STRETCHY

"Not… letting… go…" Tiger grunted as Izuku took another step forward.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Ragdoll asked. "I'm sensing that your lower lumbar region is about ready to fly apart."

"What, this?" Tiger wheezed as Izuku kept walking. "This is nothing. I'm a Pro Hero, after all, I can't let a student get the better of me!"

"We could always go back to my plan," Pixie Bob said.

"You sent waves of stone statues at him all day yesterday," Mandalay pointed out, "And he didn't even break a sweat. He even ate the ones we covered in metal plating."

"Well, I don't see how this is an improvement!" Pixie Bob gestured at Tiger's tangled torso wound through the trees like a rubber band. As Izuku strode onwards, the trees visibly bent towards each other.

"We can actually hear Midoriya struggling today. I'd say that's an improvement."

True to Mandalay's words, Izuku's limbs made metallic groaning noises as he took each step forward, like a hydraulic press laboring to split the landscape in half. Smoke billowed from Izuku's body as he stuffed a tree branch down his throat.

"He's also destroying a lot of the forest. Between that Roomba thing he did and this, we'll run out of trees in a week."

A loud scraping noise caught their attention. Izuku's feet dug furrows into the ground, but he moved no further forward.

"Ha!" Tiger said triumphantly. "Looks like we finally reached your limit."

While Izuku kept walking forwards as though he were on a treadmill, his arms snaked out and latched onto a thick tree branch. As he pulled, the crunch of splintering wood rang out from every tree Tiger had wrapped around. With a thunderous crash, two dozen trees shattered and tumbled to the ground. Pixie Bob kept them from crushing anybody, yet a shout of pain rang through the ruined forest.

"Oh, my back!" Tiger wailed. "I think I threw out my back!"

"Scanning…" Izuku's eyes lit up, and a horizontal beam swept over Tiger's hunched back. "Either you have a slipped disc, or you have cancer. Preparing operation."

Tiger's eyes widened as Izuku reared back a fist. "No, wait, we can call an ambulance, really, it's fine, no need to-"

Izuku's fist slammed dead center into Tiger's spine. Tiger gave a sharp cry of pain as his spine realigned itself, then breathed out a sweet sigh of relief.

"Wow, that felt amazing! Did Recovery Girl give you training in field surgery?"

Izuku examined the pulsating flesh in his hand. Scanning it, he said, "That is very strange. Your tumor looks a lot like a kidney."

With a look of dawning horror, Tiger twisted around and saw a thin, cauterized scar on his lower back. In a strangled voice, Tiger asked, "Can I please have that back?"

472

Waiting on news if I have COVID or not. Past couple days have been pretty dismal. Ugh.