Chapter 27 – Merciless
They stood there with only half the amount of time left, staring at the blond kid that had just stolen their headband. They were all pissed, but not as much as Bakugo, he had murder in his eyes and murder in his intentions as he growled down at Mika and Sero to move. Without question they both pushed off the ground and sprinted as fast as they could towards the battle horse.
"I'm going to kill them, I'm going to kill them…" They could hear Bakugo almost chanting under his breath as his hands started to crackle above their heads.
"Clam down Bakugo, if you don't keep your cool, we'll never get our points back!" Kirishima shouted back up to Bakugo.
"Keep moving Kirishima… I'm as cool as ice!" She snarled back, the black aura still emanating from his every pore.
Mika shared a quick look with Sero as they rushed forwards, both of them certainly understanding that Bakugo was not as cool as ice at all.
Just as they reached the other battle horse and Bakugo started to raise his hand up to blast them into the next plane of existence, the blond kid also raised his hand, small crackles appearing before they were blinded by an explosion. The smell of burnt hair hit Mika's nostrils as she coughed out some smoke. Did he just…
"Oh, that's neat" He kid chuckled. "Nice quirk you've got"
"That's my…" Bakugo started, eyes wide.
"He has your power too, Bakugo!" Kirishima gasped as his hardening slipped after the explosion dissipated.
"YOU BASTARD!" Bakugo yelled, as he swung his arm wide and exploded his hand right in the face of the blond kid. The smoke blew back and covered Mika's eyes and they watered a little at the sting of it.
"WHA... My quirk?" She heard Kirishima shout in shock. "Am I looking at a mirror?"
"Nah, this jerks just a copycat…" She heard Bakugo state, the realisation in his voice.
Mika rubbed at her eyes to clear them and just in time too, for once her vision cleared, she spotted another Class 1-B team approaching them to her left. The leader a massive guy with what looks like some kind of messed up Halloween pumpkin head. Before they had a chance to try and grab their headband back the newcomer was unleashing some kind of gloopy liquid from what Mika thought were his eyes. She yelped in horror more than anything.
"GUYS!" She shouted as their legs were coated in the stuff. "IT CAME OUT HIS EYES"
"What!" Sero shouted to her, as he couldn't see.
"I can't move my legs!" Kirishima shouted as the other battle horses all sprinted off to leave them in their predicament.
Mika tried to move her feet, yet she found that the strange liquid had completely solidified to the point where she couldn't even wiggle her foot at all. She knew then that just simply using her normal strength was ineffective she threw her hand out and started sucking in their shadow.
"Guys… Ideas!" Kirishima shouted as she finished up absorbing more of their shadow.
"I think I can get us all out…" Mika bit back as she concentrated on moving all the shadow energy she had collected into her legs. She took a deep breath and then one by one ripped her feet from the concrete substance. It hurt like hell, but she was able to break her feet out, the rest of the stuff still sticking to her in little clumps but, it was enough.
"Hurry up!" Sero shouted. "We're at zero points"
"Don't you think I know that!" She growled back. "Listen to me ok… I'm going to transfer some of my shadow energy into your legs and when I say go… you got to pull them free"
"WHAT!" Sero yelped.
"You can do that Mika-chan?"
"Yeah, no don't freak out ok… it's going to… I don't know… fizz?"
"FIZZ?" They both shouted to her.
It was too late though; her eyes had blacked out again and she was reaching out for their shadow and using herself as the middle man. She focused all her mind power to pull the energy from the shadow, through her arm, chest and along the arm that was touching Kirishima's shoulder. Once it was flowing into him, she willed it down into his legs.
"WOAH!" he gasped, as his body began to tingle with the buzz of energy being passed through it and to his legs.
"You feel it Eijiro-kun?" Mika shouted to him, sweat beginning to drip from her brow with the effort.
"YEAH, it's amazing!" He shouted back with a thrill in his voice. She nodded and deepened her frown.
She sucked in a deep breath and carried on pushing then through herself, through Kirishima and in to Sero. She urged with all her might to shove as much energy into his legs as she physically could before she snapped like someone coming up for air after just that second too long under water.
"NO WAY!" Sero shouted. "I feel like I could take off."
"USE IT GO!" Mika shouted then. "You leave it in you for too long without using it and you'll rip your muscles apart.
The two lads dropped down then to prepare themselves to break free, Bakugo grabbing onto Mika's head to stop him from toppling off as they both ripped their legs free at the same time. The movement sent a shock wave of black smoke pouring from their legs and once they were out, she urged them to let out their biggest breaths, trying to get any access shadow energy out of them before it caused any damage.
"Show me your breathes… I need to see that it's all gone!" She urged with a little bit of worry in her eyes, making all three of her teammates look to her. Bakugo with a sternness she had gotten used to. She knew that he wasn't pissed she was wasting time, he was just assessing when she was done. He knew by the tone of her voice that it was important for her to know that their teammates were ok. She waited till she could see no more black smoke on their breaths and then nodded to Bakugo for them to get moving. Sero and Kirishima's faces were pink as they watched Mika worry over them, the emotion something they had never seen in the usually stony-faced girl.
"Ok… ok you guys are good!" She sighed once she saw no more black smoke on their breath.
"Let's go then!" Bakugo demanded with an edge to his voice that promised trouble.
They set off at a slightly slower pace as Mika left it a little longer before she used her quirk again. Whilst they were running, she spotted the leader board and was shocked to see that Midoriya had already lost his headband to Todoroki, if the scored were anything to go by. Her hear panicked a little, it was one thing stealing the band from Midoriya with the limited way he uses his quirk but stealing it from the half and half arse was another. He was recommended into the hero course, just like she was. He had two quirks for goodness sake. This is going to be a little more difficult…
They sped across the area towards the battle horse of the blond git. They were moving along at a rather lax speed, as if they were not trying to get any more headbands before the time ran out. Mika felt her hate towards the boy increase when they got close enough for her to see his smug grin, and that was enough for her to start using her quirk again. She could feel the ache in her hand as she did so, but she tuned it out.
"You ready Sunshine!" She called up to Bakugo.
"You fucking know it… WAIT ONE STINKING MINUTE!" He snorted to her before yelling out at the battle horse, causing them to turn a little to face them.
With that Bakugo once again, launched from them up into the air straight towards the kid's smug face. Mika flinched as he went, catching a few sparks from his explosion on her face as he went. He arched quite gracefully through the air before heading straight for their heads.
"GET BACK HERE BAKUGO!" Kirishima shouted, the frustration evident in his voice.
"Tsuburaba! Guard!" the blond kid screamed as Bakugo approached them all with what Mika could only guess was pure violence and chaos in his eyes.
The slightly shorter more wide-eyed kid from the front of their battle horse started frantically blowing up towards where Bakugo was incoming. Mika watched and almost burst out into laughter because of it, the kid looked like he was about to throw up a lung. Is he trying to blow Sunshine away? Then she realised he wasn't trying to blow sunshine away, he was creating some kind of barrier.
Bakugo slammed down onto the circular disk of hard air, and immediately raised a fist to it. He hadn't even had to take a second swing before the barrier broke and Mika and her team watched as their feral gremlin of a rider ripped two head bands from the stupid blonds neck.
"YES!" Mika shouted, as Sero taped Bakugo and pulled him back on top of their battle horse.
"Give us some warning before you jump!" Sero shouted as Bakugo got re situated as the rider.
"We are guaranteed to move on now…" Kirishima began but was cut off when Bakugo started thumping on top of his head.
"I AINT DONE YET!" He bellowed.
"That cocky little shit has more head bands and I want them!" Mika agreed, eyeing up the blond kid as they tried to get away from them.
"Damn right, curly… I'm not settling for some half-assed first place!" He fumed above them as they took off after them once more. As they approached Bakugo started barking our orders and as if they were just another extension of him, they did exactly as they were told. Something about the way Bakugo was so driven and motivated had them believing in him even though he was a fiery gremlin from hell itself.
As instructed, Sero shot his tape out towards their prey, and Mika listened when Bakugo told her to position herself a little more behind them and run with everything she had. She had immediately soaked up their shadow and shoved it all down into her legs. The use of her quirk again making her feel a little sick, but she was so ready. This better work, whatever it is that you have planned, sunshine.
Then on his mark, she sprinted, basically shoving their battle horse right up and past the cocky kids battle horse, Bakugo ripping the rest of his head bands off him in one impressive grab.
"ABSOLUTELY MERCILESS!" Mika heard her Brother screaming over the roar of the stadium and the fighting all around them.
"Next up!" Bakugo sneered. "Todoroki and Deku!"
"Bakugo?" Kirishima tried but all he received were the barked instructions to get his arse moving, so on they went.
Mike knew that there wasn't enough time for them to engage with anyone else. She could hear the clock starting to tick down, which meant they probably had mere seconds left.
"Sunshine, I don't think we have the ti…"
"SHUT UP CURLY AND MOVE!" Bakugo exploded back down at her.
Mika rolled her eyes and put just a smidge more then minimal effort and saw them approach the icey ring that must have been thrown out by the cocky half and half bastard. It was right then, as they had the ice in sight that her Brother, Present Mics voice started to whip the crowd up.
"10!"
Mika immediately felt her heart lurch as the countdown started some kind of feral instinct to rush through her veins.
"9… 8… 7…"
"Come on come on!" she could hear Sero calling under his breath as they burst through the ring of Ice. Bakugo immediately left their battle horse and shot up into the air.
"6… 5!" Mika slammed her feet into the ground to bring them to a stop. Bakugo was mid-air, head spinning between going after Izuku or Todoroki, the pressure and the mad rush that everyone was in making it hard for him to be able to see who had which points on their headbands. Mika threw her eyes to the score board, seeing Todoroki up at the top she screamed with all her might.
"SUNSHINE… GO FOR TODOROKI!"