When Denki lunged forward, Full Throttle flinched away, stumbling in his effort to get out of reach. But Denki wasn't reaching for him; he wasn't trying to grab on and take him down with him, no. Denki was trying to minimize collateral damage.
Denki shot forward at full speed, knowing that he wouldn't last long climbing the hill at that rate, but reassuring himself that he could slow down and pace himself when he got a safer distance away.
He turned around momentarily when he reached the tree line and met Aizawa's gaze. At least he knew that someone knew what was going on. And it looked like Aizawa had the soulmates under control and would keep them safe.
The forest thickened around him, and he almost tripped over a root as he climbed, the incline getting steeper as he aimed for the top of the mountain. Getting to high ground would be safer for everyone else; no one else should get caught in the crossfire of his electricity that way.
Denki left chaos behind him, solely focused on his goal of getting away and keeping everyone safe. Everyone except for himself, that is, but he knew he was doomed either way. No one had ever survived Full Throttle's quirk, and Denki knew that he wasn't special enough to be the exception.
Aizawa had been watching the trio a little more closely than the rest. If anyone called it favoritism, Aizawa would call them a big, fat liar. Those three just seemed to get into more trouble than usual. So, when he saw Denki's quirk envelop his whole body, and the look of embarrassed panic on his face, Aizawa automatically activated his quirk to cancel out Denki's. When Denki's quirk persisted, Aizawa swore. He rushed forward, but Full Throttle had already disappeared into the crowd, and Aizawa didn't get a good enough look to track him down. Besides, he didn't have the time for that anyway.
Neito and Hitoshi had also seen what happened, but they didn't quite know the extent to what was wrong. When Denki took off in a full sprint toward the forest that covered the mountainside that they had been riding along just twenty minutes earlier, Neito and Hitoshi took a step forward to follow him, but they immediately found themselves wrapped tightly in Aizawa's capture weapon.
Aizawa knew that explaining it to them wasn't going to get them to stand down.
"Oh, our boyfriend is going to die? Guess we'll have to find a new one!" said nobody ever.
Not a chance, Aizawa knew.
"It's Full Throttle," Aizawa hissed.
Immediately, the boys understood. They looked at each other, faces paling. They looked in the direction of the lightning that was increasing every second, stricken. Then they fought tooth and nail to untangle themselves from Aizawa's capture weapon, huffing and puffing and swearing and threatening.
As Hitoshi made progress at untangling them, he ignored Aizawa's demands that they leave Denki to the pros, talking over him like he wasn't even there.
Neito wasn't so gracious as he sneered, "what pros? Huh? What the fuck are they going to do? What have they ever done when it came to Full Throttle's quirk?"
"The one civilian who came to talk to me has an electric-type quirk," Hitoshi informed Neito before he could continue with his raging.
"The girl with the blue hair?" Neito confirmed, looking around to find his target, refocused on what mattered most in that moment.
"That's the one. I'm going to see what Yaoyorozu can come up with for me. Some kind of super insulated suit or something."
"What are you thinking?" Neito asked, to be clear on the plan before they get separated.
"You go ahead and do that closed circuit thing with Denki so that he lasts longer at higher voltage." Neito nodded his understanding, looping a section of the capture weapon out from under his arm and over his head. Hitoshi unwrapped a section from his ankle and stepped over it before continuing, "I'm going to get close enough to get him under my quirk."
Understanding and awe filled Neito's eyes. "You think that you can get him to turn it off by commanding it?"
Hitoshi shrugged, completely at a loss. "It's worth a shot. We have to try something." A pause. "Do you have a better idea?"
Neito shook his head, spinning in place to loosen the capture weapon further. "I think if anyone can do it, it would be you. Let's try it."
Between the two of them, they had managed to worm their way out of the capture weapon faster than Aizawa had predicted they would. That's what he gets for teaching Hitoshi how to use the capture weapon and practicing with him constantly. It was no surprise that Neito followed suit; Hitoshi trained with Neito all the time, so Neito was used to the nuances of the capture weapon, too.
It wouldn't exactly be responsible to allow his pre-adoptive son and his soulmate to chase after a lost cause, would it?
But they did have a plan. And when had Aizawa ever claimed to be responsible?
Aizawa would say that at least he was responsible enough to let Neito and Hitoshi know what they were up against. And maybe the trio would be the first to figure out a way around Full Throttle's quirk. Stranger things have happened.
Neito took off, throwing a "follow the lightning" over his shoulder to Hitoshi, and making a quick pit-stop at the girl with the blue hair to grab an electric quirk so he could touch Denki without being electrocuted. Hitoshi rushed over to Yaoyorozu, and she listened to him with an intensity that Aizawa had seen often, but then it morphed into something else entirely. Panicked concentration would be the closest Aizawa would get to explaining it with words.
Aizawa opened his mouth, but before he could even get the first word out, Hitoshi looked at him with a calm sort of stormy determination in his eyes.
"I'm not leaving my soulmate and boyfriend up there on that damn mountain alone."
Aizawa knew this day would come eventually. This is the life of a hero. This is the life that he chose, that Yamada chose, and that Hitoshi was actively choosing every day he continued to work toward his goals.
"I wouldn't expect you to," Aizawa deadpanned. "You're a hero, aren't you?"
"I'm trying to be," Hitoshi responded softly, forcing himself to stand still and not shift his weight under the anticipation of when Yaoyorozu would be finished with his insulated suit.
Hitoshi then explained his theory to Aizawa, also explaining how Neito and Denki could get to a higher voltage with no side effects when they made a loop together for the electricity to travel through. He explained how that would give him enough time for Yaoyorozu to save his ass by being fucking awesome and how it would allow Neito and Denki to hopefully have a little more control over the electricity and be able to direct it away from him as he got closer.
When a loud crack of thunder followed immediately after a bright column of light shooting straight up into the sky, everyone startled. Hitoshi stayed tense until Yaoyorozu was finished, thanked her incessantly as he suited up, and sprinted off without another look back.
Running toward the lightning was terrifying, but it made it easier knowing that he was running to his boyfriend's rescue. Also, his soulmate's rescue since Neito had taken off in advance to help stabilize Denki and maintain him until Hitoshi could get there.
Except, if Hitoshi's theory didn't work, then they would all die, and it would probably be pretty painful. Hitoshi pushed the thought away and continued running. Instead, he thought about how Neito was doing with the task of running up the mountain and how he was managing.
"Speed." Neito muttered to himself under his breath. "I am speed. Lightning quick! Ka-chow!" He sent a wink at a tree that he sped past. "Lightning can't hurt me. I am lightning, motherfucker!"
As if testing his claim, a bolt of lightning headed straight for Neito, and like he was made for it, he allowed the lightning to flow through him with the help of the electricity quirk that the blue-haired girl was more than happy to share with an up-and-coming hero. Neito's steps didn't even falter.
"You thought—!" Neito screeched at the sky as he laughed in victory, continuing to run at full speed.
Denki had managed to get to the top of the mountain in record time. That's the benefit of adrenaline, he figured. Too bad he would die before he could tell anyone he probably broke a world record.
Denki wasn't sure how out of hand his electricity would get before it finally overtook him, so he decided to try to give everyone as much time as possible to get as far away as possible. He sat in the middle of a rocky clearing, closed his eyes, and started his rhythmic breathing, attempting to decrease the voltage with every exhale. He was proud of himself when he felt himself stabilize for a minute, even when the power started to rise again. He would take any small victory he could get at that point.
Hawks watched from a safe distance away, wings spread for balance as he stood on a branch of a tall tree on top of an adjacent mountain, one hand in his pocket and one on the trunk of the tree. Anyone looking might have seen his easygoing posture and thought he was relaxed, but the way his fingernails were digging into the tree indicated otherwise.
This is bad, he thought. If Kaminari dies, that will create more problems than it'll solve, I'm sure.
It would free Denki of the League of Villains, who had seemed to have taken an interest in him if Dabi and Shigaraki asking about how his little protégé is doing was any indication. They never ask about his sidekicks, so why his little intern? Were they really that bad that they would go after a child who they had already kidnapped once before? And he's the one they used Force Majeure's quirk on, no less. The kid couldn't catch a break; bad luck followed him.
The hair on the back of Hawks's neck stood on end as a particularly powerful lightning strike lit up the surrounding clouds.
He was damn powerful, too. Hawks had never seen power like that before. Maybe the League knew the kind of power that Denki was capable of; that would explain the continued interest after they had already failed with him once before. As far as Hawks could tell, Denki was doing a fantastic job of staving off the full power for as long as he could. And if he looked closely, it even looked like Denki's outline was fuzzing around the edges as he sat there with his eyes closed, electricity crackling around him as he breathed. Once, Hawks lost sight of Denki completely, his silhouette disappearing in the flash of light. Hawks's heart had flipped, and dread filled his stomach as he thought the worst. The immense relief he felt when the light subsided to reveal Denki still sitting there on the ground was like nothing he had ever felt before, because it also came with a realization and a theory.
"I'm rooting for you, kiddo," Hawks muttered, squeezing his fists tightly, ignoring the feeling of his knuckles scraping across the bark of the tree, helpless to do anything in this situation.
If Denki survived, Hawks swore he would teach the kid how to get airborne.
Denki didn't hear Neito's approach, and when he felt hands on his and the strain of the power of the electricity lessen, he opened his eyes. At the sight of Neito there, sitting down with him, and smiling, though out of breath, Denki thought that he had fought a good fight and died trying. He was sad that he left his boyfriends behind, but at least he was able to avoid taking anyone down with him. It also seemed like his version of eternal paradise coincidentally included the vision Neito, so it wasn't all so bad.
After a moment, Denki's eyes widened and his heart raced when he realized that he was, in fact, not dead. The electricity surged around them with renewed energy, drawing from Denki's panic as he asked Neito what the hell he thought he was doing.
"I'd follow you anywhere," Neito responded over the loud cracks of lightning scattering around them.
Denki couldn't respond, because how could he? Neito was using his own tricky words against him, and Denki both loved him and feared for him.
"What about Hitoshi? What's he going to do without his soulmate?" Denki tried, desperate to not take Hitoshi's soulmate down with him.
"He'll be hauling ass up this mountain like something is chasing him, if he knows what's good for him!" Neito snapped. It got the desired effect.
"He's coming here?!" Denki screeched, panicked eyes searching the gaps in the trees to see if he could spot him.
"He's getting some impromptu tech support from Yaoyorozu, but he should be here soon! Even Aizawa's quirk is useless against Full Throttle, but we think Hitoshi might be able to get Full Throttle's quirk to stop by using his own quirk against it and shutting if off at the source," Neito explained, glad to help Denki catch up.
"That's such a risk, though, Nei," Denki argued softly, even knowing that he wouldn't be able to change anyone's mind.
"No broken glass this time, so I'd say this is actually an improvement!" Neito continued with an easy-going shrug as he looked around them.
Denki laughed. His death was almost certain, and there he was, laughing with Neito. He wouldn't have it any other way, except maybe having Neito and Hitoshi miles away so he could rest easy knowing that they were safe.
Neito didn't mention when he noticed that the force of the electricity decreased with Denki's laughter. Denki didn't need to worry about anything except keeping the power down as much as possible until Hitoshi could get there. Besides, Neito wanted all of Denki's attention on him, none to even spare on the crazy situation they had found themselves in.
"A connected kiss would make it a definite improvement," Denki added. "But it might literally kill us if we changed our circuit at this level."
"Worth it," Neito deadpanned, smiling when he made Denki laugh again.
"If we were on the beach instead, we could've made the glass with the sand, and then broken it," Denki mused.
"Hey! No one could complain if we made it in the first place, right? We made it, so it's ours to destroy!" Neito insisted, putting so much intention behind an unlikely scenario.
"I'd like to see them try to complain! Do you know who this is?!" Denki wailed dramatically, nodding his head at Neito in leu of pointing. "This is Monoma Neito. And you dare criticize the art that he has displayed here? And for free, too! How ungrateful of you!"
Neito laughed. "Do you know who this is?!" he continued the joke. "This is Kaminari Denki. The only one in history to have survived Full Throttle's quirk! And you have the gall to tell him what to do?!"
Denki smiled sadly at him. "I'm not going to survive this, Nei. Really, you should get out of here while I can still keep it down enough for you to get a safe distance away."
"Do you know who I am?!" came from Denki's left.
Denki whipped his head to find Hitoshi standing there, decked out in bulky, but effective, insulated clothing.
"Don't come any closer! Seriously! You guys have to get out of here!" Denki pleaded, the electricity rising once again with his panic.
"I'm the one who saved Chargebolt from his own quirk!" Hitoshi continued, wincing when a bolt of lightning struck near his feet.
"Who am I?" Hitoshi yelled.
"The one who's going to save me!" Denki yelled back, feeling hopeful, if not for his own sake, then for the sake of the two idiotic boys who followed a ticking time bomb up the mountain.
Damn, he loved these idiotic boys. And he knew they would argue that if their positions would have been reversed, Denki would have rushed right in, too. And that made Denki feel a little off kelter because he knew they would be right, but the disconnect in his mind wouldn't allow him to feel relieved that they were there with him. No, not until he knew they were safe.
Denki wasn't surprised when the familiar haze fell over his mind after he had answered Hitoshi's question. If he was going to die, under the comforting haze of Hitoshi's quirk was the way to go, if Denki had anything to say about it.
"Take a deep breath in," Hitoshi commanded, and Denki felt his chest rise to accommodate all of the air being taken into his lungs.
"Let the breath out and decrease your power output," Hitoshi continued.
His calm voice was soothing and such a comfort to Denki. What was even more amazing was that after a few more repeated cyclic commands, Denki could feel the relief of not being at full power anymore. He could have cried in happiness, but he guessed Hitoshi would have had to command him to do so.
When the lightning had died down to just sparks crackling off of his skin, Hitoshi commanded, "turn your quirk off."
Something in Denki's brain flipped, switched, reset. The sparks dispersed completely.
Hitoshi and Neito looked at Denki with bated breath for a full minute before nodding at each other. Hitoshi released Denki from his mind control quirk, and they all braced themselves to be blasted into hell. After a few seconds, Denki squinted his eyes open to see the damage, only to find Hitoshi and Neito smiling widely at him.
"You guys!" Denki cried out, tears finally falling. "You did it! I can't—How—"
Denki stood up only to collapse, but Neito and Hitoshi were there to catch him and take on his weight for themselves. That was no surprise though, was it? They were always there.
"I guess I can never doubt or second-guess how you feel about me ever again, can I?" Denki slurred, giggles bursting out of him as the delirium took over.
Hitoshi and Neito just whispered relieved reassurances to Denki as they maneuvered him back down the mountain. Halfway down, Aizawa came into view, and he about collapsed with relief. He hunkered down and got Denki up onto his back, but not without argument from Hitoshi and Neito.
"You've done enough," Aizawa insisted, leaving no room for argument. "You've done something that has never been done before."
There was a strange mix of crying and cheering when the four made their way out of the forest and in view of the students that milled around, wondering what had happened since Denki's lightning had stopped. Luckily, the civilians had been cleared out quickly after Neito had stormed through to snag the girl's electric quirk, so they were only swarmed by their fellow classmates instead of strangers. Surrounded by people they knew so they didn't have to keep paranoid watch for someone who might be Full Throttle coming back to finish the job.
In a small voice and with tired eyes, Neito asked, "can Denki ride the Class 2-B bus?"
"No," Aizawa answered. Neito deflated, but Aizawa wasn't finished. "None of you are leaving my sight for the next ten years. All of you on the 2-A bus. We're going home."
It was good thinking on Aizawa's part; Class 2-A would have rioted to be able to pour themselves all over Denki.
Full Throttle watched from a few kilometers away, on top of a nearby mountain to have a decent view. He had been keeping an eye on a certain red-winged hero that had been flying around, but Hawks seemed to be intently watching Denki and not on the lookout for Full Throttle. When the electricity finally fizzled out, Full Throttle nodded his respect toward the life lost at his hands before turning and heading back down the mountain. It had taken longer than he thought it would; heroes were on another level completely to civilians, it seemed. They were able to control their quirk for longer, even if Full Throttle's quirk overpowered them in the end. It was impressive, really.
He deemed his quirk well-spent. He had to be selective about these things because, like Sir Nighteye, he could only use his quirk once before needing a certain recovery period. Unlike Sir Nighteye, though, Full Throttle needed a full fortnight before he could go again instead of a mere 24 hours. Yes, he had to be super selective, and he was confident that he definitely chose the right target. He had never seen anything quite like an electricity quirk going full force like that before. It was even more intense and visually pleasing than the vibration quirk users who he could use to cause destructive earthquakes.
He couldn't wait to use his quirk on another electric type again.
Bakugou served Denki's dinner to him that night in his room. Denki swore he was fine, but the others were determined to pamper him to death anyway, including giving him time alone after being smothered on the drive back to UA.
"Room service, eh?" Denki teased, gratefully accepting the bowl that Bakugou held out to him, moving carefully and using both hands. He still felt a little unsteady after having so much electricity buzzing through him for so long.
"Don't get used to it," Bakugou muttered, but the typical bite to his words was missing.
When Denki brought a spoonful to his mouth, his wide eyes shot to Bakugou's intense glare.
"You got somethin' to say?!" he barked, knowing exactly how Denki was going to react before he even took the first bite.
Denki's smile crinkled his eyes and almost split his face in half, and Bakugou huffed in annoyance before stomping out of the room.
"If almost dying gets you to tone down the spice, I should have near-death experiences every day!" Denki shouted after him.
"I'll show you a near-death experience," Bakugou threatened under his breath as he stormed away, not bothering to turn around, small explosions crackling in his palms.