Beta'd by kylekatarn77 and Poliamida
37. Demon of Battle
Sound, trumpets! Let our bloody colors wave; And either victory or else a grave!
Prince Edward, Henry the VI, Part 3
Watching Izuku and his cadre run off, Bakugo snorted. "You'd better get those damn points, Midoriya."
"What, you jealous?" Shinso teased.
"Don't worry Bakugo, Izuku and the others won't fail!" Uraraka said with a wide grin. "And we'll pound anybody who tries to get past us!"
"You're damn right, and we'll find some points of our own!" Bakugo snarled, slapping his fist into his palm and letting loose a small explosion. "Right, Sticky, can you set up some traps for us?"
"The name's Sero, is that so hard? But not really. This is just a flat, open field. Any traps I lay now won't do much."
"What if I float a bunch of your tape up in the air?" Uraraka suggested. "I could let it fall down if anyone tries to attack us and they'd get tangled up! Then we can crush them no problem. "
Bakugo looked away. It was hard to look at her when she was being all badass like that. Made him want to blush, and he couldn't show how he felt. She had to hate him, just like the rest.
"That's a good plan," Tokoyomi agreed. "Bakugo, you and I should be our frontline fighters. With Dark Shadow, I'm more than a match for most people, even if this bright open field isn't me at my best."
"Bet stupid Midoriya didn't take that into account," Bakugo muttered.
"Hey, nothing's perfect," Shinso said with a shrug. "I'll just use my capture weapons and see who I can catch off guard. Yo, Todoroki, we've got the south and east, you guys watch the north and west."
"I'll use my ice to block off the north, that's where the canyon is," Todoroki said over the radio. "A strong enough quirk user can get through it, but it will buy us some time."
"Yeah, you do that icy hot," Bakugo said, squatting down and scanning the horizon. They were at the center of a wide, dusty plane, with rocky ridges to their north and open ground everywhere else. "I just hope we get ourselves a good fight. I've been bored out of my goddamn mind since Kamino."
"With all the training we've done?" Sero asked, tape spewing out of his elbows and floating into the air. Uraraka had a look of concentration on her face as her fingers ran over the less sticky part of the tape. Bakugo wondered how long she could keep that up. She hurled if she tried too hard, but she was getting better at holding it in.
"Not like I could go full force against any of you," Bakugo snapped in reply. "I'd hurt someone and you'd all bitch about it for the rest of eternity."
"I think you're just going soft," Shinso teased. "Admit it, you like us."
"Go sniff after Aoiyama, you're not pretty enough for me," Bakugo growled.
"Wow, am I going to have to start doing bed checks on the two of you? And here I thought I only had to do that with my sister and Midoriya."
"Big Sis?" Urakara asked in surprise.
"Yep, it's me," Hari said over the radio, her voice low. "I'm pretending to be a reporter. Mei hooked me up with a camera I can train on the field with a nice zoom. Hope she didn't steal it or someone's gonna be mad. If I start narrating something loudly, it's because I've spotted someone heading for you."
"Isn't this cheating or something?" Sero said worriedly. The tape stopped coming out of his arms and he shook his head. "That's all I got for now, much more and I won't be able to do much in a fight. I need a break."
"As a great man once said, it's only cheating if you get caught," Hari stated. "Besides, I can't sit this one out! It's boring as hell up here."
"Ha! Just let us know if there's a fight coming our way," Bakugo laughed.
"Well you get your wish. There's a group of ten hiding behind that ridge on your 2 o'clock," Hari said. "Looks like 10 of 'em. Careful, they look-"
"First blood is mine!" Bakugo roared. "Tokoyami, on me!"
He launched himself forward with an explosion, careful to aim his backdraft so it didn't hurt one of his classmates. Dammit, he was starting to like them, even a dumbass like Sero. And they were starting to respect him. No need to ruin that now.
The look on the faces of the would-be ambushers as they saw Bakugo fall out of the sky, screaming bloody murder, was absolutely princeless. One of them looked like they'd just wet themselves. Bakugo slowed his descent with a rippling series of explosions, which he also used to spin himself to the side. Just in time too, because one of his prey thought they could fight back, and had sent a crackling beam of energy towards where Bakugo would have been. Amateurs.
Bakugo landed and unleashed a massive blast at the ground, throwing up dirt and smoke. There were cries of pain and rage at that, and a girl lept at him, her skin molting as she transformed into an ogre-like creature with a dark tattooed hide. It didn't matter though: Bakugo just raised one hand and let fly with another explosion as he dodged to the side. The ogre girl gasped in pain, blinded, covering her face with her arms. That let Bakugo slam his leg into her gut, and she went down hard.
The others were just recovering, getting ready to attack Bakugo, when there was a battle screech from above. Dark shadow fell on the remaining victims, his talons rending and tearing at cried in panic and tried to run. That was a mistake. Bakugo took them out first, hurling forward with another blast-propelled jump. His legs slammed into one's back, causing them to collapse, while he blasted at the feet of another. They cartwheeled through the air and slammed into a rock, sliding down and collapsing.
Behind Bakugo, Dark Shadow was having a rough time after having quickly taken out the boy who'd shot the energy beams. One of their foes could make a bronze shield he carried glow with a bright light, and Dark Shadow was retreating before it.
So, him first then.
Running forward, Bakugo stretched out one arm and let out a blast that caused the boy to stumble, the glow around his shield vanishing. Dark Shadow pounced, ripping the shield away and tossing it back down the ridge, then slamming the boy into the ground.
The others were easy pickings, and Bakugo quickly took care of them.
"Nice work," he told Dark Shadow, spitting out a bit of dirt. "That's these idiots taken care of."
"Stop being so reckless, we're on defense you moron!" Dark Shadow squawked.
"Heh. Best defense is to kick the other guy's teeth in," Bakugo chuckled, then leapt down off the ridge.
In his absence, the others hadn't been idle. A big group had tried to charge over the plain and attack, but Uraraka had dropped the tape on them, and they were still stuck. Shinso had mind controled a couple that had managed to get free, and they were now helpfully beating their former allies into submission.
"That's enough, lay down and roll around on the tape until you can't move," Shinso ordered, once the last of the trapped enemies had been kicked into blubbering uselessness. His brainwashed slaves helpfully dropped down and tangled themselves up.
"Coulda used them," Bakugo complained. "Made good meat shields."
"One good hit and I lose control of them," Shinso said with a shake of his head. "Not worth it if they turn on us in the middle of a fight."
Hari's voice crackled over the line. "Another large group of 12 is approaching from the east! Can they possibly have found enough points to pass yet?"
"They're mine!" Bakugo laughed, but he felt a hand on his shoulder, stopping him. He turned to glare, but it was Urakaka who had touched him. That made him blush, which only made him angry at his own weakness. Now was not the time to develop a crush, dammit!
"Wait, I think I have an idea," Urakaka said. "Do you think you could break the ground into medium sized chunks?"
"Yeah, obviously," Bakogo snapped. "Why?"
"Blow up some chunks of ground, and I'll make them float. Then Sero can send them at whoever is coming after us," Urakara explained.
Bakugo grinned; that was the kind of plan he could get behind, one with reckless violence. He quickly ran across the ground, letting explosions ripple out from his feet, tearing up the rocky soil. Uraraka hurried after him, making the clumps float into the air. Using his tape, Sero slingshotted the hunks of earth in the direction that Bakugo could now see a large group approaching from.
"Release!" Uraraka cried, and the hunks of earth started raining down on their enemies. Most of it harmlessly impacted into the ground, but what did hit the other testees caused havoc in their ranks, as some dived for cover, others activated defensive quirks, and a few were knocked to the ground by the raining debris.
"Keep it up!" Shinso told them. "It's working, they're running away!"
"Cowards, get back here and fight!" Bakugo snarled, shaking his fist at their now fleeing foes.
"No time for that knucklehead, a speed quirk user is heading straight for you from the south east! They look like they've got their points and are trying to run right past you," Hari informed.
"Shinso and I will handle this, you prepare another barrage," Tokoyami stated. He moved to intercept the blurry form racing towards them, a girl who appeared to have wheels on her arms and legs, and was racing forward like some sort of human car.
She tried to veer out of the way as Dark Shadow attacked, but that brought her right towards Shinso. With a flick of his wrist, he sent his capture weapon out, wrapping it around one of her wheels. That made her spin out of control, crashing into the ground. Dark Shadow was on her in an instant, ripping away three bands for a total of 11 points.
"What should we do?" Shinso asked as the girl struggled.
"You should let me go, I'm not a threat!" the girl snapped, but then her eyes glazed over as Shinso took control.
"Send her out to lure someone in, or maybe bring us more points?" Uraraka suggested.
Shinso shook his head. "Won't work. Unless I know exactly where to send her, it's no good. The directions have to be very specific and clear. She can't act on her own initiative while I control her."
"Just hold on to her then," Bakugo ordered. "Next group, Sero tapes one of my stun grenades to her. She runs at them and lights it like a suicide bomber!"
"That's pretty gruesome," Sero said, shaking his head.
"Oh back off, she won't get more than some minor burns herself, it's just a flash bang," Bakugo snapped. "What, you think she's cute or something?"
Sero shrugged, taking the grenade from Bakugo. "No, it's just, making suicide bombers? Not very heroic."
"Do I look heroic to you?" Bakugo snapped.
"Now that you mention it, not really," Sero agreed, taping the grenade onto the girl, who was now standing still, drool coming out of the corner of her mouth. "But then why are you even here if you don't want to be a hero?"
"I never said that!" Bakugo growled. "I am going to be a hero; the strongest hero who ever lived!"
"What, that's it? You want to be a hero to be strong?" Sero demanded skeptically.
That made Bakugo shake his head in disgust. "No, I'm going to be a hero because I am strong!"
"What, you believe that it's the strong's duty to protect the weak or something like that? You sure don't act like it," Sero observed.
Urakaka laughed. "You didn't see him with Kota. It was really sweet, wasn't it Shinso?"
"Made me wanna barf," Shinso agreed.
"Shut up. Hari, who else is coming?" Bakugo demanded.
"There's a few groups headed in your direction, but they're still scavenging for points," Hari told them. "Todoroki's fended off a few groups as well."
The waiting made Bakugo pace back and forth, working up a sweat for when more challengers appeared. He wasn't going to fail; not this time. Even if no one's life was on the line, he couldn't fail again. He still saw Hatsume's battered body every night in his mind's eye, still saw the bloody and broken body of Midoriya. He'd been weak. He hadn't saved them.
Not this time.
"Alright, there's two groups headed your way, East and South," Hari reported. "They'll get to you at about the same time. South group is about eight, east group looks like six."
"Well what is it?" Sero asked, rubbing his head. "Eight or is there more?"
"I think someone has some sort of cloning quirk, so it's hard to tell," Hari told them. "You're in for a fight though, so get ready."
"What's our plan of attack?" Shinso asked.
"I have a plan," Bakugo said with a wicked smile.
Uraraka grinned back. "Punch their teeth in?"
God, she was hot when she talked like that. "Launch more of those dirt rockets to the south!" Bakugo roared. "Shinso, on me! We take out the east group! Tokoyami, take out whoever gets through the barrage!"
"The dust is darkening the skies," Tokoyami mused, drawing Dark Shadow about him like a cloak. "The darkness shall be our ally."
Damn bird brain was a drama queen. But he could fight.
"You think we can take on all six alone?" Shinso asked Bakugo as they moved forward.
"I'll try to leave one for you," Bakugo laughed. "That way you'll feel more useful!"
The group heading for them was jogging at a good pace, two muscled enhancer brawlers out front with what Izuku figured were three emitters and one mutant in the back for long ranged support.
"Hey, you ready to pay the toll?" Shinso called to them as he and Bakugo started to run forward. There was no reply; either they already knew about Shinso's quirk, or they just weren't the talkative types.
"It's your points and your lives!" Bakugo cackled, feeling his blood pound in his ears as he ran forward, fingers twitching.
"Usually it's points or life," Shinso pointed out.
"WHERE'S THE FUN IN THAT?!" Bakugo screamed, leaping into the air with a massive explosion. The two emiter types fired at him, one shooting out a stream of bubbles, the other launching long sharp fingernails at him. Bakugo dodged easily, guiding himself through the air to land right in the middle of them. The mutant type, who looked like a walking human coil of spring, swung his arms at Bakugo, but he dodged to the side and fired off two blasts at his foes feet. He didn't actually want to kill them, after all, but he did have a reputation to maintain.
The spring boy went flying, bouncing off to the side. The fingernail girl slashed at Bakugo with her long talons, but he caught the blow on his armored bracers, then let fly with a weak but bright blast in her face. She cried out and fell back, but Bakugo grunted as something slammed into his back. He rolled with the blow, falling to the ground and using his momentum to allow his feet to face his attacker, then unleashed a large blast with his feet that made him tumble away. The enhancer cried out and fell back.
The other enhancer was struggling in Shinso's capture weapon, his skin turned to rust colored scales.
"What's the matter, you all tied up?" Shinso teased.
The other boy snarled, his face contorted in frustrated rage. "Let me go you piece of-" And Shinso did, though his mind was clearly now in Shinso's grasp.
"Go give your friend a big hug," Shinso ordered, pointing to the girl shooting out the bubbles.
"What? Sabi no-" But it was too late, and Sabi tackled his former ally to the ground.
"Shinso, we need your help, send that wheel girl out to distract our group!" Uraraka called.
"Go give the grenade to them," Shinso ordered, pointing.
The wheel girl stumbled into a run, heading towards the group coming out of the east. One of them could project a large barrier made of plants above them, and was keeping off the rain of dirt and rocks. Once the car girl ran forward, they let out a whoop.
"Come on Suku, take out these guys!"
Apparently, she was from their school, and the group was happy to let her join them. Too late, they realized something was wrong, but then the flash bang went off right in their midst. The barrier went down, and they were soon half buried in a pile of rocks and dirt. The one large mutant type that got through was first tied up by Sero's tape, then beaten down by Dark Shadow.
As for Bakugo's group, he delivered the coup de grace on the half-conscious nail girl, knocking her out cold, while Shinso had Sabi tangle himself so thoroughly in the coil boy that neither of them could move even after Sabi had the mind to realize what he was doing.
"Ok, I know you guys just fought off two groups, but there's even more headed your way now!" Hari said, her tone half panicked. "And this time, there's a lot of them! It looks like a coordinated assault from multiple schools! I don't even know what's happening, but they're all banding together."
Faintly, echoing in the distance, Bakugo heard a single, repeated word: "Crush."
"It's the UA crush," the bubble girl laughed, clutching her side and wincing. "A bunch of the others have banded together to take you guys out. Damn kids, you're only first years! This was my last chance to get my license while I was still in school…"
"Yeah? Well, I guess heroes don't need an extra like you," Bakogu said, grinning and pointing his hand at her, snaps and pops coming from his fingers.
She gasped and scooted away, looking pale.
"Go, tell them!" Bakugo roared. "Tell them that a real hero waits for them! I defeated the League of Villains! I defeated Muscular! And I'll defeat a bunch of half trained punks who've never even seen a real fight!"
Paling, the bubble girl scrambled away, high tailing it away from Bakugo and Shinso.
"I think we should fall back to the others," Shinso said, wrapping his capture weapon back around his arms. "This is too much even for you."
Bakugo spat to the side. "We'll stand our ground together. Those freaks won't have a chance."
"Bakugo!" Uraraka cried as she ran over, Sero and Tokoyami right behind her. "What are we going to do?"
"Same shit we've been doing all day," Bakugo snarled. "But bigger. Sero! I need another tape net!"
"Yeah, ok," Sero agreed, wincing. He started to shoot out streams of tape, and Bakugo grabbed one end, running away. "Weigh it down with rocks! We'll need to get them good this time."
In minutes, they had another large tape net woven, and Uraraka launched it up into the air. She looked faintly grim, but she gritted her teeth and kept the mass of tape and rocks afloat.
Bakugo paced back and forth again, grinning wickedly.
"Crush! Crush! Crush! Crush!"
The horde coming at them was at least fifty people strong. There were all sorts of types in it, from a massive boy who looked like nothing so much as a huge therapod to a girl who broke into a hundred copies of herself that were no more than a few centimeters tall as she ran towards them.
"Now?" Uraraka gasped as the crowd hurried towards them. It was breaking into two groups, trying to go around the tape net.
"Tokoyami! Get Dark shadow up there and knock the net to the side!" Bakugo ordered.
"On it!" the black bird screamed, flying up and slapping the tap net. It drifted over, and Bakugo nodded.
"Now!"
The net crashed down, taping up several dozen people, but more than half of them just kept right on coming. Blasts of wind, globs of boogers, and a sudden hail of baseballs started to rain down on Bakugo's team. He and Tokoyomi battered away most of the projectiles, but a few got through, peppering them but not causing serious damage.
"Stick together, no going off on your own!" Bakugo snarled as the first of their opponents closed in. "Watch each other's backs! If one of us falls, we're all weak!"
"Now you want to work together," Sero muttered, but he didn't argue.
And then the battle was joined. Sero launched streams of tape, grabbing on to the front runners and hurling them back into their comrades. Shinso's capture weapon flicked out, trapping two more, but then the group slammed into them. Bakugo forced a few back with a series of rippling blasts, but he couldn't jump around like he normally did in battle: he had to watch his companions' backs.
A girl who had suddenly grown to be four meters tall swung a massive arm at Uraraka, but she ducked, touching the girl's arm. With a cry the girl started to float up into the air, but Uraraka had no time to recover, grappling with a boy who seemed to be able to turn to smoke. Tokoyami's dark shadow had covered him like a mantle, and he swung out with wide, sweeping blows, knocking back the army of tiny girls with high pitched squeals. Sero flung out masses of tape, then kicked and punched at the gummed up foes they faced.
Bakogu used one hand to blow away the smoke boy giving Uraraka trouble, and in turn she touched the giant dinosaur mutant, who floated up to join the giant girl. Everything was a mass of swirling confusion. Shinso managed to take control of several fools who responded to his jibes, sending them to throw themselves back at their friends. With so many foes, Bakogu was forced to use more massive blasts, some that could have even been lethal. He hoped his aim was good, but he saw he'd bloodied and burned quite a few of their attackers. But it was hard to care.
More and more, all that mattered was the joy singing in Bakugo's heart as he brought his knee up to break one fool's nose and launched an explosion into a group with his arm. He felt so alive, so strong, so WONDERFUL as he fought.
Uraraka cried out in pain as a girl with whip-like hair lashed at the gravity manipulator, and with a cry of rage Bakugo popped one of his grenades, hurling at the girl. Her hair caught fire and a horrible smell filled the air. She went down, bloody, but Uraraka was back on her feet.
Something cracked up against Bakugo's head, and he stumbled, dazed. A boy with half a dozen baseballs on his belt grinned, running forward and beaning Bakugo again before he could react. Bakugo tried to blast him, but the baseball boy jumped out of the way, raising an arm to throw another ball. Uraraka jumped at him, her head colliding with the ball players midsection. He gasped and fell to the ground, but Uraraka had another attacker to fight off, this one a green skinned girl with leaves growing out of her arms that lashed at Uraraka.
Bakugo flung himself forward, blowing her away with a blast. His arms were sore now, his hands numb from the constant recoil of his explosions, but he couldn't stop. Instinctively, he put his back to Urakaka's, and she pressed up against him as they fought desperately to stay on their feet against a dozen attackers. Bakugo had lost track of Shinso and the others in the melee, and at this point didn't even care. He laughed and laughed, unleashing blast after blast. He heard someone shrieking in rage, and realized it was Uraraka, her voice a wailing call to battle.
Bakugo took more hits, and blood poured out from several serious wounds, but he stayed on his feet. He couldn't fall, he was a god, a demon, a force of nature. Nothing could stop him. And then, there was nothing. Amidst the swirling dust and smoke, Bakugo realized that the only person moving beside him was Uraraka. Both of them were panting, gasping for breath and nearly exhausted.
At their feet were dozens of injured foes in a ring around them. Beyond that, their enemies were lining up again, dragging allies to their feet, taking a breath themselves.
"You...you good?" Uraraka gasped. She jerked her head to the side, vomiting, her quirk overused. But she just wiped her mouth and grinned at the enemies surrounding them. It was perhaps the most attractive thing Bakugo had ever seen her do. "I could do this all day!"
"You call that a fight?" Bakugo said, throwing his head back and laughing. "You idiots are weak! I got hit harder by my mother for talking smack!"
"You're bleeding, UA! Both of you," one of their foes called. "Give it up! Just let us past, we got our points, it's no skin off your backs if a few of us pass before you."
"Hey, Uraraka, you feel like losing today?" Bakugo asked, wiping a trickle of blood off of the tip of his nose.
A nervous giggle escaped Uraraka, which she turned into a nearly hysterical, maniacal belly laugh.
"Yeah, me neither," Bakugo agreed. He raised his hand, beckoning. "Which of you assholes wants to be the next loser? I'll bury you right here, right now. Hell, I don't think I've even managed to kill anyone today, and I can't sleep at night without a little blood on my hands!"
"Guys, I don't think he's kidding," someone said nervously. "I think he killed Hea for attacking his girlfriend. Maybe we should just back off."
"He's bluffing! He'd fail if he killed someone. Besides, they're from UA, they're supposed to be Paragons of Justice or whatever, it's all just an act."
"There used to be two more of us, you know," Uraraka said, her tone wistful. "I wish you'd been gentler, Bakugo. I sort of liked Akai."
"She was weak," Bakugo growled. "Her and Mineta got what they deserved. Besides, as long as you keep your damn mouth shut, they'll never find the bodies."
"Guys, he is the one who took down Muscular. Maybe...maybe he's not bluffing. All the rumors say Katsuki Bakugo is a maniac that no one likes…"
"Shut up, we just have to-"
"Reinforcements are here!" Mei screamed in Bakugo's ear. "Attack now!"
"Shut up Hatsume!" Bakugo screamed. "Don't tell me what to do!"
And then he attacked anyway, pivoting at the same time as Uraraka and surging forward, both of them screaming like harpies, their faces a mass of blood and bruises, their hero costumes torn and bloodied, their bodies exhausted. In the face of their ferocity, their opponents quavered, falling back with expressions of terror written across their faces.
If it had just been the two of them, battered and worn, their opponents might have rallied and managed to turn the tide. But then a long tongue shot out, grabbing someone at the rear and jerking them off into the smoke and dust with a scream. And the morale of the other testees utterly broke. Bakugo laughed as he lit off a weak explosion, and Uraraka screamed as her fist smashed into someone's face.
"PLUS ULTRA!" Ashido and Hagakure screamed, and a stream of acid shot into the crowd as Hagakure's invisible blows started taking people down. Then, damn him, Midoriya landed right into the middle of the group, slamming down on top of two other testees and then laying about with punches and kicks.
Whatever semblance of cohesion or purpose the other students had vanished. They stopped fighting back, stopped trying to attack, and simply tried in a desperate scramble to get away. Until stones started flying out of the smoke, cracking into their arms and legs, causing them to fall.
"Surrender!" Izuku bellowed, his voice amplified by his suit somehow. "Lay down and surrender! Or face the consequences!"
Nearly as one, every one of the attackers who was still on their feet flopped to the ground, begging for mercy.
"What the hell took you so long?!" Bakugo snarled at Izuku. "You idiots get lost or something?"
"S-sorry, getting our points took longer than we thought it would," Izuku said, looking down. "Um, we only have 87 points, so, um, we can't all pass yet…"
"Well then get back out there and get some more!" Bakugo snapped. He kicked at one of the whimpering students who'd been trying to crawl away. "More of these idiots are going to come, and I'm not letting a single one through until I can pass!"
"Hey, some of these guys got points," Ashido pointed out.
"Yeah! Hand over your points, or face the wrath of Class 1A!" Hagakure declared.
Bakugo glanced down, and saw that the girl he'd just kicked had a few points on her arm bands. He grinned, bending over, making a few explosions flicker out of his fingers. "I'm not going to have to ask, am I?"
"No! No! Just take them," the girl pleaded, ripping the bands off and handing them over.
Satisfied, Bakugo collected her points, and then grabbed more from the others who were all too eager to hand theirs over, and strip the points off their unconscious comrades, all to get the Madman of UA the hell away from them.
"Dammit!" Bakugo snapped when they met up with Shinso, Sero, and Tokoyami. They were battered and bruised as well, but a wall of six large bodyguards Shinso was mind controlling were formed up to protect them.
"What?" Sero asked. "You're the one who ran off. After you said not to, by the way. Your fault if you got hurt." Not that Sero looked much better. He had a black eye to go with quite the collection of cuts and bruises, and his elbows were bleeding from making too much tape.
"No, dumbass, they had nearly 500 points on them!" Bakugo explained, feeling foolish. "We could have just waited for these idiots to come instead of sending Midoriya to go goof off in the swamp!"
Something wet smacked the back of his head, and Bakugo turned to see Tsu glaring at him, her long tongue dangling to the side. "We weren't goofing off, ribbit! Yaoyorozu got hurt, and we all fought hard!"
"Yeah whatever," Bakugo grumbled. He put his hand to his ear and flicked on his radio "Hey, Todoroki, Iida, you got enough points? Looks like we got some extras."
"We were about to say the same thing," Todoroki's calm voice answered. "Iida brought back some, but then we had to fight a bunch of these wannabes. We've got over 600 points now."
"JUST BECAUSE YOU GOT MORE ICY-HOT DOESN'T MAKE YOU BETTER THAN ME!" Bakugo shouted.
"Sorta think it does," Kirishima's voice said. He sounded tired, but rather smug.
"Well whatever. Everyone got enough points?" Bakugo demanded. The dust was settling, and he could see over to where Todoroki and Iida's groups were. They looked battered as well, and their half of the field was also littered with wounded and unconscious defeated testees. Damn, had they killed anyone? Bakugo really didn't want his first kill to be some stupid kid that just wanted to pass a damn test. He needed to kill someone who deserved it.
"Should have killed Muscular when I had the chance," Bakugo grumbled. "He'd have been a good first."
"Oh god," one of the fallen foes groaned. "Please don't kill me, I want to live!"
"ATTENTION!" a voice rang out over the loudspeaker. "THE TESTING IS SUSPENDED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE! CHRIST! A man takes a nap and everything goes straight to hell…"
"Um, guys, problem," Hari's voice said over the radio. "Er, I think they figured me out."
Sudden sounds of a struggle were broadcast over the radio, and then Mei's frantic voice said, "Izuku, they're going to take me! No let go don't-"
Izuku suddenly launched into the air, and Bakugo and the others winced as a voice shrieked in their ears:
"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HER!"
"Uraraka, I need a lift," Bakugo growled. Without hesitating, Uraraka jumped on Bakugo's back, and a second later they were both weightless, Bakugo shot them forward on explosions, a manic grin plastered on his face.
"YOU HURT HATSUME AND I'LL CARVE IT OUT OF YOUR FLESH ASSHOLES!"
"We're coming," Iida's voice said over the radio. "We've got a fixture on Hatsume's location. Hold on."
The loud speakers suddenly crackled to life. "They're not hurting her! You, UA students, stop! Let her go you morons, I just said to take her radio! Crap, they're not stopping!"
Bakugo ignored the frantic voice, which was now begging him to land and stop. He was nearly to Hatsume, who was being held by several now panicked looking men in suits in the bleachers high above the testing arena.
"Look, class, just calm down. They'll let both Hatsume sisters go," Mr. Aizawa's voice said over the PA system. "You will, right? Because I'm pretty sure Midoriya and Bakugo both don't know the meaning of the word 'restraint' when it comes to their friends.'"
The suits immediately dropped Mei and scrambled away, looking frantic to be anywhere but near Bakugo.
"Hmph," Bakugo grunted. "Guess you can let us down," he told Uraraka.
"Let's just make sure Mei's alright," Uraraka urged, sounding worried. "She looks scared."
Bakugo didn't argue, taking them in for a landing beside Midoriya. The nerd ran over to hug his squeeze, who was babbling and crying. Bakugo put his hand to his ear. "She looks fine, you guys can relax. We'll let you know if they try anything else."
"Negative, we're not stopping," Todoroki replied. "We're nearly there anyway."
Hari made her way over, pulling both Midoriya and her sister into a hug, tears in her eyes as the Hatsume continued to babble. Did she ever shut up? Whatever, at least everyone was safe now.
A couple of minutes later, strands of tape flew up onto the bleachers, and the entirety of class 1A scrambled up to crowd around Izuku and Mei. Bakugo made his way to the back, collapsing into one of the seats. "Dammit. Guess we lost," he grumbled.
Uraraka sat down beside him with a sigh. "Yeah, I mean, we were cheating. Guess we should have thought about that."
Bakugo shrugged. "Not like we could have done anything else. Otherwise Hatsume would have jumped down and demanded to take the test with Midoriya."
"Ha! I bet she would have," Uraraka laughed. She held out a fist to Bakugo. "Thanks, by the way. You had my back."
Gently, Bakugo tapped the fist, careful not to ignite any of the sweat that coated him. "Yeah. Same to you. You got grit. I'll fail with you any day."
Bakugo leaned back, closing his eyes. Oh well. He could always turn vigilante. Heroes had too many rules anyway.