Chapter 33: Roaring Upheaval
POW!
Doko looked up in alarm, and then glanced back at Koda. "That was a gunshot."
The Anivoice user nodded nervously. "It was in…"
"...that direction," Doko pointed. It didn't much matter. Trees and shadows were every direction around them.
Another gunshot. Koda jumped in shock, and then winced. "What if it's…"
"Don't think like that. We can't afford to." Doko turned toward the direction they'd come from.
"Camp is back this way. We need to go."
"What about the…growls…"
"There's no guarantee we won't run into trouble, but we have to take it as it comes." Doko was personally much more worried about the gunfire than he was about whatever creature had been snarling in the distance, but he didn't want to show that to Koda. He had already fallen into the position of the voice of reason, and he didn't want to break that.
Inwardly, though…he was freaking out.
The villains are after me and Bakugo at least. What about Mina? Where is she? Where is the trail? Isn't Ragdoll out here somewhere? What about the others back at the clearing? Are those two villains taken care of? Did Muscular wake up again? Did Sero and the others make it back to the building safely?
"Come on, Koda. We've already done a great deal of good out here. We need to move to safety."
"Right. Yes."
The two of them ran back toward the camp…at least, Doko was pretty sure it was the way back.
…
"Keep going," Mina gasped, her lip trembling. Blood leaked down her face, from the shard of wood that had scraped across her forehead. The Nomu had cut down trees with its chainsaw.
In the brush behind them, the creature snarled and growled, approaching slowly but steadily. It never broke into a run.
Yaoyorozu stumbled, pulling at the sled with a grimace. She'd created the sled with her Quirk and had used up much of her stamina. Laying on it were an unconscious Tsunotori and Fukidashi from Class B.
"I mean…c-come on…" Awase stuttered, trying to laugh despite the pain and struggle he was going through. "If it catches up to us at th-that speed, we're w-worthless, right?"
Yaoyorozu shuddered.
Awase had two people attached to him with his welding Quirk, Komori and Jiro. Mina was currently dragging Hagakure manually, which was more work than she'd expected it to be.
And it was even worse when she had to do it backwards, and was staring their pursuer in the face.
The Nomu revved its chainsaw up again, causing Awase to swear loudly and Yaoyorozu to yelp.
This version was green, with multiple arms and weapons on the end of each one. She said we had permission to fight, but how the fuck would we fight this thing? Its brother nearly defeated All Might. ALL-FUCKING-MIGHT!
Kirishima would know what to do. Or Doko. Where was Doko? He had been in a pair behind her, which meant he was probably safe back at camp, but what about Koda?
I lost Koda, and Yao-momo lost Aoyama. In all this chaos and under the cover of dark, they could kill or take so many of us. So many.
Mina was biting her lip, trying not to panic. The metallic taste of her own blood danced on the edge of her mouth.
The Nomu stomped on a bush with a crunch, deliberately closing in on her. Hagakure was so heavy.
"How much further…to the clearing…" she forced out.
"It can't be far," Awase muttered. "It can't be far." The second time sounded less certain.
In the distance, she heard more gunshots, as well as some inhuman roaring. The Nomu perked up, briefly distracted, and Mina felt a surge of hope. She picked up speed, dragging Hagakure along a little faster, but then half-tripped over a tree root.
The Nomu turned back to them. Revved up one of the saws again.
"FUCK!" Awase shouted.
"I can't do this much longer," Yaoyorozu confessed, her arms going pale with strain as she tried to pull the sled along.
"Me neither," Awase admitted. "D-dammit…Shishida and Shoda and the others are still out here, probably passed out somewhere from the gas…and we can't do anything. This is our limit."
The Nomu walked steadily forward. The three kids were slowing down, the weight bearing on them more and more, but the creature had no such stamina issues.
It was getting closer.
"Fuck, fuck," muttered Awase. "We're going to d-die. We're going to f-fucking di…"
"Shut up!" Mina interrupted. "Don't say that!"
Yao-momo had begun to whimper. Blood was leaking from a cut below her eye, and she seemed to have retreated all the way back into herself.
Mina looked back at the Nomu, as its shadow fell over her. In the distance, another gunshot, and more roaring.
"D-don't…" she stammered. "S-say it…"
The Nomu's growl sounded almost victorious.
…
Tetsutetsu fell over and laid next to the defeated villain, a mere boy whose gas mask he'd shattered, along with a few teeth.
He turned his Quirk off, breathing in and out heavily. "If a gas user is wearing a mask, you have to break it, right?"
"The gas is clearing out!" said Itsuka, taking her mask off as the pink fog faded away through the trees.
Tetsutetsu looked over at the unconscious boy next to him. "I'll have you pay for ruining our training camp, kid."
…
"The gas is clearing," said Doko, sniffing the air. "Look, there it goes."
He panned his finger in a line, where they could see a fading pink haze withdrawing into the deeper trees.
"Does that mean they're done here?" asked Koda.
"Or one of us managed to defeat the one making the gas. But the fire person is still out there. Whoever he or she is."
They kept running through the trees, headed in the hopeful direction. The gunshots had stopped, but they could still hear roaring and snarling in the distance. Two sets of it, in fact. Two separate things going on.
"I think that's Dark Shadow," Koda muttered.
Doko looked at him, surprised. "Huh?"
"The one that sounds further away. It reminds me of how Dark Shadow sounded in USJ. I was with Tokoyami in the rain zone."
"Oh…" Doko blinked. "If we can hear Dark Shadow, that means…"
"It could be a good thing."
"I don't know…"
Doko saw something in the distance. Just a flicker, out of the corner of his eye. Between two trees.
He gasped.
Wordlessly, he peeled off away from Koda, making a beeline for what he'd seen.
"Huh? KATAYAMA, WAIT!"
Doko wasn't listening. He kept going, forward and forward. nO. NONONONONONONONO NOT HER! YOU BASTARD!
He used his legs to warp three times the rest of the way, and slid to a stop in the clearing. "AAAAAAAAAARGH!" he roared, lifting up his arms and pumping his Quirk through them.
The chainsaw came ripping off the Nomu's arm, erupting with purple light, and the creature screeched in pain.
Mina looked up in alarm, her golden eyes shining with relief. "DOKO!" she cried. In her arms was Toru, and further back, Yao-momo and some 1-B students.
Koda arrived in the clearing just as the Nomu whirled on its attacker, snarling and sniveling. It still had a lot more arms, Doko noticed with an almost erratic casualness.
"Split!" he ordered Koda, as the thing's other saw came chopping down, making a gash in the ground between the two of them. Koda leapt to the left, while Doko warped right, closing the distance between Mina and himself.
"Awase-san…" Yao-momo muttered, through sleepy, exhausted eyes. "Attach this…with your Quirk…"
Doko didn't pause to listen. The Nomu had whirled on him again, making a long swipe across the air. He grabbed Mina and ducked, sending them both crashing to the ground to avoid its slice.
He landed somewhat on top of her, and they glanced at each for a second.
Mina grinned. "You look terrible. Your face is all swollen."
"Yeah, nice to see you too."
When the Nomu attacked again, chopping two of its arms down, Doko warped out of the way again, and Mina shot acid at its skin. The thing howled in pain, but the wound healed itself immediately.
They have regeneration. What is there we could even do to it? Even if he tried warping its arms off, which was a thing he was ONLY considering because it was more animalistic than human, it might have been able to just regrow them. Then, what…?
Awase bobbed and weaved his way inward to the beast, and touched it, welding something to its back. "FUCK!" he shouted, sounding almost joyous. "Yaoyorozu, I did i…"
The creature roared and sliced its saw across the air, missing Awase by a second as the boy ducked.
Koda slid in front of the Nomu, trying to distract it. "Nomu!" he declared, using his Quirk.
Doko's eyes widened. Wait. Is that going to work?
Mina gasped. "Koda-kun, don't try it! STOP!"
Koda took a step forward, getting much too close. "Nomu, listen to me! Calm, alright! Do not attack us! We are not the enemy! We…"
"KODA, NO!" Doko roared.
The creature brought its blade down. It was going to be over in a millisecond. Doko saw it in his mind's eye so clearly. Blood splattering as Koda was ripped to pieces in front of them. All time seemed to slow.
His hand seemed to lift on its own.
A violet shimmer grew around Koda, and suddenly the boy warped, disappearing and reappearing in Doko's arms, half-slumped over.
"EAT THIS, BRAINFACE!" Mina let out an umbrella blast of acid, enveloping the Nomu and causing it to screech again, smoke rising from its mangled skin. It staggered back, hitting a tree dumbly and pausing to regenerate.
Doko immediately buckled under Koda's weight, letting him fall somewhat to the ground. The lavender light around the two of them died.
Mina gasped. "Doko, you did it!"
Koda stood himself back up straight, shaking. "I…"
I did it. Doko's jaw dropped in shock. I pulled him to me, in that moment.
The Nomu was not happy.
"We have to run now!" Mina said. "Koda, take Hagakure!"
The Anivoice user picked up the invisible girl, while Awase and Yao-momo fell in behind them, dragging the 1-B students as fast as they could. They all seemed a bit reinvigorated, their hearts pumping from the action.
"Katayama-kun…" Yao-momo breathed.
Doko turned to look at her as they fled the clearing. "Yes?"
The two of them shared a strange moment. Grey eyes met purple. Mina watched them carefully, eyebrow raised in alarm.
And then, the strange tension snapped. In that moment, gone. From a deeper connection to determination. Yao-momo was all business now, and she was about to order him to do something.
Her eyes narrowed. "Scout ahead with your Quirk. Ensure that there are no other villains between us and the camp. Mina, you do the same."
Doko nodded. "Got it, class pres."
They heard snarling behind them. The Nomu was in pursuit again.
"Hurry…" Awase wailed.
Mina kissed his swollen cheek quickly. "Go on ahead, don't wait up. I'll be behind you, but not right behind."
He gave his girlfriend another look. In the craziness of the evening, he'd been worried about his own life multiple times…and hers. The fact that they'd reunited seemed too good to be true in the midst of all this chaos.
He had to tell her, now.
"I love you," said Doko.
He warped away into the trees, scouting ahead.
…
"That's mean, coming out of the trees and slashing us!" Tsuyu croaked, staying on guard. "Who are you?"
"I'm Toga," the girl said, holding up her bloody knife. "Himiko Toga!"
She was blonde, with two messy buns on the side of her head. Over her mouth was a gruesome metal mask. Attached to her belt and shoulders were metallic equipment. Designed to draw blood. She needs it for something. Tsu's mind raced. But what? Ochaco-chan had gotten grazed in the arm. The blood on the villain's knife was hers.
Not good. Need to do something. Take action, yes. That's what I did on the boat with the smugglers.
But this high school girl who giggled excitedly with a blade in her hand was nothing like the smugglers.
Those small-time crooks would have been willing to kill those who got in the way of their mission, but for this girl…killing WAS her mission.
"You two sure are cute," Himiko Toga squeaked excitedly. She pointed the knife back and forth between them. "Uraraka-san, and…Asui-san, right?"
"She knows our names," Ochaco muttered.
"The sports festival," Tsu muttered back. Her heart was racing something fierce. "She knows who we are; we're at a disadvantage."
Himiko seemed distracted. "There's not enough blood…" she grumbled. "Normally I'd suck it directly from the cut to get more, but tonight I have this machine…" She pulled out one of the metallic tubes, and suddenly a syringe came sliding out of it with a shrrrrk. Its pointy edge glinted fatally in the moonlight.
"My work will go much faster, hehehehehe. Time to stick it in!"
And then, she rushed toward them.
"Ochaco-chan, get back to camp!" Tsu grabbed the brunette with her tongue and flung her backward.
"Tsu-chan, watch out!" Ochaco cried.
As she tried to pull her tongue back in, Toga arrived.
The blonde slashed Tsu's tongue with her knife, and sharp pain traveled up into her mouth. She croaked in agony as Toga slid to a stop, blood splattering into the dirt.
"Tsu-chan…" she growled in excitement. "Tsu-chan, Tsu-chan, TSU-CHAN!" Himiko turned, her yellow cat's eyes glinting with ecstasy. "That's sooooo cute! I think I'm gonna call you that too!"
"I'd rather you not, ribbit." Tsu let her bleeding tongue loll out for a moment, not wanting to taste her own blood. "I only let my friends call me that."
She tried to leap over the villain to follow Ochaco, but Toga threw her syringe, attached to a wire on her back setup. The pointy end stabbed through the end of Tsu's hair…and pinned her to the tree.
"Yay! That means we're friends, Tsu-chan!" Himiko pumped her fists and cheered, a blush spreading across her face.
She closed the distance, getting right up against Tsu. Their chests pressed together.
The whole situation was wrong. Alarm bells rang in Tsu's head. "You're bleeding, Tsu," Toga whispered into her ear, sending shivers down the frog girl's spine. "That's so cute. I love blood."
"Get off of her!" Ochaco roared, rushing in.
Himiko spun, stabbing toward the brunette's face, but Ochaco sidestepped her, and grabbed her arm with one hand, pushing down on the nape of her neck with the other. "GUNHEAD MARTIAL ARTS!"
Ochaco slammed Toga into the ground, sending up clouds of dust. The girl tried to stab up with her knife, but Ochaco pinned her wrist.
"That was amazing, Ochaco-chan!"
"Tsu, can you restrain her with your tongue?" Ochaco asked. Toga tried to struggle, and the brunette sat down on top of her.
Tsu's eye twitched. "Give me a second."
In that moment of conversation, Himiko gave Ochaco a rough kick.
Tsu gasped. The wire pinning her was yanked, and she tried to struggle free, to no avail.
Ochaco and Himiko grappled on the ground, wrestling. The knife clattered away as one girl's hand closed around the other's wrist. Toga bit Ochaco's neck, sinking her fangs. Ochaco yelped in pain, and then the villain's legs went flying up, wrapping around Ochaco's shoulder and forcing her to the ground.
A takedown. The villain had reversed their positions, and now she was on top.
Toga grasped Ochaco's throat with her left hand and picked up the knife off the ground with her right.
Tsu tried to break free from the pin, but she couldn't do anything with her legs dangling.
"How the tables have turned," Himiko breathed, leaning into Ochaco's face, close enough to kiss.
…
Doko warped around one tree, and then the next. Look left, look right. No one in sight. Good. Okay, keep going. A little further.
Far behind him, he could still hear Mina rustling through the underbrush. He supposed the others were even further back. He got more and more distant with every warp.
He peered around another crop of trees. Nothing. Wait, was that voices?
Doko warped ahead in a rhythm, breaking into a run of teleports. One, two, three, four, five. In just a moment, he'd gone nearly fifty meters, and found himself peering around a bush to see…
Tsuyu, pinned to a tree by a wire and a sharp syringe thing. That was the first thing he saw. Then, on the ground…
Ochaco Uraraka. And…another girl their age that he did not recognize. She had blonde hair, and she had pinned the brunette under her. Metal gear adorned her belt and shoulders, contrasting with the cutesy school uniform and oversized cardigan. She was smiling, Doko noticed, and some of her teeth were sharp.
A villain. A villain with a knife to Ochaco's throat.
"You like someone, don't you?" the villain was asking Ochaco. "I can smell it on you. A lovesick maiden's scent."
Doko shuddered. Okay, what to do. What to do. Wait for Mina, behind him? No, no time. Ochaco could die at any second. Fuck, first Shigaraki and now this. Why can't she catch a break?
"You want to be like that person you love, don't you?" the villain asked, leaning in even closer. "When you think about that person, your heart just starts to race, and you just want to…cut them open and live inside their skin…"
"Doesn't seem all that relatable to me."
The villain looked up in angry alarm, as Doko charged in, holding up both hands. With his left, he warped the syringe off of Tsuyu's hair, unpinning her from the tree and causing her to crash to the ground. With his right, he tried to pull the knife from the girl's hand.
Ochaco kicked upward as hard as she could, and the villain staggered. Even then, she kept her grip on the knife, and Doko could only barely get his Quirk's energy into it.
She had a ton of willpower to hold onto the blade. Even more than Shigaraki with his hands.
Too late, Doko realized he'd closed the distance a bit too much, and the villain stabbed toward him, forcing him to warp sideways to avoid the blade.
She sent out a kick, which Doko dodged, and then sliced the knife sideways through the air, which he ducked below. In that moment, he got into an opening, and shoved her roughly away from Tsuyu and Ochaco, putting himself between them.
The villain took pause, taking the sight of him in. She was pouting. "My fun and games were interrupted. I wanted more blood."
"Oh, I get it. You're insane." Doko breathed in and out, wondering when the hell Mina was going to arrive. "Yeah, I don't really have sympathy for you."
"Your face is all bruised up," the villain muttered, looking him up and down in a predatory way. "My name's Himiko Toga."
"I genuinely could not care less. You were about to kill my classmates."
Her frown deepened. "Not in the mood, huh? Maybe you're not my type after all."
"I'm taken, anyhow. Get lost, you psycho. Or you can surrender willingly now. It's three against one."
Himiko Toga chuckled. "You've got confidence, I'll say that much. Such a good job protecting those girls back there. But can you protect yourself?"
Doko's eye twitched. Is she talking about…?
Rustling in the trees behind them, and voices.
"DOKO!" Mina shouted, bursting into the clearing. Behind her were the last people Doko expected to see…Todoroki, Shoji, and Midoriya, who was wrapped in Shoji's arms, all bruised up.
"Well, more people showed up and I don't want to get caught, so I'm gonna go now," Himiko muttered. She saw Midoriya, and gasped, her eyes widening. But then she skipped away into the gloom.
…
Ochaco Uraraka growled, about to get up and chase the girl. "Wait!" Tsu said, holding her back. "It's too dangerous, ribbit. We don't know her Quirk."
Mina and Todoroki ran up to them. "Who was that girl just now?" Todoroki asked.
Katayama brushed himself off. "A real piece of work, that's who. The League of Villains really went in on the lunatics this time."
Ochaco rubbed her throat, stewing silently. How many more times is this going to happen? First Shigaraki on the roof, then him again at the mall, and now this…
Was she just doomed to be pinned and choked and threatened again and again, relying on the heroism of others?
Is this fucking me up? Am I being affected? How did you know when you were having a panic attack, or PTSD, or something like that? Shigaraki had been in her nightmares, but right now all she felt was annoyance that it kept happening. Three times. Three.
"You're injured, Uraraka-san," Deku gasped from Shoji's back.
Ochaco's eye twitched. "At least I can still walk! Deku, YOU'RE the one who…"
"There's no time to bicker," said Shoji. "We have to get back to camp."
"Where'd you pick up these guys?" Katayama asked Mina.
"We ran into them back on the trail," she explained. "Todoroki had an unconscious guy from Class B, but we sent him back with Yao-momo and Awase. They're probably still just down the way. If we hurry, Ochaco can make them weightless and we can carry them all back together…"
I can do that, Ochaco thought. Just let me do something right at least.
"Come with us back to camp!" said Deku. "Right now, we're protecting Kacchan as we…"
"Protecting Bakugo?" Katayama interrupted. He and Tsu exchanged a glance.
"Uhh, yeah. He was acting all angry about getting protected, too," said Mina. "Why…?" she turned, and looked toward the back of the group. "Bakugo…and Tokoyami…? Where did they go?"
The seven of them looked around wildly. It was just them in the clearing. No one else.
"The boy you're referring to?" said a confident voice from above them.
They all gasped and looked up. Perched on a tree was a masked man in a top hat and orange overcoat, twirling a cane around his hand. "I took him with my magic," the villain said. He tilted his right hand, revealing a shiny blue ball between his fingers.
Ochaco gasped. His Quirk…!
"Young Bakugo's talent is wasted on the hero side, I'm afraid. We'll take him to a place where he can truly shine."
"GIVE HIM BACK!" Deku roared.
"What a strange thing to say. Bakugo doesn't belong to anyone. He's his own person, free to make his own choices, you egoist."
"Did he choose to go into that little blue ball of yours?" Katayama called up.
The villain took pause for a moment.
"Move," Todoroki snarled. Shoji and Mina slid out of the way as he stomped his foot down, sending a wall of ice up at the villain. The villain jumped from the tree as the spikes smashed into the branches.
He soared through the air and landed on another tree across the trail. "Kids these days take such fanatical paths. We simply want to show young Bakugo that there are more options for him."
"What about Tokoyami?" Shoji muttered, looking around. "He was in the back with Bakugo…"
"He snatched the two of them without making a noise," said Todoroki. "What kind of Quirk does he have?" Louder, he shouted up at the villain. "Going out of your way to talk to us is a bad idea!"
"If you wanna run away like a coward, you better get started!" Mina sang up to him, raising her fist threateningly.
The villain sighed. "At heart, I'm an entertainer." He flicked his wrist, revealing a second blue ball between his fingers. "Taking Tokoyami was a bit of an improvisation, I'm afraid. If he was able to defeat Moonfish, a formidable villain who was on death row, then his strength could definitely be put to good use. So I'm taking him too."
"YOU BASTARD!" Deku roared. "YOU CAN'T TAKE THEM!"
Todoroki stomped again, sending out an ice structure even bigger than the one he used against Sero. He kept sending the ice, sustaining it with his foot. The pillar grew and grew and grew, far over the treeline. Frost covered the boy's face, and he breathed vapor.
Even then, the villain leapt out from behind the ice, showboating his two little balls. "Sorry, cheap tricks and making a run for it are my only redeeming qualities! I don't really have the panache to fight hero students!"
He put his hand to his ear in midair. "Vanguard Action Squad!" he said into an earpiece. "It's time to take the bow! I repeat, it's time to take the bow! Meet at the rendezvous point in five minutes!"
Katayama gasped. "They're leaving. No!"
Mina whirled on Ochaco. "Go back and help Yao-momo and them with your Quirk! The rest of us…"
"...AFTER HIM!" Deku screamed.
…
"Oi, Dabi! Did you hear the radio? Mr. Compress already succeeded! I'm so impressed! Took him long enough! I was getting sleepy!"
"Calm down, Twice. He did a good job taking the bow. Now we just head back and wait for the others."
"That's not right! You're right."
"This place was supposed to be impossible to find due to the flames and gas, but the gas cleared out. I guess that little twerp got himself captured or knocked out or something."
"Things never go according to plan! Things are going as planned!"
Cowering behind the bush, Yuga Aoyama listened to the villains converse. They were leaving. They had accomplished something. Something had happened.
A kidnapping perhaps? Or even a murder? He couldn't stop trembling. His clammy hands clapped over his face. He couldn't even bear to look over the bush to see the villains.
"By the way, Dabi! What about that Nomu thing you were put in charge of?"
"Oh, that? Right. A whole monster just for me, from Shigaraki. I didn't really know what to do with it, so it's probably killed a few people by now. But since Compress gave the signal, it should be walking back to the rendezvous point. That was the one order I gave it beforehand."
"Good thinking! I must say, that seems kind of reckless."
…
"Get off me, you harlot!" Spinner complained, as Mandalay restrained him against the ground.
"This could have been easily avoided if you'd just…" Magne tried to speak to her villain companion, but Tiger tightened his arms with his Quirk, forcing her to shut up.
"You didn't even show your Quirk once," Mandalay said to the lizard-man.
"Dammit, you filth! Stain will live again! Now, get off me!"
"Yes…" said a voice. Mandalay's blood ran cold. Tiger gasped.
A dark portal formed beneath them, and two slitted yellow eyes appeared in the clearing.
"Let's have you heroes move out of the way," said Kurogiri, the second-in-command of the League of Villains. "I have to take my subordinates home."
…
The seven of them raced down the trail, in pursuit of the villain who held their classmates in his hand.
Shoji led the way, carrying Midoriya. To his right and left were, Tsuyu, bounding forward on all fours, and Mina, sprinting gracefully like she was made for it. Todoroki and Doko brought up the rear.
Doko saw flashes of orange above the treeline. The villain was agile, bouncing from branch to branch and somehow keeping ahead of them.
"Dammit…" Todoroki snarled, clicking his teeth. "He's going to get away!"
"He's not," Midoriya breathed. "He is NOT getting away with Kacchan and Tokoyami. If Uraraka had stayed with us, we could go weightless, but…"
"What are you saying?" Mina asked.
"I have a plan." The boy's bruises were swelling at his eyes, his face mangled. But there was a shining steel of determination there that made Doko's heart skip a beat. "Todoroki. On my mark, you send up an ice slide toward the villain. Katayama, run up it as far as you can and warp to him."
"What, and punch him out of the air?" Doko asked, half in disbelief.
"You did it to Kurogiri at USJ," Shoji said. "I remember. It's possible."
"I'm not done," said Midoriya. "Asui-san, you'll throw Ashido-san up with your tongue. Ashido and Katayama will cover each other in the air, in case one of them misses. If they take him down together, all the better. We'll be on the ground behind you guys, but we'll catch up."
Mina looked at Tsu. "Can you…? Your tongue's bleeding."
"My tongue will be fine compared to what they're going to do to those two if we let him get away, ribbit." For the first time that Doko had ever seen, Tsu narrowed her eyes. "You're the lightest one here besides myself, Mina-chan. I can throw you JUST fine."
"On my mark, Todoroki," said Midoriya, as they kept running after the villain. "Get ready. Don't stop running. Time it right."
"I got it," the ice user responded, his voice level with focus.
Doko's heart raced. I got this. We're going to take them back. He's not going to get away. We are going…
…to WIN!
"MARK!" shouted Midoriya, and Todoroki dug his heel into the ground, sending up the slide. Katayama warped up onto it, doing warp-runs up the ice spikes as they grew over the treeline. His feet slipped, but he kept warping upward, pushing himself all the way there.
From below, Tsu wrapped her tongue around Mina and threw her upward, matching Doko in mid-air. With one last great warp-leap, he launched himself off the edge of the ice and teleported to the villain, as the masked man turned in midair.
He and Mina tackled the man together, bodily and messily. "GOTCHA!" she declared.
They crashed into the treeline, slamming him into the dirt of a clearing. Doko felt a brief shudder of shock from landing, but the villain beneath him had taken the worst of it.
The two of them looked up as the dust cleared. They had landed in a clearing, all right…and it was filled with enemies.
"Whoa, I know these kids!" said another villain behind a grey-and-black mask. "Who are they?"
…
Back at the facility, where the four students who'd failed, Vlad King, and the three who'd come back were hiding inside the building.
"Didn't you hear Mandalay's Telepath!?" Kirishima asked Vlad King. "They're after Bakugo! If you expect me to just sit here and let my friend get taken out there…"
The pro hero blocked his way out of the room. "And get yourself captured too, or worse?"
"We don't know how many villains there are!" said Hanta, backing up Kirishima. "What if there's too many? Wouldn't it be better for us to go out and fight?"
"Aizawa gave us permission!" Sato added.
Monoma from Class B hung back silently. Iida similarly stayed silent near the back of the room, a cloud over his glasses.
Kaminari remained at his desk.
"That was for the others that are still trapped in the woods, in order to get back to camp," said Vlad King. "Not for you, who are already safe."
"Safe? Is that what they are?"
They all whirled to the sound of a voice…and the door to the classroom burst open with blue fire.
The students took cover behind desks. Hanta felt heat wash over his face as he winced, holding his arms up to protect himself.
It was a man with black hair and scars, sauntering into the room.
Vlad King ran forward, using his Quirk to pin the villain against the wall. "You think you can just walk in here with impunity?!"
"Blood Control is crazy powerful…" Ojiro muttered.
"That's our Vlad-sensei!" Monoma said excitedly.
"I think you're underestimating us," the Class B teacher growled at the villain.
The villain laughed harshly, and a chill traveled down Hanta's arms. "And why wouldn't we?" he asked. "You're literally acting exactly like we thought you would. Time and time again you face these disasters and battles with such utter incompetence. Don't you think that's going to shake society a bit? Especially after two of your students get taken by some small-time crooks?"
Two? Hanta thought, his eyes widening.
"You think you can just take Bakugo like that?!" Kirishima roared, standing up and hardening his arms.
The villain snorted. "...Pretty much, yeah."
Vlad King pulled his fist back for another blow, and the villain began to light up his fire again. Hanta stood, ready to fire his tape. Kirishima went running forward with his Quirk activated. Ojiro followed behind, bounding off with his tail…
Aizawa burst into the room, kicking the villain to the side, and causing him to erupt into mud. "Don't bother!" he declared.
"AIZAWA-SENSEI!" the six boys from Class A exclaimed together.
Eraser Head stomped on the villain's rapidly melting frame. "He's just another fake. One of them came earlier."
"That must be one of the villain's Quirks," said Iida, adjusting his glasses. "His Quirk is likely just the fire that we saw."
"Aizawa, shouldn't you be out there on the front lines?" Vlad King asked.
"Going there now. I just had to bring the kid back." He nodded toward the door, where Kota Izumi stood in shock, his legs trembling at the scene. The classroom had been blasted out by the fire, covered in burn marks.
Hanta tilted his head. If Kota's back okay, that means…Katayama and Midoriya found him, right? But where are they?
Before he had a chance to ask, Aizawa was running out again. "Keep the kid safe, Vlad! Stay here!"
"OI! WHAT ABOUT US?!" Kirishima roared after him. But Aizawa was already gone.
The red-haired boy clicked his teeth. "URRGH!" he turned and punched an already-broken desk out of frustration.
"Kirishima-kun, please calm down!" Iida told him. "We have to follow protocols in times like this!"
"Fuck the protocols," Hanta muttered.
Iida looked back and forth between the two boys in despair.
"All of you, quiet!" said Vlad King. "For the last time…no one is going anywhere."
Hanta, Kirishima, Sato, and Ojiro all exchanged looks of sullen resentment. The mood was clear.
None of them wanted to be stuck there.
…
Shoto Todoroki's heart raced as he, Asui, Shoji, and Midoriya raced after Katayama and Ashido. They'd disappeared into the clearing beyond, but they weren't that far ahead…
Shoji slid to a stop all of a sudden, and Asui came up short next to him. "Ribbit!"
Shoto peered into the clearing. Right in front of them, Katayama and Ashido had pinned the villain down. Shoji rushed forward to help, as the man struggled beneath them.
Beyond them were three more villains. The blonde girl from before, a man in a grey-and-black outfit that covered his head, and another man…in a trenchcoat, with black hair and gruesome scars.
Shoto's heart skipped a beat upon seeing him, but he didn't know why. Not then.
"Compress!" the scarred man said, lifting up his hand…which glowed blue with fire. "Get back!"
The villain beneath Shoji, Katayama, and Ashido suddenly disappeared in a blue flash. "SPLIT!" Katayama shouted, and the seven students separated, as a blast of blue fire came at them.
Ashido hit the ground hard, sliding back against a tree, while Asui let out a high croak of agony as the fire grazed past her. Shoto sent out a slide of ice to counter it, and Shoji stumbled back. Midoriya fell off of his back.
The clearing erupted into chaos.
"HI, IZUKU! I'M TOGA!" the blonde girl shouted with glee, racing toward the grounded green-haired boy. "I WANT TO SEE YOU BLEED!"
The man in the full body suit came rushing at Shoto. "You blasted kids are worthless!" he snarled. And then: "Wow, the hero students are so impressive!"
"What the hell's up with you?" Shoto asked, sending another ice pillar his way.
The villain in the orange overcoat, apparently called Compress, reappeared in a blue flash. He can compress things into those little blue balls, including himself, apparently.
Toga stabbed down at Midoriya, but Asui leapt up and folded into a diving kick, knocking her off of him hard. Shoto sent another ice wall at the villain he was fighting, but the guy danced back, making absurd little paradoxical comments the whole time.
Himiko Toga and the other guy backed off of the students, regrouping with Compress and the scarred man.
Katayama and Ashido regrouped next to Shoto. Midoriya crawled over to them. Shoji and Asui lined up on his left.
Four against seven.
"Compress," the scarred man asked. "Where's Bakugo?"
"Oh, he's…huh?" Compress reached into his pocket, but apparently found nothing.
"Let's run now," said Shoji to his classmates.
Shoto didn't understand. "What's…"
The multi-armed boy lifted up two little blue orbs. "While trying to hold him down, I grabbed these. Tokoyami and Bakugo are inside them, right? Entertainer?"
"Oh dear," said Compress. "That didn't take you very long to figure out."
The other masked villain gasped. "Dabi! They took the kids! The kids took the kids! What do we do!?"
The scarred man, apparently called Dabi…smiled.
"We took our bow," he said. "And now it's time for the encore."
Behind the four villains…a warp gate opened.
Shoto gasped. Next to him, Katayama tensed up, shivering. "Kurogiri…" he mumbled,
"It has been five minutes since the signal," said Kurogiri, his eyes appearing near the top of the portal.
"They're getting away!" Katayama snarled.
"But we have their targets, ribbit." Asui glanced at the spheres in Shoji's hand.
"They're running away…without accomplishing their goal after all?" Midoriya wondered aloud from his sitting position on the ground.
Shoto swallowed. Something was wrong.
"Oh, we're not running away," said Dabi, blue flame erupting from his hands.
And then…Tomura Shigaraki emerged from the warp gate, his gruesome hand-covered face materializing from the purple void.
Shoto's heart stopped.
"We're fighting," Shigaraki rasped, finishing Dabi's sentence and lifting his head up, bringing himself fully into the forest.
"Okay, now we should really run!" said Ashido, taking a step backward away from the clearing.
"Leaving so soon?" Compress asked, suddenly reaching up and taking his mask off. Behind the strange cover was a smug expression. "One of the basic tricks of magic is sleight-of-hand, my multi-armed friend. If I am showing something off, like I did to you with my pocket…it means there's something I didn't want you to see."
He stuck his tongue out, revealing two more blue orbs.
Midoriya gasped. "NO!"
Shoto's eyes widened. "Tokoyami…"
"...and Bakugo, ribbit!"
Compress snapped his fingers. The two orbs in Shoji's hand flashed open, revealing two chunks of ice. My ice.
"As I ran away, I decided to pick up a bit of that from Todoroki's ice attack as a decoy. Seems that it worked pretty well." Compress chuckled.
"They're gonna take them after all…" Asui muttered.
"But Shigaraki is there. What can we do?"
"We have to run…"
"NO!" Midoriya yelled, his voice cracking with agony. Frantically, he tried to crawl forward toward the villains, his broken arms flopping around. "Guys…please…"
Six against seven, Shoto thought. Those odds are far too close, and Shigaraki's Quirk is too…
Toga took a step back toward the portal. "Are we ducking out or not? Hey, heroes! We're gonna get away with your frieeee-eeends!"
Katayama raised his fist. "We've got to fight!"
Dabi smiled. "Encore."
Time seemed to slow for Shoto. Some on both sides stepped forward, and some stepped back. A moment of uncertainty. A stalemate. No one was sure what to do, and then…
A bright blue laserbeam burst from the trees, hitting the center of Kurogiri's warp, causing the portal villain to roar in pain, and his gate began to dissipate. One of the orb went flying out of Compress's mouth.
"GO!" Midoriya roared.
Wordlessly, everyone took action at once.
Tsuyu Asui leaped forward, bounding ahead of her peers as the blue orb flew through the air, briefly free for the taking. She shot her tongue out and wrapped it around the treasure, as Compress stumbled back, nearly swallowing the other orb and trying to keep it in his mouth.
Aoyama emerged from the bushes, firing his laser again as Kurogiri tried to regather himself. The laser passed Toga, and the female villain ducked gracefully under it like it was a limbo stick. With a one-two leap off the ground, she danced her way toward the blonde boy to cut him, but Shoji punched her out of the way as hard as he could.
Mina arrived at Compress and rolled, giving a breakdance-like kick to his shins, and then flipping back up onto her feet, shoving a shoulder into his side. "GIMME THE OTHER ORB!" she roared at him. The villain staggered.
"Why, you little!" Shigaraki leapt toward Mina, hands outstretched, and Shoto stomped down an ice wall between them, preventing the pink girl from getting decayed. "ASHIDO!" he shouted. "BACK OFF…"
Tsuyu's tongue shot out toward Compress, but Twice grabbed it and gave it a yank. As Tsuyu came flying toward him, she folded into another kick, planting her foot solidly in the villain's face. As the two of them hit the ground, Twice grappled for the orb, but then he made a copy of himself behind Tsuyu and shoved her to the ground. The orb bounced away.
Compress dived for it, but Mina shot a line of acid at him, and he panicked, accidentally snapping his fingers. Mid-bounce, the orb burst apart, and Tokoyami came tumbling out.
"TOKOYAMI!" Shoto pointed, as the bird boy re-oriented himself in midair.
Dabi had blown up the ice wall with his blue flame, and Shigaraki was dashing forward again toward Mina and Tsuyu. As Tokoyami landed, he released Dark Shadow, sweeping Twice and Compress aside, and then going in on Shigaraki. Dabi shot more flames at the creature, and Dark Shadow whimpered, cowering back.
Shoto used his own flames, and his and Dabi's met midway, orange clashing against blue in an eruption of flickering heat. Shigaraki ran toward him to interrupt the stalemate. Shoto's eyes widened as he prepared to freeze the villain with his foot, and then…
Shoji came out of nowhere, reaching out with his arms and shielding Shoto from Shigaraki's touch. An arm and part of his flesh-shield decayed away into grey.
"Shoji, no!" Shoto gasped as the taller boy roared in agony. Shigaraki fell back, cackling, as Shoji buckled to his knees, one of his permanent arms dusting away into nothing.
Shoto sent another ice wall out to split them.
Doko had been fighting Kurogiri for the past twenty seconds, but then the portal villain regrouped next to Twice, pulling him in before Mina and Tsuyu could attack him again. "You're next, Tomura Shigaraki," the warp gate boomed, opening a portal beneath the League's leader and sending him away elsewhere.
"NO!" Midoriya yelled. "THEY STILL HAVE KACCHAN!"
Aoyama took another step forward, and swept his laser across the villains. Compress's mouth was forced open again, and the orb went flying off his tongue. Shoto dived for it.
Dabi grabbed it first, and Shoto went rolling into the dirt, tasting blood in his mouth from the impact.
"That's sad…Shoto Todoroki."
Kurogiri opened another portal behind Dabi and Compress. "Time to go, gentlemen."
"Confirm it, release this," Dabi told the magician villain.
Compress took off his top hat and bowed, retreating shamefully into the portal. "My show's been ruined!" he snapped, and the orb opened up with a flash. Bakugo appeared with Dabi's hand around his throat.
"KACCHAN!" Midoriya had stood, and was running forward.
"Don't worry!" Doko cried, holding up his arm in front of the green-haired boy. "Kurogiri isn't going to get away this time!"
With three purple flashes, he warped in, passing Shoji on the ground, passing Tokoyami, Mina, and Tsuyu, passing Aoyama, and finally passing Shoto.
Shoto lifted up his hand. "Katayama, wai…"
A feminine hand gripped the warping boy's shoulder, stopping him in his tracks at the edge of the portal. "Hey there, Dokkun," Himiko Toga purred, lifting up one of her syringes. "Sorry I had to play dumb earlier, but I totally know who you are. You're our encore."
Dabi looked toward her, keeping his hand around Bakugo's throat. "Do it now, before he warps off."
"Huh?" Doko's eyes went wide as saucers, and he began to shimmer violet…but Toga stabbed down into his neck with the syringe.
Behind Shoto, Mina screamed.
Doko's purple eyes began to roll, and his knees buckled. "Oh, you crazy bitch," he slurred. "What the hell did you just put into me."
And then, he fainted.
Toga blew the other hero students a kiss, and then dragged Doko into the portal. "Catch you later!" she sang.
"NOOOOO!" Mina roared, and then they were all running, running toward the portal, trying to catch them before it was too late. NONONONONONO…
Dabi, the last one left, backed into the gate with Bakugo.
The blonde explosion user's eyes narrowed as his classmates closed in, the portal closing before their very eyes. "Don't come…after me…"
And then, it shut. The villains were gone.
With Katayama.
With Bakugo.
The clearing filled with Ashido and Midoriya's wails of grief.
Tokoyami and Asui looked on in blank shock. Disbelief.
Aoyama's eyes brimmed with tears.
Shoji curled into a fetal position on the ground, one of his arms completely gone.
Shoto Todoroki fell to his knees.
They had completely, unequivocally lost.
The cries of those in pain continued, carrying on the wind as the forest burned blue around them.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Well…
I don't actually have anything to say. Maybe I'll just let this one speak for itself.