warnings: canon-typical violence, blood, eye trauma, Moonfish's teeth, Toga, someone gets fucking kidnapped
He's glad Shiozaki's with him. Her presence at his side is becoming swiftly familiar, despite the fact that, before this camp, they barely talked. She's steadfast, reliable, and has already saved his life.
So, they run together, back to the clearing the test of courage started in.
"What are you doing back here?"
Tiger is the first one to notice their presence, growling his question as he slams the villain with her own weapon. The hit dazes her, but she turns quickly, grabbing her weapon, and now both of them have their hands on it.
"We have a message for Mandalay!" Shiozaki yells. "The students of U.A. classes 1-A and 1-B are granted permission to use their quirks in combat under the authority of Pro Hero Eraserhead, for the purpose of protecting themselves from this villain attack!"
Mandalay nods, and instantly, Izuku can hear the message being relayed into his own head, as well, which really helps the steadily-deepening headache he has from his quirk.
"One more thing!" Izuku says this one, and he can tell Mandalay is straining to hear. "The villains are after Tokoyami!"
She nods.
"One more thing," her voice says in their head, "the villains are targeting Tokoyami. His protection should be a top priority!"
"Alright, Midoriya," Shiozaki says. "We need to go back to the lodge now."
Izuku nods. He's promised Aizawa, after all, so he turns and follows her as she starts to run off, his injured arm tucked to his side.
He's almost caught up with Shiozaki when there's a crashing, a crack from the forest, and Muscular bursts out, stopping between the two students yet again, the same bloodthirsty grin on his face. Izuku scrambles to change direction, the motions jarring his broken arm.
"You didn't think I was letting you get away so easily, did you?" Muscular crows, throwing himself after Izuku. Izuku runs, sprinting, towards the forest, away from the lodge, because he cannot lead this villain back there ignoring the fact that Vlad King and many of his classmates and Bakugou are back there but Muscular's between him and Shiozaki, between him and the path back to the lodge, between him and safety anyways.
So he sprints towards the trees. He's small, fast, agile, and Muscular, for all his speed, is still a tank, not a flanker. He can lose him in the forest. He has to trust that he can. Maybe, maybe he could wind his way through, get around in front of the villain, circle back around towards where Aizawa was…
"Midoriya!" he can hear Shiozaki's cry behind him, but he doesn't stop. She's already out of power, out of energy, and he, despite his injuries, has a lot left to give.
"You may block my quirk, but that's not enough to level the playing field between us!" Muscular is still too close, even as Izuku winds through the trees, deeper into the forest, Muscular can keep pace. And—it doesn't help that he's right. If Izuku had his staff, his guns, any of his support gear, then it might be an even fight.
But now? Alone, injured, with no weapons—
Wait.
He doesn't have Zero Gravity to throw logs at Muscular with, but that doesn't mean he can't use the forest as a weapon, the same way his classmates did during the run to camp.
Now, think.
Muscular is, effectively, quirkless now, but still levels above Izuku in terms of strength. But—he'll have weak points.
Izuku curses as he stumbles over a rock. He keeps his feet and continues running, but that's enough to draw Muscular back over. He must move fast, before the villain has a chance to react, before he can rethink this.
He dips down and grabs a broken branch, one end jagged and sharp—a fresh fall. The bark is rough in his left hand. All he has is the one arm to strike with, but it will be enough.
It has to be enough.
There's a log coming up, right in his path, and a rock just to the left he can use, too. With one foot, he launches off the rock, and both feet come together just this side of the log. With a jump, he turns his forward momentum upwards, to the right, a corkscrew spiral as he brings his left hand around.
Muscular is right there, his lips still curled in that same hungry grin, his eyes widening in surprise? Joy? Something.
Izuku whips around and buries the sharp end of the branch into the flesh of Muscular's right eye socket. There's a squelch and a roar of pain. As he falls, Izuku's foot snaps out, catching Muscular in the crotch, and, well, there's the second yell.
He hits the ground and rolls, putting distance between himself and the villain, ignoring the burst of pain in his right arm. The man himself is on the ground, curled up, and Izuku turns and runs.
"Get back here! I'm going to kill you!" Muscular's roar echoes through the trees, and a flutter of wings nearby startles Izuku, sending a fresh shot of adrenaline through him.
It's just an owl.
Kouda.
A small smile flickers across Izuku's lips, even as he hears Muscular's yells, the crashes of him breaking his way through the forest.
Except—
Wait.
There's Muscular. Those are definitely his screams, back at his seven o'clock.
There's something else, up ahead, at his two o'clock, something else big and powerful slamming its way around.
Someone else's screaming.
Something else's roaring.
He almost recognizes it. Where has he heard it before?
"I want your blood!" There's Muscular, except. He sounds further away now. Maybe?
And then—
Something yanks him off his feet. There's—there's something around his mouth, something warm, and he can barely move, they're strong, so he opens his mouth and bites down.
Whoever's holding him grunts.
"Midoriya." The voice is low, familiar. "I'm sorry for scaring you, but we need to be quiet."
Shouji.
Breathing through his nose, he relaxes. Shouji's grip slackens as Izuku exhales, until it's no longer a vice.
"What's happening?" he hisses.
"Tokoyami," Shouji replies. "He lost control of Dark Shadow. What's chasing you?"
"A villain," Izuku whispers. He glances around, thankful for the full moon that gives them enough light to just barely make out the shapes of the forest around them. "I think we can bait Dark Shadow into taking him out, though."
"What then?"
Izuku blinks, his mind racing. He can feel his heart pounding, the break in his arm throbbing in beat with it.
"Jirou and Todoroki were sent in after you," he says. "We can go find them. Todoroki's fire can bring Dark Shadow back under control."
Shouji nods, once.
"I'm going to need you to set me down," Izuku adds.
Shouji sets him down.
"We'll split up and bait him from different directions. We can… bounce him back and forth between us."
"Understood." Shouji nods, and with a couple snappy gestures that are clear to anyone, Izuku sends him into the woods.
He waits, one heartbeat, two, three, before deliberately snapping a branch and taking off running.
It… doesn't take very long, all told, to bait Muscular and Dark Shadow to each other. Izuku all but runs into the villain, saved from it only by Shouji darting over and grabbing him, wrapping him up, again, in his arms, just in time to hit the ground as Dark Shadow screams towards them.
Muscular's yelling draws Dark Shadow's attention away from the teenagers and onto the villain, and it's all the two can do to watch as Dark Shadow pummels Muscular, dark limbs slamming into light flesh.
"I can hear Todoroki and Jirou," Shouji whispers. He's shielding Izuku with his body, crouched over him like a guardian. "They're fighting someone."
"Then you lead," Izuku replies. "Dark Shadow probably remembers how my quirk works—I'll chase him towards you."
Shouji nods and stands, leaving Izuku to roll away and try to stay unnoticed.
"Tokoyami!" Shouji yells. "Stop fighting Dark Shadow! Trust us!"
And with that, he turns and runs. With a roar, Dark Shadow follows him, and Izuku catches a glimpse of Tokoyami, trapped in the middle of the dark maelstrom, his eyes wide with terror.
He doesn't notice Izuku.
Izuku, who spares a moment to glance at Muscular. At the bloody socket where the man's right eye once was, before Izuku gouged it out. At the blood, running down half his face, still oozing out of the injury.
The villain's unconscious. Dark Shadow was out for blood, just like the man himself.
He shakes himself and turns away to run after Dark Shadow and Shouji. It's not difficult to follow the trail of destruction through the trees. Snapped branches, flattened brush, furrows where something's gouged out bits of the ground. Dark Shadow has long since lost the sense for subtlety.
There's shouts, coming from up ahead, shouts that sound like Jirou and Todoroki and someone Izuku's never heard before, but the very timbre of their voice feels like nails being dragged down his spine, hitting and jarring every vertebra as they go. He's right behind Shouji and Dark Shadow as they burst out into the path, now a maze of ice and—teeth?
Yeah, those are teeth.
"Todoroki!" Shouji yells. "We need you to use your fire to subdue Dark Shadow!"
"Can he smash this villain for us first?" Jirou asks. Her voice is shaking as she watches Dark Shadow throw the straightjacketed villain into the ground.
"He seems to have already done so," Todoroki says. There's a light layer of frost coating his skin that quickly melts as flames flicker to life on his left side. "Shouji, get back."
Shouji ducks behind a pillar of ice as Todoroki thrusts his left hand forward, sending a whirlwind of flame into the air, arcing over and around Dark Shadow.
It takes moments, less than ten seconds for Dark Shadow to shrink and for Tokoyami to be the one left standing there, panting, his arms wrapped around himself. Todoroki extinguishes his flames and approaches Tokoyami.
"My apologies," Tokoyami says, his gaze fixed firmly on the ground. "It seems I am in your debt."
"That's not how it works," Izuku says, and Todoroki and Jirou both whirl around to face him.
"Midoriya?" Jirou asks. "When did you get here?"
"Uh, I followed Shouji and Tokoyami?" Izuku replies, glancing around the area. "We can talk as we go, but we need to get back to the lodge. Tokoyami, you heard Mandalay's announcement?"
"That I am the target?" Tokoyami nods. "Yes. That's… what set Dark Shadow off."
"So we need to take extra precautions with you, and make sure they don't get what they want," Izuku replies, frowning. "It would be quicker to cut through the forest—"
"But who knows what sort of other villains are out there," Jirou finishes, glancing behind herself, at the smoke rising from the burning forest.
"It's longer, but it's better to take the path," Izuku says. "We might find Ochako, Tsuyu, Yaoyorozu, and Aoyama, too, as we go."
"And maybe more of Class B," Todoroki says, crouching down next to—That's a Class B student, Tsuburaba, if Izuku's remembering correctly.
"I can carry him," Shouji says. "If you help Midoriya splint his arm."
Todoroki nods, moving over towards Izuku. His arm is broken just below the elbow, both radius and ulna, and Jirou sacrifices her jacket so that Todoroki can wrap Izuku's arm and bind it close to his torso.
A scream carries through the air, and everyone startles.
"That's it. We need to go," Izuku says, eyes wide, blinking as he glances around into the trees, up in the air, back at the ice fortress. "Tokoyami, stay in the middle."
The shorter boy nods, and without protest, slips into the middle of the group, bracketed by Jirou and Shouji. Todoroki and Izuku glance at each other.
"Watch our back," Izuku says, and Todoroki nods, taking up the rear while Izuku leads them forwards.
Their plan is working great until they run across Tsuyu and Ochako facing another villain. Ochako is pinned underneath the other girl while Tsuyu's stuck to a tree with knives in her clothes and—oh, ouch, that one's in her tongue, no wonder she hasn't escaped yet.
"Oh, no fair," the villain girl pouts, looking up at the arriving five. Izuku drops into a fighting stance and, catching motion from his peripheral vision, sees Jirou's earphone jacks flying towards the villain. She yelps and jumps away from Ochako.
"So sorry our time got cut short," the girl croons. "I'll see you soon, Ochako!"
There's a moment, while the villain's eyes are combing across the group, that she pauses and Izuku swears she's looking at him.
"I look forward to getting to know you, Izuku," she coos, a blush rising to her cheeks before she turns and runs into the woods.
"Come on!" Ochako is scrambling to her feet. "We can't let her get away!"
"No, wait, Ochako," Tsuyu says, her words slurred. "We shouldn't. We were only given permission to defend ourselves, not chase down villains."
"Besides," Izuku jumps in. "We need to make sure Tokoyami gets back to the lodge."
"Tokoyami?" Ochako asks. Behind her, Tsuyu reaches up and pulls the knife out of her tongue.
"Yeah," Izuku nods, turning back to gesture. "We're escorting—"
Tokoyami's not there.
Neither is Todoroki.
"If you're escorting Tokoyami, then where is he?" Tsuyu asks.
"Todoroki's missing too," Izuku whispers.
"Ah, that would be my doing."
The group turns as one to see a man in a mask wave at them, hanging on a branch over their heads.
"You see," he says, "I've used my magic to grab your friends. I'm sure they'll be much happier with us, where they'll have a true chance to shine." His wrist flicks, revealing two round, blue marbles between his fingers. "I'll be taking them with me." He slides the marbles into a pocket.
Izuku's stomach drops. These villains are working for—for Shigaraki, who works for him.
He cannot allow his friends to end up in his grasp.
"We're not going to let that happen," Izuku hisses. Jirou picks up on his unspoken cue, her jacks hurtling up towards the villain who leaps away.
"Oh, children! You haven't even let me introduce myself yet! You see, I'm Mr. Compress of the League of Villains' Vanguard Action Squad. We're attacking your little camp here in order to make a statement: there's more than one perspective!" He's darting through the trees, the teenagers following below him. "You've let your ideals and perspectives be chosen for you, so we're here to reveal another way!"
"You insult us," Shouji growls, "if you think we've just let our views and ideals be chosen for us."
"Ah, well, be that as it may be, I must be off now. I do apologize for only tricking you and running away—that is, indeed, what I am best at. Farewell for now!" And then he moves—fast.
"Fuck," Jirou hisses. "He's too fast."
"We can't let him take Tokoyami and Todoroki," Izuku hisses.
"None of us are fast enough to chase him," Shouji, one of the two who can hear Izuku's torn-up voice without having to be within a foot of him, replies.
"Not on the ground," Izuku agrees, turning to glance at the classmates with him. "But… maybe… Shouji, pass Tsuburaba over to Ochako. Ochako, you'll make Shouji, Jirou, and I weightless, and then Tsuyu will use her tongue to throw us towards Compress. Jirou and I will hold on to Shouji, and he'll use his arms to steer us."
Shouji blinks, once, twice, and then repeats the instructions. Ochako takes Tsuburaba on her back and touches Izuku, Jirou, and Shouji's arms. Jirou and Izuku climb onto Shouji's back together, one pair of the tallest boy's arms coming behind him to wrap around the two clinging to his back. That done, Tsuyu's tongue, already remarkably healed from its impalement, wraps around all three of them.
With one great heave, she flings them over the trees. Jirou and Izuku are protected from the wind, curled up as they are on Shouji's back, and he risks a glance at the world below them, trees flying by.
"Midoriya," Shouji yells. "Negation… Now!"
The fingers of Izuku's left hand brush over first Shouji and then Jirou's skin, a flash of red releasing Ochako's quirk as they hurtle into Compress. Izuku, still weightless, leaps forwards towards two villains, one in a body suit and one covered in burn scars. He stretches his hand forward, fingers splayed wide.
The burned villain sidesteps and Izuku closes his fist, negating Zero Gravity on himself. He tucks and rolls, springing to his feet and whirling around in time to dodge a blast of blue fire.
"Well, looks like we'll get a chance at you after all," the villain's voice is low, flat, disaffected. He sounds mildly interested at best.
Izuku doesn't respond. Even if he did, there's no point—it's not like anyone but Jirou and Shouji can really hear him right now.
He dodges another blast of flame, leaping to the side while taking stock of the fight. The bodysuit villain and Compress are fighting Shouji and Jirou… and losing. Well, Compress did say he was best at running and playing tricks. He's fast, but on the ground, he's no match for Jirou's jacks, and Shouji easily has the bodysuit villain handled.
That leaves Izuku, one-armed and running on adrenaline, to face the burned villain, he presses forward, dodging gouts of flame, and the villain backs up.
Of course. He has to have watched the Sports Festival, he must know Izuku is a close-range fighter.
"Compress, get ready to dodge," the burned villain growls. "Twice, switch!"
The burned villain and the bodysuited villain switch places. The maneuver is a little clumsy, but it does what it needs to. Burn scar is free to use his flames on Jirou and Shouji while bodysuit—Twice?—gets in close, with no skin bare for Izuku to use his quirk on.
With that one maneuver, the tide of the fight shifts. Izuku can't fight this villain one-armed, so he dodges, working his way back towards Shouji and Jirou. Shouji's picked Jirou up on his back again, and her hands are gripping his shoulders while she uses her jacks to attack, their sharp metal ends whip quick and forcing the fire villain to dodge unless he wants some fresh new laceration scars to go with the rest of his collection.
"Oh, I knew I'd be seeing you again!"
Izuku drops, narrowly dodging the flash of a knife. The girl who attacked Ochako and Tsuyu is here, and she's smiling.
It doesn't make him feel better.
"My name's Himiko," she says. "Toga Himiko, but you can call me Himi if you want!" She flicks a needle, of sorts, at him, and he dodges to the side. He will not be calling her Himi, thank you very much.
"I'm so excited to get to know you better!" she says. "But, don't you think, maybe you'd look cuter if you just bled a little more?"
No! No, he does not! He ducks another knife, pivoting and snapping his leg up and into Toga's arm, knocking the knife out of that hand.
"Ooh, you're feisty, I li—"
Shouji slams into Toga, knocking her backwards. She glares at him.
"You're interrupting," she growls. "I don't like that."
"Toga," the burned villain snaps. "Get over here. Compress?"
Izuku dodges the knife Toga throws, crashing right into Shouji, who was dodging another knife. Toga runs over to where the burned villain, Compress, and Twice are. Compress is searching his pockets.
"It seems as if I misplaced them," Compress says, and Shouji holds something out.
"That's because I took them," he says, right before a swirling black portal appears—
Along with a Noumu.
Jirou and Shouji both gasp, and, well, the black portals must be something Izuku missed that happened during the USJ incident. The Noumu, Twice, and Toga all step through the portal, the last of them blowing a kiss over her shoulder to Izuku.
He shudders.
"You took them, huh? It's a habit, one of the basics of magic." Compress asks, pulling his mask off. He opens his mouth, and there, nestled in his tongue, are two marbles. The two in Shouji's hand expand, transforming into broken branches which he drops, wide-eyed. The villain slides his mask back on. "When I flaunt something, it's because there's something else I don't want you to see. I wanted to give you a sense of false hope, and it seems I succeeded. It's truly been fun, tonight, but I have to go." He steps backwards, slowly, into the portal.
A beam of light cuts through the scene. It burns by Compress, blasting his mask off. Izuku's blinking lines out of his vision, but he's already moving, the sight of Aoyama's navel laser so familiar now that he doesn't even need to think about what it is—he just knows.
Shouji and Jirou are sprinting forward alongside him, all three of them fixated on the shining stones falling, falling—
"Compress!"
The marbles burst into two teenagers. Shouji reaches forward, wrapping a hand around Tokoyami's arm, and Jirou and Izuku both reach for Todoroki—
Compress kicks Todoroki's back, sending him crashing into Jirou, just as the burned villain reaches forward and wraps a hand around Izuku's forearm, yanking him forward and turning him around.
His uninjured wrist is trapped in the villain's vice-like grip and the villain's other hand is wrapping around his neck, fingers slotting almost perfectly into place over scars that look like fingerprints.
He kicks out behind him, hits flesh, and hears the villain grunt. In front of them, his classmates are rallying, Shouji and Tokoyami both running forward, their arms outstretched.
Izuku writhes in the villain's arms, but those hands are heating up, and he's in so much pain—
"Don't!" he gasps. "Don't follow me, you can't—"
The portal closes around them, cutting him away from the shattered expressions on his classmates' faces.
Aizawa: why didn't you lead Muscular back to the lodge
Izuku: in my defense, I panicked
expected update day: Tuesday, 19 May, 2020