Taniko POV

"VENOM?!" Cletus cried.

His sudden cry turned many of the other students around. Cletus was still wearing his mask, so I couldn't see his expression, but he was standing perfectly still. On the other hand, the symbiote appeared to be trying to force to morph into Carnage. Cletus winced, seemingly trying to control the symbiote, and it sunk back into his body. Placing my hand on his shoulder, I asked him, "Do you know that guy?"

"... I guess you could say… he's my father," Cletus responded.

A few moments of silence followed. Everyone looked at him with shocked expressions. I looked back at the black monster as it stood up, towering over the other villains. There were a few obvious similarities between this guy and Carnage: the long tongue, slimy skin and tendrils, and of course, the razor sharp fangs. While the black monster had a much larger body frame, and if you ignored the color difference, Cletus and this guy would be matching images of each other.

As the two of us were growing up together, I asked him about his parents, but he always brushed it off with a vague answer. However, I always assumed that they were dead given that he was in the orphanage. The truth was far worse.

"Hold up, Freakshow! We need some answers," Bakugou cried out, marching forward.

"All in due time. But first, we need to-"

A sudden deep voice roared "KASSSSSADY!"

There was no time to lose. I grabbed Cletus's arm and nearly had to drag him away from the battle between Aizawa and the villains below. Thirteen ordered the students to escaped through the door. He stood guard as we made our way, but were stopped by the whirling black vortex. Large yellow slits slowly opened, resembling the pupils of a cat.

"I have never seen Nomu act this way. He is usually rather calm. One of you interests him greatly. Will this Kasady person, please step forward?" a sophisticated voice sounded out.

"As if I would allow you to torment the children like this? As a hero, I must stand forward. Begone!" Thirteen called out. He removed a plug from a finger tip and a vacuum began pulling particles off of the shadow man. While doing this, Thirteen turned his head back and scanned the students, stopping on Ilda.

"Class Rep! Now's your chance. Get going and call the other teachers!"

Ilda looked shocked but quickly nodded. He activated his leg engines and dashed past the shadow man by leaping over him.

"Damn… Thirteen, you are better than I expected. I suppose that's what I get from underestimating a pro. But.. you are not good enough!"

The right side of the shadow swirled into an oblong shape while another shadowy mass materialized on the same side of Thirteen. His own vacuum pulled his body apart, leaving him injured inside of his broken husk of an astronaut suit. Thirteen's defeat came as a shock to all of us. But the shadow man simply reformed himself and faced us once more.

"I had planned to interrogate you more peacefully. But now we are in a bit of a rush. Nomu, your turn."

A dark figure leaped up from behind us. As we collectively turned to look up at it, a black web line attached to Cletus and yanked him upwards.

"Oh no you don't!" Kirishima yelled as he jumped up and used Bakugou's shoulders as a springboard, trying to reach Cletus. The black monster simply grabbed Cletus's chest with one hand and delivered a kick into Kirishima. He flew backward into Bakugou. The rolled right into the shadow man and vanished. The black monster landed with a solid thud. The concrete beneath his feet cracked but he stood up as if nothing had happened.

"Oh my god…" Midoriya whispered next to me.

I followed his line of sight to Cletus's body. I had wondered why he hadn't transformed into Carnage yet when I noticed five black spikes that came out of his back. They had torn through his costume and blood was running down his back and legs. The monster's left arm held Cletus's face while his other was still attached to his chest. Its fingers were expanded to an abnormal size and seemed to be extended into Cletus. That's when I realized that they weren't spikes from Carnage. The monster had impaled Cletus with its fingers before he could even react.

"No...no no NO! You… BASTARD!"

I rushed forward and activated the spikes on my right hand. The monster dropped Cletus's body and glanced at me. I hardly ran for a few steps before it raised an arm and fired three bullet-like webs from its wrist. The first simply encased my claws, but the momentum wrenched my arm backward. The second struck my helmet, leaving a dent in its side, that stunned me. The final bullet hit my side and I heard a loud crack sound. I stumbled backward and sunk to my knees as pain flared up from that side. I could tell that the web-bullet had somehow broken a rib.

"Get away from her!" Midoriya cried as he rushed forward. But the shadow man shifted around and Midoriya flew into another portal. He then unleashed a torrent of darkness that swallowed the most of the remaining class.

"Nomu, while we wait for All Might, I suppose you can have your fun,"

The monster had just been drooling from its large gaping mouth with an almost stupid-looking expression, but I could clearly see that its massive fangs were twisted into a grim smile. He stood up to his maximum height and slammed a massive fist into Cletus. He raised his other arm and slammed it into him again. And again. And again. And again.

Cletus's body was mangled beyond measure. Tears fell from my eyes. Is this all I would be able to do? He helped me through so much, and when he needed me most, I was just going to lie on the ground in pain?

"No!," I said. The one word stopped everyone in my vicinity, the other students, the shadow man, and even the monster.

"No. You… will not get away with this. Ilda is on his way to bring All Might and the other heroes. And even before they come, we will stop you," I panted, in a slow voice.

The shadow man appeared to tilt his head. His yellows slits for eyes narrowed and he hissed with displeasure.

"Nomu. Dispose of her. I will need to check back on Shigaraki," he said before vanishing.

The black monster charged forward and prepared a fist to strike. I was still winded from the blows from earlier, so my quirk wouldn't activate in time. Uraraka tried to help me get out of the way, but she and the other students were too far and simply couldn't compare to his speed. I raised my arms to brace for impact and closed my eyes.

But the blow never landed. Looking up, I saw Carnage, standing in front of me blocking the punch from Venom with one of his own. But he was different. His body appeared to have been color-swapped. His skin was a dark grey while his talons, eyes, fangs, and spider-skull insignia were a deep blood-red.

"Hands off, old man," Carnage growled. Numerous tendrils shot from his chest and impaled Venom through the jaw and neck. They extended, lifting him up, before throwing him over sixty feet away to the Central Plaza.

"Cletus! You're alright!" I said in relief. However, at the same time, I was worried. I had seen Cletus in this form of Carnage once before, and I still had nightmares about it. Carnage lowered himself to me, his jaws inches away from my throat. He sniffed the air and whispered, "Taniko," and backed off on all fours.

A good sign to say the least.

"Cletus, we have to get out of here!" I pleaded

But his next words chilled me to the bone.

"There's no more Kasady. And no more symbiote. Only, Carnage X! And I'm gonna paint the town red with Venom's blood," he cried. As he turned back, four large tendrils grew out of his back and rose up. I recognized his technique and tried to grab his arm.

"Cletus, NO!" I yelled, but pain flared from my side again and I collapsed back down.

Carnage's tendrils slammed into the ground and he used the momentum to leap thirty feet into the air. After he started to descend, he send a web line to the battle ongoing in the plaza between Aizawa and the other villains and zoomed away. As I laid back, Uraraka and Ashido came over to me.

"Hiraki, are you alright?" Uraraka asked in a concerned voice.

"Ugh… my ribs might be broken. But, I can still move,"

"What was that about with Kasady? That was different from his normal monster form," Ashido pointed out.

"I've seen that form only once. It wasn't good," I responded in a low tone. "But it's a story for another time. Right now, we have to help Thirteen and wait for the heroes to arrive,"

"Right!" the two of them responded.

"I just hope no one dies this time," I thought to myself.

Aizawa POV:

"Damn, these guys just don't stop coming," I thought to myself. After defeating nearly twenty villains, the crowd in front of me only looked about fifty percent smaller. And wasn't including the villains who went off to fight the students. And then there was the guy covered in hands, who was just watching me… In any case, I was running out of stamina. But I had to hold on until the other teachers arrived. I prepared to dash forward into the fight again, when a large black figure crashed into some of the villains in front of me.

It was a burly figure who looked like Kasady Carnage form. Interesting, but suspicious. The monster sat up and growled, its long tongue dripping with green saliva. It slowly stood up, without any regard for those underneath it. Its weight alone has simply crushed the limbs of some of the villains. Where had this come from?

"You're mine!" a familiar voice cried out.

Out of nowhere, Kasady in his Carnage form dropped from the sky and tackled the monster. But he wasn't the same, with his skin color changed to a dark grey. Perhaps a stronger variant that arose in dire situations? Certainly something to look into afterward.

"Kasady, leave the main villains to me. Go aid your fellow classmates!" I commanded. The fact that he had managed to bring this goliath down meant that this wasn't his regular strength, which probably meant his current state of mind was altered as well.

"This is a family matter, Aizawa! Stay out of it!" he screeched.

I was about to respond when in my peripheral vision I noticed four black portals spring up. One sucked the black monster into it. It nearly swallowed Kasady as well, but he leaped up and landed next to me. As the monster vanished, nearly thirty more villains poured in through the other portals, completely surrounding us. Kasady and I ended up back to back facing them down.

"Hey, Aizawa," Kasady whispered.

I gave no response but I turned my head to glance at him while still having view of the villains. His mouth was twisted into a snarl and… wait. Was his skin rippling? After a small chuckle, he only said one word.

"Duck,"

As I dropped to my stomach, he let out a loud cry and hundreds of tendrils shot out of nearly every corner of his upper body. Each one was five meters long and had a red tip shaped like an arrowhead. They flailed around, obliterating anything in their path. After a good thirty seconds, they sunk back into Kasady's body. I got up again and looked around. The villains were scattered around us. Many of them had their clothes torn apart and were stained with blood. I only hoped that none of their injuries were fatal.

"Thanks, Kasady. But, we'll have to speak about these far more violent methods of yours in this state," I said while turning around.

At first, he appeared to have vanished from my line of sight. But I then realized that he had collapsed. The square of his back had a small red splotch that seemed to be slowly growing. I took me awhile to understand that Kasady's more aggressive form was fading away. If his was like most form-changing quirks, the form would fade after using too much stamina, leaving me with a vulnerable, human Kasady.

I grabbed his hand and pulled him up. He steadied himself and gave a small growl.

"That… took more out of me than I expected. Overtaking the symbiote is never a good idea,"

"Very well, but we need to find the leaders of this operation. Without them, the rest of the villains should scatter," I responded.

"You got it. As long as I get another crack at Venom!" he cackled.

The large black figure came to mind. I decided to use my quirk to prevent a fight between them. Given their strength, a battle might cause further casualties.

"Well, since Kurogiri has already let a student escape, I suppose we'll have to indulge your request," a third voice called.

A pair of hands suddenly came out from behind me and grabbed my arms. I cried out in pain as I could feel them being eaten away; my very skin and muscle tissue burned like acid was poured on them. Kasady fired a web line to my chest and pulled me away. But a few seconds later, another shadow portal opened above him and Venom, fully recovered from his previous fight, dropped through it, slamming his feet into Kasady.

Kasady buckled for a moment before throwing Venom off of him.
"Ready for a rematch, old man," he taunted.

Venom roared in return as the two ran towards each other to continue their brawl.

Hello Readers! After an unofficial hiatus, we're back with the next chapter of RBS. But before I close off, here are a couple of story updates.

The final pairings will be Jirou x Kasady and Hiraki x Kirishima (I apologize to the bakushima shippers)

As Venom has replaced Nomu, you can be sure that other symbiotes will show up later in the story. (Some of the main characters may even get to use a symbiote)

Until next time, this is Fnafer360 signing out!