Chapter 43 - Flashback (6)
As Apate ran out of the room, All For One smirked as he activated one of his mental quirks to contact the guards. Seconds later, countless screeching noises could be heard as doors were closed and locked. All For One let out a small chuckle before beginning a slow stroll.
Apate ran frantically inside the hidden base, yet he couldn't find any exits. All the doors he found were locked, and he didn't see any guards to mind control. In the end, he had no choice but to continue to run as he heard All For One's laughter in the distance.
Suddenly, Apate came to a realization. 'I'm so dumb! I don't need to see any guards, they just need to be at a certain distance from me. There's no way all the guards left this place, I just need to try until I find one!' Apate ran with renewed determination.
Apate ran around the base while sending commands as far as he could, hoping that someone will be in his radius. Finally, after several minutes, he heard a clicking sound coming from a door near him. Apate immediately heard some yells, and he sprinted to the door before some unaffected guard will lock it again.
Apate crashed against the door, slamming it into a man who came close in order to lock it up again. Apate quickly took a look at his surroundings, and luckily for him, there were only two men besides the knocked-out man. One was the controlled guard and the other one holding him. "Beat him up," Apate ordered as he continued on his way, making them unable to call for help.
Apate exited the room through an unlocked door at the end of the room. Apate entered a long, narrow, hallway with many doors. However, that wasn't all the things that were there. Passing in the hallway, exiting and entering doors, were countless people. Guards, engineers, cooks, and more. A portion of the people froze in surprise as some of them located Apate in the middle of the bustling area.
Apate, thinking quickly, once again sent out a mental command to the people. This time, however, he sent out a simpler command that would allow him to affect more people. The command was short and to the point, it was simply to ignore him. To treat him as if he wasn't there. And due to the surprise that all the people were in, their minds were unguarded, which allowed the command to affect everyone. Now all Apate needed to do was to blend in the crowd or find a door to open before someone who was unaffected by the command would discover him.
Apate chose to blend with the crowd of people who were walking since he didn't want to risk entering an unknown door. Apate continued to walk with the tightly packed crowd while trying to make them say where's the exit. Of course, he didn't want to speak or make something that'd catch the attention of the people. His commands weren't all that powerful, after all. He tried to send mental commands, and he discovered that he became quite capable due to the harsh threat the lied over him. 'Huh, who knew?' Apate thought cynically as he walked with the narrow corridor while following a woman near him which he commanded to walk towards the exit.
With all the people who would normally walk around the base confined to the narrow corridor and some of the rooms which it led to, the place was so packed that Apate could hide between the people affected by his command. So Apate arrived at the exit without any problems. The woman entered through a door, and Apate followed her. After going through the door, the woman continued to go through several other doors, until she stopped before a metal door.
"So this is it, huh? That wasn't that difficult. Though now I need to see if that fucker can keep his word" Apate said as he began to open the door. "Who are you calling a fucker?" A hand grabbed him from behind as All For One stood with a sadistic smile. "How?!" Apate exclaimed as he began to panic. "I said that I won't use teleportation and speed enhancements. I never said anything about my other quirks, like invisibility, for example. Sorry, kid. Truth is, the game was rigged from the start."
"... Attack him!" Apate commanded the woman next to him as he sprinted to the door. The woman lunged at All For One, but she didn't last a single second as the latter grabbed her face and made her explode from the inside.
Luckily for Apate, All For One was putting on a show and he didn't have any of his defensive/barrier quirks activated. As a result, when the woman exploded and splattered all across the room, her blood sprayed all across All For One, making him temporarily blind. All For One didn't have any cleaning quirks, as he thought the job to be below him, so he wiped his eyes with his also blood-covered suit. Apate took the chance and sprinted to the door while All For One was distracted.
=====================================================
What a way to escape All For One, huh? I mean, he's super arrogant so I see it working. I'm curious though, how would you have made Apate escape?