Chapter 40

"If all dogs to heaven, do Hell-hounds go to hell?"

Eraserhead was still running to his students, Sunshine had her knee, hard, between Parasus's shoulder blades, keeping her bound, but also, checking her injuries. Eraser was more concerned for the one covered in blood, his student, who had been violently flung to the side, coming to a stop against a man-made rock wall. Breaking it, as a hell-hound, but now, was just a small-looking teen, clearly bleeding and not moving.

Kaminari was holding his arm, it was a bit too limp, but he was up-right and okay enough.

"Alarice!" he called again, getting close enough to her he could see she was still breathing. The motion of returning to a human shape, meant she had limply rolled onto her back, following the weight of her own body. He pulled a loop of cloth free, and wasted no time tying a tight tourniquet around Alarice's leg. She winced, which was a good enough sign. Now he was next to his student taking in completely how bad this all looked. Her head was injured for sure, it was bleeding and he couldn't do much of anything for it, not knowing what else might be wrong.

"Parasus stung her, too" Kaminari told him, coming over to join his teacher by his classmate's bloody side. She tried to move in response to their presence. She heard him curse, and was a little confused, trying to shift to figure out how bad it was.

"Alarice do not move!" Eraser, now more just himself, Aizawa, barked at her, though she didn't seem inclined to listen. She wasn't getting very far either, movements were slow, and almost directionless. "You need to hold still, Alarice."

Aizawa radioing that they had a severely injured student, who needed to leave, right now.

Alarice looked over towards her sister, or tried to, but this was blocked by her teacher's knee as he had positioned himself to better keep her from moving her head around, too much. All she could smell was blood, her blood, Parasus' blood... At least Parasus wasn't going to be doing anything to anyone again.

"Alarice!" she heard him call to get her attention, with more concern than she was particularly use to hearing. Tears were running free from her face, but she didn't feel like she should cry. She moved her arm but that caused Kaminari to ask her not to move, too, in a pleading voice that was so sad, she just tried to gently put it down on her stomach.

"I need you talk to me, Alarice." Aizawa tried not to yell, trying to get her to maintain consciousness, keep her focused. He had all the large gauze pads he ever carried, pressed indirectly to where he could tell the large bleeding wound was at. He couldn't tell if she'd fractured her skull, though, he wouldn't be surprised if she had.

"You're holding my head." was the only response she could manage out. Her back burned and felt cold, all at the same time, her limbs like they were full of lead and concrete. Her eyes also wouldn't stop running, and breathing took more concentration than she liked to admit.

"Yeah, I am." he responded, "Because your head is bleeding."

Alarice took in a big breath, shakily so, before her eyelids drooped suddenly and then popped back up, at the sound of his insistence she stay awake. She looked around only seeing her limited view again, including her classmate and then her teacher. He looked pretty irritated, and he wasn't wearing his goggles for some reason, and his hold was gentle. "Hey, tell me your Present Mic facts." he asked.

She looked at him, confused. "His birthday is July 1st"

He nodded, though picked his head up once, but returned his attention to her. "Does he have a favorite color?"

"Black, I think."

"Yeah? What else do you know?" He was listening to the chatter on his radio, the fighting was going well, and the island had a place she could be taken to, but getting her there, was the problem.

"He did a KFC ad, once... just for the free chicken." She let out a weak snort recalling the goofiness of the thing. While Aizawa just nodded to her, continuing to ask her for more facts, more things, even though he already knew more than half of those things. Her eyelids drooped once more but he was able to keep her going and get her to open them, again.

000

Her state worried him considerably. He didn't want to lose his student, even a temporary one. Kaminari was clearly worried, too, but the teenage boy wasn't saying anything. His arm was probably broken, but he was dealing extremely well. Finally seeing her human form, he could see why she would want to stay in a form that hid the 'minor' injuries.

As medic's voices could finally be heard, a Hell-hound had also shown up. Aizawa had helped from his spot, protecting his severely injured teen as much as he could, erasing the Hell-hound's quirk. Sunshine didn't seem phased either way, apparently she was down to beat them down, Dog or Human. Blasting them with a close-range, up-front shine from her palms, and then, going to town with her fists.

He was splitting his attention from the medics who had come out, saying and doing all the right things, but realizing they were Tenshi Clan's folks. When he looked back at Sunshine upon hearing a snarl, he was witness to her flipping the oncoming hound onto its back, after dodging away from its snapping fangs. Grabbing its front paw as it went in, to claw and bite, twisting it around onto its back for a second time; complete with a localized sunburst.

Refocusing back, he made ever-so-brief eye-contact with one of the medics, with tear streaks, who was nodding and informing Kaminari, who had already told them that Alarice had gotten stung too, that they had an antidote for that.

"I'm coming with." was his short statement, the other two medics nodded, one openly admitted that his help would be much appreciated. Carried between all of them, Alarice cautiously, asked him if he wanted more Mic fact tidbits. She finally seemed to understand the situation she was in. The neck-brace and being strapped down, so she could be moved, was probably a very big clue. Tears continued to run down her face, they hadn't stopped this whole time.

"Sure, tell me as much as you've got." he responded.

She continued to supply answers, only needing a few proddings, though her speech wasn't great, he wasn't even sure what Manticore's venom could, or was doing to her. They made it to the building, in record time and they got to getting her settled. One of them running to the phone, to call that their new patient needed to be immediately picked up and taken to the hospital.

The other two were set to work, Aizawa watching the tear-streaked one, closely. Though she seemed to be doing the right things, cleaning up head wound first, to get that under control, since her leg was already in a tourniquet. The other prepping the antidote for Alarice.

"You had an antidote ready, against Manticore?" he questioned. Alarice was still listing-out facts, though she didn't seem to be listening for responses. The one with the syringe, hesitated a second, then proceeded anyway, nodding. The tear-streaked one answered him; "She didn't give us a lot of reason to trust her."

There wasn't much else to say, but while he didn't trust the tear-streaked one, completely, or really any of them entirely, he wasn't going to leave, either. Instead, he went back to keeping her occupied by talking to her, while the medics continued to treat Alarice for her injuries as much as possible, before they could get her off the island. Kaminari standing awkwardly nearby, as soon as he caught up with them.

000

Mic let out a grunt as he pulled-off the vine, that had latched onto his leg, and had begun to burrow into his skin. It had gone through the leather, to his horror, and had just barely gotten into his skin, beneath. He danced away from the other vines, that threatened to do the same. Yelling only seemed to slow them down.

Ryukyu's hard scales appeared to be impossible for the vines to pierce, but the explosive amount of vine growth gave far too many points of attack for the flora-mancer. Miruko must be near them, the familiar thuds of her kicks hitting solid mass, were still present, every so often.

And of course a few yells of attack.

"Mic!~ Centaurian!" Came over the radio. Had to be Icarus. "Head over to the cruise-ship! There's a lot of kids over here, and hell-hounds to be taken in, the adults are surrendering themselves, but I need more pairs of hands!"

"oh boy" he said rather quietly, under his breath, jumping over the sharp spines of a vine that threatened him. Ryukyu and Miruko seemed to have this, he hadn't even been able to get close, to even provide them support.

Before he could fully decide, the Centaur Hero had scooped him up with a jolly noise, stomping vines and galloping away. Carrying Mic like some sort of leather-clad princess, which he wasn't enthusiastic about, but they covered ground, quickly enough. They passed by Sunshine, who was with a few cops, securing a few naked people, probably hell-hounds. There was a lot of blood and looked like a huge fight had taken place, but was over now. One of the restrained Hell-hounds appeared to be Parasus, even, bandages just holding her together. Huh...

He didn't have a lot of time to think about it, as they came to a skidding stop, Centaurian's hooves kicking-up a lot of dust and little rocks and a small child 'ooohhed'. Icarus was perched atop one of the stacks of boxes, with what looked like a blow-dart tube in their hands.

"Ah! Good! Our resident hounds on the ship, have vocalized their interest in surrendering." they gestured over to the two teenage boys holding their hands up, and looking nervous. Down on the deck, visible, was a... was what could only be described as a fur-less, hell-hound, gnawing on a baguette. He recognized Shinso immediately and smacked Centaurian's shoulder to put him down.

"Whats with the dog and the bread stick?" He asked, nodding to this student who nodded back.

"Apparently he's bribe-able with bread." Icarus stated casually, Shinso lifting a loaf of bread, likely tossed to him, from the ship. With that thought, Icarus lifted up on their wings, and a good kick, and landed upon the railing to deal with the teens. Centaurian had headed-over to deal with the barely conscious men secured on the ground, wrapping them in their tarps to carry them.

Leaving Mic with the kids, and a very angry woman, whose sense of style caught him a little off guard.

"All right, then! Guess I get to march you little puppies all the way to our boats!" They looked at him with big eyes, and... didn't really respond. Shinso looked a little tired, but he also looked ready to go. Walking over towards the Hero and English teacher.

"He's alright, guys." He said tiredly, and a few of them nodded.

"But, he looks like a cockatiel!" one of them pointed out, including physically pointing. Shinso just looked at his hair, and shrugged, Mic giving a small smile, in response.

"Do you turn into a bird?" another asked, a few of them apparently deciding that since Shinso was okay with Mic, they could come a little closer to investigate him.

"I do not. That would be cool though, wouldn't it?" he responded, trying not to look sad, with the kid who looked a little disappointed that he didn't turn into a bird. "Well, we gotta get moving kids, ya dig?"

A few of them nodded, and sort-of started to follow him, though they looked up to 404 who just gave an exhaustive sigh and followed, too. Someone in the group imitated him with confusion in their voice.

"You'll protect us?" She asked, looking extremely fed up, but some how, anxious. She visibly eyed his directional speaker, as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Of course, I will!" he responded, half turning towards her, but still giving her two big positive thumbs-up. He started to walk, waving the kids to follow behind him. "C'mon, guys, just follow this loud bird, and I'll lead the way!"

Someone shrieked 'bird-man!', someone else yelled that he couldn't be a bird-man, if he didn't turn into a bird. Either way, he waved them down the path to follow him. Centaurian came back up the path, his load of villains taken care of, and passed continuing on, to the cruise ship.

"Are these kids going to be taken care of?" the woman asked him, walking up towards the front, occasionally looking back to make sure the two oldest were at the rear, making sure the tiniest ones were between them.

"Of course!" Mic responded with reassuring ease, grateful for the path, but wishing the cruise ship had been closer. Hopefully, though it wasn't going to be too long of a walk for the kids, as one was already completely out, being carried by one of the teens. By the time they had made it back to where he'd last seen Sunshine, he was carrying one, himself. 404 was carrying another, they were small, probably only about 3 years old at the most.

Sunshine and her defeated hell-hounds had already been moved. They'd watched at least one helicopter leave the island, and disappear into the distance. Radio chatter had kept him somewhat informed, that it was one of the wounded students. He pushed the thought out of his mind: they were already being taken care of. So he returned his attention to the gaggle of kids behind him. There was still blood on the ground of course, no gore though. He started to chatter to them to keep them up-beat and following him. They did not need to investigate the blood on the ground.

"You kids ever gotten to ride on a speedboat?" He asked them, smiling at them, even at those who gave him no response. "Well today, you do!"