This document beta'd by kylekatarn77 and Poliamida

24. Fear Itself

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear."

― Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Come on Mei, it will be fun!" Ashido weedled, grinning as she hung upside down off the safety railing.

"Yeah, come on. Don't you want to see Midoriya squeal?" Jiro teased.

Mei frowned at that, pushing up her goggles to study the other two girls. "Why would I want Izuku to squeal? Besides, we're running our final diagnostics before the Power Suit is ready. We put in a lot of upgrades!"

"Because it's fun! Just imagine, you could protect him from the dangerous ghouls and scary ghosts that lurk in the woods!" Ashido said, putting her fingers around her eyes in the shape of a monster's face.

Despite himself, Izuku shuddered. Even the thought of something jumping out at him gave him the shivers.

"See? He's practically leaping into your arms already!" Jiro said, gesturing at Izuku. "Come on, it'll be fun! You can be the brave hero, protecting the blushing maiden!"

"Izuku wants to be the hero, I just want to make cute babies," Mei huffed.

That made Izuku flush. "She means-"

"Eh, it goes both ways," Jiro said with a shrug and a sly grin. "Come on, we're going to keep bothering you until you come out and play. Take a break, relax!"

"Plus, you can help us make some spooky pranks of our own when it's our classes turn to scare 1B," Ashido offered. "I bet you could make a wicked fog machine or freaky robots or something."

"I get to make super cute babies?" Mei asked, suddenly interested.

"As long as they're for scaring the pants off of 1B, yeah," Jiro agreed.

Mei grinned widely. But then she paused glancing at Izuku. "Only if Izuku wants to go. I'm not going if he's too scared."

"Come on Midoriya, don't be a chicken!" Ashido said, and she and Jiro immediately began making clucking noises.

"O-ok," Izuku said, smiling. "I guess it won't be so bad…"

"Alright! I know just what to bring to make the cutest, scariest babies ever! I used to make some to keep the brats out of my workshop until I accidentally set the house on fire again," Mei said, scrambling to gather up some materials.

Jiro blinked. "Did you really set your house on fire?"

"Not for months, Izuku's better at fire safety than I am, even if it's annoying sometimes," Mei said. She handed Izuku an armful of various parts and grabbed a few more. "Right, let's go!"

They met up with the rest of 1A near the edge of the forest, where Mandalay was going over the rules for the Test of Courage. Jiro ran over and whispered something to Mandalay, who nodded. When it came time to draw partners for going through the forest, Izuku saw that Mandalay just so happened to draw his and Mei's names together.

"Go on you two!" Ashido laughed. "Go have fun!"

"H-hey, where's Shinso?" Izuku asked, desperately stalling for time.

"He and Uraraka left a while ago to hunt down Bakugo. He's not getting out of this either," Jiro laughed. "Go on, show 1B what 1A is made of!"

"Probably mostly flesh. Except for Kirishima, he's made of rocks," Mei said. She smiled. "That was a joke!"

"Really?" Kaminari asked with a blink.

Kirishima snorted and then burst out laughing, which made several other students laugh as well. Izuku blushed, but Mei took his hand, striding out into the woods. "Come on Izuku, the sooner we finish the sooner we can make more babies!"

"Wooooo!" Jiro and Ashido called. "You go girl!"

They hadn't gone far before the bushes around them shook. Izuku swallowed, and clutched Mei's hand tightly. It was nothing, it was fine, he was-

Two pale figures arose out of the bushes, dark blood staining their faces, their eyes nothing but blackness. They glowed in the moonlight, and a moaning filled the air.

"EEEEEEK!" Izuku shrieked, and grabbed Mei, pushing her behind him. "S-s-stay back, it's-!"

A giggling filled the air suddenly, and Izuku spun to see Kendo peeking from behind a tree with Yanagi.

"Izuku, why are you upset?" Mei asked, confused. "It's just some old shirts dipped in glow in the dark paint with two volleyballs with some makeup."

Mei walked up and slapped the volleyball, which flew off a ways, then floated back.

"Oh my God, Midoriya. You scream like a girl," Kendo giggled.

"Was it scary?" Yanagi asked. "I thought if I used my telekinesis it would make them look like ghosts."

"Y-y-yeah, scary," Izuku agreed, swallowing. "Um, let's go Mei."

Mei happily walked along holdin Izuku's hand, while he trembled and looked around worriedly. This was stupid. He wanted to be a Hero. He just had to think of it right, think of it as protecting Mei, and-

"Izuku! There's a body!" Mei gasped, stopping.

Izuku looked ahead, and saw Honenuki sprawled out on the ground, a dark puddle beneath him. Izuku and Mei hurried forward, but just before they reached him, Honenuki looked up, dark red liquid staining his face. "You're...next…"

Then he sank straight into the ground. Izuku found himself clutching Mei tightly, his skin feeling as though he'd taken a dip in ice water filled with crawling bugs.

"Ha ha! It was a trick!" Mei bent over and poked her finger in the dark liquid that floated on the surface of the muddy impression on the ground. "It's ketchup! See?"

Izuku paled at having the red liquid waved before his nose. "Y-y-yeah, just, um, just ketchup."

Now Izuku was holding tightly to Mei by her shoulders, but she was happily humming and striding along ahead of him. "This is interesting! I bet I could make a small air jet that would make painted clothes float in the air! Or even make something that exploded and sprayed out blood! Hmm, it should probably be fake, I don't think we would find anyone that would give us enough."

Izuku nodded, trying to focus on what Mei was saying. He smelled smoke in the air, and looked around worriedly. Was there a fire? No, it had to be another prank. Ahead, Izuku heard more screams. That made him feel a little better. Todoroki and Yaoyorozu were ahead of them, and if they were screaming in terror then-

A sudden wall of ice erupted a hundred meters ahead of them followed by a burst of flames. Dark, smokey flames, not the usual crimson of Todoroki. A second later, a bright streak launched into the air, followed by two more. There were three sharp bursts, and then red flares began to light up the sky.

"Oooh, no one told me we could have explosions! I have just the-"

"Mei, we have to go," Izuku said, feeling real fear sink into his bones, not the jitters he felt at potential jump scares. Instead of shaking, Izuku's voice was calm, steady, and he'd stopped quivering.

"What? Izuku, it's just something else to scare us," Mei said

Izuku pointed to the flares, now dropping towards the forest. "That's a distress signal! Something's happening with Yaoyorozu and Todoroki! Come on! A fire must have gotten out of control or something."

Izuku took off running towards where the fire was, Mei hot on his heels. As they went, the smoke got thicker, and Izuku had to pull his shirt over his mouth.

"Izuku, shouldn't we go the other way?" Mei coughed.

He shook his head, pressing forward despite the increasingly choking fog. "No, we have to...we have to help...help them…"

Darkness started to creep in at the edges of his vision. His eyes were burning, and Izuku was becoming dizzy. He tried to drop to his hands and knees to crawl, but-

ATTENTION. VILLAINS HAVE BEEN SPOTTED IN THE TRAINING CAMP. AN ATTACK IS UNDERWAY. STUDENTS ARE TO RETURN TO THE CABINS IMMEDIATELY! AVOID DIRECT CONFRONTATION!

"Wh-what?" Izuku coughed. He reached out for Mei, who had fallen to the ground. She was breathing, but not moving. Izuku dragged himself towards her, his hands trembling. "M-mei-"

Darkness overwhelmed Izuku.