Two villains have invaded the area! It's possible there are still more lurking in the shadows! Those who are capable, head immediately to the facility. If you should come face to face with the enemy, do not engage them in combat! Continue your retreat!
I put my hand over my face, and as we were running, I noticed -
a body?
No, just knocked out. A kid from Class B, lying on the ground unconscious. That smoke - it's not just fire smoke - it's poisonous -
Bakugou had clapped his hand to his mouth, but someone had to get the Class B kid.
"Goddammit," Bakugou spat, as I hauled the unconscious kid onto my back, and we started heading back towards camp.
"Is this gas also the villains' doing?" I wondered. "I'm still worried about the others, but there's not much we can do. Let's back off of the goal point and head to the 'll leave things here at the midway point to Rag doll."
"Don't order me around -" began Bakugou, but then he stopped.
In front of us - was a villain, undoubtedly, dressed in black from head to foot, with chains around his arms. And bending over what looked like a severed hand.
"Who-wo was supposed to be ahead of us?" Bakugou stumbled out. For once, he sounded scared.
"so pretty, so beautiful…ah no, i mustn't, I have work to do. But I just can't leave it alone…ah…"
The villain's voice was chilling, a growl beneath it's throat. It - he - turned to face us. His mask had a hole in it revealing lips pulled back with sutures and bare teeth.
"I have work to do."
"Don't fight, is that the rule?" Bakugou spat. I could see he was sweating. Trying to sound cool, but just as scared as I was.
The creepy villain threw its head backwards and spat out white spiky daggers from its mouth.
It took me a minute to realize - those are its teeth.
We were facing down a dangerous villain, alone with no permission to fight back.
Of course, Bakugou wasn't exactly listening. He had a defensive stance. Like he was getting ready to throw a blow right at our enemy.
"Cut it out!" I told him. Though it sounded like stupid advice. But I could still remember Hosu. How much trouble we'd gotten into. And even without that, aside from my ice, both of our quirks would be dangerous in the woods. Things could get set on fire. Or even more so, because it seemed like the forest had also been set on fire.
Then we got another message from Mandalay.
Members of Class A and B, I hereby authorize you all for combat!
And with that, Bakugou was off and running, before I could say anything else to stop him.
Until -
We've identified one of the villains' objectives! The student named 'Kacchan!'
They're after Bakugou? I jumped a little. My teammate's back was to me - he was still running into danger and had only flinched a little on hearing his situation.
Whoever Kacchan is, as much as possible, avoid combat! Refrain from solo movements! Got that, Kacchan?
I threw up an ice barrier between Bakugou and the villain, just barely stopping us both from being skewered.
The villain mumbled "I've got to bear this, I've got a job to door."
"This is not a time to be reckless!" I scolded Bakugou. "Didn't you hear? They're after you!"
"Kacchan, kacchan, shut the fuck up, get out of my head!" he snarled. "That damn Deku must've done something. First they say to fight, then they say don't fight, goddamit! Fuck it, I don't care!" he was moving - and again, only seconds away from being skewered by the villain, before my Ice saved him.
The villain ducked and avoided being frozen. He was navigating the landscape using his teeth extended like extra limbs.
"This guy knows how to make good use of his surroundings and his quirk," I muttered.
"Looks to me like a gangly weakass who needs his teeth kicked in!" sneered Bakugou, bending backwards to avoid the teeth very aerobically.
This definitely isn't his first battle, I thought, observing the villain's dexterity with his quirk, as he continued to babble about "flesh".
"If you go exploding stuff here, you might start a fire that could surround and kill us all! You know that, right?" I pointed out to Bakugou, who was winding his arm up as if about to throw off a huge one.
"Shut up, I get it," he replied.
I took a look around If we try to retreat, there's the gas. Put simply, we're in a bind.
What was worse, I was starting to freeze over with the effort of continually putting out ice for a shield.
The villain was somehow blasting through every ice shield I could put up, and Bakugou was clearly hitting the breaking point.
"I can't get any closer, dammit! The only choice is to go at him with full power!"
"No, you can't!" I shouted.
"If the trees catch fire just cover em with your ice!"
"Explosions would block our field of vision," I told him, remembering the Hero Killer's advice. "What do we do if your attack fails to take him out? He's got us beat in both range and power."
We're trapped, dammit.
"There they are! I see ice! They're fighting!"
Midoriya?
I turned to see. Shoji was running towards us, with Midoriya on his back, and a giant rampaging something running through the woods behind them, rambling trees.
"Bakugou, Todoroki! one of you please, make some light!"
The rampaging thing had slammed the villain down onto the ground, twice as big as him. Bakugou and I stared - and I recognized the classmate seemingly enveloped by the rampaging dark thing. IS that -
"KACCHAN!" Midoriya shouted.
I was still staring at out other classmate, and I suddenly realized what the rampaging thing was.
"Shoji, Midoriya and - Tokoyami?"
Dark Shadow - that was what the thing was - slammed a fist down, barely missing Shoji and Midoriya.
"He's attacking indiscriminately - I'll make some flam-" I began, but Bakugou blocked me.
"Wait, dumbass. Just watch."
I followed his gaze. The villain we'd been fighting was moving into action - but with a single swoop, Tokoyami swept him out of the way, halfway across the forest.
"WANT TO RAGE, NOT ENOUGH FUN - " Dark Shadow was screaming, but now Bakugou gave me the godhead, and we moved as one - my fire and his explosions - to calm Dark Shadow. With light.
Tokoyami was freed.
"I'm the worst matchup for you," Bakugou remarked to him, as I went to get Tsuburaba.
"Thank you for saving me," said Tokoyami.
"The villain that kept us on the defensive…you took him out in an instant," I murmured.
"Tokoyami, are you all right? Everything worked out like we said," said Shoji.
"Shoji, Midoriya, I'm sorry. My spirit was not prepared. When Shoji lost one of his arms, I gave into my anger and released dark shadow. In the depth of the darkness, I was consumed with fury, further spurred on by their rage. It built up to a point where I could no longer contain it, and I hurt Shoji in the process."
"Save it." Shoji was curt. "If I were you, I wouldn't be talking about that right now."
"That's right. We've established that Kacchan is one of the villains' targets," Midoriya informed him.
"Bakugou? But why?" Tokoyami asked.
"I don't know," said Midoriya, and to my surprise, Bakugou said nothing. "But in any case, I think we'd be safest in the facility with the two pros."
"I see. So our mission from here on out is to escort Bakugou," said Tokoyami.
"however, if we go through the clearing, that's where the pussycats are currently fighting. If we follow the path back, the villains will definitely spot us. We can't afford another setback. We should cut straight through the shortest route," said Midoriya.
"We don't know how many of them there are. There's the possibility that they could suddenly ambush us," I pointed out.
"But Shoji has the ability to detect enemies!" said Midoriya. "And Todoroki's got his freezing. What's more if Tokoyami's all right, we still have a method of controlling the unrivaled power of dark shadow. With this lineup, quite frankly, not even All Might would scare us."
"What the hell us this!?" snapped Bakugou, finally losing it at that.
"You walk in the middle," I told him.
"Like hell you're protecting me, you assholes!" he snapped.
"Let's go," said Shoji.
