"WEISS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Izuku's voice cracked as he watched Weiss swing Myrtenaster around a few times, a new Glyph with a growing, 'large' chunk of ice at the center of it being formed. His eyes turned towards where it seemed like she was going to land and, sure enough, he spotted what Weiss had seen: one of the Goons had successfully snuck around Shoto's mini-fortifications in an attempt to stab him in the back. Unfortunately for that goon, the stabbing would be on the other foot: the ice shard 'blasted' out of Weiss Glyph and sunk itself into the guy's chest, a small spray of blood flying out as the guy was sent flying back bodily, crashing onto the ground. His Aura hadn't been pierced and, judging by his jerky movements, he wasn't dead... but it was also 'quite' clear that he wasn't intent on getting back up again to rejoin the fight.
'Okay, so Weiss was reacting to save Shoto's life, good, but now what?! Weiss is down there away from us and next to the action with Shoto, not here with me, and I needed her... in place... for whatever plan I…'
Immediately a bolt of inspiration struck as Izuku stood up from his hiding spot, fists clenched as he roared at the top of his lungs.
"WEISS, SHOTO, BREAK THEM UP WITH A PAIR OF WALLS, WE NEED THEM SEPARATED!"
If Weiss or Shoto seemed hesitant to follow his orders, or slow to see the logic in his plan, they sure as Hell didn't show it. Immediately the pair stood up, Weiss doing her best to move a good distance from Shoto while Shoto... well, he shuffled a bit, obviously slow on his feet. As the two got a good distance from each other, Izuku watched as Shoto crushed something in his grip while Weiss finished forming another Glyph. Before his eyes, 10 yard wide patches of Ice slid out across the ground away from Weiss and Shoto at an angle, the two intersecting in the middle of the goons before continuing on further and further. Eventually it stopped and, as it did, Izuku's eyes shot open in some surprise as pillars of ice, so close together they formed walls, sprouted up from these sheets of ice. Easily standing nearly twenty yards tall, if not slightly more so, their girth and their height made them a foreboding obstacle, impossible, quite likely, for anyone in the room to scale with ease.
The grunts were all broken up into groups of five, split off from each other in their own sections of the wall. Perfect.
"Yang, go back up Weiss, these guys are mostly Faunus and I'll 'bet' that they'll do their best to try to deal with her first. She'll need you... I have to imagine Shoto and the Hunters will be busy with their own trouble." Yang nodded firmly as Ember Celica unfolded from its form, Yang slamming her fists together slightly before she sprinted off. Meanwhile, Izuku locked eyes on some goons in front of him and Ren, the two just staring at the crowd as Izuku switched off Emerald Gust's safeties.
"Ren, shall we?"
"I'd be delighted, Izuku." With that, Izuku charged forward as the goons took notice of him.
As Izuku and Ren moved in or, more accurately perhaps, Izuku moved in while Ren stayed back and readied his weapons, pointing the pistols of StormFlower at the nearest guy to him. Izuku reared a fist back, gathering 5% of One For All into it, as he looked to land a blow... and ended up finding himself coming quite short. Rather, the guy actually avoided his hit. Ren, it seemed, had better luck as, with a quick shot, Izuku watched as one of the Grunts stumbled back a bit, their Aura glowing in rhythm with the hit of the bullet as it absorbed as much of the hit as it could. Having thrown himself into them, it seemed the Grunts were all too ready to accept him. A couple broke off to Izuku and tried to take him down, while another couple went toward Ren, one of them holding his own pistol that he took careful aim at Ren with.
Izuku had been overtaxing his ability to call on One For All. His failure to do so earlier signaled that much and he could 'feel' how exhausted his body was becoming as pulled on it more and more. Which was demonstrated in his attempts to block, dodge and just avoid taking any hits from the three villains in front of him, all of whom were aiming for him. There was a close call, a very close call, as Izuku pulled on One For All to help him duck out of the way, But a flicker in the power left him barely doing so as a blow sailed just past his chest. Ren, it seemed, had much better luck in pulling it off, the young man was quite graceful in his movements.
Finally, Izuku turned on the obvious 'leader' of the small pack, a particularly strong looking fella who was looking at him with a wide grin, obviously confident in his ability to tango with the young hunter. Izuku decided to teach him not to mess with a Hunter as he reared both fists back, intent on Smashing him with 5% of One For All. However, while he did manage to land a solid hit on him, Izuku's other swing suffered from Overuse of One For All and was way too far off to even be in the same neighborhood as the guy's torso, a slight wince on Izuku's face as he considered the failure.
"Alright small fry, face facts, you're even scrawnier than that kid over there. So how about you face up to reality, put the little knives down, and just go ahead and let us tie you up?" One of the goons facing off against Ren directly taunted him as the two faced off, Ren just spinning his weapons in hand as he looked on.
"I'll admit, I'm not amazing in a fight. I'm not my friend, Nora. However, this should concern you more than amuse you..." The man sneered for a moment... only to be met with Ren 'quickly' slipping inside of his guard and 'stabbing' both blades of StormFlower into the guy's sides, right where some 'very' sensitive parts of him would've been located. His Aura 'lit' up, as if massively overcharging itself in an attempt to protect those very vital areas, while Ren just looked at the shocked man in the eyes. "Because that means to stand a chance against thugs like you, I've had to learn to fight a bit dirty."
"You little son of a bitch!" The goon brought back his club and tried to bash Ren across the head with it, only for Ren to easily move out of the way. However, he overstepped and ended up being caught slightly by a pistol round to his side. Despite wince from Ren and the glow of his Aura, it was clear that the blow wasn't awful. Izuku, on the other hand, just continued dancing around his Opponents, doing his best to avoid or parry hits before coming back in on the big guy.
"Beacon... SMASH!" The Goon gasped for breath as he drove his One For All powered fist into his gut, the man now glaring at him as he tried to break him in, only to find that Izuku had moved 'just' out of his grasp. Admittedly, it took some Aura and another Strained pull on 5% of One For All to pull off... but he did it. Ren, on the other hand, seemed to continue to earn the ire of the man he was engaged in a knife fight, as he ducked around him to jab a knife into his back, the man's Aura lighting up bright again as he gasped.
"You psychotic little bastard! Get the off of me!"
"I do take exception to that. While I'll admit that I might not be completely well adjusted, I hardly think I'm psychotic. I think you're just being what my friend Nora might describe as a 'sore loser'." Ren answered back as he spun only one of the StormFlowers in his hand, the other positioned awkwardly, leaving him unable to use it immediately.
"FUCK YOU!" Another gunshot dodged, another swing of the man's weapon avoided by Ren. That continued for another couple seconds, Ren ducking and weaving and Izuku throwing powerful punches. It wasn't long before a sort of damn broke.
"Beacon SMASH!" Izuku delivered a powerful hit into the goon's chest and, finally, it seemed his Aura gave just ever so slightly. His body crumpled as the glow of his Aura diminished and, while the shockwave Izuku produced was by no means very powerful, it seemed the goon didn't have it in him to resist it as he was blown far away from the fight. Izuku imagined he wouldn't be rejoining his friends; it would take him ages just to get up off the floor. However, while the feat might've been demoralizing for the Goons beside Izuku, it paled in comparison to what he accomplished next.
"BEACON SMASH!" Izuku continued to draw his semblance into his worn body as he turned on the goon who hasn't been shot and who by all means had been fresh as a daisy. Izuku didn't know what quite possessed his fist in that moment, but what he did know was, after he landed a 'solid' blow on the guy, his opponent was sent 'flying'. Flying so far and so fast that, in a second, he 'crashed' against the ice wall put up by Shoto. The ice cracked just a bit behind him as the goon gasped and slid down... it was abundantly clear that he wouldn't try to get up again anytime soon. The fellow that Ren had shot at the opening of the fight, seeming like the weakest of the crew before Izuku, immediately threw up his hands and dropped to the ground, muttering something about how he was not paid enough to be shot 'and' have that done to him.
Soon enough ya grunt of exhaustion was heard as Ren drove his knife against another sensitive spot on the goon he's been dancing around with, the man dropping onto a knee as he took deep, gasping breaths, Ren having utterly exhausted his Aura. Before the gun wielding goon could blink, Ren moved right on top of him, a yell and one last errant bullet being all he fired off before Izuku followed up on Ren's example... only with slightly more.
"BEACON SMASH!" Once more a fist drove into a thugs side and he was sent flying off, skidding across the ground and coming to a grinding halt just short of the ice wall. The guy Ren'd been attempting to stab with StormFlower seemed to get the picture as he just dropped onto the ground, throwing his weapon off to the side as he placed his hands behind his head.
However, Izuku felt as though he was in no position or mood to celebrate... not when his friends could still be in danger. Doing the best he could to see through the ice, Izuku turned his gaze out on the situation... and Izuku shivered slightly at the sight. He'd wondered why none of the last five goons had ran his way...
It was because the whole lot of them, Faunus all, had went Weiss and Yang's way. Five fresh faced and eager Faunus criminals backed up a handful of their own, three of the stronger looking guys who, between them, looked either fresh and ready to go or were still standing and able to fight. Weiss had, somehow, covered the blade of Myrtenaster in flames, likely with her Dust... but, if Izuku had to guess, if Weiss was down to using Fire Dust, she was probably out of Ice Dust in Myrtenaster and had no time to reload. Yang was standing tall and proud but... well, even through the ice he could see her taking some deep breaths.
Izuku looked around, trying to see how Shoto and the Hunters were doing and, to their credit, the two Hunters moving to backup Weiss and Yang, and Shoto... he was doing his best. It seemed like he was being heavily weighed down and, even at a distance, it was not hard to guess why; so much of the right side of his body was covered in Ice. He was still far off from being able to effect the fight and, even if he could, he's breathing deeply, mist pouring out of his mouth as he does so. Even the Hunters, brave as they were being, looked like they were about on their last legs, having cleaned up their group quite well, with one of the Goons even frozen all the way up to his neck and the back of his head in ice.
All in all, even if Shoto did get there... they were outnumbered by some completely fresh Grunts.
And Izuku was all the way over here on the other side of the Ice Wall, unable to help them or back them up...
What was he supposed to do?
xXxXxXxXxXx
Shoto was admittedly shocked that out of all the people who he could've meet up with, Weiss Schnee was the first one to come to his aid. Especially after their little 'discussion.' Still when he heard Izuku's order he didn't hesitate to follow it, it wasn't the time to hesitate.
It was a good plan, Made sure the grunts wouldn't be able to surround them. It took some time but he and the Mt Glenn Hunters were able to deal with their opponents. As the two Hunters rushed to try and help the other groups, Shoto walked as fast as he could given the Ice weighing him down. Of course he could've just melted it... but he wasn't going to be like his old man.
Shoto gritted his teeth, while he didn't show it to his team, Weiss Schnee struck at his nerves with that remark regarding the old man's flames. He wasn't going to obey that old man's wishes, no he intends to use the power he got from his mother to be the number one huntsman.
'Still,' Shoto wondered 'Why did she rush in so recklessly to help him of all people? I don't think she's the type to get over grudges quickly. While I don't think she's the type of person who would abandon someone she hated to die, why was she the one who rushed in suddenly and not Izuku.' It didn't make sense, based off what he's heard and seen, Izuku Midoriya wouldn't have hesitated to do a similar act. He couldn't get why Weiss Schnee someone who preferred to act logically, why was she the one who acted so irrationally. Considering her attitude and personality, she wouldn't let go of her previous anger with him for no reason at all. Especially if she felt that it was justified, so why did she jump to help him? While the situation looked bad, he definitely could've stalled long enough for them to come up with a plan, not that he's ungrateful for the help but...
Shoto shook his head, and scolded himself.
'Focus.'
IT wasn't the time for him to be reflecting. They were in live combat after all, and when they got out of the situation then he would ask why she was angry at him. Because he could tell that she was pissed originally and he's curious as to why she was pissed off to begin with, and then suddenly cooled it down.
He tried to get a better look at the situation, and despite being covered in ice, he suddenly felt much colder, when he saw what was going on. Shoto tried to go as fast as he could for once, cursing his decision not to use his flames as his speed was hampered by the ice on him.
'Don't you dare die. I need to find out why you choose to act so irrationally and for to reveal why you grew angry at me all of a sudden. Though if you have no good reason for your anger and you choose to bring up that matter out of spite...'
Shoto shook his head, trying to get rid of the currently unnecessary thoughts and tried to reach the group in time, before it was too late.
xXxXxXxXxXx
Izuku gave it his all as he sprinted across the Chamber, going around the long, tall walls of ice that Izuku had Weiss and Shoto set up as part of his original plan. While they had once been their salvation, splitting up the considerably group of goons in order to prevent them from swarming his friends and surrounding them, now they proved to be an obstacle to him on so many levels. As their angle forced Izuku to run away from his friends, their obscuring effect made it harder and harder to see the combat going on way across the room, to the point where Izuku could naught but barely see the red glow of the fire around Myrtenaster... and when that began to slowly fade, a small panic overtook Izuku. Pushing his body as hard as he could, all the way to its physical limitations, he put on a burst of speed as he rounded one corner and begin just booking it for the next, the fight coming closer and closer into his vision. He'd well since left Ren in the dust by that point as the young man ran to try and follow him.
"Guys!" Izuku yelled at the top of his lungs as he could finally take in direct sight of the fight. Shoto finally managed to shuffle his way to within a reasonable range, at least one where he could start taking pot shots with a pistol he'd kept to his side. Izuku imagined he was either nearly out of Dust himself or that, with the buildup of ice around him, further ice might not be particularly worth the risk. That sight was further compounded by what Izuku saw of the four direct combatants: Weiss looked absolutely haggard, the glow of her own Aura dim as scuff marks and tears had formed on her dress and skirt, her breaths deep as she kept Myrtenaster at the ready, it's flames on its last legs as the blade continued to glow. Her other hand... it was holding onto a spot on her ribs. Yang didn't look much better; though she hadn't taken another hit, it was clear she'd been forced to push herself past her own limits in order to try and avoid that.
And the two Hunters? Both were in a sorry state too... one of them bleeding from a large gash on his torso. Everyone was a lot worse for wear... but it hadn't been without successes of their own. At some point, it seemed one of the stronger goons swapped his gun with one of the weaker ones, so that the pair could hang back and take pot shots while the rest charged forward. That group had been somewhat diminished last Izuku checked... and now it was down to two relatively fresh faced gangsters, still looking to make their mark, with the two gunmen backing them up. Izuku pounded his feet into the ground as he was finally within distance to do something and he 'charged' forward into battle.
It was a desperate duck and grind as the fight entered its last, heated moments. Almost everyone was exhausted, almost everyone was to the point of breaking. One solid hit on anyone could potentially shatter Aura or make them bend a knee. The only one in the fight right now who wasn't in that state was Izuku, and to a lesser degree Shoto. So he took it upon himself to try and make himself as big a presence as possible by just getting right in there. The two Hunters clobber at the guys in front of them, their weapons crunching bone as they take deep, strained breaths to make their move. Weiss herself, despite her state, still handled Myrtenaster with grace as she swung it about the air, puncturing the fresher of the pair at least once before, finally, her flames went out. Yang, of everyone, was the one doing her best to make as many of her swings count and, by the Gods, the girl was constantly 'landing them', a hurricane of blows that just battered the guy in front of her as she gave out a battle cry. Bullets sung back and forth across the field of battle as Izuku managed to duck out of the way of a shot... Weiss just 'barely' managing it by drawing upon her already exhausted Aura.
Then it happened, the dominos began to fall. It started with the Hunters: as the more badly injured Hunter took his swing, one of the Goons finally crumpled, his Aura completely and utterly drained as he fell to the floor, stunned and shattered. Weiss followed up, doing what she could but now, without her flames, Myrtenaster just uselessly plinked off her opponent's Aura. Izuku... forwent 5% of One For All. The fight was nearly over and, while Izuku wouldn't relish giving the guy a chance to hurt his friends, too strong of a hit might just be too much in this case. Izuku slackened his attack and, with a powerful swing, drove his fist into him. Between the shotgun and his blow it was clear he was on his last legs... and with one last powerful punch from Yang, the guy's Aura shattered and he fell to the ground, unable or unwilling to get back up.
Izuku looked over to the two gunmen remaining... and the look in their eyes was all too familiar to him at that point. They were beyond wanting to fight, beyond wanting to potentially get as badly hurt as their fellows. The last straw seemed to be an errant gunshot from Shoto, who fired his pistol toward the pair with poor results, the bullet uselessly flying off away from them. Still, the gesture seemed to be enough to drive the pair off as they immediately broke out into sprints, desperate to get away from them all... especially as Ren finally arrived to join the fray.
Izuku was not exhausted... but he was winded. These had been long, drawn out fights and his use of One For All today had damn near pushed his ability to call upon it at will to its breaking point. Still... there were goons left... but there was also his friends to take care of. That became especially apparent as he watched, with a shocked expression, as blood slipped from between Weiss' fingers as she held onto her ribs, the young woman biting her lip slightly. However slightly, she'd actually been injured.
Finally, Izuku found it in him to speak up.
"Weiss, Yang, Shoto... are you all okay?" He asked them, turning the safeties for Emerald Gust on as all his friends turned to look at him. Weiss and Shoto both gave surprisingly similar, calm nods as they tried to maintain their composure, with Yang giving him a big old grin, it clear that the victory had lifted her mood despite her being so tired. Izuku sighed, already thinking of a plan before any of them opened their mouths to answer him. It was time to make plans for the room, about how they were going to proceed... and how the Hell they were going to catch those two guys.
Before he could go any further however, and before any of his friends could speak up... Izuku 'felt' something. It drowned out any of the noise around him as, slowly, Izuku's eyes glanced over to the tunnel leading back to the Underground Training Facility. Somewhere, deep down in his chest... he could feel it. A spark... no, not a spark, that would be too diminishing of that feeling. It felt like a flame. A roaring fire. An energy that... that sang to his very being. That spoke to Izuku's very soul. Before he even had an idea of what was happening, before he even could guess as to what was actually happening... there was a thought that ran through his mind. A thought that professed a single notion.
'That Hunters always find a way to ignite hope in others…'
That is when, finally, he heard it; echoing from so very far away.
"You may have heard these words before... but I'll teach you what they really mean!"
GO BEYOND
PLUS ULTRA
And that was when the world around him suddenly felt like it was falling apart.
Within seconds of that roar echoing through the Tunnels, 'everyone' in the room was immediately thrown off their feet by a wild shaking and rattling, feeling as if the very ground itself was being moved. Bits of rocks and debris falls from the ceiling above them from the force while the Ice Wall ominously creaked just behind Izuku. It didn't shatter and it didn't fall, too far from the source of the overwhelming power to be broken... but even it felt the overwhelming might that seemed to pervade the very ground. One could've very well been forgiven for believing that the very world was ending with the sheer force they were feeling transfer from the ground and into their feet...
Yet, as soon as it came, it also stopped. The Tunnels stopped shaking, the ground 'stopped' feeling like it was going to give out from under their feet. It all just stopped as suddenly as it came, leaving everyone in the room stunned by the sudden and inexplicable show of power.
...
"WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?!" Unsurprisingly, Yang had been the first one to speak up, the young woman apparently having been utterly blown away by the event.
"... We'll get there in a moment... for now, I'm more worried about all of you." Izuku gave a firm nod as he spoke. Izuku knew that was Toshinori at the other end of that tunnel and, he suspected, that he was likely behind whatever ended up causing those tremors. As much as his soul screamed at him to go check on his mentor, to go make sure he was okay, Izuku's mind held him back. He was a team leader, what's more, he was a team leader responsible for the lives of several of his friends and other injured Hunters. Moreover, there were twenty people all parked around him and, though most seemed unwilling to fight, there was still the threat of what they could do to injured Hunters or Civilians in the room as he worked to get everyone freed.
With that goal in mind, Ren pretty much immediately got to work patching everyone up, applying salve and bandages where he could to the worst injuries on everyone. Thankfully, being in Chamber 1 pretty much put within their reach numerous supplies that, while it wasn't necessarily ordered for them to have access to, the Hunters seemed perfectly willing to let them crack open in the name of making sure everyone present would at least be able to walk.
There was still the matter of the two Goons who got away though. As Izuku brainstormed and tried to think of a way to catch up to them... he heard something.
"OI, YOU CRAZY HUMAN BITCH, PUT US DOWN, WE'RE NOT SOME TOYS FOR YOU TO SWING AROUND AS PART OF YOUR DOMINATRIX BIT!"
Whoever the voice was shouting at, it certainly hadn't seemed to pay them any mind as Izuku eventually heard high-heeled footsteps begin echoing down the hall. Everyone in the room turned their gaze to the hall and, after a moment, Izuku could see the wide smiles of relief on Weiss and Yang's face, the relieved looks of victory on the Hunters and just the calm that overtook Shoto and Ren as Glynda Goodwitch strode out of the opening in the tunnel, the two Goons who had made an attempt to run hanging uselessly in the air above her, surrounded by the glow of her Semblance. It didn't take long at all before Glynda spotted her students and, as she did so, the professor readjusted her glasses so that a slight glares off the edge.
"Students. You're to report to the Surface immediately. A path has been cleared through the Underground Training Facility and the rest of The Tunnels shall be secured in short order. Medical staff is waiting outside to attend to your wounds." While Glynda Goodwitch had always been authoritative in the way she led class and instructed them all, that was a whole different level. Izuku could tell from his extended time with Glynda that it was probably a better reflection of her 'angry' than any other time. Though the anger, quite notably, wasn't directed at him. Far from it: it seemed the anger and frustration was aimed more at the villains both in her grasp and tied up on the floor, as she quickly secured the other two with her Semblance and then just tossed them right into the pile. Before long, more Hunters started to flood through the tunnels; some were armed with more conventional weapons meant to deal with Grimm and Humans alike, but others... well, others were armed with flamethrowers.
"Your cooperation and haste would be appreciated: Mountain Glenn wishes to do what's necessary in order to secure the Tunnels and make sure the Grimm are either back in their pins or exterminated as soon as possible. It'll be far easier for them to do so without having to worry about 'any' students or non-Hunter personnel." They all nodded in understanding as they all quickly gathered up and, some of them supporting the others who just couldn't fully walk under their own power, began making their way out of the Tunnels. It was a long process and one that eventually drew them all back into the Underground Training Facility... where they all just stumbled a bit.
It was wrecked. The concrete constructs that had acted as obstacles or make-shift terrain had been all but entirely destroyed, leveled right down into chunks of stone scattered about the room. Thousands of feet of the floor has been kicked up or destroyed and, were it not for the fact that Izuku saw Ken Ishiyama going to town doing some preliminary repairs with his power over concrete, you'd imagine that the damage would be far harder to fix. Still... there was something bugging him. The room was a lot brighter than he remembered it being... or, maybe that was the wrong way to think about it. It was like there's one solid part of the room that has way more light than what should've been produced by those large, stadium lights he'd seen.
It wasn't until Yang practically choked, her head tilted up to the ceiling, that Izuku followed her gaze to the source of all that light... 'very' large hole in the ceiling, from which a tunnel of pure, natural sunlight pours into the Underground Training Facility.
It didn't take long to imagine 'who' exactly did that.
"... Holy crap..." In a rare break of her formality, it actually ended up being Weiss Schnee who muttered that aloud. Izuku couldn't help but nod in agreement...
Izuku's mentor really was something else.
E/N: That Shoto POV is Shoto Wonders Why by Supa.
-Shovern
