Hey guys, a little later than I would had liked, but I'm here on Sunday nonetheless. And what an auspicious chapter to reach chapter #50 (if you don't count the minisodes and the like, I don't). Hope you all enjoy!

Borderlands is owned by Gearbox and 2KGames and My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Funimation. Please support the official release.

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"This means someone is talking."

'This means someone is thinking to themselves.'

This means it's a flashback.

*This means it's a sound effect!*

{This means I'm speaking in a different language!}

Angel in a Gilded Cage

The phrase of "One's life flashing before their eyes" was saying that people threw around a lot, bereft of any actual threat to their wellbeing to most. Usually in a joking manner when something falls off a high shelf over an individual's head and they manage to catch it, before saying the line with a laugh.

That was different for heroes of course, as it could be believed that the typical day for one involved many of those moments, be it in stopping an accident or fighting a villain. There would be interviews where they or a bystander they had saved would make that claim, of a metaphorical slideshow flickering into their vision only to leave as soon as it came.

In this instant, Angel was pretty sure all she was seeing was a needle as it was plunging down in front of her face on its way to her jugular vein. Her arms were still held down by the crazed girl sitting on her stomach, her eyes flashing as she bared her fangs. It was too late for her attempt to pull her neck out of the way, all she could do was lie there, numbed in fear and anticipation for the metal rod to puncture her skin.

"Angel-chan?!"

The needle halted millimeters from Angel's neck, the tip just pricking her with every breath. Both she and Toga's head's jolted to the right. A group of familiar faces exited from the brush, staring at the two girls in shock. Kirishima was leading the pack, his body mostly hardened. Next to him was Sato and a familiar mop of green hair peeked out from behind the large boy's head.

Angel vaguely spotted a few more shapes, but couldn't quite make out who they were considering her position. Still, relief blossomed in her chest.

"G-Guys! He-Help!" She gasped, only to start when Toga suddenly leapt off her body, giving her the opportunity to breathe. The villain ran to the far side of the path and stopped, looking back in disappointment.

"Aw nuts. I can't handle this many people at once. I'm out. See ya Angel-chan." She muttered in a low voice and made to leave, but paused. Her eyes widened slightly and an odd look crossed her face before she finally turned and sprinted into the brush.

'What was that about?' Angel wondered for a brief moment before shaking her head. Not important right now.

She let out a groan, pulling herself up and shaking the aching of her arms where Toga had her pinned.

"Angel… Angel-chan! Are you okay? You, you're bleeding!" Midoriya panted from where he was riding on Sato's back.

"I-I'm fine." She said, grimacing at her palm now slick with her blood, but she wasn't losing enough that it would be a problem. She looked up and she calmed at the sight of her classmates around her, who were all dirty and disheveled but otherwise seemed whole. There was Kirishima, Sato and Midoriya as she had discovered earlier and now she noticed the rest of their party. Namely, the comforting sight of Todoroki and the less comforting but still positive inclusion of Bakugo, who looked somewhat irritated for some reason.

Though it might have to do with the Baha girl hovering close near his shoulder, akin to a moth to a flame. She was devoid of her usual manic enthusiasm, her concerned frown and the way she constantly bounced on her bare, dirtied toes proving that even she was feeling the pressure.

"Who was that girl? She didn't look right." Kirishima asked, leaning down and offering her a hand. She took it, getting to her feet, where she leaned off of her bad ankle.

"Some villain with the League. She was absolutely crazy. Don't even know what her quirk was, she took us down all by hearse-" Angel jolted, panic springing forth. "Oh god, Mina, Aoyama!" She yelped.

Kirishima's eyes immediately widened. "Mina?! What happened to her?!"

Angel ignored his question in favor of hobbling over to the brush as fast as she could. There she found the pink girl where she had dropped mid fight, hyperventilating on her side as she held onto her leg, the knife still lodged in. Blood pooled on the dirt before sinking into the soil.

Angel dropped to her knees next to her and waved her hand in front of her wounded friend's face. "Mina! Are you there?! Stay with me!"

"Angel…chan?" She said between breaths, her eyes slowly drifting over to her.

"Mina-chan!" Kirishima cried, dropping to her other side, staring horrified at the state of her. Angel knew that the two were closer to each other than most of the rest of the class. Seeing her like this must be devastating.

"H-Hey Horn-buddy…" Mina laughed weakly, giving him a pained smile. His lip trembled and his expression darkened, turning to Angel.

"Did that girl do this?!" He demanded, to which she nodded.

"She was so fast. She also knocked out Aoyama-kun over here." She informed him, quickly standing up again and limping to the blonde's prone form a few feet away. Grabbing onto his shoulder, she grunted and flipped him over. It was fortuitous that his eyelids were closed, as they kept the trails of blood leaking from the top of his head from getting inside, though one was already swollen shut from the black eye he got from Wilhelm. She couldn't tell if he was breathing or not.

"Aoyama-kun! Can you hear me?!" Angel pleaded, but got no response. She immediately started to panic, snapping her fingers in front of his face. "Wake up!"

She was so focused on what she was doing, she didn't even notice that someone had stepped over until Baha had lowered herself to Aoyama's side.

"Stop it, you might hurt him more! Scootch over Swirlygirl, Tina's got this!" She said, giving Angel a small shove and pushing her away.

"Hey!" She shouted indignant and worried for Aoyama's wellbeing. "What are you doing?! What do you know about head injuries?!" She pestered, just to get a snort.

"Pff! I've gone to the hospital for landing on my head more times than I can count. After a while, you start to pick up some things. Now back off, I NEED MAH SPACE!" Baha barked.

Angel was about to protest further when she felt a hand grip her shoulder. She looked up to see Bakugo giving her an expression filled with irritation and resignation. "Just let Psycho-Bitch do it. You can't argue with her, fucking trust me on that."

Unable to do anything but take his word for it, Angel turned back to watch class B's pyrotech inspect Aoyama with a surprising amount of care. She gently lifted him up, making sure she didn't jostle his injured head or neck. Then she put her ear to his chest. After a few moments, she lifted her gaze to his face and pried his not blackened eye, studying his pupils. She nodded.

"Good news! Pretty Boy here is alive! Downside, he probably has a concussion."

Angel finally breathed out. "Well… that's good then. S-Sorry for yelling at you."

Baha waved her off. "Don't worry girl, I get it."

"What do we do about Ashido-chan though?" Sato mumbled, walking over to their bleeding classmate to get a closer look. Kirishima scratched his head.

"I mean, we should probably start by…" He swallowed. "...s-start by removing the k-knife." He said, reaching over to grip the handle.

"Don't touch that knife!" Todoroki leapt forward and shouted, making them all jump. "That blade is the only thing keeping her from bleeding out. If we remove it, she'll be dead in minutes!"

"S-Shit!" Kirishima wrenched his arm back, just realizing how close he was to causing a tragedy. "Then what do we do now?!"

"I-I think our best bet is to stick to the plan and get everyone back to the lodge." Midoriya chimed in. "Vlad-sensei should be able to treat her."

"Probably. That's what we were doing when we got ambushed by Toga." Angel added, getting a couple looks.

"She told you her name?" Todoroki asked.

"She was really upfront about it."

"Hm. Regardless, I agree as well. The League is after you and Bakugo, so we should get to safety."

Midoriya nodded from his perch. "We've got quite a few wounded, so we'll have to move slowly. But as long as we stick together, we should be safe."

Angel blinked and turned to him. "A few? Sure, my foot and hand are hurt, but I can still-" Her voice hitched when her eyes landed on her friend, just now truly seeing the state Midoriya was in.

He was currently shirtless, revealing the scores of bruises dotting his torso. Blood had dripped down the front of his head, caking his brows with red crust. But the most frightful of all his injuries were his arms, both of them reduced to shattered, purple pieces of meat, hanging limp at his sides. His eyes fluttered and his breathing was heavy, making it obvious it was taking all he had to not pass out from pain or exhaustion.

"Wha…what. What happened to you?!" She whispered, jumping to her feet and running over despite her ankle. She just stopped herself from reaching out to touch his limbs, trying to figure out what to do. "I… you're so hurt!" She said, her voice almost as broken as his arms.

"Not… not important." He told her, shaking his head. "I'm fine for now."

Angel's gaze fell, her eyes rooted to her friend's mangled hand, blood dripping down from a dozen cuts and entwining with his scars.

He did it again.

She clenched her fists and began to tremble. Midoriya's offhanded words sent a geyser of fury shooting up from her heart. The lack of care for his own wellbeing, proven time and time again. It nearly drove her to tears.

She knew why he did it, it was obvious. He had saved someone at great risk of himself, again. She didn't want him to not help others, she wasn't that selfish. She empathized with him too hard with that, the terrible feeling of someone getting hurt when she could had done something to prevent it.

But it didn't stop a part of her from wishing that he would stop. How many more times was this going to happen? How long until he pushes himself one step too far and ends up at the point of no return, let it be early retirement and living as a cripple or a cold grave?

Angel wanted to yell at him. She wanted to scream right in his face for being so careless, so stupid and shaking him until the message got through his thick skull regardless of his injuries.

She wanted to tell him that she didn't want to lose him, to not have to see his lifeless body and his empty eyes, like so many others.

But now was not the time for that.

She sucked in a deep breath and unclasped her fists.

"Who was it?" She asked in a low whisper.

"What?" Midoriya blinked.

"Who was the person you saved? Or am I wrong in assuming that's why you're barely able to stay conscious?"

"Oh." He uttered. "It was Kota-kun."

"I see. It's good that you saved him. Where is he now?"

"He's with Aizawa right now, probably at the lodge right now."

That bit of silver lining alleviated the anger within her somewhat, enough to regain her focus. Her mind needed to be clear right now if they were going to survive.

"Good. I… I'm glad you're okay." She muttered and turned to the rest of the group. "No point in standing around here any longer. Let's figure out how we're getting everyone out of here." She said, a slight coldness in her voice.

Midoriya's eyes fluttered, hiding the confusion in his gaze before shaking his head. "R-Right. We're going to need to move Ashido-chan and Aoyama-kun as carefully and quickly as possible. Who can carry someone?"

Four hands went up, Kirishima, Todoroki, Bakugo and Baha.

"Okay…" He hummed, trying to do mental math while his head swam. "We're going to need one of you to carry Ashido-chan."

"I'll do it!" Kirishima volunteered, slapping his fist to his chest, his determined glare not taking no for an answer. No one contested the decision, all of them understanding the redhead's friendship with the pink girl.

"Alright. That leaves Aoyama-kun. Baha-chan, is he safe to travel?"

"Should be, though it'll be a two person job so keep his head secure."

"Then you and Todoroki can carry him. Kacchan, you and Angel-chan will stay in the middle. Help her walk."

"Oh not this shit again!" Bakugo spat. "If these villain fucks want me, they can try! I'll kill them all! I don't need you pricks babying me!"

"Baku-bro, come on. We don't have time for this!" Kirishima implored as gingerly lifted Ashido into a bridal carry.

"As much as I'd like to see you tear all the baddies apart Babe, I really think we should get going." Baha assured him, picking Aoyama up in tandem with Todoroki, taking extra lengths to make sure the unconscious boy's head rested above her chest.

"Stop calling me that!" He snarled. Angel's eye twitched, her fuming emotions returning to the surface.

"Bakugo, we are all too tired and hurt to deal with this right now. Stop being such a bast-grr-idiot and help me so we can get out of here! Or I swear I'm going to knock you out and drag you!" She snapped.

The boy was stunned silent, along with the rest of the group. Not one of them had ever witnessed Angel being so angry or bitter. The whole time she glared at him, showing how little patience she had right now.

"Tch! Fine, whatever." He grumbled.

And so, the company of injured and weary heroes marched on. None of them spoke a word, minding their steps as to avoid detection. Hanging off of Bakugo's shoulder, Angel stewed in her emotions. She felt bad about yelling. It was always her preference to keep things low before they heated up too much.

But after all the frustration she was feeling towards Midoriya for hurting himself again bubbled up, she had no room to tolerate Bakugo feeling pissy.

On a related note, it seemed her outburst was more effective than she could have imagined, for he was completely silent while they trudged along.

'Thank goodness for small miracles I guess.'

She kept her gaze to the trees on her right, keeping a constant vigil for any more villains as well serving as a distraction from Midoriya's shattered body. Her heart skipped at every shadow, more specifically, the villains or Nomus they could contain, ready to jump out and kill them.

Speaking of.

"We might want to take a long way around to the lodge. There was a Nomu roaming around here somewhere." Angel pointed out.

"Good to know." Todoroki answered back. "You catch that Midoriya-kun?"

"Yes." He muttered, even the act of moving his jaw was a trial.

What a nightmare this had been. What was meant to be a fun little game amongst students(that Izuku was actually excited for he might add) had quickly turned into a situation worse than USJ. He had been in the center clearing with three fourths of the Wild Wild Pussycats when it all started. Then they had been attacked by two villains and Mandalay had ordered him and the other students in the area to evacuate.

But before he could, he had to find Kota and bring him to safety. He and the rest of his class may be young, but at least they were somewhat prepared for combat. The young boy wasn't.

Remembering where he found Kota the night before when he had tried to talk to him about his hero related grievances, he made his way up to the boy's secret hideout on a cliffside overlooking the valley. He had arrived just in time to see him cowering before a goliath of a villain, a human wall of muscle who called himself Muscular. With no way of getting away with Kota safely, he had no choice but to square off against the murderer.

It had been about as much of a fight as a man standing his ground against an avalanche. The villain's quirk was some kind of super muscle growth power, his muscle fibers swelling so greatly it tore through his own skin. He had shrugged off his blows while under Full Cowling like rain. Midoriya had been pushed to the brink, harder than he ever had before and for a brief moment, he felt like it was the end, crushed under the man's monstrous form.

It was only from Kota screaming for Muscular to stop that he found the strength within him and One For All that he had managed to knock the villain out, breaking his arms in the process.

From there, he took Kota to Aizawa before turning back into the forest and giving Mandalay the message to signal the classes to defend themselves. After that, he went on his next mission to thwart the objective of the League as so helpfully revealed by Muscular; the capture of his dear friend Angel and his former friend Bakugo.

Along the way, he ran into Kirishima, Sato and Baha in that order, who were all eager to join after learning what the League was after. It wouldn't be too long until they finally encountered Todoroki and Bakugo and Angel fighting their own respective villains.

He had been so relieved to see every single one of them alive and mostly well, Ashido and Aoyama's precarious states putting an extra bit of tension on them.

However, Izuku's relief was stifled by something outside of their current predicament.

He craned his head back, ignoring the creaking in his spine. Angel's gaze was turned away to the trees, the way it stayed there feeling more than a little intentional. She was looking fairly withdrawn, sullen even. She had been acting like this since she had reacted to his current, mared state.

He faced forward.

Izuku had no illusions that he was very capable at social cues and the like. A childhood mostly bereft of amiable relationships with his peers deprived him of gaining that kind of experience. But even he could put together that his friend was upset with him, specifically about his injuries.

It was the same sort of look that he had started seeing on his mother's face ever since his run-in with the Hero Killer. How her eyes lingered on his scars (or open wounds in this case) just to glance away, as if the very sight of him hurt them.

Izuku understood why they felt that way. He'd feel awful if someone close to him got hurt. But what was he supposed to do? Not help people?

He remembered the lessons and morals he grew up with concerning hero work, drilled into his brain from movies, cartoons and comic books. A hero must always put the safety of others before their own, even at great personal cost. It was what All-Might always did and there was no better example than him.

It didn't stop the guilt festering inside, the heavy feeling almost distracting him from the constant pain. Almost.

"So by Nomu, you mean those weirdass mutant guys right?" Baha asked.

"Yes. They appear to be some kind of man-made supersoldier that the League have who can possess multiple quirks, somehow." Angel answered quietly.

"Wow… and you fought one at USJ?"

"Didn't fight it so much as hold it off until All-Might could take it down. Even then it lasted a long time. They are not to be trifled with." Todoroki said.

"Freaky… I wonder how they explode?"

"That's what she's fixated on?" Sato muttered under his breath as he kept carrying Izuku along.

"I heard that! It's a serious question!" Baha shot back. "What about you Babe? What do you…" She suddenly stopped talking and immediately began to hyperventilate. "Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! OH NO!"

Izuku started to turn his head back again. "What is it Baha-sa-?!"

His voice died in his throat, his pupils shrinking to pin pricks at what he saw.'

Or rather, what he didn't see.

"THEY TOOK SWIRLYGIRL AND MY BAE!" Baha screeched, the group coming to a screeching halt as every head turned on a swivel, desperately looking for Angel and Kacchan.

"How?! They were just here!" Todoroki gasped.

"Kirishima-kun, you were behind them! Where did they go?!" Sato questioned the redhead who looked even more distraught and confused than any of them.

"I don't know! I just took a second to look down and fix my grip on Mina-chan! I didn't see anything!"

"Well, they didn't just poof into thin air you spiky jawbreaker!" Baha spat furiously, her blue eyes trembling as they remained locked on the spot that Bakugo once stood.

"Oh, but they did."

The whole group stiffened at the new voice, the sound guiding their attention to the treeline.

Standing on a thick branch above their heads was a man dressed in a dandelion yellow overcoat with an ocher dress shirt and a green bolo tie underneath. His identity was completely concealed by a white and black striped mask and a feather tophat.

"These precious stars have a bigger part to play than being on the side of heroes, not when there is a greater set for them to take center stage." The man waxed poetically as he leaned on his cane. He twiddled the fingers of his free hand, producing two blue marbles. "Talent should be allowed to flourish, afterall."

Any other day, Izuku would be utterly fascinated at this man's quirk. A power to shrink and store matter within a container the size of a snowpea? The applications were endless and so would his stream of questions be.

That would be if it wasn't used to snatch away his two friends right under their noses. The sight of those two marbles being flipped and balanced between the villain's fingers, the knowledge that they were inside them, trapped and afraid.

He felt a rage unlike anything he had ever felt before.

"GIVE THEM BACK!" He roared.

"Give them back?" The man hummed, acting coy as he let the marbles roll down the back of his knuckles like a staircase. "How selfish of you. Bakugo-kun and Hodunk-chan are their own people who can make their own decisions, who are you to claim that they belong to you?"

"SHUT THE HELL UP HOUDINI AND GIMME BACK MY MAN!" Baha bellowed, hurling a hefty, glowing stone at him.

"Sato-kun! Move!" Todoroki yelled at the same time, giving the large boy enough time before stomping his foot and sending a wave of ice up the side of the tree.

The attacks collided and exploded, sending smoke and shards of ice everywhere.

"How rude." The man scolded, hopping to another tree. "All we as "villains" want is to demonstrate that everyone has different values that they judge the world by. How society will punish those who dare to be separate from what they consider the norm."

"What kind of villain are you?! You kidnap our friends and follow up with a speech?!" Todoroki said in disbelief.

"Apologies. I am an artist after all. My sense of showmanship can't be shaken so easily. To put it short, we believe your two friends are just too useful to be wasted on the likes of you heroes. You have to think logically here."

"LOGIC MY ASS!" Izuku shouted again. "THOSE ARE OUR FRIENDS! YOU CAN'T TAKE THEM!"

"Baha-san, hold Aoyama-kun!" Todoroki said, dropping the boy's legs and with another stomp, he unleashed the full force of his ice quirk, a glacier shooting up and plowing through the tree his target was standing on as well as the acre behind it. Once again, the villain proved his talent for acrobatics, flipping over the wall of frost.

"Again, accept my apologies. As much as I'd like to stay and chat, I really must be on my way." He said, jumping from branch to branch. He put a finger to his ear. "Strike team! I have captured our priority targets! Meet you all at the rendezvous in five minutes! Don't tarry!"

"NO!" Izuku cried, wishing now more than ever that he could move his body and jump after him with Full Cowling. Instead he was stuck useless on Sato's back.

"LIKE HELL I'M LETTING YOU GET AWAY!" Todoroki yelled, shooting out more ice, only for the magician to leap over and keep running. "Dammit, he's too fast!"

"What are we going to do?! We can't chase him with Mina-chan and Aoyama-kun the way they are!" Kirishima questioned.

While his comrades chattered frantically, Izuku grit his teeth and slammed his head against Sato's back.

"Owch! Careful man!"

But Izuku wasn't present. He was completely overcome with fear. Fear for who he was about to lose.

"We can't give up! We need to get them back!" He grunted, raising his head and taking stock of their situation. They needed to close the distance and fast. What quirks did they have at their disposal, what could they use?"

"Baha! Can you make something partially explode?!"

The girl blinked, then nodded.

"Sato, what's your upper strength limit?!"

"Enough to punch through concrete at least, why?"

"I've got a plan, but we need to be fast. Put me down!"

The large boy obeyed, setting Izuku down. He stumbled a bit, but maintained his balance.

"Kirishima, Todoroki, you're with me! Baha and Sato will stay here with the wounded and keep them safe." He ordered and they followed his instruction, carefully placing their human cargo on the ground out of the way.

He looked around before settling on a mid-sized tree nearby. "Can you break that tree into a log about two meters long?"

"Shit! No can do!" Sato cursed. "I don't have any sugar on me right now!"

Izuku bit back a scream. The whole plan hinged on Sato's sugar activated super strength. Where were they going to get sugar?!

"Sorry, did you say sugar?" They all turned to Baha. A crazed smile stretched across her face as she reached into her hair and retrieved two small circular bundles wrapped in plastic. "They said I was crazy to keep an emergency chocolate chip cookie stash. WHO'S LAUGHING NOW?!"

Despite the time sensitive issue, Izuku still smiled a bit at his stroke of luck, that he had run across the only person in the valley who had been carrying baked goods.

"Perfect!" Sato cheered, taking the cookies, tearing off the wrappers and cramming them in his mouth all in one motion. He roared, the muscles on his body swelling and growing more defined until he looked ready for a weight lifting competition. "RAAAAAAH! LET'S DO THIS!" He spun around and grabbed hold of the tree. He effortlessly ripped it up by the roots and flipped it over, delivering a karate chop and smashing off the head. Taking a second to admire his work, he held it out. "This good?"

Izuku nodded. "Perfect! Get on guys!" He said, the three boys throwing their legs over and straddling the log with Izuku in the middle to keep him

"Ah, I see now. A multistage rocket." Todoroki stated from his seat in the front, then glanced back at him. "But should you really be coming along Midoriya? With those injuries, you're in no shape to-"

"I can still move!" Izuku interrupted strongly. "As long as I can, I can still fight!"

Seeing the half lidded, yet determined look in his eye, Todoroki pursed his lips before shaking his head. "Alright then. Kirishima, hold onto Midoriya."

"You got it bro!" He said in the back, tightly wrapping his arms around Izuku's torso.

He hissed from how he squeezed some of his bruises, but pushed past it.

"Baha! Make the rear end explode with a ten second delay! Kirishima-kun, get ready to shield us from the blast!"

"Roger that!" Baha chirped, really getting into the theme. She poked the side of the stump and traced a glowing pink line along its circumference. Once she was finished, she snapped into a salute.

"The fuse is lit! Godspeed Major Tom!"

"Sato, throw us now!"

"Got ya!" He grumbled, lifting the improvised rocket and it's three passengers up onto his shoulder. Squaring his back, he pulled back his arm akin to an olympic athlete about to throw their last javelin.

"ORA!" He bellowed and threw them over the trees. Their hair whipped about from the wind and for a moment Izuku was soaring. He could see the entire valley below, the lodge behind them and the raging forest fire. But most importantly, up ahead he could spot the runaway magician and his destination, the starting clearing, directly in front of them!

Just as that happened, the log began to lose altitude and he felt his stomach drop. The stump flashed bright pink.

"HOLD ON!"

*KABOOM!* The stump detonated, lighting up the night sky like a rose firework and shooting the rest of the tree forward. Izuku's mind briefly entertained the image of the three boys riding a bomb painted on the side of a plane before the g-force hit him.

"WOAH SHIT!" Kirishima exclaimed, as he dug his hardened fingers into the wood to keep the two of them from flying off. Their makeshift missile flamed through the air, closing the distance between it and the villain. He had just leapt off a tree to drop down into the clearing when he sensed their approach, turning his head.

Even with the mask, Izuku could tell his eyes were the size of saucers about now.

"What in the-BWUH!" He choked as the log and three boys collided into him midair and slammed him down in the center of the clearing.

They held him down as Izuku felt an iota of satisfaction.

'We made it! But it's not over yet.' He thought, his eyes meeting the startled expressions of the four villains standing before them.

Angel's had been sent scrambling the moment it happened, trying to piece together what was going on. One second she had been hobbling along with the others. Then she blinked and her vision was consumed in all consuming darkness. She had called out in shock at first, trying to find her friends, but there was nothing but her own voice, bouncing off of walls made closely all around her.

Her panic activated her quirk, the light leaking from her body revealing that she was in some kind of small, spherical container. Immediately, she slammed her fists against the walls..

"SOMEONE! HELP ME! I'M HERE! ANYONE!" She pleaded.

But no one came.

After the first minute or so, Angel stopped, her voice hoarse and her hands swollen. She tried to think things through. This was obviously someone's quirk. Had some villain trapped her in a sphere? If so, where were the others? Were they fighting them off? She couldn't tell as the opaque surface of her prison hid all outside sensations.

Did she have limited air? If so, how long did she have? How was she going to get out? In such a confirmed space, she didn't dare try shooting the walls. For all she knew it would just bounce off and hit herself.

Angel hung her head, running through what little she had.

After another minute or so of quiet rumination, she had nothing. Dread began to set in.

"I… can't do anything." She muttered, her hand sliding down the smooth wall. She set her back against it and curled up. She teared up.

Figures. She finally managed to escape. Travel halfway across the world. Did her best in her training to become the hero she dreamed of being.

But now she was back where she started.

She was back in the room.

Back in the chair.

In the dark.

Alone and helpless.

Suddenly, the whole world pitched to the side, making her flop over.

"Ow!" She hissed, rubbing the spot where her head hit the floor. "What was that?"

Then it happened again, her prison violently shifted the other direction.

"Wha…Wha?!" She babbled, spreading her arms and legs to steady herself. "What is going on?!"

As if to answer her, but not the question, the sphere began to jostle ever more erratically. Angel's world flipped and tumbled every which way. Her stomach roiled from the motions and she prayed that she could keep her dinner down, especially in such a small space. She felt like a pinball at the mercy of a hyperactive child, smashing the paddles with abandon.

'I can't take much more of this!' She thought, silently begging for the wild ride to stop.

Soon enough, it did as everything came to a quick halt.

Panting, Angel looked about in confusion. 'Is it over?'

Before she was allowed to think further, there was a sudden flash of light.

Throwing her arms up to shield her eyes, there was a loud pop! She could hear the rustling of the trees as well as something that reminded her of shifting mist and felt it tickling her back. She smelled fire and…

Burning flesh.

Angel quickly became all too aware of the hand gripping the back of her neck.

Her eyes shot open. She was in the middle of a clearing. Kirishima and Todoroki fell flat on their fronts just a few feet away.

She looked back. She was currently halfway through a black fog, one that she remembered from USJ. There she saw the person holding her, a young man with spiky black hair, purple, mottled skin stapled over the bottom half of his face, neck and either sides of his nose. His pale blue eyes sparked, brimming with amusement. He gave her a smile before retreating into the abyss, pulling her with him.

"ANGEL! KACHAAAN!" She heard Izuku wail. Her head swiveled back out. He was just there, hanging in the air a couple feet away.

She reached out her hand, trying to grab hold, but she kept sinking back.

"Izu…ku… I'm… sorry."

And with that, she was pulled back into the darkness and the portal closed.

Gravity took hold and Izuku hit the ground. Silence reigned.

He pulled himself to his knees, eyes locked on the empty space where the rift had just been.

His expression broke and he choked. He threw his head back.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"