"God, why are you so rude? I wish I had a different partner."
"THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY?!"
Ochako put her hands on her hips, frowning at her teammate. "All you've done since we found out we're fighting Midoriya and Tsuyu is growl at me and let off those tiny explosions!"
Bakugou just sneered. "So what? It's not like we need a plan, I'm gonna rush in there and kick both of their asses. You can grab the bomb if you want, but I'll be done before you're able to."
Ochako huffed, crossing her arms. "Seriously? Do you really think you can take both Midoriya and Tsuyu by yourself? How arrogant are you? We need to work together to win this!"
Bakugou turned and growled at her, but she didn't step down from him. He sniffed, standing up straight, and adjusting his gauntlets. "It's not arrogance. I'm just that good. I'm gonna crush Deku into the fucking ground and then I'm going to blow frog-bitch up so much that french fuck will be trying to eat her."
Ochako just stared at Bakugou for a moment, shocked at how fucking arrogant and stupid he sounded. But before she could continue to argue with him, a siren went off, and All Might's voice came over the speaker.
"HERO TEAM MAY ENTER THE BUILDING! GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL!"
In an instant, Bakugou was blasting forward with his Quirk, rocketing into the building. Ochako ran after him, groaning as she lost sight of him in the twisting hallways.
Even with Bakugou's bragging about his skill, or maybe because of it, Ochako had a horrible feeling that they had already lost this fight.
"Tsu, I can hear Bakugou on the second level, stay hidden."
"Roger that, kero."
Izuku tapped on the earpiece, cutting off his voice, and focused on the doorway to the room where the villain team had moved the bomb. It was a dark room near the middle of the 6th floor, in quite possibly the hardest to reach area of the building.
It was made even better by the fact that there was only one doorway. It meant that Izuku could focus on protecting a chokepoint instead of keeping track of the entirety of his surroundings. But, that wasn't to say that he was ignoring the rest of the room.
There was a web of Hamon-infused strings that were ready to latch onto anyone who touched them without coating their hand in Hamon. And seeing as he was fairly certain neither of his opponents could use it, it was a perfect defence for his back.
It was only a few moments later when Tsu's voice came over his earpiece. "Uraraka has discovered me and attacked. I'm on the fourth floor. There are explosions above me as well, so be careful, Bakugou is probably closing in on your position."
Izuku took a deep breath to steady himself, nodding slightly in the dark of the room. "Understood. I'll try and draw him towards fake-out alpha. Keep Uraraka busy and try to get back here if you can."
He clicked off his earpiece and exited the room, leaving the string humming slightly behind him as he closed the door, and headed down the hall, making as much noise as possible. It seemed his efforts were successful because he started to hear the explosions getting louder and louder.
He kept his breathing calm and even as the door to the room he was standing in was blown open, revealing the shadowed form of Bakugou standing in the doorway, an evil smirk on his face.
"Round Cheeks might not be good for much, but if she can keep Frog Bitch busy, it leaves me more time to kick your fucking ass, Deku."
Izuku let his feet slide out a little bit, grounding himself as he reached into one of his pockets and pulled out handfuls of string and wire. He had a hypothesis about what Bakugou's gauntlets did and he needed a strong defence. Using a Hamon barrier was probably his best bet.
He allowed his Hamon to flow into the rope and wire, feeling them go ram-rod straight in his grip, sticking out from between his fingers as he stared Bakugou down. "Wow, that's impressive. Everything you just said was wrong…"
Bakugou just growled, his vision shifting to the strings and wires in Izuku's grasp. "Fucking Deku, you think you're so clever hiding your fucking Quirk from me. You've been looking down on me since we were kids!"
The blond flicked his arms, and Izuku saw that the metal bits on the grenade-themed gauntlets clicked, opening what looked like a trigger system. Izuku hummed to himself. That confirmed his hypothesis about the gauntlets. Now to pray to the lord above that his plan worked.
Bakugou continued. "You wanna run away like you always do? Scamper away after getting one lucky hit in like a fucking bitch?"
Izuku just smirked as he raised his arms, glowing brighter as he allowed more Hamon to bleed out of him. "Not a chance. You're going down this time."
Bakugou scowled, turning to the side as he pointed one of his gauntlets over at Izuku. "You actually believe that, don't you? I'm sure that nerd brain of yours has already figured out what these gauntlets do. How do you expect to beat me now that they're loaded up?"
Almost on cue, the gauntlets flashed with red light, a small 'ping' noise coming into existence. At the same time, All Might's voice came over the intercom.
"YOUNG BAKUGOU! DO NOT FIRE THAT IN SUCH A SPACE! IT'S TOO DANGEROUS!"
Bakugou yanked the pin out of its slot, snarling. "HE'LL BE FINE IF HE DODGES!"
Izuku threw his arms up, releasing his hold on the string and wire, and prayed that this would work.
Far away, in the middle of a meeting, Joseph Joestar felt a chill run down his spine.
He looked down at his arm, letting the man who was making his presentation to Joseph and the board continue his explanation, and hissed as he saw the purple vines sticking out of his arm again, thrashing wildly.
He watched as the vines shot down into his pocket and pulled his phone out, seemingly embedding themselves into the device. He was about to let out a yell, seeing as these weird-ass vines had just broken his phone when he saw the screen flicker to life.
There was no audio, just a still shot of what looked like... Izuku hunkering down to protect himself from an incoming explosion? How was he getting this picture? Was it someone's Quirk? Was this an attempt at blackmail?
He quickly stood up and excused himself, citing a family emergency, and headed to his office, his phone floating by his side, connected to the vines, the whole way there.
Slamming his door, he grabbed his phone and inspected the picture closer. It looked like it had been taken from just behind Izuku, who was wearing something familiar, but he couldn't think of what right now.
It showed the incoming explosion and… a Hamon Barrier made from string and wires? He breathed slowly to calm himself seeing this before suddenly the vines vanished from existence, his phone plummeting to the ground.
He caught it before it landed, but immediately picked up his office phone, calling his assistant. "Katara, please cancel all of my meetings for the rest of today. There is something I need to take care of."
There was silence for a moment before he heard Katara's voice over the phone. "Of course, sir. Good luck with whatever it is that you're doing."
He nodded to himself as he hung up, grabbing his jacket from his chair and pulling it on, heading down to his car. He needed to get to UA to at least confirm that Izuku was safe. He could unpack what the Vines had done later.
The Hamon Barrier might have looked stronger than his own were, almost solid-looking with how much it glowed, but the picture had shown a large explosion. He just needed to check that his boy was safe.
He told his driver where to go, and the car sped off, heading towards UA.
Izuku felt like his skin was burning.
The actual shockwave of the explosion had, luckily, been mostly absorbed by the barrier he had set up, probably because of the sheer amount of Hamon it had been pumped with. Izuku couldn't tell if the bits of the string that were on fire had been caused by the heat or his Hamon.
But while the shockwave, the vibrations, had been absorbed and funnelled to the edges, practically removing two of the walls of the room they were in from existence, the heat had not.
It washed over him, making him feel like he had stepped into Hell itself. He was fairly certain that his forearms had at least second-degree burns from the proximity, as he had to be touching the barrier for it to hold itself together, and his jacket had been charred so much it was unrecognisable.
There was silence for a moment, his vision blocked by the copious amounts of smoke on the other side of the barrier. Then he heard him laughing. Bakugou was laughing.
"Oh my god! These are fucking amazing! I fucking love them already! I hope you're still alive Deku, I wanna use the other one!"
There was another, smaller explosion, probably just one of his Quirk-sized ones, which pushed all of the smoke away, flowing out of the now opened up walls either side of Izuku's barrier. Bakugou's smirk turned into a snarl as he saw that Izuku hadn't even moved.
"What the shit? How the fuck did you do that, fucking Deku?"
Izuku coughed, wincing at how raw his throat felt, and smiled shakily. "Wouldn't you like to know, Bakugou? Come here and find out!"
Bakugou growled as he watched the wall that Izuku had made fade out of existence. "You should have kept your fucking barrier up, dipshit! I still got one more gauntlet!"
"YOUNG BAKUGOU! STOP NOW! IF YOU USE THAT AGAIN I WILL BE FORFEITING YOURSELF AND YOUR TEAMMATE!"
Bakugou yelled out in frustration, before taking his gauntlets off and throwing them to the side. "Fuck! Fine! I'll kick your ass myself, Deku! No tools needed!"
Izuku stabilised his breathing, allowing the gentle pressure of Hamon to wash over his body, focusing it onto the burns on his body, sighing in relief as he felt them fade, and looked back up at Bakugou.
"Cmon then, fight me! If your gauntlet didn't work, what good do you think you can do?"
Izuku only barely regretted antagonising Bakugou further as the boy charged him, a roar tearing out of his mouth as he blasted forwards. Izuku just smiled, dropping into a combat stance, getting ready to fight.
Time to execute his plan.
Both Tsu and Ochako stopped mid-fight as they heard the explosion go off, the walls of the building shaking as the noise assaulted their ears.
Both of them heard their earpieces turn to static. Whatever had happened, it seemed that both of their teammate's earpieces had been destroyed. Tsu turned back to Ochako and was about to try and say something when she felt a hand on her stomach.
"Sorry, Tsu! But I want to win!"
Unfortunately for Ochako, Tsu had experience moving around at different orientations due to the fact that she could stick to the walls and ceilings of her training grounds. Pushing off the ground quickly, Tsu let out a small ribbit and flipped, landing feet first on the roof.
"It's not going to be that easy, kero."
Then, while she was still under the effects of Ochako's Quirk, she shot backwards, heading up the staircase, back towards where Izuku would be. If that explosion had done as much damage as she thought it did, he would need her help.
When she reached the room where Izuku and Bakugou had been fighting though, she was surprised to see Izuku on his knees, breathing deeply and smiling, with Bakugou nowhere in sight.
"Cmon then, fight me! If your gauntlet didn't work, what good do you think you can do?"
Bakugou roared as he blasted forward, sending his knee flying forward. He was almost moving too fast to keep track of Izuku, but he saw the boy drop to his knees and lean to the side, letting Bakugou fly right over him.
Stabilising himself before he slammed into the wall, Bakugo turned on the spot and sent a roundhouse kick at the other boy's head, growling.
He was expecting to connect with Deku's head and watch the nerd collapse to the ground, so he was shocked to see Deku catch his leg with a glowing arm, not even budging as it seemingly absorbed the damage.
"Game."
Bakugou roared as he swung his palms at Deku, coughing as he saw the boy duck under the swipe and land a blow to his stomach. When the fuck had Deku become so good at fighting?
"Set."
Bakugou looked back up to see Izuku grab his shirt and pull him up, and was about to swing at the boy again when Deku let go, leaned back, and wound up a kick.
"Match."
The beginnings of an explosion had only just sprung into existence as suddenly all the air was forcibly removed from his lungs, causing him to cough and hiccup.
That was until there was another explosion. One he didn't start. Whatever the fuck the glowing on Deku's legs had done had set off then nitroglycerin-like sweat all over the front of his body.
"GOLDEN ACTIVATION OVERDRIVE!"
Bakugou didn't know what the nerd was on about with the attack name, but it didn't really matter after a few seconds, when the back of his head collided with the wall behind him.
He didn't have time to register anger at losing a fight to Deku of all people before the darkness of unconsciousness consumed him.
Izuku watched as Bakugou slumped against the wall, scanning the boy quickly to determine if he was faking.
But he knew that the boy wasn't. Bakugou wasn't the sneaky kind of fighter. If it looked like Bakugou Katsuki was unconscious, it was because he was.
With that in mind, Izuku walked over to him slowly, feeling the strain on his energy reserves after using both a high-powered Hamon barrier and a lot of self-healing. The heat in the room wasn't helping his stamina, either.
He allowed all of his Hamon to fade as he wrapped the tape around Bakugou's wrists. He waited for a moment, before All Might's voice came over the speaker again.
"BAKUGOU KATSUKI HAS BEEN CAPTURED! APPARENTLY! WE DON'T REALLY HAVE ANY VIDEO OF THAT AREA AT THE MOMENT BUT THE SENSORS SAY HE IS OUT!"
Izuku chuckled at that, turning away from the boy as a pair of medical robots hovered in from one of the gaps in the obliterated walls, picking Bakugou up on a stretcher and floating away.
He was on his knees, his leg feeling sore from the huge burst of energy it had sent out. It was slightly burnt again as well, as he had basically had to set himself on fire to get the necessary heat to ignite Bakugou's sweat manually.
He made sure to stabilise his breathing, conscious of the fact that there was still one more opponent. Tsu hadn't gotten Ochako out yet apparently, so he still had to fight.
He allowed his legs to heal a little bit with Hamon, but stayed aware of his energy levels. He was probably good for another 5 minutes of intense Hamon use if it was for combat, but healing was fairly draining.
He looked up suddenly as the door to the room crashed open again, Tsu flying into the room at breakneck speeds, landing just across from Izuku, giving him a look.
"Are you alright, kero? Can you still fight?"
Izuku nodded, pushing himself up and smiling. "Yes, but let's end this quickly. I used way too much energy fighting Bakugou."
Tsu let out a small 'kero' which Izuku took as acknowledgement, her head whipping around a second later as Ochako entered the room, both hands up and spread wide, ready to fight both of them if need be, apparently.
"It's over villains! Tell me where the bomb is!"
She was also apparently willing to get into character. Ah well, Izuku might as well oblige her. Letting out the deepest laugh he could, he spread his arms wide.
"You'll never find it, you meddlesome hero! Because you shall fall today, at the hands of Pepe and the Glowstick!"
There was silence for a second, both girls just staring at him, before Ochako started laughing so hard she was shaving trouble breathing.
Izuku just smiled as Tsu looked at him like he had insulted her, which actually, he might have with the Pepe comment. "I'm sorry if that was out of line, Tsu, my bad."
"I'm not insulted. I'm just mad at you for picking the literal worst possible names for both of us, kero."
Izuku just shrugged. "I didn't think they were too ba-LOOK OUT!"
Tsu let out a surprised ribbit as she suddenly felt something slam into her back, wrapping her arm around the girl's neck.
Ochako, who had launched herself forward like a rocket with no gravity, had wrapped herself around Tsu and was maneuvering them to keep Tsu in between her and Izuku.
"Tell me where the bomb is now!"
Izuku hummed as he racked his brain for an idea. Giving her the location of the bomb was a no-go, that was an instant loss. But having Tsu out of commission would definitely suck. With the amount of Hamon he had left, Izuku might not win a hand to hand fight with Ochako and her Quirk.
A lightbulb appeared above his head as he got an idea. "Tsuyu, trust me, alright?"
The girl nodded as best she could, her face getting a little red. Izuku smirked.
"Sorry, but I can't let you get your hands on our bomb. I'll have you let go of my partner too!" Stepping forward, he flared up all the Hamon he had left in him for the moment, and punched Tsu as hard as he could.
Ochako's eyes widened as the green glow of Izuku's energy entered Tsuyu, seemingly causing the girl no discomfort, before shooting out of the girl's back, knocking Ochako off of her.
She tumbled to the ground, dazed from the sudden attack, and found herself getting flipped over onto her stomach, Tsu's foot on the small of her back, pinning her.
"Good fight, Ochako. I can't wait to spar more with you in the future."
Ochako just pouted at the frog girls words, groaning as Izuku walked up and wrapped Tsu's capture tape around her. Silence followed for a second before the loud voice of All Might came over the speaker again.
"URARAKA OCHAKO HAS BEEN CAPTURED! BOTH HEROES ARE OUT OF COMMISSION!"
"VILLAIN TEAM WINS!"