Countdown to Reality
1. Thank you for reading!
2. I love writting Bakugo's explosions in bold. Makes them bigger.
Day 3. Beginning of the End of the Afternoon. Countdown: 19: 12: 31
Deku had obviously no idea where to begin. He just stood there, stunned.
Bakugo too actually, and for a longer time.
He was no friend of that stupid half-and-half, but seeing him like this… Fuck. So, it was possible for them to not remember. Bakugo felt his insides make some backflips, thinking back about what his mother had explained. Yet, he could not dwell on that. Icy-hot stupid face was currently more important than reflecting on his own doubts.
"…we, we are not enemies." Deku finally uttered. His voice was just above the fire loud crackling. "We… we also have Quirks, and… we are here to help you."
Deku's efforts to reassure Icy-Hot were not working. He took another prudent step back, and Deku looked even more... sad? Terrified? Lost? A bit of everything, according to his useless 'my-heart-is-broken-right-now' eyes.
"Todoroki-kun, we have… we will tell you the whole story, but we don't have time for that now. They are coming our way and… and how is Ashido-san?"
"Ashido-san?" Half-and-half asked stupidly, his voice being more a cough than anything else. "Her?"
Maybe he was amnesiac-brainwashed-whatever, but he was still dense. How many other people were there around? Deku was not fucking calling trees by surnames!
"You… you don't know her name? Why… why are you two together if you don't know her name…?"
He did not answer. Still, the nerd insisted. Despite being as perceptive as a nut, Icy-Hot was far from being stupid. He could probably tell they were not from any sort of official government unit. They could try to discuss with him and calm him down. Yet, he remained silent and did not answer any of Deku's questions.
"Anyway, we will address that later…" the nerd temporarily gave up as he heard some voices in the forest. "We have another friend. She is waiting for us. For us four. She has a car to take us away from here… we just want to help."
"I don't want your help."
Honest, as always. Deku looked hurt. Good for him. Bakugo took another step forward, deliberately going past Icy-Hot charcoal border, as if it meant nothing.
"Hey, we did not lose fucking hours planning how to rescue your ass for you to say, 'No thanks.' Either you come willingly, or I'll have that fight I've dreamt on having with you for ages. Your choice."
"Kacchan!"
Todoroki jumped, his ice making steps for him to climb toward the sky. He was not fighting. He was fucking running away! Dense was not even the start of it. I was super – dense. They were his best chance, for fuck sake, memories or not!
"Deku! We do not have time to play tag! I'll get him, grab Pinkie, it's going to get hot!"
And he launched himsefl after Icy-hot with a loud Boom sound.
Instantly, Izuku knew who would win. (Was that even a question? With Kacchan, rarely, but with Kacchan and Todoroki-kun, under normal circumstances, it would have been a fair question.) Todoroki was slow. Slower than usual, and his exhaustion was clear as day. Kacchan, on the other hand, was on his normal level. If Izuku had not been with him earlier, he would not have believed his friend had collapsed on the street. He soared in the sky, propelled by bright explosions and Izuku stepped on a tree, jumping up just seconds later.
BOooomM
He almost reminded Kacchan that Todoroki was a classmate, not an enemy to take down, but he did not.
Todoroki was indeed looking exhausted, but he was fighting for his life. He was unleashing his powers full force, and had, apparently, no issue to throw consecutive heat waves and ice spikes at Kacchan with a clear intend to hurt, if not to kill. He would never have done that at school.
"FUCK! Why do you fight seriously NOW?!" Kacchan roared, but his grin was wider than it had ever been. "You'd better remember that I'm going to kick your ass, fuckmuch!"
A wide cracking ice-wall rushed at Kacchan in response.
Izuku jumped the fastest he could, and Todoroki saw him at the last second. His eyes opened wide, he braced himself for the impact, but Izuku did not kick him. If he had, Todoroki would have ended on his back a few meters below, and on his back was still Ashido-san. Instead, he opened his hands, and tore her from his shoulders.
Just in time.
Kacchan was above them, smiling madly, hands bright with sparks.
"Out of my way, DEKU!"
For once, Izuku was in his way. Todoroki made another wall of ice and fire, and Izuku jumped out of the way of another, louder, deadlier Boom. He worriedly looked back at the fight. Kacchan had circled the wall at light speed and Todoroki was in a difficult position, but his ice was still rushing out of his forearm, and Kacchan was fighting carefully.
He was not going all out, despite the mad grin, and there were multiple reasons for that: There were the trees, already on fire. There was the underlying thought that Todoroki was maybe not their last opponent of the day. There was also the fact that their classmate, as much as he was defending himself, looked scared. Izuku felt his heart pang with multiple horrible feelings as he put that word on Todoroki's gaze. He looked scared of them. No, no, no, this was not supposed to happen, like never!
Izuku breathed out, calming himself down. Kacchan was scary, but he was really careful. Which was probably a lot harder than fighting villains. He did not want to hurt him… not badly at least. There also were no costumes to support their abilities, and no recovery girl around to patch up any of them. No recovery girl for broken bones, shockwaves damage, burns. No recovery girl for Ashido.
Izuku looked at the girl he held in his arms.
Her pink skin was a little purple-sick, her forehead clammed with sweat, and her eyes tightly closed. None of the BoooomMm had awaken her. She also had some cold-induced burns, where Todoroki had used his ice to pin her to his back. Izuku noted real burns too, probably form Todoroki's own fire. Her lips were paper-ragged, as if she had not drank for quite some time, but the worst was her left forearm. Todoroki had used one sleeve of hers to bandage it, but it was all soaked and caked with dried blood.
"Ashido-san…" Izuku tried to shake her awake, but she remained unconscious.
"OH NO, You fucking DON'T!"
There was a flash, one of Kacchan's best stun grenades, and Todoroki, on the brink of trying another escape route, let out a cry of surprise. He tried to protect his eyes, but it was already too late. Kacchan was too close, and before his opponent could recover, another explosion greeted him right in the face.
Todoroki hit the ground hard, and Kacchan landed on him. Todoroki tried to shake him off, and burning flames reached for his childhood friend, letting a large burn on his shoulder.
"FUCK YOU!" Kacchan literally roared, and at point blank, he launched another stun grenade. Right in his face and for the second time.
Ow, that was going to hurt. Kacchan was good for a two degrees burn and Todoroki was good for a week-long headache. If not for longer. He stopped struggling and laid on his back, holding his face and hiding his abused eyes. That was underestimating Kacchan. He was not finished. He grabbed him by his collar and shook him hard.
"Calm the fuck down! Fuck you! I have Not spent the two last fucking days bearing with the nerd and miss-perfect plan-less ideas for you to spit 'no thanks, shove your damn help, I'll burn you' to my face! Don't ever dare to fire or ice or whatever shit at us, I will kill you! Now, fuck, we need to take off, because if the soldiers we haven't yet sent to the hospital are half as dumb as you are, they are not going to wait any longer for you to solve your dammed fucking confidence issues!"
And he dumped him back onto the ground with a thud.
Ouch.
"DEKU!"
And now it was his turn, there was no stopping that kind of Kacchan…
"How is Pinky?" His friend simply asked, in a lot calmer tone.
Izuku, surprised not to be insulted as well in the process, stared down at the girl in his arms for a few seconds. His initial assessment of her had not changed at all.
"Burns, dehydration I think, but she still sweats a lot, and by the way, it's acid, I need to cover my hands, and her arm… I don't want to look under that piece of cloth here, but it is not looking good."
"Fuck." Kacchan swore.
He looked back at their other classmate, who had not moved from where Kacchan had just let him fall.
"Get up, dipshit."
"Kacchan…"
"You, shut up. Be useful, call Ponytail, we need her fucking car, or whatever. We are obviously not taking the bus with the two liabilities here, and we need to know where to go fast."
Despite hating the way Kacchan was talking to him and about their classmates, Izuku had to admit he had a point. He could hear the voices getting closer and the helicopters rotor blades turning not that far from them. In addition, the smoke was getting worse.
"Get the fuck up!" Kacchan roared back at Todoroki, but he did not move and Kacchan crouched beside him, his face looking suddenly less angry but more annoyed. "Fuck. He passed out."
Izuku rushed closer to them, and crouched as well beside him. Apart from the lack of bloodied bandages, Todoroki was more or less looking as bad as Ashido. His feet had cuts and burns, he was covered in bruises and a large cut on his shoulder looked quite serious.
"I don't think I hurt him." Kacchan stated in a normal, not-screamed tone of voice.
"I don't think either. Maybe a few more bruises and he is good for the headache of his life… but I think that's just exhaustion."
His friend grabbed Todoroki and lifted him up onto his shoulder. Their classmate stayed limp, not faking it. Kacchan wobbled a little, and for a brief second, Izuku saw his eyelids blinking at top speed, only to stop a second later.
"Ponytail?" Kacchan grunted to remind him he had still a job to do.
"Ha- yeah."
Reaching for his cellphone while having Ashido in his arms was a challenge. She was not heavy, but she was non-responsive, and holding a sleeping person was never easy. Kacchan was about to say something when he finally managed to get it out of his pocket.
Yaoyorozu's location was not far, less than a few kilometers away, outside of the perimeter of Endoa forest. That was probably a road that was not being watched. He was about to give her a call when a noise, somewhere in the forest, stopped him. A scream.
The rotor blades were still turning somewhere far in the sky, the fire was roaring even louder, but every other noise had suddenly stopped.
"What the fuck?" Bakugo asked.
Another scream resounded… then a third, and fire was getting hotter, closer. At the fourth scream, Izuku pocketed his phone and secured Ashido-san in his arms, her head on his shoulder. At the fifth, just one second later, Kacchan voiced a very careful, very silent "Fuck, we need to bail out." The sixth was accompanied by frantic giggles.
Familiar frantic giggles.
The bushes caught fire. Blue flames soared towards the trees, lighting them up like as many frail matches. More screams, many more screams rose within the flames, only to die bare seconds later, letting little room for imagination on the fate of the people caught inside.
"Let's go!" Izuku said, but Bakugo had not waited for him, with a Boom he was already in the air, heading away from the raging chaos.
A silver line crossed the forest darkness, aiming for…
"KACCHAN!" Izuku screamed.
Kacchan saw it. Just in time to shot a rapid explosion at the projectile, slightly deviating its initial route. It clattered between bushes, and Izuku had just one short second to register that it was a blade, a blood-soaked blade... and then, someone was here, less than ten meters or so.
Izuku felt many mixed feelings. Fear, anger, and a very strong impression of Deja vu. Same people, same period of the year, same forest, same soaring flames. The next sentence was the same as well.
Except it was not from Izuku's mouth, this time.
"Give them back," Said the magician.
Bakugo Katsuki had spent two whole days with the League. Two whole days strapped on an uncomfortable chair, surrounded by these fucking assholes.
During that time, which had felt a lot longer, he had had plenty of time to think. However, thinking, in that situation, had not been the best thing to offer to his own sanity.
At Kamino, his thoughts had been rewinding the same strategies repeatedly, punctuated by questions without answers. They could decide that he was not useful any longer and kill him. Just like that. They were crazy enough for that. Strong enough for that. What would he do if it turned out that way? What could he do? The crazy bitch was saying twice a minute that she wanted to see him bleed, and no one had been openly against that idea…
Since overthinking had not been helping, Bakugo had tried not to think too much. Instead he had spent a good amount of time assessing them, watching them, remembering all the details, carving their voices and faces in his mind, so that next time they would meet, he would have all intel he needed to explode them clean.
Next time had arrived!
He landed, whirled around, one hand at the ready to make a number on the knife-maniac-bitch, his other hand holding Icy-Hot and… he did not shoot. The girl struggling to walk through the thick bushes was not Himiko Toga.
She looked like her.
A lot.
A fucking lot. Same mad smile, same sick eyes, same nasty knifes. Not the same clothes as in Kamino, but that was normal. Not the same hair style either, but girls and hair was an unimportant topic. The differences were elsewhere. They were on the shape of her face, the shape of her body, the shape of her entirely… She would have done a better job if she had worn another person skin, honestly. That version of her… looked inaccurate.
"Here, here, here!" She hysterically screamed, pointing him with a sharp knife. "I founnnd onnne…! Hana-chaaaan will be so proud!"
Who the fuck was Hana-chan? There were no Hana in the League. He did not dwell on that question. Behind fake-knife-bitch, another person had joined them.
If the blond girl was inaccurate, then, he needed to find a much stronger adjective for him. Actually, without the huge clue that was the blue fire raging less than five fucking meters behind them, he would have not recognized him. Dabi had scars in different places than before, snowflake hair, and the shape of his face was different. It was rounder, as if he was not missing a bit of his jaw or whatever other part of him anymore.
Both of them flickered.
He blinked.
Suddenly they were not in the forest. They were nowhere. Bakugo blinked again. The fire light was strong, shadows were dancing, and the scene had issues staying whole and stable. Some trees also disappeared, reappeared, and rocks too, and even the heat was absent, and everything was flashing, flashing… and… and…
Fuck.
This was not…
"KACC…!"
This was in his head. He had to focus…! He blinked again, and suddenly, they were back. Solid, real.
They were back in the world, but the world was not back yet, not fully, and they were closer. A lot closer. Too. FUCKING. CLOSE!
"KACCHAN! MOVE!"
BOOOM! His free palm exploded. A huge, huge explosion, too huge. Knife-bitch was sent flying and the fucking magician barely managed to snatch her into a protective bead before her skull would meet a nice, gentle rock with plenty of angles.
A wave of fire came raging at him. He whirled on himself, ducked the heat by a hairbreadth, and used the explosion to propel himself out of the range of the patchwork-for-a-skin lunatic. The world was still fucking swinging in an out, on and off, and…
"Give him to me," The fire-maniac said in a low tone, loud enough to be heard over flames and smoke. "I don't care who sent you, but he does not belong to you."
It occurred to him that they did not seem to remember him at all. Which was infuriating. He had, however, no time to give it more thinking time. Dabi launched another wall of flames at him, and the fire caught in the trees, igniting up the forest like a torch… fuck, with both their Quirks, the situation was rapidity becoming unbreathable.
Smoke, sparks and branches were everywhere. He heard some coughing coming from behind him, and dodged just in time the huge piece of something headed for his skull. He dropped to the ground, and sparked explosions in the ankles of whoever had had the good idea to come that close to him.
A grunt of pain welcomed his attack, and he barely had time to avoid the knife. The bitch was back, her mask over her mouth and her eyes watery with all the thick dust and smoke. On the other side, Dabi was also coming back. On the floor, a soldier, looking lost, was getting up. Fuck. Fuck them all.
He dropped Icy Hot on the ground, who opened an eye to close it immediately, and he opened both his palms.
Boooom!
Fire was blown out on twenty meters in both directions. The knife bitch screamed and that time, hit the ground without any friend cushioning her. The soldier rolled out of the way until his back hit a branch. Dabi dodged miraculously, using his fire to launch himself in the sky.
That was new.
"SMMAAAAASH!"
Bakugo did not see what happened, but suddenly, a gust of wind hit him and sent him on the floor, one meter away from Todoroki. Some more fire was blown out by Deku's air force, and smoke dissipated a bit.
The nerd was standing above the cracked mask of the magician, who had a hand extended towards pink hair on the ground. It was satisfying to see him bleeding through his nose and mouth.
"Don't ever try laying your hands on my friends!" Deku screamed, but the man was out cold. He let him fall on the forest floor, in the middle of flames licking his clothes.
Bakugo's eyes jumped on Mina. Was she…? Where was she…? Just behind Deku, on the ground, looking unhurt… no. Scratch that. She was hurt. Just not more than before.
Dabi moved, getting to his feet, and he braced himself for another attack of flames, but patchwork-man dived to the ground, right at passed-out useless fucking icy hot.
"FUCK!" Bakugo screamed, knowing he would not be fast eno–
BANG!
Bakugo opened his eyes wide. The noise was not his doing; it was not even an explosion noise, more like a… bullet? Dabi screamed, and there was some blood on earth and pine needles. Bakugo turned around so fast he almost hurt his own neck.
"Hands behind your heads! Don't move!"
Several men, looking burnt, shaken and hurt, but still alive and armed, emerged from the forest.
"Kacchan, we need to move! They must have call reinforcements!"
No fucking fuck! But if he moved, theses fuckers were going to shoot, was the nerd that stupid?! Without the element of surprise, fighting them was a very different story! And that was without fire-maniac getting up in his back!
"Surrender! Now!" The closer one ordered, aiming. "HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEADS!"
"Not fucking twice." He heard in his back. "I'm not losing that fight twice."
Dabi had wobbled to his legs. His right arm looked bloodied and broken from the shot, but the look in his eyes looked more defiant than ever. There were no flames yet, but Bakugo could feel the heat emanating from his limbs despite the distance. Vapor and smoke started to escape his mouth.
Oh, fuck. Whatever he had in store, Bakugo did not want to stay that close.
Everything next happened in an indistinct blur. Deku landed right on the first soldier back, feet first, smashing him onto the ground, Pinky on his own shoulder. Someone, several people actually, opened fire. A heat wave exploded at the same time, drowning them all into a hoven-like atmosphere. People screamed, Bakugo launched a protective explosion in no special direction, hoping against odds that the shock wave would be enough to prevent any bullet or flame to reach him or Icy-Hot, and… and…
Someone grabbed his forearm. In the panic, with the smoke, the noise, the fucking flashes, he did not even consider who the fuck it could be.
Boom!
"Kacchan! That hurt!"
Ha.
Well. Fuck him.
Deku grabbed Todoroki as well, and Bakugo rose to his feet. What had happened? The smoke was so thick and… the men were all between some miraculously intact ferns, feet marks imprinted on their cheeks and helmets. Inwardly, he had to admit Deku had done some good job, there. For reputation stake, he still preferred to explode at him.
"FUCK! WHERE the fuck were you?! YOU took down ONE guy while I had time to deal with THREE!"
"I'm sorry!" Deku apologized, starting to run. "I couldn't let him touch me, it was difficult and I… we need to go now, the helicopter is gone with the smoke, it's probably not a good sign, the smoke…"
"I FUCKING KNOW, AND YOU'RE USELESS!"
Someone almost grazed Bakugo's neck–
Fuck. He whirled, and... scar-face was so close he could see the electric blue of his eyes. A flame lit up and... died. He fell to one knee, breath short. His body was failing him. He was burnt and litteraly steaming. His arm was covered in blood, definitely broken from the bullet impact. Yet, his stare was unwavering.
Bakugo still stepped in front of Deku who had both his hands occupied by pink-liability and heterochromia-liability.
"Let's go!" Deku urged.
"Yeah." Bakugo answered, knowing the fire-freak would not follow them, or not for long, not in that state.
It felt strange. To be in that forest, in almost the same forest, with almost the same people, at almost the same period of the year… Dabi had a broken arm, he was burnt, he was in absolutely no shape to come after them, he was looking at Bakugo – no – not at Bakugo. Past Bakugo. He was staring at the two kids being taken away from his hands – no. Not at the two kids. – he was staring at Icy Hot, and Bakugo knew that look.
"WAIT!"
The world flashed violently.
Everything disappeared. Memories crashed into reality, collided with it, and so fast it was maddening… the forest was the same, the trees were on fire, some people were down, and Deku, stupid Deku screamed…
"KACCHAAAAN!"
He had closed his eyes.
It was in his head, all in his head.
Dabi was there, in the memory, holding his neck, but he was also there in front of him, where Deku should have been, looking at strangers leaving, strangers taking someone important with them, taking what they shouldn't have…
The scene was the same one, roles were just reversed. Todoroki was in Bakugo's old position. Deku was holding Todoroki in Dabi's place. Dabi was screaming to reach them instead of Deku. Mina was where Tokoyami had been, just a quiet extra in a larger game.
Fuck. Fuck these lights! It was getting worst every second, the world was shifting, like a mirror were the roles were in reverse order and he could feel it in his bones, he could feel something happening, something that happened…
Dabi tried to reach for them…
Deku tried to reach for him…
"Stay Back!" He barked at Dabi… or was it at Deku? Bakugo was not sure where he was. When he was.
Another big, screaming flash made all the flames and trees look like little sparks, and then, everything was back to normal. He was beside Deku, on the ground, panting, vision spinning, sweating so much it was fucking getting dangerous – the nitroglycerin, reduce it, reduce it – and...
"Get up!" Deku screamed.
Get up?! Bakugo did get up, not knowing when he had ended on his back, in the leaves. Deku was still carrying both their unconscious friends, and Dabi was only a few meters away. Fuck! Fuck, fuck, the trees, Dabi, everything was flashing again, as hard as before. Deku and his classmates were the only stable things around.
He focused on Deku. On Mina. On stupid Icy-Hot.
The world stabilized just a bit. Just enough.
"What?!" He barked. "Stop screaming, I am fucking just here!"
"I did not scream!"
"You just did, bastard!" He screamed louder. "How far are we from Ponytail?! They are going to come after us! We've got to disappear in the smoke."
"Fifteen minutes in that direction." Said Deku.
"Shut up!"
The fire and the smoke were opaque. His head felt heavy, and running through the unbreathable fog did nothing to help with it. Deku was coughing, Icy-Hot also was, even in his sleep, and behind them, the voices grew fainter. They were just too fast for regular guys… and the League had wounds to lick.
Bakugo felt shitty. Breathing the fog was burning his lungs, caking his throat and tongue. His legs were feeling weaker, and lights were dancing from time to time. Focusing was getting hard, harder, harder at each step.
Focus. The lights were almost all gone. Focus.
He was already by a small road, by a big car, and Yaoyorozu was there, welcoming them. He had little to no recollection of their run, and he looked back, at the deep forest behind them. The smoke was still around, but less thick, less unbreathable, and no one had been able to follow them. He turned back to face the girl.
She was wearing gym clothes, she looked… ridiculous at best, and so anxious that she could explode anytime.
"Oh my God! What happened to them?! Are they fine?!" She fussed.
Bakugo pushed her out of the way to open the car. Good, it was a big one, with two rows of back seats.
"Ashido-san was already like this when we found her… and Todoroki he…"Deku tried to explain, but it was too hard to explain for that wimp, and he did not finish his sentence.
"He does not remember us, so he fucking tried to escape, attacked, and I won." Bakugo summarized, helping Deku to put both their unconscious classmates in the car and fasten their seatbelts. Bad thing was: they did not react. Good thing was: they both were still breathing.
"He… What ? You… what? Wait, wait… you fought Todoroki-kun?!" Ponytail panicked.
"Fuck you. I just knocked him out. He'll be fucking fine." Bakugo spat, then, with a finger, he pointed at the car. "You were driving?"
She nodded, and Bakugo sighed.
"Then, fuck, let's go! I don't want to give that helicopter time to hover close!"