Beta-read by Greed720 and Hardwin Potter
Downtown Hosu was a maze of high-rise apartments and office buildings. Fires raged at the heart of it, but panicked cries and toppling buildings could be heard from every block. Nomu swarmed the streets like wasps, smashing in windows and people with equal abandon. Heroes fought in packs, distracting and slowing the Nomu until Endeavor or another powerful pro could dispatch them.
Izuku ignored the fighting down below. He grappled onto a tall office building that was leaning precariously. Lights flickered as its power lines were slowly pulled apart. Near the top of the building, he knew he would find a couple dozen office workers trapped, as the elevator had stopped working and the stairwell was blocked by a thirty-foot drop of crumbling infrastructure. The survivors frantically made a rope of their clothes, hoping to climb down to a stable set of stairs, but they had ten minutes before the building would topple over.
Colliding with the window boots-first, Izuku twisted around the broken shards of glass and rolled to a stop on the slanted floor. A woman screamed at the sound, and everyone turned to defend themselves from the new arrival.
Izuku walked in slowly, arms raised, putting himself directly beneath the office's flickering light so everyone could see his face. "Hero name Deku, with the Endeavor agency. Untie the clothing and use it to rappel down my wires. Going down the stairs will take too long, and this building won't stay up much longer."
An equine-faced man stared at Izuku in open wonder. "You're the kid that won the Sports Festival."
That started a stir of comments among the other workers. Was Endeavor there? Was this Deku's first moment as an intern? The building's supports creaked, and the building pitched another couple degrees. A panicked hush fell over the crowd, but at Izuku's calm prodding, they undid their makeshift rope with frantic, trembling hands.
Izuku kicked a larger opening in the window. He fired two wires down to the adjacent building, which was a four story drop across a thirty foot gap, and fired the other ends at the back wall of the building.
"One at a time. If you fall, I will catch you."
Many of them balked at the long fall to the streets, but the horse-faced man nodded, slung his pants over the wires, and jumped. The fabric whined as it slid down, but the fabric and wires held. The man stumbled onto the rooftop and waved up at his coworkers.
That first jump gave the rest of them courage. One by one, the rest slid to safety. Izuku tied the clothing to the office workers with the weakest grips and had them jump last. Once the last person was down, Izuku used a short length of his own wire to slide after them.
He was halfway there when the building's supports finally gave out. As it toppled, it yanked out Izuku's wires, sending him into freefall.
Two wires tagged the top floor of the building. He swung down towards the glass facade, landed nimbly without leaving a crack, and walked up the side of the building. A couple of the braver bystanders leaned over the edge of the building and helped Izuku up onto the roof.
Once he was up, he kicked in the locked metal door. With the force of his metal framework behind the blow, the door dented, and the bolt locking it in place snapped.
"Get downstairs, and head north. There's an evac site five blocks from here."
One of the workers tried to thank him, but Izuku turned away. Time was short, and he knew where he was needed next. He let himself fall halfway to the ground before swinging away, converting the downward momentum into a series of high-speed swings. Within seconds, he had crossed multiple streets and approached an apartment complex with a Nomu battering down its walls. The heroes lingered at ground level, unable to move inside as the whole structure collapsed.
Izuku darted through a hole in the wall on the north side. There, the floors still held, but many of the walls had been reduced to plaster, wood splinters, and bits of wiring. He found a family of four tucked inside a closet. With a finger over his lips, Izuku silently guided them down a slanted chunk of toppled floor. He dug out another man, who was buried beneath a pile of rubble, and slung him over his shoulders. A set of stairs took them to ground level, where he passed the unconscious man to the hero team and sprinted away.
A burning building three blocks over was his next destination. Backdraft hosed down the front, but through the back, Izuku found a toddler hiding under a bed, missed by the rescue team on the first sweep. Izuku brought him out to the joyous sobs of the boy's family.
There, so close to the city's heart, Izuku found himself entering every building, picking people out of rubble, diverting Nomu away from escaping civilians, and catching people as they fell or jumped from tall buildings.
As Izuku worked his way through the city, he found plenty of people he was too late to save. Men and women torn apart by inhuman hands. People crushed beneath chunks of metal or concrete. A little girl, blue-lipped and covered in black grime. Ashen husks and charred bones from burnt-out fires. He had seen them all, known each of their faces months before this all began. It was small consolation to know that, no matter what he did, he could have never saved them. He wasn't All Might. He couldn't save everyone.
He could save fifty-seven. It was fifty-six more than he thought he would ever be able to manage.
Izuku was racing through another apartment building when a spear of compressed ice slammed through the wall. Not breaking his stride, Izuku leaned backwards, letting the bolt pass over him. The next bolt came when Izuku found a group of civilians huddled in a bathroom, waiting for the rampage to be over. Izuku kicked this one, shattering it against his metal sole. He covered for the civilians as they scrambled to safety, but the icy spears were aimed only at him. He knew more would be thrown, but it wasn't worth the time to track down the villain aiming for him. They weren't going to hurt anyone.
Before he could evacuate everyone, a four-armed Nomu tore its way up through the floor. Izuku urged the civilians onward, directing them through the fire escape in the back, as the floor gave out from underneath him. Twisting in midair around the falling masonry, Izuku landed a kick on the side of the monster's head. Bone popped, and its lower jaw was smashed out of place.
Every punch the Nomu threw shattered walls and furniture, but Izuku wove his way through the punches. His wires trailed across the beast's body, latching onto its chest and wrapping back under its legs. Izuku leapt over the Nomu, and as he fell, he yanked on the wires with everything he had. The Nomu tipped forward, exposing its brain to the far wall. As Izuku fell past, another ice bolt flew through the window. It zipped over Izuku's head and slammed point-first into the Nomu's brain.
While the Nomu was slowed by the ice sticking out of its skull, Izuku latched onto the ceiling and leapt through the damaged floor. The roof, teetering precariously on cracked supports, pitched forward and down onto the stunned Nomu. It disappeared under a pile of concrete chunks and crumbled plaster.
The icicle spikes kept coming, but Izuku knew he had one last destination for the night. His arms burned from the force of his grapples as he launched himself across the city. Warnings flashed across his visor as his power and gas steadily approached zero. Only a handful of wires remained chambered. It would be enough.
A winged Nomu shot through the sky in front of him. As it sailed past a skyscraper, it sent a pulse of sonic energy through the upper floor. Glass erupted outward in a glittering spray, followed by a shower of chairs, desks, and people.
Thirteen bodies tumbled through the air. Izuku couldn't grab all of them. He didn't have the time or the wires. He fired twice, latching onto two people. A second time fastened the wires to another two. The tension on the wire drew them together into clumps. Izuku repeated the process as they hurtled towards the ground, forming three more pairs and binding them together. With a ball of people formed, Izuku latched one wire of his onto them and grappled the building with the other.
The people continued to fall, but Izuku's wires slowed their descent. The engines in his arms squealed as they pulled the heavy mass of people. Smoke gushed out around his hands. The plastic brace bearing the load for his arms groaned as a literal ton of people threatened to tear it apart. As for Izuku, he had months to cope with the sensation of his ribcage being pried open like a boiled lobster.
When the people were fifty feet from the ground, the brace snapped. Izuku pulled harder on the wires as the entire mass of people plummeted half a foot. The force yanked Izuku's right shoulder out of its socket with a gut-wrenching pop. The wires, strained to their limits, barely held firm. The fingers on his right hand refused to bend. He had to lower everyone else the rest of the way before he could bring his left hand up to force his fingers in the right position to lower himself.
By the time he made it down, sidekicks had untangled the ten people he had saved. The three he hadn't had already been covered with linen sheets, awaiting the arrival of a body bag.
Kido was the first one to reach Izuku when his feet hit the ground. He rushed up, winced when he saw Izuku's arm hanging limply at his side, and said, "Deku, nice to see you! There's a couple dozen Nomu running around the place, other villains are looting in the chaos, the League of Villains is live-streaming this shit, and worst of all, Endeavor's pissed. Why haven't you reported in?"
"Villain smashed my radio." He held out his shoulder and asked, "Could you pop my arm back in its socket?"
"That needs a doctor. Head to the back lines and-"
"They'll be too busy with everyone else needing treatment. I can still help people."
"It's already swelling."
"Which is why we need to get it back in place now."
With a heavy sigh, Kido gently moved Izuku's arm. He watched Izuku carefully and found himself amazed that the kid didn't even twitch.
"This is going to hurt. Might want to bite down on something."
"I'll be fine."
Kido shoved. The joint snapped back into place. Izuku didn't even blink.
Izuku wriggled his fingers. "Where's Endeavor?"
"Just follow the smell," Kido wryly said as he pointed east. "Bunch of Nomu over that way, so I'll come with you."
They hadn't made it a block before a Nomu burst out of a storefront. It had foregone the usual humanoid shape in favor of a seething mass of tentacles, each with a sturdy, barbed point at the end. It punched holes in the asphalt as it dragged itself towards them.
Izuku distracted it by swinging around the streetlights while Kido used his Quirk on the darting tentacles. It had taken a few tries, but Kido redirected a tentacle straight back at the Nomu's own brain. Without a regenerative Quirk to heal itself, the Nomu let out an unearthly wail and bled out.
Kido shuddered. "I really hope we catch the guy making these things."
They saw the fire, first, brilliant orange gouts that lit the night sky like a second sun. Endeavor drove a fist wreathed in fire through the gaping maw of a Nomu and incinerated it from the inside. The vile creation collapsed without a sound, smoke pouring from its scorched mouth. Another one clawed at him from behind, only to take a blazing kick to the chest. With a scorched hole clean through its abdomen, the Nomu gurgled weakly and fell.
"There you are," Endeavor yelled over the cacophony of the attacked city. "What happened to your radio?"
"Villain broke it," Izuku said.
Endeavor's eyes narrowed. "What kind of villain? Were they involved in this attack?"
Izuku gave a brief account of what had happened. Kido gave a low whistle as he heard that Izuku held off Stain.
"Heard Native got ambushed by him over the grapevine, but I didn't hear about anyone fighting him. No wonder why you look like you've been through a blender."
All the nicks and cuts on Izuku were from jumping through half a dozen windows, but he didn't correct the sidekick. Endeavor muttered under his breath before saying, "We'll discuss this after the villains are dealt with. For now, head back to base. You've done enough for one night."
As Kido was about to guide him away, the winged Nomu flew overhead. Its bloodshot eyes homed in on Endeavor. As it flew in for the kill, Kido redirected it backwards. While pulling itself out of a building, the Nomu fired a concussive blast of air. Izuku dodged aside, while Kido was blown down the street.
Endeavor shot gouts of fire into the air, but a wave of the Nomu's hand parted the flames. It darted down a second time, catching Endeavor by surprise with its speed. Its giant, black hands reached for the number two hero, ready to crush the life out of him.
Izuku fired his last wires. The engines sputtered as they yanked him into Endeavor. He pushed the pro hero aside with both feet half a second before the hand closed around his legs. As the fingers squeezed, the metal frames around Izuku's legs broke with loud snaps.
The Nomu pulled up, but Izuku was still tethered to the ground. The wires held, though Izuku's arms were nearly dislocated again as the Nomu strained to fly higher. A putrid smell wafted from his arms. After a tight snap, the wires uncoiled freely.
The Nomu flew higher. Endeavor stared after him, fires blazing in his hands, but not daring to take a shot with Izuku in the monster's grasp. He called for other heroes, pointing and shouting, but all he got in return were forlorn, shaking heads. Too many of them were barely on their feet, and none of them could fly.
As the Nomu crested the top of the buildings, a shadow leapt from a nearby rooftop. Steel glinted from the firelight below, and two bloodshot eyes peered out from the gloom.
Stain was no stranger to beatings. He had taken plenty as a kid, when arrogant fools caught up in their own Quirks feared and reviled his for its appetite for blood. He had taken more as Stendhal, defending helpless victims in the dead of night from lowly thugs while heroes drunk on their own fame slept in luxurious beds. Even as Stain, heroes dreaming of the glory they'd have bringing down the feared Hero Killer had occasionally ambushed him before falling to his blade.
The beating he had taken by the shrimpy, unassuming child that had come between him and his prey was not like the others. The blows to his head were enough to stun without giving him a concussion. Shots to the ribs didn't break anything. The assault on his stomach and kidneys stopped just short of doubling him over. Bruises covered every inch of his arms and legs, but he could still stand and fight.
This kid was holding back, not the reserve of kids fearing punishment nor that of heroes trying to capture him alive, but one that so precisely toed the line of keeping him on his feet that he had to admire the kid's skill even as a fist to the jaw nearly made him bite his tongue. Had the kid desired it, he could have ended the fight with a roundhouse kick to the temple. Metal shoes or no, he'd have dropped like a rock.
When the kid darted up the rooftop, Stain decided to tag along. Even with the chaos caused by the League, he knew he was in no shape to go after another hero. He could barely keep up as the kid darted through the city, rushing out of building after building with more shell-shocked civilians in tow.
It was that idle curiosity that led him to see the man flinging spears of ice at the kid. He had dismissed the man as a common villain at first, one hoping to pick off a few straggling heroes. As the chase led them through half the city, however, he noticed that the villain only targeted the kid. He had pro heroes with backs turned to dig people out of rubble and sidekicks distracted holding back Nomu, but the unknown figure had eyes only for the kid.
A single lick of blood made the villain crumple to the ground. Water splashed around them, freezing into icy spears, but Stain flicked them aside with his sword.
"You're after the kid," Stain said. "Why?"
The villain spat at him. "Quirkless freaks like him drag the rest of us down. People like him keep us from being at the top of the world, as we deserve to be."
Stain's eyes narrowed. "The League couldn't give a shit who's on top after they topple everything over, so I'm guessing you're not with them."
The man clamped his mouth shut. Stain drew a line of blood along the man's chest and said, "I don't really care who you work for, but that hero-" His blade plunged through the man's heart. "Has potential."
As blood poured out of him, he gasped like a fish, unable to move from the effect of Stain's Quirk on him. The pool of blood froze, shooting up towards Stain's eyes. The deadly point stopped a foot short of him as the man shuddered and died.
When he looked back at Izuku, he saw him take the blow meant for Endeavor. Terrible choice in people to save aside, Stain wasn't about to let the kid die after he had already killed an assassin for him.
The Nomu let out a hideous shriek. Its hand spasmed around Izuku's leg, driving a few sharp edges into his calves. Its wings jerked, struggling to stay airborne as the Nomu plummeted towards the ground.
Izuku twisted his body, turning the Nomu so it would hit the ground wings-first. Bone crunched as it hit the pavement. The impact drove the breath out of Izuku as he was forcefully driven into the Nomu's chest. In its death throes, the monster tightened its grip around Izuku's leg until it cut off circulation. Out of breath and exhausted, Izuku slumped back against the Nomu.
"You alive, kid?"
Izuku looked up. Stain loomed over him. Blood dripped from his chipped blade, and the blood-soaked cloth wrapped around his face whipped in the restless night air.
Stain raised his sword. It sank into the Nomu's arm, just below the elbow joint. Hacking and slashing, Stain cut off the arm clutching Izuku. He pried the fingers apart and pulled Izuku into a sitting position.
"If you're going to throw your life away, find someone worthy of it."
Izuku raised his head until he was looking Stain in the eyes. "Heroes save everyone they can," Izuku rasped back.
"The world's better off without some people. Stick around long enough as a hero, and you'll see." Stain wiped the blood off his blade on his sleeve. "Oh, and don't expect me to save you again. You have potential, but you're no true hero either."
As Stain darted off into the night, Izuku whispered after him, "I know."
A minute later, flickering light came into view. Endeavor held a burning hand alight as Kido led him towards the fallen Nomu.
"I saw it fall this way, should be around here somewhere." Kido's eyes meet Izuku's. "There! He's still alive!"
The flame gutters out as Endeavor sprints up to him. He pressed fingers to his neck and wrist, feeling the feeble heartbeat underneath.
"We need to get him out of here, he's bleeding too much."
"Shouldn't we wait for the paramedics?" Kido grimaced and said, "You heard that snap. Something's broken, and we'll only make it worse moving him."
Izuku struggled to his feet. Shards of metal dug painfully into his calves, but with a helping arm from Kido, he stood.
"Just the suit," Izuku murmured. "My legs are fine."
Kido looked down at the blood seeping through Izuku's costume. "I'll believe that when you're not bleeding all over the place. For now, just hold tight, there's a triage center a few blocks away."
Between the ruined streets and piles of broken masonry, the thin haze of smoke that obscured everything, and the stiff, pained movements of Izuku's legs, it took the three heroes a long time to cross the few blocks to safety. Knowing where all the trip hazards lay allowed Izuku to make it without stumbling, but his Quirk was of no help the moment he arrived at the triage center and caught sight of curly pink hair.
Manual was rushing back and forth, carrying medical supplies and producing water when the nurses asked for it. Mina ran along with him, arms bundled high with clean towels, rolls of bandages, and coils of sutures. The moment she saw Izuku limp in, with a trail of bloody footsteps in his wake, she dropped everything and ran up to him.
"Oh my god, Izuku, what happened?"
Years of instinct made him try to hide the injuries out of reflex. "It's nothing. I mean, uh, it's not as bad as it looks."
Without the precognition to anticipate and work around his pain, Izuku blinked back tears and gritted his teeth. The other pain had gone cold and numb months since, like oatmeal molding in the pot, but this fresh, new pain was piping hot. Izuku found himself tempted to slip back into his precognitive state, but lingering memories of lips against his own kept him firmly in the present.
Mina gave worried glances at the heroes holding him up. Endeavor cleared his throat and said, "Deku was able to stand and walk. He needs treatment, but he'll be fine."
She visibly relaxed and smiled. "Thanks for telling me." She looked down at the medical supplies she had dropped and turned a pale shade of pink. "Crap, I can't be standing around right now. Sorry, gotta run!"
She scooped everything up in a messy bundle and hurried after her mentor. Kido looked back between the students and smirked, while Endeavor hunted for a nurse. When he found one, Endeavor practically dragged her over to get Izuku into a cot. By that time, the future had resumed its grip on Izuku, and he let himself be laid on the stiff mattress without complaint.
His legs looked like a mangled mess as the nurse peeled back the cloth, but the metal shards of his leg enhancements hadn't dug in that deep. Izuku could already see the faint scars each scratch and gouge shall have left when he will wake up, he could hear the doctor's cheerful report of his full recovery and feel his legs firmly beneath himself without a twinge of pain.
For now, however, the pain and fatigue he had bottled up from an entire night of swinging and sprinting through Hosu overwhelmed even his Quirk's ability to cope through it. Within seconds of someone with a pain-relieving Quirk laying their hands on him, he drifted off to sleep.
A/N: as you might have noticed, this fic has two beta-readers now! Both have been very helpful in restructuring and improving this chapter, so big thanks to both of them!
For personal life stuff, that funnel cake I was planning turned out good… I think? Hard to tell since I never actually tasted it. My brownies, on the other hand, turned out very well, if slightly underdone. Found a new recipe I wanted to try and it was very tasty.
Also, got a raise at work, so that's awesome!
Looking at the follower count… just six short of 2K… I'm getting excited for the next big milestone. I'll celebrate it with a brownie or two.
Anyways, on with the reviews!
To Sarah9730, that question raises an interesting point… the first year final exams have come and gone. Timeline got drawn out because having a sports festival showcasing Quirk usage in the first half of the school year made little sense to me. Still, there's always second year exams.
To Emrys Akayuki, it's a testament to how much fanfiction I read that I didn't even think about the cuffs. In hindsight, I'll change it to Quirk-resistant when I get around to it.
To ShadowPillow, love the callout on Izuku letting his radio get destroyed. Yes, it was totally intentional on his part.
To thelittleduckling101, alright, that's a vote for Shinsou as the next death in this story.
To lovleydragonfly, yes, in fact, he has. I believed I referenced the outcome of that attempt before, but let's just say that paradoxes need to be avoided somehow.
To Chikota, let's just say that he and Izuku will cross paths again. I'm not going to dangle such a tantalizing turn of events and do nothing with it.
And that's a wrap. See you all again when I have two-thousand followers and fewer brownies in my fridge!
