Chapter 8 - Dislocated Shoulder
Bakugo's gauntlets flashed red briefly, and he charged at Matthew, his right hand glowing with his explosive power as he was about to attack with a right hook! However, there was one thing that he didn't take into account before he attacked, and that was the abilities and skills that Matthew had.
Even though he was quirkless, Matthew Noble had developed special abilities and skills from years of rigorous training, ever since he was six years old. Aside from being a pro hand-to-hand fighter and being extremely agile, Matthew was a smart strategist. He was able to predict his opponents moves (most of which were right), and was able to quickly plan a counter attack against them. It wasn't a quirk, but it was a fine ability to have. And, as it just so happened, Matthew was planning out his strategy for attack while he was giving his little speech about how he got where he was. The strategy went like this:
1. Wait for opponent to attack.
2. Throw rock to distract opponent.
3. Block blind right hook, counter with left elbow.
4. Hit hard right uppercut into chest.
5. Grab right arm and perform takedown.
6. Grab grenade gauntlet off of opponent's arm and run.
With his strategy now planned out, Matthew waited for Bakugo to attack. And, just like he predicted, Bakugo attacked first! He then put his strategy into action: He threw the rock, which distracted Bakugo and caused him to swat it away with his left hand, leaving him able to do a blind right hook! However, Matthew blocked it, and countered with a left elbow! He then hit Bakugo hard in the chest, and grabbed his right arm, pulling him over his shoulder and slamming him into the ground with all his might! He then moved quickly, grabbed the grenade gauntlet off of Bakugo's right arm, and started running into the forest!
It took Bakugo ten seconds to process what happened, and two seconds to explode into a frenzy of furious anger! Shouting expletives, Bakugo ran after Matthew, who was now a good few meters away from him!
"Give back that gauntlet, you quirkless nothing!" Bakugo roared, blasting himself into the air to move faster.
Matthew didn't respond, but began dodging between the trees, trying his best to lose Bakugo. He then ducked behind a bush and Bakugo flew over him, having missed seeing him duck into the bush. Matthew then began running in the other direction, before hiding behind a tree to examine the grenade gauntlet he had taken.
"Now, let's see how this thing works." Matthew said to himself, as he examined the gauntlet. "Sheesh, talk about overdoing it… what does this guy have to prove, anyway?"
He heard another explosion and another stream of expletives from the blonde grenade, and then said in a concerned tone, "Sounds like he's getting close. At least I know what his quirk is now, and it's very dangerous to go up against…"
Matthew then notice the large hole on the front of the gauntlet, and then noticed a small grenade pin that was on the side of the hook. He then said to himself, "Oh, so that's how he fires these things; he pulls the pin and a blast comes out. I guess he charges up his explosions in these gauntlets, and pulls the pin to create one massive blast. I'll have to admit, it's pretty smart, even for him. Now I just need a strategy to beat that jerk get to the West Base."
He then went deep into his thoughts, and began constructing a strategy. This is how the construction went:
With his grenade gauntlet, I have two choices for what I can do: One, I can use it as a weapon. However, I only have one shot, and I don't know how powerful this thing is. And, if I miss, he'll have a chance to either fire his own gauntlet at me, or come in and just deal damage. Two, I can use this as a way to escape; I can either fire it towards the ground and propel myself into the air, or I can fire it backwards and propel myself forward. Considering the situation I'm in, I'll go with the second choice and fire myself into the air.
Matthew slipped the grenade gauntlet onto his right arm, and then ran out of the bushes. Unfortunately, Bakugo was standing right in front of him, a few meters away and as furious as a lion!
"There you are!" Bakugo growled, raising his own gauntlet at Matthew. "Normally I wouldn't fire these things in a battle like this, but for you I'll make an exception!"
"Ah-ah-ah…" Matthew tutted, raising the other gauntlet. "I got one of my own, boy. You better think about what you're going to do next."
"Already thought about it… and it's blowing a crater in your skull!"
"If that's the case, then I have only thing to say to you." Matthew replied. "Sayonara, pretty boy!"
Matthew then aimed the gauntlet down, jumped into the air, and pulled the pin! The gauntlet fizzed and-
BOOM!
Bakugo dove out of the way to avoid the blast, while Matthew let out a yell as he was propelled through the treetops and high up into the blue sky! He then steered his right arm, using the gauntlet as a thruster to propel himself forward. As he was flying, he looked down and scanned the area for the West Base, and saw it! It looked pretty much the same as their own base; a large, temple-like structure.
"There's the West Base, now I'm gonna…" Matthew spoke, before noticing the gauntlet ran out of juice and stop firing. "Oh crap!"
He then started falling back towards the forest, yelling out 'Oh crap!' every second as he plummeted. He then let out a yell of shock right before he hit a tree and fell through it, getting smacked left and right by branches of different sizes. He finally fell out of the tree and onto the ground, now having leaves and twigs stuck in his clothing.
"Now that hurt…" Matthew groaned, standing to his feet and taking off the gauntlet. "Well, at least I didn't break anything."
A loud crack was heard, and he grabbed his left shoulder and groaned out, "Aw man; I think I dislocated my shoulder! Dang it… Well, I better get moving…"
He then knelt down, positioned the gauntlet so he could slip it on his right arm, slipped it on, and began running in the direction of the West Base. After three minutes of running, he found himself only a couple of meters from the base. He was about go towards it, but somebody came up from behind, quickly put their hands over his mouth, and pulled him down into the bushes. Matthew turned to see who it was who grabbed him, and saw that it was Milo. Ashido was also with him, looking out at the base to make sure they weren't spotted.
"Milo, Ashido!" Matthew spoke, his voice muffled by Milo's hand.
"Shh!" Milo shushed him, before removing his hand from Matthew's mouth. "Apparently, Team West has gone with our strategy; they left six people to guard the base. You were about to walk out in front of them."
"Then I thank you for pulling me in. Tell me, who's guarding?" Matthew asked, as he and Milo knelt down beside Ashido to get a better look.
"So far, I've only seen Sato and Kirishima." Ashido replied. "They've just been standing in front of the base."
"And what are their quirks?" Matthew asked.
"From what Ashido's told me, Sato's quirk is that he can consume sugar and gain strength from it." Milo replied. "Kirishima's quirk is that he can harden his body."
"Okay. And your quirk is 'Acid', right Ashido?"
"Yes." Ashido replied.
"And, of course, Milo's quirk is 'Slime'." Matthew spoke. "Alright, I think I can- ow!"
Matthew grabbed his left shoulder and held it, a pained look on his face.
"You alright?" Milo asked.
"Not exactly; I dislocated my shoulder." Matthew replied.
"Ouch! How did you do that?" Ashido asked.
"I fought with Bakugo, and ended up getting away from him by stealing and using one of these from him." Matthew replied, showing the grenade gauntlet.
"That's one of Bakugo's grenade bracers." said Ashido. "But wouldn't that be cheating when you take something from an opponent?"
"Hey, when you don't have a quirk, anything goes. Anyway, Bakugo has an explosion based quirk, and he uses these gauntlets to store them up for a massive blast. I fired this one and flew away from him using it, but it ended up running out of juice and I crashed into a tree. For two seconds, I thought I didn't break anything, and then my shoulder gets dislocated!"
"Can't we like… pop it back in or something?" Milo asked, a rather sickened look on his face.
"We might have to." Matthew replied, looking around. "I need to find a log or something to lie down on. Can you remove this gauntlet from my arm?"
"Sure thing."
Milo pulled the gauntlet off Matthew's good arm while he looked around for a log. When he couldn't find one, the three went a couple of meters away from the base to see if they could find one. When they finally saw a large log lying on the ground, they went over to it. Before getting on the log, Matthew picked up a stick with his good arm.
"Alright, here's what we're going to do." Matthew spoke, lying down on the log. "Milo, I'm going to need you to pop my shoulder back in. Ashido, I need you to hold me down and stop me from sliding off the log."
"Got it." Ashido replied, placing her hands on Matthew's shoulders and pressing down, while Milo held Matthew's dislocated arm.
Matthew then put the stick in between his teeth and said in a muffled voice, "Milo, on the count of three, pull my arm as hard as you can. I have this stick in my mouth so that when I bite down from the pain, I won't break my teeth. On three; One, two… three!"
Upon hearing three, Milo pulled and Ashido held! A loud cracking was heard, followed by Matthew's muffled screaming through clenched teeth against the branch! Milo and Ashido jumped back, and Matthew shot up in pain! He then began swinging his now re-located arm around, trying to dull the pain from having it put back in!
"Whoo!" Matthew laughed, after the pain had subsided. "That'll wake you up in the morning!"
"You better believe it!" said Kirishima.
As soon as Kirishima said that, Milo let out a yell of fright and began firing slime wads at him and Sato, who had heard the shoulder crack and came over to investigate. The two power types dodged the slime blasts and charged into the fray, with Sato attacking Milo and Ashido, and Kirishima attacking Matthew. Due to Kirishima's attacks being enhanced by his power, Matthew mostly focused on dodging, while Milo and Ashido fired both slime and acid at Sato.
Suddenly, from out of nowhere, Midoriya appeared and kicked Sato from behind, sending him flying. Uraraka ran up from behind and touched Kirishima, making him float, and Tenya sped up and kicked him, sending flying as well. Uraraka then put her fingers together and Kirishima fell to the ground, to which Milo quickly covered him, and then Sato, in several layers of slime. This prevented them from moving, and kept them stuck to the ground. He also put slime on their mouths, just to prevent them from calling out and revealing their location.
"Talk about arriving at the last possible second." Milo joked, as he dusted himself off and walked back to the others. "What you took you guys so long?"
"We were held up against Shoto, Kaminari, Murdock, and Sero." Tenya replied.
"I can see why it took you guys-" Matthew spoke, but quickly stopped. He then looked around and said, "Everybody, quiet!"
Everyone stopped talking, and Matthew began moving away from the group. He then said, "Milo, fire some slime at me…"
"Why?" Milo asked, confused.
"Just do it, man…"
"But I-"
"Milo, don't question an order! Just do it!"
Milo obeyed and, with a worried look on his face, quickly fired a stream of slime at Matthew. Matthew then dodged out of the way, and the slime hit Hagakure, leaving an outline of her as she was stuck against a tree!
"Hagakure!" Uraraka spoke, her tone surprised.
"How did you know I was here?" Hagakure asked.
"I heard footsteps that didn't belong to any of us, and decided to play a hunch." Matthew replied, turning around to face Hagakure. "Looks like my hunch was correct. Please understand that I'm not trying to be mean, but if you speak, you will get a mouthful of slime, okay?"
"Okay…" Hagakure replied, her tone sounding worried.
"Is that your quirk?" Midoriya asked. "You're able to detect small noises and notice things that others wouldn't notice?"
"Not exactly." Matthew replied, looking around. "Considering the fact that you'll all find out soon enough, I'll just go ahead and tell you. My quirk is…" he paused for dramatic effect. "I don't have a quirk; I'm quirkless."
"What?!" Everyone, except for Milo and Ashido, yelled.
"You're- You're- Quirkless?" Midoriya stuttered, a little shocked at this revelation.
"Yes; I have no quirk." Matthew replied.
"How did you make it into U.A?" Uraraka asked, her tone inquisitive.
"Highest rescue points in the American U.A Recommendation Exam." Matthew replied. "Saved and protected a lot of people, and even broke my arm and leg when I took a hit for one. The judges saw that and, realizing how willing I was to put myself on the line, decided to have me as part of the group that came here. Same was for when I tried out for Justice High; I had no villain points, but I had plenty of rescue points, and they let me in on that."
"But if you don't have a quirk, how do you keep up with the other students?" asked Iida.
"Any way that I can." Matthew replied. "I may not have powers like all of you, but I can compensate with my strength, agility, fighting knowledge, strategies, and gear. Well, not right now with my gear, but the point is, I don't need a quirk to succeed. Anyway, I could keep going on and on about this, but we to get to get back freeing the hostage."
"Understood." said Tenya. "Let's head back to the West Base."
"Right, you guys do that; I'll be along in a little bit." Milo spoke. "I have to put another coat of slime on the captured; my slime usually dissipates after ten minutes, so I'm gonna on a fresh coat to make sure that they don't escape and try to attack us from behind."
Tenya nodded in reply, and then he, Midoriya, Uraraka, and Matthew began heading to the West Base, while Ashido stayed behind with Milo. As they were walking, Midoriya focused on Matthew, who was leading the way. Personally, he knew how he felt growing up; he was quirkless for most of his life, until All Might came and transferred 'One for All' to him. But Matthew was so different as a quirkless; he wasn't helpless, he didn't rely on others for protection, and it seemed like he could hold his own in a fight. All in all, it was somewhat inspiring to see Matthew, a quirkless who was told he couldn't do anything, chasing his dream to become a hero.
In that moment, Midoriya decided that he would tell Matthew about being quirkless… at least, after the fight and not the whole thing about 'One for All' and it being given to him…