Subject #259 [COMPLETE]

Chapter 24: The Reason Why...

Word Count: 1123

Izuku's POV

A blinding white light pierced Izuku's vision as he opened his eyes. "Shouchan?" He said as he shielded his eyes from the light and yawned. The glow dimmed behind his fingers so he lowered his hands. "I'm really thirsty, is there water?"

Todoroki was sitting against a wall, resting. Izuku could see sweat on his brow and felt guilty for asking him to use his quirk.

"Here," Todoroki made a small ice cube and gave it to Izuku who almost dropped it. "Don't swallow the whole thing at once."

"Did you know there are different types of ice?" Izuku suddenly said. "Ice 1h is what most ice is on Earth."

"Why do you mention it?" Todoroki made another ice cube for himself and crunched on it.

"Because it's not the only type. There's ice 1c and ice-9. I wonder what type of ice you make." Izuku tried to crunch on his ice cube and almost spit it out.

"Well, the ice I think you should care about is ice cream. I'll ask Sato to make you some sometime. Maybe now." Todoroki pulled out his phone.

Izuku laughed and then asked, "Whats ice cream?"

"You'll like it. It's very good." Todoroki smiled and stood up.

"It's fine, I can walk by myself." Izuku said as Todoroki sat down again so he could get on his back. "I don't want to make you anymore tired."

"Alright then. Try to be fast okay?" Izuku almost missed the small relief in Todoroki's voice and felt more guilty. "I still have no idea where we're going." Todoroki sighed.

"Why not go into GPS and see where you are? It won't show you the hallways probably but you can see where you are in the building at least." Izuku said in an attempt to help.

"Oh my gosh you are a genius Izu," Todoroki pulled out his phone and smiled at Izuku. "We're in luck. We're not that far from the entrance, but we almost walked in the wrong direction."

Izuku held onto Todoroki's sleeve and kept pace with Todoroki as best as he could. "I was going to tell you about why I'm here right? Before I fell asleep?"

"I almost forgot about that." Todoroki slowed down a little bit so Izuku could keep pace. "You don't need to talk about it if you don't want to, it's probably painful."

Izuku shook his head. "I need to tell you. You should know." He said quietly, and began. "At first, I didn't know what I was here for either. I only discovered why a few months ago. Before that, it was just needles, and a lot of blood and mystery liquid. I guess Cece just one day was so sick of seeing everyone being so sad that she tried to escape our room and find out how to escape. Instead, she found out about the company MedCure and how this was basically the headquarters for it."

"MedCure is a company that makes these medicine vaccines things. They're a bit expensive because," Izuku stopped and swallowed nervously. "Because...it was made from quirkless people's cells."

"Wait what? Your...cells?" Todoroki seemed horrified. "How did they get them?"

"White blood cells to be more specific. It's obviously in our blood, so hence all the needles." Izuku's arm tingled and the feelings of needles piercing his skin became vivid.

"What did the mystery liquid do?" Todoroki's hand moved upwards and held Izuku's in a tight grip.

"It increased the amount of stem cells that made blood cells, both red and white, so they can make more medicine. Sometimes it doesn't work properly and there isn't enough red blood cells, so they might take too much of our blood and we get to take a break from the needles to replenish our blood cells."

Todoroki's grip tightened. "That's...terrible."

Izuku wanted to stop but the words kept coming. Once he started, he needed to finish. "Everyone had white blood cells but the ones in quirkless people are different. They're stronger and can fight off infections and viruses faster. The extra quirk joint affects the production of these better white blood cells, so they only appear in quirkless people. And since there are people with good healing quirks everywhere, it's not even guaranteed a quirkless person will always have these special white blood cells since we don't really need them anymore, until the decline in people with medical quirks."

"MedCure creates these vaccines that protect you from all sorts of sickness and makes you heal faster. Since they are very effective, more and more people want them, and the company is making more and more money. But there are less people born with this special blood so it's getting more expensive. Nonetheless, hospitals still buy them from all over the place so they needed to increase their supply."

Todoroki stopped and sat down, pulling Izuku close and wrapping him in a warm embrace. Izuku didn't realize he was crying until he finally sobbed and felt his wet face. All he could feel and see was Overhaul looming over him while he was strapped down before the world exploded into pain.

"You don't need to talk about it." Todoroki let go and wiped off the tears on his face.

"But-"

"No. I can tell it hurts you just thinking about it." Todoroki said quietly.

"I-I'm sorry Shouchan," Izuku hiccuped and wiped his face on his sleeves. "I-I made you f-feel sad."

"No, it's fine. When we get out of here, you will never feel another needle again. Okay?" Todoroki gave Izuku an ice cube. "And you can have all the ice cream and boba in the world."

Izuku was about to thank him, but was interrupted by clapping.

"My, my, that was very touching." A dark figure slowly came into view. The clapping sounded like thunder, making Izuku's ears ring. "I think it's been long enough since I gave the order to have the generator fixed. It should be working, now."

The hallway suddenly lit up. The contrast between the darkness and brightness was so much Izuku was seeing shapes dance in his eyelids.

"This is much better isn't it. Now, I'll need my subject back." Chills raced up Izuku's spine as he recognized the voice.

"The last thing you'll ever do is lay a hand on Izu." Izuku felt Todoroki pushing him behind him. He squinted hard against the light.

"Well, I guess we can't have you spilling our company secrets either," Overhaul's features were slowly becoming clear. Izuku shrank further behind Todoroki.

Izuku's eyes widened as he realized what Overhaul was going to do when he raised his arms. Before Izuku could scream "NO!", the ground exploded.