Chapter 8: The Bitingly Explosive Finale

"It's come to this, folks!" Present Mic declared. "We've reached the tiebreaker match! The face-off that will finally determine the winner of this most unusual interscholastic competition!" He then pointed towards one side of the entrance to the last area of the training grounds set for the match. "In this corner, the rodential rumbler, always nattily-dressed while still able to rock a pair of size 3 Doc Martens: U.A.'s very own Principal Nezu!"

The U.A. contingent of the audience cheered and applauded while Nezu waved, smiling in appreciation.

"And in this corner," Present Mic continued as he indicated towards the other half of the starting position, "the buck-toothed brawler, the wittiest of the wacky, wascally wabbits, the head administrator of ACME Looniversity himself: Mister Buuuuuugggggs Bunny!"

Bugs, with a subtle smirk on his face, waved towards the cheering contingent from ACME Looniversity.

It was then that Porky stepped in to explain the challenge. "E-e-e-e-each comp-p-p-p-petitor must either win by kn-kn-kn-knockout or g-g-g-g-force a surrender. B-b-b-b-both competitors may ch-ch-ch-choose a p-p-p-assistant from th-th-th-the students or f-f-f-faculty." Porky addressed both Bugs and Nezu. "H-h-h-have you m-m-m-made your p-p-p-p-choices?"

Bugs answered with a nonchalant nod. "Eeeeh, already got 'im. Ready when you are, doc," he said as he eyed Nezu while nibbling on a carrot.

"Very well," Nezu replied before turning towards the students of Class 1-A. "Katsuki Bakugo, you have five minutes to join me at the site of the match."

All eyes on the U.A. side looked surprisingly at their classmate, wondering why he, of all people, was picked. If any of them could think of ways to describe Katsuki 'hero name pending due to rejection of previous submissions' Bakugo, 'team player' wasn't one of them. The ill-tempered, hotheaded boy with the powerfully-explosive quirk was nearly impossible to work with, let alone get along with.

The boy in question, on hearing his name, smirked and snickered at what his selection would entail. "Stand back, losers," he said boastfully as he cracked his knuckles. "When me and the principal are done, roast rabbit stew's gonna be on Lunch Rush's menu tonight!"

Babs and Buster, briefly eyeing one another, rolled their eyes as they flashed knowing smirks our way. "He don't know 'im very well, do he...?" they posed rhetorically and with a chuckle, as if already knowing what was going to happen.

-X-

Moments later, Bakugo and Nezu were walking through the site for the match, which resembled an open field with few trees. It was sort of an aesthetic bridge between the urban area and woodland area of the training grounds, a choice by Nezu for the two sides to 'meet in the middle', as it were. But that wasn't the only thing Nezu had planned in advance.

Speaking of, Nezu found himself going over the particulars of his plan to Bakugo, with the knowledge that the trigger-happy student wouldn't go along with all of it. Again, it was all part of Nezu's design, since he knew that the only way to fight a master of the unexpected that Bugs surely was, was with a powerful x-factor of his own. Nezu looked towards where their opponent in question was to be, only to find a rabbit hole in the ground that was unoccupied, save for a note from Bugs that said "Gone fishin'", much to his and Bakugo's chagrin. Making some low-key frustrated grunts, the two of them stomped away from the hole and headed in another direction.

"Get ready for quite the match-up, ladies and gents!" Present Mic implored as his voice blasted through the PA system, as well as the monitor drone following Nezu and Bakugo; it had been following the two for a while, since Bugs was proving to be quite evasive. "It's been nearly an hour, but Principal Nezu and Bakugo just found some rabbit tracks leading them further infield. Any moment now, we'll be seeing them-"

Before Present Mic could go any further, Nezu swiftly turned to face the drone with a shushing gesture.

"Shhhhh! Be very, very quiet," Nezu insisted through slightly-gritted teeth. "We're hunting-"

Nezu was interrupted when a fast-approaching object rapidly dug its way towards himself and Bakugo, as indicated by the trail of disturbed earth left in its wake. When it stopped in front of the mouse-like administrator and student, out from the ground popped the Rabbit Hero: Mirko, glaring daggers at a now-nervous Nezu. (Bakugo, knowing quite well how bad an idea it was to get on Mirko's bad side, simply held his hands behind his back, looked off and to the side, and whistled idly while doing so.)

"Choose your next few words very carefully..." she warned while pointing a finger at Nezu's face, "or I'll give you such a pppinch."

Nezu gulped and nodded affirmatively in response, and Mirko soon popped back underground as she left the way she came. Nezu wiped a bit of sweat off his forehead with a handkerchief before he and Bakugo continued to follow the rabbit tracks. Eventually, they wound up at the site of another rabbit hole, only this time they were lucky: Bugs was sitting halfway out of the hole, lazily reading a book, seemingly unaware of their presence.

Nezu turned to Bakugo warily. "All right, young Bakugo, remember-the key is to not listen to a word he says. Like many a mythological trickster, he'll lie, goad, or otherwise outsmart whoever tries to get him, so if he says something to you, do the exact opposite and just blast him."

Bakugo, a grim yet determined expression on his face, nodded and raised his right grenadier bracer-encased arm to prepare a blast aimed at the rabbit hole...only to surprisingly find Bugs leaning against the bracer.

"Like I said all the way back in th' prologue," Bugs started to say, "Eeeehhh...what's up, Bak?"

Nezu, momentarily speechless, blinked and shook his head. "Ooooh NO, oh no you DON'T," he said as he tried to stop Bugs. "You will NOT try anything funny, like saying it's 'mouse season' or something along those lines. Young Bakugo-fire away."

"Sure, doc, sure," Bugs said 'reassuringly'. "It ain't mouse season anyway."

Bakugo, at that moment, remembered his principal's instructions. If he says it's not mouse season...he thought, before aiming his arm at Nezu and unleashing a small burst at the rodent administrator.

*BLAM!*

A dumbfounded Nezu stood there, covered in soot and ashes, before shaking it off and glaring at Bakugo.

"You nitro-brained ninny!" he shouted frustratingly. "Why did you blast me?!"

Bakugo himself became briefly dumbfounded before his hair-trigger temper kicked in. "Whaddya mean?! I did what you said! And you said do the opposite of what he says!"

"That's right, kid," Bugs chimed in, "you shouldn't blast your principal."

Bakugo blinked twice on hearing that and began to aim at Nezu again, until he started to realize something.

"Waitaminute..." he grumbled as he turned towards Bugs. "I see what you're doing-you're trying to trick me!"

"You betcha kid," Bugs admitted as he pointed to a poster advertising 'Mouse Season Open', with Nezu's photo above it. "So are you gonna blast me now? Or wait till rabbit season?"

"Bakugo, don't listen to him!" Nezu screamed in continued frustration. "There are no hunting seasons at U.A.!"

"Guess that means ya can't blast rabbits then, can ya, kid?" Bugs posed.

"HEY!" Bakugo barked as he pointed with his thumb back towards the audience. "I'm not some goody-two-shoes sap like the rest of them! Who cares what time of the season it is?!"

"Oh, I kinda doubt that," Bugs 'countered'. "I mean, you didn't even blast your principal."

A shocked look soon appeared on Nezu's face as the egged-on Bakugo aimed his arm at him and unleashed another burst, all while the boy never took his eyes off Bugs.

*BLAM!*

"How's THAT, long ears?!" Bakugo asked smugly.

"Eeeehhhh..." Bugs began, "I dunno. Seems like you followed the sign."

Bakugo grew frustrated again on hearing that. "Whaddya mean?! I didn't follow the-!" A look at the poster interrupted his train of thought as he saw that the poster now read 'rabbit season' and featured Bugs' photo. Instinctively, Bakugo let another nitro burst go at Nezu, who had just started to shake off the previous one.

*Ka-BLAM!*

"There! Now you know I didn't-"

Before Bakugo could finish his comeback, Nezu grabbed him by the lapel of his collar as he shook him back-and-forth fervently.

"Just blast HIM!" he said while pointing towards Bugs.

When Nezu stopped shaking him, Bakugo turned to aim his arm at Bugs...only to find no one there, much to his frustrated chagrin. "Ooooh, Ah HATE that rabbit..." he grumbled with a slight Western drawl.

-X-

Back with the audience, on the ACME Looniversity side, Yosemite Sam gave his mentee Montana Max a slight nudge on seeing this caught on camera.

"Heh, Ah like that kid," he said to his protégé, who nodded in agreement.

-X-

Nezu was already thinking of a possible scenario before he spoke to Bakugo. "If I know him right, he'll be trying to fool us next with some clever, yet hairbrained-no pun intended-disguise."

Bakugo raised a curious yet skeptical eyebrow. "Whaddya mean, 'disguise'?"

"Exactly as it sounds," Nezu replied. "He'll dress up like anything or anyone to try and throw either of us off-guard."

Bakugo narrowed his eyes while raising his arm at Nezu. "Anything...?" he wondered aloud forebodingly.

This, in turn, ticked Nezu off as he grabbed Bakugo by his lapel and glared at the boy. "NOT ME, you dynamite-tempered delinquent!"

Both were brought out of their shared tension on hearing Bugs humming some song while sitting halfway out of his rabbit hole and filing his nails (despite the fact that he was wearing gloves), causing them to face him.

"Now's your chance-blow him away, Bakugo! Blast him now!" Nezu ordered.

Before Bakugo could do anything, Bugs spoke up. "Sorry ta rain on yer parade, doc, but I do believe I've won."

Hearing this confused both Nezu and Bakugo. "Excuse me, what?" the anthropomorphic rodent asked disbelievingly.

-X-

If Nezu had really been paying attention (or had been calm and collected at the time), he would have noticed that a tiny blue creature, sporting red hair and wearing both an oversized yellow straw hat and a set of gray overalls, jump into the recesses of his white pelt, singing a song in a thick Southern accent.

"Oh, there's food 'round the corner,

Food 'round the corner,

Food 'round the corner for me..."

The creature found a patch of skin he deemed good enough, sprinkled some salt, and then spread a bit of mustard on it, before squeezing it between two slices of bread and taking a bite.

-X-

Much to the surprise and bewilderment of Bakugo, Principal Nezu shouted in pain and jumped nearly three meters into the air. When he got back down, he started hopping all over the place, as if he was trying to scratch an itch he couldn't reach. Bakugo looked at Bugs for answers.

"Allow me to introduce my partner: A. Flea," Bugs said with a chuckle. He then briefly shot a glance in our direction. "How's that for a deep cut?"

Back on the spot on Nezu's skin, the tiny backwoods critter was swinging a pickaxe to get at more of his unwilling, unwitting host.

"Tatatatata-rah

Food 'round the corner,

Food 'round the corner,

Food 'round the corner for me..."

Nezu, desperate, pointed his backside towards Bakugo. "Blast it!" Nezu commanded. "Blast the dag-blamed flea off of me already!"

Bakugo, still bewildered, briefly looked our way, shrugged, and proceeded to unleash a burst as ordered.

*KA-BLAM!*

As the blast subsided, Nezu stood, covered in soot and ashes yet again, his boxers revealed for all the world to see. He then collapsed out of sheer exhaustion.

In the audience, most of the U.A. contingent was utterly shocked and speechless at the turn of events this match had taken.

Toshinori Yagi, a U.A. teacher who was the once-legendary "symbol of peace" known as 'All-Might', gave himself a facepalm. "*Sigh* This is like that incident with the imp from the 5th dimension all over again," he said as he shook his head. Another teacher and pro hero, Nemuri 'Midnight' Kayama, concurred with a nod, while Aizawa shuddered at the memory of that particular day in infamy...

With a smidge of reluctance, Present Mic declared Bugs and A. Flea the winner, and therefore ACME Looniversity the overall winner of the interscholastic challenge.

-X-

Moments later, both schools were gathered near the rabbit hole the toon contingent had used to come to U.A. as they exchanged farewells. Among them, Hagakure gave Hamton the 'call me' gesture, to which he blushed and sheepishly grinned.

"Eeeeehh, don't get so down, doc," Bugs said while speaking with Nezu. "You an' yours did well. An' think of it this way-now they'll be ready for the real crazy surprises out there when they go up, up an' away an' all that."

Nezu, still a bit grumpy and disappointed, gave it some thought. "You make a valid point, Mr. Bunny," he said as he and Bugs shook hands. "We will, at some point, want a rematch."

"Any time you want, doc," Bugs said as the ACME Looniversity students and staff hopped into the hole towards home. "Just make sure you're ready for the next round in th' ring." With that, Bugs jumped in last.

With a sigh, Nezu turned to face his students and faculty. "Well, I don't know about you, but I do believe each and every one of us could use a bit of rest and could take the opportunity to learn from this defeat..."

Before he could finish his thought, suddenly a group of people came leaping out of the rabbit hole, confused by their current surroundings as they landed; they appeared to be three adults and a group of 16 middle-to-high school-aged kids. To the further astonishment of the group of U.A. students and faculty, they were all dressed like luchadores (Spanish masked wrestlers) each with a crazy costume and mask based around a specific theme.

One of the girl wrestlers, wearing a white, green, and purple-highlighted outfit with a dark violet ponytail poking out of the back of her mask, turned to one of the adults, a woman in a gray sport coat and purple tie whose mask resembled a big brain. "Headmistress?" the girl asked. "I think we're not at the Foremost World-Renowned International School of Lucha anymore."

The girl's fellow student, a boy wearing a red outfit with a blue and red mask that had a silver star in the center of the forehead, grew a surprised expression on his face as he looked at the equally-surprised Midoriya standing across from him. Midoriya, before he said anything, quickly took out from his pocket a small Japanese-to-Spanish dictionary and thumbed through its pages. "Let's see, let's see, what am I looking for...Ah, here it is!" He then closed the book, and, simultaneously with the boy luchador standing across from him, gave himself a facepalm.

"Ay, basura..." they both groaned.

-X-

Watching all this as it played out on a computer monitor, Bugs, chomping on a carrot, looked our way with a mischievous grin on his face.

"I told 'em to be ready for the next round in th' ring. Just didn't say when," he said with a chuckle. "Ain't I a stinker?"

Porky Pig: "Th-th-th-th-"

Eri [popping up beside him, to his surprise]: "That's all, folks!"

**Author's Note(s)**

Buster and Babs's shared line comes from the September 5, 1942 Looney Tunes short "The Impatient Patient".

Much of the match owes some of its gags to the 1953 classic "Rabbit Fire", the first of the 'Rabbit Season! Duck Season!' trilogy of shorts. Mirko's bit in this chapter, in particular, sees her paraphrasing the (regular-sized) unnamed elephant who shows up in that short.

A. Flea, the 'deep cut' as Bugs describes him, is a two-shot character who appeared in the December 4, 1943 Merrie Melodies short "An Itch in Time"; and the December 13, 1947 Looney Tunes short "A Horse Fly Fleas".

The 'imp' All-Might refers to is, of course, the longtime recurring 'pest' of Superman known as Mr. Mxyzptlk.

And finally, the one other thing that distinguishes my tale from FlimFlam3's original story. *Spoiler alert* At the end of that story, he has Marvel's X-Men pop up from the rabbit hole, but in my case, I opted for a group of characters who fit more under the overall Warner Bros. IP umbrella. While they aren't Looney Tunes characters, they did have a show that ran on the various later incarnations of the Kids' WB block: ¡Mucha Lucha! (The school theme still fits, in any case.)