Death

by tmb1112

Death is a Quirk that can only kill. A perfect Quirk for a villain, but what if the boy who manifested that power just wanted to be a hero? Enrolling in U.A. might not be enough when all your Quirk can do is kill people. Follow Zach Sazaki from his first day in Class A on a story that spans years, as he learns to be a hero, finds out more about his Quirk, and too much to summarize!

78. Chapter 78

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 78:

"NOO!"

Dandy injected himself with Apocalypse and time seemed to slow down.

Midoriya ducked his head. Then he spun while Chemist and Bikergang were still staring forward towards Dandy, and Midoriya jumped up while the man pointing a gun where his head had just been finally finished pulling the trigger.

Impossible! Breakneck thought, his eyes shifting down to where Midoriya ducked, only to lag back up as Midoriya rose to his head level faster than he could follow. In his head he saw the only person whose speed had been able to match his Flashstep this much, and Breakneck's face twisted in absolute rage in the second before the boy reminding him of All Might slammed a leg into his face. Midoriya's kick finally made Bikergang look towards him, though Chemist could not care less about what just happened considering what he was staring at.

Midoriya had let go of him when Breakneck attacked in the moment everyone was seemingly distracted, and the boy succeeded in getting a blow that slammed Breakneck's body into the floor with his eyes rolled back in his head. Chemist felt his freedom, and he stumbled backwards and fell on his butt. Then he spun onto his shoulders and knees with his hands still tied behind his back and scooted backwards with a look of sheer terror on his face. Midoriya jumped towards him and grabbed the scientist, but the man kept squirming forward on the ground while straining his arms so hard that his wrists started to bleed in Bikergang's special ties.

Seeing the man who had been complaining so much about pain for the past ten minutes struggling to a point of causing himself harm unnerved Midoriya. The man's face when he looked back over his shoulder though, completely ignoring the boy holding him to stare back towards another villain instead was much worse though. BANG BANG BANG BANG Click

Zach had Breakneck's original gun in his right hand that had hesitated next to his side while he tried shouting at Dandy not to do it. He fired the rest of Breakneck's clip in the gun that he had put in his waistband earlier but never used yet, and every one of the four bullets collided with Dandy's chest and stomach.

"Lifebringer!" Bikergang shouted to his left as he saw Dandy stumble backwards from those shots.

"Oh fuck!" Zach shouted, pulling back himself and dropping the gun as Dandy turned his way. The gun dropping from Zach's hand was losing the darkness surrounding it, black wisps seeping off as it dropped slowly to the ground in a sudden silence that seemed to last a minute.

Every person there stared towards Dandy. Chemist and Midoriya looking over their shoulders, Bikergang looking back when he saw the terror somehow visible in Lifebringer's glowing red eyes. Shigaraki even lost his smirk, and Dabi started turning away. "Forget the Chemist," Dabi said, thinking back on the Apocalypse trials himself and running away without listening to whatever Shigaraki's response might be.

Shigaraki saw Midoriya stop Breakneck from getting the Chemist already though, and in that moment he had decided. Shigaraki took another step back, though his eyes stayed on Dandy who had put his right hand back behind him after stumbling back. Dandy's shirt ripped apart as his muscles rippled around and bulged, bullets pushing out of his chest and stomach, and the bloody holes in his skin sealing up. Those bullets dropped to the floor as slow as Zach's gun did, while cracks ran up and diagonally and to the sides of where Dandy's hand just gripped into the wall behind him. His hand was getting bigger, his claws extending farther into the wall he gripped with a strength that would crush steel like glass. The hair on Dandy's arms and torso grew out longer and waved around off of his skin, getting thicker and looking like fur while the claws extended out on his left hand too. Dandy's left nails sharpened, his forearm bulked, his bicep and shoulder too, with a huge bulge of muscles rippling out from that shoulder behind his back and filling his neck.

Dandy leaned his neck to the side and then rolled his head around. He dragged his right hand down through the wall behind him as if pushing through snow, ripping it apart with ease and then pulling that hand up in front of him and staring at it with eyes that started glowing red just like Zach's already were. "Oh fuck oh fuck," Zach whispered more, taking a step back himself and staring at Dandy with his eyes shaking. The sound of the bullets and his gun clinking on the floor had shaken him enough to take that step back, but Dandy was moving too, and he was smiling. The test subjects were always just observed! Kept locked away as tightly as possible, and yet twice they broke out of those confines anyway and rampaged! They had to use the explosive collars, and that didn't even work once! But, but he looks like- did Chemist fix it?! Or, did he just work out enough kinks, to give-

"GRRRRrrrrrr," Dandy growled in a guttural way from the back of his throat. His throat vibrated with the noise coming out, as more hair extended out of his chest and arms. His legs started ripping through his pants, his toenails extending and turning into claws. He bent his knees and brought his hairy arms forward, dropping his claws down into the floor in front of him while his back bulged out and created an arc behind his head leading to his waist. It looked almost like a Trigger transformation, but every person there knew better.

"Enjoy, Sazaki," Shigaraki called over, and Zach turned his head to the left to see Shigaraki turning away. The smug leader of the League of Villains glared into Zach's eyes with his head half-turned, but Zach took his gaze away from Shigaraki before the League's leader did him. That made Shigaraki lose his smirk into a snarl instead, but he still turned and ran after the man who Zach's eyes had shifted towards. He looked to the man with spiky black hair who kept running but turned his head a bit sideways for a moment while Zach was looking towards him. Zach stared into the corner of Dabi's eyes shifted towards him, and he felt a pang in his chest followed by his teeth baring in hatred.

"ZACH!" Midoriya screamed.

Shigaraki and Dabi sprinted straight to the east across the southern exterior of the warehouse. "Everyone on us!" Dabi called out.

"We're retreating!" Shigaraki announced too.

"You won't be getting away!" Gilgamesh called out from ahead of the villains, turning his body to gold while a half dozen other heroes near them all started using Quirks too. Spunky used her Slow over a wide area to prevent the villains from charging straight through, and Vixen charged with her jaw unhinging while Dabi rose his hands. Villains and heroes all got ready to attack each other, when a young teen was sent flying over most of their heads with blood splashing out of his body. The boy with curly hair who tried intercepting Dandy coughed up blood and then snapped his eyes open and twisted his body to the side, as the villain who hit him was right over his body with a claw pulled back over his body.

The miss of Dandy's claw still created a wind force powerful enough that it tore three lines through Midoriya's green costume and sent him crashing out of the air. It pushed wind down into a couple of heroes and villains on either side of where Midoriya smashed down, and then every man and woman there felt chills down their spines as Dandy howled. "RrraAAAOOOOOoooo!" Dandy's mouth opened into a giant smile, revealing his bloody gums from where his teeth had suddenly extended and grown sharper. Hair grew out the top of his head and started covering his face too, and it covered up his legs and his arched back as well. He dropped out of the air and slammed his claws on the ground so powerfully that the building shook around him.

"He's on Apocalypse!" Zach screamed while sprinting after his friend who had taken the attention of the villain way faster and stronger than Midoriya was expecting. Hang on! Zach thought in panic. As afraid as he had been when Dandy injected, that fear had doubled now as he thought about how Dandy's body had just pushed those bullets straight out of him. He's regenerating! Do I turn off Nightmare and kill him?! I just tried to kill him right there didn't I? Why am I asking it now?!

Zach slowed, and Bikergang almost ran right by him while carrying Chemist who he was going to get outside now before coming back to help with this huge new problem. As he was running by he slowed as he saw Zach's mind racing even in his Nightmare form, but it was Chemist who shouted at him before Bikergang could. "You saw the test trials!" Chemist shouted at the hesitating boy. "You were there so you know-"

"I was never one of you," Zach growled, darting his eyes towards Chemist for a split second before snapping them back forward to where all the heroes and villains were looking in at Dandy. Vixen decided in that moment to use her Sludge on something else and unhinged her jaw, but as the wave of dark liquid came out in wave towards Dandy, that beast turned towards it and let out a roar. Dandy's neck vibrated as did his chest, and out of his mouth came a shockwave so powerful that the Sludge stopped where it was and even blew backwards towards a shocked Vixen who had brought her hands to her ears that felt about to bleed. "But I do know, I know that it'll probably kill him anyway." Zach clenched his teeth harder and his fists at his sides, "Yet... two of the eight survived. I won't kill a man with those odds," he started sprinting forward again, staying in Nightmare form though with a plan now as he was not just sitting there deliberating whether to kill or not.

I don't want to kill him! I, I don't want to kill anyone! I have the power to beat him without doing that. And if I knock him out before he ever reaches his peak, or before it would kill him! I have to do it! I might be the only one who can! Zach froze and his feet skid to a stop. His black aura that was already thinner around him faltered, and Bikergang glanced to his left with huge eyes while sprinting out of the building with the Chemist. "Get me out of here!" Chemist screamed at Bikergang when he saw a glow of Dandy's eyes lagging back towards him, while villains and heroes were all either fighting or running from that same beast that just tore a man in half.

Another two villains who had been running with that guy since the start of the attack and had just come back over here to try and join with Shigaraki fell backwards and screamed in terror as Dandy snarled at them. Dandy's back right leg got wrapped in a thick steel bar that curved around his other back leg and tried to pull the two towards each other. The hero doing that was assisted by a villain trying to run after Shigaraki who just swung their left arm to the side for a second and made light sparkles flash towards Dandy and explode all around his head.

Dandy pulled his legs apart and ducked down under the knife flying towards his head. The steel around his legs tore like paper, and the hero trying to bind him dropped his jaw as no other villain had ever done that before. Dandy pushed his head straight through sparkling explosions and bared his teeth while shifting his head around. "GRRrrrrr…" Dandy's eyes locked on a man, and the ground beneath his feet tore apart as he pushed all four claws back at the same time. He moved like a blur with his longer hair waving around off of his body, a wind pushing off of him, and the corners of his lips twisting up so far to the sides of his face.

The hero leapt back and a golden wall started rising in front of Dandy's slash, but his arm ripped through the liquid gold without slowing. It moved so fast that the wind around it alone pushed all the gold rising over his arm away, forcing Gilgamesh to push out even more from the floor around Dandy. Dandy snarled as he snapped his head towards Gilgamesh, and he saw a group of eight other heroes charging him or arming their Quirks. He felt the ground below him losing form, and he moved away from it and towards the side wall with such a powerful spurt of speed that even the villain himself was surprised when he suddenly slammed into the wall. Dandy smashed through the wall and into the main lab, huge chunks of wall smashing into a couple of heroes trying to cut across it.

As he fell through the smashed rubble, Dandy turned himself and pressed his claws into different chunks of wall falling with him. His feet connected with a thick chunk that was in the middle of cracking, and it cracked faster as his nails dug into it. That chunk blew apart into a hundred pieces as Dandy sent himself flying back into the hall, through a different part of the hall farther towards where the heroes had been. The heroes all looking towards the hole they thought Dandy just smashed into but could not be sure because of his speed, pulled their heads farther back and closer to their sides where the wall smashed in towards them. Dandy was faster than all of huge rubble chunks flying their ways though, the mad villain looking like a monster roaring while flying down into the middle of the crowd.

Dandy slammed down and the ground around his claws rippled like a wave. The solid floor broke apart with huge cracks splitting away from him, and then chunks of the floor broke up in the air while other pieces were still smashing down from the wall. Chunks of floor and wall collided with each other while heroes dove for safety or tried protecting each other, and then as Dandy started swiping for Gilgamesh whose eyes were wide in horror at the monster's face, Dandy's red eyes snapped up leaving a red trail behind as he caught a glimpse of someone smashing through the debris straight towards him.

The bulky woman had her chest pushed outwards, her baggy costume flapping around her like her cape while she pulled her right fist all the way back. Wonderlass slammed her right fist forward and pulled her head to the side as Dandy changed his path and swiped up at her instead. One of his claws slashed across the side of her face and bald head, cutting along the right side of her skull and making blood splash out. She slammed her fist into Dandy's face though, and then she roared as she put even more strength into it despite already being at her limit. Super went over, and her muscles tore this time instead of just pulling. Tendons ripped, and Wonderlass pushed even harder forward into the villain she sensed the worst feeling from since coming into the drug lab.

Dandy flew backwards and flipped over and over, hitting the floor and rolling, then digging his claws into the floor and ripping up huge trenches of debris that flew into the air. He started dragging himself back forward and in a staggering way with one arm coming up and then the other. He slammed them back down and ran forward like he was limping but much faster than normal men could run, and he roared while the debris his trenches had thrown up came down on his sides. Wonderlass's arm fell limp to her side, she landed down on both feet and screamed at Dandy as he roared while charging at her. She pushed down behind her and sent herself flying faster than she would if she were leaping up into the sky to travel long distances.

Wonderlass rocketed herself at Dandy and slammed into his chest with the top of her skull, making the villain lean back as he was hit by that flying projectile. He started slamming his left arm down, but a black sludge fist reached up from a goopy mass moving across the floor and wrapped his arm, then Wonderlass punched her own left arm up underneath Dandy's right armpit. She heard a crack and grinned, and then muscles bulked out under that armpit and she heard another crack inside his body, the same time his nose started pushing out of his face and his ears pointed up on the sides of his head. Dandy brought his knee up and slammed so hard into Wonderlass's chest that she coughed up blood while her body hunched over his leg.

"SMASH!" Deku flew over Wonderlass's body as Dandy was swiping his bulking right arm down towards her. He spun his right leg with a twenty percent Smash into the side of Dandy's face and sent the villain flying off of Wonderlass who dropped to the ground flat on her face. She could only use her left arm to start pushing herself up, then she dragged her legs up too that were aching from how hard she kicked off the ground.

She's an experienced hero, but she's still fighting like this! Like the way I always hate that I wind up fighting. But, I always go that far, because I have to. Deku rose his head and looked towards Dandy who had hit the ground on his back but rolled up onto all four claws and snapped his head back towards Midoriya and Wonderlass. The villain snarling at them dug his claws into the floor, then his red eyes darted to the left and right and locked on everyone looking at him. Hair on his back stood on end, and he grinned in a cocky way that looked less animalistic all of a sudden. Oh, oh man is he- Deku's breathing picked up speed as he stepped in front of Wonderlass and rose his arms in a fighting stance.

Zach was about to run at Dandy when he saw that look on the villain's face. He had stopped because of Dandy's movements, his power, his speed. All of it was next level. From the moment he slammed Midoriya into the ground, to the time he was about to kill Wonderlass and Midoriya had to jump back in, was only a couple of seconds. Walls and the floor were tearing apart every time Dandy touched them, his voice was shaking the place with his roars and sending chills down their spines with his growls, but that smirk on his face told them all something. He's not, out of control, Zach thought. His Quirk, Bearman, it's so powerful like this but… He hasn't lost it. He's just more like a bear, while on a high of having all this power and being the center of attention?! Is he succumbing to animal instincts which is- what's his goal?! He used Apocalypse, knowing it would probably kill him! We shouldn't have ignored him! Holy shit, Dandy!

Zach's black hands shook at his sides. Wonderlass lifted her head and looked past Deku's legs towards the beast. Gilgamesh stood up and two golden hands pushed debris off of his sidekicks trapped beneath some. Vixen stood up, and she glanced to the side to see Spunky laying unmoving up against a shipping crate with a huge dent in the side of it. Half of a villain lay ten feet in front of Vixen's feet, and her eyes shifted towards that and made her shiver as she thought about how easy it was for Dandy to rip that man in half with his bare bear hands. Roady pushed his hands down on the floor below him, and he lifted his head before getting back to his feet. He activated Speedroute to find the quickest way to escape from there almost subconsciously, only to hold his breath as he saw huge thick black lines in front of him going towards or anywhere near Dandy.

Do I turn off Nightmare? Could I touch him without the power boost Nightmare gives me? No, I wouldn't get close to him. I'd be dead if even a slash from his claws… Apocalypse isn't like Trigger! What does Dandy want? Why is this happening?! He could kill everyone! If I had more power, I'm already weakened, but I can't just get more power! Unless, I go and kill the Chemist. Unlike Dandy he's not redeemable. He's, even without any drugs or powerful Quirks, I'd kill him! I can't though. I can't do anything like this! But, but I need to stop him. Because I didn't do more when I was with the villains. I didn't stop the Chemist earlier, I didn't destroy the Apocalypse supply when I was in the lab after seeing those experiments, even though I knew the extra vials I was scared existed must have been in there. This is my fault. People are going to die. Dandy's shrugging off Midoriya and Wonderlass's hits. Midoriya has All Might's power! How do I stop him?! Think!

"Dandy," Midoriya called forward to the villain whose expression made him think the man was not completely lost inside what looked like a monster. "Stop this! Apocalypse, it'll kill you if we don't get you help." Think! What can I do here?! Shigaraki's getting away, but I might be the only one who can stop Dandy. He's on a rampage! He'll kill everyone. How do I stop him? I'm hurting, blood loss from the wound on my back that must look as bad as it feels. My left arm's in bad condition, but I have my right arm and both legs. Air cannons in each finger, though at twenty percent there's no way those are strong enough to push Dandy back. Do I flick at a hundred percent? I'll break fingers, but with Hatsume's gloves it'll condense the air. Though at 100% it'll rip through them. I can't push higher than twenty, twenty five percent. At the Sports Festival I brought it so high! Without breaking my body, I brought it so much higher! I have to be able to do that again! How did I reach 50% that day? Every next level felt like I should've been breaking apart, but I held on. What was it that allowed me to hold on? Is it something I can bring out right now? It needs to be!

Other heroes running across the lab neared the southern hallway, and heroes from outside ran towards the entrance or holes in the wall to help with the villain Bikergang had yelled about when bringing Chemist out. Dandy stared at the boy who shouted at him before thinking at a hundred words per second to try and come up with a plan, an opening, something to beat him with! On Dandy's back left the boy shrouded in darkness stood panting with his white costume showing clearer through his aura than it had for the rest of the raid. Zach knew he had used a lot fighting on the north side of the building, and bringing people back to life a half dozen times had exhausted his mind as well as his body as much as using that much Death in Nightmare had. Wonderlass stood up behind Midoriya on shaking legs. This'll shorten my life span again, Wonderlass thought, though she pulled her left elbow in and then rose her right arm up too and pulled that elbow as well while more of her body moved at Super than ever that night.

"RaaaAAAAA!" Wonderlass started screaming, her voice getting louder and the ground beneath her feet breaking. Her immune system and natural fast recovery speeds worked far beyond full power, "SUPER MOVE: SUPER MOVES!" Wonderlass roared, while her muscles that ripped apart because of how hard she was tensing her body fixed themselves and then ripped up again.

"Golden Buddha!" Gilgamesh's entire body was surrounded in liquid gold that started to take shape. His stomach rounded out and eight arms lifted out of the sides of his rising body, with the top two moving in front of him and pressing their palms together in a praying stance. His chubby face appeared at the top of what looked like a Buddha statue, and then his closed golden eyes snapped open with liquid gold poring out of the sockets and down his face like tears.

Roady darted his eyes around and pushed Speedroute harder, getting more angles and more pathways to appear in his vision. They did not just extend out from him, but he made them appear out of Wonderlass, Lifebringer, Deku, Gilgamesh, Vixen, and a dozen other heroes all arriving at the same time. He saw red lines, black lines, dark orange ones even at the best options he could see. Yet if orange is the best we've got, Roady opened his mouth and shouted at Wonderlass and Deku first. They each knew his Quirk from the planning meeting when they were properly introduced to him, and neither wasted a second. Deku had not found the answer he was looking for, could not locate the route that would give him the best chance of taking down Dandy without any more loss of life.

Wonderlass just needed not to hesitate and was about to sprint forward anyway. "Thirty seconds," she warned the boy charging forward with her who she moved at the same speed as, only to race forward twice as fast to reach Dandy first.

I'll take you all on. One thought filled Dandy's mind as his vision reddened and shook around him.

Dandy swept up at Wonderlass's fist, but her fist smashed through his claws and slammed into his knuckles that covered in blood from his own claws slashing them. Then his claws re-extended out of his fist but Wonderlass had already pulled away by yanking her whole body in midair in an action that ripped apart muscles through her chest and abs. Those muscles repaired while slashes of air cut through her baggy costume and her skin, only for her skin to heal while she spun a kick for Dandy's head. He slashed up and dug his claws into her muscular calf this time, then Deku's right leg swung down in a windmill kick that broke Dandy's arm. The iron soles in Midoriya's boots collected all the kinetic energy the impact filled them with, and he twisted his body and spun another kick this time for Dandy's head. Dandy opened his mouth and Deku's leg went straight into his opening jaw on what looked more like a protruding snout than a human's mouth now. Deku stopped his forward momentum and yanked back, but teeth slashed across his shin as he almost did not get back in time.

Wonderlass slammed her other leg down on the top of Dandy's head, pulling the claws of his broken arm out of her calf. "Before he can regenerate!" She yelled, while the muscles and tissue and skin of her right leg repaired themselves. Wonderlass still could not land on that leg or the left that broke apart when she kicked down on the top of Dandy's head, and getting back up was a struggle too while Midoriya spun around in front of her and slammed his left leg down at Dandy's back this time.

Midoriya's leg dented into Dandy's back and pushed his head and legs up while his body went farther into the floor. "Lifebringer!" Roady called towards his comrade who sprinted forward at the sound of Roady's call. "WAIT DON'T!" Roady yelled again, the lines in his vision changing color faster than he could keep up with. "Everyone back!" Deku jumped backwards, and what should have been Dandy's broken arm swung up towards his legs and just missed the boy by less than centimeters.

Dandy snapped his head up and his eyes focused on a single person who stumbled backwards as their vision flashed black for the first time in their life. Everything in Roady's eyes turned dark tinted, but there was a faint green light behind him that he started turning his head for. In the midst of darkness, he saw a red glow around a tiny green line showing him which way to dodge.

Dandy's other arm that had not slashed at Midoriya dug into the ground in front of him, and then he yanked backwards with such force that the ground below him was thrown into the air behind him. Chunks of rubble flew towards Zach who crossed his arms and yelled out anyway in pain as he was slammed by all the rubble. Deku was still lifting up over Dandy after avoiding the swipe that had barely just passed him when Dandy rose his head with that furious snarl on it. Dandy threw his own body so fast the other direction that even though Wonderlass just got back on her feet, it took her half a second to kick off the ground with leg-shattering kicks to try and intercept him.

"ROADY!" Bikergang shouted towards his sidekick who had turned with the most scared look he had ever seen on the twenty year old's face before. Roady dove, while Dandy appeared flying through the air behind him. Vixen and Gilgamesh both tried to block with Sludge and Gold, but they were far too late to start activating their Quirks. Another hero pushed his arms forward that extended as steel bars, another pointed a pistol and fired, but Dandy's head pulled to the side to dodge the only thing that had been fast enough to almost stop him.

Roady dove when the line in his vision was still green. It turned a greenish yellow color as his feet left the floor though, and then brighter yellow turning orange. He reached his arms out in front of him with terror filling him as he fell in what felt like slow motion, because orange turned to red to a darker red pulsing with the color of death. Then a flash of yellow in his bottom right caught his attention in all the black filling his eyes, and he yanked his body in midair down. He did not have the strength or ability to change his trajectory, but Roady tried his best. He pulled the direction of hope, because he believed Speedroute knew how fast he was and was giving him that color based on his current abilities even in mid-dive. He pulled down towards it but the yellow turned darker anyway, and he pulled his arms back in towards his body, his legs too to try and curl into fetal position-

Dandy slashed his claws. A fist slammed into the back of his head when he was about to land. His feet dug into the ground and he skid much farther than he would just from landing after moving that speed with the extra speed boost from Wonderlass's punch. She had not put all her power into her punch though, as she had been reaching with her other hand for Roady who started screaming out in pain. She could not grab him though, and she pulled back when about to grab hold of the boy. MORE! Wonderlass thought as her feet were about to touch the ground, while her legs were still shattered from how hard she had to jump to catch Dandy almost in time. She knew her thirty second time limit would be cut even lower with this, but she touched down with legs instantly able to hold her body weight even as she felt the most ridiculous pain ever.

Roady felt the same way she did though, as Dandy skid away while dragging him through the air. Both of Dandy's claws had dug through his right leg when he was trying to pull it in closer to his body, and they had dug so deep that he was being dragged through the air like a ragdoll instead of being thrown from Dandy's grasp. All Roady could think about, other than the pain, was how quickly Dandy had ripped someone in half with these same claws before. Dandy swung Roady's body behind him though while spinning his head to face Wonderlass who was suddenly right behind him. Dandy was slower than she was, but he was still so fast that swinging Roady while his claws were through the boy's leg was going to shred his claws straight through it.

Even though Wonderlass hit Dandy in the face and chest with her punches so hard that he was lifted off the ground this time and thrown through a steel shipping crate and the one stacked behind it, she grit her teeth in rage as the blood of that sidekick splashed onto the side of her face. She pushed her legs down to try and charge after where she sent Dandy flying, and then her body shut down on her. Wonderlass opened her mouth to let out a scream of sheer agony, but her eyes rolled back in her head as she was falling forward. She hit flat on her face, the same moment a flying Roady hit the ground and started rolling.

Roady's right leg had been impaled in three places on his thigh, right through the middle of it. When Dandy swung him, those three claws dug out of Roady's flesh like cutting through butter. The claws that had dug into his lower leg did even more damage though, as one tore apart his knee and the others nearly sheered his calf completely off, though most of it was dangling now from Roady's body. "AaaaaAHHHHH!" Roady screamed when he finally got a breath into his lungs.

"Roady!" Zach lowered his crossed arms that he rose when Dandy threw the ground back at him, and he started running forward. He slammed a hand into his chest to turn off Nightmare and ignored the pain in that right arm from when a rock smashed into him at eighty miles per hour. He sprinted towards the older boy whose leg was bleeding profusely, then Zach snapped his head up in terror as a huge shipping crate with a hole in both sides of it lifted off the ground.

Dandy's claws were dug straight through the steel, and he glared towards the woman lying on her face closest to him. He pulled the shipping crate up and back over his head, then two feet slammed into his chest and made him drop the crate. Midoriya flipped back off his kick to dodge the falling shipping container that sounded full by the breaking noises inside when it fell on Dandy's body.

Zach finished sprinting to Roady and reached him right after Bikergang who dropped next to his sidekick's side. "Hold on," Bikergang said, looking at Roady's leg in fear and then up at the younger hero's face with a more confident and steady look. "You're going to be-"

Zach pulled his shirt off and started tying it around Roady's upper thigh at the highest of the profusely bleeding holes. He had sweat all over his face and a terrified look in his eyes at the amount of blood splashing on his hands. Roady screamed again in agony, and Zach snapped his head to the left and then back down as the thuds he heard under the shipping container sent chills down all their spines. "We have to get him out-" Bikergang began, only to put his arms down on both Roady and Zach and then Spring back towards the entrance of the lab. The shipping container suddenly grinding across the floor straight towards Midoriya was moving too fast for the boy with curly hair to want to try and stop. Midoriya grabbed Wonderlass and did the same thing Bikergang did, while the sliding shipping container hit some upturned floor and started rolling despite being a rectangular prism.

Dandy jumped up over the shipping crate when he saw someone else dodge by doing the same thing, and the winged hero flapped down harder to dodge the crazy villain. Dandy's claws just missed her right wing, but the slash of his arm made a wind funnel strong enough that it spun the hero out and into a wall that Dandy ran towards after landing and slammed his right fist into. The wall started collapsing, and Dandy grabbed a piece and threw it up towards the hero who flapped their wings again in horror as Dandy was solely focused on them. "Leave me alone!" She screamed, dropping her combat weapons as she raced for one of the windows on the south wall. A huge chunk of wall slammed into the window straight ahead of her, bigger than the window itself would be so even after smashing the glass it got stuck in the wall and trapped her inside.

The winged hero spun to look back down at Dandy, but her eyes opened huge as he was no longer down on the floor. Instead he was up on the ceiling above where he had just been. He wasn't technically on the ceiling, but he was higher up than she was, grabbing one of the thick metal bars holding up the roof. He ripped down and the roof buckled above him. Dandy tore the metal beam and the connecting supports off, then he swung towards the winged woman who weaved between bars and flew in the direction of other heroes which she realized was the only way she would get Dandy to stop targeting her. "HELP ME!" She screamed.

"Everyone get back!" Gilgamesh shouted, rising up all of his huge golden arms of his Super Move transformation. The Golden Buddha's arms started melting and merging with the golden floor in front of him that had risen up to stop the rolling shipping crate. He waited for Angelic Angela to get over him, then he forced all of the gold up and started hardening the wall. On their side of the wall though, across the entire structure that rose in front of them, things started bulging through. They were coated in gold, and they started gaining the appearance of what looked like the intricate support structure that was supposed to be holding up the ceiling. Dandy had thrown it all down at them, but Gilgamesh's golden wall was holding firm as it solidified around each of the steel bars coming at them.

It took all of Gilgamesh's Gold, and he returned to his normal human appearance in his gold-colored costume. He was panting but grinned as everything stopped moving in front of him. Then Dandy slammed into the back of the metal supports, and the gold wall shattered, and everything crashed through.

"OH SHIT!"

"RUN!"

"AHHHHHH!"

Cops who had a much more solid perimeter outside of the building now than ever before stared towards the southern wall of the warehouse as it broke apart. The ceiling over the southern exterior part of the warehouse covered in cracks, and some heroes came sprinting out of the building with a couple of them dragging or carrying others with them. A few had grabbed some unconscious heroes or villains as they ran, and other heroes had gone the opposite way if they were across the south hall to run into the main lab instead. Two large trucks were impaled by metal beams, and an explosion went off as a spark from the steel collision ignited leaking gas from the truck that had been shot one too many times in the fighting.

Flames burst between steel beams, re-melting gold chunks falling around the place. Dandy landed on top of the shipping container that had been stopped by the gold before, and he lifted up his right claw that held a solid chunk of gold in it. His head cocked to the side as he stared at it, his smile stretching even farther and then his eyes rising off of the gold and into the mess in front of him. Behind him, pieces of the ceiling started raining down from where he had removed the supports holding it up. He ignored the fact that the walls on his sides and the ceiling above him were breaking apart though, his eyes focusing between all the rubble, debris, and screaming people to a single man who had gotten trapped under a metal bar though used some gold at the last second to keep it from crushing him. "Gold man," Dandy's deep animalistic voice snarled, and Gilgamesh stopped struggling to move to instead look up between steel bars towards the monster staring straight at him.

"Oh fu- help me!" Gilgamesh screamed as he locked eyes with the beast. Dandy dove down towards him, dropping the chunk of gold that he no longer needed. He slashed his claws in front of him and ripped through the first steel bar in his way, then he did the same with the next one. As his claws were colliding with the steel though, Dandy started turning his head to the right at the boy flying out from behind some falling rubble with his right fist pulled far back behind him.

"IDAHO…" TWENTY EIGHT! Midoriya opened his right fist that Dandy started changing his right arm's momentum to try and stop. Midoriya swung his opened right hand down to create a force that would flip his body while still shooting himself as fast forward towards Dandy as he was already. His right leg was already pulled back, and he flipped up over the top of Dandy's head before slamming his leg down and into the back of Dandy's skull with his heel. "SMASH!" Dandy went flying over Gilgamesh and denting into the side of an impaled truck so hard that he un-impaled it from a support beam and made the truck skid back across the floor before falling on its side.

Midoriya landed on a creaking metal bar and glanced at Gilgamesh just to check he was okay, then he bounced after Dandy right through the flames from the other truck with his left leg pulled to the side this time which he kicked in front of him. His foot collided with Dandy's right arm that he swung to the side at him. Midoriya pulled his leg back just enough that it was the steel of his boot colliding with Dandy's fist instead, though the steel of his special support item was still cut through. It's sharper! Midoriya thought, thinking that after his claws had regrown the first time they must have come back even stronger. He's regenerating too fast! I have to take him down with something stronger! Even though the claws started digging through his boots, Midoriya's power was enough that Dandy's arm got swung the other way, turning his body too and opening him up for an attack.

Zach rose his head up from where he was on his hands and knees coughing out in pain. He parted his eyelids and winced as the smoke around him was thick and made his eyes start tearing up while getting redder. Zach crawled forward though and he grabbed the older boy who was thrown to safety not too far from him, and who he heard screaming before he had even opened his eyes. "Bikergang!" Zach called out, looking around and then shielding his face with one arm as a flare of fire from nearby blew towards him in a gust of wind. The walls were cracked and falling, dust blew up in the air as a chunk from the ceiling dropped into the mess of metal bars and flames on the floor, and Zach coughed harder as the air became even thicker and harder to breathe in.

"Over here," Bikergang called, and Zach turned his head to see the pro hero behind some steel beams. The beams were blocking them off for each other along with some flames around them that looked to be heating those bars up too much for Bikergang to get close to them. Bikergang looked up to see if he could go above, but the smoke was thick. He almost decided to try, when a hole opened up in the smoke and he saw just as Zach did two figures colliding up there. A curly haired sixteen year old had his right elbow slammed forward into the underside of Dandy's left forearm, blocking the swipe while the boy also pulled his head away to dodge the air slash that came from Dandy's claws. Midoriya's knee pulled up and slammed into Dandy's stomach, sending the hairy monster up higher in the air while dropping Midoriya fast down to the hot metal bars below.

Midoriya dropped on a steel bar so hard that it dented down below his feet, then he shot up into the air and made a funnel of smoke and dust following him up towards the ceiling where he and Dandy clashed again. Zach could not see when they clashed, but he felt the ground shake beneath him and then saw more of the ceiling up above falling down into the smoke. Zach reached down and grabbed Roady with both hands, and he pulled backwards desperately for the hole in the southern wall behind him. Bikergang had to move the other way as the debris fell between them, and he moved towards a hole in the main lab where he was separated from his sidekicks even more. "Bouncer Man, what's your position-"

"We're after Shigaraki! We think they're trying to escape and they have the rest of the Apocalypse!"

Bikergang spun his head to the left then back in front of him to face the boys he could barely see between steel bars and smoke. Zach was tying the shirt of his costume he never finished wrapping Roady's thigh with as tight as he could around the top of Roady's leg that was still bleeding badly. The black-haired boy darted his eyes back and forth as he tightened the tie on Roady's leg, but then he heard a low moan and looked back down with wider eyes at Roady's face that was more pale than before. "I don't, want to, die," Roady muttered, his eyes half-closed and a look of fear spread over his face as he was finally able to speak instead of just screaming in pain.

Zach's eyes opened wide and he started panting harder than he already was. The building shook around him, and Zach lifted his gaze up towards Bikergang on the other side of the rubble that was piling up more to keep them away from each other. "I can," Zach began. He grit his teeth, and he pushed his legs down while grabbing Roady tighter with his hands. He hoisted the taller boy by a couple of inches up to his feet, and Roady screamed as Zach accidentally put some weight down on Roady's right side as much as he was trying to carry his fellow sidekick. It was the extra couple of inches between their heights that did it, and Zach had to hoist Roady up more onto his back before letting go with his right hand and wrapping the other arm around Roady's back as he held him over his left shoulder. "I can save him," Zach said, looking towards Bikergang whose eyes widened at the sound of that even though he lost sight of Lifebringer a second later.

Midoriya, I believe in you, Zach thought. He spun around and ran for the exit of the hall on fire and falling apart. Roady. I, even if I were to just wait- no, no I can't just wait and bring you back! That's not- you shouldn't have to- I don't want you to die either!

"Unnngghhh," Roady moaned over Zach's shoulder as Zach ran him out of the warehouse. Zach could feel his back getting wet from the blood on Roady's leg soaking him alone, and it terrified him.

The ceiling above the exit they just ran out started falling down a second later, and Zach spun his head to the right and called out to a couple of heroes running towards the building, "Don't go in there!" Zach called out. His eyes widened for a second as a girl with an orange ponytail looked towards him next to her fellow sidekick and pro hero.

The intern from Class B stared with as wide eyes at Zach as he ran away from the building with a bloody older man on his back. Itsuka Kendo was not staring in as much shock that Zach was there though, as she had heard mention of Lifebringer only a minute ago. What did shock her though, was the sight of Zach's shirtless body that she had never seen before. She saw some of his torture at the Sports Festival, but Kendo and her two comrades stared for a moment at Zach's muscular body illuminated in the light of the cop cars and nearby flames. The scars on his chest, the long one on his side cutting down into his waistband, the discolored skin from his burn scars, the sealed gashes all down his left arm much closer together than the others as his left arm had taken the most damage of anywhere on his body.

The ceiling finally collapsing is what made the women spin back to the building, realizing why it was Zach shouted that at them in the first place. Then again, they just thought that was the reason Zach shouted it at them, though he was not really referring to the ceiling at all. No one can stop Dandy like this. No one but you. Maybe they could help, but, but it's Apocalypse. It's the drug that'd destroy the world if injected into certain people. Like me. I had to destroy it! I still can! If I get to Shigaraki and- "Life… bringer," Roady whispered, his head bowed over Zach's left shoulder where his upper body was resting. "It's, okay," Roady started muttering.

"I'm getting you out of here!" Zach yelled, as he saw a resigned look starting to form on Roady's face. He heard that tone in his voice, and he thought about how badly Roady's leg was torn up to bleed like it was. This isn't something a med kit can fix! This isn't something a simple tourniquet can stop! I need, I need to get him to a hospital! Zach kept running, and he ran right back towards the police line where they had arrived earlier. They were in the south where they had entered from, which meant that if they were still there…

Zach sprinted between cop cars and the cops near them turned his way and started asking questions and shouting about Roady's condition. "I won't let you die," Zach promised, and Roady's head lifted a little while turning in towards the younger boy's face. What if I'm too exhausted? What if I let you die out here to go deal with stuff inside, and I get knocked out or killed in there? What if I use up all my power and can't do it? What if I wake up and you're dead, and I could have saved you? And, and none of that matters! Zach apologized to Roady while lowering him down, and Roady gasped out in pain which just made Zach more worried that he did not hear a scream of pain. Not hearing that scream made him think Roady did not have the strength for it, and he moved even faster to throw his helmet aside, put the orange helmet over his head ,and then get Roady up onto his own motorcycle himself.

"Who said, you could, drive?" Roady started as Zach got on the bike in front of him and started the engines. Zach's lips pulled up at the corners, as the fear he felt that Roady had not screamed a few seconds ago replaced with hope as his comrade made a joke. At least he thought it was a joke, though he knew how Roady kept his motorcycle in good condition with a lot of care, and he got a sweatdrop on his face as he felt like Roady was trying to reach around him for the handlebars.

Zach twisted the throttle of the accelerator with one hand, using his other arm to hold onto Roady's arm that he put around him. "I'm sorry," Zach said, as Roady gasped out in pain again from his leg hitting the side of the bike. "But you have to hold onto me Roady, I can't do this without you. Stay focused. Stay with me, and don't fall of the bike."

Roady started nodding, then he shook his head around to try and focus since until Zach said it he was kind of fading out there. Focusing had the negative effect of also focusing his pain, and Roady screamed again as Zach raced away from the warehouse even faster. "Daisy! Keiko! Are you-"

"Lifebringer?" Daisy called out. She was sitting at her computer already, though her body had been turned on her chair as she was staring over towards the huge tv screen and the chaotic scene unfolding on it. "You're on Roady's helmet mic, what are you-"

"He's hurt bad, I need directions to the nearest hospital. Right now!" Zach shouted it and he heard typing immediately on the other side of the line. "Hurry up! Intersection up ahead-"

"I'm plugging into your helmet right-"

"Which way?!"

"LEFT!"

Zach ground his teeth and he spun the motorcycle, and the wheels wobbled below them making both young men on it open their eyes wide in fear for a second. Zach let go of Roady while Roady held onto him tighter though, grabbing the handlebars with both hands to steady them and then twisting the accelerator up faster as Roady screamed on his back. "Just hold on!" Zach shouted at him, right before a display appeared in the corner of Roady's helmet visor to give Zach a translucent map guide to the Mosu Esupa hospital. Zach realized as he looked at that map and felt Roady's hands tighten around him, I'm wearing the only helmet! I knew I needed directions which is why I put it on, but if Roady falls off he could crack his skull! What if this is what kills him!?

I can't go too fast that he falls, but if I go too slow he'll pass out and let go of me and that'll be what makes him fall! How fast? Which way? How much time? I want to save you. Dying, dying is horrible. The slow release into darkness, and that feeling. That feeling I've felt so many times. Zach ground his teeth behind his visor, and Daisy called out to him which way on his directions would get him to the hospital fastest. He sped up even more, as the thought of Dandy's claws shredding through Roady's leg filled Zach's head. I don't want to feel that either, Zach thought, his heart clenching up as he heard Roady screaming behind him. So many times that night already he had felt excruciating pains, people getting stabbed and shot and crushed.

The worst was bringing back Plucky. He thought it might be similar to bringing back Kuroiro's grandmother, because it was not external wounds but kind of like a poisoning. She had not gone down in the same way Plucky had though, and just thinking back on how he felt while reviving Plucky made Zach's entire insides feel like they were ripping apart all over again. If I can save someone, when they don't have to die first, then I have to do it! Because as much as I tell people that I don't consider someone dead until after the time limit, I know that's not true. I know that if I have to bring them back that I failed at saving them. It's a measure for after we've failed. This is a time I don't have to fail though. I'm sorry Midoriya, everyone. Please stop Dandy. I'm, I'm keeping my friend alive!

---

Bikergang ran across the Trigger laboratory in the middle of the warehouse. All of the Trigger tanks, crates, tables covered in boxes and bags of drugs, they were all smashed and scattered around the floor. Steel beams lay littered around too, and an ominous and loud creaking noise above the hero told him that the beams that had yet to fall were not far behind. Walls were cracking, the floor shook from every piece of the building falling in the exterior areas and the main lab, which meant that there was a continuous rumbling in the building as more and more fell apart.

BwwooooOOOOO! BwwooooOOOOO! The sirens outside were getting louder, though Bikergang realized that was because there were more holes in the walls and the ceiling to let the sound from outside get in easier. "Everybody out of the building!" Bikergang shouted to his left where he saw a hero from a city eighty miles to the north of there with two of her sidekicks tying up a couple of villains. "Move it!" He yelled at them as they moved faster to tie up the men already unconscious on the floor and then hoisted them up. He would have gone over to help them, but his left hand was down on his side and he was clenching at his wound that was hurting badly after he reopened it dodging Dandy's earlier attacks. He had focused more on getting Roady and Lifebringer away while Lifebringer was wrapping Roady's leg, allowing himself to take the brunt of the damage so Lifebringer could get his young sidekick out of there.

He started thinking about the two of them as he ran, but his head turned to the right and he slowed down himself. He stared towards a hole in the wall, then he leaned back and crossed his arms in front of his face as part of the wall next to the hole collapsed down into it and made a huge plume of dust and ash fly up in the air. Smoke filled the room above him from the wall on his left that had caught on even more flames, and he did not know where any heroes who could put out those flames were. Even if someone could put them out, this building isn't going to last much longer! Bikergang stumbled forward and then tried to regain his balance just as the heroes running the same way on his left had to. He snapped his head up and his eyes opened wide for a second as a three huge gaps in the smoke were made.

Between two of the gaps, a boy who had dodged between the path of the slashing claws came out of the thicker smoke from where Dandy's slash did not part the air. Midoriya dropped out of the air and sparks came out of his glowing body while he was landing, then he shot back up in a flash that made Bikergang snap his gaze into the air and open his eyes wider as he saw a beast sprinting across the ceiling. Dandy's claws dug into the roof with every step so that the ceiling behind him cracked more and more, and then a hole blasted in the ceiling itself right in front of where Dandy stopped running instantly without caring about his momentum. Midoriya smashed through the roof, then the steel below Dandy's claws bunched up and pushed forward as he had stopped too short and dug his claws in when he had normally just stabbed and pulled out.

Dandy's eyes snapped down to the bunching ceiling beneath his claws, and the hair on his back stood on end so he pushed out and jumped to his right. The boy who just smashed above him slammed back down into the roof where Dandy was below, broke through it and then spun his other leg to the side where he had seen Dandy moving to through a thin gash in the roof that Dandy's claw had cut. His foot slammed into the side of Dandy's face, his iron sole breaking two of Dandy's sharp teeth and slamming them into his left cheek that they tore straight through. "RRAAAA!" Dandy roared, snapping his head back forward in an instant with a look of rage on his animalistic face. He dug his claws down harder and pushed back to give himself a burst of speed, while also smashing a chunk of the ceiling up in the air above the warehouse.

Dandy slammed into Midoriya and sent them flying through the air and into a wall on the east side of the building. They smashed through, and rubble blasted out into an exterior hallway full of heroes and villains battling near a black portal and a man whose body looked to be made of shadows. Midoriya gasped out as his already torn-up back slammed into that wall, but then a chunk of rubble moved in the way of him and Dandy who he saw pulling up a claw in front of him. He slammed his foot up into the rubble before Dandy would have slashed down at it, and the breaking debris slammed up into Dandy in half a dozen different places on his body. Two of the rubble pieces were sharp enough that they ripped through his thick skin and tore tufts of fur off, only for Midoriya to see under those fur-less areas Dandy's skin repairing. Dandy was still knocked back by the rubble though, and Midoriya flipped himself while reaching the eastern wall that was still very-much intact.

Midoriya's legs pressed down into the wall, and the wall cracked behind them, then it dented back into a large circular crater. Why can't I reach it?! The pressure's on! The conditions are the same! Midoriya's jaw clenched and he forced his power up farther, but he felt his bones creaking so much that there was no telling when his bones would snap under the pressure. Just get to thirty! Thirty is… it's not enough! It won't be! He's even stronger than Inhuman! I need all of All Might's power to even think about beating him! 100 percent of my power, or I won't be able to do it! He could see Dandy's body leaning back forward from the debris that changed his momentum and sent him back at the opposite wall they had smashed through and was falling below and around him. Use as much as I can without breaking my legs…

"Shigaraki Tomura, we need to go," Kurogiri said towards the thin wavy-haired villain in front of him. Shigaraki was glaring up with a hand grabbing at his stomach, his body in pain and his teeth grinding in anger as he stared at the boy who just came smashing through the wall but was facing Dandy and not down at them. One For All. Midoriya Izuku. He's… He's! Shigaraki stared at the boy who was facing off Dandy alone even after Dandy had injected with Apocalypse.

Midoriya shot off the wall, the crater behind his feet doubling in size and a hole blowing back behind where his feet had planted. His left arm pulled back behind him, and his glove and the rest of the sleeve above where Shigaraki had already destroyed it shredded apart. Blood splashed out of that arm that was red from how bloody it already was, and Midoriya screamed out in pain while swinging that fist down into Dandy's chest. "AHH- SMASH!" Midoriya screamed, changing his yell of pain even as he felt his arm breaking apart. He focused One For All harder, and his eyes darted back and to the left towards a man with wavy gray hair whose eyes opened huge at the sight of Midoriya's look. His teeth bared, his eyes wide and intense, so full of thought of what was coming next. Midoriya had seen what was happening in the room even as he was focused on stopping Dandy and how to beat him. If 100% really was what he needed to beat Dandy though, and this was the moment he was doing it, then what came next mattered too. You won't escape.

Dandy's body flew off of Midoriya's fist like a missile. Midoriya's arm was red for a different reason now, as all of the blood was blown off of his skin by the force he slammed his arm into Dandy's chest with. Dandy gasped in pain with blood splashing out of his mouth from more than just a slashed cheek his broken teeth cut through but internal wounds too. Midoriya's arm waved around limply, his bones destroyed and his body screaming in pain at him for doing something so reckless. But Midoriya ignored all that pain. He looked towards Shigaraki turning more of his body, then dust and wind shot up from Dandy's collision with the floor and pushed the villains and heroes near it away.

The portal had just opened when Midoriya and Dandy smashed through the wall of the lab. Bouncer Man had looked away for a second, then he turned back to stop the tiny villain in front of him from reaching the portal. Then that short man was blown up in the air and yelled out in panic, while Dandy spun and crossed his arms to protect from the wind. Dust slammed into him and blinded him from everything happening around him for a second, then the ground beneath his feet cracked and he took a step back as he felt the building losing even more of its foundation. The eastern outer wall Midoriya used as his launch point, the inner wall, the falling beams on the ceiling. The warehouse is-

"Battle Fist! Get away from there!"

"One second!" Itsuka Kendo shouted back at her pro hero, while straining her muscles even harder to lift up the metal beam just outside of the warehouse she would not get inside. She had seen someone running out of a hole in the wall though right before it fell down and trapped them inside a cloud of dust, and she was over there hoisting up on a steel beam with all of her strength. There was other debris on it and the beam was connected to other ones that had fallen farther inside the building, but the ceiling and walls around the girl at the edge of the building were shaking and moving back and forth. "Come ONN!" She screamed, and Kendo lifted up as hard as she could to reveal there was someone beneath it like she thought.

Her pro hero who was running towards her stared at that figure below the steel beams with wide eyes, and then she raced forward and slid under the debris Kendo was holding up with her muscles straining. "Got him!" The hero called out while sliding back from underneath, diving away as soon as she was out because Kendo's huge hands were shaking like she could no longer hold it up. Kendo dropped the rubble, then she stumbled backwards and she crossed her big fists in front of her body as the walls and ceiling started falling out over her.

"The situation here in Mosu Esupa seems to keep getting worse. We received word that the villains had been cornered inside the warehouse, but another huge part of the southern section of the building has just now collapsed. We can only speculate about the status of the heroes inside, but the walls around the building and the ceiling as well keep shaking and breaking apart. What is going on inside? Heroes continue to rush into and out of the building, some dragging unconscious comrades and others captured villains." The helicopter over the building did another turn and the camera panned over the shaking warehouse down below that was partly in flames, partly collapsed and surrounded by clouds of ash and smoke, and some parts of it both.

Inside the eastern exterior section of the warehouse, Midoriya slammed his right fist into the floor beneath where Shigaraki was just crouched down after getting to his feet. Midoriya's fist tore through the floor and blew up rocks and dust around him into the cloud of it already surrounding him. He planted his feet down below him and winced as he felt damage in his right leg that he knew he went over his natural limit to send him flying at Dandy fast enough to get an unguarded punch in. His left arm flailed around him as he shot off the ground again, but he held back any shout of pain while swinging his right open hand in front of him. The force from the swing of his hand sent all the dust and ash filling the air in front of him pushing away, and he caught a glimpse on his left of Shigaraki trying to move back into the ash in the direction of Kurogiri's portal.

"AH!" A hero yelled out in pain on Midoriya's left inside the dust, and Midoriya recognized the voice. He was swinging his left leg in front of him to push all the dust away and try and send Shigaraki flying considering where he was kicking it, but he twisted his body more before finishing the kick and cleared out the air just a little farther. Where he kicked opened up the air around Kurogiri's portal which was a terrible move he realized instantly, as it gave everyone who could see, a clear shot at their escape route. He did not see Shigaraki though and knew it was not long enough that Shigaraki could have made it through, he also saw Kurogiri get pushed back from his own portal himself, and he saw another villain who had been about to reach it even inside the dust get pushed back and thrown into a wall. A pro hero chasing that villain through the debris got pushed away too, though the villain grabbing Bouncer Man by his right arm was not.

Midoriya froze when he stared at him too. The two of them were not pushed by the force of a twenty percent kick just to clear the surrounding air of dust, and the man grabbing Bouncer Man's right arm lifted his head a bit to look towards Midoriya. He stared at the kid and his teeth bared, all of them there making a perfect snarl of sharp teeth while his red eyes flared harder and blood came out of them looking like bloody tears over his furry face. His fur was red on his face from his eyes down to his chin where those blood trails dripped off, and Dandy's body was larger than it was before Midoriya smashed him down into the floor. Dandy's body rippled, his muscles in his arms bulking out more and the villain's face twisting in agony like he felt his muscles actually bulging and tearing apart old muscle to replace with stronger versions. He let out a powerful breath out of what looked like a snout now sticking out of his face, and he bared his teeth even harder like an animal with a look of rage-filled terror in his eyes. For the first time since he saw Dandy inject himself with that vial, Midoriya truly understood what he was looking at.

Dandy still had his cognitive functions. He stared at Midoriya and tightened his grip on Bouncer Man's right arm harder, then a crack sounded and he realized he had just broken Bouncer Man's arm as the hero pulling back his left fist for a punch screamed out instead. Dandy swung to his side and threw Bouncer Man like he weighed nothing through the exterior, and his eyes stayed focused on the kid staring back at him in fear but also a determined look on his face. "You, did this," Dandy said, as these new bulges in his body had come after Deku slammed him with the most painful attack he had received all day. His chest and insides still hurt from it, though the pain from the Apocalypse itself was doing that already so he could not distinguish the difference between the two.

Midoriya opened his mouth to argue with that, but he could see there was no point at the look crossing Dandy's face when that small sentence had growled out of his snout. Dandy's lips on the top and bottom of his extended-out jaw pulled apart, and his gums bled as his sharp teeth extended out farther before his jaw had extended enough. Dandy started to yell, but it came out differently midway through, "RAAAaaoooOOOO!" His roar turned into a howl, and he snapped his head up while pushing his muzzle to the sky, and then he was slammed by the boy who just shot at him when Dandy took his eyes off him for a second.

Thoughts of Shigaraki Tomura, the League of Villains, they flashed through Midoriya's mind as he tackled Dandy back into the main laboratory. He had been thinking too far ahead though before. He knew that now. Bouncer Man's arm was broken like a twig. A powerful, muscular man whose Quirk was reliant on close-quarters combat and power, his arm was snapped without Dandy even trying. And he's only getting stronger, Midoriya thought, and he again thought back on what Zach had told them about Apocalypse. He had described to them the test trials he had seen, how Apocalypse killed the test subjects by making their Quirks reach their greatest potentials which for most was more than their bodies could handle. Two of them survived after reaching it, but I can't just assume he'll be one of them and stall for him to come down, and I can't stall until he dies either since Zach said it could take ten, fifteen minutes for the peak to really reach. It depended on the test subject! One died within a minute, another died after thirty! I have to stop him right now!

Midoriya pushed off of Dandy when the villain brought his head back down with a deranged look in his eyes. Midoriya did not know how much of his consciousness he still had, though the villain was stupid enough already to have used this drug that would likely kill him that Midoriya did not even know if he could be reasoned with. He flipped back away from Dandy, his teeth clenched and his eyes half-closed, his right still bloodshot and watery from when Breakneck pushed his fingers into it. His left hand was twitching at his side as he tried to ball it into a fist, and his arm was covered in his own blood again. Midoriya's right leg ached from going over the limit too often even if he had avoided breaking it yet. His back felt like mush. Yet Dandy looked down and into the eyes of the boy he was about to charge, and his newfound animal instincts made him hesitate at the sight of the calm boy breathing heavily and glaring right back at him.

The lab around them kept falling apart, and a small piece of the ceiling fell between the two of them. It hit the floor with a clank, and the two of them shot towards each other without either saying a word. Dandy ran on all fours tearing up the ground beneath his claws while snarling at the boy. Midoriya leapt up halfway to Dandy and spun his body around twice in an instant before extending his leg, and Dandy ducked and slashed his right fore-claw up through the ground and towards Midoriya. Midoriya flicked two of his fingers in his right glove to dodge the claw, but he was hit by debris rising at him from the claw ripping through the ground. He ignored the pain of getting hit by those small pieces of cement though, instead raising up his left leg and then slamming his heel down when Dandy tried slashing that arm back at him. He hit Dandy on the top of the hand and sent the villain's claws straight into the floor while also smashing up his fingers below his damaged steel sole from Dandy's earlier slash.

Then Midoriya's right leg came up though, spinning around as he used the momentum from slamming his body forward and down on Dandy's hand. His right foot with the undamaged iron sole on it slammed under Dandy's chin as he tried pulling his head back, and it sent the villain flying out from beneath Deku. He shot backwards, and then the young hero flew after him and slammed him down into the ground with his right fist. He tried kicking for Dandy's head next, but Dandy slashed his right arm to the side the boy was dropping in on, making Midoriya change his leg's trajectory to hit Dandy's arm instead. The villain's arm pushed back a bit, then it snagged forward and grabbed Midoriya by the leg. He spun and slammed down on his other side while raising back up onto his legs, but Midoriya put his right hand down and screamed out as his left arm flailed around him and slammed into the floor too. Despite screaming from that though, Midoriya's right hand dug into the floor and he whipped back behind him to throw the stone chunk he had grabbed into the face of the villain turning his way behind him. Dandy's legs that were rising dropped back and he brought his hands to his face as that rock smashed his sensitive muzzle, and his claws accidentally dug straight into his face when he tried grabbing at it.

Dandy stumbled back while ripping his sharp claws back out of his face, blood covering more of it than ever. He screamed while glaring towards Midoriya again through his glowing red eyes, yet it sounded to Midoriya less like a scream of pain and more of one of an animal feeling cornered. Dandy was enraged, and in pain, yet above all that he was so frustrated that the drug he had used despite knowing it would be his own death was not letting him beat this hero. He screamed that frustration at the teenager in front of him whose eyes widened as if he understood, and that just made Dandy's bloody claws start shaking even more. Dandy charged at Midoriya. The two of them clashed again, and again, and Dandy's muscles rippled out of his body even larger than before to make him three times the size of Midoriya while rearing back on his hind claws. The last ripple of his muscles ripped right out of his skin, but his skin healed over those new muscles and then covered with fur that grew longer and waved around in the wind rushing by Dandy's fast-moving body.

They slammed into each other, over and over again, and their fight took an even bigger toll on the building. The warehouse was violently shaking over the entire thing now, and the heroes on the east side were evacuating and dragging any unconscious allies or captured villains left behind when the Kurogiri's portal had closed. Some heroes trying to head back inside to help get others out received orders from other heroes inside to stay out. Everyone started running at the same time, while the roof cracked and the walls broke and the warehouse started collapsing.

---

"Oh my God," Daisy whispered as she stared up at the television in the corner of the room.

Zach heard the voice in his ear as he sped down the street in the direction of the hospital. A police barricade was getting dimmer behind him, and he ground his teeth angrily as he had to waste thirty seconds getting those cops to let him through. He had to take his helmet off for a second to show them his face to convince the officer in charge to let him go, and now he was going even faster than before and he called out, "Hold on Roady! Talk to me buddy!"

Roady's hands clenched around Zach's sides tighter, and Zach felt a twinge of relief that Roady was still responsive. He heard Roady's heavy breaths, felt them on the side of his neck, then Roady's voice spoke and he heard his comrade's voice under the bottom left side of the helmet where Roady's chin was resting on his shoulder. "I can't feel my leg," Roady said. Zach wished it was just the wind pushing too fast them that he misheard the hero holding onto him with all his strength. "But I," Roady continued. "I don't," his voice got higher-pitched and like it was cracking. He stopped himself from letting it though, and he said instead in as steady a voice he could manage, "When did we become buddies?"

Zach's eyes opened wide, though the fear he was feeling at what he thought Roady was about to say vanished a bit. A smile cracked on his face instead despite the sweat all over it, and he replied, "'Course we're buds. Think I'd be recklessly driving a motorcycle for the first time on actual streets when I don't even have a license for just anyone?"

"Yeah," Roady responded back. "I think you would. You were looking for a reason, and I just, happened to be…"

"Yeah, you're totally right," Zach said, hearing Roady's voice trailing off and feeling his hands start to slip too. Zach reached back with his left hand and grabbed Roady's left arm tightly to hold him there and to use that to shake him along with what he said out loud. "I would've taken any excuse to get to go on a joy ride. Wish I could've used a better bike though-"

"What, did you just say?" Roady muttered, his voice getting clearer at the end and his hands tightening back on Zach's body.

It made a big grin spread on Zach's face behind the helmet visor, though he had to yell out after a second, "Hey! I'm really not that good at this!" He snapped his other hand back to the handlebars as Roady squeezed tighter in an upset way like he was getting back at Zach for that comment, and the bike wobbled which made Roady ease up as it was his own motorcycle at stake there if they fell. Zach steadied the motorcycle and he could see the hospital just up ahead. He wanted to ask how Roady was doing, but he also did not want to jinx the good feeling he had about this banter they were having. "Daisy, call in to let them know that-"

Zach stopped before Daisy could interrupt him to say that she already let them know. Her mouth was open, but the way Zach cut off his own sentence confused her and made sweat form on her face as she heard the kid's voice say, "You have to be fucking kidding…"

Five seconds earlier, in an alleyway just up ahead of Zach between two shops on a main road of Mosu Esupa, a pair of villains were stacked up against the wall at the corner of the alley. One of them had the Quirk Camoflage, which let them escape earlier when one of the others with them who had used Trigger at the warehouse got everyone's attention on him. They had slipped away, though they had been seen since Camoflage could only do so from one direction, and it did not work as well when Chamelora was using it to shield two people.

She was panting and had a hand on the wall next to her while looking at the back of the man at her front who was a foot taller than her and broad at the shoulders. "We need to get farther away," Chamelora gasp-whispered at him between panting breaths.

"Get ready, our ride is here," Ropefist said, glancing back at the woman behind him in a confident way. He had light brown skin that looked to be made of the same material as rope, and he rose up his right arm while stepping out of the alley. Chamelora heard the engine as he was stepping out, and she pulled two knives out of the belt she was wearing that had four sheaths on it. Ropefist punched his right arm out when he stepped out of the alley, firing his arm out as five individual long ropes that wound around each other as they extended across the road and wrapped around a streetlamp thirty feet from him.

"Get off the bike!" Ropefist shouted towards the lone motorcycle slowing down and making skid marks below its tires as it screeched. It seemed like it was going to screech to a stop, but the front of the bike spun towards the rope villain and the woman running out of the alley behind him.

Can't let these two escape and go threaten someone else! Shit! Zach sped towards the man who pointed his left arm forward and yelled, "Stop!" His rope arm started breaking apart with five different ropes pulling away from him, while his other arm unwrapped from the lamppost as he no longer needed it to stop the biker from going past. "Are you crazy?!" The villain swung his rope arms forward, no longer caring about the bike as much as he cared about not getting run over.

"What's, happen…" Roady was fading out of consciousness again, and even the jolts of the motorcycle were not shaking him to.

"What button extends the spikes?" Zach called out. His eyes darted to the handlebars of the motorcycle he had been on a couple of times but had yet to see Roady fighting while on top of. On Bikergang's it was- Zach reached around the accelerator and pulled back on a lever, and the front tire bounced up in the air so they were suddenly popping a wheelie. Zach's eyes opened huge, but he kept racing forward on the back tire and he had to balance his weight to prevent the front tire from pulling too far back and flipping them. "HOLD ON!" Zach yelled, as he saw the ropes coming around and he did not have spikes coming out of the tire to help him with that. He did not know what he would have done anyway though, but Zach twisted the accelerator forward and made the front tire shred up the rope on his right that he yanked the bike towards. He pulled to the right in order to block the knife from the woman he saw pulling back to throw at him too, and he heard a clank on the bottom of the motorcycle a second later.

Their momentum had almost stopped, smoke came out of the back tire while Zach was slamming the front of the bike back down. Ropes curved around him though Ropefist yelled out in pain when one of his rope appendages was ripped through by the spinning tire. Zach slammed down the motorcycle, and Roady bounced off the back of it. "Shit!" Zach yelled, as despite yelling for Roady to 'hold on' he had noticed Roady's grip getting weaker there. He snapped his head forward when only half-looking back at Roady, and he glared through the visor furiously at the villains in front of him. Zach pulled his right hand back to his body now that Roady was not holding onto him, and he surrounded his body in a black veil as he activated Nightmare.

A gasp escaped Zach's lips as soon as he touched his own chest, and he ground his teeth at the exhaustion he was feeling just forcing the black aura out of his body again. It had the desired effect though. Chamelora paused while running forward with her other knife to try and stab the guy on the motorcycle, while Ropefist's rope-like appendages froze in midair wherever they were curling or preparing to whip towards him. Roady hit the ground and let out a loud moan of pain, and the villains spotted blood all over his right leg that did not look much like a leg with how torn up it was. They quickly realized that these two were not just escaping from the fight, but had been back at the warehouse themselves. And Ropefist recognized who he was looking at too, when the dark veil surrounded the helmet and showed a skull on the other side with red eyes glaring out at him.

"Reaper," Ropefist said, seeing a villain he had run away from once with what remained of his old comrades. Even though he had run with them that night, he was the only one who actually escaped that night with his life. He took a step back and whispered, "I didn't know you were-"

Zach did not know what the man was trying to tell him. He considered maybe the villain was trying to save his own skin by apologizing. It sounded to him like the man knew his villain name but had not been a part of the League of Villains, or at least not a part back when he was, so the man did not know he was no longer a part of that group. He thinks I came with Shigaraki? Zach thought, but he did not linger on the idea. The fear he had instilled in the two of them with his sudden transformation from a normal biker had made them hesitate, and he was not going to. Zach jumped up so his feet were on the seat of the bike, then he leapt off of it and drew the last knife still with him as well as his grappling gun.

Zach pointed his grappling gun at Ropefist who tried blocking the black wispy hook that fired at him, while at the same time Zach slashed his knife down in his right hand at the woman a few inches shorter than him. She shook out of her shock and slashed up with her knife at the black blade coming down at her. Ropefist gasped out as he leaned away, swinging his ropes to get Zach's hook off of them. "What is, this?" He gasped, while black wisps came off of his ropes that had been touching Zach's weapon. He shook his head around to try and stay up, but he was looking on the verge of passing out. Chamelora darted a look towards him, then she leapt backwards after parrying Zach's blow instead of trying to follow up with it.

Just touching him- she leaned her body to the side and the black blade flew by her front instead of into her shoulder where Zach was aiming as she thought. When she turned her body to the side though, Zach started sprinting forward and bringing his grappling gun in front of his body in his left hand, the hook retracting back into it fast. The hook locked in when he was about to reach her, and he pointed it at her in a big motion to get her looking at the weapon that just took down her ally. Then Zach swept his right hand up with Death condensed around it, and he waved his arm across the front of his body to make a black wind that curved as he released it. The black arc swept up at the woman and curved to cover from the ground to her head-level and in a wide enough range that any direction she dodged she would be hit.

Zach sprinted back towards the motorcycle, while Chamelora fell backwards with her eyes rolling into her head and her knife falling from her hand. Ropefist gasped out towards her, lifting a hand he was using to hold his body up and then collapsing down on his chin with his eyes only half open. Zach paused when he was about to reach the motorcycle, spinning to the man he heard gasp out that woman's villain name. Not enough, he thought, imagining the man waking up over here as soon as he was gone and escaping with his comrade. Zach regretted having to waste more time, but he sprinted to the man on the verge of unconsciousness and he pressed his left hand down on the man's back for a second. Then he turned off Nightmare mode and got the villains off the street before tying them up with his grappling gun.

Zach raced to Roady again, and he dropped down next to the hero whose eyes were closed and lay motionless on the street. "Come on, Roady," Zach said. He was panting hard and his body felt like it was at its limit. Oh man, Zach thought, while he looked down at what should have been the white shirt of his costume that was now completely red. He had tied it tight enough that he thought he had cut off circulation to the rest of Roady's leg, but he could still see red puddling around Roady's right leg all over the pavement. "The hospital's, right there," Zach said, and he groaned as he picked Roady up and staggered back to the tipped-over motorcycle. I've barely taken any damage. This is just me! It's all mental! No, no I know I can do this, but it's physical. My body can't do this. I brought too many people back, used too much Nightmare. I always reach limits when I bring people back, but I'm not usually reaching that limit when using Nightmare too. Is that limit much lower when I'm using offensive power too? How much lower? NO! That's just mental! Even when I reach my physical limit- there is no physical limit! I'll break through that, no matter how exhausted I am.

Zach finished getting up on the motorcycle with Roady. The engines were still going even though it had somewhat crashed to a stop when Zach leapt off. Though it had been almost non-moving at that point, Zach was glad the motorcycle could still move. It was more difficult to drive now though, as he had his left arm holding Roady who he couldn't leave on the seat behind him and had to carry with his whole weight on his shoulder and chest. He was leaning to Roady's side and looking ahead, wishing he had given Roady the helmet since he did not know if it was the fall that had Roady unconscious, though he was pretty sure he had heard a moan after Roady dropped. "Daisy, there are two villains, tied up at my last position, send cops to get them."

"Are you alright?" Daisy asked quickly as Zach sounded injured.

"Just tired," Zach assured her. The motorcycle sped up more and Zach tried steading his right arm so the bike would not wobble as much as it was, though he was not balancing well on it either with all of Roady's weight on one side. He tried leaning to the right to even it out, but that put too much weight on his right arm he was using as the only thing keeping the motorcycle straight at its hyperextended length. His arm shook worse, but he sped towards the entrance of the hospital where he saw a couple of doctors and nurses outside waiting for them.

He heard his heart pounding in his head, but as he rolled up to the doctors he tried forcing himself to be more awake. If they fail, I have to save him! Roady! Zach helped get his comrade onto the wheeled stretcher, then he jogged after the doctors moving faster than he was to get Roady into an operating room. Roady! Zach started pinching himself, his heart racing and his vision getting dizzier.

He heard both the nurses running with him and Daisy in his helmet trying to talk to him. His heart was pounding even harder though, to a point that the thudding in his ears was drowning everything else out. Bu-DUM BUM Bu-DUM! The noise in his helmet was pounding and everything was getting blurrier. Zach blinked a few times while reaching up to his helmet, feeling like he must have been losing his vision because of the dark tint of the visor. He pulled it off of his head and the bright lights of the hospital blinded him. Then he collapsed forward dropping his helmet to the side as his arms went limp. No. Roady…

---

"And it seems, like that may have been it," the reporter leaning into the window of the helicopter flying over Mosu Esupa said into her microphone. There was an odd calm about the area below that fell over the place when the building collapsed. It happened slowly at first like it may have just been another section of the building falling, but a part of the wall turned into an entire chunk of the building, which turned into the whole warehouse falling apart. The building collapsed in a huge mess of steel and stone and glass, and no one around the collapsed warehouse started moving right away.

The heroes had pulled out of the building when it reached the point that they knew it was not going to hold on for much longer. One hero had stayed inside fighting Dandy from what the others running out of there had said, but there were no villains other than Dandy left fighting when the building fell. One had tried escaping out a hole in the wall right before the collapse, but there were heroes waiting there to help others trying to leave or stop villains trying to flee. They had restrained him in a group effort that took seconds to complete, and it was just in time too as they all had to brace and shield their eyes and noses and mouths from the cloud of dust that blasted out at them when the building fell.

Other villains were mostly unconscious as were the majority of heroes who had first entered the building. Underguard and Rubbergirl, Lindsey, Samwell, and Kurt 2 from Team Canada, Gogogo had collapsed next to where she had finally gotten her daughter to safety, and Sameko was also still unconscious just like Lobscar not too far from them. Bouncer Man sat on the hood of a police car on the east side of the building coughing and waving his left hand in front of his face to get some fresh air to breathe in. "Ricky! You over here?" Bouncer Man heard a voice calling for him on his right, and he called back to Bikergang that he was alright while feeling relieved himself that his friend and boss had made it out of there in time. After calling to Bikergang though, the EMT with him yelled at him to sit still so they could keep giving him emergency treatment on his snapped right arm.

The Feisty Foursome were gathered on the south side of the fallen warehouse, all except for Sky-Girl who had been taken away to the hospital earlier by an ambulance that was just arriving back now. The ambulance's headlights shone through the dust cloud taking its time to settle around the warehouse, though as it came close Vixen turned and started carrying Spunky back towards it as the leader of their hero team needed some treatment. Plucky stayed close to the building though, and she called out to the cops around her inside the smoke and dust to hold their positions. "Don't break the perimeter until we're sure this is over," Plucky called out. After she yelled it though, she looked closer towards the mass of rubble making some creaking noises that she hoped any building that had just collapsed would. She kept her ears peeled, and used her Quirk Listen, focusing on everything around her even though visibility had dropped to the point she could only see the few closest people to her.

"Hey Battle Fist! Kendo! You alright?" An older girl who worked at Sliding Queen's agency shook Kendo around a bit, and the disoriented intern shook her head a few times to gather her thoughts. Itsuka Kendo reached up a hand that was back to its normal size and rubbed her forehead with it, and she felt a bump there though she was glad she did not get any blood on her hand. Foundry sighed in relief as the younger girl gave her a reassuring look in the thick dust really close to the collapsed edge of the warehouse.

"Thanks Foundry," Kendo told her comrade.

Sliding Queen slid across the ground over to the two of them right as Kendo was standing up on her own, and the woman with the Quirk Slip-n-Slide checked them both over. "You're alright, good," she said in relief. The woman with short black hair falling straight down to her shoulders let out a breath and then glanced back at the rubble and collapsed walls closest to them. "Let's move back to the perimeter," she said, motioning with her head behind her and farther from the potential danger. I don't know what this Apocalypse thing they're talking about is, but anything with that name is something to be careful of. "I got that man to safety. He's a sidekick working with Gilgamesh, you did good Battle Fist."

Kendo's eyes widened and she rubbed her forehead again as she realized she had totally forgotten why she was so close to the building. She shook her head around some more as she realized that forgetting that meant she was out of it, and she started jogging the way Sliding Queen motioned with a grimace on her face. Probably a concussion. Without Recovery Girl's help, I may be out for the rest of the internship. Then again, with an incident this big Recovery Girl may come up here- focus! Kendo smacked her cheeks a few times and then looked over her shoulder as she thought she heard a noise come from the rubble.

There was movement around the collapsed warehouse from heroes and police who continued to encircle the place. The reporter in the helicopter fell silent herself as the view down below was getting too eerie for her. A couple of cop cars arrived on the west side of the building where all the flames had gone out during the building's collapse. There was smoke rising from different areas of it, but the dust was settling down. Ambulances raced away from both the north and south side of the warehouse, and some cops were helping heroes who had restrained villains get those villains over to armored vehicles. An iron maiden was spotted down below, having just arrived with the most recent police reinforcements. It was a contraption to be used for villains too powerful for normal restraints to hold, and the fact that the huge metal box was empty in between a line of riot control cops and some heroes on the north side of the building was unsettling to the woman trying to report on the scene below.

"The heroes, aren't moving," Yuna Pishina reported slowly and in almost a whisper.

The camerawoman gulped but kept her camera aimed down at the rubble they were finally able to see as dust settled around more of it. The exterior of the warehouse and surrounding areas and streets were clearer, and there was still smoke rising to keep the warehouse hidden from view a bit. Yuna wanted to say that the fight was over. She wanted to report that it was all done already. Silence though. The emergency sirens continued to go off down below filling all of Mosu Esupa, and yet those sirens had become just background white noise.

Heroes who had left the building last were the ones looking back at the building they had escaped from with the most nervous looks. Their expressions spread to the people behind them though. These heroes who had been fighting in this chaos looked afraid and nervous, and some of them were taking steps back away from the fallen building with sweat all over their faces. They gulped, and their fists clenched hard and shook at their sides. The police behind them gripped their shields tighter and the black batons in their hands tighter still, though most pulled their bodies behind their shields to keep them in the way of the destroyed warehouse and whatever might be hiding in the rubble.

"Keep on your toes," a message went out into the helmets of the police force surrounding the building.

"I don't see anything," Bouncer Man said into his earpiece, though he told the EMT helping him to get away. The man told him to come with him, but a creaking noise in the rubble made the doctor run off back to his ambulance behind the police perimeter.

"He's not down yet," Bikergang added. A louder creaking came from in the middle of the rubble, and then Ka-DUNK! Dink- chh CHH CRASH! Metal beams fell and rubble shifted around, and some more dust rose up in a small burst. It was as if some debris had been balanced precariously after the initial collapse and then fell down on itself when everything had settled. At least, that's what everyone around the building and watching from the sky hoped. The noises continued from in the center of the warehouse though, as one of the two figures who had caused the entire building to collapse with their fight clawed his way out to the surface.

On the south side of the building, Wonderlass lay not far from Plucky who gulped but tried holding her ground even as the cops behind her started murmuring and whispering in fear. Plucky could hear every last one of them, but she was not the only one with super hearing who heard the men and women around them speaking in hushed panic to each other.

"It survived that?"

"What is it?"

"I heard it's not just a villain on Trigger, it's something more-"

"Apocalypse?"

"What is that?"

"I hear something-"

"AaaaooooOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" A howl pierced through the silence between two of the sirens, louder than the sirens were and filling the air around the warehouse with the most ominous noise any of them could imagine. Bouncer Man had just gotten off of the hood of the cop car, but the back of his legs bumped into the bumper of that car behind him at the sound of that howl. He saw Bikergang on his right side take a full step back while looking into the center of the warehouse where a form moved inside that settling dust cloud that just blasted up.

"De-ku," Wonderlass muttered. She thought about the boy who had gotten her out of the building. As soon as he dropped her he had turned around and raced right back in to stop Dandy, saving Gilgamesh who had stalled Dandy for enough time for him to save her first. Wonderlass clenched her fists into the floor at her sides but as hard as she pushed could not find the strength to get up. She knew Super Moves would have this drawback, but she had hoped to defeat Dandy before he reached a point beyond what they could stop. Get up, Wonderlass thought, and it was not just herself she was telling it to.

"Who- what is that?" Yuna Pishina whispered into her microphone, though really she was just whispering it aloud and forgot she was reporting for a second. "P-People," she continued as she remembered she was Live on the air. "It seems that some sort of creature, I think it must be a villain…" the helicopter was going back over the top of the warehouse that was now a huge mass of rubble, and the camera pointed down towards the figure below that looked like a beast as the dust cleared.

Its body was covered in dark brown fur, and it was down on all fours like a bear. It looked like a bear, but bigger than any bear the media team had seen before. Its body was altering too as they pointed down at it. The head of the creature was snapping around after that howl, making it look rabid as it shook its head around with what looked like foam coming out of its mouth only dark red as it splashed to the sides. A bulge burst out of its right shoulder looking like a chunk of muscle that pulsed and tore through all its fur and skin, splashing blood in the air only for fur to grow out of that muscle and then a thick hide to reform between the fur and flesh. When its right shoulder bulged, its right arm pushed down with more pressure and its right front claw dug through the rubble beneath it. Extra weight and pressure broke through that rubble, and Dandy's head lowered down to the floor and his own feet as he knew what caused that shift.

Dandy's head rose. His eyes were glowing red and his head stopped shaking. He sniffed a few times, and his pointy ears twitched on the sides of his head. The sound of the fearful voices of the police and heroes around the collapsed building, their smells, the sight of them so clearly through his red-tinted vision. Dandy started growling, and the guttural noise from his throat echoed around the area as his arms and legs started bending into the floor. Then his head lifted, and his eyes focused up in the air and straight through a window into the lens of a camera pointed at him. I'm the one… This is me… Attention… The lips of the huge bear creature pulled apart and showed the beast snarling up with sharp teeth covered in blood from its gums that were torn apart and could not heal with the teeth in a seemingly endless state of growing. Mine. All mine. It's all mine. Dandy opened his mouth, and the villain roared at the top of his lungs, "KNOW ME!"

Dandy shot off the ground so fast that wind blew away from his launching point and slammed into the heroes quickest to move forward when they saw him bending his legs. They crossed their arms and many snapped their heads up to follow Dandy's movements, only for their eyes to open wide as they realized his target high above. Dandy's jump launched him into the sky like a rocket, and the women in the helicopter looking down towards him dropped their jaws in shock and then terror at the monster's rapidly approaching form. "DANDY!" He screamed, while raising up his claws of his arms that bulged with larger muscles.

The pilot pulled the sticks to the side, and the camerawoman was falling off her seat anyway but now fell to the other side of the vehicle as they yanked away. The pilot pulled so fast though that blinking lights started going off on their helicopter, and Yuna Pishina screamed as she tried holding onto the wall only to see a horrifying face outside of the window. The helicopter had pulled away, but the beast outside had jumped up too fast. He dug his claws into the side of the helicopter that he had tried to slam right into the bottom of, and his claws shredded through the vehicle's steel and ripped the side door right off. Then he kept going as he had not judged the distance very well, just jumping as hard as he could. He rose above where he ripped off the side of the helicopter, and one of the spinning rotors slammed into him.

If he wasn't on Apocalypse, it probably would have cut him in half. Instead, Dandy's body bent the steel of the rotor around his body while still making him snarl in pain. It also stopped his upwards momentum though, flipping him around instead while the helicopter started spinning out more violently. The women inside screamed, the camera turned over and caught view of the side of the vehicle ripping open. The camera bounced out of the vehicle and showed an angle inside for a second of Yuna Pishina holding onto the back of the pilot's seat with her arms wrapped around it. It also caught a glimpse of the camerawoman with her body half morphed into the wall on the other side of the helicopter, holding an arm out for Yuna to hold onto as it looked like the reporter was about to fly out of the chopper.

All across Japan, people held their breaths while staring at their televisions. They had been shocked when they saw that creature down below, when its eyes looked up into the lens like it was looking at each of them, and when it jumped up and attacked was bad too. As the camera fell out of the helicopter though, it fell down while pointed up for a moment so everyone could see the bear-like figure dropping down just over the helicopter that the pilot was still trying to get control of even with a broken rotor and missing wall. The pilot had barely any control, almost none, but just enough that the helicopter was not falling as fast as someone just falling with gravity. Dandy was falling with his eyes locked on the helicopter he was about to reach, but the camera turned before showing what was going to happen to it.

The camera turned around in midair, showing one side of the town of Mosu Esupa in a spinning angle before it pointed down towards the destroyed warehouse. And when it pointed at the destroyed warehouse below, everyone watching could see heroes and cops shouting while pointing up at the sky, a hero using her wings to lift off the ground and start rising but with a terrified look on her face. Angelic Angela did not want to fly up there and face Dandy all alone but knew she had to save the reporters. She had been all alone against him for a few seconds inside the warehouse though, and that was when he was half the size he was now. Her head spun towards the center of the warehouse as did all the others around her though, while the people watching around Japan also caught sight of the movement in the middle of the warehouse not too far from where Dandy had risen from the rubble.

The camera continued to turn, but it started spinning faster all of a sudden as a blur zipped by it on the way up towards the helicopter. The camera had still been higher up towards the chopper than the ground, but the small figure spotted down in the middle of the warehouse debris was already past the camera before it had pointed up at the chopper again. The camera lost any angle it had as it spun out of control and broke, but there were still a large amount of people watching around the area alone. Another camera angle got switched to for the first time that night showing a reporting team at the north side of the perimeter far back from where the worst of the fighting had been, but they were pointing their cameras up towards the falling helicopter and not at the scene of carnage ahead of them.

In the sky, three people in a helicopter spinning out of control and decreasing altitude fast screamed out in terror as a beast dropped down into the opening it had created on their vehicle. Dandy's claws dug in through the roof while his feet dented the steel down inside where the door had been ripped from, his body too big to fit in the hole of the chopper itself. The woman closest to him pulled her body farther in and screamed in horror, reaching a hand out for the camerawoman who was no longer reaching back but pressing her whole body against the opposite wall of the helicopter to stay as far from the beast as possible. The woman in the pilot's chair pushed her whole body forward and let go of the sticks as it no longer mattered whether or not she could land the helicopter like this. Dandy's head lowered so his face was pushing into the helicopter, but he froze.

Then Dandy pulled his head out of the vehicle fast. His claws shredded through the steel he had impaled with them instead of just pulling out, and this was a quicker method to bring his arms back to try and protect from the figure he smelled and heard and sensed coming towards him. Dandy's head snapped down and his teeth bared harder at the figure he was separated from when the building dropped down all at once on their heads. They had smashed through a wall long-ways destroying all the supports holding up half the building, so it was their own faults, but Dandy had thought the boy he was facing had died down there. The boy rising towards him did not have irises in his eyes that were pure white as he rose up into the air, his left arm tensed at his side despite the broken bones in it and that arm's fist clenched just like his right.

Midoriya had his right leg pulled back far, and his entire pant leg around it shredded with his skin glowing bright beneath. Dandy rose up his claws while diving down out of the helicopter, his dive pushing the vehicle away from him because of how strong he was now. His muscles looked to bulge and his fur ripped away in tufts with blood splashing away with it as he started slashing down at Midoriya, looking like a bigger monster than ever. Midoriya flicked the toes of his left foot, tearing through his shoe and sending him up faster as he broke those toes to give him an extra burst of speed. He reached Dandy faster than Dandy was swinging his arms down, and Midoriya swung his right leg at his full power into Dandy's side with a kick that created a shockwave in the air. A smoke plume rising near him pushed away with a circular shape blasting in it away from the collision in the air of Deku's leg and Dandy's side.

Deku kept pushing his leg into the beast that opened its mouth and gasped out more bloody foaming spit. He felt his bones cracking inside his right leg, as he fought more recklessly with less care for his body's well-being than he had in months. Now was not the time to hold back though. Midoriya put his whole body behind his kick, and he twisted his body too while finishing the kick off. He pushed his maximum power into it, and he felt bones crunching both in his leg and inside Dandy's body. He followed-through with his kick while twisting his body to send Dandy flying straight down towards the rubble of the warehouse, then he flicked his right index finger in front of him to send him flying towards the spinning-out helicopter.

The chopper turned in midair as he was about to reach for the open side of it though, and his face slammed into the underside of the helicopter instead of sending him inside for the people in there. He had not thought it through very much. Even if he had made it in there, he did not know what he would do with a broken left arm and right leg, but the boy with a pale face and destroyed body was not giving up yet. He reached his right hand up after slamming into the helicopter, and he dug his fingers in while pulling himself up for the opening of the vehicle. Midoriya poked his head over the edge of the opening, and then he heard a roar down below him that made his head turn the slightest bit to the side.

The ground was approaching fast. The helicopter was only seventy meters above the ground. Dandy had slammed into the western edge of the warehouse's rubble, and he roared again while dragging himself up to his feet. He roared to the right and the force of his shout pushed back on a couple of heroes running towards him. The shout made projectiles flying towards him in the air push aside and miss him. Then he slashed his left arm to his side and made a speedy hero racing over the warehouse rubble towards him dive away as three lines of shredding rubble rose up towards him from Dandy's slash alone. Dandy snapped his head up and glared at the falling helicopter and the boy hanging onto the side of the floor of it, and then Dandy's red eyes opened a little wider as that boy flew off of the helicopter and across the sky.

Another figure flew out of the helicopter, then two more who were slower to get out because one had to unbuckle and the other had to stop using her Quirk to hold herself to the wall. They shot away from the falling helicopter, and then a dozen people on the ground in the area where the spinning helicopter was soon to land unpredictably all flew up in the air too in different directions away from that landing zone. The people suddenly lifted up got confused and scared, some tried fighting it only to stare in shock towards where they just were as the helicopter's path shifted a bit to have it crashing down right in that open area. Midoriya was confused and in a ton of pain, and his head turned to follow Dandy while he was shooting away. Then his eyes focused on what it was that was pulling him through the air: a long red feather.

"I'd say it was a good thing I got here when I did," a voice called over towards the kid flying towards him and then down to the floor below his feet. Deku lifted his gaze up with his dark green eyes widening to stare at the Number 2 hero flying above him with his big red wings. Hawks continued while looking towards his left and not down at Deku though, "But who'd've thought we'd all show up at the same time?" Hawks' red feathers placed the reporters down near a different news team already on the ground, and those women started crying and grabbing the ground in joy, Yuna Pishina even kissing it as she never thought she'd stand on solid ground again. The pilot promised herself she'd never fly again, while cops around them ran over to see if they were alright.

Other officers and a couple of heroes were placed down away from where the helicopter crashed, and then a hero who was looking towards Hawks in shock at his appearance turned his head when he saw a bright orange light in the corner of his vision. Bushironin turned and his jaw dropped, while Angelic Angela looked down in shock at the man who she had spotted from the air diving down from an airplane high above in the distance, using his flames to propel himself towards the scene while everyone else had been focused on the falling helicopter. He was too far for most to notice and everyone else had looked down at the explosion or Dandy or Hawks as he made his entrance, so most people were still shocked as the Flame Hero: Endeavor marched forward without a shred of fear on his face towards the monster ahead of him.

This is Apocalypse, Endeavor thought. He had been informed of the ever-changing situation many times on his flight there and was ready for what he had dropped in to find. If I didn't know beforehand, I'd say it was a Nomu.

Sixty meters to Endeavor's right, a flying hero landed down and the man riding on his sidekick's back thanked him while hopping off and in front of the others around him. Best Jeanist narrowed his eyes under the flip of blond hair pushed down over his forehead. No clothes, the Fiber Hero thought, staring towards the creature with an intense gaze.

Dandy's head turned to the left towards Hawks, then to the right a bit to cross his gaze past Best Jeanist and then to Endeavor. Dandy's heart pounded, and a low growl echoed around, "Yes." His lips pulled up and such a genuine smile appeared on the monster's face as he looked at Endeavor. The Number 1 hero had arrived to fight him. The Number 2 and 3 heroes too. As much as his body was in constant pain, his heart raced faster and faster at the sight of Endeavor looking back at him. "YES! YESSS!" Dandy's voice shook the ground around him and he dug his claws into the floor.

The villain charged at Endeavor. He barreled forward with his claws tearing up the ground with every rapid step he took, a trail of rubble rising up behind him. Extending fibers wrapped up his front legs when his right was passing by his left on his next sprint, and Dandy's face slammed into the rubble below him. With his momentum he skid through the floor, and his back legs tied up as his body started to flip forward over itself. Endeavor sprinted forward while Best Jeanist wrapped up Dandy and made him break his charge. Endeavor leapt up in the air and he brought his right fist back, and he slammed it down towards Dandy with a flaming punch that sent a huge jet of flames down into the villain's tumbling body.

"Wonder if I'll even be needed," Hawks said, scratching the bottom of his left cheek and watching from afar as the other two did an amazing combo on their enemy. Hawks stopped scratching though as a bloodcurdling roar of pain ripped out from the flames.

Endeavor dropped back to the ground and he glared into the fire he had just surrounded this enemy with. He has high-speed regeneration. Restraining a villain like that- Dandy staggered around in the flames, his hands moving up to the sides of his head and grabbing them tightly as he let out another roar. Endeavor's eyes widened, and the others all staring towards the fire watched as the silhouette inside bulged on his right arm that was grabbing at his head. His arm looked like it was meant for a being twice the size that Dandy was at now, but the rest of his body was not growing at that same rate. "RA ra! RaannnGG! AAHH!" Dandy stumbled to his right and then dropped to all fours again and barreled out of the flames. He hit the ground and rolled to try and put out the flames, but it was unnecessary as all his fur started shedding off at once along with most of his skin.

Dandy's body pulsed, and his heart kept racing faster and faster. It pounded so hard that he felt it pressing against the outside of his chest, except he no longer had his thick flesh layer there or his fur to hide that pounding from everyone else as he rolled onto his back for a second. It was like there was something in his body punching outwards over and over as his body arched up, and then Dandy snapped his upper body up and he dug his claws down into the floor at his sides. His fur grew back fast and his chest bulked up, and he snapped his head forward and roared at Endeavor who rose up both hands in front of him.

I have to kill him, Enji Todoroki thought.

Best Jeanist's arms shook and his eyes opened wide as Dandy ripped apart the fibers he was holding him with. Dandy rose up to his right foot, and that entire leg bulged with blood splashing from it and then his skin re-healing fast. He stomped down on his left foot which grew even bigger than his right, and a low moan of agony escaped from Dandy's lips. Dandy's mouth twisted in terror as he turned towards Endeavor who was about to charge him. Endeavor froze and looked into those glowing red eyes, and he saw in them for a split second a humanity and an intense fear of death. And then Dandy's chest ripped open and his giant pounding heart exploded all over the place.

Dandy froze there for a few seconds with his face still shaking in fear and rage and animalistic excitement. But without his heart working at fifty times its normal capacity to pump blood around Dandy's body that kept losing so much of it, he was not able to stand for long. His legs collapsed while the light started to fade from his glowing red eyes, and his arms fell back limp to his sides while his upper body fell forward after his knees. His body was deformed with different parts of it stopping at different sizes, some parts still open as his skin had yet to seal up and grow more fur over those areas.

"All that time deciding and then getting here," Hawks said, lifting his only hand up and rubbing from his forehead into his ashy blond hair. He sighed and looked down while continuing, "You did good without our-" Hawks stopped as the kid he had dropped not far from him fell face-first into the floor. Hawks sweatdropped as his compliment went unheard, then his eyes opened up wide as he saw the condition of the kid's back when he dropped like that. "Oh crap," Hawks' feathers picked up the boy and he flapped his wings down himself while raising Deku up in the air. His head spun and he looked the direction he knew the hospital in this town was located, Hold on there kid.

As Hawks started flying Midoriya to the hospital though, he glanced back towards the warehouse that the League had escaped from right before he arrived. The burn marks on his right side hurt, and he felt a phantom pain from where his right arm used to be too. His right wing was at full length again, but unlike it, his right arm did not regenerate like his feathers did.

Endeavor looked around the area he was in after Dandy collapsed in front of him. He tssked as he saw the damage not just to the warehouse but the surrounding area as well. He saw a lot of ambulances, as well as injured heroes and police just outside of the rubble. "You over there, get a team together and start sweeping the rubble for survivors who might be trapped inside. You two, get her to one of the ambulances, and all of you stop sitting around!"

"Move the most heavily injured first," Best Jeanist began while turning to some officers near him. "Take the criminals away. I will assume charge of their arrests." The League of Villains left without everything they came for, Best Jeanist thought with an intense gaze still on his face. I will not let them retrieve it after the fight has ended.

A few feet away from Yuna Pishina was on her knees hugging the ground, the reporter who had taken over for her when her camera was destroyed was shouting excitedly into his microphone. "…at the turn of events here in Mosu Esupa! The Number 3 hero, Best Jeanist, Number 2 hero, Hawks, and Number 1 hero, Endeavor! All of them arrived at the same time when hope looked to be lost. Our heroes!"

---

Zach opened his eyes wide and sat up fast. He stared forward and squinted as the bright light on the ceiling blinded him for a second, and he thought he had just entered the hospital as it felt the same as it did then. Then? When? Zach opened his squinted eyelids a bit more, and he looked around and then down to see he was sitting up on a bed. I'm- what?! Where? He clenched his eyes shut and remembered staggering into the hospital after Roady, his vision flashing white when he tried taking his helmet off. That just happened? Or was that a while ago? When is this? Where's, Roady?! His eyes snapped back open and he threw his legs off of the bed.

Zach got up and he staggered forward. He had to put his hands out to stop himself from falling on the next bed in front of him, and then he shook his head around and looked on top of the bed with wide eyes as he saw Samwell laying on it with some bad injuries wrapped up with white bandages. He looked around the room and realized they were not the only two in there. A man wearing a black mask over the bottom half of his face who Zach realized must have been Underguard was on the other side of where his bed was, and the fourth bed in the room past Samwell's had a police officer on it from what Zach could tell considering the uniform on a stand next to it and the cop on the side of it with their head resting on the edge of the bed like they had been their for their friend until he passed out.

The boy with messy black hair up on his feet looked around at them, and he started to panic when he saw a cop in the fourth bed and not another hero. "Roady," he muttered, and he turned to the door of the room that was open and leading into a hallway where he could hear people talking. I'm in the hospital. I'm not wearing a shirt, but I'm not wrapped up anywhere. I didn't get hurt. I mean, some things hurt but I didn't get injured. Not really. Why were they wasting a bed for me? Why didn't anyone wake me up? What time is it? How long has it been?

Zach staggered out into the hallway and looked left and right. He glanced to the right and saw a nurse at a counter leaning over and talking in a rushed voice to someone behind it who Zach could not see from down the hall, then the blue-skinned woman turned the opposite direction as him and headed off quickly. Zach turned the other way and looked at a door of the room closest to his. He started towards it and he looked in through a doorway that was open just as his room had been. He glanced in the room and saw it was a room full of injured female heroes, but a quick glance around was all he made as he did not see Roady in there.

He kept going and then focused on a doctor turning the corner and heading his way. The man opened his eyes wide at the sight of the boy with a scarred torso and face stepping towards him. Then Zach asked, "Roady? Do you know, where Roady is?" His eyes were wide as he asked and got shakier as the man in front of him definitely looked to recognize the name. Zach held his breath at the expression on the man's face, and the doctor turned and motioned for the other direction.

"Follow me," the man said, and he started moving the other way down the hall as quickly as he had just been moving. Zach thought the man had looked to be in a hurry, so his breathing picked up speed as he jogged forward to get right up behind the white-haired doctor who had a fuzzy beard to match. "Lifebringer, are you doing-"

"Is he okay?" Zach asked, not able to handle the suspense like he thought he could. He thought he could just wait until he saw wherever the doctor was taking him, but he could not handle not knowing for any longer.

The doctor glanced back at the boy half a foot shorter than him, than he turned forward and pointed at a door near the end of the hall and just ahead of them. "Why don't you see for yourself?"

Zach jogged up past the man as he found out which room Roady was in. He ran up to the room and through the open door, and he stared towards the bed in it with his eyes opening wide. Zach's head leaned back and he felt hundreds of pounds lifting off of his chest at the sight of the heart-rate monitor. Zach watched the line point up, a beeping sound filling the air, and he stared happily at the man with spiky orange hair that was a darker shade than Bikergang's.

Zach thought Bikergang might be with Roady like that cop had been in the room he woke up in. After a second of wondering though he remembered the wound on Bikergang's left side and figured his pro hero was somewhere else after getting that patched up. Did he make it out of there alright? Zach thought, his eyes widening as he realized it was not a sure thing that Bikergang was at the hospital at all. He turned his head to ask the doctor behind him how long it had been, but the man with white hair was gone when he looked back. Guess he was busy, Zach thought while turning towards Roady again.

When he looked forward though, Zach stared in surprise at the bed ahead of him. He stared at Roady who had opened his eyes and was looking towards him. Roady glanced to his right and at a window that Zach looked at for the first time and stared in just even more shock at because it was light outside. His face filled with shock, and then Zach's fists clenched at his sides and his eyes narrowed. Damn it, Zach thought, biting down hard as he wondered just how much time had passed. How many hours? Has it been half a day? I wouldn't expect so many people to still be unconscious, but we were up late at night and most of them were probably up later than I was even. How didn't I realize it was daytime already? Damn!

Zach looked back forward at Roady, and his heart clenched up again. He regretted feeling so much relief, so much joy at the sight of Roady's working heart-rate monitor. "I heard you overexerted yourself," Roady said, and Zach's eyes widened as he looked at the older boy who was staring back at him again. "You should get more rest," Roady said, as he could see bags under Zach's eyes and to him it looked like the younger boy was pale in the face. Roady suggested it and then lowered his gaze down to his right side, where the blanket covering his body did not have a lump in it like it did where his left leg was.

The younger of the two did feel exhausted. He wanted to collapse again right there, as it was only the thought of making sure Roady was alive that had gotten him out of his hospital bed in the first place. He could not just do that though. Zach's hands tightened even harder, and his throat hurt as his Adam's apple moved up and down a few times. His lips twisted and pursed in frustration, the light from outside glaring towards him and making him fill with so much regret. "I don't need," Zach started to reply. Except I do. I need to rest, because I'm not strong enough. "I was too weak," Zach whispered, and Roady's eyes widened a bit while staring towards the teen just inside his doorway. "Just that much, took me out of commission."

Zach clenched his fists harder but had to let go of his right so he would not rip through the black glove on it. He was glad he managed to take his helmet off before passing out, as he wondered if one of the doctors or nurses would have tried removing it without realizing who he was and what that would do to them. He felt like he needed that pain in his palms though, or at least that he deserved it. "When everyone else got so injured," he whispered, his heart clenching even harder as he rose his gaze back up towards Roady. "I'm sorry," he said. Zach stood there without a wound to speak of, and he knew he had been out for hours which pushed even more regret down on him. "When a bunch of people died-"

"Twice as many would have," Roady started, lifting his head up a little and sliding back on the bed. He used his left arm only, and Zach saw a wrapped wound on Roady's right arm that he remembered the older sidekick receiving earlier on in the fight. Roady continued to Zach as he sat up a bit though, "Had you not been there. More, if we're not just including the ones you brought back." Zach's eyes widened a bit, and then he clenched then shut as well as his teeth together as he thought about what that meant. Six people. I brought back six, so does that mean six others died? He's just talking about heroes and cops too, though I wouldn't have brought back the villains anyway. Why did so many people have to die though? Why couldn't I do more? And even what I did do, even those other people on top of those six…

Zach opened his eyes and stared forward at Roady who had gone back to looking down at his lower right side. Zach gulped as he saw the empty space beneath the blanket, and he did not bother pretending like maybe Roady's legs were pushed together on the other side of it. Roady's eyes told him everything he needed to know. Just like Grappler, Zach thought, his heart clenching harder again. I shouldn't have hesitated when reaching for Breakneck's gun. I shot at Dandy too late, trying to reason- I was stupid! I should have shot all of them! Tears welled in Zach's eyes, and he balled both fists up in such a pained way. "Roady," Zach began softly. "Do you think, I should have let you die?"

Roady brought his gaze up from the empty space on his right side where his leg used to be. He looked up and saw Zach looking at him with so much pain on his face. He wanted to call Zach stupid for asking such a stupid question, yet Zach looked completely serious while looking back at him. "If I had, and didn't drive off to have to fight those two villains… If I had, waited for you to die and just recovered some strength a distance away," Zach was starting to speak faster, the regret he was feeling coming through his voice as he took a step towards the foot of Roady's bed. "If I had waited for you to die and saved you after, your right leg would have been healed."

"Well I'm glad I didn't die," Roady said, looking at Zach oddly and making the younger boy open his eyes huge. "I'm happy, you made the right choice if you really thought letting me die was an option." Roady gave Zach a funny look at that, and then he frowned a bit and continued, "You should never wait for someone to die, and force all that pain on yourself unnecessarily." Zach leaned away looking taken aback by that response.

Roady had seen Zach bring a few people back to life now. The Viking, Kurt 2, Plucky, especially Plucky. He remembered hearing Plucky's voice over their headsets when she was dying, but it seemed like it had been quicker for her than it had for Lifebringer. While he had fought Horny to keep her away from Zach, he had caught glimpses of Zach's face while Zach was bringing Plucky back to life. He could still hear the screams Zach made as blood poured out of his eyes and ears, and he meant it when he said he was happy because he would have hated himself if the kid had gone through that pain for him. Even if it did mean, he could have kept his leg.

"You drove it pretty well last night," Roady said, changing the subject while leaning back in his bed again. Zach's eyes widened at what Roady said, and the older boy continued, "Though maybe I'm remembering it wrong, since I'm pretty sure you let me fall off-"

"Sorry-"

"I said you did good," Roady muttered, getting annoyed as Zach apologized for what was just meant as a small joke. He was in the mood for some dark humor and really needed it right now, but he was also pretty serious as he continued, "Never would've gotten out of there with my life, if you and Flamedrag didn't get me out." Zach stared closer at Roady wondering what he was getting at here, as Roady seemed to slow down at the end of that sentence in a hesitant sort-of way. Roady glanced down at his right side again, and he sighed but slouched farther down into the bed.

"I won't be riding Fla- I won't be riding it anymore," Roady said. "But if you get your license at the end of the internship," Zach's eyes started growing wider and were huge as Roady finished, "You should take it." The way he stopped referring to his bike by the name he had for it, and started just calling it by "it" instead made it sound like he was accepting that it really was just a vehicle. There are more important things, Roady thought, staying serious as he looked at the kid who was gawking at him like he had just offered to do a heart transplant. "You drove well enough to get us to the hospital after all," Roady said. "And if I can't, then she'd be… yeah, she'd be of more use to you now. Wouldn't she?"

"I, I can't-" Zach began.

"Don't be weird about it," Roady said, giving Zach an annoyed look as the heart transplant analogy he made in his head was sounding legit now. "I'm telling you, not to get hung up on my leg," Roady said to the boy who looked him in the eyes again. "After all, my girl told me that if I ever died, she'd kill me," Roady joked. Zach stared at him in surprise that Roady was capable of sounding like that in his condition. "So you definitely made the right move, 'cause if I had died then she'd have killed me again in no time."

"Roady," Zach whispered, though his fists unclenched from his sides. He thought about how much care Roady put into the upkeep of his bike, and seeing him this accepting of losing it was hurting him. At the same time though, because he knew how much Roady cared, he knew the older boy was not making this offer lightly. Maybe he doesn't want to feel like he owes me. Maybe, he really just wants Flamedrag to keep doing good without him. It'll be like a part of him is still out there, even if he can no longer… I don't like this. I don't, but I can't just spit on his feelings.

"Speaking of which," Roady continued while Zach got an accepting look on his face. "Mind getting out of here?" Roady asked, "I'm waitin' on, someone." Zach started nodding at the older hero as he put together what that meant. He backed up, then as he started turning Roady continued louder to him, "I meant what I said too. Go get some more rest, Lifebringer. You look like crap."

Zach nodded with his head half-turned, and he said softly, "Yeah, I'll go do that." Zach turned the rest of the way and walked out through the doorway, and he turned his head towards the sound of running footsteps coming his way. He moved out of the way for the girl who looked at his body with wide eyes for a second, only to spin and run into Roady's room and call out his name. Endo huh? Zach thought as he started away, just realizing that he did not know Roady's real name until that moment.

---

A/N Thanks for reading! Long chapter this time as we near the end of the internship arc with the end of the battle in the Trigger lab. At the end of the last chapter, Midoriya didn't stop Dandy because he realized he would have had to let go of the Chemist and there was someone he had not seen for a while, which is why this chapter started out with Breakneck appearing out of nowhere and Midoriya ready for him. The League escapes as Dandy on Apocalypse ravages the heroes and tears the warehouse down on top of himself. Ultimately the Apocalypse kills Dandy like it did most of the test subjects; just got a little too excited to see Endeavor "eeek" and POP there goes his heart (along with other reasons). Anyway, a lot happened this chapter, lots of fights between the heroes and Dandy. Some top shot pros appear at the end including a one-armed Hawks who saves Midoriya and some reporters from the crashing helicopter. I hope you enjoyed the chapter (even if the final fight was more Midoriya than Zach). Leave a review telling me what you think!

Oblivious ninja IJ chapter 77 . Sep 16

Guess who's back? Back again?
Tmb1112's back, tell a friend,
Guess who's back? (Six more times coz I'm too lazy to write it)
Nanananannnanananan nanananannnanananh
You've created a monster, coz nobody wanna see Zach nomore, they want nightmare he's chopped liver, well if yeh want nightmare this is what I give yeh...
A THUMBS UP! ahh is breakneck also an OC? Coz lately you've been putting in a lot of OC's in here and there and I- being the awesome ninja that I am- actually believe that they are from the bnha-verse ... unless Google is the Oblivious one...?
Thanks for another (crazy) review! Zach goes off with Nightmare last chapter, as well as a little bit this chapter as he fights his way to the hospital to save Roady. And yeah, Breakneck is an OC, like the majority of the characters in this arc have been. Bikergang, Roady, Bouncer Man, Daisy, Keiko, Underguard, Rubbergirl, the Feisty Foursome, Team Canada, Gogogo, Sameko, Lobscar, Wonderlass, Breakneck, Dandy, Chemist, Blazerage, Inquisitor, Hydro, Fez... Actually was planning on naming everyone here but just realized there are way too many. But yeah, lots of OCs thrown in and I hope you liked the new characters!

Shade11224 chapter 77 . Sep 16

This chapter was a lot more enjoyable in my opinion because we got to see how strong zach really is in comparison to the average hero and he also made gains in his quirk's revival aspect.
Thanks for chappy!
PS #FrenchBoyIsSPY

Alright, so cut out a bit of that review (quite a long one). Thanks for reviewing and I'm glad you liked the last chapter. This one focuses a lot on Midoriya again, so sorry since you don't seem to be into that. I still don't agree with you that Zach could easily beat Bakugo, and I'm not really one to downplay Zach's abilities. But, you say in your review that if we're going "realistic unlike the manga and anime," I mean, I'm not going by realistic then. I base his power off what's in the manga and anime, as I do with his combat prowess. That fight between him and Midoriya in the anime this weekend, which happened more than half of a year in this story's time before where they are currently, is beyond anything we've seen Zach do thus far. I'm really not saying that Bakugo would def beat him, but to say that Zach should wipe the floor with everyone and only not Midoriya because he's got plot armor, it's just not true. Zach doesn't have a Full Cowl, and even if that is what his Nightmare form looks to be turning into to you, Zach himself is just realizing it right now as he thinks about last chapter in his fight with those villains and the chapter before when he punches the wall and is surprised that his fist leaves a dent. Won't say Midoriya would def beat him either, and Zach does have a lot of combat experience and martial arts training, just think you're really overestimating Zach's current powers if you think Nightmare is OP enough to make Bakugo look like a scrub in a fight. I've also put Midoriya in a lot of scenes recently because they're together this arc, but also 'cause he's also pretty important in this story. Death has run parallel to BNHA pretty much since the start as I tried keeping to canon as much as possible at the beginning and even after Zach started having a big impact. In the story info, Midoriya is one of the MCs too. This is Zach's story though, so it'll get back to focusing more mainly on him as the internship arc comes to a close... but no spoilers actually. Thanks again and I'm glad you like this story and Zach, and despite focusing on Midoriya I hope you still enjoyed the chapter!

Super Power Sensei chapter 77 . Sep 17

I'm going to assume from now on that villains in general are more involved internationally than ever. Because the increasing amount of weapons they are using definitely wouldn't happen in the actual story. At least right now.

Oh yeah. The whole world was watching the Sports Festival, but even before I mentioned that we heard Zach talking or thinking about times he had gone overseas. He had told Ganji about a time he had been in Russia, though he said the villains had him in America or maybe it was China more right after Camino Ward when they were the most wanted and had to go into hiding for a while. Plus even this arc Zach was wondering if the Trigger lab they were going to was the main Japanese one as he knows there are other labs in different countries. Maybe those guys returning from Feruchia had just sold their Trigger to international arms dealers too which is how they had all that stuff in the truck? Who knows? But there have def been mentions of international stuff through this so I'm glad you're thinking about that! Thanks for the review, and I hope you enjoyed the climax of the fight!