Chapter 24: The Disappearing Act
Asui, syringe still in her thigh, shot her tongue out of her mouth and grabbed the knife pinning Uraraka to the tree. With a swift yank, she pulled the blade from the wood, freeing her friend.
"TSUYU!" Toga squealed with girlish delight. "What else that tongue do, girl?!"
Uraraka took off like a bat out of hell for Toga. The villain stopped drawing Tsuyu's blood and readied herself with a knife. Asui took the opportunity to use her tongue to remove the syringe from her leg and sprang up to rejoin the fight.
Ochako was able to avoid a knife attack and slap a hand across Toga's face, causing her to begin to float upward. Off-balance and vulnerable, Asui followed it up by grabbing Toga across the waste with her tongue and throwing the villain towards the tree Uraraka had been pinned to. Uraraka released the villain at the peak of the throw so she go soaring into the tree with a satisfying smack.
Toga bounced off the wood and rolled onto her knees on the dirt. To the disturbance of the students, she began to giggle as she wiped blood from her cheek.
"You guys... are. SO. GOOD at this!" She grinned up at them dementedly.
The girls prepared to attack again, but the sounds of footsteps running towards them interrupted the villain. Toga blanched. "Ugh... any more than this and I'll be outnumbered." She stood up and beamed at them. "Let's catch up another time!"
Toga took off into the bushes and Tsuyu jumped after her. But once she got past the brush, the villain had seemingly vanished.
"Uraraka, is that you?!"
Tsuyu reemerged from the bushes as Midoriya's voice called out from the path behind Uraraka. She could see he was flying up towards them and fast. Behind him, Todoroki was rushing with an ice slide.
Uraraka began to wave at them, relieved, but jumped back as the two of them stopped in front of her in a hurry. They just barely avoided crashing into each other.
"What's going on?!" She yelped as Asui hopped over to her.
"You might want to get back," Todoroki warned.
"Why?"
"There's no time!" Midoriya gulped, spinning Mjolnir. "NOW!"
Before Tsuyu or Uraraka could question further, the sound of a rushing freight train deafened them, and Shouji and Setsuna emerged from the bushes, luring Dark Shadow towards the group. Immediately, Midoriya and Todoroki unleashed a surge of lighting and fire into the air, lighting up the night sky blindingly.
Their plan had worked; Dark Shadow shrank down helplessly, dropping Tokoyami on to the ground in front of them. Midoriya, Todoroki, Setsuna, and Shouji all let out sighs of relief.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" Uraraka yelled, flailing her arms in confusion.
Shouji and Midoriya rushed forward to help Tokoyami to his feet, while Todoroki turned to her and shrugged. "Long story short, Dark Shadow went berserk. We got it under control."
"You alright, Tokoyami?" Midoriya asked as Tokoyami finally got back to a vertical base.
"Yes... yes I think I'm alright as I can be on such a night of horrors," Tokoyami grimaced, clutching his head in his hands and leaning against Shouji. "I'm sorry if I hurt anyone."
Midoriya decided to leave out that Dark Shadow blasted him through a tree, but Shouji had already turned to bow, taking both boys by surprise.
"I'm the one who should apologize, my friend," the multi-armed boy said remorsefully. "I should not have left you alone when Moonfish attacked."
Tokoyami stepped forward and rested a hand on Shouji's shoulders. "Nonsense, my friend. If I had ended up hurting you, I would not have forgiven myself."
Midoriya shifted a bit uncomfortably, feeling like he was now maybe intruding on quite a bromance moment. Thankfully, Todoroki, Uraraka, Asui, and Setsuna had walked up to join them, saving him from any further awkwardness.
"Well if you guys are done being lovey-dovey, we gotta get this slab of man-meat to the teachers," Setsuna interrupted, jabbing her thumb towards Midoriya.
He turned a shade of red as Asui puffed out her cheeks slightly, but nodded. "Y-yeah. We should get out of here."
"Wait," Todoroki said, grabbing Midoriya's hand as the green-haired god turned to leave. "We know the villains are after you. We should all surround you, just to be safe."
Midoriya gave him a look of confusion, but Todoroki was already delegating. "I can take the lead. Shouji and Asui, take his left, Uraraka and Setsuna, take the right. Tokoyami, take the rear and use Dark Shadow if needed... Midoriya and I can always get it under control again if need be."
No one seemed to object, and they all took the positions the two-toned haired boy had ordered immediately, taking Midoriya by surprise. "G-guys," he stammered out, "You um... uh... you don't have to protect me. I don't want you guys to get hurt."
"Kero, don't play tough guy with us," Asui replied, giving him a smirk. "We care about you."
"Yeah!" Uraraka cried, fist-pumping. "We're not letting any villains get our friend!"
"Besides, if you're being targeted by villains, the best thing to do as Heroes in training would be to protect you," Shouji added.
Relenting, Midoriya just looked to his feet and smiled, fighting back the feeling of his eyes watering. "Alright... but if we get attacked, I'm not just going to stand back and let you guys fight without me."
--
"Any sign of Midoriya or any other students?" Aizawa asked as he met up with Mandalay.
"None, damn it," Mandalay cursed. Spinner and Magne had escaped into portals, but she still had to stay up front to see to all the students who were retreating from the forest. Most of class 1-B could be accounted for, but a few of them and half of class 1-A were still noted to be in the woods. "I can't get ahold of Ragdoll either to let me know where they are. Pixie-Bob is MIA too."
Eraserhead looked out onto the path, seeing the smoke and flames still covering the trees. "Someone needs to go in after him."
Before Mandalay, Tiger, or Aizawa could even decided who would go, Bakugou used explosions, despite his broken fingers to launch himself into the woods. "I'LL GO GET THAT STUPID DEKU FOR TAKING SO LONG!"
"BAKUGOU, WAIT!" Eraserhead yelled, using his Quirk to keep Bakugou grounded. Unfortunately, all that did was cause the blonde to hit the ground running instead. "Damn kids..."
--
Dabi looked from Toga, Spinner, Magne, Twice, Kurogiri, and Compress. "Is... is that everyone?"
"I think everyone else got captured or knocked out," Magne relented, uneasily.
"Even Muscular and Moonfish?" Compress asked, "Those were our big guns."
"It's fine." Kurogiri answered. "With this, we'll be able to get our target, no problem. Nab a few others, if it makes it easier for you, Compress."
"The one with the shadow Quirk might make for some interesting firepower," the magician conceded. "Just make sure we separate those two from the others enough."
Dabi nodded. "Okay Twice, make as many Togas as you can."
"Of course! Who doesn't love a Toga party!" Twice replied with a thumbs up, before immediately adding. "Anyone with a brain, probably."
--
"Sorry that tracking me down took us further from the end of the trail," Tokoyami said, realizing they still were not out of the woods yet. Figuratively and literally.
Midoriya was about to say something along the lines of, "Don't worry about it," or, "I'm just glad everyone is okay," but before he could, Setsuna's eyeball came shooting back down to her.
"KNIVES!" She yelled, "LOTS OF THEM AT TWELVE O'CLOCK!"
Todoroki waved his arm, a wall of ice appearing, and soon the, "chink," sound of metal striking it began to confirm Tokage's warning.
Before any further strategy could take place, a wave of Togas came charging from the left and right in a pincer attack. Uraraka judo-flipped one of them, prompting it to disintegrate upon impact.
"They're clones!" She grunted.
Midoriya charged to Asui and Uraraka's sides as they began attacking their assailants. Tsuyu's powerful kicks were enough to liquify a clone, but Midoriya smashed Mjolnir against the ground, sending a shockwave of electricity coursing through the grounds that took out a whole slew of them.
He turned back to help Shouji and Setsuna, but they seemed to have the matter in hand. Todoroki was defending their front with ice spikes as well, but...
Tokoyami was nowhere to be seen.
"DON'T TURN YOUR BACK ON ME, FRECKLES!"
Midoriya whipped back around to see Toga - a clone or the original, he didn't know - had slipped past Asui and Uraraka and was lunging at him with a knife.
She brought the blade down between his eyes, and the metal snapped against the bridge of his nose impotently.
Toga looked up from her broken knife at Midoriya as if he had personally offended her with coarse and foul language. "You...broke my knife?!"
Midoriya stood still as she grabbed a large syringe and tried to pierce his arm, and the device bent against his biceps. As she looked at him, he gave a rare, confident smirk. "I don't bleed."
She scowled at him, and tried to tell him, "you're disgusting," but somewhere around the, "dis," Midoriya smacked her across the face with Mjolnir, knocking the villain into the bushes.
"Found the real one!" He called to his fighting comrades. They all turned to close in on her, and he...
--
Bakugou was pretty quick at gliding through the air with his explosions, but with a bloody eye and broken fingers, it was not something he could keep up. He was grounded for the time being, and he was not a fan of it. Still, he kept his feet pounding against the dirt and grass, charging towards the sound of knives and Icyhot's ice walls. It was good that the sounds of battle got Bakugou's heart pumping anyway.
Trees and shrubs went flying past him, and he could see figures forming on his horizon. I'D RECOGNIZE THAT STUPID CANDY CANE HAIR ANYWHERE, he rationalized, THAT'S GOT TO BE THE ICYHOT BASTARD!
As the figures came into view, he was right - Todoroki was in front of a group of other students, who were going after a blonde girl in a school uniform. The problem was that there was a ton of her; numerous copies of the girl were starting to swarm him.
While Bakugou certainly wouldn't have cared if that show off with two Quirks (where does someone get off having more Quirks than him?!) got hurt, he wasn't going to miss the opportunity to show up Icyhot.
With a triumphant cackle he lunged into a group of Toga copies and unleashed an explosion that liquified a lot of them.
From the bushes nearby, the real Toga was recovering with Spinner. She looked up at the blast, and nearly had a heart attack.
Toga saw Bakugou, covered in blood, eye swollen shut, fingers in a mangled mess. As the explosions made his broken appendages flap lightly, he was splattered with goo from her destroyed clones.
It was perhaps the most beautiful thing Himiko Toga had ever seen in her life. In an instant, she forgot about Stain, and was enamored with this bloody blonde boy.
"Bakugou?!" Shouji exclaimed. "What are you doing here?!"
Todoroki shared the sentiment; it wasn't hard to see Bakugou was running on pure adrenaline. He didn't even look this bad after his fight with Midoriya...
"WHERE'S THAT STUPID DEKU?!" Bakugou screamed, destroying the last of Toga's clones. "I'M GOING TO KICK HIS ASS AND DRAG HIM OUT OF HERE SO THOSE DAMN VILLAINS DON'T GET HIM!"
"Relax, Screamy," Setsuna huffed at him. "We had him in the back with... Toko... yami."
She paused, turning behind her and expecting to see Midoriya and Tokoyami where the group had left them; at the back of the group, swinging his hammer around to defend them. But it was pretty clear to everyone that both Tokoyami and Midoriya were no longer there.
"Where did they go?!" Uraraka blurted out in a panic.
"M-maybe they got scattered going after the real Toga?" Asui suggested, though the nervousness in her voice was apparent.
There was a pause a brief pause before Setsuna gulped and raised her hand. "I uh... I don't think so. Isn't that... his?"
She pointed a bit further behind them, where the fight had moved from. Sitting in the middle of the path was Mjolnir, handle pointing to the sky as if Midoriya had dropped it from his side.
Unknowing how the hammer worked, Setsuna walked over and tried to lift it. The weapon wouldn't budge, and after a few grunts, she backed off. "Ugh, how does he make it look so easy?"
The students from class 1-A looked at each other uneasily; Midoriya was never without the hammer, and if it was knocked out of his hands, he summoned it not long afterwards.
"OH HO HO!" Came a voice from above them, making them all jump. "Such simple-minded children, aren't you?"
The students all looked up to see a man in a magician's get up standing on a tree branch, holding what looked like two marbles. "Like any good trick, children, all it takes is a diversion to get someone's eyes off the prize. I've got," he waved the marbles dramatically, "your friends right here."
The villain might have been expecting more time to monologue, but he jumped backwards to another branch in alarm as Asui shot her tongue for him, just missing. "GIVE MIDORIYA BACK!" She croaked angrily.
"Now why would I do that?!" He laughed. "It wouldn't be a great final act if my trick just failed."
"YOU SHITTY VILLAIN!" Bakugou roared, and used an explosion to propel himself up the branch. Or at least, he tried. His broken wrist and fingers finally gave way on him, and he crashed chest-first into the tree instead. Shouji quickly ran over and caught the blonde as he fell to the ground.
"You kids don't appreciate fine art." The magician villain snorted. "Toodles!" He turned and began dashing down the forest.
The other students immediately gave chase, Todoroki using spikes of ice to push the plants aside as they chased the villain into the woods.
"How's he so fast?!" Setsuna grunted.
The villain took a hard left turn into some trees, and as the students attempted to follow him, a wall of blue fire rose up amongst the brush, cutting them off. Quickly, Todoroki skid to a halt and did his best to put out with his ice. Even for as strong as he was, it still took some time.
When the flames were finally under control, Bakugou blew the ice wall open with an explosion, to see that the magician and Toga were entering a portal, the rest of the League of Villains having already fled through it.
The group charged for the villain, and he turned and laughed, stepping backwards into the portal. But before he disappeared altogether, a laser shot from the forest, striking his mask and knocking one of the marbles out of his hands. He collapsed back into the portal, and it closed just before Asui and Todoroki had reached it.
As Todoroki punched at the ground, enraged, Shouji and Setsuna grabbed the marble that had fallen from the magician's hands. They jumped back as it broke open and Tokoyami collapsed onto the ground, growing immediately to his full size.
"Midoriya!" He rasped, panting heavily. "Wh- where's Midoriya?!"
"Breathe, my friend," Shouji said, kneeling down to him.
Uraraka and Asui approached as well, and once Tokoyami caught his breath, Asui asked, "What happened, Tokoyami?"
The bird-headed boy looked around, realization hitting him about what had happened.
"When... when we were all gathering in to get the real Toga, and got swarmed by clones, someone else dove after me." Tokoyami said, looking to the ground. "The magician villain."
"He did?" Uraraka asked. "Jeez... I never even saw him."
Tokoyami nodded. "He went to shrink me down into the marble. I believe that's his Quirk. But Midoriya dove in to stop him and... well..."
Tokoyami couldn't finish the sentence. But he didn't need to; everyone could tell what had happened.
Exhausted, defeated, and broken, Bakugou finally passed out his injuries and fatigue caught up to him.
--
I have to get out of here, were the first words on his mind when Midoriya woke up. Reality, however, was not as simple.
Whatever they were keeping Midoriya's hands in, it was strong. It felt like metal, and the encasing was so tight that he couldn't open his fists to summon Mjolnir. His eyes were covered by blindfolds, and the chains around his ankles and forearms kept his motion limited.
Before he could process the situation further, a blindfold was ripped from his eyes, and bright light burned against his retina, blinding him momentarily. As his vision adjusted, he could see himself surrounded by the various Villains who had attacked the training camp in a rundown bar. Immediately, he began struggling against the binds, the metal chains straining against the floor as he struggled.
"Stop." Came a calm voice from his right.
It was Dabi. He stepped next to Midoriya held a palm of blue flames inches away from the boy's face. Feeling the intense heat against his cheek, Midoriya stopped struggling; blades and teeth might be stopped by his Asgardian toughness, but he was just as susceptible to burning as he'd always been.
"Feisty one, aren't you?"
Midoriya looked up to see Shigaraki standing directly in front of him on the other side of the room.
"Real,'Leeroy Jenkins,' type, definitely," the leader of the League continued. "We definitely picked the right one."
Izuku paused, picking his words carefully as his eyes darted across the room. He hadn't encountered some of the Villains here, and with no way to summon Mjolnir or break his bonds quickly, he knew he needed to play this diplomatically. Quelling the equal urges he had to go berserk with rage and cry at the situation he'd gotten in, he looked across the room at Shigaraki and asked, "What do you want with me?"
A chuckle went up across the room amongst all the Villains.
"Now, Midoriya," Shigaraki laughed, "Where would the fun be in just telling you?"