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Izuku Midoriya POV

His entire life had been defined by holding back. Some of his earliest memories were going to speech therapy to help hold back a stutter he had been born with. And then when his quirk awoke, in all its horrifying rage, he had spent years forced out of normal society to hold back Skaar.

Then the drugs came, and Skaar was locked away from him. But everyday was a struggle to hold back the endless wave of exhaustion that came over him at all hours of the day. Hold back his body's natural reaction to vomit out all the drugs that sat in his stomach for hours.

All Might helped, he really did. The number 1 hero brought out the best in him, got him through the UA entrance exam, he was top dog in the hero world for a reason after all. But All Might still cautioned him constantly, to not go overboard, to not push himself.

But he was finally taking Himiko's advice. The girl who had stood by his side for years, who had climbed Skaar like a jungle gym and dragged him out of the abyss in his own mind when he was on the verge of giving up. No matter what anyone said about her, the news calling the bloody vigilante of Hosu out for violence and heroes calling for their arrest, Izuku believed in her, the same way she always did for him. He was going to be himself, be a hero his own way, and Skaar was more than on the same page.

The transformation was shockingly painful, considerably more so than he remembered as a child, but he assumed that was because his transformation was pushing through the last of the drug in his bloodstream. The stabbing pain he could feel in his chest certainly gave credence to the theory. His bones cracking and twisting, his head inflating, and his skin bubbling, less so.

But Izuku knew this was a part of him, every single repressed emotion and thought for years, and for the first time in years, he could feel Skaar stirring in his mind.

It was slow at first, like someone waking up after a long night's rest, but he could feel the simmering rage explode outwards. And Izuku stepped aside. He gave Skaar full control, with only a single fleeting thought directed at his other half

Save our friends, smash the rest.

The savage roar of glee and anger Skaar let off before jumping down to the mess of villains below sent shivers down Izuku's spine. But he knew he had done the right thing. Fighting against Skaar for control now, when the drugs destroyed whatever relationship the two had been slowly forming back at the hospital, would only make things worse in the long run. Skaar needed to let off some pent up aggression, and the villains had kindly provided the perfect target.

Skaar landed hard, his feet cracking the concrete beneath him and a billow of dust rising up from his landing point.

The villain covered in hands and black mist villain turned away from the trio of students at the flood zone's edge, giving Asui enough time to drag a dope faced Kaminari and terrified Mineta away from the upcoming fight and towards the entrance again. Unlike the human sized villains though, the black beaked monstrosity that was holding Aizawa-sensei down to the floor didn't even flinch at his arrival.

"Another damn mini-boss." The hand villain tched, scratching his neck as he glared at Skaar, who was sizing up both the smaller duo, and the larger monster, hands twitching at his sides.

Who gets smashed first.

"Nomu, kill the mini-boss, I want the exp." The villain told the monster, and the black thing leapt off Aizawa, who groaned in pain as he was knocked out against the concrete beneath him.

Skaar roared in challenge and met the black thing's charge head on, fists ramming into one another with tremendous force, sending out a shockwave from around them.

"Brute force won't win troll, Nomu is built to kill All Might himself, you don't stand a chance!" The hand villain's neck scratching sped up as he laughed madly, but Skaar ignored him, far too absorbed in his new playmate. Izuku on the other hand, was analysing the villain's words carefully from the depths of his own mind, taking note of the word 'built' specifically. Lab experiment type villains were some of the worst around, always had more surprises than most heroes planned for, and it also meant that there was a hidden party involved. Because he very much doubted the 'well armed' teen in front of him had enough brain power to cook up something capable of taking down his mentor, even in his weakened state.

The punching continued between the two monstrous fighters, Nomu unblinking in its assault, and Skaar roaring and gritting his teeth at every clash.

Despite his obvious strength and durability, Skaar began to lose ground to the bioengineered monster, his punches getting sloppier and wilder as his rage grew, arms shaking from the repeated intense impacts dealt from the Nomu. Years of inactivity hadn't done anything to help the berserker either.

"Tomura, we should consider leaving. Not even Nomu can stand against that thing and him at the same time." The black mist warned his partner and boss, but he was shrugged off.

"You can get us out if it gets too dangerous. I wanna see how this ends." Tomura Shigaraki's eyes were gleaming with hatred, but also naked interest at the fight happening before him. Nomu was a monster, created by his sensei to fell the number one hero in the world. To nullify his strength. But now this random student was matching him blow for blow, and without the shock absorption and regeneration sensei had put into his nomu. While his strength was obviously slightly lower than the nomu, his durability and toughness were higher, not counting the extra quirks sensei had packed into Nomu. No hacks, no cheats, just raw strength that no noob should have, but was here anyway, wailing away on Sensei's masterpiece.

"Kill him Nomu!" Shigaraki screamed at the monster, hands reaching up to continue scratching at his neck furiously as he watched with slitted eyes behind the severed hand over his face.

Despite not verbally responding, the nomu upped its efforts to kill Skaar, swinging its meaty fists faster and harder than before, forcing the anger driven berserker back and on the defensive. Izuku watched, analysing from the back of Skaar's mind, waiting for the moment he could assist in the fight without distracting his angry other half. Maybe it was because Skaar had been asleep for so long or maybe it was because Izuku's mind was much more developed now that he was older, but for the first time he could see and think clearly, no longer fighting to stay present while Skaar took the lead.

With a roar of effort, Skaar caught a double fist hammer blow aimed at his face and lifted one of his bulging legs to stomp on one of Nomu's knees. For the first time since the brawl began, Nomu let off an inhuman screech of pain as it was forced to one knee, Skaar's stomp had completely crushed and removed the right metal armor piece, and the kneecap behind it.

Letting go of his injured foe's arms, Skaar wound up and let loose a full power swing, aimed right at the Nomu's face. Izuku felt the vicious satisfaction of victory come to him from Skaar as the blow neared the experiment's beak, but that was cut short when a vicious punch landed in Skaar's stomach, knocking the wind out of the faded jade berserker and giving the Nomu a change to stand back up, kneecap completely regrown, although the protective armor was crushed at its feet, inky blood dripping from the freshly healed leg and onto the twisted metal.

"You'll have to try harder than that!" The Shigaraki taunted, Kurogiri content to wait at his side patiently, watching the fight with narrowed swirling yellow eyes. "Nomu has super regeneration, there's nothing you can do against him.

Izuku could feel the shift in Skaar, the understanding of the man's words while he stared down his opponent. Izuku took the chance to gently push an idea to Skaar, hoping his other half would take it in stride.

Skaar and Nomu roared at one another, signaling the continuation of their brawl. But while Nomu leapt forward with mindless and reckless abandon, Skaar jumped backwards, towards the edge of the ruin zone. Grabbing a hold of the guardrail in front of the zone, Skaar ripped it up and swung the misshapen metal like a bat at the Nomu, the edge carving a chunk of inky and crimson flesh out of the beast's chest. The wound quickly bubbled and regrew, but Skaar took the chance to fold the guardrail over several times, turning the metal strip from three times Skaar's height, to an edged pseudo-sword the length of Skaar's arm.

If Nomu could regenerate, there was a limit. Even if it was sky high, regeneration pulled from stamina, the regrown flesh didn't just come from nowhere. So Skaar had to rip the Nomu to pieces as many times as it took until it finally stopped regenerating. An idea made much simpler with a weapon, no matter how crude.

Skaar bellowed and swung with his misshapen weapon, the sheer force of the metal cleaving through the Nomu's flesh and bone as the lab experiment swung another fist, this time the cut went straight through the thing's arm with a wet splurch sound that seemed to echo through the already chaotic USJ.

Skaar could hear the villain growling but quickly dismissed him. He was small and puny, not a threat in the slightest. Not when compared to the challenger in front of him. Despite his severed arm on the ground in front of him, the new one was already nearly completely regenerated.

Roaring again, Skaar gripped the makeshift weapon and swung it with both hands, Izuku gently guiding the weapon towards joints and soft spots on the nomu, severing limbs almost as fast as the nomu could regenerate them. Arms and legs, each gushing black blood, began to pile up around the duo. Chunks of its torso gouged out and splattered across the central plaza. Half of nomu's brain that Skaar had lopped off in an upwards swing, Izuku still couldn't believe it had regenerated from that, but it had.

But it was working, with every limb cut and with every ounce of blood spilt, the nomu was slowing, the regeneration taking longer and longer to create new limbs. They were going to win.

Until they weren't.

While Skaar had been dealing with the nomu, more of Izuku's classmates had begun to rejoin the main plaza from the various zones. Asui, Kaminari, and Mineta making their way up the stairs. Yaoyorozu and Jirou had descended from the mountain zone and were carrying away Aizawa-sensei on a stretcher, presumably created by Yaoyorozu. And Todoroki had come from the landslide zone and began attacking Shigaraki and Kurogiri.

Despite the massive amounts of ice he was sending in waves, between Kurogiri's warping and Shigaraki's disintegration, it was all he could do to keep them both away from him. Izuku's mind turned away form the fight with the Nomu and urged Skaar forward towards the flagging ice user, already thinking of how to land a blow around Kurogiri's warping.

But unlike his earlier nudges, Skaar resisted, violently.

"NO!"

It wasn't a vocal shout, but Skaar's mental command shoved Izuku completely out of awareness, blacking him out completely, the last thing he could remember seeing was Skaar swinging the now dulled guardrail weapon at the nomu's midsection, trying to cut the lab monster in half, only for it to get stuck halfway through, and one of nomu's freshly regenerated arms grabbing the blade in place.

Skaar, now completely on his own without any input from Izuku, bellowed in pain as the nomu sent a straight punch at his torso, his durable bones cracking at long last after the assault they'd been under. Skaar tumbled backwards and into the edge of the ruin zone, the nomu following him relentlessly, another haymaker punch already wound up and swinging at the berserker.

Skaar crashed backwards, barely being able to shield himself with his massive arms as the blow sent him through several buildings, crashing into a man that was in the midst of fighting Kinney, whose claws were fully out and her hero outfit shredded to near indecency.

Growling in pain and frustration, Skaar reached behind him and chucked the stirring and surprisingly sharp villain he had landed on at the Nomu, who carelessly swatted the mohawked man away from it, sending him flying through another building.

Roaring again, Skaar leapt forward, once again meeting the nomu in a clash of blows, both ignoring how Kinney took the opportunity to flee from zone towards the main plaza, an unconscious and bleeding Kirishima slung over her shoulder, using her foot claws to get balanced footing amongst the rubble as she sprinted towards the exit.

Despite his best efforts, punch after punch, Skaar just wasn't making progress anymore against the Nomu. Without his 'blade', Skaar couldn't land meaningful damage against the living weapon. The only reason he was still keeping up despite his cracked ribs was because the constant regeneration of limbs had drained the Nomu's stamina, leaving it flagging, just like Skaar.

Roaring again, Skaar shoulder tackled the Nomu and plowed it through a series of buildings, turning the ruin zone into actual ruins as the already damaged buildings came down on their heads, bricks bouncing off the thick headed opponents.

Running into the main plaza, Skaar hefted the Nomu up and chucked it towards Shigaraki and Kurogiri, forcing them to disengage from Todoroki and Kinney who had joined him despite having clearly already fought through numerous villains. Unfortunately for the hero students, Kurogiri reacted quickly and used a portal to gently set the Nomu down, giving both sides a moment to recollect themselves.

"Shigaraki Tomura, perhaps it's best if we…!"

Any further conversation was cut off as the doors to the USJ were blasted inwards with a resounding BOOM, and All Might himself walked in

And for once, he wasn't smiling.

"Come after my students will you, not today, never fear everyone I AM HERE!"

In seconds, the students were across the plaza again, this time near the entrance, watching in awe as All Might stared down the three remaining villains.

"Nomu, KILL HIM!" Shigaraki shrieked, and the bioweapon launched itself forward, fist reared back to strike the number 1 hero, but both Shigaraki and All Might were surprised when a third fighter stepped into the ring, and Skaar, who had been forgotten in light of All Might's entrance, caught Nomu's fist and threw the entire beast backwards again, taking its place blitzing towards All Might, a meaty fist swinging towards him fast enough for him to be forced to block rather than dodge the attack.

Skidding backwards a little, All Might grimaced slightly as he looked at the quickly forming bruise raising on his arm where he had blocked Skaar's punch. Clearly time had done nothing but strengthen his student's other half, and done equally little to change Skaar's attitude towards him.

The Nomu screeched for the first time since Skaar had kneecapped it, squaring up with both All Might and Skaar, and there was a pause as three behemoths of strength squared off, eyes flickering between opponents and legs clenching as all three prepared their next moves.

"TEXAS SMASH!" All Might raised both his arms and blasted cannons of air pressure at both Skaar and the Nomu. While Skaar grunted and skidded backwards from the blow, shielding his ribs with both arms, the Nomu just tanked the hit without even blinking before blitzing forward at the staggered Skaar.

"You'll have to do better than that All Might, Nomu has shock absorption, none of your stupid punches will put a dent in him!" Tomura taunted, standing back alongside Kurogiri, watching the stalemate between the three titans. Similarly, the other class 1-A students were watching from the base of the entrance stairs, waiting with baited breath for the melee to continue.

And continue it did, all three fighters threw themselves forward, fists flying every which way faster than the human eye could normally follow.

Skaar letting loose a wild haymaker at All Might, only to be gut punched by the Nomu. All Might landing a Detroit Smash to Nomu's chest to no effect. Nomu's fist burying itself in All Might's jaw, Skaar horse kicking Nomu in the gut, All Might swatting his student into the ground with a well placed Carolina Smash. Skaar sweeping Nomu's legs out from under him as he fell. Nomu transitioning his fall into a downward punch to Skaar's face. All Might grabbing both behemoths by the scruff of their necks and tossing them towards Tomura and Kurogiri, blitzing after them with a barrage of punches.

"Shock absorption huh." All Might said as both of his opponents got to their feet, allowing himself to catch his breath, feeling the strain placed on his hero form as his time dwindled down rapidly, his body aching from over exertion. "That means there's an upper limit, but first…" All Might blitzed towards the still recovering Skaar, dodging a similar charge at him from the unyielding Nomu. Grabbing Skaar with a bear hug, trapping his powerful green arms at his sides, All Might heaved, and sent Skaar flying towards the flood zone, the powerful berserker letting out a yell of surprise before he vanished under the water.

"Let me introduce you villains to an idea we teach here, PLUS ULTRA!" With Skaar out of the way, All Might threw his everything into the Nomu, his fists raining down at inhuman speeds as hit pushed One for All like he hadn't in years, not since his fated battle with All for One. Each fist sunk into the Nomu's black twisted flesh, forcing ripples to echo across its skin as All Might laid into the monster with targeted punches. With one final heave, the beast was rocketed upwards, its previous battle with Skaar wearing away its stamina until it was just a punching bag for someone as strong and skilled as the Number One Hero.

All Might spat out a small wad of blood as he turned to face the two remaining villains, glad he had managed to shield his injury in the fight, despite the fact that he had to fight two opponents at once. But both Skaar and the creature had worn each other out before he had arrived. Fighting either one at their full power, or even both, would have been much more challenging.

"100 punches." All Might said to Shigaraki and Kurogiri, who were both flinching backwards, even as his form began to smoke lightly, deflating by minute proportions as his ability to channel the immense power of One for All slipped away from him, the strength draining away as his injury took its toll on his body.

"In my prime that would have only taken 4 or 5, I must truly be getting old HAHAHA!" All Might flexed his presence, bluffing his way against the two remaining villains, when in truth he could barely move at the moment. He'd managed to escape lasting damage to his failing body, he'd still have his three hours of hero work, but for today, he'd put in everything he had.

"Weaker….he hasn't gotten weaker at all!" Shigaraki spat, Kurogiri hovering at his shoulder nervously, the young man next to him scratching his neck in deranged fury. "Get us out of here Kurogiri, I've seen enough for today."

The black mist villain complied and swallowed up the younger man in an instant, one hate filled red eye was the last thing All Might saw before the two vanished from the USJ. Just in time for them as the rest of the UA facility burst through the main entrance, clearly prepared for a fight that wasn't going to happen.

"Alright little listeners, let's get you out of here!" Present Mic herded away most of class 1-A while Midnight and Snipe headed towards the fire and rain zones to check for missing students. Cementoss in the meantime raised a wall blocking off All Might and the flood zone behind him from view, allowing the blonde to finally deflate, coughing up a river of blood as he did so.

"Stupid man!" On que, Recovery Girl's cane cracked him across the head despite Cenentoss's protests. "Always overdoing it. Hurry up and find a successor so we can get transplants for your damn organs!"

"It's not that easy…" All Might started to say, when a geyser of water erupted from the flood zone and All Might grimaced and braced himself. He was done for the day, and had hoped that his throw had been enough to know Skaar back into Izuku, but turned out to be wishful thinking as the jade goliath landed in front of him and Recovery Girl, Cementoss rushing over and calling for backup Sjkaar stared them down.

The staredown continued, Skaar looking at the three of them even as the rest of UA's teachers made it to the scene, creating a staredown between them and Skaar.

"Not King."

Skaar's words were deep and lacked the fire most expected from him given his history, and both Midnight and All Might, who had worked with Skaar before, were shocked when Skaar just plopped himself down on the ground, looking up at the teachers from where he sat, his green-grey eyes taking in the world around him with frightening speed.

"It's nice to see you again, young Skaar…" All Might started, still in his shriveled up form. Skaar had clearly identified him and his lack of action was clear as day to him now. He was no longer a challenger for Skaar to fight.

"Himi." Skaar cut off whatever else All Might was going to say, his voice growing in intensity as the teachers shifted cautiously around him. "Want See Himi."

Toshinor Yagi could only sigh at that, because of course his student had to make things more troublesome.

HOLY! SHIT! 8 rewrites, about a dozen times rewatching All Might and Nomu's fight, and a summer of working about 50 hours a week. This chapter was always meant to be one of the special moments in the story, and damn did I want to make sure I got it right. Which meant DAYS of work to make sure I didn't miss anything as I combed over every sentence and every shift in the fight.

For those curious about rough power levels, I mentally ranked them like this. Hulk in his prime is stronger than All Might in his prime. Fresh Skaar once he gets his feet back under him at this point is under All Might in his prime for now, and definitely still weaker than top level Hulk. Nomu falls in last of the four, but he was the only one fresh when the fight started. We know weakened All Might was able to take out Nomu even running on fumes, but Skaar was just as weakened as All Might presumably was, dropping him below Nomu in terms of strength. The one way he could have won was through Izuku's help, fighting smarter not stronger. But that relationship still needs work, so Skaar would have lost if All Might hadn't arrived.

And I got to drop in another cameo into the chapter, so that's fun.

No clue when the next chapter will come, this one drained me, like, majorly. And I've been writing an original novel as well on top of full time student crap, so hopefully early December, but I make no promises, life is way too screwy to guarantee anything.

Happy Reading -Centurion Africanus