The truck's interior was dark, cramped, and he could hear voices but couldn't make out words clearly. His wheelchair was secured to prevent it from sliding during transport, leaving him immobile and helpless.
Then he heard movement nearby, someone approaching through the darkness.
A face appeared in front of him, illuminated by the truck's dim emergency lighting.
David's terror spiked immediately.
The face in front of him—black and white patterns like a skull, creating an appearance that triggered every primal fear response humans possessed. The eyes were white and black with features that looked like death itself.
He tried to scream but his throat was too dry, the sound coming out as a pathetic whimper.
"Hey, hey, it's okay," the skull-faced person said, and David realized with shock that the voice was female, young, with a slight accent that somehow made the terrifying appearance even more dissonant. "You're safe now. We're heroes, we came to rescue you."
Heroes?
David's mind struggled to process that. Heroes didn't kidnap people from corporate facilities. Heroes didn't operate in unmarked trucks. Heroes definitely didn't have faces that looked like nightmares made flesh.
But the woman, no girl, really, she couldn't have been older than eighteen or nineteen, seemed genuine. Her expression, despite the disturbing appearance, showed what looked like concern.
"I know you're scared," she continued, speaking slowly and clearly like she'd been trained to calm panicked civilians. "I know this seems wrong. But we're the good guys, I promise. Daggett Industries kidnapped you, kept you prisoner, used you like property. We're getting you out. Taking you somewhere safe where they can't hurt you anymore."
She reached out and adjusted the wheelchair's restraints slightly, making them less uncomfortable without actually releasing them. A gesture that suggested care rather than cruelty.
"My name is Silver," she said. "I'm a hero in training from Europe on an internship and you're going to be okay. We're taking you to a secure location where we can protect you from Daggett and anyone else who might try to use you again."
David wanted to believe her. Desperately wanted to believe that this was a rescue rather than another nightmare. Her training showed through, the calm voice, the patient explanation, the body language that suggested protection rather than threat.
"Are..." David's voice came out as a croak. "Are you really heroes?"
"Yes," Silver said without hesitation, maintaining the lie with perfect confidence because she'd learned from hero school that civilians needed certainty more than complicated truth. "Im learning with a specialized unit that handles kidnapping cases the regular authorities can't touch. Daggett Industries has too much political power, we had to operate covertly to get you out."
It made sense. David had spent six months wondering why no one had come looking for him, why the heroes everyone saw on TV weren't breaking down doors to save him. If Daggett was that powerful, that connected, then maybe covert heroes were the only option.
"Thank you," David whispered, feeling tears starting to form. "Thank you, I thought... I thought no one was coming. I thought I'd die in that laboratory."
"You're safe now," Silver repeated, and some part of her, the part that remembered being a hero student, that remembered believing in saving people, almost believed the lie herself.
Movement at the front of the truck drew their attention. The figure David had seen earlier, the man who'd impersonated Dr. Mophal was shifting, his body rippling like liquid clay, his features melting and reforming, his height and build changing as David watched with fascination.
Within seconds, Dr. Webb was gone, replaced by a completely different person, younger, with nondescript features, the kind of face that would be difficult to remember or describe. The man's normal form, apparently.
David's certainty wavered. "What... What is he?"
"That's my teacher," Silver explained, maintaining her calm tone. "His Quirk allows him to transform into other people. That's how we infiltrated Daggett's facility, he impersonated their research director to authorize your transfer"
It sounded plausible. David had heard of heroes with transformation Quirks. This was just... more extreme than what he'd imagined.
The truck came to a stop, and David heard voices outside. Someone was opening the rear doors, letting in cold night air and the distant sounds of a city.
"We're here," Silver said, standing and moving toward the doors. "You'll be given medical attention, and then we can start figuring out how to protect and hide you long-term from Daggett."
The doors opened fully, revealing an apartment building, normal, mundane, the kind of structure you'd find in any Gotham neighborhood. Lights were on in various windows, and David could see people moving around inside through the glass.
The Jaina duplicate wheeled his chair toward the building's entrance, where another identical woman held the door open. David noticed but didn't comment, multiple heroes with the same face, probably another transformation Quirk or cloning ability.
They entered the building, and David's relief began to solidify. This looked normal. Residential. Safe. People in the lobby nodded at them as they passed, civilians going about their evening routines, completely unbothered by the wheelchair-bound man being escorted through.
But something was wrong.
David's mind, sharpened by six months of captivity and fear, picked up on details that shouldn't have been there. The people in the lobby, they weren't reacting normally. Their expressions were blank, emotionless. They moved with mechanical precision, nodding at exact intervals, it was like they were robots or zombies.
And when David looked closer, he could see that the "civilians" included everyone, adults, elderly people, even children who stood in doorways with the same empty expressions.
His terror came roaring back.
"What..." David tried to turn his head, to look at Silver, to demand explanation. "What's wrong with these people?"
Silver's expression didn't change. She walked beside the wheelchair with the same professional calm, not acknowledging his question.
They reached an elevator, descended, and the quality of the environment changed dramatically. The residential aesthetics disappeared, replaced by industrial concrete, reinforced doors, security systems that looked military-grade.
"This isn't a hero facility," David whispered, his voice breaking. "You're not heroes."
Silver finally looked at him, and her skull-patterned face showed something that might have been regret or might have been indifference. "No," she said simply. "We're not."
The elevator continued descending, going deeper and deeper underground, and David realized with growing horror that he'd been rescued from one nightmare only to be delivered into something potentially worse.
Crane's Wings Underground Facility - Developmental Room - 1:15 AM
William stood at a table, examining something under a magnification lens, his hands moving with the impossible precision his Quirk granted.
The wheelchair entered the room, pushed by the Jaina duplicate, with Silver walking beside it and Basil following behind in his normal form.
David's eyes adjusted to the harsh lighting and immediately began cataloging horrors.
On a bed against the far wall lay an unconscious man with a black skull mask fused to his face, his body covered in monitoring equipment, clearly recovering from some kind of procedure.
In the back corner, partially concealed by a surgical curtain that hadn't been fully closed, was the body of a teenager or what remained of one. The corpse had been completely flayed, skin removed with surgical precision, revealing muscle and tissue underneath. The worst part was the eyes, they were still darting around frantically, suggesting the victim was still conscious.
On another table, covered partially by a sheet, was a woman whose skull had been opened, her brain exposed to the air, electrodes attached to various sections of gray matter. She was breathing shallowly, technically alive but clearly not conscious, used as some kind of experimental subject for neurological research.
And on the table next to him was a large gun like a bazooka, no… upon further focus is was a man's head and spine with mechanical parts and he looked up a sign next to it, "Bio Energy Blaster".
David's mind shattered into pure panic. He thrashed against the wheelchair's restraints, screaming now, his voice raw with terror that made his six months at Daggett seem merciful by comparison.
"You're not heroes!" he screamed, looking at Silver with betrayal and horror. "YOU'RE MONSTERS! YOU'RE—"
Silver's expression showed nothing. She'd done her job, what happened now wasn't her concern any previous heroic spirit now long gone.
She stepped back, letting William approach.
The surgeon moved with predatory grace, he studied David like a mechanic might study a particularly interesting engine.
"Excellent," William said, his voice carrying through his mask with unsettling cheerfulness. "This will be an excellent addition to my tools in this room."
David tried to speak, to beg, to say anything that might inspire mercy or hesitation. But his throat had closed with terror, and only pathetic whimpering sounds emerged.
William produced a syringe from a nearby tray, checking the dosage with casual efficiency. "Sedation first."
He injected David smoothly, the needle finding a vein with perfect precision. Within seconds, David felt consciousness beginning to fade, his panic giving way to chemical unconsciousness.
Then darkness claimed him completely.
Crane's Wings Underground Facility - Suguro's Office - 1:47 AM
Silver entered the office and found Suguro at his desk, reviewing data on multiple screens, Ivy was there too, curled in her plant nest in the corner, either sleeping or photosynthesizing, sometimes it was difficult to tell the difference.
"Mission successful," Silver reported, standing at professional attention. "The asset is now ours."
Suguro looked up from his work, his expression showing mild satisfaction. "Excellent"
He returned his attention to his screens, apparently considering the conversation complete. Silver remained standing, watching him work with an expression that might have been curiosity or might have been something more complex.
"Is there anything else?" she asked.
"No. Get some rest you guys earned it"