Knees and elbows flew past, blood spattering on the unforgiving ground, head struck against a hard surface that sent shards of sunlight through his brain. A final bounce off a spike of rock hurtled him through the air, to sprawl on the ground next to a pole. He raised his head, full of cotton.
Landslide Zone!, the sign said, cheerfully oblivious to his pain.
With a groan, he stood, brushing red hair from his eye. His right eye. He was bleeding from the head. And many other, non-head places. His arms were scraped. Knees bloody. Damn.
He leaned against the sign, surveying the terrain. Rocky, muddy, bits of broken building jutting from the ground like witch's teeth. Not a bad place to land. Shouto brushed his hair aside again, got his bearings-the center of the compound is. . .that way.-and started walking. He didn't get more than five paces before several portals opened, black holes filled with lightning. Villains emerged, dangerous-looking types, all spikes and metal and tattoos. They filed out of the portals, until nearly a dozen stood there, staring at Shouto, who stared right back. His head was beginning to clear somewhat.
"Well well well," one of the villains-he looks like a lizard-said, "look what we have here! A kid!"
The villains chuckled, taking a step closer to Shouto.
The lizard villain laughed, baring his teeth. "You got any last words, kiddo?"
Shouto raised his foot an inch off the ground. Stared the lizard villain dead in the eye.
"Yeah, actually."
The villains laughed again.
"C'mon, then!" Lizard-man said. "Be quick!"
Shouto stared at the lizard for another moment, then slammed his foot on the ground. A swift-moving wave of ice sped across the ground, wrapping around the villains' feet and racing up their legs, encasing them up to their eyes in ice. The villains cried out, some trying to activate their Quirks before the ice caught them, but they failed, and were frozen in place.
Shouto straightened up somewhat, walked over to the lizard villain. "You seem to be the leader of these gutter punks. Is that correct?"
The lizard spat at him.
Shouto wiped his face with the sleeve of his costume and grinned a shark's grin at the villain. "Do you know how long it takes for this ice to melt? As long as I want it to."
A blatant lie, but an effective one. The villains blanched, and Shouto continued, "And do you know how long it takes for your cells to start dying from the cold?"
The lizard man widened his eyes in panic and struggled fruitlessly against his binds. Shouto frowned at him, befuddled by how idiotic the villain was. "The answer is, a very short time. . .if you don't answer my questions. Why are you here? Who is in charge?"
He raised his left hand and pressed it to the ice over the lizard villain's mouth and released the smallest amount of heat possible, just enough to melt it. "Talk."
The villain gasped and sputtered for a moment. Shouto raised his right arm and allowed some ice to creep over the fingers. "Come on."
"All right! All right!" the villain snarled, staring in abject horror at Shouto's hand. "I'll fuckin' talk!"
"Quickly."
"ALL RIGHT!" the villain shouted, voice raw. "We. . .we're the- -"
"- -the League of Villains, I caught that. Why are you here?"
"To- -to. . .to kill him. The big man. The number one!"
Shouto raised his eyebrow. "All Might?"
The villain somehow looked even more afraid. "Yes, him! We, that is to say, Shigaraki, the boss, he has some way of doing it, I dunno how, please let me go!"
Shouto stared at the villain for a long moment, then turned to walk away.
"Hey! Hey! HEY! You said you would unfreeze us!" the villain shouted at Shouto's back. "C'mon! GET BACK HERE!"
Shouto kept walking.
"You're not a hero! You're a monster! A goddamned monster, do you hear me!"
Shouto froze.
Raised his foot off the ground.
Slammed it down again.
The lizard villain was quiet again, and Shouto could walk away.
His feet left the concrete and met open air, and Izuku suddenly became very frustrated that One For All didn't allow him to fly. However, it did allow him to fall, screaming, into the water twenty feet below.
The water rushed over his head, sucking him down, shoving itself into his suddenly-open mouth and nose, smacking against his face and chest. For a long moment, he simply tumbled through the fake sea, quietly aware of the fact that he was drowning. Then, it hit him that he was drowning, and he struggled against the water, expelling it from his mouth in a great burst, kicking and stroking furiously
Kacchan would laugh at that turn of phrase
trying to escape to the light up above. His lungs burned, his eyes would have watered if they weren't already in the water, and the light was getting so close, but it was so far away, and then it was only getting farther away.
Seaweed. There's seaweed wrapped around my leg again.
Izuku turned to free himself from the seaweed, but it wasn't seaweed, it was a shark. Well, not a shark, but a man with a decidedly sharky head, who was pulling on a rope made from water that connected to Izuku's ankle. Izuku struggled against the deadly grip, life slipping away, the shark-man grinned terribly and held his prey still, and a twilight was creeping in around the corners of Izuku's eyes, he kicked and beat at the water and screamed and water flooded into his mouth, choking him, he sputtered but that only made it worse.
I'm going to die.
After everything I've done,
before everything I want to do
I'm gonna die.
His muscles tensed. A sudden moment of clarity.
Like hell I am!
He twisted around again, facing the shark-man with the horrific grin. Izuku raised a hand- -pressed his middle finger against the pad of his thumb- -
Picture the egg not exploding, picture the egg, picture the- -
the power built up- -and he released it, flicking it at the shark-man. A mass of bubbling, superheated water, laced with lightning, shot at the shark-man, and his grip on Izuku broke. Izuku shot through the water, into the air, at breakneck speed. The wind ripped at his clothes and hair, he could see the whole facility from up here- -and then he was falling again, hurtling towards the water so fast that his eyes seemed to be retreating into his brain. The flat, silvery surface got closer and closer, a giant flat smashy-thing that Izuku was gonna be smashed flat against.
I shoulda just drowned!
His momentum changed- -he was yanked to the side so quickly he felt his spine pop- -and after a terrifying moment of blurry motion and screaming, he was deposited on something solid.
"H-hey, Midoriya.", said a timid voice nearby. Izuku raised his head, blinking to clear away the fuzz. Mineta was standing at his feet, awkwardly smiling at him. "Wassup?"
"I feel sorta dead…" Izuku replied, getting to his feet. Something wet brushed against his bare leg- -he must've shredded it escaping from the shark-dude- -and he yelped and jumped away. It was a long, wet, pink…tongue?
"You're lucky," said Tsuyu Asui, who Izuku suddenly realized was behind him. He spun to face her as her frog-tongue was pulled back into her mouth. "If you'd been any farther away, I couldn't have brought us back to the boat."
"Boat? Are we in the Shipwreck Zone?"
"Yep," Asui said, her tongue finally back in place. "Now what? It's just the three of us. A frog, whatever Mineta does, and you, and you bust a bone every time you use your Quirk. Well," she added, glancing at Izuku's fingers, "most times."
Izuku looked down at his hands. Nothing broke? Maybe the water cushioned it…
"Well, uhm," he said, turning to face Mineta, "let's see. Mineta? What's your Quirk?"
The tiny boy yanked one of the big, gooey, purple orbs off his head and slapped it against the boat's hull, where it stuck. "I make these sticky balls. They usually last a coupla hours, and I just bounce off 'em. Everything else gets superglued. If I rip 'em off too quick, I start to bleed a lot."
Izuku stared at Mineta, his mind racing. That could actually be useful here…if we used it right…
"How the hell'd you get into the Hero Course, Mineta?", Asui asked bluntly. Izuku's train of thought derailed and found a new track for a moment before he shook it back.
"Hey!" Mineta shouted, his eyes beginning to water, "It's a cool power, alright?! It's not real flashy or anything but it's useful and, and," he started to full on cry, "WHO'M I FUCKIN' KIDDING? WE'RE FUCKED MY POWER IS USELESS WE'RE GONNA DIE HERE AND THE VILLAINS WILL EAT US!"
One of the villains shouted from the water below, "We don't eat people!"
"Ignore that," Asui said. Izuku nodded.
"Look, we're gonna have to work together. Asui- -"
"Call me Tsu."
"- -Tsu, be nice. Mineta, your power is useful. I have a plan."
"Got it?" Izuku asked, glancing at his classmates, who nodded. "Good. Now then- -"
"Hurry up, kids! We're huuuuuuungry!", one of the villains shouted from below. Izuku sighed, ignoring the voice, and then- -
A huge hand made of water rose up from the surface and karate-chopped the boat in half.
"What the FUCK, shark-dude?!" Izuku shouted. He grabbed Mineta by the ear and towed him up to the highest point on the rapidly sinking half-boat.
Is it a bo? Or an at?
"Alright, let's go!" He shouted, letting go of Mineta and running at the ship's railing. His left foot landed on the railing, propelling him into the air. Villains swarmed below, looking up.
Izuku pressed his unbroken middle finger to his thumb and took aim. One for All built up in him, like wildfire in a jar. Once the energy was sufficient- -
"DETROIT…SMASH!"
- -he released it, blasting a wall of force at the water in the center of the artificial sea, shattering his finger-bones. The force of the Smash created a massive empty space, deep enough to see the bottom. Then, just as quickly, the water rushed back, dragging the villains in with it. They shouted and lashed out, but were unable to resist to pull.
Izuku began to fall, clutching his hand, praying Tsu was paying attention- -and she apparently was, as a mere second later her tongue wrapped around Izuku's midsection and he was yanked along with her. Behind him, he heard Mineta screaming at the villains to eat his sticky balls, and the villains below crying out in fear as they were stuck together.
Did we capture them all?
"Good job, guys!" Izuku said, shouting to be heard above the rushing wind.
"Now let's go save our friends."
In case this was a thing anyone would ever possibly want, here's the official soundtrack/playlist for this fic: youtube . com watch?v=y5HA-QFLJzg&list=PLmli9smTZVrwnqIH1Z5BIpvpTImAXZQV3 . Just delete the spaces and there ya go!
This is quite possibly the greatest piece of writing I've seen, ever: fanfiction . net s/12871886/2/SUDDEN-CHANGES . Once more, delete the damn spaces, because this site has some fuckin' issues with links.
Sorry for the delay-I was halfway thru this when my school blocked FF on the computers, and working on my tablet's a bitch.