Chapter 7: Oh God, Everything's On Fire!

Edited by: a friend of mine and Faenrir

I was currently street pizza.

Or would it be… no, street pizza is right. Anyways, I had recently fallen roughly fifty feet and went splat on the ground in a very hot place. This was the second time in my life that this had happened. The second time. Still, I had better things to do right now than reminisce, so let us begin reminiscing. As I began to literally pull myself together, I began to recall the events that led me to become street pizza for the SECOND TIME, IN MY LIFE!

I was not happy.

So, let's see. The villains showed up, my classmates stood around and asked our teacher what the hell was going on. Aizawa jumped down and began to kick ass. We began to run away, only to be stopped by the shadowy gumby man. Then Kirishima and Bakugou ran forward to try and take the living warp point out. I tried to stop them but was told to fuck off. You get one guess to figure out who said that. But they failed, and then we were warped by the hazy prick. I think I caught a brief glimpse of a sparkling cape during the warp. So, Aoyama might be around where I landed.

So, needless to say, I was useless because I was too far caught up in my worried thoughts to actually be of help.

It took me about three seconds to fully reform, and as I finished, a familiar voice graced my… hearing.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" the familiar voice said over the roaring flames.

I looked towards the sound of the voice to see the four thugs I took down when I first met Midnight, Ryota excluded of course, along with a large number of other villainous mooks. That reminds me: I really need to check up on Ryota when I have the time. I wonder how he's been doing. The horde of villains began to move towards me when I raised my arms towards them.

"Wait!" I yelled in a dramatic fashion.

Some of the villains chuckled. "Beggin' for mercy ain't gonna work kid," one of them said smugly.

"I'm not begging for mercy," I explained, before pointing to the four familiar thugs. "I wanna see if I can remember the villain names I gave those guys."

The look of confusion of the crowd of villains made me smirk a little; let's improvise. I formed a small pike in one of my legs before stabbing it into the ground.

"Long story short, I met these guys several months ago, and kicked their butts. But before doing that, I gave them nicknames," I recounted to the befuddled battalion of nefarious ne'er-do-wells as I began to burrow through the earth towards the group of recognizable ruffians. (- a bit much alliteration here, don't you think?)

The villains argued amongst themselves for a moment before allowing me to proceed.

"All right let's see..." I trailed off with a hand on my chin, before pointing at the four familiar thugs individually.

"Volt Rage, the orange haired, brash battery." Come on.

"Macho Man, all muscle, some brain." Come on!

"Crack Head, the divider." Almost…

"And… I got nothing for you." I trailed off, shaking my head at the plain-looking one.

There! Now I just had to-

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU GOT NOTHING!?" The cookie cutter thug yelled indignantly.

I shrugged, "Midnight took you out almost instantly; can't give you a nickname if I don't know what you can do. You were practically useless," I jabbed, asI tensed the sludge I had buried in the ground.

The hoodlum pulled out a gun in anger. "I'LL SHOW YOU USELESS!"

Now!

The sludge that I had placed under the dirt burst upwards right between the three nicknamed vandals and their nameless companion... Or should I say it burst upwards five feet in front of them... Did I ever mention I suck at judging distances? Anyways, this didn't totally ruin my plan, as the action caused the villains to stagger for a moment, allowing me to lay out the four familiar thugs, each of them getting a swift blow to the temple.

A large rock blew through my head not a second later, literally blinding me for a moment as it took out my eyes. In the next second, I recalled the sludge from the ground, reformed my head and Spring Locked my legs before bounding into the air. I formed an eye on the back of my head and scanned the villains that surrounded me. A bunch of them were pulling chunks of rock from the ground and were preparing to chuck them at me, while several others were either pulling fire from the surrounding area or conjuring it themselves. That was going to be a problem.

I was just about to reach the end of my ascent when they began to hurl the rocks and fire at me. Fortune seemed to be on my side, though, as the rocks reached me first, about thirteen in total. Along with my original two arms, I created several others to grab the large rocks before swinging them at the balls of fire to disperse them. After I did that, I flung them towards the earth, causing the villains to yell in fear and try to scamper away. They weren't fast enough, though, as the rocks struck the flaming dirt and kicked up a large cloud of dust.

As my decent towards the ground began, I managed to spot a villain in the dust cloud. I rapidly morphed myself in slightly different ways to change my trajectory and Spring Locked both of my legs. I finished my descent by landing on the villain's face with one of my feet. I immediately let loose the tension and launched off the villain's face, sending in him into the cloud of dust. As I was launched backwards, I myself entered the dust cloud and collided with another villain. I quickly grabbed him and held him over my head when I noticed a flaming fist heading in my general direction. I quickly placed the evildoer in the way of the combusting extremity, causing him to grunt in pain.

I then made an arm lash out from my leg to nail the user of the flaming fist in the jaw. Not a second later, I noticed out of the corner of my eye three other villains rushing towards me. Remembering I still had a tensed spring in my other leg, I lightly tossed the villain I still held in the air before kicking him towards the rushing ruffians. After that, I began to swiftly move through the cloud of debris, taking out of villains left and right as stealthily as I could. After about a minute or three, I had taken out all of the villains that had surrounded me beforehand. It was time to get a move on, I had to figure out and see if anyone else was around.

I had ran around the flaming area for a couple of minutes when I noticed there was a small group of villains standing around a building, the words 'sparkly' and 'bastard' muttered between a few of them. Guess I found Aoyama then. It'd be fantastic if he'd join me in battle; then I wouldn't have to watch my own back so much. I ran behind another nearby building and began to stealth my way in.

It was a bit difficult, but I managed to literally worm my way around the villains and sneak inside the building undetected. I quickly made my way through the building, checking in each and every room to see if I could find my sparkling peer. I finally found him on the third floor; he was hiding behind a few boxes. When I appeared before him, he seemed a bit surprised.

"Kayama!" He exclaimed in astonishment. "What are you- how did you get in here?!"

"Snuck in. I can be pretty sneaky when necessary. Anyways, let's get out of here." I explained when lending a hand to Aoyama.

He didn't take it. "W-Why?" He stammered.

"There are villains outside," I said so bluntly you could have beat someone to death with my words.

"There's villains outside!" he almost yelled in terror.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh look, an echo. Anyways, if we work together, taking them down will be a snap. Come on." I said while shoving my hand in his face.

This time Aoyama took it, but he pulled me down into his hiding spot instead of letting me pull him up. "If we stay here we'll be safe. Besides, the teachers should be here soon enough," he explained fearfully.

I moved to talk, but before I could, another voice erupted from outside. "YOU GOT FIVE MINUTES BEFORE WE COME IN THERE AND KILL YA. BUT IF YOU WANNA COME OUT NOW, WE PROMISE IT WILL BE PAINLESS."

I turned to my fearful compadre. "You may be willing to wait, but they aren't. Come on, we need to go. Now." I said forcefully.

"B-but-" he started again before I snapped at him. "Damnit Aoyama! Do you wanna be useless and dull-" I ranted at him and would have continued if he didn't stand up and gave me a shaky glare.

"I am not d-dull!" he yelled, his anger peeking through his fear.

I blinked in surprise at his outburst for a moment before recalling that he was kinda obsessed with 'his sparkle.' I almost gave an evil grin before I repressed it. Let's see how well I can play to his mindset.

"Really, 'cause you're acting dull," I snarled.

"I am not dull!" he yelled at me, a lot more forceful than before.

I waved my hands in front of me, "You know what, let's take a step back. What type of hero do you want to be? Actually wait, don't answer that," I interrupted Aoyama before he could even get a word out. "Your motif makes it obvious."

I continued my rant by transforming myself to look like Aoyama in his hero costume, my eyes changing to become his glasses while occasionally spinning before striking fabulous poses that would make the Joestar family proud.

"You want to be a hero, who, when you arrive on a scene, will be a glorious glimmering beacon of hope to those you're attempting to help, while also being a glistening light of doom to your enemies!"

I then shifted back into my original form, before giving my sparkling classmate a heated glare. "Well, I got a newsflash for ya, buddy. You can't be a knight in shining armor if you always run and hide at the first sign of danger."

I then placed a hand on his shoulder, causing him to flinch a little before giving him a softer and more sympathetic stare. "But if you wanna hide, fine. I won't blame ya, I don't think anyone will. Well, maybe Bakugou, but he's a dick. The point is, it's okay to be afraid in a crazy and unpredictable situation like this. But it's what we decide to do with that fear that separates the cowards and the brave, the heroes and the villains."

After that I walked away from my now astonished classmate and towards a nearby window.

"Heroes deal with unpredictable situations all the time, whether you decide to get used to them now or later is up to you." I paused for a moment before tilting my head in thought before snapping a finger in realization.

"Oh, and Aoyama?" I said before turning my head to give my classmate an over the shoulder stare, breaking him from his trance at reclaiming his attention. "Stop trying to be something you're not and start acting like what you're trying to become."

I turned my head back to the window. "A hero."

And with that, I jumped through the window and into the chaotic mass below me.

(Third person P.O.V)

Aoyama was, well, he didn't know what he was right now. He did know that we was upset at his classmate calling him dull. He knew that he was weirded out at how quickly his classmate figured out what type of hero he wanted to be, and how he was pretending to be French. He felt almost inspired by one or two parts of that speech Kayama gave. But he was mostly concerned, because despite his apparent cowardice, he didn't want to see anyone get seriously hurt. Not when he might have been able to help.

The sparkling fake French man crawled over the window that Kayama had jumped through not moments before and quietly peeked over the edge. Below him, he saw that Kayama was fighting off the villains with relative ease. Every punch and kick thrown his way was either dodged, redirected into another thug's face, or rebounded. Every fire attack easily dodged, and every villain that didn't have a strength or fire-based Quirk were mostly toyed with. With the skill the sludge teen displayed, Aoyama began to wonder why he even asked for help.

Then he was struck with a blade of fire. The scream of pain that Kayama made filled Aoyama with dread. He began to sweat in fear before shaking his head, it was only a scratch, he'd be fine.

"AAAAGGGHH!"

Or he'd be struck with a ball of fire.

'Calm down, calm down. He'll be-"

"Oh GOD DAMN AAHHHHHH!" and there's a large stream of fire now.

Aoyama stood up with shaky determination and gulped in terror. His mind was at war with itself, but he didn't have a choice. He stood up in the windowsill, took aim and abandoned his fear. Kayama was right.

'You can't be a sparkling knight if you just run and hide!'

(Marc's P.O.V)

As a beam of light took down the prick who had just hit me with that stream of fire, I allowed myself to smirk a little. I could have easily dodged any of those attacks, or even hardened myself to make the blows hurt less. I have literal eyes in the back of my head after all I am not the biggest fan of pain. But if I did that, Aoyama wouldn't be able to muster the nerve to come down and help me. He did need some incentive after all. I saw Aoyama jump down and use his beam to slow his descent with my back eye, before I stood up and got into a battle stance. It was time to rock this joint!

I burst forwards and stuck down a muscular villain with a two-punch combo to the head. Out of my back eye I saw that a villain had gotten behind Aoyama while he was blasting a fire user. Acting quickly, I stretched out an arm and grabbed the motherfucker before swinging him around the battlefield. And yes, I did in fact use that motherfucker to beat several other motherfuckers. However, I was so focused of beating motherfuckers that I failed to notice that a villain had crept up on me. I didn't have enough time to react, but luckily, I didn't need to, as my sparkling comrade nailed the prick in the head with a laser from his shoulder.

This continued for about another minute, each of us watching the other's back, doing our best to make sure the other didn't come to harm. Just over a minute later, we had managed to take out all of the villains that had surrounded the building. I stretched myself out a little before walking over the beaten and bruised bodies of the villains to make it to Aoyama.

"Thanks for the help, Sparkles!" I eagerly yelled towards my classmate.

"Right back at you, mon amie~" He replied with a sparkly wink and a fabulous pose.

I rolled my eyes with a small grin before waving him over, seems like the French was still sticking around for the time being. "Come on, let's get out of here!" I hollered before running off.

It took a second, but after a moment of running I saw the glittery sparkle of my new friend's cape out of the corner of my eye. A victorious grin spread across my face as I pumped a fist into the air, letting out a yell of excitement as I spun my head around to face Aoyama.

"See? That wasn't to difficult now was it?" I said to my glittering companion, a massive grin literally splitting my face.

Aoyama kept his signature grin on and shook his head side to side, "Non, after casting my fear aside that was très facile~"

Qu'est-ce qu'il vient de dire?

I immediately stopped in my tracks and gave Aoyama an astonished look. Because holy fuck I was… I don't know what I am right now!

"What's the issue, mon amie?" a concerned Aoyama asked me.

Oh yeah, now I remember I was angry.

'This is gonna' be good.' the mysterious voice in my head said gleefully.

"What's the issue?! WHAT'S THE ISSUE?!" I repeated angrily before grabbing Aoyama by the collar and dragging him close.

"THE ISSUE IS HOW GODDAMN STUPID THAT SENTENCE WAS! DID YOU NOT LISTEN TO A WORD I SAID BEFORE?!" I roared in his face.

"W-what do you-" the sparkling hero-to-be stuttered before I dropped him on the ground.

I kneeled down and got into his face giving him the glare of a lifetime. "Tell me Aoyama, what is the definition of bravery?" I asked him coldly.

"B-being fearless," he answered, unsure of his words.

"WRONG!" I yelled in his face once more before standing up and furiously pacing in front of him.

"That word had been butchered over countless generations!" I yelled while waving my arms around in anger."Fearlessness." I sneered in disgust. "Is for the stupid and arrogant."

I stopped pacing and threw my arms to my sides, "True bravery, true courage," I slammed am hand on my chest and clenched it, "is being afraid…"

I let my arms drop and stared Aoyama directly in the eyes. "Yet pushing forward despite that fear." I declared to the world.

"The second you stop being afraid is the second you start making mistakes that can easily lead to nothing but pain and suffering. If not for yourself then for someone else." I explained solemnly, my head lowered in quiet anguish.

We stayed silent for a few moments, leaving only the sound of crackling flames to fill our ears before I spoke up again.

"Let's get a move on." I began to rigidly walk towards my classmate. "We need to get out of here, and we've wasted enough time already." I said as I offered my hand to Aoyama.

It took a second but eventually he took my hand, I hauled Aoyama up to his feet before we took off running again. A serious silence replaces the joyful spirit we once had before, and considering the situation we were in, it was a lot more appropriate. We continued running for another two minutes before we ran into another person.

It was Ojiro, he looked a bit winded, and his gi was lightly scuffed here and there. After a short chat we were off running to find an exit once more. A minute and a half of furious running later, we finally found the fucking exit. Thank the lords and ladies that may or may not exist. Each of us relaxed in some manner, a sigh of relief or a relaxing of posture, before booking it. For as grey and dingy as those doors were, they appeared to be made of marble and gold for us.

We slammed the doors open, jumping slightly in joy as we did so, and the relieved smiles on our faces doing nothing to hide our excitement at being out of the hot and humid hell hole.

"I am not the final boss."

Wait, what?

A flash of blood and a broken pair of goggles later, our faces were now pale with terror. Any joy we once had was swiftly dragged into a back alley and stabbed to death, as the hulking monster that was a n Nomu slammed Aizawa into the ground and broke his arm in an instant.

No no no no no no NO NO NOOOOO! Number seven! Number goddamn seven! I just got out of a literal flaming disaster and I was already failing number seven, and who knows what else! FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!

'And here you are standing around like a useless waste of space.' the voice said mockingly. 'Not like that's anything new.

And with that I was off, leaving a cloud of dust in my wake as I ignored my classmates scream telling me to stop and rocketed off towards my teacher as fast as I could. Because that PTSD symptom could go fuck itself.

'Wait? What-'

"FUCK OFF!" I roared in fury at both the creature in my mind and in front of me as I quickly Spring Locked one of my legs before releasing it bounding towards the nomu.

I morphed one of my arms to give it a pointed tip before stabbing it through the Nomu's arm, causing it to let go of my teacher. I slammed my other hand onto the ground and Spring Locked it, at the same time I sent out some ropes of sludge and wrapped them around Aizawa's chest. In one swift movement, I ripped Eraserhead out from under the creature, along with my arm out of its forearm before unleashing the tension in my arm to get as far away from that thing as possible.

As I was flying through the air I began to cradle Eraserhead as careful as I could before I hit the ground in a three-point stance. I looked up and almost managed to smile at Shigaraki's anger before sheer bowel-dropping terror over took over as the leader of the league of villains gained a demented smirk, the hole in the Nomu's arm repairing itself as the beast stood up and faced me. I'm glad I don't have a heart right now, or I'd be having a heart attack from all these emotional shifts.

"The lost summon, we've been wondering where you had run off to."

Oh scheisse.

"Teacher is eagerly awaiting your return."

I began to shake in fear as the brief interaction with the scar-faced man ran through my mind. I was only in the same room with All For One for a minute, yet the sheer presence that man held took away almost as much sleep as my time with Furīku did. And the doctor had a month's advantage over him!

I cleared my head of those vile memories and glared at Shigaraki. "The only way I'm getting anywhere near that fucker is in a body bag." I wasn't entirely sure if they'd even be able to put me in a body bag if I died, but the sentiment was still noted.

Scratchy Scratches Itchy Too Handsy's face shifted into a ugly scowl, he raised one of his hands to his neck and began to scratch. An irritated grunt made its way out of his throat as I placed my teacher behind me and stood up.

"You've been gone for so long, you've forgotten your role in the party. Still, you're a student at UA; killing you is a double victory for us." Shigaraki explained as he began to speed up his scratching.

I looked behind me for a moment to see the somewhat confused look on Aizawa's face before returning my gaze to the hand-covered villain. I raised my arms and got into a fighting stance.

"I can take whatever you can dish out and more. Bring. It. On." I growled.

Shigaraki gave a small huff before letting his hands fall to the sides, the casual stance that he had irritated me. Did he honestly think he could-?

"Nomu." The villain droned, garnering the beast's attention before point towards me.

As my hardened gaze shifted towards the creature, a small hint of confusion entered my mind. Because, sure, the bastard could hit hard, but even if he could tank All Might's punches for a bit, there was no way its punches could do anything to-

"Incinerate."

And with that the beast opened its mouth and sent a gargantuan ball of fire my way.

The last thought that entered my panicked before I was engulfed in a tomb of flames.

'Well that's new.'

(Third person P.O.V)

Aoyama was horrified. His new acquaintance had just run off and gotten himself killed saving their teacher. Sure, they wiped out the other thugs from before, but these were actual villains that had taken out their teacher, who was a Pro Hero. If he lost, what could they hope to do? And given what the fire from earlier did to the sludge teen, the chances he was alive were slim.

'But no,' Aoyama thought to himself with clenched fists as he tried to muster up some form of courage. 'Kayama was afraid for our teacher's life.' He flashed back to the look of absolute fear Kayama had before running off. 'If he didn't run forward, no one else would.' Another flash, this one to Aoyama and Ojiro's shocked faces and still legs. 'No one else was around, no one else could work past their fear in time.'

Kayama's rants blurred through his head. 'He knew what he had to do, and succeed in doing it, but died all the same.' Aoyama clenched a fist and looked down. 'Is this what begin a hero is, saving lives and fighting off villains 'til you get killed by one of them? Kayama barely even got a chance to show the world his sparkle!'

"A critical hit~!" The lead villain sang with a joyous grin, "It's super effective~!"

Aoyama refocused the cocktail of emotions brewing inside him at the villains, causing a flash of anger to rise up. 'They killed him. They killed him and he's joking about it.'

Aoyama stole a glance at his classmate beside him, Ojiro was shaking in a mixture of fear and anger, desperately trying to run off. Whether it would be towards or away from the villains, Aoyama began to doubt even the tailed teen knew.

"Y͝o̡u҉ ͡kn͡ow?"A deep, distorted voice rang from inside the pillar of flames, snapping everyone out of their thoughts.

"S҉ev́era̡l ̛m͝on̴ths̡ ag͡o," the voice rang again as a goliath silhouette formed in the flames.

"͡Th̡at ̡m̀i̶gh͢t ha͝v̢e ḑoņe͠ ͝s̡omething."Two massive hands furiously clawed their way through the flames, dispelling the flames and causing a rain of embers to shroud the area.

"B̷u͜t ̧as ̡y͟òu c̵a̛n see, ͟it's ǵoin̷g͘ to͟ ͢t̛ake a͢ ̵lo͡t ̸mor̡e͜ than that ͡t͢o̢ ̸ţak͡e̷ m̸e d͘ow̶n̨.̀"The giant said as it took a large step, its foot shaking the earth and breaking the ground.

A savage smirk formed on its face, "S̶̀҉o a͞llo͞ẁ ̶́m̸̡e̡̨̨ ̛͝͡t҉ó̀ r̶̶ei͏͟t̷̕e͘r̷a̧̧t͡e̷͟." Then it roared, causing the air itself to rattle with its battle cry.

"B̛RIN͡G̡ ̕͟Í̛͢T̡͟ ̢͝O҉̸͟N̴̨!҉͢"

Aoyama stood stock still, his jaw threatening to drop to the floor, because after all, that was a pretty appropriate reaction to see your presumed dead friend turn into a giant!

Rino: Hey readers! Sorry for the long wait. Again. Anyways, for those who aren't on Spacebattles (the other website where I post this), I'm going to college soon. Usually, such a thing would slow down the writing process of a story. But I have a new and hopefully better writing schedule. As for what the new schedule is, I'll tell you when I start seeing results.