sounded to be another person.

Zinnia let out a breath as she shook her head, and followed along as Ohara reached out and grabbed her by the shoulder to steer her along.

She doubted the Heroes would be able to do too much within a hostage situation as large as this.

'Come on you rusted piece of... OPEN DAMN IT!' Came the now-familiar screech of one of the girls as they struggled to drag open a window at the back of the classroom. Two of the larger build had grabbed the bottom lip of the window and proceeded to try and pry it open, struggling, but failing with great complaint. Another of the girls had begun burrowing through the cleaning closet and pulled out an old, and rather filthy steel-handled mop.

'Out of the way! I'm going to smash it--'

'Quiet, please! Unless you want the villains to know where we are, of course.' Ohara urged, earning what appeared to be a horribly indignant look from the lot of them. 'Did you girls even undo the latch at the top of the window?'

Zinnia heard the faint muttering of the girls echo through the room as she slid the door shut behind her, and for good measure, twisted the lock in place. A few seconds later, she then heard the telltale sound of the window sliding within it's bracket.

'O-oh! It's open!'

Zinnia chalked it down to flight or fight robbing the group of their common sense, and hoped they honestly weren't this stupid on a day-to-day basis.

The window had opened up to allow access to what was immediately recognizably a fire escape attached to the side of the building. It was covered over, unlike some of the others Zinnia had seen in other places, enclosed completely in a shell of iron bars and meshing to keep the escapees from any unfortunate accidents pushing and panic could cause. And as Ohara had eluded, a set of steel gates were affixed to the top of the stairs, undeniably to stop unauthorised use without reasonable cause. It was all rusted over, with lines of oxidization marring the mess of rust and grey, painting an uncomfortable sense of foreboding for Zinnia.

It honestly felt like this fire escape was going to fall apart at the worst possible moment, and she was just looking at it's blurry form.

Ohara squeezed through the window, casting a wary glance down to the ground through the gaps in the bars before she edged over to the gate. She seemed to struggle to open the gate, casting a caution scan over the gate before turning to look at the eight girls standing within the classroom.

'Kennedy-san, are you able to use your quirk to unlock it?' The woman asked.

Zinnia hesitated, mind sluggish as she tried to fathom exactly how the teacher wanted her to use her quirk. But with the sounds of another vehicle in the area combusting in fumes and raging fire just around the corner, she decided now wasn't the time to actually sit on ceremony.

'You'd better unlock it, freak.' Hissed the nearest girl, one of which Zinnia paid no heed to as she gingerly pulled herself through the window, and inwardly grimaced as she felt the iron beneath her feet shudder from another crash and explosion from the other side of the building.

This wasn't a legal fire escape; It was a deathtrap in disguise, and she wasn't comfortable even standing on it with her excessively slim build as it was.

Zinnia's arms looped securely around the handrail closest to the door, with just her right hand lifted as she tapped into her quirk and willed a small tendril to pierce through the thickened, scarred skin of the palm. With dexterity that felt alien at that moment, Zinnia ran the thickening tendril through the gaps and scanned the edges for any points of corrosion fusing the gate and another surface together, the hinges and even just the tongue of the locking latch that held the gate shut. All was clear enough, and Zinnia then manipulated the tendril into the keyhole of the gate, and found herself immediately quite appalled.

She could feel that the interior of the lock was corroded and seized, even as she expanded the tendril to try and scrape some of the building corrosion away. The inner mechanisms of the lock were covered over, and no amount of effort yielded more than flakes of rust and oxidized metal to catch and mix within her manipulated blood.

'I-I ... can't.' Zinnia spoke as she withdrew the tendril, flicking the residue from her blood before it returned to her blood stream. 'The lock's that badly corroded, the key wouldn't even work it.'

'Can you cut the latch?' Ohara pressed.

Zinnia turned her head to fix the woman with a rather confused stare.

'Not like this, no? I'd need a hacksaw.' She responded.

And at that moment, the woman's stern expression seemed to shift, softening slightly as if she'd come to a small realization.

'Oh, of course. I'm sorry.' The reptilian-like woman seemed to let out a sigh as she looked back at the other girls staring at Zinnia in disbelief.

'Wait-- You can't get it open?!' Ikari practically shrieked. 'What fucking use are you?! How are we supposed to get out of here now?!'

'Girls!' Ohara snapped as she fixed a glare upon the group. 'Unlike you, she's trying to help!'

Zinnia cast a cautious, hesitant look up at the roof of the enclosed fire escape, before she glanced back towards the door of the classroom.

It wasn't necessarily a good idea, but she had one.

'I can try to lower them down the side of the building.' Zinnia spoke up as she looked back at Ohara, who'd paused mid-reprimand to give the girl her undivided attention. 'One at a time, but I might be able to do it.'

'Excuse me?! Eww!!' Yamomoto practically shrieked as she shoved past Ikari and the burly brunette to fix Zinnia with as disgusted a sneer as she could. 'There's no way you're going to so much as touch me with that disgusting mutation of yours! You hear me?!'

'A-actually, gross or not aside, I'd rather that than to get caught by the villains.' One of the girls in the group muttered.

'HUH?!' Ikari practically gasped out in horror. 'You're kidding, right?!'

'Will you girls shut up!' Ohara snapped as she helped Zinnia back across the unstable fire escape back towards the window.

'What the fuck is your problem, lady?!' Yamomoto snapped.

And without a word, Ohara Shizuru squeezed through the window, tugging Zinnia along after her, all without so much as casting the girls a glance.

'We'll have to use the window in the vice principal's office.' The woman spoke softly as she released Zinnia's wrist and began to lead the way towards the back door of the classroom. 'It's a higher drop because of the landscaping, but if you accidentally drop someone from more than a couple meters, the pond down there should cushion the fall.'

She was ironically quite familiar with how much weight her quirk could support given that bout of training Seiya had set her up with for her entrance exams, and had a feeling it alone wouldn't be strong enough to support the weight of the girls twice her own size, let alone her teacher, who was taller again, and built far more from muscle than body fat. She needed something to help reinforce her tendrils, even if it were something for the tendril to be made from to hold the blood together a little easier.

'It's clear.' Ohara called back once she'd checked the corridors both left and right before she continued on. 'Hurry up.'

'Right...' Zinnia muttered, scarcely pausing from her thoughts as she tugged her hair out of the braided bun she'd tied it in before the girls had attacked her with the basketball during lunch break and let it loose.

Her answer was her hair.

And Kali was going to be disappointed to see her when she would eventually return home, now.

Zinnia paid little heed to the sudden gasp that escaped one of the girls behind her as she carefully eased the top half of her hair into a loose bunch at the back of her head, and cut it clean off with a slice of her quirk to leave her with a handful of thick, wavy hair over half her height in length.

'Wh-what the hell--?!' The girl gasped.

However, the very instance Zinnia stepped out through the back door of the classroom, was the very instance she knew they'd made a grave and terrible mistake.

Zinnia's form froze dead in the doorway as shadows to her left seemed to shift in her peripheral vision, and it occurred to her that it had been unnaturally quiet ever since she'd tried to unlock that gate. So quiet in spite of the sirens, the explosions and the screams downstairs, she failed to notice how eerily silent it had been on their floor even with her classmates' shouting and screeching this whole time.

Those shadows, weren't simple blurs her eyes weren't able to differentiate from the shadows of window brackets or the smoke screen.

Combined with arms, legs, a tail even, they were the forms of their attackers, villains waiting patiently for the group to come wandering out of the classroom without a fight.

Zinnia's breath hitched in her throat as one of the girls shoved right past her to follow along after Ohara, the shorter blonde, before the burly brunette followed suit with an even harsher shove to Zinnia's back.

'Why the fuck did you stop in the doorway, you frea--' The blonde began as she looked back at Zinnia over her shoulder, however, she then noticed the hulking shadows that had caught Zinnia's attention, and gasped.

'V-Vi--' The blonde practically choked out, before Yamomoto just over Zinnia's shoulder let out a scream.

Zinnia's reaction was perhaps the one saving grace those three girls behind her had at that very second.

She'd thrown herself backwards the very second a large, club-like appendage came hurtling down towards them with the intent to cause harm, hurling the handful of her hair she'd cut along with a fist full of blood she shot from the palm of her hand, catching strands of severed hair and splattering it over the villain's face like a lump of seaweed thrown with great force.

The villain's startled gasp rang clear through the corridor mixed with screams and sirens, the hit of blood and severed hair so sudden that Zinnia had managed to send him stumbling to the side, where the downward strike veered and flew sideways into the wall.

'You little bitch!' Another villain shouted as they lunged forward to grab Zinnia by the face. However, much like with Yamomoto, their movements had suddenly stopped as if frozen, along with the larger villain armed with what was an overly large steel glove, causing Zinnia to look back towards the vice principal's office.

'Are you girls alright?!' Ohara called out as she came running from the opened door, eyes alight once again.

The sudden slam of a door dragged Zinnia's attention from the approaching teacher

'Ikari, you bitch!' Yamomoto shrieked as she struggled to rip the door of the classroom open once again.

'OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR!' The butch brunette cried out as she hit her hands against the glass. 'PLEASE!'

'No way! It's better you than us, Kanzaki!' Ikari shouted back.

'YOU'RE GOING TO LET US GET TAKEN HOSTAGE OR KILLED ALONG WITH THEM?! The shorter blonde screamed at the door.

The sounds of furniture being dragged from within painted a very clear picture to Zinnia as to what was going on inside, and she turned her attention back to the two villains still standing frozen mid-action within the corridor with them. The girl's screaming back and forth was painting an unpleasant set of scenarios within Zinnia's mind, not to mention her apprehension towards the two villains standing mere feet away from her.

'I don't understand...' Ohara muttered as she dug through the pockets of her PE jacket, brow furrowed as she tugged out a packet of what looked to be cable ties. 'I looked down the corridor. Why didn't I see them?'

A deep, menacing chuckle rung through the corridor, alerting the five females in the corridor to the presence of someone else there with them.

'That's because we prepared a special surprise just for you, Shizuru.' That voice of the lead villain purred from right behind them.

The next second, the reptilian woman's pained shriek tore through the corridor.

Electricity crackled through the confined corridor with vicious force, drowning out the chaos of beyond the small expanse of space with hair-raising snaps and blinding, white flashes of light. The sheer heat of the electricity burned so hot that Zinnia felt it from the few meters she was away.

The screams of agony ceased along with the electricity, making way for that same malicious chuckle that had sounded their turn in luck. The villains that had been frozen by Ohara's quirk were now relinquished of their stasis, gasping and wheezing as if they'd held their breath for many minutes, with the larger of the two swiping the mess of bloodied hair off of his face. Their PE Teacher was released, carelessly left to crash face-down onto the floor like a lifeless doll, with smoke wafting from her form. It was only the occasional twitch that escaped the fallen woman that told Zinnia that she was still breathing.

'That's our biggest problem out of the way.' That menacing voice remarked with a chuckle, drawing Zinnia's attention from the incapacitated teacher on the ground. 'Now then, four brats out here, and that's another four inside that room, right? I think we'll pick the best screamers from the lot and bump off the rest.'

The three girls now cowering behind Zinnia whimpered as the villain responsible for taking Ohara out turned his gaze upon them.

Standing at well over seven feet and appearing a good twenty-something years old, the villain was sturdily built, clad in combat boots, torn jeans and a black motorcyclists jacket done up completely. What was visible of his face past long, unruly black hair was what looked to be a pair of ghostly white eyes and a twisted sneer. Sparks of electricity shorted from his fingertips, eliciting an obvious flinch from the girls behind her.

'Oi, Boss!' Called a voice from down the corridor towards the stairwell, dragging the man's gaze away from the group of girls before him. 'You dealt with that Ex-Hero scum yet?'

'Yeah, get the others without hostages up here! We've got a group of them right here.'

'Right! You got it!'

And with that, the lead villain turned his attention straight back to the girls.

'Now then, which of you lovely hostages are going to be the most obedient for us?' He questioned darkly, lifting a sparking hand as if he were about to electrocute one of them.

'P-please! Have mercy on us!' Kanzaki pleaded tearfully. 'We haven't done anything wrong!'

'If you have to take anyone, take her!' Came Yamomoto's declaration.

'Wait-what?' The other girl squeaked out.

And before Zinnia even knew what was happening, she'd been shoved forcefully across the corridor, staggering and tripping over Ohara's body to land with a painful crash at the lead villain's feet.

'What the hell are you doing?!' Kanzaki hissed, frantically. 'You threw away our fucking meat shield!'

'Well she's a fucking useless meat shield to begin with!'

Zinnia practically grimaced as she saw the villain crouch down just in front of her.

'Well now. After that, I'm sorely tempted to just spare you.' The lead villain chuckled as he leaned down to lift Zinnia by the front of her PE Jacket. 'Hope you're lucky enough to have someone break your fall.'

Wait-- Fall?!

Zinnia's grimace made quick way for panic as she was hoisted well off the ground, where she was granted an up close and near-crystal clear view of the villain's rather sadistic grin, and the blurry sight of other villains appearing from around the corner.

'W-wait a second!' Zinnia gasped out.

'Nah. Just think quick, kid!' The villain boss responded as he hurled her tiny form against the nearest window.

Zinnia's heart lurched in her chest, skipping out of a mix of terror and disbelief as she was sent flying. Nothing occurred to her in that second beyond the fact that she really had just been thrown with the intent to have her fall those tens of meters through the smoke and fire to crash into the concrete below.

Should she let it happen?

It wasn't like she could take out so many villains, or even do anything of any help.

But then, as her back contacted with the glass of the large window, Zinnia saw something; A squirming, terrified form in the back of the group of approaching villains, held suspended by a bulky, scaled arm wrapped firmly around her neck. The lop ears and large doe eyes brimming with tears, and beads of blood leaking from an impact gash over her right temple drew Zinnia's gaze, even through the blur of her poor vision. The girl's eyes had widened in sheer horror as Zinnia's petite form was hurled with brute force through the nearest window, mouth agape, paused mid-gasp as the sounds of shattering glass pulsed through Zinnia's ears.

Terror of seeing somebody die, somebody who'd done them no wrong die at the hands of another. Of seeing life dangle on the precipice of extinguishing at the merest whim. It was a look Zinnia was painfully familiar with.

It was a look she was sick of seeing.

The glass shards flew, scattered by the force as gasps and piercing screams rung from the chaos of smouldering smoke and crumpled debris.

And within a heartbeat, Zinnia decided; Fuck it.

A shower of blood burst forth from gashes torn, forming one large tendril lashing forth towards the nearest surface she could reach. Her quirk tendril latched onto a windowsill as the slices cut into her skin flared to painful life, unsteady flecks of crimson piercing through the cracks of the glass as she managed to swing herself against the flow of gravity as if her tendril were a swinging rope.

With the shattering of more glass, Zinnia's form came crashing through a window mere meters away from the one she had been thrown out of, gym clothes and skin marred with more gashes and fragments of glass. Her feet landed with a loud crunch against the wall of the corridor, cracking the drywalling as flecks of blood and glass showered the floor. Gasps and startled exclamations rung through the corridor, mixed with startled exclamations ringing from downstairs.

'Holy shit, that–?!' One of the villains exclaimed with a shout, barely managing to turn quick enough to see the girl land softly on her feet. 'You were just--'

Whatever was next to be said fell on deaf ears, as Zinnia was quick to throw herself forward in a dash towards the nearest villain, and propelled all the glass embedded within her body and manipulated tendril of blood as if they had been shot.

Pained shouts escaped the villain as shards of dagger-like glass plunged deep into the forearm holding the rabbit girl hostage, with a second swing sending another few pieces hurdling towards his shoulder.

'What the--?! It's got a bloody quirk!' Someone else shouted as the glass-peppered villain staggered back to avoid another barrage of glass.

Zinnia didn't pause in her motions as she turned in a pirouette on her right leg; she manipulated her tendril of controlled blood into a larger, more sturdy limb of an arm that grazed across the floor, scooping up chunks of cement and lumps of steel and hurled them with force against the side of the nearest villain's head, sending him stumbling into another just a few meters away.

'Fucking-- Hurry up and put the brat out of commission!' A voice shouted.

A form remarkably smaller than the villain holding the bunny hostage ran at her, arms outstretched with daggers held at the ready to strike as Zinnia shifted her weight onto her back foot. She barely managed to get her manipulated arm of blood up to try and knock the attacking villain off balance.

'You're going to die, little girl!' The villain snarled as he swung both his daggers downwards towards her right shoulder, missing her completely, if only by a hairs breadth as she managed to leap towards the left. 'Stay still so I can make it quick!'

Zinnia wasted no time in propelling her manipulated limb of blood into the ceiling over the heads of the other villains and dragging herself out of the villain's reach. She shot through the air, quickly avoiding the knife-happy villain's attempted swing to land with a sudden thud onto Kanzaki's shoulders, over by the door those others had barricaded themselves behind.

'What the fu--?!' Kanzaki shrieked out as she stumbled backwards on her feet, scarcely jostling Zinnia in the least as the latter slammed her tendril of manipulated blood through the nearest window to syphon up the shards. 'GET THE FUCK OFF ME!'

More shards were shot into the villains, skewering feet, piercing arms, the odd shard collecting shoulders and thighs as Kanzaki tried to shake Zinnia's form from atop her shoulders. A few villains eventually collapsed, unable to stand against the onslaught of glass projectiles embedded within their limbs, regardless of any quirk they attempted to use.

But then, a shard of what felt alarmingly like ice came whizzing right past her face from behind, scouring a cold cut along the length of her cheek as it flew and embedded itself within the ceiling a few meters down the corridor.

A second came a moment later, followed by a third shot far lower this time, and it was all Zinnia could do to shift her footing and kick Kanzaki sideways into the corridor wall to get her out of the way of the on coming barrage of icicles.

Zinnia however, wasn't so lucky.

The icicle that seemed to be aimed directly for Kanzaki's shoulder struck soundly through Zinnia's thigh, with a second piercing her shoulder with enough force to send her crashing back down the corridor with a pained scream. The tendril of manipulated blood burst as she lost her grasp of it, showering the floor and herself with glass shards and visceral hues.

'Good work, Lance.' The villain boss' voice rung faintly through Zinnia's ears as she writhed on the floor. 'Gotta admit, I wasn't much looking forward to trying to deal with her myself.'

The approaching footsteps were met with the terrified yelps of the girls standing in the corridor as they tried to shuffle away from the approaching villain.

'Well now, how am I going to put you out of the equation? You've got that same damn glint in your eye as Shizuru.' The villain boss mused as he stopped over her sprawled form. 'You're going to be a problem...'

Zinnia barely managed to open her eyes through the agony, blinking past the tears that threatened to fall as she turned her head to look up at the villain towering over her. Her quirk shuddered within her veins as she tried to get it to activate, to try and rouse some form of reaction so she could work her system to lessen the pain.

But before she could, the villain let out a sigh and bent down to grab her by the wrist of her impaled arm and hoisted her off of the floor.

The influx of pain from the manipulation of a shoulder with a solid chunk of ice pierced through it was enough to blind Zinnia and rip a scream from her, but that wasn't the worst of it when she was harshly kicked in the ribs to stun her from curling in over her shoulder.

And then, the worst came as her arm was forcibly slammed backwards over the villain's knee; A blood curdling crunch rang through Zinnia's ears at first, causing her eyes to widen and her breath to catch in her throat. An ear-splitting shriek ruptured the air, spilling forth from Zinnia's lips as the pain struck her like a speeding freight train.

She had no comprehension of what was even going on around her as she was dropped carelessly to the floor like a torn rag doll, nothing met her ears beyond her own screaming and the pain of her elbow smashed to splinters and shards within her arm.

'It'd be in your best interests to stay down, now.' The villain scoffed as he forcefully kicked her in the stomach to edge her further away. 'If you interfere again, I'll have you put down for good.'

'Just kill her now, man.' Another villain recommended.

'We don't have any more time to waste.' The boss snapped as he stepped towards the other girls. 'Come on, grab the others before the pigs get here.'

'Can't you at least shut her up? My ears feel like they're about to bleed.'

'Shut up and get moving!'

'Right...'

And yet Zinnia remained on the floor, curled up, clutching her mangled arm as close to her as she could manage as her grasp of the world shook, drowned by the screams and agony that froze her in place.

Her blood pounded in her ears, her heart thudded within her chest, hollow, as if it lacked blood to circulate through her veins.

A scream that was not her own pierced the haze.

Terrified, desperate, a voice that did not match the shrill, unpleasant trill of mocking girls she'd grown most familiar with in this place.

Her heart thudded again, unsteady as palpitations broke the racing rhythm it had been set within.

She did nothing.

Accomplished nothing but getting herself wrecked by the villains.

The heroes weren't even here yet...

Her body trembled as the tears poured, pooling along with the blood that began to soak the rubble-strewn floors.

How useless was she, to lay there helpless, unable to do anything. Just like she couldn't do anything for Kali. She couldn't defend herself from her siblings, and she couldn't even give an innocent classmate an opportunity to try and escape a wretched villain.

She couldn't do anything right.

"You know what Endorphins do, in discussion of course. You're familiar with Seiya-sensei's lessons, and you've already got a grasp of how to trigger your body to produce adrenaline at will."

Words surfaced through the haze of agony and screams from her memories, peppered by the worsening palpitations gripping her struggling heart.

"In a physical sense it can be remedied, but if you get too heavy-handed on it, it can have adverse effects on your mind. If you have no choice but to push yourself beyond your physical limits regardless of the side effects, you can do it this way, but we don't recommend it."

Bile bubbled within her oesophagus, threatening to choke her as glass and chunks of rubble scratched beneath her form. The screams continued, angered shouts alike rung through the air like white noise.

"If, and only if you have no choice, just be prepared for the consequences. Too much adrenaline for too long, and you'll send yourself into cardiac arrest, or worse. The next we're going to teach you is just as dangerous."

'R-raise ... the endorphins...' Zinnia choked out as she managed to pry her working arm away from her mangled arm, and press the palm of her hand to her solarplexus. 'Stabilize th-the... adre...naline...'

She coughed up bile and dust as the nails of her fingers dug into her skin through the tattered clothes on her bloodied form.

"If you push this too hard, Zinnia-chan, it won't just be an irrational addiction you can slowly learn to coexist with..."

That didn't matter right now; She couldn't live with herself if she let this continue to barrel out of control.

There was too much blood.

She had to prevent any more from being spilled.

"It will be permanent, Zinnia-chan."

'Sh-shut up...' She choked out.

"There is no quirk that even exists which could reverse the damage."

'Huh?' One of the nearby, smaller villains paused as he moved to walk over her crumpled form. 'You're still conscious down there?'

'Oi, cancer! Get your ass into gear and help me tie these brats up!' Another villain spat.

'I already told you that's not a euphemism!' The villain standing over her retorted indignantly as he stepped over to continue on his way.

'Would you rather "Useless and sucks the life out of everything"?'

'I'd rather you stopped dribbling shit, for once.'

A cough escaped Zinnia as she felt a chunk of concrete from the cracks in the ceiling hit her leg, and oddly, she found herself realizing it didn't anywhere as much any more.

Her vision had cleared back to its usual mess of shaped blurs, her mind eased, her heartbeat settled out of its palpitations to a regular, albeit excessively high rate, and soon she found herself just lying there on the debris-strewn floor of the corridor in a pool of her own blood.

Until finally, all the pain had fallen away, draining like bathwater after she pulled the plug.

The adrenaline pulsed, stable within her body, and the pain of her disfigured arm and bloodied form had disappeared from her mind.

She was at first dumbfounded by the dramatic change in her body, so quick and effective the moment she found that right balance. And as she tried to shift her decimated arm, she was intrigued by the fact that she while she couldn't even move, that was all she received.

It didn't hurt.

The balance she had managed to latch onto had essentially removed all fear and sensation of pain from her tiny form.

'Will you quit fucking crying and get moving?!' A villain shouted from down the corridor. 'Unless you'd like to join that brat over there?! We can even snap your arm just like that, too!'

'P-Please! Have mercy on us!' Somebody sobbed.

'T-Take the rabbit!'

'Ha! Nice one, quirkless shit, now hands out before we have to get rough with you.'

Zinnia shifted, lifting her head to gaze upon the forms that had easily broken through the door of the classroom.

[TO ALL VILLAINS WITHIN THE CONFINES OF SARAYASHIKI GENERAL HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE QUIRKELESS! WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED! ALL ESCAPE ROUTES HAVE BEEN CUT OFF! YOU HAVE NOWHERE TO GO!] Boomed a deep and rather menacing voice through the smashed windows of the corridor, silencing the chaos of the voices within the school building within an instance. [CONSIDER THIS AS YOUR FIRST AND FINAL WARNING! RELEASE THE HOSTAGES AND COME OUT OF YOUR OWN VOLITION, OTHERWISE WE WILL BREACH THE SCHOOL AND REMOVE BY FORCE!]

'Ssshit! It's that bastard!' One of the villains hissed.

'Why out of everyone, did we end up having that asshole standing out front?!' Another whined dejectedly. 'Since when has he ever attended hostage cases?!'

'SHUT IT!' The Villain boss shouted at his group as he turned and began to quickly head for the stairs. 'We have just three minutes to bust our asses until our getaway's open! We got the hostages to deal with this bullshit, remember?!'

'B-but that's the number two Hero out there!'

Number two, huh...?

Zinnia coughed as the stomping footsteps of the boss villain kicked up cement dust and sent it wafting into her face.

She was having trouble remembering anything of particular concern at that moment, but right now she honestly didn't care.

Three minutes until the villains got away, and there were Heroes outside.

It was risky, she guessed, but now was probably the best time to throw a spanner in their plans.

She shifted the hand that was clutching fiercely to her solarplexus towards the pooling blood beneath her form, and set the palm down into the visceral fluids, and concentrated.

The blood beneath her hadn't circulated within her body for over a minute, it was cold, it's connection to her quirk had faded quite considerably, and she lacked the energy to draw it back within her while she had the chance. Still, she fought with what she could, forcing all the energy she could into getting it to heed her commands.

'I-I won't let you... get away that easily...' Her words tumbled soundlessly as her vision flickered slightly, wincing as another villain went jogging after their boss.

The blood slowly crept across the floor, lifting glass, jagged lumps of steel and rubble into the liquid as if absorbed. Her fingers shifted against the stained ground as her eyes opened, lifting to gaze upon the blurs that moved just down the hallway.

One of the remaining, larger villains with a bald head and quirk-caused orange skin and horns was chuckling, hefting up the larger form of a buxom girl with long chestnut hair kicking and struggling within his grip. Her fingers trailed through the blood, trailing the blood along the floor, beneath their forms, beneath the feet of the other villains in the process of tying up the other girls.

'H-hey, what's all this...?' One of the villains questioned as he seemed to slip as he shifted his weight, looking down at the floor in surprise to find blood all across the floor. 'Was there that much blood all the way over here?'

'That brat's a blood quirk.' Another grunted dismissively. 'They produce a lot more blood than normal people to cater to it.'

'Yeah, but this much?!'

'She skewered some of us with glass, remember?'

'But it's travelling in straight lines, not...--' The villains fell silent as the pieces fell together in their heads, before they frantically turned their heads to look at the fallen girl in the corridor.

'WAIT! SHE'S NOT--' Someone shouted out.

But it was too late.

Zinnia had them tangled up in her trap, and she set it in motion.

Howls of pain and shrieks of terror ripped through the corridor as jagged needles of blood tipped with crumpled shards of glass came shooting up from the floor beneath their feet, piercing straight through their limps and ripping gashes across their bodies. Quirks flared to life as they tried to fight off the onslaught of tens of needles and glass, wrapping and twirling around their bodies like live snakes.

The buxom girl had been dropped, the other girls managed to recoil away and as Zinnia managed to drag at least one of them to the floor, a foot suddenly slammed down against her gut, cracking her connection with the manipulated blood within an instance.

A choking gasp escaped Zinnia, coughing and wheezing as a hand reached down and closed around her throat.

'Well well well. This is a development.' A voice spoke up as she was dragged off of the floor, hoisted up to hang inches from the floor by a horribly cold grip. 'Although I'm not the least bit surprised.'

Zinnia barely managed to open an eye to look at the villain who'd halted her last attempt, to find herself face to face with a sickly pale man with grey hair and pitch black eyes.

Before she could even blink, his hand closed tighter, freezing the skin that came in contact with the appendage.

'I told the bastard he should have killed you.' The villain stated, listlessly. 'Guess I'll make do on his declaration in his stead.'

Zinnia struggled to breathe, to lift her battered arms up to pry the grip from her throat, but her efforts were fruitless. The very instance she tried to tap into her quirk again, she felt a hand suddenly press sharply against the centre of her chest.

'Sucks to be you.' The villain murmured as his fingers dug sharply into the tender skin of her chest. 'But at least you get to, what was it...? Chillax, I guess.'

And then, a terrifying sensation began to spread throughout her body, spreading from the point of contact quickly, like nails through her veins piercing through her very flesh. It burned in a very different way to fire, to heat caused by any form of energy she could have considered.

Frost spread across her tattered gym clothes as her skin froze, blistering and split, and her internals began to grow so cold, it was agony.

Her lungs slowly stopped working and all she could do was struggle to gasp, her blood began to slow within her body, blocking her circular system and causing the liquid blood remaining to begin to pour from the gashes that littered her form.

All Zinnia knew at that moment was that she was going to die.

And then...

The world turned black.

--=[Submitted Nov 30 2018, 7315 words total (Basically a double-chapter)]=--