The walls around us shuddered with the aftershocks of an explosion or impact of some sort, whatever it was it was a distance from us, but we halted for a second at the ready incase part of the ceiling came in, but nothing more than a shower of dust rained down. Once the distant rumbling faded, we pushed forward.
None of us had the capability to make any solid lighting so it was up to me to continuously release small pops of explosions from my palm to give us something at least to see our way with. The lighting I offered flashed between dim and bright. We may as well have been using party sparklers for the good it did.
"C'mon Kachaan, can't you make anything brighter" whined Dunce Face from a step or two behind me.
"You want me to blow us up, dunce face" I growled back, but despite it, I put some more effort into it. The idiots didn't realize how much concentration and effort it took to maintain such small explosions for so long while focusing on keeping any sound and smoke to a minimum. I couldn't remove either entirely which was annoying considering we were trying to be stealthy, but we hadn't expected to end up so low down where it was pitch black. We could have been using our phones as torches, but if we couldn't find our way out, we didn't want to waste the batteries, and if we got separated during an attack…. So my small ass explosions would have to do
"That's the way man" cheered Shitty Hair from the rear. I could sneer at the delight in his voice alone. Things weren't going as planned and how he managed too always be so positive was beyond me.
"How the hell did I end up with you two idiots again?" I asked aloud, more to myself. The red head jumped in with a 'we're friends' line while blondie moaned about how he thought I liked him. Whether I did or not wasn't his damn business. Tolerated would be my word of choice.
Our class had been called out to help search for a group of villains that had been hiding out underground. We had split into multiple small teams to search the area and despite intending to do it alone, these two had charged after me. I rolled my eyes to myself. Dunce Face had brought a map of the underground tunnels and had gotten us lost. Useless.
Somehow our travels had led us deeper underground and now we were stuck trudging along a stone tunnel that covered a narrow underground river. We were heading downstream, though we had reached the river in the dark so had no clue which way was closer to an exit. I gritted my teeth. That rumbling before was most likely from another team fighting the villains. I wanted to be the one who found them and yet I was here trudging through a cold dark tunnel listening to Dunce Face rambling about nothing. If the place weren't so old, I would just blast my way through the walls towards the noise and beat the shit out of the villains myself, but the walls were rough with large stone bricks, not smooth concrete, which showed the age of the place. This underground water way and tunnels had been here long before the more modern buildings above and I couldn't trust that part of it wouldn't collapse if I did use my quirk.
"Are we there yet?" whined the Spark Plug, breaking the silence, after who knows how long of walking, my guess was thirty minutes give or take some. I hadn't noticed he had fallen quiet till he spoke again. I missed it already.
"And where exactly would that be?" I growled as I swung around to face him, his face lighting up with fear at my annoyance. He flinched away and Pointy Hair stepped forward to put his hands on his shoulders.
"Calm down Bakugo, as long as we follow the water we'll get out of here, no problem" he said with a toothy smile
"Getting out of here isn't why I'm pissed" I snarled back, "we came here to beat some villain trash and we haven't found a single one" worse yet, if the others had to come searching for us, well, I kept that to myself.
"The others will handle them no problem, plus we may still come across some" he beamed back at me and I felt my anger fade a little. I swung back to face the darkness before us with a hmph and marched on. My light was only enough to light about a meter in front of me which felt uselss, but was better than nothing.
There was a noise ahead of us and I stopped, raising a hand to tell the others behind me to be silent. They stopped and listened with me and I heard it again over the light crackle and pops of my tiny controlled explosions. The shuffle of feet against stone. Ahead of us, to our right was a darker opening connecting to a different tunnel. We had passed several already on our side, but this is the first time we had heard any activity coming from one. I was the light source, which only left me with one free hand, and I raised it to face the opening on the wall at the edge of what we could see. The ledges by the water were just wide enough for Shitty Hair to step up beside me and he hardened his arms and took up a defensive stance. Whatever Dunce Face was doing behind us didn't matter. He couldn't use his quirk from behind us anyway. The shuffling came closer to the opening slowly, from the sound and the pace, who ever it was I imagined was slow and injured.
We both bent our knees more, ready to spring if needed, but when the dark figure finally stepped out of the tunnel we hesitated. Deku came around the corner and into the light. He was leaning heavily against the stone wall and blood was dripping from his left arm as he leaned on it. He lifted his head slowly to look at us. He looked battered and tired and surprised to see us, as far as his weak expression could show anyway. At the sight of us he seemed to relax, and his body fell forward, smearing a thin line of blood along the wall as he dropped. Shitty Hair was the first to move and jumped forward, dropping to his knees and sliding to catch Deku before he hit the ground. Blondie stepped forward to fill the gap Shitty Hair left and looked on with shock at our classmate.
"Midoriya? Can you hear me? Hey?" called out the red head as he held onto him.
"Where are the others?" asked Dunce Face to no one in particular, "he was teamed up with Todoroki, Uraraka and Aoyama wasn't he?"
I stepped past them to the tunnel Deku had emerged from and shone the light down the entrance, but there was not sight or sound of anyone else.
"Oi Bakugo, bring that light over here" called Spikey Hair and I came back to him. He had moved Deku to the ground and rolled him on his back to check him over. The nerd's costume didn't show much skin so any injuries weren't obvious, but I could see some bruising coming up on his cheek and a thin line of blood coming from a small cut on his forehead above his right eye. The only obvious injury we could see was on his left shoulder where blood had soaked through the green material. I stood by as Shitty Hair unzipped Deku's costume enough to pull the fabric away from the wound. The wounds were small but deep. A deep bite from a human jaw on the top of his shoulder and small dagger like marks focused on the back of his upper arm, I guessed claw marks from the same one who bit him. It seemed most of the bleeding had stopped and the bite wound looked raised and angry.
"Looks like a lot of blood for such small wounds" voiced Kirishima out loud and I grunted in agreement.
"Maybe the attacker had anticoagulant saliva or something" added in Blondie who was looking on from beside me. We both looked at him with confusion and he looked taken aback.
"You know, some animal bites do that" he added like we didn't understand. I at least knew what he was going on about. I just hadn't expected those words from him.
"I get it" spoke up Shitty Hair, turning his attention back to Deku, who wasn't responding. He hadn't opened his eyes or reacted since he dropped.
"My bigger concern is why he's in such bad shape from it," thought the red head aloud, "it's not enough blood loss to cause fainting, and it's stopped now anyway. He was clearly struggling already when he came across us and he has a fever"
"He was fine this morning" spoke up Spark Plug like that wasn't obvious to the rest of us. We saw each other everyday and Deku had been fine.
"Venom maybe?" I said aloud which was a troubling thought. Kirishima nodded up to me having thought of the same thing.
"What, then we need to get him to a hospital!" shrieked Blondie
"This doesn't change anything," I spoke more strongly as Spikey Hair zipped Deku's suit back up and picked him up on his back to carry, "we were already following the river to get out of here, we'll just do it faster" Kirishima nodded in agreement.
"Right. Let's go" he added.
"Wait, shouldn't we go back the way he came from? The others might be that way and if he came in that way then there must be a way out there too" called out Dunce Face as he hesitated by the opening in the wall. Shitty Hair and I were already continuing down the river.
"Don't be an idiot," I called without looking back at him or slowing the pace, "you heard those sounds before. Chances are there was a cave in, and he couldn't go back the way he came from. Why else would he have ended up here alone" that was enough to make the blonde shut up and he hurried to catch up with us. With him in tow, we picked up the pace, heading downstream at a jogging pace with Deku limp on Kirishima's back.
"You alright man?" asked Shitty hair quietly beside me as we went. We had been running in silence for at least another twenty minutes or so, focused on reaching an exit. Even Dunce Face had remained quiet behind us. I shot a glance to my left at him.
"I know you and Midoriya were close growing up. You must be worried about him"
"Ha, why would I ever worry about him" I scoffed back, "and don't get the wrong idea. We were never close"
"Sure but," he trailed off, choosing not to talk about it more. He annoyingly knew me well enough that I didn't need to voice my concerns out loud for him to know I had them. That ticked me off. After a while longer of running through the dark Shitty Hair dropped back and I slowed the pace to see what the hold up was. He stopped and bent over slightly, panting. If he had been getting tired, he had done a good job not showing it.
"Oh, thank god" gasped Spark Plug as he pulled to a stop by Shitty Hair and dropped to the ground to sit and catch his breath.
"I'll take him if you're getting tired" I offered with a grumble as I walked back to them.
"It's not that" spoke Kirishima between breathes, "it's getting too hot" Blondie jumped to his feet and took a step back.
"It's contagious?" he asked with an edge of panic.
"No, it's not that" panted Shitty Hair as he gently shrugged Deku off his back and maneuvered to lay him on the ground gently. Now that I was looking more closely, I would see the sweat on Deku's unconscious face, and he was practically panting. Spark Plug came closer again and bent to touch Deku's forehead. He pulled away with concern.
"He's burning up really bad" he commented.
"I didn't realize it at first, but his whole body is heating up. My back is drenched" added Kirishima, standing back up straight after catching his breath back finally.
"We need to cool him down before we go on" he added and he crouched down to unzip Deku's costume again, this time going all the way down to his belt.
"Oi, take his shoes and socks off," I ordered to the blonde and he came forward to help, "take his gloves off too" I had been about to move forward to do it myself, but they needed my flickering sparks of light to work. A moment later Deku was left with his feet and arms bare, and his costume pulled down to his hips where the red belt sat. My lips tightened into a thin line when I saw it. So many small parts of his costume meant so much to him.
"Check the pockets" I spoke to Dunce Face and he searched each of the red pouches attached to the belt. He pulled from them some basic first aid supplies including, bandages, gauze, tubes of saline eye wash and band aids of various sizes.
"Oh, hand me that" called Spikey Hair and Spark Plug handed him some of the first aid items as he called for them. He squirted the saline wash over the wounds to clean them better, covered them with gauze and with some help from Blondie, bandaged his shoulder and upper arm to keep the gauze in place. With a spare bandage he dipped it in the river water and pressed it to Deku's head. He made a soft groan of protest or relief, but otherwise didn't react.
"Are you sure it's not too cold, he's shivering a bit" asked Dunce Face
"He has a fever. Shivering is normal" I pointed out with annoyance and Spark Plug shut up, but his face showed his growing concern.
"We should keep going. We need to get out of here. Are you alright to carry him?" I asked Kirishima and he smirked at me.
"For sure" he gave me a thumbs up.
"Here" offered Spark Plug, handing him his black jacket, "no doubt it will get too hot for you again skin to skin"
"Thanks man" beamed Shitty Hair. He pulled off the bulky shoulder pieces and his long sleeves, leaving them to the side and putting on the jacket. It was tight on him, so he left it unzipped and he picked up Deku again who was limp against his back.
"You just gonna leave it all here?" asked Dunce Face looking at the pile of dumped clothing from both Deku and Shitty Hair.
"It's better than carrying it, plus we can just get new ones" he smiled back and started to move forward. I stared at the pile for a moment, unable to leave it behind before I reached into it. From it I pulled out Deku's red shoes.
"Hang on" I called and let the light from my sparking palm to go out. Spark Plug called out in protest as we were covered in darkness again, so I moved quickly, feeling in the dark. I pulled the bulky black parts off Deku's shoes till they were plain again and tied the laces together. I draped them over my shoulder, ignoring the smell, and pushed the rest of the gear into the water before lighting up the place again. Without a word I joined them where they had waited for me in the dark and we headed off again. Shitty Hair smirked at me knowingly with the shoes draped over me.
"If we leave that crap there and a villain comes, they will know we have been here. We can't afford a fight right now" I pointed out with a grumble. With Deku in the state he was, we couldn't afford to get stuck dealing with villains.
"Yeah, coz they wouldn't see the light" smirked Shitty Hair and I glared at him.
"I'm talking about later on" I barked back, and he mock flinched away with a smile.
"They mean something?" he asked more quietly, looking to the shoes. I ignored him. I knew these crappy shoes meant something to Deku and he would have hated to leave them behind.
"Hurry up" I called back to the blonde who groaned in complaint as we started off at a jogging pace again. We needed to get out of here.
We had been going for about an hour more when Deku woke up. He was coughing and we stopped for a bit to check on him. He was pale and breathing heavily. We tried talking to him, but he seemed too out of it to understand. He glanced up at us with heavy eyelids and glazed eyes, but it was hard to tell if he even recognized us. I had heard some fevers could get bad enough to cause confusion, so I figured that was all it was. We wetted another bandage for his face and moved him close enough to dip his bare feet into the water to help cool his fever. Kirishima and I stood watching as Deku leaned against Blondie weakly by the water.
"This is bad, man" spoke Kirishima softly. His mouth was a flat line with concern.
"I know" I grumbled back.
"We need to get him out of here," he made a sound of annoyance.
"Yeah. If only we weren't lost" I rolled my eyes as I sneered.
"If we hadn't been lost in the first place, we never would have found him. That would have been worse" he pointed out, "We could just start tearing our way through the walls and see where it gets us" he suggested. I had thought of that myself, but there were too many risks involved.
"We can't," I growled, more to myself than him, "the noise could attract any villains if there's any still around or cause a cave in. We wouldn't even know if we were going to the right way"
"Not worth the risk huh" finished the red head with a sigh and we fell silent for a moment, watching the other two by the water in the dim flickering light.
"What if you take him?" spoke up Dunce Face, he turned his head to look over Deku to us, "we could rip up some of his suit and tie him to your back. With your hands free you could fly out of here faster than we can move him" he offered with a serious expression and Spikey Hair and I were both speechless. I thought about it and looked down at the ground.
"If I leave you both behind, you idiots will be in the dark and I won't be able to see where I'm even going" I thought aloud
"That's not a problem," spoke up Shitty Hair, jumping on board, "the river hasn't curved for a while and even if it did it wouldn't be a sharp turn, you're fast enough to avoid a wall and your explosions will give enough light for that. As for us, we can keep heading the same way. If we just keep following the river, we won't get lost" he smiled to me, trying to reassure me.
"Anyway, getting Midoriya the help he needs is more important. He's not doing so good" our gazes drifted back to him.
"Fine" I growled after a moment's thought. I didn't like leaving them behind in the dark, but they were right, getting Deku out came first.
And they got to work. Using Shitty Hair's hardening he tore apart the top half of Deku's costume that he wasn't using and Dunce Face's jacket and tied them together so Deku could be tied to my back. I crouched down and provided them with light while they worked, turning my back to them so they could fix Deku in place. Kirishima had been right, even after having his feet soaking in the cold water this whole time, Deku was burning up through his whole body and when he was pressed against me, I could feel the intense heat radiating from him. It only made me want to hurry more. They positioned him on my back and bound his wrists and his knees together in front of me and then around my middle. It wasn't comfortable and had to be tight to stop his weight from shifting, but this way my hands would be free. Shitty Hair took the red shoes from me, promising that he would hold onto them for me, and gave me the red belt with it's remaining first aid supplies and I swapped it out with my own. I looked over my shoulder to see Deku's face by my shoulder. He was sweating, shivering and panting, his closed eyes tightening like someone having a bad dream. I glanced back to the others. Spark Plug gave me a thumbs up and Spikey Hair nodded to me as a sendoff.
"Don't you die" I said to them and Shitty Hair laughed.
"Yeah, you too buddy" I smirked at him and pulled my phone out of my pocket to check the time. There was no reception down here at all but glancing at it told that we had been down here for over three hours already since the mission started. I moved my arms to face behind me and took off with a blast, leaving them behind. It wasn't easy navigating the tunnel, trying to balance enough force to stay above the water without going high enough to hit the ceiling, meanwhile all in the dark. The constant controlled explosions were enough to light the way a few feet in front of me, but at this speed it wasn't great. I tried to stay close enough to the water where the reflection offered the best light, and the tunnel was widest. I knew traveling like this would tire me faster than when out in the open where I didn't have to focus so much, but I had to endure it for Deku's sake. His extra weight on my back didn't help and the makeshift rope dug into my chest as I breathed.